What's the biggest barrier to running a competitive bid process?

[Pete Labath]

How often are you actually checking the market?

If you have a vendor you trust, do you ever test whether their pricing is still competitive? Once a year? Once every few years? Only when something feels off?

And what stops you from running a competitive bid more often?

• Time?
• The hassle of managing multiple site visits?
• The parade of salesmen that follows?
• Difficulty finding qualified contractors?
• Something else?

I'm not asking because I think there is a right or wrong answer. I'm genuinely trying to understand where the friction is. For those who have a system for benchmarking vendor costs; what does it look like? 

And if you don't, what would make it easier?

Would love to hear how others are handling this.