How often has a property manager ignored you after you sent a proposal or had a consultation? You qualified them, and they seemed like a good fit, but now there’s no response. It’s so frustrating.
You don’t know why these leads are falling out of the sales funnel or what you can do to get them to stop stalling and sign the contract. You’ve got other landscaping leads to prioritize, so you eventually stop following up only to see a competitor handling the job a few months later. That’s the worst.
We’ve helped multiple landscape companies enhance their sales process to close deals faster. From an initial sales and technology audit to streamlining operations and reporting, our holistic approach is based on decades of landscape sales experience. Here’s what we recommend.
Provide Value Not Noise
Reengaging leads goes beyond reminding them of your services with a generic follow-up email and phone call. Don't just add annoying noise to the conversation.
You have to offer additional value that resonates with the specific needs you uncovered during discovery or addresses any hesitation they may have.
Property managers will resonate more with you sharing 6 factors affecting the rising costs of commercial maintenance than asking if they have questions about your proposal.
They may also need more explanation about a line item, so your follow-up email could include an article highlighting how dormant pruning benefits plants.
Or you can compare your company to others they may be vetting or share a case study about how you solved a similar pain point. Demonstrating your expertise and showcasing how you've helped others in similar situations can reignite interest and rebuild trust.
[RELATED READING: Making the Case for Case Studies & How Your Landscaping Company Can Leverage Them for Marketing and Sales]
Make it Easy for Them to Connect
If you want to reconnect with property managers and close the deal, make it easy for them to reach out. You can do this by providing a calendar link in your email that lets them book a time to discuss the proposal or ask follow-up questions.
One of the programs we help landscaping companies implement is HubSpot, which has a free and paid version of the calendar link and other sales and marketing tools.
Depending on how big of a potential client this is, you can prioritize your calendar (making certain meeting types only available on certain days). You can also add custom rules such as buffer times between already scheduled meetings or site visits.
Additionally, consider incorporating text messages into your communication strategy. Many people prefer this direct and concise form of communication, making it more likely for them to respond.
Enroll Them in a Sales Sequence
Staying on top of qualified leads is challenging, especially when you have others in the pipeline you’re eager to close. You may be overwhelmed with all the touchpoints you need to make, so leaning on a sales sequence to provide value is key.
A sales sequence is a series of automated touchpoints that keep your landscaping company top-of-mind without requiring constant manual effort.
This automated approach ensures that even if a lead goes silent, your communication efforts persist, which increases the likelihood of re-engagement. It works by building out a series of emails within a tool like HubSpot and having them automatically go out until you get a reply, then the rest is up to you.
Here’s what a sequence could potentially look like. Yours can be adapted based on your service and normal sales cycle.
- Email 1: This could be an initial outreach or a proposal
- Delay 1 week
- Create a task to call them
- Delay 2 Weeks
- Email 2: Share a relevant case study
- Delay 2 weeks
- Email 3: Share a video or another helpful article
If you are using HubSpot sequences, you can automate this process and have it stop if the recipient responds to any of your emails or book a meeting. The goal here is to get the recipient to engage with you without you having to manually send each follow-up email.
Include Them in Marketing Lists
If a lead still doesn’t convert after your email sequence ends, then you can include them in your marketing lists for future campaigns.
Image Source: Monarch Landscape Management
Whether it’s a monthly newsletter or an HOA or retail-specific email campaign, regularly sharing relevant content and updates about your services keeps your landscaping company on their radar, increasing the chances of them reaching out when they're ready to move forward with their landscaping project.
Next year might be better timing for them.
[RELATED READING: The 7 Deadly Sins of Email Marketing: Is Your Landscaping or Lawn Care Company Guilty of These?]
Survey Lost Leads
When a salesperson closes a lead as lost, you should require them to document the closed lost reason. Was it lost due to pricing, timing, or a misalignment with their needs?
Analyzing this data will help you fine-tune your approach, ensuring that future leads are better qualified and better nurtured along the way.
You put in a lot of work getting good leads and guiding them through the sales process, if you don’t optimize your follow-ups then you may still get ghosted.
By implementing some of the strategies above, you could close deals faster and not waste the work you’ve already done.
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Image Sources: Dall-E AI image generator
