Great little article from GreenMark Consulting (who work with US landscapers, but from my read of their article absolutely applies over here):
As an owner, you probably know the importance of marketing your business. But what should you be doing — and not doing?
Here are the Top 6 marketing mistakes you should avoid:
1. Targeting everybody. This means you interest nobody. Know who your best prospect is, understand him or her thoroughly and then speak to them directly.
2. Do not over-sell yourself. Talking about yourself is fine, but do in a way that interests the customer. Remember: In general, people don’t care about you; they care about what you can do for them. Focus on benefits, possibilities and opportunities for your prospect.
3. Not having an up-to-date website (or no web presence at all). A well-designed and current website will make the best first impression on prospects. If potential clients cannot find you on the web, your prospects will often go elsewhere.
4. Not having professional looking proposals and presentation matreials. This is where the rubber meets the road and many landscape contractors lose projects they should have won. A great presentation will not win a job by itself, but a bad one will lose the job. Good proposals and presentations tell a story. Without it, the customer will assume that landscaper “A” is different from landscaper “B” only on price. Your prospects want a reason to choose, and a winning presentation and value proposition will give it to them.
5. Lack of follow-up. We often see landscape companies spend money on marketing and then either cannot keep up with it or do not follow-up in a timely manner. The same goes for post meeting follow-ups; it is imperative to return an estimate to a client with a reasonable amount of time. A responsive company shows they care about the client and values their time as you expect the client to value yours.
6. Marketing can over-sell capabilities if you are not careful. Make sure you have the resources to complete what you sell.
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Replies
All of the above six sound reasonable reminders about how to conduct business. I especially liked......
Focus on benefits, possibilities and opportunities for your prospect.
.....as a way of growing client satisfaction and business potential :-;
Cheers, Eugene
People buy from people right eugene. Big smile, friendly and trusting faces go along way. Oh and watch how you speak. Nothing worse than slang and poor diction.
Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to point this up for us all, Gary. I, for one, have a tendency to get caught up in the day to day imperatives and neglect these essentials. Your article is now a useful bookmark for me.
You picked up on exactly what caught my eye....
We all leave so much on 'the table' when it comes to future works with existing customers and then spend £££'s manically trying to advertise looking for work when it's there for the taking :-)
Eugene Baston said:
Great post Gary and some really simple but very important advice given.
Would just like to add a bit more to point 5. Communication is such an important part of business. I don't know about anybody else but it drives me crazy when I am waiting for a response to an email or an enquiry. If a client has made an enquiry and you don't have the information they need, rather than wait a few days until you have the information its great practice to just send an acknowledgement. This lets the client know that you have received their communication and that you are working on it. The client can then relax and not worry about chasing you up or worry whether or not their email is sitting in a junk folder somewhere. Its a small thing but it demonstrates from the off that you are a good communicator and that you are on top of things. In such a competitive market its often the small things that set you apart from your competition
Some really good points and reminders there. It shows the importance of time spent working ON the business as well as FOR the business.