Obviously you’ve heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”; in fact, you might hear it a couple times a week. Well, here it is again: When it comes to construction bid proposal creation, it’s time to work smarter, not harder.
First, if you’re stuck in the stone age, smarter means coming into the now. Using excel spreadsheets for tracking and paper bidding isn’t going to get you far in 2019. This causes disorganization, miscommunication, and missed opportunities – which you can’t afford.
That’s where technology and tools, like Thunderbolt Pipeline, come in. Whether you’re adopting technology for the first time, or you’ve been on the train for a while, utilizing tools purpose built for the construction industry to create and manage your bid proposals will help to propel your business forward.
Here’s how.
Construction Bid Proposal Creation Methods
One of the best things you could do for your construction company is conduct an audit of the way you’re constructing your proposal’s today. Are you having a hard time keeping up with the who’s, what’s, and where’s of your bids and drafting a branded, easy-to-understand proposal? Are you using a Microsoft Word document that you update each time you have a proposal to submit?
Well…if you’re struggling with that method – problem solved.
Thunderbolt integrates with PandaDoc – a partnership designed to make things easier for construction bid proposal creation.
PandaDoc may be a tool you use today to create, eSign, send, and track proposals. It’s a useful and popular tool as a standalone product but adding in the integration with Thunderbolt Pipeline makes it that much more advantageous for your business.
The PandaDoc website explains their product as “software that empowers sellers to easily connect and transact with their customers through dynamic and personalized documents that build meaningful customer relationships and win more business.”
Similarly, Thunderbolt’s focus is to: Streamline daily operations, predict labor needs, collaborate in real-time, and uncover the highest margins on every project.
Bottom line? Both products exist to help increase your bottom line, and together they can do it faster and better.
It’s easy
You already have your bids – and you already have your contract templates. These tools combine them (without all the manual work).
Saves time
Speaking of manual work, not having to edit an old version and re-type information on the proposal (or switch between tools) will save you time and brain power. Thunderbolt’s integration does that part for you.
Users can access the PandaDoc proposal templates inside of the Thunderbolt bids view. Click the PandaDoc button and you’re able to sync over bid information right into your proposal document similar to the process of a mail merge template. This merge includes the contact person’s information, the bid location, project name, start date, end date, etc.
Utilizing this feature will streamline the work you’re already doing to keep it simple and make sure more bid proposals leave your hands.
Stay on brand
PandaDoc allows you to customize templates so they match your brand with color selection, company logo, and font type. When you pull in bid information from Thunderbolt, you can sync it over to populate those pre-existing templates. It’s one less thing you have to worry about; plus, staying on brand when submitting construction bid proposals is a key element to remaining top of mind for general contractors.
Though adoption of technology for construction bid proposal creation has been slow across the industry, introducing tools that are easy to use will make the transition smoother. Your team will be excited at the prospect of streamlining their duties and becoming more profitable as a result.
