The Unbeatable Success Four-mula

At 7 a.m. on Thursday, I pulled into the 7-11 parking lot, went inside, got a 20-oz. cup of coffee and a donut, got back into my car and continued my hour drive to DeSantis Landscapes in Salem, Ore.

Twenty minutes into the drive, it occurred to me that I had been doing the same thing every Thursday at 7 a.m. for the last four months. How had I gotten so good at something so bad – and so effortlessly? Well that is the nature of habits. You become “unconsciously competent” at something, and the habit keeps producing a predictable outcome – not necessarily in your best interest.

“Changing habits takes time,” says Dean DeSantis, general manager, DeSantis Landscapes. “It is important for our employees that we, in a respectful way, introduce them to new ways of serving our customers. They work extraordinarily hard, and we want to nudge them to success rather than overwhelm them or have resistance. After about four months, we are getting positive feedback from our sales professionals and customers.”

Here is the Success Habits Four-mula:

HABIT #1: TRACK AND MEASURE EVERYDAY. The problem with most sales reporting systems is exactly that – they are reporting systems that somebody gives you after the fact. It’s like the owner of an NBA franchise taking the scoreboards out of the arena and then at the end of each game making an announcement to the team and fans about how they did.
Sales professionals need to have accurate, current and ongoing data about their activity and skills with those activities and use them as bona-fide tools to grow their book of business.

HABIT #2: STAY IN THE TOP 20 PERCENT OF YOUR CLIENTS. Here is the main reason Tom Cruise should never consider landscaping as a profession, despite probably having all the core skills to be successful. He creates the most value and makes the most money for the most people when he makes movies. It is the same for you in your business.

Ask yourself which part of your business generates the most profit. Emphasizing profit, remember it is not how much you make that is important – it’s how much you keep.

The top 20 percent of your clients are the most profitable for a variety of reasons, but here are three key reasons to remember:
1. You have earned their trust and loyalty over time, so you either have all of their landscaping budget or they utilize all your services.
2. You have no client acquisition costs anymore, and they more readily accept price increases and enhancement sales that are commensurate with value.
3. Your production efficiencies are far greater because you have the right crews, project teams and equipment dedicated to jobs that you are more familiar with.

One of the most difficult habits to change is to let go of business opportunities that don’t closely match your ideal client profile. Remember that there is an opportunity cost to all business. The low-bid, “just want a clean-up” client takes away resources that could be allocated to doing work your people are good at, for people they love!

HABIT #3: CREATE INDISPENSABLE RELATIONAL ASSETS. “Durable competitiveness cannot be achieved by making money on margins per unit transacted. It can only be achieved by maximizing the time value of the customer,” shares Sandra VanDerMerwe, author of Customer Capitalism.

It is the relationship that provides sustainable profits over the long term. It is not your contract or the revenue that contract might be producing in the moment. This is a powerful shift of perspective that 90 percent of people miss.
 So much energy goes into getting the initial sale, yet when the contract is signed most companies’ focus turns in the direction of project management or looking for a new prospect.

The relationship is the asset. It accrues over time. Your mindset and focus should be on how to profitably serve your client for the next three years. After three years of progressive purchase behavior and performance promises kept, you will have a client that trusts you and will be loyal to you.

HABIT #4: ALWAYS ASK FOR A REFERRAL. There isn’t a sales/marketing book in print that does not tout the effectiveness of this as a business building strategy. Yet when I tracked and measured 40 landscape sales professionals over a year, the numbers revealed that they proactively asked for a referral once every 5.7 days. That’s less than once a week. And, yet, they closed more than 76 percent of business that sourced from a referral!
Follow this business maxim if you want massive, effortless sales success: EVERY ONE OF YOUR TOP 20-PERCENT CLIENTS REPRODUCES THEMSELVES TWICE!

In other words, ask them for referrals until you close two additional clients. At a 76-percent close rate, on average that would be about three referrals to close two contracts.

Lets do the simple math on this. Don’t be put off by how huge these numbers seem; this is the beauty of exponentiality in action. Effortless success!
One final thought about referrals. Professionally asking for a referral actually promotes loyalty to you. It is mutually investing behavior. Your clients are investing in your relationship by opening up their “circle of influence,” and you are investing by promising exceptional service to the people that are important to them. This takes your relationship to a new depth.

In summary, Habits consistently produce predictable results. The Success Habit Four-mula is:
1. Track and measure every day.
2. Stay in the top 20 percent of your clients.
3. Create indispensable relational assets.
4. Always ask for referrals.

Clifton Pieters’ latest book for landscape professionals titled "SHOW ME THE PROFITS: Closing More High Margin Sales With Powerful Referral Selling Secrets" is available through the Lawn & Landscape site. Pieters can be contacted through his Web site and by phone at 503/492-0548.