Unexpected Client Insights (Thanks, Dad!)

I started my first company, a commercial landscaping firm, in my early twenties. After working for another commercial landscaper, I knew a few things about hunting for new clients, and I got hired for three big jobs right off the bat. I was stoked.

So, when I saw my dad, I was ready to brag about my successes, but all he wanted to know was why people hired me. “Why do you think three perfectly good companies are letting some kid provide landscaping services?” he asked.

The truth was that I didn't know why they signed me on. I was young and optimistic, so I never questioned my abilities. But my dad convinced me that going back to my first customers and asking why they chose me would help me to get more people to say "yes" in the future.

When I asked those three clients why I won the contract, each one was polite and offered me some nice compliments, but the bottom line couldn’t have been clearer. Every single one of them told me in no uncertain terms: “You were the only one who showed up.”

Showing Up is a Good Start. Now Keep Going.

Thanks to my dad's advice, I asked questions and learned that my proposals and presentations alone hadn’t convinced my clients that I was brilliant, insightful, charming, or even remarkably competent. I hadn’t necessarily shown them I understood their vision for the property or created the perfect design to set a new trend in town. All I had done was show up. I was the only choice.

But that didn't mean that I couldn't learn from the experience. I realized that hustle matters. My hustle had earned me the opportunity to prove myself, so I had better take every opportunity seriously.

Secondly, I learned that many of my competitors didn't show up. But how could I build a predictable business on that?

Free Market Research, Anyone?

If all these clients were willing to give tens of thousands of dollars to a 19-year-old kid, something must be happening in the industry that I didn’t yet understand.

So, I did what all of us should do: I asked questions and listened. Once I started asking questions, I got a non-stop stream of complaints about how terrible other commercial landscape contractors were. It seemed that my competition didn't answer calls or show up for appointments, making the process stressful. They didn’t start on time, finish on time, deliver what they promised, or stay within the budget. If the project didn’t turn out the way the client wanted, the contractors didn’t stand behind their work.

I quickly discovered that getting this kind of info was easy. My clients loved to complain. Being a polite young man, I worked quietly, listened, and took everything in. I couldn’t have paid for better market research. I was learning what not to do.

All Calls Returned

The first thing I did, back in the days when YellowPages was king, was place a Yellow Pages ad that said, "All calls returned." My clients hated unreliability. They hated chasing contractors. So, I promised to return all calls, and I did. Sometimes, I was on the phone until midnight returning messages, but every potential client got a telephone reply, even if it was to tell them I couldn't take their job.

An Industry-Leading Offer

I also created a guarantee. I guaranteed that I'd start on time, finish on time, have an experienced person on the site, and guarantee work for one year. It was a fantastic offer, especially considering my competition was having trouble showing up to initial appointments. And because I had been talking to customers for a while about what my competition was doing, I knew this guarantee would put me head and shoulders above the rest.

But that didn't mean it was easy to fulfill. I'd have to work harder, incur some costs here and there, and probably spend more time on the job site instead of handing it off to an inexperienced employee. It would cost me more time and money, so I reasoned it should cost the customer more time and money.

But I wasn't ready to risk everything to limit my jobs to premium-priced players. I came up with the idea of paying for the guarantee. My customers could get a standard level of service comparable to the competition at a comparable price, or they could spend 30% more to get all the benefits of the guarantee package.

I let customers choose to upgrade. They were always offered a competitive bid and the 30% premium guarantee package. I allowed them to pay more to eliminate all the things they hated about my competitions.

And you wouldn't believe how many of them chose the higher-priced option. So many chose my higher price that I quickly built that commercial landscaping company into a million-dollar business, all before I turned 30.

What Does Your Business Have to Do to Get Customers to Pay More?

We'd all love to charge 30% more, right? But you must offer a meaningfully better experience if you want a higher margin. So, start talking to customers. Get them to tell you what they love and hate about your competitors. Gauge the depth of their pain and measure their passion. And then figure out how to deliver your product or service in ways that eliminate those pain points.?

The solutions will seem ridiculous, like overkill, because no one else is doing them. And that feels scary, but industry winners embrace market-driven innovations and upgrades.

For example, the other day, I saw my local Chick-fil-A got rid of the drive-through window. It's gone. Now, it's just a hallway into the building, and the employees walk the orders out to cars in the line. Someone at Chick-fil-A figured that waiting to pick up your order through a window was painful, so they got rid of the window, and now servers take your order as you arrive, make a note of your name and the make and model of your car, and walk your order to your car, in an "order pick up zone," wherever you are in line so that you can drive away without ever interacting with a sliding window.

Apple is another innovator. I'm always impressed at the local Apple Store when an employee walks up to me with an iPad and takes care of me, helps me find my items, and swipes my card on the iPad. There isn't a check-out counter or a cash register to be seen.

People hate dealing with car salespeople, so CarMax married online sales with local car lots. Buyers choose the car they want online, and CarMax delivers it to their local lot for pickup. There is no haggling, no unwanted upsells, and customers get what they want, and they leave.

Everyone has an excuse to NOT innovate. Here are some of the excuses I hear most often.

• Most people don't complain about that.
• Fixing it would kill my margins.
• To change, I’d have to retrain everyone.
• That’s just not how it works in my industry.
• No one expects that.

Don't let these excuses stop you. Ask questions. Make a list of complaints. And then solve them. Once you do that. You're well-positioned to rocket to the top of your industry.

Ready to Get Started?

Will you be brave enough to look past excuses? If you answered yes, you’re already on your way to becoming a more profitable business. And I'd love to help. Contact me to discover how 7 Stage Advisors can make the most of your customers' complaints.

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