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Award-winning landscapes are more than pretty pictures.
In fact, they can be powerful marketing tools for you and your company. Learning to identify award-worthy jobs – and knowing how to present them to contest judges – can prove profitable in more ways than you realize.
Speaking to GIE attendees on Nov. 6, Paul Fields and Dan Morgan, both from Lambert Landscape Company, Dallas, Texas, shared a lengthy list of reasons contractors should enter design/build competitions.
“Awards are a way of showing what it is that you do,” Fields described. “They can be great marketing tools.” Specifically, a company that boasts award-winning projects can tout that recognition to attract future clients and recruit new employees.
Also, winning an award can help a company motivate and recognize its staff. “When you win awards, go back and make a big deal about it with your employees,” Fields encouraged. “Have a celebration to honor their work.” This, he said, will boost employee morale and motivate crews to compete among themselves for future recognition – thus, increasing quality and client satisfaction.
Morgan recommended companies display awards, plaques and other recognitions in a place visible to all employees. Daily exposure to awards can inspire crews to work harder and take pride in their employment.
Beyond the initial enthusiasm associated with winning a landscaping award, there are more benefits to gaining such recognition. “When you start winning awards, you start getting noticed by more prospective clients and potential employees,” Fields commented. And contractors should encourage that increased interest by using award photos for marketing purposes.
Although entering design/build contests may seem expensive, the investment is a solid one, Morgan insisted. “That’s not money thrown away,” he continued. “If you do it right, the cost [of entering a competition] can continue to pay itself off in benefits.”
Morgan refers to entry fees as smart spending “I encourage you to see it as a long-term investment because I think you will see that’s what it can provide.” Specifically, he told professionals to mention awards won on company Web sites, brochures, marketing pieces and bid proposals.
Winning an award can also help a company gain media recognition, Fields observed. Often, green industry-focused publications will seek photos of award-winning job sites and publish them for a large audience. Not only is such attention a boost for crews, the resulting publications can prove powerful in terms of sales and marketing tactics. Both Fields and Morgan encouraged attendees to get as much value out of winning properties as possible – by using photos to sell their recognized services and enhance their reputation.
But, how do you know if you’ve got a property that’s eye-catching enough to stun judges and bring home a prize?
First, Morgan encouraged attendees to be fairly critical of the jobs they might consider entering. He also urged them to set up a panel of peers to help pre-judge possible entries. This can help narrow down the stack of potentials and cut costs. “By taking [a project] through an initial review, we save about half the cost of what it would take to take it all the way to the submission point,” he said of Lambert’s pre-entry panel.
Morgan also acknowledged the need to hire a professional photographer when seeking high-quality photos of possible entries. “When you’re submitting information to judges, you have a very limited method to be able to tell your story,” he explained. “Pictures and narrative are those two methods and, when two done well, can be quite successful.”
The author is Assistant Editor-Internet of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.