Marketing and Client Relations for Interior Designers

ISBN-13: 9780470260487 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 288 str.

Mary V. Knackstedt

Opis

Discover the latest insights in marketing and client relations

for interior designers

To be a successful interior designer, it's essential to market yourself and your firm effectively. A must-read for interior designers establishing a client base, as well as for seasoned interior designers aiming to grow their businesses, Marketing and Client Relations for Interior Designers offers valuable tips on enhancing client relations and building lasting relationships for a growing practice.

This step-by-step manual helps you design the marketing program that best fits your unique practice and provides helpful business forms to help keep you on target, including staff questionnaires, planning guides, and design services outlines.

With insight, simplicity, and uncommon sense, industry expert and authorMary Knackstedt guides design professionals through all aspects of promoting a design business, including how to:
*

Design specialized promotional resources, market research, and personal interactions
*

Establish a company profile that attracts clients
*

Find clients who are most likely to want your services
*

Budget marketing efforts accurately to avoid unnecessary expenses
*

Handle complaints diplomatically and with minimum problems
*

Build a better relationship with clients
*

Create proper contracts and letters of agreement
*

Set prices that are appropriate for your services

Brimming with examples and proven strategies from successful, highly profitable firms that make it easy to apply the book's marketing techniques to your own business, Marketing and Client Relations for Interior Designers is your design firm's guide for business development, successfully marketing its services and maintaining long-term customer relationships.

Spis treści

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

PART 1 Effective Marketing Strategies 1

1 Positioning Your Firm 3

2 The Marketing Plan 13

3 Objectives 19

4 Company Profile/Internal 23

5 The Marketplace 41

6 Current Issues Influencing Our Market 53

7 Market Research 61

8 Targeting the Right Clients 67

9 Partnering with Technology 73

10 Techniques That Develop and Nurture Relationships 81

11 Who Will Lead? 103

12 Preparing Marketing Materials 107

13 Becoming a Major Force in Interior Design 117

PART 2 Selling as Communication 121

14 An Introduction to Selling 123

15 The Client Comes First 131

16 Rapport 137

17 Organization 143

18 The Art of the Interview 151

19 Your Brand 159

20 Preselling 175

21 The Presentation 183

22 Qualifying the Client 191

23 Defining a Project 207

24 Customer Service 215

25 How to Handle Complaints 221

26 Contracts and Letters of Agreement 225

27 Charging for Your Services 231

28 The Installation 249

29 Learning 257

Suggested Reading List 261

Index 263

O autorze

Mary V. Knackstedt, FASID, FIIDA, is president and founder of Knackstedt, Inc., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and New York. She is an interior designer, furnituredesigner, consultant, and lecturer, and has taught interior design business practices at Harvard′s Graduate School of Design for more than ten years. Knackstedt heads the Designers′ Business Forum, a program dedicated to raising the level of interior design firms.

ALSO BY Mary V. Knackstedt, Published by Wiley:

The Interior Design Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Profitability, Fourth Edition