What's Killing Your Bids? A 2-Minute Diagnostic for Contractors

Every contractor who's losing bids has a theory. "My market's too cheap." "Homeowners only look at the bottom line." "The other guy's cutting corners."

Maybe. But you're treating a diagnosis you never actually ran. And if the theory's wrong, every fix you try — usually cutting price — makes things worse.

The problem: three diseases, one symptom

A lost bid looks the same from the outside no matter what caused it. But under the hood, bids die in three distinct ways:

Pricing problems — your number is built on fuzzy costs, so it's either too high to win or too low to survive winning.

Scope problems — your bid leaves questions open, and an unanswered question reads as risk. Risk loses to clarity even at a higher price.

Presentation problems — the work is priced right and scoped tight, but the document, the timing, or the follow-up loses to a slicker competitor.

The fix for each one is completely different. Cutting price only helps with the first — and only sometimes.

Guessing wrong is expensive

A contractor with a presentation problem who cuts price 10% keeps losing at the same rate — while giving up $1,800 on every $18,000 job he does win. Over a 20-job year that's $36,000 donated to a problem that a better bid document would have fixed for free.

How the diagnostic works

• 10 questions about how you actually build, send, and follow up on bids — no trick questions, no fluff
• Separate scores for pricing, scope, and presentation, so you can see which one is dragging the other two down
• A specific "fix this first" recommendation matched to your lowest score
• Takes about 2 minutes; results are yours immediately

"But..." — before you skip it

"I already know what my problem is."

Great — then the quiz costs you two minutes to confirm it. Contractors are wrong about their own weakest dimension more often than not, usually because pricing gets blamed for everything.

"Ten questions can't diagnose my business."

It's not trying to. It's narrowing three possible directions down to one, so the time you spend improving goes to the right place first.

"Why do you need my email?"

The results page is built from your answers and emailed so you can keep it. That's it — and the follow-up emails that come with it are the fix-it lessons for your weakest area. Unsubscribe anytime with one click.

Two minutes now beats another lost month

If your score points at pricing, start with the free Profit-First Bidding Playbook. If it points at scope or presentation, the free Winning Bid Checklist catches both before a bid goes out.

P.S. The most common result surprises people: it's not pricing. See yours.