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Be Assertive Not Aggressive

Nov 24

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, lawn business strategies, sales | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

At one time or another, we have all experienced annoyingly pushy salesmen. Whether it’s at the mall, a used car lot, on the telephone, or even at my own front door, annoyingly pushy salesmen turn me off and rarely gain me as a customer.

I was thinking about forceful selling tactics and how they relate to the lawn care business this morning during a business seminar. The presenter was talking about the art of getting your foot in the door. He told us that getting your foot in the door is the first step to acquiring a new customer account. “Since a prospective customer’s first inclination is to shut you out, aggressiveness is needed to surmount that first obstacle.”

Being in the lawn care industry for 17 years, I have to completely disagree with the “agressive foot in the door” principle. Instead of winning customers, this tactic drives customers away.

I like to be assertive instead of aggressive.  Assertiveness is when you use intelligent pursuasion to show prospective customers how you can be of benefit to them.

I want to give an example of getting your foot in the door using an assertive sales technique.  When I was in the early days of my lawn care business, I used to walk neighborhoods and knock on doors.  Most people politely refused my offer for estimates.  Some people gladly accepted.  Still, others rudely shut their door in my face.  I did not want to turn into an aggressive salesman so I developed a strategy of assertive behavior when met with a rude prospect.  One day, a gentleman seemed very annoyed when he opened the door, I gave him my quick 30 Second Elevator Speech but by the time I was 10 seconds into the pitch he skreetched “NOT INTERESTED” and proceeded to slam the door.  Before his door closed I yelled:  “YOU’RE KILLING YOUR SHRUBS!”

The door slammed and I walked off the porch with my head hung low feeling dejected from yet another “No.”  Before I reached the last step off the porch, this man opened his door and asked “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

I told him he was killing his shrubs because his air conditioner’s condensation overflow was leaking into his shrub bed.  Slight watering is okay but the last two shrubs in his bed were standing in water.  He said “SHOW ME.”

Now, I was only new to the business and was intimidated by his attitude.  Being a beginner landscaper, I showed him the problem and offered an easy solution of  fastening a drip tube to water the entire bed evenly instead of only one section.

He appreciated my advice and asked me to bid on his grass cutting contract for the summer.  I told him the price and got the job immediately.

Aggressive sales would have never worked with this customer.  However, an intelligently assertive response as his door closed worked wonders and got me a long-term customer.

If you are interested in more sales techniques used to get customers for your lawn care business, check out our business guidebook package at our website:  Start A Lawn Care Business

Even if your not in the lawn care business, this package will help teach you sales, estimating, and customer relations.

 

People who purchase our Lawn Care Business Package learn how to be assertive instead of aggressive.

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I just work here, sir.

Nov 13

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | No Comments

How many times per day do you get questions from your lawn care customers that you can’t answer?

During my first year with my own lawn care business, there was barely a day that I wasn’t stumped by a question from one of my customers. 

“How much grass seed should I put on my lawn?”

“How do I get rid of weeds in my Bermuda Grass?”

“One of my apple trees died last year and the one remaining didn’t bear fruit this year.  Do I need a male and female apple tree to have fruit?”

These were some early questions I remember being asked during the first few days of my lawn care business back in 1992.  I remember being stumped.  The first two questions were pretty easy to answer and I got extra jobs doing seeding and weed eradication for two brand new customers.

The third question concerning the apple tree was more difficult to answer and I referred this customer to an aborculturalist.  The customer was happy and I still got to do her lawn all summer.

I realized early on that customers don’t expect you to be a lawn care expert when they ask you questions.  Being a lawn care business owner doesn’t mean you have all the answers but it does mean you should answer to the best of your ability and if you don’t know the answer, you should tell the customer that you will find out the best answer.

I recently had an experience with a company I wanted to do business with.  This was a technical company (nothing to do with lawn care) and I had a couple questions for them.  So, I called their toll-free number to speak with a representative.  I asked a few question which she was able to answer.  Then, I asked a question about a service they don’t offer and I also asked if they would offer it in the future.

“I JUST WORK HERE, SIR.”

“I just work here, sir” was the answer from this company’s sales representative.  That answer was rude customer service (BTW, the company was NOT Microsoft) and it cost them a customer.  Part of my questioning was designed to determine if I wanted to become a client of this company.  The sales representative was unable to answer my basic question and then put me off by telling me she just worked there and had no authority nor desire to find an answer for me. 

In effect, the question she answered was: “do I want to do business with your company?”  The answer she gave me was, “No, because we won’t be able to answer your most basic questions.” 

As developers of the Start A Lawn Care Business guidebook package, our job is to answer your questions about starting and operating a lawn care business.  If you are just getting started or if you’ve been in it a year or two you may have a lot of questions about how to get more customers and make more money.  The lawn care business guidebooks will answer most of your questions about advertising, pricing, estimating, doing the work, and which equipment to buy.  If you have other questions, let us know.  We are happy to help and you will NEVER get an answer of “I JUST WORK HERE, SIR.”

The lawn care business guidebooks and software package is available through our website:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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30 Second Elevator Speech

Nov 10

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business | 3 Comments

Have you practiced your 30 second elevator speech?

The concept of an elevator speech is that you happen to get on an elevator just as a potential client is also getting on the same elevator. You are riding up only one floor together. While the doors are closed, you have 30 seconds to make a convincing sales pitch.  Those 30 seconds are all you have to convince your potential client to consider your business for future work.

A 30 second elevator speech is not a sales call and is not designed to gain clients’ immediate business.  Instead, an elevator speech should be conversationally designed to help potential clients remember your name and call you back, with interest, at a later time.

Though you probably don’t often encounter your potential lawn care clients in an elevator, you may encounter them at coffee shops, post offices, and in line at the bank.

If you had only 30 seconds to convince a client to use your services, what would you tell them?

Introduction:

Introduce yourself and your company.  A firm handshake with your first name will suffice here.  A good looking shirt with your lawn care company’s name and logo will help you sidestep repeating your company name at this point.

Expertise – Special Equipment

What sets your company apart from the rest of the lawn care companies in your community?  Without making your sales pitch sound like a sales pitch, entice your client by relaying specialized knowledge about a particular lawn care problem you are currently researching or by bragging on a specialized piece of commercial lawn care equipment.  

When leaf raking season rolls around, I like to carry flyers and pictures of my leaf collection equipment.  Leaf blowers are cool and even people who are disinterested in lawn care like to look at commercial leaf blowers in action.

Everyone knows what a lawn mower looks like but not many people are familiar with commercial leaf blowers that can move 800 cubic feet of leaves per minute.  They are impressive and anyone with a yard full of leaves will be interested in the ability of such a machine.  Knowing my company has the equipment to handle such a job keeps my name in potential customers’ minds.

Quick Exit – Leave Them Wanting More

An elevator speech should be 30 seconds or less and 130 words or less.  Nothing is worse than a salesperson who kills a potential sale by rambling on and on.  If you are truly in the elevator, hand them your business card and exit as soon as you reach your floor.  Remember, you are not trying to close the sale here, you are only trying to pique their interest.  If they are interested in having you visit their residence for an estimate, get their name, address, and phone number.   

I would love to hear your elevator speech.  If you have never written a 30 second elevator speech, write one now and leave it in the comments section below.

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The Paradox of Choice

Aug 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, lawn business strategies, lawn care business | 2 Comments

[podcast]http://www.startalawncarebusiness.com/podcasts/paradox_of_choice.mp3[/podcast]Have you ever walked into a restaurant and been overwhelmed by the menu?

Too Many Menu Items

When it comes to food, I am mostly easy going.  I am not picky with food.  Therefore, I can easily find a lunch or dinner I will enjoy on any basic menu.  Some restaurants try to overwhelm their customers with food choices.  When I visit a restaurant that has a million choices on their menus, I get confused and want to leave for a more simple eating establishment.

Some customers of lawn care businesses suffer from a similar paradox of choice.

Paradox of Choice – Definition

Paradox of choice is defined as an overwhelming abundance of items  leading to a non-decision and loss of sale.

Mistakes of a New Lawn Care Business Owner

Time and again I have seen new lawn care business owners offer a staggering array of services.  They will cut grass, trim, edge, blow off driveways, rake leaves, pull weeds, trim hedges, prune trees, fill holes, mulch beds, clean gutters, aerate, seed, fertilize, plant shrubs, plant flowers, install water gardens, install landscape lighting, pressure wash, pressure seal, exterminate, landscape, etc., etc., etc.

All these jobs are great services for a lawn care company to offer.  However, when your company is new it should focus on a few primary services.  As it’s customer base grows and as its number of employees grow it can begin to offer additional service.

Core Services

I believe cutting, trimming, blowing, and raking are the basic services you should offer when you are new.  Don’t overwhelm your customers with choices early in your business start up.  Otherwise one of three things will happen.

1) Your customers will get confused by your offerings thinking you are trying to be everything to everyone.  They will either walk away to find someone who simply does grass cutting or they will hire you for services for which you are not qualified and do not have the equipment.  You will have to spend all your time learning how to do those job correctly and all your money attempting to acquire the necessary equipment.

2)  You will become a Jack of all trades and a master of none.  This is bad news for your business.  When it comes to business, I would rather be really good at one service than mediocre at many.

3)  You will lose focus on your cash cow (the core of your business) trying to do non productive jobs and your business will suffer.

How Much Is Enough

You don’t have to offer a million services to become a successful lawn care business.  Find a few services at which you are really good  (and customers will pay for) and build your business around those core offerings.

Start A Successful Lawn Care Business

Do you want to operate a successful lawn care business?  Check out our lawn care business program on our main webpage.   It’s on sale right now.

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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How to Proceed? Take the Lead!

Aug 2

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, estimate, lawn business strategies | No Comments

I’ve said many times; the estimating process is one of the more tricky aspects of runing your own lawn care business.  This article helps you put your customers at ease when they request free lawn care estimates.

Unsure Customers

Customers who have never hired a lawn care company before may find it a bit frighening to call a stranger on the phone and request that person come to their homes and look at their lawns.

Likewise, new lawn care business owners may find it intimidating to mosey around a strangers lawn looking for imperfections.  As a business owner, you must realize customers look for you to be the professional and take the lead in the estimating process. 

I have done thousands of estimates.  Most customers have a general idea what needs to be done in their lawn and how much money they are willing to pay within $5 to $10 for weekly service.  But, they are unsure of how to go about getting everything set up to their satisfaction.  It is up to you, as a business owner, to lead the sales call.

Here are a few methods to help you take the lead during your sales calls:

1)  Practice your script.

You do not want to be fumbling for words or wondering what to say to a new or prospective customer.  Using our lawn care business material develop a script of what to say.  You want to be friendly with your customer but you don’t want to be best friend.  Keep chit chat to no more than a few minutes and get to the reasons why you’re there.  Your script needs to, at least, cover the basics: What work do they need performed? How often do they want the  work performed. How much are they willing to pay?  It’s good to listen to your customers but you must direct the conversation.

Once you develop your script, practice it.  I remember giving my first customer estimate when I started my lawn care business.  I didn’t want to make a fool of myself so I developed a script.  I would even close the door to my room and practice in front of a mirror.  Silly, right?  Maybe but it helped me build confidence and gave me the ability to speak with customers and get the jobs.

2)  Know your line of work.

Most  prospects know a few things.
A) The grass looks bad. 
B) I want the grass to not look this bad.
C) I don’t want to pay much to have it not look this bad. 

Ha Ha. Yep, that will sum up about 80% of all your free estimates.  If you know your subject (grass for this purpose) you can lead the discussion to explain why they should hire you.

3) Remove their guess work.

Until you show for the estimate, new customers have little idea what your proceedures are.  Once they are comfortable with the services you offer and accept your price.  They may not know what comes next.  If you’ve already read our lawn care guidebook you know to bring your equipment to every estimate.  Take your customers guess work away. 
Recommend a mowing schedule (example: Wednesday about 10:00).  Recommend a payment plan (example: Leave check under the welcome mat).
Recommend additional work (example: Flower beds need more mulch)

By taking the lead you will instill confidence in your customers making they feel good about having you as their lawn care person.

If you are thinking about starting a lawn care business or if you want to make an existing business even more successful, get a copy of our Lawn Care Business guidebook.  It’s on sale right now!  Visit our main site:  www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Start A Lawn Care Business, August 2009

Jul 29

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, fertilizer, gutter cleaning, lawn business strategies, lawn care business, leaf raking | No Comments

As August wears on shadows get a bit longer and leaves begin to change color and drop.

[podcast]http://www.startalawncarebusiness.com/podcasts/August.mp3[/podcast][podcast]http://www.startalawncarebusiness.com/podcasts/August.mp3[/podcast]  Anyone who hasn’t yet started their own lawn care business might think they have missed the boat this year and will just have to wait until 2010 to start their lawn care business.

If you have ever wanted to start a lawn care business, right now may be one of the best times of the year to take the plunge and get started.

1)  August is the time when kids head back to school.  Because of homework and extra curricular activities, kids may not want to mow grass anymore.  They drop customers leaving them looking for someone else to cut the grass.

2)  If the summer’s been hot and dry (like this summer) many lawn care operators quit the business since there wasn’t much grass to cut during the last few very hot and dry weeks.  Right now is your chance to take advantage of their shortsightedness.  Rains often return in mid to late August. There are lots of people looking for someone to cut their grass.

3)  Autumn is a HUGELY profitable time for many lawn care business owners.  Leaf cleanup time is only a few weeks away.  There are lawns to be raked and gutters to be cleaned.  Aerating, overseeding, and fertilizing need to be performed on your customer’s lawns too.

A LCO can often make more money the last several months of the year than during spring and summer.  There is HUGE potential right now.

If you have ever wanted to start your own lawn care business or if you have just not made enough money this year you need to step up your game right now.

The StartALawnCareBusiness.com business package tells you how to price autumn clean up jobs and seeding jobs.  There is so much more to owning a lawn care business than cutting grass during the summer.

Right now is your time to get started.

The StartALawnCareBusiness.com business package is on sale right now.  Visit our website:  StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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People Who Don't Respect Your Time

Jul 24

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, employees, lawn business strategies, lawn care business, time | No Comments

I’ve written a couple posts lately on the concept of time valuation.

The-Law-of-Scarcity

and

Distractions-of-a-Lawn-Care-Business-Owner

These posts don’t speak to a dollar amount per minute for your time (there’s plenty discussion of pricing in our lawn care manuals).

More philosophically, these posts explore the concept of general valuation of your time as a business owner and the perceived value placed on your time by yourself and others.

Time Value

I am quickly coming to a strong realization.  You become the sole controller of your time only when you take a strong stance to protect it. Anything less than continued diligence will see your time completely absorbed and abused.

Three methods of protecting your time are listed below.

1)  Surround yourself with people who respect your time. Whether you are dealing with business acquaintances, customers, or employees the people around you must respect your time as a business owner.  If people around you don’t value your time they will waste it for you.  Do your best to distance yourself from time sappers.  Instead, surround yourself with those who allow you the time you need to make your business a success and enhance your productivity during your time with them.

2) Be proactive when allocating your time. When you know someone is a time sapper be ultra-defensive in agreeing to give them time for their activities.   Customer relations are very important for a lawn care business.  However, we all know customers who talk and talk, non productively, when you come to the door.  They tap you on the shoulder and try to talk to you over the roar of your lawn mower.  They never have your check ready when you have completed their lawn and they want to chat endlessly about their grand kids or the weather.

DON’T BE RUDE!!! but be proactive with time sappers.   Let them know you have work to do.  Let them know your business is important to you and, more importantly, all your customers are important to you and you don’t want to keep your next appointment waiting.  Act with a sense of urgency and be on your way.

3)  Resort to being a jerk if needed. Be as friendly and hospitable as possible to all your customers (and friends and other relationships).  However, there are just some people who do not take a hint.  When gentle reminders do not work, occasionally resort to strong reassurances that you don’t have time to devote endless hours of non-productive time to their needs.  Other, more productive, customers will come along and as you fill your client list with good customers, cull the time wasters from your roster.

Start and Expand Your Own Lawn Care Business

Do you have difficult customers?  Learn how to handle them with the Lawn Care Business Program available, and on sale now, through:

StartALawnCareBusiness.com

Don't Be an Unpaid Consultant!

Jul 20

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, lawn business strategies | No Comments

Unpaid Consulting happens everyday to new lawn care business owners.

FREE ESTIMATES

One of the best ways to attract potential customers for your lawn care business is to offer free estimates on all your advertising material.  Offering FREE estimates is a no-brainer since no future customer will ever pay you for a small lawn mowing job estimate.

PAID ESTIMATES

Large job estimates and (especially) landscaping design estimates require higher levels of expertise and greater numbers of hours than simple lawn mowing estimates.  As such, job estimates which require dissemination of information should not be conducted for free.

Seasoned customers are wiley though.  Often, homeowners who need landscape work completed will call a lawn care business owner in an attempt to glean as much information as possible from a free estimate.

STEALING INFORMATION?

“What shrubs would look good over there?”  or  “How much mulch do I need for all my beds?”  Are questions often asked by these prospects.  “Sketch a draft of the landscaping ideas you have for my lawn and give me a free estimate for the work.”

These questions are designed to give the customer free specialized information not a free estimate.  In many cases, customers will accept your calculations, shrub suggestions, and design work.  In possession of this information, they will take it to the garden shop, purchase their own materials, and install the landscaping themselves.

Giving free estimates is fine but don’t fall into the roll of being an UNPAID CONSULTANT!

Start A Lawn Care Business

Are you tired of traps and setbacks?  Visit our homepage (StartALawnCarebusiness.com) to read about our full-bore, jam-packed lawn care business package.  It’s on sale right now and will help you start and operate your own, successful lawn care business.

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100 Door Knocks: A Free Lawn Care Business Marketing Campaign.

Jun 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business | 7 Comments

Free Advertising for your Lawn Care Business

Far too often new lawn care business owners are lulled into a false sense of imminent success.  Afterall, how hard can it be to start a lawn care business?  Tack up a few flyers on telephone poles and hang a few door hangers.   Put an advertisement in the news paper and distribute 1000 business cards you designed yourself at Office Depot. Develop a website and pay someone to make a really cool logo.

Before getting started in the lawn care business, you have to ask yourself:  How much do you really know about your customers, their needs, and their willingness to pay?

Before you go to all the expense of starting your business and before you pay one penny toward marketing, take $50 of your start-up capital and buy yourself a new pair of shoes.  With those shoes, start walking.  Pound the pavement of your local neighborhoods and knock on doors.

Forget the sales pitch.  Forget the flyers.  Forget the door hangers and business cards.  Forget trying to gain even a single customer.  You are on a learning mission.  Don’t try to make any sales at all at this point.  Let them talk while you listen.

Some people won’t talk to you but many WILL.  They will tell you about weeds in their flower beds and mulch that has been bleached by the sun which needs to be replaced.   A young couple will be working overtime and not have the energy to mow their grass and an elderly gentleman won’t be able to clean his gutters like he once did.

When potential clients see you are trying to learn and not pressuring them into a mowing contract they will be more willing to talk with you.

Be tenacious. Set your goal at 100 doors and don’t stop until you have knocked on all 100  (not 70 or 80…..100). If rude customers close doors in your face just smile and walk to the next door. If you knock on 30 doors and everybody refuses to speak with you just smile and start knocking on #31.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t gain a single customer. By the end of the day you will know infinitely more than when you started. You will have a “feel” for your potential clients and you won’t have to guess what lawn care and landscaping  services to offer.

At the end of your day compile your notes.  Group similar comments and requested services.  What are most people looking for in a lawn care company?  What did they dislike about their last company?  How much are they willing to pay?  How often are they willing to have their work performed?

Grouping your comments will help you define a core set of services to offer potential customers.  Drawing a graph of prices customers are willing to pay will help you maximize your profit potential.

When you have finished your research, visit those same 100 doors, knock on them, and thank the people for helping you decide to start your own business.  Then, ask if you can give them an estimate.

This type of marketing is free and potential clients respond to it much more readily than flyers or door hangers especially from a new company like yours. For a new lawn care company, face-to-face advertising is the best marketing tool available…and it’s free.

If you decide to use this free marketing strategy, let us know results from your “100 Door Knocks” campaign.

For much more information on starting your own lawn care business, visit our website by clicking on “HOME” at the top of this page.

Digital camera for your landscaping business.

May 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, landscaping photography, lawn business strategies, lawn care videos | No Comments

Digital cameras help document your lawn care and landscaping jobs.

If you have read our materials on starting and operating your own lawn care and landscaping business you already understand the importance of keeping a digital camera ready to document your work.

Digital cameras are handy for adding projects you are particularly proud of to your photo portfolio.  They also allow for photographic documentation.  Quick before shots and after shots of your work stand in your benefit should disputes arise with your customers. 

Don’t forget to synchronize your camera’s clock with your GPS clock so you have proper ‘when and where’ documentation.  On-photo time stamping is not necessary since most cameras record time information into their exif data table.  This information can be pulled out at a later time without ruining your photograph.

All that aside, the purpose of this post is to let you know about one of the best compact point and shoot cameras on the market today.  It is one we have recently acquired and are well pleased with during initial tests.

Panasonic Lumix TZ5

The Panasonic Lumix TZ5 has recently been replaced by the Lumix TZ7.  Therefore, since the feature set of the TZ7 is marginal above the TZ5, the TZ5’s recently lowered price makes it a very attractive bargain.

Wide angle 28mm 10x Leica lens

The TZ5 features a 9.1 megapixel CCD and an incredible optical 10X Leica lens.  Completely zoomed out, you are given 28mm (equivalent) wide angle coverage.  Wide angle allows photographs of large landscaping and lawn care projects without having to step backward in order to frame your scenes.

High Def (HD) Video at 1280x720p

An amazing feature of Lumix’s TZ5 is its ability to film HD video.  While, as a landscaper, you will get more benefit from still photos, there are occasions when video gives better representation of your work.  Video quality is not up to quality received from a multi-CCD 1920x1080i dedicated video camera though our initial tests show great quality video from this camera.  Low-light graininess and washout are issues compared with higher-end dedicated camcorders.  If your landscaping has lots of colors, use sunshine creatively to brighten your project.

Price of the TZ5

As mentioned earlier, TZ7 is the latest offering from Panasonic’s Lumix line.  TZ5’s price has dropped significantly in light of this latest release.  Order via Amazon.com using the links provided below.  This is how we ordered our TZ5 and we have been uniformly well pleased with our purchase.

We plan to shoot several landscaping shots this week.  Check back this week for new blog postings including pictures from our TZ5.

Order your Panasonic Lumix TZ5:

Black
 

Blue
 

Silver
 

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