Hey, my name is Jonathan Pototschnik. The question is, how do you grab the attention of a homeowner when going door to door selling lawn care services? This one is very simple. Start with putting yourself in their shoes.
Every time somebody knocks on your door from now on, answer it and then just observe. What is it that they just did? What did you like or dislike? Did they look confident? Were they smiling? Did they speak clearly? Did they dress professionally and look put together?
What is the key to getting the homeowner’s attention? It’s appearance. We are going to make a judgment on the individual when we open that door, we are going to make it seconds subconsciously. Do I like this guy? Do I trust this guy? Do I even have any desire to continue this conversion? And if they don’t, they go into shutdown mode immediately. You got to visually take away all of the reasons why they might go into shutdown mode immediately. Clean. Cut. Dress nice. Well presented. Speak clearly. Look at them. Make eye contact. Smile. All those kind of things. Okay, that’s basics, you know all that stuff and then what do you next.
Hey Ms, Jones or Ms. Homeowner, I would like you to consider buying from me because we are a great company and we really could use the business right now. I’d like you to consider buying this service from me. Who cares. They don’t care what you want. All they care about is themselves.
What is it that you’ve got to do to get their attention? Okay, again, if you go into the selling situation and it’s all about you, we want to mow your loan, we are a great company. We do a good job and it’s about them. You are losing them. How do we not lose people? You got to put it all back on that, the benefits to them. In a very simple word, free. That’s how you get the homeowners attention. Free.
You knock on the door, if you give them something for free. It’s not will you buy this from me. Let’s do a long clothes right here and the fastest way to get their attention is I’ve got this gift for you. I’d like to give you this gift. We are in the neighborhood. We are taking care. I have a gift I’d like to give you. It’s completely in my personal opinion, it’s eliminating the selling presentation. It’s a presentation. It’s thought out and it’s specific. You know what you are doing but it doesn’t come across as a sales pitch.
I’d like to sell you this vacuum cleaner. No. It comes across as hey, we are in the neighborhood. We serve three of your neighbors down the street. I just want to stop by and I want to give you this free gift. It’s a whatever it is. If we can ever be of service to you. We are already on your street once a week. Please call us up. Here is a free gift just for whatever and have a great day and a lot of times the conversation will engage right there. Other times the conversation will not go anywhere further but now you’ve given them something completely free, there was no sales pitch, there was no pressure, in their mind, you have come across in a very positive like they’ll take whatever it is and a lot of times you end up getting a phone call from it.
That’s just one little trick but there is two lessons here. One is or one is put yourself in their perspective. Okay. Many guys I see divert going off on a tangent here for a second but many guys I see, they start their business and they want to look big. Nobody connects with the company. We all connect with people. You and I would connect on a personal level. If you are doing business with me, you don’t care about my company. You don’t care if I have a 50 million dollar on your company. You don’t care if I have 300 employees. You don’t care about any of that. You are dealing with me. You care about, do I trust this guy, do I like this guy. Okay.
Everything is about a personal relationship. Same with you knock on the door and where going with this, some of the guys trying to make themselves look big. Just look real. Knock on the door and be a real guy. Actually, you don’t have compassion and empathy and all of those things and if you come across that way, you’ll come across different than 9 out of 10 guys that are knocking on the door just trying to get to sell. If you come across like you just trying to get the sell, you are not going to get it most. You’ll get some but you are not going to get nearly as many as. If you came across with a completely different heart, I guess you would say, I’ve got a gift for you. We are in the neighborhood and we serve your clients. If there is anything I can ever do to help you, here is a gift for you. Call us up. We’ll be out here immediately. We’ll help you.
That’s not the verbiage you use, that’s the concept. That’s the mindset. The two lessons were look at it from their perspective. Don’t do what you hate. Do not copy the guys out there knocking on doors because you think they are knocking on doors and that must be the right way to do it. Be genuine. Be real. Don’t say the stuff, do the stuff that feels thank to you because you think other people do it. Don’t say the closing techniques out of the sales book. Don’t repeat the stuff in the sales book because you feel like, well that’s how you suppose to sell. No. You are genuine. You are not selling. You are out in the neighborhood as an adviser consulting. Can I help you? I’d love to give you a gift.
Totally different. It’s a totally different experience for the end user. For the person that prospect. Look at it from their perspective. Only do and say what you would want somebody else to do and say to you that you wouldn’t find annoying and lame and untrue and fake. Don’t do any of that stuff. Be real and then what you can give them for free. Yes it’s a risky. Yes you might lose some money on it. You can always test on a small number but figure that out. What can you go in and just give them. That gets attention. Free is one of the best words in marketing.
Guess what can you do. Don’t make it lame. 10% off service. That’s boring. Everybody does that. Don’t do that. What can you do? Get creative. Stretch your limits. Do more than you think you can afford. Test it on a small number, see how it works. You’ll be amazed at the results. Good luck.