How Aeration is working for us so far this year.

[patrick6411]

I am in the south, the outskirts of Houston, Texas. So all of this post may not go for your area. Some of it may or at least give you a few ideas. Ok the last two weeks I have picked up several new aeration jobs. What I have done is gone to a new subdivision that they are building about two weeks ago the grass has needed to be cut. We are pretty much into the growing season with the warm season we have been having. I get dressed real nice; clean the truck and all equipment shiny. This is for appearance reasons. A lot of guys may not agree but appearance is 90% of the sale. I have a small flier that I downloaded here and edited. I don’t just leave my fliers I knock and ring the doorbell. If nobody answers I leave a flier. When the people or person answers the door I hand them a flier and introduce myself and stick my hand out to shake theirs. I usually congradulate them on the new house and ask them if they would like a free evaluation on their lawn and what needs to be done to get the best yard on their block. I assure them that there is not a charge for the evaluation. Most of the time they say sure so I walk the yard with them. I point out the obvious that is wrong with their lawn. Then I go on to tell them that we are of course a full service lawn care service. By then end of my visit they usually want a quote on us cutting their grass. I give them a quote. After I hear what they think of our quote, I proceed to show them a few compacted areas in their lawn. Keep in mind that these homes are the oldest 3 years. This means that these lawns are all compacted from the machinery being used to assemble the houses. Then the builders laid grass in the yards they placed squares of St. Augustine. A lot of these homes still have the outline from when the grass was placed. This is a bonus for me!! I get in and explain the benefits of watering at least one inch of water a week. Proper watering. I even give them an old tuna can (Actually cat food can :P) so they can tell how much water their grass is receiving. (I only do this for the ones that are using us for their lawn care needs.) At this point I have pointed out all of the weeds and the major areas that need help. I drop the idea of aeration. They then ask me for a price. I tell them that they need to aerate twice a year once in the spring and once in the fall. I also ask them if they want to fertilize their lawn. I have not had one person to not have us fertilize their yard that we have aerated. We are hitting every door in the subdivision. We have hit about 25% of them. The yards with cutting, edging, and hedges takes about 25 min to cut. Aerating is about the same amount of time. When we fertilize it takes us about 15 min. we are getting what we are asking for at the door. Not one person has been upset with us for knocking on the door. In fact we have had a few of us walk to their nabor’s door and introduce us. This builder’s top price on the houses are $210,000.00 so these are not high end houses. This is what I am currently doing and it is working for us. I am not saying it is the best thing to do but it works for our needs right now. I am sure I have left a lot out of this post but I will add more later or answer any questions that anybody asks. Peace

__________________
Lawn Care Houston

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Very interesting! Now how many homes do you visit in what amount of time? What % of those homes are you able to successfully sign up as customers? How has this marketing method compared with other methods in gaining new customers?

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

[patrick6411]

Originally Posted by Steve

Very interesting!

Now how many homes do you visit in what amount of time? What % of those homes are you able to successfully sign up as customers?

How has this marketing method compared with other methods in gaining new customers?

I visit these homes on the weekend. Last weekend I visited only about 25, picked up 6 jobs. I think one reason I am doing good here is because I am the only one out this early in the season. Heck I dunno. My return so far is far better then any other current advertising.

[Grass Doctor]

good for you patrick, awesome men awesome cant wait to aerate two more weeks ill be puNching holes all around S.A

[dougcaskey]

Good for you....Hope you have a great season....