Commercial confidence
Last time we checked in:
Gabe Lobato of La Cholla Landscaping had been a bit hesitant about adding more commercial work and wanted to focus on growing only residential accounts. On top of that, the one commercial property Tucson, Arizona-based La Cholla Landscaping did have made Lobato feel a bit overwhelmed. After having to cut ties with his brother, who was going to be in charge of growing commercial sales, he had planned on turning to an automated calling program to set up appointments with commercial property managers.
Latest updates:
After a few months managing his lone commercial property, Lobato has relaxed a bit and feels like he has a grasp on the job. He says the change occurred after taking a walkthrough with the client about a month after starting work on the job.
“To walk through, see her reactions, to see her feel as opposed to wondering – because you could never guess what they're feeling or thinking or hearing back from the tenants on the property,” he says. “But to actually have them one-on-one walking through, it definitely is a great thing to do within one to two months after taking a new property.”
In addition, he got a better grasp on how to quote enhancement work in a proposal for the property, on top of the work the company is currently performing.
“There are some things with variables and verbiage that I needed help or assistance with – how to navigate that in a contract or proposal wise for those enhancements,” he says.
One lesson Lobato learned when bidding commercial work is that you find out the pain points the property manager had with the previous landscaper.
“One of the biggest pain points on this property was not managing the irrigation system, monitoring and repairing it the way it should be,” he says. “So that was one of the big things to be able to walk through and identify repairs that we’ve done, but then to also see the fact that there are still repairs popping up. Then in the conversation meeting with her, discovering ‘Okay, this system is as old as the building, and the buildings are probably around 30 years old.’”
Read the full story on updates from the 2018 Turnaround Tour winners from the June issue here.