15 Sep Turning Business away- Not all Business is Good Business
By Mike Gambino
I saw this sign while waiting to have my truck serviced recently. I had to take a picture of it and got inspired to do a blog post about it. In my much younger days I would read this sign with amazement and wonder why would anyone want to turn business away. After all isn’t that why service businesses are in business to service clients?
I have been in the service business for all of my working life. I have dealt with all types. I can get along just fine and maintain a good working relationship with most. However I have been around long enough to know that not all business is good business. Call it Jaded but after dealing with people for so long you have a tendency to develop a sixth sense about certain people or situations. When people have spent much time on the streets they develop so called “street smarts”. Same is true in the service business most times you can see trouble coming from miles away. Some may say Mike the economy is not exactly stellar do you mean that you would turn away work if it didn’t pass your “sniff test”.
Yes I absolutely mean that. What is the use taking a project that may not be in our “wheelhouse” or working for the type of client that we won’t usually work for?
So what is the criteria I use to determine if this is a project we are interested in taking on.
Personality– Does the person have a sincere and immediate need- are they motivated to move forward now?
Do they seem reasonable and does there personality type fit nicely with mine? Can I effectively work with this person.
Trust- Do they trust that I am out for their best interests or are they suspicious of any service provider and feel they are going to get ripped off?
Will they listen to professional advice and act on it?
Does this person share the same objective as I which is to build the best lighting system that the budget will allow
Are they going to insist on something even when I have strongly advised against it?
Budget– Are they qualified to pay for one of my landscape lighting systems?
Do they buy quality and not on low price?
Will they approve a satisfactory budget to do the best job?
Project features– Does the property have good potential. Will the property benefit from a Gambino landscape lighting system or would lesser quality products and installation methods suffice for the owner.
Will the project show well, client so happy that they will refer and will the project itself help sell future work for us.
These are some of the major qualifications that go through my head when deciding if i am interested in pursuing a client or lighting project. If you noticed the owner or person himself is higher on my quality list then the actual project itself. In other words I will take a pleasant client with not such a great property over a client with a difficult personality who has a drop dead gorgeous property that would showcase with one of my systems installed on it.
It may come as a surprise to some but I will not quote and probably turn away about 10-15% of the inquiries we get for the following reasons:
We are not available at the time.
It is evident that the client will not listen to professional advise and is determined to do a project that is guaranteed to fail.
Have stated the budget is insufficient
It is nothing personal but we are not all things to all people. Gambino landscape lighting systems are for a small niche consumer and not all will qualify.
This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .
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