Let’s cut right to the chase — as a canvasser, you need a clear system that guides you through all the home improvement steps and how-to’s of face-to-face marketing to ensure the outcome is positive after a prospect answers their door. We’ll walk you through the top 5 home improvement canvassing tips that will yield big results!
All this time, and you thought you were just a home improvement canvasser! You are, but you’re also a marketer.
Your ultimate canvassing goals for home improvement are to:
Make contact with homeowners;
Present your home improvement product or service; and
Schedule an appointment.
The best way to achieve your home improvement canvassing goals is to get in front of people.
Think of it this way… how many people actually have home land line phones? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey, only about 41% of Americans.
Oh, and then there’s junk mail! How many pieces of junk mail do you get in your mailbox daily? 7 pieces? Maybe 10 or 15, depending on how many catalogs you get too? Most of it probably goes straight to the trash.
And, TV commercials. Let’s just say, I actually DVR my must-watch shows just so I can fast forward through the commercials. I can’t be the only one doing this.
So, if you really want to make an impact, it comes down to physically getting in front of people to market your home improvement product or service. Face-to-face marketing cuts through the bombardment of other marketing messages that your ideal prospect is exposed to and puts you and your company front and center in their mind.
At that point, all you have to do is nurture them until they purchase your home improvement product or service.
The following home improvement canvassing tips will teach you how to incorporate face-to-face marketing techniques into your canvassing efforts:
You need to prepare to succeed. A successful canvassing program is an up front investment of time and resources that is more than worth the payoff.
The 3 elements of a good canvassing program are:
1. A Clear System
Create a guide for face-to-face marketing and door knocking lead generation to ensure you are taking the right steps at the right time to get the results you want to hit your home improvement sales goals. Successful canvassing takes a very special skill set that enables you to go out and get a lead at will. One of the most important of these skills is creating a powerful foundational script and presentation to include with your home improvement canvassing system.
Don’t be too concerned by the word “script.” I promise, this does not mean you have to be robotic or seem like you are giving a canned response. The goal is to be authentic at the door and inject your personality, so having the right script based on your specific home improvement product or service reveals that you are strategic in your system of approach.
In other words, you know exactly what to say in every possible situation to either set an appointment at the door or gain a lead.
Remember, when you go to the door as a home improvement canvasser, you are not there to sell, so be sure not to write your canvassing script like a sales script. The people behind the doors are not expecting you, so they are likely not thinking about your product or service. You have 7 seconds to make a good first impression.
If the person at the door feels like you are trying to sell them, or you insist on being persistent, they will tune you out. This is why having a clear canvassing script is so important.
2. Recruiting the Right People
Get very clear on who you need to recruit to join your home improvement canvassing team. Create a “persona” of the “perfect” home improvement canvasser for your product or service.
A home improvement canvasser persona is a made-up person that has everything to be the perfect canvasser for your product or service. Here are some guiding questions to help jump start you in identifying the ideal canvassing persona:
- Do you want experienced or non-experienced canvassers?
- What is your ideal canvassers’ background?
- How old is your ideal canvasser?
- Is your ideal canvasser a male or female?
- What type of personality does your ideal canvasser have?
- Does your ideal canvasser need to be tech savvy?
- Is your ideal canvasser extremely organized?
It’s perfectly fine to recruit someone who isn’t your ideal persona. Just be dedicated in taking them through your system and teaching them how to be a successful home improvement canvasser.
3. Training & How to Approach Door to Door Canvassing
It’s important to be flexible in your training philosophy. Consider a combination of classroom-style lecture, role playing scenarios and real-life experience that lasts at least 3 to 5 days.
Bonus Tip: During training, allow new home improvement canvassers to knock doors in pairs to ease them into the process and to make them more comfortable.
Canvass, do not sell. Make sure you do not attach a heavy sales agenda to your home improvement canvassing efforts. The mindset is often – get leads NOW, schedule appointments NOW, get sales NOW, so when speaking with prospects, they often feel pushed into making a decision immediately. Their natural instinct to this is to say:
“No.”
“I can’t afford it.”
“I need to talk to my husband or wife.”
“My spouse makes those kinds of decisions.”
Handle these objections with questions so that you are prompting a conversation that tells you exactly what the homeowner needs and how you and your home improvement product or service can help them.
Capture leads at the door to nurture. For those people who are not interested at the exact moment you knock on their door, collect their information — name, address, phone number, email, etc. — so you can stay in touch with them.
Typically, the “time isn’t right” prospects will ask for a card or brochure, and you will give them one. Then, you walk away without any data about the person at the door.
Until you collect information about the person at the door, he or she is still just a prospect. Use a tool like SPOTIO to collect their information and convert them into leads you can nurture and follow up with at a later date.
With the collected data, stay in front of your leads by nurturing them through your marketing system so that when they are ready to buy, you will be their only logical choice.
Knock where you already have established customers. Let’s say you scheduled three appointments that resulted in selling three $40,000 window packages.
Obviously, you found the territory where the homeowners meet your ideal customer profile, because you have already made 3 sales. Therefore, it is highly likely that the remaining homeowners in this particular neighborhood purchase at this price point as well.
So, you should make it a priority to knock, schedule appointments, nurture and follow up with every single home in this neighborhood.
Bonus Knocking Tip: When you knock doors, drop the names of the homeowner’s in the neighborhood who have schedule appointments and/or ultimately bought your home improvement product or service.
For example: “Your neighbor Mr. Jones just saved $500 per year on his electric bill by installing our X Window Package. Is it better for you morning or afternoon for us to check your windows for free to see how much money we can save you, too?”
Knock doors where you have an active install in progress. Two weeks ago, you scheduled an appointment with a homeowner that resulted in selling your top-of-the line solar power system offering and today, the install is beginning. It’s the perfect time to go knock on doors around the neighborhood and invite them to come down and see a solar panel install in real life.
In this situation, a fun and unique way to approach people at the door is to treat the invite like an exclusive movie screening.
Sample Script: “Your neighbor Bob is having his solar power system installed right now. I’d like to personally invite you down to 1234 Success Drive to see exactly how a solar install works. Here’s some popcorn to snack on and some shades to wear. Your future with solar is so bright, you gotta wear shades!”
For home improvement canvassers who focus on roofing, you can do the exact same, but instead of the “movie screening” theme, hand out earplugs!
Sample Script: “We’re installing our premium roof on Mrs. Jones’ house down the way at 234 Success Drive. I’d like to invite you to come down and see XYZ Roofing in action. It’s going to be quite loud, so here are some earplugs!”
For home improvement canvassers for sunrooms, distribute sunscreen!
Sample Script: “We’re installing our number one selling sunroom right next door at Tom’s house. I’d like to invite you to come over and see how building a sunroom works. It’s sunny out, so here’s some sunscreen.”
I think you get the overall idea.
Now, put on your “marketing hat” for just a moment. When you distribute giveaway trinkets, be sure they are branded. Consider adding your company’s logo and your contact information, and have the trinket made in your company’s colors. You are literally putting your company and contact information into the hands of potential customers.
And, approaching potential customers in a fun and unique way helps them remember you and who to call to fulfill their home improvement needs.
Bonus Tip: Wondering where to get these company branded items? Alibaba is an excellent website that provides affordable, customizable items that can be ordered in bulk.
Here are some other industry-specific suggestions and links to make your purchase:
Solar canvassers – How about some custom neon sunglasses at 3¢ to 5¢ per pair?
Roofing canvassers – Okay, seriously. The best place ever to get ear plugs? Nascar race! But, for this purpose, here’s a case of 200 pairs of foam earplugs for only 9¢ per pair.
To brand them and keep them sanitary, put them in small, custom plastic zip-loc style bags (here’s some for only 1¢ to 2¢ each) with your logo printed on them.
Security canvassers – You could play off the weather. If it’s hot/sunny, for example, you could hand out custom branded sunglasses for 3¢ to 5¢ per pair or custom, individual sunscreen lotion packets for only 5¢ per package.
Sample script: “Protecting your home and your eyes or skin.” (depending on the giveaway of course.)
Insurance canvassers – I suggest these 14¢ pens that are branded with your company logo, name and contact information. When people learn how awesome your insurance is, they’ll want to sign on the dotted line and you can accommodate them!
See, marketing doesn’t have to be expensive or boring!
There you have it, the top 5 home improvement canvassing tips every canvasser needs to know.
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