Bidding with the big boys---

[Sunrise Guy]

I'm seriously thinking about taking the next step: Going for larger commercial accounts. Each time I pass a residential development or large shopping center and see new trees buried three feet deep in mounded mulch, or older trees dying from the same treatment, I feel like finding the folks responsible for hiring companies to work on their trees. I want those accounts. I want to see their trees doing well.

With our return business growing, I am having the great experience of pulling up at a steady client's house and seeing their trees and then thinking to myself, "Man, these trees look so darn good, now. I have made a difference, here. Long after I'm gone, these trees will thrive and grow because I helped them out!" What a great feeling, no lie.

I want to have those same thoughts and feelings when I pull up to my local WalMart or cruise by miles and miles of trees planted in the median of the newest residential developments.

Where did you folks, who do bigger commercial accounts, begin? How did you go about finding who to pitch your company to? What are your success and failure stories? Any horror stories to tell? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-Miles

 

[teamtree]

I wish you well in your endeavors. I too, think the same thing but when you take the time to find out the contacts and everything else, they are unwilling to pay for the "professional" level of service. Lawn care and landscaping companies have that market wrapped up because they will say they can take care of the trees but they are more concerned with getting paid to put the mulch out than what is good for the trees.

I have a couple of shopping centers as clients and they want our servies for next to nothing.

At any rate, I do hope you can get a few of them and show them how you can make their trees look "healthy".

As far as the contacts, you will almost always deal with a real estate management firm from a larger city who manages the property for a real estate investment trust. So you rarely talk to a local person who cares and knows about the property. It is tough to get in the door to see the right person but a little investigation will get you to the appropriate audience.

These firms are typically slow in paying bills. Do not expect a check at the end of the job. Be prepared to carry the receivable up to 45 days.

Talk to the snow removal guys and ask how they got the business and who their contact is for the property.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

I wish you well in your endeavors. I too, think the same thing but when you take the time to find out the contacts and everything else, they are unwilling to pay for the "professional" level of service. Lawn care and landscaping companies have that market wrapped up because they will say they can take care of the trees but they are more concerned with getting paid to put the mulch out than what is good for the trees.

I have a couple of shopping centers as clients and they want our servies for next to nothing.

At any rate, I do hope you can get a few of them and show them how you can make their trees look "healthy".

As far as the contacts, you will almost always deal with a real estate management firm from a larger city who manages the property for a real estate investment trust. So you rarely talk to a local person who cares and knows about the property. It is tough to get in the door to see the right person but a little investigation will get you to the appropriate audience.

These firms are typically slow in paying bills. Do not expect a check at the end of the job. Be prepared to carry the receivable up to 45 days.

Talk to the snow removal guys and ask how they got the business and who their contact is for the property.

Thanks for your input. As for talking to the "snow removal guys"-------It has snowed about four times in the thirty years I've been here, and only once, about twenty-five years ago, did it close down the city. If snow removal guys are waiting for work, here, they're probably skeletons sitting in their offices with cobwebs all over themselves. I don't think they will be any help.

 

[RedlineIt]

Sunrise Guy,

Apartment complexes can be very lucrative, the Property Management company will be responsible for several, perhaps dozens of sites, but keep in mind that their tree maintenance goals are often insurance driven not aesthetically or tree health driven, so you may lose some of your Karmic feedback when the receivables finally clear.

Here's a tip on often overlooked properties that really want it all, safety, health and aesthetics and have the pockets to get what they want:

Churches
Cemeteries
Universities
Government Offices
Golf Courses

Now, I are a mere employee, producing wealth while earning only the miserly stipend my employer so graciously provides, but any time time I get a fi####l of work orders for one of the above, I can tell my crew that our production bonus is a cinch this week as long as we don't blow something up!

So, as the employee, I don't have skills I can relate to getting the foot in the door, but I have mentioned to my boss that he does so well on these jobs and suucks so incredibly hard on a lot of his residential bids that he should focus on his gravy train.

He says that that gravy only gets to the table after weeks of schmoozing, hand-holding, knee-bending, gift-giving, attending weddings, funerals and baby showers, just to learn who needs to be coddled, greased, glad-handed and otherwise spoon-fed his consumate salesmanship.

He says it's worth it, I agree.


RedlineIt

"fi####l" gets autobotted? weird. As in "A fi####l of Dollars", '70's cowboy movie.

 

[teamtree]

Well...I am sorry about the snow removal comment...did not pay attention to where you were...but my point is....talk to other contractors on the site and see who they are dealing with....going in and asking the store manager at Wal Mart is probably not going to get you anywhere but the run around. I may be wrong too...it happens.

 

[Taxmantoo]

"fi####l" gets autobotted?

I think the offending characters were ####, an acronym for shut the #### up. I just love when they have the obscenity filter set to filter out the mildest words, like my cousin Richard, who has been nicknamed #### for his entire life. Even better is when they have it set to look for 'bad words' occurring in the middle of other words.

 

[Treeinnovator]

SunriseGuy,
in the large commercial world... one word will get you more accounts than you can handle.... "kickbacks".
it's ain't your knowledge or work quality that they REALLY want.

 

[treemandan]

Sunrise Guy,

Apartment complexes can be very lucrative, the Property Management company will be responsible for several, perhaps dozens of sites, but keep in mind that their tree maintenance goals are often insurance driven not aesthetically or tree health driven, so you may lose some of your Karmic feedback when the receivables finally clear.

Here's a tip on often overlooked properties that really want it all, safety, health and aesthetics and have the pockets to get what they want:

Churches
Cemeteries
Universities
Government Offices
Golf Courses

Now, I are a mere employee, producing wealth while earning only the miserly stipend my employer so graciously provides, but any time time I get a fi####l of work orders for one of the above, I can tell my crew that our production bonus is a cinch this week as long as we don't blow something up!

So, as the employee, I don't have skills I can relate to getting the foot in the door, but I have mentioned to my boss that he does so well on these jobs and suucks so incredibly hard on a lot of his residential bids that he should focus on his gravy train.

He says that that gravy only gets to the table after weeks of schmoozing, hand-holding, knee-bending, gift-giving, attending weddings, funerals and baby showers, just to learn who needs to be coddled, greased, glad-handed and otherwise spoon-fed his consumate salesmanship.

He says it's worth it, I agree.


RedlineIt

"fi####l" gets autobotted? weird. As in "A fi####l of Dollars", '70's cowboy movie.

Very honest perspective you have , thanks for sharing.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Where did you folks, who do bigger commercial accounts, begin? How did you go about finding who to pitch your company to? What are your success and failure stories? Any horror stories to tell? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-Miles

Quite often it is word of mouth that gets you in with one, and then with another. One marketing technique I use in storm work is ask the PropMgmt head "who in your industry do you know that you can recommend me to?" this is an area where the "kickback" can work even with ethical operators. (offering a kickback can loose you the job as fast as refusing one, let them put the suggestion forward)

I get one manager happy, and ask who else can I talk to, can I use your name, and do you have a direct line I can use.

That big crane job with the tree in pool could be a starting place. Ask them if they know another management company that they can help you get some a face to face with a decision maker.

That is the key, first talk to the DM. Only talk to the gate keepers after the primary sale, and only in noncritical situations when you can keep them happy and their pride salved.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Well...I am sorry about the snow removal comment...did not pay attention to where you were...but my point is....talk to other contractors on the site and see who they are dealing with....going in and asking the store manager at Wal Mart is probably not going to get you anywhere but the run around. I may be wrong too...it happens.

I appreciate your advice, man, seriously. I was just having a little fun with you on the snow removal thing. :greenchainsaw:

 

[treemandan]

SunriseGuy,
in the large commercial world... one word will get you more accounts than you can handle.... "kickbacks".
it's ain't your knowledge or work quality that they REALLY want.

what in the hell is a kickback you numbnut?