You’d have to agree that canvassing door to door is not a glamorous profession. It’s highly lucrative, but far from glamorous. It has its ups and downs; often more downs than ups, but the ups can be highly profitable for everyone involved. Because there’s such a high rejection rate and massive turnover of canvassers in canvassing, it falls on the canvass manager to seek out and hire those people who have the skills, drive, ambition and attitude to be successful. In past articles I’ve discussed what an ideal canvasser “looks” like, where to find them, how to identify and recruit them (May, June, July, August & September 2008 articles – click on the months to link directly to the archived articles).
Even if you found and hired your “superman” canvasser (Forgive me for being gender insensitive in the effort of space and time) they can underperform if not properly motivated. The canvass manager is the linchpin in the equation. If they’re not doing their job to motivate the canvasser you’ll churn and burn thru canvassers.
The problem with discussing motivation though is that it is often thought of as managing personalities; and it’s virtually impossible to manage everyone’s personality. If you’ve followed me for more than a month you know I’m a big fan of systems. Systems can be duplicated, repeated and you can anticipate their results. It may come as no surprise, I have a system for managing canvassers to keep them motivated!
This month I’ll discuss the fundamentals, and then over the next few articles discuss in more detail the components of each category. I categorize motivation into 3 areas:
- Training
- Communication
- Meaningful specifics
Training:
I’m sure you already provide some level of training to your canvassers. The training I’m speaking of is that of the canvass manager’s time. How much time are you spending with your canvasser in the office role playing and on the streets canvassing the neighborhoods? Giving canvassers your time and attention is valuable. It implies they’re important to you and the company; that what they’re doing matters; regardless if they’re a rookie or veteran canvasser.
Most sports teams have a head coach and assistant coaches. The head coach’s responsibility is the overall direction and performance of the team and assistant coaches are tasked with implementing the game plan with their respective players. But it’s the great coaches that make time for each of their players individually to find out how they’re doing and get to know them on a personal level.
I find that when I’m working on site with a private client, the most valuable and productive time I spend with canvassers individually is the time we walk and talk between the doors. The canvass manager shouldn’t hesitate to roll up his or her sleeves with their canvassing team.
Communication:
That leads me to the next category; what do you tell and say to canvassers to keep them motivated? It’s not a rah rah speech, but helping formalize the “dream” sold to the canvasser during recruiting.
They want to be successful, but they need to be shown the path to success. Let them know what you expect from them (number of leads per shift, progress, attendance, attitude and behavior). Laying it all down at the start is the foundation for everything you’ll do with your canvassers from day 1.
I find that good and great canvassers are highly motivated, but they need to know what the goal looks like and how to achieve it; again, 3 categories you can use upon which to measure:
Minimum leads expected & # of leads to progress (get promoted-make more $)
- Attendance – dress code
- Attitude – behavior
I mentioned it earlier in this article, “it’s not a popularity contest”, you’re not managing personalities, but rather identifiable tangibles.
Meaningful specifics:
Once again, using the sports analogy; you could coach the greatest football team in the league and have the top quarterback in the game yet his performance will be substandard if the coach’s only direction to him were, “Score touchdowns!” He has the skills and attitude to be great, but lacks the strategy and direction.
This lends itself to the first 2 categories of my system “Training” and “Communication”, but it’s much more strategic.
I’ll be following up on this subject in more detail over the coming months as well as on next week’s “Jump Start to Canvassing” live Teleseminar call. If you’ve already registered for my Teleseminars then you’ll receive a reminder email about the call next week, but if you haven’t been on a call with me, go to www.canvassking.com/teleseminar now and register yourself for a spot during this free call.
Another resource to receive answers to your canvassing and canvass management questions is my www.AskTheCanvassKing.com site. Here you can post your questions and I’ll follow up with you by email and/or in an upcoming blog article or on a monthly Teleseminar.
Finally this month, I’ve hinted at it in past articles and on Teleseminar calls, but this Thursday I’ll be releasing information about my new training program, “Canvassing in the New Economy.” It’s the most comprehensive canvass training program “in-a-box” available. It deals with every aspect of canvassing and I’ve tailored it specifically for companies that canvass, or could canvass, for home improvement leads. It includes over 45 customized product specific canvassing scripts.
Watch your inbox this Thursday for a web-link to discover more about the program.