Reverse auctions provide an excellent opportunity to expand your
business. Projects posted on a reverse auction site are a great way
to get leads you'd otherwise have missed.
Reverse auctions provide an excellent opportunity for increasing your
business, particularly in the service sector. The website will notify
you of projects posted on a reverse auction site in your area of
expertise. You review and bid on those that interest you, and
increase your business as you become more successful in your bidding.
To get started, register with selected reverse auction sites that
cover the services you provide. Select all the categories you are
interested in being notified about, and select the geographical areas
that you cover. Most websites will notify you of new projects in your
categories and locations. Some reverse auction websites offer the
opportunity to include a description of your services, licensing,
insurance, bonding, how long you've been in business and the like.
Most, however, insist that you do not list your contact information,
so you'll need a user name that is different from your business name,
and you won't be able to list phone, e-mail or website address.
This prohibition on contact information stems from two basic causes:
First, listing your contact information is an invitation to the
customers to contact you directly – and subject themselves to your
sales pitch before they have had an opportunity to see what other
offers the posting might bring out. Second, reverse auction websites
normally charge a small fee for successful transactions, and if the
business is completed off line, the website will see itself as being
short-changed.
So – how should you respond to a posting for something you are
interested in bidding on? Several factors make for a successful
approach.
Study the posting carefully. Is there enough information for you to
adequately bid? Are the size, quality, time frame, accessibility,
and other factors clearly spelled out? Are there sketches or
photographs to support the posting, so you can better visualize what
the job entails?
If there are details missing, request clarification from the
customer. Use the site's communication tools to tell him or her
what you need to know, maybe giving examples of the type of thing
required. For example, on a house painting job, maybe the customer
didn't specify the type of paint to use. Suggest your favorite
brand and two or three grades for them to pick from. If the sizes
aren't clear, request the specifics you need. If the geographic
area isn't specified, request a zip code so that you know pretty
closely where the job is located, assuming it's a physical job.
Be sure you check the complete content of the project listing. The
contract you enter into is binding on both parties, so you want to
be sure you understood everything that was required.
The other side of this is that the person listing the job may not
have included all the information required to do the job, even
though the listing appears complete. Include in your bid what your
drive-up charge is (again, for a physical job), so that, if the
scope is larger than was described, you can describe to the
customer how it's different once you see it, and what the extra
charge would be. If they decline, you will have told them what it
costs to have you come out to the site and then go away without
doing the work. As long as the scope of the work is significantly
different than what was described, the contract won't be valid, but
you'll still be compensated for the time and trouble to show up.
Many
reverse auctions involve programming, website development, editing,
technical writing and such, that can be done without ever meeting
the customer. In reviewing this type of contract, be sure that the
details are clear, and that you ask for clarification you need
before bidding. You can, as many suppliers of this type of work do,
bid a scoping price, in which the specification and scope of the
work will be detailed out in a preliminary contract. Once the full
specification is available, you can then bid on the resulting
specification.
Keep an eye on what competitors are bidding, and how they are
describing it. Generally you can go back in and modify your bid if
you either discover through reviewing their bids that you missed
some element of the project, or if they are undercutting your price
– just don't allow yourself to become so competitive that you
cause yourself a loss!
If you haven't tried reverse auctions yet – give it a whirl. For a
few minutes spent registering with a few sites, you may get business
opportunities you wouldn't have seen without being registered. And,
as your reputation and rating on the site build up, you will attract
more business.
Patrick Hesselmann is a co-founder of FlatDoor, Inc., and its
website,http://www.FlatDoor.com.
With hundreds of categories and locations, it is the ideal site for
customers to post services wanted, and for suppliers to bid on them.
Post and bit free; a small fee is charged to the successful bidder.
