Qualified enquiries
The first number in a good month is qualified enquiries, and the two halves of the business qualify differently. A build enquiry qualifies when it names a real project, such as a patio, a retaining wall or a whole garden (yard in the US), with a rough size; one asking for a day rate does not. A maintenance enquiry qualifies when the address sits on or near a route you already drive. Count the two separately, because a month can be strong on one and empty on the other.
In the US, where landscaping companies are also called landscape contractors, Houzz's 2026 outdoor study found landscape contractors the most frequently hired type of pro, engaged by 26% of renovating homeowners. That is Houzz's own US survey audience. Google Local Services Ads has a landscaping services category in the US, with background, licence and insurance checks as applicable. Project pages on your site (patios, driveways, planting, garden design) give each kind of enquiry its own door, and lead generation puts a form behind each page that asks the questions that sort it.
Site visits booked and kept
Design-build starts with someone standing in a garden with you, so the numbers are visits booked and, of those, visits kept. A short project form asking what they want built, roughly how big, and where (postcode in the UK, ZIP code in the US) lets you decline the day-rate hunters before you drive anywhere. What lifts attendance is plain: a confirmation that names the date, who is coming and what to have ready (a rough budget, photos of the drainage, any plans), and a reminder the day before.
The visit often turns on one question about the front garden. In England, paving more than five square metres of front garden needs planning permission if the surface is impermeable and does not drain to a permeable area, and the allowances apply to houses, not to flats and maisonettes, with other exceptions, including areas where a planning condition or an Article 4 direction limits permitted development rights. Where they apply, one condition among others is that the surface is porous, or that run-off is directed to a permeable area within the property. A quote that says which route it takes, and a driveway page that carries the England scope, settle that question before it stalls the job.
Proposals signed
Win rate is the number marketing can lift without buying one extra lead, because proof helps someone comparing proposals, and in the UK the proof splits between designing and building. SGLD (the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers) Registered Membership is reached through accreditation, an assessment of your work and professional competence, as a designer. BALI Accredited members sign a Code of Conduct and are vetted against the Association Quality Standard and re-vetted, and its directory is public. Which? Trusted Traders applies checks including six months of trading and no county court judgements. Each is the body's own description of itself, not a regulator's. A firm that designs and builds can show both kinds, and the proposal should say which person or body stands behind which part.
Where your state licenses landscape work, start with the licence. CSLB tells Californians to verify the licence online and check it covers the trade and to ask for liability and workers' compensation insurance certificates before work begins. A California proposal that offers both up front answers the check before it is asked. If you design, watch the title: ASLA says licensure means only qualified people can call themselves landscape architects. ASLA is the profession's own body, so check your state board for the exact rule before using the title, and describe unlicensed work as landscape design. Then build one proof page per service, showing credentials and named projects, and link it from every proposal.
Deposits received
A signed proposal becomes money when the deposit arrives, so deposits received sit beside proposals signed in the month's figures. Design-build work is often agreed at the site visit, in the customer's home, and in Great Britain the guidance's example of a sales contract is the supply and fitting of a patio, which carries a cancellation period for the customer. Count a build as won once the deposit has cleared and that period has passed. A gap between proposals signed and deposits received points to the contract or the payment terms, and it is cheaper to close that gap than to buy more build enquiries to cover it.
Backlog in weeks
Backlog is signed work not yet started, counted in weeks. It tells you whether to push or ease off: a diary full to the end of spring means more build ads only lengthen the wait, while a thin one in late winter is the time to fill it. Build work and maintenance work get separate campaigns, so you can pause the one with no room and feed the one that has.
Backlog also changes what the adverts promise. With twelve weeks booked, a build advert should say when work could start, so the enquiry that arrives already accepts the wait. With two weeks booked, the same advert can lead with an early start, a reason to choose you that a busier firm cannot offer. Read backlog next to proposals still out: undecided proposals are the backlog you might have, and a month with many of them calls for a decision date on each rather than more enquiries.
New maintenance contracts and route density
Maintenance is the recurring half, the floor under the month. The month's figures here are contracts signed, monthly income added and cancellations taken off. Route density, the stops you can fit into a day within a tight area, decides whether a new contract is welcome. So the paid ads for maintenance run only in the postcodes or ZIP codes already on your routes, and every finished build gets an email sequence from handover to a maintenance offer.
Density also decides which addresses to turn down. A contract two streets from an existing stop is worth more than the same contract across town, because the drive between them is unpaid. Price new maintenance by where it sits: the standard rate on the route, a higher one just off it, and a polite no beyond that.
In some US states the line between maintenance and construction also sets what you may sell and advertise. In California, CSLB says gardeners paid on a regular basis to maintain landscaping generally do not need a C-27 licence, while any construction project, including landscaping, of $1,000 or more in labour and materials needs a state contractor licence, and so does any project needing a permit or workers. In Oregon, anyone can advertise for landscape maintenance work, and a maintenance business without a landscape contracting licence may do a limited amount of landscape work, on conditions, up to $500 per job site per year, which it cannot advertise for, since it can only be performed for existing customers. In Oregon, then, an unlicensed maintenance business's advert sells the regular visit, and small replacement planting is offered only to customers already on the route; in California, an upsell of $1,000 or more, or one that needs a permit or workers, is licensed work.
New reviews
Reviews feed the profile and the proposal. Google's Maps policy bars merchants from offering incentives, such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services, in exchange for posting any review. The CMA's UK guidance says not to offer inducements for positive reviews, and the FTC's 2024 US rule prohibits incentives tied to a particular sentiment. A build customer reviews one job, so ask at handover, when the finished garden is in front of them. A maintenance customer reviews a service, so ask after a full season of visits, when there is something to describe. Either way Google says merchants should not request that specific content be included, so your project pages carry the job names.
Claims about materials need the same care. The UK's CAP says an absolute environmental claim such as "eco-friendly" needs evidence of no negative environmental impact across its entire lifecycle, and in one 2022 ruling, on Evergreens (UK) Ltd, the ASA found an "eco-friendly" artificial grass claim misleading.
Cost to win one signed job
A report of cost per lead stops short. The number you live on is cost to win one signed job: spend divided by signed builds, and separately by new maintenance contracts. Set the first against what an average build contributes after materials and labour. Set the second against what one more stop adds to a route over a year, because a maintenance contract that costs more to win than a build can still be the better buy if it fills a gap on a route you already drive. Judge every lead source, paid or bought, by the signed work it produced. We take on landscaping businesses in the UK and the US, work across both countries' time zones, and quote in GBP or USD.
↳ Frequently asked
01Can I call my artificial grass eco-friendly?
Be careful. In the UK, CAP says an absolute claim such as eco-friendly needs evidence of no negative environmental impact across the whole lifecycle, and in one 2022 ruling the ASA found an eco-friendly artificial grass claim misleading. If you cannot show that evidence, describe what the product does and leave the label off.
02In Oregon, can I advertise lawn maintenance and small planting jobs under one business?
Without a Landscape Contractors Board licence, you can advertise the maintenance only. The Board says anyone can advertise landscape maintenance work, and a maintenance business may do a limited amount of other landscape work for existing customers, up to $500 per job site per year, on conditions. It says you cannot advertise that work. So an unlicensed business's advert names the maintenance service, and small replacement planting is offered to customers already on your books.
03A customer asks whether their new driveway needs planning permission. What can I say?
In England, the permitted-development allowances cover houses, not flats or maisonettes, with other exceptions. For a house they cover, a front-garden surface over five square metres needs permission if it is impermeable and does not drain to a permeable area. Porous material, or run-off directed to a permeable area, is one permitted-development condition among others, and a planning condition or an Article 4 direction can limit the right. Say which route your quote takes, and send Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish customers to their local authority.
04How do I turn a one-off garden job into a maintenance contract?
Make the offer at handover, while the customer is looking at the finished garden, and follow it with a short email sequence for those who did not say yes. Track contracts signed and monthly income added against the build jobs that produced them, so you can see which jobs convert.
05Should I ask for a review when the build is finished or when the planting has grown in?
Ask at handover, while the finished build is in front of the customer, and send the link once more when the planting has filled in if they have not reviewed by then. Leave the wording to them: Google's Maps policy says merchants should not request that specific content be included, so your project pages carry the words patio or retaining wall.
06People ask for a quote in November but want the work done in spring. How do I keep them?
Split them in two. Someone holding your proposal but not yet signed needs a reason and a date to decide: hold a start slot for them until a named date, and ask what they still need before committing, such as the planting plan, the drainage detail or a staged payment. Someone who has signed and paid the deposit needs only a confirmed start date and a note before the crew arrives.