Sales Call offers landscape designers Marty Grunder's hands-on and tactical advice to grow your landscaping business their sales and marketing and increase their business results.

We're working on Marty Grunder right now! Inc., prepare for our annual GROW! Conference for landscape professionals who are serious about expanding their business. The 2018 Conference, scheduled for February in Tampa, Florida, is my 23rd consecutive year hosting this event.

It's hard for me to believe that I've been around for so long, especially these days in my landscaping business where nothing seems to work the way I want to, and I realize how much I still have to learn.
But that's the great thing about conferences like GROW! They are surrounded by other landscape professionals, from the owners of some of the country's most successful companies to smaller companies looking for ways to make the jump from $ 1 million to $ 2 million or reach another milestone in their development. There is always someone to learn from, and there is always someone to share your insights with. It is also true that you can learn a lot from landscape companies that are smaller or younger than you. Sometimes fresh, zealous eyes drive the greatest innovation in our industry.

When my advisory team and I got together this year to plan Agenda 2018, we first considered what landscape professionals really needed to do to grow. Then we divided this into four main areas. To build your business, you must:

1. Strive for growth.

It may be a cliché, but every successful business starts with a dream. Those of you who know me have no doubt heard me over and over again how important it is to have a vision - to have a goal your entire team is heading for. Well, I keep going because that's crucial to your success. Whether you are an owner, a manager, or a hard-working team member, on which each project ultimately depends, who do you want to be? What type of business do you aspire to? Find it out yourself, write it down and share it with your team.

2. Plan to grow.

The late, magnificent and immensely wise Zig Ziglar wrote: "Many people spend more time planning their marriage than planning the marriage." In business, the "wedding" brings together applicants and prospects who are what you are looking for, yes to say to you. That's certainly important, but it's just advertising. The "marriage" is all that comes after it, and if you want your business to grow, you really have to plan. How do you integrate new employees? What does it take to be a right-wing man or a right-wing woman who ensures that the company is not only or mostly dependent on the owner? How do you achieve operational efficiencies that enable you to deliver superior service to your customers while earning a solid profit?

3. Run to grow.

Here comes the rubber on the street. To truly learn how to execute a plan, I am firmly convinced that I see it in action rather than hear it second-hand. That's why we always build our GROWTH! Program around a tour of a savvy landscape company that we believe others can really learn. In February, we head to Ameriscape Services, the unrivaled Joe Chiellini company in Thonotosassa, Florida. We'll see first-hand how Joe has become one of the country's most successful commercial landscape companies, and I'll be taking notes all the time about what I can beg, borrow, and steal from him.

Conclusion

The fourth and final area we have identified as critical to success is leadership. Not a big surprise, but of course the challenge is to be a good and effective leader. It is not obvious and not easy, but achievable. It starts with the understanding that true leadership is not a title.