According to the results of a survey of landscape contractors subscribed to Green Industry Pros magazine, three factors strongly influence a landscape contractor’s buying decision: Durability/Reliability, Productivity/Performance, and Brand Loyalty.
Those three considerations are closely followed by Easier to Service, Comfortable to Use, Easy to Use, and the Dealer.
Of lesser importance to landscape contractors are the following four factors: Heard Other Contractors Like It, Trade-in Value, Price, Appearance.
In other words, while landscape and lawn care contractors are in the business of creating breathtaking beauty, how they look while creating that beauty matters very little—at least to roughly 90% of the contractors surveyed. The equipment and tools used to create and maintain beautiful landscapes are merely a means to that end. Perhaps that’s why so many contractors are so proud of the fact that “they’re still running that same mower they started their business with 15 years ago”. So long as that beast still runs good, game on.
Additionally, because of the time sensitivity of landscape-related work, contractors like familiarity. So long as a piece of equipment is reliable—be it a brand or even specific model—landscape contractors tend to stick with it. The dealership they buy that equipment from is also fairly important. This helps explain why, in all major equipment categories, there continues to be numerous brands, most with less than 50% brand favorability among landscape contractors (see that survey report).
Are big contractors and small ones on the same page?
There is very little difference in the responses of landscape companies with annual sales below $1 million vs. those over $1 million. This stands to reason. Whether you’re a massive company with 15 or 20 crews, or a smaller company with just one or two, each given crew is tasked with addressing a specific body of work. To address that work, each crew needs equipment and human beings to operate it. So again, familiarity (reliability, productivity, brand loyalty) is very important to all contractors.
There are a couple of areas, however, where big contractors and small contractors differ slightly. One is in the area of peer reviews. Roughly 44% of landscape contractors with sales below $1 million said “heard other contractors like it” is an important factor (selecting 4 or 5 on scale of 1-5) in selecting a piece of equipment. Just 33% of contractors with sales over $1 million selected a 4 or 5.
Bigger and smaller contractors also differ slightly when it comes to equipment dealer loyalty. Roughly 75% of smaller contractors scored “my local dealer is really good” as a 4 or 5. Just 65% of larger contractors did. This stands to reason as smaller contractors often rely a bit more on their dealers for service and parts support.
Finally, equipment trade-in value is one more area where big and small contractors differ. Just 35% of smaller contractors scored this as a 4 or 5, while 45% of larger contractors did. This stands to reason as smaller contractors are more apt to run their machines into the ground, whereas larger contractors are more typically on a predetermined replacement schedule. Thus, trade-in value becomes more important to larger contractors as they look to sell their existing depreciated equipment on the used market when they buy new.
