Is Door To Door Selling Dead?

Hi:

Other than the usual Girl Scouts or fundraisers for local schools, has anyone been approached by a real live door to door salesman?

If so, what did they sell and did you buy it?


Make Money Buying and Selling

I launched my b2b business with door to door cold calling (Business doors).

I was often surprised to here how few businesses actually had salespeople visit them on cold calls.

I still drop in on many of my accounts for unscheduled visits, but rarely have time for true cold calls anymore. I'm busy enough just taking care of existing customers, plus referrals and those who call for me.

If you build your business right, your existing clients can generate more prospects for you than you can handle.

As Yakoff Smirnoff says, "What a great country!".

Dennis Bevers




B2B sales that can earn you an income for life!

Hi John,

I haven't had any door-to-door sales people around here, but.... Boyd Stone has mentioned some door-to-door sales people in his area in a recent post - http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=12444

This may be interesting, though. There is a business here which leaves catalogs by your door, and they ask you to leave the catalog next to your door later for collection - along with your order (if you want to make one). This is not quite door-to-door, but the fact that they actually come around to collect the catalog (and your order too) seems to be something in-between door-to-door sales and direct marketing through catalogs....

- Dien Rice

Dien,

Can you tell me what the name of the company is that does the drop and run catalog business you talked about in your post?

Thanks!
Martin Buckley

> Hi John,

> I haven't had any door-to-door sales people
> around here, but.... Boyd Stone has
> mentioned some door-to-door sales people in
> his area in a recent post -
> http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=12444
> This may be interesting, though. There is a
> business here which leaves catalogs by your
> door, and they ask you to leave the catalog
> next to your door later for collection -
> along with your order (if you want to make
> one). This is not quite door-to-door, but
> the fact that they actually come around to
> collect the catalog (and your order too)
> seems to be something in-between
> door-to-door sales and direct marketing
> through catalogs....

> - Dien Rice

We went for years without any, now we get a door to door saleperson every few months. About 6 months ago, a guy showed up at the door selling coupons for Fuddruckers (This is a chain of hambuger resturants). I was busy and blew the guy off buy not before he got in his 30 second pitch.
About an hour later I was thinking about this guy and his sales pitch. It occured to me this was a pretty good deal, as we eat at Fuddruckers on a regular bases. So I go looking for this guy in the neigborhood. I cannot find him but, I find another guy selling the same coupons.
I quized him about a little about their sales. There were 5 guys in the neigborhood selling these coupon sheets. Each sheet sold for $20. They start out with 100 sheets each. When I talked to this guy it was about 2pm he only had 7 sheets left. These guys worked for a marketing firm so I do not know what their cut of the sale was but this crew did $10,000 in sales in one day selling coupons.

Just another thought about the concept of door-to-door selling these days.

As a single woman at home alone, and due to the affects of 911, I'm very leary of someone coming to my door unannounced.

I was even cautious when a man from the lite company in uniform came to my door and said he was making some meter changes and the power would be off for a few minutes...I asked if there was anything he would be needing of me, and he said no.

I went and powered down my computer and about 5 minutes later, a knock at the door. It was him, and he was asking to come into my home so he could check the water heater to see if it would need to be reset.

I know I hesitated a moment, and then allowed him to enter, and pointed down the hall beyond the kitchen to where the water heater closet was, while I stayed near the front door poised to run if neccessary.

Fortunately, it was not neccessary.

Now, after he left...I remembered having to stand at the doorway wondering, was this man really from the lite company? Is that a real uniform he's wearing?...And I became very angry with myself for taking such a chance, and I became angry with our utility company... I felt, their knowing that one of their representitives would be needing to enter into my home should have notified me by phone before he came to my home.

So...from my own point of view. I don't want someone coming to my door that I have to open the door to acknowledge whom I don't know.

Maybe years ago, it was more acceptable, but today, it makes the hairs stand up on my neck.

Now, I very much like the idea that Dien mentioned in regards to leaving a catalouge for pickup later. That's less confrontational and almost brilliant I think.

Just my 2 cents,

Robin R