Building your knowledge

Knowledge is confidence

One of the things that I most dreaded when I began was being asked to identify a shrub or plant that I didn’t recognise. This fear was well founded. Often, during initial visits to new clients, I would be asked what so and so shrub or bush was. Despite my best efforts, I wouldn’t be able to identify whatever it was and I’d have to say what I dreaded most: ‘I don’t know’. It was during these times that my confidence took a knock. My thoughts were who would employ anyone to tend to their garden when it was obvious they didn’t know the names of all the plants and shrubs? But I was wrong.

You don’t have to know the names of everything to be a good gardener, but it helps if you know the common ones.

If your knowledge is lacking, don’t despair. There are a number of ways that you can learn more.

Your local garden centre and nurseries

Taking regular walks around your local nurseries and garden centres will pay huge dividends. Look at all the plants. See how they are laid out in the sales areas. What plants form part of the herbaceous border display? What plants are recommended for shady spots? Look carefully at what people are buying. Is there a common theme? You’ll soon find that there is. The vast majority of visitors will buy much the same selection of bedding plants, herbaceous plants and the like. Undertake regular visits and don’t forget to ask the garden centre staff for advice and help. Ask them what their best sellers are and what would they recommend for a shady spot, sunny spot and so on. It’s all useful information – knowledge is confidence.

Part-time job

If your knowledge is really lacking you could consider taking a part-time job at your local garden centre or nursery. You will quickly pick things up and get to know all the shrubs and plants, their likes and dislikes. You’d also be in an ideal position to find clients!

Seed and plant catalogues

These are great for highlighting both the seasonal favourites and new plants and shrubs on sale. If you don’t already have any, the easiest and quickest way of acquiring them is to buy a gardening magazine and check the classifieds for companies that offer mail order. You can order vast quantities of catalogues, either by phoning up and requesting them or ordering them online. All of the major mail order companies now have their own websites.

Books and magazines

As well as being able to recognise and correctly identify plants and shrubs, you will need to have a good knowledge of what’s involved in caring for them. It’s no good being able to recognise forsythia, for example, if you don’t know when and how to prune it. There are many good books on the market ranging from encyclopaedias to pocket guides. I favour both – good quality encyclopaedias for my home office and pocket guides for my van.

Television programmes

Gardener’s World is still my favourite, for rather than encouraging us to cover our slices of earth with concrete, bark and shingle and paint our fences purple, this programme is still primarily concerned with how and why things grow. Find the time to watch it regularly if you can and if the time is unsuitable record it.

It’s a good idea to keep abreast of all gardening programmes. You’ll find that many of your potential clients will be inspired to phone you after watching them. Often their questions will be more related to what they saw on the television than what is in their garden. I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve been asked: ‘What was that big, lovely, purple, no it wasn’t purple... a sort of blue plant they had on the telly last night?’

The internet

This can be a very useful reference tool. There is an explosion of gardening web sites on the internet, where you can find all sorts of specialist information concerning plant care. Amateur enthusiasts maintain many of these sites and the quality of the content can vary considerably. The good ones are invaluable reference tools providing pictures and information on every plant imaginable. I have found that there are a number of sites now devoted to individual plants. There are hosta websites, rose care websites, climbing rose websites and so on.

Courses

There are a number of colleges now offering correspondence courses on all sorts of gardening subjects. You’ll find a number of them listed in the help directory. Many of them include a syllabus for formal qualifications. Why not study while you run your business? This is a great way of building up your theoretical knowledge and having a tutor to call on to answer all your questions.

Your local horticultural college will almost certainly run short courses throughout the year.

Your clients

Many of my clients are keen gardeners but have come to that stage in their lives when they can no longer cope with the physical demands of their gardens. I have learnt so much from listening to these people, all of whom have been willing to share their knowledge and expertise. If any of your clients are keen gardeners don’t be afraid to ask them for advice and information. You never know what you might learn.

Invest the time and money needed to perfect your craft. The difference between a good and a bad gardener is that one knows what they are doing and the other doesn’t.

Nothing beats arriving to quote for a gardening job confident that your knowledge and expertise are up to whatever you’re being asked. This is somewhat of a rarity in this business.

Successful selling

Getting the business. So you’ve written your business plan, identified your niche, worked out a pricing structure, marketed your services, managed to get your telephone to ring, now all you have to do is visit your prospective clients and sell yourself to them. Simple as that, or is it?

Getting a foot in the door

By their nature, professional gardeners tend to be a quiet lot, shy, even. Of the professional gardeners that I have spoken to while researching this book, most readily admit that they would rather be weeding a difficult 50-foot border than having to find new clients, which is why many opt for the relative comfort of a gardening round. For you to see your business grow into something more than just another job, you must be not only able to sell, but willing to sell. Unless you adopt an enthusiastic approach to selling, all your hard work and investment to date will be wasted.

What are you afraid of?

Try to identify what it is you don’t like about selling. Having identified the reason or reasons, work on eliminating them. Some of your reasons could include:

• meeting people for the first time
• telling them how much the job is likely to cost
• not being able to answer all of their questions
• lack of confidence.

Meeting people for the first time

If you’re nervous about meeting people for the first time there are a number of positive steps that you can take to improve your confidence and make sure your meeting goes smoothly.

• Create a positive image in your mind of how you see your meeting going. If you keep seeing yourself as being confident and positive then you will find that’s how you’ll be. Work on the positive you!
• Always allow yourself sufficient time to get to your given appointment.
• Don’t book specific times. Instead, say you’ll be there between 2 and 2.30 depending on traffic. Nothing is worse than arriving at an appointment either too early or too late, so give yourself a half-hour window in which to arrive.
• During the initial telephone conversation with your client, make sure you ask enough questions to allow yourself to research the forthcoming job. For example, if you’re being asked to come and prune some shrubs ask what they are. If your client doesn’t know their names then don’t worry. But if they do, at least you have an opportunity to read up on their pruning regime.
• Dress comfortably and appropriately. Prospective clients will not be expecting to see you arrive in a suit and tie. That said, neither would they be expecting you to be dressed as if you were heading off to a football match or the beach. Dressing appropriately will not only increase your confidence but help towards creating the right overall impression, which can only help the selling process.
• If you’re going to be late, make sure you phone in advance to advise your client.
• During the meeting – listen more than you talk! This alone will make you appear more confident and professional.

Telling them how much it’s going to cost

Your initial meeting has gone well. The prospective client has identified all they want done. It’s a good job; you’re keen to get it. Then they say those awful words: ‘How much is it going to cost?’

It’s a straightforward job to price. No outside materials are needed. Your calculations only need to include labour, tipping fees and an element of profit. Your client is waiting for an answer. You have two choices:

• give them an estimate there and then
• send them a written estimate at some time in the future.

The only time you should provide a written estimate of your charges, without first discussing them with your prospective client, is when you have to include additional costs that require researching. Certainly it is good practice to send a written confirmation of all your estimates, including those that you have already agreed.

The reason it is so important to price your job immediately is:

• People like to know how much things are going to cost without having to wait days for written estimates. By giving an immediate price, you either get a yes or a no. If you get a yes, and there is no reason why this shouldn’t be the case, then agree a provisional date to start the work and make an entry in your diary. Follow this up with a written confirmation.
• If when you give your price your client says that you are too expensive, you can ask why, thus giving you an opportunity to overcome their objections there and then. There may be a number of reasons why you won’t be given the job. Some people simply won’t have imagined how much the job was going to cost, and now realise they cannot afford it. Alternatively, they may have had a cheaper estimate from a competitor. Or, as is more often the case, they intend to phone up that advertisement that says: ‘We’ll beat any price.’
• Your prospective client may have arranged for another company to provide an estimate and they may be attending later the same day. They may give their order to them solely on the basis that your competitor has been able to give them an immediate price and an indication, or date, as to when they can do the job, something which you have been unable to do.

Don’t shy away from discussing your prices. You are operating a business, not a charity, and no one should expect you to work for nothing. Of course there may be some who do, but the vast majority of your clients will expect a fair price for a good job.

Overcoming objections

Objections are the reasons that people give you for not using you. For example, you’re too expensive, or they know someone who can do it cheaper, and so on.

You should not see any objection as being finite. If someone says that you’re too expensive that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not going to ask you do the job.

I pride myself on being known locally as ‘expensive, but very good’, because what this really means is that I’m offering value for money.

Many clients have already experienced the ‘we’ll beat any price’ lot and are well aware that if you want a good job you have to pay for it.

You have just spent a half-hour walking around Mrs Robinson’s overgrown garden with her. She’s told you that she wants all her hedges trimmed, borders weeded, and identified a number of large bushes that she wants removed. You estimate that it will take you two days to do the job. It’s a heavy job and will involve lots of backbreaking digging, cutting and tidying. You’ll need to include about £30 to cover the dumping fees. Your total estimate is for £230. When you tell Mrs Robinson this she says that it is too expensive.

Would you simply say OK and then leave? Or would you ask her why she feels that you are too expensive?

Obviously having spent a half-hour of your time with Mrs Robinson, and the cost of your travelling time to and from the appointment, it would be ludicrous for you to simply accept that you’re too expensive, bid her good day and leave. You need to overcome Mrs Robinson’s objections. To do this you first need to identify what they are:

• When someone gives you any objection make sure that you qualify it.
• If you are told that you are too expensive, ask them in relation to what or whom. Is it that they believe they can get the job done cheaper by another gardener?
• Have they underestimated how much the whole job is likely to cost?

When overcoming price objections always offer alternatives without reducing your prices.

When Mrs Robinson tells you that you are too expensive there are a number of things that you can do without reducing the price. The way to do this is to suggest a number of alternatives:

• If she takes the clippings and debris to the dump it would be cheaper.
• Offer to do one day as opposed to two. Point out how much you could achieve in a day’s clear-out and then at a later date you could return to clear the second half.

Prospective clients will base their decisions on a number of factors:

• Are you professional?
• Do you come across as someone who knows what they’re doing?
• Do they like you?
• Would they feel comfortable with you working in their garden?

Whatever you do, make sure that you do not reduce your price simply on the basis that you’re too expensive. Remember being professional means not only working to professional standards but also charging a fair and honest price for your work.

If your price is too expensive in relation to another quote, or your prospective client believes that they can get cheaper elsewhere, then:

• Don’t knock the competition. Don’t relate any horror stories, real or imagined about your competitors. Not only is this unprofessional, but you’ll ensure that you’ll never get the order.
• Do make sure that you are quoting ‘like for like’. Does the cheaper quote include dumping fees, clearing up afterwards, removing all the shrubs that your does?
• Do point out that you are insured. You should always have a copy of your insurance certificate with you when quoting and also include a copy with every written quote you send.
• Do break down your estimate with your client, showing how and why you have arrived at the price you have.
• If you don’t get the order, make sure that you leave on good terms and thank your prospective client for asking you to quote. Leaving in a huff and slamming the gate will only reinforce in your client’s mind that they made the right decision by not hiring you.
• Don’t be surprised if at a later date you get a telephone call asking you to do the job. The next person to walk through their gate and give a quote may be the gardener from hell. They do exist.

It’s easy when faced with a long silence to break it. At the time nothing seems worse than standing with your prospective client waiting for them to say anything. But wait you must, for if you interrupt too soon you will disrupt the selling process. What may seem like an eternity to you is in reality only the few seconds it takes your client to decide whether or not to say yes.

Don’t forget to ask for the order

Whenever you give a quote or an estimate, either verbally or in writing, always ask for the business. Use your diary. Open it and say: ‘Well Mrs Robinson, I could do the job for you a week on Friday, would that be convenient?’

If you think this is too pushy, don’t. You’re the one who has invested their time and money in visiting. The least you should do when you get there is ask for the job.

Selling for garden designers and landscapers

If your business involves creating and building a new garden you face a number of competitors:

• other designers and landscapers
• travel agents
• interior decorating companies
• home appliance companies
• your client – doing it themselves.

In an earlier chapter I mentioned that my most fearsome competitor is the travel agent. Usually people have to make a choice between having a new garden, going on a good holiday, having a new kitchen or conservatory or getting the entire house double-glazed. Only occasionally (once in my experience) will you find that people will have all of these things at the one time.

Always remember these unseen and often unmentioned competitors that are also vying for your client’s disposal income. The companies that sell these things have invested thousands of pounds in marketing their products, strategies that are designed to make your client want to move out of their cold, wet and miserable garden and into a new kitchen, tropical conservatory or fly them off to foreign shores.

You’ll have to be equally resourceful in promoting your business.

• Whenever you undertake to create a new garden make sure that you photograph your work. Before and after pictures make great selling tools on future jobs.
• Consider having your own website where you can load pictures of your designs and work.
• Have attractive advertising signboards placed outside the property you are working at.
• Leaflet-drop all the houses in the neighbourhood where you are working.

When selling against holidays and the like remember to sell the benefits of having a new garden:

• Enhance the value of the property.
• Makes the property more saleable and desirable.
• Safe place for the children to play.
• Relaxing haven to unwind away from the stresses and strains of work.
• Low-maintenance garden means less time having to garden and more time enjoying the garden and other hobbies/interests.

It’s important to see selling as not only a necessary function, but also an enjoyable one. There is no reason why you should shy away from it. Naturally, the more you do, the better you become. Before any sales appointment, make sure that you are prepared:

• Prepare for the likely questions you will be asked. You’ll get a good idea of what your prospective client wants of you during the initial telephone discussion.
• Make sure that you are in a positive frame of mind. Nothing is worse than having someone call to give you an estimate who moans about the weather, football results, interest rates and the like. People want somebody positive and enthusiastic to arrive at their doorstep and tell them they can create the garden of their dreams at an affordable price.
• Have with you or at least in your vehicle photographs of previous work.
• You’ll also need to have available: 10m and 30m measuring tapes, pencil, notepad, ruler and clipboard to write on.