This week in our strategic planning series, we’re focusing on marketing and sales. This is often an area that we give little attention to. We generally focus on providing an excellent product or service – and we should. But if we don’t let people know how our excellent product or service will enhance their life, and why we’re the best choice for that product or service, we will likely not experience the type of growth we want.

MARKETING

Marketing can be thought of as all activities a business carries out to:

• Identify its target market
• Prepare promotional material designed to appeal to ideal client
• Communicate the material in a cost-effective manner
• Distribute the product or service to the target market

To be effective at marketing, you should be doing each of these four activities. If you have a great product or service but communicate it to the wrong market segment, the marketing won’t be effective. If you have great marketing material, but...

Written by Jacki Hart, President, Consulting By Hart

Every now and then, something comes across your desk or into your inbox that is worth paying attention to. If you’re a contractor who sells services to your customers, which include labour and materials, equipment and overhead costs, then this article is worth your time to read. Unless you are either entirely recession proof in your market, or aren’t trying to improve profit in your business. But if you are working hard to figure out a way to be more profitable, read on.

Sometimes the most successful businesses have all of the cutting-edge technologies, software, apps, equipment and training. And some businesses have all of that, and still aren’t profitable enough to pay the owner well, build equity and an engaged, career-minded team.

Enter J. Paul Lamarche (JPL), and his industry-altering pricing system. JPL’s estimating and pricing system was officially adopted by...

This article is written by Chad Diller and the original post can be found HERE. 

Over the past two years I’ve spent a lot of time scouring YouTube and the Internet. I’ve wanted to get a really good sense of what kind of marketing tips are out there for lawn and landscape companies.

I’ve made a few general observations…

• The large majority of content addressing marketing for landscapers is geared towards entrepreneurs and businesses under $2 million in annual revenue. 
• Most of the people offering these tips are either A) well-intentioned small business owners sharing their personal advice or, B) landscaping marketing agencies that specialize in small businesses.
• And lastly, most of the popular "influencers" make money by producing videos (ads on YouTube, product endorsements, selling software, franchises, or courses for startup businesses).

None of these things are bad. However, these landscaping marketing strategies may not apply for companies...

The original article can be found HERE.

It’s as true in the landscape industry as it is in any other: without sales, you don’t have a business. A key goal for any landscape company that’s serious about planning for profitability is to excel not only in the work that you do but also in your ability to generate leads and win jobs.

12 Sales Tips to Increase Your Close Rates and Your Profits

1) Don’t drop the ball by not following up

Always follow up! Responding in a timely manner shows professionalism, and that the customer has your attention. Following up is critical not only to your sales success but also to your company’s reputation. Your follow-up process should be structured and could include emails, thank you cards, phone calls, and site visits. Keeping communication honest, open, and timely is an easy way to differentiate your sales process from your competition.

Following up shows an even further level of care for your customer. Even if you...

HOW TO DRIVE SALES by Kevin Kehoe

What drives successful commercial landscape sales? First, it’s a sense of the effort required by the reality of the numbers involved to achieve a goal. Specifically, benchmark figures tell us a close rate has an upper limit given the competitive nature of the commercial business. The limit of that close rate is driven by a number of positive touches with a customer. Second, it depends on a plan that accounts for these benchmarks when it comes to building a strategy that revolves around organizing and managing weekly sales activities.

In essence, a 20-percent close rate is driven by 12 touches per prospect. It’s a handy rule of thumb that helps a salesman set personal goals.

Now, pay attention to two important definitions related to the sales goal chart below:

• Close rate—dollars sold divided by dollars bid. For example, if I close $200,000 in sales and I bid $1 million, I have a 20-percent close rate. In contract sales,...

The original article can be found here. 

I got a phone call from a SynkedUP user and friend yesterday, wanting to think out loud through the consultation fees he was charging. He had been charging $150 for a consultation for a few years now and hadn’t been getting any pushback.

Until now.

There was some new competition in town, and they weren’t charging any consultation fees. He did learn that their quotes were similar in price though, so it’s not like it was an apples-and-oranges comparison. They were chasing the same type of jobs, and charging similar rates. He had several leads tell him “well, these companies aren’t charging me fees to get an estimate, so I’m just going to get quotes from them.”

This, and the fact the volume of leads is a little less this year than last (for him in his local market) made him doubt the whole idea of charging consultation fees. I’m sure there are more of you out there facing this same reality, so...

The original article can be found here.

_________________________

Covid restrictions are lifting in some parts of the world and the economy is booming in some sectors. Some labor and material costs are rising due to shortages, as is customer demand. Many brands have high pricing power at the moment, making price hiles almost inevitable. Brand managers may be clued in on the size of their price increase, but it's no easy matter to communicate this unwelcome news to customers. 

Many companies, and even entire industries, routinely raise prices without ever telling customers. In the consumer packaged goods space, for instance, it is common practice to reduce quantity (the grammage of a package, item count, etc.) and maintain the price. This increases the per-unit amount paid by shoppers but keeps the more visible package price unchanged. Alternatively, brands may cut down on trade promotions, couponing, and other forms of discounting, raising prices indirectly. For instance, when...

How do you handle objections when speaking with potential clients? 

Do they derail you because it feels like rejection? OR do you see an objection as a question - one the client is looking to have answered before they accept the terms and finalize the sale.

In a recent article written by Bruce Wilson, he shares that “objections are simply a sign that a prospect needs more information to make a decision.” It’s a small shift in perspective that can dramatically change your outcomes.

Here are Bruce’s 10 tips on dealing with sales objections:

1. Listen up and validate
2. Rehearse your response
3. Be prepared
4. Isolate the objection
5. Postpone objections
6. Ask questions
7. Talk about money
8. Focus on them
9. Avoid better, faster, cheaper
10. Convert the objection

If you’d like to dig into these a little more, click HERE to read the full article and remember: an objection is not a rejection, but your response to the objection might make it one.

Earlier this month we talked about the importance of pre-qualifying your sales calls. It’s also important to remember that clients typically need 8-12 “touches” before they’ll make a decision. Phone calls, emails, online or face to face meetings are all things that count as a “touch”.

A few years ago Kevin Kehoe wrote an article in which he stressed the importance of being persistent and creative to keep potential customers engaged with each touch point until a decision is made. 

For example, he says, “sending an email asking, ‘Have you made a decision?’ isn’t creative nor does it advance the decision. It’s much better to send an email that states, ‘I’ve thought about our conversations. Let me suggest a way to solve your problem…manage your price concerns…handle your primary concern for communication…Here’s how we do this …’ This is advancement.”

We know...