Its kind of like a first blind date each time you meet a new client. This is the advice I give myself: 1. Relax and don't put pressure on yourself to perform and be yourself(sound like a date?). 2. Get the client on neutral turf, which is outside, as soon as possible (kind of like going out to a restaurant rather than dinner at her house ... I'm a little uneasy with using the word "client" in this analogy). 3. Have them explain their visions, listen closely, and ask questions when you have them, but don't go too far out of your way to think up questions. Do be active in the discussion. The clients will reveal so much about what they like, don't like, what they do, what they want to do, who else comes around,... Get answers to the questions that pop into your mind. If your subconscience wants an answer to something, it is most likely for a good reason. (this will keep you from talking the wrong politics or religion). 4. Let them know that you want to take in their thoughts first, if they seem to be waiting for you to tell them what to do. (its all about you, baby.) 5. When they have finished explaining their vision you will know so much more about them and their site before getting ahead of yourself. (now you can dance to the same music) 6. Now it is time to explain how you might realize their goals being careful to directly address specifics as they relate to what they told you (either directly or indirectly). This is the critical moment in selling design services. It is when they find out how much you understand them and how comfortable they feel about your interpretation of their vision. You can turn their whole vision upside down and totally reform it as long as you do it because you understand them, the site, and your craft and as long as you are able to make them understand that you do. (you're soul mates now and will follow each other to the ends of the earth) 7. Now sit down with them and show them the portfolio (kind of like showing your stock portfolio and pay stubs). Since you now know a lot about them, you can point out things that you know will be of interest to them as they thumb through the portfolio. This is the reassuring phase where you combine your company's track record and your undertanding of them and their project. (this brings us to the end of the evening - we don't know how it is going to end, but we gave it our best effort to find our 29 points of compatibility) My philosophy that keeps me confident and and stress free: Remember this. You represent a certain balance of values that is defined by the company you work for. The four major ways that they manifest themselses is vision, craftsmanship, volume, and price. Some companies will perform with a higher or lower level of design and layout (vision). They will each have a certain level of craftsmanship. Some will provide a greater or lesser amount of trees, shrubs, hardscape, and/or other physical elements for the same money. Each company places a value on their work such that the same job description has a different price tag on it. The company you represent is at a certain fixed balance of these four things. Wherever that is does not matter in as much as there are clients that match that balance. Each client has their own weighted set of these values as well. You simply can not sell a job to someone whose balance of values do not match up to those that you represent no matter how well you do your job. So do not get rattled when you don't sell a job to someone who is more interested in paying less money for a lesser quality tha someone else is offering, or more interested in the plan that is not as good but has 20 more shrubs in it for the same money, or something else that is beyond your control. Stay confident and focus on what you know and don't worry about what you don't know. Your clients know you have construction people that can put it together. What they want from you is someone who understands them, can organize their site, and apply the aesthetic qualities thay want. Finally, don't have a hangup about "giving away" ideas. All that you can convey verbally are concepts that might be pretty cool, but they are really of little value in that form. What is of great value to a client is someone who has these ideas rather than the ideas themselves. If you guard your vision, you hide your value. You don't sell plans, you sell your ability to process the client, his goals, and the site. The more they know of that ability, the more you are valued. If you babble some good concepts and don't get the work, you have lost nothing. If you do not babble those concepts, you lost an opportunity.

Maryann, in that case I hope you don't have many days that turn out to be PJ days. Sandy, I think that snow is going to miss us. We are light clouds, but the snow is going south of us. Your area has had very much more snow then we have all winter. I thought retirement would become day after day of nothing to do. We seldom have days with nothing going on, but we do enjoy them when we can. We aren't that busy, it just takes longer to do things, and the multi-tasking is mostly single-tasking.

Taigen, she was blessed, as were you with your closeness. There aren't all that many in-laws who can say the same, I'm sure. I hate that part of growing old too. Even when you expect it to happen (our parents) it just doesn't seem fair, and the missing never goes away. ((((Taigen))))))

-Prep sink. This may be useful in a multi-cook household or a huge kitchen, but I hardly ever used the one I had and it was just once more thing to clean. -Garbage disposal. My worms do a much better job, don't take up electricity and never smell or require cleaning. -Fancy multi-function toaster, oven, rotisserie, pizza, etc. Does nothing well. -Trash can with a motion sensor. Everyone I know who has one has them break in under a year. Mine only took 4 months to break. A foot pedal is much more reliable and a lot cheaper to replace. -Stainless steel sink. What a pain to clean. You can call it patina, butafter a while they don't look clean no matter what you do. (The one in my apartment right now looks positively foul no matter how much Barkeeper's Friend you use.) Of course cast iron will eventually chip and I don't know if the granite composite sinks will stand the test of time -Range-top grill. Only pay for these if you have a bodacious vent system and no way to have an outdoor grill. They are better than the George Foreman-like grills but not a patch on a decent outdoor gas grill or charcoal. ---- As for sink tip-outs... since discovering them I have knocked the front panel off every sink in every home I've rented or owned and installed these. In the bathroom they are perfect for the tweezers and nail files and such. In the kitchen, the sponges, scrubbers, stoppers and the toothbrush you use for cleaning around the faucet plate are neatly hidden away but close at hand. Love 'em!