My New York trip is happening in about 2 weeks time and for the past 2 months, I have been telling myself that I do not want to clinch a new project because I didn't want to have any work related calls interrupt my trip, with the different timezone I will be in and everything, it's going to be a nightmare to deal with.
Even though that was what I told myself, I still accepted new customer leads from my company with the hopes that I might be able to get one or two new projects that will only start after I am back from my trip, to act as my safety net and actually keep me busy when I am am back from the trip.
A lot of the customer leads I got were a waste of time, which isn't surprising, a shit load of them were not responsive when I attempted to reach out to them, and the ones who responded back would tell me that they are either too busy to meet or are overseas, so most of the leads I got just ended up being useless, which is pretty worrying because my company actually pays a web portal for those low quality leads and they don't come cheap.
But I did meet up with a few of them and one particular couple which I shall refer to as Jenny and Jonny had huge potential.
When I first met Jenny and Jonny, I didn't really have a good impression of the latter because during the entire consultation, he was sulking at the side after complaining to me about how he had to park so far away to reach my showroom, not realizing there was a shopping mall literally right across the road he could have parked at, Jenny on the other hand was pretty calm despite the long walk she had to take with her husband, so she shared with me what she wanted to do with her space and her requirements were pretty extensive because she wanted to do a lot of carpentry work to fully utilize the space in the house, so I listened and then once the session was over, prepared a quote within the week and send it off to Jenny.
I really wasn't expecting to hear back from them again after because I just didn't like Jonny's attitude during the first meeting, I am going to be working with them for at least 2 months should they decide to engage me and if that is the kind of attitude I am going to be getting from Jonny, then good riddance, but surprisingly, Jenny actually reached out to me 2 weeks later and requested to meet up again to run through the quotation, sharing with me that she had some changes she wanted to make. I was pretty free during this period, so I agreed to the meeting and also prepared a Sketch Up drawing to show them how the space would look with the layout I was proposing.
During the second meet up, everything was so much smoother, Jonny was so much calmer and actually really friendly, and the mood was just so much lighter, the consultation went really smoothly, but Jenny had a lot of new requirements that I wasn't really keen on doing, because her new requirements required me to get in touch with suppliers that were notorious for being difficult to deal with, so after the consultation, I honestly started to lose interest in the project really quickly, that being said, at that point, I still wouldn't mind taking on their project because the concern I had with suppliers I had to get in touch with was nothing compared to my lack of projects on hand.
So I updated the quotation and then send it to Jenny once again, I wasn't trying to scare them away and just prepared the quotation accordingly, not really overcharging them for anything. I knew my prices were slightly above average, but it's really not up to my control, my contractors just aren't cheap and since I didn't really mind taking on the project, I just charged them as per normal, if they wanted to come to me, then that is a project to add to my list, but if not, then fine, I will refocus on getting more clients once I am back from my trip.
2 weeks after the second consultation, Jenny reaches out to me again and starts asking me a lot of technical questions about certain products that I have personally never used before and it was really difficult to answer her questions but I somehow manage to explain with common sense and she then asks me if I can give her a discount to the overall quote if she decided to go with me.
When a client starts talking about discount, that's when I know they have pretty much decided to pick me, since I was dry on projects, literally had nothing left, I was very open to offering her a discount.
The original quotation amounted to about $27,700, and I was contemplating to give her a discount of either $200 or $500, to round down the figure and make it look nicer. I remember when I was texting her, I was also watching a Youtube video, multitasking but failing terribly because after I hit send on the discounted amount, I realized I completely fucked up the amount.
Instead of telling Jenny that I was willing to lower the figure to $27,500, I mistyped and told her I was willing to lower the figure to $25,000, which is a fucking huge difference of $2,500, that's close to a 10% discount, which is a really really generous amount.
Upon realizing my fuck up, I quickly told Jenny that I had mistyped and shared with her the intended amount, to which she just went...
'WHAT?"
... and when she started to express her shock, that also made me second guess my discount and I kept thinking that I must have originally intended to give her that 10% discount, it must have been it, so I took back what I said about the typo and told her the 10% discount was my original intention, whilst still really confused whether or not that was truly my intention, and then she replied...
"That sounds better."
... it took me a full day to realize that the 10% discount was not my original intention because I am a fucking idiot, and when I realized that, I just lost interest in the project, I will still make a profit, but not enough to make the renovation worth it.
If I took back the discount, I know she will run to another Interior Designer, but if I accepted the project with a lower commission rate, then she will probably choose to engage me, and seeing how I have already completed all the projects I had on hand, a part of me just wanted to clinch a new deal just to stay busy.
So Jenny reached out to me earlier this week and requested for us to meet again, telling me she wants to quickly confirm everything, to pick all the laminates and get everything settled, and from the way she was sharing all this with me, I knew she had already made her decision and was going to engage me.
We met today with her husband Jonny at my showroom and I was honestly ready to close a deal with them, I had printed out all the quotation and floorplan for them to bring home once they sign the contract and then as we were running through the final layout and all the design details, Jonny said something to me that just made me back out from letting them sign a contract with me...
" Actually to be very honest with you, I feel a bit worried passing my project to you. "
... and he proceeds to take out a pamphlet from another Interior Design firm and run through their portfolio with me, telling me how lacking my company's project was compared to the other Interior Design firm, literally finding flaws in one my company's project photos Jenny had saved on her phone and sharing them with me, telling me how my company's portfolio was really lacking the WOW factor both of them were looking for and then telling me how the other company's completed project just looked so much better.
It just turned me off completely and I just told the both of them that I wasn't going to let them sign a contract with me today, that I don't want them to confirm their engagement with me today because I was just EXTREMELY uncomfortable about the entire arrangement, which then also lead to my next question, why didn't they just go straight to the other Interior Design firm if they are going to be shoving their portfolio down my throat whilst taking a shit at my company's portfolio, and the reason was simple...
"They are not cheap."
... to which the husband told me that he wouldn't mind paying more if I could achieve the same feel as the other interior design firm, and then the wife interjects and calls him out on his bullshit, which I just found hilarious, proclaiming...
"If you don't mind paying, then you wouldn't be seating here right now!"
... she was laughing while saying it, but it also made me realize that I was their second option, I mean I knew I was their second option the moment the husband took out the other company's portfolio booklet, but hearing Jenny say that to her husband out loud and realizing that not just him, but that his wife as well would rather be seating in the office of the other Interior Design firm if it weren't for the price, that just made me feel disgustingly inferior as a designer, being aware that my own projects are not amazing is one thing, but to have a client indirectly validate that feeling is completely different.
During the run through of the 3D, both Jonny and Jenny were pretty vocal about how they felt my design was lacking and that the colour scheme wasn't what they were looking for, which was extremely demoralizing, so I requested for examples of styles they like and colour schemes that they feel would have that WOW factor, Jonny of course then took out the Holy Bible of Interior Design that is the other company's portfolio and showed me examples.
Here is the deal, the other Design Firm has a better portfolio than my company because they have better photos, but their projects aren't amazing, it's honestly very average when I actually compare them to the projects of design firms I actually like and follow on Instagram.
I could not understand the appeal of the design Jonny actually showed me and am in fact still at a loss as to what he wants, he kept telling me he loves the contrast and when I shared with him my idea of contrasting colours and materials, he was totally against it, and the contrast he actually showed me was a contrast I personally do not like, which is white against dark walnut.
I just do not find this colour scheme appealing at all, some may find it gorgeous, I personally hate this match up because it just feels really dated to me. If it is a predominately white space with a bit of dark walnut acting as a accent colour...
....then it would look amazing.
And this is one of the many problems I have with Jonny and Jenny, what I find appealing and what they find appealing is completely different, we do not have the same taste and I can't offer any proper design advice because of it.
Jenny also wanted to purchase a lot of items online, and I was really all for it, less stuff for my carpenters to do means less defects for them to spot, but then she was so worried that the colors wouldn't match and ended up asking me to do custom pieces for her, of chairs with hidden compartments and tables with varying depth, which will definitely cost a bomb to customize,
I was initially really open to running their project, but after this last meet up, all that has disappeared, I am sure they still plan to engage me for my services because they are agreeable to meeting me again next week, but knowing that I am second fiddle to their preferred designer just feels insulting to me, to know that in their head, there will always be this thought that they have engaged someone inferior, that there is clearly someone else they would have preferred to hire if they got the money to, it just doesn't sit right with me at all.
With my other clients, when they engage me, I have never once felt like I was their second option, I always feel like when they engage me, it's because they like me, even if I am not the cheapest or offer the best design. There is always this certainty in their decision, that their choice to engage me trumps their preference towards all the other designers they have met, once in a while my other clients will bring up pricing differences, and that is fine because I take that as a compliment sometimes, that despite being more expensive, they don't mind forking out the extra money to work with me, but to bring up the other Interior Designers they have met and tell me how amazing they are and then indirectly telling me they would rather work with them if they had the money because my design is inferior compared to theirs, that is a little insulting.
I still have my pride as an Interior Designer and this is honestly really frustrating to deal with, because Jonny and Jenny are clearly focusing on design but aren't willing to pay for it, so now they have skittered to me hoping I can achieve the same look for them at a lower price point.
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