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Door To Door Not Working
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Puzzle
Salesman: "I've been an entrepreneur for most of my life, so I've always been around sales, but recently I got back into corporate life and took a sales position.
"My problem is, my boss built the company with door-to-door sales, so he's demanding that I use that method to sell. However, where he built the company our prospects were lumped closely together, whereas for me they're spread few and far between. I could spend all day in the car and walk through only five to 10 doors – most of which result in no handshake whatsoever.
"How can I keep my boss happy and still achieve the results I'm after?"
Diagnosis
After a thorough interview, we were able to determine a high likelihood of two things:
- The salesman really doesn't like sales at all – he would much rather provide the services than sell them, and is only in this position because he needs the money.
- His boss is resistant to change – there was probably no way to convince the boss to abandon the door-to-door methods.
Solution
Through some coaching we were able to challenge our client to try three things:
- Do some soul searching, determine his motivations and make a
decision about his future. Was he willing to spend his life doing
something he did not enjoy? We advised that if he could not afford
to leave the sales position, that he should at least build a plan
for leaving in the future.
- Interview his boss regarding his motivations for demanding door-to-door sales. Then, when appropriate, ask, "If I can find a more productive way to find clients, and prove it works, will you let me do it?"
- If the boss said, "Sure," then I told him to identify
his top 1,500 to 2,000 prospects, and segment them into two groups.
First is the 500 or so that are close enough to visit. Second is
everyone else.
After dividing the group as prescribed, we recommended he do a cold-calling session once per day to the far-away group (about four hours), and then get in the car to go visit the rest.
This way, he'll keep his boss somewhat happy as he works out the kinks in his cold-calling.
Results
The boss was resistant at first, but after carefully explaining his ideas for cold-calling and cold-letter writing, the salesman was given the opportunity to try it his own way, provided he also continued the door-to-door process.
After six months, the salesman transitioned to 100 percent cold calls and letters, and is well beyond the quotas he was challenged to meet.
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