How to Be a Successful Contract Furniture Bidder
Picture this: you’re a busy designer, with back-to-back client pitches and meetings. You’ve created 7 mood boards, reviewed 4 CD sets and replied to 36 emails – all while working on a 50-page furniture bid package.
Countless labor hours go into the bidding process for commercial furnishings. Using cooperative contract purchasing can save time and effort with simple streamlined procurement processes.
Streamlined Bid Process
Furniture shopping can be an exciting process when you’re putting together a new design or reconfiguring an existing space. However, it can quickly turn to a stressful experience if you’re having trouble finding pieces that fit your budget and meet all of the project requirements.
One way to streamline the process is by choosing to work with a contract furniture bidder. These vendors have the purchasing power to secure a competitive price, resulting in significant bottom-line savings on your furniture purchase. In addition, they can also save you time and money by streamlining the procurement process.
By working with a contract furniture bidder, you can get a head start on the project by receiving bids from multiple manufacturers at once. These vendors can be compared side-by-side, making it easier to select the best option for your project’s needs. This can also help you keep your overall costs low, ensuring that you’re getting the most value for your money.
Countless labor hours are consumed when you go through the competitive bidding process, and even more when you’re dealing with multiple projects at once. By utilizing contract furniture, you can avoid this tedious task altogether by relying on cooperative contracts that have already been competitively solicited, evaluated and awarded by an agency recognized for procurement excellence. This can also reduce administrative expenses associated with processing individual purchase orders and accounts payable for each manufacturer.
Save Time
When it comes to furniture leasing, a fixed term contract gives you the ability to accurately plan and forecast outgoings. This allows you to set budgets that can be incorporated into larger business planning and budgeting processes. It also provides peace contract furniture bidder of mind that your monthly payments will remain the same, meaning no surprise bills at the end of a lease period.
For public sector organizations, leveraging cooperative contracts can save time during the bidding process as they eliminate the need to conduct competitive bids. Instead, these contracts have been negotiated and awarded by a government agency recognized for procurement excellence. This allows the government to leverage the purchasing power of other public entities in order to access better pricing and solutions for their furniture needs.
It’s important to be specific when working with your architects and interior designers during the spec writing process. It’s not enough to say, “We need a chair”. Furniture ranges from budget to designer, traditional to contemporary, large to small and hard to soft, etc. Providing specifics allows the dealer to properly bid apples-to-apples.
Another thing to keep in mind when procuring furniture is that many hospitality establishments are heavily influenced by design trends. Choosing cheap alternatives can result in tired looking furniture that’s quickly out of date. Leasing furniture can help with this, allowing you to upgrade more frequently and stay ahead of the curve.
Convenience
Contract furniture is furniture that has been specifically designed and manufactured for commercial purposes. It is used in a variety of spaces including hotels, restaurants, retail and hospitals, as well hospitality furniture contractor as offices. It is engineered to meet a number of industry standards and undergoes stringent testing and certification processes. The benefits of using contract furniture include durability, stability, and longevity compared to more traditional residential or office furniture.
Furniture purchasing can be an overwhelming process. Many buyers are faced with the challenge of identifying their project goals, creating a budget, reviewing product options and making the best selections to meet their overall needs. This can quickly become an intense undertaking that requires an entire team of professionals.
Whether the process is complex or simple, a furniture dealer can help simplify procurement and make the experience more enjoyable for everyone involved. By providing clear and concise communication throughout the bid process, dealers can offer their expertise to ensure all questions are answered before bidding.
Cooperative contracts can also add value to the overall purchasing process by reducing rework and increasing efficiency. Compared to a manufacturer direct contract, bundling program purchases can eliminate the need for multiple POs and accounts payable processes, as well as reduce overall administrative costs. This is a great way to achieve the bottom-line savings that you are looking for.
Competitive Pricing
The process of bidding furniture requires a careful review of all related costs to establish competitive pricing. This is a complex task that involves not only calculating direct costs, but also indirect expenses like overhead and margins. Businesses must judiciously determine their margin to bid prices that entice customers through the tendering process, without compromising profitability.
Many educational and government institutions are required to allocate a certain percentage of their business to certified Small Business Enterprises (SBE). Working with an SBE furniture dealer like POI helps organizations meet these requirements while achieving the best value on their projects.
Many furniture dealers offer competitively solicited cooperative purchasing agreements with manufacturers such as KI, Steelcase and Herman Miller. The negotiated pricing available through these contracts can significantly reduce the cost of an organization’s project. Combined with the advantages of a contract furniture bidder, this creates tremendous savings for organizations.
