Quadrant

Okay, so we are going to cover the quadrant now. This is part of how you communicate your value and it is a tool that you can use effectively. By the end of this, I want you to be able to influence the buying criteria of your ideal clients. The key point here is that the quadrant is great for imposing your criteria on a market.

There is an assumption that most buyers do not have a fixed buying criteria in place. Often, buyers don't really know what their buying criteria are or are very influenceable. The quadrant is a great tool for that. Particularly if you're dealing with a group, you can use this one-on-one, but the best one-on-one tool would be the Design DNA. This is another tool within this value section, which is great for eliciting the individual client's buying criteria, even if they are not sure themselves. The quadrant is good for imposing a buying criteria on someone or a group, while the Design DNA is great for uncovering their criteria.

It's great to know both of them and I'd love for you to be really good at using both. I am going to give you an example you may have seen before. I created a buying quadrant some years ago and have been using it for about seven years, almost everywhere.

The process I use often starts by asking a few questions. Where are you on the scale of designers? Are you a lousy designer or a great designer? Most people will tell me they're about a 7 or an 8. Then I ask, what about your fees over the last two years? From 10 being fantastic fees down to 0, most will tell me about 4. What about your projects over the last two years? 10 being dream projects and 0 being terrible, where are you?

A lot of people will say they're about 4. And I say, "Okay, but you know, you're an 8 out of 10 designer. Shouldn't your projects and fees be up around 8?" They usually agree. Even just by asking those questions, once they've seen this and answered those questions, their buying criteria start to be shaped. They're thinking they need more fees and better projects.

To convert that into a quadrant, I use two axes: lousy projects and great projects on one axis, lousy fees and great fees on the other. I come up with names for each quadrant and a bit of a story. I wrote a book called "Archville," which talks about all the different quadrants you could be in. Sunshine Island is the best one to be in. Someone would want to move up to Sunshine Island.

To move someone up, we need to learn how to communicate higher value and work on better and bigger projects.

Where would I use this quadrant? I use it one-on-one when talking to people, when selling the Six program. I use it in blogs and on our website. It's a foundational way I communicate because I want higher fees and better projects to be the criteria our clients are looking for, as those are the ones we can help them with.

When you, as an architect, look at different options, many people sell coaching services to architects, but most focus on different things. They might be about systems and scaling a business with processes. That's not what we do. We help people win better projects and get better fees. By creating the quadrant and asking questions, it steers people to what we offer.

Here are the seven steps I've broken it into:

1. List all possible desired outcomes for clients.
2. Choose two where you have a competitive advantage or can influence/help.
3. Create your quadrant.
4. Label your quadrant.
5. Ask leading questions.
6. Confirm the criteria with them by asking questions.
7. Prove it.

I will break these seven steps down using the Sunshine Island quadrant and provide examples for residential and commercial properties.

In the Archville example, we listed desired outcomes and identified better projects and higher fees as the top two. I chose those two, created the quadrant with high fees/low fees and drab projects/dream projects. I labeled the quadrants creatively as Sunshine Island, the new quarter, the old quarter, and the artist quarter.

Most people want to be in the high fees and dream projects quadrant. By turning these ideas into a visual picture, it solidifies the criteria in their minds. Drawing it out with pen and paper can be very effective.

Then, ask leading questions: How good are you as an architect out of 10? How good have your projects and income been? Is there a gap? How do you feel about the gap? This opens a useful conversation, confirming that improving projects and increasing income is important to them.

To prove it, provide testimonials, demonstrations, or a test drive. For example, here's research on healthy home design or a track record of increasing property value. Use independent third-party research if necessary.

For a residential example, list all possible desired outcomes and choose two, such as return on investment and healthy homes. Create the quadrant with healthy/unhealthy and lose money/make money axes. Label the quadrants literally or creatively, then ask leading questions and confirm the criteria. Prove it with supporting documentation.

For a commercial example, list desired outcomes and choose criteria like staff retention and return on investment. Draw the quadrant and label it. Ask leading questions about the importance of staff retention and the value of the new space. Confirm the criteria and prove it with research and evidence.

The quadrant is a tool for communicating your value and establishing what the value should be in the client's mind. It's a good, fast way of imposing your values on a person or market. Use it in podcasts, articles, websites, interviews, and educational videos. If you want to help someone find their values without imposing them, use the Design DNA process.

I hope this is useful. It's not difficult; just go through the steps a few times to get the hang of it. The quadrant is a tool for communicating your value and establishing client buying criteria.

Good luck with the quadrant! Remember, it's just a tool for communicating your value and establishing the value in your client's mind.