Selling More Door To Door - Tips For Success
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008
by Carl Davidson
Sales & Management Solutions Inc.
Selling door to door can be a very successful career. You need to be faster at making an impression than in other types of sales and you need to stay up and face more rejection than other forms of sales. Let's look at tips for doing just that.
The First Door Is The Car Door - The hardest thing about door to door sales is getting started. The toughest door to knock is the first one. It's tough to get out and start. You need to convince yourself every day that you are helping people by telling them about your product or service. You need to have a lot of enthusiasm to sell door to door. Yoiu need to sell yourself before you sell them. This is critical to give you the courage to sell door to door.
Be sure to have visible ID. People expect it. Wear your id openly and turned so the prospect can see it before they open the door. Picture ID is best. If possible have signs and graphics on your vehicle that identifies you and your company
Be sure to back away from the door after knocking so they know you will not rush the door to push in if they open it. If there is a porch, you might consider walking down the steps and waiting off the porch. If ypu are a distance from the door, the prospect is more likely to open the door and talk to you. Don't look in the windows after you knock, don't touch their stuff. Don't pick up their paper or mail - even to hand it to them.
Opening Lines That Work - In door to door sales, you have only a few seconds to make an impression. You need to have your opening prepared. You need to practice, keep track of results and keep improving your opening. Do not start with telling them about your product. If they wanted it, they would have called you. Here are some suggestions to try.
If you can see something on the outside of the home, try talking about that. For example, if you are a roofer, you might open with "Good morning. I am Carl from Acme Roofing. I stopped by because as I drove by I noticed the flashing has pulled away from your chimney. Has it started to leak onto your ceilings yet? I stopped to tell you a few things you could do to fix that problem before it becomes a really costly one."
Notice that this approach is all about the customer. It starts a conversation they want to join. Work on a similar idea for your product or service. Do not start with "I am from Acme Roofing. Are you interested in a new roof?" That just isn't going to work in today's market.
Notice that the opener offered a solution for free. Later you can convince them it's better to hire you for help but starting a conversation for free assistance is a lot easier than selling a stranger.
Setting Reasonable Contact Goals - Many door to door salespeople are out there with no idea what to expect in terms of numbers. What is success? You need to have a reasonable expectation of contacts and sales. While these numbers differ in different industries, here are some rough ideas to start with.
If you sell door to door for 4 hours per day set a goal to start of 10 contacts per hour or 40 for the day. That is an average of 6 minutes per door. Set that goal and stick to it. Make a commitment rain or shine. Try different hours, different attire and different openings to see what works well for you. You have not failed if it doesn't work at first unless you don't change anything! Don't worry about selling to start. Just work on your mind and confidence until you know you can have a good conversation with 40 people per day. Since your goal is based on four hours of selling, if you missed you goal, ad an hour until you reach it.
The next goal you need to set is for meaningful contacts. What percentage of the doors you knock do you enter into a meaningful conversation? I will suggest you start with a goal of just one in ten or ten percent. That means if you contact 40 people per day, you will make a meaningful presentation to four.
Content and presentation numbers and goals are very important to success. There is no rejection involved. So far your success is based on hours worked and doors knocked. Now let's look at sales.
Setting & Achieving Reasonable Sales Goals - You need to set a reasonable goal for sales so you can celebrate victories every day. I suggest you start with a goal of one sale in 4 presentations or a closing rate of 25%. If your goal is 40 contcats and 4 presentations, that sets your sales goal at one per day. If you don't meet that goal, look into training, and trying new ways to close. Analyze why they say "no" and try to solve the problem. Having a goal and meeting it gives you a much better feeling each day than just hoping and not keeping track.
There a few tips for door to door sales that we know will help you stay up and motivated. In door to door sales often rookies make sales and performance fades with time. Working on the techniques in this article will help you keep that "rookie edge" and sell more every day.
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Looking for openings that work in door to door sales? Want to set reasonable goals for contcats and sales? This article is free door to door sales training. For more information on door to door sales training visit http://www.door-to-door-sales.info or call 800-941-0068. Visit our free sales training bloog at http://www.sales-solutions-now.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)I just found your site and it looks very prommising. I thought you might like to know that the link you provided to the blog was mistyped and won't work as is. As you see the double slash (//) in the URL is missing, when added to the address it works fine.Richard SberlatiValley Stream, NY
I run a door-to-door sales training company for the cable television industry called, oddly enough, Door-to-Door Cable, and Carl Davidson's article is 100% spot on! D2D Sales can be the easiest job in the world if you follow his tips.Good stuff Carl!Cheers,Kim Robinson, The Real Cable Guy
At last, good door to door sales training. Thanks.
I sell magazines, music, and books door to door. This is very helpful information, because it is really hard to sell magazines. Thanks!
hey man great guide! i just got a door to door salesman job and i start tomorrow and ima try it and see how it works! oh also thanks for making this free :P all the other guides i looked up cost like 50 bucks :O
Selling cars is much better u don't work like door to door, and u look higher selling cars, they expect someone important= you can take control of Ur customer much easier.... But kind of the same selling process in the meeting and greeting, and some other things.... It's just my opinion.
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