Adding a pH Correction Service
If you’re interested in adding a pH correction service to your lawn care offerings, don’t underestimate the power of soil testing.
Soil testing is the base of any successful add-on lime or sulfur offering because it provides data to support recommendations for lime or sulfur applications, depending on the results. Customers are more likely to add on an application if they can see for themselves that their soil has a pH below or above the appropriate range. For that reason, it’s important that your customer has easy access to the soil test report.
Imagine your doctor orders a blood test and, after seeing your results, tells you to start taking a vitamin B supplement. They show you the results to see for yourself that you have a vitamin B deficiency. How much more likely are you to pay for the supplement after the blood test than you would have been if your doctor had told you to start taking vitamin B just in case? It’s the same principle with soil testing and correction services.
In addition to sharing test results with customers, it’s important to educate them. We have a soil testing tool from Foliar-Pak to help make that easier. Soil Solver measures pH and comes with recommendations for applications to address both immediate and long-term deficiencies. Giving your customer a recommendation from a third party adds even more credibility.
When analyzing soil test results for lime or sulfur add-ons, you’ll want to focus on pH. A lawn with a pH lower than 6.0 is a good candidate for a lime application because lime helps to increase the pH. Likewise, a lawn with a pH higher than 7.0 would benefit from sulfur applications to lower the pH. The amount of either lime or sulfur you apply will depend on how acidic or basic the soil is. Your sales representative can advise on appropriate application rates based on pH levels.
Soil testing could be a smart upsell to customers who want more tailored service. If you already include lime or sulfur in your program, you could do soil testing for all of your customers and build the cost into the price of the program. Regardless of pricing, be sure to incorporate soil testing when adding a pH correction service to your offerings.
