How To Respond To An RFP And The Bidding Process – Bleuwave Live Episode 15

Hi, everyone. It’s jj levenske from bleuwave general contracting coming to you with another edition of bleuwave live since the beginning of the year. Thankfully here in the arizona,phoenix market, the phone’s been ringing off the hook, so to speak, and the email inquiries into projects continues to grow, so i’m very thankful for that. But I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about how often do you respond to the rfp and bidding process and then also through the eyes off some of our trade partners and our subcontractors. So in a recent rfp that I chose to go after with a client that had sought us out through an architect friend, it was a very unique situation where I would say the rfp process was overstated for the context of the project. But instead of getting upset about that and fighting back with the owner’s rep, I took that as an advantage to try to leverage our way in of selling our value proposition. My advice here is to take a cue from that because even on paper it looked like an unattractive project. What I read between the lines was they needed more help than what the solicitation was offering. And so I took that as an opportunity to try to sell what was unique about bleuwave versus just competing as a regular general contractor on a boilerplate rfp. When I see those that where you can have a unique advantage, I try to take advantage of it whenever I can. And again if this if listening or watching this prompts you to do the same thing, then kudos to you. On the flip side, the other day, a trusted trade partner of mine saw one of our postings and called and said, hey, listen, is it even worth my time to bid on this? And I applauded him for reaching out because he knew that there were different ties with this owner. And in that case, I said, no, don’t waste your time because it’s just gonna be a numbers check. You and I both know that that owner will most likely bring x, y and z to the table, and we’ll have to use them as a preferred trade partner in the hyper busy world that we’re all in right now. Do yourself a favor and treat those phone calls with the utmost humility and transparency and tell the truth. There’s no point in lying, ever, but especially now in the market that we’re in. Those relationships are priceless. You can’t buy those, and you sure as heck don’t want to thwart those and alienate any of those people that have helped you get to where you are. It’s a brief, bluewave live video, but I thought it was appropriate in light of what i’ve seen come in in the last few weeks since the change of the new year. And I hope everyone could continue to fill their backlog and provide good service and product to our marketplace. Until next time bleuwave live. Jj levenske, out. Thank you.