Mhm. Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleander Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you can expect real talk with industry friends, community, connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success.
On today's episode, it's a quick one, it's impactful, and I'm going to talk you through the five minute rule to handle client objections. There are three key strategies that I use when something pops up. Either a client has said to me, you know, pushing back on pricing, on timelines, on design choices, which definitely happens, and how you handle those objections.
really represents your business and your professionalism and you do evolve and this is a learned skill and Sometimes I think back to some reactions I might have had in the early days and I'm not that proud of them or they're just a little bit more emotional than I would be today. So let me talk you through Just some rock solid strategies That manage these moments and make it calm and easy and something that you can implement quickly.
This is really, I use words like calm and collected, but it is really all about looking at things objectively. When you run your own business, you're so emotionally connected to that business that every single thing can feel like a personal criticism. And the quickest way to propel your business forward is to separate your ego from your business. And people say that all the time, but it is so true.
When you can realize that what Oleander and Finch design studio delivers is not the same as what Rhiannon thinks or who I am or and it doesn't reflect poorly on me as a person if there's a chink in the armor in my business as we go forward. My first tip for this one is the 24 hour rule. Please do not respond to something that has upset you or that you feel is unjust or that you disagree with in the first 24 hours.
The first thing that I always do is receipt and acknowledge that I have seen the issue at hand. I've seen the complaint, or the objection, and so I will go back and say, Hey, and I'm just going to use a random name, Kelly. Hey Kelly thank you for your email. I will get back to you when I'm back in the studio tomorrow. You make some valid points. Let's chat then. Something along those lines. Very relaxed. It's not a disaster. Everybody has an opinion.
What they're doing with their renovation or their design project is highly emotional for them too. So sometimes you'll notice clients will fire off something that you're like, wow, that was, that came with a tone. So I think templated already where you just insert the name. Hey Stacey, thanks so much for your email. I will pick it up when I'm back in the studio tomorrow. You do make some valid points. Looking forward to chatting to you then. Things like that.
So it's just that same simple, structured template. So that there's no emotion and it doesn't matter what project it is, that is just the response. And what that does, it receipts to the client that yes, I've acknowledged there is an issue or that you have raised something with me. And it gives them a time for when they can expect your response. Now, don't get me wrong.
It is really tempting to immediately defend yourself or offer a solution when a client reaches out about something, any part of the design or any part of the process or method, like the price, the timeline, anything like that. You immediately want to justify it, defend yourself, say, Oh that's not what we originally discussed or. This is how messy situations occur with clients.
So you being the CEO of your business need to be like, okay, if I was going to instruct a staff member, I would say to them, please hold off on that. Let's talk about the best, solution. And it means by the time you actually take a deep breath, we acknowledge and receipt the client's issue with a simple response. Thanks for bringing this up. Let me review it. I'll get back to you tomorrow.
It shows that you're thoughtful and professional, and it gives you 24 hour pause to take the space, to gather your thoughts, to say the four letter words. to whine about it to your husband, to help you rationalize your justice complex. And it means that you're going to approach the solution from a rational place. You've had time to vent and it tells your client that you're taking their concerns seriously. So that brings me to my second strategy is to use third party support.
Run it by a mentor, run it past a colleague, or run it through ChatGPT. I cannot tell you how many times I have said, Hey chat, here's what I've drafted, or here's the main dot points. These are the client's concerns. These are how I want to come back to them about it. Can you write this in a way that takes emotion out of the situation? So you're asking ChatGPT to identify if there's some language or some ways that you maybe have come across.
Patronizing, I definitely am the queen of passive aggressive and I know that sometimes that can come through in that manner when I don't actually intend it. And I love to just run it through a filter, run it through ChatGPT, get some help. I think it's sometimes an underrated filter, ChatGPT. I think we forget to use it. And it doesn't mean that you just went into ChatGPT. You could do this and say, Hey, I'm having this issue. Can you draft a response?
But it does mean that you're getting an outside perspective and you can run that situation past a filter, as I say, and they can also help you see things from a different angle or help you navigate the conversation without being as emotionally reactive as we can sometimes be. So if you don't have a mentor handy, absolutely lean into ChatGPT, but also don't forget your colleagues or other people.
They've probably had a similar situation, like a client who doesn't like a particular design selection or someone who, It can to jump the queue or change their timeline or hasn't gotten back to you Sometimes the projects that we're on can tend to be on the precipice of turning sour and that's a really important time to reach out and get support and ask someone like Oh, how do I word this more politely or professionally and you just want to remove that knee jerk emotional reaction that can hurt
your professional image. Because referrals and repeats are everything in the design industry. My whole design arm of my business runs solely on repeats and referrals and has done for the last 18 months. I don't talk about it in Instagram and yet I'm currently working on four consecutive projects. So it absolutely is really important that we don't let Any of this animosity foster and then we actually get some support. My final mini tip for handling objections would be to leverage data.
So show, don't tell. Use facts to back up your position. If your client is questioning the price, timeline, design decision, your response should always bring in objective data or third party references. For example, if a client says your pricing seems high, explain the rationale by referring to industry standards or your specific demand or experience.
You don't need to over justify this, but in no means do you need to be like, Oh, this is why I do this because I used to charge this and I think that I'm better because of this. I would. literally just refer to specific results you've delivered in the past to get your client the massive transformation that they're paying. And even that could be some things like, look, the last client that I work with saved over 12, 000 in mistakes that I found in the floor plan.
The last client that I worked with was able to recover the full design fees in the savings from the trade account, but the option is always yours. So I'm never really pushy with my clients. I would just say, look, Obviously, interior design is a luxury service. It's not for everyone. You do not have to go ahead with this. This is the right service that I offer if you're ready for it or when you're ready for it.
And these are the reasons that the pricing is what the pricing is and a little bit of data. I think that chat GPT filter could be helpful here too, by you writing down specific results that you've delivered in the past and explaining the rationale behind the pricing or the design decision that you've made and so on, and then throwing it back through chat GPT and saying, Hey, this is my response. make sure that it's delivered really professionally and make a few tweaks that way.
Cause we can, again, get quite defensive and feel like emotional. And you're like, Oh, who are you to question my pricing? And I am really that I'm very guilty of that because I'm like I'm sorry, did the electrician get this same email? Did your builder, do you give them such a hard time? It's because people really struggle to see what interior designers do.
Because a lot of what we do is save you from mistakes and other things that actually you never went down the path of in the first place because you had a professional being able to catch you along the way. Sometimes it also helps to mention that you've discussed your pricing with a third party mentor or someone who's audited your business for professional guidance, which kind of adds credibility.
It means that you're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall, just picking a number and being like no, this is what it costs. It's this has been a really intentional pricing model and the price point that I'm at has come through a lot of research, a lot of trial and error, and I'm very happy that it's. reflects the level of service and deliverables that I will provide you. And that's it. It's a 10 minute episode all about handling client objections. Pause for 24 hours before replying.
Seek third party support, chat GPT, a mentor or colleague, and back your responses with objective facts. This approach helps you avoid heated emotions. It helps you build trust with your clients, and in many cases, it turns objections into opportunities for stronger relationships. It also, every time that you do this and you get a positive outcome, like the email that you've sent has worked really well and the client's back on track and everything is fine, save that as a template.
It is clearly a well communicated email or it's an approach that's really worked for you. So make note of it somewhere. We don't need to reinvent the wheel all the time. If that's something that seems to be working and is really great. Fantastic. Let's save it in our toolkit of templates. Looking forward to chatting to you next Tuesday. That's it for me. Have an amazing weekend. Bye for now. That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears.
Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers. For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www.
oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success. Hey, episode of The Theory of Justice. history