Trying to expand our subcontracting business into another province

Hi all,

We're all subcontractor looking to expand into another province.

For instance, we've been bidding work in another province and have been the lowest bidder multiple times. and in one case we were roughly 20% lower then the next lowest bidder. My assumption is that the gc doesn't really know who we are, and wasn't comfortable with us.

We're very serious about expanding, but we don't want to open an office and hire local staff before we've actually secured work in this new province.

For those who've done this before, would it be worthwhile to fly out there and meet gc estimators in person. Does face to face networking actually make a huge difference between phone call introductions? Which approach would should I take.

And as for you gc estimators, would you rather have a sub email/call you before they show up?

What would make you trust a non local sub? Would it be past project experiance in another state/province, references from another province/state?

What would make us look qualified in your eyes?