Dodge Reports?

Don't drive no "Dodge"... We're "GM" all the way!!

Dodge is expensive, at least to me it was. For me they did not work well...we didn't do big commercial stuff, we didnt have someone to just follow up on dodge...bid deadlines were usually too short...basically given the niche we are in it was a waste of time an money for us.

I do keep my eye on the local city web sites though...occasionally there's something there of interest.

I find my time spent working my existing clients to be more productive.

Depends on your marketing plan. What are you trying to pursue? The new construction market presents some challenges not found elsewhere. However, we still get most of our new construction business through our relationships we've built with Electrical and General contractors. I've used all sorts of new construction tracking services. Dodge reports rank near the bottom. McGraw Hill, who publishes Dodge, has some better services that can be managed online giving you the ability to tag and track projects from planning, through bidding, and construction. Some of the services also include plans and specs online, so you have access to everything you need. All contractors associated with the projects are shown along with their contact numbers. AGC operates a similar service.

There are also local publications that report permits and new construction starts. If you plan to target anything other than commercial fire, these type services may be good enough for your needs. Pay to play services such as Sales Genie may also be worth checking out, although you can get much of the same info from your local public library using Reference USA.

J.

Just curious, anybody every try this one........

Bobby D

James wrote:

Bob,

Most of those paid lead services are worthless. They obtain RFQ information from the same sources you can use for free. If you want to receive requests for bids from state and municipal governments, register with the states you're interested in. You can also register your business with the federal government. The procedure takes time and effort but once completed you'll receive daily federal RFQs and frequent state and municipal ones.

Just be aware that on all bids you'll be competing with small and large contractors alike. As a small business you can get preferential treatment on some bids. A significant percentage of all federal contract money is earmarked for small business. Also, if your wife happens to be the majority stock holder of a company that does business with the government your bids are given additional preference.

Regards, Robert L Bass

These services are useful if you don't have the time or resources to research on your own. They are really for convenience.

To the op:

The bid n'n chase market is a tough one. You'll likely find the federal nut a tough one to crack as well. Post-911, there are numerous companies that do nothing but chase government security work. Most of these are set up as MBE's and they get most of the smaller projects that do make it out to bid. For larger projects, the small guys will likely never get past the pre-qual. Then you have to be prepared to fight the ADT's, Johnson Controls, Siemans, Simplex's of the world with their dedictaed federal divisions and GSA Federal Supply Schedules.

The local bid market in your area may be of interest, however. If you use a service that reports projects before they start construction, you can generally get to the end user and present your services before the competition, who is waiting to see dirt moving. The early bird and all that. We've been fairly successful in getting the security and fire pulled out of the GC's scope and awarded directly to us in our package.

J.

Hmm. Size-wise, your company and mine are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I know you get lots of work from government bids because I see who wins the contracts (it's public information). I assume you guys have a team of people working on government RFQs, no?

We spent about two weeks getting all the online forms filled in and several days attending SBA classes. That was three years ago. I get e-mail literally every working day from various government and military opportunities. I respond to less than

10% of them because I'm usually too busy handling website sales.

IMO it is well worth the time and effort, even for a small business operator, to get registered. Besides, even if you use a

3rd party lead service to get the RFQs, you still need to be registered before you can even submit a quote.

Agree and disagree, sort of. It's a pain getting started doing federal contracts, but once you've handled a few successfully, you're more likely to win more. I'm sure you know that there is a certain amount of discretion beyond price in granting most government contracts.

Interestingly, we often take small government orders, typically less than $5,000, over the phone. The same is true of military purchases. Almost every military buyer has a Visa card and the discretion to use it without formal bids on small purchases. This is a lucrative area since the buyers often come back for other things once they've had a good experience with a provider.

100% true.

Regards, Robert L Bass

My Brotha, My Brotha. The government and /or military would not make a purchase from a vendor with a record like this.

||| < Satan > ||| | |

Why not? Looks like all the issues were resolved.

No I don't, but then again I've only had a few in 20 years.

I do know that some clients complain to the BBB before they even contacted me too. And if the issue is resolved it won't show up as resolved unless the complaining customer responds to the BBB's query....so it's possible to have

5 complaints resolved and not show up as such.

oh yeah one guy was !....guy hadn't paid me for monitoring or service for almost 3 years...so when I got insistent that he pay or I'd turn him off (and I did - after 15 or so registered letters to him) he decides to go with another alarm company (surprise surprise - he'd probably done that to every alarmco he'd been with). The panel was locked and I wouldn't unlock it until he paid...he complained to the BBB, ROC, even the State's Attorney...even HIS attorney agreed with me...needless to say I won in all complaints...but he was still pissed even after he ended up paying and I unlocked the system...so he didn't respond to the BBB...big deal.

yah well he ended up going with another company - I had found out through my sources that he'd done this 3 times before me...and he's probably still doing it.

I was being nice because he was a friend of my dad...turned out obviously the guy was a jerk that took advantage of everyone. I'm really glad I had signed contract or I would have lost out.

do you let problems go util they are reported to the BBB. or do you handle your problem with customers before the info gets plastered all over the world via the internet? A reputable dealer takes care of problems before they turn into BBB reports.

Some of the A few musta been really pissed at you to have a problem that they wanted fixed but refused to contact the person that would fix it?

he got what he deserved! Did you reactivate his monitoring after he paid up? ;) I ususally only let them go 3 to 6 months before the registered letter and cut off.

all that being said...I've found the most effective leads come from working existing customer base...I hate cold calls and refuse to do them...referrals referrals referrals.

It's called an IMPAC card and it can normally only be used for micropurchases, which are orders under $2500. We handle a whole lot of these. We also have a GSA FSS that allows the purchaser to buy from us without putting a bid on the street per FAR 8.4.04 and 05. Google FAR 8.4 and you can read all about it. And you're right, we do have a group dedicated to government contracting: Our Federal Systems Division headquartered in Alexandria, VA.

The limit seems to vary with the agency. I'm not certain they're all using the same arrangement. Most appear as normal Visa cards when processing orders.

Same here. I also get a fair number of orders from foreign governments. There's an eastern European UN mission that regularly orders FBII stuff for all of their consulates. I have no idea who got them sold on FBII but they have tons of older systems and they're constantly ordering replacement stuff.

We tried that but it was impossible to compete with companies like yours due to your buying power. OTOH, I routinely kick the jiminex out of "authorized dealers" on residential and small business sales.

No need. Been there.

They do a bang up job on large contracts. We pretty much gave up trying to win those -- too much effort for too few sales. On the smaller orders,