Do General Contractors Always Choose the Lowest Flooring Bid?

One of the biggest concerns I hear from flooring companies thinking about commercial work is price. They assume General Contractors are going to get as many bids as possible, put them all on a spreadsheet and give the flooring job to whoever comes in cheapest. 

And yes, some do exactly that. We've come across GCs who will get 10 flooring estimates for the same project. Personally, I don't want to be one of those 10. That was never the commercial business we wanted to build at Sanford Carpet & Flooring.

The good General Contractors we worked with weren't simply looking for the cheapest flooring contractor. They wanted a fair price, of course, but they were also looking at quality, service, reliability and whether they could trust us to get the job done without creating problems for them.

There's a big difference.

➡️ We were rarely the cheapest flooring bid

I'll start there because I think it's important. At Sanford, we were normally somewhere around the middle when it came to pricing. There would usually be someone willing to do the project cheaper than us and that's okay. We didn't build our commercial business by trying to beat everybody else's number.

What we learned over time was that the right commercial customer doesn't necessarily want the cheapest flooring contractor. They want the flooring contractor who gives them the best overall result. Price is part of that, but it's only one part.

If your flooring contractor is difficult to communicate with, misses deadlines, gets the quantities wrong, constantly sends change orders or creates problems with other trades, that cheap flooring price can start getting expensive very quickly. And stressful! A good GC knows that.

➡️ The lowest bid isn't always the final price

This is something we've seen plenty of times. A flooring company puts in a very low number to win the project. Then the job starts. Suddenly there are extras. Then another change order. Then something else wasn't included… I'm not suggesting every cheap flooring contractor operates this way. There are plenty of good contractors who price competitively. But we've certainly competed against companies that would go in very low and then try to make the money back after the project had been awarded. That wasn't how we wanted to operate.

Our customers needed to trust our number as much as they trusted our installation.

If we're somewhere in the middle but the GC knows we're going to communicate properly, pay attention to the details and not spend the whole project looking for ways to add money back onto the job, that has value.

Sometimes paying a little more at the beginning saves a lot of money and aggravation later.

➡️ A General Contractor is managing much more than your floor

This is another thing flooring companies can forget. We naturally look at the flooring because that's our job. The GC doesn't have that luxury, they're dealing with the entire project. They've got electricians, plumbers, painters, drywall crews, flooring installers and who knows how many other people moving around the same job. They have schedules to manage, owners to answer to, budgets to control and problems appearing every day. The last thing they need is another subcontractor creating headaches.

So put yourself in their shoes: They have Flooring Company A at $100,000. Flooring Company B at $104,000. And Flooring Company C at $107,000.

Does the $7,000 difference automatically make Company A the best decision?

It depends on what comes with that $100,000.

If one contractor communicates, turns up when promised, understands commercial schedules, works properly around the other trades, catches problems early and helps find solutions when something goes wrong, that contractor can be worth far more than the difference on the original estimate.

I think flooring contractors sometimes underestimate that.

➡️ Commercial customers remember how you handle problems

Every commercial flooring project doesn't go perfectly. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't done enough commercial flooring! Plans can be wrong, materials can be delayed, another trade can put the project behind, site conditions can change and something gets uncovered that nobody expected.

The question isn't whether you'll ever have a problem. The question is what you're like to work with when there is one. We always tried to have a can-do attitude.

That doesn't mean saying yes to absolutely everything or agreeing to lose money just to keep somebody happy. It simply means communicating, looking for solutions and understanding that you're part of a much bigger project. That matters!

A GC doesn't want to spend their day chasing their flooring contractor for an answer. And when they find subcontractors they can rely on, there's a very good reason to keep using them.

➡️ This is where relationships start beating price

This took me a little while to fully appreciate. When you're new to commercial, it's very easy to think the job is the prize.

You see a $50,000 project, a $200,000 project or a $500,000 project and naturally you want to win it.

But over time I stopped looking at commercial quite like that. The relationship can be worth far more than the individual project. If a good GC gives you one project and you perform well, what happens next? They have another project… Then another… Then another. Now you're not starting from zero every month. You're building a relationship with a customer who knows what you can do and has an ongoing need for what you sell.

That's a very different way to build a flooring business. And it's why I wouldn't destroy a good relationship trying to squeeze every last percentage point out of one project. Sometimes you make a business decision because you understand the long-term value of the customer.

➡️ But that doesn't mean every GC is worth chasing

This is equally important!!! Some General Contractors really do only care about price. If they're getting 10 estimates on every flooring project and simply looking for whoever will do it cheapest, you need to decide whether that's the type of business you want. For us, generally it wasn't.

The commercial customers we wanted were the ones who understood what we brought to their business and treated us as a partner in their success. That relationship has to work both ways. There are GCs who withhold payments and there are GCs who set unrealistic targets. There are customers who want the absolute lowest price but still expect premium service. 

Just because someone has commercial flooring work available doesn't automatically make them a good customer. That's something I think flooring companies need to understand much earlier.

Getting more commercial opportunities isn't the goal. Getting the right commercial opportunities is.

➡️ So what are good General Contractors actually looking for?

I can only speak from our experience, but the good relationships usually came back to a few fairly simple things.

A fair price: You still have to be competitive. Relationships aren't an excuse to charge whatever you want.

Quality work: At the end of the day, the floor still has to be installed properly.

Communication: If something changes or goes wrong, tell people. Don't make them chase you.

Attention to detail: Commercial mistakes get expensive quickly.

Reliability: Do what you said you were going to do.

A can-do attitude: Commercial projects have moving parts. Be someone who helps solve problems rather than creating more of them.

None of those things are particularly complicated but doing them consistently is harder. And that's where trust comes from.

➡️ What happens once you've earned that trust?

This is where I think commercial flooring gets really interesting. You stop being just another flooring company sending in a number. You start becoming their flooring company. They know you, your team, how you operate and what to expect.

That doesn't mean you'll automatically win every project and it certainly doesn't mean price stops mattering. But now there's history behind your number. And if you've consistently made their life easier, there's a reason for them to keep coming back.

We had commercial clients who realized that even if they paid us a little more on some projects, they often saved money in the long run because there were fewer surprises and less stress. That's the kind of commercial relationship we wanted.

➡️ Stop trying to win every flooring bid

I don't believe commercial flooring should be a numbers game where you throw out as many estimates as possible and hope enough of them stick. That may work for some companies but it wasn't how we chose to build ours.

I'd rather spend my time building relationships with commercial customers who value what we do than constantly compete against nine other flooring companies for a customer who will disappear the moment someone comes in 2% cheaper.

There's an important distinction here:

Winning on price gives you a project.

Winning on trust can give you a customer.

And given the choice, I'll take the customer every time. 

About Lawrence King

Lawrence King spent more than 12 years building Sanford Carpet & Flooring in Florida, completing more than $20 million in commercial projects and serving commercial customers. After building and recently selling the business, Lawrence now works with established flooring companies through Commercial Flooring Pipeline™ to help them build profitable, predictable commercial divisions.

Want to build better commercial relationships, not just chase more bids?

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