Archives for July 2015
Still Electrical Estimating Manually?
Are You Still doing Electrical Estimating Manually or Using Spread Sheets?
Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight
Wiktionary Definition – Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: To enter into a confrontation or other challenging situation without being adequately equipped or prepared. [Read more…]
Electrical Estimating Win More Jobs
How To Win More Jobs and Make More Money.
ELECTRICAL ESTIMATING STRATEGY #5
Send your price to all general contractors bidding a job.
When bidding competitive jobs you need every advantage you can get.
You may be invited by your existing (GC) general contractor customer to bid a certain project. Sometimes 5 or 7 or more contractors compete for the same project.
Stack the deck in your favor: Send your price to all 5 (GC’s) general contractors bidding the job. Since the winning GC will have your price, if your price is the lowest, guess what? You win the job! Electrical estimating software helps streamline the process for this.
Get it? Got it? Good!
BUT – Don’t ever go to the prom with one date and leave with another.
If you were invited by your customer to bid a project you want to protect him, meaning, you want to give him the best price.
You will:
- Give your customer a slightly lower price.
- Mark up the price to all other GC’s slightly.
Do not keep it a secret from your customer that you are bidding to all contractors. Tell them you are going to give them the best price and you will mark up your price higher to the rest of the contractors.
Make it clear to your customer that they are my preferred customer and they get preferred pricing.
That satisfies your customer and still gives you a shot at winning the job even if your customer does not get the job.
Mark up your bids to the other contractors whatever you think is best. 2 %, 3 %, 5% whatever you feel comfortable doing.
Reality check: Bidding to multiple contractors at bid time can be a real scramble. There is a lot of work to do to send your price to all GC’s.
Electrical estimating software allows you to quickly adjust pricing for different contractors so you can get your bid out.
Do this in advance, not at the last minute.
- Call each general contractor bidding the job.
- Introduce yourself as a person/ company who wants to bid the job.
- Get contact information of the person responsible for bidding that project.
- Speak to that person and ask if it is OK for you to send them your price for that project.
- Send your bid on time
- Follow up with a phone call to confirm they received your number. Remember, The fortune is in the follow up!
Your purpose for bidding to all GC’s is two-fold.
- You want win the project and get the work.
- Even more important, you want to develop relationships with other general contractors so you can work with them on future projects.
When you bid to all contractors on a job you dramatically increase the odds of winning more work, plus it helps you develop new business relationships for future growth.
Try Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software free for 30 days.
Many customers report they double their estimating speed or better.
Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software offers a 30 day free trial.
Just click this link to sign up.
You will immediately get access to our online software.
Training videos will guide you step by step to learn how to navigate.
Call us if you have questions.
866-444-7411 X 1
Electrical Estimating Fortune In Follow-Up
ELECTRICAL ESTIMATING STRATEGY #9
“The fortune is in the follow-up.”
In the sales world there is a saying that is so true.
“The fortune is in the follow-up.”
NEVER ASSUME anyone received ANYTHING from you.
Emails end up in spam folders, snail mail gets lost at the post office, and faxes
end up in the trash or in a big pile that goes to the wrong person or worse,
into the black hole. Always follow-up with a phone call and ASSUME they
did NOT receive what you sent until they confirm with you they received
what your sent. It is most favorable to speak with a live person instead of
leaving a voice message. But leaving a voice message is better than no
follow-up at all. When you have to leave a voice message, ask them to
confirm they received what you sent. If you do not hear back from them in
what you consider a reasonable amount of time, call them again.
Here is how my conversation goes when I follow-up on a proposal I sent and I
am forced to leave them a message.“Hi Bill, this is John Kay with Zapp Electric,
I just emailed you my proposal for the Wendy’s restaurant project, would you
please confirm with me that you received it? I just want to make sure it did not
go into “the black hole”. Thanks, My number is ……….
Here are things to follow-up on.
1. Your Proposals – If your client does not receive your proposal you wasted your time bidding the job.
2. (RFI) Request for information to contractors, architects or engineers.
3. Material pricing requests from wholesale vendors, switch gear vendors or light fixture vendors.
4. Pricing requests from sub-contractors like fire alarm contractor, low voltage contractor, high voltage contractor or excavation sub-contractor.
Again the rule is:
Always follow-up with a phone call and never ASSUME people received what you sent.
The fortune is in the follow-up.
Ask for confirmation that they received what you sent.
Become a master of follow-up and you increase efficiency to generate more profits.
John Kelsey
GO MAKE MONEY!
PS. If you would like to learn electrical estimating
Try Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software free for 30 days.
Many customers report they double their estimating speed or better.
Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software offers a 30 day free trial.
Just click this link to sign up.
You will immediately get access to our online software.
Training videos will guide you step by step to learn how to navigate.
Call us if you have questions.
866-444-7411 X 1
Online videos show you step by step how to estimate
Red Rhino helps you win more jobs!
Red Rhino Estimating Software is the tool you need to bid more jobs faster with accuracy
Red Rhino features and benefits:
- Online software access 24/7 – Log on from anywhere and keep your estimates safe from computer crashes
- Material pricing for thousands of items – Updated monthly with national averages
- Wizards & Assemblies – Double your estimating speed
- Powerful Recap – Calculates thousands of dollars to the penny in a fraction of a second
- Proposal – Red Rhino’s professional “Rock Star” proposals will WOW your clients
- Training – Unlimited training included at no charge
Red Rhino gives you the speed and accuracy you need to crank out more estimates faster and make more money!
Double Electrical Estimating Speed
The problem with electrical construction is you are always working yourself out of a job.
To keep making money you need electrical jobs.
To get jobs you need a bid pipeline. You estimate jobs continuously to get a continuous flow of work.
To bid more jobs faster you need electrical estimating software.
Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software has many tools that speed up the electrical estimating process.
One of the coolest, fastest and best tools is the Conduit Wizard.
The Red Rhino Conduit Wizard is the fastest way to estimate conduit runs.
Red Rhino Conduit Wizard is the most used Wizard of all.
What types of conduit can you can estimate with Red Rhino conduit Wizard?
- PVC – SCHEDULE 40 & 80
- PVC – EB/DB – ENCASED BURIAL/DIRECT BURIAL
- EMT
- RIGID METAL CONDUIT
- PVC COATED RIGID (ROB ROY)
- MC CABLE & HOSPITAL GRADE MC CABLE
- STEEL FLEX / ALUMINUM FLEX
- SEAL-TITE
CLICK HERE TO SEE CONDUIT WIZARD – ESTIMATE HUNDREDS OF FEET OF CONDUIT IN SECONDS
Note: Conduit wizard inputs both labor hours and material pricing for conduit, couplings,
connectors, supports, elbow’s (90 degree bends), and total feet of wire needed.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR FREE RED RHINO 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
List of types of jobs you can estimate using Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software:
- Residential – Romex, SER cable, plastic boxes, panels and services
- Commercial – Conduit and wire, switch gear, EXO’s, transformers
- Light industrial – Buss duct, cable tray, motor connections,
- Structured cabling / Low voltage – Pre-built assemblies (horizontal, closet, indoor back bone, outside plant)
- Fire alarm – Panels, sensors, devices
Red Rhino has built in labor for such items as:
- Devices like switches and plugs
- Panels and switch gear up to 4,000 amps
- Transformers
- Lighting fixtures
- Disconnect switches – 240 volt and 600 volt
- Circuit breaker termination labor (1 pole, 2 pole and 3 pole up to 4.000 amp)
Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software features:
- Available Online 24/7 – Log on from any computer.
- Thousands of material items with pricing updated monthly plus built in labor.
- Easy – step by step video instruction.
- Conduit Wizard to estimate thousands of feet of conduit in seconds.
- Pre-built assemblies makes for lightning fast material entry.
- Affordable low monthly fee.
ALRIGHT ALL READY!! HOW MUCH DOES THIS STUFF COST?
“The most sure way to launch your electrical estimating business is to master the process of estimating projects.”
Try Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software free for 30 days.
Many customers report they double their estimating speed or better.
Red Rhino Electrical Estimating Software offers a 30 day free trial.
Just click this link to sign up.
You will immediately get access to our online software.
Training videos will guide you step by step to learn how to navigate.
