A Peek Into Yesterday’s Report…

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

~ by doortodoorsalesman on January 10, 2010.