Strategic Category Padding To Deal With Bidding With Larger Clients

Bidding with larger clients usually means dealing with cost consultants asking us to reduce their selected costs. The better we prepare with strategic category padding, the more we can keep in our budget and respond with reasoning explanations of why costs need to stay the same. 

When bidding for a job with larger clients, it is common for clients to hire cost consultants to review and fine-tune the bid. The cost consultants’ job is to reduce prices, so it is expected that some areas will be padded. This can include crew size, producer time, equipment rental, and even meals. To prepare for cost consultants, it is recommended to pad some areas knowing they will be reduced. For example, inflating prices a little bit or bringing up prep days with the expectation of being asked to reduce them. It is important to adjust for cost consultants on the client side to secure the job.