How Strong is Your Company's Reputation?

The team at R.P. Marzilli has grown to $53 million in annual revenue, all without a dedicated sales team.

This is a pretty astounding business model and is rare in our industry. While it's not the model we follow at Grunder Landscaping, I'm intrigued by how it works for them. I can't wait to see it firsthand when we tour their facility on June 23-24 as part of the Field Trip we're hosting in partnership with NALP. 

The jobs that this team installs are not simple jobs. I've heard stories from their team of having to drive to different quarries to find the exact right tone of granite for a job, and then finding it at a quarry that had been more or less abandoned. This meant taking their own equipment out to load, cut, and haul the materials themselves. Their clients have high expectations, and yet they close jobs like this one without sales teams. 

So how do they do it and what can we learn from the way they operate?

1. They structure their company to best serve their ideal clients. While R.P. Marzilli's jobs are eventually enjoyed by the property owner, their team is typically working with the architect. This isn't an easy type of ideal client to serve: architects have high expectations for how their designs will come to life and also have the technical knowledge to notice any small detail that isn't done exactly right.
   
   Their team is set up to serve architects and landscape architects as their ideal clients. With project managers, skilled crews, and a leadership team who are as committed to craftsmanship and the end results as the architect is. They've structured their team to be a true partner to their clients, and in that structure, a salesperson wasn't needed. At your company: who is your ideal client? Is your company designed to serve them well? 

2. They understand the importance of their reputation to their success. R.P. Marzilli has a strong reputation, and their reputation is what's closing sales for them. R.P. Marzilli's project management skills have earned them the reputation they have, and they maintain and strengthen that reputation with every project they do by paying careful attention to quality and taking care of their client.

Your reputation is the result of what you do, day in and day out. To maintain or improve your own reputation, look first at the quality of work you do. Do you have systems in place to monitor and maintain quality? Are you training your team on how to do the job to your standards? 

I'm so grateful their team has agreed to open up their facility and show us how they operate next month, and I'm especially looking forward to touring one of their completed jobs myself during our after-hours Gather in the Garden event at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Are you signed up to join us June 23-24? It's going to be well worth the time away from the office, you have my word!

Marty Grunder
President & CEO
Grunder Landscaping & The Grow Group