We’ve been running a series with Andy Rebuck who recently retired after a 40 year career in out of home.  See Andy Rebuck’s Andy Rebuck’s tips for selling out of home and Andy Rebuck on billboard development. Today Andy talks about two sales wins.

Tell us about two sales that make you proud.I love sales! 

 So awesome to help clients ring their cash registers, and equally wonderful to develop great relationships.  I will say the two more recent sales that made me proud had rough starts but finished with smooth sailing.  The first sale was with an attorney.  I came off the golf course and the attorney was sitting enjoying a cold drink on the porch of the Blue Ridge Country Club.  Surprisingly to me, he said, “you won’t sell me what I want and you want to overcharge me.”   The only thing I could say was, “wow, can we schedule a cup of coffee and talk about this.” Fortunately, very shortly after that, our sales rep Steve and I had the chance to get to the bottom of the concern about poster panel locations and pricing and availability.    When we met the client he detailed some specific panels as well as certain roads that were high on his priority list.  We used the analogy that our 550 traditional posters are offered like rooms at a resort hotel.   Some rooms with ocean views are priced higher, while others might not offer the view and have a lower price.  One really neat feature is that many clients book multiple rooms allowing the hotel to pick both rooms with and without the view and to secure a much lower price overall.    At a follow up meeting we showed him market maps and the specific detail sheets for twenty-five poster panels reposting at new locations every eight weeks.  Long story short, what started out with an, “oh no”  turned out to be one of our consistent top five billing clients.

The second sale that makes me pround involved a client that was a definite no for outdoor.   This was a new small business on Trindle Road near my house selling windows and doors. Our sales rep, Steve opened the door with a great sales call, but the owner said I’m not interested.   I want to be able to see a direct return on my advertising dollars. When I buy an ad in a local shopper and spend X dollars and get XX dollars back that is what works for me. Steve persisted and finally the client said I’ll give you one chance—I will sign for a three month deal at $25,000 a month. Let’s see what happens. (If you love sales, you are probably getting the idea of how excited we were with this opportunity.)  We went back to see him three months later and the client said I’ve never done $1 million a month except in these last three months. I can’t tell you how many of my leads are saying they saw the billboards.  We signed him up for an annual program that day that put him in our top five overall billing clients.   I guess the formula for a sale that makes me proud includes overcoming an objection but also putting a billboard strategy together that works.

Lamar put you on some billboards to announce your retirement.

That’s right. I knew there would be some shenanigans with billboard messages wishing me a happy retirement.   I used to introduce myself as the tall skinny billboard guy and the one billboard message repeated that phrase.   One day after the billboards had been running, I was telling the superstar marketing assistant in our office about a lady in the grocery store asking if I was the guy on the billboard and then she congratulated me on my retirement,   That was the post our office added on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.  The LinkedIn post has nearly 400 likes and 111 comments—got to love the power of outdoor.

What’s next for you?

Really enjoyed all the retirment celebrations and have now settled into the feeling that every day is Saturday.  When people ask what my future plans are, I half-jokingly say I’m going to be a maintenance worker.   Then I add, you know, maintain my golf game; maintain my marriage; maintain my lawn; maintain my faith in God….   Seriously, my wife Gail and I have four grandchildren in Philly so we’re going to be back-and-forth on the PA Turnpike often, and son Peter is in Boston and newly engaged so there will be a wedding to enjoy in the near future.  One big project on our list is to find the perfect beach house in Bethany Beach Delaware.   I am bound and determined to take up fishing as one of my new hobbies and pretty sure we will get lots of family and billboard buddies to come visit us for a cold drink at the shore.

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