Door To Door Work

cd02

Hi


I was just wondering if anyone has any experience of door to door promotion (or promoting, not sure which) work?

Thanks

Amanita_2

Only as being on the receiving end.

I hate being interrupted in my own home by sales people and would never consider for one second buying anything.

I'm sure I'm far from alone so you'd need a tough skin to cope with the number of rejections you will face.

property.advert

I did it in Manchester around 1988 and found it was the most depressing of all the jobs I have ever done (and I've had some jobs !).

In a less wealthy area, all you get are the unemployed, partners of low wage earners and single parents, quintessential council house types with little disposable income. Move upmarket and you have housewives with husbands working and disposable income but little interest. You provide merely entertainment for them.

Since doing it myself I have thought through a number of other direct sales ideas but the pitch really depends upon the product. Historically, people had little access to information and needed to invite people to their homes. With the internet, people drive their sales through that channel and one would, in 2010, question why a double glazing salesman needed to pound the streets and yet had no internet direct marketing tool.

I guess some things would work but others might not. What is your idea?

cd02

Thanks for the input but don't think I was clear with my op.

Basically its a government run thing promoting different ways of travelling in the local area in terms of walking/buses/car pooling and offering information/freebies around that. Letters will be going out before hand advising people that someone will visit in the next week or two.

I know I'm going to get people that won't want to know and as its the holidays I'm going to come across alot of kids but was just wondering if anyone has done anything along these lines rather then the sale side.

jimbms

Whoever is running this people are in general sick to death of being disturbed in their private time by telephone calls and knocking on the door, so don't expect a lot of happy reply's.

maninthestreet

The Government needs to find £6BN of savings this fiscal year - I suggest they start with this scheme.

cd02

jimbms wrote: »

Whoever is running this people are in general sick to death of being disturbed in their private time by telephone calls and knocking on the door, so don't expect a lot of happy reply's.

Thanks for your input.. here's hoping everyone isn't in the same frame of mind as you.

maninthestreet wrote: »

The Government needs to find £6BN of savings this fiscal year - I suggest they start with this scheme.

Thanks for your input but to be fair I'm asking about people's experience of doing door to door work and don't really care what you think the governement should or shouldn't be doing, that isn't what this thread is about.

gaz_jones

I worked as a door to door canvasser for a few years when I was a bit younger (16/17/18).

You'd be surprised at how polite most of the people were. As long as you're nice to them, they normally feel too bad to slam the door in your face. Normally you just get a polite "No thank you". Obviously sometimes you get the people that have had a bad day and take it out on you, but you get that with any public facing role.

The team I worked with was a great laugh. They really made the job what it was. We would have a joke whilst walking around, and if we got bored we'd do little games at the doors, like trying to say certain phrases that made no sense, without the customer noticing etc...


It was really good fun. I wasn't a fan of the target driven aspect of it, but the rest was ok.

I can only think of a handful of times people were downright rude to me. And the fact that I can specifically remember those incidences, shows how few and far between they must have been.

crackerberry

In the jobs sections of local newspapers you see the same companies constantly advertising the same door-knocking jobs. That is the best indication of what that type of job is like than any other. Another is testing it out yourself - try knocking on a hundred doors one day and asking them what they think about people knocking at their doors - I'd say if you find even ten who don't mind and are receptive to even listening then you're doing very well.

Muntz

Generally its not something i would like to do, I hate even cold calling people at work, makes me nervous. But I can say once you get over the initial first step then its ok, and with each new person it gets easier