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Takeoffs-as-a-Service for Material Suppliers

 

Takeoff Monkey blog header image: Aspen trees lined up at a tree nursery, text overlay reads,

 

Our primary customers at Takeoff Monkey are contractors however takeoff services appeal to a wide variety of companies within the entire commercial construction industry. Landscape maintenance providers, retaining wall estimators and even guys like irrigation installers enjoy the convenience of working with our team. Material suppliers particularly benefit from partnering with third-parties to provide takeoffs as-a-service (TAAS) for their own clients.

Lists that suppliers are pricing and shipping from are all generated by material takeoffs, or "MTOs". By offering takeoff services to your contractor customers, distributors gain a huge leg-up on the competition by:

  • Enabling their customers to produce 200%+ the amount of bids they submit, increasing their sales

  • Doubling-down on customer loyalty. Customers who are relying on their supplier for part of their estimating process are infinitely more likely to place those orders with the supplier that helped them win the work in the first place.

  • Gaining insight into market demand. Ever get an order that you wish you'd had a chance to quote, or at least look at, weeks or months prior? By working with Takeoff Monkey you can build a database of real, winnable work for your sales team to track and follow.

  • Mastering just-in-time delivery with completed takeoffs on file for your customers' projects, your customers will no longer need to sit down and re-count a portion of a jobsite to place a partial order. They can simply circle the area they need material for, send it over to the Takeoff Monkey team and then order straight off of their updated takeoff.

  • Providing visual aides. Has a customer ever thought you had something included in your quote that wasn't? Providing a detailed, color-coded takeoff with your quotes is a great way to ensure your customers understand exactly which items you have, and more importantly, which items you don't have.

Takeoffs eat up 50-80% of the entire estimating process. When a supplier offers time-saving methods like no-added-cost MTOs, then their contracting clients can delegate part of the bidding process to their suppliers, recoup their time saved and devout their focus to other bids. We all know more bids equals more contracts which equals more money in their pocket. Most importantly contractors will return for more of your business. Who doesn't want to use a one-stop-shop for bidding and purchasing as opposed to having to manage multiple tasks themselves with different vendor contacts?

 

"But wait...We're adding costs to our general overhead!"

 

We hear that all the time. Yes, there is added cost in providing takeoff services for your customers. However, the return-on-investment (ROI) is exponentially greater than the cost. That said, some suppliers do choose to be compensated for the takeoff services.

Another benefit to offering takeoffs as a service is the data analysis that comes with the massive amount of material counts you'd start receiving from client projects. You'll soon get inventory predictions for the months and years ahead. Let's say a majority of your client's takeoffs are requesting the same trendy shrubs then you'll know you need to start getting those plants in your inventory ASAP.

Get in touch with our team today to discuss how Takeoff Monkey can help you provide takeoffs-as-a-service for your clients. We do the heavy lifting of completing the takeoffs and you sit back and relax as you see your client come back later to order their materials when construction begins and again for with more projects. Make the bidding process easier for your contracting clients. It'll be a huge win for them and don't forget, increasing wins for your customer = increased sales for you!