If you are a Kitchen and Bath Designer, you probably have great talent with regard to color, balance, form, and texture. Guess what? You are also a salesperson. Now, before you go on about how I just made you feel sleazy, slimy, and money-hungry, stop.
The fact that you are in sales is not a bad thing. What it means is that your job is to help your client navigate through the sea of choices in order to help them achieve a beautiful new space. Remember, in business, nothing happens until someone sells something! You may be the best designer on the planet but, if you can’t sell your work, you will go hungry.
If you have ever been to New York City, you know that there is far more to do than you could possibly accomplish in one weekend. If you have never been there, you probably have a list of things you would like to do when you visit, but you may not realize that you will never be able to accomplish them on your trip.
Now, if you happen to live in the area and you have friends visiting from out of town, you may find yourself playing tour guide. Yes, I am sure that you have been there before. You know that your friends don’t have the time to do everything they want to so you have to work with them to focus on their primary interests so they can have the best experience possible.
The same can be said for the buying experience that your client needs to navigate, especially when there are so many choices and decisions to be made that it can be overwhelming. If I were the average consumer, I probably wouldn’t know where to begin.
A very interesting survey done a while back with consumers who were shopping for a new kitchen remodeling project determined that as many as 30% of consumers that began their experience gave up and decided to live with what they have. Why did they give up? They were so overwhelmed by the numerous choices and the many decisions that had to be made, they decided to stick with the status quo.
It is time for you to play tour guide. One of your biggest hurdles is to build enough trust with your client so they will want to do business with you and are willing to disrupt their status quo.
Let your client know that you will be guiding them through the many decisions that need to be made and help to keep them from being bombarded with too much at once. Collaboratively, you are going to handle this one step at a time. Of course, part of this is asking the proper questions so that you can guide your client towards some choices you would recommend and that you feel would fit in with their preferences stylistically.
What do you do to help your clients sort through all the noise? Tell me how you help your clients.
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