The Front-End Numbers of Canvassing
If a canvasser works the streets for an hour, how many leads should you expect from that canvasser?
This is a question that has plagued a lot of owners and marketing managers. What should your canvasser be producing to justify their success or failure?
There are several elements that can affect the numbers, but the reality is that the real control lies with the canvasser and canvass manager.
Here’s what the front-end numbers will include:
- Elements that affect your leads per hour
- How many contacts your canvasser will be able to make per hour
- The number of homeowners they’ll reach
- How many homeowner’s contact information they’ll capture without an appointment
(This is often referred to as a, “Call To Set”) - How many homeowner’s give their contact information and are set for an appointment
- The fall-out numbers from the appointments set to the confirmation
- The fall-out numbers at the point of confirmation
Number-Affecting Elements
Before I get into the numbers, it’s necessary to discuss the factors that can create variables in the numbers. For example, when do your canvassers work and for how long? If they work during the day, while most people are at work, they’re not likely to find as many homeowners home to talk to as they would during the evening hours. There are exceptions to this rule.
Secondly, consider the neighborhoods they’re canvassing. What is the physical geography of the development? How much physical space is there between homes? The bigger the space, the longer it will take your canvasser to get from one house to another.
Homes that are more closely clustered will allow your canvasser to physically knock on more doors in an hour than a more affluent neighborhood where the homes have larger properties, and a greater separation between homes.
The number of products your company can offer the homeowner can increase your opportunity to secure an appointment based on the home’s improvement needs.
Your confirmation policy in regard to the number of homeowners required to be present at the presentation may also affect your numbers. Most companies require both homeowners be present during the demonstration, though “1-leg” presentation can affect your numbers.
The environment also plays a role in the number of homes your canvasser can reach. Harsh conditions will slow your canvasser’s pace.
The Front-End
The front-end numbers tend to be a bigger mystery to people than the back-end numbers. That’s usually because the canvasser affects the front-end numbers and most people think this creates variables. I have found though that the front-end numbers are very predictable.
Of course your canvassers’ training and ability to follow the program will affect their productivity, but you can use these numbers as a baseline for measuring your canvasser’s success or shortfall.
I mentioned the conditions that can have an affect on your canvasser’s lead production. The numbers I present in this article are based on the following conditions:
The weather conditions are NOT adverse.
The neighborhood is a traditional suburban development (homes closely situated)
I’ll address both examples of canvassing times, day and evening in this article, though I’ll draw on an average when summarizing them.
It’s important to understand that the numbers I’m about to reveal were not arbitrarily picked out of thin air. These numbers come from more than a decade of personally knocking on doors, tracking my own canvassing team’s numbers and tracking a multitude of my own client’s canvassing teams for which I’ve consulted.
If you have never run a canvassing department before, you can use these numbers to measure your own start-up. Or, if you have experience canvassing, use these benchmarks to measure your own team’s performance by.
How many contacts will canvassers make per hour?
On average, a canvasser can reach between 30 & 40 homes per hour in a traditional suburban development.
If your canvassers are working a neighborhood between 11:00am and 5:00pm you can expect that they’ll make contact at between 33%-50% of the homes they call on. This is based on him or her making a face-to-face contact with someone at the door. In many cases it will be a homeowner.
Canvassing between the hours of 5:00pm and 9:00pm you can expect your canvasser to make contact with 50%-66% of the homes they stop at.
That means that during the daytime and evening hours you should expect your canvasser to have between 10-20 doors opened out of the 30-40 homes they stop at. Potentially you may knock on more doors during the day, but have less contacts.
Of the doors that are opened, how many of them will be opened by homeowners or decision makers?
How many homeowners will they reach?
The number of homes the canvasser reaches and the number of doors that get opened (the number of potential introductions) are important, but not as important as is who opens those 33%-66% of doors. It’s only valuable for a canvasser to be in front of a decision-making homeowner. Believe it or not, between 80%-90% of the doors answered by your canvasser’s knock will be homeowners.
How many homeowners will you capture contact information from?
Of the homeowners your canvasser will meet at the door, 6%-12% of them will provide their contact information to the canvasser.
Of homeowners you have contact information, how many set an appointment?
You should then expect your canvasser to set an appointment with 67%-75% of the homeowners they meet at the home and receive their contact information. Understand that these are people who were not expecting your canvasser to come knocking, nor were they thinking about home improvements at the moment they knocked. This number is largely due to the system.
Canvassing Matrix Recap
Before I talk about the last two sets of numbers let me recap what your canvasser will have control over. Based on evening canvassing times with 30 doors knocked on:
- They’ll potentially speak to 20 people (66%)
- Of those 20 people 17, or 85% will be the homeowners
- 1.5 or 9% of those homeowners will give your canvasser their contact information
- And 1 (75%) of these people will set an appointment at the door.
Of all the people you’ll receive contact information from at the door, 25%-33% of those people will not set an appointment. We commonly refer to this group as the, “Call to Set” group, meaning you will need to follow-up with them after the canvasser’s presentation in order to secure an appointment with the homeowner.
To answer your original question of, “How many leads should your canvasser produce in an hour?” based on this matrix you can expect between 1 lead per hour per canvasser in a traditional suburban neighborhood. Now you have your own matrix and based on your company policies and product mix your numbers may vary, but now you have a matrix with which you can work your own numbers into.
Canvassing = Consistency
Consistency is one of the greatest benefits canvassing offers a home improvement company looking for a reliable lead generation model. Unlike traditional forms of advertising (television, print, etc) you truly can manage by the numbers. Canvassing is less susceptible to ups and downs in the economy, the cost of advertising time (canvassing also has a very predictable cost affixed with it), etc.
You cannot argue with the numbers! If you break it down day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month these numbers will average out. If you need more leads you’ll know exactly what to do to generate them.
Unfortunately with traditional forms of advertising, the results from running one more commercial or one more ad may be unpredictable for increasing leads.
If you want more leads produced by your canvassing efforts, you need only extend the hours your canvassers are canvassing, add more canvassers or canvass to more homes. It’s that simple.
If you follow my system and my scripts you can expect these results.
I’ve separated the last two sets of numbers from the above matrix because the following are not affected by your canvasser’s efforts or training.
Fall-Out You Can Expect From Appointment Set To Confirmation
After the canvasser sets an appointment with a homeowner, but before they can be confirmed prior to the demonstration, you can expect 20%-30% of the appointments to be cancelled. These cancellations can be attributed to many things, though the biggest appointment-killer is what I call the “Spouse-kill.”
This is where the “other spouse”, likely the one your canvasser didn’t talk to at the door, decides that it’s not a good idea to proceed. They’ll usually state, “It’s not a good time” or “We can’t afford it right now.”
Or the homeowner will have a change of heart or the confirmer was unable to get a hold of the homeowner to confirm the appointment. You can also expect an additional 20%-30% of the appointments to fall-out at the confirmation stage.
But is there something you can do to increase this number? Absolutely, and I cover that in the next article in this month’s newsletter.
Next month I’ll discuss the back-end numbers associated with canvassing.