Let me begin by thanking everyone who has submitted questions at www.AskTheCanvassKing.com. I created the site as a resource for you and I’m glad you’re using it. It keeps us connected, making sure you’re getting the canvassing information you need to be successful in your situation.
I chose to tackle a question I received from Corrina, and many others. It has to do with, “How can we keep so many leads from falling out?” When you’re getting leads, the challenge isn’t in your process. If they’re falling out before they can be issued, for example, the homeowner calls because they’ve changed their mind, or when the lead is confirmed it falls out many times because the homeowner isn’t taking the opportunity seriously.
As canvassers we focus so much on the presentation and we understand the value of the opportunity that the homeowner should also understand the opportunity… but they don’t. Remember, you showed up on their door step. The lead wasn’t captured through traditional inbound advertising, where the homeowner saw your ad, initiated the call and requested the demo. In this scenario the homeowner has decided, in their own mind, they have the need and committed their “future” time to invest in finding out what their options are.
When we show up and present and even when they say yes in most cases, they haven’t pre-vested their time. We need to commit them, beyond them saying yes to the appointment.
To get them committed they have to understand there’s more to the appointment than just saying yes. When they say yes, an entire company, staff of people and a process is behind that decision. To heighten their “skin” in the game I use a “validation call.” This can take place at the door immediately or at the end of the shift, depending on your company’s resources. That’s to say, do you have a person available in the office who can receive inbound calls from canvassers, know the demo schedule and can validate the 3 three key things during the validation call.
Before I describe the validation call in detail it’s important to understand this isn’t a confirmation call. The difference between the two is, the validation call is to confirm a few things that commit the homeowner to their decision to “sit” the appointment. The confirmation call is a more thorough and lengthier call placed in advance of the appointment to confirm the demo before the lead is issued.
For your validation call you want to consider what’s important to confirm, what will cause the appointment to stick.
For me, and what I teach my private clients, there are three key pieces of information to the validation call.
- Do they qualify for the product or service to be demoed?
- Are they the homeowner and will they both be present for the demo?
- Will they have the time set aside needed for the demo?
I’ll go into the 3 points in next month’s article as well as show you a video of my validation call.
I’ve summarized the validation call in this article due to space. If you’d like to hear about it in much greater detail, including additional scripts and components of the process you can order an audio CD of last week’s Teleseminar in which I cover the subject thoroughly. To order a copy and pay only shipping and handling, go to www.canvassking.com/teleseminar-cd. You have only until next Wednesday, April 27, 2011 to do so. After that it will be replaced by the next Teleseminar.
Now that you’ve read this article I’d like to know what you think. Most people I talk to tell me that these articles really get them started thinking about their own situations and I’d like to hear your comments about this article and how it applies to you and your canvassing. Leave your comments below and I look forward to hearing what you have to say. If you have questions about canvassing and/or canvass management you can go to www.AskTheCanvassKing.com to submit yours.