Should you be knocking on doors?

Hi Everyone,

Hope you’re having a fine day.

I received a call a little while ago from a window cleaner and I thought it would be a good subject to discuss on the blog.

This gentleman was distributing flyers (good), but he was knocking on doors (not good) to distribute them.

It’s really, really important to make sure that you “play the numbers”. Many of you have heard me talk about this a few times, so I’m sorry to sound like a broken record.  

But it’s about getting out as many flyers as you can in the shortest amt. of time. It simply takes too much time to knock on doors, wait for the person to answer, talk to them about your service, leave them a flyer, and go on to the next person.

I don’t know the exact number of prospects you can talk to in 3 to 4 hours, but does 50 actual conversations sound good? Maybe 100? I’m thinking that if each conversation lasts just 5 minutes, talking to 50 prospects takes more than 4 hours. In that same 4 hours, I can get out 1000 flyers which I can guarantee you will get more action, more phone calls, and more jobs than talking to 50 prospects.

I actually call ‘em “suspects” initially because you have no idea if they’re even a prospect yet. A prospect is someone who has at least expressed some interest. Someone who has requested an estimate.

So keeping everything extremely conservative, a 1% return on 1000 flyers distributed to 1000 suspects gives you 10 phone calls from actual prospects. These 10 calls should turn into 7 or 8 jobs when presented correctly. Read chapter 8 in my manual for more information on this.

Now if we apply the 1% return to 50 suspects who we talk to, what does that give us? A half a call. 

Some window cleaners may argue that if you’re actually talking to them in person, then you’ll see a higher interest level and get a higher return. Maybe. But I’ll still take 1000 flyer delivery suspects over 50 talked to suspects any day of the week. So please understand that it is truly about the numbers. Nothing else matters. And anything that slows you down (talking to people) in achieving those numbers should be avoided at all costs.

To clarify something…as I wrote about in a recent blog post, an excellent way to close jobs is to do a face to face presentation. But I’m referring to a presentation to someone who has expressed an interest in your service. I’m not talking about doing a presentation to someone who you don’t know if they have any interest or not. You have to let the flyer do the work of determining for you who has any interest or not. If they don’t have any interest, no probs. They’ll throw it in the trash and you’ve saved yourself some time. Maybe when they receive a 2nd or 3rd flyer from you, they’ll start to take more notice about your service. They may or may not. But again, who cares?

Some window cleaners get too hung up on the people who don’t call instead of the people who do call. Don’t even give a second thought to folks who don’t call. It just doesn’t matter. Just make sure to distribute plenty of “numbers” consistently and as fast as you can, and you’ll have your hands full with people who DO call.

I hope this helps some of you who may have thought about doing some door knocking or for those of you who are currently knocking on doors. It’s a huge time waster.

Sure…you may make a friend or two along the way, but isn’t the goal to get as many phone calls and jobs as you can? You’ll be able to turn your customers into friends.

One final note to make on this is that my definition of solicitation is someone who knocks on my door. In the old days, I sold encyclopedias door to door, gourmet meat door to door, light bulbs on the phone, and lots of other items direct to the consumer via the direct selling method of door knocking. But there are plenty of “No Solicitation” signs nowadays that warn against solicitors.

Flyer distribution fast and easy under a door mat with half sticking out and moving on to the next w/o talking to anyone isn’t my idea of solicitation. You’re not bothering anyone. You’re not intruding on anyone’s day. You are simply using a “leave behind” to let folks know about your service. If they have an interest, they can then call you. If not, as mentioned above, no probs.

For those of you who have not heard me say this or write about this, my own method was to go out each saturday morning at 9am. I took 2 to 3 teenagers (usually 3) to my preferred subdivision, distributed 1000 flyers between them, and pointed them in the right direction with instructions for them to be quick, don’t talk, put the flyer under the welcome mat with a half of the flyer sticking out, and move on to the next home.

No more than 4 hours later, the vast majority of them (if not all of them) were distributed.

See how this works? It’s not rocket science. Serious numbers can be put out quickly for a minimal investment ($50 for flyers and no more than $75 total for all 3 teenagers).

So there you have it. JUST DO THE NUMBERS! Sorry to shout, but it’s that important.

Take care for now and have a super day today.

To Your Success,

Steve