By Neal Glatt

“I wanted to let you know how impressed I am with it - from the ease of use and familiarity, the accuracy, and the speed.  Hats off to you guys!”  Clearly, we have a fan of an amazing new tool that you should probably check out for snow estimating.  It’s also free.  Here’s the details on our latest winner…

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We partnered up with our friends at SiteFotos a few years ago to create a new estimating tool for snow contractors.  Something that was web-based, intuitive, quick, scalable, and free.  The result is what we called SnowBidder and the latest update was just released last week.

But when I received this glowing review from an industry connection who had just discovered the system, I realized I had to broadcast it out so more people can have an equally great experience.  

Seventy-eight percent of contracts awarded go to the first contractor to respond.  In fact, I can’t tell you how many times in my career I was told that most of my competitors were too busy to respond with bids to even have a shot at winning.  If you’re too busy to respond, you definitely need a new process that is fast and scalable.

When I was estimating snow services, I relied on Google Maps and spreadsheets with lots of formulas.  It worked pretty well, but there were times when mistakes would be made.  Measuring big sites required lots of math and there was always room for error when entering numbers.  Sometimes the spreadsheet formulas would break and could take hours to fix.  The process was solid, but the tools left much to be desired.

The best part is a new version of the tool was just launched including the ability to use a cost and margin approach to bidding and create estimates in bulk using a standard estimating template.  Plus, measurements can be outsourced through PropertyTakeoffs where a live person will personally measure the property with quality control processes in place and upload the maps to your account for a small fee.  

If you want a guided tour of how to use this tool to estimate snow and ice contracts, you can sign up for our FREE course at this link.  I promise it will be the best 30 minutes you’ve spent to get your snow sales season back on track.