How do you sell stuff door to door?

Answer 1

As a person that sold magazine subscriptions door to door as a young adult and then trained others how to do it later on I found there isn't just one way to sell things door to door. One must apply a variety of personalities and use humor and confusion as a way into a person's living room. In 1985 I started as a naive 18 year old boy from Kansas traveling all over the country selling magazine subscriptions to "win a contest!" I'm sure you've either spoken with or heard about these traveling bands of young adults out to "better their communication skills" and earn points to win a trip, so on and so forth. Nowadays the companies and groups aren't run very well and gobs of Horror stories abound come to us from various news venues. Ahem, but back to the question at hand.....Looking people directly in the eye and asking them if their spouse or roommate is home is a good one, it brings the other party over and engages both people most likely running the household. If the second person isn't there people tend to feel cornered and making them laugh is the best medicine. Also, I usually would say "Well, Mrs. Williams told me to visit this address and ask for Cynthia (make sure that's her name first), because she said not only are you a hoot, but you have a kind heart." Never fails with the middle aged woman at home alone, and bored. She may not even recognize the name but she'll be embarrassed to say otherwise. And if she says "Well I don't know a Mrs. Williams" you simply respond with "too bad, she makes terrific Chocolate Chip Cookies." Which makes you sound as if you were inside a Mrs. Williams house somewhere in her neighborhood so you must not be all that bad. The point is you want to get them to sit down and listen to you....you want them inside of their own home where they feel empowered and sit them down to listen to your spiel. If you don't accomplish this more times than not a door will be shut on your face. There are a hundreds of things I could write out here regarding technique, but there isn't room. If you wish to email me for more answers I'd be glad to help. email@jwmadison.com ... good luck, John.