Meeting with Clients
How do you meet your ideal client? Many of you who will read and use the material in this book are seasoned professionals, while others are emerging professionals or just now hanging your shingle out for the first time and entering the world of entrepreneurship.
Since 2008, the interior design industry has changed. Clients expect a lot more value for a lot less of an investment. At DCI Studio, we run a luxury design firm and have spent numerous years honing our client attraction skills, learning new ways to preselect our clients, and developing systems that automate the process.
Courting and beginning a relationship with a new client involves certain critical components. First, how do you acquire new business? Does it come from referrals, advertising, the Web, or your networking efforts? Are you tracking the sources of your new business? Doing so is a very good idea. Start an Excel spreadsheet or create a Word document, if you prefer to work that way.
When an e-mail or telephone inquiry comes in from a prospective client, having a protocol in place can help you determine whether this prospect would be an ideal client and a good fit for your firm. We have devised an excellent system for weeding out the “tire kickers” and the less-than-ideal clients.
Whether the inquiry is received via the Internet or by telephone, we have a corporate “signature” e-mail that we personalize and send out to the prospect. We also have fine-tuned a form, which we call the Client Lifestyle Questionnaire (included in this chapter), that addresses the perennial question of the budget. This questionnaire can be e-mailed to prospective clients, or you could create a web-form on a cloud server such as Woofu.com so that the form is evergreen and results are e-mail ed to you directly. Our firm requires a minimum project investment, and we make prospects aware of this before we engage in a phone call or further correspondence. The next step is to ask the prospective client to start a folder(s) on Houzz.com, Pinterest.com, or Evernote.com categorizing the spaces to be designed with annotated notes on each image detailing what the client likes/dislikes so that you get a feel for the client’s style before the “get acquainted” call. Doing this can save you a lot of time.
Now you have a vetted prospect. The prospect has read your introductory materials, done the homework on the Web, and filled out the Lifestyle Questionnaire. Once all of the materials are received, we send an e-mail with a series of available time slots for an initial call. You may use a scheduling app or a Web service, which is even better.
Be very clear that the initial call...
