How to Prepare for a Commercial Landscaping Consultation: 6 Tips for Property Managers

We’d ask how long your property manager to-do list is today, but we don’t want to spoil your good mood.

It’s long. You’re busy. So when that list includes meeting with a potential new commercial landscaping company on your property for the first time, make every minute of this important meeting count.

How to make the most of your onsite commercial landscaping consultation? Attend your in-person walkthrough yourself — don’t send a staff member. Be ready to detail all the services your current landscaping company does. Talk about the landscape enhancements that might boost your property. Tell us why your current landscaping vendor isn’t meeting your expectations. Have a good understanding pf your budget and be ready to discuss it. 

Keep reading for more good tips. Level Green Landscaping business developer Jordan Foss and director of business development Larry Leon share some tips for making this important on-site consultation a great and productive use of your valuable time, including: 

Why You Should Attend the Meeting — Not Your Maintenance Staff

Tell Us What Your Current Commercial Landscaping Company Does

Hone in on Enhancements

Bring Your Flower Count

Tell Us What’s Going Wrong

Who’s in Charge? We Need to Know 

1. Why You Should Attend the Meeting — Not Your Maintenance Staff

Yes, there are 52 things on your property manager landscape checklist. And that doesn’t count the leftover stuff from yesterday’s list.

It’s really tempting to send somebody else to this meeting. Interviewing a commercial landscaper might not seem the best use of your time on a busy day. 

But even a trusted maintenance manager isn’t a good substitute for you, Foss says.

We really want to meet with you, the property manager. You know the property. You know how other landscaping companies have failed and what they’ve done right. You have the budget numbers. Only you know your landscaping pet peeves. We want to know all that. 

“The more time spent with them around the property, the better for me to understand what they want from their landscaping vendor,” Foss says. 

Walking your property together on your commercial landscaping consultation is a great opportunity to point out not just the big issues, but the small pet peeves and wish lists that can help us create a commercial landscaping plan that will make your job easier and your property stand out from the competition.

2. Tell Us What Your Current Commercial Landscaping Company Does

Be prepared to share exactly what your current  Maryland commercial landscaping company handles, from spring cleanup to irrigation to snow management. 

Plan to have your scope document handy. It’s the portion of your contract that outlines exactly what services your current landscaping company provides for you. That helps us give you an accurate bid.

Do they install seasonal flowers? Prune trees? Provide integrated pest management? Decorate your commercial property with holiday lights and trees? 

“This is important, as it gives us the opportunity to provide an apples-to-apples proposal compared to what’s currently being done,” Foss says. “And it helps us recommend ways to do things even better.”

What have past companies done that worked great? How have other vendors made your place look better? What mistakes have been made? What landscaping disaster do you hope never happens again? 

Add all your examples to your commercial landscaping checklist before your consultation so you don’t forget key examples. 

3. Hone in on Enhancements

Landscaping enhancements are the attention-grabbing features that bring eyes to your property, like the fantastic flower show at your front entrance or the community fire pit patio at your shopping center courtyard.

Are these features a priority for you? That’s a great topic when you’re interviewing a commercial landscaper. 

How much do you spend now on enhancements? Do you want to spend more on these property-boosting details? Or less? 

It helps us to know. And we can share ideas on how innovative enhancements can attract visitors, shoppers and tenants in ways that haven’t occurred to you. 

4. Bring Your Flower Count

Flowers are the bright, blooming attention-getters of great commercial landscaping.

Those dragon wing begonias at your signage that welcome visitors. The giant planters packed with tropical bananas, coleus, and sweet potato vines in your courtyard. The colorful petunias that can spell out a message at your entrance. The spectacular mums that keep your flower show going strong right through fall. 

How many flowers are you currently getting from your landscaping company? (Don’t worry if you don’t know the number by heart.)

Check your current contract so you know exactly how many flowers your current Washington DC commercial landscaping company provides for your annual flower rotation. Add it to your commercial landscaping checklist before your consultation. 

“Differing flower counts between vendors involved in the bidding process can cause large discrepancies in pricing,” Foss says. 

Maybe you want more flowers. We might recommend more. But it helps to start with the number currently on your property.

5. Tell Us What’s Going Wrong

If you’re looking for a new Virginia commercial landscaping company, there’s a reason. Yikes, maybe several reasons. 

Your commercial landscaping vendor doesn’t show up?

They keep forgetting to check your irrigation system?

Flowers are dying?

You have more gray hairs since you’ve been working with them?

We’d love to turn things around. But we need to know what’s made you frustrated and unhappy, Leon says. When you’re interviewing a commercial landscaper, let it all out. 

“Be honest about the extent to which you’re happy or unhappy with the incumbent,” Leon says.

Why are you looking for a new Washington DC commercial landscaping company?

The more information you share, Foss says, “the better we can speak in detail in our proposal on how we can make the positive change you're looking for.”

6. Who’s in Charge? We Need to Know 

Who is the ultimate decision maker for your property’s commercial landscaping? Who will decide who the new landscaping company will be? Who signs the contract? 

Maybe this person is you. Great! But maybe it’s a regional manager or a condo or HOA board.

“Give us a clear understanding of who will make the final decisions,” Foss says, “and what factors will be most important to that person.”

In fact, at Level Green Landscaping, we don’t bid on jobs if we can’t talk to the final decision maker, so we don’t waste your valuable time or ours. 

The person interviewing a commercial landscaper should be the one who signs the contract. 

Then, we can’t wait to exceed your expectations. 

Trust Your Commercial Landscaping to Level Green

Level Green’s proactive approach to commercial landscape maintenance means we’ve got your property’s landscaping under control. You can tend to the rest of your list, because your landscaping is covered. 

Proactivity is a real buzzword around here. Level Green account managers are on a mission to pounce on problems and head off issues before they become real concerns.

Intrigued? Find out more. Let’s meet. We’d love to set up a commercial landscaping consultation to learn more about you and your property. 

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers.

Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.

Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.