Incentives Archives - Jeffrey Scott

Build a Better Sales Team with These 7 Rules

Feb 10, 2026 | Blog, Events, Growth Tips, Incentives, Leadership, Management, Productivity, Strategy, Workshops

In today’s economy, sales success doesn’t happen by working harder. Someone must own the responsibility of building the sales team — hiring, motivating, steering, and managing.

That person has the title of Sales Manager.

Sales management is a strange profession. You can’t study it in school. There are very few books on it. And many “sales managers” are your top salespeople straddling both worlds, perhaps pretending they enjoy managing.

For those committed to mastering this craft, here are seven practical, real-world principles drawn from our upcoming Sales Symposium (taking place March 10th, early bird ends in 16 days).

Profit Sharing vs. Bonuses vs. Incentives: Which Actually Drives Performance

Jan 23, 2026 | Employee Retention, Employees, Incentives, Leadership, Management, Productivity, Strategy

I get questioned a lot from owners about their current reward system, and whether they should roll out a bonus, incentive or profit sharing system to boost performance.

They ask me things like “Should we start a profit sharing program?” “Do incentives actually work?” “Should I replace our Christmas bonus?”

What they are really asking is “How do I reward my team in a way that they will buy into, that actually changes behavior––without backfiring and hurting morale?”

Gamification Done Right: A Playbook for Growth

Nov 18, 2025 | Growth Tips, Incentives, Leadership, Management, Productivity, Training

A few weeks back, I wrote about “teaching the game of business”, and this week I am following up with a more in-depth look at gamification.

This past summer at our Summer Growth Summit, we had Jono Fries (VP Operations at Schill Grounds Management) give a talk on gamification, and he plans to go even more in depth during our Financial Masterclass.

This newsletter is inspired by what Jono will be presenting.

Gamification isn’t just about dangling carrots.

It’s about building culture. It’s about creating structure, clarity, and turning everyday work into a challenge people want to win.

“I am doing it my way” with Ivan Katz

Jul 11, 2024 | Incentives, Income, Leadership, Management, Peer Groups, Podcast Series: The Ultimate Landscape CEO

Ivan Katz, founder of Great Lakes Landscape Design, near Detroit, Michigan, shares his experiences in the landscaping industry, including overcoming embezzlement and a major accident. His firm will hit close to 10M in 2024. He emphasizes the importance of trust,...

Three creative strategies to grow sales next year

Nov 14, 2023 | Competition, Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Planning, Pricing, Productivity, Strategy

Next year will not be easier than this year, in terms of making sales. There are uncertainties in the air: with the wars, the high interest rates and the upcoming election. All this makes it harder to set your budget. The best you can do is make a forecast, and then revisit those forecasts on a regular basis. Your budget cannot be set in stone.With that in mind, here are 3 sales strategies to help you think differently and increase your chances of sales success. Three sales strategies to help you think differently in 2024.

5 Strategies to Build Successful Branches – Without Making Costly Mistakes

Nov 7, 2023 | Competition, Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Leadership, Management, Planning

Five takeaways from the Building Branches masterclass,

You can put these to use even if you don’t plan to build branches.

1. Maximize your home base.

There is no reason to build a branch, especially from scratch, if you have not optimized your current base of operations.

Maximize market share right where you are! Don’t think branches are an easy growth strategy because they are not.

2. Set up good systems first.

You can’t manage a branch if you can’t manage your own operations with good (great) systems.

If you are running the home base by gut feel in any shape or form, it will backfire when you expand afar.

3. Have the Leadership Team “Plus” in place.

The “plus” means you not only have a strong team locally, but you can peel someone off to operate at the new branch, to oversee “culture” to ensure you integrate the two into a larger whole.

There is no synergy when the parts don’t integrate well.

4. Acquisitions can kick start it.

It’s hard to build up a branch from scratch, especially when you don’t have a base of business as a foundation.

An acquisition can help that. But don’t get lazy, because organic growth is still “the killer app”.

When you combine these two strategies, that’s when the magic happens.

5. Don’t forget the hugs.

The new branch needs over-communication and inclusion from the ownership and leadership, if it is to take on all the best attributes of your home base.

Like a child, if you leave it alone, it will underperform or worse. whither on the vine.

Profit Sharing Is Not A Quick Fix – But It Works!

Oct 31, 2023 | client, Employee Retention, Employees, Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Leadership, Management, Peer Groups

A few weeks back I was honored to speak at the Kentucky Expo / Equip. It was a great show, seeing so many cutting edge technologies coming to market. I gave two presentations (to standing room only). One was on Open Book Management. To add some spice to my presentation, I included a case study from the highly successful Whispering Pines Landscape (“WPL”) in Ontario, owned by my good friend and client, Greg Wildeboer. When he and I started collaborating together in Dec 2015, he was under $4M, with a need to greatly improve cash flow and remove himself from the center of everything.He dreamt of implementing an effective profit sharing. (He had one in place, but it was not working great.)A PROFIT SHARING CASE STUDY: We proved that for Profit Sharing to be effective, you need “two shares”Gains: a fair and motivating way to share the financial gains. Numbers: a simple way to open the books and share the numbers.

Every Great Entrepreneur Needs A Coach

Oct 3, 2023 | Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Leadership, Planning, Productivity, Strategy

Early in my consulting career I hired my own coach. The gentleman was low cost, had skills, and helped me refine my new business direction. A few years later I hired the “real deal” coach—it was a much bigger investment, and helped me build my skills and scale my business to what it is today. Who’s my next coach? It’s been a while since I worked with such a great coach, until this weekend.At the racetrack here in New Orleans I hired my first “real deal” driver development coach.He and I are similar, and his coaching techniques really resonated. They may also resonate with you, as you coach up your own team. SIX USEFUL COACHING TECHNIQUES

Strategic Growth: How to Build Dramatic Value In Your Business

Sep 26, 2023 | Competition, Exit Planning, Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Leadership, Mighty Oak Award, Peer Groups, Planning, Productivity, Strategy

This past week I had some thrilling conversations with my coaching clients on their growth strategies. I told a few of them “either you are buying low, or someone else is buying low, and they could be buying you!” Let me explain what I mean. Scale Determines Value. As the hype of the merger-mania floods our industry, it makes it looks sexy to sell one’s business. But unless you have achieved significant scale, you are losing out and leaving massive opportunities on the table. The scale of your business determines its value.

7 Takeaways from the Summer Growth Summit

Aug 29, 2023 | client, Competition, Employees, Events, Financial, Growth Tips, Incentives, Income, Leadership, Management, Peer Groups, Planning, Pricing, Productivity, Strategy, Time Management, Training, Workshops

Our Summer Growth Summit at Mariani Landscape in Lake Bluff, IL was the HOTTEST landscape event of the year! Over 3 days, we had 26 speakers covering inspiring and cutting-edge topics to help any attendee grow to their next level of success. The Summit concluded with a discussion between Jeffrey Scott and Frank Mariani regarding how Mariani Landscape grew from 90k in 1973 to 59 million in 2020. Then they discussed what has happened since making a private equity deal in 2020 and where the company is headed now. Frank and Jeffrey were like two old friends talking around the fire pit. They also covered the pitfalls of the 4 day work week, how to solve the labor issue, and how any company could pursue an acquisition growth strategy. Many companies brought their teams, and the energy was palpable. Here are 7 takeaways to get your mind thinking:

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