Growth came from a combination of proactively selling landscape enhancement services and also an increase in winter weather, says Doug Delano, managing member of Level Green Landscaping in Upper Marlboro, Md. The company currently has six branches and will be opening another in January.
Level Green provides commercial landscape maintenance, design/build for current customers, irrigation, snow removal and tree care services. With a 29-percent increase year-over-year, Level Green came in at No. 115 on Landscape Management’s 2025 LM150 listing of the industry’s top revenue-generating firms.
Planning ahead
Delano says Level Green attributes that growth to their landscape management/enhancement services and snow removal, which had some natural help from an increase in wintry weather. Their snow removal services went from $570,000 in revenue in 2023 to more than $5 million in 2024. On the maintenance side, the company increased base maintenance sales a little more than $3 million, or 20 percent, which flows through to its other divisions.
During that time, Level Green also renewed 95 percent of its work, so any new maintenance went straight to its growth. To continue improving, the company worked on their penetration rate of enhancements on existing landscape management work, Delano says.
“It is an ongoing project, as while some account managers are very successful at selling enhancements, others just don’t get the idea that you must propose work both asked for and work needed to sell for,” he says.
Level Green has also made client budget worksheets a priority for its account managers. The worksheets help property manager clients proactively budget for their property needs for the next year and allow the Level Green team to work a year ahead to ensure clients are budgeting for enhancements and getting those approved. The company can then use that as a leading indicator for their enhancement sales.
Foundation of trust
Finding the right people for the company continues to be one of their largest obstacles for growth, Delano says. Level Green has a recruiter in-house who actively works to fill vacant positions, and it also has a robust intern program that exposes those team members to the entire operation.
“The recruitment process continues to be always looking and occasionally bringing in employees for growth positions before actually having those positions available,” he says.
In addition, the company has a manager associate program where it recruits recent or upcoming college graduates and places them in a management position to learn the company’s culture, expectations and systems, without having the full responsibilities of an operations or account manager. Those employees typically get promoted from the program to an account or operations manager within three to 12 months.
But no matter the position Level Green is looking to fill, it’s important that it hires team members who can be trusted, Delano says.
“As an owner, I learned a long time ago that I am not the best person to do many of the tasks within our organization,” he says. “Our key to growth has been to hire great people, train them, let them make a few mistakes, back them up and help them grow. That is what has made us successful.”
As Delano and his business partner, Bill Hardy, get older, they’re preparing to turn leadership at Level Green over to the next generation. Delano says getting their team ready and coaching them will be the most important task during the next few years.
Something both Delano and Hardy strive to follow and teach with all of their employees is the Golden Rule. For example, if there’s an issue, they don’t argue with the customer and simply work toward a solution.
“Keep your promises, whether they be to employees, customers or vendors,” he says. “I believe this has helped us be successful.”
