Finding a reason to "Check in"

In my two decades plus in sales selling large format print and signs, an ongoing challenge I encountered was finding a meaningful reason to check in and stay in touch with customers. One of the most effortless ways to do this was to follow up on a recent quote or completed project, but if a customer had not placed an order or reached out recently for pricing, I needed to find another reason to touch base. One thing I did NOT want to do was to say, "Hi! I'm just checking in to see if you need any signage." If I was going to take up even a small amount of their time, I wanted to bring value.

To personalize my check-ins and position myself as a partner and resource, I tapped into the following list of ideas for meaningful engagement:

• Pay attention to customers' social media and reach out with a compliment or question about a recent post

• Similarly, follow customers in the news and send congratulations for their business success or awards

• Review previous sales and check in when the time approaches for a quarterly or annual event or promotion

• Take note of birthdays and work anniversaries and send congratulations

• Notify them of changes at your company that might affect them - new hours, employees, equipment, or materials

While these are all useful, one of my favorite ways to check in and stay in touch was to share capabilities...because I knew that many of my customers had signage and print needs in addition to what they were ordering from us. Sharing capabilities usually involved more effort on my part because we did not have a marketing person to provide ideas or content for this type of engagement. It was up to me to gather photos and write some accompanying text explaining what I was sharing. I routinely designed my own email postcards and created PDFs, and for a while, I even hosted a personal blog focused on sign-related topics. This took time, but it definitely paid off. I shared the PDFs, digital postcards, and links to my blog posts via email one-on-one, and I saw strengthened relationships and growth in my business.

My experience led me to create Sign Promoter. If sharing information and ideas with customers can strengthen relationships and increase sales, why not make it easier for sign companies to do this? While email is a common way to engage with customers, I understood that what works for one person or company may not work for another, so the content in our Toolkits is provided in multiple formats, for ease of use. We even offer to customize it with your contact info and logo for FREE! And if you are looking for further customization (such as importing your own photos), we can do that, too! Our hope is to play a role in supporting small, independent sign businesses on their road to success!