Power Panel

Every year, the GIE+EXPO and the GIC down in Louisville are jam-packed with activity. New product announcements, educational sessions and networking take up almost every hour of every day.

And while it is a very busy few days, the show provides great opportunities for the attendees because it brings together so many people in one place. At this year's event, we put together what we called a Power Panel – nine leaders from top companies across the country and in different segments who sat down to discuss their biggest problems, opportunities and what they see in the future for the landscape industry.

The 10 of us sat down in a conference room that looked out over the exhibition hall at the Kentucky Expo Center and spent two hours in a wide-ranging discussion that touched on pricing, hiring, labor laws, regulations (and the government in general) and the best ways to build trust and solid relationships with clients, even when those clients are property managers who shop mostly on price.
 

Finding and developing key talent. Chris Kujawa said he and his team at KEI aren't having trouble finding good people to hire – they walk into the office all the time. What's in short supply, he said, is time and talent. His customers (commercial property managers) don't have the time to babysit their subcontractors, nor do they have a wide range of great companies to choose from to do the work. That's an opportunity, but, Kujawa cautions, you have to have the right people in place to get the work done right the first time. "You can't do it with knuckleheads," he said.
 

Beating the competition. Frank Mariani said he doesn't mind competing against good companies. What gets to him are contractors who don't know their numbers and submit bids with prices that are near impossible to beat. "You can't take the pricing or business model from big companies off the shelf" and expect it to work, he said.
 

Building customer relationships. Several panelists mentioned the difference between a transactional market and a relationship market. You can start with one and go to the other, but once you reverse the trend, you're toast. A low bid can get you in the door, and then you can grow the relationship.

But if you start cutting prices just to stay afloat, you become a commodity to even your best customers.

Starting in 2012, we'll be running a series of stories based on the Power Panel and their perspectives. Stay tuned here and online for more.
 

Find more at From the Field: lawnandlandscape.com/blog.

– Chuck Bowen