Happy New Year, Happy New Year!
Welcome. So glad to have you here. And in this video, we're going to talk about the three sales and marketing trends we'll see in 2021 for landscaping companies. Now, a lot changed in 2020, obviously one of the weirdest years ever. And I think that people adapted quite a bit to their sales and marketing. And a lot of those things are gonna continue and absolutely influence the way people buy and the way you'll need to market in 2021. My name's Jack Jostes and welcome to the Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing Podcast. This show is all about giving you current information to help you increase your sales and profit and ultimately improve your lifestyle as a result of sales and marketing. So let's dig into the top three sales and marketing trends for 2021.
Trend #1 for 2021: Video
One trend that has been increasing over the last several years and has certainly increased in the last year is the use of video. One of the things that I love about video is that, Hey, I'm making this video on my iPhone right now using some basic inexpensive equipment. And you can do the same thing too. Video is going to be a trend because people are, are, are online more than ever. And they want to learn about what they're buying. And video is a really powerful way to create something. One time that you can then send to potentially hundreds or even thousands of customers, video content that you can use could be things like helping people understand your design build process. If, if you do design build, you can help people understand your maintenance plans. If you do maintenance, you can use one to one video also to send proposals to clients.
And this is especially powerful. If you do commercial sales, where you might be selling to an HOA board where you won't be able to meet everyone, sending a personal review of the landscape maintenance plan that you're going to send to them is absolutely something you can do. And by the way, if you check out the replay of landscaper summit.com, if you check out our summer, we, we actually go in great detail on how to do it yourself, how to make, do it yourself, video content.
Trend #2 for 2021: Pricing Information
Now the second thing that I believe we're going to see more of is pricing information and overall estimating calculators and things like that. People are wanting to get more information. Last year I bought a truck on my iPhone from CarMax and they delivered it and it was amazing. And I was able to see all the details.
I was able to upload my appraisal. I was able to upload photos from my phone to get an appraisal, the Kelley blue book value. And then they came, they verified, yes, those photos work and they drove my car away. It was amazing and kind of weird because it all happened without going to a dealership. Now I absolutely believe that people are going to need to meet with you and you, you will need to go to people's homes to do, you know, estimates and things like that, to an extent, but customers are increasingly used to buying things without meeting in person. And this is again, an area where video can help you, but things like pricing information on your website. And how you create your pricing will become the norm in 2021. So if you don't have this type of information on your website, customers are going to find it somewhere.
They're going to find it on Houzz or Home Advisor or a competitor's website. So think about how you can help people figure out pricing even if it's just bracketing or here's what you can do for a backyard refresh in this budget. Here's what you can do. If you add in, you know, a retaining wall or an outdoor cooking outdoor kitchen area, how much does that cost? And what is a pool? When I add in a pool, you know, helping people figure out the pricing will help them feel more comfortable to actually reach out to you and start to have a conversation with you about becoming a client. And it can also weed out people by posting a minimum. This can save you a lot of time from, from meeting with people who maybe are nowhere near the budget brackets that you need to be in at your company.
Trend #3 for 2021: Online Reviews
The third area that is going to be an increasing trend in 2021 is online reviews. So reviews have been growing for years and their impact and how you rank online. A lot of people Google things like the 'best landscaper near me' and that's where if you don't have a positive review average and your online information in the review websites listed correctly, you're probably not going to show up and you might not even stand a chance of earning the sale and even referrals are going to Google you. So that's where I would start is to Google yourself, Google your business name and your city, and what sites show up on the first page of Google, where they have reviews. And do you have at least a four-star average, if you don't, I would just, I'll ask you this. When was the last time you bought anything online that had less than a four-star average?
When was the last time you searched on Amazon for three stars and below you, you just don't do that. It's the same thing. When people are hiring people for a service, they want to know they want that word of mouth is online reviews. So that would be my third trend year. And I want you to think about how you can make collecting reviews part of your process. You collect invoices at a certain stage in your process, you do a final walkthrough with clients at a certain step in the process. You're going to call your customer at a certain step in the process. And if you're not collecting invoices, doing a final walkthrough and calling customers, you've got to do that. Always. You probably got some negative reviews to deal with anyways, but how could you set the expectation and get an agreement from your client about, Hey, at the end of the project, we'd like some feedback online from you.
Would it be okay if we sent you a request for online feedback? Great. Now you've gotten agreement from them. And two months later, when you finish, you remind them, Hey, by the way, we're going to send you this thing and then you follow up and do it. And there's a really simple email that you can use, just sending people, your Google link. And if you look at the show notes for this, I'll share with you another episode where we share how to get your, your Google review link. So, those are my three trends for 2021. And I want to share that we have some exciting upcoming events that I'd love to see you at on January 14th, we'll be doing an exclusive live virtual event for commercial landscapers, with Kubota USA, it's called turf talk. And it's going to be all about helping you get ready for the 2021 spring season.
So check that out at kubotausa.com/turftalk. If you're a garden center, join me on January 27th with the Texas Nursery Landscape Association's Virtual Summit For Retailers. I'll be doing an interactive live workshop designed for garden centers to help you get found online by new customers. And if you really want to dial in your sales process, join us on February 25th for our full day virtual event, the landscapers guide to an optimized sales process in 2021, you can learn about all of these events landscapersguide.com/events. And I hope to see you there. I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments about, do you agree? These are the trends of this year and what will you be doing to take advantage of them? My name is Jack Jostes and thanks so much for checking out the Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Podcast. Look forward to seeing you next Friday.