How Data Integrations Can Boost Your Construction Win Ratio

Are you tired of submitting bids that don’t translate into project wins? You’re not alone. Many construction companies struggle with low win ratio, leaving them frustrated and missing out on valuable opportunities. But what if there was a way to significantly improve your chances of winning bids?

The answer lies in the power of data. By drawing data from various sources and integrating it into your workflow, you can gain valuable insights that will revolutionize your bidding strategy. 

Let’s take a deep dive into how data integrations can be the secret weapon for boosting your win ratio.

The Blind Spots You Might Be Missing

We all have them, but blind spots can be devastating when they lose you lucrative bids. Dozens of details, changing estimates, and multiple clients make it difficult. Some of the more common blind spots include:

• Subcontractor errors. Often, subcontractors don’t report their skills accurately and lack the requisite experience to work on the project.
• Underbidding your services. Sometimes you want to win the bid so much that you undersell yourself and end up losing in the end.
• Calculation errors. Even a simple error can hurt an otherwise lucrative bid’s bottom line.
• Lack of data-driven decision-making. If you can’t successfully analyze past bids and identify trends, you’ll repeat the same mistakes again and again.

This list could be much longer because there’s always something that could potentially go wrong. But there are powerful tools to help mitigate these risks. Effective data management goes a long way toward cutting out most of these mistakes. 

Unlocking the Power of Data

Traditionally, customer relationship management (CRM) has been a somewhat siloed undertaking. Data scattered between CRM, spreadsheets, and project management tools make it almost impossible to get a holistic view of your bidding practices. Then you spend valuable time gathering and analyzing the data manually. But data can be one of your most powerful tools for increasing your win ratio.

Thankfully, effective CRM tools go a long way toward streamlining this process. You’ve probably asked yourself how to improve the construction win ratio with data. There are quite a few ways to do this. For example, historical project data can lead to better bid accuracy and the ability to identify trends and patterns — which lets you predict the likely outcomes of the bidding process. These tools also let you eliminate manual data entry which frees up valuable time in your business. Identifying larger-scale patterns also gives you a lot of insight into the client’s motivations and preferences, so you can start to tailor bids to certain clients faster and with more impact. All these factors combined to increase the win ratio and profitability.

The Magic of Data Integrations

To reap these benefits, you need multiple software tools that communicate with each other seamlessly and effectively. TopBuilder may hold the title of the best construction software for data integration. It works with leading project management platforms like Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud to ensure seamless coordination and project tracking. It also works with estimating software like One-Click Contractor, Smart Bid, and B2W to give you accuracy and consistency in project proposals. 

This level of full integration goes a long way toward breaking down data silos and fostering effective construction data analytics. Suppose you’re about to bid on a new hospital construction project. You think it might be beyond your company’s capabilities, but with full integration, you have a unified view of client preferences, past project timelines from similar builds, and a highly accurate cost estimation for materials and labor. As it turns out, you’re a perfect fit for this job! A bid you would have passed on may now be one of your biggest projects this year. 

How Construction Companies Can Use Data Analytics To Win Bids

Data does more than just help you make decisions — it lets you craft the best possible bid and boost your win ratio. To get there, you have to move from insights to action. 

Think of this in three stages. First, good data helps you decide which bids to go for. Identifying profitable bids that you’re likely to win and focusing there is a time saver and increases your win ratio. 

Second, data helps you craft winning bids by tailoring them to your client’s preferences as much as possible. Good data also lets you know exactly how much you can drop your price while still maintaining a healthy profit margin. 

Finally, integrated data management allows you to continually improve your profit margins by incorporating ongoing data from projects. Integrated data means mistakes made prevent future mistakes. 

Dashboards and Analytics Made Easy

In trying to understand how to use CRM data to improve construction bids, you need to factor in usability. Even if you have all the data on one screen, if you have four windows and twelve complicated spreadsheets open at once, you are likely to miss insights and patterns in the data. That’s why effective information display is so important. TopBuilder includes bid management dashboards that let you see and manage all of your bid invitations by source, track the number of new bid opportunities, and the status of submitted bids in real-time. This is important information for bid management, but TopBuilder goes further in integrating outside data sources. 

Tracking bid performance on the dashboard lets you identify trends in successful bids, refine bidding strategies to increase win rates, and optimize pricing models to ensure competitiveness without sacrificing profitability. You’ll also see how conversion rates change based on factors like job type, industry, estimator, resource, division/territory, sales rep, and customer, allowing you to tailor your bidding strategy for better results. The dashboard’s won/lost analysis lets you pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in your bidding process and proposal development. Analyze factors like job type, industry, estimator, lead source, location, and sales rep to identify areas for improvement.

Some things about the bidding process are out of your control — but you can manage many aspects with the right tools. Ready to explore how TopBuilder’s data integrations can benefit your subcontractor business?

Request a demo or trial today to see our powerful features in action.