7 Tips to Grow Your Landscape Sales
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Your landscape sales are at the heart of your business's profitability. To make your business an excellent "sales machine", we have 7 of the best landscape sales tips gathered from experts for you.
- Understand your customer
- Prepare winning landscaping proposals
- Be picky while choosing jobs
- Build on relationships, not on price
- Always follow up
- Measure landscape sales success
- Implement a sales automation process
Let's dive into details to turn your sales efforts into a powerhouse of crushed quotas.
1. Understand your customer
While this might sound obvious to anyone working in sales, connecting with your customers and having a mutual, positive understanding of their needs is of utmost importance. Always start by asking for your customer's thoughts first.
You need your customers to do 80% of the talking. But don't lose control of the conversation. The best way to do that is to waste less time during your landscape sales process by asking the right questions.
For example, how will the property be used, what is the scope of the work and their budget, what are your customer's expectations, what is their top priority, etc. Use these questions to expand your creativity and unique ideas. This will start a mutually beneficial, positive relationship and make them more likely to do business with you.
2. Prepare winning landscaping proposals
A carefully well-crafted proposal is the key to winning landscape sales and acts as your best-selling card. Your proposal should make your customer go wow!
Think about it from the customer's perspective when comparing two proposals from similar landscaping companies. Chances are, they'll choose the more impressive one with cost-based landscape estimates, HD sitemaps with color-coded property features, and a custom proposal that speaks directly to your client's needs.
With accurate takeoffs, meticulously created estimates, and custom-winning landscaping proposals, you are bound to win jobs for your business every single time.
3. Be picky while choosing jobs
Are you closing landscape sales but not winning any real profit? Saying "no" to lousy jobs that yield little or no profit is the first step to correcting your situation. Increasing landscape sales is all about finding ways to save time, and we've found that pre-qualifying leads can be an excellent way to do just that.
In other words, weed out the customers that aren't a good fit for your company. Understanding whether a job will be profitable or not will require you to devise a system that helps you accurately calculate your break-even point for any job, even before you accept the work.
Explain your process, as this will allow you to set the sale in advance and set the tone right. When the client understands the next steps better, it helps close the deal faster. This is also a time to address any unforeseeable changes that may arise in the job and cost the customer more. Doing this will protect you and your business if something is out of your hands.
Develop a criteria list for your business that defines the type of projects you will take up, who you will work for (the buyer persona), the project size, schedule requirements, etc. This will give you an edge as you accept only the projects that play to your company's strengths and save you time in the long run.
4. Build on relationships, not on price
A vital landscape sales strategy is to avoid the trap of selling on price. The industry is competitive, and one can easily get caught up on prices. Once you've decided your price is fair, don't back down.
Don't cave to the competition. It's easy to lowball yourself and lower your prices when losing out on some jobs. Instead, get a grip on your profitability and remove the inefficiencies in the processes to cut down prices where needed and not undercut them because you'll be making smart decisions. But even with competitive pricing, you may not be the least expensive option, and that's completely okay.
You want to land jobs because of the relationships and the premium value service you bring to those. Be forthright in quoting the right price and be able to justify it. What do you bring to the table that your competition does not? Know the answer, and don't be afraid to share it.
Stay prepared to communicate a price hike as well, if necessary.
5. Always follow up!
Following up is critical not just to your landscape sales success but also for you and your company's reputation. Your follow-up process should be structured and in a timely manner, be it through emails, thank-you cards, phone calls, or site visits.
It shows care for your customers and can make all the difference by giving them that one reason to choose you over others. Follow the 24-hour rule for this. As a landscape salesperson or a company owner, if you meet a customer today, you should contact them again by tomorrow. This way, you get to keep the connection fresh and stay current in their mind.
https://youtu.be/JMflB1wEn0Y
Yes, try to get them the proposal fast, but more importantly, keep them in the loop.
Pro tip: If you lose a bid, find out why! We all wish to do perfectly in each aspect of your business, but that seldom happens. Whenever possible, ask your customers what made them choose someone else. Understanding the holes in your process and cataloging the reasons will help you improve your landscape sales and bidding process.
This won't ensure you win every single job, but it will certainly help cut down the number of lost bids.
6. Measure your landscape sales success
If you measure it right, you can manage and improve your sales. Holding yourself accountable to some sales indicators is the way to do that. Visibility into landscaping sales is absolutely crucial.
Initially, you can start by measuring the win-loss ratio. Far too many contractors and business owners settle for a low ratio. Identify your ratio and compare it with other high-achieving landscape companies in your neighborhood.
The other ways to measure the sales are: getting more sales of the right kind, having higher net profit margins, month-on-month revenue growth, and higher closing ratios. Look for opportunities to improve in all these areas.
7. Implement a landscape sales automation process
Among the many tips we've heard from companies, this is by far the most effective. Yes! Just by eliminating the time & cost-intensive part of manually measuring properties and painstakingly creating estimates and proposals, you save so much of your time, cost, and resources.
What landscaping software does is automate all the tedious, manual tasks and free up many work hours during the day. This will help your team estimate accurately and refine the overall sales process by shortening the entire sales cycle.
Automate your landscaping sales process where you save 95% time on one-off and multi-site measurements. With auto-populated estimates & custom proposals, you can bid for as many jobs as you want, especially during the peak season- without all the hassle.
End-to-end automation across your sales process means you crush your sales quotas fast, help streamline processes, remove inefficiencies, save time, and ultimately win more jobs.
https://youtu.be/JtPvGoAhVp0
What have we learned about transforming your landscape sales in 7 steps?
It's not just about selling more, but also selling consistently. You must frequently revise your landscape sales strategy and see what works best for your business. All the above tips have a common thread and will help you boost your landscape sales and take your business to the next level.
We at Attentive.ai have built an end-to-end landscaping business management software- Accelerate, that promises to transform your business processes, starting with helping you nail your landscape sales. To understand how this works, you can directly talk to us.
Do you have any excellent landscape sales tips that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
FAQs
What is the most profitable aspect of a landscaping business?
The most profitable aspect of a landscaping business often lies in specialized services, such as design and installation projects, customized solutions, and ongoing maintenance contracts. These services not only command higher prices but also foster long-term relationships with clients, ensuring consistent revenue streams.
How do landscapers find clients?
Landscapers find clients through cold calling, word-of-mouth referrals, showcasing their work on social media platforms, local advertising, attending community events, and leveraging SEO to increase their visibility in local search results. Building a strong online presence with impressive before-and-after photos and customer testimonials can also attract new clients.
What is the fastest growing profession in the landscaping industry today?
The fastest growing professions in the landscaping industry today are roles that blend traditional landscaping skills with sustainable practices and advanced technology. This includes eco-landscaping professionals, landscape designers focused on environmentally friendly solutions, and experts in landscape technology who can integrate AI and automation into the landscaping process.
