Worksheet

Speaker 1:

Right, so we're going through step number six, the LCC. Now, really you've covered the LCC in phase one, going through the seven steps, but in the vein of consistency I'm going to create a little worksheet for you and take you through the LCC, so you've got a little worksheet as well. Okay, so let's just do a quick million dollar message for the LCC. The high value problem, the expensive problem that you're probably facing is that you have long sales process that requires the architect or you working for free to provide a quote. So, a big build up with you running round doing lots of site visits and giving ideas and maybe sketches; that's an expensive problem. Right. The high value result is you will... pre-design service. You'll create a pre-design service where you get paid for the work you used to do for free without having to sell, even if everyone else in your area will do the work for free. It's all right; we've got the tools and the resources and the scripts where you can overcome all that.

Speaker 1:

It'll typically take... Look, it will take you a week to set up. It really doesn't take long at all. There are seven steps which you've already been through. The secret weapon; one of them, is the incoming call script and the video. They are the tools that you have. The secret sauce or the method is the LCC method. So, before; what does life look like before you've got an LCC? Well, you might be turning up for site visits and having your brains picked. Clients wanting you to do sketches, asking you for a whole lot of information and then the client hires another cheaper designer or a drafts person, or gets the builder to do it or, heaven forbid, does it themselves. That's what life could look like before. After? You only meet with them at your office or location. In this meeting, there's no advice given prior to them ordering and paying for an LCC, so therefore you get paid and valued for the work that you used to do for free.

Speaker 1:

They respect you more, you respect yourself more, and your business... I mean, you get a profit hit from doing these LCCs but they also guarantee... There's a whole lot of stuff I could but in the after, but you're guaranteed... pretty much guaranteed the project. If you sign them up for an LCC, the project is usually yours to learn... to lose. So, we help turn... or not we but the LCC method, helps turn architects or designers who are frustrated doing too much free work with no work... no guarantee of a project, go from being the humble servant working for free, to getting paid prior to design for advice that leads to a better project, within seven steps using the LCC method, without having to reduce your fees. Even if you think you can not do it, you can still do it.

Speaker 1:

You've got the video, you've got the incoming call script, you've got the LCC method. It works very nicely. It works in all the places where other architects running around doing stuff for free. In some respect, the clients respect you more, and in some respects the clients prefer to pay someone because they get a big embarrassed having an architect go away and do all this work where they feel obliged to them, and they don't really want to feel obliged, they want the information. They'd rather pay them 1,500 or 2,500 to get some information and not feel that they're using the architect. A lot of these people are doctors, lawyers, professionals. They're used to charging for going and doing research and work, and they feel more comfortable paying you to do it as well. All right?

Speaker 1:

So, here's the worksheet here. Reasonably simple, and let's go through it. Let's come up with an example. This one, let's say someone's targeting aging in place for an LCC. The name of the LCC is going to be the Needs and Options Review. The expensive option for this client, who, let's say it's an elderly couple, is whether to go into a rest home or an old person's home at $50,000 a year, or whether to stay at home where they don't really think they can. It's getting harder to live at home, there might be steps and they've got that sort of problem. Okay. The high value result is, "Actually, we're going to do an LCC for you, we're going to see if we can save you money and give you higher comfort by living at home but we're going to outline the options for you." That's valuable. "So, the process. We have a meeting, I go away and do some research and then I come back, we have a second meeting and I present a document to you and outline all your options for you and your home."

Speaker 1:

Price for it; 2,500. The promise is we'll give you the best options for you to choose. Right. And then a client story. It's always good to have a client story. So, in this case my client said they thought they had to go away into a home. They didn't want to, they were scared and worried that they'd lose their friends and disconnect from their family. They met with Richard to discuss new options and then I was able to show them... Now, I'm not an architect, I'm making this up, right? But this fictitious architect, Richard, showed them how, by staying at home, it was going to be a lot cheaper. And if you think about $50,000 a year to stay in a retirement home, and actually after six years... Even if you're going to do a $300,000 renovation, in six years you've paid for it.

Speaker 1:

But, actually, $300,000 goes into improving the home, so if you have... Let's say you have a $700,000 home and you spend 300 improving it, then the home, if I design it right, should be worth a million, because we're doing $300,000 worth of improvements. Then actually you keep the money, the money stays in your family. So you've either got the option of using 300,000 to improve your property or giving at least 300,000 to the children of the owner for the rest home. So you're better off to keep the money in your family by renovating your own home. Increase the value of it, keep your money in your family, don't go fretting it away to someone else's family, okay? So, those are the considerations to think of when you're coming up with an LCC.

Speaker 1:

Of course the training is very specific. You get given a whole lot of things; letters, examples, that you can use. Deon's letter. Deon Gosling's letter is a good example of adapting the incoming call script, and you can just take that stuff and use it. But these are some of the things that you should consider, so I hope that helps.