03 Oct A win-win landscape lighting agreement is our goal with every Project
By Mike Gambino
What does “Win-Win” mean? For most, a “Win-Win” is a situation results when both parties benefit from an agreement. A scenario in which the professional landscape lighting designer/builder and the client walk away at the conclusion of a project realizing a positive outcome of the project.
But there are times when a sales opportunity turns into a “Lose-Win,” a “Win-Lose,” or even worse, a “Lose-Lose.”
These imply that either just one party benefits from the sale or that both parties lose. These results are sometimes difficult to identify and are very often very hard to walk away from.
Impossible Expectations
The old business belief that the client is always right has caused more bad sales to be closed than any other belief. That truth is that the client is not always right. When a potential clientr has demands or expectations that a sales professional knows they won’t be able to meet the , the design build professional needs to be a true professional and walk away from the opportunity.
Demands such as an unrealistic response time, additional products or services that need to be included in a deal or client demands that require the design build professional to spend so much time attending to the client that they are unable to provide good service to their other clients are 3 examples of demands that should be deal breakers.
The list of impossible demands or expectations is long and varies depending on the client and project, but they are certain and definite. Part of our responsibility as a professional is to learn to identify expectations or demands that are unrealistic and to have the self-honesty and discipline to walk away. I realized long ago , no client, no one opportunity or project is going to make or break my company and sometimes the best project is the project I didn’t get.
An Absence of Profit
Businesses are in business to earn a profit. While some believe that the sole purpose for a business’s existence is to supply employment, without the ability to earn a profit, that business will not be in business very long.
Part of some sales include negotiations, during which the client and the sales professional discuss pricing levels. There are clients whose apparent sole intention is to drive the price down as low as possible. So low that at times the sales opportunity yields no profit for the selling company and may even result in a loss.
It takes maturity and confidence for a sales professional, who may have invested many hours, days, weeks, months or even years into a sale cycle, to hold their ground on a specific selling price and to walk away when that pricing level is breached. If the sale results in a loss, the deal has become a “Win-Lose” in which the client wins and the design build professional’s company loses.
There are variables that may make a sale sold at a loss an acceptable deal. These include potential future deals that promise to more profitable and additional prospects that may become customers as a result of the sales company accepting a negative profit deal. Charitable giving that will help a worthy non-profit cause.
Inability to Deliver
Clients have and deserve expectations of how a product or service will benefit them. As long as those expectations are realistic, what they purchase needs to be delivered satisfactorily. However, a design build professional or the company that willingly agrees to the terms of a sale, knowing that they will not be able to deliver on the realistic expectations of the client, are creating a “Lose-Win” scenario. In a “Lose-Win,” the clientt loses as their purchase will not deliver the benefits they expected when deciding to make the purchase. The sales company wins by getting the revenue and profits.
Walking away from this scenario takes a lot of courage and character for a design build professional because they may need the work at that date and time although knowing they won’t be able to fulfill to the client’s expectations. Choosing to walk away is challenging and may be faced with animosity from the rest of their company.
The truth is that a “Lose-Win” ultimately becomes a “Lose-Lose” when the client realizes that they were deceived and becomes a vocal unsatisfied customer. Many deals are lost due to a previous sale to a different client that began as a “Lose-Win” scenario.
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