Landscape lighting is a great way for a Landscape Contractor to pull in a few extra dollars. The outstanding work that you do is already showcased everyday when the sun is out, why not increase that exposure and show off that work at night, while at the same time exposing your ability to light a beautiful landscape.

Landscape lighting has many benefits. First, it gives you another skill that you can sell to your clients. Second, with the inclusion of maintenance contracts on most jobs, you are guaranteed income for several years, and third, it gives you a chance to design a lighting plan that shows off your work best. Along with that, there are four things to keep in mind if you want to add landscape lighting to your resume, or improve upon the landscape lighting that you are already doing. Those four things are: listening to the client; displaying your work; designing a good lighting plan; and closing the deal.

Listening to the Client

Knowing what the client wants is important because after all, they are paying you. Dennis Fenton, a Lighting Designer for 17-90 Lighting in Rockland, Maine said that when meeting with a client he likes to find out what their interests are.

"I like to find out what the clients interests are as far what they have in the yard that might be special to them, something one of the children might have given them, or a hand-me-down out in the garden that is a focus piece," he said. "It gives an added touch to how they are using the property and how they will accent the light at night."

On one particular project that Fenton worked on in the greater Portland, Maine area, the homeowner had two areas of primary interest to them which was a sitting area used as a gathering area to visit with family and friends and a 200-foot dock that they liked to fish from and entertain guests on.

Although listening to the client is important, Nate Mullen from Unique Lighting in Escondido, California suggests that you don't listen to them too much. He suggests developing a "doctor/patient relationship" with clients.

"The problem is that far too many Contractors take the wrong approach in selling landscape lighting, letting the client get involved in the design and fixture selection," he said. "When you go to your doctor or dentist, you listen to what they say you should do because they're the trusted professionals. You might ask a few questions and have your own opinions of the situation, but in the end you do what they say is best for you.

"This is the relationship you have to create with your clients, because you are the expert and know what their finished lighting picture will look like."

Inevitably, you will get clients who think they know more than you, and they'll want to tell you what to do. They may insist on selecting fixtures and other materials. Mullen said that if that happens, limit the clients choice to a maximum of three fixtures in a group. For example, show the client one well light, three path lights, three bullet lights, and one or two eave lights.

Another way to meet the needs of a client, and a way to keep the client's home life a happy one is to sell the wife on the project.

The project that Fenton worked on with the sitting area and dock was a gift from the homeowner to his wife. Fenton spent a few hours with the family, and after a week of installation the project was complete. After making some final adjustments to the lights, Fenton found the wife inside the house in tears. She wasn't crying because she was horrified at what she saw outside, she had tears of joy.

"When I walked into the house, she was in tears," Fenton said. "It makes you feel good."

Mullen said that setting up a lighting demo will give both the husband and the wife a sense of things to come.

"After three weeks or so of gazing out at this wonderful scene, the wife will fall in love with the lighting and see all the benefits- especially the security and sense of comfort she feels when her husband is out of town on business," Mullen said. "Now, at this point it doesn't matter what the man of the house thinks. If the wife wants it, the lights go in.

"Personally, I've always tried to sell the wife," he added.

Displaying Your Work

The lighting along this walkway was done all by hand, by Dennis Fenton of 17-90 Lighting in Rockland, Maine. A clear and concise lighting plan will make the work easier to follow and plan out, and will give the client a sense of where work will be done in and around their yard. Although technology is available to create a lighting design plan, sometimes doing it the old fashioned way is still best.

Whether it's displaying work that you've already done, or work that you plan on doing, you have to present it professionally, clearly, and in a way that makes your product stand out from the rest.

The first way to do this is to set up a lighting demo at the potential client's house. Setting up a demo gives the client a chance to see how he/she likes the lighting setup being proposed.

In his book "Advanced Trade Secrets of Professional Landscape Lighting," Mullen tells a story about a Landscape Contractor friend of his named Bruce McCabe. McCabe was doing a re-landscaping of a house that included the driveway and front entry with pillars and a couple of big specimen trees. There was no lighting included in the original plan. When McCabe finished the job he set up a lighting demo but didn't turn it on. The client always came home at night and wasn't able to fully enjoy his new landscaping.

After a few weeks, McCabe returned to the home and turned the lighting demo on. The client loved what he saw and asked to him to install the lights the next day.

The dock was a favorite spot to fish and gather with friends for the owners of this home in Maine. By spending time with the client you will get to know what on their property is important to them. Although it is important to listen to the client, Nate Mullen of Unique Lighting suggests that the Contractor have a "doctor/patient" relationship with them. After all, you are the expert.

"In talking to Bruce, he told me it was the easiest $2,500 he ever made," Mullen said. "And now he has a permanent lighting demo showcasing his landscape business."

Properly displaying your work also helps give your company credibility. Mullen suggests in his book that a good way to display your work and establish credibility is to:

• Have pictures of your lighting jobs in a

nice looking portfolio or binder.

• Provide a reference list of

jobs you've done.

• Have letters of reference.

• Show the client some magazine articles.

• Get some professional brochures

designed and printed.

Fenton knows all too well the importance of a professional presentation. A while back, he was running black and white ads for his company, and was getting no response. He knew color ads were expensive, but he figured he would try it anyway, because it had to work better than the black and white advertisements.

"We did color even though it was expensive, and we got leads from that one advertisement for three or four months," Fenton said. "People came in with the book in hand saying, 'I want this,'" pointing to his color ad.

Lighting/Wiring Plans & Closing the Deal

Designing a lighting/wiring plan is a very important part of this process. It allows you and your crew to see how this project will get done, and it will give the client an idea of what will be happening on their property and where it will be happening.

There are a few lighting design software programs out there that can help you with this process (see the Technology section in this issue). Even though the technology exists to use the computer for your designs, some still like to do it the old fashioned way.

Fenton draws all of his plans by hand. It was a service that he used to offer for free, but because of the time it took for him to do a quality rendering, he is no longer able to do that.

"About 16 years ago I hand-sketched everything and didn't charge for that service," he said. "I found it was taking 3-4 days for a decent hand sketch with me eyeing it. Now I have an estimated figure-per-fixture so I can go out and study the house for a day and then come up with a fixture count and give the client a price and if they want the design layout we charge them $60 an hour for that."

Mullen said that an important thing to remember is to make sure you're getting 12 volts to your first lamp on the wire run or hub, and to verify it with a digital volt meter.

By planning where all the lamps and wires are going, you can trouble shoot as much as possible before the job even starts.

When the lighting is all in place, final adjustments are made, and the client is satisfied with what he/she sees, it is a good time to offer them a maintenance contract. A large majority of both Fenton's and Mullen's clients are signed to maintenance contracts.

A maintenance contract allows you to keep in contact with your clients as well as make a few extra bucks. Fulfilling your obligations on a maintenance contract is fairly easy. Once or twice a year (or whatever the stipulations of the agreement may be) you will check up on your work and perform some routine maintenance, like making sure that all the lights are working, cleaning and repairing lights, trimming around fixtures, and minor adjustments or refocusing of fixtures.

"Long term maintenance contracts are a great way to make money," Mullen said. "If you encounter resistance trying to sign the client to a lighting maintenance contract, give it to him for free for the first year."

Mullen added that later on, figure out a sensible contract by either charging them $3 to $5 a fixture, or estimating how many hours it will take you or your crew to go through the system for however often your contract calls for.

"Your labor for the first site visit should cover adjusting, moving, fine tuning, cleaning, trimming around fixtures and replacing any bad lamps," Mullen said. "However, you will charge for materials you may need, such as light bulbs."

You will find your own ways to make your business successful. You may already do some of these things and no doubt you used trial and error to find out what works best for you and your targeted clientele. If you haven't incorporated lighting into what you do, or you are thinking about it, following the steps above can be a good start for you.

The best thing to do is to watch and learn. Learn from your past mistakes and from the mistakes of others that you have observed, and learn from them. Look at how others do things and think to yourself how you can do it better? Don't be afraid to try and do it better, you might fall flat on your face, but then again you just might succeed. Use the available technology and other resources such as books, magazines and videos to make things easier and more beneficial for you as well as give you tips on how the best got to where they are.

Hopefully the light bulb has gone on in your head. If you are not already doing lighting, it may be something to look into. Remember, the more diversified you are, the more potential clients you will have. LCM