Getting a Lawn Care Estimate | The PPLM Sales Process

Like more and more home and property maintenance services, for the most part, lawn care companies are glad to provide free estimates to potential new clients. Getting a lawn care estimate can come in many forms depending on the size and focus of the lawn care company: they can be emailed or hand written on paper, and they can be given over the phone or in person. Every company provides their estimates in a different way and offers different service coverage, so it’s important to understand what each estimate you receive is offering.

More and more lawn care companies are moving toward the standard of providing pricing for their services immediately over the phone or even on their website. While this method of sales is convenient and expedient, it has a couple of flaws that can set the provider and the client up for miscommunication and frustration.

First, getting a lawn care estimate over the phone provides pricing that is based on measurements via satellite imaging. These satellite measurements can be inaccurate because the images may be several years old and changes to the property could have occurred during that time. Accessibility of the property is hard to assess via an image like this as well, so an understanding the property is limited if a sales representative is not visiting the property in person. As a result, the team members actually maintaining the lawn may have a hard time balancing expectations if the service was not bid correctly.

Second, there is much to be said for being able to put a face to a company’s name. While getting a price over the phone may save a homeowner time, especially if their deciding factor is simply related to monetary cost, but it also distances the homeowner from getting to know who they’ll be trusting with their lawn. Meeting with a representative in person, looking at the same problems in the lawn and discussing them face to face, and building that relationship makes a huge difference when future questions and concerns about the property will need to be addressed and communicated properly.

At Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance, we strongly prefer to provide our potential new clients with a price in person with a full on sight property evaluation. From the moment that we start a relationship with a client, we want them to know who they’re working with and the quality of service that they will receive. As a family owned and operated company, this relationship is just as important to us as the one that we build with your lawn. A lawn care quote is worth nothing if it isn’t backed by honestly and consistency.

During an estimate appointment, our PPLM sales representative begins by speaking with the potential new client who is getting a lawn care estimate about their lawn’s history, problems with past providers, concerns with any parts of the lawn, and the service coverage that they’re interested in. Once all immediate questions have been answered, the PPLM representative will then measure, photograph, and assess the property, logging careful notes on the information observed as well as that gathered from the potential new client. This information includes everything from the types of weeds currently present, the size of the backyard’s gate if it has a fence, and whether or not the client has pets or young children.

The measurements and evaluation of the property are used to determine the service rates for the property. PPLM utilizes a pricing algorithm developed in house to objectively determine service rates for all of our clients. In many situations with other companies, a turf management quote for the same property with the same company can vary widely depending on the motives of the sales person. PPLM keeps its rates consistent so that our clients are treated fairly and so that we can provide the best rates possible from the beginning.

Once the rates are determined, an official proposal is emailed to the potential new client getting a lawn care estimate for their review. If they have the time, the PPLM sales representative will send this during the appointment and then go over the pricing with the homeowner in case they want to go ahead and get signed up at that point. If not, the PPLM sales representative stays in touch for as long as the homeowner needs to make sure that their questions are answered and their lawn will be taken care of.

It’s always a great idea when getting a lawn care estimate to speak to several local companies that have a good reputation. However, more often than note, the fertilizer estimates and other information they provide will have differences between them in terms of coverage and benefits. Be sure to compare them accurately and go with the one you trust to make sure that you’re getting the “bang for your buck” with lawn care services that you and your lawn deserve.