Imagine if you walk up to a home with a big bouquet of flowers. You have an oversized check made out to the homeowner for an obscene amount of money. A camera crew is behind you. You knock on their door and surprise them and say, “Congratulations, you’re the 5000th door I’ve knocked on and you are receiving a home make-over for free.” What do you think they’d say? “No thanks, not right now.” Not a chance!
In fact, they wouldn’t even care to see the samples of the windows, gutters, roofing, insulation or alarm system. They’d want to know when you can come out and get it installed.
The homeowners you’re canvassing have a natural resistance. The level of their resistance is in direct proportion to past experiences. It’s caused by their perception. They know it may be expensive. They don’t know who you or your company is (in this case it’s a trust issue). Often their initial fear is how can they afford it. No one wants to admit they can’t afford something because they don’t have the money. That’s a tough thing to admit.
Zig Ziglar, originally a pots and pan salesman turned respected sales trainer and motivational speaker approached every sale with the philosophy, “I have your set of pots and pans in my car and you have my $1300 in your pocket.” His job wasn’t to sell the homeowner pots and pans, rather help them understand how the benefits of owning the pots and pans was of far greater value to them than the $1300 investment he was asking. The same is true with the people you talk to everyday.
Every canvasser meets with high resistance and you’re trained on how to overcome that resistance. Understand that every homeowner has a “hot-button”; usually one key benefit in what you’re offering that will justify the purchase completely. We once had a homeowner who recognized the value of the replacement windows we were offering. He and his wife liked the energy efficiency, the heat guard feature, ease of cleaning, durability and longevity of the product, but none of those benefits were enough to motivate them to say yes to the offer. The one feature of the windows that secured the appointment, but not as obvious to most, was that our windows created a significant sound barrier compared to the older windows that were originally installed on their home.
Apparently their next door neighbor had college-aged sons who held loud, wild parties every weekend, which continued into the early hours of the morning. The design of the neighborhood placed the homes only 10-feet apart and our client’s master bedroom butted right next to the neighbors “hot tub” room. Needless to say, that one benefit made the entire investment worth-while to them. We would have never gotten the appointment, or sale had we not properly established the need for this particular client.
I’ve said it before; most people’s biggest investment is their home. People buy emotionally and justify their purchase decisions rationally. The example of my client demonstrates this perfectly. The homeowner knew they needed new windows, they knew we offered a superior product, but the benefit most important to them may not have been the one we led the presentation with.
Homeowners will schedule an appointment only when they feel there’s value to investing their time in your company’s presentation. You know you have a great product. You know your company is the best, but the homeowner doesn’t know you or your company. They’re judging you against their experiences with other companies; and quite frankly, for the most part, those experiences are usually bad. Think about your own buying experiences. If I was a car salesman and I knocked on your door promoting appointments to come to our dealership to see the latest model cars, what would your reaction be? “No thanks, I’m not interested.” Besides, it would be out of the ordinary for a car salesman to canvass door to door. Your reaction in this scenario is no different than the homeowners you’re meeting.
You’re not selling sunrooms, bath-liners, energy audits or basement refinishing (or any of the multitudes of home improvement products and services available); you’re selling only the opportunity to consider those products or services. Your job is infinitely easier than your company salesperson that will actually have to ask those people for money.
People buy for their reasons not yours. When the homeowner responds to your knock by answering their door, they come to that door with a conditioned set of perceptions. Your role is to change those perceptions. Confidence in yourself and your presentation, conviction and your attitude will determine how successful you’ll be in changing the homeowner’s perception. I know because I knock on doors; with my onsite coaching clients. I walk the streets with canvassers. I don’t just teach this stuff I live it and I know I’ll be met with resistance, rejection and no’s just like you, but I also know I’ll come away from that shift with valid appointments because I approach every door with a belief in what I’m presenting is valuable for the homeowner. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t do it.
I approach every door with the first goal to establish the need for home improvements for that home. My second goal is to overcome their lack of money “perceptions” with affordable solutions.
Next month I’ll wrap up this series on attaining the right mindset for canvassers with what I think is the most exciting point, “Blowing Up the Glass Ceiling!”
If you have a thought, comment or question regarding this month’s article, feel free to leave a comment here and I’ll respond; not an assistant, me.