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A friend of mine is an FE agent in Kentucky. He left insurance to sell roofs and made well over $100K his first year.
The Door Knock Life
- Thread starter DayTimer
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A friend of mine is an FE agent in Kentucky. He left insurance to sell roofs and made well over $100K his first year.
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I was watching a youtube video where a psychology professor was talking about IQ tests saying that people that score poorly on IQ tests will generally score poorly on other similar tests. People that score well on IQ tests will generally score well on similar tests.
Not always, but often this is true in sales. The people that kill it selling insurance will usually kill it with whatever they sell.
Not always, but often this is true in sales. The people that kill it selling insurance will usually kill it with whatever they sell.
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He did pretty well selling FE too. What happened was he has a buddy who works for a roofing company as a salesman, and his buddy kept asking him to come and sell roofs for them. My friend, in turn, kept insisting that his roof selling buddy get his insurance license and sell FE.
Finally, his roof buddy caved, got his insurance license, and gave FE a try during the winter slow season. After a month or two, his buddy said screw this insurance. Selling roofs is so easy compared to this.
So my friend decided he would give roofs a try for the spring/summer and found out that at least in Kentucky, it is easier selling roofs than it is selling FE. And he hasn't even had any storms to work yet (supposed to be even easier to sell roofs after major hail/wind storms because folks can get their roof replaced with only the deductible out of pocket as the homeowner's insurance covers the rest).
I agree that if you can excel selling insurance, there isn't much you couldn't sell.
And I really believe that if you develop the skills to sell any product/service door to door you will always eat.
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Bingo. Because those are basic sales fundamentals. You can youtwitinstafacesnapbookgram all you want, but if you've got sales basics down, you're golden. Everyone is selling something. Everyone.
I actually have a bit of a theory. As people spend more and more time alone, on antisocial media (like I am right now, lol), and as children grow up with tweeting and facebook instead of face to face interaction, society as a whole will become less and less capable of dealing with eachother face to face. Those of us that can, will become much more valuable. We already are valuable, but we will become much more crucial and rare.
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At the reccomendation of @NAF1138 I picked up a copy of Chuck Piola's book, Going in Cold. It is a very solid book and quite enjoyable if you are into sales and door knocking and cold calling. Piola's experience is B2B, but some us do sell B2B and also it should not surprise any student of the door knock life that strategies and tactics that may work B2B may also translate into B2C iterations.
Here is an old article about Piola from Inc. magazine 30, yes thirty years ago.
48 Hours with the King of Cold Calls, Market Research and Strategy Article
Here is an old article about Piola from Inc. magazine 30, yes thirty years ago.
48 Hours with the King of Cold Calls, Market Research and Strategy Article
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Seen on the doors ...
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Did you actually see that when you were out knocking, or found that photo somewhere?
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- #168
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A fellow door knocker shared it - I did not see it myself.
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Do You Refuse To Door Knock?
By Mike Coday
Are you looking for work, but you don't want to knock doors?
I really like to hear from the owners of other roofing companies.
Here's a question I recently received about their roof salesmen and the difficulty they have getting them to knock doors…
"The salesmen we have refuse to door knock. They will only stay if the owner provides leads everyday which is astronomical and he really can't afford to do it. Are there any salesmen left who will actually door knock or do they all want their own canvasser provided by the owner at a huge cost. Should they be fired or does he give in and provide them with leads?"
Nobody Likes Rejection
Let's start by stating the obvious, "NOBODY LIKES TO KNOCK DOORS". That's because knocking doors is all about facing rejection… over, and over, and over again. Running roofing leads that are just handed to you is a lot easier, right?
Very few people are willing to sign up for these daily doses of rejection. Walking up to a door knowing full well that you may be dissed, dismissed and disliked by the person on the other side is more than a fragile ego can take.
Quite frankly, selling roofs by door knocking is for Big Boys & Girls. Some people can do it while others can't, won't, or just flat out refuse.
Leads Are More Expensive Than You Realize
Canvassers, telemarketers, radio, print, television and direct mail all cost real money… and there's no guarantee they'll even generate a single lead.
Back in 1996, I left the roofing company I started with and went to work for a man who generated leads using radio advertising. He was a major advertiser for several stations and sponsored their special events and radio personalities. As a result of his massive advertising budget, I was able to get several fresh leads a day. He did the same thing for 5-6 of his other salesmen too.
Sounds like a dream come true for a roofing salesman, right?
Honestly, it wasn't bad… at first.
I was making sales every week, but it wasn't enough to get ahead and I certainly wasn't having the big paydays like I did with my first roofing company.
So, what was the problem? With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that there were quite a few problems with getting leads fed to me daily.
If you're counting on your roofing company to supply you with a batch of fresh leads every day, don't be surprised if the owner announces a special Saturday morning meeting where you find out he'll charge you 5% more to help pay for the leads.
You say you'll just pack up and go work for another roofing company, but will you really? I can only tell you what I did when I got hit with an extra 5%… absolutely nothing! By that time, I was too comfortable being lazy. Besides, I had a pipeline full of jobs waiting to pop out that I needed to get paid on. I really couldn't afford to leave.
Maybe you're really good at closing the deal when you get in the front door, but you aren't comfortable knocking doors for yourself.
Why not hire your own canvasser? Wouldn't it be better to pay somebody $15-$20 bucks an hour out of your own pocket, plus $20-$30 per appointment, and a small percentage of every deal you close than to pay another 5% on top of your existing overhead charge?
Would it be worth it to pay out $500-$1,000 a week for your own personal canvasser if it meant you could make an extra $1,000, $2,500 or up to $5,000 more a week?
Think Like The Business Person You Are
I can hear you saying, "…but what if they don't set any appointments or I don't sell anything?" That's exactly what the owner of your company is thinking right now.
"The person who is willing to take the biggest risk is the person who deserves the most profit."
If you don't want to take any risks, you shouldn't expect to get paid what a real-life, hard-core, rejection eating, door knocking roofing salesman makes… because you aren't.
You're just an order taker.
Open up any newspaper in any major metropolitan city in the United States and look for a job in the Customer Service section. That's where you'll find the order takers.
There's nothing wrong with taking orders. It's an honest living, but it only pays $15 to $20 an hour… if you can even get hired in this economy.
The Answer To Your Question
So, "Should they be fired or should he give in and provide them with leads?"
You've probably figured out your own solution by now, but let me give you my suggestion since you asked.
First of all, don't fire them. It would be cruel and heartless to fire somebody in today's economy unless they're just asking for it.
People need jobs and you're providing a good opportunity for your sales people to make a good living. Opportunities to make the kind of money you can make selling roofs are rare these days.
Instead of firing them, try to "fire them up". Hold a contest, give away prizes like an iPad or a new laptop, add special daily cash incentives.
Find out what's important to your sales people and create a reward. Whatever you do, there's one rule you have to live by… Reward only those behaviors that you want to increase (e.g. knocking doors).
Secondly, if you are going to hire canvassers or pay to generate leads, institute a surcharge for the leads you generate that turn into sales. You need to have something in place to re-coup your expenses.
The man I worked for who gave away the free leads from all his radio advertising eventually had to close the business. He had inadvertently created a lazy sales force and a culture of entitlement.
When you create an entitlement culture, you strip your sales office of the atmosphere it needs to be successful. Proceed with caution here.
Finally, remember why you got in to this business. If you're anything like I am, you were tired of working for the office. You refused to spend another day punching a clock or sitting in a cube.
Your sales people are a lot like you are. Some of them may go on to own their own company some day. Work shouldn't be a drag. Make it an exciting place to make a living.
The more you feed their entrepreneurial spirit, the more likely they are to reward you with even more customers.
Peace,
Mike
By Mike Coday
Are you looking for work, but you don't want to knock doors?
I really like to hear from the owners of other roofing companies.
Here's a question I recently received about their roof salesmen and the difficulty they have getting them to knock doors…
"The salesmen we have refuse to door knock. They will only stay if the owner provides leads everyday which is astronomical and he really can't afford to do it. Are there any salesmen left who will actually door knock or do they all want their own canvasser provided by the owner at a huge cost. Should they be fired or does he give in and provide them with leads?"
Nobody Likes Rejection
Let's start by stating the obvious, "NOBODY LIKES TO KNOCK DOORS". That's because knocking doors is all about facing rejection… over, and over, and over again. Running roofing leads that are just handed to you is a lot easier, right?
Very few people are willing to sign up for these daily doses of rejection. Walking up to a door knowing full well that you may be dissed, dismissed and disliked by the person on the other side is more than a fragile ego can take.
Quite frankly, selling roofs by door knocking is for Big Boys & Girls. Some people can do it while others can't, won't, or just flat out refuse.
Leads Are More Expensive Than You Realize
Canvassers, telemarketers, radio, print, television and direct mail all cost real money… and there's no guarantee they'll even generate a single lead.
Back in 1996, I left the roofing company I started with and went to work for a man who generated leads using radio advertising. He was a major advertiser for several stations and sponsored their special events and radio personalities. As a result of his massive advertising budget, I was able to get several fresh leads a day. He did the same thing for 5-6 of his other salesmen too.
Sounds like a dream come true for a roofing salesman, right?
Honestly, it wasn't bad… at first.
I was making sales every week, but it wasn't enough to get ahead and I certainly wasn't having the big paydays like I did with my first roofing company.
So, what was the problem? With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that there were quite a few problems with getting leads fed to me daily.
- I got lazy. Too lazy to even knock the doors around my lead. When you know there's another free lead coming, it is hard to motivate yourself to knock.
- I got busy. I ran leads from all over Dallas and Fort Worth. I was spending more time in my truck driving to the next lead than I was spending selling.
- I got junk leads. It is hard to make a living spending half a day driving to a lead that just needs a new pipe jack or some skylight flashing.
- I got paid less. One Saturday morning the owner held a sales meeting and told us he was going to charge 5% more to help pay for the advertising.
- I got owned. When you count on somebody else to pump you full of free leads, they want something in return. No longer do you work for yourself, you work for the system. It's like being an employee all over again.
If you're counting on your roofing company to supply you with a batch of fresh leads every day, don't be surprised if the owner announces a special Saturday morning meeting where you find out he'll charge you 5% more to help pay for the leads.
You say you'll just pack up and go work for another roofing company, but will you really? I can only tell you what I did when I got hit with an extra 5%… absolutely nothing! By that time, I was too comfortable being lazy. Besides, I had a pipeline full of jobs waiting to pop out that I needed to get paid on. I really couldn't afford to leave.
Maybe you're really good at closing the deal when you get in the front door, but you aren't comfortable knocking doors for yourself.
Why not hire your own canvasser? Wouldn't it be better to pay somebody $15-$20 bucks an hour out of your own pocket, plus $20-$30 per appointment, and a small percentage of every deal you close than to pay another 5% on top of your existing overhead charge?
Would it be worth it to pay out $500-$1,000 a week for your own personal canvasser if it meant you could make an extra $1,000, $2,500 or up to $5,000 more a week?
Think Like The Business Person You Are
I can hear you saying, "…but what if they don't set any appointments or I don't sell anything?" That's exactly what the owner of your company is thinking right now.
"The person who is willing to take the biggest risk is the person who deserves the most profit."
If you don't want to take any risks, you shouldn't expect to get paid what a real-life, hard-core, rejection eating, door knocking roofing salesman makes… because you aren't.
You're just an order taker.
Open up any newspaper in any major metropolitan city in the United States and look for a job in the Customer Service section. That's where you'll find the order takers.
There's nothing wrong with taking orders. It's an honest living, but it only pays $15 to $20 an hour… if you can even get hired in this economy.
The Answer To Your Question
So, "Should they be fired or should he give in and provide them with leads?"
You've probably figured out your own solution by now, but let me give you my suggestion since you asked.
First of all, don't fire them. It would be cruel and heartless to fire somebody in today's economy unless they're just asking for it.
People need jobs and you're providing a good opportunity for your sales people to make a good living. Opportunities to make the kind of money you can make selling roofs are rare these days.
Instead of firing them, try to "fire them up". Hold a contest, give away prizes like an iPad or a new laptop, add special daily cash incentives.
Find out what's important to your sales people and create a reward. Whatever you do, there's one rule you have to live by… Reward only those behaviors that you want to increase (e.g. knocking doors).
Secondly, if you are going to hire canvassers or pay to generate leads, institute a surcharge for the leads you generate that turn into sales. You need to have something in place to re-coup your expenses.
The man I worked for who gave away the free leads from all his radio advertising eventually had to close the business. He had inadvertently created a lazy sales force and a culture of entitlement.
When you create an entitlement culture, you strip your sales office of the atmosphere it needs to be successful. Proceed with caution here.
Finally, remember why you got in to this business. If you're anything like I am, you were tired of working for the office. You refused to spend another day punching a clock or sitting in a cube.
Your sales people are a lot like you are. Some of them may go on to own their own company some day. Work shouldn't be a drag. Make it an exciting place to make a living.
The more you feed their entrepreneurial spirit, the more likely they are to reward you with even more customers.
Peace,
Mike
- Thread starter
- #170
- 5,940
I did something quite a bit different this week. Went into a large subdivision in Bucks county just outside of Philadelphia - a little over an hour from my home. There were four of us. All of us using the same script/messaging. Monday through Friday of this week for an avergage of 4 to 6 hours per day of knocking.
I finished the week with 27 deals.
The other three submitted 6 total.
So, my discovery of the week: Again, same script/messaging, but different deliveries and levels of confidence at the doors. At the door, it is not just what you say. I discovered this week that it is likely more important how you say it, and your body language as you say it.
Ponder on that while I go out for a Saturday 10 AM to 2 PM knock-a-rama
I finished the week with 27 deals.
The other three submitted 6 total.
So, my discovery of the week: Again, same script/messaging, but different deliveries and levels of confidence at the doors. At the door, it is not just what you say. I discovered this week that it is likely more important how you say it, and your body language as you say it.
Ponder on that while I go out for a Saturday 10 AM to 2 PM knock-a-rama
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