3500 + Lawn Care Customer Base

You've reached the point where the lawn care business is running well. You have a management team in place and they can handle most situations. You make the big decisions, but for the most part you're out of the loop on most day-to-day issues. You still fill-in once and awhile just keep your feet wet. You've been looking at franchising the entire operation or even selling the business and have already begun to look at the legal aspects. You may also be committed to keeping the company as is (no franchising, no gearing up to sell the company), you just want to keep growing it at a steady growth rate.

You're already using about all of the lawn care marketing tools available. The one you may have not used yet are the consumer Home & Garden Shows. These are a major commitment of time and resources for your team, but because of your broad market share, it may be worth testing.

What to do?

Besides all of the options mentioned in the 2000 - 3000 Lawn Customer Base Guide, you may want to consider having a booth at a Home & Garden Show. There's also just home improvement and remodeling shows, all of which have a high potential for prospective lawn care customers. Before committing your company to the project, assess your lawn care sales team and who would best be able to staff the booth. It requires at least 2 people or more depending on show hours to man the booth. It requires people that like talking to strangers. If you have the man-power and the resources, a Home & Garden Show may pay off. It will generate leads, but the leads will be over a wide geographic area.

• Web Site Upgrade ($500 - $1500)

• Door Hanging — Neighbors of Current Customers ($0.20 each + labor costs)

• Business Cards an inexpensive way to make a big impact (less than $0.07 + postage)

• Block Leads

• Pre-Pay Letter to Cancels— send a Pre-Pay Letter to customers that cancelled during the previous 2 years, offer them a substantial discount 10-20% if they prepay for the entire full season. Filter your Cancel file to remove movers and bad debt/problem customers.

• Advertising Specialties (free rain gauges/note pads/pens etc.)

• Telemarketing — New Leads ($1600 - 2000 for 50 hour test)

• Telemarketing — Cancel/Reject File (in house)

• Fall Direct Mail Campaign — targeted list; especially successful with poor weather conditions leading up to 1st week of September

• Spring Direct Mail Campaigns — the best time to generate quality leads and long-term customers; highly selective list following specific criteria for maximum results and return on investment; make a deeper selection in the list selection

• Second Spring Mailer — remail for a 2nd time to the same list. Response rates are slightly lower on a 2nd mailing to the same name, but it still is a viable alternative

• Premium Truck Decaling — truck sales account for between 2 - 4 % of new sales each year; make a lasting impression with quality truck signage; investment depends on size and quantity of graphics; include web site on truck as well as all literature used by company

• Television Advertising — for mid-range geographic markets ($4500 - $45000 production costs plus minimum $10000 media buy)

• Home & Garden Shows — have a plan and work the plan; show costs vary depending on location

BONUS PAGE:

Read 10 FREE Tips for improving customer retention

Kenny Crenshaw, Herbi Systems says...

"We've always found Don to give us excellent advice based on his many years of experience in the lawn care industry. We place our trust in Don because we know that he is more concerned with our marketing needs than his bottom line. I always refer people to Yes! Marketing with confidence. I tell everyone who calls me about them, "If Don Nichols tells you something regarding marketing, just do it."