Culture Is More Than Just a Buzzword
I was asked recently to give feedback to Landscape Management Magazine on how to ensure that culture is more than a buzzword. Even though I wrote the book on this topic, Become A Destination Company ®, I wanted to gather fresh anecdotes from my clients on how they...
Why Cross Selling Fails in Most Companies
Why does cross selling fail in most companies, and why should you care? The main reason to care is that your current clients are your best clients, meaning they will buy services at higher margins than a brand new client would. You may think you are too busy to care...
Fast Growth Companies Have This in Common
There is one thing that fast-growth companies have in common: they are always contemplating their next critical hire. A common question I hear regarding new hires, "Which comes first, the growth to support the new critical hire, or do we make the critical hire first...
Things We Both Need To Do – Even in a Hot Market
Let’s turn the tables, we spend all our time talking about how to make your landscape business better – did you ever wonder how I make my business great and what you can learn/apply from that? Successful business building requires a combination of a great product and...
Smarter Pricing Techniques To Ensure Better Profits
What if you could use smarter pricing techniques to ensure better profits this year? Last week I held a quarterly Leader’s Edge peer group meeting where one member - Tim O’Connor, LCI Landscapes, MN - presented his new sales commission plan. He had been working on it...
Staying Calm, Cool and Collected During Busy Season
How do you stay calm, cool and collected during the busy season? Do you have a system that works well for you? I asked my best and highest performing clients this question, and the answers were eye opening in their consistency. There is a common thread in what the...
Removing the Culture Killer
A single culture killer can disrupt the performance of everyone on your team, if you let that person's behavior persist. A culture killer is a person who's strong personality plus bad behavior combine to form a poison that slowly (or quickly) infects the output and...
The Art of Talking About Money and Pricing with Prospects
Not enough salespeople enjoy talking money and pricing with their prospects. Too many are uncomfortable with it, or even avoid it altogether to their own detriment. Does that reflect you or someone on your sales team? Here are insights to help your salespeople improve...
Hiring in a Hot Economy
Hiring in a hot economy is the key to growth this year. Any edge you can get, in both recruiting and retaining employees, is worth exploring. To this end, I am currently reading about Netflix’s explosive success in Reed Hasting’s new book, No Rules Rules. It outlines...
100 Days to Sell
There is an expression in our industry “100 Days of Hell.” While it is humorous, it also sets the wrong tone. I like the following upbeat expression better: 100 Days To Sell. Spring is here and it’s time to sell, sell, sell. Last week, Paul Reder (who came up with...
