Following our Summer Growth Summit, we held several client debriefs, asking them which presentations had the greatest impact and what they planned to implement.

Their answers covered sales, culture, equipment, leadership and various operational areas. Yet one theme emerged: Discipline.

High-performing companies run by our hosts, Troy Clogg and Ivan Katz, are disciplined about turning ideas into systems, behaviors and measurable results.

Discipline Creates a Competitive Advantage

Troy Clogg treats every equipment asset like a job, closely tracking repairs, longevity and ultimately cost-per-mile. He buys carefully selected used trucks based on this, but also rents new mowers for two years before turning them over based on their cost per hour.

This discipline keeps his total equipment costs at least five points below industry standards.

Great Lakes applies the same mindset through structured daily and weekly huddles by department. These meetings reinforce metrics, priorities, and mission and values, while allowing problems to be solved sooner and closer to their source.

The result is fewer equipment failures, safety incidents and surprises—and for Great Lakes: record performance in billable hours, revenue per day and gross margin.

None of these practices is revolutionary. Their power comes from consistent execution.

Sales Is More Science Than Art

Analytics presented at the Summit showed that one out of every three calls to landscape companies is missed or sent to voicemail.

By contrast, one top-performing company answered 99% of its calls, moved every lead through its CRM and followed a locked-in sales process—producing an 18-to-1 return on its marketing investment.

That’s not luck, that’s discipline.

Ivan Katz brings the same discipline to business development, building deeply personal relationships and being heavily active in his community.

Ivan’s mantra for success, “Make yourself indispensable across all property needs, and be there when the other company is not.”

The proof is in the pudding: At Great Lakes, 72% of their work comes from existing clients—maintenance and project work.

Their philosophy is that “everyone sells,” including production team members who distribute door hangers and help build route density.

Our conclusion: Many landscape companies over-rely on paid marketing. Instead, they need to respond faster, follow up consistently, and uncover more opportunities with customers who already trust them.

Culture Must Be Made Visible

Attendees repeatedly commented that the people at Great Lakes “bleed orange,” while Troy’s people “bleed pink.” That is no coincidence.

Attendees wanted to know how to replicate it.

Both companies reinforce their cultures through a common language, visible KPIs, personal goals and consistent branding. More importantly, their owners set the example by living the brand.

Culture becomes real when leaders repeatedly demonstrate their values, and ensure that their team lives the values too—especially when doing so is difficult.

Kurt LaButte also presented, and offered a related lesson from rebuilding Todd’s Services after losing his brother/co-founder. He realized the company could not grow until he grew—by listening more, talking less and ultimately empowering and developing other leaders.

As Kurt said, “Growth happens when times get tough—not when it’s easy.”

Interesting Note: Hosting the Summit also raises company performance. Attendees who had visited Great Lakes 10 months ago (for our Leader’s Edge peer group meeting) noticed a greater confidence and alignment throughout the team as a result of all the work put into hosting.

Leaning Your Organization

Doug Howard and Ellen Moore shared a similar continuous-improvement lesson: Identify the obstacle or weak standard holding up your company, involve the frontline employees closest to it, and use the Five Whys (and other techniques) to move beyond symptoms to a process that can actually be improved.

Every company has low-hanging fruit when it comes to improvement.

Even the largest and most sophisticated companies attending recognized that they had “lazy systems.”

Your Challenge: Turn Insight Into Action

The Summit was especially powerful when owners brought team members.

They found that learning together improves implementation, particularly when attendees return home and present their most important takeaways to the rest of the company.

The value of a Summit is not measured by how many ideas you write down. It is measured by what your company does differently afterward.

Pick your three most important ideas—by company or department—and push them forward a mile.

You got this – Jeffrey Scott!

A few photos below…

Ivan Katz (orange sneakers), Troy Clogg (all pink) and Jeffrey Scott (me)

Ivan Kat’s Great Lakes team – bleeding blue and orange

Troy’s team, sporting their pinks!

Two examples of Goals posted outside these two leaders offices.