How Does Door-Knocking Work In 2009?

Hey Gang,

We’re continuing our series on Door-Knocking in the Year 2009.

I recently made a change and work for a new company selling pre-arrangements.  Because of this change I was able to add a couple of niche markets to my main prospecting niche.  For the past six years I’ve been in a single niche selling pre-arrangements.  I’ll continue in this niche but I’m adding a couple new unrelated markets to my arsenal.

See past post on the job change.

See the first post on this series, Does Door-Knocking Still Work?

Today we’re discussing the general responses from potential prospects as I knocked on doors.  As a reminder I door-knocked all sorts of neighborhoods, rich, poor, and in-be-tween.  I spoke to young and old and in-be-tween.  Some didn’t speak English.  Some weren’t interested, and some had purchased, and some lied.

For the most part everyone was nice.  In fact, I wanted them to tell me they weren’t interested more than hem-hawing around stuttering and stammering if they weren’t interested.

My day began about nine thirty in the morning.  My approach was pretty simple.  I’d identify myself; “Hi, I’m Dave from the cemetery.  You don’t own your cemetery property, do you?”

If the answer was NO I’d talk about the Personal Planning guide and how it allows you to write down 90 – 95% of the information needed if there were a death in the family.  “Does the book make sense?”

If it made sense I’d say, “I don’t want to bother you now but the next time I’m in your area I’ll drop one by.”  I’d also narrow down a time they’re likely to be home and note it all on a 3 x 5 card.  There are high-tech ways of keeping up with your leads and low-tech.  I used my trusty 3 x 5 card box with months and days to split up the leads.

The first full week I acquired 26 leads.

Surprisingly I was adding one lead per 5 contacts.  This would be followed by no leads and several leads in a row.  For the most part it wasn’t possible to pre-judge the house and the people I’d meet.  The fact is if I thought they were the least likely to be interested they were probably the most interested.

When door-knocking you really want to break up the block so you begin and end in the same place.  I’d park about halfway down a block and start on the same side as I parked and head behind the car.  When the block ended I’d cross the street and go the other way.  When the block ended again I’d cross the street again and head toward the car. 

Mapquest or google has maps you can print out to keep track of where you’re at and where you’ve been.  The more organized you are the better and more productive and efficient you’ll be prospecting.

Some potential prospects told me they already owned cemetery property.  If they owned at the cemetery I’d research what they had and what they needed.  For those potential prospects who owned everything at the cemetery I’d shift gears to the mortuary and asked if they knew what funeral home they’d use to get them to the cemetery.

Some potential prospects were interested in cremation information.  No matter what info they were interested in I’d note it and tell them, “when I’m in the area  again I’ll drop by with the information.”

When we continue next time I’ll get into some of the nuances of the conversations and how I got into several homes for immediate presentations and YES sales.

Until next time, Happy Selling!

David…

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