[Neil B]

I can directly relate to Jon's frustrations, I've got competitors selling at a loss in order to get their foot in the door on long-term contracts. Pick any industry you want...this is just business in today's world. I can service my customers until I'm blue in the face and, at the end of the day, they procure through a vendor-neutral process based on cost and ability to meet requirements. In some cases, they don't even know who the vendor is because of the internal process they are required to follow. But the winning combination is still client service/relationships and the ability to repeatedly deliver on-time and with quality at a competitive price point via whatever mechanism the client desires. The days of an easy, non-competitive sale at huge margins are over. There's a time and a place to sell at little or no margin if it makes sense stategically, but at this stage you're swimming with the sharks so you better be prepared to swim.