Nate Holzapfel procured $50,000 from billionaire venture capitalist Damon John on the ABC hit TV show “Sharktank” entirely on the fact that he sold his product door to door. The product almost didn’t matter, but Damon was investing in Nate, which is why most people will ultimately invest in others. The investment can be of money or time, but the investment is always in the person, regardless of their experience or ability. Salesmanship, skill sets and techniques can be taught. Attitude can’t be taught, but it can be caught; and that’s what attracts people, including prospects and customers.
Why did Damon John get so excited to get into business with Nate Holzapfel? Damon John’s career started selling door to door. He knows the type of person it takes to stick at selling door to door. Damon John knew this person had the skill and mindset (and attitude) to run a business successfully. That’s what Damon John was partnering with, Nate Holzapfel and his attitude. That’s what I’ll discuss here, attitude and mindset… the canvassers. It all begins with the canvasser’s mindset.
I see so many people get into canvassing with the idea this will be a part-time thing, a stepping stone to something bigger and better. Canvassing is a career! Despite starting out with the attitude that door to door marketing will be a part-time venture, a select few get bitten by the canvassing bug and make it a life-long career (as I did). If not a life-long career they come away from it with lifelong skills they just can’t learn anywhere else.
Canvassing is a tough business. I tell new canvassers they’re going to get their nose bloodied, they’re going to get rejected and they’re going to get challenged mentally and verbally. Those that stick it out learn and grow from the experience and they carry those skills into everything else they’ll do, for the rest of their life; an unshakeable confidence and powerful self-image that most sales people never acquire.
There are 4 major areas to understand what you’re really obtaining as a canvassing lead generator for your company (or at a show or event marketer). You learn more from this vocation than just the techniques.
1 – You Make Things Happen
Realize as a lead generator (as a face to face marketer) you’re going out and creating the leads. This is unlike all other forms of marketing and advertising many companies are doing. An ad placed on radio, TV, online or in print requires the prospect to respond, they’re inbound leads. The concern businesses have relying on inbound leads is inconsistent lapses of prospect responses. That’s why you’re the life-blood of the company going out to the prospects and making leads. Not sitting around waiting for the leads to come in. To keep the company running it has to have sales opportunities coming in to generate business and money. Traditional marketing and advertising is passive, face to face marketing is proactive. You’re going out and finding the opportunity, creating it, not waiting for it to magically materialize.
If that doesn’t motivate you then consider how many people (and families) are affected by having or not having leads… just in your company. Nothing happens until something gets sold, and nothing can get sold until a lead comes in. Not just the sales team, but the office staff, I.T. technicians, laborers, etc., but they’re all dependent upon a sale being made. The financial health and survival of the company relies on you generating leads. That’s only internally; consider the vendors and manufactures that are impacted by what you do as well. You may not be recognized like this, but it’s the reality and it’s the most important thing to wrap your head around. You are important! All of these people families and livelihoods are impacted by you, by the one who goes out and gets leads for the company. The company rides on your back. That’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s also an honor you should embrace. As far as I’m concerned, you have the most important position in the company.
2- You Gain Selling Skills
Your job is to get leads and set appointments. I’ve always positioned canvassing as a non-selling function because you’re not selling the products or services you’re marketing, but the residual benefit you gain from canvassing is that you learn how to sell. Selling is the most valuable skill anyone can acquire. I believe canvassers learn the most valuable kind of selling, learning how to sell themselves. I mentioned it at the start of this article, Damon John invested in Nate Holzapfel, not in his product. The biggest sale Holzapfel made on Sharktank was in selling himself to the sharks.
Selling yourself is all about differentiating yourself from everyone else the prospect may categorize you in. Think about the ability to do that. As a canvasser you have to be perceived as different from other canvassers to get noticed by the prospect, even liked by the prospect. How valuable do you think it will be to have that selling skill in another career? When you interview for a job position what are you selling against? You’re selling against every other applicant for that job, and what’s the interviewer looking for? They’re looking for the person who stands out as the best!
In my canvassing system we’re selling the information guide. I understand the psychology behind getting things started with the prospect in a way that’s non-threatening. I’m addressing people’s initial concerns of me coming to the door or approaching them at a show or event. To correlate this to the life-skills, you’re learning sales psychology, persuasion techniques. When you have experience and a track record for sales and marketing going into any job application and you can prove your ability, you’ll jump to the top of the application pile.
You develop an ability to influence and persuade people. With great power comes great responsibility.
I know I sound like a broken record, but you’re going out to get leads. You’re not just getting leads, in most cases you’re creating leads. A major part of the face to face marketer’s ability to get leads and appointments is in establishing or spotlighting the prospects needs and wants for your products or services. When you show up at a person’s door or meet them at an event, they weren’t thinking about you or your product before they met you. You have to create or highlight that need and want. This is a skill set that is extremely valuable. The ability to meet a person who had little to no prior thought process of what you represent and to take them from zero interest or knowledge to becoming a prospect is a powerful skill most sales people never obtain. Most sales people wait around to get a lead of a person who has a pre-established interest, need or want. The highest paid sales people get those prospects too, but in addition out sell most because they have more opportunities to sell many of the prospects that were proactively created.
The hardest skill to develop, but the most valued by any and all companies is the ability to sell.
3- You Learn Business Knowledge
As a face to face marketer you get to learn the business from the inside out. Not only do you learn how to canvass and market, but you also see how it influences and affects other parts of the business. Not only do you learn how to handle yourself on the job, but you also learn how to deal with the negative influences of people outside of the company.
When you first told friends and family that you were going to do door to door canvassing, or show and event marketing, and you described the work you’d be doing, how many of those friends and family gave you excited feedback? Or how many of them told you that it sounds like hard work? It sounds like you’re going to be bothering people. Isn’t there a more respectful or honorable job you could find? You have to learn how to handle the N.I.O.P.s (negative influences of other people). You develop the skill to block out these negative influences and follow your head and heart because you understand the bigger picture in what and why you’re doing this. They can’t see the forest through the trees. Damon John loved Nate Holzapfel because he understood exactly who Nate is; he’s a sales guy and he’s a person who’s going to go after the business. This is the type of person successful people want to be around.
In addition to the people aspects of the business you also learn the numbers of the business. In my last article I talked about front-end and back-end numbers of canvassing. Knowing these numbers and the sales and financial numbers of the business allow you to measure and track success and failures; having tangible data helps you and the business to make adjustments and changes to drive the business. In my last article I wrote of a small hinge that is responsible for doubling and tripling the business. Not knowing these numbers is detrimental to success.
4- The Lifetime Skills
Despite what people may think or feel, everybody is in sales. Selling is a communication skill set. You have to influence and persuade and this must be done by everybody in one form or another, at one time or another. I don’t care if you’re an engineer or a school teacher you always have to explain your ideas, thoughts and positions. Everyone has to influence or persuade people from different cultures, walks of life of all levels on the hierarchy. It doesn’t matter a person’s vocation, canvassing now or teaching 4th grade math later in life; you have to communicate your ideas in such a way that it influences another person or people. It is impossible to get through life without having to communicate and influence others. Children, church groups, community organizations, you have to learn the effective communication skills to get along with others and forge your path in life.
You will learn more about human nature and human psychology knocking on doors and talking with people at shows and events than you will from any 4-year college program. That’s not to say that higher education isn’t important, but it doesn’t teach the life skills really needed to succeed in life.
I will close on this very profound statement. You are responsible for your own knowledge and education. Others can teach you, but only you chose to learn it. There’s not a better place to learn about business, and life, than in canvassing and show and event marketing.
You can only win the battle that day, or as I teach my private coaching clients when canvassing – Win the door. Or as any military leader knows, the way to win the war is by winning small battles.
Thank you for reading this far. I’m here to help you get where you want to be. I’ve been where you are and I want you to achieve a level of success in your business, and life, that you’ve never even dreamed about. It’s my job to remove the barriers because you already posses the seeds of greatness. If you chose to develop those seeds of greatness you will become everything you’ve ever hoped for and more.
I go into much more detail on the recording from the live call I have with Silver level and higher members. You can get the recording as a Silver member. Go to www.CanvassKing.com/SilverProgram to discover more about membership.
Committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson
The Canvass King