How To Build Long Lasting Relationships With Your Customers – and make bucket loads of money along the way!

I knew that heading would grab Your attention!

Seriously though, if you are going to get your customers to buy from you Initially, and continuously forever, You need to have a great relationship with them.

Now, the only way to have a good relationship with your customer is to identify all the points of contact that are made with the prospect, and then later on, the customer! Once you have identified all the contact points that occur with the customer, then you can analyse these contact points and look at how you can make each contact point with customers a better experience!

Your Customers are the important drivers of Profit in Your Business – this is a No-Brainer!

Rising Customer Satisfaction Levels will result in:

1. More Referrals
2. Your Customers Buying More Frequently
3. Improved Social Interactions between Customers and Staff – so the employees are happier

Let’s now identify the Points of Contact you will have with Customers:

1. Customers hears about your service via flyer, internet, website, radio, newspaper etc
2. Customer contacts Your Company for more information and requests Quote
3. Customer meets you personally at Quote
4. Customer gives you the go ahead, places order or whatever
5. Customer experiences Your Service
6. Customer receives invoice
7. Customer request After Sales Service

Each of these Points Of Contact are opportunities to delight Your Customer, and provide them with a Favourable Experience!

Next week, we can look at each of these Points Of Contact within the context of Lawn Green’s Customer Relationship Strategy.

How To Build a $100,000 a year Lawn and Garden Business in 30 days – for less than $300

or more simply known as,

The “Nought To A Hundred K in 30 Days” Blueprint.

I am working pretty hard on getting this Blueprint (Report) together, spending a fair bit of my spare time putting together all the ideas and knowledge I have gathered over the last 19 years in the Lawn and Gardening Industry.

The “Nought To A Hundred K in 30 Days” Blueprint is a report based on:

1. over 19 years of industry experience
2. ideas and marketing knowledge shared with other successful contractors
3. marketing knowledge developed from experience, attending lots of seminars, reading copious marketing and business books, and
4. 3 years part-time of formal university study resulting in a Masters Of Business Administration from Macquarie University (in Sydney, Australia)

The Core Business Model of The “Nought To A Hundred K In 30 Days” Blueprint takes into account the following 7 factors:

1. you can hit the ground running with less than $300 in advertising costs
2. you can create a pipe-line of jobs just like Turning On A Tap
3. you are motivated for success
4. your competition is minimal
5. you will charge more for your service than you thought possible
6. you will under promise and over deliver
7. you get out of bed early each day, that is, You won’t be sleeping in!

The Blueprint report also explores the following:

1. the core Business Model and why it’s a go-er – that is, How To Implement The Strategy Successfully
2. Forecasting For Success
3. 6 Long-Term Business Strategies that support the core Business Model
4. 4 Business Strategies that I Do Not Recommend, and the reasons Why
5. and much much more ( the report is around 30 pages of solid information)

I am hopeful The Blueprint report will be ready for release in early 2010.

So to be 1 of the first to read The Blueprint, please make a Comment (and leave your email address), or alternately, hit the Grab The Content Feed (RSS) button on top Right Hand corner of the is page.

Thanks again for calling by. I will resume writing my regular weekly post next week.

How To Successfully Market Your Lawn & Garden Business in Good & Bad Times – the Top 7 List…

In these less than glamorous times we live in (with the roller coaster Global Economy), we should be forever mindful that Marketing our Business should be our Number 1 focus!

In my mind, there are 7 Key Elements You Need to Successfully Market Your Business in Good Times & Bad.

These 7 elements are:

1. Marketing is Your Job First and Foremost – Marketing should be your #1 Priority Always
2. You should make it Your Business to do something everyday to market your business
3. Focus on getting Quality Leads (or Prospects) – in other words, it is far better to have a few Quality Customers than lots of low paying customers
4. Aim for Expert Status – become the expert in your field, otherwise develop your own niche
5. Don’t worry about branding your business so much, rather build Your Profile with consistent and effective direct response marketing efforts like flyers, website, referral systems
6. Establish an online presence – this something we are working on to provide for Free to our future Contractor partners
7. Always remember Your best customers are Your existing Customers – it is 9 times easier to sell to Your Existing Customers than to Prospects

How To Find Out If Your Customers Like You…

Just how do You know whether Your Customers value Your Service? The answer is in the asking, that is, by surveying Your Customers! You will never know how well You are performing if You never ask!

You can forget about how profitable Your business is, if Your Customers are not happy! So the obvious thing to do is ask Your Customers how they rate the performance of Your service!

In designing a Customer Satisfaction Survey, you will need to identify the critical areas of performance that your customers can judge you on. These criticals areas may include whether:

1. you delivered your service on time
2. your service was acceptable
3. you provided adequate after sales service
4. you responded well to after sales enquiries
5. you delivered at every point of contact with customers

The key customer performance areas (that can be rated on a scale of 1 to 10) include:

1. product/service quality
2. on time service delivery
3. additional services provided
4. staff courtesy
5. staff professionalism
6. staff knowledge of products and service
7. complaint resolution
8. ease of doing business
9. invoicing and accounts
10. general expectations versus reality
11. responsiveness to enquiries
12. after sales service

It will help in your own business to identify the Points Of Contact that you have with Prospects and Customers, then to see how prospects and customers rate you on these interactions.

These Points Of Contact with customers include:

1. Initial telephone enquiry – how is Your telephone (Bedside) manner
2. Prospect expectations met with when quote will be done
3. If prospect goes ahead with quote, when can they expect the job to be completed by
4. Your in person bedside manner
5. Your presentation – uniform and manner
6. Your phone manner with arrogant prospects and customers
7. Your phone manner with irate customers

How To Get More Sales…

Last week in “How To Improve The Sales Figures In Your Lawn Mowing Business” we spoke about the 3 generic ways that any business can improve its sales and turnover figures.

These are:

• Increase the number of customers – ie getting more customers from an increased level of advertising and promotion
• Increase the frequency of sales to existing customers – ie customers buying more often
• Increase the dollar value per sale – ie putting your price up

The 3rd way – by increasing the dollar value per sale – is worth exploring to see if we can open our eyes to further possibilities!

A price rise is a rather unimaginative but highly effective way of increasing the customer spend with you. However, you could also look at providing your products, services or both in bundles that are presented with an emphasis on quality or more features.

…products, services or both in bundles that are presented with an emphasis on quality or more features…

What is good with this is you can charge more for your service because you have differentiated yourself from your competition!

You may:

1. Launch a premium version of existing service or product ie mowing with a cylinder or barrel mower
2. Increase the price in line with inflation – make sure this is documented in your flyer
3. Charge for incidentals like tipping, remove grass clippings, an add on service that does not take too long
4. Charge a premium for immediate service – charge a premium for weekend work especially if you have been called out at late notice – do not be afraid of capitalising on customer’s desperation
5. Bundle your service with other suppliers
6. Offer a discount for services that run for more than 6 hours - larger jobs can be completed with extra staff – in the end you make more per hour!
7. Develop new services that can be bundled with your existing service – new services may include Mulching (chipping) service, irrigation installations and repairs, tankwater installations, trench digging service for plumbers and other irrigation contractors (where trenching machine is already used in your irrigation business) etc

How To Improve The Sales Figures In Your Lawn Mowing Business…

In any business, the sales number can be increased by doing the following 3 things:

• Increase the number of customers – ie. more customers
• Increase the frequency of sales to existing customers – ie. customers buying more often
• Increase the dollar value per sale – ie. putting your price up

When you are looking to improve your bottom line by improving the Sales number consider the following:

1. Brainstorm with your customers (via surveys), friends and staff on all the possible ways that you might be able to increase sales
2. Can you increase your sales by improving your marketing strategies – ie. are there new markets (residential, corporates, factories, strata etc) that you could sell to, can you add new features to your product and services bundles, can you bundle with other products, increase the price or improve your advertising
3. Could you provide incentives to encourage employees, staff or sub-contractors to improve their sales or improve the level of customer satisfaction
4. Could you improve on sales and telephone script training
5. Could you improve on conversion rates from leads to sales
6. Could you employ more sales people

One last thing is…try not to be all things to all men! Make a point of specialising in a certain area of landscape management…create a niche for yourself! By creating a niche you make it easier for customers to seek you out!

Many contractors are a bit confused as to How To Quote on a Job – that is, how to write the quote up so as not to provoke negative reactions from customers!

You can write up a basic quote in one of the following 2 ways:

1. You can write on the quote “Garden Makeover – beds cleared and weeded, install drip irrigation, mulch installed, 10 plants installed – Total Cost of Garden Makeover = $1,200”, or
2. You can itemize the quote as follows:

Garden Makeover includes:

Beds Weeded and Cleared

Mow Lawns

Sweep all paths and hard surfaces at end of job

Parts – Drip Irrigation supply=$100

Supply 10 Plants=$200

Supply Mulch=$150

Remove Waste=$100

Labour=$650

Total Cost=$1,200

I think there are merits for either proposal, however, you do leave yourself exposed to “picky” customers if you give a breakdown in price as in the second option.

I would be inclined to write up a quote for a Garden Makeover with all the different tasks listed and materials supplied without the breakdown in prices. The only price you give is the Total Fixed Price for the complete Garden Makeover.

The advantages of Fixed Price Quoting are:

• You can tell the customer (if and when they require quotes) to use your itemized list for other contractors to quote on (without disclosing the Total Fixed Price)
• Your itemized list will be very very detailed, so other contractors will be more inclined to be more conservative in their pricing of the job (ie. they are more likely to charge higher)
• The prospect cannot compare your labour rates with someone else – some customers or prospects get hung up with how much money you are making, so don’t give them an Hourly Rate. With the Fixed Price Quote, the customer cannot work out your hourly rate!
• Your detailed list of tasks to be completed makes it difficult for customers to argue about what was promised – your promises are detailed in quote itemization

Other things to remember when quoting are:

• Your quote should only be valid for say 30 days – this would be part of your pro-forma quote/letterhead
• Only give prices on site, not over the phone
• Don’t quote hourly rates
• Use your camera or telephone camera to take photos of jobs before and after – this will help settle disputes very quickly
• Photos of plants installed – this way if the plants are stolen you are covered
• Revise your pricing if you are getting more than 65% of jobs you have quoted on
• Your quote for lawn mowing should be detailed
• Review a previous post on How To Do Business with Customers and Prospects

If you have any other ideas on How To Quote On Jobs please leave a comment with this article.

How To Write A One Pager Business Plan, and achieve your goals every day!

Most people I know in the Garden and Landscape Industry (or Green Industry, as it is known in North America) don’t have a Business Plan.

This is really sad as so much more could be accomplished by business owners if they had a business plan to give them direction and drive to achieve more.

I think the problem here is that most people think you must have a business plan that spans 30 or more pages. Consequently, business owners put off the idea of writing their business plan.

I think there is a time and a place for a 30 page Business Plan, but for your everyday operation a 1 pager is the go.

Think about it…You know what business you are in, and hopefully you will have worked out by now the fastest and most economical ways of attracting new business (customers). So all you need to do is summarise all your business operations and aspirations to 1 page.

A 1 pager Business Plan is more likely to stay firmly etched on your brain, so each day will see you achieving your goals with more purpose.

Your 1 pager Business Plan will include the following 6 components:

1. Two Months maximum period
2. Five KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) maximum
3. Ten Activities maximum
4. Implementation Schedule included
5. The Schedule is Monitored Weekly
6. Two Monthly Review – it is re-written with a complete review of items 1 to 5 above

Here is an example of a 1 Pager Business Plan…

Personal Business Plan

Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
for 2 months ending . . . . . / . . . . . / 20. . . . .

1. The Key Performance Indicators I am monitoring over this two month period are

2. The activities I am introducing / enhancing are

3. Every week I will record my performance against my KPI Goals and Activity Implementation Schedule (1+2 above).

This Business Plan expires on . . . . . . . . . . . I will complete a new Business Plan for the next two months on or before the expiration date.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Date

How To Get The Right Image or Brand For Your Lawn Mowing and Gardening Business?

I guess the first question we need to ask ourselves is how important is Branding to us, and indeed, what is Branding?

Broadly, a brand can be identified by the name(s), descriptive term(s), sign(s), symbol(s) or design(s), or a combination of these things that help to identify (and differentiate) the products and services of one business over another.

So your Brand comprises a mix of both Intangibles (ie. emotional connectivity with customers and prospects via your Unique Selling Proposition, telephone scripts and manner, service fulfillment) and Tangibles (ie. business name logo and design displayed on letterheads, business cards, vehicle signage, websites, flyers, calling cards, invoices, quote forms, product, etc).

So after all that You and I can agree that Branding is important to our businesses.

In terms of the Right Image for your business, this requires some creativity that You may not be able to come up with.

Briefly, the Image you want to create should be left in the hands of a graphic artist or designer. The Business Name, Logo and Design (Colours) needs to help communicate the Intangible and Tangible elements I talked about earlier.

The logo for Lawn Green was designed by a Signwriter friend of mine, Bruce Kent (of Bruce Kent Signs, Cherrybrook, NSW, Sydney, Australia - telephone  at +61 2 9484 5177). Why did I ask him to design the Logo? Good question! You see, I knew Bruce was from the old school of Graphic Design, and that his free hand artistic ability would produce a great selection of 3 really good Logos to choose from.

Branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but rather it’s about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem.

So, a good brand will:

• Deliver Your message (Unique Selling Proposition) clearly
• Confirm Your credibility with great testimonials
• Emotionally connect with Your target prospects
• Motivate the Customer to spend more
• Establish Customer Loyalty

Successful Branding takes into account a Good understanding of Your Customers Needs and Wants, and communicating this Understanding (aka Caring) at every Point of Contact Your business makes with Prospects and Customers. 

At the end of the day, Your Brand (if built correctly) will reside positively within the hearts and minds of Your Customers and Prospects. 

How To Market Your Business In Tough Economic Times, or anytime for that matter!

I guess everybody who runs their own Lawn Mowing and Gardening Business would love to know what’s the Magic Bullet for “nailing their customers right between the eyes”.

In the words of Siimon Reynolds (the Aussie advertising and marketing guru), “what any small business needs (to be successful) is to focus on just 3 to 4 marketing strategies that give consistent results”.

I guess what most people are guilty of is trying all sorts of advertising activities and not really knowing what yields the best results. Mmm, like the guy that once said, “I know half my advertising dollars are wasted – trouble is I just don’t know which half!”.

Now wouldn’t any of us want to have the Perfect Marketing Mix (of 3-4 advertising activities) that gave us the best results for our business. I mean how good would it be if we knew that for every dollar we spent we would get more than that dollar back!

So as Siimon Reynolds suggests, what we want is 3-4 advertising activities in our marketing mix!

What are the broad range of things that we could do to advertise our business? The broad list consists of the following:

• TV
• Radio
• Yellow Pages
• Newspaper (print media)
• Magazines (print media)
• Outdoor Advertising
• Internet
• Flyers
• Brochures
• Magazine Inserts (Flyers)
• Website
• Referrals (word of mouth)
• Signage
• and the list goes on!

Well, unlike most big brands (Coke etc) and their equally big advertising budgets, us little guys have to think smart when it comes to marketing our business!

So, I recommend developing an advertising strategy that is big on return for minimal outlay.

Now, my top 3-4 advertising strategies are:

1. Vehicle signage
2. Flyers
3. Organised system of harvesting referrals and leads from your circle of influence (friends, family & customers)
4. Website (a distant 4th)

Later, I will discuss the merits and systems involved with each of these advertising techniques. I would like to know others think, especially with advertising mediums like Yellow Pages etc.