Did you miss the NALP's LANDSCAPES Virtual Zoom with Champions mastermind last week? Probably. But in this video, don't worry, I'm going to share with you the top three takeaways from my mastermind conversation about how to use virtual estimates and digital marketing to close more landscaping leads. My name's Jack Jostes, and welcome to the Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing. This show is all about helping lawn and landscape contractors increase your profit and improve your lifestyle by getting better at sales and marketing.
In today's episode, I'm going to share with you three sales and marketing tactics that can help you increase your close rate right away, plus information about our upcoming Landscaper's Modern Sales and Marketing Summit, where there's going to be another mastermind opportunity. You can learn more about that at landscapersummit.com. Now let's check out the three takeaways from last week's Zoom with Champions.
Last week, the National Association of Landscape Professionals put on Landscapes Virtual, and they did an incredible job. Normally, last week would have been the GIE Expo, the Green Industry Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. But given the circumstances, they did it virtually. And I have to say they did an incredible job. The AV, the online networking aspect of it, the marketing of it, and considering how big of a production it was to get done quickly. Just want to give a shout out to the NALP and say thank you for having me as both a speaker and a Zoom with Champions moderator.
So Zoom with Champions was like Breakfast with Champions, which is a mastermind table with business owners focused on a specific topic. Mine was on how to do virtual estimates to close design and build sales. In my conversations with my mastermind table, I came away with three key takeaways that I wanted to share with you.
Takeaway #1: Have a Pricing Page on Your Website
A pricing page can help your potential customers understand the brackets of pricing. What can you get in this price range, this price range, in this price range? You don't have to give people an exact estimate through your website, but giving them some buckets that they can probably fit into will help you have a more productive sales process and help your customer feel like they understand what they're buying and how much it's going to cost.
Takeaway #2: Coach Whoever Is Answering the Telephone On Pricing
Right? And this is again where you can use that pricing page. So that way, whoever's answering the phone is able to qualify, and more importantly, disqualify people who are calling in. They should be able to help people understand what services you offer, where you offer them, and approximately what budget they're in. And so often, the person answering the phone doesn't have any training on that very important budget piece. And then they're sending the owner or lead designer or project manager out to meet with people who they're going to be ultimately upset about the pricing. And then that creates a negative word of mouth experience, right? That could be prevented through this pricing page and through a qualifying phone call.
Takeaway #3: Send Customers a Video Before the First Meeting
Last year at the GIE Expo, I spoke at Tony Bass's Wealthy Landscaper Summit, where Marcus Sheridan was also speaking. Marcus is the author of They Ask, You Answer. And in the last year, we've been implementing one of Marcus's ideas of sending people a video before that first meeting, that helps you understand the process, the budget, frequently asked questions, and this combined with the first two things of a pricing page and training the front desk person how to qualify on the phone can massively cut down on the number of leads that you're going to meet with, who aren't going to buy.
Because that's an extremely high cost to your company, all the time it takes to send someone out there, make an estimate, review the estimate, follow up with people. If you can meet with fewer people, but they are more qualified, you'll spend less time selling, increase your profit, and ultimately have more fun doing it. And that's what the upcoming first annual Landscaper's Modern Sales and Marketing Summit is all about. We're going to help you with your sales process. We're going to send you a do it yourself video kit. So you'll be able to learn how to make one of those videos yourself, or have your team make it with you, using your smartphone. I'm recording this on my smartphone right now.
And we're also going to have a live mastermind. There's so much value in meeting with other business owners or other managers, or other people in your industry, who've worked through some of the challenges you're already facing because they can help you solve them faster, and you can build relationships and help them solve them faster as well. So those were my three key takeaways from this mastermind that I hope to see you at my next one at the Landscaper Summit. So go ahead, grab your ticket at landscapersummit.com. And I look forward to seeing you there.