When I started my first selling job our team was always interested in the latest methods and techniques that would help us to get better leads, qualify our prospects better, and close more sales. We got to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and tried to lift each other up through challenging times.

Fast forward about 1-2 years later. My company hired a new salesperson whom I will call Gregg. Gregg dove head-first into the position and plowed forward. Within a couple of months, he was outselling everyone on the team, myself included. The funny thing about it was that even after a year of being with the company and being the top-selling person nearly every month, Gregg was still telling his clients that he was kind of new to the job.

I don’t know if Gregg was saying this to try and convince his prospects he was new or if he was working to keep his mindset in the “newby” mentality. Either way, it worked and he continued to be one of the company’s top sellers.

So why am I telling you this story, and what did I take away from this experience?

Have you ever noticed that many new hires who don’t know much about what they are doing seem to be really successful? Frequently, over time that success seems to taper off and they fall in with the rest of the team with average performance.

Why do you suppose that is? What are they doing differently than everyone else on your team is doing?

As a team, we were fully aware of what Gregg was doing. By staying in the “newby” mindset, he kept on with the basics of selling our products because he knew that the basics worked. Gregg was persistent and consistent, never stopped and in the end, was very successful.

This is something we all noticed and learned from and something that in my sales career now, I try to remind myself. Gregg was successful because he did not skip the necessary steps to the sale. Tirelessly, he performed the steps that he knew were needed, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Keep up with the basics, keep up with what works, and be consistent.

It is easy to listen to the voices in your head that are telling you sales lies every day. Lies like:

• “This prospect is not really interested”
• “Cold calls and cold emails don’t work”
• “Our products (or services) are too expensive”
• “They are just price shopping”
• “I’m too busy maintaining my current accounts to waste time with this prospect.”

If you wanted to succeed like Gregg, turn off the lies your brain is telling you, the lies that are keeping you from being successful. Your brain is telling you a story that is holding you back from doing your job the way you know how to do it.

Stop thinking too much about it, and just do it!

Go back to the basics of what works.

If you need some inspiration, Read some good books on sales and selling, and view some online tutorials on selling and prospecting to help you get back on track. If you are like me, you will rediscover selling practices that work well that you have always known about and you will sometimes say to yourself: “I used to do that all the time, and it worked, why have I stopped?”

Maybe it is time to reinvest in yourself and develop yourself a little further. There are many different approaches to proven ideas. Find an author, trainer, or mentor that resonates with you, and you can breathe new life into what has been proven to work.

Stop overthinking the steps before you do them, and just do them!

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My name is Duane Becker and I educate Kitchen Designers on key ideas to design and sales techniques to help them present their designs and motivate their clients to purchase. I have held design and sales seminars for the NKBA, KBIS, Lowe’s, and consulted for private dealers, individuals, and showrooms.

I was having a great discussion with an aspiring designer at KBIS this year who is finishing up his last year in college. We were talking about his goals, aspirations, etc. and I thought he had a really good head on his shoulders, and the fact that he was at KBIS and was connecting with others in the field to help learn the ins and outs of the trade spoke volumes.

Towards the end of the conversation, he asked me what advice I might be able to offer him as a new designer. I thought for a minute because really, where do you start with a question like that? Then it occurred to me, the one thing that a designer needs to know to be successful and I delivered my answer. “Learn how to sell your work”, I said, “in any number of ways, starting with seeking out books on selling”.

A successful sales professional will actively seek out current techniques on how to sell, and also learn as much as they can about the product or service they are selling. There is a lot of focus in the interior design and kitchen and bath design industry on product and design, as there should be, but to be a successful designer, shouldn’t you also focus on how to successfully present and sell your work?

When I began my Voices From the Industry session this year, I asked how many people have received or sought out training on kitchen design and nearly everyone raised their hand. I then asked how many people have received similar training on selling their projects and only one person raised their hand. Do you see the problem here?

It is important, of course, to receive training and expert advice on all of the many elements of design if you are to be successful. Just some of these are balance, light, color, texture, form, functionality, and so on. Also important is being able to express these elements of a design to your client.

Wouldn’t you agree, though that it is also important to receive training on elements of selling and presenting your work? This would include things such as prospecting, discovery, setting expectations, communication, how to negotiate, and finally, how to sell the project.

You can be a brilliant and talented designer, but if you can’t manage to overcome some of the hurdles in order to sell your work, you will not succeed.

My advice: Learn how to sell, using up-to-date methods, sourcing material, and mentors that are using modern methods that are proven effective with today’s savvy clientele. This can prove to be invaluable in learning how to effectively present and sell your work. A great starting point would be some good books on sales and selling. These do not have to be specifically written for the interior design industry since most presentational and selling methods can be applied to practically every industry.

The reality is you, as a designer are a salesperson also, and if you aren’t selling, you aren’t making money. Last time I checked, this is kind of necessary if you want to succeed. This does NOT mean you have to practice out-of-date “salesy” methods that make most people cringe. It means that you are guiding your prospect through a series of choices to help them achieve their goal: a newly designed space.

Since I have been in the kitchen and bath industry, I have been working with designers on how to present and sell their work with great success. I developed my coaching agency, SaPré, Sales and presentation training for designers and artistic professionals, to help them succeed.

Tell me what you have done to help sell your work.

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As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome!

By Duane Becker

I like going to Starbucks when on the road. Go ahead and think what you want, but I had a very unexpected experience there a while back.

I had placed an order at one of their locations using the mobile app. Simple enough, right? When I arrived at the location that I have been to many, many times I discovered my coffee wasn’t ready yet. The person behind the counter asked my name for the order and said they did not have an order for me. She asked to see a record of the order and when I showed her a record of it on my phone, she pointed out that I had ordered it from the wrong location. There is another Starbucks down the street indoors that I had placed the order through, NOT the location where I had planned to pick it up.

The woman said that this happens a lot and that this will not be a problem, but to just go to the person at the checkout, explain what happened, and they could place an order for my coffee at no charge. Wow, I hadn’t expected that, and I did just that.

This shop happened to be very busy on this particular morning, and because of this, it was taking a little longer than usual for them to get to my order. After about 10 minutes of waiting, someone asked me the order I was waiting for and they got me my coffee quickly. Right about the time this person was handing me my drink, another employee who I am guessing was a manager approached me, apologized that I had waited so long for my order, and handed me a $10 gift card for my inconvenience. This was all due to something that was originally my fault and my error!

This is the kind of excellent service that keeps people as loyal customers. Do you think I will keep supporting this company, and especially this location? Absolutely!

When you are meeting with your prospect, and courting them to become your client, what are you doing to not only provide value but also provide unexpected value?

If you are a kitchen and bath designer, keep in mind that the value item does not necessarily need to be something of monetary value. It could be a service, a welcome package, how you treat them, a gracious gesture, a way of doing business, a referral program.

The important thing is that this is perceived as valuable to your prospect. What you provide them of unexpected value might be different from one person to another. I would suggest you create a selection list of added value items that you can pick from, depending on what would be best for your client. Of course, you may do something completely different for a specific client but it would provide a starting point.

These are the small efforts that not only create loyal clients but also will generate referrals for years to come!

Please comment on what you currently do to provide your clients with unexpected value.

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As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome!