Over the past 2 months I’ve discussed evaluating canvassers to measure their performance so you have a concrete way of deciding if they stay or go.
You’ve heard me say, “Manage the system not the people.” Focusing on the system helps you remain objective and out of the baby mama-drama; you can’t get personal. That may sound a bit harsh, but your canvassers will hate you when you push them, but love you later when you’ve driven them to achieve their goals … and are making themselves (and you) money.
Canvassing is about results; and unfortunately some “nice” people are going to be let go. That’s the nature of the beast.
This month I want to give you 3 tangible metrics for measuring your canvasser’s results. Of the 3 Pillars of tracking and communicating canvassers results (Performance, Attendance, Behavior), I’m going to focus specifically on Performance. I’ll address Attendance and Behavior in future articles.
As I said, it’s all about the results. Are canvassers producing leads? More importantly, are they producing leads that demo and convert to sales. There are a lot of factors that contribute to whether the lead gets sold or not, but here I’m going to focus only on what you can measure from the canvasser’s perspective.
First you need to consider how you’re tracking your marketing costs? Do you track the expense for the entire department or on an individual canvasser; do you measure cost per lead or cost per sale? My methods are going to look at the individual canvasser.
Canvasser Tracking Method #1: Net Expenditure
Pulling from last month’s article, I suggested you measure a canvasser against a 4 week period. With that said, how much did you pay them in salary/wage, benefits (if part of a compensation package), bonuses, etc.; what was your complete out of pocket expense for that person over the 4 week period?
In equation form it would look like this:
Total net sales divided by the canvasser expenses loaded (encompassing all expenses) = Canvasser’s percentage of net cost to the revenue.
If the revenue production is on the acceptable percentage of cost, then that canvasser is supporting their existence in the department. From this number you can determine how well they’re producing. Without the numbers you’re making a decision entirely based on emotional perspective.
It’s looking at the canvassers marketing percentage cost off your net sales. This looks only at the end results of sales and business. It isn’t a true indication if they’re performing or not, but it is an important thing you do have to gauge.
Canvasser Tracking Method #2: Cost Per Lead Captured
This concept measures how many validated leads the canvasser brings in. Once again, look at your expenditure on the canvasser for the 4 week period and calculate how many leads they brought in during that time period. If your expenditure for the canvasser was $1000.00 and they brought you 30 leads then each lead cost you $33.33. This is more in line with how other forms of marketing get measured; print or TV ads for example.
This approach looks at your initial cost for the lead. In the first approach you’re looking at overall cost for the person, whereas here you’re measuring how much each lead generated by that canvasser costs you. This number will be different for each canvasser and speaks more to their performance. The more leads a canvasser produces the lower your cost per lead will be. Fewer leads per canvasser and your lead cost will go up. It allows you to measure performance between canvassers.
This metric helps you to measure the cost of canvassing leads (outbound marketing) and comparing them against leads through other marketing, like JB Dollar Stretcher or newspaper (inbound marketing).
This brings us to the final metric for tracking a canvasser’s performance.
Canvasser Tracking Method #3: Cost Per Lead Demoed
This metric measures the quality of the leads. Using my example from the previous tracking; $1000.00 expenditure for the canvasser, they brought in 30 leads, but only 15 of those leads actually demoed. Your cost per lead demoed is $66.67. Tracking this will tell you the quality of the lead the canvasser is capturing. The more leads converting to an appointment demonstrates higher performance and skill on the part of the canvasser in booking the homeowner for the demo. As the lead to demo number goes up, so too do the opportunities for conversions to sale.
I’ve given you 3 different ways to measure your canvassers based on performance. Implementing any one of them will help you in managing your system, and in turn managing your people. The BEST approach is to implement all 3 methods because it gives you more insight on your business, your canvassers and where you need to focus your time and energies to affect the numbers in a profitable direction.
That leads me to once you know what your canvasser’s numbers are, what is the minimum standard of performance; or, what should a canvasser’s numbers be to make them and you profitable? That will be the discussion for next month’s article.
If you have questions about this month’s article or have another question, write me at www.AskTheCanvassKing.com.
If you would like to learn more about my entire 5-Step Canvassing System in one complete training program, check out www.canvassking.com/training to see a 16-minute video that details my Canvassing in the New Economy training program.