5 ways to increase your enjoyment and revenue, by winning more of the clients you love
I often hear from architects that they aren’t sure how to market their business, or what steps they can take to make more money, or increase their job satisfaction, or improve their work-life balance.
In response, I usually say: you have to try something different, and new.
Because if you’re confused about which direction to take, and you’re thinking that there must be a better path but you don’t know where to find it, it’s likely that you won’t achieve the success you crave by doing more of what you’re currently doing now.
So what are five key changes you could start to implement to give your business a nudge in the right direction? (I want to be clear: I’m not advising you to make lots of wholesale changes all at once; remember, slow and steady wins the race when it comes to business development and marketing!).
Just pick one of these, and start tweaking, monitor your results, and then keep going based on the performance you observe.
1. Stand out from the crowd – the architecture businesses that are in high demand – and have a waitlists – stand out in a saturated and noisy market place. Think Glenn Murcutt, Kennedy Nolan, Light House Architecture + Science and Maytree Studios.
So what is your business known for? What’s special about your process, approach, values or handling of a certain typology that gives you a head-start among your peers and competitors, for the types of clients that you want to work with in future?
2. Articulate your process – make it easy for your clients to understand how you work. Do you ever have the feeling “this person has no idea what I’m talking about, or what’s required for me to do a great job on their project?”
(Hint: I experience this pretty frequently with my clients!)
What do you require of your clients? Are there tasks that you’ll need every client to complete on every project? What’s unique about the way you operate? What are the benefits for them in using your service?
You can overcome a lot of this uncertainty (and their doubt about whether it’s a good idea to invest in an architect) by creating a process map so your clients can visualise the journey and the intended outcome – aka “the transformation” they’ll enjoy by working with you – more easily.
3. Explain how you can save your clients’ money – you know that good design can reduce the building’s footprint, make certain rooms do double or even triple duty, create spaces that feel larger because of variations in volume and outlook, or because of the way you handle thresholds and connections to the outdoors. You know that getting all the details right in the design and drawings means your clients can place orders for their materials and fixtures and fittings with plenty of lead time, which saves unexpected costs, delays and stress on site.
Make it clear how your process and good design = lower construction costs = lower mortgage costs and lower operation costs = better quality of life.
Your clients may not know how to join these dots – so show them!
4. Attract the right clients (and refer on those who aren’t a good fit) – you probably waste a lot of time responding to new enquiries from clients who:
a) aren’t prepared to invest in your service; and
b) don’t yet understand the value of what you offer.
Automate your business development and marketing processes with email templates and intake questionnaires to vet potential clients and ensure they are a good fit, before you spend time with them. Your time is valuable, and time is money!
5. Turn your IP into PI (passive income) – at the moment, you probably make most or all of your income from a fee-for-service business model, which means you can’t increase your revenue without increasing your workload or taking on more employees (thereby risking burnout yourself). But if you turn your intellectual property into a product or service that others will pay for - like pre-designed plans for clients who can't afford a custom solution; or an e-book about how to electrify an existing house that contains a visionary masterplan; or CPD training for other architects about your topic of expertise - you can make money while you sleep. (And these resources and products will have the added bonus of helping to enhance your authority as a trusted advisor in your chosen field.)
I’m giving you a bonus 6th idea too, inspired by something that happened to me this morning as I was putting this blog together.
6. Ask for the sale – Marketing will only get you so far. All of the instagram posts and email newsletters you send out into the world will definitely help to raise awareness of your services, but sometimes you have to ask prospective clients to take the leap, and commit to the project.
I had a rare reminder of the power of asking for the sale today, when a man knocked on my door, carrying a bucket, window cleaning equipment and his backpack. He explained that he’s available to wash all of our windows, inside and out, right now. He quoted me two prices - one for both inside and outside; and one for outside only - and he seemed shocked and delighted when I interrupted his spiel to say that I wanted him to go ahead.
Why was I so quick to say yes? We’d had our house sprayed with pest control chemicals last year, and we hadn’t cleaned the windows since, and I don’t even have time to look for a local window cleaner, so it was a no-brainer to have them washed by someone who was willing and able, and standing at my door.
This is of course different to the way you would usually present your services, and I’m not suggesting you go door-knocking for new business in your neighbourhood.
Take a leaf from the window cleaner’s book and knock on doors and reconnect with past prospects. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results!
Photography by Nuno Silva on Unsplash
But I am wondering how many people have made enquiries, or discussed the possibility of working with you, or been issued with a fee proposal for services, only to go quiet, or say: “We’re not ready right now”, or they might have inexplicably stopped responding to your emails or calls.
What might happen if you made the effort to reconnect with these previously warm leads: everyone from people who rang your office, or emailed you, or that you attended a site visit with, or issued a fee proposal to?
By reconnecting with them and letting them know you have a limited availability opening next month, for example, you might reignite a project that had gone dormant for reasons that had little or nothing to do with you.
I encourage you to try it, if you’re keen to bolster your pipeline at the moment. Make a list of all of the abandoned project leads from the past 12-24 months and reach out to them again. Find out if these prospects and their proposed projects are a good fit for your business and current workload, and then invite them to consider working with you.
You might be pleasantly surprised by the results! Feel free to email me and let me know if this yields a positive outcome…
If you're ready to start thinking differently…
… about how to make your practice more impactful, successful and profitable, we have some resources that may help.
Sounds Like Design developed the Six Channel system to help architects design and deliver your ideal practice and there are several ways you can learn more about it:
You can enrol in the self-guided online program - Architecture Marketing 360: a CPD course for architects - and get started straight away, here.
You can undertake the Review + Reset one-on-one consulting package with Rachael directly (find more details including pricing and the next available start date, here).
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