You want to bring in a steady flow of new work for your lawn and landscape company, but managing the consultation process for those new leads is often agonizing and time-consuming for your office staff.
When there’s a backlog of work, it can be tough to keep prospects engaged and be downright stressful when those you’ve invested your time in miss appointments, show up unprepared or disappear halfway through the sales process. And when things are slow, it’s even more critical to have a streamlined consultation process so you can respond quickly.
Some of our clients addressed these consultation pains by implementing HubSpot, a CRM, marketing, and sales platform with powerful automation features. As HubSpot specialists, Landscape LeadershipⓇ was able to customize this software to their specific needs.
The remainder of this article will dive into 5 HubSpot tools that can help elevate your consultation process, regardless of your backlog.
(Image Source: Tropical Gardens Landscape)
1. Meeting Links for Convenient Project Discussion Calls
How do you set up your qualification and introduction calls?
Let’s say someone fills out a form on your website requesting services. You email them back asking if they’re available Tuesday at 11:00 AM for a quick consultation. They respond that Thursday at 5:00 PM works best but your salesperson is already booked at that time.
It’s a frustrating mess to get something on the schedule. Now multiply that by dozens of leads and it can drive your office staff insane.
With HubSpot meeting links, you can set specific times you’re available for calls or meetings based on different services or criteria.
For example, you could have certain times blocked off to work on estimates and leave a 30-minute buffer between other meetings so you have ample drive time.
HubSpot meetings also sync to your Google or Office 365 calendar, so contacts can always see your most up-to-date availability and the slots you allow for booking.
You could instantly provide this meeting booking link to anyone who fills out a form on your website. This allows them to book a convenient time for you to prequalify them. Meeting links can also be easily inserted into emails.
This stops the back-and-forth and keeps things moving along.
[RELATED READING: When, Why, & How to Charge a Landscape Consultation Fee]
2. Activity Tracking for Quality Conversations
How much information do you know about your prospective client? If you go into initial conversations blind, it’s even harder for your sales team to close leads.
With HubSpot activity tracking, you can know:
- Where the lead came from (social media, paid ad, organic search)
- Which pages or videos were viewed (did they go straight to the consultation page or look at your service pages or case studies?)
- If they opened any of the emails you sent
Why is this important?
Because it allows you to tailor your conversation to their real interest and prioritize who you speak with.
For example, let's say the prospect looks at the outdoor kitchens page on your website. You also realize they haven't read a case study featuring one, and they haven't watched your video about choosing the best grill for a kitchen.
Having this lead intelligence allows you to push your prospect's hot buttons about becoming the grillmaster and give them specific, additional resources.
RELATED READING: Lead Intelligence - Your Landscaping Sales Superpower]
3. Playbooks for Consistent Lead Qualification
The salespeople with the most experience typically close the most deals. Over the years, they have developed a consistent process to ask the right questions. This helps to qualify prospects, uncover pain points, and address any concerns.
What happens when your top salespeople are on the road and the office staff is receiving inbound leads? Do they have a script and best practices to follow?
HubSpot playbooks are a powerful tool that allows sales teams to create and manage customized, repeatable sales processes for interacting with leads and customers.
This ensures questions about needs, budget, timeline, and decision-makers are always asked. Important property details are uncovered. Opportunities to upsell other services are also not overlooked.
[RELATED READING: A 5-Point Checklist for More Effectively Qualifying Prospects]
4. Consultation Meeting Reminders for Fewer Missed Appointments
We know one of the big frustrations in the industry is having your time wasted on no-show appointments or unprepared prospects.
Whether it's a property manager who double-booked themselves or a homeowner who failed to complete a simple pre-consultation survey, it can waste your precious time.
Image Source: KD Landscape
When you use HubSpot meeting links, there are also options to send out calendar invitations with custom meeting reminders. that pair with the calendar invite and details.
5. Follow-up Emails for Better Engagement
What happens between booking a consultation and having that discussion on-site?
Interest and enthusiasm can diminish after your prospect first reaches out.
If you can provide valuable resources throughout the consultation process, then your company has an edge over competitors.
With HubSpot, you can send automated emails triggered automatically after a successful project discussion call or upon their first website form completion.
It might look something like this:
- Email 1: Thank you and their homework to be ready for the consultation
- Email 2: A relevant article, video, or case study
- Email 3: Meeting and homework reminder
You can add additional emails depending on how far out the consultation has been scheduled. The important thing is to have consistent touchpoints that also provide atypical value.
It can be annoying to receive a bunch of “looking forward to our consultation” emails that don’t answer questions they may have or share something interesting. The point here is to keep them engaged.
End the Consultation Chaos & Advance Your Process with Automation
Not many lawn and landscape companies are utilizing technology the way they should. If you don’t streamline your consultation process, you’re missing the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
Image Source: Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape
By automating your consultation process, you can stop chasing down prospects and focus on delivering high-quality client experiences.
If you like regular insights like these, subscribe to our blog. We’ll send you new articles right to your inbox. If you’re ready to streamline your landscaping sales process, feel free to request a consultation.
