PROFESSIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Expert Credentials

When Joel Lerner was studying psychology at Penn State, he realized a bachelor’s degree in that field and 65 cents could get him a cup of coffee. He sought a more practical plan and opted to put his education on hold. So he needed a job – quick. With experience in landscaping from summer jobs, a mower and a pickup truck, he began a lawn maintenance operation.
 
Lerner soon found that his customers expected him to be a horticultural expert. “As soon as you do anything in the landscaping field, people think you’re a designer,” Lerner says. “They ask, ‘Why did my tree die? What ideas do you have for my backyard?’ And I would say ‘Whoa – I mow lawns for a living.’”
 
After 12 years Lerner decided he wasn’t going to just mow lawns and “wing it” anymore. He enrolled at the University of Maryland to become the expert his clients expected him to be, earning a bachelor’s of science in horticulture and landscape design.
 
Shortly thereafter he founded Environmental Design, and sought to make a quick splash with his company and develop an unmatched list of credentials. A marketing consultant recommended he position himself as an expert in the field by writing a book. “He told me, if you want to put yourself on the map, write a book,” Lerner says.
 
So “101 Townhouse Garden Designs” was born. “That is really where the business took off,” Lerner says. “I started to get all kinds of phone calls to do interviews.”
 
After his first book, Lerner was frequently contacted for other media appearances, which produced more positive public relations opportunities and exposure for his business.
 
In addition to writing six more books, Lerner did a number of radio spots, one of which turned into his own show on Washington D.C.’s WWRC for five years. That experience led to a series of TV segments on Fox 5.
 
Next, Lerner’s local TV appearances drew attention from an editor at the Washington Post. “He was looking for someone to do a garden column in the real estate section,” Lerner says. “I said I’d write one column for him, and if he liked it he could run it. He did and I have not missed one week since October 1996.
 
“One thing led to another all the way to the Washington Post column,” Lerner says. “It can be quite a strain, but it has developed one heck of a client base for me.” Though he has never tracked or quantified exactly how many leads he’s gotten from his “Green Scene” column, Lerner knows it’s a good thing that his gardening and landscaping advice reaches a potential 700,000 readers each week. “An awful lot of people contact me because of the Washington Post. I’ve gotten many clients and speaking engagements from that and the books I’ve written.”
 
Other designers, too, can increase the perceived value of their services by building such a resume, Lerner says, noting he uses his bio sheet to help him close sales. It’s a one-pager detailing the books he’s written, his certification from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and indirect third-party endorsements like his Post column and TV spots.
 
“When I give my clients my rates, they often say ‘Let me get back to you,’” he says. “And I say, just let me fax you a single sheet that’s often used by my publishers for publicity purposes. Then I generally hear back from them in fairly short order. That type of material on a bio is very impressive to a homeowner.”
 
Lerner emphasizes a designer’s need to value his or her own work so that customers will better value design services and not balk at being charged consultation fees. Design and consultation fees are an essential part of making the designer-client relationship beneficial for both parties, Lerner says.
“That’s the A1A biggest mistake designers make – not charging for their time.”
 
Lerner lets clients know up front that he charges about $200 an hour for his expertise. He finds some homeowners simply want him to walk their property for an hour and make recommendations.  If the clients aren’t interested in having him complete a formal design, there are no hard feelings because Lerner has been compensated. “So in the time we’re together, they can stop me after an hour if they’d like,” he says. “One way or another when I leave they have a body of information they can take wherever they want – whether they want to do it themselves or have me do a design for them. The goal is purely to achieve what the homeowners want for their property.”