Jim Huston Certified Professional Landscape Estimator, J.R. Huston Enterprises, Inc.

Marketing is Building Relationships

Doing business within the Green Industry is extremely personal. Relationships are paramount.

I don’t mean your price isn’t important. However, professional relationships, combined with solid performance and savvy pricing, are the key to increasing and maintaining a client base. Today’s consumer has a lot of disposable income for at least a couple of reasons.

One is the consumer’s primary vocation. High-paying jobs have been plentiful in much of our economy. A second is rarely spoken about. The largest wealth-transfer in history is taking place as the baby-boomer generation inherits trillions of dollars from its parents’ generation (I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get my share).

Green Industry clients today are also well informed, educated, and extremely busy. Many have growing families, developing careers, demanding schedules, and little tolerance for contractors who are non-performing “flakes.”

Your preferred client today, both residential and commercial, isn’t going to pick up the telephone directory, call AAA Landscape, AAB Landscape, and AAC Landscape; obtain three quotes; and go with the low bid. Today’s preferred clients choose Green Industry professionals much as they do a family dentist. They network with their associates and friends to find them. They don’t find them from a billboard advertisement on the side of the road.

Today, to have an effective, lasting business, the hard analytical science of cost estimating has to be married to the intuitive art of marketing. This juncture is where the logic of the left side is joined to the creative right side of the brain. You need both to run an effective contracting business. I’ve seen contractors who could sell snow to Eskimos but had no clue as to their costs and margins. Their businesses grow but their costs are out of control.

I know other contractors who haven’t underbid a job in years, yet they can’t grow their businesses. It’s essential that a contractor understand both cost estimating and marketing as they relate to the business.

When estimating, marketing, and field operations are successfully combined, the secondary objective of marketing is met; that is, to negotiate as much work as possible and to maximize repeat business and referrals for the company.

Jim Huston presents a comprehensive analysis of marketing strategies and systems in his latest book “How to Price Landscape & Irrigation Projects.” To obtain a copy, call 303-794-9597 or e-mail him at jrhei@jrhuston.biz.

Jim Huston is president of J.R. Huston Enterprises, Inc., which specializes in construction and services management consulting to the Green Industry. He holds the distinction of being one of only two Certified Professional Landscape Estimators in the world.