Performing landscape projects in stages can help sell them.
In a discussion on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum, we talked about how breaking landscape projects down into sections can really help you sell larger projects. If the customer knows that at anytime they can say ok this is enough. Or if they feel their budget is shrinking to pay for the landscape project, they will feel more in control when they know it’s not an all or nothing deal.
I asked on the forum by offering landscape jobs in stages do you feel this allows you to build a rapport with the customer? So they don’t feel like they are committed to a high value contract if they are not liking the results?
Perform landscape projects in stages
So they feel they can basically call an end to the project at any time and maybe that control over the job, even if they don’t exercise it, empowers them and makes them want you to fulfill their dreams of a perfect landscape?
One of our members responded by saying “I have two thoughts, first if it’s a good sized landscape project, doing it all at once is not good for anyone. If it’s done in stages the client can change their mind along the way and add or take away things. It’s good for us too as I don’t like a crew on a site for more than a week. It’s too much resources, however there are always exceptions.
You also have to keep in mind customer finances. If I give them a quote to do a landscape job of say $20,000, they will have sticker shock. If I say look, here is how we break this project up into four individual projects and lets both see how things go. First part will cost you $5,000 and here is what it will include, when we are done let’s talk about stage 2.
This may not work for everyone but it works for me.”
What is your view on not wanting to stay on-site for longer than a week at a time?
“I feel it’s a long time to be at one location. In my head for some reason I like to move after a week but we will not leave any site until the job is finished and the customer smiling. It’s hard to schedule work when you have jobs that go on and on, we had maybe 8 this year where we were there two weeks or more. I have found the staff also tend to get bored with the same site so I will switch some of them out after four days leaving at least 2 on the site at all times that have been there at least two days. By then they know everything that is going on, sometimes however the client takes to a crew and doesn’t want me to do this so I don’t, that has happened at least three times.”
