Knocking on doors.

J

JohnnyRoofs

New member
Started handing out postcards/flyers yesterday. Roofs that need replaced get my standard roofing biz flyer, those that need washed get my roof washing flyer. Started knocking on doors where it looked like people were home. Then proceded to stumble over what it was I was trying say. I started with an intro and "I noticed you have algae staining on your roof" and hand them the flyer. Then follow it up with "Did you know you could clean/wash your roof?" They all said yes, lol. I call BS, I'm a roofer and had barely heard of it till last year. Anyway, that kind of threw me off, and I realized I better work on a script before trying this again. Little help from any of you that have done this and had success?
 
John, I dont do residential. Knocking on doors is a very agreesive approach, I wish i could tell you more for a sales pitch.

I would imagine house wives home affraid these days to answer the door to a strange man knocking, with that in mind I think its a up hill battle.

Let me ask this, does it matter the house? can you sell anyone? do you just need people? doesnt everyone need it?

I would think a home show or get a permit to talk with people at the mall or a busy place.

Or just keep being brave and knock on doors. I like that your not waiting for the business to come to you. your getting the business, or at least trying.

truthfully no line or sale pitch works on everyone. People are different and want to hear different things. the art of selling is knowing this and telling each different intellect what they want to hear.
 
I see these nasty looking roofs and I just gotta tell 'em, lol. I'm willing to take an aggressive approach to get started. This service is completely new to my area and I'm hoping to open some eyes. Was reading a post by Apple and he said that's what he did to get started, so I figured thats what I'll do.
 
John, Chris is 100 plus years old and times have changed.

My citys in arizona require a dailypermit to even solicit a home. in scottsdale they arrest you if your knocking on doors with out one and you spend the day in a jail cell. \

Home invasion and casing peoples homes.

people at home are affraid to answer the door. especially if they are home with small children alone.

I would try the mall, people have homes. Meet people at other places and get and invite to come take a look at there home. offer a free demo and show them.

If someone takes the offer,Ibelieve they may be more serious about actually buying the service.

Get a great before and after photo and show it to everyone and tell them they need you.
 
I must admit I stole a before and after photo from someones website (no one here) for my card. Actually had a cop stop me yesterday. Stopped and said "what you got there", I said "you need a new roof?" and handed him a flyer. He looked at it and said "good luck" and took off.
 
Yeah, i knocked on doors with minimal success.
I put on door hangers with minimal success.
I got a website with search engine service and that works well
Service Magic works well for me
your area probably has an organization of realtors, when is their trade show, and can you be a part of it?
 
John your web link is broken, and call me I got some ideas I'll share with you that are working for me.
 
John
When I first started out in 1990 I had no existing customers to fall back on and had to go door to door.

Here's what worked for me;

Target a neighborhood that needs your service, not just one house in the middle of nowhere but a sub division with a couple of hundred homes. If you don't have subdivisons like that where you are just pick the largest one you can find.

Go on Saturday when the guy is usually home and you're not spooking the wife or kids by just showing up.

Find a house on the corner or one on the entrance road to the subdivision.

Tell him you'll clean his roof for FREE and I mean FREE no strings attached and no charge, period.

All you want from him is to let you do it on a Saturday and to flyer up the neighborhood before then to let everyone know about your service and the upcoming job.

Put a sign on the front lawn a week before you do the job saying "watch this roof, Professional roof cleaning to be done this Saturday"


When Saturday comes put on your best work clothes, have the truck washed, look professional and do the FREE job.

Take before and after photos and then hit the neighborhood again with another round of flyers using the photos.


I did this with my housewahing company in over 12 neighborhoods and I "owned" the neighborhoods! I got over 65% of the homes in any area I targeted and still use this method today.

It's faster, easier and less expensive then door to door and there's no postage fee. Just get your kids or someone elses kids to hand out the flyers.

A word of caution, check with the town you intend to do this in to find out if they have solicitation laws and if you need a permit to hand out the flyers.

Never put them in or on a mailbox it's againt the law.

Good luck
 
apluspower said:
John
When I first started out in 1990 I had no existing customers to fall back on and had to go door to door.

Here's what worked for me;

Target a neighborhood that needs your service, not just one house in the middle of nowhere but a sub division with a couple of hundred homes. If you don't have subdivisons like that where you are just pick the largest one you can find.

Go on Saturday when the guy is usually home and you're not spooking the wife or kids by just showing up.

Find a house on the corner or one on the entrance road to the subdivision.

Tell him you'll clean his roof for FREE and I mean FREE no strings attached and no charge, period.

All you want from him is to let you do it on a Saturday and to flyer up the neighborhood before then to let everyone know about your service and the upcoming job.

Put a sign on the front lawn a week before you do the job saying "watch this roof, Professional roof cleaning to be done this Saturday"


When Saturday comes put on your best work clothes, have the truck washed, look professional and do the FREE job.

Take before and after photos and then hit the neighborhood again with another round of flyers using the photos.


I did this with my housewahing company in over 12 neighborhoods and I "owned" the neighborhoods! I got over 65% of the homes in any area I targeted and still use this method today.

It's faster, easier and less expensive then door to door and there's no postage fee. Just get your kids or someone elses kids to hand out the flyers.

A word of caution, check with the town you intend to do this in to find out if they have solicitation laws and if you need a permit to hand out the flyers.

Never put them in or on a mailbox it's againt the law.

Good luck
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John,

Do you have the flyers professionally made or do them yourself? Around here I cant find anyone to do less than 5000 for a decent price. And that typically costs about 300-500 plus shipping because they all outsource it. And your saying 2 rounds of that (one before and one after). It could be well over $1000 to $1500 for a single campaign.

Hell of a marketing tool though!
 
Scott
You can have cheap four color flyers made at Staples for the price of a color copy.

If you really want to cheap out skip the photos, use light blue paper and black ink and just put your copy on it.

Then in REALLY BIG LETTERS put your web address and have all your before and after shots on the web instead.

I'm sure if you use your imagination you can come up with a lot of other ideas to keep the cost down, still do the FREE job and get all the rest of the neighborhood.
 
Another twist I thought of before was get a roof with really good exposure to the main road and do it for free, but ask if you could do only half and leave it for the weekend or something like that. That way people could really see the diffference without having to look at before and afters. Dont know if anyone would go for it, but seems like it would really make an impact...
 
We're gonna try Brian's advertising. Thanks for the Idea!! Heres the banner we're thinking of using. It is 2 sided Like a big "V" so you can see see it, coming from both sides. Its about 4x10 and vinyl. The line on the right is so we can put in a date and keep reusing it, and so people dont get confused as to what day. Any Changes?

Hey Brian, did you ever have crowds of people watching you clean?
 

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Hey it easy to sell in the hood cleanng business ... Tell the what you do and how you do it... and then do what you say... In Mississippi the big thing to get and keep a hood cleaning account is to show up when you say you are going too and you will keep the account forever.. or at least until some low baller takes over the account ... But even then they will remember what a much better job you did than the lowballer and they will call you back..
 
Scott D. said:
Another twist I thought of before was get a roof with really good exposure to the main road and do it for free, but ask if you could do only half and leave it for the weekend or something like that. That way people could really see the difference without having to look at before and afters. Don't know if anyone would go for it, but seems like it would really make an impact...
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I think its a good idea, or a least a deal they couldnt refuse.
My 1st or 2nd year I asked a homeowner if they had a newsletter in his neighborhood and he said yes, he'll get it for me ( he was out doing lawn work) When he came out he said what about giving him a deal. I thought....and I asked him if I could use his house as a demo to advertise. He said sure as long as theres a deal. Not a problem

I came up with doing his roof , house & driveway and what I did and he said OK. I made up fliers that looked like Wedding Invitations and mailed them to every house in his neighborhood inviting all to come watch us work. It was a Saturday. Set up a table with cards and a book for people to sign up for free estimates

Everything went real well that day, I got several jobs that day and I sent flier other times in that neighborhood, I ended up getting over 100 jobs and many repeats over the next couple years. I was in that neighborhood alot and even now I don't do residential I still have people referring me and calling

I liked the wedding invite look it was cool, I no longer have it, but I was able to use the HO address and name and it think it really brought the people out
 
Scott,
I've had people watch and people do drivebys while I was doing the job.

I would change the color of the sign to yellow background and black letters, it is much eaiser to read when driving by.

Make sure you have on a uniform ie shirt with name, prefferabley collared and kaki pants not jeans.

As you know bleach destroys jeans and colored t shirts so go with ash gray shirts and tan or gray kakis.

Wear all protective gear ie respirator, rain pants, rubber gloves and boots and look like you know your buisness.

I think it makes a much better first impression to look the part and act the part.

The idea of a table with buisness cards and a brochure sounds pretty good and gives you a chance to get one on one with the walk bys or lookers. Some balloons for the kids wouldn't hurt either.

Keep me posted on how this works for you and good luck.
 
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