Boost sales with phased projects

By Joe Raboine

Heading into winter, landscape contractors and business owners can take a breath and prepare for next year’s busy season. The industry has shifted, with more market uncertainty across the board and homeowners spending more cautiously than in years past. According to the Fixr 2024 Outdoor Living Trends Report, 70% of professionals agree that an updated, usable outdoor living space has a big impact on home value. In addition, homeowners are willing to spend a quarter of their home improvement budget on outdoor living spaces. However, those budgets may be smaller than they were before. The good news is that through selling a phased approach, contractors can secure the immediate business and sell a larger vision at the same time, demonstrating to the client that they don’t have to jump directly into a big investment. This allows contractors to meet their business goals, while building a pipeline for future projects. 

Understanding the homeowner’s vision

Understanding the client’s vision begins in the sales consultation. Investing in an outdoor living project is an emotional and personal decision for a homeowner, so this first meeting is critical to understand the “why” behind their project. Do they want to create a relaxing sanctuary or an impressive outdoor kitchen for entertaining. Understanding their wants and needs is key to meeting their needs in the long term. 

This conversation also presents the opportunity for you to share ideas on how they can grow their vision in the future. For example, perhaps the client initially requested a small patio with a fire pit. As you learn about their ideas, you can suggest larger projects, such as expanding the patio and adding a built-in grill or a seat wall with planters. These conversations bring two key benefits. First, you can demonstrate that the sky is the limit when it comes to outdoor design. Some homeowners simply may not realize all the possibilities. Second, you can demonstrate that the client can create a foundation for their future, while also executing their current, smaller-scale project. Present the full plan in a phased approach and quote it that way. The client can fully process how their space can reach its full potential. 

Start small, but think big

While covering the initial project request, you can also discuss low-entry add-on features that make a big impact to an outdoor space. Additions like lighting, firepits, heating elements or water features can improve the project and boost the return on investment. Discussing these with a client or, even better, showing them via augmented-reality renderings, gives them even more ideas of how they can elevate the space and make it more functional. 

A key messaging point for the homeowner is around the efficiencies in labor and project timelines. It is much easier for your crew to add these items to the project while you are working on the core scope, instead of coming back later. It also reduces the overall amount of time that their home or property would be disturbed if you’re able to install them at one time. In addition to labor efficiencies, it reduces the time, and therefore cost, of moving equipment and sending crews out later. When you have these conversations with the homeowner about their big picture, suggest ways to include these added elements. This not only demonstrates your creative thinking, but also boosts incremental sales. 

Work smarter, not harder

In any business or industry, business owners are looking for ways to increase efficiencies. In the landscaping industry, this allows you to take on more jobs and increase your bottom line. Look for manufacturing partners that offer the products, tools and resources that help you simplify your designing, selling and installing phases. 

Some outdoor living manufacturers offer design resources to help you render and share your designs with the client, which provide a realistic look of the space, eliminate miscommunication, and provide accurate materials quantities for efficient ordering. Homeowners can even begin the process on their own with outdoor room planners, helping them realize their vision and what they truly want out of their space. 

From an installation perspective, modularity is key. Modular fireplaces and fire pits have been available for a few years, but manufacturers are now offering modular grid and panel systems, and modular pavers. The innovation that the industry has experienced the last few years is significant and has delivered a wide range of tools that make the job of the landscape contractor easier. Modular pavers are available in different styles, shapes and sizes, but they are designed to work together to create a limitless number of paver patterns as they are all built off 3-inch increments. 

For the contractor, these modular pieces make you look smarter to the client and allow you to allocate your more skilled workers to the more complicated elements of the project. For the homeowner, modular products provide infinite design options for their outdoor spaces that may have been out of the scope of a typical landscape contractor in the past. 

Selling a phased project approach allows the contractor to boost their business and offer more services to their client. As the outdoor living and landscaping industry continues to evolve and is forced to navigate changing market conditions, contractors can leverage new tools and products to sell more, while also saving time and labor.  

Joe Raboine is vice president of design, Oldcastle APG, parent company of Belgard.