Games in the dark

Spend enough time with me, and you’ll discover that I am a metalhead. No, that doesn’t mean I have a plate that sets off airport metal detectors holding my brains in. It means I have a penchant for loud guitars and driving beats.

I fell in love with the genre when I was a moody high school kid with a mullet and a bad attitude. I was a sophomore in 1991, when the band Metallica released its Black Album. It was an instant classic, and I fell in love with chart-toppers like “The Unforgiven” and “Enter Sandman.” You can hear these songs on classic rock stations now, which never fails to set me spinning into existential dread. But I digress.

If you had told that kid that one day, he’d plant a garden with a lovely woman somewhere in Ohio and it’d be one of his favorite places in the world, he would have scoffed and told you to go somewhere not very nice. And yet, here he is — mellowed a bit, graying, thrilled every time he sees a goldfinch land on an echinacea bloom, still singing along to “Wherever I May Roam” and still wearing black.

While this might sound like an editor’s column for Rolling Stone, my story is pertinent to you, dear IGC owner. Your consumers have lived varied and diverse lives before stepping through your door. Some of them are metalheads. Some of them prefer gardening to Vivaldi. Some of them were raised in pastoral bliss. Some came up in teeming cities. They bring their life experiences with them to your garden center. They look to you to give them something that resonates with who they are, and that means knowing who they are.

For instance, if you know your customer is a metalhead like me, you may want to consider offering them a variety of black-toned plants (learn more here) that align with their Metallica vibes. But it’s important to note that black plants aren’t just for head-banging horticulturalists and goth gardeners (see this month's Last Look for more). They are having a distinct cultural moment that aligns with a variety of home design trends that are expanding the color palate and seeking ways to create contrast.

Once you know your customers’ interests (black plants or not), you should consider engaging your IGC’s staff with the Great Game of Business (find out more in this month's cover story). In this issue, consultant and Garden Center Conference & Expo speaker John Kennedy details how two of his clients used “gamification” to drive results in their enterprises. But more than just results, Kennedy explains that the Great Game of Business plan can create cohesiveness and a team that has an owner mindset.

Having an engaged and motivated team paired with knowledge of current plant trends that help you meet your customers where they are is a winning combination — like a driving beat and loud guitars. But more importantly, it’s a combination that I hope will help you find success as we barrel through the fall and the fourth quarter.

After all, whether you listen to metal or Manilow, everyone loves the sound of making sales. As Metallica might say: Nothing Else Matters.

Rock on,