How a landscaper went from poverty to Prince in a few short years

I went to a game of Australian Rules Football on Sunday. I went with my brother Peter, a client of his and the client's wife. They were terrific company and we all had a terrific time.

Pete runs a wonderful landscaping business. He has been landscaping for 22 years now and really knows everything about great landscaping.

His business is thriving (he employs a dozen men), he's highly respected within the industry (he has won the city's major business award) as a smart operator and he makes good money.

But it hasn't always been the case.......

Just 6 years ago Pete was struggling. He had run his landscaping business, called "Diamond Paving and Landscape Gardeners" for 17 years. He employed one other person. Pete and his offsider struggled from small job to small job. Barely eking out an existence.

Doing mainly residential paving jobs, Pete had just about had enough.

Two- (2) years later and this was the story:

• He won the city's premier Business Award
• He had one of his state's fastest growing businesses
• He started an apprentice intake
• He starred in his own TV commercials
• He started his own huge plant nursery to keep up with the incredible demand of his rapidly growing business

So, how did all that happen in two- (2) years? Read on...............

Now, don't think I'm not going to take some credit here....because I am!

I had moved to Queensland (where Pete lives) and was doing the marketing for a public company. We were talking about his business one day and Pete talked about wanting to stop "digging holes" by the time he was 40. Pete was 37 at the time.

"Mate, could you take a look at my 2 man business, turning over $100,000 a year, doing residential landscaping jobs and give me a few marketing tips?"

And you know the story 2 years later.

After 17 years of tough, hard slog Pete was starting to reap the rewards.

So, how did we do it? Well, I would like to tell you that it was pretty hard. An absolute slog to survive those 2 years, working 100 hour weeks, not seeing the wife and kids, I would like to tell you just how hard it was. But I can't. Because it would all be a lie. It was all easy. The easiest work Pete has done in the last 20 years was that past 2.

Now, instead of working 70 hours a week, he probably works 35. He hasn't got his hands dirty for a good while. Hasn't dug a hole, hasn't carried turf all day long.

How we did it is so easy it's almost unbelievable

Step 1 - Have a goal

First thing my brother and I talked about was where he wanted to be in 2 years time. What did he want to be doing? How would he like the business to develop?

Then we had a real good look at his business. Analysed the costs as best we could. Asked a million questions.

Then I confessed. I didn't know how we could increase business. I didn't have a clue.

"Oh, great," thought Pete.

"My brother the clown."

He started calling me 'Krusty the Clown'

But then I told him what I did know

• I knew someone who did know how to help him.
• And I had their name.
• And their address.
• And their phone number.

Step 2 - Identify your market

We looked at who were the people who were likely to buy what he was selling. That was old customers and construction managers. Then we sat down and wrote a letter to his old customers and some big wigs with the construction companies around the place.

Step 3 - Ask your market what they want

Made a few calls. Wrote a little survey. Had some pre-paid envelopes printed up. Posted all this stuff off.

"What a waste of time."

Pete thought "Oh great, what a waste of my time. Thanks a bunch Krusty! Big business poser. Too hard for old Krusty out of the air-conditioned office and into the real world of business. He has to ask for help from my customers."

We sent out 100 surveys. We got 96 back. The usual return rate is about 3%. Pete thinks Krusty cheated!

Sure, I rang up the 100 people on the list for a start and asked them what they thought should be in the survey. I did what they suggested.

We asked question after question

I even asked what would get them to return the survey. They said a prize. So I had Pete fork out for a prize.

We wrote to those 100 people who I rang and said "Thanks for letting us know what to put in the survey, you've been a big help."

Then we rang everyone we sent the survey to make sure they got it and to see if they liked it.

Stop right here

Stop right here: we have 96 past clients and prospects interacting with Pete's business 2 or 3 time in a week. The interaction was very positive. That interaction put Pete and his business at the top of mind for landscaping for every one of these people.

That's not a bad thing. And that's even before we get the survey back!

We used cards instead of letters for a reason

Step 4 - Reward the behaviour you want

To those people who sent the survey back, we sent them a thank you card.. with 2 scratchies (lotto tickets) in it. We sent cards because people keep cards for an average of something like 8 days. Letters get tossed straight away.

Step 5 - Keep the relationship as personal as possible

So that was Pete's card sitting on his target market's desks cluttering things up. And they know who to blame too, they know it's from Pete. Because the card had the business name printed on the outside and in. I even had Pete write a personal thank you note inside it.

Surveys are gold

So, we get 96 surveys back. That's gold. Gold I say!

We now know a few things about Pete's customers and prospects.

We find out some good stuff.

• Stuff like where they heard of him,
• how they usually hear of landscapers,
• what's the most important criteria when selecting a landscaper,
• what is the most important thing that a landscaper can do on the job,
• why do they choose who they choose,
• how can we do things better,
• stuff that might be a little help to the business!

We drew the winner of the competition for returning the survey and send off the prize. And then we sat down and see what people wrote. There was some interesting stuff in there.

Pete asked me what was next.

"Just how big do we make our Yellow Pages advertisement? Because that is the only form of advertising we have ever done and we had been going for 18 years so it works, right?"

Well, actually no.

One of the questions on the survey was "How do you hear of landscapers?"

Step 6 - Look at what your market tells you...............then give them what they want

96 people. Not one found a landscaper through the Yellow Pages. 90 found landscapers by talking to others. The other 6 saw on-site signs.

• We then took the names of the people who have referred Pete work over the past 2 years and we sends them thank you cards galore, "Thanks for helping my business, blah, blah, blah."

• We sent some chocolates and wine to one guy and had Pete take him out to lunch. That guy had referred Pete 18 customers in the past 24 months.

• And then we made the Yellow Pages ad smaller.

• We started a database of all clients, prospects, receptionists..all the people important to our business.

• We printed up some brochures.

• We changed the name from Diamond Paving and Landscaping Gardeners to Integrated Landscaping (a client chose that one after we asked the 10 biggest potential clients what we should call the business).

Step 7 - Keep your market informed of what you are doing

• We started a quarterly newsletter. We asked the clients what they wanted in the newsletter.

• We found out exactly why we got the jobs we went for. We thanked everyone who helped us get the work. We started wearing uniforms...navy blue shirts with our logo embroided on them.

It is easy stuff.

What a coincidence!

In the next year we generated the majority of work from those exact same people we surveyed. What a funny coincidence. The next 6 jobs after the survey were the 6 biggest jobs the business had ever completed.

Step 8 - Keep doing those things that generate you the business

Because the majority of work was generated via word of mouth, we set up a strategy to assist that as much as possible. Pete held a Christmas Party that first year (they still go to this day and have almost cult status within the construction industry!) that was huge success.

Pete liaises very regularly with his target market

Step 9 - Build the relationships that are important to your business

And that's why we were at the football with the client on Sunday. The client makes choices about landscaping. He knows Pete. Not just on a business level, but on a personal level as well.

Does this make him more likely to choose Pete for a landscaping job - probably, but only because Pete has demonstrated his expertise and experience better than any one else.

After all, he has spent the afternoon with the client chatting about everything from the football to business.

And that makes a difference.

It's easy to make a difference.

Step 10 - Sit back and analyse what you have done and the results you have achieved. Continue to do what has worked. Stop doing what hasn't worked.

Brendon Sinclair