Let's face it, do you expect them to tell you you're not charging enough? Try raising the price on a handful of jobs and see if you keep getting them. Don't sell yourself short.

1. Take a hard look at what, if any, advantages there are to being "out of CA".
2. Find a way to sell more on service, reliability, availability, etc. less on price.
3. Look hard at ways to economize operations. Fuel costs and credit costs come to mind.

I short-term rent a considerable $ amount of equipment. Price is not the most important issue for items that have a considerable impact on the productivity of my operations. I would think that service (accessability, availability, timeliness, productivity) are very important to your customers. The pump guys around here get what they want or you no get the concrete. If you haven't noticed, ready-mix don't keep so well.

Carharttguy said:

We are located in Oregon and work with various homeowners and larger construction companies. We have been struggling with being outbid by companies out of California. Nothing against Californians(my wife is from there) but it gets frustrating. Anyone have any ideas to get around this frustration. Every year, we seem to be lowering our profit margin. We have a great reputation and seem to keep our customers, but they have mentioned that they have had lower bids so we bid lower to keep the jobs. Any suggestions.

Patrick Brooks

Click to expand...

And another thing...make sure you know how you're competitors are structuring their rates. Next time someone tells you they have a lower bid, ask to see it. Keep asking. I've seen pump services that have different price structures that include a number of variables like trip charge, hourly, minimum cubic yard, sliding scale cubic yard rate, etc. A slick buyer can really beat you up with a handful of half-truths about pricing.