My first experience with “door knocking”

Some folks have suggested that people who door knock are needy beggars.  They must be if they’re walking the streets and banging on doors.  And they are incredibly annoying.  Maybe even a bit slimy. Because of those negative connotations, as well as potential safety issues, I’ve stayed away from door knocking.  Until now.

My sphere in my location is still small, and I really need to be meeting new people face-to-face. I need more people to know who I am and what I do. So the first attempt at door knocking was relatively simple.

My new partner in a “farming” effort and I are holding an open house this weekend at one unit within the area where we are now marketing.  We put together an invitation to encourage people to attend the open house and we decided the best way to distribute the information was in person.  Face-to-face.  So we went knocking on ~300 doors in a development near us.  If anyone answered the door, we just told them we were inviting them to come to the open house.  We also added that if they had family or friends who wanted to move into the area, it would be a great time to send them over.  And we handed them the invitation.  Easy-peasy.

So how did it go?

About 60% of the people were not at home so we just left materials in the door.

About 15% were home but didn’t come to the door to see what we left until after we had left our materials and made it down the path (some WD40 might be useful so we wouldn’t hear the shreeeech of unoiled hinges!).

About 20% answered the door and briefly thanked us for the information.  Less than 1% asked a question or two. An even smaller percent were cranky, and only one person showed up at the door in their boxers.

So was it worth it?  

We won’t know if door-knocking for an open house was worth it until after our Open House this weekend.  If we get a fair amount of traffic from those flyers and brief face-to-faces, then yes, it was worth it.  In terms of coming across as annoying, most people didn’t seem to be annoyed but were quite open to at least hearing what we were there for (although much of that could be because we weren’t really asking anything about them or their interest in selling.)

What I do know is this is a method of marketing that makes me anxious.  Not because I have any problem talking to people but because I wasn’t invited to their home, and every time I knocked I just hoped I wasn’t interrupting them.  I didn’t like the feeling at all.  Maybe I would have felt better if it was nice and warm out and people were relaxing outside of their homes; but making them get off their couch or up from their desks was anxiety-producing.

Would I do it again?  Um…. the jury is still out.