Customer story: GTM Landscaping

The problem

Like thousands of other small businesses, GTM Landscaping lost 85% of their business in 2010 as a direct result of the 2009 economic recession. The phone stopped ringing and owner John Mora was on the brink of losing his home.

These unstable circumstances motivated John to evaluate his sales and operational processes and what it would take for his business to survive. “I realized that [in order] to move forward, I needed a program that I could design my way and that connected to my accounting data,” John remembered.

The solution

John knew that implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system would significantly change the way he ran his business, so he took the evaluation process seriously. Once he discovered Method CRM, a cloud-based application that integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks, he knew he had found the right fit for his small business.

“After six months of searching, Method CRM was the way up. The program lit a fire in me to get myself back into business,” recalled John.

After syncing his QuickBooks file, John mapped out each of his workflows, from nurturing leads to ordering job materials to invoicing clients. Since Method is fully customizable, he then started adapting the CRM to his unique needs using simple drag-and-drop tools.

“With Method CRM, my sales process is hyper-efficient.”

— John Mora, Owner

Business benefits

Customizing Method allows John to run his business more efficiently and get more done in a day. In the past, a customer would receive a quote a few days after talking to John. Now, every customer receives the information they need within minutes of their request.

“In less than five minutes after speaking to a customer, they have an email with all the necessary information, including the estimate complete with project phases, cost breakdowns for each phase, and the required down payment,” John explained. “With Method CRM my sales process is hyper efficient. My customers have all the info they need to make a decision quickly, to the point that now I close 95% of my sales.”

The efficiency doesn’t stop once a sale is closed. Now, not only can John turn approved estimates into work orders instantaneously within Method, but the jobs are scheduled in a convenient grid and job material orders are sent off to the different vendors with the click of a button.

“The grid [I created] has buttons for [each of my] vendors. When I press a vendor button, the check-marked materials are generated into a report, which is then automatically faxed to the vendor — all without being connected to a fax machine. This whole process takes less than a minute.”

Small business owners often wear many hats on any given day, but John realized that embracing cloud-based technology like Method CRM meant working smarter, not harder, in every aspect of his business. Today, John has also automated pesticide reporting, irrigation checking, and equipment maintenance within Method CRM, cutting his reporting time from 3-5 hours to 30 seconds. Even payroll takes less than five minutes to check and complete.

“We don’t walk around with clipboards anymore, it’s all smartphones,” remarked John. And the benefits of an integrated technology solution are clear: “I spend 80% less time in the office and [in] this newfound time I get work and make money.”