A winter pruning discount or a yearly maintenance plan, and when each one wins for a tree company
Two ways to keep crews busy from December to March: a one-time dormant pruning offer or a yearly tree care plan. What each costs you and when each wins.
The storm calls slow down, the leaves are off, and by January your crews are standing around the yard waiting for the phone. Every tree company owner knows this stretch is coming. The question is what to sell to fill it.
There are two common answers. One is a one-time winter pruning offer: a discount or a bundle for dormant season work, pushed hard in November and December. The other is a yearly maintenance plan: a customer signs up once and you come back on a schedule, with winter pruning as the first visit. Both can fill a January calendar. They do it in very different ways, and they suit different companies.
Option one: the winter pruning offer
This is a simple pitch. "Book your dormant pruning before December 31 and save 10% on work done in January and February." Or a bundle: "Prune two trees, get the third looked at free."
Why it works. Dormant pruning is a real reason, not a gimmick. With the leaves off you can see the structure, many species handle cuts better in late winter, and the customer's yard is not full of flower beds and patio furniture. It is an easy story to tell on a postcard or in an email.
What it costs. A mailer to past customers is the cheapest version. A list of a few hundred past customers might cost a few hundred dollars to print and mail. An email costs nothing. A small Facebook campaign to homeowners in the towns you already work in might run $15 to $30 a day for a few weeks. Our Facebook and Instagram ads guide covers what creative works for tree work in winter.
The real cost is the discount. On a $1,500 job, 10% is $150 you give up. If the job would not have happened at all without the offer, that is a good trade. If the customer would have called you in April anyway, you just paid $150 to move the date.
When it wins:
- You are a newer company without a big customer list yet.
- Your crews need work in the next 60 days, not next year.
- You serve an area with a lot of newer homeowners who do not have a tree company yet.
Option two: the yearly maintenance plan
This is a different pitch. "We look at every tree on your property once a year, prune what needs it in winter, and check again after storm season. One price, split into monthly or yearly payments." Plans often add a priority line for storm calls, which is worth a lot to a homeowner who watched their neighbor wait four days for help.
Why it works. A tree company's biggest marketing problem is that most customers call once every few years. Our reviews guide talks about the same problem from the review side. A plan turns that one-time customer into a yearly one. It also gives you winter work you know about in October, which lets you plan crews instead of hoping.
What it costs. Almost nothing to market, because you sell it to people who already hired you. The cost is in the setup: a clear one-page explanation, a way to take recurring payments, and a calendar that does not let anyone fall through. You also give up some price on each visit compared to a one-off job, because the customer is buying predictability.
When it wins:
- You have a few years of past customers, especially larger properties with many trees.
- You want steadier revenue, not just a busy January.
- You can actually show up on schedule. A plan you miss is worse than no plan.
How to choose
Ask three questions.
How many past customers do you have? Under a couple of hundred, start with the winter offer and use it to build the list. Over that, the plan is probably worth more to you.
What do you need the money for? If you need January payroll covered, the offer brings cash sooner. If you need next year to be less of a roller coaster, the plan does that.
Can your office handle it? A plan needs someone to schedule visits and send reminders. If that person does not exist, start small with ten or twenty plan customers.
Many companies end up running both. The winter offer goes to everyone. Anyone who books it gets a short note after the job: "Want us to come back every winter at this price? Here is how our yearly plan works."
How to price either one
Do not guess at the plan price. Look at what a typical customer on a larger property spent over the last three years, and set the yearly price a little under that average. Our pricing and estimates guide covers how to present it so it does not read as a discount.
For the winter offer, consider a bundle instead of a percent off. "Third tree free" protects your rate better than "15% off everything."
Do not forget the profile
In our data the median tree company has 17 Google reviews and 41.5% list no hours at all. In winter, homeowners searching for pruning are looking at the same profile storm customers saw in summer. Post your winter offer there, list your winter hours, and make sure the phone gets answered. The slow season plan has the rest of the January playbook.
If you want help setting up either one before November, the free 14-day trial covers any one service, no card. Text or call (385) 526-4799.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, tree service companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor