Marketing Your Way Out of the Green Industry Commodity Trap

Chad Diller: If you've ever felt like your green industry business is competing in a market where everyone sounds the same and customers treat you like a line item or something on their to do list, you felt the commodity trap. But escaping it isn't just about better marketing. Sometimes it requires an identity shift, changing what you're known for and what category you're really playing in. Today we're talking about marketing your way out of the commodity trap with Lex Mason, president of Weathermatic Foreign. Hey, welcome back to the show. I'm Chad with Landscape Leadership, where we help lawn care, landscaping, tree service companies grow through cleaner positioning and marketing that actually helps them to become leaders in their marketplace. So if you love this kind of stuff, guess what, you're in the right place today. And I have a special guest for you. I have Lex Mason from Weathermatic. Lex, good to see you again.

Lex Mason: You too, buddy. Thanks for having me.

Chad Diller: Hey, so Lex and I have gotten to know each other through the industry. We're in the same spaces, conferences, events. Had some chance to hang out, um, a little bit more of extended time in person last time I saw him. And I, uh, really appreciate Lex's journey very similar to mine, starting in the green industry, kind of developing this love and passion for marketing. And there's some really cool things about the Weathermatic story. We're going to share in a few moments with you about how they made some real tactful moves, um, with their business. And I think that it'll be really insightful for contractors that are trying to narrow their positioning and be known for what they're really, really great at. So we'll get into some practical specifics here in a moment too. So, Lex, let's start off this way. If you were to say a one sentence reply when someone says to you, what is Weathermatic? What would you want that reply to be?

Lex Mason: I'd want it to be that we help landscape companies buy back their time in irrigation and redirect it towards bill activity. Irrigation is the number one resource part of their business that we, uh, see is under, resourced, underserved. And so we help people buy back that time through automation and coach them into really how to maximize their return.

Chad Diller: I love that. So we're going to unpack a little bit of the Weathermatic story here. So for, for some people that are listening or watching here that may have heard, may or may not have heard the name Weathermatic, um, there's kind of this full story where you kind of started out one place and ending up somewhere else. Now can you just Walk us through a little bit of the evolution of the company.

Lex Mason: Yeah, absolutely. So Weathermatic, I like to joke that Mike started it, my father, but uh, he didn't. He'd be like 100, you know, at this point if he had. But Weathermatic was founded in 1945 as a landscape company, installing landscapes and irrigation systems into the park cities, Preston Hollow area of, of North Texas here, um, couldn't get our hands on good parts. And so the original founder said, hey, let's put our engineering degrees to work and let's go build our own. And so that was really the genesis of the Weathermatic we know today was moving from landscape and irrigation installation into manufacturing. Now springboard, 50 more years we went through, you know, everything used to be brass and metals and then everything turned plastic. And then we got into controls and electronics and then had a piece of software come out. And now really we view ourselves as a solution company, uh, that brings together the people kind of advisory and coaching the processes. Right. So standard operating procedures, how to run an irrigation division like a business unit. And then finally technology, our piece of smartlink that wraps around the whole thing and really, uh, delivers that return.

Chad Diller: Yeah, you guys are definitely addressing major pain points, not just one of those things, and then letting the other things else burn in the background. So I appreciate that. Uh, uh, what kind of clients are you? Like, what's the ideal Weathermatic client? What's the company size, what's their, you know, markets, what, what are they doing with their businesses?

Lex Mason: Yeah, 90% of our clients are a maintenance bias, right. So, you know, 50 plus percent of the revenue comes from landscape maintenance, both in the commercial and the residential space. Um, but if you look at the profile, 90 plus percent of the clients that we work with are in the three to $30 million range. Um, we have a handful of hundred million dollar plus players in there and we also have, you know, a few dozen kind of 1 to 3 million. But the primary group that we serve is that kind of upper middle part of the market, from 3 to 30 million.

Chad Diller: What do you think was like historically or even now that you're still seeing, what category did you feel like people were lumping your business into? And you're like, no, no, that's not right. That's not what we do.

Lex Mason: Yeah, well, I mean, probably fairly so they were doing that, right? Because the first, uh, 75 years of existence we were a manuf company. So the first five years we were a landscape contractor. The next 75, you know, we were a manufacturing company competing with the Likes of, of Hunter and Rain Bird and just to kind of show and put that story to bed. Um, last year, uh, we had. Over 50% of our revenue now is sourced from software and services compared to manufacturing. So it's a, it's not just a. Lex is claiming this. This is physically, we are a technology business today.

Chad Diller: Yeah. And that matters how your target clients perceive you, because the market category you're placed in determines kind of who you compete against and what you're able to charge, uh, for the services or products, uh, that you're offering. So let's talk a little bit about what does it feel like when you're stuck in the wrong category when you say whether Matic was kind of and sometimes can be perceived as a manufacturer. Um, what did that feel like? Or what does it still feel like when people say that?

Lex Mason: Yeah, absolutely. One, ah, it absolutely is tough to hear because of the amount of time, money and effort put into moving us into this new category of like a technology solution provider consultancy coaching for this irrigation division. But I'll tell you this, Chad. We would never, ever be where we are if we didn't have that 70 years of industry manufacturing expertise to really know who are the clients that we're working with. So we are not some, um, you know, uh, Silicon Valley startup who had a piece of technology that wanted to sell to landscape companies. Smartlink was born inside of Weathermatic, who had been servicing this industry for over 75 years at the time. And so while it's, hey, you know, we got to go and re educate kind of the market as to who, you know, we're not. Your granddad's Weathermatic is kind of my internal Weathermatic joke with everyone. Um, but between the events we do, the shows that we show up to, uh, and sponsor, um, you know, I'm taking a page out of your book. I'm trying to do as many webinars and podcasts and things like that just to help us, you know, preach that story. It's certainly a head nod to the past and it's recognition of what got us there, but also a strong motivator to go. We've got to go and get in front of this thing and help the industry learn who we are and ultimately what we do.

Chad Diller: Yeah, I think you and I can identify with, like, you start a business in one, uh, mode of action, then it kind of evolves over time where you make big moves and changes. But I think our audience also has some of those pain points too, because they've kind of changed positioning and added services took things away, changed audiences, which we'll get to in a little bit. Um, and so this pain point exists for any type of business. You know, landscape Leadership started as a paid message board in 2008 and Chris, the founder, you know, he had this passion for marketing and people, he kept talking about things and appearing on webinars and, and people were like, can you help me with my stuff? And and all of a sudden then we became this marketing agency and there's been a shift to even within being a marketing agency in the last few years to kind of focus more on media creation too. We still do a lot of the other stuff, but you, you kind of evolve as a business at, at time. And I think the contractors in our industry feel this. Um, and then what happens is if you're confused with others that often do the same thing, you become this commodity that doesn't really stand out. And then price all of a sudden becomes a filter. And it's super frustrating. You can't um, stand out. So let's back up again. Let's talk about Weathermatic. So what were some fundamental things that you did as a business to change that perception? Things maybe you stopped doing? How did you reposition to kind of redefine what people knew Weathermatic to be?

Lex Mason: Yeah, I mean the very first thing we did, even before, you know, a big marketing sprint and push, the first thing that we did was that we took control of the customer acquisition process. Right. We put our people trained on our message. Um, because our industry for a, I mean, and still even to today, the manufacturing industry was completely reliant on a middleman, right. On a distributor to go and uh, basically represent everything. And so your, your livelihood, right, was in this third party's hand. And so trying to go and train somebody else to train somebody else on um, the storyline. It was after 10 years of pushing that rock, it was very obvious that that wasn't going to be the path to success. And so we brought that inside sales, inside marketing team in house to connect ultimately with our ideal, you know, prospects being that upper middle market landscape maintenance firm and go and just tell them the story. That was the easy button, right? That's what I grew up doing. I knew how to do that. And today right now it's so much more velocity and impact can be had by doing it via uh, you know, digital marketing, doing it through events and shows and things like that. So we started with uh, I'll call it the manual process, right? The smile and dial and let's just go Tell one person at a time what we do and the value that we bring. And that was a wonderful start for us to get out there. And from there it, you know, word of mouth is still our number one, you know, customer acquisition channel. Uh, we're working quickly on uh, making that not the case, you know, anymore. We want, we want to get better with digital, we want to get better with online presence and uh, you know, representation at shows and events. But that is ultimately it was a, we're going to take control of our destiny, take control of our future, and um, go to the individuals that we bring the most value to and ensure that they hear that message straight from our mouth.

Chad Diller: So changing the customer experience right from the beginning, taking that internally, that helped. What are some other practical ways? Like were there any specific things you did, like looking at your organization, like your, your core message, product direction, road mapping that stuff out? Were there any tactical moves that you made as an organization laid out or maybe these are things that you do have planned now that you're kind of in midstream for? What did that look like as you, as you tried to reshape the way people viewed your, your business?

Lex Mason: Absolutely. I mean at the time, uh, if I, if I flashback, you know, 10 years ago when we go through this shift, and I see this too, Chad, you know, I just got back from, from a conference and the number one thing that uh, you know, the host company spoke about was grow maintenance. Grow maintenance, Right. They were trans, transitioning from a super high end design build residential firm, backyard projects, new construction into we want to go grow high end commercial maintenance. Right. So you're exactly right to your earlier point. People in this industry right now are trying to change what channels and markets they serve for us when we move from manufacturing into delivering a solution. No, uh, one in our industry, in the old manufacturing industry had anyone with a title around onboarding or anyone with a title of customer success or implementation managers. It was pretty much a1,800 number for technical support and then a area sales rep who you know, schmoozed at the, at the distribution counter, kind of like that was the model. I have more people in onboarding and implementation than I do in sales today. And that was a team that did not even exist, you know, 10 years ago when we set out on this mission to help landscapers build world class irrigation departments. Um, so that, I mean one tangible change. Yeah, the headcount required to take someone, build their business processes, implement a piece of software and as well as our hardware platform, um, that absolutely Is the biggest difference maker today compared to before?

Chad Diller: Yeah. I mean, you guys kind of are in a category of your own now, which is a great place to carve out as a business. But even if you were, like, had some overlap and you were compared to other companies, I think that's a great lesson for our audience to learn because you can have the same positions in your company that all your competitors have, but there are some times that you can create different positions and roles and activities that all of a sudden make you not comparable to your other counterparts. And that's a really cool, uh, step that you guys did there. Did you do anything different with how you position, product direction, you pricing?

Lex Mason: Um, pricing was another big thing for us. Uh, we had, you know, for a long time, everyone in our industry had only sold things one way. It was, hey, here's the retail price. Maybe you can buy it at a little bit of a discount, um, based on volume, but cash due in 30 days or less, frankly, uh, or a lot of people's credit agreements, um, over the counter. We woke up one day and realized, hey, you know what? Um, how do our customers get paid? Our customers get paid monthly, right? If we're serving the landscape maintenance, how many maintenance clients, certainly in the upper end, residential or commercial world, get paid one check up front for the whole year of service? No one, right? No one is writing a check for 12 months of service, day one. So it hit us like a ton of bricks going, why is the only way you can buy anything from Weathermatic or Smartlink cash due, you know, on arrival? Uh, and so when we matched our billing and our pricing model to the way that our clients get paid, major, you know, velocity improvement, that's, uh, I, uh, don't want to underestimate, you know, how much that did for us. And that pairing with, you know, an onboarding plan that goes, it's not just something in a cardboard box that we're going to sell you and walk away from, but we're going to guide you through that process. And, you know, Chad, today too are, you know, we take ownership over our clients, return on investment. And so to your point of when you get paired to another manufacturer competitor, Funny, um, you know, funny, funny story. And I won't, I won't name drop in it, but we had an incredible client in the Pacific Northwest prospect that was all over us, that it was a perfect fit. We were going down and I didn't hear from him for like a month. And we were supposed to be, you know, wrapping things up, getting started, planning Our launch. In fact, I think I'd already bought our onboarding team's plane tickets to go up there with him because he had made a verbal commitment. And, um, you know, things happen. And I hear from him a month later, and I go, hey, buddy. Like, what's. What's going on? I thought we were, you know, moving forward. And, uh, this is, you know, six, seven years ago now. Um, and he came back and said, well, you know, my, um, relative works for one of your largest competitors in the product side. Um, I owed it to him to go walk through what y' all are doing and give them a shot at it. And ultimately, Lex, they declined a bit. They declined to even submit a. Hey, I can't. I can't price it that way. I can't service you that way. I can't onboard you that way. And I definitely can't, you know, structure any kind of a guaranteed performance for your business that way. And, Chad, that was like, the light bulb moment for me personally. Go, guys. Like, Weathermatic gang. We got something here. Yeah, we need to throw fuel in the fire. We're in a league of. You know, Alex Hormozi talks about, you know, you're in a category. You know, I'm, um. I'm, um, one of zero, right? We're in a category of one. Let's move fast.

Chad Diller: That's great. You know, there are things that I see, like, in my own sales process, where I often point out, hey, I want to point out, like, three things that are fundamentally different about us. And then what I find is, is when other. When people go to, like, competitors, they're kind of asking those questions they never would have asked in the first place. And they're going, well, they're not even prepared to answer this. Their structure, completely different. And if you would not have directed the person in the sales process to even think about those things, like, the situation went different. So, um, that's great that it's been working out with you. So, yeah, I love that. I think our audience can benefit from, you know, you can also structure payment terms, product delivery, and the overall experience differently, and that can help you stand out in a category your own, even when there's other people doing similar things. I want to translate this a little bit more to the contractors that are listening to this, um, and the examples that we're seeing in the industry. So there. There are three. Three types that I want to kind of go through, and I want to throw out some of this repositioning that I'm seeing there. Not um, asking you to solve problems for their business. Just react as a person that looks really critically at your own brand and a leadership perspective. And I just want to mix it up some, to see some of your reactions or hear about some stories that you've. You've gotten into. So, exam spot.

Lex Mason: Let's. Let's do it.

Chad Diller: Let's do it right. Uh, example one is, I've seen this a lot where you have a full service company that niches down. So one of them is, you know, we've a. We've been a generalist, you know, lawn and landscape provider, whether you're in commercial, residential. And they realize one particular thing is driving a ton of profit for you and everything else that's giving you a lot of revenue and activity and team members and equipment has become an enormous headache. So I've had some clients that now are way over on the other side of the finish line from this, where they, they decide, hey, lawn care treatments, that's what we're going to do as a business. Or maybe they pick one or two things. Lawn care and irrigation. We're not doing full service maintenance, anything like that. What has to be true for a business that's doing that, you know, how. How do they niche down? And what kind of experiences have you had where you've talked to people in the industry that have done that?

Lex Mason: Well, you know, I think there's a. I think there's some wisdom behind the term. You know, the riches are in the niches. Um, and. And I believe that we were. We were trying to be everything to everybody for a very long time. Um, you know, just speaking from personal experience. And my, My wife's favorite joke is, Lex, you're a monomaniac. As soon as. As soon as you get one thing on your mind, like, that's all you think about until it's done or it's mastered, it's acquired, whether it's a, uh, hey, I want to figure out how, you know, um, how did Rolex become the crazy? You can't get it, but there's a million stories. I was like, how do. How do I become like that brand over here? And, you know, studied it ruthlessly to figure out, oh, my gosh, like, they sell more watches than anyone, but you can't get them. Like, how does that whole thing work anyway? The niche category one, it unites your team. So, um, if I had to give advice to anyone, the best thing that we ever did at Weathermatic was we had gotten sprawl. I had bought a drip company. We had bought a golf company. We had bought a, a uh, filtration company. We still had our uh, we actually had a oil and gas compress metal compression fitting business in our, in our factory until you know, about, you know, I guess now nine years ago. Wow. Um, and we went through about a 36 month period Chad, of we sold the metal compression fitting business, we sold off the drip business, we sold off, you know, bought and then resold the golf business. Um, we even went so far as to take our, you know, we do national like water management as a service to large, uh, multisite real estate owners and developers across the country. We even took that business down to just bare bones service and support. Only divested from all sales and marketing efforts there. Also, um, pulled as many resources out of our manufacturing sales and marketing processes to say, you know what, we're going to farm those two revenue resources and support it. But 100% of our go to market our strategy, our product development are going to focus on this landscape channel. Um, and Chad, we have our business. Even with dissolving or selling those three other businesses and going down to a skeleton crew on the other two. Our business has tripled in the past uh, 10 years by focusing on it. So not everyone's experience is that way. But brother, ours, it was the best thing we ever did was uniting a team around a common vision, eliminating distractions. I forget who said this, but I think it's um, I think it's a wonderful quote in a way that I view it. Time is not our most precious resource. It's not time, it's attention. What we're giving our attention to, that's our most precious resource. It's what are we choosing to do with that. And so when I made that mental shift, uh, one, it was the best thing we ever did for employee retention, for growth, for profitability. Um, so I am absolutely in the camp of the riches are in the niches. Uh, and I will uh. It would take a lot to convince me otherwise.

Chad Diller: Yeah, so you said two different things there. They were kind of my two, two next uh, scenarios. Um, we'll tackle the one first. And this is one I see a lot with companies is they drop a client type that they work with. So you talk about dropping, you know, one of those sections and in our industry it's like pick a lane. And they decide to pick the lane that we're either going all commercial or we're going all residential. Because there becomes complexity when you try to do both. And like you said, attention is so spread across um, even the way you create processes, the equipment you buy and all that changes. And so I'm sure you've seen this where you've had businesses that have said we're going this way, um, any more to share about those experiences, feedback that you might have gotten from clients.

Lex Mason: I have an incredible example. I mean that again that just hammers home this point. And it's actually Chad, it's not even the move from residential to commercial like this is even more niche. Um, a group out of Phoenix, uh, Arizona Proqual, good friend Scott Needham. Scott, um, Murray, Nick, uh, run and operate this business. Scott just recently exited successfully there that business sold it to the, the Sperver group. But flashback 10 years ago, um, he had his branch managers all together and they were managing about 185 clients. They were doing I think right around 10 million at the time. And you know that, that's that stress point that you and I have both seen at companies when you get to that size and you go okay, how are we going to scale and grow from here? And um, the team came together and ultimately decided hey, we don't want to switch what market we're in from commercial to residential or vice versa. We want to go up market. And so what they did very strategically over the next couple of seasons, they started about 185 clients at roughly 10 million top line. Um, when he exited it was more than three times that with 85 clients. And so they successfully scaled, you know, up to that point, made that exit and um, one created more earning opportunity for those branch leaders and operators like that incredibly well. When you go and you niche down and you get hyper focused on that. They defined who their ICP was and they didn't let anybody else in the room. And uh, and speaking kind of more generically, not their situation but um, I think people are often so nervous to let go of a client or to not do that. And I've seen people handle it incredibly tactfully. Um, a 20 increase notice will do basically the same thing that a termination letter will do.

Chad Diller: Yes.

Lex Mason: However, um, and firsthand experience and with working with now a couple thousand like landscapers across the country, it would shock you how many clients say okay, yeah, we want y'. All, um, we're willing to pay the premium because, because we want your service because our landscape assets are important to us. And so that, that has also been the, I think kind of like the huh moment um, when people are moving to a different market or they're moving up, there is a price where it makes sense for. Okay, well, I just moved this residential account into commercial account territory because of the margin that we're able to achieve on it. So two kind of antidotes there. But, uh, yeah, focus on who your ideal client profile is there. You know, strategically exit from those that are holding you back from getting to that point. Um, but involve your team. M. I mean, that's got to be the ruthless commitment to team involvement.

Chad Diller: Yeah. And you can do that in like really big moves or you can do it slowly over time. You know, I think about even us, the clients that we work with and the minimum level engagement, where it was, you know, 10 years, almost 10 years ago when I came here and where it is now, we've slowly moved that up. So as you're acquiring new clients, they are bigger clients, and then you restrict the amount of new clients that you have that you're serving. And I think that as a business, whether you're a contractor or you're someone like us, the fewer relationships you have to manage, the better you are at relationships. So fewer clients, deeper with those clients is always better. I love that. So the third one is this, um, so you're saying you can go up market, change your ICP to get fewer clients that are doing just the same amount of revenue or more and you're making more profit. Um, I had also mentioned, you know, maybe you decide to phase out either residential or commercial over time. I see that happen with clients that are really successful and very profitable. The third one is, okay, we're not going to fully phase out, but we're going to redefine what our core proficiency is. So they might end up that their core proficiency is maintenance or design build. So I've, I have companies that are their design build and they do a handful of maintenance and everything about their marketing and messaging branding screams building custom backyards, huge resorts. And they pick and choose what maintenance work they want. I have other clients that are completely on the other side where they're doing a ton of, they have a really great process, they do a ton of maintenance work, they're in a tight market and they pick and choose which design build projects they want. And they only take on so many. So they only have, you know, so many crews for, for that design build work or whatever. What about narrowing, like, not excluding one thing, but just saying, you know, we're going to be known for this and we can take this, but then we'll. We're not, we don't have the pressure over here. What, what kind of experience do you have maybe doing that at your business or other contractors doing that?

Lex Mason: Yeah, that's, you know, for us, the, the way that we look at that are, you know, multi branch, you know, large landscape companies need, you know, radically more help when they sign a contract with us. Right. And so we, what we've done is we've essentially built what we call like our easy onboarding, um, method, you know, product. Right. That we do when someone signs an agreement with us. We have a certain scope for companies in that like 1 to $7 million range because it sets them up for success. It gets them to that point in about 45 days we go do it. But we used to treat everybody the same in that category. We had to build a kind of a 90 day platform, a 90 day rollout plan for the larger kind of enterprise clients because we're training multiple branches, we're training multiple irrigation managers, multiple account managers, all those things. So we kind of segmented into those two buckets. Uh, in the landscape industry, you know, what I've seen is when companies can get to where their business overhead is completely covered by the margin that the maintenance division generates, then you can afford to get incredibly picky on what work you do in design build or construction. And I think that's been, uh, for me, that's been the largest trend that I've seen of people who have kind of feel like they've gotten trapped in this residential design build. Um, not everyone's design build budget is the same as their, you know, recurring maintenance budget. And so, yeah, they might go do a 50, $60,000 project, but then that client wants to pay $215 a month for, for maintenance. And it just doesn't pencil to drop a trailer and, and, and you know, dedicate two or three crew members to that location. Um, so when you can get maintenance set up to where it covers your nest like it covers your overhead, then absolutely to your point, then you can pick and choose what, what work you want that pencils, because you're not fighting to take everything to keep the lights on. Um, you can get picky. And that absolutely rolls uphill into brand when those pictures and the projects that you get known for are the project work that you want to do. When those two things line up, man, then the, the lead funnel, I mean the velocity there just, just uh, takes a whole nother step up.

Chad Diller: Yeah. I can tell you from a marketing agency perspective, the less focused you are on your core proficiency, the harder our job is because if you have a client and they're all about high end design, build affluent clientele. All the visuals, the language, all of it is focused on that. And it doesn't necessarily exclude you from getting small projects, but it can because I've had some that said, I don't want these. I'm sick and tired of getting people that want the $2,000 walkway. I want people to come here and go, oh, they're expensive. And if that's your reaction, they're gone. Because they don't want those types of people. So it's, it makes marketing so much easier if you pick a focus and hone that down as much as you possibly can.

Lex Mason: Well, and I think too, I mean the, and uh, I've had these interactions before and we've coached on this before too, is don't be nervous or anxious about sharing your minimum. People often shy away from sharing their minimum project size, their main, their minimum monthly maintenance, um, plan their minimum enhancement, um, you know, budget when they're take on clients like that. If, uh, if you want to niche down, if you want to focus, but also you're gun shy about communicating what your minimum is. Um, to filter and screen out. That's a hard task or that's a lot of time being spent disqualifying people who could have opted themselves out originally.

Chad Diller: Yeah, it's amazing how many times I talk to a prospective client or a new client and I uncover they have minimums. Like they have this policy but you can't find it anywhere publicly. Like it's not on any pages, it's not in any FAQs, they don't have it there. So we position that. And then to your point about like packages or maintenance, the minimum, if you have a minimum price starting at. And the other, um, that's important. The other thing that I've seen some clients do, they say listen, we'll take a maintenance client, but not if they're doing, not doing these other two high profit services like irrigation, maintenance and lawn care treatments.

Lex Mason: So the maintenance irrigation or we can't get lawn care if we can't get arbor, then regardless of our minimum, hey, we're not for you. We're full service. We don't, we don't. A la carte.

Chad Diller: Yeah. So when you position a maintenance service, we've done this, we say you have to take. These are core services that are included and then you can add two or more of any of the following and then you list the other stuff you can do and that way you know every single maintenance is getting turf care or getting irrigation management and then the other stuff you can add to customize the program.

Lex Mason: All right, like firsthand with us. Um, and this is mainly due to the, you know, little, you know, $100, $200 wi fi free plug and play controllers that, I mean there's a million and one different brands, makes and models that are out there. Um, our team is trained to communicate what, you know, the cost is of our service on the first call. Because you, as you would imagine, right, the number of contractors that reach out to us to go, oh, hey, saw your inspection tool, saw your proposal, saw your Aspire LMN Granum or QuickBooks integration, like, we're super interested in that. And then they find out, not just that, not just that we're, hey, we're, you know, 30, 40 bucks a month for it. They throw up on that. It's not free. Um, because these, these WI FI controllers, you know, they're kind of one trick pony. You can turn stuff on and off. I mean, great for a DIY kind of homeowner deal. Um, and so, uh, I mean, again, two or three years ago we had to go, okay, nope, we've got to communicate this early and often so that we don't go through an sdr, an account executive, and we go through two or three meetings to hit someone with a proposal and then go, wait, there's a recurring fee for this. It's like, like where do you think the software, how does the software get paid for? Uh, but you know what, Shame on us for, you know, having to learn that lesson. Um, but yeah, you would, you wouldn't believe that the kind of feedback and reactions that, to some people playing, playing in, you know, that, that part of the market. So we had to get very clear on what we do and what we charge for and you know, what we don't charge for.

Chad Diller: Yeah, talk about pricing in your marketing, make it easy to find and if you're doing it in the sales process, do it as, as early as possible so you're not wasting your time. I agree with that. I think the keys here that we had talked about is being purposeful and being consistent. You know, if you're going to change what people know, what you do and who you serve, you have to not just do this haphazardly. So before we close up, Lex, I just have a bunch of random rapid fire questions I want to ask you and would love to get your response to this. If there's a hill that you would die on. When it comes to the landscape industry, what is it?

Lex Mason: If you're in the landscape business. You're also in the water business, whether you know it or not.

Chad Diller: All right, what is something the industry believes that you think is just wrong,

Lex Mason: that you can't win in a certain category in every city. The number of offices that we've walked in that say, oh, you can't make money in commercial because of this, this and this, or you can't make money in residential because all these things. But then I go across the street and that company's killing it in commercial or killing it in residential. So if you're not winning, let's help you figure out how to win.

Chad Diller: And if you could ban one marketing phrase from a contractor website forever, what would it be?

Lex Mason: That we're great communicators, but, uh, are you going to market that you're not or that you're okay at communicating with your client? Uh, but great, great communication, I think is like the, the key word or the sticky word right now.

Chad Diller: Yeah, it's if you're not, if you can't find a competitor that is a proponent for the opposite, it doesn't matter. It's marketing noise. Leave it, Leave it. All right, Another question. What one belief companies have to drop to escape the commodity trap, that they can't fire clients.

Lex Mason: That is the number one thing that we see is fear. To move, you know you need to move into commercial, you know you need to move into residential, you know you need to move up market, but you're horrified to leave those clients behind.

Chad Diller: So if a business owner knows they need to reposition their business, we talked about several different ways to do that. What's something. What's the first move that they could make this week or this month?

Lex Mason: Absolutely. Go through and rank your client list. A, B and C. Who are the A's that you want to keep? No matter what the B's that, hey, uh, you're going to hit them with a double digit increase because you know a majority of them are going to say yes. And then the Cs that you go, I really want to fire them, but if they'll pay me 20, 25% more money, we'll keep them on for another season. A, B and C and rate that off of your increase.

Chad Diller: Awesome tips. All right, last one is this. Where can people learn more about Weathermatic?

Lex Mason: Yeah, absolutely. So one, uh, weathermatic.com keep it easy. I try to be as active on, on LinkedIn as I can, so connect with me there. Um, I host a webinar every month as well, just to kind of give more sneak peeks. Into what we do, who we work with and, you know, the businesses that we serve. And, uh, I think Chad, uh, and I both will probably be at 50 or 60 shows this year. So come see me in person. Chances are, if you're anywhere, come see us. We have our Smart Con event in San Antonio coming up that Chad's speaking at. So, uh, I'm either somewhere physical or on LinkedIn are, uh, two great places to find us. Or to learn more about Weathermatic, you can visit our website.

Chad Diller: Awesome. Lex, always a pleasure talking about marketing in the green industry with you. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Lex Mason: Thanks Chad. Thanks for having me.

Chad Diller: If you take one thing from this episode, it's this. Escaping the commodity trap isn't about louder marketing. It's about a clear identity and sharpening your positioning. So lawn care, landscaping, tree service, contractors, if you're trying to specialize, move up market or stop competing on price, this is the work. Decide what you want to be known for next and then make some hard decisions and build marketing that reinforces where you want to go. If you love this episode, please share it with your industry peers. Give us a five star rating wherever you're finding this episode. Thanks so much. Have a really great day.