Nailing Your Pricing Strategy For High Margins With Less Mistakes
Youre just about ready to go out there and start growing a thriving new business!
However, this chapter is a critical key to making sure that you succeed. In fact, I can safely say that this is the most important chapter of this blueprint.
Whats that? Ive already said that a few times?
Youre right and thats because all of these chapters are the most important. I called this a blueprint for a reason. When a construction crew puts up a building, they base everything they do off of an engineers blueprint. Every single piece of that plan is required to make sure the building is solid.
Leave out an important support pylon on the ground floor and that 23rd floor will come crashing down.
Thats what these chapters are the support structures that go into making your lawn care company a solid structure thatll last for years to come.
The way that you price your services is absolutely critical to your success.
Price yourself too high and you wont be able to close enough new customer to sustain yourself. Price yourself too low and youll find that youre working your Mean Green off and not making any more than any old dead end job.
The bad news is that there really is no exact formula to figure this out. Even more bad news is that you will make some mistakes. The good news, though, is that this isnt a big deal. Youre going to get good at pricing your services by doing it.
Maybe youll go over or under but with a little experience, youll very quickly develop a feel for it.
Insert Testimonials And References
If you think the prospective customer would appreciate it, have a guide segment in your offer. When youve done work with someone else, and they were happy with it, see if theyll take calls from new clients looking for references. However, before you provide a list, get their approval first. If they say yes, add the reference as a regular extension on all the lawn work.
What Not To Do When Expanding Into Commercial Lawn And Landscaping Work
Part of taking the right steps to be successful in the commercial landscaping market means avoiding some costly pitfalls.When youre first starting out, it may be tempting to buy a job to get a foothold with an account. But, thats a lose-lose situation. Stick to your set profit margins.You also have to educate your employees. Just because your sales team is good at landing residential accounts doesnt mean theyll be as successful in the commercial sector. In fact, without the right training, they will probably fail miserably and quit, Delany says.Commercial lawn accounts and landscaping contracts can bring in large checks, but make sure your business isnt too dependent on one account. You need to have a good mix of property types. You dont want to have all of your eggs in one basket, Schill says.With the right business tools and preparation, you can make commercial accounts a profitable part of your landscaping company.If you have the patience and are willing to deal with slow payments and losing/replacing large accounts, Delany says, go commercial.
Want more sales insight and advice? Enter your email below to receive new articles instantly . And be sure to check out our Tip Sheet with practical advice on how to market and sell commercial landscaping work.
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Youll Need A Lot Of Salesman
To acquire your future corporate lawn care deal because salespeople assist customers in making the best decisions and selecting the items they would like to acquire.
Salesmanship promotes mobility and hence lowers unsold inventory. To close the deal, you may use books, YouTube videos, and other B2B sales materials.
While these are some relevant points we could find, these are not all. Bidding commercial lawn care contracts is by no means an effortless breeze, and various things are to be taken into account.
The experience and expertise speak the loudest, and a company like U.S. Lawns will instinctively know what to do. We hope this blog was helpful enough for you to get an insight on the things to keep in mind as you bid on your next commercial lawn care contract.
How Do You Bid On A Mowing Contract
A commercial mowing client will first ask you to provide a bid for services. This bid should contain the list of landscaping services your business provides as well as the pricing. If you perform general gardening services like hedge trimming as well as mowing, clients can meet all their lawn care needs with the one contractor.
In the lawn care industry, the basic mowing and edging services will be about the same for all businesses, and its hard to differentiate based on anything but price. For that reason, its a great strategy to emphasise any additional or special services that your business can offer, helping your bid stand out from the rest.
When providing an estimate, be sure to visit the property yourself to inspect it. That way, you can visually gauge the amount of work required, and the client knows you are giving a quote specific to them, not a generic figure. This will also help you understand any unique needs the client has and how to win them over.
You may opt to add a section to your bid that contains references. If you have worked for a previous client who was pleased with the results, ask them if they are willing to take reference calls. This can give new clients confidence in your services, especially if youre relatively new to commercial work.
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Capture Labor Costs For Your Lawn Care Service
You work for a living, so it is critical to charge for your landscaping and lawn care services. On the Skynova bid template, you can charge per service or hour or day worked. Input labor costs similarly to how you captured supplies in the previous step.
Underneath “Item,” click on “Service,” “Hours,” or “Days” and describe the labor. For example, a mowing job may take you an hour at $20. Select “Hours” from the “Item” menu. Include the description . Add “20” under “Unit Price” and “2” under “Quantity” to arrive at a total amount of $40.
Where specialist subcontractor services are used, add a description of the specific services, such as “pest control,” “electricians,” or “stonemasons.” Follow the process above to include separate labor charges at different unit prices and quantities to complete this step of your bid estimate. “Expenses” can also be found under the “Item” drop-down menu when you need to include other costs related to your landscaping bid.
Your 1st Goal: Meet With The Decision Maker
Right now, your 1st goal is to simply get your foot in the door.
For small and medium lawn or landscaping companies, networking is the only reliable way to get a commercial lawn care contract.
In other words, you have to approach them.
One solid strategy is to craft an email or a letter for each business you want to bid.
When you start sending these emails, try hanging them up in HOAs to get your name into the right hands and get them to respond to you.
Another option is to head over to the right local networking events:
- Local businesses: You’ll get to talk directly to the owner , which makes sales and upsells easier.
- HOAs: Talk to HOAs and other Real Estate groups. You can find these by searching HOA or Real Estate Groups in .
- BOMA: Set up a meeting with your citys Building Owners and Managers Association.
- Chamber of Commerce Meetings, CEO Forums, and other networking events will help you meet potential clients, especially if your town has a commercial district or sector with above average commercial density.
When all else fails
it’s time for some cold, hard knocks.
Drive around and look for properties that need fixing. When you see a business that could use your services, go knock on their door and introduce yourself. This one works very well if you are good at in-person sales.
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The Secret To Bidding And Getting More Lawn And Landscaping Jobs: Build Relationships
If the idea of making cold calls or showing up at a business to talk to the manager sends chills down your spine, you’re not alone. Cold leads are difficult when looking for paying customers. Instead, you want to cultivate warm leads by getting to know the decision-makers.
Again, you can go to networking events or brainstorm all of the companies you go to on a regular basis. For example, does your hair salon have a stand-alone building? What about your local grocery store?
Ask the people who’re in charge of the business how they feel about their current commercial lawn service.
Conversely, you can focus on a niche and target one commercial client typeincluding warehouses or a shopping plaza.
You can also include pictures of the professional mowing equipment you use on commercial properties.
Speaking of commercial mowing equipment, do you need replacement tires, tubes, or parts to keep your mowers and other lawn equipment humming this spring?
Then, you need us at MowMore.com. We’re your one-stop online shop for all of your commercial lawn care equipment needs. If you have any questions about your landscape equipment and replacement parts, call our customer service today at 1-800-866-9667 or fill out our contact form.
What To Look For When Visiting The Site
If your customer is comfortable with you and sees you as a professional, you are more likely to experience success when you bid on landscaping jobs. Make sure you have a chance to visit the site in person and try to meet with the property owner or the person in charge of hiring a landscaper.
Ask questions about their goals and vision for the project. Take notes and ask for clarification when necessary. You’ll use the information you collect during your first visit to the site to address the customer’s needs and wants in your bid.
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A Word To The Wise Before You Quote A Bid
For those of you just staring out in commercial mowing, heed this word of advice: if you dont think you have the skills to do a particular job, dont bother bidding on it. Your lack of skills will show up in inferior work, and word spreads quickly around the business community. One subpar job might lead to such poor reviews that you will find it hard to ever win another commercial bid.
Commercial Lawn Care Bids
Lets start by stating what we believe to be the Number One truth with regards to commercial lawn care bids: businesses only care about the bottom line.
No, that is not true of 100% of businesses in the United States, but it is true of a vast majority of them. The Profit and Loss statement is the deciding factor when choosing among commercial mowing services and signing a commercial mowing contract. Any commercial lawn care business which ignores that fact will find it very hard to obtain a contract for work.
We are Keiths Tractor Mowing, servicing the Greater Fort Worth area, and after a couple decades of residential mowing, area mowing, lot mowing, and church mowing, we know a thing or two about the process of commercial lawn care bidding. Call us for more information after you read this article.
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How To Enter Into Commercial Lawn Care
While you may think that moving your business to include commercial lawn care should be easy, realize that youre dealing with a different type of customer. For example, you may need to sell to a condominium owners association , a homeowners association , or a POA .
Conversely, you may work with an asset or a property manager. And how you find your clients will be different too. You may do a lot of marketing on Facebook for residential customers, but youll need to become LinkedIn savvy to connect with your new audience.
You also have to bid to land clients rather than leaving door hangers. And property managers and HOA boards have different lawn maintenance needs.
They want pristine lawns to keep current homeowners or tenants happy, and these commercial entities also need to be inviting people to want to live at their properties.
Youll have steady and long-term contracts, especially if you provide snow removal services in the winter, but youre also competing with other commercial lawn care companies for bids.
Finally, your commercial accounts demand that your crews show up every time on time and get the work done as promised in the contract. Your clients also want a one-stop lawn and landscape company to work on their properties.
And all your customers need to trust you because theyre busy with a million different tasks. Show that you have a proven track record of service.
Here are some of your new clients needs:
- Edging
Getting Hoa Landscaping Bids
Is it time for your HOA board to get bids for commercial landscaping? What may seem like a stressful task for board members can actually provide your HOA with opportunities to improve and simplify the beautification of your community. Choosing a company that has experience working with HOAs can help reduce confusion, making the boards job easier. Here are some tips to consider when getting HOA landscaping bids:
Value Quality
Landscaping is one of the largest line items in the HOA budget and residents have high standards and expectations for their contributions. A high-quality landscaping company will know how to make the community look beautifully well-kept and welcoming. As a result, residents are happy and new homebuyers are attracted to the neighborhood. Although working within the HOAs budget is crucial, going with the lowest bid can have negative results. Cutting corners can make a huge difference in the appeal of your community and result in complaints from residents. Remember, landscaping is an investment in your property and choosing a high-quality company is key to maintaining the standard of beauty your community deserves.
Check Experience and Qualifications
Make sure to verify that the company has the necessary licensing, workers compensation insurance, general liability insurance, state licensing, and appropriate loss prevention in place.
Clearly Define Expectations.
Verify Communication
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How Low Can I Bid Before I Lose Money
Winning a bid is often a matter of offering the lowest prices. But some victories are not worth it.
Take the scientific approach.
Measure the property yourself.
Note all of the irregularities that will slow you down or cause you problems.
If you cant win a bid without underpricing yourself, then its not worth it.
The 4 Types Of Proposals Youll Receive When Putting Your Landscaping Contract Out For Bid
When in the process of seeking a landscaping proposal at your commercial property, you might be overwhelmed by the number of different bid types that you receive. Not only will you see some variance in prices, but you might also see some variation in whats included or how the bids are written.
It might make the process feel daunting.
Because of this, some people find their own ways to simplify the process of narrowing their choices. One way that weve seen companies and organizations make bid decisions is to just look for the middle bid. Theres almost always a bid thats the highest and a bid thats the lowest, so they just choose something right in the middle. It might feel like an easy way to choose a contract when youre really not sure how to narrow your options.
Unfortunately, any method where you shop solely on price is oversimplified and one of the easiest ways to ultimately be unhappy with your results. Thats because its not enough to just look at the priceyou actually have to understand what youre getting for that investment.
In order to help you with that process, were giving you a few trade secrets. There are usually certain types of bids that youre likely to come across in collecting landscaping contract bids.
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How To Bid And Win More Commercial Lawn And Landscaping Jobs
How are your storytelling skills? It might be time to brush up on them when you’re bidding on commercial landscaping jobs.
Yes, property managers and business owners are busy. But how many of the same sales talks have they heard from your competitors? You know how it goesthey eventually stop listening.
Instead of simply going through the lawn and landscaping services you offer, why not paint a picture of how these same services will welcome new customers and build the company manager’s reputation?
What Is A Lawcn Care Bid
When talking about a lawn care bid, it is an offer created by an investor, dealer, and trader. They use this to purchase services, products, and many more. It specifies the price the potential customers are willing to pay and the quantity of the services they want to avail. Thats why if you are a business owner, its critical to accurately estimate landscaping work if you desire to run a profitable company.
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Determine The Overhead Costs
Overhead costs are the costs associated with running a business. You have these expenses even when youre not working . Overhead includes expenses such as insurance, business license, a website, the fee you pay your accountant, bank fees, phones, marketing, storage unit rental, computer, copy machine, paper and toner and other non-job expenses. Whos going to pay for your truck? What about gas, oil, insurance, title, tags, repairs, maintenance and air filters?
If you can estimate your overhead expenses for the year and the number of jobs youll have, you can add that amount of overhead to each job. You can also come up with a percentage. Green Industry Pros estimates that approximately 20 percent of landscaping sales go to covering overhead-related costs.
