When it comes to selling your wares, you don’t need a degree in marketing from a top 10 university, nor do you need an extravagant marketing plan. Oh, sure, degrees and plans are nice, but they don’t necessarily generate business. What does increase sales is a good dose of common sense. Walker users have pointed that out in issues of Walker Talk over the years, in many different ways.
“Our trucks, our employees and our customers do our advertising for us,” said one Walker operator several years ago.” “It always comes back to word of mouth.” Another Walker user added, “You couldn’t beat it when we started in business, and it is still our most effective marketing tool.” Adds another, “The only form of advertisement we have ever used is our work and the satisfied customers who spread the word to neighbors and friends.”
There are other common-sense marketing strategies that work, too, depending on the market and the desired end result. Networking, always important, can be accomplished through formalized networking groups or informal gatherings. One Walker user, for example, still networks extensively by playing hockey with clients and suppliers. Networking is also important for commercial maintenance contractors whose contacts “come and go.” Said one veteran operator, “The key is to not only identify and build a relationship with the person in charge of grounds maintenance, but to network and get to know other people. The process helps provide a smooth transition if and when the prime contact either leaves or changes positions with the company.”
Get by Giving
Volunteering your service on community projects, communicating routinely with customers and making yourself available to them, and following up quickly on complaints all fall into the general category of good marketing sense.
The 'Obvious' Pays Off
“I know it sounds too simple, but the most important marketing move any company can make, large or small, is to do great work,” says Marty Grunder, founder and president of Grunder Landscaping Co. in Miamisburg, Ohio. “Great work sells. Conversely, the most sophisticated marketing tools in the world cannot overcome poor work or otherwise bad service.”
As companies mature, owners have a tendency to either forget or otherwise lose sight of simple marketing strategies that were successful for them in the beginning, adds Grunder, who is also a well-known Green Industry consultant with more than 21 years of real-life marketing under his belt. “For example, no matter how great a job you’re doing, never underestimate how important it is to look like you know what you’re doing. Clean equipment and uniformed employees will convey a professional image and signage on all four sides of your truck and trailer will tell people who you are.”
He continues, “Knocking on doors may seem old fashioned, especially in today’s high tech world, but cold calling is still effective. Among messages it sends to prospective customers, it tells them that you want their business and that you are very approachable. Using ‘door hangers’ can be effective, too, especially when the doors are in close proximity to the ‘good work’ you’re doing."
Goin' Hunting
When talking common-sense marketing, this contractor likes to use the old deer hunting analogy. “If you’re looking for deer, you don’t put up a tree stand in the middle of a city.” The same holds true when you are looking for customers, he adds. “It is more cost-effective and you will have more success if you target your customers. Using a mass medium such as the Yellow Pages works to a degree, but it also tells prospects that you are ‘everyone’s landscape contractor,’ and that is a label that most operators do not want.
“Take a look at your customers and find out what they have in common. More than likely, they share certain characteristics, including income, property type, age and so forth. This is your market and that’s where you should be spending your marketing time, effort and dollars. If you send out newsletters, target your market and customize its contents to the reader. Again, it may be obvious, but make sure anything you send out has your name, address and phone number in plain view. When marketing your services, the last thing you want to play is hard to get.”
Back to Basics
According to Grunder, who started his business when he was 16 years old and has since grown it into a $4 million company, it’s not the fancy software and catchy phrases that sell. It’s the basics. “You may need a presence on the Internet, but spending a lot of money developing a Web page and then expecting it to deliver results may be unreasonable.
“Use common sense. What do you expect from suppliers? How do you want to be treated by automobile dealers? If your expectations are higher than what you are delivering to your own customers, then you have some basic marketing work to do.” Seemingly little things such as having a person answer the phone means a lot to customers, he notes. How frustrating is it to call someone and then be asked by a digital voice to peruse a company menu? “If you cannot afford a full-time receptionist, have phone calls routed to someone else in the company, or to your cell phone,” Grunder advises.
Marketing and effective communicating go hand-in-hand. In a Walker Talk story several years ago, a contractor told how he made it easy for customers to identify the crew foreman. The foreman simply wore a white cap instead of a blue one like the other crew members. If a property manager or other customers had a question, they wouldn’t have to search around for the person in charge. Simple? Yes, but effective. Again, it all comes down to common sense. You can and probably should spend upwards of 3, 4, or 5 percent of your gross revenue on advertising and other marketing efforts, but spend the money wisely. Your money and your marketing message will go further when it is grounded in common sense.
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