Businesses across the landscape industry are adapting to the rapidly changing economic conditions. A recent HubSpot data report states,
“Average marketing email volume increased 29% the week of March 16, while open rates increased by 53% the same week. Across the month, the open rate increased by 21% overall.”
This report suggests two things: first, remote selling is increasing, and second, customers are still looking to engage with companies.
So what does this mean for landscaping industry professionals? Don’t assume your prospects are not going to engage.
Taking the sales mindset forward, let’s look at some practical approaches to help you fuel your sales funnel:
Proactive Communication
The number one mistake you could be making right now is not telling your potential landscaping customers that your business is up, running, and well-equipped to do remote business.
Here’s an example from the food industry: when food delivery companies started the concept of contactless delivery, they made sure that we, as customers, are well aware of three things – the companies are willing to deliver the food, the type of services we can expect (e.g. a limited menu), and the process of contactless delivery. These three things conveyed to us that they want to serve us, but out of respect for each others’ health and safety, they’ve adopted a new way of doing business.
The present reality of landscaping means that adjusting the way you do business is an essential step in communicating with your prospects. Tell them that your business is up, running, and well-equipped to do business in a safe and effective manner.
To get the best results for your communication efforts, we recommend using video messaging. Right now video consumption is at its highest, but that’s not the only reason we are supporting this; video adds a personalized element and instills authenticity in your message. Since you can’t be out in the field meeting and greeting clients and prospects, a video message helps them to set their eyes on you and decide whether or not they want to trust you with the job. A tool to help you easily make videos, like Animoto, can come in handy here to help you create and edit short video clips suitable for sharing with your social network.
Walk Them Through the Process
Explain to your prospects and clients the changes you’ve made to your operations and processes to help keep them and your staff safe. Help them understand how your company’s action plan can be performed via the web. Here are a few tools to help you streamline your remote sales process:
Zoom Video Meetings
A video meeting is the closest interaction you can have with your prospective clients right now. Zoom, which now has more than 200 million daily meeting participants, is an easy-to-install video conferencing software that allows you to hold individual or group meetings. Along with the video meeting facility, you can also record your sessions which allows you to easily reference anything and everything that was discussed.
A great advantage for DynaScape design users is Zoom’s screen sharing feature which enables you to showcase and discuss your drawings with your prospect. This way you can talk through all the elements of the design, make changes if necessary, and won’t have to send them your drawings until you’ve closed the deal.
Google Forms
To streamline the process of collecting necessary information from your client, Google Forms helps you list out the questions you have for your prospect. This free service lets you share the questionnaire with your clients through a single link and stores the responses in a spreadsheet. TypeForm is another great option.
Google Earth
The functionality of Google Earth allows you to survey an area online to get a rough estimate of the yard size and dimensions without having to drive down to the property; precisely the kind of service landscape professionals needs right now. You can further prepare your quote based on the estimated job size, but be sure to let your customer know that the quote is based on an estimated measurement and could differ if the actual job size is smaller or larger than anticipated.
A key point to remember here is to keep things simple and flexible for the customer. If he/she does not want to spend time typing out an email or using Google Forms to communicate with you, give them the option to share information and/or pictures through whichever medium works best for them.
Allow Schedule Flexibility for You and Your Prospect
Everyone is dealing with different sets of responsibilities in this time of uncertainty. Giving prospects the option to pick and choose makes it easier for them to decide. When scheduling a call time through an email discussion, you have limited scheduling options; sharing your calendar with them allows for higher flexibility.
Calendly is one tool that you can use to share your calendar through the web. It allows you to quickly set up your online calendar to highlight your availability; this way, you can time your sessions well, fit in more and achieve higher productivity.
Take This Time to Build the Bridge
Right now is not the time to wait around and watch your sales funnel dry up. Use this time to adapt and come out stronger. Take the time to build the bridge with your prospects. Show them a plan you can both accomplish. There is nothing more assuring than seeing a well-laid-out plan in this phase. Evaluate technology options that can help you overcome the obstacles of this time. DynaScape is here to provide you with solutions developed by landscape industry experts to meet the unique needs of green industry professionals.
To learn more about DynaScape’s landscaping software solutions, contact one of our account executives.