Become a Savvy Salesperson: How Interior Designers Can Master the Sales Funnel

As an interior designer, not only do you have to create beautiful, functional spaces for your clients, but you also have to sell your services. For many designers, this can be the most daunting part of the job.

Fortunately, the sales process doesn't have to be intimidating. Utilizing a basic understanding of the marketing and sales funnel can help you develop an effective strategy for converting more leads into paying clients. In this blog article, we will discuss what a sales funnel is, how it differs from a marketing funnel, and how interior designers can implement it effectively.

Before we start, let's discuss the fear of selling and why the fear is holding you back.

Why do you fear sales? The answer is simple: fear of rejection and failure. It's common to think that if you are rejected once, you will be rejected repeatedly. However, this doesn't have to be the case!
Whether you realize it or not, you are always selling. Maybe you are trying to convince your 2-year-old that he needs to get in the bathtub. Or maybe you are helping a client decide between two space plans.

In both situations, you use selling techniques to get what you want. You present the options, help your audience decide, and explain why one option is better than the other.

Selling isn't as intimidating as it may seem. With a well-defined sales process in place, interior designers can greatly increase their success rate and potentially turn more leads into paying clients.

A Sales Funnel is a Process to Convert Leads

At its most basic level, a sales funnel is a series of steps a potential customer takes before purchasing. The funnel typically includes five stages:

1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Consideration
4. Decision
5. Action

Creating Awareness through Various Marketing Strategies

During the awareness stage, the customer becomes familiar with your business through strategic and targeted marketing activities. It's about making your potential customers aware of who you are and what you offer. This can be achieved through various channels such as social media marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), content marketing, and advertising.

You can post engaging and visually appealing content on social media related to your interior design services, showcasing your previous work, sharing testimonials, and offering valuable tips.

With SEO, your goal should be to rank high in search engine results for keywords related to interior design services. This can be achieved by creating valuable content on your website and optimizing it with relevant keywords.

For instance, a keyword might be "kitchen designer in [location]." This keyword phrase would be used in every blog article, webpage, and image title on your website.

Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers. This content should be closely related to what you sell, in this case, interior design services.

If you are not sure what to write about, I have 30 Blog Topics to get you started.

Next, advertising can involve both online and offline methods. You can use platforms like Google Ads or paid social media advertising online. Offline, consider print ads, direct mail, or even local television spots.

Lastly, networking is a key aspect of building awareness for your business and can directly impact fill your funnel with prospects.

All these strategies aim to create awareness, attract potential customers, and move them into the next sales funnel stage — interest.

Cultivating Interest in Your Design Services or Products

At the Interest stage of the sales funnel, potential customers start to take a more active role in considering your products or services. Having become aware of your business, they now begin engaging more with your content, seeking more information about your offerings.

This is the stage where you need to provide them with more detailed and specific information about your interior design services, showing them exactly how you can meet their needs and solve their problems.

Email marketing campaigns, webinars, and educational content such as lead magnets, e-books, or case studies can be particularly effective at this stage. This engaging and informative content can help your prospects better understand your offerings and how they address their specific needs or pain points. Likewise, customer testimonials and case studies can emphasize the value of your services and build trust.

Remember, the goal of the Interest stage is to encourage potential customers to move further down the sales funnel into the consideration stage. This requires a strategic and targeted approach to nurturing and education, ensuring your prospects have all the information they need to see the value in your services.

Moving Prospects to the Consideration Stage

At the consideration stage of the sales funnel, prospects have moved beyond simply becoming aware of your business and researching general information about your services. They now need more detailed information that helps them make a decision on whether to purchase from you or not. This is where it’s helpful to focus on developing targeted content and marketing strategies that address the needs and questions specific to your target market.

At this point, prospects may be considering multiple companies for their interior design needs, so it’s important to emphasize the unique value proposition of your services. This could include providing a detailed pricing guide or packages, highlighting special offers and discounts, and offering comparative information on your services against those of competitors.

Creating content that speaks to your prospect's pain points can also be beneficial in showing how you can solve their problems and provide a unique solution. This could include creating informational videos, webinars, or podcasts demonstrating how you can help them achieve their desired results. By providing solutions-focused content that helps customers make an informed decision, you’ll be able to increase the likelihood of them making a purchase from you.

You may want to consider creating an online customer community that allows prospects and customers to interact with each other and provide valuable feedback about your services. This type of engagement can help create strong relationships between current and potential customers, further driving conversions in the consideration stage.

By utilizing these tactics and strategies, you can create more effective content that drives the right prospects toward purchasing from your interior design business. With targeted content and marketing strategies that speak to the needs of your target market, you’ll be able to build a strong online presence for your brand that increases conversions and enhances customer relationships.

Getting to Yes in the Decision Stage

During the decision stage, the prospect decides whether to purchase and in what form. This is when the prospect must be provided with all the necessary information and resources to make an informed decision and feel comfortable purchasing.

In order to facilitate this, your business should have well-developed sales pages that explain exactly what the customer would receive for each purchase. These pages should include detailed product or service descriptions, images, or videos showcasing the product.

You should also include a webpage that details your processes and how those processes affect the client's project. Remember, your client doesn't know what you know about designing and construction, so it is important to be clear with them on what to expect. This will help improve customer satisfaction, even when something goes wrong with the project, because, let's face it, every project always has an unforeseen issue.

I highly recommend creating videos for your website to help with the decision process. videos help prospects connect with you deeper, creating a stronger connection.

During this stage, you send your proposal to the client. Your proposal should be crystal clear about what your services include and what they can expect by signing the proposal. Your proposal is a contract between you and your prospect. If it is unclear or not specific enough, you leave yourself at risk of doing more work than you initially proposed.

For instance, I include the number of design concepts and the number of design or draft changes. If you don't provide limits, some clients will take advantage. This also protects you from people who are indecisive. When you create boundaries, and the client realizes that beyond boundaries, they pay more, then they will become much more decisive.

Taking Action is the Ultimate Goal

Finally, during the action stage, customers take steps toward purchasing. This is when deals are closed, and prospects become paying clients. To make this process as seamless as possible, offer payment options that are easy for the customer and you.

You should have included a section in your contract on exactly how and when your client will be billed. This should include a statement about work not being started/completed until bills are paid. I recommend hiring a lawyer to review your proposal wording and contract. If you write it yourself, it won’t cost you much to have a lawyer review. Whereas if you have a lawyer write it, it will cost you much more.

Do not start working on a project until you have a contract signed and received a retainer (if you require a retainer or downpayment).

How the Sales Funnel Differs from a Marketing Funnel

While both the sales and marketing funnel play pivotal roles in customer acquisition and retention, they differ significantly in their focus and tactics. The marketing funnel encompasses a potential customer's entire journey, from awareness to the final purchase decision. This process involves creating awareness, sparking interest, nurturing desire, and eventually prompting action through targeted content and personalized offers.

On the other hand, the sales funnel is a subset of the marketing funnel that specifically deals with the conversion process, starting from the moment a prospect shows interest in the product or service until they make the purchase. Sales strategies typically involve techniques for lead qualification, negotiation, deal closing, and fostering customer relationships.

In essence, while the marketing funnel focuses on attracting and nurturing leads, the sales funnel concentrates on converting those nurtured leads into paying customers. By understanding these differences, businesses can align their sales and marketing strategies for more effective customer acquisition and retention.

How to Implement a Sales Funnel for Your Design Firm

Implementing a sales funnel can be challenging, but there are several ways for interior designers to do it effectively. One way is to create a lead magnet, a free resource you offer in exchange for a potential customer's email address.

Another strategy is to create a sales page that showcases your services and pricing information. You can also use email marketing to provide valuable content to your audience and nurture them through the sales funnel. Finally, incorporating a referral program can also help you generate new business and create loyal customers.

It is important to implement automation throughout your sales funnel. For instance, when someone signs up for your lead magnet, an email should be autogenerated, providing them with the lead magnet and offering them additional information about your business.

Once they sign up, you now have their email address, which you can use to move them through the funnel. Let me give you an example:

We start with an online form for the lead magnet, which triggers a thank you email with the lead magnet. Including the lead magnet in the email requires the prospect to take action within their email system, telling the email system that this is a trusted source. This helps you stay out of the junk folder. I can tell you from my experience this is very important for ensuring future emails get through to the inbox rather than junk.

Now, you want to automate a follow-up email within 2 to 3 days following the initial signup. This email will ask about the lead magnet and explain how you help your clients. Be sure to add a call to action in this email. The simplest call to action is to set up an introductory phone call to discuss their needs. You will also want to automate this process, which can easily be done using software apps like Calendly.

Once the call is scheduled, reminders are sent to the prospect to ensure the meeting is held. These are more opportunities to show your commitment to customer satisfaction.

During the meeting, you should have a series of questions to determine the prospect's needs, budget, and schedule. Do not be afraid to ask for their budget. You need to know this information to assemble a more likely-to-be-signed proposal.

A thank you email and follow-up steps should be sent after the meeting. You can create this content and simply copy and paste it into an email, customizing it slightly.

Now, you are moving into the consideration stage. What can you provide them here to move them into the decision stage? One suggestion is a video and webpage that explains what they can expect when working with you and your company. If done right, this will solidify their consideration of hiring you and push them into the decision stage, where the proposal is sent.

After your proposal is sent, follow up immediately with a phone call letting the prospect know you sent it and encourage them to call if they have any questions. As part of your sales funnel process, if you have received the signed proposal within three days, you should follow up with a phone call to check in with your client.

To help you map your sales funnel process, I created a sales funnel cheat sheet that you can download and work through to develop your sales process.

By guiding your prospects through each stage of their journey, you’ll be able to maximize conversions from your marketing campaigns and create a more profitable business - all without sacrificing customer experience. With targeted content, personalized offers, and a seamless customer journey, you can make every step of the process more enjoyable for your customers - creating lasting relationships.

It's important to remember that not every lead is ready to buy right away. By nurturing leads, businesses can turn prospects into paying customers and build strong relationships lasting for years.