A short podcast episode by Mike Andes explaining that landscaping businesses should think in P2P (people-to-people) terms rather than strictly B2B or B2C. He argues that even commercial sales have named decision-makers you can research (LinkedIn, social media) to build personal connections, and residential sales benefit from relationship-building during estimates and by using customer profiles/CRMs to personalize communication.
Chapters
Hey everyone, this is Mike Andes. You're listening to landscape businesscourse.com podcast and right now we're talking about P2P. Now you've heard of B2B. You've heard of B2C which stands for business to business or business to consumer. So a lot of times in any industry, regardless of what type of business people are running, they say that, well, I'm selling to consumers or I'm selling to businesses. So in other words, B2B or B2C. Now what you have to realize is that we are in neither of those categories. You might say, well, I'm doing mostly residential or I'm doing mostly commercial. But at the end of the day, you are in a P2P sphere. And what I mean by that is you are in a people to people environment. What I mean by that is that regardless of whether you're selling to a business for commercial accounts or whether you're selling to residential homeowners for their lawn care business, you have to remember that you are selling to a person. And what I mean by that is obviously you're selling to a human being. But I think far too often, especially when people start going into the commercial world, they start forgetting that people is what makes selling and transactions happen. If you're trying to sell commercial, one of the best things to know and best things to do is to realize that there is a decision maker with an actual name and an actual job title that's going to say yes or no to your proposal. What you should be doing is focusing on the P2P which is realizing that you are a person and they are a person and you can develop a relationship. Now LinkedIn is a great way to get to know people who work at property management companies or condo associations or homeowners associations and figure out who they are. And then from their LinkedIn you can typically follow them on social or get to know exactly what they like. So you have ways of connecting with this person outside of just the commercial benefit that you are going to get from them. So if you're going to be pitching to an hoa, it'd be a good idea to find out who the president is of the HOA. Follow them through, you know, find them through LinkedIn, follow them on social and then see what the things that if they have, if they are big fans of a certain football team or they like certain types of food and that's all they talk about on their social. Like that's a key talking point. It might even be something that you can kind of, you know, buy them a box of their favorite cookies or their favorite kind of coffee or whatever it is, things that they just rave about and that you are going to connect with them. So what you have to realize is that sometimes a personal connection is all you need to get the big account. Especially when we start talking about commercial where people in that world are so used to numbers and digits and like if you can stand out and really realize that you are in the P2P selling business, the people to people personable and you are able to connect with individuals on a personal level and not just a commercial level, you're gonna stand out from everyone else. Now that goes to say also for residential, when we start talking about residential, a lot of lawn care companies are thinking volume. They're thinking, okay, I need 3, 400 of these accounts and they begin to allow their customers to become just a number. Obviously a CRM software is a great way to keep track of all your customers and make sure that you have a personable touch every time you answer the phone and things. However, even when you are going for the estimate, you should know their first name. You shouldn't like you want to ask questions that are outside of just lawn care, landscaping, things like how long have they lived at the house? Did they A lot of times I'd say half the time you're going to hit someone that is moving into the house or is moving out of the house and so you can ask where they're going and that kind of leads usually into what they do for a living. And if you can get to know this person, this individual on more of a personable level, you're going to be head and shoulders above a competition who just does a drive by estimate or they come real quick, do a walkthrough, don't really ask questions, don't get to know the person, their family, their siblings, their favorite type of car, their favorite type of wood flooring, their favorite type of tree, what their past was like what they do for work or if they retire, what they did for work back in the day and be able to find connecting points with them, to connect with them. And really like we put on some of our customer profiles, some of the things like that this person would connect with us. So for example, if someone was a horticulturalist or a gardener big time, and now they're retired and they're just needing someone else to do it, like that is something that you want to make sure you take note of so you know that when you are in discussion with them via email, and your secretary or someone else is emailing them, they can look on their customer profile and see that this person, you know, you can throw species names of trees at them and they're going to be okay. And they're probably also going to be a little more picky about some of the plants that you have in their garden and things like that. And it goes on and on. Like literally sometimes you can say funny things about that's going to connect with them at the end of an email when you're sending their estimate, if you've listened and you've made a personal connection with them during the estimating process. So I'd say one of the most important times to develop a relationship with someone on the residential level is at the time of estimate, making sure you do a thorough walkthrough, ask them questions about not just their landscaping, but just their personal life and developing a relationship. And then when it comes to commercial, I think even before you meet the person, you can discover what their position is, what their name is, and discover more about them through LinkedIn and other social sites. So that is just one tip I have for how to make your business more of a people to people business instead of a B to B, B2B or B2C kind of environment. So that's it for today. This is Mike Andes on the Landscape businesscourse.com podcast.
