Today’s episode is primarily about how you can disrupt the selling game by creating a model that is different than what other people are doing. That’s why I’m bringing in Steve Cook on the show today to talk about how his newfound approach to door-to-door selling has blown their sales revenue out of the roof, so to speak.

Steve is the Director of Sales Training for a solar company in New York. What started out as a door-to-door summer sales job has now turned into almost a four-year career. Being the third employee of the company, their organization has now grown heavily, consisting of over 350 employees as of to date. This means growing their revenue from $1M to now over $250M in just a period of 2-3 years. Wow!

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Steve:

Sales strategies to help increase your sales:

1. Build a relationship up front.

Build relationships of trust (BRT). Disrupt the market by doing things beyond the norm. Change things up by building relationships of trust upfront. Become friends with them before you even talk about sales or about your product.

2. Filter your market areas.

Once you find one area to work on, make that your little honey pot and go back and forth. Become the “mayor” of your area.

3. Utilize the power of name-dropping.

Once you’ve gotten to know people, start name-dropping. (“I talked to Susan. I talked to Joe. They’re really interested.”) Then start the conversation from that point.

4. Avoid using the word “sales.”

Break the stigma of the word “sale.” Instead of saying “sale,” say you sign someone up. Have that mindset that you’re educators, not salespeople.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals.

Signing people up will start to drive the referral game. Follow the direct approach and ask who you could go talk to right now. Generally, people you’ve built trust with would be willing to just give you anything.

6. Kill the concern before it arises.

Especially for the skeptics, kill those concerns upfront. It enables you to get rid of the speed bumps up front that you know are going to happen.

7. Help people feel comfortable about what you’re offering.

The Team Approach: Disrupting the game of door-to-door selling

Have a set or closed model within the industry. What Steve did was that he created a model by splitting his salespeople into two specific roles:

1. Ambassadors or setters

These people go door-to-door and essentially take the role as being the door-to-door people setting appointments.

2. Closers

These people are trained on a level where they’re able to answer all questions and sell through the A-Step Closing Process that Steve created. (Steve was closing 95% of the people he sat with and out of that was only 5% cancellation rate)

The Baton Pass: One way to create raving fans

Focus on high-quality “baton pass” for individuals. This allows each individual to focus on their leg of the race and give their 100% in that one specific thing they’re doing as opposed to worrying about doing all legs of the race resulting in a depletion of energy and focus.

Steve’s Major Takeaway:

Don’t be afraid to be different than what the industry is saying. Create meaningful relationships with your customers upfront and this will change the entire game. It takes a lot of courage and patience and a plan. It takes a lot of hard work. Try it and stick to it.

Episode Resources:

Connect with Steve Cook on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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