The 3d business | Understanding what it sells / offers

UNDERSTANDING THE 3D BUSINESS

In the 3D business, one of the major changes in the business-to-business executive sales process is to think differently about what you are offering. Generally speaking, most professionals in the industry only offer rendering, animation and similar services, and we are often told what to do and how to do it; how:

"we need 3 renderings from these angles and a 45-second walkthrough animation from here to here."

If you want to scale your business to a different level, you need to start offering solutions instead of just infographics. Start by understanding what you are offering and how your services affect your customer's business. Clearly, you know the basics of your services and, in simple terms, can understand why your customer needs them, but you can always expand your services by providing additional consulting.

It is key for the 3D artist to know what will be the real use of the infographics; maybe it will serve multiple uses, such as public relations, permits, bids, contests, but if you know the real uses, in your particular case, your offer can change and you can become not only an architectural artist, but also someone to consult. Something, which in my opinion, is even more interesting and is something that our clients really need and often don't know about.

Many of our clients give us detailed instructions on what they want. Some know what they are doing, but many do not; we know what we are doing because we have learned over time, that our renderings serve as communication tools, our textures, our shadows, our color treatment and, for animations, our camera paths, our editing and music. Clearly we do this more often than our clients, so we should be able to recommend to them what should be done; a tailor-made solution for each case.

1.) COMMUNICATION SKILLS

In addition to understanding what your offer really is and what it does, the way you communicate it, the words you use, also affect your negotiations.

It is a given that the word " rendering" will come up during a conversation, but we must strongly emphasize other words such as " solution" . The main reason we need this emphasis is that rendering alone does not verbally communicate "success", "problem solved", "better", "improvement" or "achievement"; it is like saying "flat". On the other hand, this other word, " SOLUTION" , communicates all these concepts and also closes the link.

Now you can ask, "What link? What are you talking about?" When you use the word "Solution" you are indirectly communicating that there is a problem, which is true, and with the same word, you are communicating how to solve it, this is a word that explains your case. You can also use other words such as "my/our answer" and "resolution," but in my personal opinion, solution is the most powerful.

Examples:

- What I propose as a solution are 10 renders and a short animation of 1 minute edited in 10 scenes.
- A render with partial transparency to understand the structure and an animation that illustrates the solution of the problem.
- With the information provided a solution is the following: 3 aerial views and...

2.) WRITING: POWER VS. OFFER

In a meeting, the communication of the proposal and the creative solution are directly controlled by the words used to communicate them. Another important note on the use of certain words is the following: it is very important to avoid using the word "may" during conversations, e-mails or letters that relate directly to an offer, or during negotiations or proposals, verbal or written. It is common to read and hear:

"we can do this and that" or "we can render this..."

So, you may be wondering, what does "may" mean? Is this word positive?" It may apparently be, but it is not as positive as we might think; "may" further communicates, "might not," "sometimes," "depending on the case," or "up to a limit." Now rephrase the sentences and use a word with implications of voluntrad such as "offer". I think we can all agree that it is, in fact, stronger and more positive.

What does this have to do with architectural rendering? Well, visual communication is our job, and how well we explain it and how we verbally translate our thoughts are key components to that. The words we use are definitely a part of it.

Examples:

We will offer you good drafts (instead of We can show you good drafts)
We will take your notes for final rendering.
We will increase the quality of the shadow.

Synonyms:

To be able to...
To be able to x...
To solve x... we offer / suggest...

3.) COMMUNICATION: THE BASICS OF EXECUTIVE SALES

Selling to businesses is completely different from selling a product. By now, we have learned that we are interested in providing solutions rather than just an infographic; but we don't just mean that we are selling a solution, we also need to apply basic business-to-business skills. The following represents the behavior and attitude that should be maintained when in a meeting to discuss offerings:

General guidelines:

• Companies need some services that they have to deliver to others; this differs from what happens on a personal level where we do not need many of the products we buy.
• As much as possible, hide your "sales" attitude; a great salesperson is someone who doesn't look like a salesperson. (Some would say you need to act like one to understand how not to act like one).
• Only use strong words, we saw that the word "may" is not completely positive.
• Trust that you already got the project, have confidence in yourself about it.
• Never interrupt; let the customer talk, even if he/she interrupts you.
• Never mention costs, wait to be asked, respond by maintaining eye contact.
• Maintaining eye contact (throughout the meeting) is very important, it communicates that you are someone who can be trusted.
• For meetings, wear semi-formal attire as much as possible, even if your clients are not formal.
• Always provide them with cost savings and improvements; this is part of your solution.
• There is always a project over any budget constraint.

During a call:

Many of us (including myself years ago) are afraid of the phone, especially cold calling. Let me tell you something: you won't build any business if you don't call potential clients; don't expect to be called, discovered or begged for a project, no matter how good your portfolio is. You have to call and call and call. Most calls don't generate work right away, but they are all seeds that you plant and many come to fruition months or even years later.

Remember that business needs business, i.e., it needs your call. You will get used to this with practice, although it goes against most of our core beliefs, and very few people actually enjoy doing it.

At first, you can use a telephone script as a guide, but never read one live over the phone. Detect the 'tone' of your customer's voice; ask yourself if you have time to listen (see general telephone workflow). No phone conversation should last more than 2/3 minutes, unless the customer requests more information.

Think that the people you deal with and your potential clients are usually people with little time, so your call should not be standard, nor should it take up too much of their time unless they ask for it. Sometimes calling not to offer your services but to inquire about the general state of your client's business usually makes a good long term impression and allows you to build a close bond with them.

Never mention the cost, wait to be asked and answer firmly. At the end, and only if the client was receptive and positive: ask if they can give you names of people in other departments and even in other companies.

What can you get from this phone call?

• Identify who in the company may be the right person(s) who will be interested in your services.
• Names, so you can send a portfolio or videos.
• Clues about the company you called and possibly outside that company; most have friends and most will help you.
• Set a day for a presentation, to finally get the order.
• Identify influential personnel and those with purchasing power
• Learn as much as possible from each company.
• Engrave your name or the name of the company in its memory.

During a meeting:

The most important thing in a meeting is to keep it short; most of our clients don't have, or like to think they don't have, time for anything. Show your best work, explain how you work, what you need from them to work on, and be clear about what the possible deliverables are, such as posters, color prints, MP4s, etc. Always hand out your business card so you can receive theirs, and upon receiving theirs, read your name again out loud and maintaining eye contact, this trick, one a friend of mine taught me, works well for learning and remembering names.

Maintain eye contact or, in the case of a group, balance eye contact among those present, don't just look at one person. Any presentation should last no longer than 15 minutes, unless there is notable interest from the group. Never mention the cost, wait to be asked (they will!) and respond quickly, maintaining eye contact, don't look away when doing so!

The idea is to communicate that your services and solutions are seamless and uncomplicated. At the end, depending on how cold or warm the meeting was, ask someone if they can give you additional names at other firms. After the meeting, you can send a quick email about the meeting, keeping it very brief.

• Keep it short
• Show only your best work
• Explain what you need to start a job
• Explain your production, your deliverables
• Turn in your business cards to receive their business cards
• Again, maintain eye contact and balance it.
• Expect "how much does it cost?", don't mention it unless asked.
• Email or contact them as a follow-up to thank them for their time.

Most of these skills are learned automatically by doing them, by practicing them, but a quick reminder helps to identify them when they come up in a meeting. We provide services, that's for sure, but we must move on to providing more than that. Software products are getting better and better and most of our clients have the ability to render; one thing they don't have is the understanding of how to mix these media, how to put them together per project.

Some may need animation, others infographics, and others nothing, the latter is very important, if you see that a client does not need your services too, tell him, in my experience being a good professional and not just a sales agent improves the appreciation of your business and can help that client satisfied by your sincerity to recommend you to other companies.

Our services have the expansion space to offer this type of consulting and, in my opinion, we will start moving in that direction.

Want to know more? Here we leave you:

THE 3D BUSINESS : CONTRACTS AND COPYRIGHT