5 Tips to Establish a No-Negotiation Policy for Your Design Fees

1. Never Negotiate Your Prices under any Circumstances

Negotiating makes the client think that you're overcharging for your services. Let potential clients know that your rates are honest and fair for the level of service that you provide which is why you don't negotiate them. Have a firm policy of not negotiating and stick to it.

2. Establish a Value Mindset

It’s a “value-for-value” relationship.

Jesse Nirenberg wrote the following  in his book How To Sell Your Ideas:

[Y]ou have to sell the fairness of all your offers … If you don’t justify them, it seems as though your guiding principle is to get the most for the least. Giving this impression hurts the relationship. For it means that you’re willing to deprive the other person of what he should have… If you finally accept much less than your initial request, the other person is likely to think that you’re trying to get much more than is reasonable.

Compromising Your Fee is Compromising Yourself. Corporate recruiter Jeff Allen uses this quote quite frequently.  He says that comprimising your fees is like telling the client, “I really don’t believe my services are worth what I charge.”

3. Decide That You're Worth It

If potential clients can't afford to pay more for quality services,  they shouldn't come to you. You are worth every penny you charge. If you don't believe this who will? 

4. Believe That Your Fee is Fair

Stephen Gillers says it best in his book  I’d Rather Do It Myself, written as a guide for attorneys:

The belief in the value of what you’re selling must be yours . . . If you know it, so will the client. If you don’t, most of your clients will eventually know that too. If you lose the client because you want to get paid, you’re better off in the long run. This will be as true in your tenth year as it is in your first week. You sell time and, despite your willingness to work hard and sleep on your desk, there is a finite quantity of time available for sale… [This is] the only time … when your interests and the client’s interests will conflict.

 

5. Don't Be Defensive

Simply state that your policy is your policy. Potential clients will repect you for it. In the long they'll be touting that you were worth an arm and a leg but worth every penny!

By IDRA: The Interior Design Resource Agency
Photography by Dana Bartekoske Heinemann

The Interior Design Resource Agency

The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers

Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design

+++