Seth Godin decides that when a business becomes a commodity you can either struggle or re-invent. He misses a third option. You can compete. Fight for share. Thrive. And use the commodity business to generate the cash flow necessary to innovate new products, services and markets. The event that caused His Godiness to kvetch this little bromide was the appearance of a real honest to God door-to-door salesman at his Irvington offices. This is Seth's rendition of the encounter...
A door to door salesman just walked into our offices in Irvington.
Tough job.
A job usually reserved for people selling advertising or janitorial services.
This was an assistant Vice President at Citibank. He's wandering the halls, door by door, trying to sell business checking accounts.
Clearly, all that marble, all those tellers and all that advertising is not enough to meet aggressive growth targets.
Once your business becomes a commodity, you can struggle or you can re-invent. I consider door-to-door selling to be struggling.
First off, Seth could be right. Maybe they are struggling. And this guy is simply humping to meet a quota. Or, maybe this guy has figured out that none of his competitors are going door-to-door. And in this day and age a firm hand shake and real personal contact can be a competitive differentiator. Maybe he is re-inventing. After all it got His Godiness to talk about it.
11.18.05 UPDATE: Harry Joiner who's spent some time training AFLAC sales reps on door-to-door selling offer his take on Seth's take here.
11.18.05 UPDATE 2: Rick Cooper the PDA Pro has issues with His Sethness' issues on selling door-to-door...
11.18.05 UPDATE 3: The Plan Resonate folks ask "Why is it so fashionable to openly hate on salespeople?"
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Thanks for the mention Mike. When it comes to sales, what's old is new again. I think many sales professionals are beginning to see the benefit of getting more face time with customers and prospects. It's more difficult to get people on the phone these days and due to regulations on telemarketing, you have to be very careful. And spam has made email marketing a lot more challenging. And, advertising on the radio, TV, the internet and other mediums continue to evolve.
So, I think the fact that someone has the courage to visit businesses door-to-door is admirable. I think a better strategy would be to contact existing customers and ask for referrals.
I would also suggest becoming more active in their chamber of commerce and join a business leads group such as TNI, BNI or LeTip. Cold-calls are difficult to develop into a meaningful relationship, but it can be done. Remember that banks in particular have a narrow geographic focus due to the multitude of branches in many areas. So, the battle is fought street by street.
I recently participated in a business walk sponsored by our local chamber of commerce. Business, chamber and county officials literally went door-to-door to visit businesses and survey them on the state of their business. There's something about meeting people in person at their place of business that builds rapport.
At any rate, don't discount any sales strategy until you've tried it.
Posted by: Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro | 18 November 2005 at 02:57 PM