No Soliciting Signs…

Hey All:

A recently received email. Please make sure to read my "Notes" at the end.

Best,

Steve

Hi Steve:

 
I have recently started a flyer campaign, but it seems that every neighborhood I go to there are "No Soliciting" signs. I do not want to anger people in these communities. Do you think I should go ahead and continue with the flyers in these areas. I would prefer to do the postcards, but at this time I do not have the funds to do it. Thank you.

Jerry

My Response:

Hi Jerry:

Right…you'll see some "no soliciting" signs, but you can't let that deter you.  You don't want to make anyone mad obviously, but at the same time, you need to generate profits for your business.  And flyering is an excellent, inexpensive way to do it, so it's important to distribute flyers regularly to these types of areas.  The way that I rationalized it in my own mind is that I'm not soliciting anybody.  I'm not knocking on doors and trying to sell 'em vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias.  I'm simply leaving a flyer under the door mat.  So I'm not intruding on their space or their time.  If they're not interested, then they can throw it away.  Anyway…that's how I handled this "no soliciting" issue. 

I learned to walk right on past the "no soliciting" signs when I was in the insurance business.  Being on straight commission, if I payed attention to all the "no soliciting" signs out there, I just flat out wouldn't eat.  So I had to ignore 'em.  One of my prospecting methods in the insurance biz was to walk into businesses and drop off information about my insurance product to the business owner.  I prepared a few packages the night before and dropped 'em off the next day.  I saw many, many "no soliciting" signs on business doors as you can imagine.  I walked right past them.  But once again, I wasn't selling them anything right then and there.  I'm simply taking a few seconds to drop my info. off for them to review.  And I'd call on 'em later.  Many business owners may have taken my package and thrown it in the trash, but no biggie.  The bottom line is that I sold my insurance products to lots of business owners with "no soliciting" signs on their doors.  So a lot of commissions would not have been earned if I took "no soliciting" literally.  

And let's not forget that many clients would not have benefited from my products if I decided to not enter their business which may have had a "no soliciting" sign on the door.  So think about it in those terms.  It's important to think about the benefits you would be providing people if they used your service.  Think about all the people who would never get to experience your valuable window cleaning service if you paid attention to all the "no soliciting" signs.

If the "no soliciting" signs bother you that much, then enter these neighborhoods and distribute flyers for a short time period until you have some customers coming in regularly.  Then reinvest into postcards and/or community/association newsletters.  They're the perfect way to bypass all "no soliciting" signs.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve

Notes: Some window cleaners may consider this approach aggressive in terms of ignoring "no soliciting" signs. And perhaps it is. But what are the options?   Do you then avoid the proactive approach and place ads in newspapers or stick in a yellow  page listing waiting and hoping for prospects to call you?  Sure you'll get calls, but for the best results, it's necessary to take a proactive approach (especially new window cleaners), and sometimes proactive approaches by definition can be a little aggressive.  On the brighter side though, these "no soliciting" areas can be filled with a goldmine of customers since most window cleaners will not enter these communities.  More business for you.  :o) 

And finally, as mentioned in my reply email above, I never considered it "soliciting".  So that's how I justified it in my mind.  I'm not knocking on doors.  I'm not calling them on the phone.  I'm simply sticking a piece of paper under their door mat.  Actually I had other people do it, but the point is that prospects received a non-intrusive piece of paper about my business under their door mat.  If they had no interest, then they could easily throw it away.  No muss no fuss.  

Steve