You Won’t Be Invited To Dinner
The homeowner comes to the door and they tell you, “we’re eating dinner”, so what do you do? This is a tough question for some canvassers. For some, they think they’re invading family time if they push to make a presentation. For others, they’d move on and ignore the homeowner and make a presentation anyway.
Neither scenario is black and white, or correct in and of itself.
- Apologizing for interrupting their meal and leaving without presenting
or
- Ignoring their statement and boldly interrupting dinner with a presentation
Before I get into each of these options you should understand when you approach the door you may or may not be able to anticipate the, “We’re eating dinner” objection. If when you approach you’re able to see into the home and notice they’re eating dinner you want to acknowledge it in your presentation up front. The other possibility will be that you won’t be able to anticipate it. In either situation, what you’re about to learn you‘ll be able to use to get past this common stall or objection. (You’ll see each possibility in a video below)
Back to the two rebuttal methods I mentioned above, which I’ve seen inexperienced canvassers do.
If someone were to interrupt your family or dinner time you’d be offended; and naturally a canvasser could feel guilty for interrupting; that’s a natural feeling. Unfortunately, if your canvasser responds instinctively, apologizes and leaves, it doesn’t serve your purpose for canvassing. The bottom-line is a canvasser can’t fold.
On the other hand, a canvasser that ignores the homeowner and pushes forward to make a presentation will only irritate the homeowner and increase their resistance to the opportunity the canvasser is there to present.
So what do you do?
Let’s look at the foundation of my traditional introduction. It’s an “invitation” or an opportunity to drop off a “notification” about work you may be doing in the area. You use a flier or door hanger as a notification. Therefore, the door hanger or flier creates curiosity with the homeowner.
When the homeowner tells me that they’re eating dinner I acknowledge it and tell them I have an invitation or notification and ask them when would be a good time for me to bring the notification back? This presents the perception to the homeowner that I have something important for them, but I’m not going to tell them about it because I don’t want to intrude on their dinner.
If you recall from the January’s issue of Canvassing Insider, in the Cut-Off article, I taught you how to use the Question/Response psychology to freeze the homeowner (if you don’t, re-read January’s issue). You use the same strategy here.
When the homeowner tells you they’re eating dinner:
- Acknowledge you heard them by repeating, “Oh you’re eating dinner”
- Then ask them, “When would be a better time to drop off this notification?” gesturing with and drawing their attention to the flier
Asking them, “When would be a better time to drop off this notification?” forces a response from the homeowner. Let me stop here and point something out. The homeowner told you, “We’re eating dinner.” By saying that, the homeowner expects you to feel guilty and withdraw from their door step. If you do, they win.
Asking them the question, “When would be a better time to drop off this notification?” activates their natural curiosity, or what I call the Question/Response psychology. In their mind they’re asking themselves, “What is it?” and by doing so, you retake control of the situation. Now, one of two things will happen when you ask this question. They’ll verbalize what they’re thinking, “what is it?”, or, they will tell you to come back later.
If they ask you, “what is it” they’re giving you permission to go forward with your introduction. You’ve earned that right. If they ask you to come back then thank them, respect their request and come back later. In either case, you’ve respected their situation, eating dinner, and did not eliminate them as a potential appointment.
The video below will demonstrate how I handle the, “Eating Dinner” objection at the door, both earning permission to proceed and being asked to come back.
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Eating Dinner-scenario Permission to present |
Eating Dinner-scenario
Come back |
In addition to the above scenario I’ve included an excerpt from a coaching video to help you better understand how to handle this objection, or stall.
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Coaching methodology excerpt from a Canvass King customized client canvassing video
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To find out how you can get a customized canvass coaching video for your company call me at (216) 588-1337.
Next month you’ll discover how to handle the homeowner who shows up at the door on the telephone.