Welcome

This series is about turning your design skills into a repeatable, high-value offer—one you can sell over and over again without reinventing the wheel each time.

You’ll learn how to:

• Pick a clear niche and solve a specific problem
• Package your process into a productized service
• Price and position your offer with confidence
• Stack value with bonuses, guarantees, and scarcity
• Create a system that brings in clients consistently

You’re not here to sell your time. You’re here to build a business around outcomes.

Let’s get started.

Playbook 1: Sell a Solution

Package your services into a solution that solves the problem of a very specific target market

Tactic 1: The “Secret” Sales Strategy

Welcome to this guide! Here, you'll learn how to think and act like a business person in the design field. We're going to change how you see your work, moving from just selling your time to selling actual products. You'll discover how to organize these products into a clear, valuable process, and most importantly, sell it to people that think they’re lucky they found you.

Who This Is For

This guide is for freelancers designers and 9-5 corporate slaves ready to stop selling hours and start selling outcomes.

It’s not for beginners—it’s for professionals who want to productize their service and grow a real business.

If you’re ready to think like a business person, you’re in the right place.

Imagine earning $30-70k a month without employees, not by working a regular office design job, but through your own projects. You get to set your own hours, work with clients who get what you're about, and maybe only work four days a week for about four hours each day, if you want. This means more time for you to enjoy life outside work.

A big part of this course is about "value stacking" – which means making your service so good that clients can't resist it. We'll show you how to make promises of great results and then go even further, delivering more than your clients expect.

Here's your guide to attracting and retaining customers: Aim high with what you promise and then deliver even more. Attract new clients by setting big expectations and then exceed them.

The Secret that’s Not a Secret

Think and act like a business person, not just a designer. Make bold promises, demonstrate that you can solve significant problems, and deliver results that go beyond what they could imagine.

In a nutshell, the strategy is to create a repeatable process that takes you very little time to execute and that promises a specific result in a specific timeframe for a specific market.

But your job doesn't end with making promises; you need to over-deliver on them. It's not about the hours you put in; it's about the value you provide. Shift from thinking like a designer who sells time to a business person who sells outcomes.

Over-promise to attract new clients and over-deliver to keep them.

When you deliver massive value, you're entitled to charge more, regardless of the time spent. Remember, buying a service typically means buying time, but buying a product means getting results. From now on, focus on selling the outcomes you deliver, not the time you spend.

Package your design services into a process that addresses a specific problem for a particular type of customer. Price it based on the value it offers, not the time you invest. This approach will help you draw in clients and keep them with your subscription service.

Charge based on the solution's value, not the hours worked.

This "Secret” Sales Strategy is well-known in sales circles but less so among designers. By learning it now, you're getting ahead of the curve, preparing for a time when all designers will embrace this approach.

Maximizing Guide Benefits

We want to help you make your first sale really fast with this course. Here's what you should do: Go through the entire course in one go, maybe during a weekend, and write down lots of notes. These lessons are quick and to the point. Think about how you can use what you learn for your own business.

After learning everything once, start over but this time, actually start building your products, website, and business right after each lesson.

Think about who you want to sell to, what you're going to sell, and how you're going to sell it, all the time, not just when you're going through this course. Make sure you do every single task at the end of each lesson because that's how you'll really start seeing success.

Realize Your Potential

Now, let's talk about what you'll gain. We've put together some really smart strategies for building a design business from the ground up.

You'll create a strong foundation that attracts customers who really need what you offer.

Your website will show off your product so well that your ideal customers will wonder why they haven't hired you yet. And you'll know exactly who your ideal customer is and how to find them.

So get ready to leave your regular job behind and step into being your own boss in the design world.

Tactic 2: Identify Your Market

We're getting into figuring out your market – this is really important for making your design services stand out and do well. Imagine being known as the expert for a certain kind of problem in a certain market. Cool, right? By the end of this lesson, you'll know who you're helping, which will make what you do more in demand and profitable. Get ready to change how people see your design services.

Why Choose a Specific Market?

Your design business should offer more than just "design" – it should offer a solution.

This means you'll have a special process to deliver your designs that lets you charge a lot.

To build this process, you need to choose a market, basically a group of customers with a specific issue you can solve.

It might feel weird to focus on just one kind of customer, but it's the best way to make finding and getting customers simpler.

And if you pick a market that's really looking for what you offer, you won't feel limited at all – there'll always be customers waiting.

How to Choose Your Market

The two things you look for in a market are demand and supply.

• Demand: There needs to be people with money that have a problem that can be solved by design.
• Supply: It should be hard for them to find a solution.

This is why we don’t want to sell vague “design” services. Because there is a massive supply of that already on Fiverr, Toptal, etc… That market is so broad and over-saturated the only thing designers can do to compete with each other is lower their price, which is why basic design services are so cheap now.

You need a market that is growing in demand faster than the supply can fulfill it.

For example:

• Landing page design is a shrinking market—It can basically be done by every designer now including AI.
• Software as a service is a stable market—There’s plenty of designers that do it but there will always be more web apps that need to be designed.
• AR/VR apps are a growing market—There will be an increasing amount of customers and right now there aren’t a lot of designers that specialize in it.

Niche Down to Increase Value

Choose a market and then niche down as much as possible.

Here’s why: The quality of being rare is what makes something valuable. The smaller the niche you serve the more rare your product becomes which allows you to position yourself as a specialist and charge higher prices. By focusing on a smaller segment, you become the go-to expert, making your services more valuable. The key to all of this is providing immense value.

When you niche down this much you can:

• Charge higher prices
• Provide a specific result or outcome of your productized service
• Provide a predictable time-frame to get results
• Estimate how much effort will be required by your customer
• Guarantee your results

Also, niching down makes it easier to find customers. As you’ll see in future lessons you’re going to clearly communicate your customers pain and position yourself as the medicine. That is much easier to accomplish when you have a clearly defined customer base.

The name of this game is increasing your customers perceived value of your services.

When you cater to a niche, you're not just offering a service; you're providing a targeted solution that addresses specific needs. This allows you to charge more, guarantee results, and set clear expectations around timeframes and client effort.

An Ideal Market has a Measurable Problem You Can Help Solve

The primary factor of an ideal market is a clear and measurable problem. Understanding this will guide you to a market eager for your solutions.

That problem can vary based on the industry and the product they are selling but I’ll make this easy for you… the “problem” is almost always “more sales” or “reduce time to complete a sale”.

If the problem isn’t trying to convert more users into buyers then it should be something that contributes to more sales, like a more streamlined user-experience, or fewer clicks to make a purchase, etc…

The key here is that it needs to be measurable so that in the next lesson, when you’re putting together your offer, you can make claims like “increase conversions by 25%, for example.

When you can make measurable claims that affect your prospects bottom line, you’re making your job of converting prospects into customers much easier for yourself. You’re also able to charge much, much more for your design service.

The bigger the problem, the more you can charge.

When a Market has a Problem that is Painful it’s Easier to Find Clients

In a perfect world the problem your market is experiencing should be painful.

Alex Hormozi has a saying: “The pain is the pitch.”

What he means is that If you can articulate the pain a prospect is feeling accurately, they will almost always buy what you are offering. The greater the pain, the more you can charge.

In addition to making it easier to articulate your solution, when your prospects have a “painful problem” it makes it much easier to find them online and pitch them your solution.

People with painful problems talk about them online, even better they’re actively searching for solutions.

To find customers, all you have to do is go to the forums and groups where they are having those discussions and be a part of the conversation.

Example Design Markets

Hopefully we’ve convinced you of the importance of selecting the right market and how this choice influences how you’ll bundle and position your design service as a product.

Let’s look at some concrete examples of target markets for designers. Each has unique needs and pain points, offering distinct opportunities for specialized, productized services.

Here’s a short list of high-demand, low-supply design service verticals right now:

1. AI Product Design – Tools and interfaces for LLMs, agents, and copilots; few designers understand both UX and prompt logic.
2. Data Visualization & Dashboards – B2B SaaS and fintech apps need clear, actionable UI for complex data.
3. Healthcare UX – Regulated industries (EHR, patient apps, insurance portals) need user-friendly design but struggle to find experts.
4. Web3/Crypto UX – Still needs massive usability help, but experienced designers in this niche are rare.
5. Voice & Multimodal Interfaces – Designing for voice + screen (Alexa, AI assistants, wearables) is a growing need with few skilled pros.
6. Design Systems for Scale-Ups – Mid-size SaaS companies need scalable design systems but lack internal expertise to build them right.

Again, we’ll talk more about finding solutions to their problems in the next lessons, what’s important right now is that you have a market in mind.

The Riches are in the Niches

You've now got the tools and knowledge to pinpoint your market, understanding not just the 'who' but the 'why' and the 'how.'

Remember, choosing the right market isn't about limiting your creativity; it's about channeling it where it can shine brightest and have the most impact.

You're on your way to becoming not just a designer, but a problem-solver for a specific set of clients who are going to love what you do for them.

Tactic 3: Create the Ultimate Product Bundle

Imagine offering a suite of services so compelling that your clients can't wait to sign up. We're about to unpack how you can build this game-changing product bundle, adding layers of value that make your offer a no-brainer.

What is a Product Bundle?

A product bundle is a suite of design services that are packaged together and sold as a single bundle, solving a specific problem for a specific customer, and ideally includes a guaranteed timeline and result.

Your product bundle is going to be all the design solutions you provide for your prospects problems presented as a laser focused process.

You can add different products into the bundle to customize it to different types of customers.

The reason you want to break your services into a bundle of products is to add perceived value for the customer.

Think of it this way: Say your problem is you want to clean your home, so you go on Amazon and look for household cleaners. You find that you need a different cleaner for dishes, the floor, the carpet, freshening the air, you also need garbage bags and scrub brushes. Instead of buying all of these products separately, they might be sold together as a discounted bundle. You’re likely to buy the bundle because it has everything you need to solve your problem and you get all the products at a cheaper price than if you bought them separately. It’s very appealing.

Adding Perceived Value

Now here’s how we’re going to make your product bundle even more appealing.

What if the cost of the bundle is the same cost as only one of the products in the bundle and all the other products in the bundle are free?

If the customer thinks they’re paying one price for one product and then they get 3-5 more products thrown in as a bundle for the same price, the value they’re receiving massively goes up in their mind.

Breaking your solution into a bundle of products increases its perceived value, making your offer more attractive. Packaging your solution as a single product with extra products added free of charge makes your offer irresistible.

Okay, in order to come up with your product bundle you need to follow three steps:

1. Step one: List out all the problems that are in the way of achieving that outcome
2. Step two: Identify a solution for each of their problems
3. Step three: Package your solutions into a bundle

Tactic 4: Creating Products for your Prospects Desired Outcome

As mentioned in the last lesson: “Increase sales” or “reduce time to complete a sale” are the two desired outcomes most prospects want.

It helps to focus on one or both of those as a starting point.

Deeply understanding your market’s dream outcome allows you to craft solutions that resonate.

By aligning your service closely with their ultimate goals, like boosting sales, you create a roadmap for your product bundle that directly addresses your customers’ needs.

Step 01: List Problems

Step one, you’re going to list out all of the points of friction that exist for your market in achieving more sales, or converting users into customers faster.

Once you’ve done that, now write down all the things your prospects struggle with and their limiting thoughts around them.

Don’t worry about if they’re design-related right now, just list out every single obstacle they need to overcome to achieve their desired outcome. The more problems the better.

Once you have that basic list, order the problems in the sequence that your prospects will likely experience them. Think about it in insane detail. Think about what is the first problem they have and if it’s solved, what is the next problem they would encounter. You want to list it out in that order.

Step 02: List Solutions

Perfect. Step two, you’re going to list out solutions to those problems.

Don’t worry whether or not they have to do with design. Right now you’re brainstorming ways to solve their problems. It’s important at this stage to think like a business-person and not a designer.

Every problem you identify is an opportunity to provide a solution.

By transforming their challenges into components of your product bundle, you’re offering comprehensive support, addressing each pain point with a tailored product, together forming a bundle that solves all their problems.

If you’re missing even one solution to a problem it can cause a prospect not to buy. So, you need to at least try to solve every problem.

Once you have your list, you’re going to operationalize those solutions into steps of a process. Each step of the process is a product in your bundle that either solves or helps solve the prospects problem through design.

You want to name these steps. You don’t have to do that now, but keep in mind that this entire bundle is going to be your proprietary process and each product/step will have a name.

So to be really, really clear here: Each solution becomes a product in your bundle, and each product is essentially a step in your process that gets closer to solving your customers overall problem, like increasing sales.

Step 03: Turn it Into a Process

Your product bundle should be a journey that leads to the ultimate solution—the client's desired outcome, which could be anything, but it’s probably increasing sales or shortening the time to a sale.

By strategically organizing each solution into steps, you’re providing a step-by-step path that culminates in the final product. The final product, the last step of your process, that’s the one you’re selling, all the other steps you’re providing free of charge.

This is a psychological tactic that makes the prospect feel like they’re getting insane amounts of value.

In the next chapter we’re going to focus on how to offer this bundle on your website. For now you just need to understand: The solutions you’re selling are individual products and should follow a series of steps in sequential order that make up your overall design process.

If that’s confusing, let’s go back to the analogy of you buying cleaning supplies for your home. When you’re on the Amazon page where there’s a description of the bundle it might say something like: “First you’re going to throw out the trash with the garbage bags, then do the dishes with the dish soap, then wash the floors with the mop, then freshen the air with the air freshener, and voila, you have your desired outcome of a clean home.”

It’s the same kind of thing, we’re making it so that your product bundle is easy for your prospect to understand, purchase, and they’re very clear on the results they should expect.

Stick to Your Market

You should now have a basic product bundle that you can price based on its value to your prospect, plus, you will have a repeatable process that you can complete in a set amount of time without a lot of meetings. Eventually you could even operationalize and outsource it.

This process of identifying your prospects problems and ways you can solve them through design is probably the most challenging but important step in this entire course. It’s going to take a lot of thought but it’s absolutely key.

If you don’t figure it out now, no worries, you can come back to this section later.

Keep in mind you’ll always be refining your product bundle to meet your prospects needs. It’s unlikely that you’re going to absolutely nail it the first time. So it’s important to approach this with a minimum viable product mentality.

Get rid of any illusions of perfection on the first try. What you want to do is get your product bundle together and get selling it. You’ll learn quickly enough what it’s worth and if it’s missing anything.

Also very important: Stick to your market. Sticking with your market means you can continually adjust your product bundle so that it exactly matches your customers needs.

This is incredibly important to understand because you may not have immediate success. If no one is buying your product bundle it doesn’t mean you chose the wrong market, it means the way you’re packaging and presenting it needs more work. Big difference.

If you don’t see sales immediately you’re going to be tempted to choose a different market but that would be a waste of time because you need to test different solutions and products until you find that sweet spot. Everything becomes easy after that. You can’t fail if you keep trying.

Summary: Sell a Solution

By identifying your clients' problems, crafting tailored solutions, and organizing them into a coherent process, you're now equipped to present a product bundle that screams value.

Remember, the goal here is to make your services indispensable, creating a clear path from your prospects challenges to their desired outcome with your expertise.

Keep refining your bundle based on feedback and market needs, and watch as your design business transforms from offering mere services to providing essential, outcome-driven solutions.

Key Takeaways

• Package your services as a solution to a specific problem.
• Stop selling time—start selling outcomes.
• Over-promise to attract clients, over-deliver to keep them.
• Focus on value, not hours worked.
• Choose a specific market with real, measurable pain points.
• Niche down to become rare, specialized, and high-value.
• Build your process around solving sales-related problems (e.g., conversions, UX bottlenecks).
• Think like a business person, not just a designer.