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Actionable growth hacks to help architects improve their sales, marketing, and social media skills.
Alex: I sent out my first
proposal, which was like a bit of
a victory under the studio's name.
Speaker: That's Alexander Buckridge, an
architect based in NYC, in the process
of starting his own architecture firm.
And spoiler alert, he
did not win the project.
But that's okay.
Because you're going to hear
what Alexander learned after
sending out his first proposal.
Alex: I will say a few things that
I think were a bit of an issue was
Speaker: Plus exactly what I
recommend he does to avoid the
same mistakes in the future.
Then we talk about how to use
rejections as growth opportunities.
Alex: I think it's just big thing that
I'm learning and getting more comfortable.
And I think all of us
struggle with is ultimately
Speaker: And we end with a tactic
that makes your architecture
fees much more attractive.
Alex: and would that be in the
proposal or is that something you
would have a conversation about
before and saying we agree on this,
Speaker: Hey, I'm Tyler
Sumla, founder of Growthetect.
After nearly a decade in architecture,
I shifted my focus to helping
architects grow their business.
since then, I've spent the last few years
helping architects just like you improve
their sales, marketing, and business
development through my free newsletter
read by thousands of architects each week.
but I wanted to take it a step further.
That's why I started this podcast.
It's not your typical interview series.
actually for the whole first season of the
growth attack podcast, all 10 episodes,
I'm sharing exclusive recordings of my
consultations with Alexander Buckridge, As
he embarks on the journey of launching his
own firm and landing his first clients.
so tune in to learn exactly how to
tackle the real challenges that every
architect faces when starting out.
And make sure you subscribe
so you don't miss anything.
Speaker 2: But before we begin, a
huge thanks to our sponsor, GELT.
Discover how GELT can help to
manage and optimize taxes for
you, your firm, and your partners.
visit joinGELT.
com slash growthetect to learn more.
And now, here's the show.
Tyler: so last time we chatted,
Alex: hmm.
Tyler: recorded, but we've gone back
and forth and I had suggested, you
know, a few different things, but
one of them that I had suggested.
was sending out warm emails
past clients and colleagues
and different things.
and a warm email for people that
don't know is essentially just,
it's an email to someone that you
already have a connection with.
And all that you're doing is just letting
them know that you've started something
exciting and wondering if they happen to
know anyone that you could help, right?
And so it's really simple.
It's just, reaching out and
saying, Hey, hope all is well.
just wanted to let you know that
I've decided to start, my own studio.
I'm going to be focusing
on this type of work.
Do you happen to know anyone
that might be interested?
You're not asking them, for their work.
you're essentially asking them to
dip into their network and say,
Alex: hmm.
Tyler: happen to know anyone?
Have you heard of anything, that
might be useful for me to talk to?
Alex: Yeah.
Tyler: credit, after I mentioned this
to you, with very little guidance, you
like messaged me like 20 minutes later
and you were like, Hey, I just sent 20
emails and I already got one response.
Okay.
Alex: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I, yeah, I sent out the emails.
I having known of, eventually I
would get out of the practice.
I had an idea of who that 20 people
would be from what you mentioned.
I listed them out and I
drafted a short email.
Like you said, you don't
want it to be too long.
you just want it to be to the point,
friendly, warm, and that's what I did.
And I got a couple of yay, great,
like super excited for you.
and, and then there was one where it
was like, it's funny, you email me,
I've just purchased this property and
I'm looking for someone to do this.
Now this was in Paris.
So, you know, it was through
my network there, which I've had going on.
And so I followed up and we had
a couple of back and forths on
WhatsApp and yeah, it was me then
navigating, is this a real opportunity?
Is
this someone who's looking to get
a price to, debate against others?
And so there was a bit of that going on.
Uh, what I wanted to do was I wanted
to just get on a call with the guy
and just get a really understanding
of it rather than it just all
being text and back and forth.
So I jumped on a call and he mentioned
like high level what's going on.
it was like a two, three bed,
near the Arc de Triomphe.
I knew roughly the district,
what was going on there.
was an interior renovation, residential
and, just a little bit about what
his desires are, what he sees.
So I was just trying to
like get a picture of one.
Him and I knew him from
a previous project, but
again, where is he at in life now?
It's been five years since we talked.
and so after that conversation,
I think the initial one, he just
requested a proposal directly.
which, I was like, okay, no, no worries.
I need to do a bit of ground
market research on what
was going on in Paris fees.
I've contracted people.
I know in terms of contractors,
Architects of records there
I would need to join and link
Tyler: Mm hmm.
Alex: So I did a bit of research and
I the way I wanted to approach it
was I wanted to just have a two way
conversation of course, and just like
share thoughts, share what I'm seeing
and what I'm, where this is going.
And I think.
next thing I wanted to do was just jump
on a call and just share like a rough
idea of where this proposal is heading,
but, didn't seem to be it was just like,
get the proposal to me kind of thing.
So I was going through a bit of a
situation there because, with what I'm
learning on a separate course that I'm
doing, there's a lot you need to identify
before ever sending the proposal out.
it's like, you know, alignment on a lot of
things that ultimately the proposal should
be sent out as like a final engagement.
we're certain on this.
So I had this in the back of my mind
going on, but at the same time, the guy
just wanted this thing and he was either
going to, he went radio silent and when
I did, he didn't want to get on the call.
So I just sent it out.
I knew this was a 50, 50 kind of thing.
he got back and eventually said that, and
he didn't want to get on the call, which
was a bit of a red flag, but he just said
that, the fees were too high and that,
he would want someone on the ground, And
for me, I I wouldn't have changed, much.
I would have, I will say a few things
that I think were a bit of an issue
was I should have identified straight
off the bat what figure he was
comfortable with sharing around what
he was willing for a design fee here.
because I was estimating it off the
market and what was going on there.
And I should have identified
a rage off the bat.
I think that's important in the learning.
just because as it was going through, I
think he just wanted to see what was going
to charge basically for the services.
so anyway, look, ultimately
that didn't work out.
Some stuff were learned.
I sent out my first proposal,
which was like a bit of a
victory under the studio's name.
you know, when you just get a sense,
there's something or you're, you feel
like this client might be dragging
you along a little bit and not
being sincere about the situation.
I definitely felt a bit of that as well.
So, wasn't disappointed
not to get it because
I don't think the figure itself was
actually a good number for me to
get involved for 12 to 18 months.
Tyler: Yeah.
Let's pause on that.
so that's great.
you kind of went through
the first process.
off, you were able to create
a proposal, send it off.
there were already, it seems like,
some red flags emerging in terms of,
possibilities that maybe this client
wouldn't be a great client anyways.
but good for you to continue pushing it.
So let's talk about some of those
challenges that came up and what
you can do differently next time.
so it was good, you started
the conversation on WhatsApp
and then you eventually moved
to a meeting, which was great.
I do have questions about, like,
what was exactly discussed in that
meeting or maybe the flow of it.
I know that you mentioned.
And, you got an understanding of what
his desires were, what things were going.
It sounds like you guys didn't talk
about, budget or investment at all.
is that true?
Alex: Yeah, I think so.
I think like there was bit of stuff
shared around how he had spent so much
buying this apartment and he wouldn't
share the figure, but it was like that
he wants to do this, which is pretty
classic on as little as possible,
which is just not realistic, So
yeah, that and also the stakeholders.
So there was him involved and
then there was his girlfriend.
I was trying to establish who was
the driving seat, let's say, to
understand who was making the decisions.
he identified it was him but also
she would have to be involved.
So anyway, that's why I wanted
to get on the call with both
of them, just to understand,
Tyler: Yeah, that makes sense.
There's two recommendations
I would have to for one.
I never, think that an architect
should ask what's your budget.
I think that's the worst question.
I think that's the worst question
Alex: Yeah, because
Tyler: can ask because it assumes that
they're aware of the market, which they
never are, and assumes that they know what
they want, which they never do, right?
These things all change after you
help to educate them on how this
process actually works or what things
are actually involved in it, right?
But you can get an idea by just
saying, have you considered
how much this will cost?
Is a good question, right?
that's like a soft question in
total, and then maybe you're
getting an understanding of at least
what they're thinking globally.
It might not be spec
Alex: mean fees Yeah
Tyler: yep.
Have you considered how
much this would cost?
have you thought about how much you
want to invest into this project?
Another great question, because
that's a, invest is a word,
because that is what they're doing.
They're making an investment,
whether that's, they're thinking
about financial gains on the other
side because he's going to flip it.
that's because they're thinking
about, investing into a new
vacation home or whatever that
experience is going to be, right?
They're making an investment.
And then the other one that I think
would, from what you're telling
me, I think this is probably the
way that I would have leaned.
When you're getting into clients and
maybe it's a smaller project, you
become less certain maybe throughout
that conversation and whether
this is the right client for you.
Then you can be really upfront and just
say, generally our fees for this type of
project will range between, and 100, 000.
are you comfortable with that?
And so you just give them a range
towards the end of that conversation.
you very carefully understand,
how they're responding to that,
Because if they would have responded
and been like, Oh no, that's.
That's way more than what I'm thinking.
then at least, you haven't wasted
any time because you've understood
their market a little bit better.
You've gotten to go through the process
of, running a discovery meeting and
do this, which is so important, right?
For you to continue to practice this.
but at least you don't then
waste any time after this call.
I think that's really helpful for,
again, for smaller fee projects, or
if you find yourself in a conversation
where you're like, you're not
entirely sure if they're committed.
based on the way that the
conversation is going.
important for you to know, you want
to be the one that's controlling
that pace of information, right?
And so it sounded even from the way
that you were describing it, right?
It was like you felt like,
he was waiting on you.
He was forcing you.
he was controlling the
timeline almost controlling
Alex: thought about not setting
the proposal to be honest with you.
I guess I
just don't have that confidence
yet to say, look, feel like this
might be the right job for me.
at the end of the day, I the position I'm
in right now, I had to make a punt, right?
I think otherwise I would have been
like, You know what, I'm
getting a sense from my gut from
just reading this right now.
This probably doesn't make sense.
And honestly, once I calculate the
figures as well, I should have been like,
this is going to break even, if even,
Tyler: if I was meeting with a client
like that, where I was like, I'm actually
not totally sure if there's gonna be
a good fit, and based on the way that
they're communicating with me, I'm pretty
confident that changes are going to happen
along the way, and this is going to slow
down the process, I would increase my fee.
it's like that pain in the ass fee, right?
it's like
Alex: Oh, absolutely.
Tyler: need to include that, if you're
getting that sense for that client.
I do think it's ultimately good
that you ended up sending the
proposal in the first place.
Now you already, I think you
already know this because you've
been following the newsletter
for a long time and things, but.
Alex: Two years.
Tyler: never send a proposal via email.
You were already do,
you already knew this,
Alex: I thought, yeah, exactly.
Like I want to do it.
Tyler: Yeah.
You want to walk them through that
process and the, and the fact that
he wasn't going to jump on a call is
maybe the So let's talk about two ways
to address that part, the first issue.
is something that's so important in
that first call that you have with
them that so often gets overlooked,
and that is the next steps, you
did part of it, where he was like,
okay, I'm ready for a proposal now.
Ideally, what happens at the
end of that conversation is you
get to confirm exactly kind of
everything that you've heard, right?
it starts winding down, you get to
ask a question like, we've talked
about a lot today, is there anything
else you think I should know?
that's a great kind of wind down
question because maybe you've been asking
questions, they've been asking questions,
there's been a little bit of back and
forth, and you're able to capture anything
that might be top of mind for them,
that they didn't get to talk about yet.
And then you want to reiterate
everything that you heard.
it sounds to me like your primary
challenges are X, Y, and Z.
And you want.
These outcomes right you want this exact
outcome from working with me This is the
lifestyle that you want to achieve or
this is the space that you want You know,
this is the vision that you have for the
project Does that sound right to you?
you want to confirm with them that you
understood everything correctly And
then once you hear that you get to say
something like great, you know As you
already know, I have a lot of experience
helping a lot of clients do this
Alex: Yeah.
Tyler: some time aside
for, next Thursday at 2 p.
m.
Where I'll walk you through, exactly
how I've done this for other clients
and how I can do it for you too.
Does that work for you?
and so
Alex: Yeah.
Tyler: that next meeting
while you're on that call.
Alex: Sales 101.
Tyler: yeah,
Alex: I know you're right.
Tyler: there's not a next,
step, then it's not gonna
Alex: No, you're yeah.
Yeah, Absolutely.
Tyler: many deals are lost.
So, so many opportunities are
lost with that step alone.
With that step alone.
Because this, that's
exactly what happened.
If it's not on the calendar, if it's
not scheduled, it's not going to happen.
Alex: if this person was reluctant to
committing to that, which I was getting a
sense of it through channels of that, or
not really like just send me the proposal,
is that's just a straight up red flag.
Is it like, look, Maybe this isn't the
right thing or what's your thoughts there?
Like I
guess there's a bit more crow
barring required and like
getting in there with your
Tyler: sales is not, you know, you never
want to be, it's not about being pushy.
It's not about forcing something where it
shouldn't be.
to your point, you're listening,
you're getting a sense.
Maybe this isn't right.
maybe this isn't the feeling.
It's really good to lean on
policy, in that sense, right?
it's basically a way of
saying no to a client without
actually saying the words no.
So he's saying, no I can't
that, just send me the email.
well, in doing hundreds of these works
for other clients, it's definitely
my policy at this point that I need
to sit down and walk you through
that process to make sure that I'm
understanding everything correctly.
and if you're unable to do that,
then it's just not something that
makes sense for us moving forward.
It's so tough in that moment, but
you'll get better at it as you get
more clients and you feel like you
have a little bit more flexibility to
actually say yes or no in, in the moment.
but you almost do have to be
confident with the idea that every
single person that you're talking to
isn't going to be a client, right?
Your win right at the
beginning, it might be like 25%.
and that's both because you
don't know exactly what types of
projects you're going to be doing.
You're talking to a lot
of different people.
You haven't quite figured out, like, your
positioning and your niche yet, right?
you're not going to win most
of the conversations that
you're having right now.
Most of the proposals.
And that's okay, because you're going
to be learning exactly what people need.
And what's important is that you're
having those conversations to
understand why they didn't work.
So, in this case, this guy wasn't
going to jump on a call anyways.
He said it was too expensive.
If he was on the call and he said it in
that moment, then it could be like, Oh,
can you tell me what you mean by that?
what's expensive to you?
Alex: you don't get into part of
being able to discuss services, right?
And potential different types
of services, which could adapt
to the fee he was thinking.
And I had that in my mind,
but I'm still very green with
implementing and understanding this.
Tyler: Yep.
exactly right, because, It's an
education to the client, right?
It sounds like you've
worked with them before.
And so they've, they have some
familiarity maybe with these projects,
but no client is going to have the
same experience that you do, right?
you know, what is actually involved in
kind of every single process and best
case scenario with a client is that maybe
they've done this like a couple of times.
Alex: Mhmm.
Tyler: you that's done it a hundred times.
Yeah, I think a lot of that proposal
process is educating and it's also
Alex: It is.
Tyler: like when you're meeting with
them, you're saying, hey, when we
last chatted, you mentioned that this
is something that you want to do.
This is how we would do that, right?
When we last chatted, you mentioned
that you were concerned about this.
this is how we address
that in the process.
You're almost handling the objections
as you present the proposal.
Alex: Mhmm.
Tyler: good exercise to do after
these discovery calls or before
you're going to present the proposal.
I used to like to do it right after
the first call, because that's
when everything was top of mind.
but you're writing down the things
like, okay, what is this client's
top priority with this project?
from that conversation.
What objections am I already anticipating?
it sounds like you already had
a really good sense for this.
there's probably going to be an
objection on price, possibly.
Maybe there was going to be
an objection on timeline.
And maybe there was going to be
an objection on the fact that
you're based in NYC and he's
Alex: Mhmm.
Tyler: Right, and so, knowing and
thinking through those ahead of
time gives you the time and space.
To talk through, to basically
overcome those objections while you're
presenting the proposal, rather than
through the entire proposal process
and then them, grilling you, almost,
with these objections, it's right,
then when, while you're presenting it,
you're saying, here's the four different
moments where I'm actually going to
fly into Paris, I'll, be walking this
through with you, I'm going to be meeting
with them, so I have my, My partner,
Alex: Yeah.
Tyler: ground there, that's going to
be there to address any questions.
And so you're able to go into that
proposal really well prepared, right?
And so I think that's just a
great exercise to moving forward,
Alex: Yeah, no, it
Tyler: things.
Alex: I felt that, I didn't get a
chance to present to them, even to,
even from a practicing standpoint,
to go through that and take them
through and diminish or lessen
those concerns or objections.
And I thought that just would have
been a good experience for me to do,
because, ultimately, in these scenarios,
I feel like, you move from wanting
to create beautiful buildings, which
you still want to do in interiors to.
chasing projects and going on that
journey of chasing these clients.
And, it's also some kind of a game,
you're going through various different
stages, you're doing different things and.
There's some level of enjoyment
in that, you know, in terms of
conversations that you're having and
the adaptions you're making to these
different individuals or businesses.
And, then all of a sudden
you get an email, game over.
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Tyler: I can tell you right now
that the architecture industry
doesn't talk about this enough,
but in general, people probably
don't mention this enough anyways.
It's easy to look at successful
businesses or something and think
that, and assume that, oh, things
are really easy for them, right?
they're getting, most of the clients
that are coming to them, these different
things, they're probably winning a lot
and that's not the case at all, right?
Actually, those successful businesses
are probably just pursuing four,
four times more clients than you are.
Alex: yeah,
I'm more of it.
yeah,
Tyler: they're spending way more time
having conversations and really filling
their pipeline, in order to do that, and
they're comfortable with the fact that
they're going to be hearing no a lot.
And that's something, your point,
you really wanted to kind of just
like run through that process and
Alex: yeah,
Tyler: Because you, it's true, like you're
going to hear no a lot, especially if
you're doing business development right.
And that sounds counterintuitive.
but it's true.
It's such an important part
of the process that you're
getting these practice steps in.
You're being told no, and then
you're understanding why you're being
told no, so that you can then adapt
that strategy again moving forward.
Alex: And like to what you said there as
well, I think it's just big thing that
I'm learning and getting more comfortable.
And I think all of us struggle
with is ultimately rejection.
And in business, it's a daily occurrence.
And so for me, I'm just getting more
uncomfortable with waking up and
hitting the city and understanding I'm
going to hear no a lot, I'm going to
hear that this is not going to happen.
I'm going to hear that you're not
the right fit, blah, blah, blah.
But again, you just got to push
through and actually think about
this is part of the process,
Tyler: that's exactly right.
It's a mindset shift
there's just not a person in the
world that enjoys hearing no, every
single sales trainer or something is
going to say things like, no's are
good, like you should chase no's.
Actually, I wrote a
newsletter about chasing no's.
which I can link to, I can link to in
the show notes too, but the whole idea
is that will hear no a lot and no's
really are learning opportunities.
So you have to reframe it in your mind.
That's, it's literally the only
way to get through it, right?
It's never going to be comfortable.
It's never going to be something that
you necessarily enjoy hearing, if you
reframe it in your mind as a learning
opportunity, And try to turn every
single no into at least one thing, right?
What is the one thing that I learned
from that I can do better next time?
Alex: And even in any of these, again,
as you speak to larger businesses or
well established ones that you would
imagine with even what I've been in,
we're still looking at a conversion
rate, whether it's RFPs or competitions
or, you know, of, you know, it could
be 20 to one, and so even if you are at
the, let's say, top of your profession,
you're still obviously up against it.
Right.
It's.
that's a big learning curve,
about navigating all that
and figuring it out.
Tyler: Let's talk about, the
other client that you went after.
Alex: so, you know, since I've kind
of launched, well, I haven't launched,
that's the end of the month, but.
Since I've kind of just initially
spread word that I'm out
establishing my, my, my own studio.
some people have reached out and, one
company in Miami, who reached out to
me, wanted to initially just say, Hey,
we'd like to, if you need any help
with what you're doing, we're more than
happy to give you some consultation.
I, I I thought that
Tyler: Oh, very cool.
Alex: really nice of them and,
really appreciate it, we did
a newsletter together, that
was about it, nothing major.
Anyway, after all that stuff, they
reached out while I was in Ireland
and they were like, hey, we've got
a big, Brand kind of coming in.
We're doing a proposal that's
gone quite far now ourselves.
We're going to need a spatial
designer like yourself to
come in and help us with that.
Would you be interested in at first?
And I got on a call with 2 partners
and I just talked through it.
And I just understood a bit more about
what the situation was, and it was
kind of a consultancy thing.
It was probably 20 hours
a week for 3 months.
And so I just sat with it for a minute.
I was like, yeah, okay.
You know, it's probably going to
be in the retail space, probably
like something happening in Miami
again, with some luxury brands.
So there was no definition on a
clarity of there a little bit.
But I just sat down and ran some
numbers and I said to myself, I'm
going to put my X amount of, time into
it in terms of like, let's say the
20 hours, put an hourly figure on it.
And then I just formatted that very
simply in one email and said, this is
what I'm doing, you know,
and they integrated that
into their bigger proposal.
was a good exercise for me to go
through in terms of a different
approach to generating, getting my
name out there, working with others,
getting my hands on projects.
And with that model, it was more
like a three months, a set figure
roughly of what that would be.
And also exploring, working with
other, like branding, graphic
design individuals and all that.
And in Miami, in terms of another network.
So they got back to me this week and said,
unfortunately, that didn't go through.
But we could be having a very
different conversation right now
that I'm actually doing that.
Tyler: Just to clarify, it
wasn't your proposal that they
Alex: no.
So It
was more.
Tyler: it to what they were proposing,
Alex: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
it was a much lighter kind of like you we
need to bring in Alexander of Oak Ridge
to, help with us facilitate if this.
This brand experience that
they're creating becomes spatial,
which is an interesting point for me
because there's stuff like that I do,
you know, and I have done previously
as translating these, brand
experiences into, into architecture,
I'm having a follow call with them
to explore other avenues about that.
again, that's definitely more
building a relationship that I
feel like, where they're, trying
to support one another and whatnot.
Tyler: Yeah, that's awesome.
20is that an agreement that you came to
on the call with them, or did that happen
Alex: I was doing a lot of understanding
and listening on that call because
I wasn't defined as exactly what
my role would be, but they knew
they'd need someone like me in
them, in there to support, so like
the scale of it was unclear,
so with all the uncertainty, we
had to add some caveats around.
Hey, look, if this evolves into a built
project, my thing would have to change.
Like we were anticipating potentially a
pop up or, a couple of pieces of millwork.
That's very different to a finished store
that would be there for permanently.
So I
just said, look, I can only
work with so much here.
So what I'll do is I'll give you this.
We're going to add in these caveats
around if it changes to any kind of thing.
I think it was just to get a, an overall
figure out to that person.
I think that was more of what it was.
So it was hard because obviously when
it's not that defined, I was like, it's
hard for me to understand, like, and
I also don't want to commit to more
than half my week on something because
I've got to work on the business.
Tyler: I think here's whatwhat
you did really well then there.
One is that, in those situations where
you're really unsure, you're on exactly
how that process is going to play out.
You chose an hourly rate, which a
lot of people won't promote, right?
They're gonna say, oh,
I'd rather do fixed fee.
Fixed fee is better if you know
exactly what this project is going
to be, and you've done it before, and
you can confidently say, this is how
much work this is going to take me.
That's where fixed fee works best.
Hourly fee works really well if it's a
project that you know you want to do, but
you're unsure of exactly how long it's
going to take, and maybe the client that
you're working for isn't totally sure how
that process is going to work out either.
instead you're saying, hey, I can
commit 20 hours a week at this rate,
and I think that was really smart.
so I think in situations like that,
where there's so many unknowns,
It can also just be helpful to
offer up like different packages,
almost like a tiered pricing plan,
Where you offer three things to them
and let them choose the one that's right
for the project that they're doing.
for example, you could have said, I
can do 10 hours a week at 300 an hour.
I can do 20 hours a week at 250 an hour.
Or, I can do it for 50, 000 for the
next three months as a fixed fee, and
I'll do these services for you, right?
And you let them choose.
You let them choose the
one that's right for them.
And I think that, that can also be good
in those situations too, because you're
giving them a little bit of authority
tiered pricing is great because instead of
people choosing whether or not they want
to work with you, Which is generally what
happens when you give someone one option.
They're making a decision.
do I want to work with them?
Yes or no?
When you give them tiered pricing, they're
choosing how to work with you, right?
you're already assuming that
they're going to work with you.
And now instead of them making
the decision of, do I want
to work with this person?
It's how do I want to
work with this person?
Which one is right for me?
Is A, B, or C?
Alex: It's a slice of
Alex at A, a slice of
Tyler: Yes, Yes, exactly.
Alex: I think that kind of plays back
to also the other proposal that I
never got to present in the end in
terms of, obviously I'd set a figure
of, let's say 35K all in and, had
maybe if there was a tiering system.
Is that something you would recommend
as an approach in general or, and
would that be in the proposal or
is that something you would have a
conversation about before and saying
we agree on this, tier, let's say.
Yeah.
Tyler: I think it's something that can
dramatically impact both your win rate
and like your revenue, As a business.
And I think it is, if it's something
that you want to do, I think it's a good
thing to do in every single proposal.
Alex: Yeah.
Tyler: do tiered pricing, Cause
it's almost, it's like when
you're looking for a car, right.
Do you want, base.
have any of the extra trim to it.
Do you want like that mid level
trim, or do you want the luxury trim?
and I think, it's something that
people are very familiar with.
And it gives them, again, it gives
them authority in the process to say,
this is actually the type of experience
that I want in working with you.
Alex: And
Tyler: with the first client, if we go
back there, it's can give you, the base
level plan might not have included, It's
not like you're not flying to Paris.
You're doing this as cheaply as possible.
The person on the ground is maybe
doing the majority of the work.
They're not getting a ton of,
renderings or things of what this
space is going to look like before.
then you have a mid tier plan
where you have, maybe there's more
deadlines, more milestones in there.
Some more check ins.
You're able to provide much more
upfront in terms of a vision of
exactly what they're going to see,
renderings and different things.
You'll spend time doing that.
then you have the luxury package
I'm there once a month to
walk you through this process.
I'm going to give you, you know,
both and exterior renderings.
I'll be able to provide videos.
Maybe there's even a VR,
experience that they can do this.
So that they're really be
able to see everything before,
Alex: is your like
level.
Tyler: is like the pro level,
Alex: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tyler: I think what's great about tiered
pricing is that it actually doesn't like,
you know, we already know, I don't know
what you're using, like, but like, you
know, if you're using Enscape or Lumion or
Alex: Yeah.
Exactly.
Tyler: it doesn't, take
that much longer for you to
Alex: No,
Tyler: 10 renderings instead of one.
But it does absolutely
impact the client experience.
And so that's why I think it's
Alex: it does.
Tyler: consider that value that
you're offering to the client and
which value they want, like what
experience they want to have.
Alex: Yeah.
I like that.
And I that's helpful.
Tyler: good thing to include, right?
it might overcomplicate the process
early on, that's where, with the first
client, I still think it would have been
better to just, in that conversation,
this is, fees for this type of project
typically range between X and Y.
Are you comfortable with that?
Alex: yeah,
yeah,
Tyler: you know, Tiered
pricing works really well when
there's just a lot of unknowns.
Right.
You don't know exactlyso you're giving
them the opportunity to choose which
unwhich unknown is going to best fit
into the things that they already know.
Alex: yeah.
Perfect.
It's, uh, something for implementation.
All right, thanks for being a Growth
A Tech and listening in on this
consultation with Alexander Buckridge.
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