If you can nail the bid walk-through, you’ll dramatically increase your chances of winning the contract and keeping it. Make sure you and your team are ready with the right questions.
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We take a look at the bid walk-through and explore how a thorough checklist makes the process easier. This includes questions that yield good information for both sales and operations teams, as well as tips for coming across as professional and reliable.
A bid walk-through is a meeting with a potential client to talk through how your team will meet their needs. The client will take you, and possibly other contractors, through their facility or facilities to give you an idea of the scope of the job they’re offering.
During janitorial bid walk-throughs, the potential client will be evaluating you while you assess their facility.
A bid walk-through checklist can help you or your sales team capture all relevant information more easily. This is especially important because good communication between sales and operations teams is crucial for customer satisfaction. Your operations team needs to know what the customer expects based on their conversations with your sales team.
A pre-bid walk-through is your opportunity as a contractor to:
A bid walk-through checklist makes the bid walk-through process smoother and helps increase your chances of winning the contract. That’s because having a walk-through checklist gives you an advantage over your competitors. It’s your opportunity to introduce yourself and to exhibit your professionalism to potential clients.
Knowing how to bid for cleaning contracts will help you feel more prepared. Potential clients will assess how you conduct yourself during the bid walk-through, so come ready with questions, and be sure to take detailed notes of the different areas they show you.
Ask proactive questions, especially about any areas of concern or issues they have with their current cleaning company. Thoughtful questions show your interest in the client’s needs and demonstrate that you’re thinking through how your team can best meet them.
Research the company ahead of time so that you’re familiar with who they are and what they do.
Be specific about your plan for their facility.
Stay positive. Focus on the client’s experience.
Dress professionally. Wear a branded company polo or a button-down shirt with nice jeans or slacks.
Use a digital inspection form. This streamlines information sharing with your team and signals that you run a professional, tech-savvy operation.
You’ll want to adjust the questions you ask during a cleaning walk-through based on the information the client provides upfront. The information you gather here will help you learn the client’s expectations and set your team up to meet them.
Let the client know you’ll need time to measure the facility and take notes. Don’t rush this process or you may end up underestimating the amount you need to charge to deliver great service and maintain profitability.
For each room or area, note:
Our sample commercial cleaning walk-through form is a great starting point for your team to create their own. Adjust it based on the most helpful fields for your team, as well as any information you might need down the road. Creating a digital version, such as on OrangeQC, makes it easy to keep the form up to date.
After the bid walk-through, all of the information you collected needs to go to the right people on your team. Additionally, you should store the form itself where it will be accessible to everyone who will be working on the account if your team wins the bid. Finally, create a document based on your walk-through to include with the proposal. This shows the client that you heard their concerns and kept the information organized.
For more best practices, check out our interview with Kathy Patton, who offered up a ton of insights on introducing new technology to your whole team.
Patton was responsible for selling facility services during her time with Licking/Knox Goodwill Industries, Inc. She found that tracking quality control data has transformed the bid process.
“It differentiates me from my competitors because I can show them what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, how we’re monitoring,” she told us. “This really differentiates me in the market. There’s nobody walking in with this kind of technology from a nonprofit.”
Improving your bidding walk-throughs all comes down to preparation. Equip your team with the tools, research, and knowledge they need to arrive at the walk-through ready to impress. Here are some tips for better walk-throughs:
The size of your team will determine who handles walk-throughs. If you own a small cleaning company, you’re likely handling these yourself. As teams scale, you may have supervisors, operations staff, or sales team members handle walk-throughs. Whoever does the walk-through will need to speak with someone on-site who knows the company’s requirements for the job.
A good walk-through gives your team the information they need to bid for cleaning contracts, setting them up for long-term success. It also impresses potential clients by showing your professionalism and communication. Showing up on time with the right tools and asking thorough questions when quoting a cleaning job signals that your team will take it seriously.
The main challenge of walk-throughs is screening out businesses that aren’t a good fit early in the process. If you don’t take on certain types of businesses, such as restaurants or retail, then you should avoid sending your team to those locations.
Some businesses may request a bid even though they already have a provider in mind. In those instances, learn from the experience and note the signs that a business is just going through the motions so you know for next time.
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