I’m sure many readers of this magazine have noticed in recent months a slew of emailed solicitations for construction quantity takeoff service providers. I’ve been paying attention to these, as this is a service my firm has been offering for almost 25 years. Apart from the sheer number of these solicitation emails I receive, I’m amazed at the lack of credentialing information – items that any prudent construction business owner would want to consider before farming out such an important task. Estimating and bidding are critical to the success of contracting firms in particular.
The concept of email marketing is amazingly prevalent these days. Everyday my inbox and spam folder are inundated with emails offering website search engine optimization, business funding and lending, outsourced HR services, telephone answering services, and many other administrative types of services – none of which interest me. It’s easy to block email addresses or simply delete the unwanted solicitations, but because these outsourced estimating and takeoff service emails pertain to my line of work, I started keeping an eye on them, even cataloging them, and sometimes engaging them.
I had several thoughts in mind when I started keeping an eye on these solicitations. I wanted to know if others within my profession, and in the wider AEC community, were also receiving these emails; I wondered about what perceptions others who do receive them have about these service providers; and – perhaps most importantly – in the interest of protecting my business by knowing and understanding my competition, I wanted to determine if these service providers are “legitimate”. Could they really have an impact on my own business? Could they have an impact on other firms that belong to the same trade associations I belong to (CERT, ASPE, CSI, AACE)? If they are legitimate, could they be potential members of these trade associations? Here is some information from my own research:
- For a one-year period, September 20, 2022 to September 20, 2023, I received over 200 such emailed solicitations from over 50 companies or individuals, who I came to refer to as “takeoff hustlers”. I readily admit that may be an unfair nickname, but as time went on and nothing about them made me feel better about them, I found myself using this moniker.
- From multiple companies, I have received the same or similar emails from different people at that same company. A good many of the names on the emails had job titles such as “marketing manager” or “business development executive”, or a similar official-sounding job title.
- Most provided no other way to follow through except by reply email (no website, phone number, mailing address, or social media info).
- NONE had any information about the credentials or qualifications of the company or individuals proving that they are proficient in quantity takeoff or cost estimating work.
Since these emails were ostensibly legitimate offers to transact business, I decided after a while to engage, so to some of these emails I responded with a series of questions, including:
- What is the full legal name of your company?
- What is your business structure: sole proprietorship, S corp, or LLC?
- How long have you been in business? Do you have any former business names?
- Where is your business office?
- Who will be performing the work: you, or a staff person?
- Are your staff in-house employees or outside resourced?
- What are your (or your staff’s) credentials as a construction estimator? Do you have any certifications from nationally-recognized professional trade associations for construction estimators or project control? In particular, I would expect to see anybody working on my projects having one or more of the following certifications: CPE (from ASPE), CDT (from CSI), CEP (from AACE). What education or experience do you or your staffers have?
- Can you provide resumes of you and your staffers? Can I research you or your staffers on LinkedIn?
- Do you have a website I can review?
- What is your fee structure? How do you invoice? What are your payment terms? Can I pay electronically? Can I pay by credit card? Do you require any payment up front before you start working on my project?
- What software tools do you use in your work?
What kind of answers did I get? Nothing useful – no references to certifications, ASPE, CERT, CSI, or AACE; I was offered samples and even received copies of takeoffs (I requested none and did not click on, save, or open any unsolicited samples I received). A common theme seemed to be, “Send us your plans and we’ll quote a fee”, but only a few replied with information about payment terms, which for the most part were pay half the fee up front, by credit card, and the rest before the takeoff was delivered. I never received any names of any estimators who would be performing the work.
My receipt of these emails and my limited interaction left me suspicious, primarily because of the lack of information provided. No website was the most glaring omission, and the opaqueness (the lack of transparency) left me wondering how I could even research these companies. Many of the solicitations included poor email etiquette (such as bad grammar, lack of subject-verb agreement, and misspelled words). Receiving emails from multiple people at the same company was also a turn off, as was the pushiness of some of them. Many of these emails were from names so generic they struck me as false, such as “Tony Hawk”, “Peter Scott”, “Jimmy Forrest”, “Bob Miller”, “Michael Storm”. Again, there were no references to any trade associations.
My big question was and still is: Why are they contacting me? I’m their competitor. How did I get on their list? Even though I suspect that most of my colleagues ignore or delete these emails, I was curious if these emails would have an impact on several aspects, including:
My Business – Most likely it won’t – my clients are long term, repeat customers who have grown accustomed to the level of service I provide.
My Trade Associations – Are these service providers potential members, sponsors, or advertisers?
My Profession – Do these service providers paint us all with a broad brush? Does their collective lack of transparency, zealous email solicitation methods, or otherwise unseemly tactics make us all look bad? Should we be concerned enough to take any action? Most importantly, are they any good at what they do – are they competent and consistent?
My Colleagues – How widespread is this issue? Have any of my clients spent as much time thinking about this as I have? Have any of them engaged to the point of transacting business with these service providers?
My Conclusions
In an unregulated profession like construction estimating, our work has to set us apart. I’ve always relied on doing a good job every time, and that has provided me the sustainability to keep going, doing the job that I love and enjoy. Consistency and competency are drivers of repeat business, and my reliance on advertising has never been great. If cheap hourly rates are a selling point for these service providers, I can’t afford to compete with them anyway. I would be more concerned if it became obvious that these service providers routinely engaged in unethical estimating or business practices, but there is no evidence out there to suggest that. Yes, their marketing practices may seem odd or even disconcerting to the mainstream estimating community, but there is nothing necessarily unethical about them; I do think this kind of thing should be monitored by the trade associations, particularly CERT and ASPE, but not just for negative impacts to our profession. It’s very likely that some of these service providers are the real deal, legitimate enterprises, worthy of our respect, who would benefit from trade association membership, and whose membership we would all benefit from in return. The bottom line for me is this: anybody engaged in an estimating practice should want to join CERT and/or ASPE if they want to be perceived as a top-quality service provider.
About the Author: Daniel Frondorf, CPE, CDT is a Cincinnati based civil construction cost estimator; he operates DG Frondorf and Associates, a civil cost estimating consulting firm, and is a member of ASPE, CERT, CSI, and AACE. Contact Mr. Frondorf at http://www.dgfrondorf.com or [email protected].
