Last week Parsons had a career day and invited different architects and designers to visit the school and talk with students who are looking for internships. I’m always fascinated that schools don’t really give the students a sure-fire method of presentation or teach them how to really put across their concepts. I think that they’re focusing on developing within the student a concept, but they don’t give them the tools in how to sell that concept and successfully put it across.

I sat with around 15 students and I was disappointed in seeing how few of them were able to sell their book to me and explain their concepts in a clear and concise way. That was most of what I was telling them – how to sell it, what to eliminate, what to say, what not to say. So many of them started off by apologizing, which is he kiss of death.

Many of the questions coming through this blog focus on presentation skills. If you don’t know how to present your thoughts it’s like getting on a ship without a map of where you’re headed. It’s a sure trajectory to getting lost. I feel that it’s our duty as professionals to share information and experiences. And I’m not saying that my way is the right way. I can only say that my way has carried me through 37 years of business with very few failures at presentation time.

Do you share your experiences with others? How can we as an industry ensure that students and other professionals are equipped to sell their concepts and ensure success?

It’s hard to believe – with the economy being what it is -that so many vendors are still not pampering and following through and catering to us designers who are providing them with business. “Oh, the truck broke down, the glass broke, the workman didn’t show up today”, or the ‘I’m not going to answer your phone call or return it’ and the sort of excuses I have heard for years which say to me “I don’t give a shit about you” just makes me so angry.

Naturally I’m not saying every supplier, but I will tell you this, the ones that are doing this to me will not work with my firm anymore. It’s hard enough trying to find clients and trying to keep the relationships with the clients smooth. Who needs a supplier throwing a spanner in the works?

Are you all having similar problems? Please commiserate with me if you do!

I had my second meeting with the consultation client and, after I gave her an assignment the first time, she came back with a plan of her apartment and showed me her different solutions. It was interesting to discuss her design process and to look at what solutions she had discovered. Still, my challenge was to try and infuse in her a free-er quality to her work. After discussing the process she went through, I showed her some other options, incorporating her ideas and the lightbulb went on!

I think the strongest point in talking to her was that the plans that she had brought were all furniture plans. I believe that one should really decide how one is going to reallocate the background before even starting to add furniture. What she was doing was to move a few walls so she could place the furniture, where my thinking is to really bring the background to a 100% and then the furniture sort of places itself in the space.

After her showing great insecurity about her creativity during our first session and wanting to know from me what good design was, it was such a great surprise to see pictures of a home she did for herself in the country as well as an apartment in NYC and just how wonderful it was. It wasn’t quite completed and I gave her some suggestions, but I think her fear overrode her style and her talent.

It’s so important that we trust what we do and are realistic when we look at our work without underselling ourselves. After all, if you don’t believe in your work, how do you expect the client to?

Yesterday I had a group of students come from Parson with their lecturer and fellow interior designer, Kitty Hawks and I showed them how I present a job. We used a job that I just presented three weeks ago, from beginning to end and I probably should have done some refreshing on all the elements of the presentation, but I think they got the point. We discussed how to answer clients’ questions, what instructions you give a client at the beginning – here’s a pad, write down your questions and we’ll discuss them at the end – and I showed them the renderings, materials and the pace that I follow in presenting a job. I think it was a valuable session for these students, who lapped up the information and kept the questions coming. What a great idea of Kitty’s, and fun for me to get to share important information with those just learning the ropes.

I often get asked about the process for briefing and getting estimates from suppliers and figured that I’d share the process with you here. We’ve fine-tuned this process over the past 37 years, using many costly mistakes to pave the way for this process as it is now. There is very little room for error and our suppliers, many of whom we’ve worked with for many years, also feel secure about this process.

When we need estimates from suppliers, we send out an estimate sheet with the name of the supplier, name of client and on that sheet are all the specification, in full detail, of what we want them to price. If it has to do with more drawings, we then attach the drawings to that in the the form of a .pdf document, which we print out for our files.

In return, the suppliers send us back our form with his price, plus an estimate and we do not enter into a presentation with the client until we have received back from the supplier a written estimate. The reason being that if you don’t have this written down, a description and the words ‘as per your drawing’, you run the risk of him saying “Oh, I didn’t figure that into it” or “Oh, I didn’t think about that” and then you’re forced to go back to the client and ask for more money. When it comes to that you can say to the supplier, you signed this off and this is what you promised. Doing it this way has saved me so many headaches and have kept me from having to go back to the client to ask for more money, after they’ve already paid for the item.

So be sure to always get everything in writing and attach it to the PO before you file it away. And file the PO and invoices together. You do yourself a disservice to not do this.

I’m always fascinated when other designers come to me and say ‘Oh you’re so honest’. To me it’s like “Why would I not be honest to my colleagues?” and “Why would anybody not want to be open with others in the same boat?” It fascinates me that other well-known designers are so unapproachable in the community.

I think that is something we need to change.

In an effort to try and drum up business we all start to become more creative.

One of the things that I’m doing is to approach real estate sales people, offering them my services to meet with clients with the purpose of closing a deal for them in offering advice and input on the new property. I’m told that it is a very good way to make connections with prospective clients and I’ve been lecturing in LA and New York to the public, which is another good way of creating job opportunities. I’m also standing on the corner in Times Square with a sign saying “Designer available for large-sized projects”. This has only brought in some loose change thus far, unfortunately.

What ideas are you following to try and get connected to prospective clients? Things to consider are charities, real estate agents or church gatherings – always just be aware that you have to keep looking for that prospective client, whoever you are speaking to. They’re out there somewhere!