How to Get Commercial Lawn Accounts in 5 Simple Steps
Adding commercial accounts to your lawn care business can bring in a huge amount of revenue and help you grow faster. Commercial lawn accounts are high paying jobs can boost your stability, your reputation, and your bottom line.
The best news? It’s surprisingly easy to bid and win on commercial lawn jobs … if you know what you’re doing.
While it might seem like bidding and winning commercial contracts is a complicated process, there are only a few steps you need to take to do start winning jobs today.
In this article, we’ll show you how to identify ideal commercial clients for your lawn company. We’ll give you the best tips for marketing, bidding, and winning more commercial lawn accounts that will keep your business profitable and secure for the long term.
Identify Your Ideal Commercial Clients
Commercial lawn care jobs come in all shapes and sizes. Some can be done with a residential mower and a truck, while others require a full fleet of vehicles, employees, and speciality gear.
If you’re just starting out, start by chasing after the commercial clients who make sense for your business. Better to start small and provide a quality service, so you can grow steadily.
What lot size should target?
Small, 1-acre properties are a great place for beginners. Look for restaurants, banks, gas stations, and other commercial retail locations.
When you’re ready to size up: go after Homeowners’ Associations and other large residential properties, like apartment complexes. You can also find great work at warehouses, schools, churches, and large retail properties.
2. Build a List of Leads
You probably have a few commercial leads in mind already, but this process becomes much easier if you systematize it.
Build a simple spreadsheet to keep track of your potential clients that includes:
Lot size
Property name
Owner or Decision Maker’s contact information
Contact status (if you’ve pitched them or not)
How do you find contact info for commercial lawn accounts?
Start by looking businesses up online. Use Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook Business, as well as online directories like Yelp to find your ideal commercial clients. You can usually find a phone number and an email online.
You can also drive around your service area, and keep notes of any commercial lawns that look like they need some extra help. These owners will often be glad you’re offering to help with their lawn care needs.
Last, you can start networking and finding clients through word of mouth. This one is the least scalable option, however when you’re just starting out, talking to people at Building and Management Associations, local CEO Forums, and even friends and family can help you clinch those first few commercial clients, which will dramatically boost your reputation, helping you find even more commercial clients.
3. Set Up Your Commercial Marketing “Machine”
Every lawn care company needs an automatic sales machine: a marketing engine that convinces leads to buy from you. Commercial business owners will look you up online to determine whether they trust you and want to buy from you. If you have a strong marketing presence, you will look more professional and generate far more sales—meaning you’ll spend less time chasing jobs, and more time making money.
Here’s the basic setup you need to get started:
A Good Website should include your name and other contact info, as well as an easy form for leads to fill out to get a free estimate. Don’t forget to showcase pictures of your best work.
LinkedIn and Facebook Business Pages: both of these social media sites are crucial for making your business appear legitimate. Your leads will look you up on Facebook and LinkedIn to make sure you have good connections and good reviews, so make sure these pages are up-to-date.
Business Cards (and Flyers): must include your name, phone number, email, and the primary services you offer. You can use online templates, graphic design tools like Canva, and digital printing services to get these made quickly and cheaply.
These are only the bare minimum marketing tactics for getting your name out there. Once you’re ready to start targeting commercial lawn care accounts with digital ads, Lightspeed Social Agency has developed a “hyper-local” strategy to help you narrow your ads to only the properties you care about.
Contact Lightspeed Social if you want an expert lawn care marketing agency to help your business reach new commercial clients. Or go here to see more about how our hyper-local strategy works.
4. Prepare a Fool-Proof Sales Pitch
You are ready to start bidding and selling your first commercial lawn accounts. Prepare a solid pitch, practice it a few times, and start selling some of the biggest contracts of your career.
What to include in your commercial sales pitch:
Your business name, address, and your name
Explanation of the main services you want to offer, with a focus on benefits for the client
Your experience and what makes your company unique (that could be equipment, or attention to quality, or anything that sets you apart)
A powerful offer or discount that makes your pitch irresistible
How to deliver your pitch:
Ideally, you’ll get the chance to deliver your pitch in person. However, many business owners won’t always be available. You may need to deliver your pitch on the phone, through email, and through an official pitch letter, too.
Don’t give up if leads and clients don’t answer your pitch: they’re business owners. They’re busy too! You may need to deliver your pitch across several mediums to finally get the sale.
5. How to Bid and Win Commercial Contracts
When bidding on commercial lawn care accounts, you often need to submit an official bid. This is where you nail down your pricing and submit it to the client for their final approval.
The most common mistake we see here is extremely dangerous: pricing too low. You must know your numbers, so you always earn a profit:
How many employees will go out on each visit?
How many total working hours will they spend working?
Are there special circumstances required on this job?
Do you need new equipment or materials for this job?
Can you upsell any add-on services to boost your profit margins (like fall cleanup or mulch or fertilization)?
Answer these questions, and build in a healthy profit margin. Then you can bid confidently, knowing you are guaranteed to make a profit.
Get Started with Commercial Lawn Care
Target the right clients, build up a strong marketing presence, and bid with your profit in mind—do these steps right, and you will go far in the commercial world.
Treat your clients well, and before you know it, you’ll be running a commercial lawn care empire.
Want to find and win more commercial lawn care clients? Talk to the marketing experts at Lightspeed Social Agency.
We specialize in “hyper-local” targeting, and our team can help you find and sell more commercial lawn care work.
Contact Lightspeed Social Agency to see how we can help!
