Think about all the people in your company. Which of those would you identify as winners? It’s not really a question you can answer as asked because it depends on the task being asked of them. Let me define “winner”; it’s a person who’s able to achieve the goals you set for the task asked of them. If the person’s role is support or secretarial, then to measure their performance and determine if they’re a winner or not you must clearly define and communicate your expectations of them.
Owners and managers repeatedly tell of their frustration with their people. Their frustration is often caused by:
- wrong person for the job
- Expectations not clearly communicated
- Tools not provided to achieve the goal
I know that’s an over simplification. Let me bring this around to canvassers. If you were on my live Teleseminar last week I discussed how we’re (you) in the Personal development business. Everyone is born with a certain level of instinctive skill. That’s not to say they can’t learn or develop others, but their ability to learn and develop additional skills has more to do with their own internal programming than the training you provide.
Canvassing is a tough job. Last month I wrote, “The people you hire as canvassers bring their own set of innate skills and baggage.” There’s a war going on inside the head of every canvasser on your team … that’s the baggage.
Canvass Training Can Teach Mechanics, But It Can’t Alter The Canvasser
There’s a significant difference between what you THINK a person can achieve and what they BELIEVE they can achieve. I’d be willing to bet your expectations are significantly higher than theirs; yet you provide the same training to every canvasser. Why is this?
Every canvasser has their own self-image. It’s their internal belief system of what they can and cannot achieve. It’s an unconscious barrier of self-limiting beliefs that no training can break through. You can teach the canvasser the words to say and the sequence in which to say them; you can teach a rebuttal for every objection the homeowner can throw, but unless the canvasser believes in their ability to apply the mechanics, and more importantly, be able to successfully apply them then the training will fall upon deaf ears.
Let me set the stage. During your next canvass training meeting look into the eyes of each canvasser as you go over the content of the meeting and determine who’s getting it and who’s not. For example, let’s say you’re in front of your canvassing team before a shift and you’re teaching them my introduction (it’s new for this group of canvassers). The introduction goes like this,
“Hi, I’m just dropping off a notification there’s going to be some work going on in your neighborhood and there might be some noise and dust. We actually do replacement windows, in the meantime while we’re out here we’ve scheduled several appointments for free estimates with many of your neighbors so with that in mind are you generally around in the evenings, or would the daytime be better?”
The purpose of the introduction, in general, is to show up at the door passing out a notification to let them know of possible noise or dust in the neighborhood, then transition to getting an appointment. It’s stealth, yet very harmless.
Every canvasser in the room will hear the same thing, yet each will process what you said differently. 20% will think to themselves, “Awesome! I love how that gets my foot in the door, grab their attention and then casually transitions to asking for the appointment.”
80% will have two reactions, “That’s misleading. You’re asking me to, in essence, lie to the person? The idea of dropping off a notification is a deception; I don’t think I can do that and sleep at night.” Or, not understand the purpose and methodology of the introduction and therefore don’t deliver it with any effectiveness.
When you dispatch these canvassers out into the neighborhood armed with this new tool, 20% can’t wait to hit the streets and try out the new technique and 80% are so consciously focused on if they can do this that even if they say the words right, being uncomfortable with the technique will be communicated unconsciously in their delivery and completely sabotage their chances of getting appointments.
You need winners; people who come to you already with a success oriented mindset. You know it when you see it. These types of people have an instinct for success.
To close the loop on my point, you have to be looking for winners all the time. They could be stuck in a cubical in HR or accounting; they could be the person who waits on you at the restaurant or the guy shining your shoes. You’ll hear it in their voice, see it in their actions, in the way they carry themselves and the way they treat others. The person with the success instinct sees every person they meet as a potential prospect, even if they’re not selling anything.
I conduct group interviews for canvassers. Everyone comes to the interview hungry to find a job, but the dynamics I create in the interview cause the winners to identify themselves to me out of the group. It’s those people I ask back for another interview. Finding winners is a combination of science and art. The group interview and the scripting used to conduct the meeting is the system or science and being aware of the “hunters” in the room is the art. That comes from the experience of working with and training a lot of success-oriented canvassers. Alpha types can immediately identify other alpha types.
The work doesn’t end with finding people who have the right mindset. Even they come to you with a set of self-limiting beliefs. In my next article I’ll discuss how to alter their philosophy about themselves in order to take them to higher levels of achievement, and accomplishment.
This is the final month for free access to my Teleseminars. In fact, next week Wednesday, January 25th will be the final free Teleseminar. To stay connected and continue growing your canvassing results click here to join the Silver level membership.
If you haven’t registered or participated on one of the free Teleseminars you have only 1 chance left to do so. Go to www.canvassking.com/teleseminar.html. This will be the last free call. We start promptly at 2pm Eastern Standard Time.
If you have questions about this month’s article or canvassing in general, write me at www.AskTheCanvassKing.com.
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