I could argue that as a graphic designer, selling is something that happens in almost every interaction you have with your prospect or client.
After you get the job, you have to present your work (you should always present your work in person or over a video call, don’t just email your work with no context). In this presentation, you are selling the work, selling the idea that you did a good job, and selling that the next step is to accept this project as satisfactory. But selling begins long before your pitch or presentation… from your first meeting to discuss the project, you begin the design sales process. It is critical that you develop the skill of active listening and good note taking.
Here’s what you need be intentional about in order to sell your work:
1. Setting Expectations
First things first. What does your client expect you to do? This is probably the most important part of the whole project. You need to ask a lot of questions about what your client wants, what success looks like to THEM for this project, what timeline they expect, and how much money they are willing to spend, and who else besides the person you are talking to will be involved in feedback and approval.
This is your chance to immediately address any red flags or concerns that you have about the project. Educate your client about your process and what they can expect. How often will you meet with them before the project is complete? What information or assets do you need from them? How will their deadline or budget impact the outcome of the work you are able to produce? How will work be presented for feedback and approval? When do they need to pay you?
Every time you meet with this client on this project, you should reiterate these expectations, and adjust expectations with your client if something is going to take longer or require something more from them. This leads right into…
2. Gaining Alignment
When you meet with your client for a mid-project check-in, or to present your completed work, take a few minutes to remind the client that you do indeed understand their goal for the project, and remind them about the previously set expectations. It’s probably been a while since you first talked, and the client might have other issues on their mind that could bleed into this project and scramble it all up if your not careful. Gaining alignment is as simple as just stating the goal of the project, like this, “As you know, the goal of this brochure is to educate the audience about the benefits of your new service. Because we know that your audience is made up of engineers who value facts over fluffy marketing text, we made sure to visually highlight verifiable industry statistics that back up your claims. The printer can have these printed within 2 weeks of your approval, which will give you a few days before your deadline.” If your client is nodding along, you’re good to continue. If they look confused, something has gone wrong somewhere in your communication, AND this is your chance to find out and fix it.
3. Guiding Feedback
Your client is not a designer. They may not be a marketer either. If you don’t guide their feedback, they will sometimes default to arbitrary opinions. Help them give you good, actionable feedback that can improve the final product (or help them realize it’s perfect as it is!).
Questions you can ask your client instead of “What do you think?”:
- Does this meet our goal?
- Is there anything missing that you feel should be included?
- Does this accurately reflect the service/product/brand?
4. Directing Next Steps
Ok, now what?
It’s approved. Does the client have to do anything specific? Do you have to do something? Who’s sending it to the printer? Who’s pushing it live on the website? Who’s posting it on social media? How will the client be billed?
It’s not approved. What do you need from the client in order to make the necessary changes? More information? Different photos? A meeting with another team member?
Whatever the next steps are, you need to let the client know. Hey, look, we’re right back to setting expectations and gaining alignment. 🙂
