The Guided Tour
Jody Shilan
All Aboard - Next Stop, The Johnson Residence
Early in my career, when I was young and inexperienced, clients would often ask me if they could see some of my work. Since I really wanted to impress them and make that sale, I would offer to take them on a personally guided tour of some of my nicer installations. For those of you that are still doing this or have plans to do this,
I have one word for you - STOP
Guided tours take an incredible amount of time with a very minimal payoff. Not only do you need to typically
meet your "suspects" (excuse me, I mean your potential clients) on a sunny Saturday afternoon for your tour, but you also need to prepare for it by calling all of your "show clients" to make sure you can stop by and show their project to other people. Since there is a good chance these projects haven't been maintained properly, you will need to stop by all of them and see what kind of shape they are in. Then, you will need to schedule some time to do a clean-up and probably plant some flowers to give the place some color. Naturally, this will usually be on
your "dime".
On top of this, many times a client has to reschedule, or the weather is not agreeable for this event. In these situations you would have to confirm with your clients again, touch up all of these places again and "kill"
another Saturday. Now, if the stars align perfectly - you have good weather, your existing clients gave you permission to walk their properties, and your suspects entire family was available - you can now spend the next three or four hours showing them your work and hoping to make a sale.
While you may think this is a great way to help clients appreciate your work and let them see what a nice person you are, in my 30+ years of being in landscape design/build, I think I can count on one hand how many times
this has helped me make a sale and not even a good one. What's worse is that this process prevents you from meeting 3 or 4 other potential clients who may have been a better fit for you than the ones you've been chauffeuring around town (without even a tip)
So before you offer a "guided tour" to a "potential client", think about how much work it really is and what the true benefits are. A better approach is to offer to show them your portfolio, or better yet, recommend that they go to your website where they can see dozens of projects from the comfort of their home and you can stay in the comfort of your home.
Believe me, you'll sell more work and have more time to spend with your family and friends.
"Remember, if you find this information helpful tell your fellow landscape contractors. If you don't, please tell us."
Thanks!
Jody Shilan, MLA
Editor
FromDesign2Build.com
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