Premium Interior Design Pricing Strategy? Read this.

You'll hear it from all of the gurus that you should simply start to charge premium pricing and demand your worth, right? And then if you implement this strategy on a whim you could find yourself aced out of the next project. 

And that next project was sooo sweet, but you were told to demand what you are worth. To get what you are worth you need to make that clear to the client. You can't just say "Hey Rich Dude, pay me three times what you were going to pay that other designer because I'm worth it."

Do you know what Rich Dude wants to know? Why are you worth it? Because you say so? That's not enough.

Womp, womp, womp. Just when you had dreams of being some baller, Rich Dude just killed your dreams. 

Do you know why most interior designs fail at charging premium pricing? They do it because someone else told them to without helping them to understand the what and why behind it.

Let me give you an example of the difference in premium pricing and the same price everyone else charges. 

We went to the mall looking for sneakers for my husband. 

We head into one of the many sneaker shops in the mall manned by those clueless Millennials. They are so apathetic that it hurts. They talk to their co-workers about how they aren't getting off work until 6 and how much their life sucks. They give you the exasperated face when you ask to try on the sneaker in your size. 

I mean, come the fuck on. I get it. You're sad you're working in a shoe store like Al Bundy, except you're not fucking 40. This doesn't have to be your life's work. 

So we left the store because we couldn't be bothered anymore with the attitude.

We head over to Nordstroms. What is this magical place? A department store filled with people whose only desire is to tend to your every desire with the hopes of making the sale.

They didn't look at us and surmise how much money we had in our wallet, which was a good thing because let me tell you I look like a hot fucking mess when I go out shopping. But I've got the cash to buy what I want.

They were patient, kind and were happy to banter with us. They also sold my husband two pairs of shoes that were marked up way beyond what we could have bought them for from the apathetic Millennials.

This is why a lot of designers get fucked when they want to charge premium prices on a whim. 

You Need A Profesh Website To Charge Premium Pricing

You CAN NOT have some fucking shitty ass Wix website and expect to command a premium fee. I don't care how many ads they run or what they try to peddle about their websites being on par with every other website solution you could choose. They aren't. 

Also, you need a strategy behind your website. It's not a glorified brochure. It's a website that should take your client's on a specific path that leads to a consult or a sale. If your website isn't doing that, you're fucked. 

Beyond all of that, you need traffic coming to your website. If you're as famous as that other guy from Wham! you're fucked. No one remembers his name and no one will even know your name if you can't get traffic to your virtual pad. And his name is Andrew Ridgley, but no one really cares.

Your Copy Needs To Be Different To Charge Premium Pricing

I know I rant on this probably more times than is allowable but really people, we need to get overusing the phrase that "We believe that every homeowner should have..." Fuck every homeowner, talk to ME. The one you really want to work with. 

The words on your website matter more than you know. Your client shows up alone to your website. They don't invite all of their friends to look at your website at the same time. That would be weird and rare. 

We all show up to your website alone. And we want to know that you GET us. You feel our pain. We don't care about Rick down the block. We care about ourselves. If you need an awesome copywriter, Misha is your girl. She gets results. And you know I only pimp top-shelf bitches ;)

You Can't Offer What Everyone Else Offers To Charge Premium Pricing

You are here to be different, we know that. But there is a difference between offering the same thing out there or offering an unbelievable experience. 

Your brand is a promise of an experience and if you're offering what everyone else is, there's no reason why your client should pay more for that.

You need to stop looking at what every other designer is offering and figure out what you can deliver that will be epic. Then, if you want to check, go back and make sure it is actually epic and different. 

You Must Be Authentic

Not everyone is a really good interior designer. Sorry, but not sorry. Some of us are at the beginning of our journey and have a lot to learn about design. Some of us have been at this for a while and have killer skills. Some of us have been at this for a while and still suck. 

You have to be willing to up your skills and the experience you deliver because you're selling a result. A result that your client wants to rave about to all of their friends and family about. 

If you can't deliver something better than the next guy, you can't charge premium pricing. 

It's not something you can manifest or pray really hard for or believe you deserve because some yahoo told you should.

Premium prices are commanded when you deliver what your competitor cannot. 

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