Undercut Pricing

Hello out there,

This is generally the time of year people call looking for bids on their corporate buildings, schools and communities in an effort to put together budgets. This is great since a window cleaners dream is a large job that can be completed in a good amount of time and is guaranteed to repeat at the very least annually. Sounds all good and fine right? Yea until the bidding process takes place and you realize that quality and standard isn't really a consideration in the acceptance of the bid. Now don't get me wrong I'm not totally bitter or trying to insinuate that our company is superior over all others BUT when you know who your bidding against it makes it hard not to be upset when you don't get the bid and you know this client will be calling around again because they aren't satisfied with the work performed by the guy who undercut us by like half.
I get told all the time by my co workers and my boss that I am a spaz and act like a maniac when things like this come up and I don't disagree; I do however think it's my spasticness and passion that makes me good at what I do. You all know that there is a decent amount of time and effort into placing these large bids. Driving out there, meeting with someone who talks your head off for hours (Mr. Fancy Pants will attest to this), putting together the bid in a professional manner, then following up just to find out that some one man show or a very large company underbid you by half if not more. Please don't take offense and get all personal on me you all know you have felt this way one time or another (IF you haven't yet.. trust me you will)
We are a higher priced company than some others out there BUT we also offer a higher standard of service than some others out there as well. It is this standard that makes me wish companies and schools would consider that in their decisions along with price. Most times we hear "Well we went with the lowest bid" That's fine especially with the economy the way it is. To be honest I do get some satisfaction when I look at the size of the job and know that for the money being charged the guy who got the bid will suffer working ridiculously hard for no money at all because he underbid it so much. (Yea I know go ahead say it.. I'm a mean spiteful witch) Then of course there are the situations where a few weeks or months go by and that same company who laughed at your estimate is calling asking if you could complete the job by like... mmm.. tomorrow. In these cases sometimes I wish I could say No sorry you should have thought about that before... Then reality kicks in and I say sure we can do it no problem because we are the better company at that point. Satisfaction granted..
My words of wisdom for the week.. Bite your tongue when you can, Keep having conversations in your head..(as crazy as that sounds) it's those made up conversations in my head that save my sanity daily and keep the conflict to a minimum. Window Cleaners and Clients please look at more than dollar signs when bidding and accepting jobs.. There should be a code of conduct among us all. Don't laugh I said "SHOULD BE" I'm not that naive.

Have a Great Week,
The Appointed One