- 139
Anyone had any success. Thinking about trying it tomorrow. I haven't knock on a door in 8 years.
Cold Calling Door to Door in -7 Degrees Weather
- Thread starter CMS
- Start date
That's pretty cold! Bundle up! I've door knocked selling different products for various industries over the years, but I never worked in below zero weather! The most maybe 10 degrees. More people tend to be home the colder it is though!
Door knocking is not something you can just try and be successful. Like any marketing activity, you need to do it consistently for a least for a month or two to get an idea of where your ratios will be.
My average daily ratios for canvassing for the 3 products in my bag: FE/Cancer/DVH.
60+ doors knocked will generally get me in front of 25-30 people who answer the door (some days a lot less), of which 3-4 will either let me in or set an appointment. My app ratio is lousy (1 out of 6) but it's improving. I could improve that if I qualified better at the door, but I'm still relatively inexperienced when it comes to insurance sales and will sit with anyone who can fog a mirror!
It really is a grind. 80% of your time (some weeks 90%) is spent prospecting to the wrong people. With FE, most agents will try this for about 3 days before they go back to direct mail! And if you don't work your grid correctly, you can spend much more in gas driving all over the place than it takes to mail to 1000 addresses!
I keep my lead cost low (gas should be counted for a true lead cost) by working my list in carrier route mode. My county is very dense. I've been working the same zip code for the last 3 months! And I ride a bicycle most days to save on gas!
Door knocking is not something you can just try and be successful. Like any marketing activity, you need to do it consistently for a least for a month or two to get an idea of where your ratios will be.
My average daily ratios for canvassing for the 3 products in my bag: FE/Cancer/DVH.
60+ doors knocked will generally get me in front of 25-30 people who answer the door (some days a lot less), of which 3-4 will either let me in or set an appointment. My app ratio is lousy (1 out of 6) but it's improving. I could improve that if I qualified better at the door, but I'm still relatively inexperienced when it comes to insurance sales and will sit with anyone who can fog a mirror!
It really is a grind. 80% of your time (some weeks 90%) is spent prospecting to the wrong people. With FE, most agents will try this for about 3 days before they go back to direct mail! And if you don't work your grid correctly, you can spend much more in gas driving all over the place than it takes to mail to 1000 addresses!
I keep my lead cost low (gas should be counted for a true lead cost) by working my list in carrier route mode. My county is very dense. I've been working the same zip code for the last 3 months! And I ride a bicycle most days to save on gas!
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- 16,902
I think door knocking is fun and can be the best thing to do if you ran out of leads BUT I think you would burn out quick in terrible weather.
You might get in more doors easier than normal though since they see you freezing out there.
You might get in more doors easier than normal though since they see you freezing out there.
- 29,504
I'm a door knocker. I don't think the cold weather helps me to get in more doors...maybe it's my face. I've had many tell me that they're letting cold air in the house and shut the door. lol
- 1,931
That's what I'm thinking. The very cold weather has them not wanting to open the door and if they do they don't want to keep it open listening to us. DK'd a couple old leads yesterday and both had the door barricaded with blankets and rugs to keep out the cold. Had to move all that crap to see what I wanted. One did let me in and bought but the other nicely told me to F off. But both had bad phones so it was DK or trash.
- 29,504
They also don't want us tracking in snow. I've left a few puddles under the kitchen table from appointments I had set telemarketing, and I'm sure people don't want a stranger tracking in a mess. But I still do it.
- 1,931
When I did mort protection I would carry a towel and wipe my shoes when inside to keep from doing that. FE I don't bother. I did have a guy earlier this week that wasted my time, stringing me along. His trailer was spotless. Had chair covers and pads under the legs to protect the floor. When I got up to leave I saw a dirty puddle under the table. I thought good, that will teach you, you dick. Is that bad or what? ha
This holds true to rain but desn't seem to hold true for extreme cold. At least not in my experience.. Rain, they empathize with you.. Cold, the only thing they have on their mind is shutting that door and keeping the heat in the house.. May be different here where cold is a newsworthy event (schools are closed today due to the cold) than it is farther north where they are a little more used to it.
- 599
Closed due to cold?!! Unless it's -30, we'd just tell you to put on an extra scarf.
Many of our kids would not have proper clothing for this when they have to stand outside before dawn waiting on the school bus. We would end of with a bunch of children with frostbite. We do not enough of this type of weather for people to be prepared for it. Most years we will not see any temps below 10 degrees and then only a night or two of that. In years gone by, we didn't even have the power capacity to keep the grid up in this weather but TVA now has that under control (I hope.)
