How to Increase your Sub Response Rates

Why Subs may not be responding to your Bid Invitations.

We polled a group of subcontractors and asked for their top 5 reasons they do not respond to bid invitations. Here’s what we found and how PipelineSuite can help:

1. “Since the invite is coming from a mass email, there are probably too many subs bidding”…“I spend my time bidding projects I have the best chance at winning”

When subs get a mass email from a GC that is from an @donotreply email address, many vendors assume they are one of hundreds that are receiving this invite, so they have little chance of getting the job… they don’t want to waste their time.

PipelineSuite solves this problem because we personalize the way your invite looks by sending it FROM your own email address, branded with YOUR logo, and not force them to sign-in to a different platform; resulting in better responses overall.

2. “It’s difficult to share the link to the plan room with colleagues and suppliers.” “Every employee or supplier needs to sign-up or login to Access the plans and specs”

Not every vendor self performs every scope that you’re looking for. They may need to sub out some of their own work. Similarly, if a sub needs a quote from a supplier you’re not able to easily send the full set of drawings to get a quote.

With PipelineSuite, we don’t require your vendors to login or sign-up for anything. This means your vendors can forward their invite to someone else in the office to see the plan room without an issue. If you need a quote from a supplier? No problem. Pipeline makes accessing the plan room easy, so you don’t have to waste time with support issues.

3. “We get too many invites, most are irrelevant!”

With some bid management software, GC’s do not “own” their data. This requires the sub to update their trades, contacts, and areas willing to work. Many subs will check every trade, and region without realizing they’ll get inundated with invites. In addition, if you are sending notices of addenda to all subs regardless of their intention to bid, you’ll quickly find your future emails going to their junk folder.

With PipelineSuite, you own your data which means that you can edit email addresses that bounce and resend an invite with a click. You can also send notices, addenda, and bid reminders to just the affected trade.

4. “We get invites from GCs we don’t have a relationship with.”

Building trust between the sub and GC is paramount. Without ever working together, it’s important to call your vendors, build rapport and set expectations.

With PipelineSuite you can log phone calls to track past conversations, record receipt of addenda, and make sure that establishing a partnership with your subs will result in more bids for future projects.

5. “Not enough time!”

It’s always better to give your vendors as much time to bid a project as possible. Even if you don’t have the project documents, let your vendors know that a project is in your Pipeline and a bid invite will be coming soon. Send a Pre-Bid notice to save the date and get them excited for a future project!

Take Away:

It’s important to establish a trustworthy relationship with your subs. You can do this by sending personalized invites and eliminating any obstacles that prevent them from getting what they need to submit their bids. By owning your data, easily update contact info, create filters to quickly choose who to invite you enable a more efficient way for both you and your subs to build a partnership.

PipelineSuite platform can streamline your pre-construction process and help build personal relationships with vendors – something that’s been lost with the advent of technology. You can help your vendors save time by offering an easy-to-use plan room, and not bog down their email with unneeded messages.

To learn how other ways we can help increase your response rates, sign up for a demonstration today!