Last week we received a very nice email from a young couple that came for an initial meeting. All it took them were two lines and maybe one minute of writing. How easy is that?
We spend a lot of time with initial meetings, if the meeting needs to be outside of the office it could take up to 3 hours including travel and meeting time. We then prepare a fee proposal, it could take up to 2 hours to have it ready and sent off. It is a lot of hours that we offer free of charge.
The initial meetings are often very informative and an eye opener particularly for young couples unaware of the complexity of the construction process. It is nearly a master class where at the end their brains hurt with so much information.
The young couple sent an email thanking for taking the time to meet with them. This simple gesture is very unusual and it was highly appreciated.
We have lost the count of how many times we have sent a fee proposal and never heard back from people. It hurts.
When did you stop thanking people?
If you ask someone to prepare a quotation for you at least acknowledge the time they spent taking care of you and say THANK YOU. Never mind if you have no intention of proceeding.
Follow the example of the young couple – It is nice to be nice, it is essential to be kind and grateful.
Here are a few sentences you can use. They are all free and quick to execute:
- Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and prepare a fee proposal. We will review and get back to you ASAP.
- Thank you for coming from so far in such a wet and miserable day. We have studied your fee proposal but we feel this is not the right time to proceed.
- Thank you for your fee proposal but we have decided to appoint a different person.
- Thank you for your quotation, we will ask for a pay rise and proceed as soon as we get it. 😀
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