[gwrightson]

had a couple of hours spare this morning , decided to try some door knocking for the first time ,
taking on board some of the ideas and comments made
on this board.
had leaflets delivered last week,so knocked on this area
"good morning , did you receive a leaflet similar to this
last week ,i had a leaflet drop in this area" therefore
introducing myself. if response was a yes ,then a case of " would you be intersested in any of our services in the near future, again if response was good , i asked if i could leave an information pack with them to be collected a few days later, giving the potential customer
time to consider. and another opportunity to make contact a few days later. A good idea Mike Halliday!!!
one of your replys to earlier post.
ok here is the outcome so far
80 doors knocked  , 36 no answers to door, 3  bookings
worth  £210  , and 7 left info packs, to maybe interested
in nr future , have to wait and see response to these
when return for packs
any way im quite pleased with the results
any body done similar are the results encouraging?
or is it time wasted  ? i dont think so myself
geoff

[Len Gribble]

Geoff

It seem a proactive approach in building up your business, I think timing is crucial you did not say what time you went out or what type of customer you are targeting.

For me I would go out after the school run say 9.30 onwards I would also target nearly new estates say 4 years old or more, I’m have a lot of success here.

Len

[perfection_cleanin]

geoff as a matter of interst what did you put in your info pack as i may try this approach myself thanks john

[jasonb]

had a couple of hours had leaflets delivered last week,so knocked on this area
"good morning , did you receive a leaflet similar to this
last week ,i had a leaflet drop in this area" therefore
introducing myself. if response was a yes ,then a case of " would you be intersested in any of our services in the near future, geoff

If you are going to door-knock don't bother doing it to areas you have already delivered leaflets to. We learned a while ago that if you are intending to follow up a mailshot with a phone call then it made little difference if you had made the mailshot or not in the first place. You would of course still pretend you had i.e. "Hi, I'm calling from Bloggs Ltd, we mailed some info to you last week and I was hoping have had time to examine it." The response of course would be "no i dont recall," which is pretty much the response you get even if you had sent the mailshot, but upon getting the response you can immediately qualify the interest from the customer (feign slight disappointment that the guy hadnt received/examined the mail.)

Anyway I was digressing there, with regards to leaflets we can work on the figures you provided:

You knock on the door and
a) They arent in - so post a leaflet (you have then saved the labour of having it posted in the first place.)
b) They are in, havent seen the leaflet (of course,) and are not in interested in you leaving any info anyway. - hence you have saved the cost and labour of having that leaflet delivered in the first place.
c) They are in, and are interested possibly in your services. Leave a leaflet/info or talk preferably try to talk to them further. But at the very least you have now got the info to people that wanted it and not wasted leaflets and labour.

I am not saying dont deliver leaflets of course because that is what I do, but I think if you hadn't delivered the leaflets and still done the door-knocking you would have had a similar response rate as you had today.

Congrats on doing it by the way as its an intimidating thing to do.

[gwrightson]

ok , i went out after 9 am, was more of a testing the water really, to see the reaction, the area i targeted ,
was a suberb of a city , houses semis,  detached, quite a well off area , semi retired, retired, or middle aged
couples
the info was basicly, an introduction of yourselves,
the services you offer, the different types of cleaning and methods available , the benifits cleaning, the pitfalls to avoid ie. diy cleaning , off the shelf spotters, spash and dash merchants , etc. etc. any other information you can conjure to turn them in your favour, even photos of before and after cleans , customers comments of your work, the list is endless when you start thinking
good luck
geoff

[gwrightson]

well jason for once i agree with your comments,
funny thing!!! as i was knocking and some said no dont recall getting a leaflet," i knew dam well they had because i personaly deliverd  to these houses"
i though  i didnt even have to have delivered here, just act as if youve had delivered and following up to see
if they had by delivered by an outside agency, "only checking there doing their job " type of approach
only one down fall to this though as far as i can see
potential customers could be slipping through the net
as not in when knocked, but as you say no answer
"drop a leaflet " hmm
geoff

[paulchambers]

I'm to shy to knock on doors

[Ian Gourlay]

In my experience the best time to door knock is after 4pm  However by the energy and motivation levels may be down .

So 9.30am is good   In fact any door knocking is good.

Paul just take a deep breath force yourself and smile

[Len Gribble]

Extreme care should be taken on door knocking some have signs can’t remember the words don’t knock.

Ian not a bad idea kids are home trashing the place.

Paul Always be positive I once done door to door selling did not believe in product but I believe in mine.

Len

[Ian Gourlay]

They are usually supplied by Home Watch.


Somthing like we do not buy from the door.

A delemia do you ignore them or not?


Often an entire street has them.

I usually think to myself I am providing a service not selling anything just providing information about my service.

[dunny19]

in my experience of 10 years door knocking i welcome a sign at the door that so no hawkers, canvassers, or we do nit need home improvements, cladding, windows kitchens etc. they are usually people who cant say no to people, look at their houses, may have a ADT alarm, they were sold it, will be double glazed, ....they were sold it..........may be wallcoated....they were sold it,.....may have block paving.....they were sold it......

the amount of times i have sold to these people with these stickers is unbeliveable

take no notice of them whatsoever, occasionally people say havent you seen the sticker, you just apologise, and tell them what you are offering, its happened to me and then they have taken me up on my offer..!!!!!!!!!

[Ed Valentine]

If you keep shaking the trees, the leaves will begin to fall.


Good Fortune and the very best of luck;
Ed Valentine
cross-american corp.

[Harry]

And the ones that have a sign that says "No leaflets, save our trees"  you can just say you came in person as you don't want to contribute to the destruction of trees.
Oh and you use "environmentally safe cleaning products".

[gwrightson]

Paul,
You say your to shy to knock on doors
i imagining all sorts of things here
what do you do when you go to price a job?
Does your lack o f confidence show?
when your cleaning their carpets, do you engage in conversation ,or just get on with the job?staying stum!
i know work is to be done but a certain amount of time spent woeing the customer has to be good customer relations .
give it a go paul  once you knocked a few you will wonder why never before

[dunny19]

ill give you a test to the shy one.....................

go and knock doors and speak to 50 people, dont stop till you have spoken to 50. after this you will no longer be shy about knocking doors

knock the door:

make sure you are smiling,smile, smile, smile and they will smile back
just say, its ok im not selling amything ................ths will put them at ease.........

say"im introducing everyone to my carpet cleaning business, ive have lots of customers around here, and while im in between jobs i thhouhgt i would see if anyone eslse would be intrerested in having a free quote! are you interested. yes/no your in/your not iin.

However its not what you say, that will get you in the door, its simply a numbers game

[paulchambers]

I think when you go and do a quote the carpet cleaning is practically pre sold and i am fine talking to customers and often get into conversation its the knocking the door bit i'm not sure about . I personally wouldnt give anyone the time of day if they knock on my door

[dunny19]

a lot of people wont give you the time of day,

but knockin doors will generate money that day

some people respond to door knocks
some people respond to leafletsdirect mail
sme people respond to newspaper ads
some people respond to radio
some only go to yellow pages/thompson

in an ideal world you should cover all aspects of marketing

[paulchambers]

Good point never thought of it that way

[dunny19]

paul

have i convinced you to have a go then?

[paulchambers]

sunny tomorrow will have a go