Why we prefer not to work with clients who buy landscape lighting primarily on price

15 Aug Why we prefer not to work with clients who buy landscape lighting primarily on price

By Mike Gambino

Following the past two weeks’ blog articles which focused on who we prefer to work with. This blog article focuses on one particular type of client we prefer not to work with and why.

Primarily we are typically not the low bidder when prospects are seeking quotes for landscape lighting projects so this fact alone usually makes it a waste of time for us to meet with those prospective buyers who are focused primarily on low price. This doesn’t make them bad people it just doesn’t make them good prospects or clients for our business. Time is much better spent with those who are predisposed to buy from us then those that are not.

Consumers who buy custom landscape lighting design and installation on price typically don’t care about anything else but price, until they become clients.  Then as clients they seem to always want more than they agreed to pay for. This is why we try very hard not to accept as clients or work for these types of people. Unfortunately some sneak under our radar now and again and dealing with them really makes for a difficult experience.

 Common Traits of People Who Buy Landscape Lighting On Price

There are two main types of prospects who buy landscape lighting on price.

• The first is those who are driven to pay as little as possible.   These people typically apply this logic with everything they buy.   They are also much more likely to lie to you, your employees and your subcontractors if it suits their purposes for saving money and or getting more than they paid for.
• The second is those who, lacking insight, simply don’t know what else to consider when deciding between design/builders so they base their decisions on the bottom line.  These people may actually be willing to pay more when selecting one contractor over another, but the design builder must be a true sales person to help them discover other more important things to consider.  It takes a lot of work and finesse to convert prospects like these.

People who buy solely based on price have these common traits

1. They see custom landscape lighting services as a commodity where every service provider and proposal are the same, not a specialized service where one company does things differently than another.
2. They always seek to get more than they paid for.
3. They don’t like to give big deposits or progress  payments; they expect the design builder to finance all or most of the job until the final payment.
4. They lie to you and think it’s just fine to do so.  This often leaves them wary and concerned that you will lie to them as well, creating a need for them to always be suspicious when interacting with you and your team.
5. These people won’t like discussing change orders at all, won’t pay for change orders at acceptance and or will want to negotiate their cost at final payment.
6. These people try to get free stuff out of you and your team after you start their job.  If you give in on this they will want more free stuff.  They are also likely to forget about the free stuff you already gave them when you want to charge them for any extras or change orders.
7. They will typically dispute your payment schedule, make scheduled progress payments late and delay your final payment as long as they can.
8. They will only buy from you again if you are the cheapest of the design builders they speak with.
9. They get closer to their own retirement at your expense and limit your ability to retire.
10. They will often find some way to blackmail you into reducing the final price.

These people associate with other people just like them!

Here’s another thing to consider when trying to sell to people who buy on price, they hang around with other people just like them.   If they refer you they will probably be referring you to other prospects who also buy on price.   When they do so, based on their own experiences working with you, they will often coach the referral on how to lie to you and get stuff for free.   They will also often identify what your business’ weaknesses are so the referral can watch for them and use them to blackmail you into some type of money related concession before they are done with you.

And most of all, price is everything clients are almost always the hardest to deal with and drain the life out of the business owner and service technicians.

The intent of this article is not to insult buyers, but rather meant to save both buyer and us time by disclosing who we are best suited to work with and who we are not.

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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