Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Grow show brought to you by Marty Grunder's Grow Group, where we specialize in helping landscaping companies clarify their platform, grow their people, build their processes and realize profits. Everything we teach is grounded in real experience. Our team is actively involved in the day to day operations of Southwest Ohio's Grunder Landscaping Company. New episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays and are made possible by the support of Aspire, Bob Yard, exmark, Proven Winners and nalp. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Now here's your host, Marty Grunder.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever the case may be. This is Marty Grunder from Grunder Landscaping Co. And the Grow Group. Thanks for downloading the Grow Show. Today we're going to talk about something that can make you a better leader, improve your sales teams, and ultimately make your company more profitable. And that's gathering feedback and then actually doing something with it. We're going to talk about who you should ask, who you shouldn't ask, what questions you should ask. I've learned a lot about this in my over 40 years of running Grunder Landscaping Company and I can tell you some of the most valuable things I've learned have come from people telling me something I didn't necessarily want to hear. Feedback is a gift, folks. First, a reminder. You can get the latest edition of the Grow show delivered to your phone, tablet or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts or Watch us on YouTube for an enhanced learning experience.
The Grow show is the greatest thing since our ACE peer groups with over two hundred and twenty companies in them now and over $1.5 billion in combined revenue. With those groups, we've got quite the community. It's inspiring to watch them go and the impact they're making on each other, their families, the communities in which they work, and the industry as a whole. A big shout out to all of you ACEs. Accountability creates excellence. That's what a stands for. And if you want to learn more about our peer group, see the link in the show notes or reach out to me personally and I'll help you see what's in it for you. Now let's get into this episode. Bonus episode on Feedback. So who do you ask? Here's my first point. You need feedback, but you don't necessarily need feedback from everybody. Not everyone's opinion should carry the same weight, folks. I want to hear from people who are close to the work, understand our customers, and want our company to succeed. So who's the first group I talk to? I'D probably talk to my salespeople. First, they're on the front lines. They got a really good handle on the barometer of the situation. They're hearing objections. They're talking to happy clients, unhappy clients. They're dealing with pricing concerns. They're finding out why customers buy or don't buy. I would ask them point blank, what's preventing you from selling more work? What are customers telling you that we're not paying attention to? Where are we making the sales process harder than it needs to be? What could I do to help you be more successful?
The last question is important, folks. As leaders, we gotta be willing to look in the mirror and not take things personally. So talk to your salespeople. Secondly, talk to your operations team. Your production people know what's going on. They know if salespeople are setting right expectations. Ask your group leaders and your operations managers, what are we selling that causes production problems? What are where in our estimates or job descriptions? Are they falling short? What could sales do differently to make your job easier? Remember, selling more work doesn't help unless we can execute it profitably. The third group I talk to, this is no surprise. Your customers, especially your best ones, your repeat customers, the customers you recently lost. Ask them, why did you choose us? What do we do exceptionally well? What's one thing we could do better? Maybe. Maybe it's two things. Keep talking to them. Would you recommend us why or why not? And here's another group that I really like to talk to, the prospects who didn't buy. And this is kind of tough, but if you can, talk to them and ask them why they didn't choose you. Was it price? Was it timing? Was it trust? Did we not follow up properly? Don't assume. You know, I hear way too many salespeople telling me, well, it was the price. I don't know that I buy that. It's. It means you didn't bring the value to the table for them to see why the price was worth it. That's my response to that.
Number four, trusted outsiders, your ace peer group, those aces that are watching the grow show today. What an incredible group. To get feedback from a mentor, another successful landscape business owner, someone who understands the business. Folks, sometimes people outside your company see the things we can't see because you're too close to the situation. You've got your blinders on.
Now let's move into who you don't ask because this is pretty important. You don't build your strategy around the person who complains about everything but offers no solution. In fact, I don't even want to hear from a person like that. All you're here is to nitpick me and tell me how bad I am. You have no solutions to offer. I really don't want to talk to you. You don't give equal weight to someone who doesn't understand the business. And if all you can do is sit here and point out what we do wrong, I don't think you understand the business. It doesn't work like that. You don't also let one unreasonable customer that provides feedback to you show you how to run your business as a whole. Be careful there, folks. Just because someone is critical doesn't mean they're wrong. Judge the quality of the feedback, not whether you like the person delivering it. I've listened to all kinds of people tell me how horrible my business is and I remain calm. Feedback is a gift. They were trying to help me and I process it and I think about it. That's an important distinction, to not take it personally.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Okay, okay. You listen to the Grow show. So you already know that my team and I have information that can help take your business to the next level. The next step. Join us at GROW 2027 in Savannah, Georgia in February. Tickets are on sale now, but the price goes up by $200 per person on November 1st. So save your seat and save yourself some money by visiting growgroupinc.com I'll see you there. Foreign.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Okay, let's talk a little bit more about who you ask.
Here's where people make this way too complicated, folks. They send out a 25 question survey. They ask vague questions, they gather a bunch of information, and then they never do a darn thing with it. I believe in keeping things simple. Ask three great questions. Number one, what's working that we should keep doing? So keep doing.
Don't just focus on the problems, folks. Your team is doing a lot, really well, I'm sure. Figure out why and do more of that. Number two, what's not working that we should stop doing or change? What should we keep doing? What should we stop doing? This is where you find inefficiencies, folks. Maybe we're taking too long to get proposals out. Maybe we're pursuing the wrong leads. Maybe our handoff to production isn't working. If you're in my shoes, folks, what's the one thing you change? I love this question. It forces people to think like an owner. All right, what should I stop doing? What should I keep doing, and what should I start doing? What should I Change.
Often this gives you a perspective that you haven't considered. And here's something else I want you to do. Ask follow up questions. When someone says it takes too long to get an estimate from you, don't just write that down, ask. Can you give me an example? How often has this happened? I know I'm master of the obvious, but I want to really make sure I get this. What would you recommend that I do? How would that make us easier to work with? You know, just ask the obvious questions. Keep going. You're trying to find the root cause, not just collect complaints. Because if you don't find the root cause, you're not going to know how to fix it. And don't forget to ask yourself, what am I doing as a leader that's getting in the way? What am I, Marty Grunder, doing or not doing that's getting me the results I don't want? That's a tough question, but it's probably the most important one.
So how do you gather feedback quickly?
You don't need to hire a consultant. Build an elaborate survey. A three day strategic planning session. Here's what I do. The 15 minute feedback exercise. Get your team together.
Give everyone three minutes to write down their answers in those particular departments. We talked about sales, we talked about operations, we talked about customers, we talked about people, maybe that didn't pick you. Some of this can be done on the phone, some of it can be done in person. But I would have them write down what's working, what's not working, what's one thing we should change, and this is probably best with your sales and your ops teams, and then go around the room and have everyone share their most important point. No debating, no defending, no getting ugly. Just listening. Just write down the answers, look for themes and that's it. And here's another idea. Maybe make a couple phone calls, call two great customers, one customer who recently left and maybe two who didn't buy, and ask them a couple questions. That's another way you can do all this. Feedback is a gift, folks. When you start talking to people, you're going to discover some minor, obvious things you can fix. You're also going to discover some minor, obvious things that you do well that you probably need to leverage more. And finally, use those regular one on ones that you have with your sales team and your ops people. When I'm meeting with my sales team and the one on ones, I want to know what's going well, where they're struggling and what they need from me. You don't have to create another meeting. If you build feedback into the meetings you're already having that you constantly talk about this and it's part of your operating system.
One important point, sometimes you do need to gather feedback privately. Not everyone's comfortable challenging you in front of a group. And that's the power of the one on one, especially the consistent one, where your team member knows that you really want honest answers and you're there to talk. Don't punish people for telling you the truth, folks. Feedback is a gift. Before we wrap this up with some of the most important points of gathering feedback, okay, so here's where the tire hits the road. The rubber meets the road. What do you do with that feedback? Feedback without action is just a conversation. If you keep asking your team for feedback and never do anything with it, eventually they're just going to tune you out and stop giving you feedback. And that's the worst possible thing that could happen.
So here's my simple process. First, look for patterns.
If one person says your estimating process is too slow, that's worth investigating. If five people say it, folks, you have definitely found something that needs attention. Again, don't take it personally. Feedback is a gift. But remember, one person can still identify a serious problem. Don't dismiss an issue just because only one person brought it up. You got to look at that, too.
Number two, prioritize when you do these feedback sessions, folks. You can't fix everything at once. And there is a tendency for most type A entrepreneurs. They realize something's wrong and they want to fix it. You can't fix everything, folks. Prioritize it. Pick the two or three things that will have the greatest impact on the sales. The customer satisfaction and the profitability of the company. Maybe it's speeding up proposals. Maybe it's improving lead qualification. Maybe it's doing a better job following up. Maybe it's all right. But look at those and then assign ownership. Who's responsible? What are we going to do? When will it be done? If nobody owns it, ladies and gentlemen, it's not going to happen.
And then fourth, follow it up.
Put it on the agenda at your next sales meeting. Don't come off of it. Don't forget, stay on this. Did we make the change? Is it working? What did we learn? And don't forget the last part here, folks. Close the loop and, and go back to the people who gave you the feedback. Tell them what you heard, tell them what you're changing. Tell them why we're changing or not changing and why you don't have to do everything they tell you to do. You don't have to agree with all their suggestions, but you do have to pay them the respect and the dignity and demonstrate to them that you're listening. That's how you build trust when you just ignore it. Or maybe it was something tough they said. Maybe it really upset you. It's okay. Talk about it. Feedback is a gift.
So here's my challenge to you as we wrap this up. Here's what I want you to do this week. Get feedback from five people.
Talk to two salespeople, an operations leader, and two customers and ask them these three questions. What's working?
What's not working? And what would you change?
And then I would identify one thing you're going to improve in the next 30 days. Just one thing. Not 10 things, just one thing.
Again, assign it to somebody, put a deadline on it, and follow it up. This is how you make progress. And remember, here's something I've learned as I've matured as a leader. And even at 58, I'm still maturing as a leader. And I've already said this numerous times. It's basically the theme of this episode. All feedback is a gift. But that doesn't mean all feedback is equally valuable. And it certainly doesn't mean you have to act on all of it again. Your only responsibility is to respond. Your job is to listen, to understand, to evaluate, to decide, and to act.
If you react negatively every time somebody challenges you, eventually people will stop telling you what they think. And that's very dangerous because the problems don't go away. You just stop hearing about them. Folks, great companies don't get better by accident. They get better because their leaders are willing to listen, learn and change.
As you plan your sales strategy for next year, don't just look at your numbers.
Talk to your people. Talk to your customers. Find out what's really happening. Dig in. The answers to some of your biggest challenges might already be inside your company. You just haven't asked the right questions. And remember, don't just gather feedback to gather feedback. Gather it to get better. Well, that's going to do it for this week's edition of the Grow Show. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to the Grow Show. And if you can subscribe, give it a rating or share a comment that helps us spread the word to help more landscape pros. And if you're watching us on YouTube, please subscribe there and share that link with somebody you think could benefit from this episode. Thanks for joining us on the Grow show this week. We'll talk to you next week.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Grow show and a special thanks to Aspire Bobyard, Exmark proven winners and NALP for making this episode possible. We'll talk to see you next week.
