Oct./Nov. 2006TPI

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS
Taking Care of Business................... Page 2 

Increase Productivity & Decrease Costs

Marketing Tip....................................Page 3 

16 Ways to Increase Sales

Shrewder Computing......................... Page 3 

Take Control of Technology

TPI Action ........................................ Page 4 

— TPI Participates in 2006 NCAE Meeting 

 — “Guideline Specifications to 

Turfgrass Sodding” Brochure Updated 

— ITPF Update

Remember—
Valid Passports are Required for 
Non-Australian Attendees of the 
2007 TPI Midwinter Conference

When planning to attend the 

Midwinter Conference in Australia, be 
sure your passport is up to date and that 
its expiration date is at least six months 
beyond the event’s dates. 

If you do not have a passport yet, or 

need to renew it, you can begin the 
process on-line by searching for 
“passport renewal” to find the DS-82 
form and other requirements. In the 
U. S., you can use the government 
service, or pay extra for service 
companies available on-line to handle 
and expedite the process.

BUSINESS 

MANAGEMENT
Turfgrass Producers International

Queensland Australia February 5-9 2007 

“Turf’s Up Down Under!”

What a clever theme for the 2007 TPI 
Midwinter Conference with its emphasis 
“Turf’s Up” as the event’s primary focus 
and its location “Down Under” one of 
the most exciting venues ever! The 
momentum continues as you review what 
promises to be a very educational and 
entertaining schedule of activities and 
uniquely Australian experiences. 
Stereotyping is allowed when you 
envision the country’s delightfully 
friendly Turfgrass Producers of Australia 
(TPA) members who are anxious to 
welcome and share their knowledge and 
information with you at the TPA Field 
day and throughout your stay. 

Try to imagine what it’ll be like 

visiting a real Australian farm, a winery, 
a tree-top walk, a river cruise, a visit to 
the famed Australia Zoo, in addition to 
the valuable educational sessions in 
which turf producers and other industry 
professionals from throughout the globe 
share their experiences and insights. 
TPI’s popular “Show and Tell” sessions 
will feature guest speakers: 1) Stephen T. 
Brown of Quality Turf Farms, West 
Columbia, Texas; 2) Hamish Sutherland 
of HG Turf Maintenance, Alexandra, 
Victoria, Australia; and 3) Keaton

Vandemark of Vandemark Farms, Spring 
Hope North Carolina. From these 
sessions always comes a different and 
often more efficient way to operate a sod 
farm. 

During the General Education 

sessions, expect to learn a lot from Ian 
Chivers, Ph.D., CEO of Natives Seeds 
Pty. Ltd., Sandringham, Victoria 
Australia, as he discusses “The 
Measurement of Strength of Turf 
Surfaces.” Dr. Chivers has developed 
equipment to more accurately determine 
the durability of turf on horse racing 
tracks and sports fields which he has put 
to use in Australia and other countries. 
His other area of interest is the 
development of turf types of native 
grasses with potential uses in challenging 
environments of low rainfall, high heat 
and shallow soils. 

The presentation by Jeffrey L. Bruce, 

FASLA Principal, Jeffrey L. Bruce & 
Co., N. Kansas City, MO, is entitled 
“Artificial Turf: What They Don’t Want 
You to Know.” In addition to heat, other 
synthetic turf problems, according to 
Bruce, include performance, durability, 
maintenance, disposal and 
warranties.

1.6 from 2002) 

Turf Equipment Survey Deadline Extended—Your Support is Needed
The deadline for the TPI Turfgrass 
Sod Farm Equipment Survey has been 
extended so that all TPI "Class A” 
members can participate. For more 
information, visit the TPI website at 
www.TurfGrassSod.org and select 
“Turfgrass Sod Farm Equipment Survey 
link” 

—Farms reporting more than 600 
acres/242 hectares devoted to 
turfgrass production = 32% 

turfgrass harvesters = 47% (not 
reported in 2002) 

—Percent of farms using automated 

—Most popular Pick-up & Light Truck 

brand name = Ford 

Here's a preview of what the survey 

is revealing: (as of 9/20/06)  
—Average number of tractors used per 

reporting farming operation including 
permanently fixed units =10.6 (up

Participating members have 

immediate access to all survey results 
after submitting their completed survey.

Taking Care of Business

By Laura Leist 
Consultant, Trainer & Speaker  
laura@eliminatechaos.com

Increase Productivity & Decrease Costs

Implement Information Retrieval Systems

Do you pile instead of file? Is your 

desk overflowing with mounds of 
paperwork? If it is, you’re not alone. 
Many people claim that if they file it, it 
is out of sight and out of mind, often 
never to be found again. Today, U.S. 
workers generate 2.7 billion pieces of 
new paper a day—that is 45 sheets per 
person, per day! The problem, however, 
is how do you find it when you need it? 

Smart Business Magazine reported 
U.S. workers waste on average at least 
two hours per week because they are not 
able to retrieve, share and determine how 
to store and organize documents and 
other information. The costs to 
businesses can be astounding. Office 
staff are likely costing their company 
over $2,500 a year on wasted 
productivity. 

It is no longer enough to create and 

maintain efficient filing systems for 
paper and electronic information. 
Consideration must be given as to how 
that information can be quickly accessed 
and retrieved when needed; otherwise, 
what good is it if you cannot locate it? 

One of the main reasons people 

accumulate so much paper is they don't 
know what to keep and what to get rid 
of. Of the paper-based or electronic 
information we keep, 82 percent of the 
information we keep—whether electronic 
or paper-based—it will never be 
referenced again. 

There are two questions you should be 

asking yourself about each piece of 
information: 1) Do I need this? and 2) 
Will I refer to it someday? If you can 
answer “Yes” to these questions, you 
need to “act” on the information or 
“store” it for later use. If you answered 
“No” to these questions, it's time to 
eliminate it. 

Here are six strategies to help get an 
office organized, increase productivity 
and help with information retrieval: 

1—The "delete" key is your friend.

When processing your e-mail, quickly 
decide if you need to respond, file or 
delete. If the information is not useful, 
delete it before you move on to the next 
e-mail. Your inbox should only contain 
e-mails that are waiting for a response or 
to be filed.

2— Create "file cabinets” in your 

Inbox. Creating sub-files for your inbox 
is like creating "file cabinets" for your 
electronic information. An organized 
system for filing e-mail is essential if 
you want to find and use the information 
later. The file names must be descriptive 
and have some consistency to allow 
quick and easy location of information. 
You could create files based on projects, 
people, associations, volunteer work, 
clients, prospects or a combination of 
several.

3— "My Documents” should not be 

used as a one-size-store-all location. 
Storing all of your e-mails in the My 
Documents file can make it very difficult 
to locate an e-mail or document when 
you need it. When setting up your files, 
go from the very general, to the specific.
4— Use consistent naming systems 

for computer files. In addition to a well 
organized filing structure for your 
computer files, you also need to use 
consistent naming systems for the files 
stored in each folder. That will allow 
you to continue being able to quickly and 
easily locate the ones you need, even as 
the number of documents increase.

5— The recycling bin and shredder 
are also your friends. Are you hanging 
on to documents, articles, magazines or 
other information because you are going 
to read it "someday?" Be realistic. If the 
item has been sitting in piles on your 
desk or the surrounding floor for six 
months, or even a year, there is a high 
probability you will never get around to 
reading this information. Even with the 
best intentions, the bottom line is that if 
you do not make the time—and generally 

you don’t—it will continue to pile up and 
you likely will never get to it. 

If you do make the time for those 

items in the reading pile, save only the 
information you will use or refer to in 
the future. This information can be 
stored in a variety of ways. Here are 
some examples of what you may find 
and how to store them:

A—A website you want to check out.

Add it to your ”to do” list. If you like 
the information on the website, add it 
to your ’’Favorites” in your Internet 
Browser. 

B—An idea could be stored in a file 

called “Ideas” or, more specifically, 
the type of tip. This eliminates your 
having to save the entire magazine or 
article for the one idea. 

C—A product you wish to buy—if it is 

not an item you plan to purchase 
immediately, create a file folder or 
envelope for “Potential Purchases.”

6—Action Items! Let’s face it; we all 
have a long “To-do” list that can include 
items such as calls to make, supplies to 
purchase, errands to run, projects to 
complete and other little nagging things 
that must get done. Maintain only one 
location where you keep the majority of 
these items. 

If you are a paper person, get yourself 

a small journal book in which to keep 
this information—all in one compact 
place. Items such as sticky notes that 
you’ve written a number on so you can 
call someone, can be easily put in the 
book, or a business card can be paper 
clipped or stapled in your “To call” 
section. 

By implementing these strategies, 
your office will be well on it’s way to 
becoming a fine-tuned operation. 
Papers will be filed away, desks will be 
clear and employees will be more 
organized and productive.

Marketing Tip By John R. Graham 
16 Ways to Increase Sales

Graham Communications 
j_graham@grahamcomm.com

Shrewder 
Computing

Take Control of Technology

The job today is to be in front of the 
customer when the need arises. Here 
are practical “put-'em-to-work-now” 
ideas for building sales: 

1—Keep surprising your customers. 

Be dramatic. One insurance agency 
offered to buy small contractors "the 
biggest steak dinner in town” if its 
policies couldn’t save them money. 

2— Get to the right person. 

Addressing mail to "Facilities Manager” 
or "Landscape Contractor" is weak. It’s 
worth the time to find the correct 
person’s name who you want to do 
business with. 

3— Be creative. It takes a highly 

creative approach to be distinctive and 
develop a compelling brochure or 
newsletter to avoid its ending up in the 
wastebasket. If people read it, you have 
a better chance to doing business with 
them. 

4— Focus on what your customers 

care about, not pictures of your staff, or 
that you think you’re the best, the oldest 
or the biggest—find out precisely what 
works and your product will sell. 

5— Let people know what they should 

think of your company. They draw 
conclusions by making comparisons. 
Wise companies spend time and effort 
consciously influencing the way they are 
perceived by customers and prospects. 

6— Make your offer a good one. 

Customers don’t like being put on the 
spot, because no one wants to make a 
mistake. An offer such as "Come visit 
our farm and see for yourself’ is a way 
to extend your hand, put people at ease 
and create confidence in your company 
and your product. 

7— Be in the right place at the right 

time. "I wish you had called last 
week..." It's tempting to shrug off such 
comments, thinking no one can be 
everywhere at once. Wrong! The job 
today is to be in front of the customer
when the need arises. 

8— Name your product or service. 

One way to stand out from the crowd is 
to give your product or service a 

distinctive name, like "Environmental 
Sod" instead of just plain old “sod” to 
separate your product from others. Be 
sure the name appeals to your customers! 

9— Be relentless. In marketing and 
sales, persistence is power. Develop a 
consistent marketing momentum that will 
produce results. 

10— Identify new prospects. The 

single most important daily activity in 
business is prospect identification. By 
making this a continuous process, 
companies have a steady flow of new 
sales leads. Add prospects to a database. 
11— Write friendly customer-centered 

letters as if you were there with the 
person. You would never say to 
someone, "Pursuant to our agreement...” 
and “Enclosed please find...” 

12— Focus on “Why should anyone 

want to do business with us? What 
makes us different? Why do we deserve 
business?” to uncover the real reasons 
why customers should want to do 
business with you. 

13— Only tell part of the story at one 

time, instead of cramming everything 
into one brochure, ad or newsletter. 
Separate ideas into component parts and 
develop an on-going campaign. 

14— Personalize everything, not "Dear 
Friend," "Dear Customer" or (especially) 
"Dear Valued Customer.” There is power 
in using the customer's name. 

15— Take advantage of testimonials. 

Your credibility increases if you let a 
satisfied customer blow your horn for 
you. The best way is to interview them 
and prepare comments for their approval. 
This reassures them and gets you 
testimonials that will work best. 

16— Make marketing your mission. 

Too many companies only turn to 
marketing when they need to increase 
their sales. Communicating your 
company's message in new and 
interesting ways is an on-going process. 
It isn't good enough to produce the best 
product or service. The final goal is to 
get the customer to want what 
you sell.

It’s easy to become over­

whelmed with today’s seemingly 
endless technology options, and the 
language used to describe them can 
be confusing. 

This sense of being over­

whelmed often leads people to 
refuse to use new tools, buy too 
little, too much or the wrong item 
for what they want to accomplish. 

The first step in taking control of 

technology is to define what you 
are trying to do. Knowing your 
goals will help narrow your focus 
and make it easier to find what you 
need. Next, you should research 
what’s available and how each item 
stacks up against the competition. 

When you run across 

descriptions you don’t understand, 
look up—or ask—what they mean 
so you can make meaningful 
comparisons. Be sure to use 
multiple sources for your research 
such as competing vendors and 
product websites to help you get 
unbiased information. 

After defining your goals and 
comparing options, the next step 
might be the most difficult: 
purchasing the right tool without 
spending too much or too little. 
Don’t splurge on the latest and 
greatest if it’s more than what you 
really need. 

The last step in taking control of 

technology is learning how to use 
it. You might have found the right 
tool for the job but what good is it 
if you don’t know how to operate it 
correctly? Consider training 
options available at your area 
community colleges or technical 
training institute, on-line classes, 
books and CDs on the specific 
programs you are interested in.

Source: September 2006  
“uschamber.com” “TECH 
TOOLS, ” By Ricardo Harvin.

TPI Action

TPI Participates in 2006 NCAE Meeting

TPI participated in the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) 

2006 Summer Agricultural Tours and Meetings. Topics addressed in the 
committee meetings included “Finance,” “Labor Relations/Employee Benefits,” 
“Labor Standards,” “EPA/OSHA” and “Immigration.” The NCAE meetings 
provided participants greater insight into legislation relating to immigration 
reform, farm labor and guest worker programs. TPI will continue to represent 
members in these issues.

(mower 

(mower wideth in feet) 

(mower width in feet) 

How Many Acres Per 
Hour Can You Mow?
Mower
Speed
width in feet) 4'
(mph)
2
0.9
3
1.4
4 1.9
52.4
62.9
73.3
3.8
8

(mower width in 
feet) 5'
1.2
1.8
2.4
3.6
3.6
4.2
4.8

6'
1.4
2.1
2.9
3.9
4.3
5.0
5.8

7'
1.6
2.5
3.3
4.2
5.0
5.9
6.7

(mower width in 
feet)8' 
1.9
2.9
3.8
4.8
5.8
6.7
7.7

Guideline Specifications to Turfgrass Sodding Brochure Updated

TPI has updated the "Guideline Specifications to Turfgrass Sodding" brochure 

with helpful information about soil preparation, sodding and post-installation 
maintenance over wide geographic/climatic areas. The brochure was originally 
developed for turf producers to present to landscape architects, landscape 
contractors and others who need industry standard specifications as part of their 
sodding project bid requirements. The brochure's information can be used as is 
or adapted as needed. It is available on the TPI website www.TurfgrassSod.org 
in the "Members Only" section where you can select "Marketing Brochures & 
Products" and scroll down to the appropriate selection.

International Turf Producers Foundation (ITPF) Update

With increasing competition from artificial turf sales and the misinformation 
being spread by "environmental" groups about water, fertilizers and pesticides, 
the ITPF is more important than ever in helping educate the general public about 
the benefits of turfgrass for our environment. The 2007 ITPF focus will be on 
educating consumers about turfgrass benefits—turfgrass sod in particular. Check 
your mail for information about this year’s ITPF Annual Campaign and please 
support the only Foundation that supports the turfgrass production industry.
To receive additional information on any of these items, contact the TPI Office  

Tel: 800/405-8873 or 847/649-5555 

Fax: 847/649-5678  

e-mail: info@TurfGrassSod.org  

Website: http://www.TurfGrassSod.org

(mower 

Mowe
r Speed
(mph)
width in feet) 10'
2.4
2
3.6
3
4 4.8
5 6.0
7.2
6
7 8.4
8
9.6

(mower 

Mower
Speed
width in feet) 24'
(mph)
2 5.8
3 8.7
4 11.6
5 14.5
6 17.4
7 20.3
23.2
8

(mower width in 
feet) 12'
2.9
4.3
5.8
7.2
8.7
10.0
11.6

(mower width in feet) 

15'
3.6
5.4
7.2
9.0
10.9
12.7
14.5

(mower width in feet) 

18'
4.3
6.5
8.7
10.9
13.0
15.2
17.4

(mower width in feet) 

(mower width in 
feet)  30'
7.2
10.9
14.0
18.1
21.8
25.4
29.0

(mower width in feet) 

45'
10.9
16.3
21.8
27.2
32.7
38.1
43.6

36'
8.7
13.0
17.4
21.8
26.1
30.5
34.9

(mower width in 
feet) 20'
4.8
7.2
9.6
12.1
14.5
16.9
19.3

(mower width in 
feet) 50'
12.1
18.1
24.2
30.3
36.3
42.4
48.4

Business Management
Turfgrass Producers International 

2 East Main St., East Dundee, IL 60118  

e-mail: info@TurfGrassSod.org

FIRST CLASS MAIL  

U.S. POSTAGE  

PAID 

Dundee, IL 60118 
Permit No.2590