How to Upsell Your Customers

Upselling existing customers is crucial for lawn care providers to grow their businesses sustainably. Although there are many that know this, approaching an upsell can be difficult. This blog is here to help you navigate how to see and approach upselling opportunities.

What is Upselling

Upselling is a high-margin sales technique that is used by businesses in every industry. It is the act of selling additional services to existing customers that already use your services. Although upselling seems like a daunting task, it can actually be quite easy. 

For example, if a customer mentioned that their grass doesn’t look healthy or their garden is looking dead, you can step in and offer aeration, seeding, or dethatching services as well as mulching or pruning services to help them get their lawn looking the way they want it to.

Build a Positive Reputation

Before you begin to upsell to existing customers, you must first establish a positive reputation. When working with any client, you should always:

1. Establish trust: Complete a job when it is meant to be completed, and always provide adequate communication between you and your clients (or establish a system of communication between your clients and your crews).
2. Provide quality services: Get the job done right, and confirm with customers to ensure a job has been completed as agreed upon. If there are issues with the service, be sure to navigate them with your customer to be sure both parties are left satisfied.
   

If your business continues to nurture a positive reputation with your clients, you will find that upselling additional services will become far easier.

Create a List of Services

After you’ve established a positive reputation, it is important for you as the business owner to have a clear understanding of what additional services you can offer. For example, if you are providing regular maintenance services to most clients, what services would make sense to add? Examples of additional services include:

1. Aeration
2. Dethatching
3. Seeding
4. Power Washing
5. Mulching
6. Pruning
7. Hedging
8. Leaf Removal
9. Pest Control
10. Irrigation Installation
11. Hardscape Installation
12. Landscape Design

Outline Pricing

When you have a clear list of services you can offer to your clients, you can then create a pricing plan. For some clients, you can offer a discount for certain add-on services. For example, if you’re already providing a standard trim-mow-blow service, offer to aerate or seed their lawns for 5-10% off the regular price of these services. 

Instead of discounting individual services, you can also offer bundle pricing that could keep your business earning and your crews working over the off-season. For example, you can create a bundle (that costs 10-20% less than individual services combined) that includes standard yard maintenance, fall clean up, lawn protection and services prior to the winter, and snow removal services during the winter.

Train Employees

Once you have a list of services and pricing, the next thing to do is train your crew to upsell and engrain the system into your company culture as a whole. Employees should be able to spot opportunities for upselling when working on a job or speaking with customers and act on them. They should know what services could be offered to upsell, and when to offer those services with a discount.

When offering these services to clients, it is important for crews to know:

• Which of these additional services your business provides
• What added benefits each service offers
• When these services are available (year-long, seasonal)
• How to price each add-on service
• When to approach an upsell

Approaching an Upsell

The best way to get your clients to agree to an upsell, is to present the service face-to-face. Not only does this add a personal touch to your services, but it also helps you tailor the services to the client’s specific lawn care needs. Here is an example of an upselling opportunity:

• Imagine you regularly mow a client’s lawn once every 2 weeks. When arriving for your regular maintenance, you notice their trees are overgrown and their shrubs haven’t been maintained. So, you ring the doorbell and take a few steps away from the door. Here’s what happens:
  • You introduce yourself and what company you’re working for (just to refresh their memory). You then let them know that you’ve noticed their shrubs are growing over the windows and the trees in their lawn are overgrown (point to let them visualize the issue). 
  • Let them know the problem in a short brief: “This often creates optimum conditions for insects, pests, and diseases to thrive.” 
  • Offer a solution: “Since we’re already here for scheduled maintenance, we can clean up your hedges and take care of your overgrown trees for 20% less than we’d normally do. Does that sound like something you’d like us to take care of?”

Customers respond to upselling opportunities most often when the benefit is obvious. Always remember to stay friendly and present information in a clear, and engaging manner.

Take Advantage of Software

Successful upselling relies on the careful record-keeping of customer information and conversations. If you are able to keep track of your customers’ needs, you can more easily identify selling opportunities. You can also ensure a positive customer experience, as your records will help you avoid offering services multiple times to a customer that has already stated they were uninterested.

If you are ready to organize your customer records, and streamline communications between your back-end office, crews, and clients, Lawn Buddy is ready to support your business. In addition to giving you an advantage in upselling opportunities, Lawn Buddy also offers job scheduling, auto-invoicing, route optimization, project estimation, and so much more.