Have you ever wanted to incorporate video video conferencing or digital marketing into your landscaping sales process, but you weren't sure where to start. Check out today's episode where I'm going to replay a webinar presentation that I did with the Texas nursery landscape association last week. That'll show you exactly how to do that. And for those of you who are new to the show, my name's Jack Jostes, and this is the landscapers guide to modern sales and marketing. This show is all about helping you increase your profit, streamline your sales, and use the latest technology to acquire more of the right customers at your company. So if you're new to the show, make sure that you subscribe and always get the episodes you can get on our email list at landscapersguide.com/podcast and I'll send you our best episodes as well. So without further ado, let's get into the replay.
How To Sell Landscaping Over Video Conferencing With the TNLA
James Theiss:
Well, good morning Texas and everybody that's joining us from outside of Texas. Um, welcome to today's webinar. Without further ado, like I said, we have Jack Jostes day. He's coming from us all the way from Colorado, so we are very envious of his weather and where he's at right now. Uh, but uh, Jack, I'm just going to let you take it away and introduce yourself and get going.
Jack Jostes:
Thanks so much for having me today, James, and thanks again to our sponsor Hotchkiss insurance. Really appreciate it. Really thrilled to be here. Uh, speaking to the great state of Texas, all the way here from Colorado and very relevant to today's topic, which is how to sell landscaping over video conferencing. Buying is changing. We're in a very weird time with this whole pandemic and economic shutdowns and I'm really glad to see that things are starting to open up. And even as they do, people are going to buy and research things differently than they have in the past. Consumers are doing more research online before they buy than ever before. They're more cautious of how and where they're going to spend their dollar and with whom, and you're going to have less opportunities to rely on your in-person interpersonal skills to close deals because that's just going to be towards the end of the sale.
Jack Jostes:
And what we're going to talk about today is how to get to that point online. I'm going to share with you how the sales process is changing. Typically for companies, they're doing some sort of a, they're getting a lead through their website or a phone call. They're doing some kind of 15 minute call. Then they're usually going on site to do a design consultation, take measurements, walk through somebody's yard, and then they're presenting it and then they get to construction. And what I'm seeing is is this is changing and a lot of this, the front end, like we're all trying to get to this construction phase, but how we get there is increasingly changing. So how will you adapt your sales process? How can you adapt the milestones and the order of things to respond to how the market is wanting to buy in the information that they're going to want to consume.
Jack Jostes:
Will your online presence need to make up for that lack of in person communication will. How, how, what will need to change in your online presence to make up for that gap of what people used to do. A belly to belly or in person. There's going to be a thinning of the herd. There's going to be a lot of companies that straight up just don't make it. They don't adapt. They're plump and happy or they can't weather the storm as long as it may be, and today though, if you implement how to use a video with your sales process, you're going to do a much better job and be more likely to thrive. Right now I'm going to share some stories. I just interviewed a landscape designer who's implementing some of this and why this was featured in total landscape care magazine. I have a client down in Ennis, Texas.
Jack Jostes:
Yes, this works in Texas who's using video right now and his is actually growing his nursery and landscape division using video. So let's dive in on the software you're going to need. You're going to learn in this presentation the software that you'll need. You're going to, you're going to learn about the hardware that you'll need. Well you need some cameras or other equipment to do this. I'm going to also show you how to lead a virtual meeting and the proven sales process to sell high end landscaping clients using video. And uh, if you guys would like to talk with me or my team, we'd be happy to. You can book an appointment with us right online at MeetJackNow.com and we'd be happy to talk through this with you. Talk to you about your sales and marketing. My name's Jack Jostes and I'm the CEO at Ramblin Jackson.
Jack Jostes:
We're a digital marketing agency focused on serving landscaping companies and the green industry with branding, web design and local SEO. I wrote the Amazon bestselling book, get found online, the local business owner's guide to digital marketing. And I'm also a TNLA academics instructor and we just launched a TNLA program called Digital Marketing Savvy. And you can check that out on the TNLA website. We actually built an online course where you can go at your own pace and learn the fundamentals of SEO, what things you need to have on your website with literally over 10 years of experience of this, focusing again on the green industries to check that out on the TNLA website. And without further ado, let's get into, uh, how to sell using video. Our mission at Ramblin Jackson is helping small businesses ring the bell. I literally have a big ass bell that we ring when our clients reach their revenue goals, when, when they hire new employees or whatever the goals are and here's what it looks like in action.
Jack Jostes:
That was Clay Brooks and he rang the bell when he broke a million dollars for the first time. And I was recently interviewed on KVUE ABC down in Austin. So really a pleasure to be here. This is based on, I've worked with over 813 companies. I've audited over 280 of them. And what I found is a lot of them make the same mistake. So if you want to avoid doing that, I want you to shout you if that sounds like a good plan and type it into the chat type, any questions you have into the chat if you're attending live and we'll be sure to answer them later. All right, so that's the plan for today and stay to the end. I'm going to share with you how you can win an emergency roll of toilet paper because things are weird.
Jack Jostes:
It's a weird time. But if you stay to the end, I'm going to be sending out a free copy of my book and an emergency roll of toilet paper. So let's dive into exactly how we're going to sell landscaping over video conferencing. And you know, there's a Bob Dylan line that I really love. The times they are a changing, right? Man, things are changing fast right now, aren't they? And, you know, I'm hearing from a lot of people that they want to buy from landscapers, but maybe they don't want to meet in person. People are worried about shaking hands. They're worried about all kinds of different things. Um, or I don't want to meet in my house. I don't want you coming into my house. Maybe you used to go into their home or their yard or anything. Now not everyone is feeling this way, but a lot of people are and maybe they don't want you to touch my house or my car things or my gate or whatever.
Jack Jostes:
And you might be saying, well that's cool. I'm all set with referrals. But typically when there's any kind of economic downturn or change in the economy, referrals are the first thing to go. And that's why you want to be in your marketing. I want to share with you a story of a contractor who lost a $3 million sale. Now this, this client came to me and, uh, they were bidding on a really big, like literally $3 million commercial project and they thought it was a shoe in deal because it was repeat business and it was an originally a referral. And when they lost that sale because they were a referral and because they had that rapport and relationship and history, they said, Hey, what happened? Why, um, why didn't you choose us? We've worked together, we've got this relationship. And they said that when they looked at their website, they didn't see the photos of the services that they were trying to be sold and um, they didn't want to be an experiment.
Even Referrals Will Google You
Jack Jostes:
So even referrals are looking at you on Google and now more than ever, right? So the customer journey that we're, we're guiding people through, whether it's a referral or they're looking at you online, they're finding you on social media, they're going to visit your website, they're going to read reviews, they're going to watch videos. There's a lot of work that you need to get people to be ready to even choose to call you. And what's happening now, with this whole COVID pandemic thing is, is that people are more picky about this whole online research phase because maybe their income has changed. Maybe they're not working as much or their spouses or they're worried about the economy. So this, this research phase, and then what we're going to focus on next is how to actually sell over video. So 70% of the sale happens online before they even contact you.
Jack Jostes:
So we can't glaze over that when we're talking about how to sell over video, because to even get to that phase, you've got to have those other foundational items ready. And that's exactly what the online course is all about with, uh, with the TNLA academic. So check out, check that out. Digital marketing savvy, even referrals will Google you. And, um, another, another thing that I'm seeing right now is that people are looking at online reviews more than ever. So if a lot of people say, Oh, we do quality and we get lots of referrals, well, good, you should, if you do quality work, you've gotta be getting those online reviews. So people actually choose to talk to you because they're going to do more and more online research than ever before, before they contact you. I want to share with you a story about the, the biggest sale I've ever made in my own career.
A Committee Sale
Jack Jostes:
I work with landscaping companies, garden centers, from small to large. And this one happened to be to an $18 million commercial client who had a board of directors. They had a leadership team and they, the people who were interviewing me wanted to hire me but I couldn't meet with the final decision makers. And I want to share with you, um, that one of our values is to be on time and prepared to add value. So when, when we were working with them, we, we, uh, you know, I realized that I was in what's called a committee sale, which meant that there was going to be a committee of people who were making the decision about which marketing company that we're going to hire. This is a lot like you selling landscaping. It could be that you, you do commercial work and you're selling to an HOA.
Jack Jostes:
Maybe there's a board, an HOA board, and maybe the president or the treasurer, whoever has has interviewed you in a few different final contractors. Right? Well now it's going to go to the board and they're going to look at the proposals that they have and they're going to decide who they're going to work with. Or it could be that you do residential work and you're selling to a married couple, uh, or maybe they're not married, whatever. If you're selling to a family that's going to be impacted by this and you can't meet with all those people, that's what is called a committee sale. And what I did because I couldn't meet with them was I made a personalized video of their current issues, a marketing audit, and I sent it over to them. Now I've got beef jerky. For those of you who are attending live, um, type in the chat your best guess of how many, how many people watched that video before I heard back from them.
Jack Jostes:
And, James, go ahead and let me know. I can't actually see anyone typing in the chat right now. So who wants to win a bag of beef jerky? I will literally mail you beef jerky. It is the best, best beef jerky in the West. You know, I haven't tried all the jerky in Texas, but I can tell you this is the best jerky in Colorado, that's for sure. Okay. Well I haven't seen anybody vote but the 13, um, 13 different individual people watched a video that was seven minutes long before they picked up the phone and called to let me know that we want, and it was the biggest sale that I ever made at that time. Guess how many of the other marketing companies submitted a video? None of them, right? Most people are not going to go through the effort it to make a video.
Jack Jostes:
And I want to share with you that once you get started with this, you can do this really quickly. It doesn't need to take a ton of time to make these videos. So, um, yeah, the video check this out was played 13 total times on an average of 92%, meaning people watch 92% of the video. And in that video I had the process we're going to go through, I had a, the scope of work, I had some testimonials from clients. So imagine if you're selling high ticket landscaping, um, if, if you could figure out a way to personally include a video when you submit your proposal, what would happen to your close rate if, if, uh, if you are working with people and they got three bids and one of them took the time to recap what was most important to them, not you, the contractor, but to them really listen to them.
Jack Jostes:
I bet that they would choose you even if you were more expensive. So the key takeaway here, the first one is to send a personalized video when you submit your proposal to your clients, especially when you are selling to a committee. I'm going to share with you some of the software that I use to do this in a bit. So, um, yeah, that's the story of how I used video to land, the biggest sale in my career.
Pre-Qualification Video
Jack Jostes:
One other thing I want to share with you is what's called a prequalification video. So in your sales process, a lot of times people, if they, if they think you're too expensive, is usually that they don't understand the value of what you're doing. Maybe they've never hired a landscape contractor before. Maybe they don't understand what goes into the design process or the build process or materials.
Jack Jostes:
And so if they're uneducated about what they're buying, why wouldn't they choose a contractor who charges less money if they, if the perceived value is the same but the price is lower, of course they're going to choose somebody. So I want to share with you something you can add into your sales process, which is a prequalification video. So this is when you get that appointment booked, right? So you get that phone call and you book an appointment with them at their home, send them a video that they need to watch before that first meeting. And in that video you can talk about, um, you know, the budget that, what can you get for certain budget ranges? You don't need to give people a price list but help them understand what can you get for $10,000? Can I get a walkway and the paver patio and maybe some softscape, but what can I get for $20,000 or 30?
Jack Jostes:
How much does it cost to do an outdoor kitchen with a fire pit or a or a retaining wall or, you know, a seating wall. What are the things that you build and you know, what these ranges are. And what if they watched a video that helped them understand that range? So that way when you went to their home and you asked them about budget, they said, yeah, you know, we've talked about it. We think we're probably in the 20 to 30 range and we're really hoping that we can get a patio and a fire pit and a walkway over here and some new plants. Or Hey, we looked at the video yet, I think we're probably closer to 10,000. Like, wow, what if they understood that before they met with you? And wouldn't you rather be the source of that information than them finding it on home advisor or porch or house?
Jack Jostes:
Right? If you become the source, this video can really help. So I work with contractors who every day tell me that they want more qualified leads. Every contractor does not want they all, none of them want more leads. They all want more qualified leads. The trouble is that most people, most business owners don't have it in writing anywhere. What is a qualified lead? And then they don't communicate that to their marketing people who make their website, anything like that. And then that brings in a bunch of unqualified leads. And then if your website doesn't qualify them, if you don't use these videos or things that's gonna, you know it's your fault, right? That you're not getting qualified leads. So I'm going to share with you how your website and in particular video can help you generate qualified leads. So here's a question. Who will qualify your leads? Who's going to answer the phone? And does that person know how to qualify? Does your website, your website is not a brochure. The job of your website is to dis qualify bad prospects before they even call you. But some of them won't read what you write and they will call. And that's why whoever answers the phone needs to be dialed in on, on how to qualify a lead.
Jack Jostes:
What do you wish people knew before they talked with you? What do you wish people knew about the process or how long it's going to take or what goes into selecting plant materials or what do you wish people knew about the budget and how much this stuff costs to be done? Well, what do you wish people knew before they met with you? So that way when you went to that first appointment, you were just ready to meet with people who were to buy. What, what? What? I mean literally write this down. What do you wish people knew and what if you included that in a video?
The Budget Step
An important part of any sale is talking about budget, right? And I want to share with you one adjustment to a sales process that I helped someone make that literally increased their close rate by 20%. Imagine that, imagine of all the leads that you're going out and meeting with if a whole, you know, one out of five of them more said yes. Wow, that would be significant, right? So in the sales process, you send a document before that first meeting and this video, this can be a document.. You can start out small, make a one page document that outlines what you're going to do at that first call, or at the first appointment. And if they say yes to the whole project, what happens after that?
Jack Jostes:
What we found, and here are a few examples of processes. So I'm at Ramblin Jackson, we have a design build and grow phase where we help people with their marketing strategy meeting, we talk with them. Then we actually do a paid audit where we analyze your competitors, uh, what, what, what they're doing and we design a custom marketing plan for you. And then we, we go through our build phase, which typically takes a few months depending on the scope of work. And then we help you grow over time. So this is how we communicate the process. Um, here's another landscape contractor I work with. They have an eight step process. It starts with one vision, which is an initial design consultation. Second is phase plan, execute a design agreement, right? And then they mentioned in here the budget meeting is happening at, you know, stage sick.
Jack Jostes:
So this, this way people understand, they have a feeling like, wow, this company is guiding me through a process and here's where we're going to find out about budget. You know, the same thing here. We, we, we let people know that they're going to get a budget confirmation. Letting them know in advance before they even meet with us reduces that anxiety of, well, when are we going to talk about money and how much is it? Right? So, um, when you're thinking of your sales process, uh, you know, how can you be the most helpful in town to your customers in the buying decisions? How can you provide the information to them that they need to know? Because when you engage your customer in the sales and design process, that's how you can increase your sales close rate. The one thing that we did for that contractor who increased close rate, 20% was we helped them outline an infographic, which is simply a graphic, little, little graphics of the process.
Jack Jostes:
And it reminds them that at this next meeting, remember to talk to us about budget and we let them know that the craftsmen who go and do that job or that that appointment often forget it. And so what started happening was people would come prepared to talk about budget and simply having that and, and preparing those people that they were going to do it increase the close rate 20% so what, what is something that you could send to your clients that would help them have a more productive conversation with you? That little list that you wrote down of what do you wish people knew about you before they met with? You could go into that document and what if you required them to watch a video that contained answers to all of your common objections before they met with you? Yes. Required them to do it well or I won't watch a 10 minute video before we meet.
Jack Jostes:
I just want somebody to come and give me a quick quote on my patio. Well, if they won't spend 10 minutes on this project before they meet with you, thinking about their budget, the process, what you're going to need them to do, logistics, how qualified are they, how qualified are they are or are they? Is that really somebody you want to drive an hour to meet with, spend an hour with them, drive an hour back, spend a few hours writing up a quote only to find out they went with cheap contractor number six who also gave them a quote, right? If somebody won't participate at this stage of working with you, they're probably going to be a bad client and that's why having this as part of your process can disqualify them.
Jack Jostes:
I've personally been practicing this for years and I recently read a book about it called, They Ask, You Answer. Marcus Sheridan has, has an amazing book and I recommend that you read it. He ran a pool building company for years and then wrote this amazing book about sales and marketing. He calls it assignment selling, which is essentially, you know, assigning somebody a task to do in the sales process and you get their agreement to do it. And this is how you can really prepare people. So let's pretend that you know, so here's the key takeaway. Have prospects watch a video about your process, your pricing and a testimonial. Include testimonials in there with answers to common objections before they meet with you. And I guarantee that if you do this, you will, you will, you will have an easier selling. It'll be more relaxed. People will be like, Hey, watch that video. That was really helpful. I never knew that we had to, um, think about all these different types of options for heating a pool. Wow. You know, or whatever. Whatever the thing you're selling is be helpful and require them to do it.
How To Scope Out Jobs Without Meeting In Person
Jack Jostes:
I want to share with you how you can scope out jobs without meeting people in person. Now a lot of people are driving around spending a ton of time meeting with people at their home, scoping things out, taking measurements in person. And that's all gravy. But as the season heats up and as people are freaked out about covert 19 and having people in their home that they don't know, you're going to see more resistance to it. And one of the things that I see working really well right now is offering to scoop out those jobs virtually. And one tool you can use is Google maps. I have a lawn care client, they just use Google maps to take a look at the property and they can see about how large it is and they can give quotes, um, without even going and looking at the property.
Jack Jostes:
And this allows them to be fast, you know? So what happens is they're able to, to get those quotes and faster than the people who are all, well we can come out there sometime in the next two weeks, take a look and they're like, forget that. We're taking a look at Google maps now. And I have one client who even does these verbally over the phone and closes them off and on the call because they say, Oh wow, you're the first contractor I called that offered pricing and everyone else is telling me I needed, they need to come out in a couple weeks. My yard's going to be enormous by then. So, so think about that. How could you use Google maps as part of your process based time if you use iPhone or iPad or you can do it from your Mac? Um, FaceTime is an amazing way, uh, to um, you know, to, to help people see you and you can see them and you can walk, they can walk through their yard and you can tell them to do things.
Jack Jostes:
And a lot of times, I know that this could sound like you're making them do work right now. A lot of people are stuck at home and they would love to talk with somebody on face time and take some measurements and brainstorm about design stuff. That the one limitation of that of course is that it requires that both of you are using Apple devices. Um, so I don't necessarily recommend that all the time. A really powerful one is to, uh, is to have people submit a photo through your website. So this works really well. I have a client, Jake's designs in Colorado and on their website, you know, you can just upload a photo because what happens is people go to their house or their friend's house or their family's house for dinner and they say, wow, I really love your landscape mind if I take a photo and they're collecting ideas for inspiration or they have a Pinterest board or whatever it is.
Jack Jostes:
Um, and when you allow them to upload those photos or upload photos of their own yard or certain areas, you can get a lot of this, this, uh, scoping done remotely in that way. There are also some apps coming out and I expect to see more and more of this, like one of them is called Hoover. Um, another one is called best quote. And those apps allow people to take measurements and things just straight from their home. I have another client who mails those digital measuring tapes to people and, and they love that because now they get a little gadget, they cost like 20 bucks. They take the measurements using that, they coach them over the phone or on, on zoom or FaceTime. And that's a really powerful way to get that scoping done. So video conferencing is where we're heading with this is how to get to a video conference and the video conferencing program.
Jack Jostes:
I have personally used, at my company and I run a fully remote company, believe it or not, before this whole pandemic. My company has been operating completely virtually since September of 2019. And uh, prior to that we were like 80% remote. I've been in business for 11 years and one of the ways that we're able to meet with our clients all over the country and with my team who are in the United States in different States is zoom and I, I greatly prefer zoom or I've tested at this time, zoom is still the best. I know that there've been some quality issues as like everyone's using zoom, but I would say go ahead and get a professional account with zoom if you're thinking of doing this for your business because it's really easy for your clients to use. I literally, I met with my dad who is like 75 the other night on zoom.
Jack Jostes:
It was amazing. We did it at like 10 o'clock at night and I on the phone was like, dad clicked this button, click this button and next thing you know, he and I are meeting on zoom and he, he's never using other technology stuff like this. So if he can figure it out, you and your customers can figure it out. There is also the good old fashioned telephone trick. Okay. I'm a big fan of this. One of my core values at Ramblin Jackson is be human and pick up the damn phone. And that's where you literally call people on the telephone. Um, it's amazing what you can get done on the telephone and how people use a tape measure, right? So those are a few ways that you can figure out how to scope projects remotely that works for you and your team. And one of the benefits here is speed and efficiency. Because if you can do this without leaving your office, you're going to be able to sell two or three times many people in the same day. And if you're faster than many other contractors and more efficient and you use technology in a way that shows your clients that you're easy to work with, they may be more likely to buy from you. Next, let's talk about how to present proposals or designs virtually to your landscaping clients online.
How To Present Proposals/Designs Virtually
Jack Jostes:
How are you going to sell with this whole social distancing or physical distancing or whatever it is. Now, you know, some people are ready to meet with you and if you both agree to meet cool, go do that and you might have people who don't want to meet with you. And unrelated to the whole pandemic social distancing thing is if you can sell over video conferencing, you can sell more efficiently, you can sell with less time to more people in the same day without all the drive time, without the windshield time. And that increase in efficiency, um, can, can really help you close more deals. So again, the, the software I like using is zoom video conferencing because it's reliable, it's easy to use, it works on different devices unlike FaceTime, which requires both of us to use iPhone or Apple devices. Zoom works on PCs, Androids, iPhones, Macs, whatever.
Jack Jostes:
Right? And I want you to decide a dollar amount that warrants a one to one, either video or in person sales presentation, uh, at, at, at some companies. It, it could be that you just send estimates via email for small projects or maybe you even have some of that pricing on your website. That works really well for a lot of my lawn maintenance clients is displaying the pricing and letting people pick it online works really well. Um, and especially, but really only if you have all of those reviews and, and the other things that we've talked about because if you display your pricing and you charge more than somebody else, but your reviews are terrible versus the other company's reviews are strong, well of course people are going to pick them. So you've got all this works together. But the point is you've got to pick a dollar amount that warrant's actually going through this effort of proposing something to somebody over a video presentation.
Jack Jostes:
Again, that's going to be different for everybody's business in general. The bigger the sale, the greater the need for a video conference or an in person presentation because this is going to help you demonstrate the value, uncover pain, uh, meet with people, ask questions, and when they get confused about why the price is so high, you'll be able to ask questions to them. So in general though, the bigger the sale, the greater the need for a video conference, you're going to want to schedule this with the decision makers. So if you find out that you're selling to a, uh, um, a couple, right, uh, and, and, uh, they, they are both involved in deciding which landscaper they're gonna hire. You should do your best to present this to both of them and explain the benefit to them is helping both of them understand what they're buying and save us all time of extra emails and miscommunication.
Jack Jostes:
Um, so, so do your best to get both of them there and always send a calendar invite with the meeting link. So if you, if you, you, you notice I've took a screenshot, I have a fortnightly money meeting with my bookkeeper and it's right in the description, the link where we're going to meet and all they need to do then is click join zoom meeting. So, um, you can find that on the zoom website. You can need to sync Google calendar or whatever you're using. But the this is critical is getting people to show up on time to the meeting and you've got to put it literally in the calendar with those details. This makes it really easy for them to just click on the link and join instead of the whole, what link are we meeting on? What time? Oh, sorry, I thought it was at this time like, Nope, it's in the calendar.
Jack Jostes:
And then send an email with instructions. I have a template, um, again that I send to people before they do our first video call with me. It's real simple. It helps them download the program and it helps them understand how to join. And I have a short video, it's under one minute about how to use zoom and then I reiterate the link where we're meeting. So this is just a template that I send along with more testimonials and things so that way they're going to show up on time and ready to meet with us. I recommend that you show up 10 minutes early and test your technology. Uh, even for this webinar recording, we, I met with James from the TNLA 20 minutes early and we tested some things. There were a couple issues, but we had enough time to dial it all in. So we're live using the right camera, the right audio on time for the meeting because it can make you appear very disorganized and incompetent.
Jack Jostes:
Honestly, if you show up late and you're futsing with cables and things or you're, you're not really ready. So I'd, I'd give yourself at least 10 minutes to relax, make sure all of your technology is working, make sure you um, have a clean environment for the meeting. So the key takeaway here is to present big deals over a video conference. If you can't present them in person and simply scheduling this in the sales process, scheduling this presentation will increase your close rate because it's going to help you prevent, um, any of these things from getting off track, right? If you have an appointment in the calendar, they're more likely to talk with you, meet with you, and go over these things and ultimately choose to buy from you.
Key Takeaways To Grow Your Business
Jack Jostes:
Okay. So here are a few key takeaways. So one is that you should be remembering the customer journey.People are doing their discovery of businesses like yours through a variety of different things from a, they get a referral, they find you on Google, they, um, they search your company name, they see your vehicle rap, they see your signage, they see your employee at the grocery store wearing a worksheet or shirt, whatever. They're going to do a lot of research online before they even reach out to you. So you gotta make sure more than ever that when, when the economy is contracting, when there are weird things that are impacting people's income, there's actually huge demand right now for landscaping and home improvement because people are stuck at home. Um, they're stuck at home and they're going to be considering your competitors when, when they're doing that before they even contact you. So that's where a lot of this can really help. And I recommend sharing a personalized video.
Jack Jostes:
So when you, when you have that sales meeting, follow up with a personalized video. Hey Jane and Tom, you know, Jack from justice for all landscapes. Wanted to recap that. We're going to design a patio for you with a fireplace. We're going to do a or a retaining wall over here on the West side of your yard. We're going to include a orange tree because I know you love oranges and this project is going to take between four and five weeks. We're currently scheduling for August and we'll need a decision. Um, uh, I'll call you next Tuesday to get your, your decision if you want to get on our calendar for that. And here's the investment breakdown for plants and materials, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And thank you so much by the way. We remembered that we need to lock the gate for your dog, Sparky.
Jack Jostes:
So it doesn't escape like it did with your last landscape contractor. Wow. They remembered my dog Sparky, and they said it in a video. Cool. I'm going to hire them, right? So that personalized video goes a long way. And the tool I use for that is called soap box. And we're going to do our Q and a later. And, uh, so go ahead and type your questions here into the chat and, um, uh, and I'll be sure to talk about that. The other thing is to have people watch a, um, now don't, don't title it this, but I want you to think of it as a prequalification video. Meaning before you go and have that first meeting with them, have them watch a video about your process, the pricing, include some testimonials, um, common objections before they meet with you and help them figure out a way to scope out projects remotely over the phone, using zoom, using these different apps and things.
Jack Jostes:
This is going to help you sell more faster and present these big deals. We could even just end there, present the big deals. You should not just be sending an estimate in email and like waiting to hear back someday. Present these things, get it. Get a followup meeting on the calendar, either in person or over video conferencing. I recently interviewed a woman, Cheri Stringer. If you check out my podcast, the landscapers guide to modern sales and marketing, uh, you can hear an interview with, with, with Cheri Stringer checkout landscapersguide.com/podcast and she's closing like way more deals over video than she was doing it in person because she's faster at it and people like it. So, so present these big deals over video conferencing and guys, you know, before you get started with all this video stuff today, I want you to think about something you can do, which is what happens when people Google you, is the foundation of your marketing, is it, is it generating qualified leads?
Jack Jostes:
In my book get found online, we follow something called the foundation of digital marketing, which is your branding website and SEO. Those are things that are going to impact every sale, especially now that people are doing more online research. And if you'd like for me to take a look at your foundation of your marketing with you and give you some suggestions on what should you focus on first to get more of the right customers. Is it your website? Is it your SEO? Should be one of these videos. Go ahead and book a call with me. Meet Jack now.com. It's free. I even have a video that you can watch on that page as an example. It'll tell you what we're going to talk about. It's real easy. So check it out@meetjacknow.com. And uh, I'm going to go ahead and, uh, stop sharing my screen so that way we can, uh, answer any questions you might have.
Jack Jostes:
And for those of you who are listening, who are TNLA members, remember that you can go through a course at your own pace. It's called digital marketing savvy. Check it out on the TNLA website. So go ahead. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're going to answer questions that we have on the webcam or on, uh, on the chat here. So go ahead and type those into the chat. And, uh, what we'd like to do is, uh, I'm going to share with you the first one. The first question I often get is regarding, um, how do I record those cool screen videos? So, um, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here. And one of the tools that I use and that I recommend is called soap box. So if you Google soap box, Wistia, uh, this is, this is what it looks like and uh, it's, it's a company, Wistia is, it makes a host for videos.
Jack Jostes:
That's where I host a lot of my videos. They have really good control audio quality, things like that. And you can get an account, you can try soapbox for free and they have lots of instructions. And I want to show you right now, I'm just going to make a video to help you see how easy it is to make a soap box video. So again, let's pretend that you have qualified on the phone, um, a potential client and they, they're in your sweet spot. You go and meet with them and, and you've qualified them again and now you're in the, you're, you're in the phase of creating proposals and you couldn't meet with their spouse, right? You just could, they just couldn't be at those meetings. And now you need to send your, your proposal. You've already presented it to one of the family members and they need to review it.
Jack Jostes:
The other one, what if you followed up with a short video that explained some of the things that you had talked with the first partner about? Right. I typically literally take my notes in paper and I highlight things at the end of the meeting that are important to that person. I come up with three points and then I send, whenever I'm sending that followup plan to them, I'm highlighting those three points. Um, so that's like thinking about what we're going to say. I have soap box installed on my Chrome browser, so I'm going to, I'm going to log in here and uh, okay, we're logged in so you can see that I have, uh, you can see me here in the camera. Right. And, uh, so, so a couple of things about this is that you want to have decent front light. I have light on my face, not behind me, so I don't wanna have a window behind me or something like that.
Jack Jostes:
I have a clean background that looks decently professional. I'm ready to go. So if I click start recording, um, I can select my screen and soapbox is now going to record my screen. So let's pretend that, um, we were looking at a proposal and it's like, Hey, Todd and Jane Smith, great to meet you guys today. Here's a recap of your landscape design plan and we're gonna, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna install a walkway from your patio door into the new patio area. We're going to build a paver patio for you. And in it, there's going to be an outdoor kitchen so you guys can relax and cook steak with your friends. We're going to have a fire pit so you can smoke cigars later at night. And we're going to build a seating wall so you and your kids can sit along there and behind that we're going to have a, um, a raised bed.
Jack Jostes:
And by the way, we're going to plant that orange tree that you've always wanted along with some other, uh, plants that are really going to just thrive, that are low, they won't require a lot of water, and I hope you really enjoy it. So, uh, this project is going to take four to six weeks and our current availability is to start in August. So in order to get that August slot, we would, we would kindly request a commitment from you within the next seven days. So, um, attached is the proposal, it includes all of the pricing, the payment timeline, everything like that. And I'm going to call you next Tuesday to review that with you at our appointment. And again, get your feedback. Are these all the things that you want? Is there something we need to remove or add to it? And we can confirm it after that and get started.
Jack Jostes:
So thanks so much. This is Jack from justice for all landscapes. Bye. Okay, boom. So I recorded that video and in soap box it is going to allow me, uh, it's uploading it right now. You can see that, um, it's still uploading and after it does, you can edit the video very basically you can, you can change it to focus on your screen or you can have the camera set on you, things like that. So, uh, right now it's taking a little bit of time to upload because I'm running the webinar and all of this stuff at the same time, but it's still going pretty fast. Right? And the cool thing is is once this is uploaded, I'm going to show you how easy it is. Test, send a video like this. Um, you, you know, once this is done, we can customize the title of the video.
Jack Jostes:
I might, I might change it to what, who was I sending it to? Todd and Jane Smith, right? Whatever, whatever your client's name is, you change the name of it there. And uh, and then you go ahead and click share. And there are some really easy, since this is taking a lot of time to upload, I'm going to just pick a different one that's already uploaded so you can, um, you know, I use these internally as well, uh, to share with my team as an example. We have a company retreat coming up. So I recorded a video of the agenda and if I wanted to share it on you to do is click copy URL and I can go into my email. Um, just send it out real quick. Here we go.
Jack Jostes:
Okay. Right. So boom, I can just copy, copy and paste. It makes that little thumbnail and we're off to the races sharing that with the client. So again, that tool is called soap box and I would recommend that you check it out. Another a really powerful tool that's out there is called Vidyard. I would recommend that you just pick one of those tools and get started with it. So that's, that's the tool that I use is called soapbox. And I use that again to send plans to clients. I also use it to send internal videos and communication to my team all the time and I make all kinds of training videos fast using that. So check that one out. Another question. Then I get from people all the time is, you know, where should I start with digital marketing?
Jack Jostes:
And I think it's really easy to get distracted by things like Facebook, Instagram, things like that. But if you don't go in the right order of the foundation of digital marketing with your branding website, SEO, you're probably going to get minimal results from frankly, all of your marketing. Because what do people do when they get an advertisement, even direct mail or a referral, they Google you. So I would start there and a free tip for those of you listening, if you're, if you're looking for something that that would be high impact, but low cost, it would be to get, um, Google reviews. So do a Google search for your business name and then see how many reviews you have. If you have any reviews that you haven't responded to, especially ones, uh, that are negative, respond to those first. Um, then focus on getting positive reviews. Um, another question was, where is the podcast with the lady using a video? And I'm gonna share my screen again and I'll, I'll show you guys where to find it. And um, maybe James can can send it out later as well. I will, I will put it in the chat, but I wanted to, I wanted to share my screen again.
Jack Jostes:
Okay, here we go. You guys can see if you go to landscapersguide.com uh, yeah, if you go to landscapersguide.com and click on podcast up here, I have a whole ton of podcast content and in particular a whole bunch of them around the coronavirus and what to do. Uh, so check this out. It's also on iTunes, Spotify, pretty much everywhere. And the, the woman that I interviewed was named Cheri Stringer. And so this is the interview with her. There's also a video of it on YouTube. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and type this into the chat. I encourage you guys either to watch or listen to it because man, it's working really well and uh, that I believe we're going to end. And just a few minutes here. So James, thanks again for having me as a guest today. And for those of you who attended and appreciate spending this time with you. Thanks again to Hotchkiss insurance. James, do you have any other final comments to wrap us out here?
James Theiss:
You stole my thunder on thanking Hotchkiss again. So thank you everyone who has questions like on any of these links or any of the, um, items that Jack talked about. So box and such. Uh, feel free to email us also. Um, feel free to email james@tnlaonline.org or just go into the TNLA academics and find Jack's webcast and his contact information would be held there too. You can schedule a call at MeetJackNow.com If you have questions on that. Feel free to email Jack. He's a great guy. You can see he is easy to talk to and he's a TNLA member, so he's very much dedicated to our members and to our industry. Any final words, Jack?
Jack Jostes:
No, other than, I know that I went through a lot of information real fast here today and, and getting started using video always feels uncomfortable because you have to see and hear yourself and I promise you that it works really well. If you check out my podcast, I interviewed Casey Hendricks down in Ennis, Texas from tech scapes to get TNLA member from Tex- Scapes and he is, he is thriving. So check out the interview with him at landscapersguide.com/podcast and just do it. Go make one of these soap box videos and you'll be amazed at the positive response and how fast you can make them. So go ahead and get started. They don't need to be perfect. Done beats perfect when you're making video. Okay. So just go, go make one and feel free if you have questions. Also my email is jack@landscapersguide.com and I'll reply. Email me. So thank you again everyone for having us.
James Theiss:
All right, thank you so much and everybody have a great long, hopefully holiday weekend. Be safe out there. Thank you again, Jack.
Jack Jostes:
All right, thanks so much for checking out today's episode. And again, we'd love to meet with you and talk to you about what are you doing in your marketing and how could you increase your close rate, get more of the right leads, and potentially use video to sell to more people with less time. So if you'd like to chat, reach out at MeetJackNow.com and we look forward to talking to you soon and I'll see you next week on the show.