How to Bid on Construction Jobs (and Win Them) in 2025 

The construction bidding landscape has become more competitive than ever due to shifting market dynamics, including high interest rates, high material costs, tighter margins, and supply chain fluctuations.  

With more construction companies vying for fewer high-value projects, those winning bids have to demonstrate operational efficiency, project reliability, and long-term value to clients.  

The industry is shifting towards favoring proposals that show a use of technology. For example, proposals that show the use of real-time project tracking are influencing client expectations and favoring bids. Tools like construction management software, survey drones, and BIM are becoming expectations among project owners.  

Clients value data-backed proposals and reporting that demonstrate a partnership that provides transparency, data-driven decision-making, and a clear roadmap for project execution. Clients are increasingly seeking bids that demonstrate efficiency, cost-effectiveness and clear value, beyond simply submitting a proposal with the lowest price.  

Winning a construction bid begins with laying the groundwork before a bid is submitted. Increasing your bid-to-win ratio begins by selecting jobs strategically, positioning your company to pursue and win the right projects.  

You should always practice due diligence when pursuing a client. This will help build relationships with the right companies and project owners long before you submit a bid.  

Select Jobs Strategically 

Winning more construction bids doesn’t always mean bidding on more projects. It means bidding on the right projects that align with your company’s strengths and expertise.  

The more strategic you are, the more you can thoroughly vet potential projects and clients, so you can avoid bidding on construction jobs that don't fit your capabilities or financial goals.  

An ERP system can help by identifying your past ideal project types and the successful ones, through real-time data, and having one single source of truth for total visibility across past projects. 

Practice Thorough Due Diligence  

A key part of how to win a construction bid is by practicing thorough due diligence on the client's background and gaining a deep understanding of project requirements. Understanding the entire project scope, including timelines, potential risks and site conditions is vital before submitting a construction bid.  

Always research the client's past projects to tailor construction bids to their expectations and evaluation criteria. An ERP system plays an important role by providing access to historical project data and documentation. It will also help you make data-driven decisions that enable you to assess profitability and manage risk effectively. 

Focus on Relationship Building  

Establish trust and expertise by proactively communicating with stakeholders and building rapport with potential clients before the bidding process begins. Understand their goals, pain points, and needs, and anticipate ways you can present a solution.  

An ERP system can support relationship building by centralizing all of your communications and tracking important touchpoints. An ERP system also helps you automate business processes and free up teams, if needed, so that you can work on any high-value bids.

By laying the groundwork for the necessary steps before submitting a bid, you can shift from a reactive bidding process to a more strategic construction bid that is backed by historical data.  

By including detailed cost estimates, demonstrating your value, showcasing efficiencies and innovation and presenting a clear professional bid, you can create a competitive construction bid that wins.  

Detailed Cost Estimates 

It’s essential to have accurate cost calculations when preparing construction bids. A winning construction bid should include precise details of the costs for construction materials, labor, subcontractor services, equipment and overhead expenses.  

A competitive construction bid should highlight a contingency plan, which signals preparedness and boosts confidence in your clients that you can do the job. An ERP system can provide real-time cost data, streamline the estimating process, and provide an accurate quote for any bids.  

Demonstrate Value Beyond Price  

Creating competitive construction bids hinges on showing the company’s unique selling points (USPs) such as expertise, experience, safety record and quality of work.  

Outlining your strengths as a company can help clients envision choosing your team, even if the price isn't the lowest. Your construction bid should clearly articulate the benefits the clients will receive by working with you. 

Showcase Efficiencies and Innovation  

A competitive construction bid should showcase efficiencies and innovation that you can bring to the project. Clients value contractors who can deliver a project more efficiently. Whether it's through building a project faster, using greener solutions or utilizing technology to work smarter.   

An ERP system can help you showcase these strengths by documenting efficient resource use, offering visibility into your project timelines and management systems, a streamlined workflow and the ability to track and report on sustainability metrics that can be useful in your bids.  

Present a Clear and Professional Bid  

A well-organized, easy-to-understand, and visually appealing construction bid will make a good first impression. Present a clear bid to reflect your company’s work and professionalism.  

This includes adding clear timelines, scope of work, payment terms and contact information to ensure a clear line of communication. An ERP simplifies this process by generating professional, branded reports with consistent data and information. A professional and clear construction bid will instill confidence in a client and accelerate decision-making. 

Leveraging construction technology is a key advantage in putting together a winning and competitive construction bid.  

From pre-construction planning to proposal submission, the right technology can improve how you prepare bids, communicate with clients, gather data, and position your value. Companies that embrace technology can deliver more informed bids for the right projects and clients.  

Technology can streamline a complex bidding process, reduce manual effort, and minimize errors in your bid. Integrating an ERP system allows you to work with real-time data, automate repetitive tasks, and ensure consistency across documents and calculations when submitting bids and planning to submit bids.  

Technology in construction bids can help increase the accuracy of the costs in your bid, as well as planning for which projects to bid on. This benefits your entire team with data-driven insights into past project performance and cost benchmarks, enabling informed decisions on which construction projects to bid on.  

Technology also enables collaboration across relevant teams. Cloud-based platforms help project managers on your team collaborate across the full scope of a construction project, from strategically planning which projects to bid on, to project completion. An ERP system is designed to meet the challenges of the construction industry by giving you control over every part of the construction lifecycle. 

Beyond this, technology can help by generating construction data analytics that forecast data and performance tracking, which can demonstrate efficiency across all stages of a construction project.