Phil's 60/40 Ad Proposal

[njnewbie]

Hey Phil,

In another post you were saying that a good rule of thumb is to put 60% of your marketing budget towards current customers. Do you think this is more relevant in a large established company doing jobs for multiple jobs. Don't get me wrong, we're no low-ballers (we charge local standards for everything), but at this point we find ourselves getting mostly lawn-mowing business and small mulching/cleanup jobs. My question is, what would be an appropriate marketing return on a guy who say is a $35 weekly mowing customer? I don't understand how, other than lowering the guy's price or cutting him a break now and them, I could wisely spend money on him. Maybe I'm just not thinking creatively. Would it be direct-mailing/multiple flyers/discounts for getting us referrals? I'd really appreciate your help you seem on point about everything. Anyone else have any marketing suggestions along these lines? Thanks.

Pat

[Seascape]

I mail seasonal promo to existing clients such as
ALMOST SPRING
SPRING IS FINALLY HERE
FALL IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER

But i have yet to develope a SUMMER promo for existing clients.
One things for sure,,, these always produce calls. Theyre especially good getting the ball rolling(phone ringing) in march and april and just prior to fall. Its july and august that my phones calm down. As I grow those slow downs become more and more stressful.

[MEvans857]

I mail seasonal promo to existing clients such as
ALMOST SPRING
SPRING IS FINALLY HERE
FALL IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER

I do the same, gets people thinken.

[Phil Nilsson]

To spend on existing customers is to give some payback but relative to incoming dollars too. Seasonal gifts, or better yet if you've gotten to know the customer on a more personal level ... hopefully ... then graduation gifts to the kids, or if you know the wedding anniversary date, birthdays, or the death of a customers relative ... customers have an untold number of family members, relatives, friends, neighbors so if you're a thoughtful, caring, sharing person (not just a business man) then the connective tissue can only get stronger and wider ... this is true networking where if you noticed like I did again just recently ... LOL ... one hand washes the other This is especially true in the residential markets, moreso than commercial ... where there's more ice to break ... and loyalty a harder nut to crack.

We had that same summer promo thing ... so we refused to do spring installs ... landscaped only after July 4 ... and we offered a substantial discount if customers would hold off till then .. in addition I developed a parking lot line marking gig that worked in ernest starting right around July ... thru around October ... also all of our commercial contracts were 12 month equal payment so cash flow wasn't an issue ... we actually took summer vacations right after July 4th as well.

Another thing that I see working out well is to bite the bullet and begin adding interior maintenance services to existing customer base ... things they buy on a regular repeat basis ... like carpet cleaning, window cleaning, maid service .... auto detailing ... I know too many things can drive you nuts but if you go slow and add one at a time you might build up a customer following if (IF) you hire, train and control the crews ... which I think for that type of work would be mostly Hispanic at this point in the game. Lots of people in my neighborhood have both lawn service and maid service too. No reason why the same outfit couldn't offer both.

P.S. we also did parking lot curbing repair right after the spring rush and pruning was finished ... on rain days the guys would drive around finding lots with broken curbs ... mostly plow damage, and lots that needed new lines. If I had it to do all over again I would have added a house painting gig to our services lineup to help get through the summer from around July through September.

[Seascape]

we actually took summer vacations right after July 4th as well.

.

Actually i take my vacation over 4th of july week. I take 7 days. Im not always that disappointed when the summer slow arrives. Often im releived. However my labor issues are more significant these days. Heavier load to carry you could say. Its not so much my maintenance guys but my install guys that i see hard to place for a breif moment in late summer. Gotta get that figured out.

[Phil Nilsson]

However my labor issues are more significant these days. Heavier load to carry you could say. Its not so much my maintenance guys but my install guys that i see hard to place for a breif moment in late summer. Gotta get that figured out.

My answer is to do house painting ... jobs run from say 3 days to a week or so. Fill in the time gaps ... logistics are easy because everybody shows up to the same site each day and of course this leads to other work and new contacts.

My second choice would be line marking parking lots as mentioned above. Although those gigs are much shorter duration and you'd need more jobs to keep everybody going. Do the house painting ... less jobs needed ... longer time frame ...

[RRS]

Interior Painting

I do interior painting in the winter, and the only downside to it is that it's much more meticulous work than what most landscapers are used to so I find myself having to watch over them a little more than normal. Your big burly guy that humps mulch and stone all day may be like a bull in a china shop when he starts detailing crown molding with all of grandma's crystal collection pulled to the center of the room Very low startup though, and the work is easy to find.

[Elwood]

MIke, in your market, I would think you could sell the hell out of new installs and especially landscape renovations to fill your summers.

[Seascape]

MIke, in your market, I would think you could sell the hell out of new installs and especially landscape renovations to fill your summers.

I can ,, i just get uneasy when i have less than 6 week back logs. There are however dry summers that slow things down. Fortunately havent seen one of those lately. Right now i have 4 installs open ,, well 3 and a little one. Plus i have 5 others that are late,, not even started. One has a 400 sq ft paver and 400 ' of wall,,,im scheduled for VA Beach on the 4th of july and i have 2 large ones that both are schedeled 6/14. After that only small hardscapes and some live fence stuff,, couple small jobs, and a bunch of rehab stuff. But,, i have a 20k plan sittin here now,, just have to sell it. Im ready just trying to delay the gig. I know theyre not releasing it to anyone else,, theyll be calling by the end of this week wanting to wrap it up i suspect.Oh,, and another set of prints in my personal truck i havent even looked at yet. Had it since friday. So basically sometime in august ill be out of work!!! Ya right,, wouldnt that be nice.

[Phil Nilsson]

My brother in law is in the painting business up in the Boston north shore area ... usually has a 3 month backlog of jobs at all times. They do mostly exterior work but in winter they'll do interior commercial. Two - three crews on the road everyday. He sells, they paint, runs quality control, has three Hispanic foreman (master painters) and all Hispanic workers. Logistics are simple, investment low, if you saw the beat up used vans and equipment he uses ... you'd laugh! ... but he brings in big bucks ... my own opinion is that every landscape outfit should consider having some kind of (separate building maint or light construction division) property repair, maintenance, restoration "division" or whatever because the demand is steady and real estate is "where it's at".
Over the years he's purchased several run down multi-family houses, painting crews work them, restore them mostly on rain days, and in cold winter weather, fixes up and rents out. His system works. His investment in vehicles, equipment etc. per crew can't be more than about $3,000 (used van, ladders and etc.) he sells labor, and paint "cans" ... not machine time. If he wanted to double or triple business ... it could be done almost overnight ... by using a Amex card with a $5,000 limit ... that's the beauty of selling "labor intensive" services as opposed to selling services that are (both) labor and equipment intensive.

Any landscape outfit can give itself a "break" by looking to labor intensive where you don't need mowers, trailers, one tons, snow plows, backhoes, blah,blah, blah along with the equipment upkeep and storage issues. This can seriously limit growth which is directly tied to how much equipment your creditors will let you "float" at any point in time.

Take a look at your total investment in vehicles and equipment and divide that number by the number of employees you have ... how much hardware investment is there per employee? In my brother in laws painting business it's under $1,000 per employee, including a broken down used van ... ... each night a van goes home with one of the foreman and he doesn't even have a "yard" to operate from.