Interior Design Value Equation - What makes an interior designer more valuable?
As a non-designer working in the interior design biz, I contribute pretty much nothing to the design-side of our design business.
But, when it comes to the business-side of the biz, my application of the following value equation has been having a MASSIVE impact on the biz in the past 15 months. This success formula isn’t new, I’ve seen it described by all sorts of really smart business people including Alex Hormozi…but I’ve never seen it applied to residential interior design. So, I thought I would share.
There are 4 parts to our little Interior Design Value Equation:
There are 2 Benefits that make up the top half (numerator) of the equation
Symmetrically, there are 2 Costs that make up the bottom half (denominator) of the equation
Simply put, your value to your interior design clients depends on:
Maximizing your 2 main benefits
Minimizing the 2 main costs
Simple. Right? Let’s move on to Benefit #1
BENEFIT #1 - DREAM OUTCOME
Does your potential client believe in the value of interior design to make a dream of theirs come true?
Does the homeowner believe that interior design will give them a rewarding outcome?
Do they believe that interior design can solve their problem?
Do they see the benefit of interior design & interior designers?
Is the end result meaningful to them?
Will it make them feel happy, proud, comfortable, etc?
Is their belief in interior design strong enough to overcome the costs they have to pay in the bottom half of the equation?
As important as this benefit is to the Value Equation, I argue that this is NOT an area to spend your valuable time on. There are more than enough homeowners who believe in the value of interior design. Let HGTV try to convert the non-believers.
But, just in case you’re interested, here are some of the perceived benefits of interior design in general:
They get a beautiful home thanks to an interior designer
No DIY errors
Less stress because designers handle all the details
Status gained from having a beautiful home
Status gained from being able to afford to hire you
Access to higher quality products
Access to higher quality construction - thx to connections with contractors & trades
Less time spent on the reno because of interior design business systems
Let’s move on to Benefit #2…
BENEFIT #2 - CAN YOU DELIVER ON THAT DREAM OUTCOME
The second benefit in our interior design value equation is all about YOU.
Does our theoretical homeowner believe that you are the one to deliver that dream outcome?
How much do they believe in you?
Do they believe in you more or less than another interior designer?
How can we increase their belief in you?
Is their belief in you strong enough to overcome the costs they have to pay in the bottom half of the equation?
In mathematical terms, are you the right solution to their problem?
Maybe they believe in the value of interior design (Benefit #1), but their belief in you ain’t so strong. In this case, they will likely hire a designer, but it probably won’t be you :(
Q: How do we convince homeowners that you can deliver the goods & boost that perceived value?
A: SOCIAL PROOF
You NEED to collect & consistently market social proof of your awesomeness via:
Referrals
Develop a system for referrals. This could include:
An end of job survey to identify successes & areas for improvement
A request for referrals…duh
A email marketing drip campaign for past clients designed to provide ongoing value & keep you in mind for future referrals
Reviews
Develop a system to solicit & guide reviews. This could include:
A request for a review at the end of the job
A formal Request for Review document that offers guidance to homeowners who don’t know what to say in a review
A “how-to” guide for submitting the review
A reward of some kind for submitting the review. This could range from an expression of gratitude to an offer of free service in the coming months. Remember, we’re trying to make it incredibly easy for the homeowner to give you an amazing online review
Shareable images & videos of your designs
Share on social media
Submit to interior design publications as part of a larger PR strategy
Share stories of your designs on social media, your blog/website. Case studies are a powerful tool
In addition to specific examples of social proof, you need to develop a campaign to boost your overall name recognition / brand. We’re talking about branding YOU as an interior design expert writ large - social media, advertising, PR, etc
Produce interior design related content across multiple platforms
Create interior design blog articles for your website
Reach out to interior design bloggers with the aim of future collaboration - provide value to them
Reach out to interior design podcasters with the aim of future collaboration - provide value to them
Reach out to interior design vloggers with the aim of future collaboration - provide value to them
Reach out to interior design TikTokkers, Pinners, Facebookers & Instagrammers with the aim of future collaboration - provide value to them
Reach out to interior design publications with case studies & sample images
So that takes care of the benefit part of the equation.
Boost your name recognition.
Earn a ton social proof.
Convince homeowners that you are the designer to entrust with their home.
But what about the bottom part of the equation…the cost, the pain, the effort, the sacrifice??? This is where things get real interesting to me.
If we look at the truly successful companies around the world, we see that reducing the costs borne by their clients is the true path to awesomeness.
Think about Amazon.
Amazon doesn’t sell anything that you can’t buy from Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot or your local dollar store for a similar price. Sure, they used to be cheaper, but not anymore.
What Amazon does exceptionally well is make it super-easy to move from “I want something” to having that “something” arrive on your front porch. They have minimized the time, effort & pain required by Amazon shoppers to get their reward.
And that’s what you need to do
COST #1 - TIME
As we all know, home renovation takes a LONG time. Assuming a consistent work quality, if you could design, demo, source, construct & finish an entire home renovation in a week…would you be able to charge more for your interior design service???
Of course you would. Speed is a game-changer.
And…how do you get faster? Efficiency
And how do you get more efficient? Leverage
According to the super-smart Naval Ravikant, there are 4 broad types of business leverage - labor, capital, code & media
Labor - leveraging other people’s time, effort & skills - employees, contractors, VAs, etc
Capital - capital is money (personal, investor) you can access to amplify the 3 other forms of leverage - pay employees, buy software & advertise in media
Code or technology - this can be all manner of software, hardware & eventually AI designed to make your business more efficient
Media - media amplifies your message, increasing the number of leads, jobs & profit/capital
Using a combination of these four levers, a solo interior designer WILL transform their business. You will get faster. You will be able to handle more clients. You will be more efficient. You will service each client at a lower cost to you. Win, win, win & win.
All of this reduces the denominator in our Interior Design Value Equation. It also increases the value of your business in the eyes of your potential clients.
COST #2 - EFFORT & PAIN
Reducing your clients’ effort, pain, aggravation, stress, annoyance, etc is an absolute game-changer for your business.
One of the main reasons interior design even exists is that people would rather trade money for the aggravation of a DIY home reno.
The difference between a good interior design firm & a great interior design firm can come down to how much effort, pain, stress & annoyance the client has to endure during your interior design process.
How do we eliminate all of that effort, pain, stress & annoyance for our clients?
Skill - at the most basic level, you need to be good at interior design
Efficiency & Leverage - see above
Systems - When Jeff Bezos stepped away from the CEO position at Amazon, Amazon kept right on going because Amazon had systems in place. Systems let you scale your business. Systems let you take a 4-week vacation. I will have more to say about systems in a future article :)
Your value to homeowners grows along with your obsessive focus on making life easier for your clients. Happy clients will happily pay a premium for your superior service. Happy clients will sing your praises. Happy clients will grow your business for you.
We will go into more detail on this topic in future articles. For now, if you don’t have one already, you need to implement a Q&A style exit survey for clients that asks them what you got WRONG. Since we made reducing our clients’ effort & pain Job #1, we are constantly asking for constructive criticism. Even if we can’t immediately fix the problem, we want them to know that we know & that we’re taking their pain seriously.
Okay…I hope that this article about the Interior Design Value Equation is helpful.
Over at our residential interior design business - Robb & Company - we’ve spent the last year+ working on leveling-up the business-side of the business.
In addition to getting more efficient via labor, tech & media,
We started using an interior design business platform into the business.
We’re also in the process of systematizing all of our business processes. We’ve always had systems, but they existed primarily in the brain of my ridiculously talented interior design wife Nicole Robb.
Soon, we’ll integrate those systems into the business platform which will make employee onboarding soooo much easier & more efficient.
It’s a work in progress, but we’re already seeing a big improvement.
If you have ANY questions or comments, please shoot me an email - douglas@interiordesignher.com - and we can chat :)
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