Forgotten niche of the commercial sector for Architect services

Within the market offering available projects for Architecture firms, there's a forgotten niche. It's not so much forgotten as it is unseen by the vast majority of Architects.

It is the niche of medium-sized businesses looking to have a building created for their own use.

The reason why this niche market is not seen is because this target audience seldom approaches Architects and their projects go either directly to construction companies or get scrapped and, having given up, they turn to the real estate market.

Calling it a "niche" is actually grossly misleading since this target audience is potentially a HUGE source of projects.

Upon research, it will be found that any given area finds about one business owner in 25 with a dream of his own commercial building, tailored to his present and future needs... and with some unique architectural features making the owners views a part of the local living history.

Thus, this market can provide an unending source of new projects, usually of $0.5 - 2.0 million (total cost).

Paradoxically, the hardest thing for the majority of your competitors is to BELIEVE that this niche market actually even EXISTS. Which is just as well, for the fewer realize its existence, the more of these projects there'll be for you, once you start utilizing this source of work.

As already stated, there are good reasons why this target audience appears to not exist.

Construction - the difference between dreaming and implementation

For the business owner to dream of his own, tailor-made building is one thing. For that dream to start taking shape and starting to develop into a project is another.

Mind you. It's rather an elevated phenomenon for a business owner even to begin DREAMING about having a building constructed for the individual needs of his company. For that to take place, he will have had to work for years or decades, building up the revenue and equity of his business, planning and executing thousands of successful business activities.

For it's only with prolonged SUCCESS that a business owner starts seriously thinking about a project of this size. It will be the biggest thing he has ever attempted, no contest.

But BECAUSE the project is so GIGANTIC compared to anything else he has done, and as it is not within HIS expertise but a totally unknown subject matter for him, his progress in developing the idea into a reality is very slow.

It's not only slow but, for most, never-ending.

With this I mean that most business owners simply lack the knowledge, time, expertise, persistence and ability to evaluate construction data to EVER reach a point where they could make the final DECISION to go ahead with the project... that is, to send out requests for proposals and get the thing started.

So, you probably ask "Why doesn't he just contact an Architect?"

A good question. I can't really give you a definite answer for it either. But research among business owners intending to build shows a few interesting things.

Firstly, the majority of them don't actually KNOW that Architects take on such "small" projects as theirs. They think Architects only do those monumental public projects and huge commercial constructions on which the media reports to the general public.

Honestly, have YOU often seen Architects mentioned in connection with SMALL projects in the press? Since "small fry" is "no news," the general media seldom discusses smaller projects at all.

Secondly, the majority of business owners also believe that by using an Architect they'd actually end up PAYING MORE for the project that without one. They've little understanding of the role of an Architect and know even less about the POSITIVE RESULTS of using an Architect with ANY project.

Thirdly, Architects are viewed somewhat with AWE. Visionaries of future, Architects create and "handle" masses of such colossal proportion that it's simply beyond the scope of 99.9% of the population.

But this "magician" status is not bad news in any way... if you can find a way to get in touch with business owners intending to build and strike up a conversation naturally along certain preplanned guidelines. But more about that later on.

All right, let's get back to our average business owner pondering about his dream of a new building.

The barriers that stand between the dream and its realization into some form of a project are simply overwhelming for most business owners. They don't know much about construction, permits, regulations, standards... in fact, they don't even know how to tell a bad contractor from a good one.

They've talked about their dream to their friends and heard the horror stories of contractors going bust mid-project, of schedules prolonged beyond the financial breaking point of the client... well, you know all those stories.

Without the understanding of the Architects role in a project, the business owner THINKS that his only course of action is to contact a construction contractor directly. But for that, there are a growing number of barriers.

So, here we have an impasse: The more the business owner asks around and spends trying to get forward with his project, the bigger the mountain of obstacles and dangers appears to grow.

Small wonder most of them finally turn to a real estate agent!

Helping the business owner to make his dream into reality

The only "trick" in activating this target group is to GIVE LIFE to the dream of each prospective client you find in turn.

The question, of course, is: "Can we make his dream into a reality for him?"

The answer is "YES."

But it takes YOUR status and expertise as an Architect to make that dream into reality. The "project that isn't" suffers from lack of ability to...

EVALUATE all the information as to its importance and relevance to his project...
KNOWLEDGE of how to estimate his NEEDS and WISHES in regards to the new building, putting them into the framework of cost and functionality
CERTAINTY (brought on by experience and expertise) of how to PROGRESS with the project to the point where the final decision can be made... and onto the actual project itself.

Your task is to create those "baby steps" for the business owner. For make no mistake, he is used to being the decision-maker in all relevant issues concerning his life and business... and HE has to be helped to make those decision.

It's a big mistake to try to make ANY of these decisions FOR him, even the smallest ones.

I know it would be much faster. I know it can be excruciatingly frustrating to have to explain, educate, and go over everything in layman terms with him just so he could then decide to do this or that the way you know it must be done.

But that's the way it has to be IF you want the project, see? It has to be made real FOR HIM, not for you. It's vitally important that HE begins to SEE the steps, taking quite a few of them BEFORE the final decision so that the project begins to develop in his mind gradually, turning from a mere dream into a feasible, exciting reality with strongly convincing business sense.

It has to be made reachable, doable and sensible to go through with. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, a LOT of details, facts, steps and whatnots need to put into their correct place BEFORE he can actually make the decision to go ahead with the project.

Make no mistake about it: To get that project, you must first help the business owner to make the final decision to go ahead (or to not go ahead) with his project. It starts way BEFORE there IS a project.

Compare this to the normal procedure of waiting for requests for proposals and you see why this niche market simply doesn't exist for most Architects. You can wait all you like... there aren't going to be any RFSs forthcoming from this target audience!

And yet, there's an ABUNDANCE of projects right in your area from those 1-25 businesses whose owners have the dream!

And mind you, it's been proven hundreds of times in real life situations that most of these dreams DO develop into projects... and 99 times out of 100 it's the Architect who helped the business owner BEFORE the project who GETS the project.

That's so much so that even if the business owner asks for proposals from other Architects (which occurs very seldom) and even if their quotes are LOWER than yours... YOU will get the project!

There's just no replacing the TRUST you've built up during the pre-project cooperation. The business owner knows YOU. YOU have become the expert in his project; you are the only Architect in whom he has faith in this, for him, biggest of all projects in his life.

You know it's true. Whenever someone's dealing with the biggest project of his life, he is NOT going to give up the one expert he trusts just to save a few dollars!

How to find, approach and sign on these clients?

To open up this practically endless source of new projects you need to have a marketing concept that's precisely tuned to cause the above-mentioned correct steps in the mind of those qualified prospective clients you'll find within this target audience.

They need to be contacted using just the right message so that those with the DREAM will receive an injection of renewed enthusiasm for it. The dream needs to be revitalized and you have to approach them in a way that won't make them feel obligated.

It takes just the right words.

Next, you need a phase that'll bring the dream into the open. You need to get the business owner talking about it, starting to DEFINE his needs and wishes (project requirements) within HIS TERMINOLOGY and the information / understanding available to him at this stage.

This is a very precise process in form of an interview (done on the phone usually) in which each question has to be just right so his dream expands, his confidence in it increases and his enthusiasm for his vision of future begins to become more and more real.

The next step is to meet with him, preferably on the intended site (if a lot exists) or at his place of business. You then offer him a PRE-PROJECT service — a fact-finding mission combined with some expert help so he can get the information together on which to make his final decision.

There's a very special way to present this service so that you'll get it sold practically EVERY TIME... and usually without actually really SELLING at all.

The service itself took years to find. It needs to be just right, including exactly the correct parts and the final report (and the way you present it) must be done in a specific manner so as to practically GUARANTEE that YOU GET THE PROJECT.

Now, none of this is dishonest or unethical in any way.

You help the client to make the RIGHT decision, whatever that may be for HIM. All the carefully planned steps are there only to ensure that IF it is in his best interests to go ahead with the project then he will have the best possible foundation to make the decision... and, in that case, it'll be almost a certainty that he chooses YOU as the Architect for the project.

The secret behind the high success of this approach is simply that most of those business owners DREAMING about a new building have already amassed the EQUITY to get the financing for the construction project.

But remember. That dream needs sustenance, energy, something to feed on to keep alive. You must nurture his dream, keep it growing by helping him to take each small step at a time and by providing the accurate information, certainty and assurance only an Architect can.

For you to do so — and to obtain the tested and proven toolkit used by hundreds of Architect firms around the world for obtaining new projects from this niche of the market — we have documented the only proven marketing system for Architect firms in regards to these specific projects within the commercial sector.

CLICK HERE to read about Architect Marketing Guidelines (AMG) manual and to see if this could be your starting point onto a continuous flow of new projects!

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