In-House Lawn Care Telemarketing

Doing lawn care telemarketing in house was at one time a strong lawn care marketing tool for larger lawn care companies. With the new federal Do-Not-Call regulations in place, you must now follow some very strict guidelines or risk fines of up to $11,000 per incident.

Today, if you had a business relationship (they paid you for services) with the household you're telemarketing, then you have up to 18 months from the end of that relationship to call them if they happen to be registered on the Do-Not-Call list. If you had an inquiry relationship (they requested an estimate) with the household, you have three months to call them if they are on the DNC file.

If you are telemarketing someone you haven't had a lawn care business relationship with in the past, and they are on the Do-Not-Call list, you are in violation of federal (and possibly state) law.

What to do?

Sort your cancel/reject file by last date of contact. Telemarket them according to the guidelines set forth in the Do Not Call regulations (18 months for previous customers, 3 months for someone that has contacted you for an estimate). After these dates, you are required by law to check and remove any numbers listed in the Do Not Call registry.

After the grace period, you may however, send these lawn care consumers direct mail pieces. At the moment there are no regulations regarding mail. We suggest a post card that includes a time sensitive offer (call in the next 10 days, etc.) sent in early spring, early summer and late summer.

Running leads— running call back programs

A homeowner has called your office and requested a free estimate and lawn evaluation. One of your technicians has been out to the property and given it a good look, measured the property accurately, made a few comments on the estimate form, especially about the back yard, and handed in the paper work. What's next?

That evening, between the hours of 6 and 8:30, you call the prospect. Don't wait on this call. It must be done today. If you get an answering machine, leave a message that you called, and that you will call back. Don't leave a message asking them to call you. When no one was home or messages were left, call again the next day, during business hours, if still no contact, call again that evening.

Don't put off running those leads. Same day is the best, next day is ok, 3 days later is not so good. After that, you'll be lucky to close any of these leads.

If you have a phone room set up for your employees, have a supervisor in the room at all times. It's very easy for people to get distracted when they have to do something that may not be so agreeable. You want a person of authority overseeing the call-back operation.

There's equipment available where your supervisor can listen in to the sales calls to make sure things are being handled in the right way.

Make sure that each technical/telemarketing person understands your business. Make sure they understand what makes you different from your competition. Give each sales person a cheat sheet of your benefits and how they compare with your competition. Know what your competition is offering: price, products, services and how they are different from your service line-up and how you are better.

To get an understanding of what your competition is doing, have them give someone you know (family member, friend, etc.) an estimate. Look at what they give to their prospects and understand and be able to verbalize how and why your service is better. What features make you unique? What products do you use that are superior to your competition? What services are better? Make sure your sales staff understands these differences and can vocalize them quickly.

Every day before each call-back session, have a company meeting 1 hour before. Discuss the results of the days efforts. Then role play. Have each sales person practice in front of the others. Offer constructive criticism and how to handle difficult situations. Practice makes for more sales per hour.

Remember, this golden opportunity only comes around once a year. Make the most of the season and your marketing investment.

Pick up a copy of our new DVD Training Program "Anyone Can Sell"