ANLA Management Clinic Quick Hit: Selling fountains

Here's a quick-hit sales tip that could help you sell more fountains, courtesy of a visit I had with Thomas Birt at The ANLA Management Clinic in Louisville, Ky.

Birt owns Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery in Tucson, Ariz. He said he recently constructed an impressive, conversation-starting fountain at his business. Both adjectives have come into play to help him sell another type of water feature. "They look at the display fountain and say they would like have something like that their homes," Birt said. "I tell them it costs about $30,000 to have it installed. They usually just blink and say that's a little more than they had planned on paying. So I point them to all the instant fountains we have. We have all kinds of bright colors and sizes on display."

He notes the simplicity of maintenance and beauty that are part of the instant fountain appeal -- "You basically just plug them in and enjoy them," he tells customers -- and almost invariably the customer that was drawn to his showcase water feature buys the scaled down versions.

And here's the clincher:

"They usually buy several of them," he said. "We have all colors, so they'll buy one in one color to put in the front and another in another color to put in the back. We've had great success with this approach. Even those that can't buy the elaborate fountains want the water sound and the color. So we offer them an easy, beautiful alternative, and they snatch them up."