The New Year is fast approaching and right now you are immersed in Holiday. Yep, you are busy. But what about the days after all the trees and wreaths have come down? What about your green plant and maintenance sales

Plant The Seed
If you haven’t planted the seeds in November and December there will be no harvest in January or February and that is a shame. The lifeblood of every interiorscaper is the monthly recurring revenue, not one time Holiday Sales. Holiday is just the icing on the cake and not the cake itself. That is why it is imperative that even while you are hanging that wreath or making that bow you must also be tilling the soil for regular plantscape jobs. Keep in mind that, on average, it takes approximately 90 days from first appointment thru proposal, to install. And also keep in mind that it takes XXXXcontacts to get XXX appointments to generate XX proposals to get X contracts

 Put it on Paper
 I start helping my consulting clients and InnerCircle members by devising a Plan. I recommend you start one too. Make so many calls a day, so many appointments a week. Don’t keep the client waiting for that proposal. Get it to them ASAP. Set your goals and fill the squares. It’s important or otherwise all the pluses of November and December will be canceled out by January. And, since we are coming up on Year End, take some time now to review this year’s Sales Record. How much did you sell in Plants and Planters? How much in Guaranteed Maintenance Annualized? How much Holiday? Who didyou sell it to?   By teasing out the dollars generated by sales to the different market segments you’ll get an interesting snapshot of your company and, possibly, a map of where you want to concentrate efforts in the coming year. For example are you strong in building lobby sales? You might want to offer exterior blooming as well. Or, are you a giant with corporate offices? You might want to concentrate on this segment. This kind of information gives you a compass and is a powerful ,powerful tool. Take the time now and I promise you’ll be enlightened.

I was watching the home shopping channels recently and I was amazed at how much Holday Product they were selling to their viewers.

On the Tube
There they were. Beautifully decorated. Artificial trees, prelit, and with not only the ubiquitous minis but fiber-optics as well. Pricing? Very user friendly. Next they showed special electrical boxes that accommodate eight plug ins of four light strands each and buttons that made the light show blink, sequence or stay on. In short, the Holiday products that you sell are now available to the consumer and are getting better and more sophisticated every year. In fact, some of the same suppliers we buy from are selling on TV under a different brand name.

What Does This Mean for the Commercial Holiday ‘Scaper?
It means that you, too, have to keep moving forward and continually update your skills and Holiday designs. What was once out of scope for most consumers is now available at every Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Home Shopping Channel, www.qvc.com. To stay one ornament covered branch ahead of the pack you have to do your homework. Homework like going to market, visiting local floral product wholesalers, and talking to company reps.

 Large or Small
If you are relatively small in Holiday work a visit to your local floral product wholesaler or regional gift mart show may suffice. However, companies doing larger amounts of Holiday work may opt for attending the large Mart Shows such as the ones in Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. These all take place in January and often conflict with parts of TPIE so some companies attend one or the other or, bite the bullet and have someone attend one show and another person attend the other. Depends on how big your business is and what you can afford. Some companies attend the Mart Shows every other year instead of every year. Let your size, budget, and needs dictate your decisions.

Green Is Gold
Don’t forget green plant sales just because you are up to your aspidistra in poinsettia. Guaranteed Maintenance is still your bread and butter so make sure you keep calling on potential ‘scaper clients. Otherwise, come January you will compromise all those Holiday profits. Word to the wise. Keep that pipeline filled!

Factoid #1
America’s first enclosed shopping Mall opened in 1956 in Minneapolis.

Factoid #2
At last count, there are 1,175 enclosed malls in the U.S.

Factoid #3
In the early 70′s a poll by U.S. News and World Report found that the average American spent more time in Malls than anywhere else than home or work.

Source: Call of the Mall, Paco Underhill

Once the Holy Grail for interiorscapers, today the Mall has fallen on hard times. In the beginning, the basic design was to simulate Main Street, USA. Shoppers strolled under large ficus trees or palms, in ground planters were loaded with greenery and color and individual containerized plants accented seating areas, retail stores, and food court entrances.

Today, many center’s specimen plant material has been replaced with silk or preserved, replaced with kiosks, or just removed entirely.

Does This Mean You Don’t Want the Work?
Of course not. Just be aware that as malls lost tenants, the national commercial real estate companies that own them have become firmly fixed on two things-generating the most revenue per square foot and aggressive cost cutting. You, as the intriorscape salesperson, have to look to value engineering to maximize profits and sharpen your pencil to get and keep the job.

The New Shopping Destination
The post mall version of a pre mall suburban fixture, the strip shopping center is the newest design. According to Paco Underhill, today’s version is what is called an “affinity center”. Bigger than their predecessors, more sophisticated in design and layout, these venues usually have five or six national chain stores, so called “category killers”. Roofless, these spaces do not offer much opportunity for the interiorscaper although containerized exterior plays a big part.

A second innovation and one with more openings for interiorscapers, is the “neo village”. These are attempts to recreate urbanesque shopping with lots of stores housed in “old time” replica shops. Underhill refers to them as “charmingly artificial…almost like movie sets. Again the opportunity for exterior containerized.

The Once Great Opportunity
Just a good example of how we have to keep on top of design and architectural trends and changes and adapt to them with innovation and flexibility. How are you keeping up?

Once upon a time a friend of mine had a boyfriend and they were very serious about each other. Two or three nights a week he’d come over for dinner. She’d set the table with her finest linens, candles, the works!

Time Went By
She was a very busy lady and, over time, the fine linens became paper napkins (the really good ones though), and then, over still more time they became the paper napkins from the local Wendy’s. Not long after this, my friend discovered that her boyfriend was seeing someone else. She was devastated. As she told me her sad story she said through her tears, “It’s the napkins isn’t it?”

I Understood What She Mean’t
In the beginning she had pampered and spoiled and paid lots of attention to her beau but, over time, she took him for granted. The napkins went from linen to good paper to really bad paper. She just stopped paying attention to the details and took the easiest, quickest way out.
A Lesson for the Wise
Now our relationships with our clients are much like my friend’s. In the beginning we make sure that all the plants are perfect, our service is exemplary, our response to calls, immediate. But over time we fall into what I now call, “the napkin trap”. We’ll replace that plant next month not next week, we’ll just splash and dash this visit.  As for cleaning the containers?  Well, that can wait, heck we did that couple of months ago.  Then, when we hear that our client (our beau) is accepting bids from other companies we’re absolutely outraged. We remember the cloth napkins while the client just remembers the one’s that say “Wendy’s”.

You Can Take This to the Bank
Write this on the wall in letters 5 feet high. Client Retention is absolutely your Number 1 Job. What good is a bucket for New Sales if the Old pour out of a hole in the side? Look over your client list and ask yourself honestly, “Are we pleasing this client now, not last year, but now?” Are you setting the most beautiful table? Is the client getting the cloth napkins or the paper? ‘Nuf said.

Q: What is the Barb Helfman InnerCircle?
A: It’s a membership only coaching and mentorship program dedicated to helping plantscapers succeed. It gives you access to the best minds in the interior plantscape industry and provides you with powerful business building ideas, information, focus and support.

Q: What comes with my membership?
A: You receive:

• The monthly InnerCircle interactive newsletter (PDF Format) that provides timely, detailed information written in a style that allows you to reference key profit building take-aways and implement them in your business immediately. Topics cover, sales, marketing, operations, hiring, personal performance, leadership, business optimization, branding, competitive advantage and far too much more to list here.
• Monthly e-mail questions – send in your question and get back a detailed, solution based assessment. Put the best brains behind your biggest business issues. This one element alone far exceeds your monthly membership.
• Conference calls – Connect with the InnerCircle members for profit building conference sessions. Each call focuses on a key theme and is supported by an industry expert in that specific topic.
• InnerCircle Hotline – The InnerCircle hotline is an emergency only SOS call for InnerCircle members.  It works like this.  If you call this number, I stop what I’m doing and devote all my resources to help you solve your problem.  I will try and move heaven and earth to give you a hand when you need it most.
• Access to the restricted InnerCircle Portal – Get access to newsletter archives, preffered vendor lists, best practices and downloadable business forms, marketing and sales materials.
• ** Charter Member Status – Membership dues will never increase.  You get a $250 profit maximization plan.

Q: Who can join the InnerCircle?
A: The InnerCircle is for interiorplantscape company owners of any size.  It doesn’t matter if you are a one person operation or have 200 employees.  The InnerCircle is for owners who are committed to excellence and want to grow their profits regardless of their current scale. 

Q: Are there qualification requirements?
A:  Yes.  To be considered for InnerCircle membership you must fill out an online application.  Plantscapers without a long-term business track record will need to have a personal phone interview as part of the application process.

Q: Why should I join?
A:  You should consider joining the InnerCircle if you appreciate the power of belonging to a mastermind group committed to helping it’s members succeed.  Your business is a significant part of your life.  So much rides on your achievement.  It’s a smart investment to belong to a business development and coaching organization that can provide you with a cost and time effective way to get:

• EXECUTIVE AND PERSONAL SUPPORT – Running a small business can be tough, frustrating and lonely. As a business owner you need access to a support system that lets you express your personal and business challenges, hopes and fears in a constructive and confidential way so you can perform at your best.

•  IMPROVED OPERATIONS AND PROFITABILITY – The most successful business people in the world value the power of coaching for improving their results. They know outside professionals can bring a powerful perspective ti improve operations and business systems performance . A strong coach, brings out the best in you and helps you see things that others working in your business can’t see from the inside. The Barb Helfman coaching program keeps you working ON your interiorscape business, not only IN your interiorscape business. That’s the real key to success as an owner.

•  CONNECTIONS WITH THE BEST – It’s important to align with interiorscape peers who are committed to improving themselves and getting the most for every dollar and hour they spend. Your InnerCircle membership exposes you to their brainpower, their success and their cumulative experience. InnerCircle Members get the unique advantage of having the power of the group behind solving their business problems. Our quarterly conference calls expose you to the ideas and energy of dynamic business owners. Give your toughest business challenges to the InnerCircle and chances are one of the members has solved the same challenge and can instantly give you the solution.

• STRATEGIC FOCUS – It’s can be hard to step back from the day to day operations of your business and assess your strategic opportunities.  The InnerCircle forces you to go outside your business and FOCUS on the areas that give you what you really want.  It clears your mind and unlocks your best thinking.  Again, it doesn’t matter how succesful you already are – it’s about where you want to go and being prepared if the business environment turns against you.

Q: I see you offer a lot of free information on your website.  What’s different about the InnerCircle content?
A: The InnerCircle content provides much greater detail not only on what to do but how to do it.  It goes far deeper into interiorscape systems, strategy, sales, marketing and operations.  I provide up to the minute case studies of succesful plantscape company practices and their best programs.  I distill these lessons down into a step-by-step implementation process.  So the InnerCircle information is far more instructive, actionable and implementable than my free content.  Plus, all the InnerCircle content is supplemented by e-mail and conference call interaction. This approach often provides breakthroughs that reveal specific ways your company can directly profit from the InnerCircle strategies, ideas and systems.

Q: Is the InnerCircle membership worth $49.95 per month?
A: NO. It’s worth far more.  In fact,  expect the membership fee to rise for new members in 6 months. (Charter  Members will never have a price increase).  The only reason why my price is so low now is because the InnerCircle is being launched as a pilot program. 

Frankly, I’ve never conducted this type of program before.  The goal is to establish, test and refine the InnerCircle best practices with our Charter Members. During the pilot period, I’ll learn what makes the most impact to the group. I’ll add, subtract, enhance and along the way increase the value of the program significantly. With regard to price, it really boils down to this.

Based on my past consulting for plantscapers and over 30 years of running multiple interiorscape businesses, I know that almost every Interiorscape business is leaving a lot of profit on the table. This lost money should be in YOUR bank account. But because sales are lost that should be made, unnecessary expenses are incurred and non-strategic decisions are made – this profit does not go to you. It goes to your competitors, to the tax man and everyone else other than you.

The InnerCircle is designed to help you get that lost profit back. So really at just $49.95 a month with no initiation fee, the InnerCircle program can pay for itself almost immediately. Because every month InnerCircle members walk away with actionable ideas, plans, tactics and solutions that directly:

1. Increase your profits
2. Decrease your expenses
3. Maximize your time and business enjoyment

Q: How do I become an InnerCircle Charter Member?
A: Those who join the InnerCircle within the next three months receive "Charter Member" status.  As a Charter Member you never have a price increase.  Charter Members are also gifted $250.00 of my personal consulting time.  This private consulting will be used to perform a formal strategic review of your company and produce a plan to optimize your business profitability. 

By getting in at the very beginning, this perk essentially gives InnerCircle Charter Members a half year of membership free.

Q: How do I join the InnerCircle?
A: You must apply for consideration by filling out the online application form. You will be notified via e-mail of your application status within 5 business days. If accepted, you will receive a link to a page that allows you to purchase your InnerCircle membership.

Q: What are my payment options?
A: Dues are required to be paid by credit card. Your monthly membership will be automatically charged to your credit card each month.

Q: How do I gain access to the restricted InnerCircle Member Portal?
A: Once you have purchased a membership you will receive a confirmation e-mail. It contains your login credentials to the member only portal. Upon logging in you will be able to access all the information and downloads.

Q: What if I want to cancel my membership?
A: You may cancel your membership at anytime. Just drop us an e-mail or call with your request. (You will be billed for the current month’s membership dues. After that payment is received your membership is offically terminated)

Submit Your InnerCircle Application Online

My Interiorscape company, Something Different, was originally founded with myself and two other partners. Now ninety-nine percent of the time we got along great but every once in a while we would disagree. I’d fuss and fume and vent to a dear friend. Each time he would look across the dinner table and when I had calmed down he’d quietly ask, “And what does it say in the Company Manual?”

I’d continue to humph and phumph and go on venting. A few weeks later the same thing would happen and so on and so on and this went on for five or six years. I’d get upset and he would listen and then ask, “What does it say in the Company Manual?”

I Finally Got it.
Then one day it dawned on me that my friend was absolutely right. We needed a COmpany Manual. A book that had all the rules, expectations, human resource information, in short, all the stuff that owners and employees alike could reference.

My Mission
I begged, borrowed and stole Company Manuals from other ‘scaper friends in other cities and used their Manuals as templates and after a few long weekends we had the first of many Company Manuals.

A Work In Progress
Today you can find on the web templates for everything from wills, to divorce decrees to Company Manuals (www.employeemanual.com). If you don’t have one, you need to put this on your to do list. In fact, I don’t see how you can operate without one particularly one that addresses employee issues.

Just remember that every so often you’ll need to update your Manual. There will always be items to add and items to change or delete. It is a living document that defines your company from Mission Statement to Employee Termination guidelines and it is always changing.

Start Small
Pull up a template from the web and start filling things in. Before long you will have the foundation and can add sections at a realistic pace. Before you know it, you will have a Company Manual and, I guarantee you, you will sleep better at night.

Go Joe!
Everyone loved our new salesperson, Joe. Tall, blonde, great smile – everybody agreed he was sure to be successful, so we hired Joe. Timed passed and Joe became everyone’s buddy. He could talk sports with the guys and go to lunch with the girls. Everyone loved Joe. Just one itty-bitty problem. He wasn’t selling much. Oh, he always had something in the works, something on the horizon. In fact, several potential jobs had been on his sales board for months, eleven months to be precise, but very few materialized. I thought about letting Joe go but each time I did, I backed down. Heck, everyone loved Joe! Such a great smile and well, I hated confrontation. Holiday came and went and Joe sold a couple of jobs but still way below his quota. Yet, it was nice to have an extra pair of hands to carry wreaths and trees, I reasoned. Once a week Joe and I would meet to review his sales efforts. I learned to hate those meetings.

 All Talk No Action
Joe would flash that great smile and he’d tell me about the rotten economy, the corporate cut backs, the lousy weather. We even grieved over the the local football team’s defeat. Still – few sales so while I sold at one end, Joe cost the company money and time and sold—very little. Finally, after almost two years I mustered up every bit of moxie I had and told Joe – “GO!” The company threw him a big going away party and wished him luck,‘cause, heck, everyone loved Joe.

The Moral To The Story
Now, friends, there is a moral to this sad tale of Joe. In every company there is a “Joe” or a “Joan”. They may be in sales or be the company account person. They may be a supervisor or a tech. They may even be a relative. Whatever their position, their charisma and personality mask deficiencies. Deficiencies that suck the soul out of a small, entrepreneurial business. If you have a "Joe” currently on your payroll, I want you to stop reading this blog and go over to a mirror.

 Be Honest With Yourself
Look yourself square in the eye and repeat after me, “I am not in business to care for someone else’s child. My business is my baby and I have to protect it. Joe must go!”
 If necessary repeat the above and then, let Joe go! In a couple of months after Joe’s replacement sells that huge job (funny how the economy got better so fast), call me and let me know how it’s going – after Joe goes. Now go out there and get ‘em Tiger!