Cian BrennanFounder, Quantum Contract Solutions · Founder

The race to the lowest price rarely ends in profit.

Name: The race to the lowest price rarely ends in profit.
Uploaded: 2026-03-10T04:00:23+00:00
Duration: 41 s
Channel: Cian Brennan
Description: In this YouTube clip, the speaker addresses subcontractors in the construction industry, challenging the common belief that winning work is a matter of…

10 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this YouTube clip, the speaker addresses subcontractors in the construction industry, challenging the common belief that winning work is a matter of underbidding. He argues that competing on price creates a bidding war that forces firms into thin margins and a volume‑driven business model that is unsustainable for construction. Instead, he advocates a premium‑pricing approach built on long‑term relationships, proven reliability, and confidence from clients that the subcontractor will deliver on time and on budget. He references the book The Subcontractor's Edge, specifically its chapter “The Psychology of Pricing,” to underline the psychological factors that make clients willing to pay higher rates when they trust the subcontractor’s quality and performance.

Chapters

If you're not embarrassed about your prices, you're probably too cheap. As a subcontractor, people don't just want the cheapest guy. I know that you think that. I know it's about bidding wars and trying to get the lowest price, but if you play that game, the bidding war game, you'll always be making this tiny, tiny margin, which is actually a volume game. So if you want to grow as a construction company bidding low to win work, you need to have lots and lots of projects. Construction is not like that. It's not a volume game. It's a premium game where you need to create relationships over time where you can charge more, but they're willing to pay more because they are confident that you can do an amazing job and you're going to be on time and you're not going to charge them more and it's not going to be a disaster. We talk about specifically in The Subcontractor's Edge, there's a chapter called The Psychology of Pricing.