Building a High End Client Experience

Kyle Hunt: Thanks for tuning into the Remodelers on the Rise show. Whether you're listening or watching, I appreciate you being here. If this was helpful, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss the next one. We're putting out new episodes every single week focused on helping you build a better remodeling business with real stories, practical ideas, and things you can actually take and use. If you're on YouTube, hit that like button and turn on notifications so you know when new episodes drop. everybody to the Remodelers on the Rise show. A lot of times I have guests that I kind of sort of know, haven't really spent much time with, ⁓ that I just literally got to know for 10 minutes before we started, plus some email communication. But today I have a friend and a colleague who I've spent, I broke bread with, fancy bread, fancy bread, ⁓ and spent a lot of time really talking deeply about life, but also about our businesses. He's in a mastermind, a peer group.

Jeffrey Scott: Hmm.

Kyle Hunt: If you're listening on a podcast app, a five-star review goes a long way and helps more remodelers find the show. We've got great links below or in the show notes where you can connect with us, check out our remodelers community and learn more about our coaching and resources. Appreciate you very much. See you on the next episode. with me, he invited me to his peer group a number of years ago. His name is Jeffrey Scott. He's the president of Jeffrey Scott Consulting. It's a pleasure to have you on the Remodeling on the Rye Show, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Scott: Kyle, I am so honored. You are, you're the man.

Kyle Hunt: I did send a note to our peer group mastermind this morning. said, guys, Matthew, Tom, I'm so nervous. I'm interviewing Jeffrey. I've never been so worked up to talk to a guest before. The pressure is high. ⁓ And I'm sure they got a little chuckle out of that. And I was saying breaking really good bread. It's interesting. Our mastermind group, Jeffrey, does coaching, consulting peer groups in the landscaping space. I do on the remodeling side. We have somebody that's more on the AV kind of video side of things. And then we have a consultant named Matthew, who is a consultant for restaurants and tell the people what happens when we get together in person.

Jeffrey Scott: We eat well and we drink well and we get visited by the owner of the restaurant to make sure we're eating well and drinking well.

Kyle Hunt: Yes. Yes, because when you have like a ⁓ wonderful coach for restaurants in Matthew Mabel and we're in his hometown, ⁓ we get treated. I just sit there. just, don't order anything. I just let the other gentlemen take care of that for me.

Jeffrey Scott: It's interesting his indecision because he knows so many great restaurants. He's like, where do we go when we go visit him?

Kyle Hunt: Yes. Yes. Jeffrey, tell the people kind of your little background, how you got into doing what you're doing, what you kind of mainly do. We're going to talk about at the start here after he does the introduction, kind of comparing the clients and the high-end landscapers that Jeffrey's worked with and helped and comparing that to high-end remodelers. What do those two worlds kind of have in common? I think from the remodeling side and a lot of you listening to this, ⁓ hopefully we'll able to glean some ideas from that. Hey, let me take a quick break to say this. One of the biggest shifts I've seen in remodelers over the years happens when they get in a room with other growth-minded business owners. That's what the Rise Conference is all about. August 11th and 12th in Ann Arbor, Michigan, pricing, leadership, production, marketing, and most importantly, real conversations with people who understand your world. We're talk about kind of what success looks like. And then we're talk about Jeffrey's ⁓ little summit, his summer growth summit that's coming up in August, because you listening to this, some of you may do some landscaping work. Some of you are good buddies with people that should come to this summer growth summit. We'll tell you guys about that as well. But Jeffrey, how'd you get doing what you're doing? What's your backstory? If you want clarity and momentum heading into the next season of your business, this is a great place to get it. And it's a lot of fun. You can find all the info at remodelersontherise.com slash rise. Now let's keep going.

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ man. It's a long story, Kyle. I don't even know if you know all of it. You probably do, but, ⁓ so I grew up in the industry, right? My family were the first gunite pool builders in Connecticut. It's early pool industry. My grandfather, ⁓ right after world war II started building pools. He was the first guy to do gunite and my dad started his own pool company. And by the way, we are the pool mafia in Connecticut. So I have an uncle in the pool business, two brothers in different pool companies. I have a cousin who's got his own very successful pool business. So if you need the pool mafia in Connecticut or surrounding States, just let me know.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. Okay, interesting, interesting.

Jeffrey Scott: So my dad is a designer really. And he saw that all the, he saw that the landscaper got the credit for his pools once they put the sod down, because that's when the client got happy. They're like, ⁓ look how beautiful the pool is. And so he said, we're going to do landscaping and pool. I grew up in a landscaping and pool company. And. But. Well, no, buts. So I grew up doing that, ⁓ but it's hard work.

Kyle Hunt: Mm. Mm.

Jeffrey Scott: Working outdoors is really hard. So I'm like, I'm going to go do a different career. And I studied engineering and I earned my MBA and I did consulting in Europe. Uh, and then I came back right after, you know, 32, I think, uh, came back to the U S and said, I'm ready to rejoin the family's landscape company that had grown to 5 million at that point. Uh, this is a few years back. And so I ran, I worked in that business. I ran it for a few years. And it was a family business with a lot of family members. How many of your clients have like, or family businesses probably.

Kyle Hunt: There's a good chunk. I'm seeing a lot of transition from mom and dad to siblings and definitely some third generation activity going on as well.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. So it's hard, hard, hard work to be a successful family business. And we did therapy together as family. Really? We, we joined councils and we did education and, but after giving it a heart, the good college tries, so to speak, my wife is like, you know, this is just not working out. And I knew it, but she was living it. And so she convinced me to go back into consulting and focus on the green industry and

Kyle Hunt: Hmm

Jeffrey Scott: was a great idea she had and so I have been doing that for 18 years now since 2008 I think is when we started. And you so I sold my shares that I had in the family business and we beloved it, I'm it's hard work just like owning up remodeling business is really hard work. But we've loved it.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. Cool, wonderful, wonderful. And I had heard most of that story. I hadn't heard the mafia angle, but I think that was figuratively speaking. I think he was tongue-in-cheeking that. But it sounds like you need a little this, you need a little that. We had you covered in the great state of Connecticut. Do you miss Connecticut? Because you moved down from Connecticut down to New Orleans not too long ago. What do you miss about up north?

Jeffrey Scott: Yes. I have to go back to the mafia for a little bit. So my dad is half Italian, half ⁓ Polish. Although with the DNA, I just learned that my grandmother's DNA is really from Lithuania and not Poland, but that's all different story. ⁓ so all my relatives are of Italian descent, these cousins and uncles. And so it may actually be the mob there in Connecticut. I'm just saying. Yeah.

Kyle Hunt: Goes deep in the pool, the old pool mom. So let's kind of dive into this thought of when you think of your high-end landscapers, your established design build landscaping companies, you think about kind of the design build, really established remodeling companies. What do you see that they might have in common? What comes to mind?

Jeffrey Scott: came up with eight commonalities. I mean, there's, there's a lot like in the landscape world, we deal with residential and we deal with commercial. And so really we're talking about residential here. ⁓ and I'm from that, right. Coming from the pool and landscape industry. That's, that's high end. ⁓ and so God, where do you want to start here? I have a list here of eight things. Yeah.

Kyle Hunt: Woo! Woo! Mm-hmm. Let's start with number one. I bet you what we're gonna do is we're gonna go one all the way through eight. We're gonna riff back and forth on it. And the people listening to it are gonna be like, that was some good, that was some good content. Ooh, that reminded me of that. Ooh, I need to lean more into that. That's what's gonna happen. Starting with number one. What's number one?

Jeffrey Scott: Okay. They both sell to emotionally invested clients. It's a very much an emotional sale. You're fulfilling a client's dream. You're working around their homes, their identities, their lifestyles, their family, their sense of success. Right. And so this is an emotional sale. And I think the more your sales people understand that and treat it that way, the more successful you will be in.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: really the happier your clients would be.

Kyle Hunt: Interesting, interesting. Even that thought of, hmm, even the sense of success, the ⁓ lifestyle side. And yes, you're most of, especially when we're catering towards a little bit of the higher end of the market, it's not price driven. It's obviously price is a consideration, but it is like, I want this. We've dreamed of this. This will just be so nice to add this in Law Suite. This will be so nice to have this space. where we can just be, it's more open now and we can host a party. I mean, you even think about that aspect of a beautiful interior that's more open that people can host, you know, five couples in, or on the landscaping side, this beautiful space that people just walk into the backyard on a nice Friday evening and the grill area's going and they're inviting friends over, like that time to... just enjoy that environment and the connections and the community building and the relationship building is a really beautiful thing. So it's interesting even as you sell your remodeling services, you sell your landscaping services, don't be afraid to lean into the emotional side of it, the cool aspect of this, what this will open up for.

Jeffrey Scott: My dad, I joined our landscape business, when I left Europe, he took me to see this futurist called Faith Popcorn. Is that name ring a bell? So she's kind of old older. So she predicted way, way, way back.

Kyle Hunt: No. Hey, I get careful now. What's what's older these days?

Jeffrey Scott: Okay. I'm going to skip that. I'm going to avoid that question, but she predicted cocooning. She said, we're going to see more and more cocooning. And this was like 30 years ago. And every 10 years, the cocooning angle has gotten more like every 10 years, no matter where you were, the future holds for more cocooning. And I mean, we saw it even during the pandemic, no matter how much cocooning was happening before.

Kyle Hunt: Okay, not right.

Jeffrey Scott: people were doing more. So it's been this upward trajectory for decades really. So what you, your clients do, what my clients do, it's all about cocooning.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. And and concluding is loving the loving the house you're in and enjoy and just being there

Jeffrey Scott: Building your cocoon. Yeah, building it out.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. That's cool. Number two, that was number one. Number two, you're off to a smash and start.

Jeffrey Scott: All right. Number two, we both have to manage high end expectations, high end expectations for how we communicate, how clean we keep their house or their property, how professional our teams are, the timeliness of the schedule and communicating that schedule, by the way, and the lack of being timeliness, but ⁓ the expectation around design, the expectation around no surprises and predictability. expectations around solving problems quickly. A lot. There's just a lot of expectations that are both our clients get from all their shopping experiences, whether they're buying a new car or they're going on a cruise or they, they have this high end, ⁓ expectations reinforced by everything they do. And so the client, your clients and my clients, it can really, really master that.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: going to win.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. Excellent. The client experience. How do we continue to elevate that client experience? Pete, if you guys search in the Ramallers on the Rise archives for Pete Burak, B-U-R-A-K, I did an episode with him a couple months ago. And one of the things, Jeffrey, he said was, he's like, I like to go through this exercise of going, okay, I'm sitting with kind of the core team of a company. And I say, all right, what would an eight out of 10 experience look like for our clients? And when you start describing that, you're like, wow, I mean, we're pretty good with communication. Like they've got an understanding of the schedule. We kind of got close to the schedule. ⁓ you know, we handled the problems when they came up a little clunky, we dropped the ball a couple of times. Okay, cool. ⁓ what would nine out of 10 and describe it? What would 10 out of 10? And then what he really does is go, okay, let's just, let's just be silly. And let's talk about what a 12 out of 10 experience would be. And it's like, wow, we picked them up in a limo to come to our showroom for the design reveal. And you just start throwing out. these wild ideas of what would even a 12 out of 10 experience look like. And then when you go back to the nine out of 10 or 10 out of 10, it kind of seems more realistic. And when we're talking about high end clients, every place that you've made a great point, every place they go in, there's a level of expectation and a level of excellence in the customer service. The restaurants they go to, your clients are probably going to that nice restaurant in town versus big boy. Do you guys have big boys up there? That's a Midwest thing.

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ remember big boys.

Kyle Hunt: Shout out to big boy. Yeah, that's a great one. High end expectations, continue remodelers listening to this, continue landscapers listening to this. How do we continue to improve ⁓ setting high expectations, high standards and delivering on them? What else do high end landscapers and high end remodelers have in common? Number three. Yes.

Jeffrey Scott: Before we get to three, I just wanna share a pet peeve. I hate... Companies and I've experienced this myself from my own landscapers. I hate landscapers or companies They can't do these basics well, but then they give you that fancy Christmas present as if that made up for everything You can't put frosting on a cake if the crate if the cake sucks. You got bad cake I don't I don't want the frosting and so I would rather have solid cake and and no Christmas present than some Christmas present, but

Kyle Hunt: Mmm. Mmm.

Jeffrey Scott: Still, I'm not gonna refer you, because you were disappointing.

Kyle Hunt: In other words, that core stuff, that fundamental stuff, be excellent at it. And then the cherry on the top will actually be the cherry on the top. That's good. Number three.

Jeffrey Scott: Exactly. Yeah. Number three. mean, it's sort of repeat, but you, you're judged on details. Like in commercial landscape, you're judged on a lot of things and details maybe only matter where the boss of the company in that commercial building walks through to go to his office. Like maybe those are the only details that matter. But in residential details matter. Small flaws.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: can be big problems and if you don't solve them, turn into, ⁓ you're not even getting your final payment. Why? Because of some small detail problem that either shouldn't have happened or it did happen and you didn't fix it quickly. So details matter on everything we both do. it's hard. That's why it's hard to win in this space. That's why you can't hire, at least in landscaping, you can't hire somebody from the commercial world necessarily.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: to do a good job managing in the high-end residential world, because they're not used to all those details that matter.

Kyle Hunt: Mm. Yeah, I think we see that on the remodeling side too. you're walking your clients through kind of that final 5 % of the project, because I think that's where a lot of that detail work happens, how do you kind of coach best practices and that final 5 % is a matter of kind of having a very proactive punch list. It's a matter of the client going through with their things. How do you guys approach that?

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ man, that's such a big question. ⁓ you know, it takes as much effort for the final 5 % as it does the first 50%. And so, and a lot of people get tired, even from the company side and the client side, and you just want to rush through it. I think it's important to have solid processes and handholding. I like to get this. I'm going to answer this sort of a little bit backwards here. I like to make sure that we're on top of collections.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: And I want to get the final 15, 10, 5 % payment happening right away because if the client won't pay you right away, you know, there's a problem and you know, it's a, it's in that final 5%. So I like my, my, my collection process really tight so I can uncover these hidden, unfortunate issues going on so we can be on top of them. So you, it can be as simple as walkthroughs.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. Mm, that's good.

Jeffrey Scott: having clear walkthroughs and not just having the field tech or foreman trying to wrap it up all by themselves if it's a bigger project, but having more of the heavy hitters do that walkthrough with the client.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. Mm hmm. That's good. That's good. So we're talking through and Jeffrey came up with eight of them. What do high end landscapers and high end remodellers have in common? ⁓ but we're taking a quick break after number three people August 18th through 20th in beautiful Detroit, Michigan. You can hold your hand up. We got an actual map right on our hands. It's going to right over here, folks. You could you can actually see another country from looking out your beautiful hotel room at the Westin because the day one is at the Westin. It's called the Summer Growth Summit. Jeffrey's gonna tell you more about it ⁓ after number six. Number four, Jeffrey, what's number four of your AIDS?

Jeffrey Scott: both our industries have this design build component and generally there's a handoff. Now, if you're a small company, your designers doing the project management and there's no handoff, but if at a certain size, there's this handoff process that the designer or salesperson is doing to the people doing the work. And it may not, and it may be a different PM, you know, the salesperson may not be the PM. And then those handoffs, so important to success. the, the, ⁓ you know, the pre-planning, how you go through the whole plan with the project manager, how you hand off the client relationship, ⁓ how final material choices are made. ⁓ just overall expectations. If it's another person stops a lot of people from scaling, but in order to scale, ⁓ or in order for the owner to have a life.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: or to keep selling. ⁓ They, you know, or for the salesperson to keep selling, ⁓ you want someone different doing the work. Also, you want specialization, right? High-end needs specialization. So that whole handoff and how that happens, I'm surprised how often I hear about leaving it to chance, lack of systems.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. ⁓ we had a meeting with a client kind of the day we kicked off the project and kind of haphazardly talked about some of these details. I didn't really introduce them to the project manager until the project manager came that type of stuff.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. And really they need a pre-walkthrough and they need to see the plan a week ahead to make their own plans on how they're going to execute and implement it. Whoever did the estimating probably built it in their mind on the estimate. so running through that in the back, in the office with the PM or the crew that's going to do it. And so there's the, there's the technical, ⁓ there's the client expectation and there's the client relationships.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: All that has, you need clean handoffs and it's, it's, it's all doable. mean, it happens.

Kyle Hunt: Yeah. Yeah, it's, it isn't it's overlooked. I totally it's interesting because, you know, you're talking about so much exterior work primarily, right? argue like, ⁓ the handoff is probably less important on the landscaping side. You're like, No, it's still crazy important. Well, how much more remodeler listening to this, you're actually going in their house, unlocking doors using bathrooms, where's the water shut off? Where's the electrical? Do you have the furnace filter? So you can replace that after the dust face? There's so much to be done there. And I think the other thing that is probably the case on your end and it's on the remodeling end is that an hour spent doing that, that handoff well, interacting with the client is going to save hours and hours of questions and confusion as we go through. And that no like and trust building in that handoff. You've known me, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, you signed with me. I'm handing the baton to my very capable, wonderful. project manager in the field, you're going to love them. Are you even building that person up? Are you handing off that baton in a smooth way? Or are you like Calvin Hunt, the eighth grade track star who was his first year and the baton handoffs have been rough, Jeffrey, have been rough. It's rough as a dad watching them. I'm like, slow down, Calvin, you're going too fast. And the kid's trying to catch him. That's how some of these stinking remodelers and landscapers are doing. Let's have good. Clean handoffs, let's practice this, let's put some time into it.

Jeffrey Scott: Not only are they dropping the handoff, but they're throwing the baton. right. Catch this. So what we learned a lot, Kyle, as we were building our landscape business from, ⁓ super high end home builders building multimillion dollar homes. And one thing we learned a tool from them is there's a weekly meeting where the client's going to be there. The project manager is going to be there. The landscape architect's going to be there.

Kyle Hunt: Catch this! Yeah, yeah, let's do it in stride. Hmm

Jeffrey Scott: maybe the home architect, and we get on the same page once a week, we make decisions often that, and we make actions that people have to do between one week and the next. And we also talk about payments when they're due, material and color choices when they're due. And so not only should there be a handoff, but in the more complex jobs, you might even want to think about a weekly meeting where you reconnect all the key people.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. good. That's very good. Yeah, that is time. It's very, very rare that that time invested there would not be a net positive. It's when we're not doing that, that so much friction happens and so little fires start, cetera. Number five, Jeffrey, to go through them folks. Number one, we both sell to emotionally invested clients. So let's pay attention to that. Number two, high end expectations. Make sure we're meeting those. Number three, you're judged on the details. We cannot. overlook little things. are catering to a high end client who's paying high end earned dollars into our bank account. We're going to make sure those details are excellent. If you don't like that, by the way, then go sell to the middle of the market. Go sell that $52,000 kitchen that they're okay with that joint and that trim piece and that little issue that you can do that. And people can be very successful catering towards the middle market. But if you want to be full out design, build higher end market, Jeffrey's hitting you with some truth here. Number four, the design build component, making sure those handoffs are strong. Number five.

Jeffrey Scott: Ready? Drum roll, please. So there's a saying that the money is made in the estimate, how well you estimate the job. And a lot of truth in that. But it's really about managing customer expectation with that estimate. But in these larger jobs, your money can be lost by how the scope changes during the project, surprises pop up.

Kyle Hunt: Yes.

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ Change orders need to get sold and they may or may not. Client expectations start to change. So really about protecting the margin through the project, the expectations, the change orders, the scope change, maybe there's other contractors on the property for some reason. So there's a lot that can happen where your margin can erode, especially outdoors, but I think it could happen indoors where the margin could erode.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. Absolutely.

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ where change orders could be sold and margin could be strengthened versus giveaways. And so it, you tell me how important it is in your world, but protecting that margin larger jobs, tend to lose money because of dissipation scope, creep, hours dissipation and all kinds of reasons to lose margin on the longer.

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that doesn't happen at all in Romali side. Everybody sells it at this margin and they absolutely always bring it in with grippage. The slippage thing that you talk about, nah, never happens. I do like some of the wording you're using though, even change orders need to get sold. I've never phrased it like that. Change orders need to get sold. You need to sell that thing. You need to make it clear that this is outside the scope of work. You need to talk about why this is important and why this is a great addition to it and how we didn't see this until we got into it. And you need to sell that thing. like that. emphasis there. And absolutely, if we err on the side of, well, the client didn't really like how this went or that went, so let's just do this pro bono. Now we can have some contingency in your project. We ought to have some contingency of a certain percentage in your project so that when that happens, you can just kind of absorb that. But you've already planned and kind of budgeted for that. But absolutely, it's very similar. Margin can erode and yes, on high and bigger projects, can absolutely happen. We both need to be protecting the margin. There's no doubt about that. ⁓ you, go ahead.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. Clients just want the explanation. Just give them the reasons. The, these clients are smart and they value good communication and honesty. Just tell them what's going on.

Kyle Hunt: Jeffrey, ⁓ run a ⁓ professional podcast. So when my guest wants a drum roll, then he gets a drum roll. Can you hear it?

Jeffrey Scott: that. Is that for number six?

Kyle Hunt: I used to use these sound effects all the time and I haven't been using them but now that I'm using it even the crowds going nuts about it. Supposed to be cheering. Come on. Darn it. The drum roll worked though. Alright drum roll number six. Yeah hit me with that.

Jeffrey Scott: You did. That's right. I love it. Go cheering. So this, could have started with number six actually, but I thought of it later. Our clients are buying trust and they are buying strong brands. So your branding really matters. Your reputation matters, right? Can I trust you to bring you into my home where I have my valuables, my kids? Can I trust you? screwing around with my design tastes and my property. And so the reputation in the brand lowers the perceived risk. And our branding is both visual, how we have everything tied together. It's how everybody behaves. Does everybody in your company behave as if it's almost the same? One of my early clients mentioned this about my wife, Corrine, who people don't even know she's my wife until I tell her. She uses her, ⁓ you know, her, her maiden name, that's her actual legal name and, ⁓ super professional. And one of my clients had years ago, he's like, you know, when I'm talking to her, I've just felt like I'm talking to another extension of you. Like it's very, you guys are just always so tightly connected. And, and that's not just because we're married, it's cause we're, we're on the same page from a brand perspective. And you, you really need to achieve that.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: all your employees and that takes work, but that just helps clients breathe a sigh of relief, be more trusting, give you more money, ⁓ give you, you know, the benefit of the doubt when you screw up. Cause we always screw up all of us. Right. And so that brand matters deeply. And like I said, we could have started with that.

Kyle Hunt: Yeah, that's great. think I think the there's all kinds of elements that make up our brand and the way people perceive us. It can be anywhere from our voicemail message when they listen to that. Hey, this is Kyle, a message. That's not that's that's either supporting every element that makes up a brand is supporting what we're trying to put out there is neutral. It's not really hurting or helping or is disrupting that voicemail I just quoted that would be disrupting my brand of the perception there. Like my project manager showing up, ⁓ Jeffer is making fun of us. If you're watching the video, he's like, ⁓ it looks like we have uniforms on today. We're both wearing a blue polo. But like my project manager showing up in something like this versus kind of a ratty little hooded sweatshirt might be on brand for you. So consider all the different elements that make up your, your brand, the idea of having a car wash membership for your project manager who's on muddy job sites a lot. That might be a wonderful brand play. And you might say, you know what? we're catering towards hiring clients. We want our vehicles to show up shiny. We want those details to be good. I'll share my screen for people listening to the podcast. Sorry, but if you're watching the video, ⁓ long time client and friend of mine, Ben Templeton, he just launched his new website yesterday and I saw him post it on Facebook. And I thought about his old website that really wasn't representing his brand and the type of work they do. And I looked at this and I was like, ⁓ this is an alignment. Like I look at this and good marketing and good brand attracts the right ideal client and it repels your non-ideal client. This is absolutely attracting his ideal clients and the type of projects they do and the clients they serve. And your point is well taken. All those elements of your brand, make sure that is supporting what you're trying to put out there. And when you cater towards a high-end market, that matters even more.

Jeffrey Scott: What's the URL for that?

Kyle Hunt: Ooh baby. That is TempletonBC.com. TempletonBC.com. Speaking of dot coms, we're gonna get to number seven and eight of how ⁓ high-end landscapers and high-end remodellers have this commonality. But tell us about this summer growth summit that's coming up in a couple months, August 18th through the 20th in Detroit. Yeah.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. I appreciate you asking. I have about 10 more minutes in total here. And so I'm going to speak fast so we can get to everything else. Um, summer gross summit to two and a half days. It's anchored by visiting a company, their facility, their team. So we spend a full day of the two and a half days visiting going on site. This year we're doing a double header and visiting two companies.

Kyle Hunt: while you're sweet.

Jeffrey Scott: One's a $10 million company. One's a 20 to $25 million company. Great Lakes Landscape Design is the 10 million and Troy Clog Landscape Associates is the 20 to 25 million. And so we're going to visit their facilities. We're going to get presentations from their top managers in both companies. On the final day, we're going to hear from their executives for about half of that time and learn about. really some of the overarching ways they manage finances, equipment, people, HR, continuous improvement. So we get some of the higher end thinking managers on the last day, plus myself, plus we bring the two owners up for a Q and a, that's how we end the final day. And the first day, I know I'm juggling days around here, but the first day, sort of a pre-event where we kick off and we hear the origination stories from the hosts.

Kyle Hunt: No, you're good. Yeah.

Jeffrey Scott: ⁓ we bring in some outside speakers to talk about things like lean management. We're bringing in an outside speaker, ⁓ who's speaks a lot to the remodelers community. So if you want to come to my pre-event, at least you can, maybe we'll put the, ⁓ link in the show notes. ⁓ and so you're really going to learn quite a bit on the prevent. We're going to have an AI panel. It's where it's really about building a whole growth engine from branding, marketing.

Kyle Hunt: Yes.

Jeffrey Scott: sales AI and then lean management and production. and, ⁓ and that's going to be day one, plus myself, plus people from my team. so, ⁓ and we, have.

Kyle Hunt: Plus, I'm gonna be there on day one just being a little fly on the wall.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. And there's going to be a guy there talking, he's going to be talking your language. I forgot all about that, Kyle, but it's all happening.

Kyle Hunt: All right. I like it. I like it. Yeah. If you go to, if you'll see in the show notes, a direct link to it. Or if you go to jeffreescott.biz right at the top, says events and it's got the summer growth summit. I would encourage, especially the remodellers listening to this. ⁓ if you've got a good friend and there's a lot of remodellers who seem to have kind of like, ⁓ yeah, I've got a buddy who does landscaping just for this. ⁓ for this episode, I think it's a good episode for both of you to listen to. Actually, I think it'd be an awesome episode for you to forward to your landscaping buddy. And then literally set up a lunch and go through the eight items together and say, what do you guys experience here? That's an awesome idea. ⁓ but also tell them, Hey, get your butt up to, Michigan in August. ⁓ Jeffrey does this every year. It was a Cleveland last year. You just kind of hop to these different places. And it's a great balance of yes, in the, in the, auditorium kind of training, but also just getting to see and touch and feel and see how they set this up and how they structure that is just an awesome kind of structure for the event.

Jeffrey Scott: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's gonna be great.

Kyle Hunt: Alright, rock and roll. Okay, so there's that. Look in the show notes. ⁓ How high-end landscapers and remodelers have in common, things they do. Number seven, what'd you write down for number seven?

Jeffrey Scott: So number seven, I sort of touched on it early on, but I just want to make it a separate point, but we are advisors as salespeople. We are not order takers. And so we advise our clients, we guide them, we educate them, we help them prioritize. We tell them, no, that's not a good idea. If it's not a good idea from a technical or quality perspective.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: We help protect our clients from bad decisions. We help them protect their money and their investment. It's like being a fiduciary. If you're in the financial world, right? Or, or being a concierge doctor or something, or just even being a doctor. We're there, you know, first do no harm, right? Isn't that the doctor's motto? We are advisors and consultants. We're helping them, ⁓ maybe save money, but really protect their investment.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: Spend their money wisely. We don't work out of our own wallets and our own pockets ever so you have to be really good at looking at your client and understanding who they are and what they need and giving them advice without Assuming what they value now some people like to save money on ABC button But with XYZ, they're gonna be extravagant and spend lots of money. You don't know

Kyle Hunt: Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Scott: Their values are not your values. And so you've got to be a good question asker. ⁓ and you got to take cues from their environment, right? You can look around and, and take cues, leave your own wallet home, ask lots of questions, be the expert, give the advice, guide them to the right decision.

Kyle Hunt: That's good. I think that that advisor, I think some people, I still hear it when they say it of like, well, you know, I'm a salesperson and still people are kind of apologizing for it. There's there's great value in being a professional salesperson. And yes, that leans more into you're the guy, man. You're you're the expert. You're the advisor here. Direct them. Remind them. Don't be afraid to, know. Yes, if they if they if they want to. One of my peer groups was sharing some photos the other day. And they go, guys, I'm really struggling. They selected this, this countertop. I didn't like it when they selected it or talked about it. They decided on it. It's now installed. looks worse than I even thought it was going to look. And I knew it was going to look bad. And I'm just struggling with it. did my due diligence. I advised them. I helped the guide them. And, you know, so sometimes clients will just pick what they want to pick and you don't know why, but often you have a great hand at guiding them towards things that are going to last and things that are beautiful. Um, and I think where you were heading a little bit of like your, your bank account often, especially if you're kind of on the newer side of serving these high end clients, you're used to your $130,000 that you're bringing into your own family every year. You're doing great by the way. That's great. Well, when you're putting pricing in front of people, you don't know what it feels like to be making $800,000 a year and having that worth of $4.7 million and be 15 years older than you. Like their experience and the way they view money and invest money and their property can be very different than how you would spend your money. So when you were kind of saying, leave your wallet at home and leave, leave your main vantage point at home, like take cues from their surroundings and, and make sure that you're not apologizing for putting this number in front of them. They might think, ⁓ that's a deal.

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. I think high end clients would, if you're too cheap, they're to be like, know, their experience, especially the older ones, they are experienced. They've done this before. So don't try to be the cheapest, try to be the best and look for places to protect their investment. again, somebody might say, I'm not going to spend that for those knobs, but you might be shocked at what they'll spend on the granite for just, for example, I'm picking the example.

Kyle Hunt: Yeah, yes, yeah. When I did student painters between my freshman, sophomore year of college, and I remember it was my early quotes, that proposals that I did in this old house was gonna require a lot of scrape and a lot of sand and a lot of couple coats. And I put this price in front of them and he goes, well, do you wanna hear the good news or the bad news? I said, either one. He goes, the good news is you are the cheapest quote. The bad news is it's so cheap. I know you have no clue what you're doing and you don't know what you're getting into. So I'm going to do you a favor and not sign this agreement because it wouldn't work. ⁓ youth and inexperience. Sometimes it's great to be the more expensive person because it proves that you're worth it. And then number eight, what do you got for number eight?

Jeffrey Scott: Yeah. So this is, we should do a whole separate podcast in this because it's really different. It's okay. You've built this business. How do you scale it and design, remodeling? It's hard to scale without the wheels falling off without diluting quality. So I kind of came up with like six things that would help clear written standards, clear that would help. ⁓ very strong project managers should not be the sales person should be its own entity. very would help all the communication rhythms, right? How does communication happen that really you got the product and you're to wrap it in communication and communication is how you manage all the expectations and make sure the client's happy. So understanding those rhythms, a great pre-construction planning, which we spoke about excellent field accountability, whoever the site super is or the field manager or the foreman on the job. And then just having an experience for all these clients systems and how do we scale it? You know, how do you grow the business without you being the salesperson, the designer or the, or the PM? That's the puzzle piece that you as an owner is building, right? Build the business so that you can build the business.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. That's That does deserve its own episode, This was so much fun. should probably do it Have we done this before? What the heck? What the heck? We must be finally getting down to the bottom of the barrel of our guests where we're going to invite each other on our podcast or we just haven't done it. Yeah.

Jeffrey Scott: We never had. I'm sorry. Exactly. It is probably a bad joke or two in there, which I'm not going to tell or touch.

Kyle Hunt: Yeah. Yeah, no, that was excellent. I think the, idea of being able to tie kind of non non remodeling focus, but there's so much crossover between landscaping design, build and remodeling design, build. And I liked the theme that you went. I liked the direction you went. There's some great, um, great reminders, great, um, Hey, you need to think a little more serious about this. Hey, remodel listening to this, pick one of these and set up a little meeting coming up. Or maybe if you do EOS, one of these might be a quarterly rock to really enhance. this aspect or that aspect. And then we'll have to dig into the number eight more as we go. So summer growth, go ahead. Yes.

Jeffrey Scott: Cause there's so much there, right? Good software, good accounting. mean, how do you scale something? How do you scale an artisanal business? Right. That's what we're talking about.

Kyle Hunt: Hmm. It's good. That's good. So Summer Growth Summit, August 18th through 20th in Detroit. ⁓ Forward this on to your landscaping design build friends. And again, I love that idea. It would warm my heart. In fact, Jeffrey and I are going to commit to this because he has hats like I have hats. If you send me a pitch, actually, here's what I'm going to do. You can just do a hat. If you send me a picture of you remodeling or listening to this with your landscaping buddy, and you take a picture of me, of them, and give me a takeaway from your conversation you had around these points, each one of us, Jeffrey and us, and Remodellers on the Rise, will send you and your buddy a hat in the mail. And I will also, up the ante, I will also, for the first person that does it, send two $50 Amazon gift cards to each of you, because it just warms my heart to think somebody's going to do that. Somebody's gonna take us up on that, and that's gonna be cool to bring our worlds together of landscaping and remodeling. We'll see what happens.

Jeffrey Scott: Woo. Dang. Ew. Excellent. Thank you.

Kyle Hunt: That'll be good. Awesome. So check, take a look and thank you for committing to mailing out a hat. because I signed you up for that.

Jeffrey Scott: Thank you.

Kyle Hunt: Man, you got hats, you got hats. In fact, I don't have a Jeffrey Scott hat yet, I don't think.

Jeffrey Scott: can do it. snoozing and losing, man. I don't have to say,

Kyle Hunt: Let me ask you, do you have a remodeler on the Ryze hat?

Jeffrey Scott: Let me look, hold on. My hats are back here. I am sure back in my hat collection.

Kyle Hunt: I feel like I may have mailed you one. I'm pretty sure I mailed one out.

Jeffrey Scott: I have an Indy 500 hat. I've got a Saint's hat. I've got some client hats.

Kyle Hunt: My buddy's going, my buddy who lives kitty corner to me, he's a, he's from Indiana and I think going to the Indy 500 is like, you know, his, his thing every year. And he's like, one of these years I got it, Kyle, we got to work it out and I got to take you because it is, it's a bucket list thing. Would you agree, Mr. Racing guy? Yeah.

Jeffrey Scott: Totally. Yeah. Every race you should go to at least once.

Kyle Hunt: Okay. There we go, folks. There's your final takeaway. Jeffrey, thank you so much. We'll talk soon.

Jeffrey Scott: All right. Thank you, man.