The change of seasons might be an opportune time to implement a change of your own.

Summer’s gone. Vacations are over and outdoor activities begin winding down.  Kids all over the country are heading back to school, where they’ll be challenged by new concepts and ideas.

New concepts and ideas are also essential to business. That’s where change starts, and change, successfully implemented, improves business systems and creates greater efficiencies and more profit

Take canvassing. Lots of companies do it. Get it right and you’ve got a system that produces measurable, scaleable lead flow. Do it wrong and you drive yourself crazy while wasting money and time. If you’re generating a fair number of canvas leads but converting less than 45% to appointments due to high cancellation rates caused by invasive and untimely confirmation procedures, here’s a suggestion: cool off.

It’s Not Either / Or

Typically, companies use two methods of converting canvass leads to appointments. They either have the canvasser return the contact information to the office for later contact by the phone room, or they require the canvasser to call the office and set the appointment on the spot with the homeowner.

Here’s a better way

Instead of asking homeowners to wait (patiently and reluctantly) while canvassers call the office to reach a confirmer, have your canvassers text, email or otherwise transmit their appointments to the office from the end of the driveway to be confirmed momentarily. The confirmer responds within five to ten minutes. Before canvassers send that information they explain to prospects that someone will be calling back within a few minutes. Canvassers also make sure tell the homeowner to be available to take that call so that they don’t have to come back to the house to verify the phone number and related information. This gives the homeowner a motive to take the call.

System Tweaks

Do it this way and you don’t leave the homeowner and canvasser stuck on hold waiting for a confirmer to become available, which is awkward and unpleasant, especially if the homeowner’s got his or her hands full at the time with kids, barking dogs or a load of laundry.

Another plus to this system is that it gives confirmers some leeway in getting back to homeowners should they be tied up with multiple calls all at once, which happens when several canvassing teams are in the field at the same time.

One other benefit is that this brief cooling off period between the canvassers’ exit and the confirmers’ call gives prospects a few minutes to firm up the arrangement with a spouse or other homeowner if they need to. It also gives those who simply couldn’t say no at the door a chance to re-think their exit strategy and let you know that they’re actually not interested. So you’re not sending a salesperson out on one of those canvassing appointments where somebody’s there but no one’s answering the door.

One other thing

If you’re a canvasser, it can be incredibly demoralizing to watch your appointment fall apart while the confirmer puts the homeowner through the required line of questioning. You are better off having that conversation while your canvasser is down the street generating another lead.

No Train. No Gain!

Implementing this system takes scripting and training. But companies that use it convert raw leads to appointments at a higher rate. System tweaks take work, but they’re worth it. The market’s changing and so is the consumer. If your business isn’t, you’ll soon be left behind.

Feel free to contact me for more information on how to effectively convert canvass appointments.

Cheers,
Tony