105. Successful Company Signage With Erik Cofield

If I'm the builder and I look at the mock up on an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper. Oh, that looks good. Well, is that going to look good 200ft into my job site? Is it going to look good in a wide format on a silt fence? Is it going to look good on the billboard or my truck?

Welcome to Professional Builder Secrets, the podcast for building company owners wanting to grow safely and securely. I'm your host, Will Blunt, and today I'm joined by Eric Cofield, one of the executive business coaches at apb. Eric, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks very much, Will. Pleasure to be here.

Yes, absolute pleasure to have you on. Today we're talking about company signage. Now, why is that an interesting topic at this very moment in time for builders?

Well, it's always important. It's more important now because. Because they're facing more competition. And company signage is frequently the first impression that a consumer sees of that builder. So first impressions matter. And at a time when builders are having to be more competitive, consumers are more savvy, information is everywhere. Company signage really not only gets the attention of the person of the consumer, but can really move and motivate that person to take some call to action. And that's important for the builder. And it's another avenue. It doesn't mean you can stop other avenues like web based marketing, but you do want to take advantage of all of the avenues where people may come into contact with you. So it's very important. It's also very cost effective. And if the signage is done correctly, the builder can convey quite a lot of information in a very small amount of real estate. So for those reasons, it should not really, it should not be overlooked, for sure.

Can we just take a step back and define company signage? Where, where are builders using signage? Which is most important?

Yeah, that's a good question. So obviously most builders have a truck or a trailer or both. And so especially custom builders and remodelers, large production builders have company vehicles. So those vehicles are moving billboards and they need to be professionally wrapped or painted or done in such a way that they're taking advantage of the real estate that is moving all over the city. Also, every construction site should have one or more signs because the construction site is a work of art in progress. People are coming by there sometimes on their way to work, which means they're coming by there more than one time. And so they're seeing something created whether they see it for one time or whether they see it day in and day out. The builder needs to take advantage of what they're creating because it's a canvas. And so site signage and vehicle signage, including trailers, are the two most important places where, where builders have an opportunity to get a message out, and so they need to take advantage of that. There are other places too, of course. Parade of homes, home shows, the front office, of course your website. In some cases, depending upon who you're trying to reach, billboards are very effective. So it just depends. But for sure, every construction site that a builder is working on and every vehicle owned by the company, for sure. Those two places, I never thought of it that way.

And I love that. It's almost like a shop window. If you're building a custom home and you've got your signage out the front for the whole period of that build, then you know people are getting excited about what you're doing.

Yeah. And look, they want to know what you're building. In fact, how many of us have driven by what we know is a new restaurant or a new fast food restaurant or a new something commercial like retail development, and we suddenly go, oh, I wonder what that's going to be. And so people are interested. And especially if people are looking to build or move themselves, right. Because naturally their brain waves are focused on what's of interest to them. So, you know, you're right. If they, if they come up, if they're driving through a neighborhood to a friend's house, if they drive a certain place on the way to work, or if they are actively looking and they're driving around a neighborhood that they like and they see something like that, then they're going to be keenly interested in not only what's coming, but who's doing it.

That makes a lot of sense. Before we dive into what good company signage looks like, what is the impact on building companies if they don't use signage the best way they could?

Well, if they do it wrong, then they look bad. And that's worse than zero. Right. If you've got a sign that is ugly, if you've got a sign that you left up way too long and it's broken and dilapidated, but they can still see your company name, that's not a good message. But it really creates problems from a marketing spend as well. And it almost leaves opportunity on the table. If they're not using signs the right way, not only are they spending money, not getting the benefit from it, but potentially can make themselves look bad. So it's a double whammy. If you're, if you're Spending money and not getting the benefit from it. It's not just the $100 you spent on the sign or whatever the sign costs. It's the $27,000 you didn't get from the kitchen remodel, it's the $150,000 you didn't get from a home, or it's the whatever value that you didn't get from a sale that you could have gotten. Because, look, competitors are out there. And so you have to know what your competitors are doing. It's surprising to me how many builders do not know what look like of their competitors. They might go to their website and they might have an understanding of what their competitors are or are not doing. But you also need to know what your competitor's signs are, what their houses look like, what their job site. You need to know everything about your competitor, as much as you can. And if they've got blow away signs that are lit up at night and you have some chintzy, crappy sign that doesn't look very good, you're not doing yourself any favors. So company signage really matters. It really does pull in people. It's a very cost effective way to get leads, especially if it's done right. And in this case, words matter, the messaging that you put on the sign, all of those things, we should talk about those too. But, but it's really quite an effective way. And, and, and so they need to do it correctly.

That opportunity cost that you alluded to, there is actually a huge implication. Right. Like it might seem like a small thing not to have a beaut sign on your site, but that could have been, you know, someone driving past and wanting to do a remodel or build a new home that you miss out on, which is a huge opportunity cost.

Yeah, because people, I mean, I hate to say it, but all of us as consumers are judgmental. And a lot of consumers will judge the quality of your company by things that are very trivial. If your website is not very representative, that doesn't mean you don't build a beautiful home. But the consumer is going to think that this is not a professional company. If your site signage is not very professional, it's a little bit silly to think that you can't build a house. But consumers may make value judgments like that that are in fact a little inappropriate. So you really want to always position yourself at the highest level, with the highest level of service and professionalism, because it matters.

If it matters so much, why aren't all builders utilizing company signage effectively?

That's a Good question. I think that they are not focused on the real end user experience. It's very easy for a builder to create a sign and think that looks good. But if that builder is an engineer type and they're selling to a creative type, what looks good to the builder isn't going to necessarily look good to the consumer, especially when you consider other demographics like age and income level and so forth. And so when they create these signs, I've noticed a lot of times they are not focused on the site as a. Sorry, the sign as a tool. The sign, whether it's on your vehicle, whether it's on your construction site, whether it's a big billboard, whether it's high in the air, whether it's on a silt fence, it has a job to do. The site has a job to do. Its job is to attract, engage, motivate and pull that person to you. To do that, it has to have a certain size, a certain clarity, a certain color, all of these things. And if I'm the builder and I look at the mock up on an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper, oh, that looks good. Well, is that going to look good 200ft into my job site? Is it going to look good in a wide format on a silt fence? Is it going to look good on a billboard or my truck? I mean, not only do you want your signs to be harmonious, but obviously you can't put on your truck something that you could put on a billboard. So every sign has to be thought of as a separate tool. Where is it going to be? How's it going to be used? Who's going to see it? I've seen some very pretty signs that nobody can see because they're far away. And it doesn't work if I have to get out of my car and walk through a mud field to read your company information. So I think that the reason, the answer to your question is that they look at it through their eyes and not the real user experience.

That's a great point. If you're driving past something, you've only got a split second to actually capture that information.

Yeah, yeah. And I think sometimes they think that it's just about getting their name out there. They almost think like, well, I have to do this. Well, you're right that you have to do it, but. But it's because it pulls in leads and it will help you create more value, get more contacts, help your marketing and ultimately help your sales. So yeah, you have to do it, but you should do it. Right. Because it's very worthwhile.

And from what I understand in the market at the moment, more leads are, you know, gold right now in residential construction. So any way you can, you know, put yourself out there to potentially get a new lead and. Which turns into a sale could be huge for. For a residential construction business.

Yeah. And you want to pull in every AV avenue, no avenue unturned. Right. Because our society is more diverse than ever. There are people just driving around. There are people that would never drive around. They're only going to go to the web. And so there are people that go only through realtors, and they won't even come to you directly. So as a builder, you have to. You have to really cast a very wide net.

Yeah, that's a great point as well. You're not going to always find all of the ideal customers that you're trying to attract from one channel.

No. No way.

So, Eric, what can builders do to improve their company signage and generate more leads in the process?

Well, they really should understand the way the consumer's mind works. So I say that because all of us as consumers are designed to filter out the things that we're not interested in. And so if I was scrolling through Facebook and someone said, hey, did you see the ad for that crib? I would say, no, because I'm not interested in a crib or baby furniture. So we're trying to get to people who are subconsciously interested in a new home, a custom home, a remodel, or whatever it is, the products and services that we offer. The way to do that is through a very tried and true process, and it's called the Aida Principle. And Aida is a I D A. Now, that stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. And it works. It's been proven scientifically and psychologically for over 100 years, I think. So the way our minds work is that if I see a bunch of signs, I'm only going to respond to the ones that capture my interest. That means I have to have some call out to me that captures my interest. One of the best ways to do that is to ask a question as opposed to making a statement. So the sign could have a very short question on it. The second thing is interest. Now, if the builder has a unique selling proposition or something of specific value, something that they can put on their sign that captures my interest, that would be good. The third one is desire. And for desire, we're really talking about a benefit of some kind. And then for action item, the action items, it could be a QR code. It could be a phone number, it could be a website, because people recognize that as a call to action. You don't have to say, call now at 800-blah, blah, blah. They see a phone number, they get it. You don't have to say, scan this QR code. They understand they can scan a QR code. Senior citizens know how to scan QR codes. So attention, interest, desire, and action. Those are the four elements you want to try to have on every sign. Now, you don't necessarily have the same real estate on every side. A company logo on a shirt, you're not going to be able to have as much real estate as a billboard. So if you can think of a question that grabs their attention, for example, let's just say you are building and the people that you're trying to attract have a long commute. Maybe the question is wish you were home right now, question mark. Because your location is better than wherever they're commuting to farther out in the distance. And then maybe the interest is custom homes to your budget. Maybe the desire is your design, your way. And the call to action could be a very short URL, something that they can remember. If you have a really long URL, don't put it on the sign. They're not going to remember it. It's going to be useless. And if you, if you do, you almost should get a second URL just for signs, because long website addresses don't work. It's amazing to me how many companies name their company after a person's name. Not thinking about future legacy. You know, no one wants to buy. Eric Cofield custom homes.com so, so those are the things. Attention, interest, desire and action. If you can create your sign with that aid of principle, it is so effective because it ties into their psychological profile. And that's my best advice probably of the podcast, is tie into their psychological profile. If they're interested in a home or remodeling or whatever, and you use the Aida formula, you're going to get leads.

I think the example you gave there around the commute and understanding how, like what type of customer you're looking for is probably the most powerful part. But how would a builder go about better understanding that?

Well, okay, so that's a good question. Now keep in mind that every sign has its own job to do. So if I'm putting a sign at a parade of homes, that's a different messaging altogether than a billboard or a truck sign or a site construction sign. So every sign has, you have to Think of each sign as different. But to answer your question specifically, if you go and look at your former customers, the ones that you liked, the ones that paid you on time, the ones that were about the right price for what you want to get more of, those customers are resources, those former customers, if they're very much like the customers you want to get more of, then tap into those former customers. If you call them and ask them, why did you, why did you work with us? Then that's a good indication of whatever the future customers need to hear from you in order to work with you. Right. So if you're not sure who your future customers are, then one of the ways to understand who they are is to look at your previous customers. Unless you're changing your business model or something else is going on.

Yeah, that's a great way to look at it. Like, identify what the best clients to work with were and find more of them.

Yeah, I mean, did they pay you on time? Did they have a price point that is more of what you want? You know, what did you, how did you get them? Where did they come from? If they came from Realtor referrals, then should you go after more Realtor referrals? You know, so you, you want to find what you do and repeat it, find what you do well successfully and do more of that over and over.

You mentioned a couple of times about the different types of messaging you could have. For example, on a shirt, you may not be able to have the same messaging you would have on a site at a, at a home build. How important though is it to have some sort of consistency in messaging across all of those different signs, your website, et cetera?

It's very, very important because remember that all of us as consumers, we like knowing what we're going to get. The reason that we go to any particular fast food place in Europe versus here is, is because we know, okay, if we go there, we're going to get a certain standard or level. And so when you are putting ads out there, you want to use the same color scheme. I mean, obviously it's not the same exact messaging or the same exact structure because on a truck you have a different structure than on a site signage. Like you could put a small billboard up on a construction site. But you want people to know that it's the same company just by looking at it so that their eyes and their brain start being aware, oh, ABC Homes is here. ABC Homes is there. Oh, there's another ABC Homes. Oh, look, ABC Homes truck. Because that branding is so important. And if you're all over the place with different colors, different formats, different fonts, different look and feel, you don't get the consistency and you don't register in their brain the same way. And so it's really important to have a consistent color scheme, a consistent font, a consistent style, because that's all part of what makes your brand. Your brand is just. Isn't just your logo. Your brand is the look, the field, sometimes the experience of your company. And it's very important to have that consistency and harmony.

Makes a lot of sense from a technical point of view. Then what considerations from a design perspective should builders be taking into account? You mentioned earlier about it needing to be visible and a few other things, but can you go into some more detail there?

Yeah, well, I mentioned the font. So one of the, one of the things some builders do wrong is they use multiple fonts or they will use a font that's really swirly. That is not the right approach. A, because it's seen differently by different people, B, it's not easy to read and absorb at a moment's glance and it takes up space. So you really want fonts that are sans serif, no swirly fonts, no fonts with little tails on them. You want like an aerial font because it's easy to read very quickly. You want colors that are easy to read. I can't tell you how many signs I've seen where it's light gray on black or, you know, something that is demure, that does not work, it's too hard to read. Now you also have to think of who you're trying to reach. If you're trying to reach 55 to 70 year olds, they need a sign that's got bigger, bolder. You really want size and clarity as important factors. The size of the sign matters, but also what you're putting on, what you're putting on it and how easy it is to read. You don't want garish colors either. If your company colors are garish and garish number two, you know that's a problem. So you also don't want colors that are maybe very avant garde and look sexy and cool. If they're hard to read, they're hard to read. And you're not doing yourself any favors, whether it's sexy or avant garde or not. So from a stylistic approach, you want easy to read fonts with no serif, no garish colors, and size and clarity really matter.

Yeah, I think it's okay in the sense that if you, if you've Got color to your brand, then you can use little spots of it on a sign I imagine would be okay rather than, you know, overwhelming something which you can't read very well from a distance.

Yeah. Yep, that's right. It's strange. A lot of people don't realize, but about 8% of the population is colorblind and they don't see red and green the same way. Now, for that matter, people don't see words or images and absorb the same message. I can't tell you how many times in life I, and probably all of us have used words that we thought were perfectly clear, but then someone else understood it a different way or we've even used images in some way and then people didn't understand the intent of the image. So, you know, you have to be careful, especially if it's a bilingual sign. If it's a bilingual sign, words really, really matter because you have to make sure that the translation is absolutely correct and you're not using a slang term, you know, like in Spanish. Because I speak some Spanish, I have to always remember, do I say no sierto or do I say no es ferradad? Because one means the one's the correct grammar and one's not the correct grammar. The people can still convey, can understand what I'm saying, but it doesn't make me sound as polished and articulate as I can be. So you have to, you have to pay attention to the words. For sure. Yeah.

There's so many subtleties with any language which could be interpreted in different ways on a sign.

Yeah, and images too. You know, you always want the sign to really put your best foot forward, obviously. Because what's its purpose? Its purpose is to engage, motivate, attract and pull the people in. And therefore it's valuable and you need to put your best foot forward. So don't put a junkie sign out on a million dollar home. That's not going to serve you well.

It's misaligned with the product you're delivering.

Yeah, exactly. I, in one of the books I wrote, I put vinyl does not sell marble because a lot of builders have these office. A lot of custom builders or modelers anyway have offices that are maybe a little run down. They haven't put a lot of effort into fixing up their own office. Kind of like a mechanic drives a beat up old car because he's in the middle of restoring it. But the truth is, is that your office should be a showcase for all that you can do. When they come to see you, you don't want them to see a junkie office. You want them to see your capacity as a phenomenal creator of residential space. And your signs are the same way. Your signs tell a story, your signage conveys to them a little bit about who you are. So if you've got a silt fence that's been there for four months and it's run down and dirty and not even, not even working as a silt fence anymore, you need to upgrade it, fix it, change it, et cetera.

That's a great point. Every opportunity to interact or be exposed to someone is a potential opportunity to improve your perception in their minds or decrease your perception in their minds.

Yeah, because perspective is about image. I mean, if your opinion is your opinion, then that's what your opinion is, how you got there, and what you use to create your opinion. You know, I can influence that as the builder, but it matters.

So, yeah, I imagine all of these little things contribute to the price you can charge as well, right?

Well, they do. I mean, there's a reason in society that we have stores that charge premiums and they have lots of customers and we have stores that are at the sort of the bottom end of the economic scale and they have lots of customers. Because the thing is, is that no matter what type of builder you are, custom builder, production builder, remodeler, commercial builder, there are people who, or companies who want what you have to offer, but your job is to go find them. No builder can tell me, oh, I, I can't find people. You just don't know how to find the people yet. But once you know how to find the people that want what you have to offer, that is a career, life changing event. And of course what we do at apb. But it's just funny when builders say, whoa, you can't do that in my city. Or you, I can't find those people in my city. Of course you can. You just don't know how. Even in small towns, you know, we have customers in small towns. It's true. Their pie is small. That just means they have to have a bigger piece of the pie, so to speak. Yeah, but yeah, you can find the right people.

Yeah, it's a good message. So, Eric, what other advice would you have for builders about their company signage? The floor's yours. Open it up.

Well, I would say another mistake that builders do is they especially one man shows, don't be a lone ranger. Right. When you're creating a sign, it's very valuable, very important, and you should ask other people what their Opinions are. Because, remember I said words don't always convey the same message to everybody and so forth. It may look great to you, but does it look great on an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper, or does it look great 200ft onto a job site? Does it look great on your truck because you're used to seeing your truck, or does it look great on your truck going 50 miles per hour? You really want to ask other people for their opinions, especially. I never underestimate the value of a woman's intuition. So I think a mistake that builders do is they do it themselves. And they really should get a few different opinions because, look, somebody else might see something that you didn't see. That's okay. That's just another data set. So that's. That's probably a, I would say, a good piece of advice. Don't be a lone ranger. Get other people's opinions.

Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of like testing any type of advertising or anything like that. I think with the digital format, you've got the benefit of being able to test a lot of small concepts very quickly. And almost always the one that you think is the best isn't necessarily the best performing one. So getting that opinion on a sign, which is actually an investment and it's going to be potentially used, you know, many times in the future, it's. It's really important to get that, you know, feedback from other people.

Yeah. The other thing I see is that the owner of the company or the project manager or whomever's in charge says, okay, go put this sign up. Did you tell them where to put it? Did you tell them how far back to put it? Did you tell them how do they have the tools to put it in the ground correctly or wherever it's going? Because what I have seen is the owner of the company comes to the job site and goes, that's not where I wanted to sign. Well, did you tell them where to put the sign? Don't make an assumption that your project manager or your superintendent or whomever is going to do things that are in your head. They're not psychic. They don't necessarily know. Your project manager isn't a marketing guy. He or she may not know exactly where you want the sign. So, you know, think through the whole experience. Where does the sign go? Does it go in the middle of the house on the right side, on the left side? Where is traffic coming? Is traffic coming around from the right or from the left? You know, so you just got to think through it and Be communicative so that it's, it's the sign you want. It's a sign that will work. The sign's doing its job, its location is correct, et cetera.

Yeah, that's another thing we didn't talk a lot about is positioning as well on a job site. Super important.

What gets me is that it's so relatively inexpensive and they're so valuable, especially to builders who are custom builders and remodelers, because for remodeling I can't see what's going on behind in the walls. I can't see that you just tore down the kitchen. But I could see your sign in the front yard saying, another beautiful kitchen by XYZ Homes.

Yeah, that's a great point as well. Eric, where would you recommend people go to find out more information about creating successful company signage?

Well, they could go to app. Yeah, you know, I just did an action plan on this, so it's very timely. I mean, I would. If they're members, obviously they have access to the content and they can go learn all this right now. And if they're not, I think that they should touch bases with us and go online because even, even if they don't want to call us or talk to us at all, they can go online and see a bunch of resources on our website. I think, I think it's fun. I get told all the time that we have phenomenal content on our website and look, go look at it even without calling us. That's why it's there.

Yeah. There is one resource for non members which could be helpful. We'll include the link to the action plan for members out there. But the marketing blueprint for builders is a good place to start. It doesn't go in deep about company signage in particular, but it's a great point of starting in terms of like understanding how your marketing works.

Yeah, that's right. Marketing. Marketing blueprint for builders. Good answer, good answer. But I mean, there's, there's a lot of content. If you as a builder want to do better, you have a lot of options to help yourself. And those builders who do the work, they get results. And, you know, there's plenty of builders who are going to be complacent and that's okay. It's their life. But for the ones who want to improve, it's awesome.

Well, Eric, thanks so much for joining Professional Builder Secrets today. I've had a lot of fun talking to you about company signage.

My pleasure.

It's a really underutilized opportunity for generating leads for builders by the sounds of it. So I think there's a ton of value in this podcast, but also in the action plan that you created there. So thanks very much.

Yeah, my pleasure. Cheers.

Also, a big thank you to our listeners out there, wherever you are in the world. If you like the show today, please subscribe to Professional Builder's Secrets on your platform of choice. And if you're feeling generous, leave us a review. But until next time, have a great day. It.