Considering hiring a full-time salesperson. Any advice?

[mshelnutt]

Thanks so much to everyone who replied. Always great to see how different shops approach things.

 

[Zendavor Signs]

OP - your website is terrible. I can't even pull up photos of your work. I can't stress how important your website is. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. I use Wix for ours and my number one goal was - make it easy to scroll through lots of photos. That is all that your customers care about - are you qualified to do the work. That, along with some basic social media, will get you more work. I try to post a photo of a nice job every week or two. Again, nothing elaborate. Your online footprint is very important for driving interest / sales. I would highly recommend you step up your website / social media before spending time and money on a salesperson. If you can't do this yourself, find a freelancer or college student to help.

 

[JBurton]

your website is terrible.

How did I know look at the site, that reminds me of our garbage site from a few years back. OP, you may want to also get kensigns.com, kenssign.com, and any other variation to redirect to your website. Nothing worse than a customer assuming your website is bunk because they couldn't type/read it.

 

[mshelnutt]

If I were you guys, I'd just wander over into the Fayetteville/Bentonville area and hold out a bucket, you'll catch some work no matter what, your entire region is booming!
Are you not catching new businesses as they move in?
Are you not getting quotes back fast enough to land the work?
Are you just not getting calls?
Here in central AR, things are slowing down for the year, at least compared to summer where we couldn't hang enough signs!

We've been in business for 44 years and we're doing quite well. But always looking to move forward and expand. Plenty of existing customers but considering hiring a full-time salesperson to find the new customers in this market, which yes is booming.

 

[mshelnutt]

OP - your website is terrible. I can't even pull up photos of your work. I can't stress how important your website is. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. I use Wix for ours and my number one goal was - make it easy to scroll through lots of photos. That is all that your customers care about - are you qualified to do the work. That, along with some basic social media, will get you more work. I try to post a photo of a nice job every week or two. Again, nothing elaborate. Your online footprint is very important for driving interest / sales. I would highly recommend you step up your website / social media before spending time and money on a salesperson. If you can't do this yourself, find a freelancer or college student to help.

Yes, we're actually in the process of completely re-doing our website as well as increasing our social media presence. Thanks for the input.

 

[pro-UP]

Have you considered bidding on commercial projects in your area? That might be a first step before bringing on a sales person. We've worked with several sales people over the years and the best results we had were bidding on projects. There is a runway period of six months to a year before you see the return. While you may be awarded the project within a few months to even a few weeks, the actual project can take a long time before signs are needed. Having a sales person for this is not necessary. You need someone to locate the projects and then submit the bid. Stay engaged with the GCs that are bidding. Find out who is bidding. Email all of them questions. Then, when they are awarded, they will remember the engaged sign shop that reached out and stayed in contact. If you have questions about bidding, please feel free to message me and I can answer questions. Full disclosure, we sell takeoffs and submittal / consultant services. I am not selling anything, just willing to help point you in the right direction if you are not familiar with the process and are interested in learning about it. Good luck!

 

[mshelnutt]

Have you considered bidding on commercial projects in your area? That might be a first step before bringing on a sales person. We've worked with several sales people over the years and the best results we had were bidding on projects. There is a runway period of six months to a year before you see the return. While you may be awarded the project within a few months to even a few weeks, the actual project can take a long time before signs are needed. Having a sales person for this is not necessary. You need someone to locate the projects and then submit the bid. Stay engaged with the GCs that are bidding. Find out who is bidding. Email all of them questions. Then, when they are awarded, they will remember the engaged sign shop that reached out and stayed in contact. If you have questions about bidding, please feel free to message me and I can answer questions. Full disclosure, we sell takeoffs and submittal / consultant services. I am not selling anything, just willing to help point you in the right direction if you are not familiar with the process and are interested in learning about it. Good luck!

Great insight. Thanks!

 

[mshelnutt]

Great insight. Thanks!

Such an awesome idea. I'm still new to all this so let me ask a question: Do you find the best way to find out about upcoming projects is by keeping in touch with the city/county in that respective area - i.e. seeing what permits have been issued? Or just through your professional contacts - or another way altogether?

 

[mshelnutt]

Great insight. Thanks!

Have you considered bidding on commercial projects in your area? That might be a first step before bringing on a sales person. We've worked with several sales people over the years and the best results we had were bidding on projects. There is a runway period of six months to a year before you see the return. While you may be awarded the project within a few months to even a few weeks, the actual project can take a long time before signs are needed. Having a sales person for this is not necessary. You need someone to locate the projects and then submit the bid. Stay engaged with the GCs that are bidding. Find out who is bidding. Email all of them questions. Then, when they are awarded, they will remember the engaged sign shop that reached out and stayed in contact. If you have questions about bidding, please feel free to message me and I can answer questions. Full disclosure, we sell takeoffs and submittal / consultant services. I am not selling anything, just willing to help point you in the right direction if you are not familiar with the process and are interested in learning about it. Good luck!

Great idea. I'm still new to all this so let me ask a question: Do you find the best way to find out about upcoming projects is by keeping in touch with the city/county in that respective area - i.e. seeing what permits have been issued? Or just through your professional contacts - or another way altogether?

 

[Zendavor Signs]

Contact local GC’s and ask to be put on their bid list.

 

[pro-UP]

Great idea. I'm still new to all this so let me ask a question: Do you find the best way to find out about upcoming projects is by keeping in touch with the city/county in that respective area - i.e. seeing what permits have been issued? Or just through your professional contacts - or another way altogether?

My first step is calling all large GCs, no matter the state they are based so long as they work in your preferred areas. Ask if they have any active projects and let them know you would like to be added to the bid list. If they do not have projects, still ask to be added to their bid list for future projects. The emails will start coming in pretty quickly. The next thing is register with every county and city bid board. These are usually free and this is how you are notified of new projects. If you are interested in bidding on government specific projects, you will need to register with SAM.GOV (if you have not already done so). I have found the easiest way is reaching out to the GCs first. The permit idea is a valid one, but more labor intensive. However, once you sign up on local bid boards, you will be notified about upcoming projects. If you are considered a small business you can also register with the DOT and be notified of upcoming transportation projects. Another resource are airports and schools (primary and colleges). They sometimes have project boards that you can sign up with to be notified of projects. There are a lot of free ways to start this process. Another resource are large architectural firms. They will sometimes keep a posting of new and upcoming projects. Mosley Architects does this (off the top of my head). I have seen others as well, but this is more of a time consuming search then the others I mentioned. After you have done these, then I would consider a project bid site. I am drawing a blank, but I remember one that was really cheap (some of these others are thousands and that is a big step when you are just starting out). One thing to think about, this is the end of year and salespeople will give major discounts for people to sign up. I did that with one and got the price knocked down to $300 for the year from $1500. It's worth a call / email to some of the big project bid sites.

If you have more questions, you can email me directly and we can chat - rlm@pro-up.net. Good luck and happy hunting!

 

[mshelnutt]

My first step is calling all large GCs, no matter the state they are based so long as they work in your preferred areas. Ask if they have any active projects and let them know you would like to be added to the bid list. If they do not have projects, still ask to be added to their bid list for future projects. The emails will start coming in pretty quickly. The next thing is register with every county and city bid board. These are usually free and this is how you are notified of new projects. If you are interested in bidding on government specific projects, you will need to register with SAM.GOV (if you have not already done so). I have found the easiest way is reaching out to the GCs first. The permit idea is a valid one, but more labor intensive. However, once you sign up on local bid boards, you will be notified about upcoming projects. If you are considered a small business you can also register with the DOT and be notified of upcoming transportation projects. Another resource are airports and schools (primary and colleges). They sometimes have project boards that you can sign up with to be notified of projects. There are a lot of free ways to start this process. Another resource are large architectural firms. They will sometimes keep a posting of new and upcoming projects. Mosley Architects does this (off the top of my head). I have seen others as well, but this is more of a time consuming search then the others I mentioned. After you have done these, then I would consider a project bid site. I am drawing a blank, but I remember one that was really cheap (some of these others are thousands and that is a big step when you are just starting out). One thing to think about, this is the end of year and salespeople will give major discounts for people to sign up. I did that with one and got the price knocked down to $300 for the year from $1500. It's worth a call / email to some of the big project bid sites.

If you have more questions, you can email me directly and we can chat - rlm@pro-up.net. Good luck and happy hunting!

Thanks again for the input.

 

[RabidOne]

I have seen this from several vantage points.
My previous shop of about 20 people had no Sales staff. What they did have was designers that know signage and estimate/quote/customer service.
Its a busy place and being in a smaller city their business is a lot of word of mouth, radio advertising and the sexy vehicle wraps that are on all the company vehicles. They don't need sales people.
Previous to that and my current gig has salary plus commission reps. Troy's post is spot on. A plan is required, you just can't say "we need a sales guy to get more business". And I would stress, someone with lots of sign background. That will help keep your work profitable.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I'm surprised there are people actually trying to get more business... Everyone I deal with seems to be at capacity.

 

[mshelnutt]

I have seen this from several vantage points.
My previous shop of about 20 people had no Sales staff. What they did have was designers that know signage and estimate/quote/customer service.
Its a busy place and being in a smaller city their business is a lot of word of mouth, radio advertising and the sexy vehicle wraps that are on all the company vehicles. They don't need sales people.
Previous to that and my current gig has salary plus commission reps. Troy's post is spot on. A plan is required, you just can't say "we need a sales guy to get more business". And I would stress, someone with lots of sign background. That will help keep your work profitable.

Good advice. Thanks

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'm surprised there are people actually trying to get more business... Everyone I deal with seems to be at capacity.

That's the perfect time to trade in the more difficult customers

 

[gnubler]

My first step is calling all large GCs, no matter the state they are based so long as they work in your preferred areas. Ask if they have any active projects and let them know you would like to be added to the bid list.

Thanks for posting all of that. Something to keep in mind as my business grows.