- Shown below are draft proposals for actual recent projects bid for clients. I advise them that my very detailed clarifications can in some cases be left off of proposal and saved for the scope review meeting with GC (or CM).
- My preference is not to have long proposals. But since bid documents are always full of inconsistencies, errors and omissions, my clients have been very successful in bidding by pricing BASE BID as low as possible, based on less expensive interpretation, and then pointing out the inconsistency with an option for more expensive interpretation.
- I price some items as options, even when the architect included the item without inconsistency, either because the item was noted obscurely, and it will likely be missed by your competitors, or because some of your competitors in a given locality typically exclude that item on their bids.
- Some GC's appreciate the "Buffet" approach, from which they can choose the interpretation that makes them more comfortable. Others do not.
- There are times when you should RFI before the bid--for example, with bid bond, GC's bid form, and no qualifications allowed--but there are times when it can work to your disadvantage as well.
- My clients tend to agree with my belief that if the base bid is competitive, even when numerous inconsistencies, errors and omissions are priced as options, the GC will view their bids favorably--and read their clarifications, but if the base bid is not competitive, even if all inconsistencies, errors and omissions are included, the GC will not read their proposal to find out that they were really the low bidder, all things considered.
- All that said, the more involved the clarifications on a proposal, the earlier you should provide a draft proposal (with pricing to follow) to the GC.
- I am able to follow any approach the client prefers.
- Click on the links below to see proposals.
- If you see a clarification that you would like to use, please feel free to use it. Just remember where you got it. The bigger and more profitable your company becomes, the more likely you are to eventually use my services.
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