The Letterville BullBoard: Changing Markets..Changing Strategies

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Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :

Hi Heads. This is a somewhat frustrating topic for me, and deals with the issue of many recent changes in the market area that I deal in. I don't know if you've noticed business changes in your areas, but they have certainly occurred here. If you take a stroll through any given shopping mall in this area, you see a marked decline in "local ownership" , and a proliferation of franchise, or chain-operated stores. These kinds of stores do not purchase signage or point-of-purchase materials locally, since these are supplied to each store in the chain by their "head office". Locally owned & operated business are fast becoming more specialized in an effort to compete with the larger chains, but are becoming fewer and fewer.

I used to do a substantial business identifying apartment type buildings, and dealt directly with the owners. Nowdays, these apartments are being converted to "condominium type" residences, whereby the tenants collectively own the building, and everything gets decided by a residents' board or panel. There just isn't a single individual decision maker involved anymore. Everything has to be decided upon and approved by a "committee".

So, the question is this: Have you noticed or encountered market shifts or changes like this in your area?? If so, how have you adjusted your sales plans or strategies to deal with those changes??

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Ken Henry
Henry & Henry Signs
London, Ontario Canada
(519) 439-1881
e-mail kjmlhenry@home.

10,000 sperm swimming for that egg...and I won!

Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :

Hi Ken,

Yes, I've seen this happen in my area as well. The trick is to land the bigger accounts with the big boys which can be very tricky. Like any large outfit (try working for the govt.) loads of red tape and politics. If you can stand all that, then you may have a remote chance.

It's alot of phone calling, selling, and presentation. It takes alot of time. I think that signshops that land these types of customers often must have full time sales people. For a small one person shop, you'd invest so much time into attempting to land the job, you'd have to put the rest of the work on hold.

Here's an example. I found out a major company was looking for a new signshop to output their company decals. Huge outfit. Well, I edged my foot in the door and made the connection. The interest was there, he wanted a quote. I then attempted to reach the guy for another 4 weeks, either he wasn't in or didn't return calls due to busy, whatever. And on it went. I finally just gave up and carried on.

But if you can get in, you've got a steady income which is a nice payback.

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Graphic Impact
located in BC Canada
gisigns@sprint.ca

Posted by ron norwood (Member # 1492) on :

Well, I have heard some rumour's that a local "fast sign" franchise head office, offer's contracts to a courier company here, you do 10 van's for free, they give you the opportunity to do their business for 1 year, then your, "on your own", Donna, these are those red van's with the yellow graphics........you know the ones...don't know if this is true.....but it gives you an insite to dealing with the "corporate" guy's. I've also been told that the lucky employees of the "courier" company get to pay to have their Van painted red.....I am not trying to slam anyone, just passing on some conversation's I have had......

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Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :

We've been looking hard at our market too. I'm really considering getting out of the sign business. Not because of competition or slow work. I have plenty to do. I've been looking at our screenprinting operation and at how much more profit we are making there. Here is an example.

My competitor just did a coroplast 4x8 for $175. A lot of work went into it due to all of the copy on it. Even with my high-speed plotters and what-not, It would still have taken me 2 hours to have done the job, not to mention the time spent with the client.

Meanwhile, I just did $600 worth of decals & t-shirts in 2 hours and netted $250. With all of the new shops popping up around here fighting to see who can be the cheapest, its getting to the point that its just not fun anymore.

I lost a banner job this morning to a low-baller. Losing the job doesn't bother me. The fact that the idiot sold a 10oz. hemmed & grommeted 3'x8' banner complete with full color cartoon and 12sq.ft. of vinyl text for $48 does. And will he go out of business soon? Doubtful. He has a full blown printing operation and the signs are just a side-line. He is also selling sandblasted signs for about $28 per sqft.

It gets me depressed.

Well, time for me to go back to work doing that fleet of 80+ 11yd. cement mixer trucks at $700 a pop. Getting 2 or 3 completed per day can wear out a person.

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:) Design is Everything! :)
Glenn Taylor
in beautiful North Carolina
http://members.tripod.com/taylor_graphics

walldog@bbnp.com

Posted by Jean Shimp (Member # 198) on :

We have been feeling the pinch of too many sign shops and too few "good" jobs. We went to the International Sign Association show in Orlando looking for ideas to be more profitable. The show was a humbling experience for me. What sunk into my head was that the sign business today is all about BIG business. It's not about craftsmen; nobody was talking about letter styles or color combinations - it was cad/cam and digital and BIG.

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