The Door Knock Life

[Dumbledood]

I'm a home service (debit) agent who also writes bank drafted FE. In my opinion, FE agents should stay completely away from low income housing of any kind (unless they don't mind bad persistency and chargebacks!). Of course there are exceptions. For example, if it's entirely a senior complex, you might do better. Otherwise, leave those neighborhoods to us debit agents!

An IMO that would send a brand new FE agent into public housing, telling you to cold canvass a neighborhood full of young single moms, is somebody you should be glad to get away from.

Exactly. They were huge on public housing, and I did it so much I developed my own verbiage specifically for public housing to get inside almost every time. Was just doing what I observed at my IMO because being a newb it was all I knew. Also, it didn't help that they insisted if the person qualified to try to write them an Americo and of course, get a high premium out of it if possible. Talk about chargebacks? Ha!

I ended up with so many doing business like that as a newb that I almost reconsidered FE all together, until I joined here and realized the "IMO" I was at and the way they did unethical business, just so the upline could get their huge overrides was the exception not the rule. Damn glad I joined the forums lol.

 

[shonceman]

Exactly. They were huge on public housing, and I did it so much I developed my own verbiage specifically for public housing to get inside almost every time. Was just doing what I observed at my IMO because being a newb it was all I knew. Also, it didn't help that they insisted if the person qualified to try to write them an Americo and of course, get a high premium out of it if possible. Talk about chargebacks? Ha!

I ended up with so many doing business like that as a newb that I almost reconsidered FE all together, until I joined here and realized the "IMO" I was at and the way they did unethical business, just so the upline could get their huge overrides was the exception not the rule. Damn glad I joined the forums lol.

I encounter FE agents in my debit neighborhoods from time to time. Occasionally one will try to replace me. If that happens, I'll go to TX DOI website and show the client how long that person's been licensed. It's almost always a newbie. They're usually out of the business before their next license renewal.

 

[Dumbledood]

I encounter FE agents in my debit neighborhoods from time to time. Occasionally one will try to replace me. If that happens, I'll go to TX DOI website and show the client how long that person's been licensed. It's almost always a newbie. They're usually out of the business before their next license renewal.

Ha nice. I've replaced alottttt of policies when I was at the previous IMO. They really instill a cunning nature and extremely deceptive toolset in you with all the verbiage and tricks to go with it. They really don't "help" people. The mindset there is do not get out of the house without getting something out of the house. Replacement, add on, anything. All to give my upline like 40% of what I worked very hard for. But if I work hard enough and prove myself, I could also have a massive team like him! Yay! Lol. Makes me sick to think about it. Oh well, life goes on.

 

[DonP]

Yeah but direct express ss billing will work in housing projects . Other than that walk . A carrier with no ss billing is a chargeback most of time . Although I must say I've done 7 direct monthly's the last yr and all are paying . These are very low income people .I'm very suprised . Wrote a woman back in oct . Husband , wife , 2 regular children and 5 adopted kids . First check returned bad account . She swore she wanted . Gave me Navy federal account and never an issue since .

 

[shonceman]

Yeah but direct express ss billing will work in housing projects . Other than that walk . A carrier with no ss billing is a chargeback most of time . Although I must say I've done 7 direct monthly's the last yr and all are paying . These are very low income people .I'm very suprised . Wrote a woman back in oct . Husband , wife , 2 regular children and 5 adopted kids . First check returned bad account . She swore she wanted . Gave me Navy federal account and never an issue since .

DE's great until they lose their card and get a new one, then forget to tell you about it.

 

[DonP]

Honestly I bet my persistency with de Trans 13 month near 90% or was when I wrote a lot . But 3-5 yr suspect as cards expire . Unless you help them fill out many lapse . You get paid big daddy renewals to baby sit . I'm fierce on retention calling , knocking and texting . I try 3-4 times if nothing I walk .

 

[DayTimer]

This is an article I came across years and years ago when I was door knocking for real estate leads & listings. It was published in Water Quality Products magazine. As far as I can tell Carl Davidson, the author has since moved on as both his personal and company websites are defunct. But it was a good article. I copied and pasted it into a word document, which I then printed out and I keep in a three ring binder with other articles on sales, especially door to door. It was originally published over 20 years ago (Dec 2000 is now more than 20 years ago - how the heck did that happen?). But I re-read it tonight and I thought I'd like to share it here for my fellow knockers but I didn't want to go and have to type it out. I some what surprised to find that the Water Quality Products magazine site is not only still up (and quite a bit more contemporary looking than it was when I first ran across it 20 years ago or so), but that they still had this article hidden in the available pages of the website. And so here it ...


THE ONE SALES SECRET I HATE TO REVEAL
Carl Davidson Dec 28, 2000

As someone who makes a living teaching people to sell, there is one sales secret I hate to reveal. The fact is, you don't have to be a great salesperson to be successful selling water equipment. If the product is good and the demonstration is powerful, three things can make even unlikely people wildly successful.

What are the three foundations? You have to believe in the product until you feel sorry for anyone who doesn't use it. You have to learn a good demonstration and do it in full in every home. Third, you have to do the demo in two or more homes every day. That's it.Let me prove this by using two real-life examples of people I have come to know.

One day, I received a call from a man who had just lost his drivers license. He couldn't make a living without his license and had to earn money in the six months his license was suspended. He had some selling experience but not in the water industry. He lived in a large suburban subdivision and decided to walk door-to-door selling something. He recently had purchased a reverse osmosis (RO) system and was excited about the product. So, he spent eight hours every day walking door-to-door in the subdivision selling the ROs he believed in. He said that in those eight hours he knocked on about 50 doors. He got into five homes and sold on the average three systems per day. He now owns a successful water equipment dealership. What made him successful? It was his belief in the product and his determination to knock on doors.

Our next true example is from another couple who are not in the water industry. They both have jobs and neither are salespeople. They decided that three nights a week, each of them would call on two couples and attempt to rent out an RO. Together, they call on 12 couples per week. They have worked out an ingenious system. They install the RO the same night they rent it and at that time, collect a deposit and six-month rental in advance. They stop by every six months to change the filters and collect another six months' rent.

No bookkeeping, no billing and no receivables. The important thing is that they stick to their commitment of calling on six couples per week. They believe in the product. The result? In the last two years, they have done more than 1,200 demonstrations. They have about 200 rental ROs out. You do the math. They earn about $4,000 per month from their rentals, and they say that when they reach 1,000 ROs on rental, they will retire and be earning about $20,000 per month.

What do these true but unusual stories have in common? The people involved are not great salespeople. They are not well-trained. They don't use fancy closes or hard sales tactics. They don't have the lowest price or technologically superior products backed up by a television ad campaign. They don't have a phone room supplying leads, a service department or any of the other things we all claim are preventing us from selling. They do have the three fundamental pillars. They believe in the product and are really excited about it, but they do a good demonstration for every customer. Most importantly, they committed to doing a set number of demonstrations per day and have stuck to it over a long period of time. We all could sell a lot more if we concentrated on the three fundamentals instead of the things that don't make us any money.

We have to ask ourselves how so many of us who sell full-time in the industry don't get around to doing as many demonstrations as the people in these success stories. This failure is caused by two factors. The first is a failure to keep an eye on the fact that only demonstrations earn us any money. If we aren't demonstrating, we aren't earning. Everything else should be done when we have reached our demonstration goal. Do you even have a demonstration goal? Many of us don't and we will never reach our true potential without one. The success stories we looked at above had a simple-minded compulsion to meet the quota, and it has lead to success.

I suggest that each of us write a contract with ourselves or our com-pany and state how many times we will demonstrate each day and what we will do if we miss the goal. Work longer hours or weekends?

I said earlier there were two factors why so many do not make it in the industry. The second factor is many of us fear knocking on doors more than we fear failure or our managers. Hey, it's scary to knock on doors. I've done it for 30 years, and I still get covered in sweat and a knot in my stomach every time. What makes successful salespeople keep knocking when they want to give up? They fear failure or the wrath of their manager more than they fear the homeowner's rejection.

If you work for yourself, really sell yourself on how important it is to succeed. If you are a manager, make sure you check every day on how many in-home demonstrations each salesperson completes. Be strict in forcing your team to be successful and meet its demo goals.

Do you have a plan and a commitment to do demos? I hope you will make one as soon as you finish this article. Nothing else you do will earn you money. Concentrate on demos, not sales. The sales will take care of themselves. The next time you wonder why you aren't selling enough, don't concentrate on phone rooms, the economy, brochures or business cards. Count the demos and the answer will reveal itself.

If you have questions or a topic you would like to see addressed, please e-mail [email protected]; fax 847-390-0408.


The One Sales Secret I Hate to Reveal

 

[jasperjohns]

When you are referring to "seed card"
Do you mean a sample
Card that was mailed to the agent since
You placed your name in the list order so as to confirm pieces are mailed?

 

[DayTimer]

Do you mean a sample
Card that was mailed to the agent since you placed your name in the list order so as to confirm pieces are mailed?

Yes, it is the same card I mailed to the list but it has my name on it as it was mailed to me. I usually laminate the card but this time I got several extras so I just went with the plain card.

Surprisingly, not all vendors will do this for you. Main Street Powermail does it, Lead Connections has done it for me in the past, and so does Kramer. But Need a Lead would not. However, if you just want to buy a walking list (a qualified door knock list, e.g. 50-85, income 15K - 50K or whatever) Need-a-Lead is the best price I have found for a walking list.

Main Street Powermail did disappoint me this time. I was waiting and waiting for that seed card. Finally I called them and said "are you sure you did this mailing for me?" And they assured me they did. Then a day later I get an email and they tell me that they left me off the list and that they would overnight a supply of cars (hence the reason I got several copies this time). What burned me about this was that according to their mail tracking, these cards were delivered to the list recipients almost two weeks before I got my seed card. In fact, the day after they told me that they had left me off the list I started getting leads back. Well, that first two weeks is my golden time for cold knocking because they have that card sitting there on their table or wherever. Boy was I hot abou that because I have been using the same rep since forever with them and she knows I absolutely always get that seed card and it is so important to me I write "SEED CARD" on the order form and then I circle it!

Also somewhat disappointing is that I only got 6 leads back so far and it has been just about a month since they were received according to the post office. I sent 1004 pieces and that is the lowest response rate I ever got for a mailer.

_______________________________________________________________

I am starting an experiment on Monday May 3, and once I have the results for the entire month of May, I write it up here.

 

[DonP]

Mailers have been tough . I think it's a combination of saturation and more people turning to social media . Unless your with an Rgi that can use incredible data mining techniques to remail past respondents that gets higher returns response rates falling .