12 Tips for a Rock Solid Consultation
Welcome back!
If you’ve been following along over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that I’ve been taking you through my process for attracting new clients. In case you missed them, here are the posts you may want to review, as I’ll be referring to them quite a bit today:
The Binder System: Gives you tools to use at the consultation.
How to Define Your Design Services: Keep in binder for the consultation.
Creating Your Services & Pricing Guide: Keep in binder for the consultation.
How to Run a New Client Discovery Call: Guide to booking a consultation.
How to Create a Solid Welcome Package: Bring with you to the consultation.
What to Pack in your Consultation Bag: Think of it as a go-bag for designers.
In essence, consultations are your opportunities to meet potential clients, decide if their projects are a good fit (considering client needs, personality, and timeline), and finally to gather enough information to prepare a proposal. In the event you both decide to move forward, you’ll need sufficient detail to prepare an accurate estimate.
Here are 12 tips to rock the in-home consult.
Give your client a rock-solid consultation, and they will be delighted to hire you for a full-service project.
Be Prompt: This seems obvious, but I’m not just talking about not being late. It’s equally as important not to be too early. It’s best to arrive when your client is ready for you. I’ve had several in-home appointments lately and a number of them showed up early. I wasn’t prepared and was on phone calls, so it stressed me out. Don’t do that to your clients.
On the other hand, if you are running more than 5 minutes late, don’t explain; just call or send a brief text that apologizes and let them know exactly when you’ll be there. When you arrive, reassure them that you will be giving them their full time (and hope they have it to give).
Consider it a Mini-Design Session: I hear so many designers balk at the idea that their consultation clients want specific advice asking questions like, “what would you do here”? News-flash...they will always ask these questions.
The best way to show off your design chops is to treat this time like a mini-design session. Take them through the project and give your best ideas and suggestions. Provide them with a ton of value. An ideal client will see your skills and want to hire you to help them complete the project.
Charge a Consultation Fee: Since you are planning to come and bring as much value as possible (see #2), then you need to be charging for your time. If you’re worried that clients won’t want to pay you “just to come and see the house,” then you aren't presenting it as a “mini-design session.” Let them know you will be bringing all your best ideas and sharing them freely. If they still don’t see the value, then they probably aren’t a good fit. If they aren’t willing to pay for this time, then they really won’t pay for full-service.
Consultation Fee: My two-hour consultation fee is my hourly rate (times two) plus a little extra. This covers my travel as well as time spent to compile notes. (You don’t need to explain this to your clients. Just state your fee as a flat rate.)
No Refunds & No Exceptions: If clients don’t use the whole time, they forfeit the rest of the fee. Never promise a refund for unused time. Due to the nature of services, no refunds will be granted. Period.
Credit Cards: Have clients pay upfront with a credit card to book their consultations, and listen up because the next part is important:
Don’t pass on credit card fees to your clients.
That is the cost of doing business. Get used to it.
Be Open-Minded: Mindset is everything in business, and you need to show up prepared to help however you can. If you arrive with your sales hat on first, your clients can tell (and it’s incredibly unattractive.) If you show up presuming they don’t have the money to hire you, they have no taste, or whatever other assumptions may arise, you’re bound to leave empty-handed. Not every consult will (or should) turn into a full-service project and that’s okay. But walking in with preconceived ideas about the outcome is a sure path to a dead-end.
Take the Water: If clients offer you water, take it. It’s courteous to accept their hospitality. I usually skip offers for coffee or other beverages during the first meeting, but water is always a yes.
Set Expectations in Advance: Before you dive in, remind clients how the Consultation will work. Let them know you’d like to walk the project and discuss their needs and desires. Along the way, you will throw out all kinds of ideas as part of the creative process. Some ideas stick while others don’t. Remind them that you’d like to save a little time at the end to discuss the budget and next steps.
Start with Lifestyle: Before we set out to walk around, I like to confirm a few lifestyle factors based on their answers from the questionnaire (sent before the consult). Do they have young kids? Are they big entertainers? Do they work from home? These kinds of facts about clients will help inform the kind of advice and recommendations you offer them.
Have your Tools Ready: If you’ve read What to Bring to the Consultation, then you know, I have a whole toolkit of items I bring with me. When we start to walk the project, I always have my clipboard with my Consultation Worksheet, cell phone for photos, and a tape measure. Everything else I leave behind.
Let Clients Lead: Give clients the chance to start and share everything that is on their minds. It’s important not to jump in with ideas too quickly, but rather let clients share their own ideas and visions for the project. Sometimes clients have great ideas and if you can validate and bring those ideas to life, they will love working with you.
Be a Problem Solver: Always see the solution and be positive. When we were interviewing contractors for our own home renovation a few years ago, I distinctly remember one guy walking the whole project with me saying, “that won’t work because of this” and “that’s going to be too hard” and “that’s going to be really expensive.” It was exhausting. Needless to say, we hired someone who was equal parts reality checker and problem solver. Be that guy.
Be Specific: Especially when it comes to space planning, getting out your tape measure and giving very specific recommendations will give clients a huge sense of value. For example, if you are looking at a living room arrangement, get out your tape measure and decide what size would be the best fit (i.e. 90”-100” long x 36”-42” deep) and note that in your Consultation Worksheet. Include additional notes like - “performance fabric in a medium tone blue.” This will be your guide when you start the project, but it will also help clients if they decide to tackle things on their own.
Save Time for Next Steps: As you start to approach the end of your time, say “I think this is a good time to sit and wrap up with a quick discussion about next steps and budget.”
Check-In: My first question is always, “Do you feel like you received value from today’s consultation?” I want to get a feel for how they are responding to our time together.
Review Services: Next, using the Client Binder, I take clients through a typical design process and show them what they would receive if we worked together on the project. I have examples of all the deliverables (i.e. Concept Design, Moodboard, Drawings, Spec Sheets, Budgets, Design Boards, etc.). If you are just getting started you can mock up deliverables. It’s a great way to create your templates. Finally, I ask if they would like to move forward. If so, I let them know I’ll follow up with a detailed proposal for design services in a few days.
Budget: When clients indicate they would like to work together, that creates a need to discuss the budget. While they may have already communicated their budget in the questionnaire, you’ve now seen the project first-hand and discussed their wish list in detail. This allows you to have a candid conversation about whether you think it’s realistic.
Clients almost always underestimate what things cost, but with a little education, you can help shape their perspective. At this stage, I recommend having a few sample budgets to refer to as illustration. In my design process, we explore the budget in-depth during the Concept Design Phase, at which time, they receive an itemized recommended budget specific to their project.
So what’s the main takeaway here? Having a buttoned-up process for running your consultation can be the game-changer that moves your consults to happily paying clients who can’t wait to work with you. I’ll be honest, it takes practice and confidence to get to a rock-solid consult, but with these tools and a roadmap like this one, you’ll be on the fast-track to success in no time! I
