Yesterday, we dove into the world of digital marketing and shared insights from Jack Jostes, CEO of Ramblin Jackson, Inc., on how landscapers can take advantage of their websites to bring in more quality clients.
Today, take a look at how you can keep bad customers at bay, as well as how you can create a specific sales process that will work for your landscaping company.
Keeping the bad prospects out
Now that you’ve started successfully , it’s time to find out how you can use your professional website design to disqualify bad prospects before they contact you.
“Having a weak brand or a weak online presence creates fear for people that they’re going to get burned or screwed over by you,” says Jostes. “People are aware of these stories and more and more, they’re doing the research online and listening to word of mouth.”
Jostes says that cheap website designs will bring in cheap customers. If you want to command higher prices, Jostes says you have to look the best, so it’s time to ask yourself, what is the job of your website?
“The job of your website is to distinguish your brand and differentiate you from other people,” says Jostes. “The job of your website is to inspire trust and confidence that you can make it easy for the homeowner to take the next step and buy.”
Websites are designed to fuel sales, not just be a brochure.
Jostes says many landscapers want to implement a strategy like this, but they say they just don’t have someone to do the work. What many landscapers don’t know, according to Jostes, is that their out of date marketing could be scaring away top-notch employees.
“If you’re not putting the best message forward with your marketing, you’re just not going to get the best employees,” says Jostes.
Websites actually help you with recruiting if you showcase photos of your employees. Ultimately, the people are what your customers are going to hire, and employees will want to feel like they are part of the team based on the photos that are showcased.
You need to be sure you’re selling the vision of your company on the website, and the imagery of you and your team is a big way that you can do that.
“Is your website a reflection of your 2020 capabilities?” asks Jostes. “Does it differentiate your brand? Is it something that distinguishes you now against your competition and does it communicate who you are now and where you’re going in the next five to 10 years?”
The questions to ask yourself are, are you the company to hire and the company to work with?
Creating a sales process
Once you are successfully generating these leads, Jostes says the next step is to create a sales process that can consistently convert profitable customers.
“Create a sales process and follow it every single time, refine it with your team and keep following and nurturing that process,” says Jostes. “That is how you can really build a company that does not rely on you, the owner, doing everything. Communicating a process to your customers and employees creates trust quickly.”
Photo: Ramblin Jackson
Jostes says to ask yourself what are the milestones of your sales process?
Regardless of how you start your sales process, whether it be an initial call, text or email, Jostes recommends having a prepared script for the employee making contact. When making this initial reach out, Jostes says the employee’s goal should be to disqualify the prospects that are on the “Hell No Customer” sheet and book appointments only with the qualified leads.
When creating the script, Jostes says there’s no need to complicate it, as it will just consist of a series of qualitative questions they will ask that will help somebody qualify or disqualify themselves.
“A script will create freedom, scalability and an opportunity to delegate,” says Jostes. “This is key for you to ultimately grow your company, set the vision, set the culture and do the things you need to do as the leader of the company.”
While he may be a digital marketer, Jostes says to never underestimate the importance of actually picking up the phone and answering a call.
According to Jostes, 63 percent of local businesses don’t answer the phone when it rings because they think the caller will leave a voicemail, but most people will not. Jostes says this is especially true for internet leads. Instead, they will call the next listing they were thinking of working with.
One way Jostes says they’ve been able to get around this is by using the call service CallRuby. This ensures that every call is answered by a professional, and all messages are compiled and sent to whoever they need to be sent to.
Landscapers are all the time running into customers who just want to price gouge, and Jostes says one way to cut back on this is to charge for your first appointment, as this would weed out any non-serious customers.
Along those same lines, Jostes says you could also set up a way customers can book consultations and appointments on your website, but instead of them being free, you could charge them for booking the appointment.
Jostes stresses the importance of having the all-too-important budget step present when it comes to planning your sales process, and he says being able to sit down with clients and talk through the budget can help the process be much smoother in the long run.
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