Landscape Management, October 2013

96 BUSINESS PLANNER 2014 continued from page 94 STEP 2 Get them interested If you dont look or sound different from other companies you probably arent Try this quick exercise Collect several competitors direct mail pieces or door hangers Cover the names logos and any other identifying information then compare your own marketing piece Chances are your message is identical to everyone elses We cut lawns We cut trees We do beautiful landscapes Were the best Were professional Call us for a free estimate This is a big problem If you look and sound the same as everyone else the only difference left is your price Start by determining the unique selling points that set you apart from your competitors Highlight the ones prospects care about Saying you do great work is meaningless when everyone else says the same thing Do you have 50 letters from ecstatic customers prospects can read online Do you have before and after videos demonstrating without a doubt you do the most beautiful landscape lighting installs in Midland Texas Dont be the company saying Just take our word for it Marketing is all about distinguishing yourself from your competitors Look different sound different and be better Afer that you can charge more STEP 3 Get them to engage with you Now that potential customers are interested how easy have you made it for them to raise their hand and say Yes I am interested Tell me more Sign me up Merely answering your phone instead of letting calls go to voicemail will increase your sales Sounds crazy right Sadly this is normal for our industry and its what youre competing against If youre more responsive than your competitors youll sell more Most prospects visit your website before they call so a lead generating website should be at the center of any landscape marketing campaign to support and increase the effectiveness of all other marketing efforts Some designers are great at making pretty websites Pretty on its own doesnt sell though A website exists for two reasons to get visitors to call or email you Your website design determines this outcome The images and text where forms and contact info are positioned and even the color of buttons affects the percent of visitors who will contact you If prospects dont know exactly what you do and in what service area theyre hitting the back button in 20 seconds or less And theyre not going to call if your website looks like youre about to go out of business This is where companies shoot themselves in the foot Invest in a professional lead generating website engineered to convert visitors into paying customers Spend more than 5 Stop using crummy free sites generic templates or Facebook to save money because youll end up costing yourself money in lost sales A website designed by a conversion LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2013 Lead R un Grow expert pays for itself multiple times over Test it and engineer it to get new customers You can spend nothing on a poorly designed free site that converts one of 1000 visitors into a customer or you can spend 5000 on a website that converts 100 of 1000 visitors STEP 4 Get them to act At some point a prospect has to speak with you or your staff face to face or over the phone to make a sale All that time and money youve spent leading up to this moment is thrown away in an instant if you cant close the sale Your staff should be fully trained on how to sell Its shocking how many business owners cant list 10 unique selling points about their own company If you dont know why someone should buy from you why would they The same is true with your staff members They must be able to highlight your strengths and overcome every objection a prospect has to signing up for your service especially your higher prices Youll never have a 100 percent close rate but you can capture a sale with one simple thing following up Ninety percent of companies never do this They dont call they dont email they dont put prospects on a special mailing list They quote a price and let them disappear to buy from competitors Why not give them a secondchance offer Why not Planning pointer Marketing is all about distinguishing yourself from your competitors Look different sound different and be better After that you can charge more send them a personal note the next day Extra effort lets prospects know you care about having them as a customer And if you care about doing business with them youll probably do a better job than the competitors who let their calls go to voicemail A follow up can capture an additional 20 percent of residential lawn care business that wouldve been lost otherwise Its easy for business owners to get caught up chasing a never ending procession of buzzwords to generate more business Stop chasing the buzzwords and become really good at what youre already doing Instead of adding more halfhearted marketing make your existing sales and marketing perform at the highest level possible Then anything else you add to the mix will be much more effective and profitable LM Pototschnik is owner of Lawn Care Marketing Expert Reach him at andrew@ lawncaremarketingexpert com or download a free report at GetMoreLawnClientsNow com