Presumably they are already happy with your services.  So what better time to make another offer or to upsell your services than right now, while they have their hand on their wallet, thinking about paying you.

So, what exactly should be on your invoices?  Well, of course all the normal business stuff.  You know, the date of service, description of what you did, an amount to pay, etc.  But have you ever thought about including any of these on your invoices:

–Method of Contact – Yes, you need to constantly provide multiple ways for your customer to reach you.  Sure you know all your phone numbers and website, but your customer has probably lost your business card by now. That’s why all your contact information needs to be on every invoice.  It’s like a new business card every week, and your phone number is there at precisely the moment they are thinking about you.

You should include all your business phone numbers (including cell phone), your mailing address, your email address, your website addresses, infolines if you use them( you know,”call for free recorded information about your lawn.”), and any other way your customer can get in touch with you or your services.

–Method of Payments– Let your customers know how easy it is to do business with you.  If you accept any form of payment other than cash or checks, you gotta let them know.  Do you have a merchant account to accept credit cards?  Do some research to find out if you can afford this.  Know this… your bank isn’t the only way to get one of these.  What about accepting payment through paypal on your website?  An awful lot of people in your target demographic use Paypal.  What about offering a payment plan to break up 9 months of service into a 12 month payment plan.

–Timely Notes– How about a short note concerning what services would be appropriate at this time of the year.  Your customer may not be aware that a related product or service exists, much less that you offer it.  Is it time for aeration?  Let your customer know, while they are paying their invoice, what aeration will do for their lawn.  You can come up with additional services at any time of the year.  Put a short note on the invoices instead of sending out an entirely new mailing.

–PR Campaign Notice– Are you using the PR tool to build free publicity?  Bring attention to it in your invoices.  Something like “Read an interview with me in the local paper tomorrow.”  Or “See our Fall Plantings Tips in this month’s Real Estate News available at retailers everywhere.”  Maximize your PR efforts.

–Incentives– Make an offer in your invoice for reduced cost services, or print coupons for something like “One Free Tree with the purchase of Three.”  If you have a historically slow month coming up ( you can know this if you have marketing calendars from previous years) you can drum up extra business for those periods by running specials for your existing customers.

–Testimonials– Use some space on that invoice to reprint testimonials (which you have solicited from other customers.)  Be sure to describe the service performed which elicited those testimonials – it may be something which other customers didn’t know you could do.

–Survey– Print a survey or questionnaire on the bottom half of the invoice and include an incentive of some sort for your customer to take the time to respond to it.

This is a great way to find out what your customers actually want, not what you think they want.  What better market research could you have than this?  Have you been wondering what would make customers be loyal to you rather than switch to the next cheaper guy?  Ask them(I’ll bet it’s not price either.)  Are you struggling with what services to offer next?  Put some choices in a survey and let your customers tell you what they want.

–Newsletter Invitation– Offer a way for your customers to join your online newsletter.  This will give you another inexpensive method to promote your services.  It will give you unlimited opportunity to show your customers what your company can do.

As you can see, your invoices are actually VALUABLE real estate.  Don’t waste it by sending just another bill.  Be creative and make it work for you.

Photo courtesy Flickr lancefisher cc

Sometimes the difference between keeping a customer and losing a customer boils down to just how easy it is to do business with you.  As you were just beginning your company, you probably found it best for you if you were able to bill and collect at the time of your service visit.  But, as your company grows, you will probably find it easier to mail invoices and collect payment monthly.

The more methods of payment you you offer, the more likely your customers are to pay you promptly.  So, in the interest of keeping your cash flow flowing, here are some ideas:

1.Sign up for PayPal

• -if you email invoices, include a PayPal link to encourage prompt payment
• -If you have a website with “membership” capabilities you can have a password-protected page for each customer to review their invoice and billing activity with a PayPal Pay Now button on each page.

2.Merchant Accounts with your local bank

• -this might be difficult to get without unreasonable fees (which is why I use PayPal)
• -this will allow you to accept credit card payments by mail or phone.
• -you should also check into using 3rd party processors if you can’t get your own merchant account.  Just do a Google search and really check into the company you decide to use.

3.Mobile Processing

• -some credit card processors have mobile equipment which allows you to process credit cards on the service call through their equipment and your cell phone.

4.Monthly Payments

• -break your service fees up into 12 equal monthly payments to keep your customer’s service cost low in the summer and you cash flow up in the winter.

5.In-House Financing

• -allow your customer to pay in monthly installments for a premium fee.
• -incidentally, if cash flow is tight, financed accounts can be sold to factoring companies who buy accounts receivables from cash strapped companies.

6.Recurring Billing

• -PayPal and many Credit Card processors allow recurring billing options.  This is usually for subscriptions and memberships, but it could be worked out to complement your business as well.

I don’t know all the possible options, but this short list should get your creative juices going.  There are so many more options available today than just a few years ago.  Let your customers pay you with ease and you might see better customer retention.

The cost of producing DVD brochures is really not that great compared to print brochures when you consider that you only need to burn as many DVDs as you need for now vs. minimum runs for brochures.

For a quick run down of the costs of burning DVDs let’s look at a retail office supply store. Blank DVDs cost about 32 cents each and slim jewel cases cost about 15 cents each. That’s about 47 cents each.  Now, I know you can have brochures printed for about  20 cents each but that’s a minmum run of 500 usually.  So you have a higher upfront cost as well as the design work involved in preparing the brochure.  The software required to produce a DVD is all available free.  So if you already have a camcorder, you’re in business!

Now, your first video brochure may take some time to create as you overcome the learning curve (unless you are already familiar with video and using youtube, etc.)  But once you get the hang of it, you can churn out DVD’s in no time.

And, you burn just a handful at a time.  Keep a few with you as you are out working.  Burn a few dozen if you are attending a lawn and garden show.  They can be made on demand unlike printed brochures, which require a minimum run.

If you don’t happen to have any with you, send your prospect to the website where your videos are posted.  This also can be done with no out of pocket costs.

As cost effective as it is, you could even have a DVD brochure for each individual service you offer.  Or, one about each topic for which you have a solution.  Maybe one for new customers.  And another for Fall aeration and overseeding (with before and after shots.)  And another for leaf collection.  You get the idea.  If you had a printed brochure for for each service, it would cost you an arm and a leg for each run of 1000 copies!  Not so with your own DVD brochure.

And if you need to make a change, its not set in stone and you don’t have to scrap all the extra brochures lying around.  You just make your changes and burn a few new DVD’s.

Stay tuned as I delve into using video for marketing YOUR lawn care services in future posts!

That being said, one good but seldom used marketing tool is a short note or letter telling your customers any new service you are going to begin offering.

Did you just buy a leaf vacuum?  Tell them all about the benefits of removing the leaves from their lawns this fall.  And create an offer to entice them.

What about that new aerator you saw at the turf grass trade show?  Tell your customers about the benefits of aerating their lawns and how you have just such a service.

Do you have winter services that your customers don’t know about?  They may be using another company for such services simply because you haven’t told them that you offer it.  What about gutter cleaning?  Christmas lights and decorations?  Fall/Thanksgiving themed yard displays?  Snow removal?  Irrigation system flush?  What about Spring plantings of annuals?

Not only will you get more sales, you’ll build a better bond with your customer as you educate them and keep in touch with them.

Chance Marketing

Most lawn care operators are in the same boat.  They use Chance Marketing – that is, just wait for chance to happen and referrals will somehow come along on their own.  Can you afford to leave your business’ growth to chance?  Not in today’s economy.

Do You Have Customers Or Do You Have Evangelists?

Of all the tools in your marketing tool bag, “word of mouth” or referral marketing is by far the most effective.  When your satisfied customers tell their friends and neighbors about you, they aren’t advertising, they are evangelizing!  They believe in you and their word is worth more to that potential customer than 10 or 15 exposures to your marketing message.  How can you beat that?

Consistent Referral Results

If you don’t have a system in place to consistently, relentlessly get referral business from your satisfied customers, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.  How much?  I’d say at least $475 per customer per year.  If your average account is $45 per service (conservative) and your average season yields 35 service visits, then your average customer is worth $1575 per season.  If you use a 30% response rate on a fine-tuned referral system, that amounts to $475 additional income per customer per season.  If you have 20 customers that amounts to $9500 you’re leaving on the table every year.  If you target higher end customers and learn the art of upselling of course, your loss is even greater.

Your Referral Garden

Your customers are a garden and you have to cultivate the referrals. This means develop a system or systems to encourage them to share your name with their friends and neighbors.  Referrals don’t just happen with enough consistency to depend on.

The Answer Then Is A System

system
Noun
1.a method or set of methods for doing or organizing something
If you want consistent, predictable results from your referral marketing, you need to have in place a system that works day in and day out.  There are as many ways to implement a referral marketing system as there are creative marketers.  The key, however, is to know your customer.  Think like they think, and you’ll be able to develop a program that will pull consistent results.

One Quick Example

Need a little help to get started?  How about this.  Create a “New Customer Offer” such as a free 21 point lawn inspection, or free first fertilization application, or whatever your ideal customer would value.  Print your offer on a sheet of business card stock (most word processor programs have templates for 8 or 10 business cards to a page, or search for free downloadable templates) along with your satisfied customer’s name.  For example, one entire sheet of business cards would look like this:

First Fertilization Application
Provided Compliments of
Mr and Mrs Smith
Call 555-5555

So, you see.  You give this stack of 10 cards to your customer, Mr Smith with instructions to pass them on to his neighbors and friends.  In return, for every referral call you get, he gets a credit towards one free service.  If you get a new customer as a result of his referral you’ll give him a $50 gift card to Long Horn Steak House or something.

So your cost is about 80 cents per sheet of business cards plus the value of the service provided to your new customer plus a gift card to your current customer.  So for about $80.00 in hard costs, you get a new customer worth $1575 each season.  More if you master the upsell.  If you get no referrals, you are only out 80 cents for the stack of business cards.

The Power Of Referral Marketing

If you need help coming up with ideas or just want some concrete advice about how to use referral marketing to its maximum potential, check out this ebook from Vince Goldeexampler.

Now, your marketing calendar should have those weeks marked which cover seasonal and time-sensitive services. This way you’ll know when to begin marketing those services.

If we’re coming up on time to apply pre-emergent weed control, send a short note or postcard about 2 weeks before that “window” of service opens. And let your customer (or potential customer) know why it is important to do this service inside this small “window of opportunity.” Then follow up with another note or phone call in a week.

If they have already signed an agreement that includes this service, then send a postcard explaining why its important and announce when you intend to provide the service. This kind of communication goes a long way toward building customer loyalty.

And get this…time-sensitive services have a built-in psychological trigger (aiding the sales process.) That trigger is called “scarcity.” In this case, time scarcity. By letting potential customers know that to be effective, these services must be completed by a certain date, you give your marketing a certain urgency.

Customers will respond much more quickly and definitely to a time-sensitive notice than to open ended marketing. So use these services to your marketing advantage.

Need some examples of time-sensitive issues? Here are a few, depending on what your company does (or is licensed to do.)

• -pre-emergent weed control
• -aeration
• -overseeding/slitseeding
• -annual flower beds (2 opportunities here)
• -pruning/shrub trimming
• -irrigation winterizing
• -gutter cleaning
• -bulb plantings
• -various fertilization programs
• -fall decorations/Christmas decorations

Look over your list of accounts and write a list of every service you have performed. Place a check mark beside any service that may be considered time-sensitive. These are the services you should market to all your customers in this way.

Don’t pass up this “built-in” sales opportunity.

Have you ever seen a successful contractor build a house without a plan?  Probably not.  Consider that your marketing is just like a house – if you don’t start with a plan, how will you know if you have achieved your desired goal?

My wife and I bought a small house in need of some minor, cosmetic remodeling.  So minor, in fact, that we thought we didn’t even need to create a plan for it.  We thought we knew what we needed to accomplish and we could just barrel through it and be done without defining what our end result would look like or what steps needed to be done.

Well as you can guess, a simple three-week makeover turned into a 4-year remodel, with no space in the house escaping changes.

What happened?  We didn’t have a plan to spell out exactly what needed to be done.  So alot of things were done which we hadn’t originally intended to do.  And alot of things were done twice, because we did them in the wrong sequence and wasted alot of time and energy.

So what does my house fiasco have to do with your marketing?  Well, your marketing is a lot like that little house.  If you don’t start with a plan, you’ll not know if it is successful, you’ll not have a goal to achieve, you’ll waste time and money and effort, and the whole “marketing thing” begins to drag on and feel boring and tedious.

But, if you start with a plan, you can see and know progress, you’ll know at any point if you’re on track or not, and you can be confident enough in your progress to make necessary changes.

What a Marketing Calendar Is

So, what’s a marketing plan look like?  Well, for now it should be something simple enough that you’ll use it, right?  I suggest, as many marketers do, that you assemble a 52 week calendar to outline your marketing thrust for each week.  Each week on the calendar will have one, maybe two marketing tools on which you will focus.  Sometimes your focus for a tool will span many weeks.

My office is very computerized – the less paper, the better(I believe in the power of the PC to keep my files organized and accessible) but my marketing calendar is on paper.  In my paper based planner.  That just works best for me.  You need to do what works best for you (that means do it in such a way that you’ll actually use it!)

You will constantly revise it (which is why I use pencil in my planner) by adding more of the marketing tools which seem to work and removing the marketing tools which don’t work.  You will take notes on your calendar to show results of your marketing each week.  Or to show changes to your marketing thrust.

And I save my calendars.  They are a treasure trove of research info.  You will be able to look at previous years and see trends in response to your marketing.  You will see that some marketing tools are more useful in certain months.  You will see that some tools were of no use at all.  With all of this research at your fingertips, you’ll be able to plan each marketing calendar with greater and greater precision.

Starting Your Calendar

So, how do you get started?  First, you need to have a list of at least 10 marketing tools you can use right now in your business.  This list will change as you discover new tools and weed out tools that don’t work for you.

Second, you need a specific marketing budget, even if it is zero dollars to begin with (such as with a new bootstrap business.)  Surprisingly, there are a number of marketing tools that cost no money to implement.  Your marketing budget should be expressed as a percentage of revenue.  For example, if you had a marketing budget of 3% and you made sales of $10,000 for the month, your budget would be $300 for the next month.  As business increases so does your marketing budget.

Third, place your marketing tools on the calendar for the next 52 weeks with a brief description of how you will use each one and how much of the marketing buget each will require.

Fourth, at the very least, review your marketing calendar at least weekly to prepare for the next few weeks of marketing action.  Are you getting ready to send out a mailing?  Get your sales copy ready now.  Are you having a promotion for organic fertilizer?  Be sure to line up access to the necessary supplies if the promo is wildly sucessful.  Keep in mind that some of your tools will overlap weeks, and some may even run all 52 weeks.

Lastly, at the end of each week, record the results as they relate to each tool’s effectiveness.  How many new leads did you get from your website?  Your local paper ad?  How many upsells did you get from your last customer mailing?  Record these on your marketing calendar and when you prepare your next calendar you will know which tools were successful, ans which months you need to work in more tools.

As simple as this calendar is, it really can be your single most effective marketing and business building tool.  Just keep it flexible, keep it close to you, and keep using it.   Many of the tactics explained on this site will make reference to your marketing calendar, so go ahead now, and get yours started.