The Estimator
a.k.a. Bid Specialist · Proposal Specialist · Project Estimator
Turns scope into accurate pricing and a plan the field can execute.
Who they are
Half-desk, half-truck, the estimator.
Turns scope into accurate pricing and a plan the field can execute.
Software relationship: daily
Goals · what “good” looks like
- ▸Actual job cost within 5% of estimate
- ▸Fewer change-order surprises
- ▸Estimates returned within 48 hours
Who shows up · how they think
Demographics & mindset.
Demographics
Typical MBTI types
the temperaments we keep meeting in this seat
A day with the estimator
Wake to bed.
11 waypoints. 2 peak-stress hours.
Coffee and queue
Coffee at the home office desk. Pulls up the estimating queue — six open requests, two of them flagged 48-hour from the Sales Manager. Replacement quote in Summerlin is the only one needing a site visit; the other five are takeoffs from photos and load calcs.
Office
First in the office on Mondays, the way she's been since the kids started school. Pulls current pricing from the supplier portal into the estimating template — refrigerant up four points since the last quote, sheet metal flat, equipment list refreshed. Resists the urge to copy last week's numbers forward.
First estimate
Single-system replacement from photos. Template auto-pulls the equipment, line set, and labor hours; she adjusts the labor for the attic access the photos clearly show — extra hour on the air handler set, extra half on the line set pull. Documents both as exclusions on the customer-facing version.
Site visit drive
Drives out to the Summerlin job for the takeoff. Voice-memos a note to herself on the way about the labor adjustment she just made — wants to roll the same pattern into the template so the next estimator doesn't have to re-discover it.
Site takeoff
Two-system replacement, full ductwork redesign. Walks the attic with the tape, sketches the trunk and branch on the tablet, photographs every register and the panel. Customer asks if the ducts can stay; explains the static pressure issue from the existing system without the upsell tone — they can stay, but the system won't perform.
Lunch back at the office
Salad at the desk, the spreadsheet open. Prints the morning's estimate on paper to red-pen it before sending — pen catches errors faster than the screen, the rule she's kept since the change-order disaster two years back.
Build the Summerlin estimate
Materials list from the takeoff into the template, labor built from the attic walk, exclusions documented in plain English — existing electrical assumed adequate, drywall repair excluded, permit pulled by us. Three-tier proposal generated, mid-tier highlighted.
Change-order request
Field text from a project manager — homeowner wants a zone added on a job that started yesterday. Pulls the original estimate, builds the change order with the bypass damper, the second thermostat, the labor, and the exclusion that ductwork modifications beyond the trunk are extra. Sends to the PM in twenty minutes.
Estimates two and three
Two more from-photos estimates. Catches a stale price on a line set in the template and updates the template, not just the estimate — the kind of fix that pays back fifty times over the next quarter.
Sales handoff
Walks the day's six estimates with the Sales Manager. The two flagged 48-hour are out, plus the change order; three more queued for tomorrow including the Summerlin proposal, which lands in the customer's inbox at 8 a.m. the way the SLA promises.
Close the laptop
Tomorrow's queue already shows four new requests. Plugs the tablet in, closes the laptop, picks up the kid from practice.
What they own · where they slip
The job, frankly.
Core duties
what’s on their plate every week
Where they trip
watch for these, they’re common
What makes them a champion
Build an estimate from a template that auto-pulls current pricing and labor rates.
Career map · the ladder in and out
Where they came from, where they’re headed.
Keep exploring
