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 how to future proof your sales. We've got a lot to share. Excited for this one. But 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 Rob and Jesse Shreve, the husband wife team from Coastal Shores outside of Savannah, Georgia that we're going to have as our host for GROW 2027. I went down to see them last week with Emily. We were marking out our territory. We were seeing how it's going to work at the hotel, the convention center. We went out to Coastal Shores. Folks, I can't wait to share them with you as people. I can't wait to share their brand new glistening facility. It's very well thought out. It's very relatable to what you're doing. They are such a lovely couple. They get along well. Emily and I went to dinner with them on the rooftop overlooking the Savannah River. It was heaven to say the least. And I was beaming with pride all the way home on the plane with Emily talking about how I can't wait to share Coastal Shores with you and how I can't wait to share them. They're just awesome. So sign up for grow. Okay, today folks, I'm joined by my two good friends from McFarland, Stanford, Chris Pencheck. Chris Giveaway.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Great to be here Marty.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Thank you team from McFarland, Stanford. Probably the funniest guy I know.
So funny folks that they are our partners in our ace peer groups and they're going to be presenting at grow in Savannah, Georgia February 17th, 18th and 19th. And what they're going to be talking about is how you build a sales engine that works Whether you're involved in every sale or not. So, Chris, Kevin, welcome to the Grow Show.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Excited to be here, Marty. Excited to be on with you and the Grow show and talk a little bit about what we're going to be bringing when we get together in Savannah.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I feel I'm kind of.
I'm jealous because normally you and I teach together and you've left me for Kevin.
So I think what I'm going to do is get back at you and do a session with Kevin sometime. Okay.
[00:02:51] Speaker C: That's fair.
[00:02:53] Speaker D: Some people might call that an upgrade, Marty.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it would be a major upgrade. Intelligence and looks, everything.
So. I'm kidding. I love both of you. Let's just present the question.
If your best salesperson left tomorrow, Chris, would your company still hit the sales goals? And what if that salesperson was you? Let's talk about it.
[00:03:15] Speaker C: Yes, I'd love to start there, Marty. And, and this is the question I think everybody right now, as we're sitting here today, it's October.
We're looking at our last big push of the year before winter takes takes hold. And so this is the question everybody should be asking right now because we should be thinking about what backlog looks like. And as we're thinking about what our backlog is, are we sitting here right now feeling confident about what's ahead, you know, or do we have that pit in our stomach? Are we a little bit nervous about what the horizon is and how we're going to jump start Q1 of 2027? And so this is a really great question that we're excited to tackle as we start to dive in as to what that means for your organization. And this should affect every single person that's going to be there with us this Marty at Grow. And so we're really excited to take this one on.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited, too, because the two of you are great presenters. You got a wealth of knowledge, different areas of expertise. I think you're a great combo.
We often hear, Kevin, that hope is not a strategy.
More formally, as it pertains to what we're talking about here, Hope is not a sales strategy.
It makes all three of us cringe when someone says, I hope I get the sales. I hope I can do this.
Kevin, you see a lot of landscaping companies and some pest control companies through our ACE peer groups. What's the biggest mistake you see owners of these companies making when it comes to building a consistent sales operation?
[00:04:35] Speaker D: It's the same mistake that there's a reason why or related mistake. Just like the sign that's in your shop. Right. If you can't measure it, it can't be improved. So you don't have the insight into, into your sales pipeline or your sales process or both. Right. And it's a common part of it and I think part of that, just to relate it back to what, you know, Chris had said said is, you know, that question about if your best salesperson left tomorrow. Oftentimes that best salesperson is the owner. Right.
And so transitioning out of that, you know, owner led sales mentality and getting into a position where you, maybe you're making your first sales hire, you know, hope, hope in that process is also not a strategy. So whether it's managing your current pipeline or managing a sales process with people, you know, there needs to be some thought in that and there needs to be some systems, some, some processes to make sure that you're following with it.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: So let's talk about some follow ups. I kind of know the, the answer to this, but are too many companies, Chris, relying on referrals and waiting for the phone to ring? You and I, we just did a sales, virtual sales bootcamp a couple weeks ago and you and I spent a lot of time talking about order makers and order takers. What's your thoughts here?
[00:05:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think this has become the convenient excuse, I think for most organizations out there is that I'm going to put together this really expensive marketing campaign and the leads are just going to flow through and we're going to all just be reigning opportunities. Right? Well, Marty, we see this with all of our peer groups. We see this in our sales talks. That's just not the case anymore. We're back to boots on the ground, proactive business development strategies. Kevin and I just did some great informational talks at Equip Expo this week where we really dove into what that means and how you need to be thinking about what the market is, how the market's adjusting, how it's where we're being impacted from an economical standpoint and what is that doing to your buyer and how are you addressing those needs and those concerns and adapting to what that looks like as you're starting to look forward to what Q4 and what Q1 and what Q2 is going to look like of 2027.
So yes, the sales strategies are there, the tactics are changing and they're adapting and technology is allowing us to do so much now, today that we didn't have. Marty, you and I, 25, 30 years ago when we were doing this that we now have at our disposal to really be able to capitalize on as we proactively target these opportunities.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Right. Kevin, when you're working with all these companies and the peer groups, do you find one of the things you work on that's missing is that the owners really don't know what their pipeline looks like? Like, you know, I often say about managing your time, like boss your calendar or let it boss you, and you're always going to be better being offensive with your calendar than just like coming in every morning and saying, hit me. It seems to me like sales are kind of like that too. Like I'll just take anything versus knowing what you need, knowing what your pipeline is like. Talk to me about your experience and philosophies on pipeline.
[00:07:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, everything that we do is seasonal. Right. And that includes lead volume. Right. So lead volume is going to come in. There's going to be moments when it's really high and moments when the lead volume is really low. And oftentimes when it's really high, we let go of the things we know we need to hold dear, which is our ideal client profile and being able to qualify or quantify the lead as much as possible. And we do, you know, we kind of shoot from the hip and we panic. To your point, we don't have our calendar. We don't have control of our calendar. We're not, we're not, we're sending as many proposals as we possibly can, but we're not sending them to the right people. And then once they're out the door, then that goes back to that hope is a strategy, you know, mentality. And, and we're not following up on them. And that's often times where humans in general don't excel in that. And I mean, look, I hate to box salespeople in, but as someone with 13 years of corporate sales experience, I'm not great at follow up. Most salespeople are not great at follow up.
That's, that's when you're a woo on your Cliftonstrengths like Chris, Marty and I are, which is not in our. It's just not our strength. Right. We're all about winning and building relationships and oftentimes the backend work kind of falls to the side a bit. So, so yes, it's not, it's, it's about managing your calendar, it's about managing your time, but it's also about, you know, just being confident and comfortable and knowing should I be talking to this person right now? Is this my ideal client or is it a commercial account that should be when I'm a residential organization, or is it vice versa or whatever it may be. Or maybe it's, you know, an account of one of the two, but just doesn't fit what we're looking for.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: Yeah, and the only thing I would add to that, you know, Kevin, is the prioritization is what makes good salespeople. Right? Like understanding how you prioritize a sale, how you understand what's coming in, and knowing that, yes, they're all opportunities, but they're not all equal opportunities. And some of them can drive, you know, hardscape into December, January, February that we need. And some of them, you know, are, you know, these are things we can wait on, we can delay on. We can procrastinate a little bit. Not procrastinate in a bad way with turning things around to a customer, but procrastinating. I can push that customer into the bucket where I need them in my schedule, and I have the ability to do that. As a sales professional.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: I am so proud of myself right now. I can't even see straight. And let me tell you why I love talking sales. I listen to the Grow show and I often find myself saying, marty, shut up. Chris and Kevin are the guests today. Let them run. Kevin, I so wanted to interrupt you to add stuff because I love what you were saying. And then, Chris, that gold you just threw down. And I'm so proud I didn't interrupt you. So there's growth party. Okay, but the points that, that Kevin made there at the start, what my takeaway was, we panic and we get away from our strategy and we forget it. And then we're kind of like numb. And then we wake up and we're like, wait a second, what am I doing? I'm just, I'm spraying and praying here. I'm just all over the place. I forgot my ideal client profile.
And then the follow up thing, like when we get desperate for sales, I think we panic and something happens in our brain where we don't do what we're supposed to do. We let our training escape and we just kind of wander. And then Chris, your comments about, you know, what it takes to be successful and how you have to do it.
Those are awesome things. Chris, you were involved in growing Southern Botanical from 4 to more than 32 million outside of Dallas, Texas.
You had to, you had, you saw a lot of change. You had to change the way sales were managed.
How does inconsistent sales activity ultimately affect production, staffing, cash flow, Margins.
I think that's kind of what we're talking about here. Like, we panic. We had a plan. Everybody agreed that these were our ideal clients. We agreed that these were the buckets that we were looking for.
And, like, the first sign of distress, we veer off of it, and the next thing you know, we're in a rut. Does that make sense?
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes total sense. I mean, I will never forget when we were sitting there in kind of the 4 to 6 million dollars range, and all I was really concerned about was solving my labor challenges, right? Like, I was sitting there with the ups and downs that we see in North Texas of high. High sales in the spring and high sales in the fall, and. And then it stunk in the summer, and it stunk in the winter, and we really. It was, how do we proactively target these losing months and figure out the strategies, and how do we find the work that is peaking at those times and then strategically put a plan together to go after it? Right. So how did I do that? Like, we're going to talk about how you leverage your team, how you leverage their strengths. You know, who are those individuals that are really strong in design? Who are those individuals that have a great eye for detail when they walk on a property? You know, who are those individuals when they get out there with the customer? They. They just have an ability to communicate in a way that a customer relates to. Where I don't want them sitting behind a desk designing all day because they need to be FaceTime in front of people. Right?
So that growth was never driven by. We want to be the biggest company in Dallas. That growth was driven by our people, our teams, our organizations, and ultimately looking at, like, how do I put work on the board, right. And how do I do it in an effective way that I can count on, that I can measure, and I can consistently grow my organization now to take it where we want it to go with intentionality and not just, let's just hope the phone's ring today. You know, like, we went through a recession, Marty. You know, we went through all the. We went through the hardest summer drought in Texas that we've ever had in 2011. The recession in 2008-2000. I mean, we went through some hard times that really took some strategy and some thought as to how we were going to proactively attack these problems and go after it.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Well, and I think what you make me think of, I know one of the things I've learned here at Grunder Landscaping, and it's A difficult thing to get through to salespeople. They think every dollar is the same, and it's not. It's about selling the right work at the right price to the right clients at the right time. Not every dollar is the same. You know, I remember 15 years ago, I had a client in Michigan and he called me to tell me that he was so excited that he won the.
Won the contract for this airport. It was $400,000. And I remember I said to him, well, I hope it doesn't cost $475,000 to do it. And it cost a lot more than that. He lost his tail and it affected his reputation and everything. So, like, I know it's great to go to grow and say, hey, I just sold a half million dollar job because we've been there and then the job cost you 700,000 to do it. So it's understanding who our ideal client is. Is it the right work? Is it the right price? Is it the right client? Is it the right time?
There's really no sense, ladies and gentlemen, in filling up your schedule with work that doesn't make you money.
Okay, now let's hear from one of our trusted partners and our success at Grundy Landscaping Company.
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Welcome back to the grow show. We are with my friends Chris and Kevin from McFarland Stanford. Chris and Kevin at Grow, you two are going to be teaching what you call the six part sales engine. And yep, let's just go through these six parts quickly. It's Target, attract, qualify, convert, deliver, expand, I believe.
Let's start with Target. Chris, how do you determine who your ideal client is?
And just as importantly, I think you got to be thinking about who you don't want to sell to. Chris.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: Yeah, so when I'm thinking of target, what I'm thinking of is how do I shoot with a sniper rifle instead of a shotgun. Right. You know, and I made this.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: I've made this mistake so many times in my career where, you know, hey, let's just say I'm targeting commercial contractors, right? Hey, I'm on I square foot. I'm on these bidding platforms. I've got more volume coming in, more plans coming in than ever before and I'm bidding a lot of work, but I'm not winning a lot of work, right? What I want to go is, you know, what are the top five that fit my demographic, fit my routing density, fit my target opportunity, fit my target ability for my teams to be able to execute and then how do I strategically go after those, you know, and so like going back to our general contractor market, you know, how do I make sure I'm pre qualified for the right work? How do I make sure I'm bonded for the right work, how do I make sure I'm insured for the right amount of work? All of these are those pre qualifying things that help vet you down to get you to that target audience. You know, if that's a property manager, how do we make sure that all their properties fit into our target density area where we want to grow our market and our market penetration? You know, and so when we're thinking through target, we want to talk through the strategies of not just the windows on the schedule, but also the clients. How do the clients relate to your ideal client Persona and how do those relate to the work you want to be delivering, the level of quality you want to be delivering, and ultimately have the ability to produce the profitability that you want to see as an organization. And so these are all good questions that we're going to tackle when we're together.
And I'm really excited to start going into the weeds on some of these things as we, as we dive into each one of these individually.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: On to attracting and qualifying. Kevin, how do you get companies to move beyond referrals and build a real pipeline of qualified opportunities? What is it there on attracting and qualifying?
[00:17:33] Speaker D: Yeah, there's, it's important to know that the reason why we're going to talk about this being second is because, you know, maybe you make up of your business, right? So the, the target could be maybe you're heavy commercial and so you're in a business development team, right? So that's a strategy that you need to, you need to have your hit list to Chris's point and have your, have your, you know, be able to laser, laser focus in on things that attack it. But if you're not in that space and you have a marketing department or team or vendor or you yourself are running marketing, that's where it becomes important. You still start With Target. Right. Who's my ideal client? How am I going to get in front of them? How am I communicating and interacting with them? And then you build a marketing strategy around that to attract that, that top client. Right. Part of what Chris and I talk about a lot is, you know, what are your best five clients? What do they have in common, where do they shop, where they live, you know, what are they, what social events are they in, what charity is they involved in? Right. Chris talks a lot about this. How, you know, there was some times at Southern Botanical that the team worked on some commercial property, which may not have been the core fit of them, but it got them in a very large charity organization where the whole board of directors were ideal clients. Right. And so you work your way into that process. And so that's what we mean by attract. You do great, great work at a commercial property to sell to the 12 or 15 board members of a high, of a high functioning, you know, non profit that you want to work with the board of directors with. So that's where you create that attract or you build a marketing strategy. We won't talk a lot about that because, you know, we're not marketing experts, but I think it's an important part that you recognize the tension there that exists between sales and marketing and how they're complimentary, they're different, but they're complementary. And you gotta, you gotta have that, that strategy there too.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Right.
And in what I'm hearing you there, it's like looking at the big picture, like to just do a charity job. To do a charity job doesn't make sense. If it helps endear you or make relationships that we can leverage into other things, that's very important.
Chris, let's touch on, deliver and expand.
One thing I harp on constantly here at Grundier Landscaping Co. Is making sure we're selling work our production teams can actually execute profitably.
How do you make sure sales and operations are aligned? Question number one, and then I guess question number two, the obvious one would be how much opportunity are landscaping companies leaving on the table by not selling more to existing clients? I see this all the time. When we find a peer group member that is struggling with sales, one of the first things we say is open up your existing client base and see if you can walk their properties.
What proposals have you presented them in the last year that they said no to, that you might be able to reach out with an email and say, hey, we have time. Would you like to do this?
So talk to me about that part in Terms of, you know, the making sure that sales and production are aligned. The deliver and expand part.
[00:20:23] Speaker C: Yeah. When we're thinking through deliver and expand. What I'm thinking through from my sales side of my way, I like to view this is. This is the best sales tool I have. Right. I've already vetted that customer. I've already sold that project. I've already got everything I need lined up. Now I need to transition that to my production team so that we can go out there and deliver on those expectations. And if we can deliver on the value and the expectations for what we've discussed in the sales process, you're going to have a happy customer. And that happy customer is going to tell more people. And over the course of the years, you will start to see the fruit of that labor. And I can't speak to this enough of just how much work has come over the course of my career by just doing what we said we were going to do. You know, True. You. You asked for a pool. We didn't just design the pool, we installed the pool. We built the pool, and now we maintain the pool. And you're so happy with it for so many years that every time you get into it, you're still thinking about what a great experience that was. That's what I want as a salesperson, you know, So I bring that right into that handoff, you know, and I'm having that integration with my production team. I'm involving that customer and communicating to them what that role is for that production team and my project managers and how they're going to be able to deliver on these things. And then I'm walking alongside them to make sure that we match those expectations, because I know that is the tool that's going to help me sell the next job. So where does that go from expansion? That's how we go longer and deeper into these relationships. Right.
And I mean, Marty, you talk about all the time, you know, you like to do business with, or we like to do business with people that we know like. And trust me, right. I could have a hundred different relationships, but I can tell you, I'd rather have 10 really long standing, solid relationships. Right?
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: And if I did one job with you this year, that's exciting because next year I'm going to do three with you. And I am more excited to be able to do three with you next year, because the next year we're going to do six with you. And every year we're going to get better and better and better because we're going to grow our relationship together, we're going to grow our opportunities together, and we're going to make your business very successful. Right. And that's the, that's the methodology that I come from and I really like to teach sales professionals because that's how you really can expand a market and grow your density in a way that your competitors are just not thinking about. I mean, we see this with landscape companies all across the country. They are next cell, next cell, next cell. They're not thinking with the end in mind.
So that's really. We want to talk about when we talk about the delivery and we talk about the expansion.
[00:22:45] Speaker D: And Marty, it's, to use an old ag term for you, it's the untreated acre. It's the dollar you want. Right. You're not competing against anybody, you're competing against yourself. Right, exactly.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: We're going to save a deep dive on converting opportunities, follow up. And that entire sales process for your session at Grow. I mean, we're not going to give everything away, folks. I know you're going to be getting into big details then. Very exciting. Let's talk a little bit about systems measurement accountability. Kevin, I see owners spend a lot of money on CRMs, but having a CRM doesn't mean you have a sales process.
What are the two or three most important numbers a landscape business owner should look at every week to know if they're on track to hit their sales goals?
[00:23:25] Speaker D: Well, first things first. You're exactly right. Like, it's not your CRM is, is not. It's the engine that's not the engine. Excuse what I'm trying to say. It's the accountability that goes into it. Right. So those, those three numbers that I feel like you should be looking at is your opportunities in your pipeline. So what are you talking, you know, who are you talking to? What, when's your last touch point? And, and what is the total dollars that are out there in your pipeline? Right. And Chris can talk a bit more on this, but I mean, I think at the end of the day, what we're looking for, what we want is, I don't want vanity conversations and backstories. It should be a quick conversation around, you know, Mrs. Jones, I followed up with her again today. She's waiting back, or we're waiting to get back with her husband on X, Y and Z, Right. To where we could advance the deal. And I think that's an important part of it, is the total volume of deals in your pipeline and the dollars that are in your pipeline and to me, those are at a quick level, high level. Let's pay attention to those and then go from there.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, right now, for everybody that's listening to us today, if you, if you don't have a three month backlog, then we've got some great questions we want to get answered for you when we're together. Because right now, the healthiest organizations are, aren't talking about what they're doing right now in October. They're talking about what they're doing first quarter of 2027. And that's the conversation we want you to be having right now because that's when you can proactively start to target those windows. So these CRMs, these pipelines, these conversations you're having, those one on ones, that's what we really want to address because that's how we can move those needles quickly.
[00:24:50] Speaker D: A weak sales process isn't just hurt revenue. This is the thing folks have got to remember. Right. It creates problems with your production, with your staffing, with your cash flow, with profitability. Right. It's just this ripple effect, not just the revenue.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Right.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: We talk, we think about that. Right. Well, Chris was talking about his example earlier. Living through some hard things and trying to survive, that's one element to it. Right. But he had his employees in mind. That's the survival and that's an important part of it, not just the revenue number.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Right?
Okay. Okay. You listened 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.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: All right. Welcome back to the Grow Show. We're with Chris and Kevin, my friends from McFarland, Stanford, our strategic partners and our peer groups. They're going to BE teaching at GROW.
Chris, at GROW 2027 in Savannah, you're going to help our attendees understand how to build a, a sales engine that produces predictable results.
What are they going to walk away with that they can actually use in their businesses?
[00:26:05] Speaker C: What you're going to walk away with are some tactics and some strategies that have been used and they've been proven. Some things that we have used in our past, things that we use today in our ACE peer group program, things that we are coaching on on a monthly, weekly, daily basis with our Clients.
And these are not just tips and tricks for you to just think about. These are things for you to tactfully come in, take notes, and walk back and put these things into action. You know, so what we want to see and that. That's the my. That's what I love most about grow. And the whole grow experience is you're going to be surrounded by teams of professionals that care, teams of professionals that want to get better. They've got a desire to get better, and they're there to learn, and they're there to share. Right. And so I'm going to encourage you. We want Kevin. And I love the questions. Come with your questions. Think. Think about those. Brainstorm those in your sales team meetings before you get there. And when you get to Savannah, come find us and come to our sessions and get those hands up in the air so that we can address those for you.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: And also, if you're, like, feeling down, Kevin will make you laugh, and that always makes you feel better. Like, I would seriously seek him out and say, okay, Marty says you're funny. Make me laugh. And he will do it in under 10 seconds.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: I love how this bar has been set very high, but we'll get there. We'll achieve it. I'm gonna have to have.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Chris would agree. You are legitimate.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: I was there.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Funny.
You are super funny.
[00:27:26] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: All right, speaking back to Kevin, let's give our listeners some homework.
If I'm a landscape business owner listening to this show and I want to improve my sales operation over the next 90 days, what's the first thing I should do?
[00:27:42] Speaker D: Well, the first thing you need to do is register for grow. Let's not miss that.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: God love you.
[00:27:45] Speaker D: Yeah. And this is.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Not only are you funny, you're brilliant.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: You gotta.
[00:27:51] Speaker D: You gotta get to grow to be able to hear Chris. And I give you the rest of this. The rest of this story.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Right?
[00:27:57] Speaker D: And it's not just about Chris and I. I mean, to see, you know, Rob and his team and to learn from your peers, I mean, that is step one. Step one is.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Is.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: Is holding yourself accountable to attending. In fact, register, book your flight. Yeah, it's. It's money. It's an investment, but it's an investment today in tomorrow's future. So start there.
The second thing is, you know, build the foundation in the next 90 days. Right. I think we tend to think about, you know, your CRM in the form of technology. And Chris and I talk all the time about this needs to be a defined sales process.
What does this look like for you, from getting the leads to maintaining the leads. Again, not from a technology perspective, but I mean, we detail it out along the lines of like, how does a lead exit one stage of your sales pipeline and enter the next?
That's the foundation.
So it's clear, it's black and white. And anyone in your organization knows whether this, you know, advances in the process. So that's part one. Create a rhythm, you know, meet with your team, talk with your team. Right. And again, I mentioned this earlier. I don't want fluff. We don't want fluff, but we want real and honest updates on where it is. Right. It should be a sales accountability call to where you're holding each other accountable to where we are with those particular leads and then improve your performance from there. And it's an evaluation. Right? This, this is, there's a lot of tweaking that goes into this and your business, as it changes and evolves, will need to be tweaked. And this process is part of that.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: This is great stuff, guys. Thank you. I, I think as I listen to you and ponder, I, I have a lot of thoughts. I wrote down here, and this isn't exactly what you said, but I'm thinking here, as our sales manager here, like, what do I need to work on as a sales manager? How do I make sure all these things that you covered, you know, I can go back through this and rewind this and listen to it. There was a lot of stuff I'm going to take away from it.
To be blunt. It's all stuff that I know, but like, you lose focus. And I think that's the danger of not listening to a podcast, not being in a peer group, not going to grow. Like you're not. You don't change your perspective if you don't do those things and you just get stuck in a rut and you're like, oh yeah, how come I don't do that anymore? Well, because you forgot you didn't have anybody to remind you.
So I think the biggest lesson here is that hope is not a sales strategy, that secondarily you have to have the right targets, a process for generating and following up opportunities.
And then I think this is maybe most important is like some sense of accountability to make sure things happen.
If you're a million dollar year contractor and you're the owner and you do all the sales, maybe it's, I want to take my wife on a four day weekend to Branson, Missouri and see country music. And I'm only going to do that if I hit this by June 1st, I mean, I love games like that. You can still hold yourself accountable. Okay. You can still do things like that. So this was a blast, guys. Any parting words before we wrap it up?
[00:31:02] Speaker C: No, I. I'm. I'm probably as excited or more excited about this grow than I have ever been. I know the Shreves. I've had the opportunity to work with, with them for. For many, many years in our program. I know what people are going to see when they get there, and it's. You're going to see something that I think we're all excited about. Being able to show off the work they've put in, the effort their team has put in to making this success, and then just what they've been able to do with their organization in the Savannah market and how they've been able to capitalize and do some just amazing, incredible stuff. So what they're going to be able to show everyone is what I'm probably most excited about. Obviously, the education is going to be there. If you're. If you're interested in sales, you're interested in finance, you're interested in human resources, I mean, you name it. We've got every speaker that's an expert in their field coming to this one to share their insights of what they've learned this last year and what they're looking forward to as we move into 2027. And so you're not going to find a better slate of education and speakers anywhere in the country. And Marty, I love getting to be a part of this every year and had the fortune of getting to do this since 2013. Just could not be more excited to come back and do it again.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you deserve it.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: So, yeah, super excited for folks to see. You know, we were complete. Was amazing last year. Right. In Dallas, but very different organization. Right. Super excited for everybody to see a smaller organization. Who is that? Doesn't. That doesn't. That's no knock on them. Right. They have an amazing operation, but it's different. And I'm excited for, for, for Grow to showcase that for everybody this year and then still keep the important things of somewhere that's not too cold. Marty, thank you for great food. So, you know, what a. What a wonderful time it'll be when we're all together.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: It is. Well, Chris and Kevin, thanks for joining me today on the Grow Show. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in Savannah at GROW 2027. Going to be a great event. You nailed it. I mean, remember, folks, we're landscapers putting on a conference for landscapers. We know exactly what they need to learn. You look at myself and my trials and tribulations here trying to grow my company, the hundreds of other companies we touch honestly on a weekly basis between all the things we have going on and we, we know what is needed in terms of education.
Our attendees at Grow are going to learn a lot from both of you. I just appreciate you both very much. Thank you.
[00:33:19] Speaker C: Awesome. Thank you Marty for the opportunity.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: All right, for everyone listening, you can learn more about Grow 2027 and register at growgroup inc.com backward/grow 2027.
If you just Google Grow 2027 Marty Grunder. It comes up everywhere as well. You can find it. Folks, we hope to see you in Savannah, Georgia, February 17th, 18th and 19th. Chris and Kevin are going to do a great job and possibly after 9 o' clock and Kevin has a couple drinks, we will be doing stand up comedy in the bar. Okay, maybe not. I guess we could. Chris. It might be something we want to do. So.
[00:33:57] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I'm down for it. I'll go watch this.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I'm telling you folks, he's, he's funny. So. All right folks, 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 give it a rating or share a comment that helps more success minded landscape professionals find us. And if you really want to help us and you're listening to this podcast on your phone, share it or share that YouTube link from your computer right now. Share it with a friend, a fellow landscaper, someone on your team that you think would benefit from what we're doing here. Thanks for joining us on the Grow Show. We'll talk to you next week.
[00:34:30] 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 you next week.
