How to Get Better Architecture Clients
Let's be honest: most design professionals (architects, interior designers, decorators) haven’t given much thought about our client acquisition process. We're so busy doing the work, we don’t take time to consider how the customer journey influences the kinds of clients we attract. We simply take what comes, responding to inquiries as they reach out, eager to help and demonstrate our expertise.
But here's what's actually happening: most of us are giving away our most valuable asset—our expertise—for free, upfront, without any attempt to triage for fit, budget, or serious intent.
As a result, we end up wasting countless hours on people who were never going to hire us.
Even if you think you don't have a process, you have one. It just may be broken, inefficient, and attracting all the wrong clients!
The Hidden Cost of this "Non-Process"
I had a prospect reach out with what seemed like a dream project: 1000' of ocean frontage, Tom Kundig's work as inspiration, and a request for a Corten-clad art gallery to house his extensive Keith Haring collection. Amazing opportunity, right? He was very descriptive and enthusiastic about the design goals but overly vague about his budget and kept deflecting when I asked about the timeline.
Despite these red flags, I pressed on, visiting the site multiple times, sketching rough concepts together, and eagerly replying to every email.
A few weeks later, as I circled back on a start date again, he replied that he had decided to, "put the project on hold indefinitely."
Leaving me with nothing to show for many hours (!!!) of unbillable work.
I’m ashamed to admit that this was hardly the first time this had happened. It was becoming a pattern by this point.
I’d regularly receive emails like:
"We want to build a vacation home. What do you charge?
“We’re in town for the weekend meeting with realtors. Can you walk some properties we’re considering tomorrow? We're pressed for time as there are other offers pending."
"We have a design in mind already, just need a floor plan to get a permit. Hoping to start construction next month."
Early days I would jump at the chance to prove my worth to a prospect who hardly knew anything about me or what I charged, saying yes to nearly every request that came in. “Sure, I can walk your site on July 4th weekend, I’d be glad to!” (True story.)
You're Training Clients to Devalue Your Work
When you make yourself completely available and give away expertise for free, you're not demonstrating value. You're demonstrating that your time and knowledge aren't valuable enough to protect.
This "non-process" was actually a process, it was just a flawed one that led to:
Wasted Time: Hours spent on calls, site visits, and meetings with prospects who weren't serious or a good fit
Misaligned Projects: Taking on work that didn't inspire me or capitalize on my strengths
Burnout: Spreading myself too thin, sacrificing quality over quantity
Bad-Fit Clients: Attracting people who didn’t value my work or respect my time
What I tried:
Realizing something needed to change, I started experimenting:
Customized Emails: I sent detailed, personalized emails to each inquiry, outlining my services and process. While this added a personal touch, it was incredibly time-consuming and actually invited more questions.
Informational PDFs: I created a PDF brochure anyone could download. It saved me time but I had no way of following up with those who downloaded it and it didn't fully convey the unique value of my services.
Waitlists: I tried creating a waitlist for interested prospects, thinking it would create urgency and help me prioritize serious inquiries. But without proper qualification, or retainers I ended up with a list full of unvetted leads who flaked out when their "turn" came up.
Personalized Phone Consultations: I offered personalized phone calls to discuss potential projects. This helped build rapport but often led to scheduling challenges and still consumed a lot of time (usually much more than the 30-minutes I allotted) with prospects who weren't the right fit. It also invited the same requests for site visits or brain-picking sessions.
None of these fully addressed the problem and some actually made things worse! I was still giving away my expertise for free, just in different formats.
The Breakthrough That Changed things
One day, while researching a significant purchase for myself (a new off-road vehicle), I found myself downloading buyer's guides to compare options and help me make an informed decision with confidence.
See, for most prospects, when they first learn you exist, they prefer to do that initial round of research on their own. They're not ready to pick up the phone or fill out a contact form on their first visit to your website. If you don't have the information they need readily available, they'll move on and continue searching until they find it. Often that means finding it on one of your competitor's site.
If you have a guide they can download that describes the process, cost, and everything they need to get started working with you, you’re positioning yourself as a trusted expert. Requiring someone to enter their email to download it as the first step in the process, before they can contact you, creates exactly the right kind of friction. It also demonstrates that your knowledge has value and that you protect your time. Casual inquiries won't bother and serious prospects will see it as valuable and respectful of their time as well.
Win-win.
A better system
So I got to work making my own branded “buyer’s guide.” Over time, I renamed it to be more aligned with how I want my ideal client to see their project as an investment. Thus, the Investment Guide. Over the years, I created an automated system to collect email addresses, deliver the guide, and follow up with them over time. This automation has saved me countless hours of answering the same questions over and over and it’s led to better aligned clients with better projects that I’m actually excited to work on.
Now, I mentioned that most people try to find answers on their own before contacting anyone. So, I want you to consider the traffic to your website and ask yourself (if you don’t already know) how many people visit each month? A hundred? A thousand? Now, how many actually reach out to you? Probably very few. But some of those visitors could be your next client. The idea is to turn those visitors "just looking" into "new leads" for your practice.
The way to reliably do that is to build a system to capture those leads and follow up on a very specific, set schedule. The investment guide becomes your lead magnet and in exchange for it, the prospect enters their email and that sets the automation in motion.
To illustrate the point: in the last 30 days, I had 12,000 visitors and collected 853 contacts from four dedicated pages on my website. That's 853 people I can begin educating about: who I help, what I charge, how long it will take, and how they can take the next steps if they're a good fit.
Most of them I don't ever engage with. With an automated follow-up process designed to help them self-qualify, most realize we're not a good fit to work together. This saves me so much time! No more answering the same rote questions over and over. No more guessing whether they're going to balk at my fees or want to get started 'next week'. No more free site walks.
From This...
"We want to build a vacation home. What do you charge? Can you walk the site with us tomorrow?"
To This...
"I've read through your Investment Guide and understand your process and fees. Our project aligns well with your expertise, and we're ready to move forward when you have availability."
The difference? A system that prequalifies leads, builds trust by clearly explaining your process and pricing, elevates your brand, and automates the manual work of qualifying new clients.
What this could look like for you
Imagine no longer wasting time in email threads that go on forever, or taking consultation calls that go nowhere. You meet the client at their site ONLY after they've passed your automated pre-screening process and you've determined the project goals, aesthetics, budget and program are reasonably aligned.
The system I built has generated multiple six figures for my business each year. At minimum it saves about 2 to 5 hours a week. No more back-and-forth with people who can't afford your services or aren't serious about moving forward.
I created the Investment Guide Toolkit to help other design professionals save time using my exact setup. It bundles all my learnings into templates and video lessons designed to help you implement the very same system in your practice.
You could build something similar yourself, absolutley. Start with the questions you answer repeatedly, organize that information into something comprehensive, and require prospects to engage with it before contacting you.
Or, use what I've already built and tested.
Either way, stop training prospects to devalue your work by giving it away for free. I hope this helps you start attracting the projects you actually want to work on.
What You Get with the Investment Guide Toolkit
The Investment Guide Toolkit helps you build your own branded process to attract and identify the right clients with confidence and transparency:
✔ Get more leads on autopilot - Turn website visitors into qualified prospects
✔ Screen out bad fits before they waste your time - Let automation handle the vetting
✔ Show clients how you work - Build trust through transparency
✔ Educate on cost, schedule, and expectations - No more surprise reactions to your fees
✔ Set a premium tone from the first touchpoint - Attract clients who value quality
What's Included:
Beautiful, editable Investment Guide templates
Instructional video lessons showing you exactly how to implement the system
Automation workflows for seamless delivery and follow-up
Email templates for consistent communication
BONUS: My Welcome Guide onboarding system for new clients
Client Results:
"After a few weeks of hard work on it, the automation + investment guide is officially in place! Thanks for your guidance. It would have taken me years to figure it out by myself." – Jean-Michel H., Architect
"Running a small practice means wearing a lot of hats...The Investment Guide Toolkit gave me a simple system for bringing in new projects. It's like having a virtual assistant." – Maria K., Architect
Stop Wasting Time on Unqualified Leads
Imagine no longer wasting time in email threads that go on forever, or being on consultation calls that go nowhere. Picture meeting clients on a job site ONLY after they've passed your automated pre-screening process and you've determined the project goals, aesthetics, budget, and program are reasonably aligned.
More Than Just Another Pretty Template
Most investment guides out there are aesthetically pleasing. Download them, add your brand logo and colors, swap out the stock images and you're off to a reasonable start. Or so you think.
The frustrating reality? They look okay but that's about it. You're left to your own devices trying to figure out how to actually use them in practice. Where does it fit in your operations? How do you automate the delivery? What do you fill it with?
Most templates don't include the insights required to actually make them effective sales and marketing tools that would save you time by filtering out the bad clients and nurturing the right ones.
This isn't another Canva template. It's an automated process that pre-vets, nurtures and converts prospects on autopilot.
The Complete System That's Generated Multiple Six Figures
This toolkit is a system that's been generating multiple six figures for my business each year. It's been refined over the 10+ years I've been using it to get leads on autopilot while screening out unsuitable clients.
At a minimum it will save you about 2 to 5 hours a week. No more back-and-forth between cold calls and emails with people who can't afford your services, or small scope projects.
Multiply that by what you're currently charging per hour, and this investment can pay off almost immediately.