How to sell garden design: The decision making process
Selling is an art form. Some people find it easy, others struggle. In this article, we’re looking at how the customer decision making process impacts on your selling techniques.
The decision-making process
Any decision, no matter how big or how small, involves a process in the brain. Most of the time we’re not aware of it, we believe our decisions are based on instinct or impulse. However, after reading this article, you might start to believe differently.
Sales and marketing gurus have broken the decision making process down into five steps.
- Recognising the problem (I’m hungry)
- Researching solutions (What’s available to eat near me?)
- Evaluating those solutions (Do I want a meal or a snack?)
- Making a purchase
- Post-purchase evaluation (I enjoyed that/made the wrong choice)
Recognising the problem
People have all sorts of different reasons for deciding they need a garden makeover. Perhaps they’re getting older and need a lower maintenance garden, maybe their outdoor space is not safe for the kids to play in. Sometimes it’s about keeping up with the neighbours. Whatever the reason, something prompts them to start thinking about making changes.
Marketers in some industries will use advertising and PR to try to persuade people they need to change their lives with certain products or services. Think fashion, wine, cars, takeaway food etc. But as a landscaper, I’m not sure you can’t do much to influence the problem recognition stage of the process….You could try, but you might end up pouring your money down the drain. We’ll leave this bit of the process to lifestyle magazines and TV programs.
Researching solutions
Having decided that something needs to change, our potential customers will start researching solutions to their problems. And, as it’s likely to be a big financial outlay, they’ll do a lot of thinking. They’ll watch TV programmes, visit gardens, look over the neighbour’s fence, scroll through Pinterest, and ask other people’s advice. They’ll also spend lots of time on the internet, Googling ideas.
Most people, including me, tend to research the finished article before they start looking at how it is created. I’ll look at the features of a truck and take the manufacturing process for granted. I know that these things are designed – but because I can’t imagine a vehicle that’s 100% bespoke, the design bit doesn’t come into my head.
Ditto for people who want their gardens made over. Most of them are not used to being involved with the design process for things they buy – and so it doesn’t pop into their head. It’s up to us, to raise awareness of garden design so that people researching solutions have a better idea of the garden makeover process.
Marketing your business to people who are searching for solutions
You can use marketing to reach people who are searching for solutions. Think about using blog posts to answer their questions and to showcase your work at the same time. If you want to sell garden design as well as landscaping, make sure you mention it in the article and explain how important it is in the landscaping process.
Take a look at this article from Geoff Gardiner of Manor Landscapes
- The title is a search term that’s likely to be typed into Google (helps the article to get found)
- There are lots of interesting ideas within the article
- Pictures are of Geoff’s work
- Geoff mentions the importance of garden design and refers to it as an investment
- There’s a nice call to action at the end of the article
I’ll re-post the link to Geoff’s blog at the end of this article so you can take a better look at it.
As well as writing articles, be sure to mention garden design when you are showcasing your work on social media. Selling garden design is all about raising awareness
Evaluating solutions
Understanding the decision making process helps you to guide prospective customers towards a solution to their problems
So, our prospective landscaping client has thought long and hard about what’s available. Now he or she has to weigh one up against the others. As well as deciding whether to go with natural stone or porcelain, the decision needs to be made about who will build the garden. Will it be a DIY job or will they hire a landscaper. If they choose a landscaper, which one is best?
This is where you need to use marketing to a) make sure your business can be found and b) set yourself apart from the competition.
Offering a complete design and build package can be a useful tool for guiding a prospect’s decision-making process towards your company. It simplifies the whole process. And remember that people are used to having suppliers help with the design – (think kitchens and bathrooms). Approaching one organisation for a design and then another for the build is a little bit alien to most folks.
Use your website and social media to really show your work to its best advantage. I’ve found that Google My Business is an incredible tool for marketing to local people. It takes 5 minutes a week to add a new picture and let people know what you’re up to. This will help you to rank higher in the search listings and it will build trust. If folks can see the results of your design and build service – they can decide if you’re the right landscaper for them.
The garden brief questionnaire in My Garden Design is a free tool to help your clients decide what they need in their garden
Making the purchase
It’s one of the hardest things about running a landscaping business. Closing the sale and getting people to sign on the dotted line. More often than not, time is of the essence. We all know how long it takes to build a landscaping quote. And of course, you can’t start quoting until you have the design in front of you.
Bringing garden design in-house (by using My Garden Design’s speedy service) means that you can get that quote sorted fast. Then you can strike while the iron is hot. Because let’s face it, most prospective customers have a finite budget. And you are competing for that spend with so many other things – holidays, new cars, kitchens, etc. Your job is to get the quote agreed before they decide to buy a Range Rover instead of an outdoor kitchen.
Post Purchase Evaluation
This one is down to you and your team. Get the design built on time and on budget if you can. Work to a really high standard, be polite (even though it’s not always easy) and clear up after yourselves. That’s the way to earn great reviews and lots of word of mouth advertising.
In summary
So there we are –that’s the decision making process for landscaping projects. When you understand it, you can tweak your services and the way you market them, so that you match your customers’ mindsets.
The team here at My Garden Design is planning a series of articles, like this one, to give you the tools to sell yourself better and improve your profit margins.
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More articles
Here’s the example blog that we mentioned earlier in the article
