How Selling Door to Door Taught Me to Be a Better Direct Marketer
Selling magazines door to door as a teenager was great training for becoming a direct marketer.
I quickly learned that not every homeowner welcomed me. Some wouldn't even come to the door. A few would shut the door in my face while others didn't mind listening but had no intention of buying.
But I quickly learned how to turn my experiences to my advantage. And before I would even knock on the door, I was soon looking for clues that would help me make the sale.
My marketing "data" came from what I could see in the homeowner's front yard. Toys in the yard would tell me that children lived inside. A newspaper revealed that the residents were interested in keeping up with current events. If I saw baseballs, footballs or basketballs, I knew someone in the home was interested in sports. A well-cared for garden or a luxury car in the driveway gave me even more information.
Analyzing all this data would help me choose which magazines to show the homeowner. I had hundreds of magazines to choose from--sports magazines, news magazines, magazines for gardeners, car enthusiasts, kids, women, you name it--and I dramatically increased my sales when I used my collected data to select which magazines to show the homeowner.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was targeting my market.
When someone did answer my knock on the door, I couldn't help but notice the quick scan I'd get as the homeowner decided whether to give me even a minute of their time.
Yet I just needed a small crack in the door to deliver enough information that they would want to hear what I said next.
Most people were thrilled to learn what magazines their neighbors had purchased. And once they focused their attention on what I was saying, I could present the magazines I thought would be of most interest to that particular homeowner.
Soon, my sales skyrocketed.
Yet I found that people didn't want to talk about magazines. Instead, they wanted to know how they would benefit from the magazines. They wanted tips on how to get more tomatoes from their garden, inside information on their most loved sports teams and easy-to-understand news stories they could discuss with their friends and coworkers.
After a few weeks, I discovered that homeowners weren't comfortable when I spoke of "learning" or "reading" the magazines. These words implied work. Talking about "having ideas come to your home" and what could be "discovered" or "seen" through the magazines was much more effective.
I always asked for the order. And once I explained that there was no risk to try a new magazine because they could cancel the order at any time, I would ask, "Do you want to try the magazine for twelve months or twenty-four?" Presuming the sale worked far better than, "Do you want to place an order?" And once the sale was completed, I thanked my new customer and quickly moved on to make the next sale.
More than once, I got the door shut in my face but, rather than take it personally, I used the occasion to improve my sales pitch and then moved on to the next home to test my new approach.
Today, as direct marketers, we certainly have more advanced methods of gathering information, but in reality, our sales approachwhether we're working online or with direct mailis much the same as it was when I was a teenager selling magazines. Whatever the sales medium, we:
Share the same objectiveclosing the sale.
Must clearly show potential customers how they will benefit from the sale. For example, we don't sell subscriptions; we offer knowledge that makes the prospect's life more exciting, pleasurable and rewarding. And we don't sell insurance; we offer security, protection and comfort. We won't even promote a cure for cancer, but we will give the prospect hope that their family can be free of its suffering.
Grab the prospect's attention, generate interest, show how the reader will benefit and instruct them to take a specific action.
Make our return on investment our method of evaluating success.
And we listen to our customers and fine-tune our offer so that we can better meet their needs.
Whether we use direct mail or sell online, there's no need for the process to be any more difficult than when I was selling magazines as a teenager. After all, our purpose is still the samecost effectively persuading the prospect to take a desired action.
In retrospect, walking door to door selling magazines was great training for my direct-marketing career. I just didn't realize it at the time.
How Selling Door to Door Taught Me to Be a Better Direct Marketer
By: Hugh Chewning
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