Using spreadsheets to manage your lawn and landscaping sales data is time-consuming, frustration-inducing, and an overall bad idea. Yet, so many companies in the green industry are still stuck in the early 2000s.
After enough deleted cells, broken formulas, and failing to use the most updated version, better solutions become necessary. Some turn to landscaping industry software. Those tools are great for billing, route management, and basic estimating functions, but when it comes to sales intelligence, various activities, and managing complex sales data, they still fall flat.
When landscape companies want a custom solution to capture real-time information, visualize their pipeline, automate their sales process, and create custom reports their entire team can use in the field, they reach out to Landscape Leadership for assistance.
Many of our clients realized that HubSpot was the robust tool they needed, but weren’t sure how to customize it to their specific lawn care, landscaping, or tree service business. But if you've never used this powerful tool, setup could be overwhelming.
Companies could work directly with HubSpot, but they won't know the ins and outs of the lawn and landscape industry. Instead, the Landscape Leadership team lets you take the lead.
We explore exactly how you want to streamline your sales process and what data you want to see. And of course, we share best practices along the way.
The end result is a tool sales teams are eager to use with custom dashboards and time-saving tools. Here’s a peek at what you could uncover.
Image Source: KD Landscape (who uses HubSpot for their sales process)
Know Where Leads Come From
When you just put contacts into a spreadsheet, you don’t get the full picture of where these leads came from.
While you could ask these contacts if they came from email marketing, paid ads, or another source many will select their favorite source and not necessarily the one they most recently were exposed to.
This often means a lot of “I see your trucks”. While we’re all for great vehicle wraps, it may not be what finally caused that prospect to fill out a form or call you.
This report shows how many qualified leads (deals) for each month and which sources those potential jobs came from.
HubSpot automatically identifies the original traffic source and the latest interaction that prompted them to reach out.
By tracking this data, management can understand what’s generating the most leads and adjust their strategy as needed.
[RELATED READING: How Landscaping Companies Can Modernize Their Prospecting]
Real-Time Sales Pipeline Reports
Let’s be real, when sales reps are doing walkthroughs or in meetings, they aren’t glued to a spreadsheet making sure everything is up-to-date. You’ll probably have to ask them about specific jobs to get accurate info which takes up your time and theirs!
Image Source: Level Green Landscaping (who uses HubSpot for their business development process)
When HubSpot automation is correctly set up, deals move seamlessly through your pipeline or reps can easily move their deals to the next stage with one click. The HubSpot dealboard also lets you segment projects based on sales rep, customer type, service, branch, and more.
The HubSpot Dealboard displays custom cards that can be easily sorted by various filters. Moving them is as simple as dragging and dropping.
Forecast Revenue Accurately
Revenue forecasting is an essential part of any lawn and landscaping business. It allows you to plan for future growth and ensure you have enough resources to meet demand. Forecasting also lets you see what you need to feed into the funnel to achieve your target revenue.
For instance, if your job closing rate is 50%, and you want to close $800,000 this year, you need to bid $1.6 million.
This report shows the total proposed amount for each service division, the weighted forecast amount/likely to close, and the actual closed amount. Reports can also show amounts by branch or rep.
When you use spreadsheets, forecasting revenue is often just guesswork based on what you’ve done in previous seasons compared to how busy you are now.
Hubspot uses AI to identify trends and helps create forecasting based on what you have in your pipeline, in real time.
[RELATED READING: 10 Reasons HubSpot is Perfect for Lawn Care & Landscaping Companies]
Instant Sales Activity Reports & Coaching Opportunities
Your lawn and landscaping company needs an excellent sales team to grow. How do you really know if your team is doing a good job?
Image Source: T. Lake Environmental Design (who uses HubSpot to improve their landscaping sales processes.)
You can see how much they’re closing using a spreadsheet, but what activities are leading up to the sale, and why certain deals are lost? And without visuals, it’s really hard to glean quick insights.
HubSpot can help you learn:
- What leading sales activities are been performed (calls, meetings, emails)
- How long it takes reps to qualify a lead
- Where sales deals are getting stuck in the pipeline
- Your team's and individual rep's average deal size
- How actual revenue is tracking against goals in real-time
- Why reps are losing deals
- Close rates by organization, rep, service divisions, etc.
You need this data to create improvement plans, and Hubspot is one of the tools that can provide it for you.
The report above shows a rep's actual revenue vs. their goal for the quarter. The report below shows all of the lost deals by rep, explaining the reasons they were lost.
The report below shows activities (calls, emails, meetings) that were performed by each rep during the current month.
Use Technology to End Your Headaches
If you continue to use spreadsheets to track your lawn care or landscaping sales pipeline, the frustration will continue. The more sheets and versions you add, the more complicated it gets and the more mistakes you may make.
Image Source: Lawn & Pest Solutions (who uses HubSpot for their sales processes in the office and out in the field.)
Save yourself and your team the hassle by switching to intelligent data software, like HubSpot, and work with the experienced team at Landscape Leadership to customize it to the way you run your green industry business.
If you like regular insights like these, join over 5,000 of your industry peers who subscribe to our blog. We'll send you new articles directly to your inbox. And, if you're tired of working with spreadsheets and need better sales tools, request a consultation.
