You have the whole process to update your professional project from the point of view of strategy design, marketing and sales in a summarized way, and I have also left you in each section links to more detailed articles on each point in question.
You can follow this guide in an orderly manner or work only part of it, whichever you prefer, although I advise you to take everything into account.
Table of Contents
Why marketing for architects?
If you lived in the pre-crisis profession, you will remember that having assignments in the architecture sector was relatively simple. You could almost wait for them to arrive taking care of your contacts and little else.
There were studies with trajectories of years and consolidated client bases (studies with tradition), others very well related, and even for those who were not in any of these situations, it was not difficult to find work.
There was work left over.
With the arrival of the crisis, demand fell, supply has continued to rise (there are more and more of us), and for various reasons, society does not understand very well what value an architect can bring to it.
Some more savvy professions have invaded part of our powers, and the Administrations have not collaborated to make it easy. Rather the opposite.
We have made many mistakes as a profession:
- Putting ourselves to compete with the only weapon of lowering our fees.
- Turn our backs on the marketing and promotion of our products and services, including by collegiate statutes. Read this post that had quite an impact at the time: the marketing taboo for architects.
- Completely lose customer orientation
Architects work in a hyper-competitive environment in which we have to find the tools to differentiate ourselves, or else we won’t have a job. As simple as that.
If we want to have sustainable businesses (because ours is a business) and be able to continue making architecture, we must start thinking about how we are going to compete in what is now a jungle.
That is already invented, and it is based on strategy, marketing and sales.
Of course, marketing for architects is similar to that of other professionals, but it has peculiarities that it is necessary to know.
1. Importance of marketing for architects for an existing studio
If you have a studio that works, has a constant flow of clients, gives profitability and more or less you dedicate yourself to what you like. I congratulate you, you have done things well. In this case, a marketing analysis can help you expand or propose new lines of business.
On the contrary, a case that is repeated a lot in my day-to-day life is that of a study that was doing quite well in the pre-crisis period and that has not come back afterwards. He survives as best he can, even at a loss, with tremendous effort and a clearly downline.
In this case it is clear that a twist is needed. Letting things die little by little is not a good idea, nor is it a good idea to wait for everything to go back to the way it was before “because these are cycles” or for the definitive work.
Things are not going to go back to the state they were before 2008. Now you have to compete and you have to do well.
You need to do something to grow your architecture business.
In a situation like this, a rethinking of the strategy is required to adapt the study services to the market, a marketing plan for architects that brings it to the minds of potential clients, and a sales program that finishes it off.
All this, of course, based on what has already been done well, improving what can be improved and observing the new possibilities of the market and the lines that are no longer profitable.
Marketing for architects with architecture studies already underway can mean a big intervention or just the adjustment of some parameters as if it were acupuncture, depending on the case.
2. If you decide to start an architecture business from scratch
If, on the other hand, you have decided to start your own business from scratch, you are at the perfect time to ask yourself how you are going to compete in the market before going to it.
The strategic design and study will help you reduce the risk inherent in any undertaking. It is always difficult to predict how the market is going to behave, but if you study it well and design your proposal based on it, you will have a much higher chance of being right.
You will also need a marketing plan for architects to put your entire customer acquisition business system in motion on the correct lines, and learn to close those sales that are so difficult to close when we talk about architecture services.
That is the most important thing to think about if you are going to open an architecture studio.
Knowing how you are going to get your orders is the first thing. Let’s see how your first work comes in and you get benefits.
And remember that validating your idea is essential and that undertaking is hard and not as beautiful as they paint it, as I told you in this post about undertaking in architecture.
In any case, you start from scratch or with an already assembled studio that you want to give a spin to, marketing for architects is a must.
Internal and external analysis in strategy and marketing in architecture
To start developing your strategic marketing plan for architects, you need to know what tools you have and in which territory you move.
It is very important to always keep this in mind:
It’s not just about what you know or can do, but how that can be useful to customers.
Therefore, you have to know that market.
But it is also essential to know precisely what you can offer. Architectural services, yes, but that is very broad and generic. Sure it is possible to specify more. Find something that is not so obvious.
The key to the success of an architecture business is in that marriage between what you can do and the need of whoever wants to buy it. And that’s where architects often get lost.
So this initial analysis both external (of the market) and internal (of yourself) is the starting point of everything, and you should not skip it.
1. The environment of the architecture and construction sector
For better and for worse, architects work in an industry subject to strong cycles. It goes without saying, we have all lived it (or suffered) in recent years.
Now things are improving, but it is not easy to reflect that improvement in projects for your studio.
First, because it is highly polarized in certain geographical areas, and second, because sometimes it is riding on trends for which it is not easy to be prepared.
The scenario that is drawn for the future is that of ever-growing architecture, interior design and design studios, with a company structure, based on technology and frequently specialized.
Is there room for small studios? Sure, but you have to know how to compete very well to take advantage of the wave of improvement in the sector.
The first thing you should do is know the environment in which you move, but know it in depth. It is not worth knowing that things improve here or there.
- Get used to consulting data. How many houses have been built this year? What is the trend? Where? Something remarkable internationally that you can import?
- Who can be your competition? The big consultancies, or the other study that is in the locality? How do they get their work?
- In what lines is the sector advancing? What trends will work in the future? Why has the office sector exploded? What are the big promoters and how do they work? Why is the humanization of architecture an opportunity?
There are a thousand questions to ask yourself to get to know the sector. Remember that you must be informed to make decisions and identify opportunities, always based on what you aspire to do.
Any marketing plan for architects must be based on market data.
2. Corporate social responsibility in architecture
Corporate social responsibility CSR refers to the contribution of a company to society above what is purely required. There is what the law requires, but you can go further.
It is based on principles of sustainability and is increasingly valued by people. Increasingly, consumers are looking for companies that take care of the environment, society, and the economy.
Therefore, it is good to take it into account from the very beginning of the company. This is not marketing for architects, but it will help you connect with your potential clients.
In architecture, it is possible to translate it into very specific measures, and you also have a great opportunity with the same architectural object as a result of your services. Make ecological houses, for example. Or practice a markedly sustainable type of architecture.
Of course, make it honest and real. There is nothing worse than proclaiming a CSR and then destroying it with contradictory measures. If you show off energy efficiency in your buildings, it is not convenient for you to appear on the construction site with a 4 × 4 that consumes 20 liters per 100.
CSR must be perfectly intertwined with your personality and that of the company, and this connects directly with the next point.
3. Mission, vision and values of an architecture business
Why have you set up your company and what personality do you want it to have? What business culture?
You have mounted it to earn money and eat, of course, but surely you have a purpose beyond. You can almost always find that purpose without thinking too much, and it almost always has to do with helping someone.
Companies whose only mission is to make money begin to be penalized by people. Society wants something more.
Purpose can be defined with the famous shortlist of mission, vision and values.
- The mission is how you are going to materialize the purpose of what you do.
- The vision defines the state you want to achieve by putting your mission into practice. How do you see your company 10 years from now?
- The values are non – negotiable principles guiding your decisions and guide you. Your vision tells you where you want to go, your mission with what means, and your values if you are doing it on the right path.
Why so much philosophy? Why is this important? Because people value it, and therefore having it well defined allows you to connect with them from the very beginning of the professional project. You can start attracting your customers here.
Imagine that your mission is “To practice architecture applying sustainability criteria to take care of the environment, the well-being of people and the economic viability of actions through the PassivHaus standard.
And your values could be “ecological awareness, cooperation, quality, innovation”.
Don’t you think that if you go to people with similar values and beliefs, they will hire you before they will hire another studio that does not?
Thinking about all this requires introspection, but it is worth it. It can be a differential element in your marketing plan for architects.
4. Strengths and weaknesses
Once you have defined the origin of your professional project, keep searching to determine what it can offer to the market. It is a good time to make a SWOT diagram.
As you can see, it is a 2 × 2 matrix that includes internal analysis and external analysis.
The external analysis should not cost you too much if you have already done the exercise of knowing the sector as we have said in point 2.1.
Now you must interpret what can be harmful of what is in the sector ( threats ) and what can be favorable ( opportunities ), always referring to your company in particular.
For the internal analysis again it is time to look at the navel. Ask yourself what your business can offer ( strengths ), what are you good at, what knowledge do you have, what skills …
It is not necessary that everything is very technical: a strength can be a BREEAM certification, but also the ability to empathize with the buyer or the command of a language.
And also check your weaknesses, what you know positively that can cause you problems or that you do not have enough developed, such as lack of means or financing.
All this reflection puts you in front of a map with the ingredients to design your proposal for a specific market segment, which is what we will do in the next point.
5. Architecture specialization?
If you read me regularly you will know that I am a defender of specialization in many cases, understanding “specialization” as dedicating yourself to something very specific and very well. You can be a specialist, for example, in hospital architecture or residential architecture.
The advantages of specialization are especially useful if you are just starting out or if you have a business that does not work. The most important:
- It takes away a lot of competition. Customers will look to you to do something very specific, and the more specific that is, the less competitors you will have to do the same. It is the difference between going to a traumatologist or one who is a knee specialist.
- You become a sniper. Instead of shooting a lot of targets, you shoot a few leads but with a very high hit rate.
- You go deep into a particular field and you gain authority. You can position yourself as an expert. This opens the door to other possibilities and projects your brand exponentially.
Should you always specialize? Unclear. If your studio has been running for a long time and is going more or less well, surely it is not necessary. If you have a diverse portfolio of clients already made, worry about taking care of it.
The problem comes when architect do not specialize because architects like to know everything and control everything. You know, from the shooter to the city. As a romantic idea it is very good, and I am also convinced that architects are capable of it. But it is that the market does not value it.
So yes, many times it is going to pay you to specialize. But please, let it be something that you like VERY MUCH and that it be for real.
If you are a specialist in something, you should know everything you can about that field. And if not, you are not a specialist. The seams will show right away.
Strategy and positioning in marketing for architects
After the first phase of internal and external analysis, you have all the ingredients with which to work for the design of your strategy.
This consists of designing a value proposition for a specific market segment, determining the position you want to achieve with that proposal in that segment, and establishing the specific objectives you want to achieve.
This all sounds very technical but it’s pretty straightforward. Simple does not mean easy, because you have to lower it to the ground and interpret it with your reality, but the concepts are common sense as you will see in the following points.
Many architecture firms skip this strategic phase and go directly to see how they can communicate with their potential clients. This is not marketing for architects, it is just promotion.
Big mistake. If you skip it, you will not know what to communicate, you will not know if your products and services are in demand and it will be almost impossible to get it right.
1. Customer segments for an architecture studio
This point 3.1 and 3.2 should be studied simultaneously, I separate them only for the purpose of explaining concepts.
A customer segment is a part of the market made up of individuals with common needs. For example, people who need an energy certificate.
We call “segmenting” the process of determining the segment to which we are going to target with a value proposition that may be of interest to you.
This is as simple as thinking about it (next point) in line with a large enough group that may need it. Come on, we will dedicate ourselves to things that people ask of us .
When the segment is small it is often called a “niche”. For example, people who want to build a rural house.
When the niche is even smaller, it can be called a “ micro-niche ”. For example, institutions that build nuclear power plants.
To do good marketing for architects you don’t need to find a niche, but it can help.
You should be clear about a couple of things:
- You can’t reach everyone. must do things for specific segments, tailored to their needs. Not even large consulting firms can cover the entire market.
- Your customer segment rules. It is their needs that must be satisfied, and no matter how good you are at something, that something will not be part of a winning value proposition if it does not serve to respond to a need.
- The segment you are targeting must be profitable enough to make a living from it. It can be bulky (energy certificates), or perhaps it is small but generates highly profitable orders (nuclear power plants).
- You must know the segment you are targeting (that is, your potential client) by heart. You can use the empathy map for this.
2. The architect’s value proposition
The value proposition can be defined as what you are able to offer to a customer segment that solves a need, that it is something that you are good at and that not many people do. Ideally just you.
It is studied together with the customer segment simultaneously and iteratively, since the more you know your segment, the more you can specify your value proposition, and at the same time limitations in your value proposition will prevent you from targeting certain segments.
Take a look at this post on the architect’s value proposition to see how it’s done.
As we have said above, the value proposition must be thought to respond to the client’s needs. This way you make sure they choose you. And sometimes it is not easy to detect the needs of the client in architecture.
Another very powerful tool for studying your value proposition in line with the needs of a customer segment is the value proposition canvas.
As you can see, it is always about making a match between what you can offer in a unique way (your competitive advantage) and what your customers need. This is the essence of marketing for architects.
Remember, your value proposition is at the intersection of what you do well, what others don’t, and what the market demands. Always ask those three questions.
3. Positioning of the architect
Your value proposition will lead you to position yourself in a certain way in the mind of the chosen customer segment. What does this mean? It is an abstract concept, but a simple one.
Your positioning is nothing more than the mental image that a potential buyer has about you. And it is important because it is what will ultimately lead him to decide for you or another competitor.
A classic example: who wants a safe car, buys a Volvo. Volvo has been positioning itself as a safe car for decades, and all that work has generated a mental image in the minds of consumers.
Whoever wants a sustainable proposal will look for a studio positioned in sustainable architecture.
Marketing for architects or positioning has not been traditionally worked. Anyone looking for chameleon-style architecture adapted to the environment may think of Norman Foster. Who looks for the design of an icon perhaps in Frank Gehry.
You can position yourself as the fastest by making energy certificates in impossible terms or the most reliable by building sports stadiums.
- Look for a differentiated positioning. If you do not differ in that mental image in potential clients, they will see you the same as any other competitor and will end up choosing…yes, the cheapest.
- That is why we have said that the more unique and different your value proposition is, the more you are able to do things that others cannot, the more effective it will be. Here are some indications and concrete ways to differentiate yourself in architecture. And here’s how Designable did it .
- And be careful, your positioning does not depend exclusively on you, since it is the mind of the potential client, many subjective factors of theirs enter. Your mission is that the positioning in the mind of the person matches your desired positioning.
So, think about how you want to position yourself and if that positioning is going to differentiate you from your competitors.
4. Setting goals
You already have your proposal and you know how you want to position yourself.
An important element is missing to complete the strategic phase: setting objectives.
The objectives that you set must be concrete, which is usually called SMART objectives (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, time-bound).
“May the year go well” is not a SMART goal, of course. Try to define them, limit them in time, measure them, prioritize them…
For example, “Achieve two educational works contracts in the next 12 months” is a goal.
That’s a business goal, but there are other kinds as well. Of positioning, of visibility, of profitability…
You can have primary and secondary objectives, but don’t spread out either. Try to focus on a few, because if you try to cover a lot you will squeeze a little.
Oh, and take into account the degree of maturity of your professional project. At first you will surely be interested in paying attention to positioning or visibility so that they start to know you. Of course, do not lose sight of sales because you have to survive.
If you are already established and with a more or less stable workflow, you can prioritize profitability, for example.
5. Make competitive advantage sustainable
Before moving on, a little note regarding maintaining your competitive edge.
In a world so interconnected and in which information is so close at hand, your successful positioning will not take long to be copied. This is so, it has happened to all of us.
As soon as you have a competitive advantage that works, competitors will appear who will learn and try to exploit it, and even others who will not have it or know how to put it into practice but who will sell it anyway.
Having a sustainable strategy over time is really complicated with how fast everything is going today.
There are certain barriers to entry for competitors that can be established, difficult in a sector like ours.
The best barrier to avoid being copied is offering the best service and having a huge differentiation. Constantly. This requires adapting each day to the market and customer needs, and above all always having an eye on innovation.
When your competitors reach the point where your competitive advantage is, you will already be two steps further.
Business model of the architect
It is time to specify the strategic phase that you have studied and transform it into daily actions of your activity that ensure that you are going to put it into practice correctly.
Anything you do, from communication policy to hiring people, alliances, etc., must be correctly aligned with the strategy.
If not, you will be selling something that you cannot offer and you will not be able to function effectively. Your customers will not be satisfied and you will have management problems.
Example: if your value proposition is based on the speed to do projects and you do not have enough means or efficiency to fulfill it, you will have a big problem.
A business model is used above all to study the basic components of the functional areas of your company, design them, and test that they are well aligned with the strategy.
You can do this with a simple and flexible tool, the Business Model Canvas, which allows you a sufficient level of depth by simply filling in a sheet.
In addition, it also gives you the ease of change and flexibility necessary to update your model over time. As we said, we move in very changing environments and it is necessary to be constantly adapting (or getting ahead of) the market.
For example, we had the case of a study in which the founder was beginning to attract many clients who trusted him for a certain type of author architecture.
We changed the business model, we strengthened the personal brand of this architect with a personal branding plan and we achieved a good mix between his professional brand and the model of the study. And many clients.
Before seeing the Canvas, some observations regarding parts of the model that are peculiar in the world of architecture.
1. Architectural services
When we talk about architecture services we know what we are talking about, but many times people do not.
You may find it shocking, but I have found many cases in which the client does not know very well what architects do. He knows that he needs us to sign something (projects?), But he is not very clear about what we can contribute or the process of our work.
It is even possible that you confuse a study with other companies related to architecture or construction professionals, such as promoters or construction companies.
It is one of the problems that we mentioned that architects have: society does not understand the value we bring to it.
I tell you this because it is very important to take into account a couple of guidelines when establishing the services you are going to offer:
- Design them. Projects and works, yes, but I recommend that you think carefully about each step and that everything fits with your business model. How far will you go? What are you going to take care of? How? Define your services from the customer’s point of view.
- Communicate them. Explain to them step by step in words that they can understand, and I am not just referring to the person with whom you already have a contract, also in your commercial work. If they know what they are going to get, they are more likely to buy from you.
2. Architect’s fees
This is a sticking point that must be carefully resolved.
Good service costs money. Construction professionals have committed suicide in this regard, as I commented in Competing for price in architecture.
The only way to try to compete by lowering prices to where we have done (low cost model) is to lower our costs in the same proportion. And that, until now, has been impossible.
We do not have the power to negotiate with our suppliers, we do not have tools that appreciably improve our effectiveness, we do not have financial capacity, nor can we take advantage of economies of scale …
In short, we can polish our costs a bit but not to the point of doing projects and work management for single-family homes at $3,000.
What is the alternative? What we have been showing repeatedly so far, differentiate. Have a proposal so attractive and different that our clients do not hire us for being cheap. For that we have been doing all this strategic study.
This will allow us to set fees more in line with reality and with the projects.
3. Channels in marketing for architects
There are many channels through which we can reach potential clients for our professional activity.
Traditionally, construction technicians have relied on word of mouth and in some cases on maintaining a more or less careful network of contacts. It may also be trying to appear in publications (which only other architects read) or moving around in academic circles.
We have ruled out other possibilities. Not only advertising, prohibited by collegiate statutes until the day before yesterday, but more direct commercial actions (sellers), alliances and events.
Since their appearance, we have not known how to use them well and we have reproduced more or less the same thing that we did in the offline world. Our websites, for example, have been more aimed at other architects than potential clients.
You need to open your mind and try to use the channels that are most effective for you, even if they are not the usual ones. Marketing for architects must be enriched, and one way is the use of new channels.
We will see it in more detail in the communication section.
4. The architect’s business model
Now, we are going to see the Business Model Canvas. It looks like this.
We architects like it so much because it is very visual, simple, flexible and holistic.
Be careful, that apparent simplicity does not confuse you: filling in the nine boxes of the Canvas implies reflections, it is not a simple procedure.
It is not just about putting things together, you have to think about how you are going to carry them out and what they entail. And above all, check if all the boxes are aligned with your strategy.
In it I explain what each of the boxes comprises and what makes the Canvas.
Once you have it complete, you have a panoramic view of your business and a guide for each of its functional areas. I recommend you put it in a visible place and check it from time to time.
It is important to update it. Over time, the market will give you answers about what works best for you and what doesn’t. Go modifying the Canvas on it and modulating your professional project to adapt.
What’s more, maybe your own innovation process will give you some clues on how to improve certain things. Take advantage of the simplicity and flexibility of this tool to ask yourself different scenarios.
Architect’s communication plan
So far, the most sensible and analytical part of the whole process.
I will never repeat enough how necessary it is, so please do not jump directly to point 5 if you have not done the reflection that corresponds to 2, 3 and 4. A communication plan for architects is only part of a plan of marketing for architects.
I know that the strategic phase is not so fun, but it is essential, and it is the mistake that I find in most of my clients: its absence.
Once you have it, we are going to see how you make yourself known to your potential customers, how you impact them, how they begin to decide for you among other competitors and how you can close the sale.
We will start by communicating in the most effective way possible.
Everything we have studied we must turn into a clear and resounding message, choose the appropriate channels to reach that market segment we are targeting and provoke different points of contact with the components of the segment.
Design the communication strategy. Make ourselves visible, do it in the right way, reach potential customers so they can evaluate us and get them to choose us.
1. Techniques to achieve visibility as an architect
Getting visibility as an architect is not easy.
Our clients are not usually recurring (they order us a single house in their entire life and forget us, for example) and we do not belong to the star system (except for a few).
However, there are actions that you can take to show yourself in front of the people or institutions that interest you: your ideal clients.
You can use those or others that come to mind. The key is to be clear about some concepts:
- That they are effective in reaching your ideal customer. The more sniper you are, the better, so you should go where you can find your market segment.
- That they have a reasonable return, since you are going to spend time and resources carrying them out. Investing in a certain type of advertising, for example, is hardly justifiable in many cases.
- That allow you to show your proposition correctly. For example, if the best way to communicate it requires highly visual media, choose channels that enhance them.
Try to also differentiate yourself in the way you communicate. People are very saturated with receiving thousands of messages throughout the day, and only those that are different are perceived. Whatever the channel, don’t communicate like the big crowd.
You can try several ways to become visible, observe the results and choose the ones that give you the best result. Remember to always keep a balance, since you will not be able to put them all in motion, so you will have to prioritize.
2. The architecture web
This is an element of your communication system that is essential in practically all cases.
The design of your website depends a lot on your proposal, who you are addressing, what you sell, how you want to convey it.
I tell you some things in my post how to design your architecture website.
But apart from the information that you can read in it, I cannot fail to highlight some points that I will repeat ad nauseam as many times as necessary:
- Your website should be directed to your potential client, not to other architects. Even if it is not so conceptual, it will give you better results. You can make a cool and commercial website at the same time.
- The clarity of your proposal and the simplicity of use are essential. The person who enters your website must identify at first glance what you sell, to whom and how you differ.
- Transmit your personality and the culture of your company. Take advantage of them to differentiate yourself.
- Having an architecture blog opens up very appreciable dynamic communication possibilities. Don’t discount it, even if it takes time to feed.
- Do not despise email as a channel of communication with your potential customers.
And I could tell you about a thousand other things. SEO, conversion funnels, user experience …
But first things first. Your website is a showcase open 24 hours a day around the world, and it must always be dedicated to making your potential clients value your proposal and buy it.
The digital marketing strategies are varied, but almost all pivot about your website. Your digital identity is based on it, and it is unthinkable not to have it well worked out in the 21st century and the times of the internet.
For example, on LinkedIn it will be very easy for you to find your clients by their profession. If you go to hospital maintenance managers, there you have them. There are groups on Facebook, lots of interaction on Twitter, images on Instagram and Pinterest…
On the other hand, the content consumed in video on the internet grows exponentially while the written or in static images decreases.
Take this into account to think about where you want to be. Networks that allow you to interact with your potential customers and use the video format will be valuable, for example YouTube.
I tell you a little more about all this and how to do it in the architect on social networks.
Closing of sales in architecture
And we come to a dreaded moment.
When I talk about closing sales to some of my clients, I can see the anxiety growing in them about whether we are going to pressure someone or tease them.
The single word “sell” generates misgivings.
Nothing is further from the truth, you can be very honest and close sales so that our business works, our clients are satisfied and we can continue to make good architecture.
Closing the order is especially difficult in our sector. We sell expensive services, very important to people (people normally build their services for life), and many times they do not know what we are going to contribute.
If you have followed the steps in this guide, the latter will not happen to you, but closing the sale still costs.
In architecture services it is usually a process with long times. Surely it has ever happened to you that of spending months making proposals and that the client does not decide (or worse, that in the end they go to another architect).
Reducing all that time to close the sale is the first objective, but also to increase the number of yeses.
There are many techniques that you can use in addition to what is mentioned in the post, some more aggressive and others less, all based on listening to the client a lot. You choose where you want to be.
The render architecture has proven to be a powerful tool that helps in closing sales. Consider it.
The important thing is that you internalize that if what you sell is honest, there is nothing wrong with striving to get the customer. And you will have to do it, because if not, it will most likely fly. This goes beyond marketing for architects but is necessary in your business process.
Building customer loyalty and building brand ambassadors
Well, it looks like we’ve reached the end, but no
With the closing of the sale our commercial process does not end, because now comes a difficult part: achieving customer satisfaction. This is also part of marketing for architects.
And why is this important from a business point of view? Well, because word of mouth is a fundamental channel for us architecture professionals, and a satisfied client can generate others .
What’s more, a dissatisfied customer can hurt us. If he is happy he will discuss it with some people. If he is unhappy, he will tell three times as many people.
All this depends on the value perceived by the client in relation to the cost incurred when hiring you.
So you really have to work hard to put all the elements of your value proposition into action, provide great service, and make everyone very happy.
Not only that, it is also important that you take care of the relationship with your customer during the post-sale period and even beyond. A well resolved incident will earn you many points.
On the other hand, it is incredible how easily your customers can forget you. Maybe a neighbor asks them for advice to make their home and they don’t remember you, even after being happy with you a couple of years before.
Make sure that doesn’t happen. Remind them that you exist and take a genuine interest in how the work you did is doing.
Keep adapting to the architecture market constantly
And just a few words about system maintenance.
As I have said repeatedly in this text, everything changes quickly. The market moves, new needs arise, others disappear, new competitors arrive, technology changes…
What used to be a great added value becomes something standard that everyone offers, and suddenly the jobs do not arrive and you do not know why.
It is essential to listen to the market. Even if everything is going well for you, you must be permanently with your ears pricked to review your proposal.
Not only that, you must also innovate. In the day to day, as something normal. Ask yourself what you can do to improve things. Collect market inputs and interpret them. Be aware of where new opportunities arise and see if you can take advantage of them.
It is uncomfortable to think about it, but if you are not in constant motion your proposal can be out of date in a very short time.