What if the crew leaders leave after you buy a landscaping company?
Crew leaders can take client relationships with them, so find out before closing who actually deals with each account. Meet the leaders, ask the seller how routes and accounts are run, and plan retention and introductions into the handover period rather than hoping they stay.
In a landscaping company the owner is often not the person clients see every week. The crew leader who runs a route knows the gate codes, the quirks of each property and the client by name. If that person leaves after closing, some of the accounts may follow. This is a risk you can look at before you buy, and plan for.
Find out who holds each relationship
Ask the seller to show, account by account, who quotes the work, who is on site, and who answers the phone when something goes wrong. If the owner handles every call, the leaders matter less. If the leaders handle most of it, they are closer to the heart of the business than the org chart suggests. Ask for the route lists and compare them with the client list.
Talk to the crew leaders, with the seller’s permission
Ask the seller when and how the leaders will be told about the sale. Many sellers prefer to wait until the deal is firm, and that is reasonable. Once it is, meet each leader privately. Listen for what they like about the job and what worries them. People may stay when they hear that their role, crew and routes are not changing.
Retention and the handover period
Ask your accountant and lawyer how to structure any stay-on arrangement for key staff, and what the buyer can fairly ask of an employee. Some buyers offer a retention payment tied to staying through the first season. Others keep the same crews on the same routes. Ask the seller to stay on for a transition period and to introduce you, with the leaders, to the larger clients.
What to ask the seller
- Which crew leaders have been here longest, and who are the ones you would worry about losing?
- Has any leader been approached by a competitor or talked about starting their own company?
- Which accounts would be hardest to replace if a leader left?
- Is there anything in writing between the company and its leaders?
The buyer checklist for landscaping businesses covers contracts and equipment, and this question belongs beside it.
Related reading
15 pages on the same subject, grouped by topic.
Due diligence
Buying
Selling
Financing
Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 03Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentUnderstanding post-merger operational integration
- 04Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentAfter buying a business, what is the next step?
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