There’s no better time than now to abandon habits that hinder more than help you.

Want to be more profitable? Then STOP…

+ selling only “stuff.” Clients can get nice cabinets elsewhere, but they can’t get you elsewhere.

Promote your service and yourself.

The most important sale you’ll ever make is the personal one.

+ qualifying. Why waste time – yours and your prospect’s – asking questions that you hope will determine if they can afford you?

Inform them, instead, that they should look elsewhere if they’re seeking the cheapest fabrics or furniture.

But they should hire you if they’d like to work with, say, a home automation specialist with 20 years experience serving a variety of clients with a variety of budgets.

+ asking about “budget.” Prospects don’t have one.

They don’t have a clue what design professionals do, or how they work, so how can you expect them to have a realistic idea about what they want to spend on your service?

Focus instead on their wants, needs and priorities, then let them know your cost for fulfilling them. That will help them determine how they’ll invest their money.

+ closing deals. Your goal, instead, should be to open long term relationships.

Your best customers are your current ones. It’s easier, and more lucrative to do repeat business with a few good clients, then to close single sales with lots of individual customers.

+ resisting price objections. View them as opportunities rather than obstacles. They enable you to differentiate yourself from competitors who charge less.

And, they’re buying signals. Studies show your chances of closing a sale are substantially higher when price objections are raised.

+ apologizing for your price. You’re a unique, one-of-a-kind design professional who saves clients money, time and headaches. You should be compensated accordingly.

Fred Berns offers personal coaching services for interior designers and design industry partners worldwide.

When designers want what you sell, do they come to you first to get it?

If so, Sweet! If not, why not?

Is it because they don’t “get” what makes you special?

Is it because your marketing strategies are dated and your website’s wimpy?

If your promotion efforts aren’t what they could be — or should be — don’t blame the Economy.

Some of the most effective IP marketing strategies cost the least.

Some cost nothing at all.

A surprising number of vendors and suppliers are doing million dollar marketing on a shoestring budget. I can help you become one of them.

I can share with you dozens of high impact, low cost marketing strategies that I’ve uncovered during my months of interviews with top industry partners.

And I can help you identify and implement the strategies which are best for you.

If you’re interested in making lots more sales for fewer marketing dollars, you’ll be interested in my Coach Call program.

For details and scheduling information contact me at: Fred@FredBerns.com, or 303-589-3013. 

Fred Berns helps interior design industry partners connect more effectively with and increase sales to design professionals.

That’s my takeaway from dozens of interviews in recent weeks with manufacturing executives, showroom personnel, sales reps and others desperately seeking to boost sales to designers.

Many IPs still try to connect with design pros by hosting private and industry events.

But too often they find their designer clients out of sight and, in some cases, out of business.

Designer turnout at several of these events has been dismal.  Lackluster registration last month forced a major ASID chapter to cancel its annual Festival of Trades event at which IPs show off their products and services.

Some IPs are losing patience.

“We do events,  and sponsor CEUs and lunches that are sparsely-attended,” laments the owner of a flooring company in the Southwest. “Designers don’t seem to be very loyal to the people supporting them.”

Getting in front of design professionals has become especially difficult, according to some IPs.

“Our biggest challenge today is getting 1-on-1 face time with designers,” says Jackie Jordan, a national spokesperson for Sherwin-Williams. “It’s especially tough reaching residential designers who work out of their home.”

Finding ways to establish “top of the mind awareness” is more difficult  in this crowded marketplace, according to Joe Jankowski of Hunter Douglas.

“Our products require lots of knowledge, and a lot of designers aren’t getting our message,”  Jankowski remarked. “The challenge for IPs today is what avenue to pursue to get that message out.”

Educating designers about wallcoverings has been a fruitless and often frustrating task for the nation’s largest organization of wallcovering installers.

“We have many of our members active in local ASID chapters, and we’ve invited designers to our conventions,” notes Patricia Lowe, an executive with the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers.

“But they don’t show up, so they don’t know about what’s out there.”

Most of the individuals I interviewed blame the economy for the current turmoil in the industry.

“When designers’ business is down, our business is down,” says Closet Factory spokesperson Kay Wade. “In this economy, clients who used to order $50,000 closets are choosing $10,000 closets.”

Fred Berns trains design industry partners as well as design professionals on how to increase sales and market themselves more effectively.

That’s one of my first impressions from my nationwide survey of the industry’s vendors and suppliers.

Reps from several companies tell me  they’re getting very little return on their investment of time, energy and money trying to connect with leading design professionals.

“We have very little to show for it,” lamented a rep for a wall covering firm that has put big money into  trying to entertain  and enlighten interior designers, architects, and others.

Problem is, too many companies are wasting time and money hosting events that their designer clients don’t care about right now.

IP events exclusively designed to unveil their latest product lines don’t interest design professionals coping with a challenging economy.

My early research indicates that some of the most successful industry partners today are the ones sponsoring events focused on how design professionals can boost their sales and business.

Sponsorship opportunities for as little as $3000 are still available for one such event, the September tele-seminar on how design pros can  dramatically increase their profits in the final quarter.  

Details: http://www.interiordesignbusiness.net/2010/06/10/reach-10000-interior-design-professionals-as-a-september-tele-seminar-sponsor/

Fred Berns is a business coach for interior design professionals and design industry partners worldwide.

+ frequent distribution of your marketing messages to nearly 10,000 top design professionals in North America.
 
+ a live “commercial” that you can present during the 45:00 program
 
+ a list of all the participants, including those who tune in to the program and those who download it.

+ inclusion in each of the three e-blasts that will be sent to our database before, and in the one after the Sept. 14 program

+ partnership in a program focusing on steps design professionals can take to substantially increase their business in the last quarter, and finish this challenging year with a flourish.

For more information about this partnership opportunity, contact me immediately at 303-589-3013, or Fred@FredBerns.com.

Fred Berns is an interior design industry trainer and coach.

But what are the challenges industry partners face in dealing with design professionals? That’s the focus of a national survey I’ve launched this Spring.

The survey is intended to identify the common problems that vendors and suppliers face in challenging economic times in their interactions with residential and commercial design firms.

The idea is to pinpoint the key obstacles confronting the companies, and to offer suggestions on how to overcome those obstacles. I”ll publish my results in at least one national trade publication, and in several on-line outlets.

I’m asking suppliers to identify their five biggest challenges in connecting with and serving their interior designer clients. 

I’ve gained some interesting — and, in some cases, surprising insights – in my early interviews with two window fashion companies, two audio visual suppliers, a flooring manufacturer and a lighting company.

If you’re an industry partner interested in participating in the survey, or know of one who would be, please contact me at 888-665-5505, or Fred@FredBerns.com.

Fred Berns trains manufacturers, retailers, design centers and showrooms on how to create a “buzz,” build traffic and increase sales to design professionals. And, he delivers programs on behalf of manufacturers for their clients.

Maybe more.

The ample IP turnout at my “Supersize Your Success” program for the ASID Los Angeles chapter was a familiar sight.

I’ve noticed an increased effort in recent months by showrooms and manufacturers to reach out to design pros at industry events.

What are the other ways for industry partners to connect with designers and others?

A while back, I surveyed managers of some of the nation’s most financially successful showrooms, and they shared these ideas:

+ Conduct designer focus groups

+ Build strong road rep programs

+ Turn the showroom into an event center

+ Keep showrooms looking “fresh” by updating signage, lighting, etc.

+ Smile and dial: call designers often

+ Handwritten thank you notes

+ Meet and eat: take lunch to top designers

+ Interactive showroom and manufacturer’s websites

+ Website columns on how designers can increase sales

+ Newsletters

+ Ezines

+ Blogs

+ Free publicity

+ Speaking engagements

+ Design review book (competition finalists get work published in coffee table book sold in showrooms)

+ Bring in business speakers

+ Make business coaching available

+ Offer business-building books and tapes

+ Ship out product samples

+ Quick response time

+ Flexibility of hours (weekends, etc.)

+ Simplified ordering

+ Customer niche / specialized products

+ Say “yes” when you should say “no” (cover for your customers)

+ Showroom tours

+ Voicemail

+ Think globally (One Dallas showroom sells $10,000 sofas and $70,000 kitchen sets over its website.)

+ Frequent buyer awards

+ Cross market with other showrooms.

Fred Berns is a trainer and coach for design industry partners and design professionals worldwide

Now that a challenging year is behind us, consider this: What’s it going to take to make 2010 your best year yet?

Good answers to some basic questions.

You don’t need slick advertising or a glitzy new web site or trendy new product lines to make this your “career year.”

You need answers. Answers to questions about goals, what’s working, and what needs to work better with your design business.

Many design professionals never consider the kinds of issues raised below. That’s why they’re so unfocused and unprofitable.
 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

No-Service-Just-Online-Design.com? Home Depot? Under A Buck Blinds? If not, stop trying to act like or compete with them.

Create your own unique message. Target your own market. You make a great you, but a lousy somebody else.
 

Why you?

Competition has never been tougher. It’s never been easier to buy elsewhere the design services and products that you sell.

What do you offer that your competitors — especially the lower priced ones — don’t?  Don’t say “good customer service.” Every other design professional in your area talks about the same thing.
 

Who’s Lovin’ Ya, Baby?

Kojak, the TV cop, raised a key question there. Who are your blue chip clients? How have you built rapport with them? How do you stay in touch with and generate additional business from them?
  

How Do You Find the Fatcats?

Where and when do you get your best clients? What marketing strategies work best for you? What are you MVP (Most Valuable and Productive)promotational activities?

 What’s Makin’ Ya Money?

What are they buying? What’s your most lucrative product or service? How much of your income comes from your design consultations? From product sales? What percentage of your sales comes from residential clients? From commercial clients?
 

Who’s on Your Team?

Who do you turn to for help when the going gets tough, as it did last year? 

Do you have–or can you create–an advisory board with a financial advisor, a lawyer, a business coach? Who are your mentors? Are you aligning yourself with top clients and/or allied professionals?

Fred Berns is a trainer and coach for interior design professionals around the world.

Times like these, for example.

It’s when we have the most time on our hands that we often make choices that profoundly affect our future.

This certainly qualifies as one of those slower times, thanks to the holiday season and the economic slowdown.

As a result, you have been given a gift — the gift of time.

Use that gift wisely.  Analyze your business and career, and figure out what worked and what didn’t during this challenging year.

Look back, and determine which of your design services and products, and what types of clients have been most profitable for you.

Look ahead, and develop a sales and marketing plan for 2009.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: our industry will never be the same once the economy bounces back.

Competition will intensify, and clients will be more demanding.

Those design firms that thrive as well as merely survive in the future will have to excel at sales and marketing.

When it comes to the business of design,  “good enough” will no longer be good enough.

So where does that leave you? Are you prepared for the challenges ahead — or is it time to consider other alternatives, and careers?

The Legend of the Tamworth Two movie full

Some weighty questions there; the kind that you’ll need time to answer.

I recall confronting some wrenching questions of my own seven years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11. At the time, I was speaking and coaching in a wide variety of industries, of which interior design was one.

Within a few days after the attacks, I lost 13 speaking engagements and coaching contracts.  Suddenly, I had no business.

All I had was time.

I used that time to do some serious soul searching.  I sought answers to the question: what’s worked best for me, and which industry has been best to and for me?

Pollyanna dvdrip The answer came to me late one afternoon: the interior design industry.

I realized that my best, most loyal and most lucrative clients were interior design professionals.

In that slowest of times, I made my biggest of decisions: to offer my coaching and speaking services exclusively in the interior design industry.

That’s the message I’ve shared recently with design industry partners struggling to navigate choppy economic waters.

The Art of War dvdrip Did I say “recession?”

Well, that’s the word that an increasing number of politicians and media analysts are using, so I’ll toss it out there, too.

So what can vendors and suppliers do at a time like this?

Some suggestions:

+ Be flexible. Offer options to customers who are fretting over their finances. Examples:  payment plans, financing, discounts for cash, etc.

+ Don’t Prejudge Your Prospects. Assuming they can’t afford you is bad business. Let them decide if the dollars are doable.

+ Save the Best for First. Show prospects your best, before exposing them to the rest. Be dazzling in your display.

+ Differentiate Your Company. Nothing differentiates you more than your “Only.” Finish this sentence: “We’ve the only manufacturer(showroom, supplier, etc.) who…”

+ Sell Yourself. The most important sale you’ll ever make is the Personal one. Communicate with confidence and present yourself with polish.

+ Follow Up Fast. Don’t give prospects the opportunity to “shop” you. Call tonight the customer you saw today.

Whore aka Yo puta full

Toxic Skies psp

+ Hang Tough. If you’ve been in business a while, you’ve faced challenging times before. Hold your ground, keep your eye on the ball, and wait it out.

• Crossroads buy

The Clearing buy

Shattered film

Posted in the Denver airport is a sign that reads: “The Ten Best Jobs for 2015 Don’t Exist Yet.”

The sign, which promotes a local business school, got me thinking about the future.

What will our industry look like in seven years?

What will the interior design class of 2015�focus on?

Dagon move

What will clients in 2015 ask for?

It all brings to mind that Atlanta designer who’s 20-something, multi-millionaire prospect told her that the only way she would be able to design his new home was if she was adept at texting.

That’s because,� he said,� he had no time to see, call, or email her.

The future is now. Are you prepared?

In many cases, your relations with a client are most positive shortly after you begin working with them.

It’s during this “honeymoon” period when the client is most enthusiastic about and communicative with your company.

It’s the golden period when you’re still getting to know each other and well before their questions and concerns might surface.

Dane Cook: Isolated Incident the movie

There’s no better time for you to ask the client for leads, referrals, testimonials, permission to photograph the project and other favors.

There’s always the chance, of course, that you’ll stay on the very best of terms with your client throughout the relationship and will become the best of buddies thereafter.

Your goal should be to underpromise and overdeliver, providing the best in customer service.

• My Bloody Valentine download

But why take the chance? Why not take seek the client’s assistance early on, when the bells are ringing, the birds are singing, and� everyone is on that “honeymoon high?”

Empire Records video

It takes 21 steps.

Here are those steps, as I spelled them out in my recent tele-seminar entitled “21 Keys to a Killer Website:”

1/ Keep it Simple. The average website visit is 4 seconds and two clicks. Get your message across fast.

2/ Make it Easy to Use. If visitors get lost, you are�the Big Loser.

3/ Speak to Your Specialness. What’s your USP(unique selling proposition)? Your Only? Your Brand?

4/ Sell Yourself. “You” are the one thing prospects can’t get elsewhere.

5/ Describe All Your Services and Products. Under-educated prospects don’t buy.

6/ Solve Problems on Each Page. Visitors have questions. Does your site have the answers?

7/�Get Them to Return. Don’t stagnate, update! Offer fresh articles, tipsheets, links, client profiles, etc.

8/ Make it Interactive. Q&A columns, surveys, and search boxes get visitors involved.

9/ Choose Killer Keywords. Track down the words others type in to find you.

10/ Use Killer Keywords. Put the right words in the right places: the title bars, atop pages,�at� the front of paragraphs, etc.

11/ Think Links. They increase your visibility, credibility and search engine rankings.

12/ Call for Action. Give visitors a “next step:” call, buy this, download that, give your contact info, etc.

13/ Make it Easy on the Eyes. Steer clear of busy backgrounds, fancy fonts, animation and flash.

14/Make Photos Work For–not Against — You. Small photos of big rooms don’t work. Large photos of small details do. And remember: little captions can say a lot.

15/ Make Your Home Page “Rock.” It’s all 50% of your site’s visitors ever view. It’s gotta be great.

16/ Create Credibility. Include testimonials and your physical address.

17/ Make it Measurable. Monitor numbers of visitors, page views, when people visit and for how long, what sites send you traffic, etc.

18/ Keep it Current. What’s new? What’s now? Update us on your services, staff, awards, clients, etc.

19/ Spread the word. Promote your site via email, ezines, postcards, voicemail, news releases and other ways.

20/ Pick to Click. Among the best interior design industry websites I’ve come across: KeystoneInteriorDesign.com. Check it out.

21/ Hire a Propellerhead. Tap a technie to handle the website tasks that you can’t — or don’t want to� –do.

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.

The Grifters the movie

+ 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.

Scram! movie

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.

If� you’re with one of� those manufacturers and retailers out there struggling to compete with the big guys, I have a suggestion for you.

Let’s have tea.

Join me for a cup at a small coffee and tea joint here in Boulder, CO. called Peet’s.

Now would be a good time, before you head out to Neocon, before you attempt to get heard above all the noise that your bigger, better known competitors will make on the show floor.

A guy named Jay at the store named Peet’s can give you a lesson on how to stand out from�the better-known companies.

I was looking for and not finding a Starbucks recently when I stumbled into Peet’s.� I ordered a cup of green tea from Jay, the gentleman at the counter.

Jay didn’t just inform me that�Peet’s offers several varieties of green tea. He educated me about the differences.

He began by pulling out the Peet’s “tea wheel,” a cool, little thingamabob which rates the various teas on�things�like their astringency, body, flavor, character,� and aroma.

Then he set�out on the counter samples of the� Sencha, Jasmine, Genmail Cha and other varieties. The idea was to�show the differences in the color, texture and aroma of the leaves.

Elsewhere, I would have been told� the names of the various teas.

At Peet’s, I� got a seminar — �a workshop, �a continuing education course –on the differences between them.

When I made my choice, Jay handed me a timer to make sure I allowed proper “seep time.” And he presented me with a booklet on how to grade, select and brew tea.

Jay — and Peet’s– get it.

They get the fact that, to compete with the big guys, you have�to offer an experience customers don’t get from the big guys.

I’m a believer. There are dozens of coffee and tea joints in this area but, from now on, I’m sticking with Peet’s.

Not just because of the tea I got there. Because of the lesson I learned there.

When I think of good “time managers,” I don’t think of design showroom managers.

Many of the managers I’ve met at design center showrooms, in fact, make poor use of their time. They work hard, but they don’t work smart.

That’s why they’re more “busy” than they are profitable.

Which is why I thought of showroom managers when I read a book recently titled “Getting Things Done”

• The Master of Disguise release

by David Allen.

Allen suggests you put all tasks into one of three categories:

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs full

1/ Do It Strays buy : take action yourself if the task can be done in 2:00 or less

2/ Delegate it: assign a task requiring more than 2:00� to someone else, if they can do it better.

3/ Defer it: this applies to a�task for which you’re the right person, but which will take more than 2:00 of your time.

Speaking of showroom managers — and time — they’d be better off focusing more on current rather than prospective clients.

I’ve cited these numbers before: the long term value of each client is more than 100 times the value of a single transaction. And it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.

When showroom managers think of time, they should think of “Now.”

And they should remember that yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promisory note, but today is a blank check.

How to master your time and maximize your profits is the theme of our new audio program, Work Less, �Earn More�.
�

Don’t get bummed by the boxes.

If there is one thing that design professionals love to hate, it’s the home improvement center.

Whenever and where ever I speak,��I hear designers, floor covering specialists, decorators, retailers and others bellyache about big box stores.

No question that box stores are, well, big. Over 22 million people each week visit Home Depot stores, whose collective annual sales total over $50 billion.

You want to talk big? Home Depot claims to sell enough carpeting in a year to pave a two-lane road from Atlanta to Los Angeles to New York City, and back to Atlanta.

But a survey of consumer buying habits a while back by Springs Window Fashions LP suggests that design professionals need not worry about the Home Depots of the world.

Its poll of more than 3000 consumers found that only about a third of them buy window treatments at home improvement centers.

In contrast, 46 per cent of the buyers shop at outlets offering “expert help with styles and fit,” and/or� “quality, variety, and unique types.”

Price is only one of several “market drivers” identified by the report. Among the others: “desire for a ‘specific’ look, personalization, a need for expert help, convenience,
and brand.”

The survey concludes that the more than $58 billion retail window treatment market holds outstanding potential for independent professionals.
�
“Your competition is not the big box,” the survey advises designers, decorators, and retailers. “Your primary customers don’t shop there.”

I recently surveyed managers of some of the nation’s most financially successful showrooms , and they shared these strategies:

+ Conduct designer focus groups

+ Build strong road rep programs

+ Turn the showroom (SR) into an event center

+ Keep SR looking �fresh� (signage, lighting, etc.)

+ Smile and dial: call designers often

+ Handwritten thank you notes

+ Meet and eat: take lunch to top designers

+ Interactive websites

+ Website columns on how designers can increase sales

+ Manufacturers’ websites

+ Newsletters

+ Ezines
�
+ Blogs

+ Free publicity

+ Speaking engagements

+ Design review book (competition finalists get work published in coffee table book sold in SR)

+ Bring in business speakers

+ Make business coaching available

+ Offer business-building books and tapes

+ Ship out product samples

+ Quick response time

+ Flexibility of hours (weekends, etc.)

+ Simplified ordering

+ Customer niche / specialized products

+ Say �yes� when you should say �no� (cover for your customers)

+ Showroom tours

+ Voicemail

+ Think globally(One Dallas SR sells $10,000 sofas and $70,000 kitchen sets over its website.)

+ Frequent �buyer� awards

+ Align w/ vendors and suppliers

+ Cross market w/other SRs

Betcha I tasted more varieties of peanut butter in 20 minutes last week than you have in a month.

I was one of 100 participants in a peanut butter taste test sponsored by a Boulder, CO.-based organic food company.

But munching on creamy and crunchy samples was the easy part. I had to rate each�on�its appearance, texture, taste, aroma, and overall appeal.

Why�go to the trouble and expense of promoting and staging an event like this?

“It takes the guesswork out of selling new products,” a company representative explained.

Have you “tested” your customers recently?

Have you sought their opinions about your design services and products?

Have you invited them into your showroom to�give their input on your newest product lines?

If you haven’t, you should.

Your best clients are your best allies. They have the answers to some of your most important questions.

They can give you feedback, and referrals and insights about your competitors. They can, and they will, because� they know you, they like you, they respect you, and they want you to succeed.

Whether you meet with your customers collectively, or individually, it’s a great way to take the “guesswork” out of your business.

Call it a “focus group session,” a “client advisory board meeting” or even a “taste test.”

Call it whatever you want.

I call it smart.

I just returned from speaking in Las Vegas at Surfaces,�the world’s largest conference of floor covering professionals.

There I was, one of 40,000 attendees walking through 500,000 square feet worth of flooring exhibits.

And there they were, 1,000 exhibitors showing off the latest in carpet, hardwood, tile, marble,� laminate, rugs, accessories and a whole lot more.

I could only wonder how many of those exhibitors would follow up on the contacts they made.

More than half of the companies that exhibit at other design trade shows — High Point, Neocon, the International Window Covering Expo and the others — fail to adequately follow up when the shows are over.

Crazy, don’t you think? Millions� of dollars and thousands of hours go into preparation for these events.

Hundreds of business cards are collected on the show floor. Yet, most company reps drop the ball when it comes to recontacting prospects in a timely fashion.

Exhibitors should recontact each top trade show prospect within two days after meeting them. Often it pays to send a followup package, with a cover letter, additional marketing materials and product samples.

Trade show exhibitors can make mega deals with and sales to key prospects after the show.� But they leave big money on the table when they fail to follow up when and how they should.