The first few seconds on the door are pretty critical. If you can't get through them without getting the door slammed on your face, you're never going to get a sale. Now, hopefully you've done a bit of training on this already, but if not, here we go.
The Technique
You want a sale. Before you get to a sale, you need to go through closing them. Before you close them you need to pitch them. Before you pitch them you need to get them to not close the door on your face in the first few seconds. And before you have the first few seconds, they open the door on you.
You've probably been knocking on doors your entire life - going to see friends, trying to get in your house when you accidentally locked yourself out, begging your siblings to let you in after they locked you out as a prank. You've also probably never really thought a ton about your stance and what you look like on the door. Time for that to change.
When a homeowner opens the door on you, they are probably thinking something like "I'm busy and doing important stuff and don't have time for whatever this person is trying to sell me." That's what I think at least. So we need to change their thoughts.
To do that, we need to appear busy and like we have a purpose when they answer the door. Here are my suggestions on how to make that happen:
- Always stand slightly at an angle compared to the door - I prefer to stand sideways (also has the benefit of not looking confrontational).
- Never just be staring at the door waiting to make eye contact with the homeowner (although you'll definitely want to make eye contact a little bit after they open the door)
- If possible, be doing something on your iPad or phone and make it look like it is important (whether or not it is important doesn't really matter - just as long as it looks like you are doing something important and not just scrolling X or Instagram or something similar)
- Take a second or two to look up when they open the door - this helps the homeowner to see that you're busy with stuff
- Don't immediately pivot to straight up face them, take a second or two (if you do it at all)
- Once you launch into your pitch, go hard for a little - this probably deserves its own post, but it is important to make sure you don't give the homeowner a super easy chance to say "no thanks" and slam the door on your face; most people are kind enough that they will listen until you stop speaking
Now this is not the perfect list of things to do, but it will help you on the doors. Basically, it amounts to you not wanting to be caught flat-footed or in a situation where it is easy for the homeowner to immediately shut you down.
The Why
If you are able to follow the steps above, it will be a good start into helping make sure that the homeowner takes you seriously rather than just treating you as an annoying nuisance that should be shut out.
Once you're able to master your doorway stance, you will have an easier time getting into your pitch and making the sale.
For some of you, this might be a little awkward. If it is, practice it. It is important that the homeowner respects you and your time off the bat otherwise you probably won't be helping them with their pest control (or solar or windows or whatever).