I’ve rarely seen this subject mentioned at Landscape
or lawn care seminars or conferences or even in books
for Green Industry professionals.
But, I can tell you for certain that if you don’t get
a handle on your marketing for your landscape marketing,
you can forget about creating and maintaining a large
consistent income.
Without a landscape marketing plan (as well as a landscape business plan, or lawn care business plan you can expect to be a slave to your landscaping or lawncare business for the rest of your life.
On the main website and on the blog I offer quite a bit
of landscape marketing ideas, as well as lawn care business tips. And there is a vast amount of information there for free – not to mention the success that so many contractors have had with all of the landscape marketing ideas in my landscape marketing systems that are for sale at our main website:
http://www.greenindustrysuccess.com
So, that being said let’s get on with it and share with
you likley THE most powerful landscaping or lawn care
business tips you’ll ever hear…
Here it is:
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Being GREAT at landscape contracting or lawn care,
or whatever it is that you do is not good enough!
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I cannot be gentle about this, even though you
will not like hearing it. This is the fundamental
truth that can liberate you from laboring for your
dollars and settling for an average income.
It can empower you to totally transform your
business into a high-income profit generating
machine that your competitors will absolutely
envy.
So, listen up – there’s more:
In the Green Industry today, it’s not how much you
know about running your business, nor is it the
product choices or equipment purchases that you
make nor the employees that you hire that determine
your income -
It is how effective you are at marketing yourself,
your company and your services, that creates the
balance in your bank account.
You may feel that this is unfair or not the way
that it should be. You can fight it (and maybe
even go broke). Or you can embrace this as an
opportunity, and take the necessary steps to
become as good at marketing your business as you
are at getting the work done.
The unhappy fact is that you can be the VERY best
at what you do, provide the very best equipment,
the cleanest trucks and have the best customer
service in the industry, AND STILL STARVE TO DEATH
if you cannot affordably and efficiently attract a
steady stream of good new business, and keep the
customers that you already have.
You need great marketing to protect your customers
from poachers. And, you must have great marketing
to affordably keep new work coming in.
Truth is, marketing is the single most important
function in your landscape business. And, as a
successful lawn care or landscaping business owner
your best chance to succeed is to become your own
“Master Marketing Director”.
Why would you leave the most critical function of
your business up to someone else?
If you truly believed that your number one duty as
a business owner is to “market your business”, would
your daily agenda change?
You may even be saying right now, “but Larry, I do
handle all the marketing for my company and it is a
priority”.
My response to you in return would be “How much of
your time are you truly devoting to “high value”
marketing activities”?
Now I’m not talking about taking a half hour to
meet with an advertising rep or making time to drop
your latest flyer off at the print shop. I’m talking
about the kind of activities that go into becoming a
true marketing oriented company.
Here are some activities that you should consider
high priority:
- Studying the marketing and strategies used by
your competitors
- Networking with other business owners who
service the same clients as you do.
- Creating programs to stimulate referrals from your
existing clients.
- Writing sales letters or advertising to promote
new and different services to your client base.
- Creating new promotional strategies to acquire
new clients.
- Testing your ads and marketing campaigns to try
and improve the response rates.
- Finding new and low cost ways to get new accounts.
- Developing new ways to differentiate your company
from your competitors.
- Writing articles for newspapers and magazines or
your company newsletter.
- Attending mastermind or networking meetings.
- Attending marketing conferences or seminars
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a
landscape or lawn care business owner is to be
fooled into thinking that you are in the business
installing plants and shrubs, or mowing and blowing,
whatever the service you provide.
That is not the case.
YOU are in the business of MARKETING your services.
The quicker this realization hits you, the quicker
you can start to build the business of your dreams.
Great marketing can make up for a whole lot of
operational flaws in your business…but not visa-
versa.
Marketing IS your business, not simply one aspect
of it. You should be eager to invest in your own
direct response marketing education.
What I’ve shared with you is a whole new way of
thinking for most contractors. However, you must
change your thinking if you are not currently
managing your business with marketing at the
fore-front.
If you really grasp this information that I’ve
shared with you today, you will be leaps and bounds
ahead of your competition.
There’s no doubt,if you will take control and
become your own marketing expert, your business
will certainly boom!
As always Should you have any questions or comments,
I’d love to hear from you!
To your marketing success,
Larry
Larry L. Brown, CLP
larry@greenindustrysuccess.com
http://www.greenindustrysuccess.com
http://www.landscapebusiness.org
