Anyone doing door to door sales in 2015?

by Neiluk80

Posted: 8 years ago 12 replies

OFFLINE MARKETING

Contrary to what some people believe, door to door sales is still a very effective way to sell products and services and there are salesmen who make big money with door to door.

Is anyone here in door to door sales? What product/service are you selling? What are your results and your thoughts about door to door?

#2015 #door #sales

LindyUK 8 years ago

Hello Neiluk

I question why you are making these posts. Is it jus to build your post score?

I have replied to 2 of your previous posts, seen many others doing the same, but have yet to see you thank anyone for the time they spend answering you, (Your Thanks score is 0) nor have I seen you respond to anyone by asking further questions. Do you even come back to read our answers?

I would think it would be common courtesy to thank people for their efforts to help you, an I would think it would be common sense to take more active part in your own posts.

To answer your post, I don't think door to door sales are a very effective method of selling, if you are meaning cold calls. We have a team of 15 sales representatives, they would not waste their time on cold sales.

Small Business people are busy with the day to day running of their operations, they usually don't have the time available, or won't take the time necessary for you to make a presentation an close a sale.

We would consider the idea of cold walk in's to be jus "Burning" that prospect. By Burning I mean completely wasting your opportunity with them, making it very hard to come back to them an sell them anything in the future.

We want to first create a warm market, a market where these Business people have already been introduced to us in some way, they know who we are an what we do. We want to give them some value before we try to sell them on any of our services, we want to build credibility with them, far more than anyone who jus tries to walk in cold on them an attempt a sales pitch.

The services we are selling are Offline Consultancy services, 20 or more products/services to help them increase their clients/customers an profits.

Cheers

Lindy
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joe golfer

8 years ago

My experience is different. Cold walk-ins are preferred over cold (phone) calling when calling on local businesses. Of course, it depends on the business. A tire shop of one location? Walk in - belly to belly - leave the suit jacket in the car. The local regional office for a major bank? Better make an appointment and shine your shoes.

Either way, contacting and selling local clients with personal sales calls will pay off in megaspades if you work it right. Good luck.

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Claude Whitacre

8 years ago

If you are talking about selling to consumers, there are still vacuum cleaner, cookware, and an occasional insurance salesperson going door to door.

there is also the guy selling a bottle of miracle cleaning solution.

Going business to business? Sure, I get one every couple of days. They sell;

Credit card processing
insurance
internet services
lighting
signs
peddlers selling flowers, meat, books, toys...

I used to sell vacuum cleaners in people homes, but stopped maybe ten years ago. Lost interest, but there is still money in it.

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eccj

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre

Just out of curiosity, what is the success rate of vacuum salespeople?

I ask because I have a buddy who is in sales now, an ok salesman, who had a horror story of selling vacuums. He responded to an ad, met the company in a parking lot, they drove through the night in a 15 seat van, they dropped him off with a vacuum cleaner in the town. On top of that they gave him no training other than the chat on the drive.

So there he was in a town hundreds of miles from home with no idea where he was oridea of what he was doing lugging around a vacuum cleaner. In the evening the company found him walking around and they picked him and the vacuum up and drove back in the night.

He never did another trip but that got him into sales and he has made a career out of it.

Is this normal for vacuum sales?

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Claude Whitacre

8 years ago

Originally Posted by eccj

The story doesn't ring true.

Magazine subscription salespeople are regularly dropped off in a town, and picked up later. A very poor way to treat a salesperson. But they have no expensive equipment to carry, and the company loses nothing, if they just leave in the middle of the day, and go home.

A vacuum cleaner and demonstration kit, easily weighs 50 pounds together, and costs the company at least $700. They would never just drop a guy off with that investment, in a strange town. Never happen.
And it takes at least a solid week of training to learn how to demonstrate any vacuum cleaner. It's a complex process. Learning to sell magazine subscriptions could be done in an hour.

Although some managers use vans to drop salespeople off at appointments.
For a short time, I drove a van with four salespeople with me, and knocked on doors until they each were on a presentation. Then I would pick them up (and close the sales) in the order we dropped them off.

But just drop off a guy with a vacuum cleaner in a town a hundred miles away? I've never heard of that.

Either;
Your friend just made it up....or
You are mistaking magazine subscription sales for vacuum cleaner sales...or
You remember "vacuum cleaners" when it was a "Magazine" story....or
You heard two different sales stories and combined them unknowingly (something I tend to do)

Amazingly, I hear impossible sales stories like this from people that used to sell something. They have no idea that I know that what they are saying is impossible.

For example;
I'm demonstrating my vacuum cleaner to a guy, and he was wanting to impress his girlfriend. He asks how many vacuums I sold that week. I said "Three so far". It was true, and a solid job at the time.

He said; "My first week, I sold 52 vacuum cleaners"

I acted impressed. But I once sold ten in a week, and it was a company record. The most I've ever heard of from a dedicated sales champion...is maybe 12 in a week. It just takes that long to present and write it up. Even if everyone buys.

But what is the success rate? How many people really make a living, and last more than a month? Maybe one in twenty. How many make six figures a year? Maybe one in a thousand.

It's just hard selling, and it's counter to the way most people behave.

My experience is that a beginner vacuum salesperson, on their own, will close maybe 15% of the people they present to. Most new guys sell one or two to a relative, and then quit. Some vacuum cleaner sales organizations use that as their sole sales model.

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eccj

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre

Yeah it sounds like he was telling a tall tell then.

In insurance there are a lot of horror stories, especially in final expense and voluntary benefits. Somehow companies like Lincoln Heritage and Bankers Life make it work though. They get people in, sell the family and a couple friends, keep the commissions and bill the now former agents with huge debts for "leads."

It's really rare now days to find organizations that actually train their people.

To the OP

There are a fine few who sell life insurance D2D to consumers. They tend to sell final expense life insurance though. Most of those guys will admit that they could make more money if they did direct mail and then went calling and then door knocking if no answer BUT they like their lifestyle. They go to the houses they want, the neighborhoods they want. If they feel like taking the day off then there are no leads going to waste that they spent a bunch of money on.

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Claude Whitacre

8 years ago

Originally Posted by eccj

There are a fine few who sell life insurance D2D to consumers. They tend to sell final expense life insurance though. Most of those guys will admit that they could make more money if they did direct mail and then went calling and then door knocking if no answer BUT they like their lifestyle. They go to the houses they want, the neighborhoods they want. If they feel like taking the day off then there are no leads going to waste that they spent a bunch of money on.

Years ago, I knew a few Combined Life Insurance reps that sold accident insurance. They issued the policy right there. Some of these guys made a pretty good living. Some could make 10-15 sales a day, with a ten minute pitch.

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longrobnc

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre

I once went on an interview and attended a few days training with Combined Insurance. The guy that I was riding with looked, spoke and carried himself exactly like the Country singer Randy Travis. We went out to get in his Lincoln Town Car to go knock on some doors. He had a tag on the front of his car that read, "Randy Travis- Pure Country". I figured this guy was a raving fan or something. I asked him if he was an impersonator. Nope, he was Randy Travis' brother. Apparently, Randy's real last name is Traywick.

At any rate, door to door sales was not for me. For some reason, The Combined Insurance folks only seemed interested in selling in poor neighborhoods. I thought it was all kind of strange.

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Claude Whitacre

8 years ago

Originally Posted by longrobnc

I once went on an interview and attended a few days training with Combined Insurance. The guy that I was riding with looked, spoke and carried himself exactly like the Country singer Randy Travis. We went out to get in his Lincoln Town Car to go knock on some doors. He had a tag on the front of his car that read, "Randy Travis- Pure Country". I figured this guy was a raving fan or something. I asked him if he was an impersonator. Nope, he was Randy Travis' brother. Apparently, Randy's real last name is Traywick.

At any rate, door to door sales was not for me. For some reason, The Combined Insurance folks only seemed interested in selling in poor neighborhoods. I thought it was all kind of strange.

A fact that isn't something I'm proud of.....

There is a reason door-to-door companies go to poorer neighborhoods. And it's not evil...

But it's far more likely that the person will answer the door, the doors are closer together (for speed), and it's far far more likely that they will let you give your pitch.

You don't want to got to the poorest neighborhoods, because they have no money. But if people are jogging on the street, it's too nice. You want neighborhoods full of blue collar families. They are just the most receptive.

For a few decades, when selling door-to-door, I concentrated on Mobile home parks and nicer apartment buildings. The doors were just so much closer together.

A Kirby salesman wanted to exchange ideas with me for a few days. The first day, I tagged along with him. We went to a very nice area, beautiful homes. He insisted we wear suits, and work during the day. We knocked on doors for over six hours.

I asked him why he wanted to work in a higher class neighborhood. He said, "Because if I can get in the door, they buy...and pay cash" (this is before high limit credit cards were common)

We must have knocked on 200 doors. Nothing.

At about six PM, he said "Well, my day is done". I was stunned, I said "No. This is when people are home. Follow me". We went to a nice apartment building, I knocked on one door, got in, got a vacuum cleaner sale, and we left.

Wealthy people are not usually home. And they will almost never let someone in their home. I never do, and nobody ever knocks on the doors of my street.

And truthfully, the Combined Insurance policies have premiums that are low enough, almost everyone will have the money somewhere. So, it's just a matter of finding people who will listen. Blue collar people are just more receptive.

Added a few minutes later; Another factor is that poorer people make bad buying decisions. Lottery tickets are primarily sold to low income people. I remember going to old mobile home parks, and seeing old mobile homes...with nice cars, a trampoline in the yard, and a huge dish for cable. My customers. If what you sell is shiny...these people have to have it.

Believe me, I tried to sell to high income people. They bought from me, but it was next to impossible to get in their door. Those sales were nearly always by referral.

Today, all door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales are in poor neighborhoods. And it's for one reason. The internet. You can find anything sold in your home, for less than half the cost, somewhere online. The only thing that keeps poor people from cancelling, is that they can't pay cash for the online sale. They have to be financed. And there are finance companies that specialize in these sales.

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Ron Lafuddy

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre

For a few decades, when selling door-to-door, I concentrated on Mobile home parks and nicer apartment buildings. .

Interesting that you mention trailer parks.

A lot of tradespeople, sole proprietor types
live there. Most have bad credit and other
problems.

I sold a lot of credit card merchant accounts
in the parks. At the time, the banks wouldn't
touch 'em.

My processing bank took just about anyone.
I won't get into what that led to, here.

No one else worked the niche like I did.

The contractors always knew others like themselves
who wanted to be able to accept credit cards.

Referrals by the bucketful.

Probably similar to your experience, Claude.

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Claude Whitacre

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron Lafuddy

One of the biggest boosts in my selling, came after I discovered that people with bad credit, nearly always bought. After I found a company that would finance them (usually with a big charge, like 25%), my sales went through the roof.

I would canvas the mobile home parks. Maybe half of the buyers had bad credit. But they gave me referrals that had better credit. And all of them made me money.

These marginal buyers are a huge profit center for plenty of businesses.

I knew a guy that would mail to local lists of people who recently declared bankruptcy. He would fill auditoriums with these people, offering them ideas on rebuilding their credit.

At the event, he would sell credit cards (at high front fees), and his events were sponsored by local car dealers, Rent to own companies, that sort of thing.

I asked him his biggest challenge. He said "Bad checks. 80% are bad. That's why we sell credit card services. So they can buy my stuff on that card".

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Andre Filalel 8 years ago

I guess some people still do that after following up with a lead over phone. It's not exactly door to door, but more of making a house call.
Highly suggest doing this. People change in person compared to over the phone or internet.
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Anyone doing door to door sales in 2015?

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