Consistency and proactiveness is key in planning for an unpredictable time. The pivot to snow season can leave some businesses scrambling if they don’t have the right processes to hit the ground running. Is your business snow-proof and ready to go for the first snowfall? We’ll check out some essential and repeatable snow sales processes your business should adopt into its operations.
Establish a Budget
A recent study showed that 50% of small businesses did not create an official budget in 2020. That’s an alarming number considering that there aren’t established metrics and goals that determine when and how fast a business can scale.
Take the time to create a Snow & Ice budget to work with for the season. Through creating a budget, your business can dictate: how much in sales it needs to generate, where it can cut costs, and where to establish a bottom line for contract bids.
Download LMN’s Snow Overhead Calculator spreadsheet to help determine where you should set your business’ budget for the season.
Use Equipment to Drive Sales
It’s moments like these where you feel those equipment investments into your business paying off. Being well equipped for the snow season affords you the ability to bid lower than the competition through efficient work taking less time. Your business will be able to maintain its margins, and would have more wiggle room to cover overhead with the ability to work with higher efficiency and productivity. With the more contracts you can take, the more revenue will flow through your snow business.
Establish templates within your snow business to create a quick and repeatable sales process. Account for the earned time each piece of equipment will give back to the business, and bid accordingly.
Start Selling to Existing Customers
Retention is key for maintaining a profitable snow business. The first step sales needs to take is reaching out to extend or renegotiate past commercial and residential contracts. Given past, hopefully positive, rapport with past customers- these sales should bring in low-hanging fruit for the sales team to meet its goals.
When re-signing or renegotiating new contracts, make sure to keep a diverse roster of contracts to keep the cash flowing. Diverse contracts will be sure to cover your business in the event of a slow snow season. Look to these contract options:
- Billing snowfall per event or per inch
- Seasonal or monthly contracts
- All-Inclusive: Covers caps, threshold, and other restrictions
It’s fine to pick and choose the contracts your business wants to work with. Some options don’t mix with your business, so it’s important to have everything aligned to keep your business moving forward rather than bending backwards trying to accommodate.
Learn More
Sales drive cashflow, and implementing repeatable processes opens up extra time for other tasks. The other side of the coin is to cut waste to keep that cash flowing within the company, which will drive growth leading to scaling up your snow business.
Keep pushing to learn. The LMN Team crafted an ebook outlining 3 Major Wastes in Snow Business. Anticipate rather than react to waste within your snow business, and create the growth you want to see.
Be sure to secure your spot for LMN’s Snowday: Build a Better Snow Business workshop on Tuesday, September 14th. LMN CEO, Mark Bradley, walks snow business owners through key topics like:
- How to develop competitive and lucrative pricing systems
- Creating easily accessible snow response plans for each job site
- Preventing equipment loss
- How to protect your business from slip & fall issues
- Optimizing your snow operations
- And many more!
