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How to Upsell Your Irrigation System Products and Services

Today, more than ever, you need to upsell your sprinkler system products and services to keep your contracting business going and growing.

So, you need to know how to sell your services. Plus, you need to teach your crew leaders or technicians if they go out by themselves to upsell your services too.

Here’s what we’ll be covering in this blog post:
  • You’ll learn why you need to upsell your lawn sprinkler products and services
  • You’ll learn some handy upselling tips
  • You’ll learn how to get your technicians or crew leaders to upsell for you
  • You’ll learn how K-Rain helps you upsell your irrigation products and services.

Why Upsell?

You upsell to provide added service for your customers. It’s more beneficial to upsell to your customers than it is to cold call them.

What is upselling? According to Optinmonster, upselling happens when you persuade your customers to buy another product or service that will benefit them and increase your sales.

As a landscape contractor or lawn care owner/operator, you can easily sell your sprinkler systems because they go hand-in-glove with plant life. Your customers’ lawns, flowerbeds, trees, and gardens need water to keep their plants alive.

Additionally, many homeowners and property managers need to conserve water due to city restrictions and rising water bills. An irrigation system, dripline, and bubblers help the homeowners and commercial property managers conserve water and still have a beautiful outdoor space.

For example, if you’re a contracting company in Florida, you can upsell EPA WaterSense certified spray heads. Why? Because these spray heads save your customers money as well as conserve water.

Conversely, some folks don’t want an entirely new sprinkler system, but they would be open to retrofitting their current system with new parts. You can sell upgrades to your irrigation customers.

For example, you can offer to install Bluetooth technology to existing sprinkler systems. Persuade your customers by telling them about Bluetooth features, such as a few taps on their mobile device schedules when their sprinklers turn on and off each time it waters the lawns.

You can also say how a Bluetooth controller will save them time and money by conserving water as well as syncing with the rest of their IoT (Internet of Things).

10 Tips for Upselling to Your Customer Base

Generally speaking, you may not be able to upsell many extras when it’s a brand-new customer. Since your new clients don’t know you well, you need to “prove” to them that your irrigation products and services are beyond the pale.

Optinmonster says that statistically, you won’t upsell a lot to a new customer – maybe between 5-10%. Yet, if you have happy customers who trust and like you, you’ll see more success in offering upgrades.

Here are 10 tips that Optinmonster and Neil Patel share in their blog posts about upselling:
  1. Choose the right upsell. Bluetooth technology and the Internet of Things are your best bet. Like was stated above, you can sell Bluetooth irrigation controllers. Homeowners can control their sprinkler systems with a few taps to their mobile device and sync it with their IoT, such as outdoor lighting and audio.
  2. Give more choices and increase your upselling potential. When you provide your sales prospects or customers with a selection of irrigation products (and tell them how it makes their life better or easier), your customers will respond.
  3. Use your customer’s name when proposing an upsell. Granted, if you’re talking one-on-one with a homeowner or property manager, you’ll obviously use their names. But any email or print marketing you use should also have the customer’s first name.
  4. Incorporate a sense of urgency. You’re offering a limited time sale on sprinkler spray bodies or rotary nozzles. Your customers need to act by today or next month to get in on the sale.
  5. Make sure you follow up with a note at the bottom of invoices, through an email or through print postcards. If you leave your client thinking about an upgrade make sure you follow up with them to see if they want to proceed with the upsell.  Remind your customers how they can save money and have more control over their lives with this discounted upgrade.
  6. Use FOMO as a sales technique. You can add a sense of urgency when you use FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) tactics. You can say that many of the customer’s neighbors signed up for monthly maintenance services (only if it’s true), so your customer should get on board too.
  7. Use the Rule of 3. People like patterns. And when you provide a choice between a simple maintenance package, a deluxe maintenance package, and the premium maintenance package, you’ll find that your customers will pick the deluxe maintenance package most times. This selling technique is called price anchoring. Your clients have three options to choose from, and each option costs a little more than the previous one. Conversely, you can bundle products and services, too, as part of price anchoring. Amazon does this with its “Frequently Bought Together” feature that provides one price when a person buys the bundle.
  8. What happens when your SKU is out of stock? Then offer sprinkler substitutions that’ll get the job done and are as good the unavailable SKU.
  9. Upsell after the customer has invested in your irrigation system services and products. You can offer warranties on products or provide another limited time offer to encourage your clients to buy more from your contracting business.
  10. Don’t forget to include your website, social media, and blog posts for upselling your goods and services. You can build trust with your customers and sales prospects when you position yourself as an expert in irrigation systems, maintenance, and upgrades. Then when it’s time to ask for an upgrade, your customers will respond.

How to Get Your Field Service Technicians and Teams to Upsell

Your field service technicians, as well as your crew leaders, can help you sell more services to your customers. Most homeowners and property managers know your technician and trust them. So, it’s natural to expect your techs to upsell your sprinkler contracting services.

However, not everyone is a born salesperson. You need to know your techs. You may have crew leaders on your landscaping teams that feel comfortable talking to clients about your irrigation systems.

But you may have a few techs who find installing to be easy peasy, but selling makes them break out in hives.

What do you do?

You teach all of your employees how to upsell because everyone in your company should be doing it to some extent. For example, the people who answer your phones could introduce new products and services to your customers.

Here are some ideas to help your shy technicians:
  • Include it with the job description. If you expect your teams to sell upgrades, then you need to add it to the technician’s job description.
  • Roleplay how to upsell your irrigation products. Roleplaying helps technicians who have zero experience in selling learn some helpful techniques as well as calm their nerves.
  • Discuss that since the technician has talked to customers, it should be a natural sequel for suggesting upgrades. Your techs can explain how certain irrigation parts help them save money and still have beautiful property.
  • Help your techs see how upgrades benefit the customer for the long-term—whether that’s saving money on their water bills, keeping them compliant with a municipality’s water restrictions, or making it easier for the customer to oversee their landscape sprinkler systems.
  • Encourage your techs to find ways that work for them when selling goods and services.
  • Have a contest to see which technician sells the most upgrades in a month, quarter, or year. Honing in on your technicians’ competitive side might help them fight through their resistance to make a sale.
  • Allow your technicians to earn a commission or a bonus if they sell upgrades. Some technicians might get motivated to sell more sprinkler services if they get paid extra to upsell.
  • Remind your technicians that teenagers upsell all the time at their jobs. Encourage your techs to remember that every time they drive up to a Burger King or McDonald’s, the worker will encourage them to upgrade their meal. When you order a burger, for example, the teen taking your order always asks if you want to make it a meal. That’s upselling in a nutshell. If a high school kid can upsell, your techs can sell upgrades as well.

How K-Rain’s Premier Contractor Program Helps You Upsell Your Landscaping, Lawn Care or Contracting Services

When you join K-Rain’s Premier Contractor Program, we provide you with complimentary online marketing materials. You’re already looking into new avenues of upselling when you include lawn and landscape sprinkler systems to your landscaping or lawn care clients.

If you’re ready to take your contracting business to the next level, then sign up for our Premier Contractor Program today.

If you have questions or need assistance, call our customer service at 800-735-7246, email us at CUSTOMERSERVICE@KRAIN.COM.
Written by K-Rain
1/22/2023
Upsell Business

How to Upsell Your Irrigation System Products and Services

Today, more than ever, you need to upsell your sprinkler system products and services to keep your contracting business going and growing.

So, you need to know how to sell your services. Plus, you need to teach your crew leaders or technicians if they go out by themselves to upsell your services too.

Here’s what we’ll be covering in this blog post:
  • You’ll learn why you need to upsell your lawn sprinkler products and services
  • You’ll learn some handy upselling tips
  • You’ll learn how to get your technicians or crew leaders to upsell for you
  • You’ll learn how K-Rain helps you upsell your irrigation products and services.

Why Upsell?

You upsell to provide added service for your customers. It’s more beneficial to upsell to your customers than it is to cold call them.

What is upselling? According to Optinmonster, upselling happens when you persuade your customers to buy another product or service that will benefit them and increase your sales.

As a landscape contractor or lawn care owner/operator, you can easily sell your sprinkler systems because they go hand-in-glove with plant life. Your customers’ lawns, flowerbeds, trees, and gardens need water to keep their plants alive.

Additionally, many homeowners and property managers need to conserve water due to city restrictions and rising water bills. An irrigation system, dripline, and bubblers help the homeowners and commercial property managers conserve water and still have a beautiful outdoor space.

For example, if you’re a contracting company in Florida, you can upsell EPA WaterSense certified spray heads. Why? Because these spray heads save your customers money as well as conserve water.

Conversely, some folks don’t want an entirely new sprinkler system, but they would be open to retrofitting their current system with new parts. You can sell upgrades to your irrigation customers.

For example, you can offer to install Bluetooth technology to existing sprinkler systems. Persuade your customers by telling them about Bluetooth features, such as a few taps on their mobile device schedules when their sprinklers turn on and off each time it waters the lawns.

You can also say how a Bluetooth controller will save them time and money by conserving water as well as syncing with the rest of their IoT (Internet of Things).

10 Tips for Upselling to Your Customer Base

Generally speaking, you may not be able to upsell many extras when it’s a brand-new customer. Since your new clients don’t know you well, you need to “prove” to them that your irrigation products and services are beyond the pale.

Optinmonster says that statistically, you won’t upsell a lot to a new customer – maybe between 5-10%. Yet, if you have happy customers who trust and like you, you’ll see more success in offering upgrades.

Here are 10 tips that Optinmonster and Neil Patel share in their blog posts about upselling:
  1. Choose the right upsell. Bluetooth technology and the Internet of Things are your best bet. Like was stated above, you can sell Bluetooth irrigation controllers. Homeowners can control their sprinkler systems with a few taps to their mobile device and sync it with their IoT, such as outdoor lighting and audio.
  2. Give more choices and increase your upselling potential. When you provide your sales prospects or customers with a selection of irrigation products (and tell them how it makes their life better or easier), your customers will respond.
  3. Use your customer’s name when proposing an upsell. Granted, if you’re talking one-on-one with a homeowner or property manager, you’ll obviously use their names. But any email or print marketing you use should also have the customer’s first name.
  4. Incorporate a sense of urgency. You’re offering a limited time sale on sprinkler spray bodies or rotary nozzles. Your customers need to act by today or next month to get in on the sale.
  5. Make sure you follow up with a note at the bottom of invoices, through an email or through print postcards. If you leave your client thinking about an upgrade make sure you follow up with them to see if they want to proceed with the upsell.  Remind your customers how they can save money and have more control over their lives with this discounted upgrade.
  6. Use FOMO as a sales technique. You can add a sense of urgency when you use FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) tactics. You can say that many of the customer’s neighbors signed up for monthly maintenance services (only if it’s true), so your customer should get on board too.
  7. Use the Rule of 3. People like patterns. And when you provide a choice between a simple maintenance package, a deluxe maintenance package, and the premium maintenance package, you’ll find that your customers will pick the deluxe maintenance package most times. This selling technique is called price anchoring. Your clients have three options to choose from, and each option costs a little more than the previous one. Conversely, you can bundle products and services, too, as part of price anchoring. Amazon does this with its “Frequently Bought Together” feature that provides one price when a person buys the bundle.
  8. What happens when your SKU is out of stock? Then offer sprinkler substitutions that’ll get the job done and are as good the unavailable SKU.
  9. Upsell after the customer has invested in your irrigation system services and products. You can offer warranties on products or provide another limited time offer to encourage your clients to buy more from your contracting business.
  10. Don’t forget to include your website, social media, and blog posts for upselling your goods and services. You can build trust with your customers and sales prospects when you position yourself as an expert in irrigation systems, maintenance, and upgrades. Then when it’s time to ask for an upgrade, your customers will respond.

How to Get Your Field Service Technicians and Teams to Upsell

Your field service technicians, as well as your crew leaders, can help you sell more services to your customers. Most homeowners and property managers know your technician and trust them. So, it’s natural to expect your techs to upsell your sprinkler contracting services.

However, not everyone is a born salesperson. You need to know your techs. You may have crew leaders on your landscaping teams that feel comfortable talking to clients about your irrigation systems.

But you may have a few techs who find installing to be easy peasy, but selling makes them break out in hives.

What do you do?

You teach all of your employees how to upsell because everyone in your company should be doing it to some extent. For example, the people who answer your phones could introduce new products and services to your customers.

Here are some ideas to help your shy technicians:
  • Include it with the job description. If you expect your teams to sell upgrades, then you need to add it to the technician’s job description.
  • Roleplay how to upsell your irrigation products. Roleplaying helps technicians who have zero experience in selling learn some helpful techniques as well as calm their nerves.
  • Discuss that since the technician has talked to customers, it should be a natural sequel for suggesting upgrades. Your techs can explain how certain irrigation parts help them save money and still have beautiful property.
  • Help your techs see how upgrades benefit the customer for the long-term—whether that’s saving money on their water bills, keeping them compliant with a municipality’s water restrictions, or making it easier for the customer to oversee their landscape sprinkler systems.
  • Encourage your techs to find ways that work for them when selling goods and services.
  • Have a contest to see which technician sells the most upgrades in a month, quarter, or year. Honing in on your technicians’ competitive side might help them fight through their resistance to make a sale.
  • Allow your technicians to earn a commission or a bonus if they sell upgrades. Some technicians might get motivated to sell more sprinkler services if they get paid extra to upsell.
  • Remind your technicians that teenagers upsell all the time at their jobs. Encourage your techs to remember that every time they drive up to a Burger King or McDonald’s, the worker will encourage them to upgrade their meal. When you order a burger, for example, the teen taking your order always asks if you want to make it a meal. That’s upselling in a nutshell. If a high school kid can upsell, your techs can sell upgrades as well.

How K-Rain’s Premier Contractor Program Helps You Upsell Your Landscaping, Lawn Care or Contracting Services

When you join K-Rain’s Premier Contractor Program, we provide you with complimentary online marketing materials. You’re already looking into new avenues of upselling when you include lawn and landscape sprinkler systems to your landscaping or lawn care clients.

If you’re ready to take your contracting business to the next level, then sign up for our Premier Contractor Program today.

If you have questions or need assistance, call our customer service at 800-735-7246, email us at CUSTOMERSERVICE@KRAIN.COM.
Written by K-Rain
1/22/2023
Upsell Business