Blog/How to present a building materials quote so the contractor compares more than price

How to present a building materials quote so the contractor compares more than price

Nov 48 min read

Before a finished material quote goes out, review it with the estimator, read the account history and walk the contractor through assumptions, options and the decision.

Sales Strategy
How to present a building materials quote so the contractor compares more than price

Before a finished material quote goes to a contractor, review it with the estimator, then read the account's quote and purchase history to decide how to present it. Ask the contractor for a short review meeting instead of sending a total by email. In that meeting, walk through what the quote includes, what it assumes, the options you recommend and how the decision will be made. Leave with a decision date and one named owner for the next step.

This guide is for outside and inside sales reps and sales managers at lumber yards and multi-category building materials dealers. The same approach applies to millwork, door and window specialists who present package quotes to contractors. It covers the gap between a completed estimate and quote follow-up. Collecting information before a takeoff is covered in our material takeoff request checklist, and chasing a quote after it has been presented is covered in our guide to following up on lumberyard quotes. Production builders who require bids in their own template, and manufacturers quoting through dealers, follow different processes.

Why an emailed total invites a price-only decision

An estimate can take hours to build and seconds to judge. The show notes for episode 86 of The Craft of LBM Sales describe exactly that problem: a prospect judging a carefully built quote in under 10 seconds. The episode's answer is to secure a face-to-face conversation before bid day and present the rep's expertise, assumptions, options and recommendations. (The podcast is Bradley Hartmann's, and his firm, Bradley Hartmann & Co., partners with SalesJack.)

Sales consultant Bill Lee makes a related point in LBM Journal: "Quoting is not selling." He argues that the quality of the relationship, together with the value the builder sees in the salesperson, is probably the best indicator of the margin a rep can earn.

Detail is part of the problem. In a 2015 LBM Journal reader survey on detailed price quotes, 88.4% of responding lumberyards and building material dealers said their written quotes included individual prices, quantities and a package price. Among specialty dealers and distributors, 69.4% said the same. Several respondents described the downside: a competitor or box store can price your quantities without doing the takeoff, or the contractor buys only the lowest-priced items from you. These are answers from a reader survey more than a decade old, so treat them as practitioner views rather than current industry measurements. They still describe a familiar risk.

1. Review the quote with the estimator before it leaves

Start with an internal check. Ask the estimator to walk you through the plan revision used, the categories included, anything excluded and every assumption made where the plans were unclear. List unresolved selections separately so you do not present a placeholder as a confirmed product.

Another LBM Journal survey on material takeoffs shows why this matters. The dealer who raised the question wrote that when a builder goes over budget, "they want to hold us responsible." Respondents described adding disclaimers that a takeoff is an estimate the builder must verify. You cannot change who is responsible for the final material list during a sales conversation. You can make sure the contractor hears the assumptions before they rely on the number.

Do not alter grades, specifications or structural details to make the total look better. If a lower-cost alternative makes sense, ask the estimator or product specialist to prepare it as a separate, clearly labeled option.

2. Read the account before deciding how to present it

The same quote can deserve a different presentation depending on who receives it. Before you contact the contractor, look at four things.

  1. Past quotes from this contractor. Which ones turned into orders, which were lost and which were bought only in part. A history of ordering only a few lines from complete packages tells you how this contractor uses your quotes.
  2. Category purchases. What the contractor already buys from you and what they buy elsewhere. A category they never buy from you may be worth offering as an option on this job.
  3. Other open quotes and active jobs. Whether there are other open quotes for the same jobsite, or permits and job addresses showing more work coming. A second job can change how much the contractor cares about this one.
  4. Recent conversations. What the contractor said about budget, timing or the competition, and who was in the room.

This works best when quotes, orders and conversations live in one place. SalesJack's CRM groups connected quotes by project, keeps customer and jobsite information with each opportunity, and surfaces cross-sell opportunities in the product categories you sell. That gives the rep the account context before the quote goes out instead of after a lost order.

3. Decide how much detail to hand over

The survey responses show that dealers disagree here, and no single rule fits every yard. Several respondents gave loyal, long-standing customers full itemized quotes. Others gave new accounts, or contractors known for shopping quotes, a package price first and reviewed the detail in person.

Treat the level of detail as a management decision your team applies consistently. Individual reps should not be deciding it on the day. Then use the account history from step 2 to apply it. A contractor who buys whole packages may expect full detail. A first-time prospect who has asked three yards for a price may get the package total, with an offer to go through the lines together.

4. Ask for a short review meeting

Ask for 20 minutes to go through the quote, either at the contractor's office, on a jobsite or by video call. A sales training guide from The Executive Group is blunt about sending bids by fax, email or mail: without the conversation, the rep cannot negotiate, read the buyer's reactions or ask more questions. Rick Davis makes a similar point in LBM Journal, writing that a proposal "should be hand-delivered" with the salesperson's explanation.

Make the request about the contractor's job. For example: "The estimate is done. There's an assumption on the roof framing I want you to confirm, and an option on the exterior doors you might want to see. Can we go through it Thursday?" If the contractor insists on email, send it, and schedule a call to review it while they have it open.

Not every quote needs a meeting. A small counter quote for a repeat customer can go out as usual. Save the review for larger packages, new accounts and quotes where the history suggests the contractor is comparing suppliers.

5. Walk through assumptions, options and your recommendation

Use a consistent order so the conversation does not start and end with the total.

  1. What you heard about the job. Confirm the project, schedule and anything the contractor said mattered.
  2. What is included and excluded. Name the categories in the package and anything left out, so the contractor can compare like with like.
  3. Assumptions and open selections. Ask the contractor to confirm or correct each one. Corrections now are cheaper than a revised order later.
  4. Options. Present the specialist-prepared alternative, or the category from step 2 that the contractor does not yet buy from you, as a separate line they can accept or decline.
  5. Your recommendation. Say which version you would choose for this job and why, based on what the contractor told you.

Then ask about the decision. Who else is quoting? What will decide it if prices are close? When does the contractor need to commit, and who approves? The Executive Group guide suggests asking which criteria the buyer will use if competing bids come in close together. The answer tells you what the follow-up conversation needs to address.

6. Leave with a decision date and an owner

Before the meeting ends, agree on what happens next and when. Record the contractor's answers where your team tracks the quote: who else is quoting, the deciding factor they named, the decision date, any assumption that changed and which option they want revised.

Assign the next step to one person. If the estimator needs to revise the quote, say who tells the contractor when it is ready. SalesJack lets reps log conversations and use assignments and reminders to plan follow-up, so the next call does not depend on someone's memory. From here, the quote moves into your normal follow-up process.

An illustrative example

A rep at a multi-category dealer receives a finished framing package for a custom builder's new home. The account history shows the builder buys most of its framing from the yard. Two recent framing quotes were bought only in part, and the builder has never bought exterior doors from the dealer.

Instead of emailing the total, the rep reviews the estimate with the estimator and finds one assumption about the roof framing. The rep asks the door specialist to price an exterior door option for the same house, books a call with the builder and walks through the package. The builder corrects the assumption, says one other yard is quoting framing and names delivery timing as the deciding factor. The rep records the decision date and assigns the revised quote to the estimator.

This example is illustrative and does not describe a real customer. It shows the sequence; the outcome will vary.

Limitations

A review meeting will not win a quote that is genuinely uncompetitive, and some contractors will not make time for one. Your yard's policies on quote detail, price holds and payment terms belong to management, and the rep should not promise exceptions in the meeting. Assumptions about structural or code requirements remain with the qualified people responsible for them.

Done consistently, this gives your reps a better chance of being compared on the full package, and a clear record of what the contractor said when it is time to follow up. To see how SalesJack connects quotes, account history and follow-up for building materials dealers, book a demo.

Sources

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