First off, don’t use the daytime for admin work.

Unless you live in a big retiree community, daytime residential doorknocking is a waste of time. Spend your days talking to business owners and following up with prospects at work (and anyone at home). From about 4-7pm, do residential doorknocks. It took me too long to figure that out, and I wasted countless weeks and hours walking around empty neighborhoods at 10 in the morning.

If I doorknocked from 9am-7pm, I would get about 5-10 numbers from 9-4, and like 15-20 from 4-7. Not that I got 20-30 numbers EVERY day, but that was sort of the ratio of day/evenings. And keep in mind 90% of the people that are home during the day are also at home at night, so you are not giving anything up (other than time) by only doing residential at night.

Today’s numbers:
131 doors, 31 came to the door and got a card, 14 are qualified enough to contact again, 3 gave their phones to hear about a tax free bond.
A mix of retirees, housewives, guys working at home, unemployed and ‘No speak English.’  Very nice neighborhood, showing signs of wear. Foreclosures and shutters need paint. Noon to 5. … Dead tired.

Wow…sounds like fun! Can’t wait…just a few more weeks until I get to “introduce myself” and not talk about investments.

Couple of observations…Tax free bond? I would NOT be giving investment ideas on a doorknock. I mean, good choice of products, but I would NOT be selling at the door. That is a recipe for a turn-down. You should be using something bland like “get on my mailing list for seminars or newsletter”. Or tell them what you do for people and you will make sure to get them any timely information you think would be useful. They will never say NO to keeping them on a mailing list, and it’s a good way to get a phone number for future “invitations” to keep the door open. When you try to sell something on an initial doorknock, they will either say YES or NO. If they say NO, they are saying NO do not sell me something. Ever. And MOST people will not say YES to a product on a doorknock. You will get in fewer doors on product. And that is ALL you are doing…getting your foot in the door. Your next conversation moves the needle a little further, the next conversation maybe gets an appointment…then maybe some accounts. Just slow down a bit and don’t expect to get people to accept a product push at the door.



Second, if you banged on 131 doors and only got 31 to the door…try going from 3-6 (or whenever it gets dark) instead of 12-5. Or just do 12-6. The more time you spend in the evening the better. You will have more people at home, and more MEN at home. This is not sexist…stay with me here. A lot of stay-at-home mothers will not answer the door if they see a strange guy…especially if they have kids in the house. But with the husband at home at night, one of them will usually answer it.

[quote=B24]


Second, if you banged on 131 doors and only got 31 to the door…try going from 3-6 (or whenever it gets dark) instead of 12-5. Or just do 12-6. The more time you spend in the evening the better. You will have more people at home, and more MEN at home. This is not sexist…stay with me here. A lot of stay-at-home mothers will not answer the door if they see a strange guy…especially if they have kids in the house. But with the husband at home at night, one of them will usually answer it.[/quote]

You are dead on about more men being home equals more people answering the door.  Also, working women seem more willing to answer the door as well.  Can’t tell you how many times I see someone peeking through the blinds but won’t answer the door when I go out early. I’ve had to really adjust my door knocking hours.  Here are my stats today.

2pm - 4:45pm (had to pick up my son + had the insurance test today)
38 knocks
10 answers
4 numbers (an all time low, a strange day)
4 contacts worth following up
2 whack jobs

Not a great day and I’ve never been denied so much on the number.  Usually get it between 80-90%. Going out tomorrow for 2.5 hrs, hopefully it’ll be better!

[quote=B24]Couple of observations…Tax free bond? I would NOT be giving investment ideas on a doorknock. I mean, good choice of products, but I would NOT be selling at the door. That is a recipe for a turn-down. You should be using something bland like “get on my mailing list for seminars or newsletter”. Or tell them what you do for people and you will make sure to get them any timely information you think would be useful. They will never say NO to keeping them on a mailing list, and it’s a good way to get a phone number for future “invitations” to keep the door open. When you try to sell something on an initial doorknock, they will either say YES or NO. If they say NO, they are saying NO do not sell me something. Ever. And MOST people will not say YES to a product on a doorknock. You will get in fewer doors on product. And that is ALL you are doing…getting your foot in the door. Your next conversation moves the needle a little further, the next conversation maybe gets an appointment…then maybe some accounts. Just slow down a bit and don’t expect to get people to accept a product push at the door.



Second, if you banged on 131 doors and only got 31 to the door…try going from 3-6 (or whenever it gets dark) instead of 12-5. Or just do 12-6. The more time you spend in the evening the better. You will have more people at home, and more MEN at home. This is not sexist…stay with me here. A lot of stay-at-home mothers will not answer the door if they see a strange guy…especially if they have kids in the house. But with the husband at home at night, one of them will usually answer it.[/quote]

Thanks, B24. … I don’t ask if they want to be on the mailing list because then I’ll end up with 3,000 people on the mailing list. I’ve been down that road and then you have too many people to call and most of them just saying yes to mail to get you off the porch. I ask if they are working with anyone and would like to hear about ‘safe’ investments. If that piques their interest I present a tax free – at the very least that qualifies them. Also gets us off the subject of how bad stocks are. Nobody is going to buy stocks for a long time. Everybody says they have an advisor, but you can tell the ones who don’t, or the ones who are not happy. If the guy says, ‘B24 is my advisor and he’s great,’ then I congratulate them and move on.  … You’re right about the wives; many of the women answer the door with the telephone at their ear. It’s obvious they are not on the phone, just being careful. I just try to make a good impression and move on. Most husbands do what their wives want. … You are correct that you find more people in the evening; however, if you DK them in the morning then you have a good chance of catching them again the next morning. The most difficult thing about this job in my experience is that people are so hard to get the second or third time so you have to push it a little harder when you have their attention. It’s hard to drip on people when you can’t get them on the phone.

[quote=Fud Box]Wow…sounds like fun! Can’t wait…just a few more weeks until I get to “introduce myself” and not talk about investments.

Sounds like most sales…a numbers game. I guess you just gotta keep on pluggin’ away.

The SEC just eliminated the 120 day rule, so you should get to at least ask financial questions from day one.  That is much better than only talking about their car, their flowers, their yard, the neighborhood, the weather, etc.

What are most of you taking with you to hand out when door knocking other than stuff to take notes?  Just business cards?   Also, are you trying to make your second contact with an “interested” prospect another face to face visit?

[quote=buyandhold]

[quote=B24]Couple of observations…Tax free bond? I would NOT be giving investment ideas on a doorknock. I mean, good choice of products, but I would NOT be selling at the door. That is a recipe for a turn-down. You should be using something bland like “get on my mailing list for seminars or newsletter”. Or tell them what you do for people and you will make sure to get them any timely information you think would be useful. They will never say NO to keeping them on a mailing list, and it’s a good way to get a phone number for future “invitations” to keep the door open. When you try to sell something on an initial doorknock, they will either say YES or NO. If they say NO, they are saying NO do not sell me something. Ever. And MOST people will not say YES to a product on a doorknock. You will get in fewer doors on product. And that is ALL you are doing…getting your foot in the door. Your next conversation moves the needle a little further, the next conversation maybe gets an appointment…then maybe some accounts. Just slow down a bit and don’t expect to get people to accept a product push at the door.



Second, if you banged on 131 doors and only got 31 to the door…try going from 3-6 (or whenever it gets dark) instead of 12-5. Or just do 12-6. The more time you spend in the evening the better. You will have more people at home, and more MEN at home. This is not sexist…stay with me here. A lot of stay-at-home mothers will not answer the door if they see a strange guy…especially if they have kids in the house. But with the husband at home at night, one of them will usually answer it.[/quote]Thanks, B24. … I don’t ask if they want to be on the mailing list because then I’ll end up with 3,000 people on the mailing list. I’ve been down that road and then you have too many people to call and most of them just saying yes to mail to get you off the porch. I ask if they are working with anyone and would like to hear about ‘safe’ investments. If that piques their interest I present a tax free – at the very least that qualifies them. Also gets us off the subject of how bad stocks are. Nobody is going to buy stocks for a long time. Everybody says they have an advisor, but you can tell the ones who don’t, or the ones who are not happy. If the guy says, ‘B24 is my advisor and he’s great,’ then I congratulate them and move on. … You’re right about the wives; many of the women answer the door with the telephone at their ear. It’s obvious they are not on the phone, just being careful. I just try to make a good impression and move on. Most husbands do what their wives want. … You are correct that you find more people in the evening; however, if you DK them in the morning then you have a good chance of catching them again the next morning. The most difficult thing about this job in my experience is that people are so hard to get the second or third time so you have to push it a little harder when you have their attention. It’s hard to drip on people when you can’t get them on the phone.[/quote]



BH, I hear what you mean about the mailing list. But my point is not to just put them on the mailing list. It’s to give them a reason to give me their information and keep talking, and hopefully accept my call. It’s a very “soft” approach, but you need to find a way to get more people on your “list”. You might not see that now, but wait 3 more years when you don’t have any more active prospects. You will be wishing you had more names to contact. And some of those people will have read your newsletter every month, and may be interested, but not willing to pick up the phone to call you. IMHO, you get the person interested any way you can, in order to have the ‘next’ conversation.

IMHO after thousands of doorknocks over the years  you really only need to be asking two questions right now.  Question one…How do you feel about the advice you’ve been getting from your advisor?  Question two…How do you feel about the service you’ve been getting from your advisor.