In a competitive market, it’s critical to not sell by price alone. Not only will this protect your profit margins as you avoid underbidding, but it can also lead to long-term relationships that produce referrals and additional work.
Establishing Trust
The first step in shifting the client’s mindset from you being just a vendor to a true partner is establishing trust with them.
While you may think you can achieve this by simply sharing about your company’s capabilities or history, this can end up boring a client or sounding too similar to other landscape companies they’ve met with.
Instead, during the discovery phase, ask questions to find out what the buyer wants, needs, and cares about. Then you can provide the relevant information on how you can solve their challenge and address any objections, instead of solely focusing on the cost of a service.
For instance, Green Lawn Fertilizing’s outside sales reps understand the importance of building rapport with homeowners. One aspect they’ll highlight with leads is the overall quality of the company and their strong Google star rating.
“We can go out and be confident in what we’re selling,” says Patrik Khosrowabadi, market sales director for Green Lawn Fertilizing’s West Chester branch. “When we’re confident that the lawns are going to look great, it helps with the value-based selling.”
Selling Outcomes
The next step is to reframe the service you’re selling to the client to highlight the outcome versus the line items. For instance, when selling to property managers, rather than pitching them on a certain enhancement, communicate what that upgrade will do for the client, whether that is improving the safety and security of their property or enhancing the visitor experience on the site.
Depending on the client, you may need to touch on the intellectual, emotional or financial aspects to resonate with different individuals.
“We have to speak to their body, their soul and their pocketbook,” says Chad Sutton, a water resource manager with Gachina Landscape Management, based in Menlo Park, California. “We touch on all these different points because there are lots of different personalities we work with. There’s ultimately going to be multiple decision makers for a commercial property, and each one’s going to have a unique viewpoint.”
In some cases, fixing a drainage issue or upgrading an irrigation system may seem like just an expense to the customer. This is where you can share, as the subject matter expert, the risks of leaving these matters unaddressed.
Many times, property managers don’t have the time to walk each of their sites, and certain problems could not even be on their radar. If an irrigation system is wasting water, you won’t just be able to help the client reduce their monthly bill, but you can also share how this impacts their plant health by increasing the likelihood of molds and fungi, encouraging shallow roots and robbing the soil of nutrients. Collectively, this can be a far more compelling story to the client.
Strengthening Relationships
Once a client has trusted you with their business, you can continue to strengthen the relationship by taking a consultative approach. Rather than telling them what needs to be done, explain the why behind a certain suggestion.
Position your recommendations as proactive solutions and educate the client on the long-term impacts and trade-offs as they make their choices.
Communication is also essential for establishing strong partnerships with your clients. By having scheduled site audits and proactive reporting, you can further establish yourself as a trusted advisor.
Strong attention to detail can mean a lot to both residential and commercial clients as it conveys that your company truly cares. These positive interactions can lead to future work and strong word of mouth.
“In today’s world, when a client has a good experience, they may share that with others,” says Joseph Barnes, marketing director for Yellowstone Landscape, headquartered in Bunnell, Florida. “But when they have a negative experience, they will definitely share that with anyone who’ll listen. The more positive client experiences and partnerships that we can create, the more successful our company is going to be. If you can find one or two clients that are growing and on the rise, partner with them and their momentum can really carry your business to new heights, too.”
