Door to door is not easy!

Door to door sales is a tough business involving a lot of walking, talking and what turns most people off; Rejection. Being rejected time after time after time can make this type of selling very hard. There are many door to door sales tips and tricks used by great sales people but the real building blocks for success come from motivation, planning and persistence.

Motivation

Staying motivated from street to street, door to door and day to day is an ongoing challenge. It is said this sort of sales is just a numbers game, the more you knock the more chances you have to get a sales and while this is true it is only a part of the truth. If you knock unsuccessfully for too long it can get to you and the next call you will not be as lively or persuasive, having high motivation and energy throughout the day is essential for being persuasive and making each call count. The first thing you must do is not take any rejection personally, you are in an industry where you are selling to people who are not actively looking for your product and do not know you are coming. Just think that every unsuccessful call has enabled you to get to the next call that may be a winner! Another way to stay motivated is to keep track of sales but do not keep track of unsuccessful calls, only focus on positives not negatives and you will find success comes more easily.

Planning

While this may be a numbers game not all calls are equal. Choose your locations well for your products, some areas simply will not generate the same sales as other due to demographics. Also the time of day you call is important, calling at the wrong time can lead to a wasted call. You must strike a balance between numbers and quality of calls for a good sales conversion rate.

Persistence

Persistence can be a double edged sword; I was once told that the difference between a good sales person and a great sales person is persistence. However later I learned that the difference between a great sale person and an annoying harasser is but small degrees apart. If you are pressing too hard you simple put people off, the art of listening is more important in this situation or even just giving up. If you apply your persistence where it can get results you will go far but you must prioritise calls and customers quickly or be stuck in dead end. Having more time for more calls can often bring better results than simply trying not to take no for an answer. Remember that door to door sales is about quality and quantity, sticking with a low quality call means you have no quality and you are missing out on more quantity!