A landscape project proposal can make or break a sale. Having a professional-looking proposal that clearly communicates what all is to be expected with a job is more likely to stand out from other competing bids and win.
SatQuoteTM SaaS platform and mobile application are designed to help landscape companies measure, design, quote and win more jobs. SatQuote helps you win more jobs by streamlining the process of managing leads, accurately measuring, creating designs, estimating labor and materials, communicating with customers, and creating high-quality quotes that sell.
In this article, you will learn how to:
- Clearly and Quickly Communicate with Your Clients
- Gather Property Intelligence Before Showing Up
- Make Quick, Timely Estimates on How Much of Each Item is Needed
- Design Plans Before the Project Takes Place
- Put Together a Profitable and Fair Estimate
- Create a General Timeline
- Itemize the Proposal
- What to Include in a Top-Notch Proposal
Clearly and quickly communicate with your clients
It is a well known fact that being the first to respond will give you a major leg up over the competition, and a platform like SatQuote will help you to turn around bids in a snap. Once you have responded, listening well and giving your client room to describe exactly what they want from the project is key. If the client is unsure about anything, take note of it. Listening and engaging in conversation with thoughtful responses will develop client trust. Along with understanding the client’s vision, lend your expertise to suggest and explore any other needs you may be able to meet.
Gather property intelligence before showing up
Tools like SatQuote allow you to remotely review the characteristics and measurements of a site and even create initial design ideas before ever stepping foot onsite. Depending on the project, you may be able to quote all of the work before leaving the office! That being said, customer relationships are the key to selling, so for higher-priced projects, it is always a good idea to get facetime with the client. Leveraging technology for initial meetings with systems like Zoom and Facetime can also be a great way to get to know each other and understand if your company is a fit for the work the client wants and is worth exploring.
Make quick, timely estimates on how much of each item is needed
One of the benefits SatQuote can offer your landscape company is its ability to provide you with any details required to measure and design your clients’ projects. SatQuote features tools to measure volume, area, and perimeter of a project location so that you can make accurate, timely estimates on how much of each item needed and understand material and labor requirements for the job.
Learn more here.
Design plans before the project takes place
Additionally, with SatQuote, you can use high-resolution imagery to draw and design plans before the project takes place. Add design elements like trees, shrubs and more to bring your vision to life and attach any photos or notes after a site visit.
Having a visual representation of a project not only clearly illustrates a project for your labor crew—it also looks really stunning and professional in a proposal. It also gives your client the chance to get a better idea of what you’re planning and see if they’re envisioning something similar or different.
If your client is unsure about a detail in the project, this is a great way to show them an image of how this detail might change the project.
Learn more here.
Put together a profitable and fair estimate
Knowing the cost of labor and materials is key to job profitability. Also consider your overhead expenses such as equipment, administrative staff and time, travel time, and marketing expenses. Knowing your numbers is the key to success. SatQuote can help you quickly estimate material and labor as you measure and design eliminating the step of manual calculations.
Create a general timeline
Most Landscape projects require dismantling or removing features of an old landscape and can look unsightly. Having a generalized timeline that roughly estimates how long your team will take to start and finish a project lets your client know what to expect.
Be sure to include more than enough time for your team to complete a project. Be sure to add some buffer time for potential unexpected problems such as weather or labor issues. Underpromising and overdelivering will lead to happier customers.
Itemize the proposal
Itemizing your proposal breaks things down for the client. Presenting them with an estimate that doesn’t have details about how much each item costs can be confusing. Providing them with line-by-line costs for each item allows the client to gauge how much they’re paying and evaluate whether they believe it is a fair price. It also can help you explain to the client why you are proposing to charge what you do. This builds trust between you and the client and gives the client control to include potential add-ons in the future without having to renegotiate the entire agreement.
Things to include in a top-notch proposal:
✅ Business card for contact information: Even if you’ve already given your client a business card when you first introduced them or included it in nan email, it’s never a bad idea to also include it in your proposal in case the client wants to contact you with any further questions or comments. This makes your contact information convenient for the client to reach out to you.
✅ Cover Letter: The cover letter should be the first thing your client sees—so it should serve as a first impression that introduces you, your company, a brief summary of what the project entails and your contact information. SatQuote gives you a great place to write a cover letter along with an image of your drawings and measurements with each PDF quote!
✅ Bid: This part should go into further detail about what’s needed to get the project done and how much each item is going to cost. SatQuote creates an customizable bid as you build the quote!
✅ Visual Design: A visual design should serve as an illustration for what the project is going to look like. With SatQuote, you can share your vision with your client by using its built-in design library of shapes, segments, and fill items that are tied to items or services. SatQuote makes creating a to-scale visual design easy and fast.
✅ Other professional experience your company can offer: Outline the scope of work your company is capable of so that the client knows they can come to you for their future needs.
✅ Testimonials: Testimonials are an excellent tool to use in your proposal. It demonstrates a record of other pleased clients with your work and makes your company look more reliable and trustworthy.
✅ Terms & Conditions/Contract: This is an important part of your proposal—it clearly defines your responsibilities vs. those your client will be responsible for. This section should also include any pricing and payment details.
✅ Client Signature: Finally, a place for your client to provide a signature on the proposal, whether on paper or in a digital copy, helps finalize the sale.
With the ability to add in material and labor cost estimates, SatQuote can track estimated profitability to ensure properly priced jobs. With SatQuote’s built-in proposal generator, you can stand out from your competitors with a professional quote ready to email, print or text to your clients for their approval.
