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Lighting isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when most homeowners or property managers think about landscaping. In many cases, this can make the prospect of lighting contractors pitching and actually closing sales rather challenging.
To that end, most people in sales of any kind will tell you it’s a far more complicated endeavor than attending how-to seminars, building customer loyalty, tiering customers, up-selling and reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
Especially when one considers that a typical residential installation can run more than $5,000.
A mastery of lingo, product and service knowledge, etiquette, relationship building and “walking the walk” with a full-scale demonstration all comprise what’s required for a great sales approach. And it all starts with training, says Jim Paulin, head of Lumical Technologies Group in Sarasota, Fla.
“Sales training is everything,” says Paulin. “You have to really be able to sell yourself and your product and face rejection – the typical things you face when you sell everything from vacuum cleaners to cars.”
Paulin says that he has found ways to overcome objections and lead clients to decisions by spending valuable time meeting with and gaining an understanding of a potential client’s needs and wants.
It doesn’t always translate, but Paulin says that his gospel of attentiveness, candor, knowing your audience and product and being personable usually pays off in spades.
“You really have to spend the time finding out what the client is interested in – listening to them, engaging them – and then emphasize those items in the context of a lighting plan when you follow up,” Paulin says. “But selling lighting jobs is also a matter of educating people as well.
“Good lighting design is going to give people an aesthetic, safety and security,” he adds. “Those are the things to talk up, because, at the end of the day, those are the things that speak for themselves. That’s how we approach it.”
A seasoned veteran in commercial and residential landscape lighting, Paulin has found over the years that many would-be clients have no idea what quality landscape lighting is going to cost them – and that can be a huge barrier to overcome if it isn’t dealt with up front.
“I’ve found out in some cases, when a potential customer finds out the cost, they bow out, run to a big box store and pacify themselves with a kit that they set up themselves,” he says. “Quality comes at a price and that has to be emphasized. And when people install the box kits, it looks like it.”
Showing a potential client the difference between a kit and a professional lighting installation can be a clincher, says Paul Gosselin Sr. of NightScenes Corp. in Kingsland, Texas.
“Whether you’re just getting started (selling) or you’ve been doing it for a while, setting up a demonstration can be a critical sales tool,” says Gosselin, who is also the president of the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals (AOLP).
“After you’ve clarified the wants and needs of a client, go out there to a site with a bunch of lights and create your own temporary, above-ground demonstration system,” he says. “Then turn it on and watch their eyes pop out. That seems the biggest and best way to sell lighting jobs – say, ‘look at it, here it is,’ leave it there for a few days, and then come back, shut it off and take it out. After they liked it and have grown used to having it, losing the ambiance can sometimes be the best sales tool.”
Jeff Tullis, president of Accent Outdoor Lighting of Chesterfield, Mo., reiterates the importance of the idea.
“Three words: demos, demos, demos,” he says. “My experience has been we close 99 percent of all demos we do.
“Of course, you have to qualify the customer first, because you’re not going to demo five- or six-dozen lights for someone who’s not in earnest. But when you get down the road, and they’re on the threshold of making a hefty lighting purchase, seeing really is believing.”
Tullis says that Accent’s biggest sale came after he and his crew set up 60 lights in a potential client’s front yard to show them how it would enhance their landscaping. The sale happened slightly slower than the speed of light.
“We turned it on, turned around, and everyone got a good look at it,” Tullis says. “It didn’t take long to hear ‘We’re sold! Where do we sign?’ Honestly, that’s the easiest sale we’ve ever made. It took us a little over two hours in setting the demo up. You need knowledge, know-how and expertise to be able to execute that kind of a plan. You won’t have that kind of success otherwise.”
The education of customers is important, but that learning is a two-way street and absorbing aesthetic knowledge is important in helping close in those potential customers, Tullis says.
“Be sure to listen to the customer, hear what they’re looking for and tailor to the taste of the customer, because while I might like a ton of light, you may like a lot of low light with lots of shadows,” he says.
“If you don’t listen to your customers, you won’t have experiences like the one I just described. You’ll lose business by having a cooking-cutter method of doing things.”
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