Going Door To Door

rangie

Whenever I'm working in a neighborhood, not only do I first send out letters to the surrounding houses, but I also take the time to knock on everyone's door to let them know I'm working in the area.

I've found that it's a really great way to get leads from people who are thinking about having work done, but haven't exactly started the process of finding contractors. I get a lot of, "Gee whiz, my husband and I were just talking about that, we'd love an estimate!" It seems to me that by catching them by surprise, if I give them a well presented and fair estimate, they aren't terribly interested in comparing with the competition. Because of this, the leads I generate from going door have a significantly higher closing rate than other forms of advertising.

Does anyone else do this? Same results? I do feel like it can be kind of invasive, but considering the results, I don't really see stopping it anytime in the near future. If y'all have done it before, has anyone had any bad experiences with upset homeowners?

vinylguy

yeah! check out the threads on canvassing i live and die by it. finding people to do it sucks thou!

rangie

I'm young (4th year in college), so I probably don't have the same obligations most of you have.. I have tons of free time. I usually do my own canvassing a few hours every Saturday or Sunday. Also, when I can, I'll go from 3-5 PM on the weekdays, to target the stay at home moms. They love me

lusori

I don't have the balls to do that. I really don't like knocking on peoples doors and asking for their business unannounced. I much prefer to put some flyers in their mailbox and then having them decide wheather or not to use me. I just don't like to be too much in peoples faces. I wish I had it in me to do that. Definatly wish i had bigger balls.

__________________
Lusori Construction - Concrete/Brick/Stone/Pavers contractor
www.lusori.com

dirt diggler

you mean you mail them ...





yeah i dunno bout door to door ... kinda sketchy ...

Subia29

The first time i went door to door with hand flyers i started putting them in the mailbox.A couple blocks down the way the mailman busted me .He said the boxes are federal property and they can actually charge me for the ad. Now all I do is leave them on the door step next to the lawn service guys.Never knock on doors unlless I see a big repair job, like a car running into a block wall. Im sure they need the estimate.

vinylguy

hey here it goes. first off no balls required! just go knock on a door any door. when some one answers they should see a well dressed person with name tag and company info. hand them a nicely printed flyer and say hi my name is soandso from xtz company. we are in the area and just letting homeowners like yourself know this. then i asked what home improvement projects do you have on your list for this year? notice i asked an opened ended ?. just shut up and wait for a response. they will think a moment and then answer you they have to say something other than a yes or no. if they say no just give them a curious look and say something like "well mr homeowner we've been knocking on doors for a loong time and we find that everyone has at least 1 thing they would like to have done. then wait again for a response. if they say yes say great one of our representitives will be in your area tomorrow and i will have them contact you and find out what your wants are and also your needs and see if we can provide those needs for you. if not we will be happy to put you in contact with someone that can help you. this is the takeaway! try it it works. then get thier name tele # address e-mail fax# and have them sign a piece of paper giving you permission to call them just in case they are on the do not call registry. in an earlier post one kid said he was in collage they are the best canidates to work about 20 hours a week give them goals that you set.times to canvass are between 3:30pm and 7:30 pm weekdays and 10:00am - 3:30 pm saturdays i stay away from sundays personal time for me and my god! but you do it your way. hope this helps you out and don't be afraid to get out there and get em heres why with the do not call list its like telemarketing only better cause you meet them face to face the leads for me set better close better and cost a whole lot less to get. and when someone says its to invasive for them to do think of this. someone else is going to call them contact them and get thier work somehow. why not you? everyone that wants work done will get the guy thats working next door they see in the paper or are referred to by someone why not refer yourself? don't you hate it when you drive down the block in your nieghberhood and see some out of town company doing your work or some shoddy guy you know will rip them off doing your wour in your backyard. well guess what ? that job would of been yours if they would of heard from or of you. one knock on thier door and you could of had a customer for life. ( if you knew how to close them) but that story is for another session on this your redneck educational hour. tune in next week for jethro and the traveling hillbillys!

AAPaint

No way...not for me. I have done door to door sales, for like ONE day. Talk about an embarassing proposition. "Hi, I'm some idiot who thought he'd bother you un-announced and try to talk you out of some of your money!"

Can't do it....I feel intrusive enough hanging door hangers.

__________________
-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Squrtgun

Don't do the sales call the first time.Think of it as an introduction.

Hi Mr/Mrs HO.

I'm Zeke with AHZ company we are currently working in your area and wanted to introduce our business to you.Hand them a flyer and business card,bid them a nice day/evening and leave.
If they have work they want done they will stop you right then and ask you to bid.If not you have planted a seed in their mind and they will start looking around to see if things need to be done.

__________________
Karvonen's Pro Clean
Pressure washing/Low pressure roof cleaning
229-776-7856/229-344-5596
Scott Karvonen

vinylguy

agreed, the only thing your selling the first time is the idea! with the intent of hopefully getting thier info so you can contact them on doing the work they are looking for. look, for those of you that are timid or embarrassed to do this let me ask a question. are you currently making the money and doing the volume of work that you want to be at? if so than your buss plan is perfect keep on keeping on. but if not then do something about it. its cheap easy fun and a great way to be reconized in your community. but if your sitting on your arse twideling your thum,bs wondering how to generate more work and get on this site for ideas but then say no way. well then if your kids are skinny thats your problem not mine although i do for sorry for your kids. someone said on one of the programs i got along time ago something that stuck with me and i qoute "timid sales people have skinny kids" and its true. if your in the remodeling business than you had better wake up and smell the coffee. your in the marketing and sales business. and thats the truth and if your afraid to go knock on someones door than maybe you should find a computer job somewhere. or would you be afraid to send an e-mail. no wait get a job at the grocery store nah! then you would be afraid to ask if you could help someone you'd be invading their space. lets see maybe you could be a coal miner then when your in the depths of the mines you wouldn't have to see or talk to anyone. get my point sorry so blunt(not really) but get over yourself and make things happen this is the united states baby. and only here do we control our own destiny to orchastrate the outcome and quality of life ourself that we desire.

AAPaint

I have to agree with squrtgun...that's not so hard to do because we often notify neighbors when we are working outdoors. We give them a business card and ensure them that we won't be of any disturbance, and we will protect their home, vehicles if they can't move them, trees, bushes, etc from overspray as well.

That approach is not difficult...I just never thought about talking to more than one or two neighbors that we need to notify.

__________________
-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

fortknox82

Selling door to door i think comes down to the person doing the job as some people just cant take rejection and will beat themselves up. The other thing is some people just cant think on the fly..haha. Ive done inside sales all my life and i know i can think on the fly well but doing face to face cold type stuff is not my cup of tea. But a positive attitude will always help and determination can make things happen.

realpurty2

It obviously must be working for several of you guys, but personally, I think the door to door canvassing is tacky, unprofessional, and intrusive.

As AA stated, notifying immediate neighbors of work out of courtesy is one thing but to knock on someone's door strictly for the purpose of soliciting work is just low level in my opinion.

I am not a snobby personality by any means, in fact, I'm just down home country folk by Tennessee standards. But I prefer to run our company with an aire of dignity to envoke a sense of customer comfort and professionalism.

This is not the catagory I want our business to be considered because we showed up uninvited at someone's door.
http://www.greenevillesun.com/index....&newsid=138387

Funny this subject came up right as our very own county is being warned to avoid door to door contractors.

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

vinylguy

never had a bad experience with it. but maybe someday and as far as being suspect well wev'e been voted best of the best contractor in our county the last 2 years running. its all about creating a presense in the community we actually have people stop us to do work cause they want our sign in their yard so everyone thinks theyre doing good. but to each thier own some can some can't but i'll tell ya i can and i hope noone else does cause the guys at the builders assoc. meeting tonite wre all saying how slow they were but were not don't figure huh! they are sitting home were out making things happen. sales total so far this year is 125,000 dollars not bad for a self owned guy with two feild employees and a secratary ! but again to each thier own good luck guys think i'll go knock on some doors while i have a feww minutes

Doc2626

We're strictly commercial, so this might not apply the same way for us. Since we get our jobs through GC's and architects, we don't hesitate to knock on THEIR doors. They all have a couple of things in common...they want someone dependable, reasonable and CHEAP.

I always start out by telling them that, and then follow up by saying that I'll guarantee them two out of three right out of the gate, and that we can talk about the third one.

I probably get an invitation to bid three times out of five, and we close about half the projects we bid.

For us, knocking on those doors is worthwhile!

Danahy

Around my area, there have been alot of reno scams, that all originated from canvassing. It makes the local news every now and then.

Not for me.

Susan Betz

I gotta say, vinylguy, every time I read one of your marketing posts I am sure you and your family will never starve. You've got the right ideas and the right sales lines. Your method won't work for everybody due to personality and circumstances, but I salute you.

__________________
Fences of Distinction, Ocala, FL
http://www.fencesofdistinction.com

vinylguy

it will work for anyone! just may need to tweak it a little to fit your personality. salesman are not born they are made. noone just got up one morning and said hey i'm a salesperson. they learned about they were going to sell and then went out and tried to sell it. or as i like to say helped thier customers get into whatever it was they were selling. also let me clarify something those that say noway are either lazy or just content where thier at right now. think about it if your not satisfied with where your at in life or business then do something about if not then they shouldn't cry complain or argue the piont! i just wonder if the ones that make up all the excuses on why they won't or can't do this were told that if they go out tonite and started knocking on doors that they would be the next millionaires. would they do it? well its true you can be if you want it bad enough. sure there will still be those few who won't do it and still set around and complain about it but they will still be in the same spot next year when we look back and cooiunt our money

dinkisdad

I manage a d2d sales crew of 12, in Denver. We have a niche in the roofing business and the guys pull in an average of 40 contracts a week, combined. (all door to door) If they outlawed d2d sales we would be done.

I have experimented with door hangers and other types of advertising but knocking on doors is the thing that works, and very well I might add.

I have three reps that will probably be very close to $150k in commissions in 2007. Everybody else is on pace for about $40-50k, this year, and they are all putting in less than 40 hours a week.

BUUUUUUUUUTTTT. All of my guys are experienced salesman who have made a living knocking doors in different industries, for years.

Just my two cents.

Dave

vinylguy

great to hear that input. if that post don't get people fired up or believing in the power of canvassing nothing will. however as we know all to well some will still sit on thier buts and say i couldn't do that and try and come up with some lame excucses of why its impossible in thier market as opposed to ours. but that is all they are excuses. they really don't have the drive to make more money. but for ones like you and i thats good cause we can go to thier nieghborhoods and get thier work also. keep up the inspirational threads some may listen! as for me one guy working for me last year doing canvassing made $81000.00 all working less than 40 hrs a week. i just brought a new salesman on board told him he is responsible for 30% of own leads and took him out canvassing in two weeks he has brought in a total of $46000.00 worth of work all of which were canvass leads. did not cost me a penny and i have not given him any leads to date yet he is so stoked that he's practically running from door to door! over $5000.00 in only two weeks in commissions wow and some hate the thought of 1 call closing and door to door canvassing don't figure