THIS MONTH:
+ Focus on "WMYD"
+ Focus on the Future
+ Designers: Focus on Your Fee
+ Showrooms: Focus on Your Service
+ So They Say...

Focus on "WMYD"
Talk about competition! Never has it been easier for people to buy elsewhere the design services and products that you sell. Why should they buy from you? Why not the gazillion other designers, window fashion specialists, showroom personnel, kitchen and bath professionals, retailers or others with whom you compete?

What Makes You Different?

Setting yourself apart begins with your personal commercial. Make yours really stand out by including your "only." Examples:

+ "I'm the only local designer with 30 years experience working on high end vacation homes."

+ "I run the area's only commercial design firm that works with four national hotel chains."

+ I'm the only window fashion professional in the city who personally installs as well as sells motorized blinds."

Another way to differentiate yourself: describe how you "specialize." Successful design professionals readily identify their specialties: from classical to futuristic, from color to lighting, from cabinets to countertops, from churches to country clubs.

Focus on the Future
What's your plan for 2003?

A design professional without a plan is like a ship without a rudder: you may have a rough idea of your destination, but not a clue on how to reach it. Set aside time over the holidays to create a personal wish list, and then determine the kind of income you need to make those wishes come true.

Speaking of income: can your clients afford to pay the kind of fees you need to charge to reach your financial goals? Or, have you been looking for love in all the wrong places?

This is a good time to identify the five types of clients and prospects you most need to influence in order to achieve financial success in 2003.

Finally, focus on the past year to help you plan for next year. Who were your five best clients? What, if any, marketing did you use to find them? How did you sell them? How did you keep them?

Designers: Focus on Your Fee
Interior designers charge far too little for their services. That's because they do a lousy job of attaching a value to who they are and what they do.

"We're known for being unprofessional," says Vicente Wolf, considered by House Beautiful as one of the ten most influential designers in the U.S. "Most designers are willing to cut their fee because they feel that their work isn't worth it."

Little wonder that the median salary in the U.S. for a "senior interior designer," according to Salary.com, is a measly $35,968. Compare that to $61,968 for a "senior architect." The survey defines "senior" as a professional with four or more years experience.

We'll have lots to say in coming months about increasing your fees. But, for now, consider two principals I explore in my Set and Get Higher Fees audio program:

+ You can set and get any fee, as long as you differentiate yourself from design professionals who charge less.

+ It doesn't matter what you say about your fees. What matters is what you say about yourself.

Showrooms: Focus on Your Service
Showroom managers might want to focus on customer service.

This past year, I surveyed high end design professionals around the country about their attitudes toward showrooms. A sampling:

+ "Showroom staff can be unfriendly, snobby, and rude - and sometimes they don't acknowledge us when we enter."

+ "Sometimes the staff is uninformed about products, and they're poor at paperwork and follow up."

+ "Why don't they give us a step by step confirmation on a major order, and respond to our questions quickly? Is that asking too much?"

+ "Many showrooms look tired. They never change, and they don't bring in new, unique and high end products."

+ "Showroom hours are erratic. They close too early and too often, especially prior to weekends and holidays."

So They Say...
"I charge hourly fees for 'babysitting time.' I'd rather bathe my mother than wait around for a painter to show up." Marc Charbonnet, New York designer on Architectural Digest's list of the top 100 international interior designers and architects"

"Design is a wonderful profession, but a hideous business." Janet Schirn, past ASID president and 1998 ASID "Designer of Distinction"

"I don't do business with jerks." Vicente Wolf