Sales issues

[The Lawn Guy]

I've now been up and running for around 5 months and my biggest snag has been converting leads. A bit of history for those who don't know I'm a lawn and turf company who covers various gardening works. The bulk of my work has come from Facebook pages and I've now been approached to get into Yell and I'm looking for some general advice should I use yell for 1 and would a different marketing approach be better ? I'm getting regular leads from Facebook and leaflets etc the most common two being 1. I'm looking for a quote for X work. You go and quote they say they will get back and never do. 2. They message and ask for a quote you reply "Yes no problem can call out tomorrow or at your convenience" they don't reply or reply up until you ask for an address to go to.

I hear people say your pricing wrong ? How I would normally price would be materials x labour x 10-20% for overheads but I've tried low and high quotes there seems to be no consistent way of improving what is pretty low conversions. I have a website full sign written van and show up in appropriate work clothes with company logos and leave a quote and have now built up a decent portfolio of work and reviews all of which are good for reference so can't see where I'm going wrong ? Any advice would be great and if you were looking for a gardener what would you be looking at ?

 

[ethical PR]

What are your competitors offering. What can you offer that they don't.

Not all leads convert, that's just a cost of doing business and you need to factor this into your operational costs.

Don't use Yell. Invest more in your website and wider marketing channels - always easier to gain work from your existing client and potential client base. Focus your efforts there.

 

[7Tom7]

First of all, imho, Yell is not worth it and is expensive compared to other online options.

What % of leads are you converting to jobs, if you are getting between 10-20% I would say this is normal. To increase your conversion rate you could schedule time in the evening to call or message everyone you have quoted.

Do you have standard pricing? You could send an estimate to the people who stop replying after you ask for an address.

 

[The Lawn Guy]

Competition wise I do the same as others really. I try to always work to a high standard and be as professional as possible but there are no glaring things or offers etc that my competitors use it is a fairly competitive business and understand you won't convert every lead but I'm aiming to improve my numbers ultimately.

What do you look for in a gardening company ? Where would you find one ? Yell is one I'm in debate about and would like a bit of reviews on it if I'm honest. What wider marketing channels ?

 

[NickGrogan]

Yell is a waste of money, just search this forum for Yell Scam or Yell Mis-sold.

We made some suggestions regarding marketing when you asked for a flyer review, did you follow any of those?

 

[The Lawn Guy]

First of all, imho, Yell is not worth it and is expensive compared to other online options.

What % of leads are you converting to jobs, if you are getting between 10-20% I would say this is normal. To increase your conversion rate you could schedule time in the evening to call or message everyone you have quoted.

Do you have standard pricing? You could send an estimate to the people who stop replying after you ask for an address.

What other online options? Would you advise? I'm probably converting nearer 30% if I'm honest just would like to be nearer 50/60% as it's such and annoyance to drive a hour round trip to not even get a reply. I'm actually starting to get pictures through to give a rough idea of price for customers out with a 30 minute drive now.

Yes I have standard pricing for turf and lawn feeds/weed controls etc. All of which are just below my biggest competition but as I've said I've tried to go low and high at times just to see how it goes. My brother owns a successful plastering company and his pricing is think of a price and double it and he has work coming out his ears.

I couldn't send a quote if I don't know there lawn sizes or exactly what they want that's the sticking point with people not replying.

 

[The Lawn Guy]

Yell is a waste of money, just search this forum for Yell Scam or Yell Mis-sold.

We made some suggestions regarding marketing when you asked for a flyer review, did you follow any of those?

Yes followed all advice and adjusted my flyers accordingly (it did seem to help with feedback from flyers) I'm getting work in just would like to improve my numbers both in work coming in and conversation now and what channels would be the best to go down to improve that.

 

[7Tom7]

What other online options? Would you advise? I'm probably converting nearer 30% if I'm honest just would like to be nearer 50/60% as it's such and annoyance to drive a hour round trip to not even get a reply. I'm actually starting to get pictures through to give a rough idea of price for customers out with a 30 minute drive now.

Yes I have standard pricing for turf and lawn feeds/weed controls etc. All of which are just below my biggest competition but as I've said I've tried to go low and high at times just to see how it goes. My brother owns a successful plastering company and his pricing is think of a price and double it and he has work coming out his ears.

I couldn't send a quote if I don't know there lawn sizes or exactly what they want that's the sticking point with people not replying.

Long term I would try and develop your own website and learn or pay for SEO so people find you online.

You could send an estimate or example of costs to people who don't reply, if its cheaper than they thought they might come back to you.

 

[NickGrogan]

What about the offline marketing ideas? Online marketing isn't the answer to every question.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Can you identify area's that are likely to use a garden service and spend your advertising there rather than a scatter gun aproach, council estates may be good for helping granny cut her 10 square foot of grass but useless to make money , where as middle and top end houses are more likely to be productive and value a good job. never 100% either way,

Don't wast one hour going to a sole customer take some leaflets and do all the houses in the area as well as the person you are seeing

Use google maps to have a look at their garden, guess their garden area and have a quote ready , things may well have changes since the image but at least you know the size and rough outline of what they might need

Put some example prices on your leaflets, people are far more likely to respond if the have a idea of the likely prices

30% is greatly going and will be hard to increase significantly until your really well known

Good luck

 

[The Lawn Guy]

Can you identify area's that are likely to use a garden service and spend your advertising there rather than a scatter gun aproach, council estates may be good for helping granny cut her 10 square foot of grass but useless to make money , where as middle and top end houses are more likely to be productive and value a good job. never 100% either way,

Don't wast one hour going to a sole customer take some leaflets and do all the houses in the area as well as the person you are seeing

Use google maps to have a look at their garden, guess their garden area and have a quote ready , things may well have changes since the image but at least you know the size and rough outline of what they might need

Put some example prices on your leaflets, people are far more likely to respond if the have a idea of the likely prices

30% is greatly going and will be hard to increase significantly until your really well known

Good luck

Some great advice there thanks a lot like the google idea that's actually something I haven't thought about.

 

[MBE2017]

The best thing to do is ask or presume the order, so I can fit you in Monday evening or thursday, or just £50, when do you want me to start?

If you are facing the client that is the time to get the deal, don’t sit back and expect them to come back. If they say they want to think about it, ask what they are unsure of. You need to push a bit.

Explain you are the owner and if you can sort a deal out there and then you can discount them the salesman’s commission, he is away and you don’t see why you should give him the commission since he is on holiday and you are doing the work.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

That's just a stupid lie for no reason at all and makes the customer think what other lie's will you tell over your work.

Plus if anything could be seen as a grubby person who is willing to steal the commission of his employee

 

[DavidWH]

The best thing to do is ask or presume the order, so I can fit you in Monday evening or thursday, or just £50, when do you want me to start?

This is probably sound advice. We tried Facebook adverts and stopped, as we found most expected a price there and then. Like you there are variables that affect the prices, so impossible to guess.

We switched to AdWords, one of our sites drives customers to call us, rather than email, as we get excellent emails such as "I want to sign my car for my business how much will it be?" On the phone we can ask and discuss what we need to know.

 

[MBE2017]

That's just a stupid lie for no reason at all and makes the customer think what other lie's will you tell over your work.

Plus if anything could be seen as a grubby person who is willing to steal the commission of his employee

Each to their own, I have never met a business person who doesn’t tell the odd white lie, or use a call to action. I can only speak for myself, I don’t pay people commission for work they have not done, I always price to allow for a salesperson but often still sell myself. It is a nice way to offer a discount to seal an order.

If others find it grubby then we live in a dirty world. It is no different from not advising a client of every detail, you tell them what they ask and need to know, or do you for instance advise all your clients of competitors who could provide the same products faster and cheaper than yourself?

The advice is only that, but it works very well.

 

[The Lawn Guy]

That's just a stupid lie for no reason at all and makes the customer think what other lie's will you tell over your work.

Plus if anything could be seen as a grubby person who is willing to steal the commission of his employee

I'm with Chris on this one to be fair I see your ideas but I'm a big believer integrity will pay off on the long term. Can get the white lie thing but I believe customers can see through it l.

 

[Paul Murray]

Is there a trend with the sort of work the people that never get back to you want quotes for? If so, can you alleviate the need to even visit them in the first place by perhaps offering that service on a fixed price per square meter or something?

They can price it up themselves and just contact you to arrange the job. Just up the price a bit to account for those inevitable customer who underestimate the size of their lawn, either by accident or on purpose (you know what Facebook is like).

 

[estwig]

Yell will rob you, they rob everyone.

fb is full of tyre kickers, looking for the cheapest price for a job they might get done one day, if it's cheap enough.

Google My business (GMB) works very well, more serious buyers with intent to buy from someone local. Get this sorted, get your website sorted with some basic local seo. Qualify the enquiries with questions like, 'when are you thinking of having the work done' and 'has anyone else been out and looked at it for you'. The answers to these two simple questions, will weed out a lot of time wasters.

 

[alan1302]

Explain you are the owner and if you can sort a deal out there and then you can discount them the salesman’s commission, he is away and you don’t see why you should give him the commission since he is on holiday and you are doing the work.

If you told me that I'd just say no to you as I don't like being told rubbish and look elsewhere.

 

[Calvin Crane]

I have seen quotations based on a day rate and then you also offer priced jobs but stop driving an hour ask them to send you photos and say a quote will be + or - xxx etc
30% isn't too bad 20 pounds per hour seems to be a base price

 

[Karllacey]

My god people reach for the SEO option way too much. I have helped some guy recently who came to do my lawn with the same issue and it really was a simple fix.

Put away the SEO marketing because it DOES NOT WORK with this type of business because it lacks efficiency and it also gives downtime in travelling one place to another unless it is stupidly specific. In which case, a website is more than enough with basic functionality.

Now to the point, the challenges you have are cost, efficiency versus customer base. You have customers right? when you do a job door knock 5 up, 5 down hand information to the person (or post it if you have to) with a short note advising that you are doing work at "Mrs Smiths at No3 lawns etc" so:

1. They have a point of reference
2. They can see the work
3. It keeps your work in a close area (Lowers your costs / increases your efficiency)

Each time you go and visit / do a customer do the same thing over and over.

You are not creating a job by doing it either, it is a case of continuity.