HARDISON’S TIPS – JANUARY 26, 2021 – DOOR TO DOOR SALES TIPS -2
Are You Leaving Enough Personal Space?
Here’s a bit of practical advice: once you knock, take a few steps back away from the door.
Interestingly, how far back you’re expected to go often correlates with how densely populated the area is. If you’re in a city, just beyond the doormat will do. A suburb, go to the edge of the porch. And if you’re somewhere rural, go down off the porch.
The last thing you want to do is make your prospect feel intimidated or threatened. Giving them the proper amount of breathing room will help to make the whole encounter much more comfortable for all parties.
When Will They be Home?
If your prospects work 9-to-5 jobs, you’ll have the best chance at catching them if you knock on their door between 5 pm and 9 pm. But, if you’re targeting retired folks, you’d be much better off visiting during mid-day.
Work your schedule around your prospects’ to increase your chances of actually having a conversation. But if you do miss them, be sure to have something physical you can leave behind—like a flyer or door hanger.
Door to Door Salesman Tips
Sales Tip #1: Prospect Smarter to Increase Your Odds of Success
Door-to-door sales is a form of prospecting in its own right. Back in the day, salespeople would lug their vacuum from one neighbor to the next, ring doorbells, and ask to demonstrate how much their vacuum sucked. If one sale didn’t pan out, well, onto the next door.
But thankfully, because of technology, you no longer have to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, you can prospect smarter and only go to doors where you know you have a chance at making a sale.
Build Your Ideal Customer Avatar
Prospecting for door-to-door sales is just like prospecting for any other customer. Before you can find people to target, you need to clearly identify the subset of people you want to target by building out a customer avatar (or buyer persona).
This can either take the form of a set of demographics that describes your average customer, or you can go in-detail and describe a non-existent single person who you would consider the ideal customer. Both are useful strategies. Either way, here are some question you can think about to get started:
- How old are they?
- How educated are they?
- What industry do they work in?
- What are their goals or objectives?
- What are their pain points?
- What are their biggest challenges right now?
- How do they prefer to communicate? (Email, phone, etc.)
- How do they usually gather information?
Find Prospects Who Fit the Mold
Once you know who your ideal customer is, you can consult public databases to find prospects who match that description.
This could be as broad as mindfully selecting the neighborhoods you’ll visit, or as specific as using public lists or databases to choose exact addresses. If you’re a part of a sales team, your manager should be able to tell you what resources you have at your disposal!
