Today I gave a presentation to a group of down-to-earth green industry professionals at the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association Winter Seminar. It’s always fun to help people grow their business, but it was an especially enjoyable day for me because it was an ILCA event just like this one nearly 20 years ago where my eyes were opened to the professionalism shared by other peers when I started my landscape business. Not many of those folks were here today, but the next generation is moving up, and that is exciting to see the enthusiasm continue to grow.
Now that the ‘going green’ thing – or whatever we are calling this wave of green awareness over the last few years is reaching a crescendo, I’m already hearing talk that … this too will pass. That may be true to some extent, but not as far as this industry is concerned. I received an education myself today that the quality and caliber of green industry individuals, as well as the quality of projects they are producing, is continuing to rise to new levels — including sound eco-systems that are evidently de-rigeur in certain municipalities.
The topic for the day was Selling The Right Way. Interesting to me to work together on this with a group of ecologists, arborists, and landscape architects. And why not? As we discussed today, sales is only helping people to get exactly what they want – the best overall complement of value – as defined by a whole new set of parameters in our increasingly professional industry. I wish them all well!
