Landscape manager David Foss joined Out Of Eden Garden Center two years ago after a successful career managing landscapes for large estates. His “always leave the customer happy” philosophy has helped build an already-successful landscaping department at Out of Eden. We asked Foss for some tips on working as the go between for his customers and the garden center and providing a service that benefits both.
Today’s Garden Center: What’s the best method to work with customers on a landscape design? How do you earn their trust to do a job that’s good for both the customer and Out Of Eden?
Foss: Our philosophy is that every time I do a job for a customer, it’s phase one. When I walk through and make recommendations for the customer, I plant seeds for the next phase so we have that relationship going.
Developing a relationship, putting the customer at ease, is really important. Usually the first five or 10 minutes of the consult, you get to know them. Find out if they have kids, grandkids, dogs or cats. The first thing I do when I get back in the truck is write everything down. The best sales tactic you can have is to make sure you remember the dog’s or the kids’ or grandkids’ names.
Next, I feel out their lifestyle before I start putting out designs. I find out if they want a sitting area, a fire pit or a water feature. Take note of any plants they say they like, or any they hate.
Once I have that, I say, “Here’s what I would do. I would do this and this and this.” Confidence sells. Your best friend is a paint wand with turf marking paint. Just walk through and make everything look effortless. Mark out the bed lines. Draw a circle to show how big a plant will be at maturity. Then draw a smaller circle and say, “This is how big it’s going to be when I put it in.”
Ninety percent of the time, if the customer lets me follow that plan, I’m going to sell the job at a good margin. They see you have your vision and your plan. You know what it costs to do what you want to do. They have faith in your confidence that you can come in here and get it done. If you can do that within 30 minutes, you can sell a job with your eyes closed.
Today’s Garden Center: How do you work with the customers’ budgets? Do you try to stretch above what they say they want to spend?
Foss: I find out what the budget is and I make it very clear to them, just because they give me a $3,500 budget does not mean I’m going to spend $3,500. I usually try to come in a little under to ensure they don’t feel like they’re being pushed. That’s another thing that keeps the relationship solid. Depending on the job, the difference between $3,500 and $4,000 really isn’t that much difference in your profit margin, so if they give me a budget of $3,500, I try to stick with it.
You do want to give them the option to spend more. For example, you say, “I can do this for $4,250 but to stay within your budget we’ll have to eliminate this and this and this.” They may tell me to take that extra stuff out, but they may say to go ahead and keep it.
Make sure that last $750 you’re adding is at a higher margin than the rest of the job so if they do say, “Yes,” you’re benefitting. If they stay at $3,500, you’re still making the margin you need to make on that job.
Today’s Garden Center: How much do your designs take existing garden center inventory into account?
Foss: I had to adjust, but I have learned to expand my palette to use what the garden center has in stock and use low-warranty items. In my previous job, I worked on a lot of formal gardens and was always big on boxwoods, groundcovers, rhododendrons and camellias. When I came to Out Of Eden, in the beginning I was ordering all these boxwoods and rhododendrons and camellias. Then I realized those are among the highest warranty items in my market. I have been trying to use those plants less often.
The biggest thing you can do is manage inventory. I have 20 customers a week and in the beginning I was driving our nursery manager batty ordering a lot of stuff for all of these jobs. Now I really focus on using what’s in stock to alleviate all the delivery fees. Our nursery manager can continue to turn his orders and his stock. And it keeps the labor down on pruning, feeding, spraying and watering.
Today’s Garden Center: What tools do you use for designs for the customer?
Foss: I still use pencil and graph paper. I go out to the house, and nine times out of 10, I’ll just draw it out right there on site. I know what I have in inventory at the garden center. There’s always something you have to order here and there, but we’re not Walmart. We’re not doing a set pattern. You can go out and paint it out on the ground and then measure it out on graph paper. They’re usually so confident in you when you’ve done that, you don’t have to come back and do a full architectural rendering.
We can do a rendering if they want one, and I might charge $75 an hour for that. But my initial consultation is $45. I get out there and in an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, I can draw it out on paper, paint it out on the grass and price it out for them sitting in the truck. If I come back with an architectural rendering, even though I’m charging $75 an hour, I have to go back to the store. I have to meet with them to go over it and spend another hour with them. We’re not making any money on that. I’d like to be out working on another job.
Today’s Garden Center: What advice would you offer to a garden retailer looking to build out a landscape service?
Foss: Under promise and over deliver. If the job is $5,000, I leave myself about $500 of wiggle room so I can give them some extra material and say, “This is for you, you guys have been fun to work with.” If it’s a $10,000 job, I’ll price it out at $9,000. I’m leaving an extra $1,000 in there for labor and extra deliveries and special plants. After the job is done, I can send one guy out there the next day with maybe a Japanese maple and some extra groundcover to say thank you to the customer. That builds relationships and gets great word of mouth recommendations. Doing things like that is paying returns tenfold.
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