We’re right in the middle of the “100 Days of Victory” — the three-plus months leading up to July 4 when landscaping companies are at our busiest. This time of year can be stressful and fast-paced, but it’s also our biggest opportunity (hence the 100 Days of “Victory” instead of the 100 Days of “Hell”). Now is the time for sales teams to be putting on the full-court press because we know that demand is seasonal for our businesses, and if we don’t capture the work now, we’ll miss the opportunity.
As we’re focused on nailing our sales goals at Grunder Landscaping Co., there are a handful of things we do to set up our sales teams for success. The biggest thing is having a marketing plan and sticking to it but still remaining flexible when we need to adapt based on what we’re seeing in the market.
I asked Emily Lindley, content and events manager for The Grow Group and marketing manager at Grunder Landscaping Co., to help me with this month’s column because I know many companies are putting a renewed focus on their marketing efforts. She’s in the weeds doing this for us. Here are the tips she shared:
Target your online ads
Emily joined us for an episode of my podcast, The Grow Show, to dive into exactly why this is important and how you can do it. Go check out that episode (published March 26) for more details, but her biggest piece of advice was this: Make sure you are geotargeting your social media and online ads. When you don’t do this, many platforms default to targeting the entire country, which isn’t getting you the leads you need if you’re only serving certain markets.
Focus on timely issues
In the spring, the seasonal issue we see most frequently in our area is flooding and standing water. We sent a March e-blast to existing and past clients about drainage solutions, generating leads within our existing client base and resulting in a handful of sales.
E-blasts are a simple, low-effort way to get in front of your clients and potentially sell them one or two new services. They’re easy to implement and have a high impact.
Have a plan
We started out the year by breaking our total marketing budget into categories so we knew how much we could spend on each individual piece of the puzzle. This meant that we could allocate effectively and know upfront how many mailings we could do, what our budget should be for digital ads and if there was any wiggle room for the community sponsorships that always come along throughout the year.
We’ve adjusted our plan a few times to move some mailings up in the schedule or shifting which service a particular piece was promoting, but overall, this has been our map for the year.
Emily will share more of her marketing strategy during our Virtual Sales Bootcamp 2.0, which will be held live on May 7-8 with recordings available until June 9. In addition to her perspective, our attendees will also get sales tips from Chris Psencik, principal and vice president with McFarlin Stanford, and me.
Our goal for landscape professionals reading this and attending our event is simple — to help you sell more so you can have a great 2025. This event will give you the tools to do just that, all without having to leave the office. Register and learn more here.
