I'm not really suggesting that they should pay for preliminary design work.
I recognize that that can be a powerful sales tool, Especially given your facility would sketch up.
However, none of us think it's appropriate for your competitor to benefit from your sales efforts in design. In the moral world he should at the very least be offering to compensate you for your design time in the event that he wins the job away from you, by virtue of having a bigger humdinger or fancier office, or whatever turns their heads.
Years ago Tedd Benson and Jeff Arvin helped the Business Council write what I think is a really nice code of conduct, and you should be able to find it on their website. timberframe.org
It might be a good thing to hand out to prospective clients on their first visit when you belong to the TFBC or not.
