Door selling

[MBPH]

Going to take the plunge and try to plug my service plans door to door. Now the question is is it better to send a postcard say the day before or go in cold? Also is it better to use it as a introduction with no pressure sell or to hit them hard to persuade to sign up? Also please don't do the usual comment of "I hate door to door" etc. helpful comments only please from people who have been there! I'm hoping to close 5 sales a day. Thanks

 

[beasty]

The only way to get good at door to door is go do it, you will learn very quickly how to introduce, what to say, what not to say and when a dog is angry.

I was very successful doing this for Scottish Gas to the point i was the only uk employee working officially part time (I took another job)

Door to door sales, requires confidence and the only way you get it is by doing a few, many are not cut out for it, knock backs should not get you down, they are just part of your day no one sells to everyone.

Pointless sending info in advance, most people dont read stuff, no one is going to wait in on the strength of a leaflet.

Best advice I can give you is, go do it with regard to no pressure, persuasive and convincing is pressure is it not?

You really need to sign people there and then or you have to go through the whole process again and they might say no second time round, no point pushing people into a sale that they will cancel, make sure you do not get the deal then exit instantly, be useful beyond the deal so they feel like you are actually wanting to provide a service not just take their cash.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

What is the service you are promoting? selling 5 what per day?

 

[MBPH]

It's maintenance plans, for a small momthly cost we maintain and service the customers boiler. This includes parts should something go wrong

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

Oh yes. I remember you posting this before, many months ago

 

[MBPH]

Not quite the same campaign, last one was one off servicing I believe!

 

[AlanGuidry]

Most postcards/flyer goes straight in the bin (or the dog chews on them instead). So forget wasting money on a warm-up. Just go straight in with the door to door - but choose times carefully that you feel people are in otherwise you will be knocking lots of doors and getting no response.

 

[Brandons]

Same with me. Forget warming them up with flyers. Just knock and speak with them

 

[Simon.P]

less cancellations if you can speak with both people (assuming its a coupled household)

 

[Richard White]

I did a project a few years back with a company selling door to door. Their top sales people were outselling the rest by 3:1. My job was to find out what they were doing differently and then transfer the skills to the average sales people.

I am not sure if this will apply to you are so, as others have said, you will have to test but....
1. They were upbeat and friendly
2. They made a decision within seconds of whether the person answering was friendly or not and if not they would do a very short pitch and be on their way. They ended up knocking on more doors and its a numbers game etc etc
3. They found it easier selling to women or couples (test this one!!)
4. They found that certain property types and certain roads were easier than others (this comes from keeping records)
5. They got themselves mentally prepared for each new door (average people got ground down by the Nos and abuse)
6. They found that doors with signs saying "No cold callers" were the easiest sales of all!!

You can listen to an interview I did with one of the top regional managers about handling rejection here:


Best wishes and hope this helps

Richard

 

[EddyP]

Door selling is extremely tricky, it takes a lot of resilience and commitment. There are loads of door sales men/ women but many struggle to find out how to do this. It definitely is a tactic that you pick up with your own style.

I think for me personally as someone who has been approached by door to door sales men/ women in the past it is all about getting them engaged. The amount of times people have knocked on my door and I have completed ignored everything they have said is ridiculous!

I think if you want to do this right you have to find out what it is that gets people on board, create a method that will change peoples mindset to your pitch. Find a way to open up there mind, this could be asking them for a questionnaire on the topic you have pitched; If they highlight any potential opportunities in their answers that fit your services begin a conversation in to what you do and how you can help that.

Door sells is hard to do 'well', but is a fantastic talent to have. Coming back to the questionnaire, just to highlight it is something I think could work really well for you. Whilst I was working in my previous job I went to several conferences to learn and find strategies to take away from the conference and use for our work. Due to the sector I was in at the time the conference's weren't that interesting and I found it hard to learn, but each event always seemed to use a voting conference systemand it really got me on board and made me think about the industry, partly because I had to and also because it made me open minded. So I think if you had a questionnaire or a similar voting style pitch that could work well for you.

If you would like an inspirational video example of someone who has mastered his door selling through humor check this out, I found it on Facebook awhile back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBlF-p3YMw4

He is hilarious, the pitch is outstanding mate!

Hope this helps

 

[beasty]

I did a project a few years back with a company selling door to door. Their top sales people were outselling the rest by 3:1. My job was to find out what they were doing differently and then transfer the skills to the average sales people.

I am not sure if this will apply to you are so, as others have said, you will have to test but....
1. They were upbeat and friendly 100% i used to walk up to doors excited that I was about to do a deal, this gives you the upbeat and friendly intro, the person answering reflects your enthusiasm.

2. They made a decision within seconds of whether the person answering was friendly or not and if not they would do a very short pitch and be on their way. They ended up knocking on more doors and its a numbers game etc etc
True, but it is fun to turn people, but in general this is spot on, walk away from those that just want to shoot the shit, you pick up the buying questions v being polite pretty fast if you pay attention

3. They found it easier selling to women or couples (test this one!!)
Women are easy to sell to, my theory is, to be successful at this you have to be a confident, witty and self assured guy, this is probably a refreshing change, I have always found women to be a doddle to sell to

4. They found that certain property types and certain roads were easier than others (this comes from keeping records)
Good knock was the term we used, comes from knowing who your buyer is

5. They got themselves mentally prepared for each new door (average people got ground down by the Nos and abuse)
This can be trained in, but some people are naturally more resilient, I would say if you can push past the nos and get to success you will feel damn good that you got it done.

6. They found that doors with signs saying "No cold callers" were the easiest sales of all!!
Beware of the dog works better than beware of the sticker! I would tell them, dogs scare me stickers dont (This is not true, I have 2 dogs but anyway)

You can listen to an interview I did with one of the top regional managers about handling rejection here:


Best wishes and hope this helps

Richard

Agree with the whole lot, have done Windows ages ago and utilities for a number of years, loved the job, it is easy and the key quality is resilience if you have this you will learn the rest

 

[John Geater]

Love door to door sales. If you get nothing else from it you'll build your character and all other sales seems easy.

Sales process for door to door should be...

1. Introduction - who are you and where are you from
2. Presentation - what do you have to offer
3. Short story - who else has bought, etc
4. Close - don't be afraid to close the deal and ask them to sign up
5. Rehash - try and upsell there and then. It's makes a single sale more likely.

Good luck.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

You missed out a crucial pointer John... benefits, benefits, benefits. If it does not benefit them in any way then no matter who you are, where you are from, what your product is, who else has bought... you will NEVER close a deal

 

[John Geater]

Completely agree with you. I would put the benfits in the presentation of the product. The 5 steps could easily be 20 if you broke it all down.

 

[Vectis]

But how do you deal with it when just about every house now has a yellow 'No Cold Callers' sticker in the window? I think the Councils gave these out to every home in the neighbourhood, certainly every house in our area has one.

So, my advice would be to watch out for yellow stickers in windows or on doors as, if you go knocking on those doors, you might find the reaction slightly more interesting than 'character building'!

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

Sorry..... butIf you let stickers in windows stop you knocking then I suggest you shouldn't be out there knocking doors anyway

 

[Phillip Pilkington]

Great advise, I won't of tried selling door to door but I think it could be beneficial

 

[MBE1]

Easiest way to deal with the yellow stickers is to claim you did not notice them and carry on, most people are decent and will give you 5-15 secs, then they have decided whether to buy or not.

I used to run very large teams in utilities etc for many years, the word I used to quote to all my guys was "positivity". You need to to be upbeat, friendly and most importantly not sorry for disturbing them.

As mentioned you need to demonstrate the advantages of having your maintenance products, if it suits yourself why not offer the 1st service on take up of your policy to ensure a trouble free winter for the client? An easy opener would be to inquire when their boiler was last serviced.