Are you looking for how to grow a landscaping business?

In this article, we’ll cover the landscaping lead generation strategies that Terry Morrill used to grow his business to $16M/year, and how you can learn from his playbook.

Starting A Landscaping Business

A landscaping business provides maintenance and beautification services for lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs. Depending on the size of the project, costs can range from $50 to $100 per hour.

Landscape designers typically make between $70,000 and $90,000 annually while landscape architects earn anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000. For basic mowing and maintenance services, a single person looking to launch their own landscaping business can get started with as little as $5,000 or less.

However, a larger investment is usually required to set up a viable landscaping business – the average start-up cost is between $15,000 and $20,000.

Now, that we’ve covered the basics of landscaping, let’s see how Terry Morrill was able to build an $18M/year company in this field.

How To Grow A Landscaping Business To $18M/Year

Terry Morrill is the owner of Pacific Outdoor Living and Pacific Pavingstone, as well as the creator of the AIMM System. His company provides high-end residential customers with complete landscape design-build projects.

Based out of Sun Valley, his team consists of over 80 employees, all specialized in their respective fields such as demolition, landscaping, pavers and pools. With years of experience and certifications in each division, his team has completed tens of thousands of backyard renovation projects throughout Southern California.

This year, they will end up grossing more than $16 million in revenue.

How To Grow A Landscaping Business With 10 Lead Sources

Terry set his sights on launching a business with his sons to handle the installation end. In order to drive more business than they could handle, he aimed for 10 Lead Sources as a way to diversify, track ROI, and drop sources that weren’t performing.

To reach this goal, Terry pursued various marketing and sales strategies such as direct mail, magazine, and newspaper ads, signs on box trucks, booths at trade shows, county fairs, farmer’s markets, kiosks in malls and department stores, demo ponds in nurseries and radio, TV, and storefront design center.

When one didn’t work out as he had hoped, Terry dropped it from his rotation and sought something new.

Direct mail was the leading source of leads for Morill’s business for several years. He began by sending out 2,000 postcards a week and eventually increasing to 15,000 cards every week.

In order to further expand his reach, Terry hired someone to place yard and truck signs on major boulevards around Los Angeles. He also purchased a truck with a 20-foot box trailer which he put a sign on and parked it on an overpass. Even though tickets for these activities became a marketing cost, Terry knew that their significance was invaluable.

Referrals have also been an important source of leads for Terry Morril’s business. He realized that the best way to expand his business was to deliver an incredible product, and that meant going above and beyond for customers. Terry always put customer satisfaction first, which led to many happy customers who would refer him to their friends, family, and beyond for years to come. It’s no surprise that he still receives referrals from projects completed 20 years ago.

70% of their leads come from their website, pay-per-click ads, and review site platforms.

In 2022, web marketing has been the primary source of leads for this business. 70% of their leads come from their website, pay-per-click ads, and review site platforms. They prioritize customer satisfaction and satisfaction by regularly engaging with feedback on various review sites like Yelp.

The business pays attention to all customer feedback they receive, using it to further improve its services and products. Even if the feedback isn’t necessarily positive, they still take it into account and use it as a learning opportunity.

Terry was committed to finding new and innovative methods for customer service. In an effort to make it easier for customers to purchase landscaping services, he implemented a process that would have his designers come to his offices first before going out into the homes of customers.

When a customer called in, Terry’s team would measure the property and then invite the customer to their office for a meeting with a designer. This allowed the designers to have all the data necessary to come up with an accurate budget and made it easier for customers to purchase construction services. As a result, Terry’s team was able to save up to 25 hours of work each week.

Terry discovered that there was a fatal flaw in the way contractors estimated, whether it was by unit price or by adding a markup, which made it impossible to tell if one was making money. To solve this problem, he developed an estimating and project management system that could accurately predict how much money would be made from future projects.

” The process starts with a person calling into our company. We have two well-trained professionals here that take the calls, listen to the customer, understand what their basic needs are, and then explain what our process is from there. That process is sending a site measurer to measure their property. We get the water flows and pressures, where the electrical lines are, where the gas line is and all the different elevations throughout the site. We charge the customer a fee of $500 to do this.

The difference between ourselves and our competitors is: our competitors send somebody out there without charging for it and just guess the measurements because they don’t have the time to do the work thoroughly. – Terry Morril

This system has been extremely successful, as it has led to more efficient designers and an increase in sales of Site Analyses to 10 per week. The company now charges customers $500 for this service, which gives them a competitive edge over competitors who offer free home visits and designs.

The system is proof that Terry’s intelligence and innovation have had a profound effect on the success of his business.

Next Steps

Terry Morrill’s landscaping business has grown exponentially over the years, much of which can be attributed to his innovative and diverse marketing strategies.

By leveraging a combination of the above marketing strategies for landscaping business you can also get a significant revenue increase.

Here’s a quick action plan for you to get started:

• 1. Send out postcards twice a week to start, and increase up to 15,000 cards a week.
• 2. Place yard and truck signs on major boulevards around the area of operation.
• 3. Invest in a truck with a 20-foot box trailer for more advertising visibility and park it on an overpass.
• 4. Prioritize customer satisfaction by going above and beyond in all areas of service.
• 5. Follow up with happy customers to encourage word-of-mouth referrals.
• 6. Invest in web marketing such as a website, pay-per-click ads, and review sites like Yelp.
• 7. Engage with customer feedback on review sites and use it to further improve services or products.
• 8. Monitor customer feedback, even if it isn’t necessarily positive, as a learning opportunity.
• 9. Track ROI on all marketing strategies to determine their effectiveness and make changes accordingly.
• 10. Create strategies for expanding reach into new markets or geographic areas.