Benchmarks For Landscaping Crews

A friend of mine is in the fitness industry and recently he hired a sales coach to help develop processes for new salespeople.

Being the nosey girl that I am, I asked to see some of their notes, hoping to find a nugget that I could apply to the green industry.

One video I stumbled across was about how to increase call volume.  The coach suggested sitting next to a new salesperson for one hour of the day with a list of names and phone numbers.  Then just listen to their calls, offer zero feedback, and make a tally every time they complete a call.

The idea here is that since the boss is right there and there are no distractions, they are going to be focused really hard in making calls.  

Once the hour is up, the next step is to use this as a benchmark.

Say, “Okay Brad, you made 50 calls in one hour and scheduled 16 appointments. That means hypothetically you could be scheduling 100 appointments in an 8 hour day.  I know realistically though that you should be setting X amount of appointments for us to hit our sales goal. Does that sound fair?”

Having a clear baseline like that sets expectations for you and makes the job seem completely possible for your employees.  

I’m not completely sold on his strategy here, but I think the takeaway is clear.  

In jobs where you’re managing manual labor, QUALITY and SPEED are the two most important parts of finishing the project within budget.  

You shouldn’t have to keep hawk eyes on your people at all times, if you’ve already established AND AGREED UPON realistic benchmarks.

Consider ways you can get buy-in from your foremen before the job ever begins.  Work is a lot easier and way more fun when we’re all on the same page.

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