The cold hard truth about any business is that unless it makes a profit it won’t stay in business for very long. To know if you’re making a profit you have to track your financial numbers. That may seem like an obvious statement, and it is, but in canvassing it’s not the only number you need to know. To make a profit you have to know how well your canvassers are producing and if you don’t know what those numbers are you can’t improve and you can’t produce a profit. So the bottom line is, you have to know your canvassing numbers.
My Dad gave me a business book called Rich Dad Poor Dad when I was in college. He wrote me a note on the inside cover. He referenced in the note several pages where the author Robert Kiyosaki discussed the importance of understanding numbers in business. My Dad said in his years in business, anyone he associated with, who couldn’t explain a business matter by the numbers, revealed to him that they didn’t know what they were talking about.
In this article I’m going to touch on the numbers you should track on the front-end of canvassing
To follow accounting terms a business can track its income based on either a cash or accrual method of accounting. The cash basis is registering the revenue when it’s actually received or deposited. For example, in many businesses the lead is captured, the sales call is done and sold, the service or product delivered and then the money is collected. On a cash accounting basis the revenue is registered when the product or service is completed and the money actually exchanges hands. It’s often weeks after the lead was originally captured. Using the accrual method, the business tracks the sale and ‘money’ on the day the job is sold rather than when the money is actually collected.
From a lead generating standpoint for a canvasser “product or service” is when their lead has a sales appointment. You should pay canvassers a lead bonus based on when the lead has a sales demonstration not when it’s tallied on the actual day they get the lead. It gives you a better result of the canvasser’s leads; however you should also be tracking leads based on accrual. You want to be able to look back and know how many leads a canvasser captured on the actual days of origination and how many actually went to a sales demonstration. This gives you an actual view of results of conversion on each canvasser. Canvassers are the originators of the leads so you need to be able to track the leads from the point of origination and track it through to the appointment. There are factors that can affect the lead getting to the appointment beyond the canvasser’s control, though you should track that lead from origination.
The Front End Numbers
The 5 front end numbers that are important are:
1- Doors reached (knocked): This may seem obvious, but you must know how many doors your canvassers are reaching. There should be a consistency between canvassers and you should know the average number they can reach. The neighborhood, the number of people home and the weather can play a factor on this number, but within a short period of time you will find what the realistic average number of doors an hour canvassers can reach.
2- How many doors reached vs. how many were answered: Once you know how many doors the canvassers are getting answered it starts getting closer to the actual opportunities the canvassers have to generate a lead.
3- What are the opportunities: There are 2 opportunities available, one at the home where the door is answered and the second at the home when the door isn’t answered. What opportunities are available at the home that is visible to you that can be followed up on? I call these spotted leads. The door that isn’t answered may have visible problems that can be followed up on. Or someone does answer but may not be qualified to present to. For example, a person not qualified may be a child answering the door or someone house sitting. In both cases simply track the address for future follow up.
4- The ratio of leads captured for the qualified prospect who answers the door: How many leads were captured for every qualified prospect that the canvasser makes face to face contact with. The key objective of lead capture is getting the contact information. Once you have the contact information you now have control. Handing a qualified prospect a flier or brochure with the hopes that they will call you rarely ever gets you a call back.
5- Giving the lead action: Once you captured the lead it must have a next step. For example you may set an appointment date for a sales presentation or schedule a date to call them back to schedule a sales appointment. Some may just want information only. Regardless the lead needs direction for the next action. Never leave a lead up in the air with no follow up step.
I highly recommend you listen to my recorded live call on this subject from January 22, 2014 to hear my specific examples on each of these front-end number categories along with specifics on how to apply the numbers in your coaching efforts. As a Silver Level member you have the tools to review on your own, though as a higher level member (Gold or Platinum) you have the opportunity and access to me that we can go over the numbers and tailor them to your specific situation.
Here I’ve only touched on the front-end numbers. There are back-end numbers to these leads, which is tracking what happens to that lead from the point it’s obtained, through to closing it.
If you have questions about this subject, you can submit it to www.AskTheCanvassKing.com or contact me direct if you’re a Gold or Platinum member.