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The following is from the May 2006 edition of Todays Garden Center magazine.
Selling Solutions
Larry and Frances Grossman are committed to helping consumers achieve gardening success by promoting gardening as a lifestyle at Grossman’s Country Nursery.
by Laura Drotleff, Senior Staff Writer
lhdrotleff@meistermedia.com
 Sell a preplanted container garden to a consumer and she’ll enjoy color all season. Give her the tools and the knowledge to plant and maintain her garden herself and she’ll have gardening success for a lifetime. But she might ask you to do it for her anyway.
This is an idea that Grossman’s Country Nursery in Penfield, N.Y., an eastern suburb of Rochester, has capitalized on for 22 years. The operation, owned by Larry and Frances Grossman, evolved from a landscape design-build business the Grossmans ran for 13 years. Larry began growing plants to install in his residential landscape projects and people began to stop by and ask if he sold the plants retail. One thing led to another, he says, and Grossman’s Country Nursery was established in 1984.
Today the nursery sits on 20 acres and grows all of its own annuals and bedding plants, a large percentage of the perennials and all of the large ball and burlap trees it sells at retail. Yet despite all the beautiful plant products the retailer sells, the Grossmans say the most unique product offered is not a specific item, but rather the gardening lifestyle as a package. “They can come here and get the solutions so their gardening lifestyle can be successful, easy and fun,” Frances says.
Building on his expertise in landscaping, Larry has been teaching customers to design and implement their own projects as a part of that experience.
“We’re selling solutions that will give them success in the garden and make their experience wonderful,” Larry says. “That’s really what our product is, the experience.”
Solutions + Service = Success
As a grower-retailer, Grossman’s makes a point to brand its own plants instead of promoting national brands.
“In essence, a product is a product,” Larry says. “It has to be wonderful, have wow to it, have a good solution behind it and have an affordable price. But in the end, the brand is not the product for the product; the brand is Grossman’s Country Nursery because it’s the solution that is even more important.
“Anybody can just buy something and hope it’s going to work, but when they can talk to somebody and get the solutions they need in order to get the comfort and coaching that is so vital to their success, that’s where we brand ourselves and make ourselves different.”
That level of service is exactly what keeps customers coming back for more, Frances says. “Undeniably, it’s the solutions, the service and the experience,” she says. “They can’t get the experience they get shopping here by going to a big box. They can’t get the service. And that all adds to the solution to make their lives better.”
Grossman’s will be improving upon its service this year when it adds a new POS system, which Frances says is a big step that garden centers should take when it’s appropriate, rather than just for the sake of technology.
“For us, the time is here because we need to capture our customers’ information so we can provide them with what they want,” she says. “We have done the best that we can up to this point, without a POS.”
A Dynamic Duo
Larry and Frances have become gardening personalities, not only in their community, but also in the region through a live, call-in AM radio program, the WHAM Garden Show Live with Grossman’s Country Nursery, on Saturday mornings year-round. “We are here to represent the gardening lifestyle and advocate gardening on behalf of all independent garden centers,” Frances says. “But that has helped with credibility for Larry and I to transfer right over to the nursery and thus, everybody within Grossman’s Country Nursery.”
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Check It Out For Yourself
Garden Centers of America (GCA) will be heading to western New York state and southern Ontario for the 2006 Summer Tour June 25-28. Attendees will visit Grossman’s Country Nursery, as well as get a behind-the-scenes tour of grocery giant Wegman’s Super Market. Other stops include: Barone Gardens, Chuck Hafners, Dickman Farms, Moore Farms, The Garden Factory and more.
To register or for more information, call Shanan Molnar at 888-648-6463 or go to www.gardencentersofamerica.org |
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Larry adds that cohosting the shows with his wife and business partner, Frances, has added to the entertainment and draw of the program, and as an added bonus has helped draw customers to their business, as well as other independents in the region.
“One of the dynamics of working with Frances is people really do get to see and hear what it’s like for this duo to live, eat and breathe gardening,” he says. “There are a lot of comical jokes and things that are said that the listeners have fun with and help them feel like they know us.”
Now in their fourth year on the radio, the dynamic duo is extending their media reach into television this spring with a weekly segment after the weather during the 5:30 news on their local ABC station.
Always Learning
Despite their vast experience, Larry and Frances remain true students of retail, from shopping at other garden centers to touring large department stores and observing service at restaurants. Larry says studying all types of retail allows them to see what works and what doesn’t at other stores, so they know what customers will respond to, both positively and negatively.
 “Service is a word that doesn’t have as much clarity to it as it used to,” he says. “We have to see what everybody else is doing and make sure that we do something completely different. And in doing that, we have to make sure that it’s something that the customers want to embrace, and therefore makes us unique.”
The Grossmans also frequent industry tours that allow them to study garden centers around the country. This summer’s GCA tour (see “Check It Out For Yourself”) will include Grossman’s Country Nursery, where Larry and Frances will showcase some of the ideas they have picked up from other tours, like their covered walkways.
“This is such a great industry in the sense that we help each other and we share information, successes and not-so-successes,” Frances says. “But we have to get out of our comfort zone and learn about it, and that’s what all the publications, associations and tours can provide us. If you stay the same, you’re going to suffer the consequences. You need to continue to grow and diversify and better yourself and your customers are going to respond to that.
“Customers will give you what you deserve. If you continue to thrive and excite, they’ll continue to come back.”
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Casting A Wide Net
When a large, home and garden independent chain of 14 stores in the Rochester area closed its doors this spring, Grossman’s Country Nursery had to anticipate and plan for an increased market share of customers looking for a new garden center to shop. The chain, Chase Pitkin, owned by Wegman’s, a large grocery conglomerate, was a savvy retailer and had a very loyal following due to its reputation for good service and affordable prices.
One way Grossman’s prepared to capture new customers was through its new vendor marketing program, a collaboration between the nursery and its vendors to increase awareness about gardening products and solutions.
“We are working together to get the word out through various means – radio, TV, print,” Frances says. “And then together, we can be working to sell the product more successfully to more of these customers, be it through our garden centers or any of the other independent garden centers. Everybody needed to pull together here because there was a very large market share to pull from.”
Signing up new customers for Grossman’s e-mail newsletters will help track the success of the program. The e-newsletter includes quick solutions and products, as well as promotions. It has been well received and continues to grow, Frances says. “It’s a great way to communicate with the customers at an effective cost for the company.” |
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