What to do to win a bid

What should local contractors do to succeed?

Bid for work for which you are qualified
“Start by looking at the type of work you can handle. Apply for a job which you can comfortably deliver and you have the requisite capacity to do so. Do not bid for work where you don’t have a competitive advantage,” says Mr Joachim Wafula, a construction manager and lecturer in the Department of Construction Economics and Management at the Technical University of Kenya.

Specialise
He urges local firms to strive towards bringing key competencies to the market, “Hone your skills in a particular area of specialisation and make sure you are the best in it. Take very specialised work at first from bigger companies to help build your name using the bigger contractor. This will help you penetrate the market quickly,” he says.

Organisational framework
Have very competent personnel who are well trained in all aspects of bidding. “Kenyans forget that contracting is a business, so the contractor does not have to be a trained engineer, quantity surveyor or an architect. He only needs to be a business leader who can run a construction enterprise and can put together a competent team of workers who can properly evaluate a job before submitting the bid,” says Mr Wafula, adding that sometimes people get disqualified for poor paper work. So it is important to put together a set of convincing paper work that can win the bid.

Visit the site
Having a quick walk-through helps contractors understand the client’s exact specifications. “They should use this time to ask questions, get to know the client, and determine whether or not they will be a difficult customer to work with. Seek out areas where you will need to use subcontractors and ask for any mock-ups or drawings the client might already have,” says Mr Wafula.

Scrutinise the tender documents
Mr Wafula says the contractor should look through the tender documents and seek clarifications where things are not clear. He/she should also hold consultations with the workers as well as consider previous projects and their costs. This will ensure that the bid price is based on sound knowledge.

“Sometimes the client requires that the bids be submitted in two stages: first the technical then the financial. If this is what the client wants, go by their instructions.

Why local firms lose

Workers’ experience
In most cases, bidding has two stages: technical and financial. The evaluation of the technical bid involves a review of the qualifications and experience of workers. For instance, if a client wants to put up a skyscraper, it is most likely that he will go for a company whose workers have undertaken similar jobs before.

Unfortunately, the local construction industry is just picking up and the current construction boom is only a few years old. This means that local firms have to compete with experienced global giants.