Last week I met with Teddy Russell and Hugh Cooper, the core leadership team that runs the Russell Landscape Group. They shared with me their secret sauce for growth.
We were preparing for our upcoming 2 day educational event at their place (you are invited); and they elaborated on what makes them successful (see below).
Ironically, Teddy didn’t realize that these were “unique best practices” until I gave him that feedback. That is the big value of these educational events: You don’t really know what you don’t know, until you see it or someone points it out.
Here is what they shared:
- Measure your operational success daily. The Russell Landscape Group have figured out how to do that, and they will be sharing their process at our event. (For those that come to my events, you hear me speak about how planning for daily success is critical in your personal and professional life, as well as in running operations. These guys do it.)
- Double sales with “enhancements.” Teddy has developed a way to onboard maintenance clients that doubles his sales in their first year. I loved it when I heard it, because I had tried to implement this in my firm, and he succeeded. It applies to both residential and commercial. What’s your process for on-boarding clients?
- Internal Support Services – Remove the roadblocks to scaling. Not all divisions can provide all the services that a client needs, and yet you don’t always want to sub contract them (that can be a pain). Teddy’s company has developed an internal support mechanism to make sure clients get all the services they need, without overwhelming individual depts. This has allowed them to scale their business. How are you scaling yours?
- Simple incentive metrics. The Russell Landscape Group have set up the metrics smartly, that reminded me of how LandCare operates. Simple (just 4) and balanced, they keeps the team engaged and everyone clear how they are doing. You need absolute clarity when you scale to $30 million and beyond.
In my conversation with Teddy and Hugh, they also described a genius way for putting customer complaints to rest that gives them high client retention.
Please join us in Atlanta, to learn how they have built up their leadership team, how they work together, how they create accountability, and how they plan to double in size. Go here to sign up.
