Cross Selling: Wide For The Win

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

📰Small electric work truck and H2B changes
💵 Digging Deep: Cross Selling: Wide for the Win
🎥 Reel Cuts: New Potential Daily
📆 Marketing: March Holidays
🗺️ Yardbook and Free Upsell book
🤽‍♂️ Fun with lawn water bubble

🕳️ DIGGING DEEP
Cross-Selling: Going Wide For The Win

You want to hear something strange but not unusual?  Businesses spend so much time and money chasing new customers when their goldmine is sitting right in front of them – their current clients! Think about it - customers already know and trust their work.

Customers are already paying for a company they like. Research has proven that the more services a customer buys from a service company, the longer they will stay with the company. It also showed that customers will refer a business more, the more services they buy.

Don't get me wrong - bringing in new customers is super important for any lawn business. But here's the thing: we often get so caught up in finding new clients that we miss out on some really obvious opportunities with the people who already love what we do.

When you suggest additional services to existing clients, you're not just boosting your revenue - you're actually building a stronger relationship with them. Instead of being "just the mow guy" you become their go-to expert for all things lawn and landscape.

And let me tell you, once you become that trusted advisor, it's amazing how naturally it leads to more business, more referrals, and happier, long-term clients.

What is an Up-Sell or Cross-Sell? 

Up-selling is making a purchase bigger or more complicated.  A regular hamburger becomes a big bacon burger.  A medium drink becomes large. A cross-sell is considered a related product.  Do you want fries with that?  How about a chocolate shake with your burger.  That’s a cross-sell. I will just use the term cross-sell for a general term. 

What Should I Cross-sell?

Your decision on which services to add depends on your area, the services you are already providing, the equipment you already have, and if you need a license.

If you don’t have a license and don’t want to get one, consider adding mowing, aeration, dethatching, mulching, lawn painting, soil testing, soil pH adjustment, pruning, trimming, leaf removal, gutter cleaning, Christmas lights, dog waste removal. You can do most of these with a simple trailer and rent some equipment if needed.

If you have a license for fertilization and weed control and have a high pressure sprayer, pump up sprayers, and spreaders you can add insect control, disease control, ornamental plant control, ornamental flower bed weed control, and in some states mosquito control. 

Plus the no-license needed services. Maybe lease out robot mowers and check on them when you do your main services.

Effective cross-selling strategies 

You should have at least 12 customer touches a year even if you aren’t cross selling.  Tacking on information about your other services doesn’t have to add additional costs. Here are several strategies that have proven successful:

Include Promotional Materials in Normal Correspondence

You regularly leave bills on doors, send invoices, mail renewal letters, send pre-pay offers, and distribute quarterly newsletters. These touchpoints are excellent opportunities to subtly promote your other services or current promotions.

Some printing software allows you to easily insert promotional messages into invoices and statements, or you can hire a local printing company to create inserts.

Incentivize employees to sell

The most successful businesses I have worked with have employee incentive selling programs. The goals have to be attainable in order for the program to work. If employees don’t think the goal is attainable, they won’t bother. Offering a set amount per sale, works best. For example, I know a business that offers $5 for each insect control sale, $10 for each aeration sale, and $20 for each ornamental programs sold. This allow employees to have small victories. Selling contests between employees work well and are win-win.

Start with training all your employees on all the services you offer and the pricing.  Take them out to lawns and help them identify issues and quote prices. They can at least suggest upsells, leave a note for customers, and have the office call the customer.

Make sure employees are leaving behind notes and sales pieces for cross-sells.

Incentives aren’t always monetary.  You can use time off, work clothes, crew parties, and more.

Utilize Email Communication

There are several valid reasons to email customers without them thinking you are just trying to sell something.  You can use a free tool like Canva to create some sales banners that you can include at the bottom of all emails. Rotate the ads so the customers will see the different services you offer.

Send emails to verify purchases, what to expect from services, weather/watering tips, newsletters, surveys, renewals, announcements of new services, sales, etc.

Take advantage of phone calls and texts

You probably have several customers you call or text the day before servicing.  An occasional “While I have you on the phone, I just wanted to make sure you knew we have a special buy 2 get 1 on…..” works great.

It is also a great time to ask customers if they are happy with the service and build the relationship. Then at the end of conversation, if they are happy with everything, suggest a cross-sell.  If they are not happy, fix the issues.

Property Visits

I always encourage businesses to schedule an intentional  extra visit for new customers.

The purpose of the visit is to make sure the property is progressing the way it should, evaluate it for more services, and build the customers loyalty. 

Scheduling the special sales-evaluation service visit after 2 services is ideal for moving forward.

Conclusion

If you start adding services that make sense with the business you already have, you will find selling fairly easy. If you already have the equipment, expenses should be very low.  Don’t forget to consider timing.  What could you do while you are already there on the property?  What could you add to extend the season and even out cash flow?

You have done the hard part, you have the customers, now make the most of your greatest asset.

WOW OF THE WEEK
Fun with water bubbles