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Author: Ken Thomas

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Ken Thomas

Thomas, founder of Envisor Consulting, has owned three of Atlanta’s most successful landscape companies. He is the COO of The Greenery and principal of Envisor Consulting. Reach him at kenthomas@envisorco.com.

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Leadership Advice: Solving problems for sales success

A sign in the office of one of our clients read: “The best sales people don’t come to work every day trying to sell, they come in trying to help people and solve problems.” This hit home for me. By design, I am a problem solver, and I love the art of selling my solutions […]

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Leadership Advantage: Find the intersection of your strengths and passions

Ken Thomas explains that a lot of things have changed in the landscape industry over the past 15 years, but one thing that hasn’t is the value of good people and the importance of building a great team.

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Why your leadership blind spots might be holding you back

Ken Thomas explains that all leaders have blind spots but you need to be able to identify and minimize your blind spots in order to continue to grow your leadership skills.

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Leadership Advantage: What Atlanta’s finest steakhouse teaches us about process

Ken Thomas explains why it’s important for landscape companies to identify, develop, document and implement standard operating procedures.

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Don’t overlook the importance of courageous leadership

Ken Thomas explains how leaders have to be “courageous” and make tough decisions in order to move the organization forward.

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Leadership Advantage: How offseason planning leads to success

Landscape Management columnist Ken Thomas explains how offseason planning often leads to success for landscape professionals.

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3 keys to success in commercial maintenance sales

Want to up your maintenances sales game? Ken Thomas shares three keys to success in selling commercial maintenance contracts.

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Leadership Advantage: Measuring what matters

Ken Thomas explains the difference between leading and lagging key performance indicators and shows how companies can use them to manage performance.

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Leadership Advantage: Leading forward

Landscape Management columnist Ken Thomas describes how the leaders of landscape companies can effectively guide their teams into 2021.

6 components of change management

As landscape industry consultants, my team and I are typically engaged for a few reasons. Either clients are having trouble breaking through some growth barrier, not making enough money or just not having any fun. Sometimes all three. At Envisor, we’re always looking for the root cause to these challenges. As we identify the root […]

Leveraging contribution margin

Most landscape business owners understand the value of gross margin as a key performance indicator. Gross margin is the total dollars remaining after you have covered your direct cost of goods. Gross margin can be measured in dollars or as a percent of revenue. In our industry, healthy gross margins fall within the range of […]

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Doing the right things will set you free

At Envisor, we have the privilege to work with landscape companies across the country. We are typically engaged as consultants to help our clients increase sales, increase profits, improve quality of life or a combination of all three. Our process is to help business owners identify their picture of success in business and in life […]

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Compete by connecting with clients

When we talk about sales in the commercial landscape world we use the term business to business (B2B), which implies that we are businesses selling to businesses. B2B sales is a bit of a misnomer or sterile way to describe this category of sales. Over my years in the landscape industry, I have learned that […]

Leadership Advantage: Delivering intentional results

During the early years in my career, I learned and mastered all the field level skills that helped me become a landscape technician. When I started my own business, I realized my field skills weren’t enough to make me a successful business owner. At first, things flowed smoothly, but as the business grew, things began […]

Leadership Advantage: Service recovery

Service recovery is when a service failure has occurred and the problem has been corrected to the customer’s satisfaction. Great companies understand that effective service recovery satisfies an upset client and creates a greater sense of loyalty. Our search for best practices in service recovery led us to Disney’s training arm, The Disney Institute, which […]

Boost the bottom line

Carefully manage sales, gross margin and labor to better your business. As landscape business professionals, we search far and wide to discover how to run a profitable business. The talk track is predictable: “Sell more work at the right price, and manage your direct costs.” But if it’s that simple, why are so many companies […]

Leadership Advantage: Servant leadership

Culture can be defined as how a team or organization thinks, feels and acts or how an organization behaves. In his book Built To Last, author Jim Collins explores the importance of culture in top-performing firms. While most owners understand the value of a healthy culture intellectually, it can be difficult to achieve. Companies invest […]

Leadership Advantage: Leadership vs. management

Are leadership and management different? Management guru Peter Drucker is credited with saying, “Leaders do the right things and managers do things right.” Let’s tear the idea down a bit, assuming you need to establish some fundamental components for your business to reach its full potential (the right things). These include: Vision and strategy: Where […]

Leadership Advantage: The power of vision

My partner Ben Gandy and I are fortunate to work with some of the brightest, hard-working business owners and leaders in the country, but we’ve learned through experience that intellect and work ethic alone will not guarantee success. The greatest asset in achieving success, individually or in business, is the ability to envision or imagine […]

Put your best face forward

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In my years of experience in the landscape industry, I’ve come to believe account managers can be one of the most important differentiating advantages for our companies. After all, they are the face of your company to your clients and represent the “special sauce” of your organization. In the world of landscape account management, there […]

Pricing Fundamentals: Fixed Price vs. Time and Materials

This question of Fixed Cost versus Time and Material pricing comes up on a regular basis, as I consult with clients around the country. So, let me offer a few points on each. Time & Material (T&M) pricing describes a process where we do not give our client an actual estimate before we do the […]

The importance of checking your crew in the field

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With all that’s going on this time of year, don’t neglect to get out in the field and check up on the crews. Your reputation and fortune depend on it. Time is crunched. Every minute counts. You cannot afford to be ineffective. If you use your field time to make progress serving your customers and […]

The consulting decision: Choosing the best business consultant for your needs

“I am considering hiring a business consultant. How can I prepare in advance so I get the most out of the relationship?” It’s a big decision to hire a business consultant. It’s scary asking someone to come in and critique your business. Not to mention, it can be expensive. I hired my first business consultant […]

What to do when good people leave

There are times in every business when we face the challenging and often sad news that one of our key managers has decided to move on. The first reaction from leadership is often surprise. “How could we have missed this?” This thought is followed by fear and dread. “How will we make it and what […]

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