Where to look for new business?

[biggmann]

We are lokking to expand our sales into neighboring cities, right now we deal with 95% local customers but want to branch out into a bigger market. The problem is we dont know where to go looking, who would we contact? We have all the portfolios we could need and information about our company just not sure how to start selling. We cant just drive around going door to door so I was wondering what other people do when looking for new sales leads, where can we start? We are looking for companies looking for channel letters, pylons etc. so any advice is helpful to get us started.

 

[player]

Commercial properties and malls are managed by property management companies. Get to know what's coming in, sell them the 1 location, then contact the business about regional/national work.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

I found the best way is to capture customers who are looking for you. You do that by putting all your marketing budget into your Website SEO and AD Campaigns...or hire a great company to do it for you. I don't spend a dime on marketing. I don't go looking for customers, they come looking for me.
It's all about being the one they find online when they look for what you offer.

 

[BALLPARK]

Contact Marketing/Advertising Firms. Most do not even mark-up the products and do triple bids on all projects as they control who produces the signage. They have more work for their clients than most can handle.

Put together a Capabilities Deck and send it out to all that you can find online. Then send them samples as they respond.

 

[petepaz]

and door to door isn't so bad. not saying you should rely on that alone but nothing wrong with that along with everything else. many times i have been driving somewhere and see a potential customer and stop in. nothing to lose. also try to find print brokers, they are free sales people for you.

 

[T_K]

Have you tried contacting commercial construction companies? At my last job we had an ongoing relationship with an engineering company. They sent us all the signage that they could.
If you can get a network of engineering/construction contacts, that could serve you well.

 

[Han]

Where to Look For Business

I personally use Door to Door & Google Adwords when I first started.

Slowly branched to using SEM and SEO techniques and target differnet geographical locations.

Good luck!

 

[Thesignexpress]

and door to door isn't so bad. not saying you should rely on that alone but nothing wrong with that along with everything else. many times i have been driving somewhere and see a potential customer and stop in. nothing to lose. also try to find print brokers, they are free sales people for you.

Where would one go to find a print broker?

 

[Z SIGNS]

We are lokking to expand our sales into neighboring cities, right now we deal with 95% local customers but want to branch out into a bigger market. The problem is we dont know where to go looking, who would we contact? We have all the portfolios we could need and information about our company just not sure how to start selling. We cant just drive around going door to door so I was wondering what other people do when looking for new sales leads, where can we start? We are looking for companies looking for channel letters, pylons etc. so any advice is helpful to get us started.

out shine your competitors and you won't have to go looking.....they will find you

 

[jfiscus]

Market your other services to your existing customer base first, but if you are looking into a neighboring city and trying to decide who to reach out to I would suggest taking an inventory of your current 20 or so best customers and figuring out who their competition is in that city and going after them.

 

[visual800]

selling those signs are easier than you think. Just start riding around and looking for "coming soon" signs and call them about quoting. Check you local commercial realty companies sometimes they put updates on their websites about who just leased. Get in with some commercial construction companies they are good for a while. Hit the streets and pound them.

 

[Locals Find!]

Where would one go to find a print broker?

put on your website the words "trade only wholesale" also, showing up places where we are. We are usually at any network event we can find. Chamber of Commerce Luncheons, trade organizations, etc... I personally belong to just about every real estate related trade organization inside of 100 miles. I am always looking for a local I can work with that is willing to be competitive on pricing. Just don't try to sell a broker at retail pricing and leave them no margin.

 

[spectrum maine]

out shine your competitors and you won't have to go looking.....they will find you

sadly this sign game has become a commodity. i have competitors who are doing 1 color truck jobs for $100 & magnet sets for $65. its become a whores game. i have 1 competitor (A FRANCHISE) who will lowball any job i quote, regardless of profit. of course 90% of their signs suck. i still have my core of quality minded customers, but loyalty has sadly become a thing of the past. & customers have little time to be educated between cheap junk & a quality product.

 

[Pippin Decals]

We are looking to expand our sales into neighboring cities, right now we deal with 95% local customers but want to branch out into a bigger market. The problem is we dont know where to go looking, who would we contact? We have all the portfolios we could need and information about our company just not sure how to start selling. We cant just drive around going door to door so I was wondering what other people do when looking for new sales leads, where can we start? We are looking for companies looking for channel letters, pylons etc. so any advice is helpful to get us started.

I actually created a Facebook page and then used their mapping ( or whatever it was called) to select wider areas or cities near me etc.They have different pay scales to choose from and it has reached out even to other states...I think its very well worth a try for you since i have had a great outcome from it..You can choose how many people etc you want to reach per day as well and how many days you want it to publish for also..just my own thought.

 

[melissa16diaz]

We are lokking to expand our sales into neighboring cities, right now we deal with 95% local customers but want to branch out into a bigger market. The problem is we dont know where to go looking, who would we contact? We have all the portfolios we could need and information about our company just not sure how to start selling. We cant just drive around going door to door so I was wondering what other people do when looking for new sales leads, where can we start? We are looking for companies looking for channel letters, pylons etc. so any advice is helpful to get us started.

Going door to door is not a bad idea but along with building a beautiful landing pages in the website based on your products and promote by creating campaigns in Facebook targeting the right audience. I prefer doing some best internet marketing to sell the products. Go Online research your competitors that what they are doing..