In September 2014, with the California drought lingering on, Max Todd began to fear that many of his customers might cancel their fall aeration service. "When we came upon the fall service, we were freaked because there had been a drought all summer. We were worried. What if many of our customers cancel their aerating service, what are we going to do?"

Max is the owner of Fairway Lawn Service, a company whose sole purpose has been to provide lawn aeration in the San Francisco Bay area since 1977. With the fear of cancellations on his mind, Max began searching for a water management solution to help keep his current customers. "With the drought, I was looking to do something for the customers to get them to save their lawns instead of letting them go, because some people had let their lawns go and not watered at all." Max recalled seeing information on Hydretain in the past, but was reluctant to use the liquid product in his program because of the need to water immediately following the application.

With a granular option now available, Hydretain once again caught Max's attention and he began seeking additional information. He researched the product, requested information from Ecologel, and spoke with local distributors. "We looked into it carefully before starting to use it because there is so much 'bunk' out there on the market." Max even asked a friend with PHD degrees in hydrology and biology to look into the product for him. Max's friend performed the powder demonstration for himself, and spent several days looking at it. "He called me back and told me that a 50% reduction in watering is not an excessive claim based on his experience as a scientist."

Finally convinced, Max began offering Moisture Manager, a private label of Hydretain sold exclusively through John Deere Landscapes. He sent information to his existing aeration customers, and began making phone calls a week before their scheduled service. Within four days Max sold $961 in Moisture Manager applications. Through October, November and the first week of December, Max ultimately sold 147 customers on the service, resulting in a 12% increase in gross profit for the fall season. In their first attempt to offer Moisture Manager, they were able to easily sell about half of the people they contacted, and many customers even signed up for a three-time application service for 2015.

To Max, the secret to selling Moisture Manager is simple. "All you have to do is ask. They are already your customer and they already trust you. Some customers said, 'We've been with you for years, and if you say that this is good stuff, then go ahead and do it.'" According to Max, it comes down to having a good relationship with your customers.

Initial success in selling is one thing, happy customers and a sustainable business model is another. To ensure that his customers were completely satisfied with the Moisture Manager service, Max began contacting them about a month after the product was applied. In total, they were able to reach 46 of the 147 customers who purchased the product. Of those, none cancelled or asked for a refund, and only two mentioned that they hadn't noticed a difference. For the most part, their lawns were green, and three customers reported green lawns without watering at all. "In three cases, people told me that they hadn't watered at all except for the initial watering in of the Moisture Manager," Max noted. "It had rained only once, maybe a ¼ of an inch." Max even had a few customers who called in to report that their neighbors had turned them in for watering too much because of the way their lawn looked after the Moisture Manager application.

For Fairway Lawn Service, the addition of Moisture Manager has provided a way to increase revenue while helping lawns survive the drought. According to Max, anyone in the industry should be able to sell Moisture Manager. "It is a reasonably priced product that works. Whether companies are mowing lawns, aerating lawns, or they provide a weed spray and fertilizing service, they should be able to sell it to their customers because everybody has the same needs to reduce the amount of water that they are using, save their landscaping, prevent fines and protect their property values. Those are the main things that I see that people are going to want regardless of who they are." Moving forward, Max has plans to expand his marketing of Moisture Manager. He has even formed a new business to focus on Moisture Manager applications, and plans to sell aerating service as an add-on, rather than the other way around.