Are you one of the many sign companies that focus heavily on your sales department when it comes to generating more money? Do you believe your sales staff is the main reason your projects close? If so, consider the possibility that you might be overlooking other key money makers in your company.
There’s no doubt about it—sales departments play an important role in our sign companies. They are lead generators, the first and last impressions clients get of your company, the point of contact between customers and businesses, and the ones who make potential buyers feel warm and fuzzy about their decisions. There are many who even function simultaneously as project managers! These dynamic individuals are clearly crucial to all sign companies and their success.
However, I believe good design has just as much influence over your revenue, if not more, than your sales department.
Good Design Sells Itself
In most sign industry scenarios, a sales person cannot make a sale without a mockup of the sign. It does not matter how fair your pricing is, or how friendly your staff is—sales will not happen if each mockup does not appeal to the tastes of each target customer. A strong designer will interpret an array of words, pictures, and ideas into a concept that is visually pleasing for all to see but still distinct enough for the purchaser’s preferences to buy.
Almost instantly, a good visual will develop an emotional response from the buyer without the help of any person or pitch. That emotion is what keeps them on board, excited, and returning to you. It also, when paired with the right dollar amount, is what gets them to say yes!
Speaking of the Right Dollar Amount.
Design has the power to open your customers up to a larger budget than they had previously planned. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every project that comes to your attention. However, you’d be surprised what customers will spend to have something that blows them away. This is upselling, and strong designers can do this more easily than many sales people can through their concepts.
How does it work? Usually your customer has an idea of what they are looking for. During early conversations with a salesperson, they share their criteria. The next step is the delivery of this criteria to your designer who then creates several concepts. Savvy designers use this opportunity to upsell.
I recommend the Three Concept Approach:
First Concept: This concept is exactly what the customer, and or sales, have instructed the designer to develop. This rendering is the closest to the customer’s request that the designer can come, and it is usually the least appealing. Our brain evaluates beauty by looking at many features and their relationship to other objects, space, colors, and placement. Strong designers have an innate ability to maneuver objects into an order that creates a sense of balance that customers did not originally consider. Concept One is the baseline that, when compared to the Second Concept, makes it obvious that the customer may have overlooked some essential components.
Second Concept: This concept takes the first and alters it to play with the human brain correctly. This may require adjusting the customer’s logo, changing/adding colors outside of their branding, adjusting the shape of the sign, and many more tweaks to develop a good-looking sign. This is where design can gently play with adding more expensive materials, lighting, and dimensions. Through Concept Two, you usually quicken the overall process by cutting the revision stage of Concept One that had been under consideration.
Third Concept: This concept is where your designer should take all creative control of the project and interject something that makes your customer say, “Wow!” This new concept still maintains some integrity to the brand but pushes the customer into a whole new level of thinking. Generally, this is the most expensive concept to fabricate, but it is usually the concept that gains the most emotional response. Concept Three allows your conceptual designer to do what they do best and gives your customer a reason to spend more money.
Good Design Drives More Business
In a variety of ways, good design cultivates more business on its own. Whether it’s an impressed customer referral, a pleased returning customer, beautiful designs on your company Web site, traffic passing by a fabricated sign, winning an award, getting featured in a magazine, or other ways to get attention, good design will get your company noticed and continue to drive leads to your doorstep for years to come. This is the power of design, and the brilliance behind a strong designer.
What does this ultimately mean for you?
Designers sell your products with every visual they give. Your company’s concepts are not something to take lightly, so I urge you to rethink your sales strategy and create some opportunities for growth in your design department.
Consider giving your designers more time to further develop projects, to add those finishing touches, and to really brainstorm those conceptual ideas. Be upfront with your customers on the deadlines, and don’t promise concepts to them so quickly if you want your designers to work their magic.
Invest more energy by educating your designers and celebrating their creative and wacky ways of thinking. Be proactive in understanding how to avoid factors that deplete creatives’ drive and fluency of ideas.
Never under-estimate the potential excellent designers have for increasing your company’s bottom line. Choose them with the goal of hiring the best talent during your search. You need to have talent you can trust and whose ability to appeal to your clients speaks for itself.
Invest more money by incentivizing, creating a bonus plan, or paying more for good talent. Good design isn’t cheap, but the results from it will astonish you, and you’ll certainly end up with more money in your pocket.
Brooke Albring has over ten years of conceptual design experience and is CEO of BA Innovative, a design firm in St. Petersburg, Florida. For more information, visit bainnovative.com, or email [email protected].
By Ashley Bray
Photos: Brooke Albring.
