Answers to 5 Questions we’d like to have when considering potential Landscape Lighting Projects

15 Apr Answers to 5 Questions we’d like to have when considering potential Landscape Lighting Projects

By Mike Gambino

Everyone who contacts us wants some version of landscape Lighting for their home or business, otherwise why would they make the effort to reach out to us?. Unfortunately not all who contact us are qualified for one reason or another to purchase one from us. Or the type of lighting they have in mind is not our style or fit into our wheelhouse so to speak. For some businesses such as ours. it’s not worth estimating every lead that comes in. For our small design and build landscape lighting business, being a little bit picky in terms of who we work with can actually go a long way. Here are some questions we like to have answered to determine who is worth pursuing and who is not. In addition to asking these questions, with a bit of intuition mixed in on our part to help determine if this prospect meets our ideal client profile, makes it easier to decipher which prospects are most worthwhile for our business.

1. What’s the time line? If they need landscape lighting by tomorrow, chances are our business won’t be able to help. We make sure the prospect is giving us enough time to prepare so that we can do the best job and provide the best service. We won’t pursue a lead if the turnaround time they are requesting is too short and won’t fit in our schedule or work load. The same is true if the prospect doesn’t have a definite timeline in mind and is just fishing for prices or ideas for a project they may or may not do. If there is at least not a bit of a sense of urgency, I question how serious they are about following through with hiring us or anyone else for that matter and going ahead with the project.
2. How did they hear about our company? If they got our name from an existing client or landscape architect or designer or other trade person chances are they will be a more worthwhile candidate than someone who just did a web search. That is not to say that we haven’t gotten some really fantastic clients from them finding us cold from an internet search without any prior knowledge of us. The prospect will be more likely to pursue our business if they have a personal or professional connection. The Internet is great – but it leaves a lot of room for uncertainty. If you can only accept one lead and one finds you off of a whim from a Google search and another is referred to our business through a longtime business affiliate, I’d go with the latter – every time.
3. What is your budget? Do they have reasonable expectations in terms of cost? If not, is it worth lowering our price just to have the business? Yes, the customer is always right and should always be put first. However, I must keep in mind that I have a business to maintain. If the prospect does not agree with the cost requirements of one of our systems than we move on to the next one. If we bend our values too often, prospects will catch on to that, develop expectations, and our business will be known as the low cost leader and be inundated with prospects who buy on price over quality.
4. Why do they want a custom landscape lighting system? If high performance resort style energy efficient landscape lighting is important, that changes the feel of the sales call. Finding out the reason the prospect is in need of a custom landscape lighting system is important. Maybe they are having an important party and must have the lighting completed before that date. Perhaps they just returned from a dinner party at one of our client’s homes and loved the lighting or got the idea of lighting their property in a comprehensive way while visiting an exotic resort and they want to have that feel on their property at night at their own home. To make sure we are addressing their needs  it is best to find out all of their needs so as we can meet them. A highly motivated prospect is a much more serious prospect and is treated as such.
5. Where are they located? Are they near other clients for future service work? Is the project in an area where we normally work? If not, is the cost of driving (or flying) far away from our home base of operations worth it? What if the prospect that is further away is offering an opportunity to work on a potential award winning project or one that has a higher than normal profit margin? On paper, it can seem like the logical choice would be to pick the lead that is offering more, but we make sure to make a thorough assessment. Is our profit exceeding the cost to travel out there as well as transfer the equipment and employees over the course of the project? That being said it would probably come as a surprise to some that we have completed projects in multiple states and even foreign countries. We make sure we are being thorough in our decision making process no matter where or for who a potential project is for.

 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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