5 Tips for Selling Commercial Landscape Maintenance Services

I was talking to a contractor the other day that was an efficiency expert. He’d thought of nearly everything – from the most fuel efficient truck to the way he organized parts in that truck – to make doing his jobs as efficient as possible.

If you’re just starting a green industry business or have been in business for years, selling is the lifeblood of your organization. Without new customers, your growth stalls. And commercial landscape maintenance can be a potentially lucrative proposition. A single sale can net you steady work at multiple commercial properties. 

With that in mind, here are five tips that can help you land new commercial landscape maintenance business: 

 

It’s a numbers game

I love the NFL draft. It’s fascinating to watch how different teams employ different strategies to build championship teams. Some favor trading up to get so called blue-chip prospects. Others will consistently trade down in the draft, gathering as many picks as they can. To me, this is the soundest strategy. There are 22 starters in football, so rarely do 1 or 2 blue chip players make a difference. You need contributers at multiple positions. It’s a numbers game.

Sales is a similar numbers game. You need a lot of leads to fill your pipeline. The best way to get those numbers is to get out and pound the pavement. Find dense commercial areas and simply walk up and down the block visiting those properties and having discussions with property managers. You can’t expect to sell if you aren’t continually filling your pipeline with leads, so make sure you’re setting visit goals and meeting or exceeding those goals.

 

The last thing you want your buyers to do is think that what you’re selling is a commodity. If they do, the only thing they’ll base a decision on is price. And the last thing you want is a bidding war driving down prices.

So find three things that you do better than any of your competitors. If you can’t think of three, reexamine your processes and figure out what you can do that no one else can. It could be your quality control processes, your professionalism, your cutting edge tools, your experience, etc. Perfect three things, and then craft a message around those three things that proves you do them better than anyone else. Bring those differentiators up in every conversation you have. And then back them up in everything you do.

 

 

We recently conducted a survey of green industry professionals to determine what equipment they preferred and why. What was interesting was that many people cited the relationship they have with their local dealer as the reason they bought a specific brand of equipment. A few even said they knew there was a better brand out there, but their relationship with the dealer mattered more.

That’s why it’s so important that you go out and actually pound the pavement for new business instead of sitting in your office making phone calls. You need to be face-to-face with your buyers so you can start building a personal relationship. Get to know them personally – are they married? What sports do they like? Kids? Dogs? Whatever information you can glean can help you build a relationship.

 

In a typical commercial sales environment, your sales rep is pounding the streets and visiting commercial properties all day. If you’re lucky, they’re taking notes throughout the day on follow-up items. But notes can be illegible and get lost, so inevitably you’re losing data throughout the day. And that lost data results in lost sales.

That’s why you need mobile field service software like HindSite offers to help you manage your data in the field. With software and an inexpensive Android tablet, your sales rep can visit with a property manager and return to his truck to enter any notes and schedule any follow-up tasks immediately after the visit. It’s a great way to ensure that data is entered immediately so key details are remembered and saved.

 

It’s a simple fact: If you aren’t passionate about your business, you’re going to have a hard time selling it. If you aren’t passionate, people will be less likely to believe your message. Don’t be afraid to get excited, have fun and be outgoing and people will respond.

There are a lot of other secrets to sales success, but if you pay attention to these five tips, you’re likely to improve your close rate and add more commercial landscape maintenance customers to your business.

 

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