The day a customer called to ask for a “building impression” instead of just another sign was an important day in the history of my sign business. This particular new client was responding to a campaign that we launched called more than signs, we are building impressions. The request confirmed what I believed-that we could be about providing more than just signs.
For us, this meant that we wanted our customers to hire us for all their printed and fabricated needs related to branding. From signs to additional services and products, our goal was to establish a long term relationship and become an ongoing source for visual brand solutions. What we learned was that many people who buy signs also want to build impressions. They just need help doing it and need to know where to go to get that help. That’s the opportunity, if you take advantage of it. But it takes work.
First of all, there’s a process to follow. That process requires a very proactive approach, or at least it did for my company. We could not sit back and wait for customers to call us for a building impression. We had to let them know that we did that sort of work. That takes time. But this sort of proactive approach is what it takes to get yourself involved and interacting with the client and their projects. The sooner you get involved, the less the chance of any competitors sniffing out the fact that there is a project going on.
This process also provides the platform and means to development and enhance the business relationship. For us, we went from being a sign provider to becoming a source for design and brand solutions, and it opened up the possibilities and the range of projects to work on, thus growing the business.
I’ll explain how we did this next time. Stay tuned.
