Video Transcription

Mike Callahan here with Callahan’s Corner- Where you ask the questions we answer them live here on Facebook. Had submitted questions on one of the Facebook groups that we are in gentleman or lady wanted to know, its a lawn care example but it really applies to any industry, is should they fire their existing client because they’re not using all their services? What happened is the german pulled up to mow the lawn and a competitor was there mulching the grass and the business owner wants to know should they fire the client because they’re not using them to mulch the grass as well as mow the lawn. I’ll be honest my first needric reaction was like that’s kind of a crazy question but the more and more I got to think about it it’s a pretty legit question because what we’re trying to do in most businesses is try to expand our service offerings to excrete a higher lifetime value. Where I’m going to kind of add some context to this is that A- I don’t think you should fire the client but the second question I want to ask this individual did the consumer actually know you provide this service or did you ever even reach out to the consumer to provide the service yourself? One of the things that we’re all guilty of as is industry owners or business owners is we get so busy that we forget to actually tell our future consumer the services we actually offer. One of the biggest things we’re seeing right now in the spring-time especially a lot of people that we’ve been working without doing a systematic process of selling so they’re going out through three to four different communication based on the timing of the year and upselling their services such as mulch installation and what we’ve seen with several the people we’re working with they’re getting sixty to seventy sometimes eighty estimate request of the first three to four hours of going out and upselling. I wouldn’t fire the client but is it possible they didn’t know you offer that service or were you not top of frame of mind because you forgot to go out and upsell the service based on the time of the year and the urgency and I’d recommend a month to month and a half before that mulching season happens. As we’re goin into the winners or the summer season here and we’ve got grub control coming up are you proactively going out and upselling grub control or flea, ant or tick to your clients that may not have it if you do pest control. So don’t fire the customer take that into mind that maybe you didn’t communicate and you weren’t clear enough with them that you offer that service or it’s the appropriate time to have that service done. Another great personal example is just teared the personal residence I hadn’t asked him that first design build around my existing pool in the backyard and it was interesting so I went to the contractor I know him well work to him several times great guy but what Kyle did was really interesting so he brought the blueprint with the pictures and he showed us the design build for around the pool up next the house and in front of the house for the paver patio walkway coming in and redoing the landscape but I had never actually thought about building a secondary structure with a bar and a fireplace with an outdoor TV and a fire pit on the opposite side of the pool so he had phase one what I asked for and he gives some different options to upsell in down cell which was played perfectly Kyle obviously is an industryveteran at 25 30 years in the industry and highly sought-after nationally but it was interesting Kyle not only sold me and told me and quoted what I wanted from my request but he had phase number two and it was interesting and phase number two had a couple pictures of whatthat outdoor living area could look like with the the bar and basically the four pillars structure with the roof on it and that I believe sold my wife before she even saw the design. Good for Kyle we may not only be in for hardscape design at the home for this year but it’s very likely that Kyle sold an additional equally as much if not more hardscaping for next year as phase 2. If you’re not telling your clients about phase 2 and you’ve only gotten in for the lawn mowing of the fertilized but you do additional landscape maintenance don’t fire your client maybe the solution is to go out and communicate and get property specific pricing just like Kyle did on the design build. Kyle did a hell of a job and he’s not only sold himself phase 1 but now he’s also got another very large size job booked up for next year for phase two as well. The idea is we want to go out and sell as many of the services we offer to our existing client base but a lot of times they’re not thinking about it they’re that time top frame of mind, so we need to go out to educate and get property specific estimates when it’s appropriate before the need actually hits and obviously with COVID it may have been a friend or family member that may just need some extra cash and they’re doing it and that’s that’s okay too especially with these weird times we’re living in right now. The idea is go out educate and upsell and don’t fire your client because they didn’t hire you for an additional service you have and take a note out of Kyle’s notebook for design-build estimate yesterday put phase two in there because the consumers may not even be thinking about the additional upsell and value that they could have so until tomorrow Callahan’s Corner- you ask the questions we answer them live right here on Facebook.