A JANITORIAL BID VS. PROPOSAL

Have you ever asked a prospect "When do you go out for bid'? Or,"The next time you go out for bid, may I have the opportunity to give you a price"?

If you have said that or something similar, you have just placed yourself in the world of selling a commodity and commodities are usually purchased at the lowest available price after getting bids. For example:

If I were to purchase 10 cases of 12 ounce cans of caffeine free diet Pepsi, I would most likely check Wal-Mart, Target, Sam's and maybe a few other likely suspects. Then what would I do? I would buy from the place that gave me the lowest price. Pretty easy decision, don't you think? Diet Pepsi is bottled the same way in every state and delivered to the stores the same way and then sold at whatever price the store chooses to place on the product. They decide how much profit they want to make. They may even sell it at a loss, because they want more of my business (probably not). Sound like the contract cleaning market?

When you ask a prospect if you can "bid" on their building, what you have said in effect is,

"MY COMPANY IS JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER COMPANIES. WE HIRE THE SAME PEOPLE, TRAIN THE SAME WAY, CLEAN THE SAME WAY, HAVE THE SAME HIGH TURNOVER, HAVE CONSTANT COMPLAINTS, ETC., ETC.,.

"But our company isn't like all those other guys" you say. How would your prospect know? You are telling them you want to "bid" their work and that certainly implies you are the same as if you were selling Diet Pepsi.

Now having said that, there are certainly plenty of opportunities for you to "bid" work in the marketplace. Most government contracts are awarded based on "bids". If you have chosen to pursue government work as your market, you know what I mean.

For the rest of you, the time is NOW to begin offering proposals to your prospects unless...you feel your organization is just like all the others and offers no unique features that would benefit the customer.

I'll bet you have a quality company and let me encourage you to make 2012 the year you offer quality proposals to your prospects. Let the other guys "bid" the work and go broke.