At Wilson-Oyler, our philosophy in selling enhancements has always been “treat your clients’ money like it was your own.” In today’s business environment, we believe this concept should be a guiding light. Clients are working with restricted budgets, yet still want to be responsible stewards of their property and its value. So your role should be to partner with the client and guide the investment process.
Clients feel nickeled-and-dimed when they get bombarded with extras every month. We all know that. Therefore, we believe you should have a plan for each client’s property. Client interests lie in several key areas when it comes to making enhancement investments, including:
- Safety and liability: These include vision obstruction, slip and fall because of water seepage, trip hazards from buckled sidewalks, etc.
- Wear and tear: Refurbishment of worn or tired landscape areas can prevent the decline in appearance and property value.
- Changes in use patterns: Changing tenants often leads to different use patterns for the property, resulting in more or different wear issues.
- Lower water use: Changing from high water-use plantings to lower-use plantings can often be a good long-term investment for clients. Not only can they save water and associated costs, but they can save in other ways, too: Overspray often contributes to parking or road surface breakdown.
- Improved life cycle costing of plantings: Too often, high visual-interest plantings have short life cycles. Creating a better balance between high interest and longer life cycle plantings can be a good investment for a client.
- Curb appeal: Vacancy rates are high in some areas, and marketing becomes an important investment choice for owners. You can help by creating focal points.
Hitting the mark
Newer account managers often do not have experience in what to sell, but they do have sales targets to hit. Owners and managers must make sure they do not fall into the nickel-and-dime sales mode with no real plan. Training in how to sell value is essential to keeping the customer trust.
When delivering the enhancement proposal, make sure it passes these acid tests:
- “If this were my money, would I make the investment?”
- “Is this a good long-term solution rather than a Band-Aid approach?”
- “Is this the best use of the client’s enhancement dollars?”
- “Which projects have the highest or immediate priority?”
Bruce Wilson is a partner with the Wilson-Oyler Group consultancy. Visit www.wilson-oyler.com.
