A sales pipeline is a multi-stage journey your leads take to become customers. It’s also a key tool in helping your landscaping business grow.
So, why is a landscaping sales pipeline so important? Besides being the journey your leads take, sales pipelines help businesses track how their leads turn into customers. From website behavior to company interactions, sales pipelines give businesses an inside look at how their sales and marketing efforts are making an impact on customers (and sales).
If you’re wondering how you can start doing that for your landscaping business, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we’re discussing how to manage a sales pipeline for a landscaping company.
When managing a sales pipeline, the first thing you should do, no matter your industry, is define each of your pipeline stages. The whole point of a sales pipeline is to track your leads as they move through each one. By breaking your landscaping sales pipeline into clearly defined stages, you can monitor how close each lead is to converting.
Each business’s pipeline stages will vary based on their industry and business goals. That being said, here’s a general idea of what the stages of a sales pipeline for a landscaping company could look like:
Prospecting: Using top-of-funnel marketing to attract prospective leads
Initial contact: Meeting or connecting with a prospective customer about a potential project
Proposal: Offering landscaping services to the prospective customer along with designs and pricing
Deal close: Closing the sale and ultimately completing the proposed landscaping project
Continued engagement: Using post-project marketing to keep your business top-of-mind and encourage future projects
Remember, you may not have each of these stages in your own landscaping sales pipeline. Or, you may use all of these stages (and more!) depending on your business. Either way, one of the most important aspects of a sales pipeline is having your stages in place.
2. Keep your sales cycle short
Imagine you’re in a food court and just got in line for a sandwich shop. While you stand in line for what feels like forever, not getting any closer to the register, you notice the line at the shop next door is moving steadily and people are getting their food in no time. You’re regretting your choice and considering going to the other shop, aren’t you?
That’s how leads can feel when they’re stuck in a long, drawn-out sales cycle. When managing your landscaping sales pipeline, keep your sales cycles short. A longer sales cycle means it will take longer for you to earn revenue, and you’ll have leads who are tired of waiting and may leave altogether.
Don’t worry, though. There are several ways you can speed up your sales cycle, including:
Addressing customer pain points directly
Using automation tools for everyday tasks
Using audience targeting to identify qualified leads
Removing roadblocks or holes in your landscaping sales pipeline
3. Prioritize your landscaping leads with lead scoring
Lead scoring is a process businesses use to prioritize leads by assigning numerical values to each lead based on how likely they are to convert.
Leads can be scored based on a number of factors, like how often they’ve interacted with your company or how they interact with your website.
Whichever factors you consider, lead scoring helps landscaping businesses identify and target the leads who are more likely to convert rather than spending valuable time and resources on other leads who aren’t close to converting or may not be as interested in your services.
4. Use a CRM to manage your landscaping sales pipeline
When managing your landscaping sales pipeline, it’s important to have the proper tools on hand to help you track and measure your leads as they move through each stage. With a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, you can do just that.
A CRM gathers, organizes, and stores customer data in a single, easy-to-navigate platform, giving businesses the information they need to make informed business and marketing decisions.
CRM platforms aren’t just for organizing data, though. Many are equipped with automation tools, lead management tools, and integration capabilities to help businesses manage all aspects of their sales pipelines.
5. Adopt landscaping software for improved efficiency
The landscaping industry has some pretty impressive software to help landscaping businesses wow their clients. Because these tools are geared toward the landscaping industry, landscaping software is a must when managing a sales pipeline for a landscaping business.
Software for landscaping companies include:
Landscaping CRM software
Computer-aided design (CAD) software
Time tracking software
Estimating software
Project management software
6. Use sales automation tools
Finally, you can make managing your landscaping sales pipeline easier by investing in sales automation tools that streamline day-to-day tasks for you. Sales automation helps you free up time usually taken up by repetitive tasks that can pull you away from projects and other work for clients.
As we mentioned earlier, CRM platforms often include sales automation features, meaning you can employ two of our sales pipeline management tactics at once by investing in a CRM with sales automation.
Manage your landscaping sales pipeline with Nutshell, a leading CRM for landscapers
Now that you’ve learned all about the best ways to manage a sales pipeline for a landscaping business, it’s time to put these tactics into action. Start by finding a CRM that helps you manage your customer data while also offering automation and lead management tools—like Nutshell.
Nutshell is an all-in-one CRM with automation and integration capabilities to help you effectively manage your landscaping sales pipeline and start turning leads into loyal customers. See what all the hype is about by trying out Nutshell with a 14-day free trial, or contact us online to speak with one of Nutshell’s CRM specialists.
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