Okay, to be perfectly honest, I have been accused of practicing the art of “embellishment” in more ways than through my firm’s designs. No matter what career path you choose, we are ALL essentially salespeople. Sales is what fuels your business. Without a good sales team, your product or service won’t reach your market. In my 2nd post about Trammell Crow and the Anatole Hotel, I mentioned that I was lucky to get an appointment with him. Well, that wasn’t the entire story….the impetus for him readily agreeing to meet me is that I inferred in my letter to him that I had “already pulled together concepts and themes for the seven restaurants in his new hotel.” When his office called to arrange the meeting and said “Mr. Crow is anxious to see your ideas”. I had some catching up to do! A couple of late nights pulling together themes and sketches and samples, and off I went to the meeting.
At some point the reality of being responsible for bringing in more work to keep my young firm busy and financially feasible kicked in. Although we were hard at work on the Anatole project at this point, it was imperative to keep the pipeline of new work flowing. A big mistake I see young companies make is their linear thinking. They work so hard on perfecting a project, and neglect to develop new business along the way. You cannot wait until your current projects are complete, and then start shaking the bushes for new work. In the hospitality industry, projects move through several phases before design begins. Often, you can be awarded a project, but not begin design (and thus billing) until permits and financing are complete. There are countless “hurry up and wait” scenarios in the design industries.
Once word spread that we were working on the Anatole, a global hotel company contacted us. It was indeed flattering that our reputation was taking off. They asked about the possibility of our bidding on a project on the east coast, with additional projects soon to follow, and wondered if we had the staff to take on more work. I had a stack of quality resumes on my desk and knew that I could staff up quickly if we got more projects, so I glibly replied that we were staffed and ready. Imagine my surprise when they announced a site visit to our office to confirm our capabilities?! I didn’t have the money to hire those people until I secured the contract. It was the proverbial ‘chicken and egg’ scenario playing out in real time. Creative salesmanship was required! I “borrowed” the adjacent vacant office space from an understanding landlord, painted our name on the door, rented 8 more drafting tables and chairs, placed telephones on each desk (although they weren’t connected to service) along with drafting supplies, and told 8 friends if they would come sit at those drafting tables during the tour, I would buy them cocktails and dinner. Some people might think this story dishonest, but I maintain it was a case of “telling the truth in advance”. I knew we could handle those projects, and that I could hire the architects and designers I needed, but I needed the commitment of the projects. It all worked out (thank goodness those hotel executives didn’t ask to use one of the dead phones), we landed the contracts, and we were on our way! Years later, I admitted my ruse to the hotel executives, after we had successfully collaborated on many projects, and they got a BIG kick out of it!
From my perspective, these memories aptly illustrate two of my favorite adages from my overflowing folder of proverbs, sayings and inspirational quotes:
1. ACTION is the key to success
2. TRUST your gut instinct
