The devil is in the details, and smart leaders know that the hardest part of their job tends to be consistency. In this episode, Marty shares 5 things that landscaping company leaders need to be doing or thinking about in order to be successful in their roles.
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The Power of Cleanliness in Landscaping (Youtube Episode)
Marty's Tips on Planning Ahead (Youtube Episode)
Episode Chapters:
00:30 - The Power of the Family Group Chat
02:12 - The Importance of Generating Business
03:35 - The 5 Things Every Landscaper Should Focus On
04:01 - Breaking Down Efficiency Rating
05:31 - Have Consistency In Your Brand
06:55 - The Social Media Test
10:00 - Cleanliness Standards
10:18 - A Leadership Lesson From Pam Morris
14:12 - Team Member Wellbeing
17:20 - The Rehire Question
19:53 - Playing Favorites and Accountability
20:35 - Leaders, Check Your Ego
21:45 - Know Your Strengths & Weaknesses
23:20 - Recap of the 5 Areas to Focus On
Resources:
Virtual Sales Bootcamp
Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
The Grow Group
Grunder Landscaping
Marty Grunder LinkedIn
Stihl
Show Notes:
- Efficiency Rating as Universal Language – Calculate budgeted hours divided by actual hours. "If you bid a job for 150 hours and it took 140, that's good. That's bueno. If you bid 150 and it took 175, that's bad. No bueno." Everyone understands this metric regardless of language barriers.
- Aspire Software Integration – Green tickets mean you're profitable, red tickets mean you're losing money. "It's a rally cry for sure... it's an amazing way to stay on top of that." Visual dashboard makes efficiency tracking simple.
- Brand Consistency Builds Recognition – 30 years with the same logo in Dayton created strong brand recognition. "If all of our trucks were a different color, if we got burnt on our saddle and decided to change the look... we would not get there to that point."
- Branding Is Everything You Communicate – "Your branding is everything that communicates who you are and what you do. It's the sensory stuff... What does someone feel, hear, touch, and even smell?"
- The Social Media Test – "Go back and look at your most recent social media post... Ask yourself, what would a complete stranger take away from that post? Would your post make a prospect want to call you and hire you?"
- Pam Morris Leadership Lesson – Former CareSource CEO's response to "your expectations are too high": "Somebody around here better have high expectations." CEOs shouldn't apologize for demanding excellence.
- Focus Time on Top Performers – "We spend way too much time on mediocre performing employees, and when you do that, you take time away from your best ones." Avoid taking good performers for granted.
- The Rehire Question – Mentor Ed Apley's advice: "Given what you know about this person now, if you had an opportunity to rehire them, would you? If the answer is no, what are you waiting for?"
- Playing Favorites Is Honest Leadership – "If you do what I like, I like you and you're my favorite. If you don't do what I like, I don't care for it. You're not a favorite." Good managers naturally favor good performers.
- Leaders Must Be Great at What They Expect – "You gotta be great at what you want your team to be good at. The more you make success about you, the less success you will have."
- Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses – "No one at our company is better at running a meeting with a client than I am, and no one is worse at putting in a patio for a client than I am."
Practical Applications
- Implement Efficiency Tracking – Use software that provides visual indicators of job profitability. Train the entire team to understand the metric.
- Conduct Brand Audit – Review all customer touchpoints (trucks, uniforms, social media, office) for consistency. Eliminate mixed messages.
- Lead by Example on Standards – If you expect cleanliness and attention to detail, demonstrate it personally through your actions.
- Time Allocation Analysis – Track how much time you spend with A players vs. C players. Reallocate to invest more in top performers.
- Regular Team Assessment – Apply the "would I rehire them?" question quarterly to ensure you're not carrying underperformers too long.
- Strength Zone Recognition – Clearly define what you're best at and what you're worst at. Communicate this to the team so they know when to engage you.
