The golden age for designers has arrived, but it is also a painful era for many designers. Why do you say that?

On the one hand, consumers need design, like beautiful renderings, attach great importance to design, and the demand for home beauty has exploded. When buying materials in a home building materials store, if you can see the matching renderings of what you see is what you get, the transaction rate will be higher.

The decoration company will be the first to send free 3D drawings, customized according to your house type, and may retain customers faster than its peers.

As a designer, you should be happy that design is valued. But things are not simple, please continue reading.

On the other hand, relatively easy-to-use design software has emerged, and you can draw pictures without too many professional skills; a large number of manufacturers are training resident designers, and good shopping guides can use mature software to draw good home renderings.

I have noticed that almost all the top-ranked custom home furnishing companies have several free services in the early stage: free room measurement, free design, free drawings, not only free floor plans, but also 3D renderings.

Many decoration companies are also introducing better-used and simpler design software. In order to grab orders, one of the benefits offered to owners is free drawings.

According to the observation of Dacai Research, starting from 2018, manufacturers have organized design trainings very frequently and very frequently. This is done in most industries such as ceramics, sanitary ware, flooring, doors, windows, and furniture.

The training targets include dealers, store managers and shopping guides for design training. From time to time, design case competitions are held to allow shopping guides or resident designers in various stores to submit their works, from which outstanding resident designers are selected.

As for the store shopping guide design competition, according to Dacai Research and observation, Markor Home Furnishing A.R.T. once held the first national design competition, requiring contestants to provide beautiful small apartments, classic large apartments, stylish model rooms and other apartment works. All stores that sign up and submit their works will receive gifts. At the same time, there are first, second and third prizes for each house type.

For example, A Home Furnishing, after cooperating with Kujiale, also held a national design competition, requiring Shouwo to develop a whole-house design plan. Designated product series must be embedded in the design drawings, and all A Home product models must be used.

It can be said that a new sales phenomenon has emerged: shopping guides who are not proficient in design software may not be able to say that they are engaged in home sales. Those who cannot quickly come up with several beautiful renderings according to customer needs cannot say that they have improved the customer's shopping experience.

The entire competitive environment has changed a lot. In the past, home design was a matter for decoration companies, and home building materials merchants did not need to consider it. Now we should not always hold on to traditional thinking. If possible, implanting this scene experience into the store sales process will be helpful to retain customers.

At present, it is understood that some powerful dealers are already using design software such as Kujiale and 3D Home, or developing some software themselves, such as Xinmingzhu’s Kuaihui, Markor’s iMarkor, Sophia’s DIYHome, etc., which are basically customized and developed by themselves.

Whether it is the thirdWhether it is customized or developed by yourself, it can be used to design renderings, provide design matching services to customers, record customer customization needs, access massive products, submit orders, etc., and upload design works.

Judging from the current situation, although many manufacturers and dealers are introducing 3D cloud design software to train in-store designers and designer shopping guides, the implementation effect in stores is still lacking.

After all, design matching requires a certain amount of aesthetic skills and proficiency in software. It is not something that can be accomplished in a day, but requires long-term proficiency. Some shopping guide students who lack learning ability and patience may not be able to persevere.

There is no doubt that if we can cultivate a group of designer shopping guides or resident designers in stores, improve the design capabilities of shopping guides, and enhance customer stickiness through design services, this is a task that manufacturers must do well.

After all, it will definitely be of great help to improve the terminal’s ability to acquire and retain customers. In this regard, Dacai Research has four suggestions:

1. Comprehensive training for store shopping guides, so that everyone can master certain design and matching skills. In the process of customers purchasing furniture and building materials, provide design suggestions and be able to quickly make preliminary matchings on tablets, which will be helpful to the transaction rate;

2. From the store’s shopping guides, identify those with strong design capabilities and train them to become design-oriented salesmen and serve as resident designers. Once there are customers with relatively high design requirements and relatively large customer orders, they will come in handy.

3. Stores where conditions permit can be assigned resident designers to exercise their sales capabilities at the same time. Resident designers should be treated as professional designers, should be active on the front line of decoration, and be able to provide professional design support for specific customers in the store.

It can also drive other shopping guides to improve their design capabilities. This type of designer can also provide customers with more suggestions on decoration design and home matching. In addition to providing design and sales support in stores, they also use multiple platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and Haohaozhu to output design content and attract fans.

4. It is definitely not enough to pass the training. Many people forget about it after participating in the training. It also requires subsequent follow-up and assessment. For example, in the daily sales of stores, shopping guides are required to provide customers with home renderings; for example, through competitions, shopping guides are encouraged to upload their works, and then they are publicly judged and provided with rewards.

I noticed that the move-in and set-up business has won the favor of some customers, and is also promoted by some manufacturers. This kind of business has greater demand for design, because you talked about the move-in and set-up for a long time, but what is the effect after moving the whole set of things to your home?

If you can’t see a ready-made model room in the store, you can only use design tools to achieve it. Only when you see the effect, the charm of move-in-your-bag will be truly released.

So, with the trend of move-in and decoration, the boundaries between home building materials manufacturers and decoration companies are gradually blurring, and they will find ways to cultivate a group of design-oriented sales in the store.

So, what’s the problem? Have you mastered the design skills and can quickly provide beautiful renderings? Can you sign orders with customers immediately?

That’s certainly not the case! Design is only one aspect of sales. It can help improve sales, but it does not guarantee it. In the daily negotiation process, various sales techniques must be combined.