Today I have a special guest!
is sharing how D2D (Door to Door) sales work with sales technology.If you work in D2D sales this is a MUST-read!
Bowtiedtrout
D2D isn’t all spraying and praying. This isn’t the 1950s, you have to adapt to the times. Old school D2D guys will remember using chalk to mark the curb by houses to remember if someone answered or not. Using clipboards and paper contracts instead of an iPad. Not being able to get their phone number to test appointment commitment.
Thank god we are past that. My grandpa sold Kirby Vacuums when there were shutdowns at GM. Not surprisingly, D2D runs in my blood.
First I’m going to start with the basics then get to the more advanced stuff. BowtiedSystems will take it from there and probably teach me a thing or two!
The Basics
First, the company you work for should provide you with an iPad with SalesRoutes, Spotio, or some other CRM that lets you map out the neighborhoods you work. Always, and I mean ALWAYS, drop pins with detailed notes. If they don’t answer, record how many cars are in the driveway, if they have a package, if the blinds are open, really anything that will let you know if they are home later.
Even if they say no, record their names, the objections they gave you, what pains they have, or what company they already have. This will help you know where you are struggling. Ex. If you see a ton of your “No’s” wanting to talk to a spouse, you need to preface that in your pitch. If they all have companies, you need to work on switchovers, etc.
Use google maps to keep track of the hoods you have knocked with how many sales you got and when. This is especially important if you are a manager with a team. You will forget if you don’t. After about three months you can send someone back into that hood or re-knock your own hood. Most people won’t remember you, but they will be primed to reconsider the offer. Maybe you just caught them on a bad day last time.
Use excel/sheets to record all your customers’ information. I can’t stress this enough. If you leave the company, you’ll get shut out of your account. You want to build your own personal Rolodex. If they bought from you once, they are likely to again in the future. Say you sold pest control for a couple of years then switch to solar. Boom, you have hundreds of people who already like you to call on cold, rainy days you don’t want to knock.
On your tablet, you’ll have a voice memo app. Record your pitches. People hate to do this, but it’s one of the best ways for you and your manager to find out what you can improve on. This will have you saying “I really said that???”. Don’t get emotional about it, just correct it and move on.
The Advanced Stuff
Rep Card is the 10x alternative to paper business cards. If your prospect isn’t 70, your paper card is going straight into the trash. I’ve been using Rep Card since its Beta when I’d give the owner feedback on bugs and glitches. It’s ten bucks a month so it’s a no-brainer. You can set automated text follow-ups at different time intervals, that way you can focus on knocking. Customers can leave you reviews for added social proof—I have +100 5-star reviews. You can even attach videos to your card.
All you have to do is get their phone number and name to send it to them. I recommend using the auto location to save their address as well and take some notes to help you remember who they are.
One of the best parts about Rep Card is it destroys the “Do you have a card?” Smoke screen. 50% of the time people just ask you that to get you off their porch. If they won’t give you their phone number to send the card, they are politely telling you to buzz off. If they will give you their number, there is some level of interest and trust there. Keep the pitch rolling and figure out why they asked for your card.
Buying leads is another tool you can use. Especially if one lead is 1/10 - 1/20 of your commission. This is huge for solar considering “Closers” normally split commission with “Setters”. Fair warning, this isn’t for rookies, you need to have a decent close ratio or you will be wasting money.
There are so many places to buy ads from it’s insane. Bark.com, Angie’s list, CIENCE, Zoominfo, Klean Leads, and the list goes on. Sometimes Fiverr or UpWork will have good freelancers to help out. The best is going to depend on what you are selling and who you are targeting. This will take some research on your end.
Running localized ads is another method you can use. You will get some laydowns from this, but the main reason to do this is to get people familiar with you or your company. It essentially warms them up and subconsciously gets them thinking about your product or familiar with who you are. Similar to seeing a lawyer on a billboard or a relator on a park bench. The key is to get them as targeted as possible. Nextdoor and Google ads can be incredibly specific.
This is something to work on during the off-season because it can be time-consuming if you try to do it yourself with no previous experience.
This should go without saying, but if you sell pest control for Terminix, security for ADT/Vivint, or internet for Spectrum, this method won’t be very effective for you since they run so many ads themselves.
Also, if you plan to use any company logos, you need to get the okay from them. There are other ways to run ads for your product without their logos of course.
BowtiedSystems
Thank you
for your amazing guest post!If you work in D2D sales and are looking to upgrade your tech stack these are the best tools around.
You can use these tools for anything door to door. Alcohol sales rep? Yup. Selling to smoke shops? Yup. Selling lawn care services? Yup.
There's a huge opportunity significantly increase your sales and business efficiency by leveraging sales tech in door-to-door services. 99% of Door-To-Door companies are severely lagging in tech adoption.
This could also be a service you offer to local companies not using sales tech. And when I say only a small % use it I mean 99.99% have never even heard of these tools or know it’s possible.
As always thank you! And watch out for the ZoomInfo launch on 2/21/2023 at 9AM PST. It's going to be a big one. You won't want to miss the first 1-20 buyer bonuses!