Trellis Coaching - Trellis News Garden Design Newsletter & Attraction Marketing Coaching

Trellis News
The newsletter for Garden Designers

Welcome to the first ever edition of Trellis News, a totally new email publication that aims to help you expand your community and your business.

This first edition includes a "Garden Designer Needed" section, with a real client looking for a designer for their garden.

Letters Page -
Charging for Work - "I would like to know more about the correct procedures to charging for work. What are the current minimum rates for the various stages of work, for example, from the initial consultation and measuring up of the site through to project management of the job. Even, perhaps, actually building the garden as well." Christine Goodman

Design fees - "Is there an average price being quoted for the small, medium and large gardens. How can we work together to raise the prices to reflect the actual time spent on hand-drawings, visits, amendments etc. We find clients would prefer to pay a fixed fee for the entire design process rather than hourly charges which can add up quickly. What is the general consensus of opinion?" Beth Forster, Falhill Landscapes

Garden construction - "We feel that our industry has an image crisis. A large percentage of so-called 'Landscapers' are no more than jobbing builders with little or no horticultural experience or formal training. Designers who employ or recommend their services are often very disappointed with both the workmanship and the standard of service they receive.

Often a major source of friction between contractor and client is lack of communication. At Fallhill Landscapes both designers and customers are kept fully informed as the job progresses and their input is both expected and welcome. Our staff arrive on time and don't disappear onto other jobs, the client and their garden are treated with the utmost respect and the site is left as tidy as possible at the end of the day. We have true craftsmen on our teams specialising in skills ranging from traditional dry stone walling to innovative brickwork. Our Contracts Manager, Andrew Stanley, has many years of experience in building gardens and working side by side with designers, to ensure the client's budget is not exceeded as far as is possible. He runs three teams working throughout Oxfordshire and surrounding counties." Beth Forster, Falhill Landscapes

Contact details: Fallhill Landscapes Ltd. 49 The Green, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 9AB Telephone 01295 756610 Facsimile 01295 756615 email beth.forster@fallhill.co.uk www.fallhill.co.uk

if you would like to reply to Christine or Beth, please email your response to . Replies will be collated and forwarded onto them, and published in the next edition of Trellis News, or a summary if there's lots of replies.

Ten ways to put some 'magic' into your marketing

1. Identify your prospects - Who, exactly, are your ideal clients or customers? Without being able to clearly and concisely answer that question, your marketing campaign will be a hit-and-miss affair with little hope of real success. Too many people new to business think they have to sell to everyone - better to decide on your ideal client and think about where they go, what they read, who they know...........

2. Understand why people buy goods or services - People buy in order to feel good, or to satisfy a pressing need or desire, to alleviate their pain. They buy with their emotions and justify their decision with their logic. Give them good emotional reasons to buy, then show them why their purchase was a really sensible move.

3. Sell benefits, not features - People want to know what's in it for them - they buy solutions, otherwise known as benefits, not features. They want to know that your service or product will do something to improve their lives, rather than being interested in the details of how it does it. Examine your product or service from a customer's point of view.

4. Use simple language - Save your industry jargon for shoptalk with your colleagues. Keep it out of your sales literature, unless you are selling to the trade or highly technical market. Use plain language and keep sentences reasonably short.

5. Create a co-ordinated company image - Look at how you or your company appears to your customers. What effect do the colours, typeface, layout, paper, and so on of your stationery have on people and the image they have of you? Have you asked them? Think about the link between image and imagination - how do they imagine you will serve them based on the image that you put out? If you have a high quality product or service, you need to position yourself appropriately in the marketplace using well designed, high class promotional materials to project a consistent, congruent image.

6. Use free and low-cost advertising - Before spending a fortune on media advertising, consider the possibilities for self-publicity offered by story-hungry local newspapers and radio stations. Study them carefully and angle your copy to match their house style - for a local newspaper, the copy must have a news angle, not just be an advert about you. For services, where you're the product, how can your target audience get to meet you? Whatever your approach, track the results, otherwise you will never know what works and what doesn't.

7. 'Concatenate' your products or services - This is the process of forming logical links between your products and services so that one purchase will lead to others. Using this technique, you can approach prospects with low-cost or even free offers, knowing that a percentage of them will go on to buy your more profitable lines later on. Had you hit them with the expensive items first, it would possibly have been more difficult to make the sale. Each product should be complete in itself and have logical links to the others. Don't cheat by leaving something out of product 1 that forces them to buy product 2 - they'll feel ripped off!

8. Ask for referrals - When you have done a good job for someone, ask if they can suggest two or three other people who might also benefit from your service. Even if these new prospects don't buy, you should try to get additional referrals from them. Give people an incentive to recommend others, such as a voucher redeemable against future purchases.

9. Exceed people's expectations -Do something extra for your clients and customers without expecting payment. Time and time again it has been proved that people will pay more for exceptional service. Do more than you promise, and your name will be etched on your customers' memories - do less, and you may never see them again.

10. Learn from feedback - The most accurate and valuable market research you will ever do is face-to-face with your customers. If you want to know what they think of you, ask them! Ask them what they want and they will tell you in plain, jargon-free language. They'll love to tell you what you are doing right and what you could do better.

Interested in Kickstarting Your Marketing? Or maybe moving it up into the next gear? What ten action steps could you take today to get more clients? Want to learn about the Professional Services Marketing Cycle, diagnose your marketing ailments, and discover the missing ingredients for effective marketing? Want to keep up your momentum and motivation?

To find out how the Get Clients Now™ marketing course could help you expand your client base, email me at or ring me on 01243 545010

What to eat to prevent those aches & pains by Gabrielle Tappin,(Dip. Raworth), nutritionist

When choosing a plant for a garden you consider the amount of sun, rainfall, direction of the wind and the alkalinity of the soil. When eating food we should, but rarely do, consider the effects said food would have on our bodies.

All food metabolises to leave either an acidic or alkaline ash. If the diet is balanced in favour of foods that leave an acidic ash (meat, dairy produce, legumes, grains and alcohol) then aches and pains will result and eventually lead to health problems like arthritis and gout. When the body is too acidic minerals, especially calcium, are taken from the bones to maintain the balance of the blood, which for optimal health should be slightly alkaline at 7.4pH. If this happens frequently then osteoporosis will result. When the body is too acidic the cartilage in the joints dissolves leading to inflammation and pain. The nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, all peppers and tobacco) contain solanine, which interferes with enzymes in the muscles and may cause pain and discomfort.

The human body is naturally slightly acidic. To maintain this balance the diet needs to be 50%-70% of alkaline-forming foods (fruit, vegetables and soya products leave an alkaline ash). Sulphur containing foods (onions, leeks, garlic and eggs) help to repair and build bone, cartilage and connective tissue.

The diet also needs to contain adequate levels of Omega 3 fatty acids which are the essential fats needed to keep joints lubricated and prevent inflammation. The body can't make these and most people are deficient in them, but good food sources are flax-seed, fresh nuts, marine and freshwater algae and the fish that feed on them, and purslane.

So, suffering aching joints and arthritis isn't inevitable if you think about what you're eating. To find out more about how your diet directly affects your health and wellbeing, contact Gabrielle by email - gmtappin@aol.com or phone 07876 554872

Garden Designer Required

Below are details of the garden that Peter, this edition's client, is looking to have designed. If you're interested in putting yourself forward for this commission, send an email to and you'll receive details of how to proceed. Please note that due to the holiday season, the deadline for proposals is extended to 5th September 2002.

Peter's Garden: The garden is about 1/3rd acre, surrounding a Tudor farmhouse (although it doesn't look that old from the outside) in a large village in West Sussex.

Peter and his wife are a busy professional couple who both work from home, and they have 2 teenage children. The garden was originally designed before they had the children and several businesses to run and were able to devote 12-15 hours per week to gardening - now they only manage about 2-3 hours per week, and the garden has become a bit overgrown. Some of the areas of the garden still work OK but a lot don't, so the whole plan needs simplifying to provide low maintenance. They want to use the garden for entertaining and working in - a summerhouse type structure with phone & laptop link.

They like strong geometric designs softened with planting, and are more interested in the form of planting than colour. They do not like very modern designs. Their interior decorating style is traditional, lots of strong colours and lots of clutter, collections of objects, balanced with simple quiet areas.

Their budget for design and construct is around £5000 (excluding planting).

End piece/What's in it for me?

I hope that you've found something of interest in this edition, and I would really like to get any feedback from you on any aspect of Trellis News and its contents. Please do send in your questions and comments for publication in Edition 2, due out on 26 September by the deadline of 19th September.

Several of you have asked what's in it for me - well, I am a personal and business coach who works with professionals to expand their businesses, and I also have a love of gardens and garden design - I taught it for 10 years at adult ed level and designed quite a few gardens in that time, but I'm now concentrating on growing my client's businesses, rather than on growing plants!

A coach is the perfect blend of mentor, ally, motivator, sounding board and inspiration. Always in your corner, giving you the clarity to see where you really want to go and the confidence to get there. Less expensive than a consultant, with less commitment than with a business partner. Just like consultants, a coach helps you to solve problems, reach goals, design a plan of action and make decisions. The difference is that as a coach I always start from where you are now, not where I think you should be and I stay with you. I help you implement the plan of action, I'm there to bring out your best and keep you focussed on your own goals even when it all looks rather 'pear shaped'. I keep looking ahead to help you take advantage of opportunities as they appear, rather than missing them as they rush past.

If you'ld like to find out more about how you and your business could benefit from working with a coach, do give me a call.

Best Wishes

Annie Meachem

Trellis Coaching
+44 (0) 1243 545010
email
web www.trelliscoaching.com

"Supporting Personal & Business Growth"

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Copyright © Annie Meachem 2003/4. Copyright in this document is owned by Annie Meachem. All rights are reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed without the prior written consent of the Copyright owner.