Successful interior design professionals show their best — before they discuss the rest.

They figure that as the best, they should showcast their highest end design services and products.

In so doing, they help their customers understand their buying options, and gain a clearer idea of what their priorities are.

Not just so you can stand out. So you can make a difference.

Using your interior design business to get involved in a charitable, environmental, spiritual, or some related undertaking isn’t about marketing.

It’s about meaning, finding a deeper purpose in what you do.

Your mission could be remodeling homeless shelters in this country, creating schools in underprivileged nations, or designing for other charitable causes.

It could be about banging the drum for green and sustainable design.

A commercial design firm I’m coaching is calling attention to the fact that workplaces around the world are making workers sick.

The company has teamed with a psychologist, making TV appearances, public presentations and videos on the dangers of toxic chemicals and other indoor air pollutants, improper lighting and dangerous noise levels.

That’s their mission. What’s yours?

Are you involved, through your business, in a worthy cause that you feel other design professionals should be a part of?

If so, I’d love to hear about, and promote it. Please send your story to me at Fred@FredBerns.com.

Fred Berns is an interior design industry business coach.

Now that the first three months are behind us, consider this: What’s it going to take to make the next quarter better?

Good answers to some basic questions.

You don’t need super social media skills or 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 interior 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.

That will be my message when I speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24 in Denver to the NKBA’s Rocky Mountain Chapter.

If you’re in the area, I invite you to attend the program hosted by the Galleria of Stone, 12655 E. 42nd St.in Denver.

How to double your sales and income through effective self marketing will be a theme of the program, which is entitled: “Sell Yourself! Get Them to Buy from YOU.

Attendees will learn how to use the “Personal Sale” to:

+ get better projects and close larger deals with better clients

+ create instant impact and make yourself memorable

+ overcome any price objection, any time

+ make a big splash for little cash

Each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of the Superstar Selling System for Design Professionals.

Click here for more information and registration details.

Every year at this time I run this message to remind interior design professionals around the world to appreciate themselves.  

 The message is especially important now, as we close out a year that was so challenging for so many.  

Give yourself something over the holidays that doesn’t cost anything, come in a box, or sit under a tree.

Credit.

Credit yourself for changing people’s living space. And changing their work space. And changing their lives.

Credit yourself for saving them time, money and headaches.

Credit yourself for providing ideas and insights and inspiration to those who are clueless about interiors.

And credit yourself for turning houses into homes, and offices into creative working environments.

As you think about gifts this holiday season, appreciate your own.

You have more than talent for design. You have the gifts of artistry, creativity, style, vision, and resourcefulness.

You have the wisdom to solve problems, the expertise to manage projects, and the imagination to make dreams come true.

You have what it takes to be a contractor, coach, consultant and confidant.

Not to mention that one other gift you possess as an interior design professional: A Mass of Class.

May the new year bring you the recognition and rewards that you want and deserve.

Best Wishes for the Happiest of Holidays!

Fred Berns is a business success coach and copywriter for interior design professionals.

Oh, and we’re not talking any ordinary client here.

We’re talking about Huges Martin, the dashing, Swiss-born owner of the Hotel Vendome in Danielle Steele’s novel by the same name.

The book was, for me, a Thanksgiving read, and not a very good one at that.

But I loved the way Huges expressed his approval of the way Natalie Peterson remodeled one of the hotel’s suites.

True, she’s only a decorator, but let’s give Natalie some credit here. At 39, she’s known “for doing important homes in Southhampton, and Palm Beach and New York City, and an elegant hotel in Washington, DC.”

And she aces the initial interview with Huges, showing up “looking quiet and conservative” and carrying a briefcase “full of sketches, swatches and suggestions.”

So, Natalie gets the job.

Fast forward to the day she unveils the redesigned suite:

“Huges looked at it with obvious delight, and then took Natalie in his arms and kissed her…”

“‘You like it?’” she asked happily, looking like a kid and wanting to clap her hands with glee when she saw his thrilled expression.”

“‘I love it!’” he confirmed.

“…He walked all through the suite, examining every detail, and then he turned to her as he held her hand.’” And, more importantly, I love you…’”

“‘The last two months have been the happiest of my life,’” he said as he pulled her down on the couch next to him. “‘I loved seeing you every day.’”

“‘Me too,’” she said, in awe of what he had just told her. She had fallen in love with him too. He kissed her again , and then called room service and ordered a bottle of champagne.”

I won’t spoil it, and tell you what becomes of Hugs and Natalie.

But there’s one thing I will tell you: He never complained about her decorating fees.

Hotel Vendome is the first, and probably the last Danielle Steele novel that Fred Berns will ever read.

So’s everyone else. That’s the problem.

This is the time of year that interior design professionals, retailers, showroom managers, manufacturers’ reps and others have the same idea in mind: mail  out those seasonal sentiments.

Your cards, and maybe even your gifts, can get lost in the shuffle.   So many of those hot prospects of yours get so much stuff from so many vendors, that they don’t always pay much attention to whom sent what.

Kind of defeats your purpose, don’t you think?

Why not do what your competitors don’t do over the holidays? Why not pick up the phone?

Call your clients and prospects and other contacts and pass along your holiday greetings over the phone,   Smile and dial and say: “Seasons Greetings!”

Will you reach everyone you call? No. Will you end up leaving some voicemail messages? Yes.   But sincere personal messages are always appreciated.

Funny thing thing happens when you call and offer you personal best wishes for the holidays.

You don’t mention work,  but those you call often do.  Your call may result in more business, or some good referrals.

Fred Berns is an interior design industry business coach and trainer.

Consider how many times prospective clients get your “message” before they get you.

Do you play the Same Game when it comes to voicemail?

Do you have the same kind of “Sorry-I-missed-your-call, please-leave-a-message” greeting that your competitors do?

Estimates are that Americans spend 3.2 billion hours a year talking to and listening to voicemail. If you don’t use yours as a promotional tool, you miss out on a major marketing opportunity.

Use your voicemail to provide information about yourself and your design products and services, along with benefits that you offer your clients.

Callers need not listen to all of this, of course. Most telephone systems enable them to immediately leave their message by hitting the # sign on their cellphone.

But, apparently, many callers do listen to entire voicemail messages. Many of my coaching clients report that their sales increased substantially once they adopted the longer format.

Voicemail Tips Some things to consider when you create your voice mail message:

+ Offer options, such as your cell phone number, for those who need to reach you now

+ Provide regular updates (“Today is Thursday. I have appointments all morning, but will return calls this afternoon.”)

+ Offer callback information, such as a promise to return the call within 12 hours

+ Include mailboxes with information about separate products and services

+ Pump up the power of your message by including that million dollar marketing word: “Only.”

(Check out the voicemail template in your copy of the Big Splash, Little Cash Marketing Materials Manual. It includes the following:

“____ ______ is the area’s ONLY window fashion professional with 25 years experience, and who offers such a wide variety of services and products.”)

+ Consider using a “narrator” to present your message (“Hi, you’ve reached the office of Dee Ziner, an award-winning, internationally-recognized design professional.”)

What you say – or don’t say – on your voicemail can affect your bottom line.

Fred Berns is a trainer, coach and copywriter for interior design professionals.

That’s a judgement you have to make about prospects.

You’ll recall the Atlanta designer who contacted me recently about being “shopped.” Her problem: too many players, not enough “stayers.”

Ideas on how “A.D. in Atlanta” can stop being shopped have poured in from interior design professionals throughout the U.S., and around the world. I’ll publish some of those ideas in coming days.

In the meantime, Maria Bayer, the authentic sales coach at Design Success University, has an interesting perspective on how to identify a “tire kicker.”

Check out her comments below:

I hear it all the time. “What do I say when my client does this or says that?” The words you use can often make the difference between winning the business and losing the business.

Early in my career, I had no idea how to ask or answer tough client questions. I fumbled my way through it, sometimes doing it well, but more often not. The result was I lost a lot of business that I could have won.

If I only had the right words, I would have eased their concerns; set expectations properly; or noticed the red flags. And the list goes on.

Thankfully, I learned a way that works. Here’s a great question to uncover whether someone is serious or just kicking tires:

“Why are you looking to hire an interior designer now?”

The word ‘now’ helps uncover how motivated they are. Bottom line: if they’re not very motivated, they’re just kicking tires.

To learn more, register for a complimentary 3-part series, “Three Secrets to Closing Higher Paying Clients Who Love Working With You.”

An interior designer from Atlanta contacted me recently about a “shopping” problem.

She — and I — can use your help in coming up with the solution.

Hey Fred,

Since when does a successful interior designer with 22 years of experience get “shopped?”

I ask because suddenly prospects — lots of them — are picking my brain, asking my prices, and taking their business elsewhere. Or maybe they’re doing the work themselves.

This is a first for me, after more than two decades doing high end residential and hospitality design throughout the Southeast, and around the country.

Sure, indivduals have objected to my prices from time to time. But I can’t remember when so many  tried to steal my ideas — about space planning, about furniture, about damn near everything!

I’m feeling used and humiliated.

I like the way your Superstar Selling System talks about handing out appetizers, but never the main course to these people. Maybe I’ve been giving away too many appetizers lately.

At any rate, I’m getting shopped and I’m getting frustrated.

How can these people be so dishonest?

What do other designers do a situation like this?

What can I do?

AD in Atlanta

What do — or would you do — in a situation like this? Please send your ideas to Fred@FredBerns.com