Last month I talked about the ideal canvassing situation, but also mentioned there’s a lot of moving parts to a good introduction. One of those is how to handle getting cut-off by the homeowner so you can move your presentation to the next level.
When the homeowner opens the door and sees your canvasser, their instinctive response will almost always be, “No thank you, I’m not interested.” This is only one way your canvasser can get cut-off, but the bottom line is they get cut off. If the “door” gets closed on you then you can’t make a presentation and you don’t stand a chance of capturing the lead. The cut-off can come at any point, before you start, midway or at the end. Unless you have a standard for how to handle the cut off you can never capture the lead.
Let Me Ask You A Question?
The best standard to get past the homeowner cutting you off is to ask them a question. Your natural tendency when the homeowner cuts you off is to keep talking, trying to justify or “sell” them on why they should continue to listen to you. You can maintain control of the situation simply by asking the homeowner a question. There are a few key points to the power of asking them the question
1. It freezes the homeowner in their tracks
People can’t help but answer your question. Door to door canvassing has the shortest time frame of any other form of lead generating or selling to capture the prospects attention and interest.
2. Asking a question isn’t offensive and it forces them to take action in a different direction than closing the door.
Continue to “sell” them and they’ll get agitated with you. Instead, by asking a question it changes their thinking without offending them.
It invokes a Question/Response psychology. If you try it a few times you’ll be very surprised that it really works. You may not get the appointment, but I can guarantee it’ll stop the homeowner cold and diffuse the potentially negative situation. Additionally, it demonstrates that you’re not like every other sales person who’s only interested in “selling”.
Don’t put the pressure on yourself or your canvassers. Just try it, get accustomed to using the question to transition in the introduction and freeze the homeowner. Try it and you’ll start to pick up leads where you’d been shut down before.
So what’s the question? That depends on the moving parts; what are you canvassing for. For example, are you canvassing for a single product that’s visible, not visible; or maybe multiple products, again that can or cannot be seen.
Here are two questions you can try. If you’re canvassing for a single product you can ask:
“Let me ask you a question, have you ever had an estimate on replacement windows before?” (Often times I don’t even pause after, “Let me ask you a questions” I go right into the question)
You’re likely to get a yes or no answer, but you’re going to get an answer, which lets you move into your presentation. By answering your question the homeowner is giving you permission to tell them more, which is the “why” you asked the question. Play the following video to see how it looks.
If you’re canvassing for multiple products and you’re using a flier listing the various products or services, you can try:
“Let me ask you a question, off this list, what might be the next home improvement project you’d look into for your home?”
Play the video to see how the question works with multiple products.
You’ll be surprised at how many people will stop and even respond. It’s a cultured response, much like your standard response to the store salesperson who asks, “Can I help you?” as soon as you walk into their store.
When the homeowner opens the door you’re the last thing they have on their mind. They’re busy, they don’t have time and they don’t want to be sold anything. The question gets to the point and sets up the opportunity to move your presentation to the next level. I’ll get into the mechanics of where to go from the question later; or you can find out more by enrolling in my monthly one-on-one coaching program.
That’s how you can handle the homeowner who cuts you off. Next month I’ll show you how to handle the prospect that won’t even open the door.