Do you need help communicating with your interior design clients? Do you want to interact with your potential clients more effectively and close a project?
I got you! In today’s episode, I discuss the different personality types and their impact on effective communication.
Knowing your clients’ different personality types will help you better understand how they communicate. Plus, you can customize your approach to each person to get to know them better and build stronger relationships.
Join me for today’s episode to learn more about personality types and how understanding them impacts your interior design career or business.
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode
- Assess how understanding personality types can benefit your interior design projects
- Find out how to understand yourself and others better by taking 4 personality tests (plus 2 bonus fun tests)
- Discover 6 ways to make people like you and 5 ways to persuade them through your presentation
Check out these episode highlights
00:59 – Special offer exclusive to Design Curious listeners only
03:29 – The six benefits of identifying and understanding personality types that improve communication and relationships
Benefit #1: It helps you understand yourself better. When you know yourself better, you can help others interact with you better.
Benefit #2: It helps you understand how others communicate and move through their day.
Benefit #3: You will know how the client prefers to be spoken to and how they prefer to communicate is crucial when you’re doing presentations and trying to sell their design to them.
Benefit #4: It’s fun.
Benefit #5: It makes working together on the best design easier.
Benefit #6: It puts a personal touch on the project and shows who’s paying attention and who it speaks to.
NOTE #1: Test results change depending on when you take them because people change over time.
NOTE #2: The tests do not put people in a box. Instead, it helps understand people’s personalities better.
NOTE #3: Some tests match one another (4 Temperaments Assessment and DiSC Assessment). So if you know one, you can understand the other better. But you may prefer only one, so feel free to explore both.
The Different Personality Types Tests
04:06 – Personality Test #1: The Myers-Briggs Test and Its 16 Personality Types
It’s a combination of four letters based on four different categories.
- I or E for Introversion or Extroversion
- N or S for Intuition or Sensing
- T or F for Thinking or Feeling
- J or P for Judging or Prospecting
My Myers Briggs is INFP, meaning that I’m Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Prospecting in my approach to relationships.
06:44 – Personality Test #2: Enneagram and Its 9 Personality Types
Each of us has some percentage of these 9 different personalities, but at various times, some will present themselves as stronger than others.
Mine is Enneagram Type 9. To better explore Enneagram, read the book The Road Back To You
08:13 – Personality Test #3: DISC Assessment
DISC stands for D, I, S, and C. You’ll have four different personalities with a different percentage of each letter.
- D is for Dominance
- I is for Influence
- S is for Steadiness
- C is for Conscientiousness
You’ll either be a high or low on the scale of these different aspects. These highs or lows might change as you’re exposed to more stressful situations or how you perceive yourself versus how others see you.
A standard practice in my business while onboarding a client is doing an internal assessment of my clients’ DISC personality so I know how to speak to them.
10:09 – Personality Test #4: The 4 Temperaments Assessment
It is based on the Ancient Greek understanding of body fluids, having a high amount of a particular body fluid affects your personality.
The four different personality types are:
- Choleric
- Sanguine
- Phlegmatic
- Melancholy
11:01 – BONUS: Personality Tests #5 and 6: Hogwarts House and Friends
11:52 – The importance of embracing personality types and how it helps with interior design projects
12:31 – How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: A Must-Read Book for Everyone in a Leadership Role or Running a Business
6 Ways to Make People Like You:
- Be curious about them because Interior Design is personal.
- Smile because it comes across even on the phone.
- Remember the person’s name, and say it often because it’s the loveliest sound anyone can hear. PRO TIP: Record your initial consultations because they share details about their lives and usually reference people or pets.
- Be a good listener, and encourage them to talk about themselves because it helps to get the complete picture of who this person is and, what their interests and personality are, as well as what it is they need you there for and how you’re going to design their project
- Relate to them by speaking their lingo and reference interests they’ve shared with you because you are, in some ways, your ideal client, and you understand what it’s like to be in their shoes.
- Sincerely point out how important they are to you as a client because they are critical for the project to be successful.
- Be authentic. People can tell when you’re genuine, so be yourself and let your passion for interior design shine through.
- Be respectful even if you disagree with them. It’s essential to listen to and address their concerns calmly and kindly.
- Be curious and ask questions to understand their perspective better. This will help you better understand their needs and how your presentation meets them.
- Be open to feedback. Feel free to make changes to your presentation based on the feedback you receive from your client.
- Be friendly and smile.
- Gather information about what the client likes at the very beginning.
- Design the project based on the information you gathered.
- Anticipate what they might want to change and provide options they can choose from.
- Present the final design to the client.
- Allow the client to make one or two changes to the design and adjust the design accordingly.
- Get the client’s sign-off on the final design.
PRO TIP: Don’t do a check-in halfway through the design phase to see if the client likes the direction you’re taking the project.
23:24 – Why it is not rocket science to understand personalities
25:39 – Design Curious Podcast Summer Series Update
Special Offer exclusive to Design Curious listeners only!!!
Get Free Access in 3 easy steps:
Step 1: Listen to Episode 38:How Storytelling & Brand Marketing Will Level Up Your Interior Design Career With Ericka Saurit
Step 2: Leave Design Curious podcast a Star Rating and Review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser (if you’re not an Apple user)
Step 3: Take a screenshot of your review and email it to [email protected] OR post it to Instagram and tag me @rwarddesign
Note: This offer is good for the month of June only…
Next Steps
Grab your freebies:
Join the Design Mentor to kickstart a successful career in interior design!
Check out the best books every interior designer should have here.
Enroll in Business of Design with Kimberly Seldon or DesignYou with Tobi Fairley today to scale your interior design business!
Email me at [email protected] if you have suggested topics
DM me on Instagram at @rwarddesign if you have a burning question
Leave me a rating and review! Click here.
- The Myers-Briggs Test
- Enneagram Test
- The DiSC Assessment
- Four Temperaments Test
- BONUS TESTS: Hogwarts House and Which Friends Character Are You?