Mike Andes explains why lawncare businesses face feast-or-famine estimate requests, with weeks jumping from 40-60 to just ten. Instead of waiting for leads to dry up, sell seasonal work ahead: pitch fall cleanup in June, target past customers, and use door-hangers to keep estimators busy and cash flowing year-round.
we would go from 40, 60 estimates a week. All of a sudden the next week there'd be 10. And so what can I do if I am looking for a full-time estimator? What can I do to make sure that, hey, yes, you got to get estimates out as they come in, but when it dives, when it drops, what are some other tasks that that estimator can do to still be profitable and drive revenue for the business? Because otherwise, if they're just waiting for inbound leads, there are times leads just don't show up. Like if it's raining outside, and it's horrible weather, no one's thinking about getting their landscape project.
They know that summer projects are coming. So what are their most common summer projects that they typically do year over year? I would then go to those customers and either resell them the same project that we sold them last year, or I would go and get door hangers or do outbound strategy to sell that same project to new customers. Right? If you're planning for the season you're in during the season, you're already behind. If I'm in the middle of June and I know fall cleanup starts in September, and I have a down day in June, why wouldn't I just go start pre-selling jobs for September when I know it's going to happen and I know demand picks back up? Let me pre-sell that and focus on the outbound, go generate work versus just wait for work to come to me.
