Precon capacity, without a hire.
A preconstruction hire is a salary, a recruitment fee and a notice period, all committed before you know what next year's pipeline looks like. A retainer is capacity you size to the work you actually win, on three months rather than three years.
What we deliver
- —One or two live tenders a month depending on tier, each coming back as a full Tender Win Pack
- —Priority turnaround, ahead of one off instructions
- —A direct line to the person doing the work, not a queue
- —Every live tender allows for a site visit
- —A three month minimum term, then monthly
What we watch for
- —A retainer sized to your busiest month is money left on the table every other month. Size it to the tenders you genuinely run each month, not the month you would like to have. Where the pipeline is lumpy, a smaller tier with the occasional one off instruction alongside it usually costs less than the tier above.
- —A hire cannot flex down when the pipeline does. Preconstruction workload moves with what is out to tender, which is not something you control. A salary does not move with it, and redundancy is expensive, slow and bad for the people involved.
- —Reserved capacity is what buys the priority. A one off instruction joins the queue behind whatever is already booked that month. On a retainer the time is held before the tender arrives, so your work starts when the drawings land rather than when a slot opens up.
- —We do not work both ends of the same job. If we are already engaged on something you are about to price, we say so on the first call. That is a real constraint on a retainer rather than a slogan, and it is the reason we would rather turn a tender down than take it quietly.
Precon Partner, answered
What happens if we need more than the tier allows in one month?
We agree it before we do it. An extra tender in a busy month is taken as a one off instruction at the schedule fee, or where it is becoming the pattern rather than the exception we would say so and talk about moving tier. What we would not do is quietly absorb it and let the quality of everything else that month drop to cover it.
Is there a notice period after the minimum term?
The minimum term is three months and it runs monthly after that. We would rather a client left because the pipeline changed than stayed because leaving was difficult, and a retainer somebody is trapped in is not a relationship worth having. The exact terms are in the fee schedule and we will walk you through them before anything is signed.
Who actually does the work?
Every job goes through Jamie, who takes the brief, sets the approach and checks what goes out. As the practice grows more of the delivery will sit with the team, and the review will not move. That is deliberate: the thing you are buying on a retainer is consistency, and consistency comes from one person owning the standard.
Not the question you had?
Send us the drawings and the return date. We will tell you what we would need and what we would give you back, before anyone commits to anything.
The rest of what we do
Let's discuss your project.
Tell us about your tender or project and we'll show you exactly how we can help you win it, and deliver it.