My Five Step Sales Process: 

Training Step 0- First Impressions 

When showing up to the client's house, being on time and well dressed give the homeowner a good first impression. If I am not on time (which is most of the time) I always make sure to have a good excuse on hand and the homeowner will generally forget about it. (I wouldn’t be able to count the number of times I used “sorry for being late I got held up at my last estimate” as an excuse.)  

Also, I wear a clean shirt with my company logo embroidered on it, and have business cards on hand. It helps to have a decent vehicle or park it somewhere where the customer can’t see it. I email my estimates using QuickBooks (discussed on the Running the Business page), so I don’t bring them with me. But if you do hand written estimates then it is probably a good idea to bring them with you. Lastly, carrying a pen and pad or PDA looks good, even if you don’t use it.  After all, if you’re holding a PDA, you must know what you’re doing, right? 

Out of respect, I generally park on the street rather than the driveway.  And if they have a walkway, I use it. It’s probably not the best idea to carelessly cut across their lawn or trample their flowers if you are supposedly going to be their lawn service provider. 
 

Training Step 1- Preliminary Information Gathering 

When I first show up to a property where I intend to make an estimate, I will observe the surroundings. A person’s house, cars, lawn, etc can tell a lot about them and assist you with the sale if you have something to work off of. Basic and essential information can be discovered just by being observant.  Take this for example: 

You show up to a customer’s house and it is obviously not cared for; the house is in bad shape, there is trash in the yard, and they drive a piece of shit car. 

In this example I would guess the person is looking for the cheapest guy they can find. And they are probably not going to want the lawn cut very often, and you can probably forget about any additional services. However, they most likely won’t expect a great job either, so you could be in and out of the property pretty quickly. If you were scrapping for work, you could probably get this job.  To win this bid I would price this job accordingly; I would give them the low price they were looking for and not spend much time there to make it worth my time. 

However, in another example you show up to an estimate and the lawn is immaculate, a Mercedes parked in the driveway, and obviously is a well cared for property. 

This type of person will probably be willing to pay extra money to have a nice job done by who they believe to be the right person to do it. I would price this job high, try to sell them on extra services, as well as focusing on the quality of the job we will do while trying to make the sale. 

Training Step 2- Gather Greetings and Needs 

After I have a mental idea of this person’s expectations, I proceed to the door and greet them. I try to judge their character and make them like me; if they seem to joke a lot, I try to joke with them. If they seem straight to the facts, I give them the facts. Remember, people like to hire people who they like. 

After establishing some rapport, I inquire about what services they are looking for. I listen carefully to their specific needs so later on I can address what they are looking for and specify what I can offer them that meets or exceeds their needs.  Even if they don’t directly mention something, I take note of things they put emphasis on so I can capitalize on this information. 

I then describe to them a little about my company, the areas we service and the services we offer. 

I inform them that I will now take a look at their property and that I will be back in a few minutes. 
 

Training Step 3- Perform Estimate 

Since I now know what work the customer wants done, I proceed to make an estimate (described on the following pages). Although the person only makes certain requests, I perform estimates on all services that I think their lawn needs. 
 

Training Step 4- Closure 

After making the estimate, I go back to speak with the customer again to make my sales pitch. I describe to them what problems I discovered in their lawn and what I would recommend to fix them. I answer any questions they may have. 

Let me emphasize that I never “don’t know” something. If I don’t know I answer around the question, or I make up the answer, or answer vaguely. I will do my best to research the question later on so I can give them a correct answer. 

If a customer senses you’re an idiot, or don’t know what your doing, they aren’t going to give you the sale.  People want to hire someone who is confident and appears to be an expert in their field.  After all, that is why they are hiring you, because they don’t know what they are doing. They don’t need another bumbling idiot blindly applying fertilizer to their lawn.   

Remember, you only need to appear that you know what you’re doing.  This is the key to starting in a field you don’t know too much in. Walk the walk and talk the talk.  I like to call it the art of bullshitting. 

After everything is said and done, I tell them I will email them that evening with a detailed estimate and call them the following day to follow up. I give them a business card and tell them to have a nice rest of the day. 
 

Training Step 5- Follow up 

When I tell them I will follow up with them in a couple days, I try to actually follow up in a couple days. Part of the reason for following up is so that you can show your potential customer that you are reliable. 

I ask them if they got the estimate, and if they had any questions. 

I ask them if they would like to go forward with sale. Remember, if you want something (a sale) make sure you ask for it. 

If they say yes, then I go through billing details, etc.