Leads 2 Business Blog

2 Oct 2019

How To: View your Online Footprint – Part 2

by Sasha Anderson | posted in: How To, The How to Series | 0

Do you want to keep an eye on your Online Footprint Reports? We have compiled a series of helpful reports to assist in assessing the information you use on the site.

In Part 2 we will be covering Vendor Engagement and Buyer Engagement. Get your reports now!

Find out how – here’s a quick video tutorial from “The How To Series”.

(Duration 2m04s)

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 Leads 2 Business Wiki.
To view more How To Video’s, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Reach out if you want to talk: L2B, social media, construction, technology, marriage, parenting, popular culture and travel. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

21 Aug 2019

How To: Add a Preferred Vendor

by Sasha Anderson | posted in: How To, The How to Series | 0

Are you a buyer using our Leads 2 Quotes (L2Q) system? Do you want to create a list of Vendors you can contact regularly or find easily? Add a Branch as a Preferred Vendor and they will also appear at the top of your search results when sending out Requests for Quotes.

Find out how – here’s a quick video tutorial from “The How To Series”.

(Duration 1m53s)

About Sasha Anderson

27 Mar 2019

How To: Create a New Bill Request

by Sasha Anderson | 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

12 Mar 2019

Simple Tips that will improve Vendor Responses

by Nadine Vermeulen | posted in: Construction Chat, General, How To | 0

As the main contractor, your daily schedule involves plenty of organizing, planning, and meticulous work. In a busy world with a busy schedule, it is very easy to lose track of time and lose your objective for the day, even if it is just slight details or information that you need to obtain.
When you tender on a project (or a few), the stressful work can get a bit much, but never fear, as Leads 2 Business is here with a solution.

By using our L2Q Pricing Platform, life has become a little simpler in obtaining prices from various Vendors in just a few clicks.

Once a Bill of Quantities has been added onto your pricing platform profile, you can send Request for Quotes (RFQ’s) to various vendors to obtain prices for specific trades that you require.

Our dedicated Control List team will meticulously follow up on these RFQ’s to assist in obtaining the necessary responses.

By using the following tips, the responses you receive from vendors could be improved:

Provide vendors with drawings and/or specifications of the project.
Should a vendor contact you with regards to the quotation, assist as much as you are able to at the time.
Confirm that you are sending the RFQ to the correct vendor i.e read the description of the company, which will give you the necessary insight on their scope of works.
Keep an open line of communication, as good communication will assist with dealing with the same vendor in the future. For example; if the tender has been awarded, notify the vendor if you have been awarded the tender or not. This will let the vendor know that he/she is not pricing in vain.
Give the vendors sufficient time to respond to the RFQ (at least 5 – 7 days).

Hopefully, using these few tips, it will assist in an even smoother process to obtain your responses from various vendors, without being bombarded by unnecessary responses that you don’t need.

Feel free to give us a call if you require more information about our Leads 2 Quotes package on +27(0)860 836 337.

To view more articles, 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 Nadine Vermeulen

I started working at Leads 2 Business in October 2014 in the Leads 2 Quotes Department. I managed all the Daily Tender Bill Requests and followed up on BoQ's for our Daily Tender Subscribers. In 2017, I was promoted to L2Q Assistant and now work with Bill of Quantities for Contractors. 🙂

27 Jul 2016

At which point in the Project Life Cycle can your business find Value?

by Sasha Anderson | posted in: Construction Chat, Frequently Asked Questions, General, Uncategorized | 6

At which point in the Project Life Cycle can your business find Value?

At which point in the Project Life Cycle can your business find Value?

To answer the above lets break it down.

What is the Project Life Cycle?

One of the services we offer at Leads 2 Business is Projects and the various phases within these Projects are known as the Project Life Cycle. The Stages in a Project Life Cycle are Conceptual, Procedural, Design, Tender, Awarded & Underway, Complete and Postponed.

To learn more about each Life Cycle you can check out How Projects Work

What is Value?

According to the Business Dictionary value is described as, “The extent to which a good or service is perceived by its customer to meet his or her needs or wants, measured by customer’s willingness to pay for it. It commonly depends more on the customer’s perception of the worth of the product than on its intrinsic value.”

In short the answer to the question, “At which point in the Project life cycle can your business find value?” is simple: you can find value in every point in the Project Life, depending on what your business does.

You may be asking, “How?”

Here are a few examples:

Professionals like Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors can contact the Client/Developer directly at the Conceptual/Procedural stage to be appointed as part of the Professional team.

Project Managers can contact the Client/Developer directly at Conceptual/Procedural/Design Stage to get involved. They can also contact other Professionals appointed on a Project to market and build relationships.

Subcontractors like plumbers, electricians and painters can contact Companies at Tender/Awarded Stage to provide quotes.

Vendors, Suppliers, Manufacturers and Fabricators can contact the Architect/QS during Design Stage if they have a product that can be specified on the BoQ and supplied later.

Property Managers can contact the Client at Conceptual Stage and start building a relationship while the project is still being developed in order to be appointed once Complete. They can also contact the anchor tenant at Completed Stage to get involved.

IT, Security and Cleaning Services can get involved at Tender/Awarded Stage to provide quotes and offer subcontracting services to Contractors that may be awarded the Project.

Landscapers can contact the Landscape Architect or Architect during Design Stage or contact the Client directly at Underway Stage to offer their services. They can also look at completed projects and offer services in the future as a marketing tool.

All of the above can benefit from the Postponed Stage so they are aware when the Project is going ahead in order to manage their work flow efficiently.

Finding Value in the Project Life Cycle couldn’t be easier with Leads 2 Business.

Want to know more about Projects or any of the other Services we offer? Contact me on SashaA@L2B.co.za

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

15 Jun 2016

Pricing Online – RfQs

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

Have you ever received one of these and wondered why?

The reason you have received an RfQ email is because you are listed on our Directory as a Vendor. We have Buyers (main contractors) who subscribe to our Leads 2 Quotes platform who use our Directory to select Vendors to send RfQ’s to.

Basically these Buyers send us BoQ’s for each relevant contract. We (L2Q Bills staff) process these BoQ’s by formatting them and splitting each item into the relevant trades (which may sound simple but can often take many hours to decipher). The Buyers, using our Directory, select a trade and region and a list of the relevant Vendors under that Trade and Serviceable Region appear, they select who they want to send to and click ‘Send RfQ’. You (the Vendor) will then receive an RfQ email (as above).

You have received this email, now what?

Firstly you need to check if the RfQ you have received is relevant to what your company does. If not, you will need to click on the “Update my Trade Profile”.

If the items are of relevance and you would like to price you can click on “Intend to Price”. If the items are of relevance but you are unable to quote for that time period (see respond by date/start date) you can click on “Decline to Price”. This will indicate to us (L2B) and the Buyer (who’s details are listed on the top right hand corner of the email) whether you will or won’t be pricing.

You’ve decided to Price the RfQ, where to next?

You will need to go ahead and work out the relevant rates required. Remember to take note of the Buyers T’s & C’s as some of these may specify whether VAT should be exclusive or inclusive and whether delivery or labour should be included. If you require Drawings in order to price you can click on the “Drawings” link in order to view or download the drawings. If there are no drawings on that link you will need to contact the Buyer. It is vital to note that we only have the information that the Buyers have provided. Any additional information required that is not available online, will have to be requested directly from the Buyer by the Vendor.

In order to use any of the L2B online features you will need your Vendor login details (Registration is Free). If you cannot remember these or have never registered as a Vendor you are welcome to contact us, via email, telephonically or via our Live Help option in order to request assistance.

Once you have all your relevant rates you can then go ahead and choose how you would like to respond to the RfQ. You could choose Fax, Email or Online Pricing, please note that Online Pricing is the quickest and easiest.

You’ve (wisely) chosen to use Online Pricing, where do you start?

You can use Online Pricing by clicking on the “Price Online Now” link which will take you to the L2B website where you will log in using your Vendor login details.

Once logged in you select the Vendor Home page on the Home drop-down. Your Active RfQ’s will now be displayed where you can click on “Submit Price” next to the relevant contract number and you will be redirected to enter your T’s & C’s, after submitting, the “Pricing” page will be displayed where you can simply enter your rates for each item which are automatically multiplied by the quantity to give a total and a grand total in red at the bottom. You are also able to interact with the other tabs as their relevance requires. Once you are happy with everything you can click on “Submit Prices”, ticking the “Send a copy to my email” box if you would like to keep a copy of the pricing you have submitted.

What do you do once you’ve submitted your prices?

Once the contract is awarded you will receive a notification via email. If the Buyer who sent you the original RfQ is awarded the contract you can now follow up with them regarding the prices you previously submitted to see if they will require your services and how competitive your prices were. If the contract is awarded to a different contractor you can still contact them and offer to send them your prices (you should have a copy if you selected to send a copy to your email) or by logging into your L2Q Vendor Profile and clicking on the relevant “Download Sent Bill” icon.

Receiving and responding to RfQ’s has never been easier with Leads 2 Business Online Pricing.

Want to know more about being a Vendor/Buyer, our Platinum Directory Listing (PDL), Leads 2 Quotes (L2Q) or any of the other Services we offer? Contact me on SashaA@L2B.co.za

About Sasha Anderson

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