to earn is to appreciate!

To earn a good sale, to close a good deal-we make our prospect appreciate what we do. Appreciation is at its height when a top professional examines the work of his peer with a benevolent eye. But, by definition, appreciation doesn't have to be EXPERT. Anyone can appreciate and admire beauty, for instance, if anyone SEES it and has the willingness to admire it. As an Architect firm, we pretty much at the top of the ladder when it comes to creativity. So MUCH so, in fact, that we are far above the average population. So HIGH ABOVE, in fact, that the majority of people look at you and your creations with awe.Our client or ordinary prospect/even competitors FEEL they don't understand. That's caused by the awe, you see? The DO understand as there's nothing technical about appreciating aesthetics. But they THINK they don't, because they believe they need to be experts to do so. Do you remember clients asking you if this is a modern design or if this loose furniture brand fits your design package?So, the usual response is they say NOTHING when they don’t. Unfortunately, some time or most of the time you say nothing too.They shut up, in other words. Obviously, for you this creates a mighty VACUUM. No feedback from people and yet there are always those critics who, like mad dogs, bite anything new and shred it to pieces.No wonder it can begin to feel slanted, to say the least. Now, it might be that you're one of those super beings who has the ability to acknowledge his good work to himself without the need of outside appreciation.Even if you are, it's better for business and future projects if people can appreciate your skills widely.But to get them to appreciate your skills, you must first create some understanding.The way consumer goods are advertised and sold, one might get the idea that success requires some kind of "overpowering" of the buyer's thinking. Yet the successful way is exactly the opposite.Marketing and sales are essentially educational activities. The starting point in both is that the prospective client doesn't KNOW enough in order to make a POSITIVE decision. That's the hardest one to make. Deciding NOT to go ahead with a project is easier. And deciding not to DECIDE AT ALL postponing the decision indefinitely is easiest of all.These are your adversaries when marketing and selling Architect services. You do not want this to happen but it always did.In marketing commercial or residential sector, your task is to FIND the prospective clients that have PLANS to have a building constructed... and to give enough information so they understand what to do. In other words, you "activate" these dormant ambitions to build that so often take months or years to develop into ANY kind of action. The main reason for this inaction is simple these are nonprofessional and they just don't know whom to turn to! Once the contact has been made and you HAVE a prospective client, your task is to ENLIGHTEN him about his future project so that he can understand it better and conceptualize it in his mind. Each of these marketing and sales involves tens of separate, gradual steps that each are really educational processes on their own. These ARE steps because they each bring the prospective client higher in his understanding. Once he fully understands the project and the benefits of using your Architect services, you have a sale.Marketing and Sales tasks are not just to earn and to close. I once describe architect as a “dreamer”, engineer as a “dream maker”. Marketing and Sales team for JARKEN has to be a “master minder of all dreams”. You team is the one who is behind everything.