New lawn care business owners are constantly writing me and asking how they can gain new clients. When responding to these questions, I like to give specific examples a lawn care business proprietor could do today or tomorrow to help them achieve their goals. Here is a specific example of how one lawn care business proprietor marketed his business and gained over 50 new lawn care customers in less than 5 months.
Recently on our lawn care business forum, a Lawn Care Service fresh member Egreen wrote and said "This is my first season running a business. Last winter I called several businesses ex. gas stations,7-11 small shopping centers in my area and told the manager that I was NOT selling them anything. I told them I was considering a lawn care business and was going for a survey about their current lawn care company. This allowed me to build a rapport with the business enterprise owner. I asked who serviced their house, how often, just how much they charged and if these were pleased with the service provided. Before hanging up I told them easily considered opening shop I'd call them and tell them how it was going.
These phone calls allowed me to gather plenty of information from them that they may not have told me otherwise. When I did so open shop I called each one back and explained to them who I was and that I could service their lawn and property. I could also solve the problems that they had with their current lawn care provider and I possibly could save them a few dollars. I landed 11 out of 12 commercial accounts!"
Now any lawn care business proprietor that has been around for a couple seasons knows the return they will make on many marketing strategies. For instance fainting lawn care service flyers in your neighborhood may help you obtain a 2-3 3 % response. But can you imagine landing 11 out of 12 accounts you targeted? That's an amazing response!
We asked Egreen further detailed questions to really hammer down the steps in his successful lawn care marketing process. He responded by saying "When I called the potential clients, I simply took a spiral notebook and took notes. Everyone felt free to tell me the majority of things because I told them up front I wasn't selling them anything. The most frequent complaints I heard were that the last lawn care company didn't do a sufficient job trimming."
Now that is very insightful information, but I immediately thought despite having this information, it might be difficult to land these commercial lawn care account because I was certain there would be lawn care contracts involved that wouldn't be up for renewal before end of the year. To my surprise, after talking further with Egreen he said "The lawn care contracts allowed 1 month written notice to cancel. That has been fine with me because I had to prepare myself anyway. When I was ready to present my estimate, I was able to beat the competition's price by a few dollars but I had the information that they told me in the past ex. Bad job trimming. This allowed me to get into detail about how well I trim every area. I learned never to sell price but sell the quality of work."
Now once these accounts were landed, what was the chance Egreen and his lawn care business would fall into the same trap the previous lawn care business owners did. The trap being truly a lack of communication. There is a disconnect between what the client wanted and what the lawn care service company was providing. So I then asked Egreen if he was handling his communication with his new clients differently compared to the previous lawn company. He responded by saying "I call my residential and commercial accounts about monthly and ask them how exactly we are doing. I explain that I'd favour them tell me if I'm doing something amiss (regardless of how small the issue) than not have a happy customer. Personally i think this personal touch is way better. This is my first year in this business, I started about five months ago and I have 53 residential and small commercial accounts. The biggest lesson I think is to make them feel that they will have a friend available. They will hopefully be considered a little more loyal. I do get person to person calls also. I also walk door to door and tell the client I was in the area giving an estimate to a neighbor and since i have was in the neighborhood I needed to avoid by. I mention what I do and point something out like an unedged sidewalk and explain the clean look of an edge job."
Business Name: The Ethos Group
Business Address:
1)New Port Richey 34653 Florida
2)Tampa 33623 Florida
3)St. Petersburg 33716 Florida
4)Sun City Center 33573 Florida
5)Ocala 34475 Florida
Business Email: Info@ethosgroups.com
Business Contact Number: (540) 268-0718
Business Website URL: https://ethosgroups.com/
Business Working Hours: Monday-Sunday 6AM-10PM
No comments:
Post a Comment