Correctly estimating a landscaping job is key to running a profitable business. Statistics show that most contractors make only 60% of the jobs they get worthwhile. They either lose money or break even on the other.
Learning to bid and make accurate estimations on landscaping jobs will ensure you make a profit on every job you do.
How To Make Successful Landscape Estimates in 7 Steps
1. Identify Potential Prospects in Advance: Increasing ROI is all about finding ways to do the most and save time. I’ve discovered that pre-qualifying leads can help you do that effectively. In other words, you should eliminate customers who are not suitable for your business.
In the company’s early days, the focus was on rapid growth, which often required tracking all potential leads. But once you reach a certain level, you can become more selective. Don’t run out the door every time your phone rings. If so, you are wasting precious time.
“Perhaps we’re not the right company for what you need.”
You can figure that out over the phone without spending valuable time on face-to-face meetings with clients who aren’t fit for your business. You should create a list of questions to ask leads and pre-qualify them over the phone.
Also, communicate clear expectations about your schedule. Prospects should know precisely where they fit into your schedule and how long it will take to get the work done.
Don’t hesitate to decline a job if the prospect doesn’t meet your criteria. It may seem counterintuitive to say no to growing your business, but you must spend your time doing the most valuable things.
2. Be community-Driven
How well do you know the people you serve? How involved is your company in the community? These factors make a big difference to the overall success of your business.
Having a sense of community can help your sales grow. Growing companies shift their focus inwards. It’s essential to review your business internall, but you shouldn’t lose sight of the people you serve. You should to continue to focus on the community and make sure you meet the needs of your business community.
3. Focus on Expanding The Relationship – Not the Prices
A strategy that always works with landscape selling is to avoid always selling at premium prices. The market is pretty competitive and its easy to get hung up on because of your price. However, if you set a price that you think is fair, stick to it, even if it’s the most expensive one. Don’t give in to the competition.
Knowing your profitability and inefficiencies will help you get the price down to the price you want, because you’ll be making smart decisions and tracking your data. Still, even with competitive pricing, it may not be the cheapest option. It’s not a problem.
The truth is that these overnight companies are here one day and gone the next.
You want to get jobs based on relationships and the value you bring to customers, not just to beat the competition. Be open about why it costs and why it’s worth it. What does your company offer that your competitors don’t?
Know the answer to this question, and don’t be afraid to share it.
4. Automate Some processes using Applications
You can make processes more eefficent and increase sales by implementing landscape estimating software. Of all the landscape selling tips we’ve mentioned, this is his one of the most helpful for us. Using landscaping business estimating and invoicing software provides access to several sales tools that streamline the process, save time, and ultimately help you sell more work.
Of the tools that have helped us, the estimate and quotation generator has been invaluable. Depending on the project, there are different templates, all of which are set up exactly the way the job requires. You can also use features such as the charts and maps mentioned earlier to create a value proposition for your prospects.
Every job has a different process, but landscaping business software can help streamline that information and put all the data in one place. Deploying landscape business software can help your team to create accurate and consistent quotes which improves the entire sales process.
It’s important to keep selling, not just increasing sales.
An efficient sales process saves time. This is one of the most important tools a salesperson has in his belt. Using your time wisely to shorten your sales cycle is very important when you have a limited working day.
5. Focus on Solving Client Problems
Sellers can easily get a bad reputation. They may be considered unreliable or unpopular. This kind of preconceived notion comes from the typical pushy salesman who just wants to make the next buck.
Don’t approach sales like that.
When your customers think of your business, do they think of pushy salespeople who are only interested in selling? Or do they see these people as problem solvers?
A good landscape selling strategy is to think of sales as a way to meet people’s needs (or solve their problems) rather than just thinking of them as money.
Creating valuable offers for prospects is a great way to solve problems and differentiate your business from the competition. Integrating maps, charts, and other features (where applicable) into your quoting process is a way to add value before closing a deal. These additional features also help operations teams by supporting the execution of work when jobs get approved.
6. Implement the 24-hour Objective
You should always try to adhere to the 24-hour objective when dealing with Landscaping customers (and potential customers).
As a business owner, if you meet someone today, you should contact them tomorrow. Keep your connections fresh and your mind on track. Appreciate the time taken to raise the issues they asked and say you’re looking into it, or reach and give a timeline of when the project will be ready.
Nothing frustrates people more than an unresponsive company. Today, we are so used to instant (and constant) communication.
If a potential client is considering hiring you, an important landscape sales strategy is to keep in touch with them and stay on their radar. Yes, please try to get the offer as soon as possible. But most importantly, keep them informed.
7. Set Goals and Stick to Them
When your clients initiate contact and you begin the project implementation process, we always encourage people to set goals and stick to them. Try to maintain that goal-oriented mindset so that you feel like you’re striving for something. You should definitely set goals for milestones and set smaller goals to measure progress along the way.
When you hit a major milestone, celebrate it.
Get your team together and affirm how far you’ve come and achieved the goals you set for your business. Then maintain momentum and move on to the next target. Instead of thinking of it all as one big task, keep working towards smaller goals and you’ll definitely get there.
Leverage Landscape Estimating Software to Fix Business Hiccups
It’s easy to get discouraged by mistakes and let them hold you back. Software apps help you track and learn from those frustrations and use them to grow. It helps you test processes; we can only move forward by passing these tests and fixing the problems. These learning opportunities present one of the best growth tools.
One of the biggest lessons learned include going through your software asset logs when things go wrong. This can help you find errors, track down the steps that led to it, and makes it very easy to identify the proper process to avoid the problem in the future.
Focus on growing your business with a solid landscape sales strategy
The seven steps listed above have one thing in common: planning and execution. Usually, companies lose track of their plans, fail to execute them, or remain too rigis to change them as needed.
Your business plan should be fluid enough to change if things go wrong.
Understanding the difficulty of projects in your line of work may help you avoid some of the feelings of disappointment and disappointment often associated with the software implementation process.
Dont start blaming yourself when things don’t go your way. Take the time to understand the natural flow of your estimating software. You will see the power of the system. As with all changes, you must remain prepared to fight initial disappointments over time.
Many problems come from not knowing how things are going to play out. When you understand the output, your input will get simplified. You will focus more on results because you trust the processes that lead to them. ”
Do it now
People often procrastinate too much and miss the best time to start the software implementation process. There are no good times. you will always be occupied or have excuses to not do it immediately.
Are you wondering how much running your business would cost if you integrate your new landscaping business software? is that time. By procrastinating, you’re hurting yourself and your business. Implement one now and start to reap the benefits.