In this week’s Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter , I described an informal conversation with a construction specifier who worked as an intern at Public Works Canada, the Canadian government’s real property procurement and management agency. Of course, this means the others who entered the competition through the formal public bidding process were wasting their time and money in even trying to win the race.  Re: Article on how bids can be manipulated. can negotiate bids as you mention in Canada you have a much more difficult time. Tweet. Fair enough. MORE >>

For this months, Solicitation of the Month, we venture down to Seattle’s sacred Pike Place Market. The Market is going through a dramatic $69 Million renovation, and your construction company could be part of the renewal. Pike Place Market is now seeking subbids for work on the third phase of its renovation. The Market Historical Commission has completed review of the major construction and design items for this work. The PDA will be seeking bids during the next few months. Bids are due by 1 p.m. Suite 400, in Seattle. Best of luck to all bidders. MORE >>

Home » Uncategorized Hard Bidding is for the Birds – IPD Could Be the Way to Go Written By: John Poole on January 28, 2010 458 Comments In the economic climate that we find ourselves at the moment, it seems that the only projects out there are public jobs where bids are solicited and any warm-blooded creature with a pulse and a remote ability to read plans can submit a price on the job.  The municipalities are required by law to accept the lowest responsible bid.  I’ve been doing a lot of hard bidding lately with only very limited success.  MORE >>

Home » Uncategorized How to Get Work In Today’s Construction Market Written By: John Poole on August 30, 2010 10 Comments I honestly don’t have the patience to read any more economic doom and gloom about this country or worse yet, the construction industry.  Well, I’ll tell you how I got the job I have now, which is a publically funded hard bid.  Commodities are victims of the state of supply and demand while a high quality service always has a market.  When you hard bid a construction project, you have to put money in the bid to mitigate risk.  MORE >>

The bidder responded to an open call for bids from the international elance.com service, which usually attracts the best prices from far-away offshore countries, but in this case, is in the US, in the same eastern time zone as our organization.  He practiced a second marketing and business development rule:  Reduce the (perceived) risk to the potential purchaser. Can you apply these approaches in your own marketing? RFP/bidding/tenders SalesI’m trying a new service.  usually run for the hills when I see these deals, commonly observed in cellular phone services. MORE >>