Sales made Simple for Outdoor Living Pros, Landscapers and Hardscapers (formerly Outerspaces) Why Outdoor Living Pros Lose Projects to Contractors Who Ask Better Questions w/ Jon Valenta from General Pavingstones
Apr 1, 2026
Jon Valenta, a hardscaping pro with General Pavingstones, shares practical field experience in outdoor living installation and sales. He and Joshua explore why asking better questions beats selling features. They focus on discovery conversations, using clients’ own language, and outcome-based selling to stop price fights and win more projects.
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Selling Outcomes Beats Selling Features
- Selling features (patios, fire pits, seating walls) typically closes ~25–30% because it ignores why the client wants the project.
- Outcomes are the emotional why (family togetherness, guilt about kids indoors) that raise budgets and drive decisions.
Losing Jobs To Better Questioners
- Joshua and Jon describe losing jobs where another contractor built a much bigger project because they asked better questions.
- They realized the winner had uncovered deeper wants and sold outcomes, not just the original requested features.
Ask What Success Looks Like
- Ask outcome questions like What does success look like and How do you define it in the backyard to uncover emotional drivers.
- When outcomes emerge, clients often increase their budget to solve the internal problem rather than haggle price.
