The most successful salespeople are the best listeners. Yes, successful salesmen must be articulate, but listening is where you build rapport. And it’s rapport that a salesman needs to increase closing success. Rule No. 1: If you’re talking, you’re not listening. Rule No. 2: The more you talk (and the less the client does), the lower your success rate. The... read more
Kevin Kehoe of Aspire discusses what numbers in your financial reports matter most. He provides a wealth of business building and benchmarking ideas to help green industry professionals better understand their businesses as compared to the industry. One key takeaway or insight was for contractors that provide commercial landscape maintenance services. Net profits for a maintenance company are reduced when... read more
Owning and managing a seasonal business has its challenges. Even the most profitable and thriving business can be out of business if it doesn’t properly manage cash flow. In other words, if there’s not gas in the tank, the engine’s not running. I experienced this first hand with my company, Noon Turf Care. A few years ago we had a... read more
Adding a mosquito-control service proves to be a business booster for Memphis, Tenn.-based Southern Lawn & Pest. The Great Recession nearly brought Steve Clark’s lawn mowers to a halt. At the time, he owned a Memphis, Tenn., commercial lawn maintenance business called Southern Lawn Care. The business, which he started in 2005, grew quickly. But by 2010 revenue had dwindled.... read more
Since implementing an end-of-day flowchart to facilitate how crews wrap up and prepare for the next day, Peninsula, Ohio-based Suncrest Gardens has saved about $30,000 to $35,000 per year for the last two years. “Every dollar counts,” says Kolin Atkinson, systems director for the full-service firm with a garden center that runs about 20 three-men crews. “We look at those... read more
Operating costs inch up, but landscape professionals don’t have much to complain about. Despite the LM Industry Pulse revealing an 11 percent increase in overall operating costs over last year, contractors interviewed for the report didn’t report many outrageous increases. For Chris Solimini, the most difficult cost to contend with is taxes. “You’re trying to have a legitimate business and... read more
