THE WEED MAN HUH? You may have more to worry about than just Jehova Witnesses, Dude!
No offense taken, @GlassMD Mike. We all understand. BUT, if your next door neighbor or someone down the street already invited me into their home, then I’m not really a stranger anymore unless you just fired up a fatty 
. Let’s face it: if your busy somebody’s going to find fault. So Mike, if I ever knock on your door I apologize in advance.
Lol BUT I still know you are there to sell me something. My house isn’t a place to sell things 
But you know when you have made it big when you hire out your windows to another window cleaner
I’m glad those folks I met last night don’t feel the same way. I found one man in his yard and estimated over $1000 in pressure cleaning and windows. I start next week. I knocked on the next door of a customer for whom I had just done some work, introduced myself, and walked away with a $269 house washing contract.
Dude, @GlassMD, I used to BE the weed man among other things. Enjoyed a 12 year vacation with the feds to show for it.
I get it. BUT, we make an erroneous assumtion when we think that everyone responds to things the same way we do. Nothing motivates like a good sale. You can wait for people to call, and neither of those folks last night would have. BUT, because I initiated the conversation, they weren’t price shopping. By the time I left their homes, we were no longer strangers and they were glad that I stopped by. THAT’S how many folks respond to the proper approach. Folks who respond as you would are not my target market, and they probably aren’t yours either. Have you ever paid to have your windows cleaned? Neither have I. We as marketers of an elite service need to be able to look at the situation from their perspective, not our own.
Once our customers discover the beauty of a crisp vista, they will be eager to see us again if we were professional and courteous. Those are the customers that I am eager to meet. I don’t really want the price shoppers or the coupon cutters or the bargain seekers. The only way to find the folks I want is through word of mouth, networking, and knocking on doors.
Don’t get me wrong Mike, I fully understand where you’re coming from. I just don’t want you to discourage someone from getting off their couch and knocking on some doors with a flyer and a smile. NOTHING is more powerful for driving sales. Tell you what, try this: Pick out a neighborhood. Go to the library and get a street directory that gives you names and numbers (RLPolk Directory) of the homes in your target market. Hand deliver those flyers (or mail them if you have more $$ than time). Follow up those that don’t call you 1/2 with a phone call, and 1/2 with a knock on the door (always use the reference of a neighbor for whom you’ve worked) and see how folks respond. You may be surprised to discover that few of them are waiting on the weed man , and that most are glad you stopped by. As for the phone calls, I personally find it difficult to seal the deal over the phone. I sell best when I can see what I’m bidding on, and look my customer in the eye with a firm handshake.
To be obvious the 99% of those who you knocked on their door who didnt sign up, just saw you as a pain at their doorstep.
If you have the extra time sure knock away, more often than not you will not be greeted with so so e who wishes they didn’t open the door.
Your time is money too, i would prefer to spend $400 and reach 200 customers rather than knocking on 200 customers doors for 3 days with similar returns.
Great reply and I’m glad it works for you and that you enjoy it.
When I say weed man, I’m talking about a landscaping company. They are the only company that comes around and it’s super annoying.
I agree with @anon46335951, most will see you as a pain and that’s not what I want people to see my company as. It’s not worth that one or two jobs. Then again, I am still new to business but I don’t ever see myself heading in that direction.
I absolutely, do not want to discourage anyone. Every one has their own views and their way to grab clients
I’m no different than @GlassMD in respect to someone knocking on my door.
I would not discourage a new guy to never knock if they needed to drum up business, but I think that is a very slow way to get business. Most people do NOT like it. They do not like having someone invade their personal space, invading the sanctity of their home.
Marketing is a game of numbers, even if you knock on doors. The more people you can get in front of in a given time frame, the more sales you will have. I don’t know anyone who gets mad and upset about an advertisement in their mailbox. But I know quite a few people who get mad about salesmen knocking on their door.
I’m too busy to put that much time into door to door sales. My time is too valuable for that. I also would rather avoid a negative experience doing door to door sales. My target audience does NOT appreciate the door to door sales.
For anyone having success doing it, that’s great. But I would hope they realize it’s not the norm. Do whatever it takes to make those sales (but be careful not to do something to make people never buy from you).
Not to be a downer or discourage anything at all, but I would like to add some insight to the conversation. Now my area hopefully isn’t typical of towns in the United States, I don’t know as I’ve only ever lived In Phoenix and Lake Havasu. This is just food for thought. (Sorry it’s so long, I’m the kind of person that has to warn of any potential dangers that could hurt someone’s business. I want to see people succeed always.)
The people in my area, mind you it’s not a bad part of town at all or even close, have a terrible attitude towards anyone they don’t know well. There is the neighborhood website which I think is all over the country now. It’s a decent website and creates a bit of a community feeling where there otherwise wouldn’t be. Anyway, I tried to understand these people and their point of view but can’t wrap my head around the hate and fear.
These people, middle class mostly Caucasian, live in absolute fear even in their own homes. They all make a point to tell everyone else that you must never answer the door if you aren’t expecting the person, even if you have some familiarity with them. They go one step further and even urge you to call the police and make a suspicious persons report if someone does happen to knock. I was insulted when they said, no joke, door-to -door sales are almost all people trying to case your area to rob houses. Some even think they are rapists. It’s sad they are not able to feel more friendly and safe in their own homes, but this is general consensus from about ten neighborhoods surrounding mine. I’m talking about homes that are currently being sold anywhere from $250,000 upwards to about $500,000 and even higher sometimes.
I figure it must be different where the OP lives and works, which I’m a little jealous of really. I thought I would share this though, as going out door-to-door around my house will not likely get anyone talking to you other than the police. I’ve seen it happen, most sales people make it about a block before the cops are showing up and asking questions. Hopefully this is just a strange place, it’s depressing to me as I would like to know more neighbors really.
I just have to think, how bad would it be if trying to cause some positive word of mouth actually turned negative and alienated you from your target market? Scares me out of trying door-to-door at all here. Now ten or fifteen years ago it was a totally solid marketing strategy, but times have changed I suppose. Don’t let my words discourage anyone please, just be careful and professional out there. Scaring customers could hurt business pretty bad though. Had I not been active on the neighborhood website I would have probably had the cops called a bunch of times before I figured out what was happening. Something to think about, it’s hard for me to believe people are even like this.
Their was just a big study done on face to face contact, human interaction and how people are craving more attention than ever. We are in year 7 and still knock some doors. Now we layer it with flyering, direct mail, eddm, direct emailing, homeadvisor, angie’s list, yelp also. But in the beginning door knocking grew our bootstrapped business.
My exact strategy when I started was:
Wait a week see what the response is.
The neighborhood had 87 homes in the 450K-850K, In the first 4 months I had 17 homes at an average of $200ish. Though I knocked all the doors some came through referrals, and a few were neighbors walking by who saw me at the customers home. Fast Forward to today we still do 12 of the original 17, but 56 of the neighborhood at $275ish. Though I knocked all those
Once you have some money saved, have a plan to start ramping up the marketing. Maybe just one EDDM community carrier route. Then knock those doors.
I think it would be very hard to grow to a million dollar company by knocking doors alone, but not inconceivable. 100K I think is very doable in a few years. Little jumps will make a big difference.
I do a customers house who has this sign on the window next to the front door.
Knocking on customers doors in this day and age is dying. Social media is on the rise and more and more people are simply ignoring flyers or just not interested.
I feel to get the customers attention, door hangers are the way to go. Put a message on the hanger about leaving it on the door and I’ll be round tomorrow to give you a quote.
This means the customer knows your coming and expects a quote. Not saying it’s going to be positive but it gets a reaction and some people, partially where I’m from have never seen door hangers.
Social media has worked a treat for me. It can be truly amazing. Pop an advertisement on a buy and sell group page(locally) then customers message you. Yes it’s lazy but times you get lucky. There has been times where i’v gained 3 customers from the same Street via Facebook. Then hammer out flyers and not a single bite.
I hear what you are saying. The way people interact and buy has changed. Only the most stubborn to convert to how things are done, don’t shop online.
But what I foresee, is video content being very important to future advertising. Pictures now, get more swipe by’s, then they used to. Unless a picture is VERY interesting, IMMEDIATELY, to someone.
Video content will be a key ingredient to the future of sales I think. It will be the way people get to “know” you, what you look like, what you do, and what to expect.
Look at the phone book. When the internet was in it’s very infancy, most people still used a phone book. Now, only the very last stragglers use a phone book (very small section of society) and they are dying off. In 10 years people won’t know what a phone book was.
Video is quickly becoming the way people communicate and share ideas. The power of video is already replacing holding a product in YOUR hand with someone else holding it and showing it off to you.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m going to try sending an eddm mailer and follow up with door to door. Much appreciated.
George,
Do you clean the sidewalks next to the street for a $1? or are you cleaning their porches? Thanks for your input!
Matthew
The offer is to renew the sidewalk with pressure washing. “Mrs. Smith, I can either spend money I don’t have in advertising and marketing, or I can do something nice for my neighbors and hope that you will remember me when you need my services.There are just over two miles of sidewalk in this neighborhood. I intend to clean all of them. I would like to clean your sidewalk for $1. All I ask is the use of your water, an opportunity to quote my services, and the privilege to place one of my signs in your yard for a few days.” Day before yesterday I did the sidewalk of someone who’s door I had knocked. Within an hour I had a phone call, and I was cleaning her deck and driveway/walkways yesterday. Interestingly, I have invested all kinds of money (Dragonfly, WFP system, Luke the Window Cleaner’s Premium Residential Kit, etc.) and find that the sidewalk promo is keeping me busy with the pressure washer and surface cleaner. I already have about 5 roof washing customers when I invest in that expense this Spring. Maybe then I can use my WFP to put solution on those roofs. I didn’t intend to focus on PWing, but at least with PWing, it’s easy to tell who needs my service from the street. I’ve also discovered that of the people who respond in the affirmative to my sidewalk offer, very few of them have me clean their windows.
Soon I will begin marketing to realtors and home sellers to renew the original splendor of the homes they are selling, thereby improving the curb appeal and improving values. That alters the decision to use my services to an investment with fast and substantial returns. I expect that to be an incredibly lucrative market. Maybe that’ll get me back into the window cleaning business.
Of those people you already cleaned for are you giving any kind of discount for their next service if they refer you do a neighbor or give a review?
No, we don’t, they will likely refer with or without discounts.
Do you need the local council approval to do that?
Here sidewalks are considered council property any maintenance on council property must be approved, in case for example right after you left and the sidewalk was wet someone slipped on the sidewalk they would sue the council and the council would in turn sue you due to unapproved work.
