By the time you receive this letter daylight savings time will have started. March 13th to November 6th, 34 weeks of prime canvassing season. Of course you can canvass year round, but this is the key time. It’s 65% of the year and when most companies make the major marketing push. The clock is ticking on the season and it’s time to get going.
The canvassing ‘space’ is a cluttered space. There are canvassers out competing against you for the same prospects you’re after. Not only is the canvassing space cluttered, but so too is the marketing space for your product and service. For example, in the home improvement world, a relied upon marketing media are coupon mailers, like Valpak. Many home improvement related companies choose to occupy space in this medium. In the Valpak mailing that showed up at my home this week there were 15 coupons of companies in the home improvement or remodeling industry. So not only are canvassers descending on their doorstep, their mail boxes are getting bombarded too.
I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t compete, but what I am suggesting is that you have to be different. You have to stand out from those competing for your prospects’ attention and money, directly or indirectly.
When I’m meeting new canvassers I always ask them what is their goal when they get to the door. I get a variety of answers like; to inform the prospect, to get an appointment, to make a sale. Yes, ultimately the name of the game is to make appointments and sales. But, having that mindset ‘to get a lead or sale’ when approaching the door will put you in a negative position with the prospect. Your objective is to get ‘the lead or sale’ but the prospect has a different goal or objective in mind when you arrive. Most canvassing systems’ approach is to get the appointment first. This old approach creates an instant conflict.
When you approach a door putting the appointment first, as the objective, you’re projecting that all you want is to make a sale. Here are several reasons why appointment first mentality creates conflict:
- They’re not expecting you.
- They don’t know who you are.
- They don’t know your company.
- They’re not thinking about your product or service. And, you came to them; they didn’t come to you so their instinct is to avoid you.
The threshold of making a commitment to you is too high and too fast for them.
The other possibility is you meet a prospect that is interested in what you’re offering, but you get into the Ping-Pong game in scheduling an appointment. You go back and forth trying to find a day or time convenient with the prospect and out of frustration the prospect puts their paddle down and gives up on the game… and you lose even though they quit the game.
The other obstacle is often the person you meet at the door will deflect the decision making onto the spouse. They figure if they have no authority it will get them out of making a commitment to you. Often when a marketer gets in to this situation they try to get control of the lead by attempting to capture their information and by this time it’s too late because the prospect has already pulled out of the communication.
In my many years of canvass training after explaining these obstacles to getting an appointment to experienced canvassers, I usually see a lot of head nods. They’re all too familiar to these prospect objections. Unfortunately, there was no other way to go about it until I showed them my system and completely changed the game of canvassing. Please go www.canvassking.com/blog and read my archived articles on the canvassing introduction and you will see a step by step explanation of my information guide offer (lead capture) first approach and appointment setting strategy second.
Today’s article isn’t about how my system changes the game and gets you past all of these hurdles. We’re going to look at how you go from having the lead (qualified prospect with their contact information) into an appointment. When I talk about putting the appointment setting second behind offering my information guide, many ‘newbies’ to my system get the perception the objective is only to capture the lead. No, nothing’s changed in your overall goal. It’s still to get the appointment and make a sale. My approach simply goes about it in a manner that’s more congruent with the prospect’s mindset; where they are mentally and emotionally when you arrive.
Here’s where the problem creeps in. When I talk about my new approach many are excited about it, many go out and implement it and they discover the obstacle in the process, getting past offering the info guide and still getting to the appointment. When it’s not handled properly the prospect can use the info guide against the marketer. The prospect may think they have the information and the presentation is over. The inexperienced marketer can get the same objection they’d have gotten with the old system.
On the upside, if you do struggle getting past the transition into setting an appointment it’s okay, because you have the lead and you can follow up with them.
The 3 major objections marketers face usually after a ‘not interested’ response are:
- Time, “we don’t have the time right now to meet with you”
- Money, “we don’t have the money for what you’re offering”
- Spouse, “I have no authority, my spouse makes all those decisions”
Making an information guide your first offer allows you to proactively eliminate most of the major objections the old canvassing model produces.
To walk you through the presentation I’ll pick up from the end of the information guide offer. The prospect has accepted to receive the guide and I’ve captured their contact information. During last week’s Canvass king membership call I roll played the entire transition response from lead capture (information guide) to making an appointment. The benefits of being a Silver Member or higher gains you exclusive access to all the calls and membership newsletters. You can download the calls and get access to the scripts. Email me at cthompson@canvassking.com on how you can get the transition response script.
The outline of the Transition Response is:
- Pause and let them catch up with what’s happened.
- You’re going to be in the area
- Present the benefit of what they’re getting from the appointment in addition to the information guide
- This is a great opportunity because now they’ll really have all the information to plan and budget for the future
- Keep the pressure off of them
There are a lot of magical things going on in the transition presentation. It eliminates the objections that prevent you from getting more appointments against old school methods of leading with the appointment as the only offer.
From the transition to the second offer you go for the appointment following my system.
What do the Numbers Say?
Disclaimer: The numbers here may vary based on the length of your canvassing season, hours worked per shift, products/ services you offer, requirements for a sales presentation and average dollar amount per sale. However, the benchmarks used here are what you will use to measure your exact return on investment. The below example is for a full-time canvasser who canvasses year round.
This is the game changer. To put numbers to it, let’s assume a canvasser reaches a 100 doors in a shift. Of those doors they talk to 20 qualified prospects (20 qualified prospects comes by subtracting out ‘not homes’ and people who ‘aren’t qualified’) and from those they book 2 appointments….10% of the opportunities. These are numbers of the traditional (old school) canvassing system produced. Most canvassers would be happy on their shift with 2% conversion all doors approached or 10% on qualified opportunities. Of course those 2 appointments, once captured are out of their control. It’s now up the sales person and their ability to convert the appointment to a sale. But, the canvasser did his or her job… 2 appointments per shift, not bad by traditional standards.
What if though you could add an extra 1 to 2 appointments per shift? Changing the offer from an appointment first to an info guide and then transitioning to an appointment does this, but here’s the real game changer. Following those same numbers (100 doors, 20 qualified people contacted and 2 appointments capture – which are low hanging fruit leads you’ll get anyhow). Offering the information guide will produce an additional 8 more leads of the 20 qualified prospects, with full lead contact capture because they accept your information guide offer. Of those additional 8 captured, 1 to 2 additional prospects (1.5 average) will set an appointment on the spot with you (the first 2 are a given regardless of the process, but you schedule 1 to 2 more). The reason you will set an additional 1 or 2 appointments, because those 8 additional prospects who accept the information guide offer were not turned off by you trying to jam an appointment down their throat in the ‘old school’ canvassing approach. Typically, 1 or 2 of those 8 will feel comfortable enough with the transition statement to set an appointment.
Here’s the icing on the cake, if you will. You have 6 or 7 (6.5 average) additional leads that took your offer for an information guide only. You have 6.5 new, warm, qualified prospects to follow up with. When you follow up with those 6.5 additional leads, appropriately, 25%-33% of them will set an appointment for a presentation within 12-months of their original capture date. On average that would correlate to 1.8 additional appointments coming from that day’s work, by capturing leads that you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten without my information guide strategy.
By changing the offer and approach you book 3.5 appointments per shift (1.5 more per shift, 7.5 more per week, 30 more per month & 360 more per year) to a presentation. On top of that, per shift you developed more leads with the information guide (6.5 more per shift, 32 per week, 128 per month & approximately 1500 per year). Now based on the conversion rate for information guide only leads to an appointment in the next 12 months, that would be 1.8 appointments per shift converting from the pool of information guide only leads. Yes, simply looking at the 1 ½ more appointments you set on the spot per shift is great, but that’s too narrow a view. When you consider with the information guide only leads eventually converting to an appointment, results to putting over 400 or more additional appointments a year in the funnel (per marketer). You create the opportunity for growing the department exponentially. So let’s add the additional appointments made on the spot and the future leads converting to an appointment in a year. It totals to 760 appointments a year! (360 on the spot + 400 information guide only leads converting to appointments)
Even if you consider a 45% sales demonstration rate on those appointments and your sales people are mediocre at converting a sit to a sale (20% net close rate), you’re looking at an additional 68 additional sales per year, per marketer, just by offering an information guide first and earning the right to convert them into an appointment. Just for fun, if each sale is worth $10,000, you could be looking at an additional $680,000 a year in sales from each marketer’s canvassing activity. Plus, the leads that have not converted to a sit yet are still your leads to market to indefinitely… and a percentage of those will convert too.
This is how my private clients are doubling, tripling, even quadrupling their sales by abandoning old school methods.
If you want to look at it a different way, how much are you paying that marketer to canvass? How much more do you think it will cost you for that canvasser in a shift if he or she is still producing 2 appointments, as opposed to the long term payoff of 5.3 per shift (1.5 appointments on the spot + 1.8 future appointments in the next 12-months)? How much more money will the leads cost you that you capture today and close in 12 months, without having to go back into the neighborhood and canvass the lead again, in 6 months, in a year, in 2 years? The answer is zero, zero additional cost for more appointments, leads and sales. Controlled cost … increased production.
Have You Ever Bought Anything from Amazon Before?
This is what I call the ‘Amazon Effect’. Think about this like Amazon. If you bought anything from Amazon, you know that when you check out they always suggest other things you may be interested in purchasing. Not everyone takes those add on sales, but think about how much more money Amazon makes by suggesting them to every buyer (in your case a prospect who says yes to the information guide offer). The answer is a lot. Hey, you want the information guide, you might be interested in getting a price quote just to satisfy your curiosity; and you’ll be able to plan for the ‘if and when’ you’re ready. It puts your sales people in front of them and you only have a chance of making a sale when you’re in front of them, making a presentation.
You can hear the entire transition script roll played on my live Silver Tele-coaching call from March 9th, 2016. If you’re a Silver member or higher then you will have received it as part of your membership. If you’re not a member contact my office to change your status and request the recording from the live call. You’ll also receive the full printed version and breakdown from the call.
If you have questions email me or call my office. You can also submit a question at www.AskTheCanvassKing.com
Committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson, The Canvass King