“Glass Ceiling” refers to the limiting of a person’s advancement through the hierarchy of an organization. Over the past several months I’ve exposed my system for developing your successful canvassers up through your organization. Often I get the question, “If we develop all these managers, what do we do with them?” At the core of the question is an owner’s fear of having too many chiefs and not enough Indians; or someone to “do” the work. Therein lies the glass ceiling.
Having too many managers is not a bad thing. It’s actually a fallacy, for the most part. The odds of multiple people reaching the pinnacle of the training as a manager is small, but in the event you’re faced with this “dilemma” the answer lies in your ability to think outside the box.
Here are suggestions as to what to do with multiple managers. If you open your mind to these ideas you’ll see each will grow your company significantly. I’ve chosen to list them in the order I’ve found most owners to accept their concept.
Idea #1: Large Territories
If your goal is to grow then everything will grow proportionately in people, customers, and territories. As territories grow you can segment your canvassing department into separate territories. Managers can be assigned to their own territories. It’s a way to efficiently and profitably manage large territories. You can leverage the team concept to maximize lead generation through competition.
Idea #2: Niching
You can create teams based on product niches, homeowner or neighborhood demographics, allowing managers and canvassers to gain greater focus and specialty based on a product. When you’re installing windows in a neighborhood your team that specializes in replacement windows can descend on that neighborhood… the same for gutter protection, sun rooms, etc.
Idea #3: Sales
When the canvasser ascends to manager they’ve proven themselves to be an asset to you and the company and have demonstrated he or she has the attitude, work ethic and skill. Depending on their personality they may benefit by transferring into the sales department. Understanding the value of a canvassing lead, the manager is highly qualified to make a sales presentation if they have sales skills, which most do. Face it; if they can capture a lead from a homeowner who never expected them at the door, then they can sell.
That’s not to say your present sales people aren’t qualified to sell. A canvasser is far more vested in the lead than a salesperson… often the canvasser bled to get the lead.
Idea #4: Shows, events, stores
Managers can attend shows, events or tend a store location. With a little training their canvassing skills can be adapted to accommodate for leads that come to them rather than going after them.
Idea #5: Separate venture
Possibly the most radical idea and often the hardest for most to get their head around is creating a separate marketing company. For example I have a client who created an energy auditing company. This company conducts extensive audits on a home’s energy efficiency and recommends how the homeowner can improve their homes efficiency. It’s an excellent set up to home improvement products based on a “higher authority.”
There you have it, 5 different ways to distribute high performing canvassers turned managers; a positive and profitable path to rapid growth for your canvassing department; and company.
In closing, it’s my belief, correction; my experience if you’re canvassing successfully then you can do anything. Canvassing is one profession that can teach the life and the money skills to be successful in whatever vocation the canvasser ultimately chooses in life. Canvassing is an academy for mutual growth; for a canvasser, the department, the company, even the homeowners who benefit from the products they ultimately buy as a result of the canvasser’s first contact.
Next month I’ll cover, in more detail Idea 5. Once you grasp this concept it will reverberate throughout not only your canvassing, but your entire marketing. Blow it off if you will and continue to think and act as usual and you’ll end up with the same results you’re getting right now. This one idea can and will shatter your glass ceiling and allow you to take your canvassing to a much higher level with little added effort.