Dear Dakota: When Should I Send An Investment Guide? Before or After the Discovery Call?

Jul 21

It is essential to pre-screen potential clients before jumping onto Discovery Calls - it’s not a wise use of your limited time to take calls with people you know cannot afford your services. So how do you prevent these tire-kickers or bad fit project

Dear Dakota,
When exactly should I send my Investment Guide? Does it come after an Initial Inquiry but before a Discovery Call?
I love the idea of client "pre-qualification" because I've spoken to SO MANY people who do not fit my ideal client avatar; mainly, they have champagne ideas on beer budgets.
Does this mean I should have certain things in my Investment Guide that sort of weed out tire kickers? What would that verbiage look like? Would it be as simple as providing a page outlining sample budget ranges (small, med, lg) I'd work within, or should it be a straightforward statement such as, "Currently accepting clients with starting investments of $10,000," or some such?

It is essential to pre-screen potential clients before jumping onto Discovery Calls or booking Consultations - it’s not a wise use of your limited time to take calls with people you know cannot afford your services. So, how do you prevent these tire-kickers or bad-fit projects from making it through to a call with you?

Send an Investment Guide before you give them the opportunity to book a Discovery Call with you. An Investment Guide, also called a Pricing Guide or Services Guide, is a sales and marketing tool you send to prospective clients to help them understand what it’s like to work with you: not just the investment for working together but also what your process is, how you can help them to reach their project goals, who will support them throughout the project, details about your background, and what sets your company apart. Read more about what to include in your Investment Guide here.

Your Investment Guide should include design fee pricing for the specific services you offer (in more detail than can be found on your website) and can also include a good/better/best cost estimate for furnishings, finishes, and accessories for specific rooms.

If you offer Full Service design where you’ll be customizing the scope of work and design fee based on the project size and details, you can simply list your full service starting price. For example, The investment in our full service design begins at $5,000.

If you offer productized services, like a Design Day service or block of hours, where you are not customizing the scope of work, you can list the price. “The Design Day service is $1,500.”

The whole point of sending an Investment Guide prior to a Discovery Call is to assist your clients in their decision to hire you. Presenting your services and pricing in this professional way takes the burden off of you to personally “sell” yourself and your company during a live discovery call or overwhelm them by listing everything you’ve done, every credential or degree you hold, your design philosophy, your business approach, the nitty gritty details of your 73 step design process, etc. Discovery calls are much easier (and much shorter) when all this information is at the prospect’s fingertips in advance.

The other benefit to sending an Investment Guide before a Discovery Call is that it screens out clients who may not be a good fit for any one of a number of reasons. They may be do-it-yourselfers, may not have a realistic budget in mind, may want things delivered and installed by this Friday, or simply may want to do things on a very economical scale (which is absolutely fine, but may not work for how YOU do business).

When during the inquiry phase should you send your Investment Guide out to the potential interior design client?

Typically, a prospective client will contact you by completing the inquiry form on the contact page of your website. Often the next step is to set up a discovery phone call to further discuss the project. All of this happens before an initial consultation is scheduled, when you may visit the home and/or meet in person with the client.

My recommendation is to send your Investment Guide after the initial inquiry form is submitted and prior to the Discovery Call. If you’re collecting good data on your contact form (read this post to make sure you are), then you should be able to determine right away whether the project is a good fit and if you should send the link to book a Discovery Call right along with your Investment Guide. This way, the potential client has the opportunity to review your process, services, and pricing in the Investment Guide before they actually book the call with you (and potentially waste your time and theirs if they can't afford you, don't like your process, or prefer to shop retail when you only source trade).

Some designers will send this AFTER the Discovery Call, but my thought is you can save so much time on Discovery Calls if you send this in advance — making the calls only 15-20 minutes and much more about connecting and learning about their project, rather than overwhelming them with information about how you work, how much things cost, and how long things take. And, if you need a Discovery Call to convince someone WHY your fee is worth it, perhaps it’s time to take a look at your marketing.

The key is to design an on-brand and professionally written Investment Guide so it’s ready to send to new inquiries right away. Create it once, and let it serve you forever.

Having an asset (your Investment Guide) that provides all the necessary information, describes your services and business processes, and presents your fee structure and project minimums in a straightforward and polished way will set you apart from other businesses in your area. And imagine not feeling like you have to cover all that in a phone call!! PHEW!

If you need help creating an investment guide for your design services, be sure to check out our Client Experience Templates for designers who offer Full Service Design or Design Day services.