soliciting other companies accounts

[Nathan]

Do any of you intentionally solicit other companies accounts. There are quite a few small shows running around doing subpar work so it is easy for us to find people who we could service for a better value. I also have taken other accounts from a company that I used to work for. I don't feel bad about it since they were unhappy, I just gave them the option.
I am just wondering if others do it and if anyone has success, or does it give you a bad image.

[AB Lawn Care]

I'm glad you brought this up!I have mixed views on that.Yes I will go after other companys jobs,BUT!!!!!!Only if they have taken or have tryed to take one of my clients.Other than that,I will never go after other companys clients.I try to be as freindly as possible with the other companys in my city.And becouse I am very freindly with my competition,almost everyone in my city does not go after my work.I think that if you do go after others work it often starts a war.The other thing is often your competition's clients will only switch to your company if the price is right,and having large numbers of clients like that is a very bad thing!!!

An other example is a fellow in my city.He went from a beat up old truck and a crapsman lawn tractor to 3 crews about 5 plow trucks,large tractor and so on in about 4 years.How did he do it???He under bid everyone elses jobs and did the work for about 1/2 the price of others.That worked for a few years,but if caught up to him.He racked up a massive debt,and was hurting pretty bad.As soon as all the lawn care businesses in our city learned about that,They all(including me)went after his work becouse they knew he was going bankrupt.Lesson is if you go after others work it me hurt you more in the long run!!!!

The best way to make more money is raise your prices,and build up more work in your current area that you work in.

Hope this helps!

[landscaper3]

Our company has people that contact condominiums, town houses and professional buildings, they ask if they contract out there landscaping. If they do we ask if they are happy with peresent lawn company and if they are we tell them we will send a bio on our company to look at for future refrence so if they are ever unsatified with present company they may contact us. If they are unhappy we will put in a detailed bid propsal to them. We have adopted this program and has worked well for us, we dont steal accounts away from anyone we just pick up where they left off or failed to complete work specs or shaddy work.

[Lawn Services]

If they like your work they will come

[Skookum]

This is business boys, if you want it, you go after it. If you feel close to another lawncare company, like your friend is that company, and you wish to not compete for his accounts, OK. If you have a sub type relationship with another company and you wish to not compete, alright.

But, your entitled to the cherry jobs as well. Just because another company has had a account for years does not mean it is wrong to approach the client. The client may be unhappy, but may not realize you are there in town or that you can help them. If the client is happy they will tell you. If you wish to be more aggressive you still might get the account if you can do something the other comapny cannot deliver.

You cannot always wait around for clients to come to you, sometimes you have to approach them.

[awm]

Iwish it was different but im affraid i
would have to agree with skookum.
If youask to pass the biscuits most
of the time the plate will be empty
when you get it.You got reach and grab what
you can handle.Just don t elbo anybody
too hard getting yours.country T M

[geogunn]

there is a difference in a placing a proper bid for a job and lowballing a legitimate company out ot their work.

I've posted here before about the young man in my town that simply lowballed his way into the accounts that he wanted. unfortunately, he went too far one day and the fellas that had lost several legit accounts to his lowball prices found him on one of the job. the ensuing conversation is not apropriate to repeat here (so I am told).

bottom line, you may need to watch your back if you are prone to lowballing a legitimate company out of their business.

GEO

[AB Lawn Care]

I thought I would add that my post was based on residential jobs,I totally agree on going after others jobs when it comes to commercial/industrial.That's how the com/ind business runs!I think it is fine,but lowballing is both bad for your competition and bad for you.Like in my first post that guy in town actually dropped others prices by about $20 an hour.Not kidding here!!!And if you can't compete with lowballers than find other markets.We right now do about 90% residential/10% commercial.We plan on getting more into commercial later,but until we build the company a bit further,we are in no rush for commercial work.Hope this helps!

[turfman99]

I solicit every commercial account in our service area that we do not serve already. I do it every year at least two times a year. If you sit and wait for the business to walk up and ask you to bid, your growth rate is going to be painfully slow.

It's not hard to provide good service with technically correct methods.

he type of residentials we serve come to us because of refferals from our already satisfied clients. Our residentails are not less than $ 300 per month and several above $ 2000 per month.

[Nathan]

I am not sure if everyone understood what it is that I am talking about. First of all I do not believe that underbidding or lowballing(whatever you want to call it) is wrong, in my opinion it is just taking advantage of free enterprise. Isn't that what this countries business environment is based on. If you can do something for cheaper than someone else and still make money, good for you. As far as other companies coming back and getting pissed at someone for taking away business from them; I think that is just stupid.

OK here is the whole story. I worked for another guy as his company supervisor. I had a tie to all the accounts and all of the crews. I personally knew most of the customers and in return they respected my abilities. I also knew what everyone paid and their dissatisfactions. I finally left the company for many reasons. When I did, I could have easily taken a large number of customers with me, but I had a conscience. Now, down the road I am wondering why I didn't. It is ultimately the customers decision, I can't force them to switch. So, should I go back and explain my new situation to these customers and get some easy business. Or should I just leave the whole bad situation behind me.

[Premo Services]

I don`t understand your first paragraph. First you said you didn`t believe in loballing, but if you can do it cheaper then go for it. If you are legit, PAYING TAXES,HAVE INSURANCE,and equiptment, purchasing fuel,and maintaning this equiptment.HOW can your prices be lower than mine to do a QUALITY JOB, not just MOW,BOL,and GO, and still make a profit?Also I would not be pissed but shocked if you could take one of my good customers from me.I have a couple cheepos that if you wanted you could have, I am firing them at the end of this year.I realized that when I finish a job it is my signature and I don`t want my signature on something that dosen`t look like a pro`s job.There was a pic of Eric`s ELM`s work and if you held your mouse over it, a caption came up that said "if you work like a pro,look like a pro, act like a pro then you will get paid like a pro".As for your question about getting easy business or leaving it I would leave it behind and do quality work and get refferals from your satisfied customers, These are the ones that will stay with you.



For residentials, I would only do this from refferrals from my customers to people that are not happy with the service they are getting.I will find out what they want and see if I can do job to their satisfaction and make a profit,in most cases the price has to be raised to get this kind of service.I used to try and justify prices but these jobs I am bidding on are from referrals from my satisfied customers,who are very peticular about the way that their property looks,so there is no need to justify prices. I believe anyone can cut a lawn, but there is more to it than just mow,blo,and go to keeping customers satisfied!
In the areas I work there seems to be more going than mowing or blowing! :)

[Eric ELM]

By the way, that picture and saying isn't on my website. It is on Grassmasters startup page. I had nothing to do with that, in case anyone was wondering. He asked if he could use a couple pictures on his startup pages and that is what he did with them. The rest of his start up is neat. Lots of links there.

[turfman99]

I don't understand the term " taking advantage of free enterprise" please expound on that a little...

If the only focus of your business is providing a service at a lower price than your compitition, then you business is headed in the wrong direction. You should be concerned about providing value and a good service at a price that allows you to reinvest in your business, allows you a return on your investment that exceeds what you could recieve in conventional investments for the same amount of money invested, and return that allows you to follow a short and long term growth plan for business continuity.

One should concern them selves with being efficent and effective at a competitive price. If your pricing strategy is to just provide services at a lower price than your compitition, then you need to budget to provide that service at lower returns.

Since we all basicaly pay the same for vehicles, equipment, fertilizers and chemicals, you better be able to cut a fat deal on insurances, overhead ( you do have that , you know), and other indirect costs. Since labor is at least 50% of you gross income, you better have a better deal on everything or YOU are going to make less money, YOU will not have the cash to replace small equipment that you should not finance, and YOU will have a harder time looking professional and executing a professional job.

Good Luck.

Don't ever take up skydiving and take the low bid on parachutes.

[Skookum]

Free enterprize to me means doing business without too many restrictions. To me it means in a business term, the ability to charge what I want and make what I want regardless of what my competitor thinks. Who would like to have a government sanctioned green industry where they told us what we could charge or what we could even bid on or not.

Right now the economy is pretty good. If it was not and your family was hungry and you needed to make payments on equipment, several of us would work for less to get the work. Once we have a comfortable customer base we can weed out the lower price jobs and only work for bigger money. That is are decision. Demanding bigger prices usually means you have bigger costs like employees, workers comp, bigger equipment, etc... or you just want more for yourself.

Like I have posted here before, it is only lowballing to the guy that lost the account. It's a term that allows those to deal with the lose and rejection by placing the blame on this issue. If a company rep has time to track down another companies rep and verbally abuse him or worse, because they lost some work to that company, then maybe they should not be in business at all. What real business pros they must be, standing in someones yard telling someone else what they can and cannot do in their own business. Pure and simple, in any marketplace and any industry there is always somebody that will do it for less and sometimes with better or equal qaulity. IT'S BUSINESS!

Taking your employers customers when leaving the employment happens everyday. Alot of business is started just that way. I have a friend that started a computer consulting company on the advise of his employers customer. He signed that guy to a $100,000 a year contract for 5 years. Another friend of mine did the same in the alchol industry and eventually put his old employer out of business. It hurts, from the employers side, but it happens.

There is such a thing as loyality and solidarity, but it is something that everyone must decide where and to whom you will give it, not for others to tell you where and whom. Never think that a customer will remain loyal, someday they will fool you and you might be chasing some other professional around the yard yelling at him that he is a no good LOWBALLER!

[Nathan]

Some of you have completely missed the picture on this. Maybe it is because I struck a nerve and talked about something that everyone is scared of, someone taking your "loyal customers". For you guys who feel that everyone basically has the same costs, therefore should have approxiamately the same bids in order to remain profitable are completely missing the most important aspect of our business, EFFICIENCY!!! I have done this work for a long time and know that there are very few people in my market that can outproduce me due to my methods. If any of you don't thing that there is someone out there in your market that can do things more efficiently with the same or better quality, you are dead wrong. I do think that you will realize this quickly when some of these great loyal customers you have drop for someone who CAN provide a better service for a better price.

Aside from all of this, I am not saying that I am an undercutter, even though I don't see a problem with it. The fact is that usually when I take a customer from another company, they usually end up paying me more than their previous service provider. So, those of you who are worried about me making ends meet as a lowballer, don't worry. The ones that I get by being low priced are still very profitable to me because of my efficiencies. The others are even more profitable because I can overbid and still get the customers.

My intention for this thread has been seconhandedly answered. Those of you that are not aware of the business environment you are in will be unpleasantly shocked some day. Those of us who are aware will continue to take advantage of free enterprise and make the money.

Sorry if anyone feels threatened, but there is probably a reason that you feel that way.

By the way, SKOOKUM hit most of this right on the head.

[Nathan]

PS, Mow money. I didn't say that I didn't believe in lowballing. I said that I didn't believe lowballing was wrong. It helps to read the complete text before you close your mind to it.

[landscaper3]

Alot of people mistake lowballing with low cost, Say you put in a bid propsal on a condominium complex. One of the bids is $22,000.00 and your bid is $19,000.00 thats not low balling if you make a profit and deliver all services with upmost professionalism. His costs might be more for workmans comp, equipment cost and high over head. We put in so far for 2001 season 110 proposals and probly submit at least onther 60 by spring then we pass out and mail our 1000 news letters and 2000 door hangers. If there is a job you want go after it. If you dont go after places your company will never expand, hey I loose business ever year to lower cost bids and im a little disapointed but dont get mad or upset I will even beep my horn and wave at the maintenance person, there work out there for everyone so get out there knocking on doors and introduce yourself to yhe public.

[mountain]

We never intentionally go after another companies account I think it's bad business , why make enemies when there's so much grass . with that said we did receive about ten customers not happy with there current LMO but even these I added 50% to just to make sure they were not price shopping

[Premo Services]

Originally posted by Nathan
PS, Mow money. I didn't say that I didn't believe in lowballing. I said that I didn't believe lowballing was wrong. It helps to read the complete text before you close your mind to it.

Efficency, working better than someone else, whatever you want to call it go for it and make your change while I will Continue to do quality work and make quality pay.Also you didn`t strike a nerve about taking customers away from me. I have a real problem with believeing that someone would undercharge and still do quality work.
I lost a job to a LOWBALLER this summer, he undercut my price by 40.00, I have been by the job and it looks like a bunch of kids or drunks are doing the job,the customer is getting exactly what she is paying for!I believe that when the price is cut that much then quality of work decreases quite a bit, so go ahead and have a blast and lowball yourself into bliss!I get people asking me to bid all the time and when I bid the price the say the other guy is doing it for 10-15 dollars cheaper, I don`t need to go cheaper and I don`t need these customers,you can have them. I get all of my new business( 8 new jobs this year ) from refferals from satisfied customers that I have had for 6 years,and I know for a fact that they have been approached with lower prices.

[Edited by mow money on 11-25-2000 at 02:14 AM]

[Nathan]

Mow Money. Boy are you paranoid. I am not even in your area, nor would I ever wish to move to that area of the states. I still know that you have completely missed the point. I don't understand how someone could "lowball" you by 40 dollars and get the job and then you say that you are still making the mow money. If 40 dollars is the difference between lowballing and making the bucks, you are doing something wrong. And once again don't worry about me I am making plenty.

[GroundKprs]

As far as taking the business of your former employer, be careful, especially if you leave his employ and start your business basically with clients you met thru working for him. You would be treading near the legal principal of "interfering in an economic relationship." This would usually apply in this situation, but it is rarely pursued in the real world.
The main problem with this approach is that if you are known to have started this way, it is a temptation to a future employee to pull the same with you.

[Nathan]

Jim,
I run an existing company that was started with fresh customers but I understand what you are saying. Thank you for the input it is a good thing to think about. I am glad that there are people on this site who can give reasonable input without getting too personally involved.

[cst51]

You all have sparked an interest in my curiosity. If you are bidding on a residential job do you bid by the hour or the acreage??? How about commercial lawn care. Again, do you bid by the hour/acreage. Do your rates increase on a commercial bid????

[Premo Services]

Originally posted by Nathan
Mow Money. Boy are you paranoid. I am not even in your area, nor would I ever wish to move to that area of the states. I still know that you have completely missed the point. I don't understand how someone could "lowball" you by 40 dollars and get the job and then you say that you are still making the mow money. If 40 dollars is the difference between lowballing and making the bucks, you are doing something wrong. And once again don't worry about me I am making plenty.

I almost didn`t reply to your post but had an irrestible urge to and I am definetly not paranoid.
The 40.00 I am referring to is per cut and with 4 to 5 cuts a month that comes to 160.00 to 200.00 a month.I really believe anyone here would be mad as he** if you wanted to take almost 200.00 a month off one of their big jobsand they would still be expected to do the same service.The charge for cutting property is 110.00 and someone came in with 70.00, I was doing their other house that they lived and they moved to a bigger home more ground and decided they needed to save some bux, well not at my expense. Over the weekend I was contacted by the customer and she wants me to handle all maint. for her next year, it seems she knew the loballer was not doing a quality job, they put in a new barn and other things and they were using the loballer low prices.It`s ironic because she knows that his quality of work is not good enough. I don`t know if I will take the job.Also I have not missed the point you can bid whatever you want lower-higher and I will bid my jobs from referals from satisified customers for quality pay. The problem is when someone bids lower to do work the potential customer thinks everyone can do the job for the same price,which is definetly not the case.