If you have ever been involved in sales for your business, then chances are you’ve heard stories about the pushy “foot-in-the-door” salesmen of days gone by.

The principle they used is fairly straight forward. A salesman would roam housing estates knocking on doors, and the moment someone answered, would jam his toe in the door so the householder couldn’t slam it in his face.

With foot successfully lodged, he would then deliver a well rehearsed sales message about the particular product or service it was he was selling – to the somewhat captive homeowner (whether they were interested or not) – when all THEY wanted to do was to get this irritating man to remove his foot so they could shut the door!

The process these salespeople used was simple…

  1. Chase down leads (find a housing estate)
  2. Find a prospect (someone who opens the door)
  3. Get their attention (jam foot in the door)
  4. Pitch to them (recite carefully rehearsed sales pitch)
  5. Try and sell them (don’t give up if there seemed to be any chance of a sale)
  6. Either sell to them and take the money, or
  7. Give up and move on to the next house

It was a numbers game, pure and simple. The more doors that got knocked, the more doors got opened, the more people heard the pitch, the more people bought, the more sales were made.

Now, this approach to lead generation and selling may not be quite as common as it once was, but this method of selling does actually still happen quite frequently.

In fact, if you are one of the businesses that does use this “foot-in-the-door to someone who isn’t interested” approach to drum up business, then I applaud your tenacity – but I seriously call to question your value of time…

You don’t have to be physically knocking on doors to get trapped into using this technique. Your marketing materials may still be having the same effect as those old-time salesmen wedging their foot in the door.

The majority of brochures I see today still try and sell to anyone and everyone, regardless of whether they are interested or not, when instead they should be focusing on qualified prospects.

You see, successful marketing is all about educating those people who have a need or are interested in what you offer, in such a way that they WANT to buy from you.

You don’t have to bulldoze people into buying to convert prospects into paying customers – in fact it actually produces the opposite result.

What you need to do is to deliver your message to people who want to hear from you. People who want to hear about what you do, because they have a need or want of what you offer.

If you take this approach, you don’t need to stick your “foot” in the door. In the words of Dan Kennedy “…turn yourself from an unwelcome pest to a welcome guest…”

If you qualify your prospects first and then consistently deliver a benefit-laden sales message, you’ll never have to send marketing materials that have to ‘wedge a foot in the door’ in order for you to get their attention.

Focus on this and you’ll save loads of time and reduce otherwise wasted marketing money.

Now, onwards…

… to your success!

Jez