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🌳 Benson Landscape & Design: https://bensonenterprises.com/
👤 Connect with Scott Benson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-benson-824738126/
🏢 Guest Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BensonEnterprises
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00:00 – Meet Scott Benson And Benson Landscape & Design
00:00
Jack Jostes
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Landscaper's Guide. Today I'm excited to interview Scott Benson, the CEO of Benson Landscape and Design. Scott, welcome to the Landscaper's Guide.
00:09
Scott Benson
Yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
00:11
Jack Jostes
So, Scott, tell me a little bit. Where, where is Benson Landscape and Design and what do you guys do?
00:17
Scott Benson
We're in Rochester, New York. We're a residential landscape design, installation and maintenance company. So we get to know, take people's ideas and bring the realities. And we've been in business since 1987, so we're coming on our 40th year. This is a company that I formed and started when I was in high school.
00:41 – Starting A Landscape Business As A Teenager
00:39
Jack Jostes
Well, congrats on 40 years.
00:41
Scott Benson
Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah. Goes by quickly. I believe it accelerating, I think every year too, but it's been exciting. And with that growing up in my neighborhood, my family's very supportive. I was very entrepreneurial at a young age, and that was just seeking opportunities anywhere I could get on my feet or walking around. I would engage with all my neighbors in the community, ask them if anything I could assist or help them with. I used that to seek out those opportunities and I got such a satisfaction of, you know, doing that. But those interactions I had with those, those clients.
01:19
Jack Jostes
What did you mow? Lawns?
01:21
Scott Benson
I did my lawns. I would, I would do, I would shovel sidewalks. I would help clean up their garage. I was, I've always been a very hands on or handy person, so I would repair things for people. Fix things.
01:34
Jack Jostes
What kind of lawnmower did you use when you started back in the 80s?
01:37
Scott Benson
So my dad had an errands ride on, mower the engine in the back.
01:42
Jack Jostes
Oh, that's pretty substantial for.
01:45
Scott Benson
Yeah.
01:45
Jack Jostes
How old? Fifteen.
01:46
Scott Benson
Yeah, I was 15. Yeah. Yeah. I was actually doing cutting grass where my neighbors probably like for from 13 to 14 years old. By the time I was in high school, I had enough, you know, clients and things that I was doing that I started to bring on my friends, put them to work. And then I really then enjoyed, you know, what it was to organize a team to, you know, to train people to grow people. And then it just, you know, kind of from there it was just, it grew every year.
02:21 – Snowblowing, Entrepreneurship, And Early Influences
02:21
Jack Jostes
That's cool. And did you shovel for people? Did you have a snowblower? What did you.
02:26
Scott Benson
A snowblower? Yeah. Snowblow driveways or shovel sidewalks.
02:31
Jack Jostes
I, I've shared this with other people on the podcast. I mowed lawns and shoveled driveways and I used my dad's snow thrower and there was something about smelling like gasoline and getting paid cash that like it shaped me. Did. Does that resonate with you?
02:47
Scott Benson
Yeah, I mean I would, you know, I had, we had an Aaron Snowblower. I get that fired up and I would take that up and down the street and. Yeah, yeah.
02:53
Jack Jostes
And that's cool. So. So did you have other green industry people in your family or were you the first one?
02:59
Scott Benson
I was, I was the first. And really as far as from an entrepreneurial standpoint, you know, that was. My father had a more professional career, so did my mom, teacher. So a little bit outside of their wheelhouse and saying like, you know there's traditional paths we, we follow and the risks involved in, you know, being an entrepreneur. But you know, it was that, I guess those challenges and the.
03:24
Jack Jostes
Opportunities that it brought, you know, that's interesting. My parents say that I'm the first entrepreneur in the family also. But I, my mom was a real estate agent, which I, I think was pretty entrepreneurial. It was more she worked for herself. But.
03:40
Scott Benson
And to that my mom did Mary Kay or Avon and stuff like that. So that's, that was a people oriented entrepreneurial type.
03:48
Jack Jostes
So. So was your mom good at sales,.
03:50
Scott Benson
Good with people and that was, you know, that people piece? Yes.
03:54
Jack Jostes
Yeah. Because my dad, my mom was good with people too. And so she would bring me to real estate showings and I would need to talk to adults and help them, whatever I would come to showings with her. So.
04:05
Scott Benson
Well, that was my, as a young age, you know, having those conversations with all my people in the community, my neighbors. I had, you know, I learned so much about, you know, their experiences and how they impacted me as I grew up and formed myself into, you know, young adults and the professional I am today, I do remember and I still enjoy those interactions, those conversations. You know, in my role today, it's a little different. I don't have those frequent contacts, but how that, those shaped me early on, I really appreciate it.
04:38 – Making Residential Snow Profitable
04:38
Jack Jostes
Tell me about snow. So we're at the SIMA symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Why are we here and what, how is snow evolving in your business?
04:48
Scott Benson
So for us, for Ben's Landscape and Design, we've been in the residential snow services for decades and you're one.
04:55
Jack Jostes
Of the few people I hear say that. Are you aware of that?
04:59
Scott Benson
Why, why is.
05:00
Jack Jostes
Well, I mean a lot of. And I'm curious if you've told many people that here.
05:04
Scott Benson
No, I guess I haven't really. No. Share that.
05:07
Jack Jostes
You should tell people that and just see how they react. A lot of, A lot of people say, oh, I don't like the pain in the butt. Residential customers, they all want their personal driveway cleared immediately. And they're calling and perfecting our service.
05:22
Scott Benson
Model, what that is, and how we manage expectations and our commitments. So, I mean, we do, we have. I mean, it's a. Yeah, it's a challenging. The timing, it's not going to be perfect.
05:32
Jack Jostes
But you like it enough to have done it for decades?
05:34
Scott Benson
Oh, yes. And we do it and we do it in a way that is. That provides great service and that is a profitable service line.
05:41
Jack Jostes
I interviewed one of my other clients, Tori Shlanda from Better View Landscaping in Massachusetts, and he has it dialed in. He has a very profitable residential snow removal business. He also does full service landscaping, construction, maintenance. But that's a podcast that I'll send to you. You should check it out. I'll put it in the show. Notes for everybody.
06:01 – Entering Commercial Snow From The Ground Up
06:01
Scott Benson
Yeah. So, I mean, continuing that service line is, you know, we're going to do it, but our reason for being here at SEMA is that we're expanding into the commercial service area for snow removal.
06:11
Jack Jostes
Yeah. And so how are you going to do that? How. What's your plan to expand? How many commercial accounts do you have now and how many do you hope to have, like three years from now?
06:18
Scott Benson
So we're starting from the ground up this year, so we've been only servicing exclusive residential, so we've never taken on those opportunities. But we've identified the areas we want to work in, the type of commercial properties that we would like to service that fit for our company. And we're going to do a targeted start with a targeted mailing. We'll send two to three postcards to those prospective properties and then we'll look at what we take on our first year and then grow the service line from there so we know what our capacity will be and we'll see the type of contracts that we generate.
06:52 – Building A Dream 100 And Committing To Direct Mail
06:52
Jack Jostes
And I like that. And you know, the other day before we pressed record, were talking about a book that I like. It's called, I think it's Chet Atkins, Sales Machine. And he talks about the Dream 100. And it's essentially you make a list of 100 clients that you want. And I think in commercial you can literally do this. You can make a list of the businesses you want. You could use AI to build this list and Then you start doing what you're talking about, postcards, lunch and learns, phone calls, in person, visits, email, LinkedIn, all of those little touch points over time. And one of the ways that we can support you since we built your website is we could build a landing page that you mention in your postcard. So it's Benson Enterprises.com, right?
07:40
Jack Jostes
So Benson Enterprises.com postcard we might not use that actual URL, but you get the idea. And then you can see how many people visited the postcard and how many you could use a call tracking number. And I like what you've said about doing multiple mailings because I think where many people fail with direct mail is they do one postcard.
08:03
Scott Benson
No, it's, I mean it's a long term investment, it's a commitment and we'll, yeah, we'll have those touch points and we will, they will see us year after year and eventually they're going to, their contract has come up, they're happy with their service provider, they'll reach out and then we'll have an opportunity to provide them service.
08:20 – Leading A 50-Person Landscape Company
08:20
Jack Jostes
So yeah, I like it. How are you focusing on your people? You know, so you've got 50 people during your peak season and what's it like being the CEO now with 50 people versus I don't know, how many did you have 10 years ago?
08:37
Scott Benson
So 10 years ago I was probably at more like 35 on the headcount. So I mean I'm really in the people business. What we do is landscaping. So it is all about people. And that's my focus is on my team, on my direct reports and supporting all the people underneath them and growing that team. So, you know, to go from, you know, from myself to 50 team members, that's an evolution of learning and trusting my processes. And I continue to grow as my leadership and then how to really support my team.
09:11
Jack Jostes
And tell us about what other roles do you have from a management and leadership standpoint? Who else is on the team?
09:16
Scott Benson
Yeah, so we have, I have an operations department with the divisions. We have our install construction division, we have our maintenance and we call it our enhancement division where we've got operations managers that run those departments and responsible for the production. I have a sales team of four salespeople, one focused on the design build aspect. There are three are I work with our clients and all the maintenance and other landscape services. And I have an administrative team in the office that's supporting both operations and sales on the finance and the customer piece.
09:51
Jack Jostes
Cool, that sounds like quite A team, what's important to you and how they treat or manage their direct reports because you're not managing all 50 people directly. What are some of the things that you're flexible on and then what are some of the things that you're like? This is the Benson way.
10:08 – The Benson Way: High Standards And Compassion
10:08
Scott Benson
We have. Yeah, we have the best way of our expectations but we lead with compassion and understanding over the high expectation of what the quality, the our values, our expectations on the, you know, the conduct of our team members. We set that at a very high bar and it's actually then it's appreciated by the team. They people enjoy working in a place that, you know, things are organized that are well led. Well, you know, we're very. Culture is a huge piece. Work we do is very challenging. We get to work in, you know, the beautiful days, but not so beautiful days. And the work is obviously from either from a manager or a salesperson. It's a lot. We have a very demanding industry. Great times of the year is what we celebrate.
10:54
Scott Benson
The team, we very big on cultural events, get togethers, team building events and then as an individuals, whether you're coming on as an apprentice to start the company to you're in management, it's continually learning and reinvesting in the team.
11:10 – Using Video To Support Sales And Growth
11:10
Jack Jostes
So Scott, we've had the opportunity at Ramblin Jackson to work with you on your sales process, on your new website, getting found in Google and AI stuff. And then this week we did a video shoot. So we did our mobile video studio where you guys came, we rented an Airbnb, we had our teleprompter and everything. How was that? How was being on camera for you?
11:35
Scott Benson
It was good, it was great. I mean myself, I had two other team members joined to speak about a lot of the services we provide some another enhancement for our customers, get to know us and understand what the sales process is going to look like. So were actually well prepared. We had a great session prior to getting our what we wanted to cover and say we got to review it and then the team did great.
11:57
Jack Jostes
So I agree you guys prepared, you know, so part of our process is to not only say here's your script, see you at the shoot, but to actually read it with you and fine tune it. So thanks for doing that with us. One of your people actually flew out. He left, told me he left his house at 4am flew here, did the shoot and then flew home. Why, why was that worthwhile to do that with him? Tell me like, why are you doing these videos and how does it relate to where you're heading in the business?
12:27 – Investing In Marketing, SEO, And Customer Education
12:27
Scott Benson
So strategically, as we grow the company and we had such a great product and service, we have our clients. We wanted to get the word out. We wanted to get our brands. We have a great product and service. Our clients are really raving fans of the work that we do. We. We come highly recommended. So we have tremendous amount of referral business. But as we grow the company and we want to push in to get more density in the communities that we'd like to work in, we made a decision to really up our marketing efforts. We were not necessarily searchable if you didn't know the company name. But today we've made that investment. We've rehauled our website with your support and assistance. We have a very. Our targeted email campaign that we do, and we do three a month. Our clients really love those.
13:11
Scott Benson
I get great feedback. Oh, Scott, you're. I can see your. What you and your team have done. You know, what you're getting out there. We're educating them on all the services that we do. We have over 40 service lines we offer to our clients. They don't necessarily know that we do holiday lighting. They don't know that we do firewood. They don't know all these things we do. So we get to highlight those services and engage with our clients. And they enjoy it. They enjoy that. Our newsletter and then what we're doing, just so we become searchable, so we know the communities we want to work in and we have a steady flow of great leads that we get to.
13:48
Jack Jostes
Well, you're doing all the right things. You know, you're also getting really good Google reviews. The funny thing about email that I learned recently and I did a podcast about Google I O, it's basically their annual tech conference. Google's AI tool, Gemini Powers. Like everything at Google and your email content as a consumer, if you use Gmail, and that's the most used email in the United States, impacts the results that you get from your Gemini and Google searches. So. So you being in there in all those places and then also YouTube influences Google's Gemini as well. So you're now you're in their email inbox. We've done your website, we're getting the Google reviews, and now you've added this video component. So you're really like, way ahead of a lot of landscape companies who are kind of ignoring digital marketing right now.
14:45
Jack Jostes
So I'm excited to be part of this phase of business and growth with you. So just thanks for working with me. And I'm thrilled to hear that your customers are noticing it. And I'm not surprised because it's good. It's good email content and it's kind of amazing to hear you say out loud, 40 service lines. You know, I hadn't thought about the number of them in a while.
15:09
Scott Benson
Yeah. What that is, again, we do. So we continue to educate them, but they do. They. They've noticed as our clients, they're appreciative of the information. They find it. Who we get to highlight in our newsletters about our team highlights things that we're doing. So, yeah, it's a great way. I mean, communication is a key to any company's success.
15:32 – Learning And Networking At The SIMA Symposium
15:32
Jack Jostes
Well, I'm excited for you to make your foray into the commercial snow space and this show, the SIMA symposium and this association, Saima is really the best network for that. Have you had a chance to check out any education while you were here?
15:48
Scott Benson
I've attended several seminars and really then the networking opportunity. So either familiar faces. I had more conversations on this new service line we're doing and just. And new contacts. So I think I find the real value of these events is the networking and plus the great content that's put on.
16:06
Jack Jostes
Cool. Well, Scott, is there anything else you want to talk about on the podcast?
16:11
Scott Benson
I mean, Chuck, it's a pleasure to be able to speak with you and appreciate what you and your team do for us at Benson. Appreciate you guys, you care about your clients and how you've elevated our digital presence.
16:26
Jack Jostes
Well, thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate it. You have an incredible company that you've built up over the last 40 years and it kind of seems like you're just getting started in some ways.
16:36
Scott Benson
Oh, yeah, we have. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We're on a growth trajectory as far.
16:41 – Growing The Company To Grow The Team
16:41
Jack Jostes
As all the growth. Yeah.
16:41
Scott Benson
And that it's all tied in because, you know, continue to provide opportunities for my team. I have to continue to grow the company so they can have. I can offer new positions. People can grow within their roles and the company has to grow to support them. So that's a driving force. And also I enjoy the continuing challenges and new services that we take on. So to be continually challenged, professional.
17:07
Jack Jostes
Yeah, that's what I like about my business too. You know, I get to work with great people. We call them ramblers. You got to meet some of them in person here. I have great people, we have great clients. And it's exciting to see how much is changing in snow and landscape with technology and AI and sometimes people are like, oh, don't you get bored working with landscapers? And I'm like, no. They're always figuring out new stuff.
17:32
Scott Benson
Innovating. We're always innovating. You know, that keeps it, you know, it keeps it exciting, actually. It's the challenge of what we're doing. We know what we're doing today, we're doing great, but what are we going to do tomorrow? How do we continue to be innovative? What are the, what are the things coming down the pipeline and trying to really, to be a market leader? So that's our, our position.
17:51
Jack Jostes
We'll keep going.
17:52
Scott Benson
Let's get it right, Jack?
17:54
Jack Jostes
All right, well, Scott, I'll put a link to your website so people can check it out. Benson enterprises.com and I'll also put a, a link to your LinkedIn because you're kind of active there, Scott, so people can network with you there.
18:06
Scott Benson
All right, Jack, have a great day. Thank you.
18:08
Jack Jostes
Awesome. Thank you. Hey, it's Jack Jossas here. I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with Scott Benson. Make sure you check out the website the Ramblin Jackson team designed for Scott Bensonterprises.com and if you run a snow and landscape company and you're innovating and changing and growing and you want to keep up with AI and SEO and acquiring new customers, we love to talk with you. We'd love working with the snow and landscape industry and I'd like to invite you to have a 15 minute marketing brainstorm call with us. On this call, we'll figure out who is your hel yes customer. Now, how has that changed from 10 years ago, 40 years ago, and what kind of marketing do you need to do to attract that hel. Yes. Customer and how does it impact your team?
18:52
Jack Jostes
Book your call at landscapersguide.com/brainstorm and we'll look forward to talking to you. Then see our show notes for a link to Scott's LinkedIn, his website and that Brainstorm page. Again, my name is Jack justice and I look forward to talking to you next week on the Landscaper's Guide.