Customers will respond better to companies that show them why they are better suited to serve them as opposed to companies who just tell them what services they can offer. When you establish your “why” you can move to how you’re going to do it, and what is it that you want to do.
Steve Coughran, founder and director of Coltivar Group in Colorado, shared this tip along with many others during his webinar, “Fueling Strategic Powered Growth” for the Texas Nursery & Landscape Association.
“(Strategy) is like your game plan to fight off competitive forces that are trying to take away your resources, like employees,” says Coughran, who owned his own landscaping company for more than a decade and served on the board of directors for the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado. “It allows your company to get the biggest feasible piece of pie and win in the market place.”
Your competitive set. In order to beat your competition, you have to really know them. When defining your competitive set, it’s important to look at companies your customer is seriously considering. If you’re a mid-sized company bringing in a few million dollars in revenue, you don’t want to consider a company doing more than $10 million as your competitor. Once your competitive set is established, you have a benchmark for any competitive strategies you make.
Customer needs. Knowing your customers’ needs and the reasoning behind them will help you better allocate your time and sell your service in a more tailored way. While they may tell you they want a landscape for their yard, it’s your job to understand why. One customer may be trying to meet an HOA deadline, while the other is in no rush to see a finished product.
Don’t be the best. Instead of being the best at everything, aim to be unique. “In order for companies to win in the market place, they don’t have to be the best,” Coughran says. For example, investing more money into a proprietary software will give you an asset that stands apart from your competition.
Lockdown your leadership. Coughran says even the best employee will fall short under faulty leadership. It’s important to recognize the kind of leader the company needs. A structure that involves a team of leaders working together will most likely lead to the most productive results. “Leadership is not about one person having all the answers,” Coughran says. “It’s about asking the right questions and knowing when to follow and when to lead.”
Perfect your processes. There should be a healthy balance between those hard and fast policies and the policies that give employees a little bit more freedom. The balance between these policies gives a company space to solve problems.
Mind your money. Coughran says he often encounters companies that have a backwards mind-set when it comes to the importance of finances. It’s possible for a company to make a large profit, but have no cash flow in the bank. While your profit measures your competitive advantage, cash flow measures the financial health of the company.
Know where you stand. Strategy isn’t one size fits all, but there is a strategy for everyone. A newer company may need a growth strategy to get to their $1-million revenue mark, while an older company may need a strategy to revive their outdated processes.
