Tender quoting for sign companies: drop the pack in, get a priced quote back
Updated
Win more of the big jobs and give your estimator their time back. With SwiftSignQuote, your team drops the tender pack in and a priced quote comes back, item by item. Your estimator checks it, adds the judgment, and sends it.
The done-for-you automation platform for sign and print businesses: your customers price, order and pay on your own website, and we connect it all for you.
Looking for tender estimating for signage, or asking how sign companies price tenders faster? That is the short answer. Stop counting and pricing the schedule by hand, and spend your estimator's time on the parts that need a person.
Key takeaways
- With SwiftSignQuote, your team drops the tender pack in and a priced quote comes back, item by item, for your estimator to review and send.
- It does not replace your estimator; it takes away the counting and the line-by-line pricing, so their time goes on site conditions, value engineering and the relationship.
- The prices come from your own price tables, calibrated for you during onboarding and yours to adjust after go-live.
- Across the sign and print business books we have analysed, jobs under $2,000 were 59% to 99% of invoices but only 8% to 86% of revenue, book by book, so in most books the bigger jobs carry a large share of the money.
- Your estimator reviews and sends every quote, so nothing goes out unchecked.
How do sign companies price tenders faster?
Many tenders are still priced the slow way. Someone reads the plans, counts every sign on the schedule, works out sizes and materials, prices each line, adds install, and types it all into a quote. On a big pack that is a lot of skilled time, for a job you may not win.
The faster way is to let the platform do the counting and the pricing, and keep your estimator for the judgment. Your team drops the tender pack in. A priced quote comes back, item by item. Your estimator checks it, adjusts what needs adjusting, and sends it. Nothing goes out without a person looking at it.
Can I see it on my own tender?
Upload your latest tender and we'll show you how the quote can be automated, live on a demo call.
Send us the pack as it arrived: plans, drawings, the signage schedule, the spec. We look at your pack and show you how it would be quoted, live on the call.
Email us the pack and we'll show you how it would be quoted, live on a demo call.
We use your tender for one thing, your demo. We never share, sell or disclose it, and we delete it on request.
What happens when the tender pack goes in?
Drop the pack in. The plans, the signage schedule and the specs, as they arrived from the builder or head contractor.
A priced quote comes back. A priced breakdown of the signage components, item by item, for your estimator to check.
Your estimator reviews it. Change a line, add the site conditions, add the bespoke items that need a person. The 20% that needs judgment is quoted in the same system, by your team.
Send it. The quote goes out, and it sits on your board with the rest of your enquiries and quotes, so it never gets lost.
We do not print a time on this page. We would rather show you on your own pack, on a call, so you can judge it on a real job.
What does the priced quote look like?
It is a priced breakdown of each of the signage components in the pack, line by line. Your estimator reads it the way they would read their own takeoff, against the plans. They change a line where the pack and the site disagree, add the items only a person can price, and send it from the same system. The quote then sits on your board with your other enquiries and quotes, so it is easy to follow up. It is easier shown than described, so that part is for the demo call.
What makes a signage tender hard to price by hand?
The count is only the start. The schedule and the plans do not always agree. One sign type turns up at several sizes. The spec decides the material, the finish, the illumination and the fixing, and a revision can change all four after you have priced it. Then there is install across levels, access and staging with the builder. A person has to hold all of that in their head while they count. Taking the counting and the line pricing off them is what frees them to deal with the rest.
What is in a tender pack, and what gets priced?
A typical signage tender pack is a set of plans with the signs marked up, a signage schedule listing every sign by type and location, and a spec covering materials, finishes, illumination and fixing. Some packs add elevations or a wayfinding plan.
What gets priced is the part your estimator would otherwise count and price by hand: the signage components in the pack. What still needs a person is what no pack says out loud: access on site, staging with the builder, the risk in a vague spec, and how hard you want to chase the job.
What if the pack is messy or incomplete?
Then your estimator's check matters most. They go through the priced quote line by line against the pack, so a missing size or a vague spec gets fixed before the quote goes out. Where the pack is silent, your estimator decides. That is the job a person should be doing.
Where do the prices come from?
From your price tables. They are calibrated for you during onboarding, and they are yours to own and adjust after go-live. Your tender is priced the same way the rest of your business is priced, so you never get two estimators, two prices on the same job.
Does it replace my estimator?
No. It gives your estimator their time back for the work that needs a person.
Tenders, fitouts and new builds are the work that needs a person. The site visit, the value engineering, the call with the builder, knowing which head contractor pays on time. What does not need a person is counting every sign off a schedule and pricing each one.
Across the sign and print business books we have analysed, jobs under $2,000 were 59% to 99% of invoices but only 8% to 86% of revenue, book by book. In most books the bigger jobs carry a large share of the money. Your own split is in a free sales-mix and strategy report.
What about the rest of the work?
The small jobs come in where customers price and order themselves, through web-to-print on your own website, repeat accounts reorder through their B2B portal, and everything else we set up is on the done-for-you automation page.
Who is it for?
Sign manufacturers and installers who price tenders, fitouts and new builds for builders, head contractors, councils and corporates. We serve customers in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Germany and the US.
Not ready to send a tender? See it live on the demo store first, or book a demo and bring a job you know.
Frequently asked questions
Can a sign tender be priced automatically?
Yes. With SwiftSignQuote, your team drops the tender pack in and a priced quote comes back, item by item, from your own price tables. Your estimator checks it, adjusts it and sends it.
Can the priced quote be checked before it goes out?
Yes. Your estimator goes through it line by line, changes what needs changing, adds the items only a person can price, and sends it. Nothing goes out without a person looking at it.
What can I upload for the demo?
The tender pack as it arrived: PDF plans and drawings, Excel or Word schedules, CAD files, or a zip of the lot. Up to five files, 20MB each and 25MB in total. Bigger packs can be shared as a link.
Does it replace my estimator?
No. It takes away the counting and the line-by-line pricing. Your estimator's time goes on site conditions, value engineering and the relationship with the builder.
Where do the prices come from?
From your own price tables. They are calibrated for you during onboarding, and they are yours to own and adjust after go-live.
What still needs a person on a signage tender?
Access on site, staging with the builder, the risk in a vague spec, value engineering and how hard to chase the job. Your estimator handles those and quotes them in the same system.