I had not one, but two people from the same carpet cleaning company stop by my house the other day. They were offering a deal and they were going door-to-door to sell it. The deal was for one free room/floor rug/piece of furniture cleaning. After declining the offer, this dual encounter had me posting on my twitter account:
“If your product/service was really that awesome, would you really have to go door to door “giving” it away? #justsayin”
What I meant by this is that we live in a different society compared to the heyday of door-to-door sales. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I certainly don’t want strangers knocking on my door. The world isn’t the same as it was 50 years ago. Additionally, there are too many scams and it’s harder than ever to tell if something or someone is legit.
After I posted my thoughts, I had a few people reply that door-to-door sales worked for them. That’s great if it did. The phone book still works for bail bondsmen. It doesn’t mean either are well suited for all businesses.
I stick by my point, if your product/service is so great (or if you’re doing an excellent job marketing through new and emerging media like social networking), would you really need to go door-to-door to sell it? No. Because, as a fan, I’d be selling it for you.
One last thought. If you feel like door-to-door is the way for you, here’s a short checklist of marketing tasks you should be doing (well) first:
– Website: do you have one? Is it awesome?
– Blog: are you consistently creating fresh, relevant content for your customers and fans?
– e-Newsletter: are you engaging previous customers via email once they’ve utilized your product/service?
– Social media: have you found out where your customers spend time online? Are you there engaging them?
– Traditional media: are there any traditional media tools you’re using that need to be optimized (or cut altogether to create room in the budget)?