161: Communicating Your Value as an Architect Part 2

Are you being compensated both in recognition and money for the enormous value you bring to the table as an architect? Do your clients clearly recognize your value? Can they articulate it? Can YOU articulate it?  Often there is a misalignment between the perception of us as architects and our clients in terms of the value of our services.  It is a basic question, our services are valuable, but how valuable? And how much of that value are you capturing? It isn’t uncommon for design professionals to have their fees questioned and examined by clients, be price-shopped, and compete with other firms on fee alone. This creates a working pressure that decreases the quality of work and creative innovation, not to mention stress and business problems for practitioners. Ultimately, any commercial transaction is a transaction of value. Each party exchanges something of value for something they value more. Often, we think of value exchange in terms of money, but money is merely a representation of value, not value itself.  Money has no inherent value, only the perception of value. This reasoning informs how to position, describe and value architectural services. When we understand this, we realize that value is not a fixed construct, but it is something that can be molded, influenced and shaped. Today we continue the conversation from last week on how to communicate the value of architecture.