Guide

How to Brief an Outdoor Lighting Inquiry

A supplier can only quote what a brief specifies. A complete outdoor lighting brief has seven parts; leaving any of them out costs a round of messages or, worse, a configuration that does not fit.

The seven parts

1. Project type and position. Fountain, pool, pond, facade, landscape or paving — and for each fitting, its installed position: submerged, wall-mounted, recessed, bracket-mounted. Position decides the protection grade before anything else is discussed.

2. Models or categories. Name the models you have shortlisted (for example LX-UD005 or LX-XT-001), or the category if the model choice is still open. A named model lets the reply price a real configuration instead of a range.

3. Configuration per model. Wattage step, colour or colour temperature, beam or lens angle, control method, housing material where it is a variant. On the specified models these are all options; the brief picks among them.

4. Quantities by position. How many fittings at each position, not just a project total — spares policy can be discussed once the position counts are known.

5. Electrical context. Available supply (24V low-voltage or mains), existing control infrastructure (a DALI building system, a DMX show controller, or none), and cable-run constraints.

6. Documents needed. Which certificate documents and datasheets your market or your client requires for the configuration, so they are prepared with the quotation.

7. Open conflicts to settle. If your shortlist includes a model whose source shows two values for one property — the LX-SC-002 protection grade is the standing example — name it, so the confirmed value lands in the quotation.

Sending it

The inquiry checklist page carries the same structure as a sendable form, and direct phone and email details sit on the contact page.

A brief that got quoted in one round

Project: boutique hotel courtyard fountain, ring basin, eight jets, drained weekly. Shortlist: LX-UD005 as the base fitting, LX-SC-002 under consideration for the outer ring subject to the protection-grade confirmation below. Configuration: 12W step, RGBW, DMX512, 20° beams at the jets; quantities eight plus two spares. Electrical: new 24V network from a plant room six metres from the basin; DMX controller by the supplier's recommendation, to be priced as a separate line. Documents: certificate documents for the quoted configurations, datasheets for both models. Open item: the LX-SC-002 shows IP68 in its title and IP65 in its technical table — confirm the grade for the quoted configuration in the reply. That brief is eleven lines long. It names the project, the models, the variants, the quantities, the electrical context, the documents and the one conflict it knows about. A supplier can price it exactly, and the reply becomes the order's foundation instead of the start of an archaeology dig through a message thread.

What happens to a good brief

A complete brief changes the reply's shape. Instead of a price range and a list of clarifying questions, the reply can be a configuration: named models, named variants, quantities by position, documents attached or promised, and the buyer's own open items answered in place. That reply is checkable — a consultant can audit it line by line against the brief — and it is actionable, because nothing in it waits on a fact the buyer still holds. The eleven lines of the example are not bureaucracy; they are the difference between buying a specification and buying a conversation.