One of the smartest things I ever heard was that a good landscape designer removes the uncertainty from the process. When I present to a client, I generally provide the following:
- A scaled, plan-view drawing with all plants and materials called out.
- Elevation drawings or sketches, if I feel they’re needed to communicate what I want to do.
- If it’s not a job they’re building immediately, I provide estimated price ranges for the work for budgeting purposes.
- A booklet showing photos of whatever plants, light fixtures, sculptures, fountains, stone veneers, or anything else that’s part of the job. I’ll also include manufacturer cut sheets, if available.
It probably sounds like a lot of extra work. It is. I never used to provide the booklet until I worked for a design-build firm that did them for each project. Previously I’d bring a big ol’ plant book out with me with appropriate pages bookmarked, and I’d flip around as needed. I would never create and print the booklet unless I was working with someone who paid for the design, but that’s a whole other post.
Having all these materials with me at the presentation allows me to answer almost every question they have about the project. If your prospect is worried that they won’t like the finished product, or they worry that you’ve overlooked something important, they won’t buy. Sure you can high-pressure-close them into buying, but let me know how warm and fuzzy that client is when they think of you as Joe Isuzu for the whole job.
Uncertainty kills sales. Does all that information overwhelm the homeowner? Done right, absolutely! But it reinforces that yes, this is a big decision but you know what you’re doing, you’ve thought of everything, and my gosh you are thorough. They’d be nuts not to sign.
This is how you differentiate your company. And yes, Landscape Design Lab can provide all those materials for you.
The How Unanswered Questions Cost You Sales by Landscape Design Lab, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.