In life—and in sales—we often make things complicated. That could mean working tirelessly trying to track down new leads but coming up empty handed. When we’re busting out our best effort, this can be incredibly frustrating. low hanging fruit

Of course, we don’t always mean to take the harder route. It might be because the short-cut isn’t always so visible. Even when the solution is right in front of us, it can be missed as we assume we have to work harder. In reality, we may just need to work smarter.

What that means in terms of easy sales success is that it’s important to actively seek out the “low-hanging fruit.” That is, the simplest or easiest sales to make. You want to find those sales that will help to fill up your pipeline at the end of the season as regular work may be starting to slow down for the year. 

Here are a few low-hanging fruit sales strategies that will help you cherry-pick some ripe opportunities. 

Resurrect Old Opportunities

As you already know, going after brand-new leads can be exhausting. It’s a lot of work—and it doesn’t always pan out. But what about some of those past opportunities that never quite went anywhere? Maybe things have changed since you last checked in—and it’s worth a follow-up. 

Sometimes the simple act of rekindling a conversation with a former lead can turn into a job. There’s always that chance they hired someone else and were unhappy. Or maybe something changed financially since you last checked in.

 

It never hurts to ask.

This can be made even easier with the use of landscape business software and your sales dashboard. You can set a reminder in the system to follow-up with certain clients when there may be a future opportunity. By keeping track of job information, you’ll be able to remember specific details of the original conversation and possibly land a job that didn’t work out the first time around.

 

Try a Discount Before You Give Up

A lot of times when a prospective client chooses not to move forward with services, we simply give up and move on. But it doesn’t hurt to try to reconnect with prospects who turned down services by sending a proposal with a discount—if it makes financial sense. 

If you have landscape business software and have your financial data available at your fingertips, then you can make quick decisions as to whether offering a discount to a prospect is a profitable business strategy. It may be that a simple 10 percent discount still keeps you profitable but is enough to land a big job which could even lead to additional work.

Of course, if you aren’t using landscape proposal software, and the proposal generation process is time-consuming, then this might not feel so “easy.”  But if you are able to perform efficient proposal generation and you can just swap out the price and write a quick note about offering a discount, then you’ve hardly spent any time and just may get some unexpected sales.

Software can even help you identify former prospects who might be the best target with a certain sale or discount.

For instance, maybe you got a good price from your nursery supplier and you know that you can sell annual installations at a discount. With software, you can easily pull up former prospects that turned down installation work—possibly due to price. Now, by offering a less expensive price, you just may land that job.

 

Sell Add-On Services to a Standard Contract

Add-on services can be another low-hanging fruit if you have clients that already know and trust you. As you look to fill up your end-of-season pipeline, consider what add-ons or enhancements aren’t already included in your clients’ contracts. Can you add fall annuals or a leaf removal service to increase your profit while also boosting their satisfaction?

Whenever you sell add-ons, it’s important that the client can see how these additional services will benefit them. Always pose add-on sales as an opportunity for the client to receive even more value from you—or else you risk it appearing as though you’re looking to nickel and dime them for everything. 

 

Use Asset to Fill your Pipeline

Selling can be a lot of work—and despite all of your best efforts, sometimes a job just doesn’t pan out. But anything that you can do to make your life easier is a welcomed addition. 

 
After all, there’s only so much time in a day and smart selling comes down to using your minutes and hours wisely.

Landscape business software can make a tremendous difference in your sales success by helping to make your life easier. You can set reminders, search for clients (both past and present), keep track of valuable data, and easily add to or change proposals. 

By reaching for the low-hanging fruit, you can make the sales process as simple as possible. In the end, that can equate to more sales for less work.

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