One of the most difficult steps in any design is selling that design to your clients or stakeholders and getting an approval sign-off, and it is something that I have grown to really enjoy as I have gotten older and became more experienced.
A lot of people would think that if you’ve understood your client and project well enough, made the right decisions and put lots of hard work, your design should sell itself and the meeting will go on very smooth, but as much as you would like your design to speak for itself, walking a client through the design and discussing comments always has a stronger impact and a higher probability for approval.
This article gives a few tips and tricks to help you turn this fearful step into something you would enjoy and look forward to…
read the full article on WebDesign Tuts+
good article , hope to see more about this subject.
@Bryan: Thanks 🙂
@Ahmed: I think this may work with some clients, not all of them, but it’s a “smart” approach 🙂
@Fashion Girl: Thanks 🙂 I just hope I get the time to write more often
I really enjoyed reading this article but i want to hear your opinion about this approach
http://24ways.org/2009/ignorance-is-bliss
Getting a good logo designed is of utmost importance. Its great you’ve covered so many aspects of it. We have been into logo designing, but the way you’ve covered it here, I must say is amazing.
Hi Jason, I do not have specific presentation skills courses covering this area, however I think you will find the below URLs very useful:
– http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/7_client_nightmares_every_designer_has_faced
– http://sixrevisions.com/project-management/feedback-the-creativity-killer/
– http://www.sitepoint.com/article/design-designers-clients/
– http://www.ideasonideas.com/2007/10/disarm-10-difficult-requests/
– http://www.ideasonideas.com/2008/06/rescue_ideas/
Hi Ahmed. I too found your article very valuable.
I manage a studio and currently have a person wanting to do a course in how to sell design. Do you know if there are any short presentation skills courses that specialize in this area? I’m based in Sydney.
Thanks Noha, I think is really important to understand that getting a sign-off is an art and science in itself, you can’t just send the design expecting the client to understand and accept it by himself, then if it is unaccepted blames it on bad design.
Getting feedback such as “the client does not like it, let us do 3 more options!” is useless and only frustrates the designer, although in most cases as well skilled “presenter” can sell and sign-off even a “not so good” design, just by following the correct steps and preparing well, or the least get valuable and solid feedback to help shorten the iteration cycle.
I really liked it Ahmed 🙂