Mike Andes explains when to lower prices starting a lawn care business: only at the beginning to book your first jobs fast. Do door-to-door outreach, estimate the work, then call back and ask what price would seal the deal. Take small discounts on those first jobs to fill your schedule and get referrals, then raise rates once you have proof of work.
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It's Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com and today I'm sharing with you the one time in your lawn care and landscaping business that you should actually reduce and lower your prices just to close the work. Alright, now for some of you, like, this is crazy. You've never talked about this. I've always talked about keeping your highs, your price is high and charging what you're worth and making sure you have high margins and all the rest of that. But today is the one time you should lower your prices and offer discounts on your services. And that's when you're first getting your business started. Now, today I'm walking out here in this neighborhood because a lot of times this is where you're going to be at when you're just getting started. You don't have a lot of money, maybe for marketing. You're literally doing door hangers, knocking on people's doors, talking to neighborhood, you know, people in the neighborhood and just trying to get work, getting momentum. That's the time when you can lower your prices. In my books, that's the time when you give the customer a call and you say, hey, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to do business with you. What price do we need to make this work at? So this is the strategy. Okay, so you're just getting started, you don't have any work. You're literally sitting around for a day or two a week doing nothing. That's the time when you have a lot of time, not much money to go spend maybe on ads and all the rest of it. But more than anything, you need to start booking jobs and getting some momentum. Alright, so what you're going to do is this. You're going to go to doors like these, you're going to put door hangers on if they're not home. If they are home, you're going to knock on the door and talk to them. But on your way up, you're going to see what do they need at this house. You know, this house, for example, they could use a bush trimming, they could use a hedge trimming. Maybe they have some overgrown shrubs or some weeds in the beds. As I'm walking up the door, I'm going to see what do they need. And that way when I knock on the door, I can actually ask them, hey, Mr. Jones, would you like me to give you an estimate for trimming that hedge or would you like me to give you an estimate for taking out those dead bushes in your front yard there? And if they say yes, go for it. Now, if you get that estimate to them, if you send them an estimate in the mail, email, primarily what you're going to be doing is traditionally waiting for a response, having an automation sequence follow up with them and see if they want work done. But this is the one time, the one time you're gonna give them a call 24 hours after that estimate has been emailed to them and you're saying, Mr. Jones, I got that email to, I emailed over the estimate to you. Did you get that? Oh yeah, I got that. What'd you think about it? Well, you know what, it was a little bit too expensive. This is the one time you're gonna say, you know what, Mr. Jones, I would love to do business with you. What does that price need to be in order for us to be able to work together? This is the one time. And I guarantee you, especially if you're young, just getting started, if you're just getting your business started and you created that connection the day before when you came and knocked on the door, if you created that connection, they're not gonna like low ball you, they're not going to be like, oh, well, I want it for $200. And I know it said $400 in the estimate, but I want it for 200. Rarely will that happen. They might go 350 and all of a sudden you got yourself work. And I'm okay with you discounting because you need momentum. Momentum breeds more momentum, alright? So you want that flywheel of momentum to begin and you need the jobs, you need the work. Because what happens is when you get Mr. Jones, yeah, maybe you're charging him 350 instead of 400 like he had in the estimate. But now when you go to Mr. Jones house and you spend some time cleaning up his property, trimming all the bushes, now all of his neighbors get to see your truck parked out in front. That's why it's so important to have decals. That's why it's so important to have a business card or a door hanger to be able to give the neighbors. Because now you actually are going to get momentum. Because now the neighbors will talk to you, now they're going to ask you for a cleanup, maybe the lawn starts to grow and they hey, can you mow my lawn as well? So this is the one time in your business you can discount services and use that line. And that is when you call back the day after, you're going to use the close of, of I want to do business with you. What do we need to get that price to in order to make it work for your budget? Be able to do business together. If you're just that honest with them and say, hey, I want to do business with you, what does that price need to be? They'll come back with a number. And I promise you, if it's not like half the price or something crazy low number, which rarely it is, that you should just take the work. You should take the work, get the momentum rolling. Because when you get that first job, you're going to get neighbors. When you get that first job, you're going to get another one. Now you're two or three days booked out. Now you're four or five days booked out. Now all of a sudden you're getting moment and you're going to have the confidence to charge your full prices because you already have work on the schedule and leads coming in. When you get momentum, it breeds a lot of confidence to charge the prices and what you're actually worth when it comes to dumping fees, estimate fees, and your higher hourly rate. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com make sure you get out there, start knocking on some doors, closing some deals, and get momentum. If you're just getting.
