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Don't be afraid to answer "The Budget Question"

Giving landscape designers your project budget will actually help you to get your desired results.

Inquiring about a landscaping budget is a sensitive thing. I'm not wild about asking about it, but for the sake of my landscape business I have to ask. And more often than not, as a potential client, you're not wild about answering it, for fear of somehow "showing your hand", putting you at some kind of disadvantage. But I have to tell you, I think the fear and the logic behind it are flawed, and I believe it has to do with a perception of commoditization of landscape services. Allow me to explain.

I can still recall days from long ago when I was shopping for an engagement ring for my future wife. More than any of my other visits to jewelry stores I remember one in particular. I was browsing their ring selection and noticed that many of the rings were very similar if not identical to many of the rings I found in other stores. But there was a particular ring that caught my eye, so I asked about it and it's price. The sales rep showed me the ring, then pulled out a calculator with fake jewels as buttons, and proceeded to spin it on the counter, much like a wild west gun-slinger spins his six-shooter on his finger. Before he had even determined a price (factoring in all those magical discounts that are ever-present in most jewelry stores), when I saw his "calculator move", I knew I wouldn't be buying; this guy was a shark, and I had just put chum in the water. Besides, I knew I could probably find another ring just like it somewhere else.

I think the feeling I had is what a lot of homeowners feel when considering hiring a landscape contractor. And they shouldn't. Sure, there are slick salesman in every industry, but my experience has been that for the most part, the people that operate the mom and pop landscaping companies (which is most of the companies across the US and Canada) are just regular folks with a passion for what they do.

But more important than any of that is the faulty perception that landscaping is a commodity, like those engagement rings were for me. If you ask for ideas and designs for your landscape design from three different contractors, you'll get three different interpretations of your property and it's needs. And assuming that every landscape contractor installs projects to the same standards, that installation is strictly a commodity and should be chosen based solely on price, is a recipe for disaster.

In my local area there's a landscaping company that started in the business in 2001, and they decided which plants to use in their display landscape by driving around the area and making notes of plants they liked. Great idea if you're a do-it-yourselfer and don't know much about plants; these guys are supposed to be pros and should already know what types of plants they can and should use. Of additional note is a landscape design experience a friend shared with me about this same company. They presented our friends with a design, but none of the plants were labeled. "Pick whatever plants you'd like in the planting beds, and we'll plant them. All plants are the same price."

On the flip side of this, there are companies in our area that have landscape architects, certified arborists and horticulturists on staff. For my part, I started in the industry in 1985. Have you ever planted thousands of dollars of plants and lost them all because they were a poor choice for your property (because of soil, water or sun issues)? Do you think this would happen with someone formally trained or with decades of experience? How likely would it be to happen with the company telling you to "pick your own plants"? Pretty likely. Landscaping is not a commodity. Just like a maker of fine furniture, you should be interested in the craftsmanship of the work and a demonstrated history of producing solid results.

I bet it seems like we're a long way from talking about budgets and answering "The Question". Let me see if I can bring this thing around to the point I'm trying to make.

I'm going to assume that I now have your agreement that landscaping services are not a commodity, and there is value in knowledge and experience. With this assumption, there is now no benefit to hiding you're your budget figure, because the landscaper gets no advantage over you by having that information. When the product is a commodity, like dishwashing soap, deals are made by cutting pennies from the price relative to the competition. For your landscaping, deals are made based on whether the design and expertise of the installing company are perceived as being worth the price asked.

In fact, having the budget information removes a severe disadvantage for your landscape designer (I'll explain that more in the next paragraph). With a budget, a landscape designer can quickly provide feedback about whether the things you'd like to accomplish can be completed within that budget, and if there are minor adjustments to plant choices or hardscape materials to give you something close to the project you want, still keeping within your price range. Or, the designer can determine if the budget is just not sufficient to address the scope of the project you had in mind. This can often be accomplished during the initial site visit, before vellum ever hits the drafting table. This can save you time in eliminating design elements you don't truly need, and saves the time of the person creating the design, giving them the best opportunity to create something that you'll love and can afford. If I design something you can't afford, it doesn't do either one of us any good.

Without a budget, your landscape designer is put a severe disadvantage, and they know it. For me personally, this makes me far less interested in creating a design for a client. Let me give you a real-life example among many I've had that have shaped my opinion in this matter. We had a potential client that had just built a large addition on their waterfront home, with several fireplaces with stone facing, granite tile and countertops, and now they wanted a full landscape. There were loads of possibilities with this property, so I asked about their budget. "Just design something that'll look great, and if we need to cut it back later, we will" was the response. The appointments inside the home were very nice, and because they were on the waterfront, they appeared to be perfectly suited for a well-appointed garden as well, complete with landscape lighting, stone work, brick pavers and plantings. So I created a design that had a price tag of roughly $50,000, appropriate for the home and it's location. I presented the design and they seemed to be enthusiastic about it, but we never got the sale. I later discovered through a mutual third party that they in fact never had a realistic budget for the landscape work. One of my competitors designed a $100,000 landscape for this same home, but the client settled on having a little paver walk installed by a guy who worked for a masonry company, paying him cash on the side. The project could not have cost more than $3,000. I had wasted nearly 30 hours on a design that had no opportunity of being accepted.

And I can assure you that many landscape designer's histories are littered with stories just like this one. So when I'm presented with two designs to create, I'll always put my first effort toward the one where a budget has been determined, and if that means the design without a specified budget doesn't get created, so be it. I have a family to feed, and wild goose chases that don't involve Labrador retrievers and shotguns won't keep my family fed.

So you're only helping yourself when you provide budget information to your landscape designers. In a future article I'll explain how you can take the very rough concept of what you'd like done for your property and determine a budget range for that work.

Jeff Pozniak is the president of Stonehenge Brick Paving & Landscaping, in Wisconsin. Jeff began working in the landscaping industry in 1985, and also administrates a landscaping discussion forum, the Ground Trades Xchange.