ValleyCrest Landscape Development

TO STAY ON TOP, DON’T REST ON YOUR LAURELS

It would be easy for a successful 50-year-old business to say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” This would be particularly true in the case of ValleyCrest Landscape Development, the nations’ largest landscape and site construction company with clients like the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. But ValleyCrest, a company built on growing things, decided to apply its green thumb to cultivate better ways of developing business

The focus at ValleyCrest had always been on current sales rather than on building long-term customer relationships that lead to sustained business. “Our organization has been transactionally based,” says Brian Storm, vice president of sales. “We wanted to become more develop-mentally based, to learn how to be there to help when our customers don’t need us, without having our hand out.” To do so required introducing a new business development culture to the firm.

Storm Engaged Brett Miles of Milestones, Inc. to develop a training program for all ValleyCrest staff who would be involved in business development. In addition to the company’s business development officers (BDOs), Storm included branch managers and chief estimators. These employees have client contact but have not traditionally been part of the business development effort. The goal was to increase the number of staff capable of developing profitable, long-term relationships with clients.

Brett’s first step was to interview ValleyCrest’s top sales producers to elicit the techniques that they felt lead to their success. “Brett was very effective in gathering expert knowledge from our insiders,” notes Storm. “He was able to speak intelligently about our organization.” The information gleaned from the interviews became part of the manual that Brett created for use in a series of training sessions. The manual also included material on the key topics of business development: building relationships, prospecting, qualifying, and closing.

Prior to the training sessions, participants filled out a sales survey Brett designed and posted on an Internet site. This allowed the group to share information and comments on the sales process without the pressure of a traditional sales meeting. The survey results became part of the training and helped everyone to understand the many challenges that business development people face.

Brett led full-day training sessions in Orlando, Dallas, and Los Angeles, attended by a total of over 90 ValleyCrest staff. Each session was part of a three-day program that included additional meetings and training by in-house staff. Brett’s sessions began with the use of DISC assessments to help participants understand their values and styles and build better communication. This was particularly helpful in enabling the three different groups — BDOs, branch managers, and chief estimators — to speak effectively to each other and learn from one another.

Techniques for achieving customer “buy-in” were an important part of the curriculum. Other key topics included how to develop successful relationships with top executives by learning to speak their language and understanding how to “sell to the top.”

According to Storm, staff response to the sessions was overwhelmingly favorable. “We broke with tradition in hiring an outside trainer,” he says, and it was clearly a worthwhile change. “Brett helped us enlighten our people and create awareness of a better way of developing business.”

The training sessions, held in August 2002, are already leading to a longer-term approach to customers. Expectations are high, and Storm is already considering follow-up sessions with Brett. By refusing to rest on its laurels, ValleyCrest is on its way to creating a culture that will help the company reach new milestones.