9 Jul 2020

How To: Request Prices as a Buyer – Part 1

by | posted in: The How to Series | 0
For our L2Q Buyers – Request Prices Part 1 – includes how to add your Terms and Conditions, View/Download your Bill, Change Trades and Add Items.
Learn about some L2Q basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 3m 57s)

To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

9 Jul 2020

How To: Request Prices as a Buyer – Part 1

by | posted in: How To | 0
For our L2Q Buyers – Request Prices Part 1 – includes how to add your Terms and Conditions, View/Download your Bill, Change Trades and Add Items.
Learn about some L2Q basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 3m 56s)

 

To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

30 Jun 2020

How To: View Open Quotes Vendor Home

by | posted in: The How to Series | 0
View and interact with the icons and functionality on your Open Quotes Vendor Home Page. Record your responses, interact with Bills Currently being priced and Awards and improve your indicator.
Learn about some OQ Vendor Home basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 3m 9s)

 

 

To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

24 Jun 2020

How To: View Vendor Home

by | posted in: How To, The How to Series | 0
View and interact with the icons and functionality on your Vendor Home Page. Record your responses, respond to quotes online and improve your indicator.
Learn about some Vendor Home basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 3m 23s)

 

To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

27 Mar 2019

How To: Create a New Bill Request

by | posted in: How To, The How to Series | 0
Create a New Bill Request. Send us your Bill of Quantities (BoQ) to be formatted and traded. We upload it electronically for you to send out RFQ’s to Vendors and Suppliers.
– here’s a quick video tutorial from “The How To Series”.

(Duration 2 min,39 sec)

 

To view more content, please visit the Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit the Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

11 Dec 2017

Did you Know #DYK: How much time is needed when pricing?

by | posted in: Did You Know | 0

Pricing Online

All’s well that ends well. While I believe this to be true, I also believe there is another equally important truth – all’s well that begins well. Especially so in the Construction Industry.

An Industry that commands the unforeseen be seen today.

An industry where the smallest miscalculation will lead to errors of massive proportions.

An industry whose success depends as much on the right planning as on the right execution.

Leads 2 Business understands how crucial accurate, timeous pricing is, and believe that ‘nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity’

 

Request for Quotes

Submitting accurate pricing is critical in any type of construction business.

Estimate too high and you win fewer jobs; too low and your profits disappear.

So, it’s important to get it right every time!

How do you submit a Request for Quote (RFQ) as accurately and as timeous as possible?

 

Let’s explore two possible scenarios:

 

Scenario 1

On receiving a Request for Quote (RFQ) you attempt to print it out, but….. there’s no paper in the printer, mumbling to yourself you open a new ream of paper, slam it into the printer tray and attempt to print again.

You got this, just breathe.

Okay, it’s printing!

Now that you have your freshly printed RFQ on your desk you start typing away on your calculator: add the three, carry the one divide by four, or was it add the one carry the four and divide by three???

This is getting stressful….

A few checks on Google along with a splash of Tip-ex here and there and BOOM you finally have yourself a complete handwritten RFQ! Not bad for a couple of hours work!!

After double checking all is correct (fingers crossed), and feeling rather satisfied with yourself, you bundle the lot up and caress it down the throat of the office fax machine, only to find out that the fax jammed, your document is in tatters and you are seeing red.

Following a few choice words with the poor new IT guy, you calmly place your head in your hands and walk back to your desk to start the tedious process again….

Estimating by hand is time-consuming, frustrating and is detrimental to the well being of the poor new IT guy.

 

Online pricing beats faxing

It’s time to bin the fax machine

 

Scenario 2

You respond by pricing online using the Leads 2 Business website.

Online? Tell me how!

By registering to the Open Quotes service offered by Leads 2 Business you can price online, edit your Profile settings which include your Trades and Serviceable Regions and send your prices to Buyers without waiting for them to ask you for a price first.

Pricing online will not only ensure you rank higher than your competitors it will also:

Save You Time with easy options to download, decline and archive RFQ’s, as well as the ability to send your prices to multiple buyers at once.

Centralised Storage & No More Paper means you can now have a detailed record of all RFQ’s received, priced, declined and archived, kept safely online.

Drawings are easily accessible and available to download.

 

Open Quotes provides you with the ability to:

• Pro-actively respond to RFQ’s using Bill Extracts
• View and price other jobs that match your company trade
• Forward your pricing requests to your company
• Stay current with recent Award notifications

You will be notified when a contract has been awarded, giving you the edge over your competitors.

You will be provided with the following information:
• Awarded Contractor
• Contact information
• Contract Value
• Site occupation

As a new Open Quotes subscriber, you will have a premier listing of the New Vendors showcase for a 30 day period, allowing Buyers to view your business offerings.

You will be able to see which Buyers prefer you and interact directly with them regarding your service and product offerings.

So how much time is needed to price? When using Open Quotes from Leads 2 Business, not much time at all!

But don’t take my word for it Click Here and find out for yourself.

 

Sources:

Kicking

Printer on Fire

 

About Mark Meyer

I joined Leads 2 Business in February 2009 and serve as IT Director.

4 Dec 2017

Did you Know #DYK: Should you include VAT when pricing an RFQ

by | posted in: Did You Know | 2

So the question is should you charge VAT when pricing an RFQ??

Well, I think we should start at the beginning.

RFQ's Received

What is an RFQ? It is a Request for Quotation.

 

 

As a vendor on the L2B site, you have the best opportunity ever!! That’s right, you guessed it! Main contractors use our site to search for vendors by using their trades. So let’s say one of your trades is the supply of bricks. Bricks fall under – Masonry Brickwork: brick, facebrick, nfx, bricklaying, masonry, lintels, brick reinforcement. The main contractor would then select your company from the list of vendors according to your trade.

 

Request for Quotation on (Crushed Stone, Gravel & Sand)

 

As soon as they have selected your company you will get an email directly from the buyer asking you to price.

RFQ Email

 

Exciting times! Not much effort had to go into that one. The main contractor chooses you! So now what to do? It’s time to price.

Terms & Conditions

On your Vendor dashboard, you will find your request for a quotation. All the drawings, specifications and the portion of the bill that pertains to you. Now the fun begins! Time to price! Always remember your Terms & Conditions! They are very important and you can either select the Standard Terms and Conditions or add your own. If you skip your terms and Conditions at the beginning, you would need to complete it before it will allow you to send the Request for Quotation.

 

Then comes the portion of the bill that you will need to be pricing on. The description, unit, qty, aptitude and then, of course, your rate or unit cost. Followed by the total. All done! Remember to copy yourself in on your pricing!

Items to Price

 

Question

 

 

 

 

So here comes that question again.

Should you include VAT when pricing an RFQ? The answer is No!

When doing an RFQ you will see we do not add VAT to the individual pricing and also state in your Terms and Conditions that the pricing excludes VAT (VAT should only be added to the total of the RFQ).

We do this as it is an industry norm not to add VAT when pricing. By adding VAT the buyer will think you are overcharging them which could result in the Request for Quote to be Awarded to an opposing company! So when pricing your RFQ please do not add the VAT to your pricing. Now you are ready to price when that email request arrives in your mailbox!

Now that you know how to price: Do you have the time?

Yes you do, see below:

Did you Know #DYK: How much time is needed when pricing?

 

Happy Pricing!

 

Image Source:

Question Mark

About Connie van Tonder

I started working at L2B in April 2017 as an Accounts Executive. Not knowing too much about the construction industry. Learning new things every day and enjoying every second of it. Loving what I do!

27 Nov 2017

Did you know #DYK: RFQ? Pricing? Drawings…. What?

by | posted in: Did You Know | 0

 

Picture this scenario… the phone rings…
a rather flustered voice comes through the phone..
Michelle!!! what’s this RFQ thingy…?
Who sent me this?
What must I price on?
Where can I find the Drawings…?
…. Specifications…? huh!?

     

 

These are just some of the questions I am asked on a daily basis. So let’s start from the beginning and break them down.

Leads 2 Business has an online pricing system, Leads 2 Quotes (L2Q), that is designed for Main Contractors to send out Request for quotes (RFQ’s) to suppliers and subcontractors (Vendors).

So you might be asking how is this going to bring in new business to my company? Once you receive an RFQ, you can download the drawings and specification from the Vendor home-page or RFQ mail. This will enable you to add your own terms and conditions, attachments and any important information the Contractor would need. The RFQ can be priced online and in return increases your rating on L2Q which will work in your favour when Contractors are sending out new RFQ’s as your company will be ranked higher.

 

We provide you with the Contractors details, so if you have any of those important questions about a specific section in the bill you will already have all the tools you need to get into contact with the right people.

 

If you are not subscribed to any of L2B’s services we have amazing staff that would be more than willing to assist you. Alternatively, you can subscribe to Open Quotes for a minimal amount, this will give you access to new opportunity’s to price to Contractors without them requesting you to price.

Now that’s what I call being proactive!

With a fresh approach to pricing and retrieving what you need to price efficiently and on time. Are you as excited? I am!

   

Let’s sum it up:

  • RFQ’s are sent via L2Q directly to Preferred Vendors.
  • Documentation and Specifications or any additional information that you might need regarding the RFQ can be found either on the L2Q website or by contacting the Contractor directly.
  • You can add your terms and conditions to your RFQ.
  • The more you price online, the higher your rating on L2Q.
  • New Open Quotes feature enables you to forward your pricing to other Buyers without them even asking you for a price.

 

Happy Pricing Everybody!!!!!

 

Image Sources:

Question Mark #1

Question Mark #2

Thumbs Up

Tick

Envelope

 

About Michelle Herbst

I started working at Leads 2 Business in February 2014. I'm a Senior L2Q Account Executive for the Cape Town Region.

12 Oct 2016

Respond by Dates (RFQ’s)

by | posted in: Construction Chat, General, Uncategorized | 0

Respond by Dates (RFQ’s)

95-blog-respond-by-dates

Are you familiar with these phrases?

Time is money.

No time like the present.

Take time to smell the roses.

Time will tell.

Third time’s the charm.

Time heals all wounds.

Time’s a-wasting!

 

You get the idea…

 

“Timing is everything,” A statement that is obvi to most ppl these days, but alas not everyone (SMH as I type this). We live in a fast paced world where instant messaging is not only an app but a way of life. As a Millennial myself I can attest to this. It is the norm to get a response within 5 minutes from someone and if it takes any longer something must be wrong. Possible scenarios (some involving serious injury or death) come to mind.

 

Do you know what a RBD is? It’s a crucial bit of info within a RFQ. There I go again with my acronyms… (Yes, the previous ones were intentional)

RBD is otherwise known as a Respond by Date and RFQ is also known as a Request for Quote, these terms are probably familiar to you if you subscribe to L2Q (Leads 2 Quotes) .

*For more details on how L2Q works: https://blog.l2b.co.za/l2qosis-symbiosis-through-l2q/

*For more on the in’s and out’s on RFQs: https://blog.l2b.co.za/pricing-online-rfqs/

 

Now that you are all caught up on the acronyms let’s get into why timing is so crucial to them.

When a Buyer sends out RFQ’s he specifies a date by which he requires prices back (aka the RBD). The RBD is usually prior to the Closing Date (CD) of the tender. The reason for this is because the Buyer needs to complete the Tender Document before the CD so that it can be delivered timeously to the Client to avoid being disqualified. Now I’m not going to go into depth regarding the CD as this will be covered in next week’s blog (check back same time next week if you want to know more).

Vendors are often aware of the actual Closing Date (as referred to on the tender notice) and may often advise that they will only respond closer to this date. Imagine you are a Buyer and have multiple tenders to submit, multiple prices to collate and the Vendors you have sent RFQ’s haven’t responded, you might start to stress (a lot).

In the end it’s all about communication and timing and at L2B we endeavour to facilitate this.

Here are a few tips to consider:

Buyers can take into account that Vendors require adequate time between receiving an RFQ and the RBD in order to respond positively.

Similarly Vendors need to make note of the RDB on RFQ’s and please respond to these on time.

Buyers are able to send through the relevant drawings and specs for Vendors to be able view for accurate pricing.

Vendors have the ability to register as a Vendor on L2B (this is free of charge) in order to view drawings and price online.

Buyers are encouraged to communicate with Vendors regarding receipt of their prices as well as potential use of their services.

Vendors can easily make use of the links on the RFQ to advise if they ‘intend to price’ or ‘decline’ which only takes a few seconds. This informs the Buyer accordingly which prevents unnecessary follow-ups while aiding communication.

Taking the above into account it all amounts to copious amounts of time saved and I think we can all agree that that’s one thing we can never have enough of.

Want to save time and subscribe to L2B? Comment or Contact me on SashaA@L2B.co.za

 

Sources:

http://time.com/4373616/text-abbreviations-acronyms/

http://www.bucknell.edu/communications/bucknell-magazine/instant-gratification-and-its-dark-side.html

http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit our website.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit our Wiki site.
To view more articles, please visit our blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

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