What your client is thinking after they pay your first invoice

Imagine you've just signed a fee proposal with an interior designer for a renovation project you're about to spend $3 million on.

You've likely spent weeks deciding who to work with and may have even met with a few different designers.

Eventually you decide this designer is the one and sign their fee proposal, committing you to $120K in fees throughout the project.

Not long after you sign, the first invoice arrives. It's for $20K to commence Phase 1. You pay it and sign their contract.

A large amount of money has now left your bank account and you're waiting to see what happens next.

That's the client side of what's going on. Now let's look at your side (as the designer).

Everything might be going great. You've won the project, got the first payment and have started getting on with the work. You're reviewing the drawings, organising your project files, booking a site measure and getting your head around the project. But your client can't see any of that!!!

All they know is they just sent you $20K and so far nothing has happened.

This is the point in a sale where a client is the most excited they are ever going to be to work with you. What happens next can either reinforce that excitement or start creating buyer's remorse almost immediately.

So as soon as the client has paid you, they should start to see something happening. They need evidence that they've entered a professionally run process and that their project is now underway.