CVM and CRM for architects

Are you experiencing any of the following challenges in your business right now?

• Customers taking longer to buy
• Closing less than 50% of your pitches
• Having to compete on price with firms offering lower quality work
• Existing clients commissioning you less frequently

If you are, then ask yourself one more question and the answer will help you to resolve the others:

Why do your clients buy from you?

Understanding this question is the key to getting maximum value from each client engagement and maximising your chances of winning each bid.

• Some clients buy for building functionality
• others for aesthetics
• others for prestige
• and some purely for a financial return.

Today many of them are considering:

• energy use and sustainability
• a few are interested in innovation
• some are focused on the quality of space and the experience of users in a building
• and others have evaluation checklists or have an overriding schedule consideration.

Most are motivated by a combination of these complex factors - and it is critical to understand what drives each client, in order to tailor your offer appropriately. Getting the value proposition right is the only way to get people to buy from you and the best way to close deals more quickly.

Once you get the sale, your profitability stands or falls on getting the pricing right. And the price a client will pay is a direct function of the value they perceive. Many clients will pay 20% or even 50% more if outstanding value is demonstrated to them. And once you demonstrate the value that you can create by making the design better, the pressure to cut your prices diminishes. That frees you up to design the buildings you want, and not the cut-back designs that result from a price competition.

So to close more orders and increase your revenue, understanding how your clients value your services is the key.

How do you identify that value?

Many firms have tried to use CRM for this. CRM stands for Client Relationship Management software, and it is excellent for large consumer firms with millions of customers who they treat as data points. But it is not especially effective for specialised services firms, particularly creative firms such as architects who rarely offer an off-the-shelf service.

Inon's CVM - Client Value Management - software is the way to achieve that. Inon CVM is based on advanced economic and psychological research, and works in the following way:

• It lets you build a model of the different kinds of value that your clients gain by using your services
• It relates these values to the underlying psychological factors which motivate them
• It lets you tailor this model individually for each of your clients - both through your own understanding of your relationship with them, and through questionnaires and analysis tools which they can fill out
• It helps you to choose and customise the right combination of services and messages for each individual situation
• It creates a price model which tells you how much each client may be willing to pay for each service

Ultimately, it helps you get full value for your creativity and your expertise. It helps you show your clients why your work is uniquely suited to what they need. By helping you and your clients to focus on the value generated by the relationship between you, it can transform your relationship with your clients.

Inon's software is fully web-based, compatible with Mac and PC, and you can use it in the office or remotely. We were founded in 1995 and were one of the first companies in the UK to create software for the Web. The CVM system can work with an existing CRM package if you have one, or it has an easy-to-use and powerful CRM capability built in.

And it's affordable, because we structure our charges around the value that CVM generates for you. If it helps you sell more and charge more money, we succeed with you. If not, your risk is minimised as you won't have to pay large licensing or customisation fees.

p.s. Why should you consider this? Three simple reasons: it will win you more clients, it will put more money in your pocket, and it will set you free to build creative projects in your way.