Win More Work: How the Country’s Top GCs Choose Their Subcontractors
See how two of the country’s top general contractors actually choose their subcontractors, from the first bid to the final award.
Most subcontractors only ever see the outcome of a bid, not the room where it gets decided. In this panel, procurement and project leaders from Turner and Sundt walk through how the decision actually gets made: what they look for when a bid comes in, why the lowest number does not always win, and what turns a single award into years of repeat work. Chris Doyle, Billd’s founder and a former subcontractor himself, moderates and keeps it honest from the sub’s side of the table.
In this panel you will learn:
- What GCs weigh beyond price: capacity, schedule reliability, and financial stability.
- How to get on a shortlist with the GCs you are targeting.
- What separates an awarded bid from a rejected one.
- How to turn one project into repeat work with the same GC.
- How to break into a new GC relationship from a standing start.
Meet the Panel
Chris Doyle
Founder and CEO at Billd
Chris Doyle is the Founder and CEO of Billd and a longtime champion of the subcontractor. He built his career at the intersection of commercial construction and finance and started Billd in 2018 after seeing the industry's broken payment cycle firsthand. Under his leadership, Billd has grown into a construction fintech built for the commercial-construction payment cycle. Its working capital products give subcontractors the funding to cover materials and labor up front instead of carrying project costs while general contractors pay slowly. A former subcontractor himself, Chris moderates this panel with the sub's point of view front and center.
Leah Dobbins
Senior Procurement Manager at Turner Construction
Leah Dobbins is a Senior Procurement Manager on Turner Construction's headquarters procurement team, with nearly 17 years of experience across project operations and procurement. She began her career in the field and has held roles in cost, project management, and procurement, including five years leading procurement in Turner's Houston office. Today she supports procurement strategy and initiatives across the company, bringing both a project-level and national perspective to how Turner builds and strengthens relationships with its trade partners.
Jon McKelvain
Project Executive at Sundt Construction
Jon McKelvain is a Project Executive at Sundt Construction with more than 20 years of experience in the construction industry, specializing in preconstruction and design management for complex projects. Since joining Sundt in 2010, he has focused on design-build and CM at Risk delivery across data centers, higher education, office, government, and aviation. He has held prior roles as Project Engineer, Project Manager, and Preconstruction Manager for Sundt's Texas District, and in 2016 was named one of ENR's Top 20 Under 40 construction professionals in the Texas & Louisiana region.
What wins the bid: takeaways from the panel
Only 14% of subcontractors win more than half of the bids they chase, and 84% plan to grow this year. Closing that gap is what this conversation is about. Here are the moves Turner and Sundt pointed to, straight from the session.
Communicate scope early. The number can wait.
Both GCs said the same thing: the worst time to first discuss your scope is on bid day at the wire. Reach out to the estimator ahead of the deadline, tell them what you are picking up and what you are not, and send a pre-scope note with your inclusions and exclusions, minus the price. A five-minute check-in or a question about the schedule signals that you are reading the job, not just firing out a number.
“If I get a question on schedule, that's an automatic gold star. It tells me you are evaluating what it will take to do the work, not just the number.”
Low bid does not always win.
On a straightforward, fully designed project, price carries more weight. On a complex or early-stage job, say an 80% set of drawings, price might be only 30 to 40% of the evaluation. The rest is capacity, schedule, and how creatively you solve the problem. A number far below the pack usually signals that something is missing.
“Low bid doesn't always win, and really low bid wins less often. That usually means something is missing.”
Get on the shortlist before the bid window opens.
Prequalification is closer to registration than a pass-fail test. New subs break in by reaching out well ahead of a project, doing real homework on the GC, and sending a tight one-pager with capabilities, completed projects, comparable GCs, and references. Be specific about your sweet spot. “I can do anything” reads as a red flag; a clear lane earns a real look.
“A sub that's going to be a good fit for a $10,000 contract is not the sub that's going to be a good fit for a $10 million project.”
Use breakouts and alternates, not blind adders.
If the GC asked for something in the bid form, it belongs in your number, not tacked on as an adder. When you want to protect margin or flag a real cost driver, give a breakout price. When you can hit the schedule faster or cheaper a different way, offer it as an alternate. And if you spotted a value-engineering idea while studying the plans, bring it at bid time.
“Don't just give us the red lines, tell me why. That type of communication and partnership is what wins you jobs.”
On contracts, bring your top three and explain the why.
Turner and Sundt both hold firm on their standard terms, and both ask up front whether you will sign clean. If you have real concerns, do not return a document that is more red than black. Bring the three to five things you are truly willing to stand on, and explain the reason behind each. Context lets a GC solve it faster, and sometimes shows the protection you want is already in the contract. Over-lawyering small business decisions tends to cost more than it saves.
“Give me the three things you're willing to die on the hill on. Those are the ones we talk about.”
Where to start
Both GCs closed with the same advice: the relationship starts with an introduction, well before a bid. Turner lists a procurement contact for each office at turnerconstruction.com, and Sundt lists office locations and contacts at sundt.com. Roughly nine of ten awards go to a sub the GC already knows, so reach out, perform, and let one job become the next.
The subs who win more work are the ones ready to take it on.
GCs pick trade partners who can staff the job and hold the schedule, and that takes working capital. Billd is built for commercial subcontractors, so you can front materials and advance pay apps without waiting on slow payments.
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