Management

September/October 2017

Permission to Sell More

How do you know when you’re presented with an opportunity to take a seemingly basic sale to the next level? Or make a dull client request rise to the level of dramatic transformation? It can... more »

August 21, 2017

Monrovia Hires New CMO

Monrovia has hired Tristan Simpson as the company’s new chief marketing officer. She will join the company Oct. 2, and be based in the company’s Azusa, California headquarters. Simpson has more than 20 years of... more »

August 2017

Plants, Pride and Passion

Given the headline of this month’s article, you might think I was writing a piece for a soap opera digest. But before you begin to envision heaving bosoms and melodramatic intrigue, take a deep breath... more »

July 2017

Manage Your Year to the Possible Profit End

Friends, you may be up, you may be down (in profit) depending on who you are and when you are reading this. I get to write this in late-April so you can read it in... more »

July 2017

Designing with Heart, Selling with Brains

When I speak all over the country to garden clubs, at symposiums, botanical gardens and other similar venues on a variety of topics, no topic garners more enthusiasm and interest than container design. After one... more »

July 2017

A Customer Service Gem for You

At Zingerman’s we’re big fans of clear expectation and simple, teachable and trackable tools. We find that they are invaluable no matter who we share them with — tenured employees, newbies, skeptics, enthusiasts, introverts, extroverts.... more »

July 2017

To Better Serve the Customer …

People in our industry are extremely fortunate to be able to work every day with products ... plants, trees, flowers and supporting hardlines categories ... that they truly love being involved with. Maybe it’s the... more »

June 2017

A Tale of Two Gardeners: Daring to Be Different and How to Sell It!

The late, great JC Raulston said, “If you’re not killing plants, you’re not stretching yourself as a gardener.” Or another way to say it from John Maxwell is, “If we’re growing we are always going... more »

May 2017

Elegant Ideas for Selling More Edibles

Edibles are one of the hottest topics in retail garden centers these days for the under 35 crowd. They understand the value of teaching their kids about eating fruits and veggies and tend to be... more »

April 2017

Change Your Language to Change Your Future

Our words define us. Our shared words define our culture. The culture of a person, a family or a company is a fragile environment. Our cultures are in a delicate balance the same as an... more »

April 2017

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

You have your spring game face on, right? Eleventy-billion details to manage and no time to rest. I’ve been there; I know precisely the mileage count on your feet will be somewhere between 10 to... more »

April 2017

Indoor Gardening Year-Round

Indoor gardening should be an easy category to define. We’re very familiar with those two individual words, but, when you put them together, the definition can take on a life of its own. Some might... more »