Selling design services

Running a successful design consultancy demands more from designers than the contribution of excellent design skills. While designers are passionate about design work, a designer’s workday contains many activities related to the design consultancy’s business development such as marketing and sales strategies. Selling design services is one of the most important activities. Knowledge in how to create a demand for design services, by understanding what best represents business value in relation to design from a client’s perspective and how to effectively communicate this, can help in growing the business and let designers spend more time designing. “A contribution to an area that no one really got to grips with yet. The book is a good sales tool for our industry.” Carl Hampf – Partner & Market Director, Shift Design & Strategy “This book and its clear model will guide you through the somewhat feared selling process. You must pass through the selling to be able to deliver and receive value. It’s a light read (at least the first time you read it, reflection and re-read is recommended) suitable for a flight or a train ride. The book finishes off with a great sales meeting case to put it all into context. I consider this a great read for anyone interested in complex sales also outside Design services.” Klas Bertilsson – Innovation Process Responsible, Alfa Laval Lund AB “The models presented in this book are clever tools for getting a good understanding and overview of how to manage the complexity of selling, and to some extent buying, fuzzy services. This is an excellent, well-structured map for getting oriented in the wilderness of the design services market.” Linda Margo Kanter – Partner & Design Manager, Kanter & Karlsson