Running Your Lawn Care Leads
Leads are just too damned expensive to waste on a sales person that's
not closing 40-50% of non-telemarketing leads consistently. Find out why
they're not closing and fix the problem! Retrain!
Make sure everyone running lawn leads understands the objections they
might encounter along with the right responses. Closing leads is a sales
job
and not necessarily a tech job. Some people have a knack for being able
to close a sale, and others just don't get it. They think all they have
to do is go find the problem spots in the yard and the solution will
be obvious. But it's usually not. The people running the leads need
to be
people oriented people. Train them!
One effective way of training or retraining sales people is through role
playing. Pretend you're the homeowner and ask your salespeople to sell
you. Use many of the common objections you hear from prospects and teach how to respond to these objections. Use any of the common methods of turning objections into selling opportunities.
If you're a sole operator, role play with your spouse
/ girlfriend / significant other. Never mind, you're probably already
doing that anyway. Listen to what they're saying when they do follow-up calls and if necessary,
make creative, constructive suggestions.
It doesn't matter if you have one salesperson or an entire staff, you
should always supervise call-back sessions. Make sure they're saying
what
you want them to say and not wasting precious time during call-back hours. Remember, you
can't let lawn leads get cold. Keep track of the date and time of every
sales
call and what was said. Set up a continuing call-back effort. Don't badger
prospects, but don't let pending's sit too long without being contacted.
Finally, make sure you're tailoring your sales message to what people
want to buy. We periodically conduct focus groups of lawn and landscape
customers all over the country. Among other things asked them, was "What
are the qualities a Premier Lawn or Landscaping Service should have."
The following are comments that come directly from lawn care customers. This is what they are saying about you:
Traits of a Premier Lawn or Landscaping Service as identified by the customer
-
Consistent staff and quality lawn care service
-
Qualified lawn personnel that care and have pride in what they
do with a professional appearance
-
Make lawn recommendations ONLY as needed
-
Let you know when they are coming and when they are there
-
Guarantee their lawn treatments
-
Honor requests and be responsive
-
Spend the appropriate amount of time needed for GOOD lawn results
-
Get feedback from the customer and USE IT!
-
Payment options in both method and timing
-
Worthwhile discounts for being a loyal lawn care customer
-
Personal contact at end of the season
-
Environmentally friendly
Here are few tips for running leads:
-
Build trust— not relationships. When trust is established between you and your customers, you'll naturally develop a good, long-lasting business relationship.
-
Be professional, not pushy. Selling additional product is part of the industry, but don't treat your customers like an ATM machine. Only make recommendations that are right and necessary for the situation.
- Present a professional image when you leave an estimate. This should include a neat printed estimated form, a professional looking business card, and a descriptive folder that includes information about your company and services. This should all be placed inside a plastic door-hanging bag that will keep your valuable information neat, and legible.
-
Follow up immediately on all leads that come in. Don't wait
to run a lead until the weather improves or you have the staff to run
the lead. If you can't get out immediately, call them and tell them
why you can't be there. Every day a lead sits idle, it gets colder
and colder and less likely to close.
We did a test not long ago that indicated that after the
first 2 days upon receiving a lead, closing rates dropped by 4 to 5%
per day for every day delayed in running the lead. This is even more
pronounced in running telemarketing leads. One week after receiving
that lead, if it hasn't been contacted, you might as well have just
thrown your money into the wind.
-
Accurate measures are IMPORTANT when preparing an estimate. Accurate measurements are an important sales tool you can use when running the lead. Your competition may not have taken the time to get that measurement and this one fact can differentiate you from your competitors.
-
Always include your business card with each estimate
-
Include comments specifically about the back yard. This helps insure the prospect knows you actually spent time looking at their lawn.
- Get accurate measurements of properties and record these. Homeowners
change, but property lines usually don't. Accurate measurements also
mean more precise estimates of product usage. Avoid using online plot maps that only measure length x width of the property. Many properties have extensive landscaping / hardscaping that is not recorded on these plot plans. By only measuring actual lawn area, you'll have a better information to base your estimate and product usage, and you'll actually be more competitive in your pricing.
-
Call your prospects NOW! Don't wait OR expect them to call you after you've left an estimate. Schedule calls that evening from 6pm to 8:30pm. Have a 1 hour meeting starting at 5pm. Briefly go over the objectives of the evening. Then role play with each of the technicians taking turns practicing the follow-up call.
-
Keep track of every lead. Even if you don't sell the prospect
this year, that prospect should be put into the house-list and contacted
repeatedly in the future. It's also important to analyze what you spent
and what you got out of it. Keep records and compare to last years efforts
and results.
-
For new hires and as a refresher for old hands, conduct leads
training exercises where techs role-play against "typical prospects".
More information about running leads is available in our DVD training program "Anyone Can Sell"
|
