Turning the Spotlight On Pricing

Of designs that are created by architectural or design firms, it's a whopping 40% that never get built.

Meaning that the clients who hired these firms, forked up 5k, 8k, even 12k or more, got their hopes built way up and then ultimately decided they had to pull the plug on their dream project. This can be a huge emotional rollercoaster for anyone who goes through 6 months, to even a year of back and forth with architectural firms. There are of course, multiple reasons that a project may not come to fruition- but let’s not be coy in pretending that the majority of the time it isn’t cost overruns. This is far and away the biggest reason that this sort of disappointing outcome happens.

The fear in everyone's mind at the first encounter with a big project is price. Not everyone is in the same financial position, but most people are careful with their money - and have heard horror stories about cost overruns from both the likes of HGTV and their friends.

When planning for any sort of project- it is going to be almost impossible to predict every sort of unexpected variable. We can however, get pretty damn close. If you can remove the fear of huge project overruns barring crazy circumstances (say a hurricane hits the project for a far too extreme example.) you can really engineer a trustworthy and streamlined process for every client that you onboard. Builders often refer to the "golden triangle" of construction, which defines a successful project as one that’s completed on time, within budget, and with high-quality results.

However, it’s common for projects to only achieve two out of these three goals. For example, a project might be completed on time and with good quality, but end up costing more than planned, or it might stay on schedule and budget but compromise on quality. To be completely frank, it’s not an easy task to hit those targets with the ever shifting landscape inherent to this industry. But- we have to keep in mind that

The magic of a successful brand is to make highly difficult tasks, seem as though they were as simple as breathing air.

Think about Nike or Apple- the widely overused brands that business owners refer to as a benchmark- do they really show you how much capital investment, design iterations, or stressed project managers it took to engineer a product? No. It looks always as though it is effortless, as though this level of execution is simply what you should expect from them.

This is not meant to be misleading by any stretch of the imagination- instead, it is strategic. The customer by their very nature, simply doesn’t care about the world outside of their own point of view. This isn’t a selfish characteristic, it’s a preservation of their mental resources - where they allocate most of their attention to things that are important to them. Everyone has to do this to some extent, including yourself. So in the end, the customer just wants to know that someone competent and caring is taking care of the grunt work for them.

As a builder, you probably already recognize that the industry has over time become increasingly fragmented. Customers often have to navigate multiple separate touchpoints just to get a single project completed - mostly because we all retreat to our respective areas of control (be it that you are an electrician, a painting company, the builder, or even an interior design team).

What does this actually do though?

It leads to inefficiencies that can be avoided. What if….by unifying the roles of builder and designer for instance, you could avoid having conflicting voices at the table in terms of expected budget? What would that do for your client relationships?

We can't afford to surprise clients with an unaffordable bill at the end of the design stage.

To avoid this, it's crucial to set clear expectations from the start and regularly update cost estimates throughout the design process—whether during the concept stage, design development, planning, or any other phase. This proactive approach ensures transparency and keeps the project on track financially, which is vital for both the client and our business (especially our chances of receiving referrals).

By positioning yourself as a one stop solution for your clients, you offer a seamless experience where clients (who don't necessarily care about your headaches and who have already enough on their plate) don't have to bounce between conflicting opinions. You should aim to have 90% of the answers to your clients questions - excluding 3rd party consultants, and going the extra mile for this serves more than one purpose:

1. It removes the fear that the budget will be overblown:

   By ensuring that the builder is the one who is leading the charge with the other adjacent business owners, you have the opportunity to remove both the confusion about project timelines but also that you don’t have extra work created for your team due to miscommunications.

2. It offers your clients the type of hands-off experience they would actually appreciate.

   Provided that you are giving enough updates, many clients will be happy to not micromanage their project (certainly not all). If you can create a relationship where there is trust in your expertise and your team’s competence, then your experiences in speaking to clients will change drastically. You will no longer have to fight to defend what you are telling them, and you will be able to focus on the internal aspects of your company that often require the majority of your attention.

For our clients, we help turn the spotlight towards the pieces that actually matter - and by having these focused conversations around the customer experience we get out of the game of clients having to bounce between different professionals who don’t always see eye to eye.

We’re aiming to change the culture by setting up a full marketing, sales, and build process that gives a seamless experience with an aligned design and build from the start. It saves time, cuts down on misunderstandings, and gives our clients a better product that leads to increased repeat business.