Pre-Conference Workshops

• Outdoor Lifestyles: Boost Your Bottom Line by Designing & Selling Outdoor Living Spaces
• Focus on Sales: Make 2013 Your Year for Astonishing Sales Growth: Winning the Price Wars and the Referral Advantage
• Focus on Horticulture/Plants: Bold Beds, Colossal Containers and Gorgeous Gardens
  

 

Tuesday, January 15
9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Brought to you by IGIA
IGIA's Mid Am Pre-Show Outdoor Lifestyles Workshop Sponsored by
Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens

*For this workshop only, bring your company's entire design and sales team for a single $200 registration fee.

Boost your Bottom Line: How to Design and Sell Outdoor Living adding Extra Added Value to Your Company and the Services They Provide
Tony LoBello, Mark McWilliams, Larry Smith

Part I: How to Design the Outdoor Living Space: Adding the Finishing Touches and Exceeding Your Client’s Expectations
Tony LoBello of Mariani Landscape will share with you his winning design style that wows clients and garners referrals. Tony will share with you ideas on ‘finishing’ your designs with the details that will set your designs apart from the competition and allows your clients to personalize their space. Working in a successful collaboration with your clients to add the extra layer of detail to their space builds relationships, brand value for your business and most importantly money to the bottom line. 

Part II: Labor Saving Products that Take Your Outdoor Rooms to a Professional Designer Look and How They Can Work for You
Larry Smith of Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens will show you just how easy it can be to design and install finished cabinetry in your outdoor rooms. He will share years of experience in this category and how you can grow into a product category that will save you labor dollars, provide the Brown Jordan exceptional quality and name recognition and make outdoor living as easy for you as for the consumer.

Part III: Understanding the Sales Techniques Necessary to make Outdoor Living a Promising Profit Center for Your Business
Mark McWilliams of CopperTree Outdoor Lifestyles has been very successful designing and selling outdoor living spaces of all varieties through landscape and garden retail companies. He will teach you how to listen to what your client is not telling you and then exceed their expectations. Learn how to stay current with the trends and styles and how to make them work for you in added sales. He can share with you the strategies to dovetail your company with your retail operation to support this category and maximize sales for both divisions.

Part IV: Vendors that Work to Meet Your Needs Whether You Sell the Outdoor Concept through Retail or Landscape
Time permitting, Laurie McWilliams of CopperTree Outdoor Lifestyle will share vendors that have supported the outdoor lifestyle business model that they have been pioneering for 10 years. Believe it or not there are companies that will work with landscape companies to establish win-win relationships. You don’t have to have inventory for sales to occur.

We will also be sharing photos of your outdoor rooms to inspire and build confidence that this is a category that is possible for anyone to develop for their own companies.

 

Tuesday, January 15
8:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Brought to you by ILCA

Focus on Sales: Make 2013 Your Year for Astonishing Sales Growth: Winning the Price Wars and the Referral Advantage
Jeffrey Scott, Jeffrey Scott!

Part I: Winning the Price Wars – How to Sell Value and Win More Clients in the New Economy
Learn how to build emotional bonds, sell value and win more clients. For owners who want to train and manage their staff to sell more jobs to the right clients at the right margins—and for salespeople who want to raise their game and close more business. Learn a systematic sales process that will show you how to get in front of qualified prospects, create more on-target proposals, and close more sales—without selling on price. This process will boost your confidence and guarantee sales success.

Part II: The Referral Advantage – Grow Your Sales Through Systematic Process of Professional Relationships and Client Referrals
Learn how to grow your business by systematically maintaining, strengthening and growing your relationships – with customers, influencers and the trade. Learn simple techniques for developing “your top 25 influencers”, for “climbing the relationship ladder”, for driving sales through the roof using your “apple a day” strategy, and by systematically creating your “Referral Advantage.” Learn how to empower every single front line employee to drive your referrals.

Focus on Horticulture/Plants
Bold Beds, Colossal Containers, and Gorgeous Gardens

This four part workshop will turn your company into a triple threat this season. Break away from routine with new beds and container combinations that the whole neighborhood will be talking about.

Part I: Seasonal Rotations: Containers & Planting Beds
Laura Szyjka, Rocco Fiore and Sons, Inc.
Jim Pearson, Moore Landscapes, Inc.
Part I provides an abundance of photos, tips and “recipes” for great looking combinations for planting beds. Learn how to sell seasonality and gain more opportunities to break from the boring.

Part II: Seasonal Container Demos
Abbie Lydon, ASLA, Clarence Davids & Company
Stephen Borden, Clarence Davids & Company
Marguerite Gluck, Marguerite’s Gardens
David Genovese, Marguerite’s Gardens
Scott Sullivan, Topiarius Urban Garden and Floral Design
Kim Conerty, Kinsella Landscape LLC
Laura Szyjka, Rocco Fiore and Sons, Inc
Experience new, dramatic and inspirational arrangements as 8 of the best container designers in Chicagoland apply their artistic talent. The live demos will utilize a wide assortment of seasonal plants & flowers, as well as creative pottery and containers. Bring your camera and note pad to this one!

Part III & IV: Gardens to Visit Before You Die
James “Doc” Ethridge, Professor Emeritus
After lunch, travel the world without leaving Navy Pier. Globetrotting horticulturalist and international man of mystery James “Doc” Ethridge will take attendees to some of the most amazing gardens in the world. We will visit Africa, Asia, Europe, island gardens and a few in the USA. Doc’s goal is to see 1000 before he dies and he is at 700+ and counting! Let ILCA provide your passport to garden inspiration.