Last month I described the criteria you should be looking for when identifying target rich neighborhoods, as well as enlisting others in your company to help. The information helps you now and in the future, but only if you record and track it.
How can you do that?
It’s no doubt there’s a lot of technology that can help you, but I rely on more “old-school” methods.
Get yourself a map from the local gas station. You know the ones, the 8 ½”x11” road Atlas (I prefer the color ones). Make a copy of the pages that represent the areas you’re canvassing. Get a highlighter and start marking them in the Atlas. When you get your daily reports (which you should be tracking on lead tracking sheets – if you’re not using one go to www.canvassking.com/July_2009 to see mine and how it’s used) tally your numbers and circle the neighborhood on the map with either the green or red pen.
- Green = Good neighborhood (Green means go and MONEY!!!)
- Red = Bad neighborhood (Red means STOP!!!)
As you then track the leads through to demos and conversions you can go back to your map and classify the green neighborhoods even further. I use an A – B designation.
- A = Ideal neighborhood
o These neighborhoods represent where the money is. Your lead capture is the most profitable in these areas.
- B = Good neighborhood
o These neighborhoods are not as good as an ideal neighborhood, but the numbers are still healthy and you can maintain a good profit margin to continue canvassing these areas.
You’ll find as you work this system you’ll better identify the demographics within the neighborhoods. A big problem you face is getting information back on neighborhoods you can successfully canvass. Enlist the help of your canvassers, implement a simple mapping system as I’ve described and you’ll find it less of a challenge when you need to identify where to dispatch your canvassing troops. Also, a system like mine will help you a year from now, 10 years from now because in a glance you’ll be able to identify your target rich neighborhoods.
I hope you joined me last week on the Teleseminar. Sunday and day light savings time officially marked the start of the canvassing season and on last week’s Teleseminar I discussed all the items and resources you need in place to kick the season off right. In addition to the resources, I briefly discussed the 5 reasons why companies fail canvassing. I didn’t go into a lot of detail due to the limited amount of time we had available, but I did let people know of a detailed DVD of a webinar I gave at the start of last year that goes into the 5 areas, which include:
1. Phone operators
2. Sales
3. Administration
4. Numbers
5. Culture
If you don’t have these 5 areas in line as I discuss in detail on the DVD you’re destined to fail canvassing as so many have. If you didn’t join me on the call you can pick up a copy of the “5 Reasons” DVD and an audio CD of last week’s Teleseminar call unedited, including the Q&A by going to www.canvassking.com/5reasons. There is a small charge for the DVD, CD and shipping and handling. If you’re not convinced the information is valuable to you after you’ve watch the 90-minute webinar on the DVD I’ll refund your money.
Finally, be sure to join me on next week’s Teleseminar on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 2pm EST. The entire hour will be devoted to Q&A. You’ll have the opportunity to bring your “first week’s” challenges to the call and get answers. If you’ve registered for past Teleseminars then you’re already registered for next week’s call, but if you haven’t previously registered you must go to www.canvassking.com/teleseminar to register and receive the call in number and access code. I look forward to you joining me next week on the live call.