Company of the Day: Stokely Outdoor
Markets: Oklahoma
Address: PO Box 141277, Broken Arrow, OK. 74014-1277
Phone: 918-402-9016
Stokely Outdoor operates a plant with over 700 billboard faces including 6 digital billboard faces in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area. The company was started by Bill and Sarah Stokely in 1978. Bill’s daughter Shelley joined the company in 1990. In 2008 Bill’s son Sam and daughter in law Jill formed Big Time Billboards. The two companies share the same office. In 2019 Stokely added 36 structures with 144 faces across Oklahoma. All the signs were new builds. Sam Stokely has an interesting hobby collecting oil company signs. We interviewed Stokely while he was driving in his truck.
What’s new Sam?
I’m currently on the road today. We are building three billboards. They’re all going up in the same day. So I’m in my truck delivering parts and pieces, making sure everything‘s going smoothly. We got lucky we put up 22 new billboards last year and are slated for 12 more before July of this year.
How did you get in the out of home business?
I grew up in the same business with my family. They also have a commercial division as well that did signs for regular businesses growing up in the business I saw all the different employees and equipment and headaches that went on in the shop. So when I started my business, I subbed out all those departments and don’t have those day-to-day headaches that my parents put up with. Running a lean, mean operation with not a lot of overhead or employees has been the key to our success, allowing us to put profit back in the building new signs. We currently only operate in Oklahoma, but we do have state wide coverage…Me and my wife have been running the company for maybe 15 years and it seems like the first five or six years we were stumbling around in the dark because at that point my parents are already retired 10 years before that, so really a lot of it was trial and error….This is a great business to be in. It’s a ton of fun. My landowners love me because of the income source they were able to receive for no upfront cost on their behalf. My customers love it because I send new business every day.
Sam Stokley’s short course on out of home sales
Our sales efforts are always done in person building relationships with our customers. We don’t use any automated platforms for sales calls or tactics like that. In fact, I hate to admit it my website is out of date doesn’t even reflect our current inventory. We’re looking to update it soon…My favorite part of this business is the sales meeting. Meeting customers and finding out more about their business and seeing how my service can help them. Every little town I build a sign in, I go meet each business owner in person every business owner in that town wants my service but not everybody can afford it. That’s why I go in person to help qualify f or relationship can withstand a long partnership…My sales guy John Dean is an experienced enthusiastic person who has sold for Fairway and Lamar in the past. We go out as a team and do our sales efforts. It’s easy to be lonely or lazy when you’re by yourself.
When John and I go together, there’s camaraderie and we challenge each other. It’s a competition who’s going to get the next sale so we’re both always hustling.
Taking the long view.
The funny thing is, I’ve never raised my rates on any of my customers from the original rate rate from the day they went up. I found it easier to go out and find new locations and develop new customers then to try to raise the rates on past loyal clients. We also bill on a monthly cycle, unlike some competitors which bill every four weeks creating a whole extra billing cycle or an extra month. Our family business doesn’t believe in those kind of tactics and my customers appreciate it and recognize that as well.
Whose digital boards do you use?
We have seven LED signs. We chose to use Daktronics. They seem like the leader in the industry. We toured the factory in South Dakota and were impressed. They handle most everything A-to-Z themselves so there’s only one source to blame if something doesn’t work. We get the 10 year platinum coverage so if anything goes wrong it’s not my problem. Their service has been good and their product has proven very durable.
The key to good creative
The trick to design is keep it simple. Seven words or less. A visual that draws you in. A good color layout that really pops. If you can keep the art simple, you can always guaranteed to get good results with using billboard advertising.
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