This week's tip deals with
increasing your profit on each of your business customers.
Being in the lawn care industry, I
constantly see guys spend 90 minute or two hours cutting grass with a
small push lawn mower and charge $20 for the work when they should be
able to charge $35 for the work. $15 difference might not seem like
much if he is only doing 1 or 2 yard each week for friends or
relatives. However, if he is doing 15 to 20 yards per week, he might be
losing thousands of dollars per year.
If you have dug through the
Summer101.com Lawn Care Business package, you know that we are big
believers in customer psychology and learning how to give great
estimates and make the most on each of your lawncare customers. The
program is packed with ideas on maximizing profit from each customer you
have.
In this week's Lawn Care Business
tip, I want to touch on just three ideas that you will find helpful in
increasing your profit potential.
1) Sell professionalism:
I know you have seen those dirty,
broken-down trucks with a tiny push lawn mower driving around your
town. We have all seen them. I am not going to bust on those guys too
hard because some of them can make decent money mowing small yards
around their own neighborhood.
However, customers respond to
professionalism. When you show up to give a free customer estimate, the
customer is judging more than just your price. They want to know you
are dependable. They want to know your equipment will not break down.
They want to know that you will do quality work on their lawns.
Having a clean truck, a neat
appearance, and professional looking commercial mowing equipment will go
a long way in
setting that level of professionalism in your customer's mind as soon as
they open the door.
2) Set a high, and realistic,
price. Don't back down (much):
Giving an estimate can be tough. You
have gotten a call from your ad in the newspaper, you are excited with
the prospect of getting a new customer, and you have taken time out of
your day to give the estimate. Sometimes, you feel that if you don't
get the customer, it is lost opportunity. You have to remember, the
estimate is vitally important.
Let's look at a typical customer that
has their yard cut 30 times per year.
If you estimate $30 on this job, you will make $900 over the course of
the year on this
customer. However, if you can simply raise your price by $5, you will
make $1,050. This is a huge increase.
As long as your price is realistic,
most customers will agree to your price. A general rule that we like to
use is that if you get every single customer you estimate then you are
probably not charging enough.
3) Offer an extra service:
For many suburban lawns, $35 to $40
is a very reasonable price for a quality job. However, the homeowner
may balk a bit when they hear this price because of someone else
offering to do it for $5 less. As part of your negotiation, always have
an extra service or two that you can offer. For instance, blowing off
the sidewalk, driveway, can make a dramatic difference in the looks of a
property. Many lawn care businesses will not offer this as a standard
service. A very simple add-on service that you give for free (and
only takes you 5 minutes) can often earn you an extra $5 or $10 on each
of your customers each week.
Take the necessary steps to give
great estimates with each new client. A simple increase of $5 to
$10 for each customer estimate can mean thousands of dollars added to
your bottom line at the end of the year.
The Lawn Care Business program show you dozens of methods of getting
maximum profit from each customer. We also give you a tremendous amount
of resources for bidding and estimating Lawn Care and Landscaping jobs.
