I work with a number of varying industries who canvass and regardless what industry you’re in or what product or service you canvass for the techniques are all the same.
Companies either have a separate canvass team from the sales team, whose canvasser’s only job is to canvass to generate leads and set appointments. Then that lead is turned into the company and followed up by a salesperson that makes a sales presentation to close the sale. There are also clients I work with who do not separate canvassers from the salespeople. The salespeople do both the functions of canvassing and selling. The struggle for this person is unique because of the duality of objectives.
When I ran my home improvement company I had two different teams, one to canvass for leads and one to make the sales calls. I did this because both roles took special skills and the sales presentation took more time than did the canvassing lead generation process.
Let’s look at two different industry categories for comparison. There’s the home improvement company-canvassing model, like my former company, that canvasses for leads and the leads are followed up on a separate sales call. Then there’s the Internet, TV and phone services companies whose canvassers are also sales reps, which can quote prices and write up agreements with prospects on the spot. If you look at the 4 steps of marketing and selling process they’re very similar.
Let’s use an example for both models using an in-bound advertising mail piece directing consumers to make a call and request information. This is the first process to get the lead. For the Internet, TV and phone company the sales process isn’t that long and complicated. The person calling has a few questions and the phone sales rep presents the different packages and the pricing and there’s not much more to it than that. The process can be taken care of and closed over the phone. The home improvement company’s inbound lead sales process is more complicated. You need to schedule the caller for an in-home appointment because the home improvement products and services require a formal presentation or demonstration where the consumer can see and experience the product. The product and service is more in depth than that of the entertainment-like services.
The first two components are marketing. You got the lead and you set the appointment.
The third step in the process would be the sales presentation. The Internet, TV and phone company will make the presentation right there on the telephone whereas the home improvement company will set the presentation for a sales representative at a later date. Next the process moves to the close. These are the 4 steps of the marketing and selling process and though they may seem very obvious it’s important we have a clear understanding of the steps because the entire point of my article is that too many times sales steps are interfering with the marketing functions.
4 Steps in the Marketing and Selling process:
1. Get the lead
2. Set the appointment
3. Make the sales presentation
4. Close the sale
Imagine a large dry erase board in your meeting room. On that board I draw a line down the middle and on the left side of the line I label it “Marketing” and on the right side “Sales”.
Marketing (Canvassing) – Lead Generation |
Sales – Lead Conversion |
1. Get the lead
2. Set the appointment
|
3. Make the sales presentation |
Sales people are trained on the 3rd and 4th functions in the process. When sales people canvass they jump to selling because it’s how they’re trained and it’s what they know. As you can see from the simple diagram above the consumer is in a different place mentally when canvassed (outbound lead generation) as compared to responding to traditional advertising (inbound lead generation). Either way you can’t get a sale without doing the marketing or getting the lead. My point is that sales people struggle with canvassing because they want to ‘sell’ the consumer and canvassing is a marketing function, not a sales function.
The canvasser must establish a need and want in order to gain a lead whereas the sales person already knows a need and want exists. The difference is the starting point.
I’ve canvassed thousands of doors and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products and services in the home so I have a lot of experience on both sides of the lead; getting and selling it. I’ve seen the struggle sale people have canvassing; that’s why I do Canvass King, to teach people the important elements of canvassing. Canvassing is not selling and selling isn’t canvassing. I’ve always taught that canvassing is all about keeping consumers in the ‘maybe’; “maybe there is a way we can afford those new windows”, or, “maybe a new roof or siding can be in our future improvement plans”. A sales presentation can’t be made until the consumer is in the maybe with a want or need and sales people are well versed how to take them from that need and guide them through the purchase, but it’s the skilled canvasser who gets them in the ‘maybe’.
A private client I’ve worked with for the past 6 weeks is Frank who works for SCI in California. SCI is a Cemetery and funeral company and Frank has extensive experience as a direct sales person selling pre-planning cemetery funeral services. He’s making the transition from a sales person to a full time canvasser and has experienced exactly what I’ve stated already, getting out of selling and into marketing.
My work with Frank reminds me of a situation that occurred when I had my own home improvement company. John was my top sales person. He could close leads like no one else in the company. He had a good rapport with the entire canvassing team and one day he came into the office during a pre-canvassing meeting. John had a very competitive nature, which is one key that made him very successful. One of my young canvassers, Bill, was about 19 years old and he and John wagered a little bet. Bill told John that he could out canvass him and because of John’s competitive drive he couldn’t pass up the challenge. After only a few hours knocking on doors Bill canvassed rings around John. The thing I noticed between the two as I observed them was that when John got an objection he worked at overcoming the objection. He’d start selling on features and benefits of the product whereas Bill handled the objections just as I’d taught him.
You see, when the consumer feels pressured the ‘fight or flight response’ kicks in. When John got an objection and instinctively responded by going into his presentation, based on years of training and experience, the consumer would either close the door on him or get defensive. The more defensive the consumer got the more John worked at selling.
Bill on the other hand understood the differences between objections and non-objections. He had the skill to diffuse and redirect the consumer’s responses and keep control of the conversation and steer the consumer to where he wanted the conversation to go. By the end of the canvassing shift John was wiped out, exhausted. He gladly held up his end of the bet buying Bill a nice steak dinner. John learned his lesson that getting a lead was not about being a great sales person. John was my best sales rep, but the worst canvasser. Not because he didn’t have the ability, but he was applying the wrong tools. You don’t hire a mason to frame out your house and vice versa, you don’t hire a carpenter to pour the foundation.
Just as a good sales presentation have a flow and process, so too a canvassing presentation has flow and process.
What Are You Going to Do About It?
I’m a canvasser, but I’m also a sales guy through and through. I’m a student of selling. I’ve studied all the gurus and they all teach how to sell and close, but none of them teach how to generate a direct lead. I’m talking about the ‘P’ word, prospecting. Oh, they talk about prospecting, but they all teach it on the side of the selling methodology.
If you’re a sales person and you’re responsible for generating your own leads and you’ve been struggling with the prospect’s fight or flight mentality and you haven’t yet figured this out, that’s OK, you’re here now and you can learn from me in figuring it out through experience. You owe it to yourself to learn this. There is technique to it, but largely it’s a shift in mindset. In fact, the technique is so simple you’ll discount it as being too easy.
The fight or flight response puts the consumer on an offensive position and you on a defensive one. Think about it, what’s the sales person’s response to objections? It’s to defend his or her position with rebuttals to the consumer’s objection. As a canvasser we can’t control the conversation unless we’re on offense. The NFL quarterback will never score a point if his team is always on defense. The QB has to take the field in order to score and to do that the team has to be playing offense; and so do you.
So how do you get back on offense when the consumer tosses an objection? Ask questions. Instead of defending your position with product facts and figures ask the consumer a question. My most powerful one, the one I teach all my clients is, “Let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a price quote on (insert product or service) before?” It forces the consumer to answer the question and when they do you’ve regained control of the conversation… and you’re on offense, in the only position you can be in to score. For us, scoring means getting the lead or setting the appointment.
Next it’s creating the urgency for them to take action. For details on getting the consumer to take the next step, refer to the recording from my Silver Level Telecoaching call from November 20, 2013. If you’re not at least a Silver Member you can subscribe here: http://www.canvassking.com/SilverProgram.html and get this recording and all of the calls and newsletters over the past two years.
Whether you’re an owner, manager, canvasser or sales person canvassing for your own leads it’s largely a shift in your thinking on how you approach the lead and learning the steps. Virtually every selling process I’ve studied and learned has specific steps to it. It may be 7, 10, or 12 steps, but they’re identifiable steps. My canvassing system is 5 steps. Take the time to learn it and I guarantee you’ll see a significant upturn in your canvassing lead production.
If you have questions about the technique for handling cut-offs and how they apply to your specific business or canvassing system send your question to me at www.AskTheCanvassKing.com.
Chris, The Canvass King