In construction, most of the time it is a race to the bottom. Speaking about price, of course.
Estimating fees get compared the same way everything else does. Side by side, cheapest first. The problem is what that comparison leaves out.
Price wins, most of the time
No matter how beautiful your presentation looks. No matter how strong your team looks. No matter how well you have aced all the other criteria. It comes down to price in the end.
Unless your client is part of that 5 percent club with enough money to pick and choose who they want to work with.
That is not a complaint, it is the market. It applies to builders bidding work as much as it applies to anyone bidding a fee.
Today I was told our fee was 100% higher
Today I was told our fee was 100% higher than a competitor. That competitor has limited Australian experience, operates from overseas, and would not have priced or worked with Tier 1, 2 or 3 commercial builders, from my understanding.
And that is fine. We love feedback and raw honesty.
But comparison only works when the service is comparable. Apples to apples.
A fee is a number attached to a scope of service. Compare two numbers without comparing the two scopes and you have not compared anything at all.
What we compete on instead
We do not compete on being the cheapest. We compete on capability, accountability, and conversion.
Our role is not just to measure quantities. It is to position tenders properly. To identify risk early. To protect margin. To help win work.
Read that list again. None of it is measurement. All of it is what the fee is actually buying, and it shows up in the clarifications and in the weeks after the price goes in.
Where the difference shows up
Never on the fee proposal. It shows up on the tender that was measured but never positioned, on the risk nobody flagged until it was somebody’s variation, and in the weeks after submission when a question needs answering.
Which is why we would rather talk about the scope of the service first and the fee second.
Not every client is our client
And the truth is, not every client is our client. We choose to work with the right builders, subbies and developers who understand that pricing is one piece of the equation, not the entire equation.
There is always going to be someone cheaper in any industry. But cheaper rarely carries the same responsibility and result.
So yes, sometimes the fee is higher. That is a decision, not an oversight.