Door to Door sellers

OneArt

TireeTerror wrote: »

Millions of people buy at the door every day. Its the number one most effective way to peddle a product. I spent 12 years knocking on domestic doors selling energy, I would look forward to the people who put signs up about no cold calling etc, I enjoyed the challenge. I especially enjoyed irritating the clowns that had signs up and opened their door and pointed at said sign with their hands on their hips. I would totally ignore their gestures to look at the sign or reply to their "Cant you read?" remarks. Its I who knocked at the door and I'm in control, not the householder.

I would then in the most polite way possible apologise for disturbing them, but that I was looking for (insert whatever their house name or number was, but then add a variant like 23B) and of course they would then look puzzled and inform me that there was no such variant at that address. They would then elaborate saying the neighbour on the right was number 21 and that side was number 25, that they are 23 but not 23B. I would then look really confused and be consulting my electronic tablet as if to check something and ask "Whats your surname?" and when they told me I would confirm thats what name I had been given. I would then bring out my meter key and say "I will just check the meter serial number as I need to make sure Im talking with the right person due to Data Protection regulations" and they would either show me to the meter or invite me in if it was inside the house. If I was outside checking it I would then say, hmmmm this is odd, it appears to be the right meter, its just the address mismatch thats confusing me, I guess the only way to check this is to check the MPRN, I dont suppose you know your MPRN off the top of your head do you?" and of course they didnt. I would then glance at my watch, the watch I only ever wore to work so that I could do this. I normally use my phone for telling the time. I would then screw up my face and then exacerbate "Do me a favour will you, the networks print the MPRN on the corner of the bill, Im really pushed for time here as Ive got a long list of tariffs to correct today, so if you can be as quick as you can." and they would say "ooh whats this all about???" and I would say "Look Id rather not say anything until Ive confirmed Im speaking to the right person" at which point I would look up and down the street and check behind me and then say "Listen its a personal matter to do with your account, Id rather not talk about your private business in the street, as long as youre quick, give me two minutes and I will pop in and explain it to you ok". I would then start to wipe my feet on the door mat and they would literally just step aside and invite me in. Most times they would even look past me and see if anybody could have overheard and they were glad to have you in the house talking in private.

That general members of the public, is how I dealt with people at the door that tried to object for no reason at all. Most people have no real idea what theyre saying no to, so the "If we wanted it we would get it ourselves" doesnt wash with me. I personally would have preferred not to have had to employ such tactics, but in reality it was this that made me the number 1 energy sales person in the UK and latterly in Ireland for all of those 12 years. You might think I would have got lots of complaints, quite the opposite in fact. I had the lowest complaints percentage to sales wise and I also had many customers call or email thanking me for spending my time to explain something in such a manner that they had finally understood the market and had been able to make an informed decision to switch.

Not everyone could get away with such techniques of course, you have to be confident in your delivery and not feel a hint of remorse.

I found those with signs etc actually normally provided the best laugh, often they had a front of a bad attitude, but more often than not I would be sitting in their kitchen drinking a cup of tea laughing about the sign outside.

After reading that I'm glad I never answer the door to anyone unexpected.

nuac

TireeTerror wrote: »

Millions of people buy at the door every day. Its the number one most effective way to peddle a product. I spent 12 years knocking on domestic doors selling energy, I would look forward to the people who put signs up about no cold calling etc, I enjoyed the challenge. I especially enjoyed irritating the clowns that had signs up and opened their door and pointed at said sign with their hands on their hips. I would totally ignore their gestures to look at the sign or reply to their "Cant you read?" remarks. Its I who knocked at the door and I'm in control, not the householder.

I would then in the most polite way possible apologise for disturbing them, but that I was looking for (insert whatever their house name or number was, but then add a variant like 23B) and of course they would then look puzzled and inform me that there was no such variant at that address. They would then elaborate saying the neighbour on the right was number 21 and that side was number 25, that they are 23 but not 23B. I would then look really confused and be consulting my electronic tablet as if to check something and ask "Whats your surname?" and when they told me I would confirm thats what name I had been given. I would then bring out my meter key and say "I will just check the meter serial number as I need to make sure Im talking with the right person due to Data Protection regulations" and they would either show me to the meter or invite me in if it was inside the house. If I was outside checking it I would then say, hmmmm this is odd, it appears to be the right meter, its just the address mismatch thats confusing me, I guess the only way to check this is to check the MPRN, I dont suppose you know your MPRN off the top of your head do you?" and of course they didnt. I would then glance at my watch, the watch I only ever wore to work so that I could do this. I normally use my phone for telling the time. I would then screw up my face and then exacerbate "Do me a favour will you, the networks print the MPRN on the corner of the bill, Im really pushed for time here as Ive got a long list of tariffs to correct today, so if you can be as quick as you can." and they would say "ooh whats this all about???" and I would say "Look Id rather not say anything until Ive confirmed Im speaking to the right person" at which point I would look up and down the street and check behind me and then say "Listen its a personal matter to do with your account, Id rather not talk about your private business in the street, as long as youre quick, give me two minutes and I will pop in and explain it to you ok". I would then start to wipe my feet on the door mat and they would literally just step aside and invite me in. Most times they would even look past me and see if anybody could have overheard and they were glad to have you in the house talking in private.

That general members of the public, is how I dealt with people at the door that tried to object for no reason at all. Most people have no real idea what theyre saying no to, so the "If we wanted it we would get it ourselves" doesnt wash with me. I personally would have preferred not to have had to employ such tactics, but in reality it was this that made me the number 1 energy sales person in the UK and latterly in Ireland for all of those 12 years. You might think I would have got lots of complaints, quite the opposite in fact. I had the lowest complaints percentage to sales wise and I also had many customers call or email thanking me for spending my time to explain something in such a manner that they had finally understood the market and had been able to make an informed decision to switch.

Not everyone could get away with such techniques of course, you have to be confident in your delivery and not feel a hint of remorse.

I found those with signs etc actually normally provided the best laugh, often they had a front of a bad attitude, but more often than not I would be sitting in their kitchen drinking a cup of tea laughing about the sign outside.

Glad to see that your doorknocking career has prospered, and that you now can afford that long drive and gates:).

Cooperate with the census people. They are doing an important job. A census helps those planning our communities. In a 100 years time, your descendants may be looking for your 20i6 Census return. It would be sad if all they find is a record of a conviction for refusing to complete a census form

rucksack

TireeTerror wrote: »

Luis Vast Weekday wrote: »

Quiet honestly, if what you said is true regarding your tactics in conning people into signing up.
Then your a (fill in the negative adjectives here).

You're the reason I never entertain people on the door and set my rabid kids on them if don't understand the NO word.:)

I never conned them. I employed intelligent marketing techniques to bypass their prejudiced response to someone knocking at the door, just like every ad agency on the planet. Unless there is an actual notice stating they have withdrawn their implied rights of access, then I will knock on it.

Almost every single time I would be thanked, hand shook, offered a cup of tea, offered an apology for their initial response as they opened the door with the householder AFTER providing me with a copy of their bill, their bank details, date of birth, email and being under no illusion that they were changing suppliers.

Its easy for the internet warriors to post up about what would happen if it was their door, but really its just a lot of nonsense. If someone actually treats another human in the way these posters try and portray, I don't think its the guy knocking the door that has the problem. Its not that easy to be overtly nasty to someone who is smiling and is very polite to you even when you're being abusive to them.

The iron curtain in front of a door knocker is usually dropped after they realise the door knocker is polite, courteous and genuinely friendly. I know there are a lot of absolutely useless sales guys out there and they are very rude and its probably not surprising considering the abuse that they receive on a daily basis, but the iron curtain only provides protection against inexperienced door knockers.

Its easy for people to sit there and crucify these agents as if they are the worst scum on earth, yet you don't know about the things we have done for people. I personally have fixed thousands of computer problems for people, installed drivers for printers, scanners, removed viruses, helped people fix their tv boxes, moved heavy objects about their house. I've sat with individual pensioners who have been delighted to see me, I phoned their family to seek permission that switching them over was OK and then stayed for a while afterwards chatting to them about whatever they wanted to. Why? Because I was one of the few people they would speak to each week, if there even was anyone else at all. There are so many lonely people out there existing in the world and it all goes on behind closed doors. Did I get paid for doing this extra stuff? Of course not, it would cost me money because I wasnt out signing up next door, but the personal rewards were immense and it helped me maintain my own personal armour if I did come across someone extremely abusive that i wasnt able to flip to the good side.

Say whatever you want, but when you leave a house and the old person looks you straight in the eyes, smiling, and touches your arm and thanks you for calling and helping them, it makes the rest of my day go by very easily.

your "clever marketing " and amateur social engineering would not work here