[Stonehenge]

Send them a letter?

Take one of the staff to lunch?

Sell, sell, sell - Always Be Closing?

Start sending in unsolicited bids for projects?

[Paul]

We use "Bid tool.net, Dodge report and The Blue Book Report. These all give us the information on what public works jobs are out and when they are going to be bid, again most if not all of our work are public works jobs. If it's a new company that we are sending a bid to we include a list of contractors and jobs we have completed in the last 3 years along with project size.

[site]

Rotary Club, Landscape architects, nurseries, and some good luck.

[Stonehenge]

How did you build your relationships with the LA's?

[site]

Building good relationships is easy- just do what you promise. The hard part was establishing relationships with LA's the first time, and figuring out who is really doing good designs, and who is bluffing. I met one by taking a class on hardscapes. I coud have taught the class myself, but I wanted to meet her. I met another on the mountain bike trails. I have met others on commercial jobs that I have been asked to bid. I ask boldly if they will send me other plans to bid. They always say yes- they don't always follow through. We have worked for some big names, and learn A TON. A spec book for one job was about 300 pages.

[Stonehenge]

Isn't that the key to the kingdom..... Do what you promise.

I was just talking to my father, comlaining about our real estate agent. My only complaint - he didn't do what he said he'd do.

[jwholden]

Real estate agent = Used car salesmen

[agla]

Before you go making to much of an effort you should keep in mind what is most important to the people hiring for big commercial work. Most important after basic competency is the ability to send in a bunch of guys to work on lots of different things at the same time on short notice. In other words you almost have to be large, well established, and known for managing your crews efficiently.
Commercial job, in many cases, have widows that you can and have to work in that open and close. You can't go calmly in at the end of construction and blast out the job. There will be hundreds of trucks parked all over the landscape, utilities coming and going, parking lot getting built, crane coming in to deliver whatever, ...
The managers of a big commercial job look at landscaping like they do wall paper. They are not going to slow down production by blocking access or moving others staging areas out of the way with landscaping. They want minimal competancy and maximum management skills. They don't care about your pictures, they care about how fast and efficient you can your Y done after the roofer does X and before the pavement guy does Z. This is a case when "it is not how you loook, darling" - it is how you feel even if you do looook marvelous.