Dear Sean,

My clients are generally happy and pay their bills, but they have very little time to meet with me—a lack of contact that tends to make every meeting feel very high-stakes. Plus, I miss the human connection of in-person collaboration. How can I get them to carve out time to focus on the project?

People Person

Dear People Person,

Imagine: You are feeling pretty spent today so you decide to order in. There are two restaurants that serve the exact same food for the same price and deliver at the same time. One restaurant takes your order and shows up when they are supposed to, but with no additional communication. The other lets you know when the order is leaving, when it will be arriving, and so on.

Your preference in this scenario is clear. You want communication from the restaurant—and as a result of that communication, your food will likely taste better, and you will enjoy it more, even though it is exactly the same as the other restaurant’s. So, too, with your design work.

But here’s the catch: Your business model, I am guessing, is all about speed and efficiency. Even if you charge by the hour, you make most of your money based on a markup—the more you work, the less you make. And while your business might want to work more hours, your clients save money if they do not have to pay for what they deem unnecessary hours. Quite literally, then, your business is the no-communication version of the restaurant, even as your design is the opposite. And make no mistake, the long-term winner of the clash between business and design is business. Clients will behave as your business asks them to, despite what you as a designer would like them to do.

The answer, then, is to get paid for what you believe in. You are working on your clients’ homes. No matter who they are, they will make the time if they understand how much their presence will influence your work and their lives. Of course, you can forsake any business changes and just demand that they spend more time with you and your firm—but good luck with that. Nobody likes being told what to do or having things they do not want thrust on them. Especially if they already trust you to do what they are asking of you and your firm.

Alignment is about defining value for those you seek to serve. If effective and ongoing communication makes for a better story, then those who wish to be part of that story will pay for it, full stop. I am all for high-stakes meetings—provided that your client is the only one perceiving the stakes. Like lawyers asking a question they do not already know the answer to, you need to ask the right questions so that you can meet to provide original answers. You should never be at a meeting where your value will not be fully understood. Else you are in the speculative game, and that is a gamble you do not want to take.

And you have to be paid for the opportunity to ask these questions. Perhaps a meeting fee, an interim deliverable necessary to move forward (like a floor plan), or some other method to create value of meeting to make the path of your process that much more enjoyable for everyone—you and your design business most of all.

I love that you miss the human connection. Design is the definition of a people business. We spend so much time trying to commoditize our lives. Instead, let your desire for connection resonate in the value of emotional intelligence and an emotional return based on that intelligence. It is about being effective, not efficient.

Efficiency can be wonderful, but never remarkable. The real question is whether you will allow yourself and your design business to own the value of effectiveness in human connection and be paid for it. The choice is yours.

____________

Sean Low is the go-to business coach for interior designers. His clients have included Nate Berkus, Sawyer Berson, Vicente Wolf, Barry Dixon, Kevin Isbell and McGrath II. Low earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and as founder-president of The Business of Being Creative, he has long consulted for design businesses. In his Business Advice column for BOH, he answers designers’ most pressing questions. Have a dilemma? Send us an email—and don’t worry, we can keep your details anonymous.