How to Become a SignSite Success Story
By: Shane Willems
Ceo SignSite.com, Inc.
It is only reasonable to start this article by recommending that you ask yourself to define what success would be to you in your business. Set a goal that you would like to obtain. Do not just spout out a number with a bunch of zero's and a dollar sign attached to it. Think about it. When you set this number be sure it is a number you are prepared to work for. Is that it? Is success simply a dollar figure? For some maybe... For me it is much deeper than that. There are numerous things in my business that I consider successful. Each customer that comes back is a success. Every employee that is happy and productive. Every goal reached by my employees and/or by me. I could go on but I believe you are getting the point. Every business owner must decide what is important to them and their business.
Lets start with a plan. We will help you with this. It starts with an evaluation of your business as it is. Do you have a certain product you really enjoy producing? Do you have a certain industry you want to master? Do you want to go after it all? What is the best direction for you to head with marketing your website? From their we will give you the best advice we can to get you headed in the direction of properly marketing your new website. In preparing this plan you will need to ask yourself some important questions. Some examples of these questions are as follows:
- How much can I afford to spend marketing my new website?
- Am I going to handle marketing my self or hire a firm?
- Can I purchase additional equipment to produce more product or is the Wholesale option going to be the way to go for some product?
- Can my existing staff handle the added pressure of more business?
- Do I have a vision and mission statement?
- Do I have procedures for my people to follow?
- Do I have Quality control steps in place?
Basically you need to establish a solid plan for success. This should include a vision and mission statement for your company. If someone asks you what your company does; what would your answer be? It should be the same every time. If you can not define exactly what your business is doing to reach your goals how will you ever achieve them? If you do not have any goals how can you ever achieve a level of success. Again I am not just talking financial here. Your goal could be to provide excellent customer service to every customer you are in contact with. Financial goals are also necessary. However I have found that it takes implementing many short term management goals to achieve any level of financial success.
Ok you have determined what success is to you, and you have created a plan for your business. Now what?
Implementation!
With the purchase of a SignSite web site you will have a huge advantage right out the gate. You have a complete online catalog with hundreds of products that are waiting to be customized by your anyone in the world. So lets get going.
Marketing
A Sign site web site can be marketed thru about any channel you choose.
- You can tackle the world of search engines.
- You can approach a specific industry or you can market to multiple industries
- You can email (Respectfully no spam)
- You can direct mail
- You can promote your site to local clients this will give you a huge edge over your competitors.
- You can market fundraising to schools, or to the massive world of sports.
The options are endless. The important thing is you will have a marketing tool that will allow you to market to whomever you would like wherever they may be.
Customer Service
Once the sales start coming in it is important that you take very good care of them. People purchasing over the internet are skeptical until you develop a relationship with them. It is important that you are prompt with your responses and that you keep your commitments with the customer. We have many techniques we have mastered over the years to help you create a powerful customer service team.
It is important that you do not take this lightly. It is what I would contribute the bulk of my success to. Our technology is great. However I have never compromised on customer satisfaction. We deliver a quality product and bend over backwards to accommodate our customers. It is easy and fun to please people. I can prove to you time and again that you can create a repeat customer business over the internet. I was skeptical 10 years ago. Not any more. I would contribute almost half of my sales every year to repeat business. We are proud of that!
Graphics
It is important that you have the proper communications between graphics and all other aspects of your business. They are in the middle. In our operation it goes Customer Service first Graphics Second and Production/Shipping. It is for this reason you must have very good communications between graphics and the other departments. Your SignSite web site comes with a complete graphic automation program. You will be able to send most files to production in less than 5 minutes.
There are other occasions with special orders and slight changes that will need to be proofed and quoted. For these projects it is important that you communicate deadlines and changes with each other. Remember it is important to keep your commitments with the customer. This passes all the way thru the departments.
Production and Shipping
When the order/run is received by the production department it should be accompanied by a concise work order that is easy to understand. The production department should use this to insure they are producing what the customer is expecting. From their it will go to shipping. This is where you should implement a strong Quality Control check. Remember you want a satisfied customer. That should be one of your top goals. If there is a problem fix it before it ships.
Folks it is that simple! Define success in your business. Set up the goals necessary to achieve that level of success.
Set up a good solid plan. Incorporate all of the essential business knowledge you have obtained in your business. We are not discussing some of the more in-depth business knowledge you should already possess. Such as: capital, cash flow, expenses, profits, and projections. All of these should be a part of your plan. Your plan should also include procedures for your business. Your staff must know your plan. This is accomplished by step by step procedures for every department. These procedures will help you achieve your goals which will lead to your success.
Do not forget the implementation of these procedures in each department. Make sure your departments are communicating. Lack of communication is one of the biggest problems I have found that leads to disastrous mistakes. This can be corrected with a solid plan.
With a SignSite website and these steps you will be on your way to becoming a SignSite success story!