Clients 2

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Singapore, 13^th September 2013

Another week gone…another fee proposal just left my desk; this time to a totally unknown client in China. The challenge with these fee proposals is to find the right balance between professionalism and competitiveness if that makes sense. Some argue that you need to quote what you calculate is the right fee for your services. But unfortunately with new clients you never know how demanding they will be. Some are nit-pickers some are easy going. You never know until you are well and truly on board and have sailed off with the project. If you quote to cover all eventualities you most of the time end up with a quote that looks way over the top and unless you can command extravagant pricing (just think of the $100 million transfer fee that was paid for Garreth Bale for his move from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid!) your fee needs to be perceived as the “right” value for money by your client, even if you don’t know him. Probably specifically if you don’t know him!

And while we may wonder how difficult (or not) our new client will be, bare in mind that they probably have the same thoughts about you! How well will we deliver, of what quality will our deliverables be, will we be able to deliver on time? Will I deal with the proper people or will they sent junior designers to meetings…these are unfortunately legitimate thoughts by a client when they engage you. I say unfortunately as I have often experienced meetings were some consultants did not sent their key or lead designer but some junior assistant. Fair enough we may not always be able to attend all meetings because of conflicting schedules but professionalism demands that you sent someone that is expert enough to deal with client concerns. As always in a client relationship it takes two to tango…

Light Watch 4-155: Client’s may go back many years, some go way back in history 🙂 In my early days with Philips I got involved in the lighting of the Pyramids, with traditional floodlighting at the time…I came across some newer images which I share with you here…if we would have had to deal with the client at the time who would it have been… the Pharao? Would they have wanted us to light up the pyramids, which basically is a thomb? A bit different from your todays average high rise!