Banish price pressures

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar is one of several concepts, or chains, owned and operated by OSI Restaurant Partners. You know the type of place—your classic steakhouse, upscale interior, high-quality, hand-cut meat, seared to medium-rare perfection by a 1,600-degree broiler, and then served with a great wedge salad, massive baked potato, and wrapped up with a rich cheesecake or crème brulée.

You could probably guess the rest of the menu. In fact, it’s pretty much the same experience you get at Ruth’s Chris, Capital Grille, or Morton’s. All have high-quality food, great interiors and professional, knowledgeable service — or are close enough; and yet, somehow, high quality, great experience, and fantastic service have become a commodity for consumers.

Sound familiar? Ask any garden center, nursery, landscape firm or distributor across the country what distinguishes them from their competition, and they’ll tell you one or more of the following: high-quality product, great selection, sophisticated design or stand-out service.

Over the past 15 years, the size of the green industry has increased dramatically. Today we are a $147 billion industry — that’s 15 times the size of Hollywood at the U.S. box office. However, while the pie is bigger, we’re pulling out fewer plums. With that growth has come increased commoditization of our products, and that means more sales for less profit. While arguing the merits of buying Hosta ‘Patriot’ over H. albomarginata, your customers are busy telling steakhouses that they don’t care if you have Kobe beef; they can get it cheaper next door.

Time to de-commoditize
The increase in retail and landscape competition, combined with some current excess inventory in the pipeline, means that often price is the first factor people look at when shopping for plant material. According to sales management consultant Joe Ellers, “The primary job (of corporate buyers) is to convince every salesperson that calls on them that everything is a commodity. Because, if everything is a commodity, then the only competitive issue is — you guessed it — price.”

So, how do we de-commoditize the green industry? What is your business — specifically your frontline sales team — doing to change the conversation from price to value?

According to Ellers, “Selling this way is more difficult, but if one of your key missions is to reduce the impact of price, then you need to move your team in this direction.”

Tim Riesterer, cofounder and CEO of CMM Forum, calls this “rising above the competitive bakeoff.”

Riesterer states, “Every company I know loathes the so-called competitive bakeoff: That’s when customers round-up all the leading providers in a given product or service category and make them beat each other. There are few real winners in the competitive bakeoff.”

Sound familiar? This is the danger of letting green-industry products become commodities.

Riesterer suggests that if your salespeople and marketing are talking about your products and services, then you have already lost. This approach only targets customers who have already decided on what they need to buy to solve their needs, and now they have moved on to the price-shopping phase of the purchasing cycle.

“The opportunity for solutions and value-driven selling,” he suggests, “takes place earlier in the sales process, where customers are first determining whether they have challenges or problems in meeting their key objectives—and then identifying what needs that creates for possible solutions—even before they ever begin to specify a product or service.”
 

Focus on “You” 
The change, says Riesterer, is from focusing on “we” (that is, “what we do”) to focusing on “you” (i.e., “what solution can we provide you?”) When you and your sales staff talk to customers, are you talking about what you offer and what you can do, or, are you talking about them and their needs? Compare these two statements:

Statement #1. You’re looking for an Arborvitae hedge? Well, we’ve got the best arbs in town! They are grown in state, and pruned more frequently for tighter growth. They are much better than those spindly things up the street at our big box competitor.

Statement #2. You want to block off your yard from your neighbor? What kind of height are you looking for? You said you’ve tried growing a hedge before; what problem led to this being unsuccessful? Well, then let me recommend this option. Does that sound like it will address your specific needs?

The first one is all about “what we do.” It’s not until salespeople pull back and focus first on the customer’s needs and desires that you can move them beyond a conversation about cost. That’s not just good selling; it is critical for your bottom line.

This is about creating trust. We have the classic stereotype of the slimy salesman. The folks we distrust are the ones who are obsessed with price. They may try to tell you all the great benefits, but they are still returning to a dollar value again and again, and it’s very clear whose interests come first — theirs! Talking about your customers rather than yourself, changes that dynamic.
 

Move 'em Back, Git 'em Back, Waaaaaay Back!  
Here’s the first problem. You’re ready to go. You have trained your sales staff to work carefully through the value process, identifying needs, exploring challenges, and arriving at personalized solutions. Then the first customer arrives and says, “Where are your six-packs of impatiens?” You’re in trouble, right? This is where the importance of training really kicks in.

Look at the way waiters operate. They know that the largest profits in food service come from alcohol sales. So what is the first question they ask every time they come to the table? Can I get you something to drink? Then, if you order a mixed drink, they do everything in their power to up-sell you to a more expensive version. This is not optional for them. It is required as part of their job. Then, they continue to take control, moving you through appetizers, entrée, and always ask about coffee and dessert.

Our industry needs the same focus on process. Remember, you can take control. When asked about that six pack of impatiens, move the customer back up the sales process. Are these going in the shade? Where is that: your front door, or out on the patio where you have summer barbecues?

With a few questions about the customer and their lifestyle, you have created the opportunity to sell them a container planting that is as sophisticated as the grilling recipes from Bon Appetit magazine that they love to prepare for dinner parties. $79 versus $1.49 — and all because you asked a few questions.