Boots on the ground marketing?

[DisplayWorks S&G]

Hello fellow sign makers,

After a number of years in the industry working as a production manager at a few different sign shops, I have decided to go my own way. I am nearly fully equipped to run a small shop out of my garage.

Outside of setting up a decent website, I wanted to get some thoughts on Boots on the ground marketing. I am minutes away from an industrial area and was hoping make use of my networking skills by quickly introducing myself to business owners in the area. Drop off a brochure with a list of my services etc.

I realize that most people dislike residential solicitation, but I feel like B2B is different animal.

Anyone have experience wiith this?

Thanks!

 

[mpn]

I'm curious to know if you aspire to an industrial area type shop or stay home based?

 

[JBurton]

We used to call them cold calls, but boots on the ground marketing makes it sound more... tactical? Whatever gets someone out pounding the pavement works.
That being said, take your first couple of calls to gauge how your area will react. Having a nice/premium business card is fantastic, brochures are less so, pens and notepads are always in style (probably on their way out, but today I'm taking notes on a metal supplier and printed flex face supplier pads.) Can't beat a solid steel bottle opener.
You'll likely only have a couple of seconds to shake hands with an owner or facilities manager, leave a card, ask if they have any issues you can help with at this time, if not, feel free to call/email, and that's it. This is where the trinkets will help. With a nice card, you can reckon they may not lose it, will likely find it again, and will remember you better than economy vista print card guy.
I've seen so many brochures get picked up, thumbed through, and dropped like a hot turd. It's like a reading assignment, while someone tells me what they do? Why do I get both. Why not direct someone to the website if they are interested?

Have you picked a company name yet? If my name rhymed with Randy Marsh in the least, I'd be selling Tegridy Signs!

 

[mpn]

I did well with a couple of pens, 2-3 scratch pads a brochure (maybe a couple Jolly Rancher's / Tootsie Rolls) shrink wrapped together and a business card in my hand. Like J Burton says above be quick and don't take up their time. What worked for me was saying.. Hello I'm so and so with company x I'm not here to take much of your time, just wanted to drop off some goodies to let you know we're in the area. That always opened the door for them to respond and that'll let you gauge if it was going further.

 

[DisplayWorks S&G]

I did well with a couple of pens, 2-3 scratch pads a brochure (maybe a couple Jolly Rancher's / Tootsie Rolls) shrink wrapped together and a business card in my hand. Like J Burton says above be quick and don't take up their time. What worked for me was saying.. Hello I'm so and so with company x I'm not here to take much of your time, just wanted to drop off some goodies to let you know we're in the area. That always opened the door for them to respond and that'll let you gauge if it was going further.

 

[DisplayWorks S&G]

Thank you! I like this!

 

[MrDav3C]

We tried a similar approach a number of years ago during a quiet Jan / Feb (we often expect this time of year to be quieter than usual).

We focussed on businesses who's signage could do with a bit of TLC, that have large fleets of vehicles or a regular requirement for a decent number of labels / decals etc.

To be completely honest we found it to be generally a waste of time and resources with an extremely low if not non existent success rate of actually generating business.

We found more success through advertising / posting on local social media groups, speaking to our existing client base to offer additional services and the occasional targeted phone call to new potential customers.

Obviously some businesses don't like cold calling whether it's via the telephone or in person but generally we found that businesses were more willing to talk over the phone to a local business offering a genuine service than if you were making a cold canvas call from a call centre in some far away land.

 

[JBurton]

We focussed on businesses who's signage could do with a bit of TLC

This is always smart, but it can have a less than desirable effect. For instance, one of my bank customers recently received an unsolicited 'night audit' of their signage by another company, which only p*ssed them off. Between not know how they got her email, and the barrage of pictures, they couldn't care less, they sent all of the info to me. There's a fine line to walk between 'your sign looks like sh*t' and 'let me know if you'd like for me to make any recommendations on sign work.'
Also, agreed, chocolate is always enjoyed.

 

[ddarlak]

I have been in business 28 years, my first year I tried this and I got nothing from it, waste of time. Do great work and your work sells you. I think it took 3 years before I could take a regular pay check.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

This is always smart, but it can have a less than desirable effect. For instance, one of my bank customers recently received an unsolicited 'night audit' of their signage by another company, which only p*ssed them off. Between not know how they got her email, and the barrage of pictures, they couldn't care less, they sent all of the info to me. There's a fine line to walk between 'your sign looks like sh*t' and 'let me know if you'd like for me to make any recommendations on sign work.'
Also, agreed, chocolate is always enjoyed.

Yesco? They do it to my clients all the time. Not sure how they find the managers email addresses

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I immediately started getting work when I went out on my own by knocking doors. I targeted independent companies.. not big chains where decisions aren't made locally. If I was doing a sign in a shopping center, that's a good reason to hand out cards and talk to other tenants. I think 1 out of 10 contacts I made turned into some kind of sale.. which is damn good. Going after distressed signs is an easy excuse to talk to them. If they say no the first time, go back in a few months and give them another card... Going back I felt lets them know you're sticking around and not a fly by night one time deal.

 

[GrafixOnDemand]

Grind mode is so much fun! It’s all just a game to me at this point. Love negotiating.

Best of luck on your venture. For What it’s worth; the transition to business owner / operator in ‘works’, is easy peazy. Can’t say the same for the mental game. Stay strong and create enough passion to push through the ‘vallies’. (lol unsolicited opinion)

 

[JBurton]

Yesco? They do it to my clients all the time. Not sure how they find the managers email addresses

Near as the bank and I can figure, they straight up called a branch and asked who manages facilities. She was mad as all get out, like, more so than I, the guy who stands to lose a substantial account over it...
But no, a different outfit. Yesco tried to talk us into franchising, my great grandpa and Nathan's started at the same time, worked on the WSA together, so they were very amicable when we declined, and bought a company further south to avoid our territory to a degree. It's not like they gain anything from this territory other than greater coverage for clients. I'll bet one casino spends more money in a month than the entire arkansas region does in a year.

 

[Stacey K]

I've never gone door to door, just because I'm a little shy. Facebook has been my best friend for advertising. I'm in a small town and I get a lot of shares, etc. Not sure how well it would work if I was in a big town. But here, everyone knows everyone so posts spread quick.

 

[Scotchbrite]

Yesco? They do it to my clients all the time. Not sure how they find the managers email addresses

They get us service calls all the time too.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

They get us service calls all the time too.

They send emails to my clients store managers that end up forwarding it to me, helps my business out!

 

[gnubler]

I did well with a couple of pens, 2-3 scratch pads a brochure (maybe a couple Jolly Rancher's / Tootsie Rolls) shrink wrapped together and a business card in my hand.

Aren't Tootsie Rolls one of the least desirable candies on the planet? May as well give them some black licorice or Sour Patch kids if you want to repel them. LOL

OP, I've had some success with 'boots on the ground', particularly by using a distressed sign that needs to be replaced. Easy way to break the ice.
Try a local business owner networking group, if B2B is what you're after.
Social media is "free" if you don't factor in the time suck. Along with a good website, having social media pages helps with Google rank.
Instead of a brochure, print up a discount card/coupon to hand out. "New customer discount" of 10% off or whatever. I did that early on and got some response from it.

 

[Gino]

Figure out what you can excel in doing. According to your OP, you're not even ready to produce anything, so how do you know what or who you can service ??

Pounding the pavement is probably one of the best things we ever did. However, that was over 40 years ago before all the other methods available as nowadays. A nice size calendar with your name and contact information on it will keep your name out there for a year. We did ours on magnetic material, so they could put if almost anywhere..... even filing cabinets. However, doing fine quality work and craftsmanship at a fair price will get your name passed around all kindsa circles. Word of mouth really works. Just landed a set of channels that way on friday. He got my name from someone we did work for over 10 years ago and it was a done deal, as soon as I talked to him.

 

[JBurton]

He got my name from someone we did work for over 10 years ago and it was a done deal, as soon as I talked to him.

F*ck me, that's the best feeling in the world.
We had a guy order a sign in like 2000, he still had the proposal. He'd moved up in the company, but he wanted to make damn sure that the very same company was going to replace the letters on this sign.
Also had another one, not quite as old, that my sales guy remembers in particular for the ass chewing he got over some crooked letters or something. Sales guy said he'd never been yelled at like that, before or since. Evidently this orthodontist didn't have as great a memory, he was happy to order from us again.

 

[pro-UP]

If you are in an industrial area, you can offer cut services (acrylic, cut metals, dimensional letters...) These types of businesses have needs for various widgets. If there are data centers nearby they need to label their server racks (just as an example). When we manufactured we made a ton of them. Good luck!