The Adventures of Knocking Doors

There are a lot of misconceptions about the sales industry, especially direct sales. Door knockers have a reputation for being manipulative and slimy. I too used to be one who beared those thoughts

Being in direct sales myself, I was convinced otherwise through experience.

What is Sales?

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation.

Sales are important to businesses because it’s what generates revenue and makes the businesses grow. However, there’s more to sales than gaining profit.

My Sales Journey

I started working for Vivint Smarthome Security as a direct salesman. As I said previously, I used to think salesmen were schemy. I soon learned it only took a person to have one bad experience with a salesman to conceive this biasness. I wanted to change this perception, so I soaked up everything I could to deliver that experience, and make my job easier. Here’s what I learned:

First things first, prospecting is very important because you don’t want to talk to everyone with a pulse. It is a waste of your time. Especially in the Texas mid-summer heat and bugs the size of a quarter. I used to look at vehicles in driveways. If it was a van, then I could conclude the house contained a family with kids. They were more likely to purchase cameras to protect their home. It’s essential to find people who fit your business’s criteria to consume all of your energy to potential consumers.

Once I found my potential customers,I spent proper time building relationships. I started out simple at first like complimenting someone’s yard work. If it was well-kept, that meant their yard’s appearance was important to them and you took time acknowledging it. It breaks preoccupation and lowers their guard. I found that when connecting with prospects they were more prone to purchasing from you, willing to offer referrals, and boasting about the company on their social media.

Listening to a customer I would say goes hand-in-hand with bringing value. Without listening, you can’t figure out how a customer would gain from your product. Once I got a prospect’s attention, I would ask questions so I could build them their own “mercedes-benz package.”

-“What areas are most important for you to keep an eye out?” i.e over the garage to watch over their cars.

-”Are your kids often home alone, or have a nanny?” This was often important for concerned parents.

Listening eliminated the reek of “commission-breath” and I instead brought value into a customer’s life. Which is next on our list..

Bringing value. If a product could talk, it would sell itself. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and I was the walking brochure for Vivint. Even though I took the time prospecting, I knew that not every person I talked to was going to buy from me. I looked for that one person who said yes instead of trying to convince everyone why cameras were important. After I took the time to get to know my potential customers, I showed them how our cameras would add value to, let’s say their family, by being able to keep an eye on their kids to make sure they were safe. I didn’t just sell the cameras, I created a visual story of our product benefiting their lives.

The reason this is crucial is because the customers who purchased from me would benefit from the product and it felt like an even exchange on both ends. No one is being conned into buying something they don’t want.

Conclusion

Being in direct sales taught me lots of important information. I learned how to steer away from being the greedy salesman that we are often mistaken for and how to deliver the best experience for every customer I encountered. It is important to value these characteristics because a salesman is a representation of their company and it takes one bad move to burn their reputation.

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