First impressions are often more important than we realise, and that is certainly true for interior design consultancies.

In my opinion, everyone who works for an interior design consultancy should be ready to make great first impressions all the time - whether it be with clients, contractors, colour consultants, or collaborators. London's interior design landscape is extremely competitive, so I always insist that my team focus on outward-facing communications. With this blog posting, I thought I would give a few of my time-tested tips on how to make great meetings happen, from the perspective of an interior design consultancy:

1. Make sure the customer is the top priority. London has so many great interior design consultancies that everyone has to work hard these days to win business. My team and I always pay attention to detail in order to ensure that clients are 100% satisfied with everything we do.

2. Know your client. When a new potential customer calls our interior design consultancy, often the first person they speak with is our office manager or one of my assistants. We have a list of basic questions to ask, just so we can better understand and anticipate potential needs. For example, my office manager will often ask whether the request pertains to a property inside London or outside London. Also, he will ask how the potential client found out about our interior design consultancy so that we can monitor the effectiveness of our various advertising and word-of-mouth marketing strategies.

3. Take good notes during every meeting. Often I will have an assistant accompany me to first meetings so that we can represent the interior design consultancy together. This is especially doable for local London meetings. My assistant will normally spend most of the meeting just taking comprehensive notes from the conversation so that I can refer back when we return to the office.

4. Go into every meeting knowing what you want to get out of it. For every meeting - whether I am representing our interior design consultancy or not - I always prepare a shortlist in my head of objectives and desired outcomes. In a relaxed but professional manner, I try to move closer toward these objectives if the conversation goes in the right direction.

5. Always suggest and encourage follow-up. Many interior design consultancies in London today offer free initial consultations, but clients who are sufficiently engaged will often need to talk in more detail during a second meeting. I always have a mental picture of my schedule for the upcoming few days so that I can respond in the affirmative if and when a client asks for follow-up.

6. Be responsive to people saying "no." Sometimes there just isn’t a good fit between the capabilities/interests of an interior design consultancy and a given client. In such cases, I find it is best for all parties concerned to respectfully thank one another for their interest and then proceed to other prospects/opportunities.