Tenders & Estimating — an add-on, priced per bid
You're losing tenders you should be winning. It's rarely the price.
Small contractors mostly don't lose on the number. They lose on the mandatory question that got skimmed, the method statement written the night before, and the quality answer treated as a box-tick. That part is the cheapest to fix — and it's fixed by people who know a rebar schedule from a risk register.
How it works
Three steps, fixed fee
Or tell us about the framework you keep seeing and missing. We'll tell you straight whether it's worth your time — that part is free.
A measured take-off from the drawings — traced to source sheets, never grossed up. The client's pricing document priced line by line in its own format. Quality answers written by people who've delivered the work.
With an honest inclusions and exclusions letter, so everyone knows exactly what's in your number. Your name, your firm, your win.
Scope
What a tender engagement covers
One honest limit, stated up front: we don't guarantee wins. The award isn't ours to control. What we control is that your submission is compliant, complete, measured properly, and reads like the capable firm you are — which is where winnable bids get thrown away.
Method
How we price — and whose numbers we use
Route 1
Your client's own pricing document
When the tender comes with a bill of quantities or a pricing schedule, we price that document, line by line, in its own structure — so your return drops straight into the buyer's evaluation and compares directly with every other tenderer. We never substitute our own bill for theirs.
Route 2
Your rates, where you have them
If you've got a rate book — labour rates, gang outputs, plant rates — we build from your real numbers, because they're the ones you can actually deliver at. Your margins stay your decision, stated plainly, never buried.
Route 3
Market rates, honestly labelled
Where a gap exists, we benchmark from current market and published rates — and label every one an estimate to firm up, never passed off as a quote. You always know which numbers are yours and which are the market's.
And the rule that protects you either way: anything we find that's needed but missing from the client's bill gets highlighted and priced separately, on a clearly-marked additions schedule — never silently folded into the rates, and never silently dropped. Your number stays defensible in the post-tender meeting, because every line traces to a source.
Fees
Fixed, and agreed before we start
Free
Send a live tender. Inside two working days: where you'd lose points, and whether it's worth bidding.
£750
Priced and written, fixed fee.
£1,650
Priced and written, fixed fee. Larger tenders quoted individually.
Every tender fee includes the full document review — scope, specifications, policies, procedures — and the contract risk register. If it's in the pack, we've read it before we price it. On The Commercial Desk, one tender or prequalification pack each quarter is already included.