Sometimes the contractor with the biggest brass balls wins.

Ever wonder why some contractors consistently lock up those juicy maintenance contracts year after year? It's not luck. It's because they understand what most don't: winning IDIQ contracts requires equal parts strategic intel and calculated risk taking - and yeah, a healthy dose of courage.

IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity) contracts are government agencies' favorite way to handle ongoing road maintenance without the headache of bidding out every single project. The County puts out a maintenance bid for resurfacing work, gives you a spreadsheet of potential work items, you provide unit prices, they pick the low bidder, and then they call you as needed for the next 1-3 years.

I'm talking about contracts where the lowest total bid gets the whole pie - not those where agencies cherry-pick contractors' unit prices. That's a different game entirely. These are winner-take-all scenarios where your total extended price determines whether you're working or watching from the sidelines.

Pre-Bid: Win The Game Before It Starts

The real battle for these contracts is won long before bid day. While most contractors are playing it safe, the winners are executing a calculated strategy.

I would get dirty nasty low on these jobs while maintaining a compliant bid. Every possible ethical and legal advantage matters. While your competition is cautiously reviewing the bid documents, you need to be mining for intel. Check city council meeting notes. Look for capital improvement plans. Talk to all the subs who worked on the last contract. Call the project manager directly: "Saw the contract is out for bid, do you have any ideas what projects will be covered on this one?" You'd be amazed what people will tell you if you just ask.

You need to identify which items actually matter. Most agencies barely use 50% of the items on their bid form. The rest? Window dressing. Zero in on high-volume items and get creative with your pricing. I'm talking pennies on items you know they rarely use and loading profit into items you're confident will show up frequently.

Most bidders are obsessing over the wrong risks. They're thinking, "What do we do if they end up adding a bunch of drainage?" instead of "What happens if they run 40K tons through this contract?" There's always upside if you've got money in the right items.

If you approach these bids conservatively, padding every line item to protect your margins, you'll lose if your competitors are any good. Every time. The competition who understands the game will crush you with strategically aggressive pricing.

Here's your secret weapon: If you didn’t have the contract last time, file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request immediately after advertisement. Get the actual in-place quantities from the previous contract. Public agencies must provide this data. This is the playbook to winning. While everyone else is guessing, you'll know exactly what got used last time.

Post-Bid: Relationship Is Everything

Once you've secured the contract, the game shifts to relationship management. Your superintendent isn't just a field supervisor – they're your profit center. Sure, there’s some luck involved. But the relationship between your super and the agency rep determines a lot, including whether you get some good task orders or all dogs.

Remember this: the worst day in a bureaucrat's life is when their boss is mad at them. There are hundreds of ways they can make you hurt if you’re a prick. Make them look good, and you'll get the call for great work at premium rates. The contractors who are easiest to work with make the most money.

Schedule regular check-ins with inspectors and agency personnel. Make sure they feel heard. Fix issues before they become problems. Find the win-wins.

Why Maintenance Work Matters

Here's why these contracts are gold: they're schedule fillers. While other contractors are scrambling between projects for GCs, laying off crews during slow periods, you've got steady work keeping your best people employed, your equipment turning, and your cash flow positive.

The math is simple: Volume covers a multitude of sins. When you're running multiple crews across a county for three years straight, those economies of scale transform thin margins into serious money.

You don't need to make money on every line item or even every task order. You just need to get your pricing right on the handful of items that will make up 80% of the work. Get those few items right, and you'll be profitable for years on the same contract.

The Long Game

Some task orders will bleed money. That's the reality. So what? The good ones make up for it many times over. If you end up losing money on some task orders, you can make it back on the big ones if you've got money in the right items.

This isn't theory. Those tiny, unprofitable jobs where margins are negative? You execute flawlessly and build credibility. Then when that million dollar task order drops – with the same bid items you priced strategically – you cash in.

Your competition is sitting on the sidelines because they were too scared to bid $0.01 on that obscure item the agency barely uses. Meanwhile, you're keeping crews running year-round, developing relationships with county personnel who start calling you first, and building a reputation as the contractor who delivers.

Next time around, you'll have the ultimate advantage. You'll know exactly which items appear most frequently and how to structure your bid for maximum profit. And if you didn't have the contract last year? File that FOIA request and get the historical data.

The difference between winning and losing often comes down to this: understanding which items matter, having the courage to price accordingly, and building relationships that turn one contract into years of steady work.

Thank you for reading this week.

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make software that helps contractors win more work at the right price. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]