Yes it does, It depends on what time during the day among other things as to how many people you will even get to speak with. Also door knocking or cold walking is both commercial as well as residential. You might prefer one over the other.

been there, done that, and it works. Wouldn’t want to do it again.

I really don’t mind going to businesses, but, bothering people at their home would probably be very difficult for me. If it works, though…I’d do it. I know it’s a generalization, but, how often to you get insulted, yelled at, threatened, etc? Are most people friendly or do most people treat you like a vacuum salesman? Finally, how do you stay motivated to do this day-after-day for two or more years?

I did the door knocking thing at Jones for almost a year.  My advice is to look on the experience as a way to introduce yourself and your office to prospects and NOT as an opportunity to sell investments on the doorstep.  I found that people were interested to know about my business and as long as I wasn't drilling them with questions or trying to pry financial information from them on the doorstep and the end result was that I had made a warm contact and quite often they would drop by the office within a few weeks.  I NEVER tried to sell an investment at the door.  I wanted to get them into my office.

Try to get the mailing address (in a non threatening way) so you can follow up with a thank you for your time note and future informational mailings.   Drip drip drip.   My best results came from something like this.  "In order to introduce myself to the community, I am scheduling a series of free educational seminars on various investment topics. I believe that education is very important and I would like to send you a schedule. If you have any topics that you are particularly interested in hearing about I would be happy to include those."  People usually said, sure send me something and here is my mailing address and gave me some information on what they might be interested in.

I live in a rather rural area and most people were either friendly or at least polite. Can't say how it is in other places, but I have heard some horror stories.  My biggest issue/confrontation was  large unchained dogs.

All the above worked for me.  You have to find your own rhythm

BL is absolutely right.  Doorknocking does work as a way to introduce yourself to your community.  Her approach is a great one.  Not in your face, but enough to make a good impression.  I'm one of the strange ones that enjoys doorknocking.  You just have to remember the job is about talking with people.  Whether you dial the phone a couple hundred times a day, or you doorknock 100 houses to find 25 people to talk to, you still have to talk with people.  There are Jones brokers who only doorknock businesses.  If there are enough in your area, great, do that.  Just don't abandon the idea of residential doorknocking until you give it a try. 

My usual schpiel (sp?) went something like this.

"Hello, I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself real quick. I'm John Doe with Edward Jones Investments here in Doeville, and I don't believe we've ever met, so I just wanted to drop off a card." (hand over card)

They will usually say something like nice to meet you, thanks, etc. I then say:

"I help clients with retirement planning and other major financial goals they may have. Do you have a financial advisor you're happy with?"

Take it from there. 

One thing Jones teaches is to carry around a folded 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper to write down names, phone #'s, etc.  I did that the first few months.  People were very hesitant to give me any info (because they knew I would write it down). I then went out with NOTHING in my hands.  I had a pen in my breast pocket, and would hand them a business card only.

As the conversation winds down, I would go for a phone #.

"Mr. Smith, from time to time we will have a very safe tax-free investment that has a really nice rate. If I see one available would you like me to let you know about it?"

Do this with NOTHING in your hands, and the person at the door will say yes about 70% of the time.  You then reach into your pocket and grab your pen, pull out one of your biz cards, turn it over, get ready to write on the back of the card, and ask "what is the best daytime number to reach you?"  They will almost always give you a number.

You then put the card in a different pocket.  As you walk, you can tell how many contacts you've made by counting the cards in that pocket.

My longest day, I knocked on about 210 doors. Yeah, it sucked, but it does work.

Random doorknocking tips:

* Door knock a neighborhood on trash day.  ONLY doorknock the houses that have brought their trash cans back up into their driveway. The odds of having people home go WAY up. I would use this when I only had an hour or two to doorknock, and needed to be very efficient.

* If possible, use your county's property tax roll, or a street directory, to get the names of the homeowners. That way, when a person opens the door, you can say "Hello, Mr. Smith?"  They seemed to be more receptive when I used their name, and then you don't have to ask for their name. I think they felt like I came to meet them specifically, not just the person who lives there.

If some random person knocked on my door and knew my name I would close the door on them immediately.  Unless they had balloons, a big oversized check, and tv cameras. 

I doorknocked for about 16 months.  Hated it.  It worked.  I wasent aggressive but I got a couple decent prospects per day.  I went from 9:30am to 12 and from 1 to 3:00.  If I got 25 solid face to face contacts I would quit earlier.  After a month or so a good part of the day is spent doing second or even 3rd contacts to people you previously met at the door.  Carry a map and yellow out the streets you do to keep track of things.

The fastest-at-growing-their-business IR I have ever known did the same thing but he was VERY aggressive at the door.  When trainees would come to my office after spending a week with him they would tell me how unfomfortable being with this guy was.  I'd describe his door knocking as intense and ready to close at the drop of a hat.  He wouldn't stop probing until he hit a wall.  In ten years he was at $800,000 gross and a regional leader.    

We have a guy like that in our region.  Started from scratch and hit Seg 4 in less than a year.  Said he would come back to his office with stacks of statements to review.  I still haven’t figured that one out.  “That’s a nice row of flowers, Mrs. Smith” doesn’t translate very well to “give me your current statements so I can review them for you.” 

[quote=Malcolm]

I doorknocked for about 16 months.  Hated it.  It worked.  I wasent aggressive but I got a couple decent prospects per day.  I went from 9:30am to 12 and from 1 to 3:00.  If I got 25 solid face to face contacts I would quit earlier.  After a month or so a good part of the day is spent doing second or even 3rd contacts to people you previously met at the door.  Carry a map and yellow out the streets you do to keep track of things.

The fastest-at-growing-their-business IR I have ever known did the same thing but he was VERY aggressive at the door.  When trainees would come to my office after spending a week with him they would tell me how unfomfortable being with this guy was.  I'd describe his door knocking as intense and ready to close at the drop of a hat.  He wouldn't stop probing until he hit a wall.  In ten years he was at $800,000 gross and a regional leader.    

Stacks of statements to review from first contact doorknocking?  I guess an unusually attractive and smooth gentleman could pull that off.

Average account size was about 100K.   I'm in a wealthy rural retirement area and my average account size is about 400K, so I am probably unusual.  Each area is different.  Plus most people don't just throw all their money at you at one time.  They give you a trial run first.   

A line that I still use goes something like this.  "I don't expect you to give me all of your business. Just give me a little and I'll earn the rest."  You can thank my husband for this one

My largest account from door knocking was a rollover IRA/401k distribution 570K and was actually a referral from the guy's mother in law while on her door step.  She didn't have anything to invest but gave me his name and number.

My average account size from doorknocking was probably around $30,000.  When I left EDJ my average account size was around $80,000.  Now it is over $400,000. 

Here's a weird one.  I moved accross the country to start with Jones where I started my training in a small town.  I also grew up in a small town.  The VERY first door I knocked on ended up being a lady FROM MY HOME TOWN!  I took that as a good sign.

The largest account I opened doorknocking started out as a $40,000 account and I swear I am telling the truth, grew to over 12 million.   My first sale was $5000 in MBDs.

My experience in a metro area was:

4 people on average home out of 10 doorknocks (newer neighborhoods less, older ones more).  50/50 split between retirees and stay at home moms. 

Very few gave phone numbers.  Older folks gave full names, younger folks only gave first name.  I used reverse directories at the library to match addresses to names and phone numbers.

I was the fourth broker in an office and had other offices around me so I was typically the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Jones broker to knock on their doors.  Most people were polite, but still want you to go away. 

Of people I talked to, I had about a 1% conversion rate into clients.  Average account about $20,000 (IRA rollovers and bonds).  This is pretty bad, but like I said they had all been solicited before by Jones.  I also didn't follow the recipe of contacting them every two weeks until they buy something or tell you to f off.

I think it does work to a degree, especially if you are starting out in an area that hasn't been door knocked before (and what else do you have to do when you first start out).  All you're trying to do is get something, anything, to generate some commision and get future referals. 

Also remember anytime somebody says they've got something that "works", it may only work 5% of the time at best.  It is still a numbers game.  50% of the people you doorknock won't stop in your office, it may be one a week if you've really been pounding the pavement.  

I was too horrible and insecure to ask for full names and I never asked for phone numbers so I also used the reverse directory.  I sucked but I just hammered away and made up for my short falls with hard work.  I also knocked in the rain and snow and on the 4th of July and other holidays.  I got bit by a dog once while in the freaking rain.  It took me I think about a year to get an office.  

I always asked what type of investment was "their favorite."  If they said MFDs I would ask which ones they owned.  Then I would look it up and compare it to other funds in the same fund family.  I would then stop by again in ten days and bring them a print out of a different fund in the same fund family that had significantly better performance and tell them I could shift them into that if they moved their things to me and it would not cost anything. 

If they liked bonds or CDs I would go back with a print out of a good bond or CD and say "I was just in the area and thought I'd drop this off for you because you might like to own some of this, etc"  Then I'd follow up on both of these with a call in two days.  If they didnt bite, I would start dripping on them and calling them every other month until I hit a dead end or opened an account.       

I averaged slightly over 14 new accounts per month.  That sounds crazy to me now.  That's about how many I open in a year now but they are more than ten times larger than back in the day.  Man what a time that was.