You can’t say the right thing to the wrong person, and you can’t say the wrong thing to the right person.
So relax.
Do what you do.
Play the numbers.
Get in front of massive numbers of people every day.
That way, you’ll be successful by chance alone.
Any skill you develop as you go will be icing on the cake.
Yesterday was one of the coldest days of the year.
So what did I do?
Yep…knock doors.
Why?
Two reasons.
1) One of my favorite motto’s (thanks to my friend Randy Gage) goes like this: “I do today what others WON’T do, so that I can do tomorrow what others CAN’T do.”
And…
2) If you read yesterday’s post, you also know that my company’s Chief Marketing Officer joined me yesterday in order to remind herself what it was like, and to see “from the inside” if there are any noticeable ways the company can be improved.
Although I expected to feel a bit of pressure, our conversations ended up being fun and very relaxed, so the afternoon actually passed quite enjoyably.
In some ways it was a very typical day…I knocked on a moderate amount of doors, and wrapped up the day with a couple of new sales.
But in many ways, the day began very unusually.
As you’ve heard me say before, people are generally nice (at least polite) when they open their doors. The occasional rotten apple does fall in front of my feet…just not very often.
So you can imagine how I started to second-guess myself a bit when the first FOUR people we made contact with were very “short” with us, and treated us like trash!
Over time, you learn to quickly dismiss those instances with a pitying laugh and a shake of the head, or a curse under your breath just for the fun of it. But let me tell you…it always hurts just a little bit, if you let it. Nobody likes the feeling of rejection…not even when it comes from a total stranger who you can tell probably has the intelligence of a horse-fly.
But when, to my disbelief, the fourth consecutive person to open her door looked at us with a scowel and quickly said she wasn’t interested, I stopped in my tracks.
Just before she shut the door in my face, I said, “Hey wait a minute, I’ve got a quick question…do you guys get a lot of people knocking on your doors around here?”
Her exasperated response confirmed my suspicion.
Nearly every day, homes on this street were being POUNDED by door-to-door salesmen.
So we did what logical person would do. We switched streets.
Immediately, the responses were better…and we landed a sale within just a few minutes.
The cool thing about this particular sale was that the homeowner bought from me even though my company’s rates were considerably MORE EXPENSIVE than her current provider!
That was a first for me…and it just goes to show that money is NOT the only means of value.
Value can come from a reliable product. Value can come from excellent customer service. Value can come simply from a good “feeling” about the company as a result of high customer satisfaction ratings (this is the factor I used most with this homeowner).
…Value can come from anything the customer SAYS it comes from!
This sparked some interesting conversation between the CMO and I as we continued knocking doors, and within 30 minutes, the second sale was made.
We called it a day at this point, and soon we were on our way back to drop her off at her hotel.
I always love the thrill of meeting and getting to know someone new…especially when they have experienced and accomplished interesting things in their lives. My afternoon with the company’s CMO definitely fit that description, and it was fun.
Now it’s Sunday, and today is a total day off.
In fact, right this moment it’s 10 AM and I’m still lying in bed, my back propped up with multiple pillows, my legs buried under a fluffy down comforter, and of course, my notebook computer on top.
Today I’m going to do NOTHING but what I want to do…which is write, finish painting my bedroom, and hang out with two of my favorite women in the world…my girlfriend and my sister.
That’s it until next time.
-The Door To Door Salesman
Snow is falling. The temperature reads 9 degrees. It is a COLD morning here in Ohio.
In less than 2 hours, I’ll be picking up my company’s Chief Marketing Officer from her hotel.
She’ll be joining me today for two hours of knocking doors.
Bring on the cold AND the pressure…I’m still gonna rock it. 😉
Let’s GO!!
When we’re striving for an important goal, it’s easy to get carried away in the daily ups and downs of our tasks and lose track of the progress we’re actually making.
Instead, choose to ignore short-term ups and downs.
Just keep your eyes on the prize and take a step toward it every single day.
You WILL get there.
Might as well have fun along the way!
It was a bitter cold evening as I walked from house to house, knocking on doors, with a bundle of papers in hand.
A wet snow had fallen the day before and frozen to the ground, covering the grass with a thick crust that crunched every time I took a step.
Despite my improving ability to bundle up and stay warm in cold weather, the biting wind on this particular night was finding ways to sink its teeth through my layers of clothing…especially to my hands and feet.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that people were not very considerate. After all, I was a stranger knocking on their door…and I was trying to sell them something, if that wasn’t enough.
Why should they let me in?
I spoke to no less than a dozen people that night, many of whom actually commented that it was the coldest night of the winter up to that point. Yet, not one of them invited me in. They each were content to stand talking to me from inside the warmth of their cracked-open doors…some for the duration of a 20-30 minute conversation.
Although I wasn’t terribly cold yet, the unkindness and complete lack of consideration from these people irritated me, and I grumbled about it as I walked, each breath hovering behind me like smoke in the freezing air.
As the dusk began turning to darkness, I approached a small, one-story red house that looked like it had been crudly painted with leftover spray paint, with metal hand rails leading up the steps to his porch that looked about one nudge away from desentegration.
A young guy opened the door who appeared to be around 25 years old, lazily dressed in worn-out baggy jeans and a black, oversized, death metal t-shirt. He held a lit cigarette in his hand, and the dirty smell of smoke-stained carpet wafted out the door with the warm air. A cute little toddler ventured up to the door beside him, her big eyes looking up at me curiously.
He greeted me un-enthusiastically and mentioned that his dad handled the cable bills, then turned to go get him, leaving the door wide open and me standing out in the cold. I spotted a large, unopened box leaning against the living room wall with the words “50 Inch HDTV” displayed flamboyantly across the front panel.
An older man with large glasses who looked to be about 65 soon appeared out of a small hallway and greeted me at the door. He was dressed no better than his son, with a blue, worn-out pocket T-shirt and stained blue jeans.
His appearance was such that I almost expected him to tell me to get off his porch. But when he looked up at me, there was an immediate softness in his eyes that caught me by surprise.
Wthout having even the slightest clue who I was or what I wanted, he immediately shook my hand with a gentle firmness and said with a short wave, “It’s too cold for you to be standing out there…come inside.”
We talked about cable from the warmth of his living room for probably 20 minutes. He had just purchased a new HDTV at a drastic discount during a Black Friday sale the day after Thanksgiving, and would be needing cable service soon. I tried to get him to reserve an installation with me, but he wasn’t ready, so I gave him some information and began to leave.
He walked with me to the door, opening it for me and seeing me out, just like a good friend would.
As I stepped through his open door back into the cold windy night, he calmly said something that stuck in my head for hours afterward.
He thanked me for stopping by and said with concerned eyes, “Hope we got you warmed up a little bit.”
Here was this man who I normally would have “judged” for a variety of reasons (his 25 year-old son still lived with him, smoking inside the house with a toddler, spending thousands on a TV when his house was such a wreck, etc)…this person who would probably fit anyone’s definition of “white trash”…
…this man who could have judged ME for just as many reasons (I was knocking on his door uninvited, I was trying to conduct business with him during his evening free time, I was interrupting his dinner, etc)…
…and yet he treated me with such kindness and love.
As I got in my car and began my 70-mile drive home, I was still thinking about it.
Touched by it.
…and then I asked myself a question that sent a wave of sadness over me, and nearly brought tears to my eyes.
If a guy knocked on my door, trying to sell cable on a cold winter night, would I be loving enough to welcome him inside and give him a chance to warm up?
Would it even enter my mind that he has probably been walking around in the cold for hours, nervously knocking on the doors of total strangers…and possibly even discouraged because his efforts may have been to no avail?
I knew in my heart the true answer to that question, and I felt ashamed.
We like to quote cute sayings such as, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” and “If you want to succeed, you have to take risks”.
Well, perhaps the most admirable risk we can take is to love without reason…to step outside the protective shelter of our castles, let our shields of fairness down, and warmly embrace those who stand outside in the cold.
It may surprise us how far our warmth can reach.
Wow, has it really been a month since my last post?
Aghh!
Staying consistent with a blog is a real challenge for me, apparently.
But lucky for you, I’m back…along with a couple of funny and interesting stories straight from the streets.
I was knocking doors as usual last week in a quiet, low-to-middle income neighborhood when I stepped up onto the fenced-in porch of a tiny house with a perfectly groomed front yard. After a couple of robust knocks, an older man of about 65 awkwardly opened the door and peered out at me. He was unshaven by only a day or so and had the appearance of a once-good-looking, biker-type of guy in a black polo with silver earrings in both ears.
Before I could get out even a word, he peered over and down his driveway, and pointing to the wrapped newspaper lying there, gruffly demanded with a stone-cold face:
“Get me that paper!”
I could barely believe my ears.
Knocking doors may not be the most prestigious job one could have, but in my mind, I was (and am) an intelligent, respectable, and high-potential entrepreneur who is slave to no-one and will soon be a powerful giving force in the world.
…and nobody had ever talked to me that way before (at least not seriously).
Shocked but standing my ground, I replied, “What did you say?!”
He demanded again, jabbing his pointed finger toward the driveway, “Get me that paper!”
I instantly responded with the voice of a parent, as though flabbergasted at the sudden nerve of a demanding and ungrateful child, “Psha…I’m not your paper boy! Get it yourself. I came to deliver this flyer.”
Suddenly feeling bad for him for some reason, I followed my lashing response with a still-angry, “I’ll get your paper for you, but only because I’m much closer than you and it’s cold out here.”
Handing him his paper, I noticed that his demeanor had changed almost completely. His face was noticeably softer, and he apologized profusely for treating me disrespectfully. He explained that he had cancer in his feet and thanked me for the favor, admitting that if I had not retrieved his paper for him, it might have been days before he could have read it.
Although this man didn’t switch cable services, we talked for nearly 20 minutes and I discovered that his rude and disrespectful demeaner was most likely just a shield for how he REALLY felt. Lonely. Weak. Powerless. As soon as I stood up for myself and called his bluff (which I would have done even if it had not been a bluff), the shield fell and the kind, thoughtful, and sensitive person inside of him came out.
Lesson: Mean and condescending people are often that way NOT because they actually think they’re somehow better than us, but because they inwardly feel like LESS than us, and they’re scared that we’ll find out! A good reason to be kind to others, even when they don’t seem to deserve it.
Ever been to a county fair and played those carnival games?
If you pay close attention, you’ll figure out that most of them are “fixed” to make winning WAY more difficult than it appears.
The carnie tosses the ball without hardly looking, and it knocks over all the pins. Easy. You toss the ball with perfect aim and focus, and it only knocks over half of them. Two dollars gone.
The carnie has somehow “fixed” the game to make it very difficult to win for the average player.
In much the same way, we can often find opportunities to “fix” our lives to make it easier for us to succeed at whatever it is we are pursuing.
Ever since daylight savings time has come into effect (the beginning of November), I’ve found it very difficult to work past 6PM. Why?
1) When it gets dark, I have difficulty reading the numbers on my street sheets and the house numbers.
2) When it gets dark, I tend to start getting cold.
3) It’s usually very inconvenient for me to eat lunch because of my schedule, so I often find myself STARVING by 5PM and anxious to leave the field and get something to eat.
All three of these factors are literally costing me money on a daily basis, and preventing me from reaching my goals as quickly as I potentially could.
After some thinking earlier tonight, I realized that by “fixing” a few little factors in my environment, I can literally start making more money immedietely – without any complicated changes to my sales techniques. How?
1) I can find a light that clips onto my binder for easy viewing of my street sheets after dark that also swivels up so I can read house numbers.
2) I can invest in a nice pair of thin, yet warm gloves and start keeping additional layers of clothing in my car so I’ll stay warm and comfortable during those evening hours when the temperature drops.
3) I can start packing a light lunch each day to keep myself from getting hungry and wanting to leave the field to eat at a restaurant…which will actually save me money from the beginning.
All of these are ways that I will be altering my environment to make it easier and more comfortable to work longer hours…and more importantly, the evening hours when more people are home!
Lesson learned: Stop trying to use willpower to get yourself to do what you don’t want to do. Instead, find ways to “fix” your environment so that the right things are easier and more convenient to do, and so that you end up actually WANTING to do them!
I drove to my new route this afternoon, excited and full of hope that this new neighborhood would be chock full of people who were ready to buy.
My first reaction to the area went something like, “Wow.”
I usually sell in lower to middle income areas, but these homes were NICE…like the $400,000 to $2 million range, with perfectly landscaped yards and exterior lighting systems that made the neighborhood glow like the cover of a magazine.
Sales were good. I pulled out my first one fairly quickly, and my second one came within two hours of knocking doors. The final sale of the evening answered a question that had burned in my mind the entire day to that point.
That question was, “There are literally HUNDREDS of luxury homes here, which means that hundreds of people just in this little neighborhood ALONE, had figured out how to be extraordinarily successful. HOW did they do it? How did they get to that point?”
I found myself in the dining room of a beautiful home owned by a quiet, yet friendly gentleman who appeared to be of middle eastern descent. He was warm and kind, and next thing I knew, we had spent nearly an hour around the table talking about career choices, goals, and life in general.
We quickly became friends since his career had begun years ago with a job selling door to door, like me. He went on to live in several different countries, learn 6 or 7 different languages, and start a family. Today he is a highly successful engineering manager for a large company that sells high-tech weaponry to the government. He works from home several days a week, travels frequently to exotic locations, and makes incredibly money.
His eyes lit up when I asked him if he liked his job. “I love it,” he said.
He answered my nagging question in one sentence when he said, “You can’t just jump right into your dream job where you’re doing something you love and making incredible money doing it. You get there by starting at the bottom, with the basics, and taking one step at a time. And sometimes those steps can take years.”
Ironically, those words were comforting for me.
They were comforting because they relieved the pressure I had been feeling, and the irrational worries I felt that I should already be creating and experiencing highly successful results in my life.
And you know what? He was right. There really ARE no shortcuts, so the wisest move is to stop looking for them. It’s OK to start at the bottom! It’s OK if achieving extraordinary success means baby steps, effort, and time. It’s natural.
Once I started internalizing this, I immediately began to feel better.
I learned that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re wanting. Either way, at this moment, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. The rest will come with time.
When you walk up to the door of a house you’ve never seen before and knock, you really never know what to expect when the door swings open.
It’s a surprise every time.
People are generally friendly enough to at least let me introduce myself, and the response that follows usually tells me within a few seconds whether or not a sale will happen.
But every once in a while, I’ll hear a response to my introduction that is so funny, so ridiculous, or even so scary that I just gracefully exit instead of continuing with my sales pitch.
Here are 5 of the funniest (and dumbest) responses I’ve ever heard:
1) College girl: “Could you come back later? This is my boyfriend’s house and he’s going to be in the bathroom for a while. He just got home from the burrito challenge.”
2) Hermit-looking guy in a faded bath robe peering out from a dark, musty-smelling living room: “Oh, I already have cable.”
3) Older woman with perfectly permed hair wearing an embroidered sweater (think church organ player): “My husband and I are against change.”
4) Elderly gentleman: “So let me ask you a question, and I want an honest answer. When I push a certain number, like 73, and then press “OK” on the remote control, are you telling me that it will take me straight to that channel?”
5) Four year-old boy busting through the door and reaching for my pen the second after I knock: “Can I write it?!”
Confessions Of A Door-To-Door Salesman 