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5 Ways to Get More Clients From Your Leads

Bring in paying customers by wowing them with these advantages

Houzz Pro

Looking to convert more leads into customers for your design, construction or renovation business? While the concept is easy to understand, it can be difficult to execute successfully, given that you’re likely competing with at least one other firm every time you submit a design proposal or quote for a construction project. And the costs of not being able to convert a lead into a client are twofold: 1) You’ve lost the revenue from the project, and 2) you’ve lost time and effort creating and submitting the quote. So how can you score points with a client and gain the advantage that wins you the project? These five tips can help put the ball in your court.

1. Design to Impress

It’s not always enough to be the best-qualified person for the job; you have to present your plans in a top-notch way. That means you want every client-facing plan, from your initial proposal (if you’re a designer) or quote (if you’re a construction professional) to your floor plans and any other schematics, to be as professional-looking as possible. Typing in a proposal or quote in the body of an email, for instance, won’t cut it! Your proposal should at a minimum include cost estimates for materials, labour, VAT and overhead – but every firm competing for the job will be offering that as well. To take your proposal to the next level and truly impress potential clients, make your proposal a professionally branded and beautiful document, with actual product images and clearly presented information that can be digested at a glance.

Tip: Houzz Pro software lets you clip and save images and product details from any website, which you can then easily drop into your proposals

Also, whether you’re an interior designer or a builder, let the client know about the added value in your presentations to come. Being able to share that you offer designs online and can even take them through a life-sized walkthrough of the floor plan in 3D at no extra cost, will give you a strategic advantage over competitors who don’t offer these things – or who charge extra for them.

“The 3D tool helps us to win jobs, because [prospective clients] can see what they’re going to be paying for, and it helps them move forward with their projects and spend money on upgrades,” says Lindsay Floyd of renovation company Kimber Homes.

2. Tout Convenience

Convenience is a huge selling point, so the more online options you can offer potential clients, the better. Being cloud-based, Houzz Pro lets you offer online approvals of estimates, proposals and designs – along with contracts and even invoices. It “makes contract signing and approvals very easy,” says Blake Eastwood, CEO of renovation firm Entire Home.

For your own convenience, using Houzz Pro’s customer relationship management tool (CRM) means you'll never misplace prospective client info again. You can access your leads from your office or on the go on your phone, which means you’ll be more organised and able to follow up with your leads more quickly and conveniently. Especially with more competitive quotes, the professional who responds most quickly is often the one who wins the project!

3. Talk Up Speed and Accuracy

In this era of same-day deliveries and all kinds of instant gratification, clients expect speedy turnarounds and responses at every stage of a project. If it takes you two or three days to respond to an enquiry or submit a proposal or quote, you might lose a project even if your business is the best qualified for the job. The way to stand out is to show leads how you can respond quickly without sacrificing accuracy. And the key here again is software. For builders, Houzz Pro’s Takeoffs tool is the first step, as it lets you quickly and accurately measure and mark up your plans right onscreen.

“Houzz Pro Takeoffs cut my time spent estimating in half,” says Kory Robison of Robison Home Builders. “It gives me more time to run my business and be with my family.” 

“I really love that tool when it comes down to estimating the plans,” says Diego Meyer of G. Meyer Construction. “I’m able to get everything [done] extremely accurately and quicker.”

You can then easily turn those takeoffs into estimates, and with a click turn estimates into proposals, meaning there will be no lag time – and much less chance for human error. Plus, the Estimate Builder comes pre-populated with a database of materials and services, saving even more time. The software “cuts my research time down a whole lot,” says professional estimator Julie Bowman. 

“I drop the template in, make a couple of edits to it, and have an estimate out to a client in 10 minutes,” says Taghi Shaw of Waze Construction. “I’ve had clients send us measurements that they took – rough measurements – and expect an estimate. Being able to plug that information into our templates really makes things easy for us. I've been able to secure projects just on that fact.”

And the accuracy extends to every part of a project, whether you’re a designer or contractor. “I was doing everything from scratch,” says interior designer Holley Pokora, referring to presenting, tracking, invoicing and more. “There’s too much room to make mistakes, which is a costly lesson to learn. Taking on the software has just ramped up my procurement profitability incredibly.”

4. Commit to Communication

Good communication and transparency are high on clients’ wish lists for the contractors they hire, but it’s all too easy to let good communication and providing details slide because you’re focusing on doing the actual work. So you can gain an edge by affirming your commitment to both of these things. Houzz Pro’s client dashboard is like command central for communications, keeping everything in one place and easily accessible for both you and clients. You can also keep clients in the loop by sharing daily project logs. These logs create a record, make clients feel involved and cared for, and also make things easier for clients because they won’t have to call or text to find out what’s going on with the project. It’s the modern way to communicate, and certainly an added value to mention to your leads. 

“We use the dashboard feature to upload progress pictures daily,” Shaw says. “Clients trust you when things are professional and organised.”

The dashboard also includes a project timeline that lets clients of both designers and builders view where the project is on the timeline at a glance, without having to pick up the phone or send a text or an email to you. “The timeline feature is just amazing,” says Susan Heinz of the Heinz Group, a residential contracting firm. “Clients can see exactly how their project is progressing…. It is really nice that you can get as detailed and granular as you want, with the ability to add notes and schedule specific arrival times.”

5. Track Your Success Rate

Tracking your quote to project ratio – that is, the number of quotes you’ve submitted compared with the number of projects you’ve won  – can allow you to spot trends that have prevented you from winning projects and fix them for the future. It can also help you identify the types of projects that tend to work out for you, so you can target those more in future. In fact, regularly dipping into insights and analytics can help you boost business performance overall!

Houzz Pro

Your new time-saving, client-winning, project-tracking business hub.

Houzz Pro is the all-in-one tool for marketing, project and client management built specifically for renovation, build, and design professionals.

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