Franchisor Achieves New Milestones, Issues Highest Number of Sales Achievement Awards

(CARROLLTON, TX) — FASTSIGNS International, Inc., the world’s leading custom sign and visual solutions franchisor with more than 770 FASTSIGNS? centers worldwide, hosted its 14th annual Outside Sales Summit August 22-24 in Schaumburg, Ill. The event achieved record attendance with over 600 participants, including franchisees, sales professionals, corporate staff and exhibitors.

“Our 14th Outside Sales Summit in Schaumburg was an exhilarating experience for FASTSIGNS attendees. This year’s event was the highest attended for the network, and I am proud to say we issued the most sales awards given to date for individual sales excellence,” said FASTSIGNS President Andrea Hohermuth. “We also unveiled our new Value Selling System emphasizing the value we bring to our customers and the ongoing relationships we have with them.”

With the theme “Lead With Value”, the FASTSIGNS 2024 Outside Sales Summit celebrated the network’s sales achievements between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and added two new awards: The Diamond Award for Outside Sales Professionals who achieved over $2 million in sales, and The Rising Star Award, recognizing an outstanding Outside Sales Professional, promoted from within the center in 2022 or 2023, who achieved the highest total sales in their first full 12 months as an Outside Sales Professional.

At the awards event, 307 Outside Sales Professionals were recognized, including nine individuals who received the new Diamond Sales Award for achieving over $2 million in individual sales during the 12-month period, 46 Platinum Sales Award winners for sales between $1 million to $1.9 million, 64 Gold Sales Award winners for sales between $700,000 to $999,999, 63 Silver Sales Award winners for sales between $500,000 to $699,999 and 125 Bronze Sales Award winners for sales between $300,000 to $499,999.

Shelly Wells from FASTSIGNS® of Tigard, Ore., was recognized as this year’s recipient of the Catherine Monson Salesperson of the Year Award, marking the sixth year for this honor. With this award, FASTSIGNS recognizes one Outside Sales Professional who best represents the concept and the spirit of the brand, both in the business community and within the FASTSIGNS network.

Additional awards included The National Sales Achievement Award for the highest total sales, The CRM Ambassador Award for outstanding proficiency, dedication and innovative use of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Ten center employees received the Circle of Excellence Award recognizing their daily commitment to the success and growth of their FASTSIGNS center. The Rookie of the Year Award was issued to an individual with the highest total sales in their first full 12 months of employment. An additional 63 individuals became Certified FASTSIGNS Sales Executives after completing an extensive certification program.

Featured speakers included FASTSIGNS President Andrea Hohermuth and Damon Dunn, a Dunkin' brand operator and the founder and CEO of Lagunita Franchise Operations. Jay Baer, bestselling author and sales growth catalyst, also spoke at the event. Speakers also covered a variety of topics, including AI, creating proactive inside sales cultures, managing personalities for sales growth and more, along with informative roundtable discussions.

FASTSIGNS® franchisees and their employees, vendors and FASTSIGNS International, Inc. corporate staff participated in the FASTSIGNS Community Giveback “Breakfast with a Purpose” event to assemble 200 care packages for teachers and single-parent families in the Chicago area with the nonprofit Brightpoint. This giveback event was also made possible by the generous support of the FASTSIGNS Community Giveback sponsors, including Colex Finishing, Epson, Graphic Image Flooring, Grimco, iZone imaging, Kapco, Retreva, Specialty Tapes Manufacturing (STM), Plasticade and WS Display.

Some 90 vendors participated in this year’s Outside Sales Summit, including Diamond sponsors Epson, Fellers, Grimco and Signs365 as well as Gold sponsor 3M and Silver sponsors 4Over and Avery Dennison. The Opening Night Networking Party was sponsored by Retreva.

“Leading With Value is not just our theme, but our commitment to our customers, our community and our network,” said Hohermuth. “By focusing on delivering exceptional value, we ensure that our growth is sustainable and that our impact is meaningful. This summit has reinforced our dedication to these principles and has inspired us to continue pushing the boundaries of excellence."