By Art Schilling
Posted on Monday, February 10th, 2025
If you want to succeed in the sign business, I believe you must help the customer quickly see the value they are really getting for their money by buying a quality sign. You have to work at and develop your sales skills just as you do your sign making skills. Over the years, you learn what to say and what not to say to make the sale and help the customer get a quality product.
Most business owners only buy a few signs in the life of their business. They don’t realize the benefits good signage can deliver. For them, a sign might be just a necessary evil. But most people appreciate you taking an interest helping them solve this problem. Here’s an approach that I find works well.
First I qualify the customer, then I qualify myself to the customer. When someone comes in and asks if I do real estate yard signs, I say that I do, and prices start at $90 for a double-sided 18-by-24 in a frame. If they say thanks and head for the door, that’s the end of it.
“Don’t letter your truck…”
Artie has spent a lifetime making and selling signs. Along with a solid foundation in sales, it’s also given him some great stories about making a sale happen.
A prospect who once stopped by his shop to ask how much it would cost to get his new truck lettered. It was a conversation he’s had a million times:
Art: “I can do a nice lettering job on your truck for $500.”
Client: “Wow—that much?!”
Art: “If you keep it for three years, the advertising will cost you 45 cents a day. But don’t letter your truck. Maybe you’d be better to use that 45 cents a day for a newspaper, radio or some Google ads instead.”
Client: “But I won’t get anything for that kind of money!”
Art: “Right. But here’s a 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week advertisement that reaches 20,000 people a day. It’s a rolling billboard! And for $200 more, I’ll do the main copy in reflective material so it lights up at night for readers—and is a safety feature to boot.”
By now he has a smile on the prospect’s face, and he has put the cost of truck lettering in perspective. This particular prospect realized what a great value vehicle graphics can be. After looking at a few options, he chose an upgraded version. He spent more to get even more impact and more value.
Veteran sign salespeople often have “magic words” like that—a straightforward explanation that opens the prospect’s eyes to the value of signs as advertising. It shifts the focus from the cost of the sign to its value.
If they say, “Oh, ninety bucks…” then I say, “Let me explain how this works….” Then I’ll ask if they’re trying to rent or sell the property, if there’s a logo involved, and I’ll explain how they can get the most impact for their money. They start to pick up that I believe in what I do, and that I have skills and experience to offer them.
One of the hazards of being in the sign business is that you think about signs a lot, and you start to assume everyone believes you know what you’re talking about. It’s not so.
Build a relationship rather than just taking an order. I don’t shove an order form at the customer and say, “Write down what you want it to say. It’s 6 square feet at $12 a square foot, plus the frame, and you can pick it up on Thursday….” They can get that treatment anywhere. I want to help them solve the problem, and I want them to be my customer for a long, long time.
If you have a negative attitude towards the prospect, it will come through unconsciously. Some shop owners expect the customer to come in knowing the benefits of effective signs. Most don’t. They’re clueless, and it’s not their fault. This is your time to show that you’re here to help them get what they really need.
Help them justify the cost in their mind. Say a real estate person comes in for a 4-by-8 sign to sell a piece of property that will earn him a $12,000 commission, then looks at me stunned when I quote him $800 for the sign. I might smile and say, “I’d love to see you sell that property without spending anything, but I know this is the lowest cost advertising you can get. And it will be right there on the site, 24/7. This will get your message out.”
Don’t tell them they are wrong. What about the person who shows you a drawing off the computer and says, “My son is an artist and he designed this sign for me. How much will it cost?” You take one look and see what looks like distorted stick figures. Some sign people will start off telling them what’s wrong with the drawing. This may insult them or put them in the difficult spot of having to explain to their son that he is no sign designer.
I’m more likely to say, “Hey, this is a great place to start. He’s on the right track, and I see a few things we can do to increase the contrast so that you get more impact from that busy street in front of your store.” When they see your version, they will have to agree it looks better. When they get home, they can say, “He liked your design a lot, and made a few changes to sharpen it up a bit.”
Show that you have something more to offer. Just taking an order may be easy, but it doesn’t give you much to sell. But if sharpen your design skills and make an effort to help the customer get a more effective sign, it’s a new ballgame. You can listen a bit, then say, “Wow, you’ve got a great opportunity here to get some really powerful advertising at a great price.” The customer will go home with a product he feels good about, rather than a red panel with skinny silver sparkle letters that he now realizes no one can read.
This approach works. It has worked for me and many other sign people for many years. It will pay your bills. It will deliver clients who send their friends to you for signs. It will give you an edge in a tough economy, and help you set your business apart.
Art Schilling’s shop, East Coast Artie’s, is in Surfside Beach, South Carolina.
Here’s a sampling of Artie’s work from past issues of SignCraft Magazine. You can see more in his Profile from the July/August 1999 issue and the feature on his pinstriping in the March/April 2004 issue.
