Selling Dark Skies From the Trenches

How do we effect change from an inside sales desk?

By Billy Hodges, Co-Founder AAILA, Founder Digital Filaments

When Randy Reid asked me if I’d like to contribute an article, I’ll admit, I was excited. We’ve been working hard at AAILA (the American Association for Independent Lighting Agents) to raise awareness for our organization, our members, and our three pillars of service: education, networking, and advocacy. Our association fills a unique role serving lighting manufacturers and their independent lighting agents in the USA and Canada. In the 10 months since we created AAILA, we’ve grown our membership to more than 75 firms. We’ve made lots of EDUCATIONAL content. We’ve hosted and sponsored some fantastic NETWORKING events, and we’ve done a good amount of thinking on the different ways that we can be ADVOCATES for both good lighting and good business with our member firms and their sales teams.

One lighting challenge facing our industry right now is the harm caused by overlighting and the underappreciated value of darkness. In many places, through overlighting, inappropriate color, and poorly directed lighting, we’ve lost connection to the night sky, done grave harm to flora and fauna, and negatively affected our health. Many individuals and industry organizations acknowledge this challenge – and do a great job of educating and advocating for a solution (i.e., the IES and IDA with their joint effort on the consensus driven Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting).

The good news is that this massive pollution problem humans have created in the lighting industry is completely reversible – even while meeting our needs and desires for pleasant and safe outdoor environments. What may not be reversible is the damage we are doing (and have already done) to the species most affected by the current state of lighting in our built environment at night.

So, why, as the co-founder of an organization for and about the lighting SALES community, do I write today? Because dark skies and darkness restoration are not just talking points of industry leaders. People on the staffs of our member firms care about what we are doing to the planet - and in our world, lighting is a big deal. So, how can we, as individual salespeople in firms that are part of a massive supply chain, make a difference? That’s the question. How can Matt (sitting at his inside sales desk and caring about safely restoring darkness so that he and his young kid can enjoy fireflies and the night sky) make a change? How can Matt change the tide of more light, placed indiscriminately? Is it hopeless? Does he have any authority to help make a change?

Matt wants to act, so he asked me (as his boss) what he can do to educate and influence our customers without discouraging sales. After all, he’s charged with our company’s mission to Deliver Light Simply, right? So, helping Matt to begin answering that question is one of my projects for this week while I’m here at the IES SALC (Street & Area Lighting Conference) in Dallas, TX. Yesterday, I asked this question to a high-level IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) member, and their first response was “don’t sell it to them” (spoken like someone who doesn’t derive their income from selling lights to customers). We discussed it further, and the member came to see the ‘customer is always right’ dilemma.

So, what can Matt do when he gets a request for an order of high-lumen, cool CCT, light-burping “security lights”?

◆ Matt knows that these lights are much more likely to contribute to our already light-polluted environment.

◆ He also knows that bright, indiscriminate lighting on the outside of buildings rarely improves visibility and often creates disability glare.

◆ He doesn’t know the project intimately, and his customer, the distributor, may not know either.

◆ But, he does know that he can’t see the stars from his house in suburban Philadelphia.

◆ He knows that dead birds litter the sidewalk outside the brand-new car dealership in Philadelphia.

◆ He knows about the Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting

◆ And, he knows that this fixture he’s been asked to quote is probably not compliant.

If we have a client that cares, this is a genuine opportunity to educate and (hopefully) affect change. Matt can quote the requested fixture AND offer an alternative fixture with appropriate shielding, warmer color temperature, an internal lighting control, and, if there’s more information available about the project, maybe do a quick calculation to see if a fixture with fewer initial lumens might be appropriate. However, this is much more work than grabbing a link to the requested fixture cutsheet and sending a price quote for the cool-colored, unshielded, glare-making light-burper. It means slowing down and maybe being less “productive” – meaning fewer quotes and maybe fewer orders. And…that’s not good for Matt’s individual KPIs. Moreover, if Matt’s client gets annoyed that we’re slowing down to offer an alternative that might cost a few extra dollars, we might not hear from them again.

So here we are, the dark sky aware salespeople, hoping to affect change. What can we do? And what should we do? And, as his boss, how can I help Matt to be a successful salesperson AND help him to change the world - for the better? ■