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May 31, 2024 24 mins

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Can you imagine transforming every client consultation into a surefire sales opportunity? That's exactly what you'll learn in this episode of the Designer Within Podcast with me, John McClain. We explore the essential strategies for mastering successful consultations in sales-driven businesses, especially for creative entrepreneurs. By embracing consultations as crucial sales calls, you’ll discover ten actionable steps that have driven my own business success. From setting clear legal expectations and leveraging online scheduling systems to delivering valuable insights during the meeting, this episode will empower you to turn consultations into a powerful tool for winning clients and closing deals.

Come along as we uncover the best practices for design consultations. Learn how to use comprehensive design questionnaires to extract deeper insights into your clients' preferences and aspirations, ensuring every meeting is as informative as it is effective. I share personal anecdotes on how specific questions can reveal crucial information, ensuring you understand and meet your clients' needs. Setting clear expectations, providing printed materials, and creating a structured consultation process are key takeaways that will leave a lasting positive impression and foster successful client relationships. Elevate your consultation skills and boost your business in just 20 minutes!

Download your free Interior Design Consultation Questionnaire: https://john.myflodesk.com/consultquestionnaire

 Check out MY LINK HERE for a free 30 day trial to MyDoma Studio and organize your clients and projects the easy and efficient way!
https://www.mydomastudio.com/john/ 

For all things John: www.johnmcclain.co
For more information on my online Courses & Coaching Program for Interior Designers, visit: https://designsuccessacademy.com/
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
This is a sales call.
We can label it as whatever theheck we want.
You can call it a consultation,you can call it a meet and
greet, you can call it a chitchat, you can call it whatever
you want.
My friends, it is a sales call,and until you stop trying to
make it something other than asales call, you are going to
lose the whole reason of why youwere there.

(00:20):
So remember, we are salespeopleand again I like to say selling
is serving, of course, but thisis a sales call and you are
there to win that client overand to show them why you are the
best designer, the best firmand the best team to work with
them.
Hey, y'all, you're listening tothe Designer Within Podcast,
episode number 47.

(00:40):
I'm John McClain, and welcometo the Designer Within Podcast,
the business-minded podcastcreated for creative
entrepreneurs by a creativeentrepreneur.
That's me.
I know firsthand the challenges, but also the victories that
can come with our careers, andI'm here to sip and spill the
tea with you.
It's time to dive deep withinyourself and redesign your own

(01:04):
business and your life from theinside out.
Together, we will uncoversecrets and share valuable
insights.
So prepare for a transformativeexperience, my friends, because
it's time to unleash thedesigner within.
Hi friends, welcome back toanother episode of the Designer
Within Podcast.
I'm John McClain and I'm veryhappy to have you here.

(01:26):
Today's episode is a teachingepisode, and I haven't done one
of these in a bit and I justfelt it was time to do so, and
it is actually spurred by thefact that I just did the task
that I'm going to talk to youabout today, which is a
consultation.
So yesterday I just had aconsultation with a client and

(01:47):
it reminded me of all of thethings that go into a
consultation in the preparation,during the consultation and
then, of course, after theconsultation.
And I will admit, the first fewyears of my business I was not
so great at the consultation asfar as being prepared for it.
Now, once I got in front of theclient, yes, I could win them

(02:10):
over, close the deal and move onto the project, but in the
beginning I did not have theorganization that I have now in
my business, and I wanted tosimply share with you some of
the things that I do within myown consultations that might be
helpful to you as well, andthings that I teach to students
in my programs, too.
Now, I know each one of youhandles your consultations

(02:31):
differently.
That is understandable andtotally fine, and I'm not saying
what I'm going to discuss todayshould be the bible of
consultations.
I'm just simply saying theseare tools that work for me,
these are plans that work for meand steps that work for me and
have led to many, many closuresof deals and happy clients and

(02:53):
large projects signed, so I dowant to share those with you,
and let's jump in and talk aboutsome of the things that I do to
master a successfulconsultation.
That I do to master asuccessful consultation.
Okay, first and foremost, thereis a lot of preparation that
should go into preparing for aconsultation.
It is not simply someone callsyou and then you run out to

(03:14):
their home or you do an onlineconsultation.
That is not how this works.
You need to do a lot ofbehind-the-scenes work to get
ready for that consultation, andthis can be things such as
setting time frames for yourconsultation, paperwork that you
want to take with you,deliverables, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
And we're going to talk aboutthose today, and I actually have

(03:34):
a list of 10 things that Ishare with my own students, so
I'm sharing part of my programwith you right now.
These are 10 steps that I feelwill create a successful
consultation, and then I'm goingto sort of interject some
things that I picked up onyesterday during the
consultation that I had with myown client as well.

(03:54):
So, first of all, it is soimportant to define a legal
understanding of yourconsultation, and I can just
tell you right now I am not anattorney, so you need to define
your own legal understanding.
But what I mean by this is,early on in my business, I would
just go to the consultationwithout any sort of
understanding of what the clientowed to me and what I owed to
the client as far asdeliverables, how the

(04:16):
cancellations work, if they wereunhappy with what they got at
the consultation, what were theyexpecting, etc.
So then I decided to developbasically a one paragraph
understanding of what theclients had to agree to before
they could book the consultation.
And if you don't know how Ibook my consultations, my
consultations are all booked viaan online scheduling system.

(04:37):
They book everything online,they pay before the consultation
is scheduled, they choose thedate.
It is very, very easy.
And before they can choose thedate, they actually have to
agree to the terms of theconsultation Because, as you
know, we change a lot of thingsin our businesses by learning
from what we do with boots onthe ground, right.
So this was after I went to aclient's house and we did a

(04:57):
two-hour consultation and it wasa long consultation.
I gave so many deliverables and, by the way, my consultations
are not just hi, how are youGive me a tour of your home?
It is dropping information.
It is giving them lots oftidbits that they could frankly
take and apply on their own ifthey were really listening and
wanted to take that and run withit.
But this client in particularfelt that he did not get what he

(05:20):
wanted to get out of theconsultation and wanted a refund
.
And I said, oh my gosh, Iliterally spent two plus hours
at your home and it was, firstof all, he looked like a hoarder
, the house was a mess.
Oh my gosh, I could barely seethe floor through all the things
that he had in the home.
So little did he know I wasgoing to turn down the project
anyway, but regardless, hereached out and said you know, I

(05:43):
don't think I got my money'sworth for this consultation and,
by the way, this was when I wasonly charging $200 for a
consultation.
So he wanted his 200 bucks backand he was adamant about it.
He really wanted that moneyback in his pocket and I was
just kind of flabbergasted thatsomeone would even do that,
because it was the first timethat that had happened to me and
, as I said, we change things inour businesses based upon what

(06:06):
we learn and what we havehappened to us and what occurs
in the daily operations of ourfirms.
So I decided to create anagreement that the client has to
agree to and it does work now.
So the client agrees to this.
The consultation isnon-refundable after the
consultation has occurred, andthere's lots of other things
that they have to agree towithin this.
So I want you to basicallydefine an understanding of the

(06:28):
consultation, what you're goingto deliver to the client, what
the expectations are, and thenalso if you are going to offer
refundable fees for that or not.
Just think about these thingsbefore you go in to meet with
that client.
Next, set a time frame for yourconsultations.
Don't just go into theconsultation and not have a
limitation to the time you'regoing to spend there.
If it's an hour, if it's anhour and a half if it is two

(06:50):
hours.
Please, please, please, have atime frame for your consultation
.
And here's a little tip Iactually set a timer on my phone
for 10 minutes before theconsultation ends so that I can
start wrapping up and let theclient know that we are nearing
the end of our time.
I have to go to anotherappointment and is there
anything else that we havemissed that we need to discuss?
So set a time frame for yourconsultation and let your client

(07:13):
know what that time frame is.
Next, set a price for yourconsultation.
I am a firm believer in chargingfor consultations.
I know this is a tricky areawith a lot of designers.
Some people say no, no, no,don't do it.
I say yes, yes, yes, do it,because for me it does weed out
a lot of people who should notbe hiring a designer to begin

(07:33):
with, and there are, as you know, a lot of tire kickers out
there who will waste your time,who think that we are basically
selling a commodity, that we aregoing to bring items to their
house and do a free consultationand then move on with it, and
they picked our brain.
So your time is worth something, my time is worth something and
I say charge for yourconsultations, and you should
charge more than whatever yourhourly rate is.

(07:54):
If you are charging hourly, asI said before, define what value
and services you're going toprovide.
Let them know what's going tohappen During the consultation.
I love to send out an emailbefore the consultation, and
this is again what spurred me todo this episode was our client
had to reschedule theirconsultation and so my automatic
reminders for our calendarsystem goes out automatically

(08:17):
and it has all the remindersbuilt in there.
It has all of theunderstandings, it has all of
the attachments any sort ofthings that I want to attach,
such as a menu of services or apricing guide for investments,
etc.
And that did not happen becausethis client needed to
reschedule.
So I manually typed an email tothis client and it was honestly
a great refresher for me inthings that I would now want to

(08:38):
change within my automatedsystem that I send out to
clients, and it was a very, verydetailed understanding of what
was going to happen during theconsultation, from the minute I
arrive until the minute I leave.
What is going to happen duringthe time that we're together,
what are the expectations fromthe client, and then what am I
going to give to that client aswell?
Are we going to sit down andtalk at the end?

(09:00):
Are we going to do a tour ofthe home?
When are we going to talk aboutpricing?
You know all the things thatthe client wants to know.
Put that in an email and sendthat out to them prior to
getting to the consultation.
I promise you, everyone lovesorganization and they will so,
so, so appreciate the fact thatyou were organized and they're
going to look at you and say,wow, if they're this organized

(09:22):
on a consultation, imagine howorganized this designer is going
to be on our project.
Of course, have a designquestionnaire as well.
I am going to include in thenotes section of this podcast a
free download for you.
This is the actualquestionnaire that I use on my
consultations and it will reallyallow you to understand the

(09:44):
client a lot better.
Some of these you might havealready had answered when they
filled out their form for theconsultation, but it really,
really is a great questionnairewhere you can go in depth and
find out more about what theclient likes.
The client yesterday actuallytold me that some of the
questions I was asking they'relike um, I don't know.
And then they said oh, actuallyI do do Pilates and I do have

(10:06):
certain hobbies that I do.
Because one of the questions issomething along the lines of do
you have any hobbies thatrequire a special room or
special space in your home to doso?
And they never told me about iton the tour, but when I asked
them about it during thequestionnaire portion of our
sit-down, they actually hadthings to mention to me.
It really proved to me that thequestionnaire does work and,

(10:27):
even though you might feel thatsome of the questions are
redundant, I do encourage you totake a written questionnaire
with you to the consultation andsit down with the client.
The client loves to know thatyou are taking the time once
again to find out more aboutthem and their family, how they
use their home, how they want touse their home, and it really
just gets their juices flowingtoo.

(10:48):
And another question, forinstance, that my client that my
future client had mentionedyesterday was.
I said how do you entertain?
And the husband instantly saidoh well, we don't entertain.
And then his wife said actually, I want to start bringing my
colleagues over and havecocktail parties with them.
And he said oh, you've nevermentioned that to me before and
she said, yeah, it's somethingthat I've been thinking about
and I really want to start doingthat to help myself grow within

(11:11):
my business.
And it was just a reallywonderful moment to spur
conversations not only aboutdesign, but again it showed them
that we collectively are goingto start thinking about their
home.
So get your questionnaire inthe download section of this
podcast.
In the notes section, have somedeliverables for your
consultation.
Let them know what you're goingto deliver to them.
Let them know that, if it isjust a tour, let them know that

(11:32):
you're going to deliver to them.
Let them know that if it isjust a tour, let them know that
it's a tour.
As I said, send out that emailand tell them what they are to
expect during that consultation.
For instance, again, we do notjust go out and do a handshake
and a tour of the home.
We let our clients know thatthis is a quote-unquote working
consultation where we are goingin depth on their home.
We have a questionnaire.
We are not only finding outmore about the spaces in their

(11:53):
home and how they use them andhow they want to use them, but
we are giving actionable adviceon the spot.
Clients like to know that youare giving them something for
their money when you arecharging them for that.
So come up with somedeliverables that you are going
to give that client.
Next, number seven have somebasic information on your
processes and investmentrequirements.

(12:13):
Have this with you.
I actually like to print thoseout.
I have a nice neat folder.
The folder has our logo on thefront of it, has my business
card inside of it or my team'sbusiness card, and inside of
that is investment requirements,and then I list of our general
processes that we follow.
The client yesterday was sohappy that we actually have
processes.
He said he's never seen someoneso organized within a company

(12:38):
before and he and his wife bothlove the fact that they are in
good hands with us because wehave a system in place for every
single part of their designprocess.
So know your processes.
Know at least a generalizationof that.
You don't need to go intodetail.
Don't overwhelm them.
They're still in that excitedstage, as I call it right now
during the consultation.
But let them know some littletidbits of how you are organized

(13:00):
.
Drop some little hints of howyour process works and then
definitely talk about investmentrequirements.
Let them know what yourminimums are.
Let them know what your designminimums are.
Let them know what your productminimums are.
Let them know what your productminimums are, etc.
And discuss those.
Now is the time to do that.
Also, know number eight whichphysical items you will bring

(13:21):
with you.
If you have a consultation bag,if you have things that you
always bring with you on theconsultation, have those with
you and know which items you aregoing to bring with you.
Number nine set next steps foryou and your client.
So don't just leave theresaying thank you so much, I'll
see you later.
No, before you leave thatconsultation, give them a
definitive timeframe for whenyou are going to reach back out
to them.

(13:41):
Again, it is not theirresponsibility to reach out to
you.
This is a sales call.
We can label it as whatever theheck we want.
You can call it a consultation,you can call it a meet and
greet, you can call it a chitchat, you can call it whatever
you want.
My friends, it is a sales call,and until you stop trying to
make it something other than asales call, you are going to

(14:03):
lose the whole reason of why youwere there.
So remember we are salespeopleand again I like to say selling
is serving, of course, but thisis a sales call and you are
there to win that client overand to show them why you are the
best designer, the best firmand the best team to work with
them.
So set next steps for yourclient and be specific about the

(14:25):
next steps.
Next Tuesday I'm going to haveyou a proposal, and that
proposal will be your pricingand it will talk about all of
the things that you need to knowto decide whether you want to
move forward with your project.
You don't have to go intomassive details about that.
Just let them know that theywill be getting something on
this date and what thatsomething will be.
So they need to know from youwhat is happening next.

(14:46):
And I actually follow up withan email as well.
Ours is automated, as I said.
So one day after ourconsultation, our automated
calendar system sends out anemail thanking them for the
consultation, sending them outanother PDF that we have added
on, as well as anotherdeliverable, and then it just
lets them know that we are stillfollowing up with that.
But I also like to mention itverbally when I'm there with

(15:08):
them in their home, with them intheir home, and, lastly, leave
behind some kind of tangibleinformation, some kind of
tangible piece of literature,something for that client.
Now, I have, as you guys mightknow, a coffee table book, and I
know you don't have to have acoffee table book, but I leave
my book and I sign the book forthe client.
I even flip through the bookand say, oh, here are some

(15:30):
projects that I think relate towhat you're discussing with me
today.
They love that I have the booksigned.
I leave it with them.
You don't have to do that.
But let me tell you, you couldcreate your own little mini book
.
You could create your ownlittle pamphlet, your own little
printout, even if you just sitit on your computer, on nice
paper, on nice high stock paper.
You could print out photos ofyour project, and they don't

(15:54):
have to be a full page photo.
It could be multiple photos onone page, but you could print
that out and take it with youand basically create your own
leave-behind book, your ownlittle leave-behind pamphlet.
Now, if you want to go and haveit professionally printed, I
encourage you to do that as well.
So have something, though, thatyou do leave behind with them.
Talk about what you value withinyour company, talk about how
you treat your clients.
We leave them with sometestimonials in our package.

(16:16):
We leave them with, of course,our process, our general process
, and then I leave them, ofcourse, with the book.
I also had a water bottle madea few years back and I leave the
client with the water bottlethat has our logo on it as well.
So I leave them with my bookand then the water bottle that
has our logo on it.
So it's just a nice littlething for them to say oh my gosh
, what a great experience.

(16:36):
We had a great time at thatconsultation.
They were so informative andthey were so nice and they left
me these goodies.
And I can guarantee you later ondown the line, when someone
comes to their home and seessomething that you left for them
there, they're going to askthem who is that?
What's that about?
No-transcript?

(16:59):
And of course, you guys knowthere are so many more things
that go into a successfulconsultation.
You want to, of course, firstbe personable.
You want to have a personality.
Please be excited when you gointo this client's home.
Do a little bit of researchahead of time.
You don't want to do too much.
You don't want to spend hoursand hours of research, but you
do want to know something abouttheir home.

(17:20):
Look it up online, make sure,of course, you've done all the
vetting process before theyactually schedule the
consultation, and that isincluding the discovery call
that you've already had.
So by the time you get to theconsultation, in front of the
client, you know pretty muchthat if they were to move
forward and if you agreed tomove forward, that they are a
pretty good fit for you and yourcompany, you've done a lot of

(17:43):
the legwork ahead of timebecause of the vetting process
that you have.
So having a consultation doesnot mean that you let everyone
have a consultation with you.
It means the people who havebeen filtered through your
system up until that point nowhave made it to the point of the
consultation and it's up to youto win them over during the
consultation.
And I think you should lookprofessional, dress professional

(18:06):
, I think you should actprofessional.
I think you should have all ofthe things in line, be on time.
All of these things, of course,go without saying, but I know
how imperative those firstimpressions are with me and I
know with you as well.
So think about that with yourown clients.
You don't want to show up late.
You don't want to show up late.
You don't want to show upmissing things.
You don't want to show upwithout tape measure.

(18:26):
If you take that with you onyour consultations which I
always do and I want you to justbe prepared, be prepared
mentally and be preparedphysically, and again, when you
leave that consultation, youwant all those warm and fuzzy
feelings that that client isgoing to sign with you, warm and
fuzzy feelings that that clientis going to sign with you.

(18:46):
And, as I tell my students inmy program, this is the time to
go ahead and let the client knowhow you run your business.
This is that courting phase, ifyou want to call it that.
This is that phase of theprocess of the marriage that
you're going to go into withthis client, that you're in that
dating phase, right?
So you're just getting to knoweach other.
So now is the time to let themknow.
I have these minimums, I havethis time frame.

(19:08):
This is when we can start yourproject.
Don't hold back, don't lie,don't give them misinformation.
Tell them exactly how you runyour business.
For instance, my clientyesterday was asking about our
shipping and warehousing and soforth.
And I said, yes, we charge aflat fee for that and that's
separate from everything else.
And the client said well, doyou give me a breakdown of the

(19:28):
shipping costs and of thewarehousing fees?
And I said, nope, I do not,because in all of my years of
experience, this is the ratethat I've come up with for
production, and the whole reasonthat I do this quote unquote
production charge is to save youtime from being invoiced every
month.
And he said, okay, perfect, Ican respect that.
So once again, I could havedanced around it.

(19:50):
I could have said oh well, yeah, I could do that for you.
I guess.
No, have your rules in place,have your systems in place, have
your I'm not going to bend onthis rules in place before you
go to meet with the client andthen just tell them don't be
afraid Again, this is the timeto tell them exactly how you run

(20:12):
your business, alrighty, so Ihope you have enjoyed this sort
of recap of mastering aconsultation.
I love an in-home consultation.
I think it's just this funperiod.
I'm excited about the project,the client is excited about the
project and I think when you areexcited about working with a

(20:32):
client and you've done, as Isaid, all of the vetting and you
know that this could be a greatpotential project for you to
work on.
You just have to kind of followthrough with all of the things
that you need to do at theconsultation.
It's almost palpable whenyou're with the client, right,
there's just a great synergythere.
When you are in their home andyou are touring their home and
you are performing all thethings that you need to do

(20:53):
during the consultation, thesynergy just aligns and
everybody can feel it.
Now there are times, of course,when it doesn't align and that's
a whole different conversation,and that is when you need to
tell the client that this is notgoing to be a fit.
But at the end of thatconsultation, if everything
still aligns and you still feelgood and the client still feels
good and they agree with whatyour terms are and all of the

(21:15):
minimums and all of the way thatyou run your business, that
means it's time to move to thenext step.
So that means following up withthe client, letting them know
what the next step.
So that means following up withthe client, letting them know
what the next steps are, lettingthem know when you're going to
do the proposal.
And, as I said, if you don'tfeel that this is a fit for you
and your company, you can leavea consultation, thank them for
their time.
You can decide to tell themright there on the spot that you

(21:36):
don't think this is going towork, or you can type a nice
professional email once you getback to your office and let them
know that you've had some timeto think about it and this is
just not going to be a great fitfor you and your company.
There are two sides to the coin,but I'm speaking today mostly
about a positive consultationthat does have great synergy and

(21:56):
that does align for both youand your client.
Alrighty, get out there, bookthose consultations, charge for
those consultations and win overthose clients in your
consultations.
And I wanna thank you so muchfor being with me today on this
episode and I will see you nextweek on another episode of the
Designer Within Podcast.

(22:16):
I'm John McLean and remember tomake big changes on the outside
, sometimes we have to lookwithin.
I'll see you next time.
No-transcript, and for moreinformation on this podcast,

(22:52):
including how to be a guest ormy design services in general,
go to johnmcclainco.
That's johnmcclainco.
See you soon, friend.
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