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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
OCTOBER 2021
‘The Tree of Good Fortune’ Sneak Peek LANDSCAPING MARKETING PROBLEMS
This month I’m celebrating the launch of my new book, “The Tree of Good Fortune: The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing.” We’ll be celebrating with a launch party at the GIE EXPO in Louisville, Kentucky (read more about this on the next page), and I wanted to share a sneak peek from one of the first
When you get a lead from a lead generation website in which the customer is just contacting multiple contractors for quotes, it likely means the customer didn’t take the time to read about you to understand why you are different, which means they will be more inclined to choose a contractor based
Are you experiencing one of these problems? If you are, chances are you’re facing one of the other seven I detail in my book … so mosey on over to TreeOfGoodFortune.com to pre-order your copy of the book so you can read the other “common problems with most landscaping marketing” issues and finally solve them once and for all using the proven methods of “The Tree of Good Fortune.”
chapters of the book that details common problems with most landscaping marketing.
solely on price. And frankly, I can’t blame them. If they don’t understand why you’re different from another landscaper, why should they pay more for whatever you’re offering them? They should pay less. The perception of value is everything, and in the “Branding + Differentiation” chapter, I’ll show you how to differentiate yourself from the competition so you can finally charge what you’re worth. Problem 3: Selling and Marketing Like You Did 10 Years Ago I have many clients who have been in business for over 30 years. The challenge is that they still sell like they did in the ‘90s. Here’s what’s different now that we have the internet:
Problem 1: Business Owner Stuck Doing All the Sales …And More The real problem that a lack of an effective sales and marketing system causes is that the business owner can get stuck doing all of the sales. Sure, you’ll need to always do some of the selling, and maybe you want to, but then you’re probably also doing project management and running the business. And that gets pretty stressful at certain times of the year, especially when you can’t hire anyone. Problem 2: Attracting Customers Who Don’t Understand — Leads and Losing on Price When you pay for a lead generation website or any kind of marketing that generates a high volume of leads from people who haven’t read much about you, it increases your chance of losing on price and being perceived as a commodity.
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People want to see pricing info before they call you. They are going to research you and your competitors on the Internet before they call you. People want to read online reviews to feel good about choosing your company.
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Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
How to Adapt to Changing Buying Behaviors Customers are starting to shift their buying actions online. What does this mean? Customer expectations are changing! They’re expecting to learn more before they meet with a landscaping sales person, a team member, or the owner. This is one of the biggest trends I’ve seen shifting over the past four years of working in the green industry. have too little information on your website, then you get too many leads calling you who don’t know very much about your services or your process. What needs to happen next? Your office staff has to spend time talking with them on the phone explaining the information your website could have taken care of.
Think about it.
In the past, a big focus for our clients was on getting more leads. Now, many landscapers find themselves in a situation where they have too many leads, and they’re looking for efficient ways to filter those leads and determine which leads are worth their attention. They want to know:
If you were getting ready to spend a good chunk of money on a home improvement project, maybe $100,000 or $200,000, wouldn’t you want to gather more information about a potential company you’re considering working with before you give them a call? I would like to know what their process looks like, how much the project is going to cost, what the next steps are, and so on. These expectations are so high right now. Your customers want to do their research online before they speak with anyone. Recognize the fact that customers are probably comparing you to your competitors before they talk with you as well. Say you and a competitor both have amazing photos on your website, and you both include some
How do I figure out who’s a good one and who’s going to be a waste of time?
One of the ways to filter leads is through using a pricing page and talking about your process on your website. You want to weed people out and let them
self-eliminate. The people who aren’t going to meet your budget or your timeline … they can find someone else to work with! When you testimonials from previous customers. But, you include a sales process and pricing page and your competitor doesn’t. Who do you think the customer will reach out to first? YOU. Tap Into a Successful CEO’s Mind SENIOR LANDSCAPE MARKETING STRATEGIST, RAMBLIN JACKSON How ‘The Outsiders’ Provides an Unconventional Road Map –Robert Felton
What if you could harness the knowledge and skill possessed by some of the world’s top CEOs — specifically eight of them? With investment expert and author William N. Thorndike Jr.’s “The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success,” you can. After years of analyzing investments and the companies behind meteoric climbs on Wall Street, Thorndike has compiled stories, lessons, and tactics used by eight CEOs whose methods and beliefs don’t mirror those of other leaders — unconventional leaders like Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson or SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose companies’ growth speaks volumes for their methodology. Thorndike examines the successes of various business leaders, like pet food company Ralston Purina’s CEO or Berkshire Hathaway’s top leader, to discover what makes these companies so successful, even as they quietly grow. Through his storytelling and deep-dive into the mindsets of these CEOs, Thorndike offers readers various perspectives on a different way to amass success. Thorndike also illuminates how many of these top business minds were quietly outpacing their loud, celebrity-like counterparts.
For example, frugality is a major component of their success, while most others view a singular metric as the biggest determining factor in their company’s long-term success. Together, many of these top CEOs often value the human elements of their business, attributing the people they have working for them as one of the most important parts of their company growth.
As you read through the various lessons and experiences of these CEOs, you find models emerging. Some of the tactics may work for you, while others prove that unconventional methods were never out of the box to begin with. All told, Thorndike’s “The Outsiders” is a reminder that sometimes the quiet ones make the most progress. You can learn more about Thorndike’s book at Goodreads.com, or you can find it on Amazon.com or your favorite bookstore.
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Read It in Your Tru
At Ramblin Jackson, we used to have a “keyword strike-thru meeting” with our clients when they first started a project with us. You might be wondering, “What the heck is a ‘keyword strike- thru meeting’”? The name of that meeting didn’t make any sense. The title of the meeting was not intuitive, and unfortunately, that decreased the importance of the meeting in the eyes of our clients! We renamed that meeting to be a “keyword selection meeting.” A little bit simpler, right? This is the meeting where we will select a business’s keywords, the words and phrases we will use on the client’s website that make it possible for people to find the website via search engines. Now that we have streamlined our process with clients within the green industry, we have removed that meeting all together (saving our clients about two hours from their project and saving our team costs as well!). My point here is that you have the power to give your products and services names that will appeal to your customers. The names should be easy to understand, straightforward, and also attractive to customers. For example, no one knows what “decorative concrete” is. On the other side, many customers are looking for “pavers, stairs, and walkways.” Sometimes our instinct is to make services sound more complicated than they actually are because we think that our customers will value them more. This isn’t the case! Customers want to feel educated about what services you offer, and they want to know that the work you do is going to be the right fit for their needs. You don’t want the names of your products or services to SPOOK your customers! Work toward making the names simple and intuitive. Are Your Products and Services Titles Too ... Spooky?
TAKE A BREAK
BLACK COSTUME GHOST HALLOWEEN
HAUNTED MOON MYSTERY ORANGE
PARTY PUMPKIN SHADOWS SPOOKY
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uck on a Rainy Day
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INSIDE
1 ‘The Tree of Good Fortune’ 2 How to Adapt to Changing Buying Behaviors 2 ‘The Outsiders’: A Model for Success 3 Are Your Products and Services Titles Too ... Spooky? 3 Pre-Order ‘The Tree of Good Fortune’ 4 Why You Need Introverts on Your Sales Team
THE SALES POWER OF THE INTROVERT When we think of careers suited for extroverts, sales often springs to mind. 2. Ask Questions: A long spiel about a product or service is overwhelming,
The reason, as Entrepreneur.com reports, is actually fairly simple. Being effective at sales does not require a profound skill for speaking or storytelling. Instead, salespeople need to be great listeners . This attention to detail and attentiveness to their subject is often found in introverts. Now, that doesn’t make extroverts bad at sales. Instead, you can harness the power of the introvert and spread the wealth among your sales team by doing the following: 1. Establish Trust: Introverts have a powerful ability to connect one-on-one with whoever they are speaking to. They thrive on personal conversations, wherein they can build a rapport with one or two other people rather than a group. This trait is necessary for salespeople to acquire, as it makes prospects feel safe and heard.
After all, nothing could be more exhausting to an introvert than having to talk to dozens of people every day and maintain a positive demeanor to seal every deal.
especially when the person providing it feels like a total stranger. Before launching into a pitch, an introverted salesperson knows to ask questions, begging the prospect to lead the conversation and push the salesperson into the appropriate action for a sale. 3. Keep It Relational: People remember stories. They want to hear stories of success and failures, often applying the lessons from those stories to their own lives. Introverts can captivate an audience — maybe that’s why so many introverts are also authors — and salespeople have to strike that balance between sharing stories and listening. For more guidance on how introverts can maximize a sales team, pick up Matthew Pollard’s book, “The Introvert’s Edge.”
However, a surprising study by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) disputes this belief.
The HBR reports that being an extrovert had no impact on a salesperson’s ability to sell; in fact, some of the negative qualities of being an extrovert, such as bravado and overt friendliness, are more likely to alienate customers. On the flip side, humility and modesty were two traits possessed by those who were 90% better than other sales people in their company. Interestingly, these traits often accompany an introverted personality.
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Jack Jostes
Book Launch Party
OCTOBER 20, 2021 | 6:00 PM | LOUISVILLE , KY
I'm excited to announce I'm launching my new book, The Tree Of Good Fortune: The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing , onWednesday, October 20th at a Book Launch Party at the GIE EXPO in Louisville, KY!
Join us for great food , networking with like-minded landscape professionals, and a special bourbon tasting .
Will we see you there?
DATE: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021
LOCATION: Patrick O’Shea’s 123W. Main St, Louisville, Kentucky 40202
TIME: 6:00 pm EST
REGISTRATION : treeofgoodfortune.com
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