I recently had the opportunity to speak with a writer from The Landscape Professional, one of the landscape industry’s monthly publications. His cover article explores some of the challenges commercial landscape companies face and he asked how we’re handling the changes in the market since the great recession. Specifically, he wanted to know how we compete for new projects.
Competition is something I think about every day. As a company, we propose millions of dollars of landscape installation and commercial landscape maintenance projects every month. Sometimes clients choose to partner with us. Sometimes clients choose another landscape contractor. Every project and every decision has story, but in every single case we’re proposing “against” a competitor.
But the other landscape firms aren’t the competition that matter the most in decisions about who will care for your property’s landscape.
In case you haven’t worked with a lot of landscaping companies, I can tell you that we’re a competitive bunch. In the commercial landscaping world, we’re often asked to give presentations to decision makers. Those presentations are generally at the client’s offices and they’re scheduled back-to-back on the same day. This means that we see the reps from the company that presents before us, and the ones that are going in after us. It’s a little like football teams in the stadium tunnel, ready to run out on the field before a big game and it can be pretty exciting.
When we meet with prospective clients, they talk to us about their goals for their property’s appearance. The flowers they like. How they like their shrubs pruned.
They share their ideas and opinions with us, because they want us to make their landscape look as good as, (or hopefully, even better than) their neighbors’.
They never tell us that they prefer one brand of mower over another. More often than not, they don’t really care how many employees we have, or how long we’ve been in business. They’re not interested in hearing about how we stack up to the other landscape companies. They care about what we’re going to do to make sure their landscape looks its best.
For a Property Manager, or a Facilities Manager, or a Board Member - anyone making decisions about the appearance their landscape, the most important competition isn’t between the landscaping firms bidding your property.
For our community association clients, the competition they worry about is the HOA next door, selling new homes for less than the homes in their community.
For our commercial real estate property managers, the competition is the commercial office building up the hill that just lost its biggest tenant and has to scramble to fill 4 floors.
For retail property managers, the competition is with the new outdoor shopping center two exits down the interstate with the chain restaurants and an Apple store.
For HOAs, commercial office, retail properties, and any other type of property, the decision to hire a new commercial landscaping partner is a big one.
Make sure the company you choose understands that the competition isn’t over just because they were awarded your contract.
The most important competition is only beginning - and now you’re playing on the same team.
To read the latest edition of The Landscape Professional, click here.