Seth Godin decides that when a business becomes a commodity you can either struggle or re-invent. He misses a third option. You can compete. Fight for share. Thrive. And use the commodity business to generate the cash flow necessary to innovate new products, services and markets. The event that caused His Godiness to kvetch this little bromide was the appearance of a real honest to God door-to-door salesman at his Irvington offices. This is Seth’s rendition of the encounter…
A door to door salesman just walked into our offices in Irvington.
Tough job.
A job usually reserved for people selling advertising or janitorial services.
This was an assistant Vice President at Citibank. He’s wandering the halls, door by door, trying to sell business checking accounts.
Clearly, all that marble, all those tellers and all that advertising is not enough to meet aggressive growth targets.
Once your business becomes a commodity, you can struggle or you can re-invent. I consider door-to-door selling to be struggling.
First off, Seth could be right. Maybe they are struggling. And this guy is simply humping to meet a quota. Or, maybe this guy has figured out that none of his competitors are going door-to-door. And in this day and age a firm hand shake and real personal contact can be a competitive differentiator. Maybe he is re-inventing. After all it got His Godiness to talk about it.
11.18.05 UPDATE: Harry Joiner who’s spent some time training AFLAC sales reps on door-to-door selling offer his take on Seth’s take here.
11.18.05 UPDATE 2: Rick Cooper the PDA Pro has issues with His Sethness’ issues on selling door-to-door…
11.18.05 UPDATE 3: The Plan Resonate folks ask "Why is it so fashionable to openly hate on salespeople?"
Creative awards are meaningless if you can’t convert them into revenue, profit and market share. Click here to learn more about vSente. We wage and win battles for market share.
Thanks for the mention Mike. When it comes to sales, what’s old is new again. I think many sales professionals are beginning to see the benefit of getting more face time with customers and prospects. It’s more difficult to get people on the phone these days and due to regulations on telemarketing, you have to be very careful. And spam has made email marketing a lot more challenging. And, advertising on the radio, TV, the internet and other mediums continue to evolve.
So, I think the fact that someone has the courage to visit businesses door-to-door is admirable. I think a better strategy would be to contact existing customers and ask for referrals.
I would also suggest becoming more active in their chamber of commerce and join a business leads group such as TNI, BNI or LeTip. Cold-calls are difficult to develop into a meaningful relationship, but it can be done. Remember that banks in particular have a narrow geographic focus due to the multitude of branches in many areas. So, the battle is fought street by street.
I recently participated in a business walk sponsored by our local chamber of commerce. Business, chamber and county officials literally went door-to-door to visit businesses and survey them on the state of their business. There’s something about meeting people in person at their place of business that builds rapport.
At any rate, don’t discount any sales strategy until you’ve tried it.
I think you’re spot on – selling door to door could be a last ditch effort to generate sales or it could very well be something positive and market appropriate. Hard to make a generalization that it’s all bad.
Telemarketers, however….
🙂
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You obviously know nothing about door to door sales. I know people who have built their entire businesses with direct sales. I have heard of a real estate agent that makes millions by simply knocking on 100 doors a day. Have you ever heard of spring green? They are part of a fortune 500 company that gets the bulk of their business with direct sales, how about Electrolux, Kirby, Saladmaster or vector/cutco? These are all international businesses making millions of dollars a year built on door to door and direct marketing.
Maybe that person that walked though your door was in a struggle at the time, but regardless I know first hand, that of all marketing techniques, door to door sales has the best results for the best bargain. When I knock on doors for one hour I am guaranteed a few leads and always at least one customer that signs up with us at their door. It is quite obvious that you have never experienced door to door first hand, that’s too bad.
Please don’t feel sorry for the door- to -door rep you encountered, if he’s a professional you’ll not get into his golf club and your children will not be attending his childrens private schools. And the guy might be enjoying the good life, having a financial ball, and, dare I say it, he might even be feeling sorry for you.
Alright the jobs not glamourous, its not seen as a career, it can be cold and wet somedays, but here’s the nitty-gritty you can make a lot of money at it, providing you know what will sell and what won’t, Putting in the hours is the name of the game, i can knock 200 doors each and every day? As for job security – 100s of firms want you to join them today and its always been that way. You see stock on warehouse shelves needs to be sold, going “on the doors”, is one way to do it. A lot of big buisnesses start that way, and it didn’t do the Guggenheims any harm did it.
Door Knocking is constitutionally protected by the supreme court. People should try to knock doors for a living before slaming in the face of one. Many successful modern and historical business people have door knocking experience. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.