How to Get Commercial Lawn Accounts

Every residential lawn care company seems to have the dream to land big commercial contracts and I get asked about this all the time. They want to know how to get commercial lawn accounts. Can I just put up a website and get calls? Will search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and online marketing in general help me get commercial landscaping accounts? Yes, absolutely… but… the commercial market works a bit differently.

There are less commercial properties than residential properties in the market place so the number of commercial leads you will generate online will be less. Most commercial lawn accounts are given to lawn care companies that approach the property managers and HOAs.

This is How To Get Commercial Lawn Accounts

So if you want commercial landscaping accounts to be a significant part of your business you have to approach them. Some will approach you… but most are already being approached by your competitors so they don’t need to seek you out. That means you have to go to them. And that means networking and building relationships.

So in order to go to them you have to discover where the property managers hang out. What groups are they apart of? What networking events do they attend? BNI, chamber of commerce? Who do you know at the HOAs? Is there someone that can introduce you? Who do you know that can introduce you. You may also want to research custom home builders and track home companies. You have to discover who controls the property. Who the decision maker is, build a relationship. “Shmoooze” And approach them to bid. All of this means leg work. Knocking on doors, asking questions, making your company known and putting your bids in.

So, if you’re a small lawn care company your probably not going to be able to hire a professional green industry salesman. So that means the selling falls on your shoulders. A lot of guys don’t like to hear this… they want to sit back and wait for commercial accounts to beat down their door. It doesn’t work like that. You are going to have to do leg work and you will be the man selling and creating the bids. In fact, I would recommend you do this yourself before you even consider hiring a salesperson. The better you understand and become skilled at selling the better you will be at managing a sales team, should you decide to add one. Many of the largest commercial landscaping companies you have heard of, started with the owner knocking on property managers doors and doing the selling. Getting their bid in.

In fact, the most successful commercial landscaper I know is a true shoomzer. He has a natural gift to talk to and instantly connect with anyone. And that is a huge huge benefit when a salesperson has that ability. You like this guy the minute you meet him. He went on to sell his commercial biz for 25 million. Doing all the selling himself. Honestly, that is a skill and natural gift that I would like to have myself. Some people are just born to talk… I wish I was one of ’em. So… Can you do it? Absolutely. But if you’re an introvert if you don’t like knocking on doors or are shy talking to your customers, you are going to have to grow a pair real quick and get over that junk. Getting past that fear is the secret of how to get commercial lawn accounts. So get in there and open those doors to commercial maintenance accounts. I know you can do it!

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