Improve Your Landscape & Lawn Sales
In order for your landscaping company to make money, you have to consistently generate new sales. Sometimes, however, it may feel like your competitors are staying busy, but for some reason, your pipeline feels like it’s run dry. Or perhaps you feel like you’re getting plenty of leads, but don’t feel like you’re landing enough estimates or jobs.
Below, we discuss how to start improving your landscaping sales today.
How to Improve Your Landscaping Sales
In order to improve your sales without spending more on generating leads, landscape businesses should focus on doing more to convert the leads they receive. This includes more prompt, proactive follow-up, working to close more estimates, and maximizing your existing client base.
Below are tips from business and sales experts on how to improve your landscape sales by doing more with the leads you have.
1 – Respond to Leads More Quickly
If you have online leads that come through web forms—whether this is from your own website or through a third-party lead gen site like thumbtack.com—contact the leads as quickly as possible as soon as they come through.
Studies have shown the faster you contact the lead, the more likely you are not only to actually reach the client but to close the deal. In fact, a study presented by insidesales.com found that calling a web-generated lead within 5 minutes results in a 900% increase in contact rates and a 21X greater likelihood of qualifying the lead (landing the estimate).
Call within 5 minutes of receiving the lead, and if the lead doesn’t answer, send an immediate follow up email with a call to action (e.g. “Call to schedule an on-site quote, or email back with the dates and times that work best for you”). Then try calling again within 30-60 minutes.
If you don’t currently have a system in place to respond to a lead within 5 minutes of receiving it, it’s time to find one! This change alone can help you improve your landscaping sales.
2 – Follow Up More Consistently
Most sales or marketing professional will tell you that it will take at least 5-7 “touch points” to close a deal, yet most landscape professionals will give up if they don’t hear back from a lead within 2-3 calls or emails. It’s often that 5th or 6th reach-out that lands the job!
If you use a CRM, set automated tasks that remind you to make calls or send emails 5-7 times after receiving a lead. Reach out at least twice the first day (while this to-do item is still fresh in their minds), and 3-5 times more over the next 7 days. If you still don’t hear back from the client, add them to your drip marketing list to send occasional offers, blog articles, news, and more.
3 – Prioritize Scheduling Previous Clients
Most landscape, lawn care, or tree care businesses are seasonal, and most see clients coming back year after year for services. However, if you don’t have a pre-season reach out plan in place, your landscaping company may be seeing more client turnover than you should.
Many landscape companies feel like enough of their clients come back year after year that they don’t have to make a habit of proactively reaching out to last year’s clients. However, it’s much less expensive to retain the clients you have than it is to generate new ones. This is why taking the time to make a call, send an email, or send a letter at the beginning of the season can be a low-effort, big-reward way to improve your sales.
Taking the time to ask previous clients to get back on the schedule, offer incentives or deadlines, or just offering a friendly reminder to restart services for priority scheduling can mean additional sale.
4 – Pitch the Right Message
What is it that your clients want that makes you, specifically, the best choice for their job? One way to improve sales is to make sure your messaging is on par with what your client wants—not what you want them to want. Are your clients most interested in a landscaper who can deliver something beautiful and high-quality that will help them stand out in their neighborhood and increase their curb appeal? Are they looking for a reliable service provider who is responsive to their needs and easy to reach?
Knowing what’s actually going on in your clients’ minds when they hire you can help you pitch the right message to your potential customers on your website, phone calls, on-site estimates, marketing materials, and more. After all, if you’re selling yourself as a budget option when really your clients see you as the go-to resource for meticulous attention to detail and being proactive about offering fertilizing, aerating, or other services, then you may be unnecessarily cutting profits.
5 – Ask for Referrals
While retaining previous clients is the least expensive way to improve sales in your landscaping business, the second most effective lead source is referrals. Referrals are statistically the most cost-efficient, low-effort way to generate new sales apart from previous cusotmers. This is because you’ve already been vetted and approved by a trust-source of the potential client.
Some landscape, tree care, or lawn care businesses balk at the idea of asking for referrals, but this can mean you’re missing out on potentially easy leads to close.
6 – Upsell Existing Clients
One of the reasons we love the Arborgold email marketing system in our landscape management software is because it lets you easily filter existing clients by type of service, inventory, last date of service, and more. This means you can see at a glance which customers may benefit from additional services and can easily segment that list to send an email.
7 – Provide Estimates Promptly—and Always Follow Up
Being the first company to bid a project can leave a lasting impression on your client. After that, any remaining bidders are going to be measured against you, instead of the other way around. This means if you were responsive, knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly, the “other guys” will have a lot to live up to. If you have a reasonable price and are able to provide a professional, comprehensive bid immediately—like with the Arborgold mobile estimator—you may even be able to land the job on the spot.
If you didn’t close the sale while you were providing the on-site estimate, make sure to follow up quickly and consistently afterward. Don’t leave the sale to chance. Follow up to ask if they have any questions or need any more information about the bid or if they’d like to get on the schedule. If you don’t hear back, follow up again. Remember, it’s less costly (in time and resources) to sell leads that are currently in progress than it is to generate whole new leads, so follow up, follow up, follow up.
Learn More
Would you like to learn more about Arborgold landscape management software and how these tools can help you generate more sales in your landscaping business? Click “Take a Tour of Arborgold” to start for free today!
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