Do you recognise this? You had a first live meeting with a great potential client for a new interior design project. You gave them some great insights, you feel a really good connection with them and you’d love to work for or with them!
And at the end of the meeting you show them your fees and they tell you they need to think it over. Not because they don't like you or you're too expensive. No, the real reason is that they have never done something like this before and they just want to rationally think about this. 
Even though you KNOW it’s best for them to work with you because you lift their ideas to a whole new level.
Wouldn’t it be a waste, wouldn’t it be stupid if they’d decide not to work with you and maybe try it themselves? You know that outcome is worse than your outcome, right?
But on the other hand you don’t want to be that slick salesman or saleswoman that pushes them into working with you. That’s not who you are. You want to stay your natural you, right?
There is a method in helping those clients get to the right decision and most likely work with you. It’s just a few easy steps.
Keep at the back of your mind that in your eyes you are the expert. And you are. At least, you’ve done interior design more often than your clients, right? So, you’re more of an expert than they are.
So, what do experts do?
They give their clients or future clients a comfortable feeling that they are in the right hands. They can trust the expert to guide them through a - for them - new and scary process.
So it’s your job to guide them in making the right decisions.
And whether they want to work with you or not is their next first decision they have to make. And the moment you’re not helping, guiding them in that decision, big chance they feel left alone by you. And if they feel like that, what happened to your chances of getting to work with them?
So when you’d say: “okay just think about it. I’ll hear from you when you’re ready.” You’re not leading them. You fell a few steps on the expert ladder. Hit in the face. Smaller chance of getting the project.
But what then? What should you do?
If you look through the eyes of your potential client, they feel a bit scared starting this new project. It’s always the most scary moment, just before you start. You can still back out.
You probably recognise this yourself too. The moment before you started with something major, that was the most scary moment.
So guide them through. Help them making a better decision. For instance by asking: “What is it you need to think about?”. Or: “what are your concerns?”. “What thinks can I help you with for you to make it more easy to choose?”.
You don’t have to push them into giving you a “go” at the table. Only to make their decision more easy. Most likely they don’t know what they worry about and it’s just the “afraid of the next step” feeling that’s holding them back. So even though you don’t want to push them in giving you a “go” there is a big chance they’re like: “well, I don’t know what I’m worrying over. We like you, we like working with you, so let’s just start and get going!”.
But even if they don’t give you a go at the table, you gave them some more trust in the coming process. Even if they still need a few days to think about it, they have a warm trustworthy feeling about you.
Just give them the time to think about it and tell them you’ll check in with them this Monday to see what’s on their mind. Don’t let them call you as you’re the expert that guides them. Tell them: just take your time to think it through over the weekend. Shall I call you Monday at, let’s say 10am?
Show them they can trust you leading them through this exciting design process and you’re always there fro them on the right moment. You are their guide, their coach through this journey.
And you know what’s cool? The trust you built over here will flow through the entire design process as they will continue to trust your advice all the way to the end.
