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See where the firm loses

Method and technology for architecture firms

Your firm loses projects every day.

It loses them when clients can’t find the firm, when a message waits until the next day, when a proposal goes out with no follow-up and when a build ends without anyone asking for a referral. Convium implements CroquiFlow™, a six-step method to win more projects.

See where my firm loses projects Discover the method →

Eleven quick questions, about 2 minutes. The result appears on screen, no sign-up.

Where projects slip away

Good design doesn’t sell itself.

The loss starts before the first message, when clients look for the firm and can’t find it, and continues after it. There are five points along the way, and each one can be fixed.

CROQUI
The client’s path in six rooms, one for each CroquiFlow step. The marked ones are the five where projects slip away the most.

  1. The client who searched and couldn’t find the firm

    People who search for an architect on Google don’t find the firm. People who get its name through a referral look it up on Instagram, can’t tell how it works and call someone else.

    In a survey of US professional services firms, architecture included, more than half of the respondents (51.9%) had ruled out a referred provider before talking to them. The most cited reason was not understanding how the firm could help (Hinge Research Institute, 2015).

  2. The 10 p.m. message, answered the next day

    An inquiry arrives for a 400 m² house. The reply goes out the next day, after two meetings. By then, the client has already talked to another firm.

    In a study of 2,241 US companies, those that replied took 42 hours on average, and those that replied within the first hour were about 7 times more likely to reach a conversation with a decision-maker (Harvard Business Review, 2011).

  3. The proposal sent with no follow-up date

    Nobody agreed on when to follow up. The client doesn’t reply, the firm waits, and three weeks later the inquiry becomes “the client disappeared.”

    In an analysis of 3.5 million leads from US companies, half received a single follow-up attempt, and 93% of those who closed were reached by the sixth (Velocify, 2013).

  4. The curious contact who only wanted the price

    A contact asks for the price before understanding the project. A partner spends an hour with them, sends the proposal and never hears back. That hour came out of the project of someone who is already a client.

  5. The build handed over without a referral request

    The build ends well and the client says thank you. Nobody asks for a referral, and the next project comes whenever it comes.

    In a survey of US professional services firms, architecture included, among the clients who had never referred their provider, the most cited reason, given by 72% of them, was that nobody had asked them for a referral (Hinge Research Institute, 2015).

The assessment shows which of these points weigh on your firm and how much they may be worth per year, with your own numbers.

See where my firm loses projects

What firms usually try

Each stand-alone fix solves one piece of the path.

  • An ad agency

    Brings new contacts. The path after the first message stays the same.

  • Answering at night, after hours

    The inquiry gets an answer, and the partner pays for it with their rest.

  • An assistant on WhatsApp

    Answers fast during business hours. The proposal still depends on someone’s memory.

  • Spreadsheets and phone reminders

    Work as long as someone remembers to open them.

  • Software to organize contacts

    Keeps the history. The routine still needs someone to make it happen.

  • A course or consultancy that teaches

    The firm learns. The execution falls on a team that already has no time.

What works is the whole path: the firm found by people who search, every inquiry answered within minutes, every proposal with a follow-up date, the partners’ calendar protected, the client kept informed during construction, the referral asked for at the right moment and someone from outside measuring and adjusting every month.

The method

CroquiFlow™From the first conversation to the next referral.

A method created by Convium exclusively for architecture firms.

01 / 06

Active Capture

Referrals remain the best door; the risk is depending on them alone. The firm opens other doors, such as its Google Business Profile and a website with its portfolio. People who search for an architect on Google have usually already decided to hire and are in a hurry; people who arrive through Instagram are drawn in by a project and are still getting to know the firm. On WhatsApp, the conversation starts knowing where each person came from: those in a hurry get a time slot right away, and those still getting to know the firm receive the portfolio and the answers they are looking for.

TodayNew projects arrive when someone refers the firm. In a month with no referrals, the team waits for work, and payroll goes out all the same.

In Brazil, only 11% of architects use a portfolio website to win clients (CAU/BR and Datafolha, 2019). In professional services, visits from Google search turn into inquiries about 5 times more often than visits from social media (Ruler Analytics, 2026, data mostly from the UK).

02 / 06

Response in Minutes

Every inquiry gets an answer within minutes, in the firm’s own voice, at night and on weekends too. The conversation about the project continues with someone from the firm.

TodayThe 10 p.m. message gets answered the next day, between one job site and the next.

03 / 06

Guided Offer

The proposal goes out in minutes, built from the firm’s fee schedule and the details of the inquiry, on a template the firm’s owner approved in advance. Every proposal sent gets a follow-up date and an owner.

TodayThe proposal takes days to go out, and the follow-up depends on someone’s memory.

04 / 06

BANT Qualification

Before the meeting, the firm confirms the four BANT points: Budget, Authority (who decides), Need and Timeline. People who are only researching prices get a courteous reply, and the partners’ calendar is kept for those who want to sign.

TodayMany people ask for a price out of curiosity and never come back. Each of those meetings costs an hour of whoever handles it, often a partner’s.

05 / 06

Construction Updates

The client gets news of the build at the agreed milestones, without having to chase the firm.

TodayThe client calls to ask about the build, and the team interrupts the project at hand to answer.

In the US, 27% of people who renovated or built had trouble getting clear information during the design phase, and 23% during construction (Houzz, 2022).

06 / 06

Invited Referrals

Referrals grow out of the relationship. After construction, the firm stays present: the client’s birthday, one year since the build was finished, an invitation for coffee. When someone close asks for an architect’s name, the firm is the first one remembered, and the referral request happens at the right moment.

TodayThe build ends and contact fades. Referrals depend on the client remembering the firm on their own, right when someone asks.

The method is open on this page. Knowing what to install is the work.

Before installing any step, Convium diagnoses the firm: which steps are missing, which already work and in what order to act. Sometimes one step solves it. Sometimes what is missing comes before the method, such as a steady flow of inquiries or cash to invest, and the diagnosis says so frankly.

During implementation, Convium does what doesn’t fit on a page: the messages in your firm’s voice, the screening calibrated to your client profile and month-by-month follow-up, with the numbers on the table.

What doesn’t change at your firm

  • The conversation about the project is always with someone from your firm.
  • No text goes to your client without your approval.
  • Technology, artificial intelligence included, works behind the scenes: it answers, reminds and organizes.
  • Your fees never appear in public.
  • Your clients’ data stays protected and serves only your firm.

Free assessment

The floor plan of your firm in two minutes.

Eleven quick questions about how inquiries arrive and are handled. The result appears on screen: the rooms where projects slip away, an estimate as a range and where to start.

  • Uses the numbers you already have, even rough ones.
  • Doesn’t ask for access to any account or for your clients’ data.
  • Shows the math in the open, with the assumptions and the sources.
  • Your answers stay on your device until you decide to send them.
See where my firm loses projects

Sample result

CROQUILEAKS HERE

Leaks here Attention On track

Sample. Each room is a step of the method; the one marked “leaks here” is where the firm loses the most projects and where to start.

How it works

From the assessment to the follow-up every month.

First the diagnosis, then implementing only what the firm needs, and follow-up every month. Never billed by the hour. During implementation, the order follows a simple rule: first close the points where projects slip away, then structure the rest.

Before anything · 2 minutes

Free assessment

On the website, no sign-up. Shows where the firm loses projects and how much that may be worth per year.

First step

Conversation

To understand how the firm receives and signs projects today, and to see whether the diagnosis makes sense.

Before implementation

Diagnosis and proposal

Convium gathers the numbers and shows which steps are missing, in what order and how much the problem costs today. The proposal comes in writing, with only what the firm needs.

Weeks 1 and 2

Replies and follow-ups running

The fastest gain comes first: every inquiry answered within minutes and every proposal with a next step and a date.

Weeks 2 to 4

Proposals, screening and capture

Proposals built from the fee schedule, screening of inquiries and the firm’s capture page.

Weeks 4 to 6

Fine-tuning with real data

Messages and routines adjusted to what happened in the first weeks, and the first annotated report.

By week 6

Construction and referrals, when they apply

Construction milestones reported to the client, and a referral request at the handover of the build or the design.

Every month

Follow-up

An annotated report, a meeting with the partners and the next point to improve, chosen by the numbers.

Implementation takes 21 to 30 business days, depending on the steps the firm installs, and fine-tuning with real data continues until the sixth week.

What Convium handles

  • Diagnosis and order of priority
  • The CroquiFlow system, which alerts, reminds and organizes each step, included in the monthly follow-up
  • Setting up the firm’s client service and routines in the system
  • An annotated monthly report and adjustments to the routines
  • Answering the team’s questions about using it

What the firm handles

  • Bringing the numbers and granting access
  • Approving messages, proposals and texts
  • Talking to the client about the project
  • Following up on the proposal on the agreed date

Commitment

What is agreed is put in writing.

Guarantee clause

If the system doesn’t work as agreed, the implementation fee is refunded.

What is agreed is put in writing before starting: the steps installed, the timeline, what Convium delivers and what the firm does. Convium is accountable for the delivery. Signing each project also depends on the firm’s client service, and that is in the same contract.

Implementation and monthly follow-up, never billed by the hour. The implementation price starts from what the fix can bring to the firm. In the diagnosis, Convium uses your numbers to calculate how much the weak steps cost today and how much can be recovered, with a conservative assumption. The proposal comes in writing, with only the steps that are needed.

Who it’s for

Firms that already have inquiries coming in and lose track of some.

It’s for firms that

  • have a team and receive inquiries every week
  • lose track of some inquiries that arrive through referrals and Instagram
  • have a fee schedule or can put one together
  • feel the partners’ time going to people who weren’t a fit
  • share their numbers and keep one meeting a month

Not yet for firms that

  • want a robot serving the client instead of the firm
  • don’t receive inquiries every week yet
  • compare only on the price of a piece of software
  • would rather nobody from outside saw the operation

About Convium

About Convium

en·fi·ladenoun

A suite of rooms with their doorways aligned on the same axis, so you can see from one to the next. It is Convium’s symbol: two doors in sequence. The outer one is the first conversation; the inner one, the signed project. The path between the two is CroquiFlow.

the path · CroquiFlow1st doorfirst conversation2nd doorsigned project

Convium is a method and technology company for architecture firms. It created CroquiFlow, a method made for this audience alone, and installs along with it the system that keeps it running: the reply, the proposal, the construction updates and the referral request, each with a routine and an owner. The design, the client service and the decisions stay with your firm.

The name comes from the trivium and the quadrivium, the paths of the seven liberal arts of classical education. Con, from conversion and converge. Vium, from ways. Convium works only with architecture firms, a few at a time, because each implementation is followed closely.

The point where paths converge.

Convium Consultoria de Tecnologia da Informação Ltda CNPJ 69.288.092/0001-53 contato@convium.com.br · @convium.arq · LinkedIn

Questions

What firms say first.

We already have an assistant who answers.

Your assistant stays. CroquiFlow gives the team a clear path: what to answer first, when to hand the inquiry to a partner and when to follow up on each proposal.

After hours, the first reply goes out through the system, with text approved by the firm. The conversation about the project stays with whoever already handles it.

I don’t want a robot talking to my client.

Neither do we. The conversation about the project is always with someone from your firm. Technology works behind the scenes: it alerts, reminds, organizes and prepares the proposal. When artificial intelligence is part of the process, it stays in that background role.

The texts sent by the system are written with the firm, in its own voice, and approved before they reach any client.

Architects aren’t salespeople.

And they don’t need to become salespeople. CroquiFlow takes the work of remembering, chasing and following up off the partners’ plate. The decision-makers step in where they make a difference: in the briefing and in presenting the proposal. The rest of the path has a routine and an owner.

Our clients come through referrals.

Referrals remain the firm’s best door. The method takes care of them at both ends: whoever arrives through a referral gets an answer within minutes, and the relationship after construction keeps the firm top of mind when someone asks for an architect’s name.

We don’t have time to implement this.

The implementation was designed for people who spend the day on projects and job sites. Convium does the setup. The firm takes part in two meetings, one for the briefing and one for validation, grants access and approves the texts.

Replies within minutes and follow-ups with a date start working in the first two weeks.

We tried a system before and nobody used it.

A system on its own depends on someone remembering to open it. In CroquiFlow, the routine comes before the tool: each step has a trigger and an owner, and Convium checks every month that the routine is holding up. Whatever isn’t being used becomes an adjustment in that month’s report.

We want to know how much it costs.

There are two parts: the implementation, paid once, and the monthly follow-up, which combines the technology and the consulting. Never by the hour.

The implementation price starts from what the fix can bring to the firm: in the diagnosis, Convium calculates how much the weak steps cost today and how much can be recovered, with a conservative assumption. The proposal comes in writing, with only the steps that are needed. The implementation comes with a guarantee: if the system doesn’t work as agreed, it is refunded.

What about our clients’ data?

It stays protected and serves only your firm’s client service, in line with LGPD, Brazil’s data protection law. The rules are in the contract, and the team learns how to use the data during implementation.

In the website’s assessment, your answers stay on your device until you decide to send them.

Free assessment

Every project opens the next.

Start with the assessment: in about 2 minutes, you see where your firm loses projects and how much that may be worth per year. The result appears right away, with the math in the open.

See where my firm loses projects I’d rather talk directly →

No sign-up to see the result. Nothing leaves your device unless you ask.