How to Drastically Increase Your Chances of Winning a Billboard Bid
A collaborative article from John James of SignBird and Shane Hutton of Tasty Ad. John was an account executive for Lamar for years and now focuses on helping out-of-home companies market themselves and their billboard inventory with his company, SignBird. Shane has worked as a creative director for a mid-size independent billboard company for a decade and utilizes methods on how creative and sales go hand in hand.
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Presenting a billboard agreement to a potential client is exciting. The sale means you can breathe a little easier knowing that spot will be occupied for a while and you can focus on other things. It also means more income for the business and maybe a commission for yourself. Sometimes sales just fall in your lap, but most of the time you have to put in the work to reap the reward. If you could drastically increase your chances of getting the sale by completing a few tasks, wouldn’t you take full advantage of it?
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We’ve got a list of things you can do that are guaranteed to drastically increase your chances of making a billboard sale.
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Do your homework.
Whether you are cold-calling on a specific industry vertical that week or cold-calling down a business directory list, you have to do your homework on who you’re talking to and what problems they may be experiencing. A good rule of thumb, you need to know the Name of the decision maker before you walk in the door, discover how they are Currently Advertising their business, and what kind of Problems your billboard inventory would help solve for their business.
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Followup. Followup. Followup.
Do you have a followup system set in place for your salespeople to use and replicate on a daily/weekly basis? If not, you need one ASAP. People are forgetful, we can’t help it. If you are talking to the decision-maker of a business odds are billboard advertising is just one of the 100 decisions they are making every week, if not more. How does your sales pitch stand out when everything else in their life is demanding their attention. Followup. There is a healthy and appropriate way to do this. Sending an email asking if they’ve looked at your proposal is NOT a followup. OOH salespeople need to be IDEA generating machines. Bring questions, value, and ideas to your prospects every time you follow up, I would wager our competition isn’t.
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Spec Art
Why tell them what their ad could be, when you could SHOW them. I personally prefer to create spec art AFTER the first conversation. Why? Because during that conversation you’re discovering what their problems are. Take those problems and solve them using creative artwork that helps solve that problem. This communicates to the prospect that this random billboard guy actually took time to listen to what’s hurting my business and actively working to help me solve this problem. YOU STAND OUT. Salespeople shouldn’t sell, they should solve problems by offering solutions.
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OOH Sales Content
Does your OOH content sell itself? Does it get your prospect excited to learn more about your billboard inventory? Well, it should. A great photo or video taken of your billboard inventory and edited into a proposal is a great way to separate yourself and your OOH company from the competition. Don’t be the sales rep who walks through the door of a prospect and shows them a blurry picture taken from a NOKIA phone 15 years ago. Find the best piece of ad copy you have on a billboard and go take a picture of it with quality equipment. Grab traffic in the frame. Use this picture OVER and OVER again to get prospects excited. Be proud of your inventory and the OOH sales content you use to grow your sales. You’ll thank yourself.
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The Better Sales Checklist:
[ ] Know your potential billboard advertiser
[ ] Know your potential advertiser’s problems
[ ] Create spec art for them
[ ] Show them a professional proposal/rate sheet
[ ] Show them professional photos/video of your location
[ ] Share pro-ooh flyers and infographics so they know the benefits
[ ] Follow-up
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Check out SignBird’s recent projects:
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Check out SignBird’s related articles:
SignBird: Upgrade your Out-of-Home proposal content FREE
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SignBird Offering Free Ride Sheet Designs
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SignBird Offering Billboard Photo/Video/Web Packages
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What Makes a Great Billboard Photo?
