From Where I Stand —

about buyer and seller meeting in the middle.

Think about the past few years. Consider the most successful, lucrative, and stress-free clients and what went well. Then, consider those awful, frustrating dogs of clients and what went so poorly. How do you communicate better to the good ones and avoid the pitfalls of the bad ones? Finish your final draft and walk away from your computer for an hour.

Now, here is the fun part. Open up your About Us page on the website and compare your drafts. How close are they? How did you start? Did you mention your start date? Years of service? Multitude of satisfied customers? Notable projects in the community?

Look at the specific adjectives you used to describe your services. Are they artistic? High end? Commoditized?

How do you describe your people? Are they Craftsmen? Professionals? Artists? Family? Team members? Are they mentioned at all?

How do you describe your client relationships? Are they stressfree? Hands-off? Hands-on? Do you mention their budgets? Do you boast they will be the envy of the neighborhood? Are they collaborators? Does your work make their dreams come true?

How do you end it? Do you leave it on a high note? Is there a call to action? Is there a quote? Is there a tagline? Does the conclusion circle back to the introduction? Do you encourage prospective customers to contact you or assume they will?

Here is where it comes full circle. That About Us section isn’t just a page on a website — it’s you. As I participated in these panels, those About Us sections morphed into people who shared those values and perspectives. The differences in sales philosophies, client relationships, maintenance, and how they viewed their own employees were in those About Us sections all along. Of course, these panels added depth and nuance, but the core values of those 300-400 words were wrapped around every response.

The images these panelists portrayed in those sections were authentic and personal. Those 300-400 words weren’t bland marketing copy — they ARE the business. They are probably the most important 400 words a business writes. You can’t reshape a business by changing the About Us section. It is just a mirror. It is a reflection of what a business values down to the word choice, length, and flow. The business can’t fake it because the business writes what they know.

Every business has friendly and unfriendly competition. There are companies we admire and attempt to emulate. There are others who make us shake our fists and our heads. Make a list of the top three companies you admire and three you don’t. Now, it’s time to review their About Us sections. How do the companies you admire present themselves versus the ones you don’t? Is your About Us section more or less similar than the ones of your biggest competitors? Do you now have a better understanding of why you lost that client or employee to them?

These are not just words written by copywriters and marketing firms. This is an entire culture, history, and philosophy tied up in a nice, digestible package. The easy part is writing the About Us section. The hard part is honestly changing it if we don’t like what those words say about us. Regardless of how we name them, the link on our webpages will never read “The way our business turned out because of factors beyond our control.” It has been, is, and always will be About Us. So, believe it when you read it.

Sincerely,

Scott Grams, Executive Director March 15, 2023

President

Jeff Kramer

Kramer Tree Specialists, Inc, (630) 293-5444 jwkramer@kramertree.com

Vice-President

Ashley Marrin

Bret-Mar Landscape Management Group, Inc. (708) 301-2225 ashley@bretmarlandscape.com

Secretary-Treasurer

Jim Cirrincione Hinsdale Nurseries, Inc. (630) 323-1411 jcirrincione@hinsdalenurseries .com

Immediate Past President Scott McAdam, Jr. McAdam Landscaping, Inc. (708) 771-2299 Scottjr@mcadamlandscape.com

Directors

Eric Adams Russo Power Equipment (847) 233-7811 eadams@russopower.com

Kim Hartmann Rosborough Partners 847-404-7669 hartmannkim@comcast.net

Ryan Heitman The Fisher Burton Company (847) 566-9200 ryanheitman@fisherburton.com

Tom Klitzkie Nature’s Perspective Landscaping (847) 475-7917 tklitzkie@naturesperspective.com

Dean MacMorris Night Light, Inc. (630) 627-1111 dean@nightlightinc.net

Kevin Manning K & D Enterprise Landscape Management, Inc. (815) 725-0758 kmanning@kdlandscapeinc.com

Kevin McGowen Kaknes/SiteOne 31W245 Diehl Road Naperville, IL 60563

Mark Utendorf Emerald Lawn Care, Inc. (847) 392-7097 marku@emeraldlawncare.com