Take a look at our October newsletter!
The Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
OCTOBER 2023
Use Them to Convert More Prospects! 3 Game-Changing Landscape Sales Tips From Our Ramblin Retreat
Congratulations to our client Kelly Slater with Pleasant Landscapes, Inc.! After achieving $3 million in revenue, she reached her follow-up goal of retaining 500 maintenance clients for at least three months. Way to go, Kelly! Let’s Ring the Bell!
This summer, I shared a bunch of photos of our team’s 2023 Ramblin Retreat on social media. A lot of the comments people left on those posts were positive, but a few landscapers gave me a hard time about hosting a getaway for my team. Their message was pretty clear: “These employee outings are a bunch of B.S. If you want to keep your team happy, all you need to do is pay them more! Taking them fishing isn’t for them — it just gives your company good PR.” If you feel that way, I get it. I agree that my No. 1 job as an employer is to pay my people well, and I’d never substitute a fly-fishing trip for a great paycheck. But I have to disagree on the value of team-building events. I get concrete returns every time I get my team together! The biggest one is an increase in employee retention. It might look like all we’re doing is touring the Ramblin Jackson video studio, taking the DISC Assessment, or digging into plates of bison roast and root vegetables at The Chautauqua Dining Hall. But really, the team is learning how much I care about them, getting to know each other, and building connections that make them feel at home at Ramblin Jackson long-term.
interviewed a landscape CEO whose company has a 95% employee retention rate. Do you know what his secret is? He swears by relationship-building events. They really do make his team happy. Our team events also produce great returns for our current and future clients. This year, for example, we visited a private home that Alpine Gardens, one of our clients, landscaped here in Colorado. Alpine redesigned the entire space to mitigate flooding, installing a stone staircase with custom iron railings, a patio, and two waterfalls. While we were there, we talked to the homeowner to see what we could learn about her experience. We also met with Alpine’s lead salesperson and designer for the project, and those conversations gave us valuable insights to share with you. Here are just a few of them. 1. If you have a well-organized website, you can use it to qualify leads AND convert them during the sales process. When you’re meeting with a prospect in their yard, pull out your phone and show them photos of past projects so they can understand your vision for their landscape. Then, text or email that page to them for future reference. 2. You can convert affordable online leads more easily than expensive print leads when you play your hand right. To make
those online conversions easy, make sure you have great content, pricing guides, and a clear process outlined on your website.
3. A process page can help you warm up your referral leads. Some clients do a better job of preparing their friends and family than others. If you have a process page on your website and send it to referred prospects right away, you can fill the gaps in their knowledge and boost your conversion rate. Alpine used all of these strategies, and they gave their client a great experience! Meeting her in person and getting her real, on-the- ground feedback was invaluable for our team. I know it helped us improve the advice we give to landscapers like you. If you’re a team-building event skeptic, I hope this convinced you to give one of your own gatherings a try — or at least come to ours! We had a great time hanging out with our clients at the 2023 Ramblin Retreat and handing out free barbecue. If you didn’t make it this year, I’d love to pass you a plate at the next one.
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
This is a win-win — and it doesn’t just work for marketing companies. I recently
RamblinJackson.com • 1
Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
Surprising Habits Hurting Your Brain Health
Everything we think, feel, and do involves our brains, so keeping them healthy is worth our time. But doing so might require more from us than a nutritional diet, exercise, and occasional sudoku. Everyday habits can profoundly affect our neurological health, and some will likely surprise you. Checking Our Phones After Waking Up Many people have their phones in hand before they even get out of bed, but this morning routine could be doing significant damage. Immediately inputting so much sensory information causes our brains to miss crucial stages in the natural waking process. The dopamine we get from checking messages and likes also primes our
brains for more, creating further distractions throughout the day. Experts suggest waiting an hour to check your phone, but if you can’t last that long, every minute you delay counts. Engaging in Negative Thinking Did you know poor mental health impairs our ability to think clearly? The same is true with patterns of negative thinking. Neuroplasticity means the input we give our brains shapes and changes how they function, and negative thinkers have more difficulty reasoning and forming memories. Fortunately, neuroplasticity also means we can choose to change. Mindfulness, stress relief, purposeful positive thinking, and therapy can all help us learn to turn negative thoughts around. It will improve brain health, and we’ll likely feel happier, too. Spending Too Much Time Alone Humans are social creatures. So, while our brains need new challenges and information to stay sharp, they also crave social interaction. Spending time with others improves our mental health and ability to form memories. Socializing also keeps our brains active, which neuroscientists believe might fight dementia. Specifically, older adults can have trouble switching between active and daydream states, but social interaction will help sharpen that skill. Alone time is crucial, but too much of a good thing can be dangerous. Make sure to interact with friends and family often or find ways to meet new people whose company you enjoy.
USE THESE STRATEGIES TO GATHER EYE-CATCHING WINTER MARKETING PHOTOS Want to Sell More Snow Services Next Year?
A lot of the landscapers I work with have a tough time motivating their teams to take photos of finished landscapes in the summer. So, when I mention they also need snow removal photos, they laugh me out of the room! I get it — no one wants to stop and take a photo on a cold, dark morning when they could be finishing their work. But you need those snapshots to sell your service through your website and social media. So, what can you do? Here are a few ways to encourage your team to take those critical shots this winter.
to share their shots through iCloud. If not, use a shared Dropbox link, photo-specific email, or Google Drive folder they can send snapshots to quickly. 2. Motivate your team with money or recognition. You can hand out a certain amount of money per photo or turn taking snapshots into a culture-building opportunity. As I’ve mentioned before, Green Side Up Landscaping runs a monthly photo contest where staff vote for their favorite photo, and the winner takes home a $50–$100 gift card. It creates camaraderie and incentivizes quality work. 3. Hire a professional. You can save yourself the hassle of implementing the previous ideas by paying a professional photo or video team like ours to capture snow content for you. It’s not a low-budget fix, but it will produce the best, most consistent results.
1. Make taking and submitting photos as easy as possible. Train your team on how to take great snow photos using
photography tricks like focusing on high-contrast areas, adjusting the white balance and exposure settings on their phones, and using the rule of thirds. They’ll take more photos if they’re confident in their skills! You can bring in a photographer for this training or ask a photo enthusiast on your team to run it.
Put the wheels in motion on these options now to set yourself up for marketing success in 2024.
You can also increase submissions by making it easy for your team to contribute photos. If you’re all iPhone users, ask them
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Read It in Your Tru
Schedule a 15-minute Marketing Brainstorm with one of our Landscape Marketing Assistants. In just 15 minutes, Alyssa and Eli will: • Offer game-changing feedback on your marketing ideas. • Find gaps in your existing campaigns. • Discuss your best marketing strategy. • Share next steps for success! This is a quick, easy, no-pressure call — and we’ll even send you beef jerky or candied almonds for your time. Visit LandscapersGuide.com/ brainstorm to schedule your Marketing Brainstorm today. Ready to Level Up Your Marketing and Get More Hell Yes Customers?
UPCOMING EVENTS
The 2023 Landscaper's Summit Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. MT Virtual Workshop
Brand Your Sales Process to Get the Owner OUT of Sales Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 10:00–11:30 a.m. MT Virtual Workshop Real Recruiting Case Studies: WHAT WORKS for Landscapers Now Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023 10:00–11:30 a.m. MT Virtual Workshop
TAKE A BREAK
LandscapersGuide.com/events
RamblinJackson.com • 3
uck on a Rainy Day
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PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 A Strategy to Improve Employee Retention AND Customer Service 2 Are These Bad Habits Hurting Your Brain? 2 Is Your Team Ready to Take Snow Photos? 3 Upcoming Events 3 Ready to Level Up Your Marketing? 4 How to Attract Top Talent to Your Office INSIDE
5 Tips for Attracting Fantastic Office Staff
USE THIS WISDOM FROM OUR NEW HIRE!
3. Show off your core values. “I was
Your office staff are some of the most important people on your landscape team. They handle schedules, invoices, records, and important phone calls. You couldn’t run your company effectively without them, so you need an excellent job posting and hiring process to attract the best people. We’ve spent years perfecting both and recently sat down with our new hire, Sales and Marketing Manager Jamie DuBose, to find out how we did. Here is her best advice for improving your hiring process based on her job-hunting experience. 1. Polish your job description page. “The very first thing that stood out to me when slogging through Indeed profiles was that Ramblin Jackson took pride in their job description page,” Jamie says. To boost your chances of finding the right hire, lay out exactly what your company does, who would be a good fit for the position, and what you’ll pay. 2. Use video to communicate your expectations. Our job description page includes a video of Jack speaking directly to new hires. Jamie says this helped her feel more comfortable applying because she got a sense of who Jack was and what he expected.
looking for a team that I could insert myself into while staying in alignment with my personal values,” Jamie says. She liked that our core values were
front and center on our job description page. “The application asked, ‘What is your favorite core value?’ I put two because I was so excited about how much they resonated with me,” she says. 4. Request an assessment and/or skills test. This is a great way to make sure your prospects are committed and have the knowledge, skills, and personality you want. Jamie took the DISC Assessment and a practical marketing skills test for us and says it helped her “get a taste of what Ramblin Jackson wanted” from her role. 5. Stay in constant contact. “I didn't feel strung along,” Jamie says. “Ramblin Jackson clearly communicated every step of the hiring process with me very quickly.” To score a great employee like Jamie, avoid leaving potential hires in limbo. If you do, they’ll look for another opportunity!
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Get a Free, Personal Video Review Of Your Website! • ramblinjackson.com/webreview
Which Strategies Are Really Working in Landscape Sales and Marketing Right Now? Find Out Oct. 26 at Our 4th Annual Landscaper’s Summit!
At our fourth annual Landscaper’s Summit, you’ll score valuable advice from our expert guest speakers and sit in on a “What’s Working Now” competition between your fellow landscapers. They’ll present their most successful business ideas and vie to win your vote. You’ll also learn which sales and marketing strategies are working for landscapers RIGHT NOW and how your sales close rate stacks up against your competition! These brand-new industry insights come from our 2023 Snow & Landscape Sales Survey. This data is ONLY AVAILABLE at the Landscaper’s Summit — you can’t get it anywhere else before Oct. 26. Attend this summit, and we guarantee you’ll get at least one takeaway worth 10 times the price of admission. If not, Ramblin Jackson CEO Jack Jostes will personally refund your ticket and donate $100 to your favorite nonprofit. That’s a 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back — with interest! • You’ve never settled for the status quo and want fresh ideas to challenge you. • You’re sick of your employees relying on YOU to fix all their problems and want to train more proactive problem-solvers. • You’re excited to scale your business quickly, but aren’t sure which metrics to track to help you achieve your goals. • You want to up your social media game and learn exactly where, what, and how to post to get results. • You want your marketing to work for you and deliver quality leads predictably and cost‑effectively — freeing up your time to do the things you love. • You enjoy seeing successful business people compete with each other. THIS ONE-DAY VIRTUAL WORKSHOP IS FOR YOU IF …
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to invest in yourself and your business. In a single day, you’ll learn how to dial in your marketing, boost your business growth, and achieve the lifestyle you deserve.
Visit LandscaperSummit.com or scan the QR code to register now!
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