Learn The Basics of Door To Door Sales…
The question is, should I pay door knockers by the hour, or by commission? There’s only one answer for this, by commission. There’s no scenario, where I would ever pay by the hour for door knocking. Now, if I had some available employees that were already on my payroll, where I’m already paying them and I’m not going to take them off payroll because I’ve committed to keep them on payroll even while we’re slow, then I would continue to pay them. But, I would offer an incentive of a commission.
I would still not send them out and say, “Hey, just spend the day door knocking and see how it goes.” No way. I would give them a very lucrative commission for every single sale. There is no scenario where I would not do this.
If you’re hiring individuals to door knock for you, then you’ve got to do a little work to find the kind of guy that will do this type of work. A great way is to talk to the guys that are already door knocking at your house, selling you other things, and see if you can swipe them.
There’s a couple of models for door knocking. The two models to consider are, one where you have an individual who canvases the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and attempting to make a sale. If they make a sale, you give them a commission. If they don’t make a sale, they don’t get a commission.
They tend not to work full time. They tend to work in the evenings and on weekends, and they’re getting a commission for every sale that they make. You’ve got to figure out what that number is. Be generous with it and don’t be cheap about it. Think about what it would cost you to acquire a new client.
For example, if it costs me a hundred dollars to acquire a client through door hangers, or a hundred dollars to acquire a client through direct mail, then I’m going to pay a guy a hundred dollars every time he makes me a sale, because I want as many sales as he can possibly bring me.
I’m not looking at this as a scenario where I am trying to save money. No way. I want the guy to make a lot of money, because I want the guy to bring me a lot of sales. That’s model number one, you pay a guy for making the sale.
Model number 2 is a two person team. You have a setter and a closer. The concept is, you have setters canvas the neighborhood, they knock on the door, they drum up interest. Their entire purpose is just to garner interest and ask if they can have a follow up with them. Can somebody come by and chat with them, can we give them something? And, at the minimum, they’re collecting names and phone numbers.
That’s what you’d call a setter. They’re setting the appointment. That’s their entire purpose. You’ll see this model a lot with roofers. Roofers will go around with a setter, and then they’ll come back around with a closer. The setter, will make a commission as well.
Then there’s a closer that follows up with that person. The setter gets the name and the phone number. The closer then goes back to the home, or calls them on the phone. Their job is to close the business, to get the deal, to basically win a new client. That individual then makes a commission . Setters can make less than closers, or it could be a 50/50 split. You’ve got to figure that out. There are different models.
Great industries to look at are pest control and roofers. They both do a ton of door knocking, especially the roofers. Watch how they work. Read about how they work on the internet. I’ve actually never done that, which would actually be a pretty good idea. Read about it and see how their model works, how they pay, and what their commission is. I always talk to these guys when they come to my house so I can learn additional ways to do this, and I would recommend the same of you.
Next time somebody tries to sell you something, engage them and find out how they get paid. Find out how long they’ve been doing this. Find out the hours that they work. That’s how I know that most of these guys work late afternoons, into the evening, and then they work weekends. Most of them are students, or they also have another job. Do a little studying and you’ll get all the answers you need on this one, but look at those two models. Good luck.
