Both were designed for business owners who offer home staging services. One, called ‘Top 10 Staging Scripts,’ lists the most powerful phrases and responses to use when discussing the staging process with real estate agents and sellers.

Sandy is also giving you her most successful marketing flyer titled ‘Why Staging Matters.’ It outlines 10 indisputable reasons to stage homes for sale. You can download both at: http://www.thestagingtrainer.com/special-reports.htm Enter code WEB0311.

By the way, Sandy collaborated with me on one of my best-selling audio programs of all time. It’s called “Recession-Proof Your Design Career.”

For more information: http://fredberns.com/Products_RecessionProofCD.html

 
Fred Berns is an interior design industry sales and marketing trainer.-

Whine all you want about the real estate market and other challenges, but your mistakes could be causing your misfortune.

See how you score on this list of the Ten Biggest Design Business Blunders, taken from the audio program entitled: “12 Reasons You Earn Less Than You Could…and Should.”

+/ Passing up Possibilities. Obsess over obstacles and you miss opportunities.

Help clients add value — and eventual resale value– to their homes and other properties. Give them design solutions that will reduce their energy bills.

Also, move in where competitors drop out.

+/ No niche. The most financially successful design professionals are the most specialized.

They build their brand and profits by reaching out to specific demographics (say, California’s luxury residential market) and offering appropriate services.

Sure they diversify, but only within their niche.

+/ Forgetting Your Fans. If you’re spending most of your time “prospecting,” you’re wasting it.

You’re seven times more likely to get business with a current client than a prospect. And, it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one.

In uncertain times like these, your current clients need you more than ever. Serve them.

+/ Falling for the Stall. You can’t afford to let customers use “This Economy” as an excuse not to buy now. Their procrastination is your poison.

Create immediacy by explaining how the current economy is exactly why they should invest in your services now.

Tell them how acting now will assure quicker delivery and help them avoid price hikes, say, for furniture, fabrics, and shipping.

+/ Assinine Assumptions. Predicting what clients can’t afford is bad business. How do you know what’s in their bank accounts?

You do clients –and yourself– a disservice by not offering your best design services and/or product lines because you assume they can’t afford them.

Present your best, before discussing the rest.

+/Wimpy websites. It’s your most important marketing tool, but is your website securing or scaring away business?

It’s hurting rather than helping you if it doesn’t differentiate you, isn’t updated regularly and is too wordy and difficult to navigate.

+/ Flying Solo. Don’t go it alone. Align with allied professionals by trading referrals, exchanging client lists, and collaborating in advertising.

Hook up with vendors and suppliers, and seek their help with your website, seminars, and other promotional activities.

+/ Holding onto Hardship. Underachieving employees and unprofitable profit lines bring you down in times like these. Get rid of them.

Figure out what’s working for you — and free yourself from what isn’t.

+/ Giving in. When you succumb to price pressure and cut your fees, you diminish your value.

Your expertise is worth more, not less in challenging times. When customers question your price, question their priorities — other than the lowest price.

Remind them you can save them time, headaches and, yes, money.

+/ Giving up. What you face now isn’t a problem. It’s a test — of your will, persistence, and courage.

This is no time for pity parties. It’s a time to dig deep.
The design industry’s top dogs at some point all fell down. Then they stood up. And they pushed on. And they never, ever gave up.

Fred Berns is a sales and marketing coach for interior design professionals and design industry partners.

You’re face to face with a Powerful Prospect.

“So, how big’s your firm?” he asks.

“Four other designers and myself,” you say.

Wrong answer.

It makes your design firm sound small. And small firms don’t usually land large projects. Or get large fees.

Why not talk about your team?

Prospects need to know there’s more to your team than just designers.

Your team includes flooring specialists. And kitchen and bath professionals. And window fashion experts. And painters, faux finishers, artisans, electricians, heating and cooling pros, installers, landscape architects, and all sorts of other contractors and craftsmen.

Then, too, the team includes your vendors and suppliers.

Like furniture companies, fabric manufacturers, wall covering firms, drapery workrooms, appliance retailers and other providers of everything from cabinetry to carpeting.

No, don’t say “small” to the Powerful Prospect.

Say “big enough to provide a full range of services.”

Market Your Mates

Your marketing materials don’t say it all if they make you look small.

Take your website, for example.

Is the section labelled  ”About Us” about … all… of us?

Does it merely promote the principals, or does it also feature the allied professionals with whom you align?

Does it speak to the collective excellence and expertise of the whole team?

Promote your team by touting your teammates.

Include their bios and info about their:

+ experience
+ awards
+ affiliations
+ clients
+ products

Have them post your information in their materials, and link to your website.

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

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.

You can just sit back and wait and hope for things to magically turn around.

That’s the risky option.

Or, you can take charge rather than take cover.

Possession the movie That’s the right option.

• x files i want to believe the movie

If Option #2 is for you, then you absolutely, positively must read a FREE report on how design professionals can boost their sales and income in tough economic times.

How to thrive, rather than just survive in this economic downturn is the theme of this special report.

Blast! dvdrip Discover how to boost your business by creating immediacy, overcoming price objections, and communicating your value.

Learn cutting edge selling strategies, and high value, low cost marketing maneuvers custom-made for these challenging times.

Find out how to use “this economy” to your advantage.

If rising above this recession is your goal, than this FREE special report will help you achieve it.

To order your FREE report, click here: http://www.FredforFree.com Under Fire rip

Fred Berns is the leading sales and marketing coach in the interior design industry.

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Whine all you want about the real estate market and other challenges, but your mistakes could be causing your misfortune.

See how you score on this list of THE TEN BIGGEST MISTAKES DESIGN PROFFESSIONALS MAKE IN A DOWN ECONOMY:

He’s Just Not That Into You move

1/ Passing up Possibilities. Obsess over obstacles and you miss opportunities.

Help clients add value — and eventual resale value– to their homes and other properties. Give them design solutions that will reduce their energy bills.

Also, move in where competitors drop out.

White Sands dvd

2/ No niche. The most financially successful design professionals are the most specialized.

They build their brand and profits by reaching out to specific demographics (say, California’s luxury residential market) and offering appropriate services.

Sure they diversify, but only within their niche.

3/ Forgetting Your Fans. If you’re spending most of your time “prospecting,” you’re wasting it.

You’re seven times more likely to get business with a current client than a prospect. And, it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one.

In tough times like these, your current clients need you more than ever. Serve them.

4/ Falling for the Stall. You can’t afford to let customers use “This Economy” as an excuse not to buy now. Their procrastination is your poison.

Hard to Kill hd Create immediacy by explaining how the current economy is exactly why they should invest in your services now.

Tell them how acting now will assure quicker delivery and help them avoid price hikes, say, for furniture, fabrics, and shipping.

5/ Assinine Assumptions. The Number 23 trailer El Cid: The Legend trailer Predicting what clients can’t afford is bad business. How do you know what’s in their bank accounts?

You do clients –and yourself– a disservice by not offering your best design services and/or product lines because you assume they can’t afford them.

Present your best, before discussing the rest. zocor

6/Wimpy Websites. It’s your most important marketing tool in this economy, but is your website securing or scaring away business?

It’s hurting rather than helping you if it doesn’t differentiate you, isn’t updated regularly and is too wordy and difficult to navigate.

7/ Flying Solo. Don’t go it alone. Align with allied professionals by trading referrals, exchanging client lists, and collaborating in advertising.

Hook up with vendors and suppliers, and seek their help with your website, seminars, and other promotional activities.

8/ Holding onto Hardship. The Wedding Date ipod Underachieving employees and unprofitable profit lines bring you down in times like these. Get rid of them.

Figure out what’s working for you — and free yourself from what isn’t.

9/ Giving in. When you succumb to price pressure and cut your fees, you diminish your value.

Your expertise is worth more, not less in challenging times. When customers question your price, question their priorities — other than the lowest price.

Remind them you can save them time, headaches and, yes, money.

10/ Giving up. What you face now isn’t a problem. It’s a test — of your will, persistence, and courage.

This is no time for pity parties. It’s a time to dig deep.
The design industry’s top dogs at some point all fell down. Then they stood up. And they pushed on. And they never, ever gave up.

Fred Berns,  speaker and coach for the Interior Design industry

Want to get the ball — and your business– rolling in these final weeks of the year?

Want to position yourself for bigger profits in 2009?

Try your hand at some or all of these quick fix strategies:

+ Position yourself as a design professional who helps high end homeowners in your area enhance the value of their homes in these challenging economic times.

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• Devour film

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+ Launch a “Buy the Hour” interior consultation program, targeted toward those homeowners. Charge 2-3 times your normal hourly rate for the program – and require a 2-3 hour minimum

+ Use those consultations to “upsell” your way to additional work, by offering to assist with window treatments,  kitchen and bath remodeling, furniture upgrades, etc.
 

+ Promote the service through news releases in publications (especially smaller, more targeted ones) that circulate in high end area communities.

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Mulan video

+ Contact editors at those publications about the idea of submitting a timely article or column, on a topic like: how to do a million dollar home makeover on a shoestring budget in challenging economic times.

+ Smile and Dial – call and check in with past clients, prospects and everyone else you seek to influence,  inform them of your new interior consultation service, and ask for referrals.

+ Reach out to area builders, developers and realtors, and offer to advise and assist them in these challenging times.

+ Take your 5-6 best clients out to lunch, collectively or individually, and ask their recommendations on how you can expand your business.

+ Alternatively, make holiday house calls on your top residential clients, and arrive with a small customers appreciation gift in hand. Ask about additional business, and referrals.

There are 12.

“The 12 Reasons You Earn Less Than You Could…and Should” was the title of this week’s teleseminar.

In case you missed the program, an audio tape will be available in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, in a nuthshell…

If your income and profits are falling short, it may be that you…

1/ Think too small

2/ Use “the economy” as an excuse

3/ Undersell yourself and your team

4/ Don’t inform others about all your services

5/ Don’t align with allied professionals and others

6/ Have a poor website

7/ Underestimate what clients can afford

8/ Focus too much on “budget”

Facing the Giants release

9/ Give away too much time

10/ Charge too little

11/ Fear price objections

12/ Give up too soon.

Your success in 2008 will depend more on your “aim” than your fame.

Time was when your reputation, alone, could assure your future prosperity.

Tropic Thunder rip

Times have changed.

Today, there are�more gifted, extensively educated, widely acclaimed, multi talented, highly qualified, award winning design professionals than ever before.

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With that kind of competition, it will take more than your skills to meet your financial and other goals next year. It will take Big Thinking.

Big Thinking, as in, pursuing higher end clients. Bidding on bigger and better jobs. Proposing larger scale deals.

Big Thinking, as in seeking more referrals. Reaching out to more prospects. Marketing yourself in more high profile publications.

Big Thinking, as in networking with and speaking to more prestigious groups. Aligning yourself with more established allied professionals.

And, Big Thinking, as in setting higher fees.

That kind of big thinking will be your competitive advantage.

90% of design professionals — even those gifted, extensively educated, widely acclaimed, multi talented, highly qualified, award winning ones — think small.

Outrageously so.

They’re so focused on day-to-day details that they don’t get the big picture. They aim way too low.

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Reach higher, and think bigger�next �year, and you’ll reap far greater rewards.

Oh, and one thing more.

Get hold of The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz.

There may be a better book out on this topic, but I haven’t seen it. It’s a bit dated (1959), but it’s a classic.

You’re face to face with a Powerful Prospect.

“So, how big’s your firm?” he asks.

“Four other designers and myself,” you say.

Wrong answer.

It makes your design firm sound small. And small firms don’t usually land large projects. Or get large fees.

Why not talk about your team?

Prospects need to know there’s more to your team than just designers.

Your team includes flooring specialists. And kitchen and bath professionals. And window fashion experts. And painters, faux finishers, artisans, electricians, heating and cooling pros, installers, landscape architects, and all sorts of other contractors and craftsmen.

Then, too, the team includes your vendors and suppliers. Like furniture companies, fabric manufacturers, wall covering firms, drapery workrooms, appliance retailers and other providers of everything from cabinetry to carpeting.

No, don’t say “small” to the Powerful Prospect.

Say “big enough to provide a full range of services.”

Your marketing materials don’t say it all if they make you look small.

Take your website, for example.

Gattaca ipod Is the section called “About Us” about … all … of us?

Does it merely promote the principals, or does it also feature the allied professionals with whom you align?

Does it speak to the collective excellence and expertise of the whole team?

Promote your team by touting your teammates.

Single Black Female

Include their bios and info about their:

+ experience
+ awards
+ affiliations
+ clients
+ products

Have them post your information in their materials, and link to your website.

�

Members of a designers’ networking group in Atlanta regularly do what few design professionals elsewhere in the country ever do.

Share.

Sure, other designers talk and mingle and socialize.� But they don’t support and exchange business-building ideas with one another as do members of the Atlanta Designers Network (ADN).

The group dates back 15 years, when a group of designers joined together to increase their buying power with furniture, fabric and other manufacturers.

The collaboration soon went beyond collective bargaining, as members began bonding and helping each other grow their businesses.�

“A lot of designers see each other as the enemy,” observes April Jarvis, the group’s vice president of programs. “We’re not out to compete with each other. We’re out to share resources.”

And share they do, everything from contacts to contracts, from business tools to business techniques.

I shared some advanced sales and marketing strategies with the group when they brought me in to speak recently. I was impressed with the caliber and experience of the members.

ADN’s 37 members are successful, high end professionals with between 20 and 30 years experience, mostly in residential design.�

Those interested in joining the Designers Network have to be invited by a member to do so. In addition, they must be “ethical”, give references (including clients and other designers) and be�unaffiliated with a retail store.

And, they have to commit to missing no more than two meetings a year.

I believe their share-and-share-alike attitude has a lot to do with the success of its members.

As April Jarvis puts it: “We come together, learn together and grow together.”�

“Interior designers have a way of screwing things up.”

It was a local builder talking, at a party I attended recently.

For 25 minutes I listened to him bellyache about how designers foil his efforts, spoil his work and “ruin the integrity” of the new homes he builds here in Colorado.

He added that he’s “never met and probably never will”� a designer with any kind of integrity, professionalism or expertise.

Should designers care about brutal words from one bitter builder?

Of course not.

But what concerns me is how many times I’ve heard other builders express similiar sentiments, in more diplomatic terms.

As “The Boss” remarked in the movie Cool Hand Luke:� “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

If builders don’t “get it, ” if they don’t understand the value that designers bring to the table, that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of designers for not educating them about that value.

If you’re an interior designer, it’s not your mission in life to keep builders happy. But it doesn’t hurt to be on good terms with at least the better ones in your area.

I know a number of designers whose success resulted from their decision to align themselves with high end builders.

Do the right kind of local builders say the right kinds of things about you? What, if anything, do they think about when they think about you?

Perhaps it’s time to look beyond residential and commercial clients in your marketing. Perhaps it’s time to�promote yourself and your services to allied professionals.

Perhaps it’s time to do breakfast with a builder.

The landscaper’s letter to his clients began: “I’m writing to introduce you to the most talented interior designer I know, and to recommend that you contact her the next time you or someone you know needs the services of a designer.”

You might call�that “aligning with allied professionals.”

I call that� “Cool.”

Who are you planning to team up with 2007?

Some tips on how to make your partnerships profitable:
�
Make A Plan: Set goals, then figure who you can “align” with to achieve them.

Know Their Buzz: Want to connect with potential “partners?” Understand their issues. Read what they read, network with their groups.

Establish Your Expertise: Impress them further by writing for their trade publications, and speaking at their trade group conferences.

Make the First Move: “What kind of leads are you looking for?” Be the first to ask, and you’ll be a winner in the long run.

Say “Thanks”: Adopt an attitude of gratitude toward your allies. Express warm appreciation for every referral they provide.

Get Introduced: Ask your allies to write a letter of introduction in your behalf to their clients. Offer to return the favor.

Get Focused: Take your allies to lunch to thank them for their help. Use them as a focus group, seeking their ideas on growing your business.

Sell Yourself: Promote yourself, as well as the partnership idea to a potential ally.

�

Good idea.

Problem is, so does every other designer within a 500 mile radius. What to do?

Well, you can do what those others do. You can hang out at local HBA meetings, and pass out business cards.

Or, you can get a list of local builders, and start smilin’, dialin’ and leavin’ — lots of messages.

Then again, you can do something which makes a lot more sense:�invite builders over for breakfast.

I’ve helped several designers create “Builders for Breakfast” events at holiday times like these.

Invite a select group� to a “builders networking event” at your showroom, or a nice local restaurant.� Let ‘em munch and meet.�Give �a 15 minute presentation. Offer your design services. And then, send ‘em on their way

Promote it the right way, and you’ll be surprised how many builders show up, and�how much business you can get out of it.

Interested? Some Builders for Breakfast ideas to get you started:

+ 1/� Focus on inviting 12-15 builders in your target area.

+ 2/ An excellent way to collect names: contact the local builders organization about your interest in interviewing leading builders in the ______________� area for an article you�re thinking of� writing. Ask for contact information.
�(Note: you may want to do an article. I know some designers who have)

+ 3/ Decide on a topic you can present in 15-20 minutes to the attendees. The topic should be geared to helping them be more successful, and sell more homes.

�Examples:�< how to work with a designer
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���< design tips they can pass on to new homeowners
���< how they can market themselves more ������effectively to buyers
���< ways they can add pizzazz to their model homes

4/ Mail creative invitations (make the envelope �lumpy,� if possible) to the builders, inviting them to a builders networking event where they�ll also learn ______. Give a brief description of your topic.

5/ Have the event catered. Or, select an upscale local restaurant which can host the breakfast.

6/ Develop a knock-their-socks-off personal commercial that you can share at the breakfast. The commercial should� position you as� a unique 1-of-a-kind design professional and it should include your �only.�

7/ Prepare a simple handout that attendees can take away from your presentation. A bulleted �tip list� always make a hit. Make sure you include all of your contact info � and a personal marketing piece, like a bio sheet or list of products and services.

8/ Announce your interest in partnering with a few local builders, possibly by offering your services as a design� resource for buyers.

9/� Hold a door prize drawing, as a way to gather business cards

10/� Send a handwritten thank you note within a few days to all the attendees.
�