Three Client Types Every Designer Should Know

Every year when Black Friday comes around, I get this frustrated feeling. It is not because I dislike a bargain. I love a good bargain (I am Australian after all!) It is because it’s when I start to see posts on social media that say things like “half price consultation this Black Friday only” interior designers suddenly feel pressure to discount their services, run special offers and reduce their prices just to be part of the noise. This is never a good idea.

The moment you train your audience to wait for the discounts, they will. They will hold off working with you until November because you have created a pattern that benefits them and not you. They would have been your clients anyway at full price if you had simply kept your message and positioning strong (I know I’ve tested this hundreds of times and sold hundreds of interior design services to clients as well as other products too!)

This time of year is also one of the hardest moments to be heard online, which can add to the frustration designers feel about marketing in general. The platforms are overcrowded, advertising becomes more expensive, organic content gets buried and you need two or three times more effort for the same level of visibility you would get at any other time of the year. It is not a strategic moment to fight the noise. When you combine that with a lower price point, you are basically making your job harder while earning less…

But I get it, we have to post and because it’s topical we think it’s a great idea, but it isn’t. So what do you do instead? Well this is a time when most people are open to purchasing more freely, but instead of discounting, I suggest thinking about how you can refine your message and get very clear about what makes people buy your services in the first place. I’ll use three types of buyers to illustrate this example. The Triggered Clients, the Aligned Clients and the Bargain Hunters.

Stop and analyse your past clients. Ask yourself what triggered the purchase. Did they just buy a new house. Did they finally reach that point where they could not tolerate the mess anymore. Did they have a big birthday coming up and wanted the house to feel like them again. Was a new baby arriving. Did their finances shift so that a renovation became possible.

These are the real triggers that create urgency and they are completely separate from discounts or marketing gimmicks. When these things happen, your clients need a designer immediately and you want to be the only person they think of when those moments arrive. These are the clients who are likely already following you on social media and who would have bought your service full price!

There is another type of client you might attract with your Black Friday offer who did not know they were looking for you, but they came across your offer and bought it (and you feel this is what you’re missing out on by not posting a Black Friday offer right?) Wrong… if there is something you shared and it resonated so deeply that a potential client suddenly wanted what you offer – it often isn’t because of the sale itself, but because of the way you sold it.

These clients feel like they come out of nowhere, but they appear when you have your marketing message and your positioning aligned. When you know what you do, who you do it for and what problem it solves, attracting these clients does not feel difficult. It feels natural, almost effortless, because you are speaking from a place of clarity. Again these clients would have paid full price, if you simply got your message in your advert/post right in the first place.

The hardest people to convert into buying your services are the bargain hunters – they’re also the clients you don’t really want. They are usually the ones who do not know you, do not know what you do and do not yet understand the value of the service you provide. These are the people who tend to be attracted to discounts because they are shopping based on the cheapest option available, not based on alignment, trust or an actual desire to work with you.

You never want anyone to choose you because you were cheap. I have been there. I sold hundreds of e-design packages at very low prices. It taught me how to sell and how to speak to clients and it taught me a lot of what not to do! It did not build my confidence, in fact many times I felt depleted after working with those people because they just needed more and more and more – giving them everythign was never going to be enough!

It simply showed me that cheap work attracts clients who are not aligned with us and who are not ready to invest in the outcome they want. They really are impossible clients and you really don’t want those clients. It will always be wroth spending more time on refining your marketing message than ever working with a client that just takes and takes and takes…

This is why I want every designer reading this to realise that you do not need a Black Friday offer. You need clarity (which is what I can help you with inside IntoDesign). You need to know who you are, what you do and which problem you actually solve for your clients. Once you know that, the entire sales process becomes easier. When you show up in front of the right clients in the most direct and simple way possible, that is what leads to bookings. Not discounting your services and fighting for attention at the same time that Amazon and every retailer on the planet is screaming for clicks.

What can you do today? write down the last three clients who paid your full price without hesitation. What triggered their decision. If you can understand that pattern, you can speak directly to the next person who is going through the exact same thing. That is where your marketing power is. Not in a discount code.

Jo Chrobak