You spend hours, sometimes days pulling together detailed quotes.
You send them off with hope.
Then? Silence. Or worse: “We’ve decided to go with someone else.”
No explanation. No feedback. Just wasted time you’ll never get back.
Sound familiar?
If you’re still quoting on tenders, waiting for architects or clients to send you projects, and wondering why you keep losing jobs or barely breaking even on the ones you win, this might be the most important thing you read this year.
You’re stuck in a broken system.
Architects and designers send plans.
Clients ask for quotes.
You spend so many unpaid hours preparing detailed proposals, only to be ghosted, undercut, or told you’re “too expensive.”
You start second-guessing your pricing, racing to the bottom to compete, and taking on projects with clients who never understand your value.
What It’s Really Costing You:
- Unpaid time you’ll never recover.
- Self-doubt because you think it’s a pricing problem (it’s not).
- Profit erosion from competing on price instead of value.
- Variation battles because there was no proper pre-construction process.
- Strained relationships.
- Burnout.
And clients aren’t getting what they need either.
They’re wasting money on designs they can’t afford to build.
There’s a Better Way:
The PAC (Paid As Consultant) Process flips the broken tender system on its head.
Instead of giving away your expertise for free, you position yourself as the authority you already are and get paid for your pre-construction work before the project even starts.
Builders using the PAC Process are
only taking on projects where they’re valued
getting paid for work that used to be free
saving time during the build
and creating profitable projects that lead to raving testimonials.
And homeowners are actively seeking out builders who work this way.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below. Be sure to also subscribe to the Live Life Build YouTube channel.
Amelia
You’re a custom residential builder still quoting on tenders, waiting for architects, designers, or clients to send you their projects.
You’re spending a huge amount of time pulling together quotes, sending them off, and finding that you’re losing the job.
You might not even be told why you weren’t chosen, or you could be completely ghosted afterward.
It’s time to do something different because this is a broken process in the industry that doesn’t really work for anyone.
Duayne
Well, it’s been celebrated for such a long time. I still laugh when I drive past a tradie or a builder with a big “Free Quote” sign on their trailer. It’s very old fashioned.
The process is broken and let’s face it, it’s no good for anybody. It wastes a huge amount of time in our industry. Clients don’t get what they should be getting, and builders end up causing themselves more harm.
They end up being the bad guy when they have to charge variations because there was no process. They never had conversations with the clients.
They don’t understand the client’s expectations. They’ve missed out on things that have been requested. There are just so many parts of this that our PAC Process improves.
It still blows my mind that we regularly hear from builders who laugh at what we’re doing, saying things like, “No one’s going to pay you for a quote.”
The thing is that it’s not a quote, it’s a proposal. And it’s time for the industry to change, to operate more professionally. That pre-construction phase of a project is what truly makes or breaks it.
Amelia
What’s really interesting is seeing builders going through this. They’re quoting job after job after job, and they might only secure one out of every ten. They often think it’s a pricing problem.
They tell themselves, “I’m just not the cheapest,” and it turns into this race to the bottom of what’s the least amount of money that you can charge for a job and still get away with it.
They’re trying to compete on being the least expensive builder in a group of tendering builders instead of owning the fact that they’ve actually got expertise.
They can position themselves as experienced authorities who can really add value to the pre-construction process, helping clients and designers understand how to streamline construction overall and how to really maximise the potential of the budget.
I see builders filled with self doubt because they think it’s all a problem with their pricing, when in fact it’s a problem with not positioning themselves as the authority and the expert that can offer value during pre-construction.
When you learn our PAC Process (Paid as Consultant Process), it gives you a clear framework to take both the designer and the client through a fantastic, step-by-step journey that builds confidence, trust, and collaboration throughout the relationship.
Ultimately, it serves the client incredibly well, because they’re not wasting money on a design they can’t afford to build.
Duayne
It’s not only that race to the bottom with pricing. So many designers, architects, clients, and builders think that the solution is cost plus. You and I both know that cost plus can give you even more drama than what a tender can.
The success of a job is judged by the client. It’s not how much money the builders made. It’s not how good the design was. It’s ultimately the conversation that the client has twelve months down the track, when the job’s finished and they’re talking to friends or family at a barbecue or wherever.
To get to that point where they’re excited and the conversation is all positive, it has to be a great design and everybody has to understand the scope of the work.
They have to understand the finishes. Most importantly, everyone has to understand what the client wants to achieve.
Whether it’s a long-term home, a build-and-flick, or something else. If you’re not collaborating as a team and everyone’s not aligned like you say, the project is king.
How can you expect to get a good result if someone over here is doing their own thing and someone over there is doing theirs?
It’s like you have a machine built overseas. You get a part from here, a part from there, and then bring it all to Australia, only to find that nothing fits together.
And that’s exactly what happens so often when builders don’t take the time to implement something like our PAC Process.
The success of a job is judged by the client. It’s not how much money the builder made. It’s not how good the design was. It’s ultimately the conversation that the client has twelve months down the track, when the job’s finished and they’re talking to friends or family at a barbecue.
Duayne
Amelia
So stop thinking the problem is your pricing, and start realising that the real issue is your process and your positioning.
How can you better position yourself as the expert and experienced authority you truly are, someone who can help clients and designers work collaboratively through pre-construction, create better proposals that genuinely suit the projects you’re delivering, and ensure everyone is on the same page?
When you do that, you add immense value to the client’s experience and help them turn their dreams into reality.
Duayne
That’s what it all comes down to… adding value.
Do you feel like people push back on the PAC Process because from a builder’s point of view, they feel like they’ve got no time? Like it’s just another process that’s going to take up even more of their time?
Amelia
I think they do. But the strange thing is, it’s time that they’re spending anyway.
The challenge is, if they actually get paid for that pre-construction process, it saves them time during the build.
It saves a lot of stress and anxiety on the parts of the builder, the client and the designer. And it fascinates me that a builder’s complaint always is, “I don’t have enough time”, and yet they’ll just keep doing things exactly the same way.
If you’re going to keep doing things the same way, you’re going to get exactly what you’ve got. So really, disrupting that process is important.
We’ve seen it over and over again, builders who now take on projects only through the PAC Process. And we know there are homeowners out there deliberately seeking out builders who can work with them in this way.
Duayne
Builders tell themselves they have no time to do it properly or to put a system like that in place and that is exactly why they end up signing contracts they do not make money on. They are not spending the time to price jobs correctly.
It is probably also why many go down the cost-plus path, because they do not feel they have the time to quote accurately or to have proper meetings with the client and the designer.
It all comes back to time. The reality is, you get paid for your time during the PAC Process, and as Amelia said, you actually end up saving so much more time during the build itself.
As I mentioned earlier, the ultimate measure of a project’s success is not the flashy photos or the Instagram posts. It is the conversations your clients are going to have six months, twelve months, even ten years down the track.
It is when they are raving about how smooth the process was and how well everything ran because you took the time and put in the effort up front.
Amelia
And you will have a profitable business because you will have been able to price the project appropriately, without having to compete in this race to the bottom of being the cheapest builder.
Stop Competing on Price, Start Leading with Value
If you’ve been stuck in the tender trap, it’s time to disrupt your process. The PAC process isn’t just a better way to quote. It’s a complete shift in how you position yourself and build a profitable, sustainable business.
You already have the expertise. Now it’s time to own it and get paid for it.
Inside ELEVATE, we walk you through the entire PAC process step by step. You’ll learn how to position yourself as a paid consultant, have confident pre-construction conversations, create proposals that protect your profit, and streamline projects that run smoother and leave clients raving.
Your time has value. Your expertise has value. And the builders who understand that are the ones thriving, not just surviving.
Ready to stop leaving money on the table?
Learn more about ELEVATE and how the PAC Process can transform your business →