How well do you know you?

Are you fully aware of your value – all that you do, have done, and can do? Do you give yourself  credit where credit is due?

Try keeping a “Winner’s Workbook,” a daily log of your accomplishments. 

Record your daily achievements, and you can substantiate your success, justify your fees and boost your self confidence.
 
Tracking your performance  on a laptop, in a journal or elsewhere will help you appreciate yourself.

Account for your actions large and small: each deal sealed, project completed, sale  closed, and goal reached.

Use words that cast the most favorable light on those actions – words like “sold,” “solved,” “reduced,” “developed,” and “created” – and compile an “assist list” of those you help, and how.
 
Your written record will speak for you in good times and bad, selling you even when you feel incapable of selling yourself. Sharing your information will enhance your public image, enable you to overcome objections, and help you promote yourself in a performance review.
 
Document your deeds and you’ll do something your competitors don’t. You’ll take an important first step toward making the most important sale you’ll ever make: the Personal Sale.

Take note of your successes, and then let others know about them. You are, after all, too good to be your own best secret.

How do you turn a good client into a great one?

How do you motivate clients to hire you for multiple and mamoth  residential and commercial projects for enormous amounts of money?

Seems to me a Caribbean cruise is as good a “frequent buyer award” as any.

Passenger 57 rip Something reminded me the other day of my speech on a Caribbean cruise ship on behalf of a leading window covering manufacturer to a group of hotshot designers.

The company rewarded them with week on the water because they surpassed very high  sales quotas.

I recall many of them hanging by the pool, sipping mojitos and mai tais and plotting and planning how they could sell even more of the company’s products.

That would qualify them  for the company’s Mediterranean cruise — and then, ultimately, the around-the-world cruise.

Maybe you’re thinking that kind of incentive program  is a bit “out there” for your business.

I’m thinking, hey, it might be worth a try.

Think of the buzz –and sales– it could create among your big spending clients!

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For more information, click here: http://fredberns.com/Products_PlatinumPackage.html The Dark Half psp

So, you’re in a slump.

Sales are down, bills are piling up, projects are ending, the phone’s not ringing,  contracts are falling through, you’re losing out on bids, the calendar’s empty.

Business stinks, and you’re discouraged. And depressed. And desperate.

Welcome to the down side of design.  It’s no different than any other business, really. Sometimes you get the bear, other times the bear gets you. It’s not fair or fun, but it’s fact.

What you have here isn’t a problem. It’s a test.

 It’s a test of your will, persistence, and courage.

It’s a test that many design professionals fail. They give in to the pressure, give up the struggle and quit.

You have no time for that.

The Grifters psp You have no time –now — to feel sorry for yourself, to compare yourself to others, to regret past mistakes and fear future ones. You have no time — now– for soul searching and pity parties.

This is no time to be a worry wart. It’s time to be a hero.

Those I admire most are not the designers and architects and window fashion professionals and industry partners who were successful from the get-go.

I respect them.

To me, the real heros are those  who rose to the top after rebounding from setbacks, mistakes, lousy breaks,  physical challenges, family problems, financial loss, or any of life’s other hardships.

They fell down. They stood up. They pushed on. And they never, ever gave up.

So what’s it going to take to launch your hero’s journey and break out of your slump?

Time.

This is the time to:

Dig Deep. It’s easy to believe in yourself when you’re at the top of your game. It’s more important  when you’re not.

Determine the Destination.  Decide what it will take to bounce back — and set goals for achieving it.

Start Dialin.’

Oh, God! You Devil movies

   Set aside  an hour each day to call prospects, clients, ex-clients, industry contacts and mentors..

The Legend Trip video Think Fast.  Decide what you can do to create the most immediate income with the least amount of effort

Think Back.  Recall past successes in overcoming obstacles.

Stay  Fit.  Excercising your body frees your mind.

Stay Positive. Motivational  books and tapes can work wonders

Reward Yourself. Treat yourself along the road to recovery. You’re a hero. You deserve it.

Providing good customer service in competitive times like these is not just a good way for design industry partners to do business. It’s the only way.

One reason why: unhappy customers in general — and designers in particular — don’t keep secrets.

• The Legend Trip release

The Strategic Planning Institute reports that:

+ The average upset customer tells nine people about it. One in five will tell more than 20.

Congo movie full + The average business never hears from 96% of its unhappy customers. But 90% of them won’t buy from them again.

+ For every complaint, the average firm has 26 customers with problems.

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+ Of customers with a complaint, 70% will do business with you again if you resolve the problem — and 95% will if you do so quickly.

You’re better off keeping your current clients happy, than chasing after new ones.

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The long term value of each client is more than 100 times the value of a single transaction. And, it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.

Once upon a time, all you had to do was promote your fine design service and product lines and, chances were, you’d live happily ever after.

That was then. This is now.

Oh, God! You Devil dvd Now, everyone does good design, and  offers good products. Dolly Decorator Does. Tommy Trunkslammer does. And, so do big box stores.

Maybe you don’t think so. Maybe I don’t really think so. But lots of people with lots of money and influence do.

If all you do today is market your design services, your kids will become awfully skinny.

Now, more than ever, you have to promote yourself. It’s never been easier to buy elsewhere the design services and products you sell. But there’s one thing others can’t get elsewhere: you.

Want to add power to your personal sale? Then master these  principles taken from the book Sell Yourself! 501 Ways to Get Them to Buy from YOU.

 Self-Promotion Success Principles 

1.     You’re too good to be your own best secret. 

2.     Sell yourself on the idea of selling yourself.  Recognize the value of recognition. 

3.     It’s good to be good. It’s better if others know about it. 

4.     No one else has your ability, background, or skills. You’re one of a kind. Promote yourself accordingly. 

5.     No one can promote you like you.  Promote yourself by yourself. 

6.     You are the marketing director of your own marketing department of your personal corporation. 

7.     Accept credit where credit is due, and promote it once you get it. 

8.     Create magic in your message by tuning into the radio station that all those you seek to influence listen to all the time: WMYD (What Makes You Different?). 

9.     How you promote yourself is less important than that you do it differently. Your

  key to marketing success is to do what competitors don’t.

 10. Good things come to those who Make It, Break It, Take It: make a plan, break the news of their accomplishments and take responsibility over promoting that news. 

11. “If you done done what you say you done done, then saying what you done 
done ain’t braggin.”    Dizzy Dean 

12. Don’t play the Blame Game or the Same Game of marketing. Rather, look in  the mirror and say, “What Is to Be is Up to Me.” 

13. Overcome self-doubt and accentuate your positives, and you’ll become an inner winner — and a powerful self-promoter.

“Got a Life?”

That’s the question I pose to design professionals around the country who tell me about their “around the clock” working schedule.

They’re the ones whose “workday” never ends. They’re still going at it late into the night — and into the weekend.

How can you find time for family, friends and fun when you spend all your time working?

There’s no reason why design professionals should have to put in those kind of hours. I know lots of designers, decorators, window fashion pros, kitchen and bath specialists, industry partners and others who earn big, big money working normal hours.

Or less.

You can, too, if you manage your time more effectively. That means focusing on the 3-5 tasks each day that are most likely to increase your profits. 

It means determining which of your design services will generate the most income in the least amount of time.

And it means reaching out to those clients who can most easily afford those services.

Working too hard for too little? That could mean you…

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Waste your time. You’re “busy,” but you’re not profitable.
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Give away your time. You don’t bill for all of your time, all of the time.

 Charge too little. You don’t attach enough value to what you do.

Look for love in all the wrong places.  You work with clients who can’t afford to pay what you need to earn.

Don’t know your business.  You’re unaware of what brings in the most money.

Don’t control your business. You’re more apt to play “Let’s Make a Deal” than say: “This is how I charge.” 

 Don’t delegate. You don’t call on others to do what’s too menial — or too difficult — for you.

Don’t “maximize” appointments. You’re sacrificing income by not asking enough upselling questions.