Perks

In a service business, good feelings go a long way. Take a simple Cup of Joe. When you visit a client’s house, it’s nice when they offer you a cup of coffee, or a glass of water, isn’t it? Once in awhile you get a client who offers nothing–not even an offer to take your coat. Once in awhile they won’t even let you in the house. They may have their reasons, but it sure doesn’t feel very good.

A number of years ago I went to meet with a client, and she was a few minutes late. We had a good relationship and I didn’t worry about it. But when she offered me a Starbucks (she’d bought an extra for me!), it felt really nice. It made the business relationship more friendly. Communicating on a human level is such an important thing when it comes to selling. It’s so easy to go into “sales mode” and lose track of the fact that you really should be working on a relationship, on creating trust, on being liked. Yes, it is a popularity contest.

I was at the dry cleaners this morning. For quite some time they have had free coffee for visitors. On a cold winter day, it’s a nice thing. My auto mechanic has the same in his waiting room. Why not? It doesn’t cost much and gives warm feelings. If you have a client that you know is a coffee drinker, why not pick one up on the way over? Or do like another landscape designer I know does, and take Girl Scout cookies! He buys them by the case (the mint ones of course), and puts them in the freezer. On a warm July day, he shows up with frozen mint cookies. Nice!

I neglected to mention that the dry cleaners actually has the coffee sponsored. It is provided by a local restaurant and there is a sign prominently displaying their name. So they get a two-fer out of it.

Nice perk.

10 Step Design Process

The 10 Step Design Process is the foundation upon which my landscape design business, Garden Concepts, built its reputation as a high quality, high touch professional organization. Recently I recorded an interview on the process with Chris Heiler at LandscapeLeadership.com. Members can download the podcast by logging in!

Details Results

In the last newsletter, I asked for some feedback on how detailed you get in your designs. There were a few anomalies, but in general, here is a brief summary.

For those in Design/Build, it was interesting to me that 16 of the 26 who responded, included Planting as a detail they draw. That seems a bit high to me for D/B, so will make the assumption that most confused my question with a Planting Plan.
The vast majority, it seems, draw details for subcontracted items, which makes sense. But many draw no details at all, whether they are design only or design/build. In fact, out of 42 total responses (26 D/B and 16 D/O), there really was no significant difference between the level of detail provided.

As for my own experience, for the vast majority of my career, all design was done in house, and the contracting (everything from plants to pools to woodworking,fences, masonry you name it) was subbed out. Subcontractors were always part of the team, so we included them in working out design details. In many cases, the “details” were nothing more than descriptive text,”back of envelope” sketches, and photos. Rarely was there any misunderstanding, and we had a lot of success doing things that way.

That all said, there are advantages to providing more detail. We’ll save that discussion for another post.

Survey Questions

In my e-zine,  I’m including short survey questions. If there is something you want to know, please share below! 

Thanks. 

Click here.

 

Details, Details

Landscape Designers work all kinds of different ways. Some are design only, some design/ build. Some deal with all kinds of hardscapes, grading and drainage, and others stick to plants.

I’m interested in how you handle the details in your designs. I’m not talking about notes on plans, but specifically “how to build it” details. Please take 12 seconds and fill this out. I’ll post the results when I get enough responses. Thanks!

Click here

Where Do You Start?

A student in a recent course asked a really good question. To
paraphrase, “When you begin a new design, where do you start?”

For me, and I think for many experienced designers, it’s not a linear
thing. A lot of ideas, impulses and strategies occur simultaneously.
But what if they don’t? Where, then, do you begin? And how do you teach
someone else where he/she should begin?

Next time you hit a dead end, try this. Find all the lines inherent
in the architecture: doors, windows, corners. Extend them with thin
lines into the landscape creating a Mondrianesque grid. Now see if
you can work within that framework. If you have important views from/
through the house, the place for a focal point will be shouting at you.

Any lines you place on the ground plane that relate to the grid will
automatically relate to the architecture. Then work from there.

Okay, it’s pretty basic, but it’s a start. Compare it to learning to
write. Remember the outline with Roman numeral I at the top? The grid
strategy is taking the design process down to its very basics. It’s
not the end though. If you don’t develop that outline into a cohesive
piece, with introduction, three examples and a conclusion, you most
certainly won’t get that “A.”

So, where do I start? It depends on how quickly something comes to
me. However, the end result can be deconstructed to find Roman
numeral I. That is, even if it doesn’t start with an outline
or a grid, the end result still contains the structure I would have
had it begun that way. Make sense?

I welcome your comments.

Design Thinking and Holiday Greetings

Following is our e-newsletter, sent on 12/22/06. You can subscribe here.

People Are Drawn To Good Design

“As consumers invest more time and money into what they buy, a growing number of companies are placing heavy emphasis on design.”

This quote kicks off the article entitled “With Good Looks Come Big Profits” at Inc.’s online magazine. Hey, we’re in the design business! This is good news for us.

Read the article at inc.com…

Last Week’s Course

We just finished our very first course last week! It was an intimate group of enthusiastic designers, most local to the Chicago area, with one from Michigan. We had a great time and it was exciting to see the progress every single person made in just 5 short days.

In fact, we want to give others the opportunity to have the same experience, so Sissinghurst will be offered again in January.

There are a couple of schedule changes you can read about here. For anyone interested in taking advantage of the Early Bird Tuition AND the 2-4-1 (two for one) offer, the E.B. deadline for the 1/22 course has been extended to 12/26. After that, the 2-4-1 is still available, but at the full price. Still a smokin’ deal!

Check back at aaldweb.com in the coming days for further updates.

Design Thinking

We talked a lot about “design thinking” last week. What exactly is “design thinking”? Funny enough, I thought it was a phrase I’d coined, but a quick visit to Google says otherwise. It seems to be used differently by different people though.

As we use the term, “design thinking” has to do with approaching your business, your sales and marketing process, even the language you use, with the same mind set you use to design a landscape. And vice versa.

Consider the concept of the transition. On a news broadcast, you’ll hear reporters use the word “segue.” That’s how they transition from one story to another. We use transitions to connect different spaces within the landscape, or to connect landscape to architecture. In our businesses, we ought to consider (and choreograph) how we transition from initial contact with a potential client, through the design process, and into construction. “Design thinking” helps us put those puzzle pieces together. Successful use of design thinking will also improve the way we communicate our design ideas to clients so that they get excited about the project. If they get excited about it, they feel good, and our chances for the project to proceed improve. These are but a few examples.

Winter Conferences

For those of you in Toronto, I’ll be speaking at the Landscape Ontario Congress on January 8 and 9, 2007. On January 17, I’m on the agenda at the Mid Am Trade Show in Chicago. Hope to see you there.

Have a great Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years and any and every other occasion you might celebrate this time of year! Enjoy the season!

Tim