Improving your sales knowledge and skills can help you get more landscaping jobs and increase your profit
As a landscaper, you spend a lot of time outdoors doing beautiful work. Behind the scenes, however, the work you do to sell your landscaping services is vital to business growth.
Selling landscaping business services requires preparation. It’s important that you anticipate customer needs, come across confident in your services, and have answers to customer questions.
Between managing employees and materials, landscapers often operate on thin margins. Efficient and effective sales are essential to save time and money. This list of techniques and tips will help you learn how to sell your landscaping services like a pro.
When you first start your landscaping business, you may operate solo or with a small team. You may do your own sales and marketing too. As your business grows, so will the time commitment required to scale your sales.
If you see sales numbers plateau, ask yourself the following:
Have I done all I can to network, advertise, and upsell existing customers?
Can I afford to hire full-time or even outsource to an agency?
Will the increased revenue cover the cost of the salesperson and still bring a profit?
If you can answer yes to those questions, consider your options.
The cost of hiring a full-time salesperson includes more than just a salary and benefits. Even if you choose to hire an independent contractor without benefits, they’ll still need training, sales goals, and resources. The payoff will be a dedicated team member who can learn your business and become a friendly face for customers.
Don’t overlook a candidate without industry knowledge, as they can learn on the job. The right candidate should come equipped with professional sales experience. Marketing and design skills are a plus.
Don’t have the resources for a new hire? Outsourcing is another great option. Advertising agencies offer experienced teams to create your promotional campaigns and materials. If you simply want a sales boost, hire an agency for a one-off advertising project. For example, they could create a photo booklet showcasing your lawn services jobs.
If you want continued growth, enter a contract for a long-term marketing campaign. You’ll receive analytics about ad performance, which can help you understand your target market better. Analytics will tell you what wording and imagery gets the most response and whether your audience is more receptive to print, video, or social media.
You can also get specific insights about the age, gender, economic status, and geographic location of the people who respond to your marketing.
Whether you’ve decided to hire or take on sales yourself, you need to know how to sell a landscaping business.
The following tips will help you develop a sales process and learn which materials your potential customers respond to the best.
Create eye-catching promotional materials to distribute in target communities. If you don’t have any design help, try Canva or PicMonkey. Both are easy-to-use tools with free customizable templates, so you don’t need graphic design skills.
Your materials could be as simple as one-page flyers showcasing photos of your work or a whole calendar full of beautiful landscaping jobs. Briefly describe your service offerings and include contact information.
You can also design lawn signs to place at customer homes after successful lawn care jobs. This allows your work to speak for itself. Other common materials include more permanent items that prospects may find useful, such as fridge magnets, mugs, or pens.
When you first talk to a potential customer, be prepared for questions. They may have some prior landscaping knowledge, but they also may be unfamiliar with the types of lawn service jobs you perform. Talk to them about their exact needs, so you can recommend the right lawn care services for them.
Frequent customer questions include:
What services do you provide?
Why do I need this service? (Irrigation, aeration, mulch, trimming, etc.)
What do you charge for a landscape job?
What can you do that my current landscaper can’t?
Do you offer maintenance packages?
What services do you think I would benefit from the most?
Your list may look different depending on the questions you hear most often. When training a new salesperson, make sure they know how to answer these questions.
Nail your estimate and you may land the job. To create an attractive quote, talk to prospects. Taking the time to understand a homeowner builds trust.
If you’re meeting a prospect on-site, walk through their yard. Point out areas where they might benefit from your services. For example, note where low-maintenance plants or trimming could increase curb appeal.
If you’re not on-site, ask specific questions about their concerns. Find out how the prospect uses their outdoor space and which features are important to them.
Once you’ve discussed the extent of their desired work, present a quote. Account for material, labor, and overhead costs, then add your markup. Keep your rates competitive with other local landscapers. If you don’t know what your competitors are offering, check their website or try calling to inquire as if you were a potential customer.
Especially on a cold call, you’re fighting to win business from a stranger. The quality of your work is important, but you need to earn trust. Your first interaction may determine whether they do business with you. Dress well, be friendly, and keep the conversation about them.
Lead with your “headline.” Tell them upfront why they need your services. You can offer a discount on their first lawn care job as a bonus to demonstrate your skills.
Here’s a sample script you can use for this interaction:
“I have the expertise to handle all your lawn care and maintenance needs. To show you why we’re the best choice, allow me to provide our basic lawn care service at a 25% discount for your first appointment.”
If you don’t close, leave them with promotional materials and don’t take it personally. They may call you later if they have your contact information. Follow up with a phone call or by mailing a flyer to their address. If you do, wait at least a week after your first sales call.
Now that you know what to expect, it’s time to sell!
Make potential customers’ lives easier and take the work out of finding you. Create a website that describes your services and post company updates on social media channels.
Frequent engagement and accurate business information shows Google that your business is legitimate. This can boost your ranking when potential customers are searching for landscapers.
You can also create an account on Angi Pro to get more landscape jobs in your local area. Angi allows homeowners to request quotes from you directly, helps you manage your leads, showcase business photos, and get more jobs year-round.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to attract customers. If you have a website, you can collect contact information with a simple form.
Offer customers helpful tips in a monthly newsletter format in exchange for their email address. For example, you could send tips on the best plants to boost curb appeal, how to keep your grass green in winter, and more.
You can easily organize prospect and customer emails and set up your newsletter using a free email marketing tool such as MailChimp. The emails you collect in this way are from people who may be more open to hearing about your services. Include special offers, discounts, and promotions to entice them to schedule a service with you.
People are more likely to trust their friends, family, and neighbors, so let your customers sell your services for you.
Word-of-mouth referrals do happen organically, but you can incentivize the process with a referral program. Give existing customers a small bonus for each new customer they refer, such as a gift card, discount on a future service, or free one-time service.
If you aren’t comfortable offering perks, ask your existing customers to leave you a review online. Potential customers searching for local landscaping services are likely to read online reviews before calling.
As you try these landscaping sales techniques and develop your own, you’ll learn what works. Trial and error will help you refine your sales process until it becomes your proven system.
Connect with local homeowners immediately by signing up for Angi Ads. Sign up today to list your landscaping business, provide quotes to future customers, and book more landscaping jobs.
