Answer the Phone, Grow Your Business: Client Follow-Up & Sales Tips for Lawn & Landscape Pros

In Episode 6 of The Good Soil Strategies Podcast, my co-host Matt Penchuk of Search Strategy Marketing and I shifted the Fix This First series from visibility to what actually happens next.

Because getting found is only half the battle.

This episode focused on the moment a homeowner finally reaches out—the phone call, the voicemail, the missed call, the follow-up, the scheduling, and everything that either turns that lead into revenue or quietly wastes the opportunity.

I’m Anthony Hilb, owner of Anthony’s Lawn Care & Landscaping in Bloomington, Indiana, and this conversation came straight from years of answering phones, running estimates, fixing breakdowns, and learning where most local service businesses lose money without realizing it.

Speed Still Wins — Especially Early On

When I first started back in 2011, I answered every call myself.

Every one.

If the phone rang, I picked up by the second ring whenever possible. If I missed a call, I called back within minutes. Not hours. Not later that day. Immediately.

That approach wasn’t accidental. I was heavily influenced by Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing books, and one idea stuck with me early:

Speed creates trust.

We live in a world where people expect instant responses. If a homeowner calls two companies and one answers right away while the other calls back tomorrow, the decision is often already made.

Early on, fast response times helped us:

• book estimates quickly
• build momentum
• grow our client list faster than competitors

Today, that client list is thousands strong, but it was built one fast response at a time.

Missed Calls Aren’t Neutral — They’re Lost Revenue

Matt made an important point during the episode that I’ve seen play out countless times.

Businesses spend thousands on marketing, then:

• don’t answer the phone
• have a full voicemail box
• respond days later

When that happens, marketing gets blamed. Google gets blamed. Facebook gets blamed.

But the problem isn’t visibility.

It’s follow-through.

If you don’t have a plan for answering calls—or immediately responding when you miss them—your marketing can’t work, no matter how good it is.

Auto-Responders Save Leads (When Used Correctly)

Early on, we didn’t have automation. Today, we do.

Now, if someone messages us through Facebook or Instagram, we use automated responses to:

• acknowledge the message immediately
• provide basic information
• direct them to schedule a free estimate

That alone prevents leads from slipping through the cracks when you’re busy in the field.

Automation doesn’t replace human follow-up—but it buys you time and keeps the conversation alive instead of letting it die silently.

Tracking Where Leads Come From Changes How You Spend Money

For a long time, we didn’t track leads.

Eventually, we learned the hard way that if you don’t know where leads come from, you can’t scale intelligently.

Now, every caller gets asked:
“How did you hear about us?”

Online forms ask the same question.

We also use call tracking so we can see which platforms are actually producing results. That matters when you’re running ads across multiple channels and deciding where to invest more—or pull back.

Guessing feels cheaper than tracking, but it usually costs more in the long run.

CRMs Don’t Close Deals — Processes Do

We talked tools briefly in this episode:

• Jobber for job management
• CallRail for call tracking
• other platforms like HubSpot or Go High Level

Tools help, but tools don’t close deals on their own.

What matters is what happens when a lead comes in:

• who responds
• how fast
• what they say
• how the estimate is scheduled

Software supports that process. It doesn’t replace it.

Service Area Discipline Protects Profit

One mistake I see newer businesses make is chasing every lead, no matter where it’s located.

Early on, we were strict.

If a lead was 45 minutes away and didn’t make sense financially, we said no. Not because the work wasn’t good—but because tight routes matter.

Driving long distances for single small jobs kills margins.

We expanded service areas only when:

• we had enough crews
• routes could be clustered
• job size justified the travel

Tree work and larger landscape projects allowed more flexibility. Lawn maintenance required density.

That distinction matters.

Follow-Up Is Where Most Businesses Quietly Lose

Here’s something we were very intentional about.

If someone didn’t answer when we called back:

• we tried again
• we left a voicemail when possible
• we sent a text message

Text messages changed everything.

People respond to texts far more consistently than voicemails. Even if they miss the call, the text sits there waiting. That simple addition recovered a lot of lost conversations over time.

Persistence doesn’t mean being annoying. It means being available and visible when the customer is ready.

How You Answer the Phone Is Marketing

One of the most important ideas in this episode came back to something Jay Conrad Levinson said years ago:

Everything is marketing.

Your tone of voice
Your posture
Your energy
Your willingness to be there

If someone answers the phone sounding annoyed or disengaged, it doesn’t matter how good the website is. That moment shapes perception instantly.

Two companies can spend the same amount on marketing and get very different results based on how they show up on calls and estimates.

That difference shows up directly in acquisition costs.

Numbers Aren’t Just Monthly — They’re Daily

As we wrapped up, we talked about tracking performance at a deeper level.

We don’t just look at monthly numbers.

We know:

• what each crew needs to produce daily
• whether targets were hit
• how cash flow looks alongside large projects

Running only big jobs without smaller, steady work can create dangerous gaps—especially when payment terms stretch out.

A healthy mix of:

• smaller, predictable jobs
• mid-range projects
• larger installs

keeps the business stable.

It’s a balance, and it has to be monitored consistently.

The Real Takeaway

Episode 6 was about respecting the moment when a homeowner reaches out.

If you’ve done the work to get found, the responsibility shifts to:

• answering
• responding
• following up
• scheduling intelligently
• tracking what works

That’s where growth actually converts.