How to Sell Through Design?

I’m not a trained graphic designer, but I can still leverage design elements to effectively sell my expertise, thanks to tools like Canva.com.

Let me share an example from this week.

I was working on a new sales deck for the IT training services I offer, and suddenly, an idea for a new product came to mind: a subscription-based webinar series focused on Microsoft Copilot.

I know there’s a high demand for this topic right now because I hear about it constantly in sales meetings, and clients are purchasing licenses.

However, the problem arises after they buy the licenses: they don’t know how to use the product or recognize its potential applications on their own.

This is where I offer a solution: Copilot Preschool, a monthly webinar to help users learn something new about Copilot.

How can you sell this idea within your organization and to clients?

- By creating a visual representation (design) of what the service looks like.

This is why I love Canva, because I definitely don’t need to be a graphic designer to create a simple webinar image that helps me sell the idea.

The image is in Finnish, but you’ll get the idea.

Is creating an image like this difficult?

Not at all.

1. Go to Canva.com

2. Type the word "Webinar" in the search bar

3. Upload your company’s logo from the sidebar

4. The platform automatically pulls the color scheme from your logo

5. Customize the template using the elements available in the left sidebar

6. Download the image, for example, in PNG format

Because the image looks professional and not like something thrown together in Paint, it’s much easier to sell the idea.

If your company doesn’t have a marketing department yet, or if you’re a solopreneur, you could immediately post the image on social media, add a form link (e.g., using Google Forms) in the comments, and see if anyone is interested.

If not, it’s okay. Try a few more times, and if there’s still no interest, revalidate your idea by talking to people.

The issue could also be that you’re not reaching enough people with your social media posts, so you may need to find another way to reach a sufficient audience.

The key is to validate the idea, gather a list of interested people, and then create the presentation.

By the way, you can also create the presentation in Canva.

I use Canva every day.