Dear Dakota: How Can I Build A Consistent Flow Of Clients For My Interior Design Business?
Dear Dakota,
How can I build a consistent flow of clients for my interior design business?
This is a great question; if you've asked this yourself, you're not alone. I know it can often feel like you’re in "feast or famine” mode, and it's scary when there's nothing in the pipeline for the upcoming quarter.
So if you're currently struggling with no leads in your pipeline and no upcoming projects booked, ask yourself this:
Are you sick of hearing yourself talk about your services and how you can help your ideal clients?
Have you talked about it so much in your newsletters and social media posts that you are annoyed with yourself?! You feel like, OH MY GOSH, people will block me because all I ever talk about is this one thing.
If you answered yes to all of those, then cheers! You're doing a great job. You SHOULD feel repetitive in your efforts to market your business. Repetition improves the clarity of your message and adds to your power of persuasion.
Sometimes, a message won’t fully sink in until a potential client has heard it several times or until circumstances have shifted so that it now makes sense or is relevant. So, keep letting your audience know how your services can benefit them.
If you answered no, you don’t feel you have been repetitively talking about your services, it's time to reallocate your time (or budget) to marketing.
And if you answered yes, but you're still not getting any leads, then you, my friend, have a marketing problem.
In the post, I’m going to share six ways to solve it:
Know what benefit you’re selling and who you’re selling it to.
Define your services and then only sell those services.
Become known for something.
Let potential clients know when you can start - and create a true sense of urgency.
Create an amazing client experience for your clients from start to finish.
Always be selling.
01. KNOW WHAT BENEFIT YOU'RE SELLING AND WHO YOU'RE SELLING IT TO.
A big mistake I see many designers make is sharing DIY content when they are trying to attract a luxury, done-for-you client. The client who will hire you to do multiple rooms soup-to-nuts is not trying to figure out how high to hang lights. Why? Because they don't have time or desire for that, and that's why they will want to hire you.
So if you're not looking for DIY clients, don't talk about DIY topics. A DIY client may not see the value in your services.
Here are some more examples:
If you don't want to work with clients who want to shop at Home Goods with you, don't post pictures of yourself shopping at Home Goods for clients (even if you do shop there for some accessories).
If you don't shop retail for your projects, don't post pictures of stuff you bought at Target.
If you don't want clients who are looking for "a discount," then don't talk about how working with you means they get a discount on furniture.
Try these approaches if you want to attract more full-service projects:
Pay attention to the pain points prospects are describing during discovery calls. Then, in your marketing, describe how your full-service process alleviates those.
Share more pictures of completed full-service projects in your portfolio and marketing.
Fully describe the phases of your full-service process within your marketing, so clients understand the extent of how you will help them.
Talk about the ease and simplicity your past clients experienced while working with you, because of the full-service process you provide.
Within your marketing, talk about and show the lifestyle that clients will enjoy once their space is complete.
It is important to remember that YOU should not be the focus of your marketing message. It should not be so much about your credentials, your experience, or your know-how. Don’t make yourself THE HERO of your marketing story.
Instead, focus attention on the experience and result your clients will realize in working with you.
Your clients are hiring you, YES, because of the quality and your reputation, but they are also hiring you because of what the design you deliver will say about them. How it will make them feel. How it will allow them to be the person with a beautiful home — the one you will create for them.
Does your client dream of knowing how high to hang lights? Or do they dream of coming home to a completed and beautiful space, with an area for unwinding after a hard day of work, with the kids nearby at the game table playing nicely? A functional, cohesive home where they love every single thing that surrounds them.
Seriously, you should be talking about your services and your clients until you are sick and tired of hearing yourself talk about them.
And if you are not sick of hearing yourself talk about your services and how you can help your clients, YOU ARE NOT MARKETING YOUR COMPANY ENOUGH.
Guess what? When we write our Instagram posts, blog posts, or content for The Weekly Install each week, I sometimes think, “Geez, aren't people tired of hearing about this? I'm always talking about the client experience. Surely, they must be annoyed with me.”
But then I talk to clients who say they look forward to The Weekly Install every Friday, designers who email to tell me they get so much out of the blog, or non-designers who message to say how even though they're not a designer, my content has helped them so much.
If I sat down with you for a 1:1 meeting, could you honestly tell me you're marketing your services enough?
If I looked at your newsletters, blog, social media, etc., would I see consistent calls to action and clear content that speaks to your ideal clients and aligns with the project types you want?
Do an audit on yourself. Review the last month of posts and the last few newsletters you sent out.
Was there a call to action, and what was it?
Would the content be something your ideal client would read and say YES I NEED TO HIRE YOU or OMG YOU ARE IN MY BRAIN I NEED YOU, thus inspiring them to reach out?
Or would they be like, "Oh, these are cool shoes; I'll put those in my cart."
What types of project images are you including? Ones you want to do more of? Ones that will resonate with your ideal clients? They sure should be!
02. DEFINE YOUR SERVICES AND THEN ONLY SELL THOSE SERVICES.
If you are communicating that you can do anything for anyone, you're likely excluding a HUGE chunk of people who may be interested in working with you. This may defy conventional wisdom. Isn’t it better to communicate that you have broader skills, and can fulfill everyone’s needs??
Simply, no.
Why not?
Because when it comes to the home, we want specialists. We want someone who has worked on homes in our area and price range with a certain level of quality, who can implement a certain stylistic quality, and who is familiar with the best of the best of everything to make our home amazing.
Just like you wouldn't hire a handyperson to do fine carpentry in your client's $10MM beachfront home, you probably wouldn't hire a kitchen and bath designer to furnish your living room. You want to find the person whose specific skills meet your needs. Communicating that you can do everything for everybody does not speak to high level design skills or to impeccable execution.
So package up what you do and be clear about your service offerings. Don't just list all the things you can do (and definitely don't list them as if you're talking to another designer. No jargon, please!).
Once you package up your services, specify who is a good fit for each service (if you offer more than one). Make sure your website and investment guide are spot on describing what each service entails, and how the client will benefit. Make it so easy for someone to see themselves in a service with you, as your client.
Don't do everything for everyone. Become known for something. Start saying NO to projects you don't want/don't like doing, and instead keep talking about the project types you DO WANT.
For example, if you want more new build projects:
Talk more about how you work with clients on their new construction homes.
Reach out to local builders and architects and interview them for your blog.
Only show pictures of your construction projects.
Share more behind the scenes shots of visiting construction sites, making material selections, talking with contractors, and prepping for presentation day.
If you want to focus on oceanfront second homes/vacation homes:
Create content around beachfront living.
Create content around navigating the second home process.
Share information about things to consider for a second home that you wouldn't need to think about for your primary residence.
Include photos of any beachfront homes you have completed.
Talk about how you manage the project from start to finish as “the boots on the ground” while your client lives out of state in their primary home
03. BECOME KNOWN FOR SOMETHING.
Ahhhhh, niching. The niches are in the riches. I believe this to be true. The more you niche, the more of an expert you become. The more of an expert you become, the quicker you are able to do/troubleshoot/solve things. The more of an expert you become, the more you establish yourself as the go-to in your area for that one thing. The more of an expert you become, the more people will pay you
But don't fall into the common misconception that the only way to niche is through narrowing down on the clients you'll work with. Nope.
You can niche your business by a number of criteria:
By project type - renovation, new build, furnishings only, kitchen and baths
By client type - bachelors, empty nesters, young couples, growing families
By style - traditional, contemporary, modern, moody and sophisticated
By budget - small budgets, large budgets
By home type - vacation homes, Vrbo, yachts, industrial
By product type - retail only, custom only, vintage or antique only, sustainable only
And guess what - I’ll bet you can fairly easily identify project types that you have most enjoyed and excelled at. Look back at your past work and identify patterns within any of these criteria. Then once you are able to identify project correlations (and if the idea of focusing on that specific niche is appealing), call that niche out in every single thing you write, share, promote, and say about your company. You should even update your professional bio and your website SEO to call out that specific niche.
04. LET POTENTIAL CLIENTS KNOW WHEN YOU CAN START - AND CREATE A TRUE SENSE OF URGENCY!
Your availability for starting a new project is a critical factor in whether a potential client will say yes or no to working with you. If you're booked six months out, the client who needs help next week isn't going to be a good fit. And conversely, if you truly only have limited availability and X spots left for the year, that scarcity will create a sense of urgency and encourage someone to book with you.
So use your capacity and project timelines to call in people with similar timeline expectations.
I have a lot of designers who say, "I'm not going to post about openings on my Instagram. Amber Lewis doesn't do it. Studio McGee doesn't do it".
Sigh.
Okay, when you have product lines in retail stores across the US and have published books and tv shows and gigantic teams and in-house PR, then sure, stop posting about your openings. But in the meantime, if you want to call in potential clients, you need to let them know when you have openings and are booking new clients. Always nudge people to do what you want them to do. (Check out the book Nudge to learn all about the simple art of getting people to do what you want them to.)
Medical and dental offices have taken to advertising that they are “currently accepting new patients.” This wording makes people feel privileged to be able to gain entry into that business.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I see a lot of designers accepting new projects, starting right away, and then being buried in work because they didn't stagger start dates or pay attention to timelines.
So first, KNOW how long each phase takes you (not just in hours but also in how many weeks until you can deliver each milestone to a client) and make sure you and your team have the bandwidth for your current client load plus any new projects. Plug everything into a calendar or spreadsheet and determine when you have space for new clients.
Remember, when you overbook, you're not just hurting yourself. You're hurting your team, your clients, and your reputation. NO ONE WINS.
Once you know when you can start new projects, share that in your marketing. "We're filling up for summer and have space for new full service projects in the fall. If you're interested in working together, please reach out now to share more about your project."
Then, when someone inquires, let them know your estimated start date. When you talk to potential clients on the phone, let them know your starting time for a new project, have them sign a contract, pay, and lock in their date, then they wait to start. This is how you begin to fill your pipeline.
05. PROVIDE AN AMAZING CLIENT EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR EXISTING CLIENTS FROM START TO FINISH.
Everyone can do better with their client experience.
I am always astonished by companies that have great reputations and reviews, only to find their process to be frustrating and painful as if I'm constantly pushing and pulling to get the info I need. And if I don't ask the right questions, I'm SOL. Seriously. Makes me question my investment (and the company’s preparedness and expertise) and not want to work with them ever again.
EVERYONE benefits when you improve your client experience.
Check out our client experience templates here and reverse engineer your whole client process (plus, our templates are professionally written and professionally copy-edited for a client-focused and supportive client experience).
If you take excellent care of clients from day one, rather than just at the end of the project when you send them a gift, guess what?! They'll recommend you the entire time you're working with them. This means you may have someone recommending your services FOR SIX MONTHS, EIGHT MONTHS, or TWO YEARS, depending on how long your typical projects last.
Take care of them from start to finish. Make the process soooooo easy for them. Assess your contact form, discovery call process, contract turnaround time, and onboarding process. Is it easy? Is it clunky? Does it take seventy-five emails, or one? Are people confused? Where are they falling off?
Always stay in front of questions. Give people all the information they need to make buying decisions with confidence.
06. ALWAYS BE SELLING.
I’m not saying this in a slimy sleazy way. I’m saying you should ABS “always be selling.” Even when you’re busy. Even when you simply cannot add one more thing to your list. This will allow you to book projects with future start dates so you have a pipeline and you don't experience the feast or famine that is so common in this industry.
What I see too often is designers who get so busy, they don’t have time to market their services, so they stop marketing altogether.
They ignore their social media or their email list.
They stop doing their networking meetings or coffee chats.
They take days or weeks to respond to inquiries.
Then, their current projects wrap and they have ZERO leads and ZERO projects in their pipeline.
GULP!!
So whatever you need to do to support yourself so you can market even when you’re busy, do it! This might mean:
using a social media scheduler
hiring someone to write emails or social posts for you during your busy seasons
repurposing your top 10 most popular posts of the year
blocking out a few hours each month to create content for the platform that is bringing you the most leads
scheduling emails to go out to previous clients to check-in and ask for referrals
You get the idea. In order to make consistent sales, you have to consistently market what you’re selling.
Then put people onto a waitlist (learn how to do that here), even if it just means making a client wait two weeks to start OR six months. PEOPLE WILL WAIT FOR YOU if they know what to expect!!
So, if you don’t have a consistent flow of leads and clients for your interior design business, it's essential to look at your marketing. This means clearly identifying your ideal clients and the benefits your services provide, and focusing your marketing efforts on speaking to those clients and highlighting those projects and results. Avoid talking about topics that don't interest your ideal clients, and showcase only the projects that will attract more of the clients and projects you want. By following these tips, you will start to see more leads coming in and get more traction and engagement on your content from ideal clients.
For more tips on marketing your interior design services, check out these resources:
Marketing Tactics that Don’t Work for Interior Designers
Why You Have No Leads Coming In
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