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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
MAY 2021
How Ramblin Jackson Landed in the Landscaping Industry
When I started Ramblin Jackson 12 years ago, we provided digital marketing services to everyone. My clients ranged from hummus companies to gymnastics studios. We were a jack-of-all- marketing‑services. This worked for a while, but eventually, it became impossible to scale. We were inventing the wheel each and every time we took on a new client in a different industry, and I basically had a stressful, low-paying job. After speaking at a green industry conference, we gained several landscaping and garden center clients. My background at a plant nursery in Chicagoland made talking to green industry business owners a natural fit. Our green industry clients dominated the first page of Google with their new websites and SEO, grew their revenues, and were overall good human beings we enjoyed. Through going “all in” on the green industry, we were able to streamline and develop new services for them.
Now, we run the highest-rated green industry marketing agency — for both client reviews and also employee Glassdoor reviews — in the nation.
This could not have happened without defining our “Hell Yes Customer,” which requires three key components.
Three Keys to a “Hell Yes Customer” 1. Demand 2. Profitability 3. Passion
We found all three in the landscaping industry.
In your business, who are the customers that you and your crews enjoy serving, where you consistently meet your profit margin goals?
Who is that customer?
Is it residential design build clients? Commercial maintenance clients?
While presenting the keynote at KubutaUSA’s Turf Talk in January, I interviewed Dave Fairburn, the CEO of Northpoint Outdoors, a $9 million commercial landscape company, about how the chaos of not specializing forced him to eventually pick his Hell Yes Customer: “When my partner and I had first merged and partnered up, we were offering the widest menu of services to residential and commercial clients ... realistically, to anybody who would hire us. Over the years, as we began to refine and grow, we realized that was just creating significant chaos and some confusion with our crews and our offerings of services.
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Dressed in matching camo hoodies, we had the truck packed up with snacks and fishing gear. It was a sunny spring morning, and we had just eaten oatmeal and bacon. We were ready to catch ALL the trout. But just as we pulled out of the driveway, something didn’t feel right. Rats! A flat tire … I got out of the truck and walked around to discover a huge bolt poking through the rear right tire of my Tundra. As disappointed as I was, I must admit I was thrilled to teach my 4- and 5-year-old boys how to fix it. We took everything out of the back seat of the truck, including the kid car seats, and got to work. Finding Joy in Flat Tires
It was snack time. The boys ate jerky and watched me. Once the truck was up on the jack, they had to stay behind the curb to stay safe.
In business, I’ve found that some of the most rewarding moments are not things I’ve done myself but, instead, the times I’ve seen my staff or clients getting results on their own implementing something I’ve taught them. Although this threw a lug wrench in our plans and we didn’t make it out as planned, I hope my kids remember this day when they are changing a flat tire someday.
The fish got lucky this time, but we’ll be back on the water soon.
CONNECTING YOUR EMPLOYEES TO YOUR MISSION Making Your Passions Their Passions
Speak passionately about it. While you want the mission itself to be exciting, even the most intriguing of mission statements will be DOA if your delivery doesn’t convey your excitement. Humans are emotional creatures, so connecting with your employees emotionally in regard to your mission is just as important as the mission itself. Make it personal. While you might think tying your personal story to the company’s mission seems narcissistic, the truth is that your team wants to hear your story. People like stories, and if you can convey yours with honesty and humility, no one will think you’re an egoist. Re-work it. If your mission doesn’t seem to be inspiring passion in your workforce, then maybe it’s time to tweak it a little bit. Whether you’re just starting in business or have had the same mission statement for 10 years, a new mission lived out, made clear, and made personal by you can spark a newfound appreciation for your business among your employees.
Your business might be doing well, but if your workforce doesn’t feel any sort of personal connection to your business’s mission, that could prevent lasting success. You want to boost employee morale and make them happy about their work. To reinvigorate your employees’ passion for your business’s mission, try a few of these tips. Walk the talk. Patagonia CEO Yvon Chouinard decided to make his products out of organic cotton after he saw how industrially grown cotton was hurting the environment. It cost more to do that, but he stuck to Patagonia’s mission of creating environmentally friendly products. If you’re not willing to sacrifice for your mission, then it’s not your mission — and your employees will know it. Make it clear. Make sure everyone at your company knows exactly what your mission is. Only when employees have a clear understanding of the goal can they actually abide by it. If your mission statement can be interpreted in multiple ways, clarify it throughout all levels of your business.
See Ramblin Jackson's Mission at ramblinjackson.com/about/
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Do you ever get totally unqualified job candidates applying to your landscaping company? Do they eat up your time and bandwidth to sort through all of their emails and resumes, only to find out that there's absolutely no way they could ever be a fit at your company? Let’s work together to fix that! Recruiting doesn’t have to be something you dread. Follow these five simple steps to improve your recruiting process and find the best possible employees for your landscaping business. 1. Use conditional logic on employment forms. Need your employees to have a valid driver's license? Great! Add that to your application form. Add a button that says: 5 Tips to Make Recruiting More Effective and, Dare We Say … Fun!
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“You don't realize you're doing it until you're in too deep.
“What drove that mentality of needing to offer everything to everyone was, 'Will I have enough work to pay rent? Will I have enough work to pay the truck payment or pay myself?' The idea of shrinking a service or shrinking a market feels almost counterintuitive to what your end goal is: to collect money. “But as you go through that process, you live through the chaos and the complexity of the equipment needed, the tools, the focus, and the stress. If, as a leader, you're running in the mud trying to figure everything out, your people are doing the same thing. You do hit a point where you have to ask, are you chasing the revenue, or are you chasing the margin? “Revenue, ultimately, is not as important as gross margin. When you realize that fact, you start to say, 'How do I create a better margin?' That's what leads you down this path of reducing revenue to focus and give all your energy and effort to specific services to specific clients, and doing that job really well will increase your margin with a decrease in revenue.” It was scary for me to define a Hell Yes Customer. It was scary for Dave Fairburn. But now, there’s no way we could imagine the success we’re experiencing if we were still being generalists. Do it. Define your Hell Yes Customer. You’ll create a better profit margin, have happier employees and clients, and enjoy a better lifestyle with more freedom. Check out our Hell Yes Customer Worksheet at RamblinJackson.com/hellyes.
Q: Do you have a valid driver’s license?
Yes
No
If the applicant responds Yes , allow them to complete the application. If they say No , let them know you’re only accepting applicants with valid driver’s licenses. 2. Write the job description for the employee. Do your job descriptions go on and on about how hard the job is? Sure, you do need to list the requirements for the job and display an accurate description of the work. But you should also list what you will provide for the employee.
–Jack JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
UPCOMING EVENTS
Do you offer perks and benefits? A flexible schedule? What do you offer employees that other companies don't?
3. Check out your presence on Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn. When was the last time you looked at your reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn? Check it out. Potential employees definitely are. 4. Use visuals! Include photos of your team on the website and job boards. Does your website make your team look enjoyable to work with? Remember: If you’re hiring for positions that will work in a team setting, potential employees will want to see the team. Use photos to show them your company culture! 5. Unleash the power of social media! Post about your open positions on social media and have your employees share the posts! Your current employees may have friends and other people they know in their networks who may be interested in working for your company.
2021 Nursery/Landscape EXPO Education Conference Aug. 5–6 • San Antonio, TX Jack Jostes’ Book Launch Dinner! Oct. 20 • Louisville, KY
Register for our events at ramblinjackson.com/events/
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INSIDE
1 How Ramblin Jackson Landed in the Landscaping Industry 2 Finding Joy in Flat Tires
2 Connecting Your Employees to Your Mission 3 5 Tips to Make Recruiting More Effective 3 Upcoming Events 4 Want to Be a Guest on the 'Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing' Podcast?
Want to Be a Guest on ‘The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing’ Podcast?
Are you an innovative leader in the landscaping industry? Is your business doing something unconventional, unique, but effective that you’d like to talk with us about? “The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing” podcast is all about helping you, landscaping business owners, increase your profits and enjoy a better lifestyle from your business. Our podcast has over 3.5K downloads and was rated as a top green industry podcast by Total Landscape Care Magazine. Our podcast episode content includes sales and marketing tips, recruiting, leadership, and lifestyle topics. We’re always looking to share exciting new stories with our audience!
Visit RamblinJackson.com/podcastguest if you have an idea for a story you’d like to submit to us.
You might even get some tasty Colorado beef jerky from us when you do!
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