Most concrete work goes through a general contractor, and a general contractor sends bid requests to a short list of subs. Getting on that list is the sale. Once you're on it, you see every job in your radius and you can choose which to price. Until you are, you're stuck with whoever calls you from a yard sign. So the way to get customers for a concrete contractor is to get yourself invited to bid by every GC and builder who does flatwork and foundations in your county.

Here is how that works in practice. Bedrock Concrete Co., a made-up crew of seven doing flatwork, footings and foundations, is the example.

The invite is the sale

A GC building 20 houses a year needs concrete 20 times: footings, foundation walls, slabs, garage floors, driveways, walks. If the package averages $18,000, that's $360,000 in concrete from one builder. The GC doesn't want to shop it twenty times. They want two or three subs they trust, and they ask them to price each job in a day or two.

The numbers are an illustration, and your market will differ, but the logic holds everywhere. Being one of the two or three subs on that list is worth more than ten homeowner driveways, and it keeps working as long as you keep your promises on schedule and price.

The buyers: general contractors, builders and property owners

Residential builders and production homebuilders buy foundations and flatwork over and over. Commercial GCs buy slabs, tilt-up panels, curbs and sidewalks for tenant improvements and small buildings. Property owners and managers buy repair and replacement of parking lots, walks, ramps and loading docks, usually in the spring.

Homeowners also buy driveways and patios, and that work pays well when it comes. It just doesn't come on a schedule.

Build a list of GCs doing flatwork and foundations in your county

Building permits are your friend. Most counties publish them, and each permit names the contractor. Pull the last six months of new residential and light commercial permits, write down every GC or builder who pulled one, and count how many permits each pulled. The ones with several are active. Add the site names, since a builder who has one subdivision going has more coming.

Then find the person who buys subs: the project manager, estimator or superintendent. A builder's site usually lists the owner. Often the owner is the estimator in a small shop. Aim for 50 names. Rocketship can build the list from a description such as "residential home builders and general contractors within 30 miles," showing the count and the first 25 by name before using a credit. These are business buyers, which is exactly the audience for this work.

What to offer: a standing bid on every job in your radius

Instead of waiting for a bid request, send a standing price sheet. It lists your price per square foot or per linear foot for the work you do most, the thickness and finish it assumes, the minimum job size, the radius you cover, and how long the prices are valid (60 days is common). For footings and foundations, list a price per linear foot for a standard wall. Add a line: "Send me plans and I'll return a firm number within 48 hours."

Use your own costs, not someone else's. As an illustration, a sheet might say "4-inch broom-finish slab, reinforced with wire mesh, priced per square foot, 400 square foot minimum, within 30 miles." The value isn't the number, it's that the GC can price a job in their head and call you when it fits. It also removes a barrier for a busy estimator who would otherwise have to wait for a bid.

Include proof that you run a clean operation: insurance certificate, a short list of recent builders you've worked for with their permission, and a promise on response time.

Three short emails to a general contractor

Subject: Concrete sub for your Ash Grove lots

Hi Frank, I'm Carla with Bedrock Concrete Co. We do footings, foundation walls, slabs and flatwork for builders in the county, seven-person crew, own pumps and forms. I saw the permits for the Ash Grove lots. I'd like to be on your invite list. I can send a standing price sheet today and a firm number on any set of plans within 48 hours. Could I send the sheet? Bedrock Concrete Co., 100 Example Street, Your City, ST 00000. Reply "stop" to opt out.

The second email, four days later, attaches the sheet and your insurance certificate. The third, a week after that, asks for one set of plans to price as a test: "Send me whatever you have bid out this month and I'll run the numbers; even if I don't win it, you'll see how I price." Send these from your own Gmail, include your address and an opt-out under CAN-SPAM, and stay at 20 to 50 a day per inbox.

Letting your price list sit in a drawer

Plenty of concrete contractors have a price list, and it lives in a drawer or in the estimator's head. Nobody outside the shop has seen it. GCs can't call on a number they haven't got. Put the sheet in an email, attach it to every quote, and keep an up-to-date PDF on your phone. When a GC says "what are you getting for a slab these days," you should be able to send an answer in thirty seconds.

A related problem is the bid that goes out and stalls. If you send a bid and don't hear back, follow up in three days with a question about the schedule, not the price: "Do you have a date for the pour? I can hold a crew." The good call that died of nothing shows how easily this step disappears when everyone is busy.

Answer the GC's bid request while you're at a pour

GCs call with a schedule question or a bid request while you're standing at a pour. If you don't pick up, they send the bid to the next sub on the list, and sometimes you never learn there was one. Rocketship answers your existing number through call forwarding, takes the project, the plan details and a callback, and sends you the summary so a bid request isn't lost in voicemail.

A weekly routine from new permits to priced plans

Each Monday, pull new permits, add the builders to the list and send first emails. Wednesday, send second emails with the price sheet. Friday, call anyone who engaged and ask for plans to price. Price every set of plans within 48 hours, win or lose. After ten weeks you should be on several invite lists and seeing bid requests you never saw before. Keep a sheet of GC, bids received, bids sent and bids won, because the win rate by GC tells you who is worth the estimating time.

Other trades follow the same path: how to get clients as a general contractor covers the GC's side, and how to get customers for a fencing company uses the same builder list. For more on building your list, see build a list without buying one. The home services page describes the buyers.

Getting on invite lists is a list-building and follow-up job. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number is included; a dedicated line is $5 a month. See the AI workers page for what each worker does.