Key TakeawaysÂ
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Ditching the famed work-life balance for work-life harmony
The mainstream media and contemporary society are awash with myths of work-life balance. For an ambitious super-performer like Ashton, you shouldn’t necessarily strive for work-life balance but instead go for work-life harmony.
Ashton strongly believes exceptional performance in direct sales can cohabit with a sound personal life without sacrificing one for another.
This, however, needs a minimal balancing act but more harmony and discipline.
Ashton advocates that sustainable success in sales is a cumulative effect of harmony in various aspects of your personal life, like marriage, fitness, and spirituality.
Therefore, Ashton recommends consciously aligning every lifestyle aspect to harmonize with your ultimate objectives.
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How long should you dedicate to knocking on doors each day?
Door-to-door sales are emotionally intensive. More than the physicality of grinding daily, success in this industry requires substantial emotional capital.
This is particularly true given the volume of rejections the typical rep is immersed in daily. Regardless, Ashton attributes much of his success to resilience and longevity.
During the days of active door-to-door knocking, Ashton knocked an average of 7 hours daily. While this is the gold standard, this long-haul grind may not fit everyone.
However, Ashton advises you to dedicate at least four hours daily to knocking. To prevent burnout, you can split this interval into two sessions where you can be at your peak, respectively.
Ashton leverages a specialized formula to maximize momentum, where full days are dedicated solely to knocking and others to closing.
Therefore, instead of scattering your energies across knocking and closing each day, you have specific days reserved for just closing and other days devoted to knocking.
Effectively, aside from Sundays, Ashton thinks you should have at least four days in the week where all you do is knock and set appointments.
Making Peace With the Vampires: How to Handle Difficult Clients With a Smile
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How to create urgency to make the homeowner sign the deal NOW
“I will think about it” is probably the most notorious objection homeowners use to delay signing the deal. This can be frustrating after a long sales pitch where you feel you have gotten them to sign the contract.
But you can strategically amplify the need to act now and get the homeowner thinking they have so much to lose by procrastinating their decision.
Without appearing desperate, Ashton transmits credibility and urgency by educating the homeowners on how traditional utility costs them a fortune now and in the future.
Also, by informing homeowners of the soon-to-be-withdrawn solar tax incentives, the homeowner knows the clock is ticking against them. Hence, they needed to act now.
But here is another question: why should the homeowner do it now with you and not your competitors?
This can be assuaged by pointing out what stands you out from them. Ashton deliberately steers clear from selling himself as the cheapest.
Instead, he tries to transmit his authenticity by digging into positive reviews (from real homeowners) he has gathered from that neighborhood. If new in that neighborhood, use studies the homeowner can relate to.
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How to commit your customers to reduce cancels
We have all been there in door-to-door sales. You think you have closed a customer only for that customer to cancel some days later.
How can you reduce such cancelations?
Ashton explains that many reps leave without consolidating the homeowner’s decision on signing the contract.
This means you leave celebrating a deal when the homeowner sits on the fence: UNDECIDED.
Ashton advises getting your customers to commit before leaving. A simple hack here is asking for referrals after supposedly closing them.
This shows you they are already a leg in. Alternatively, you can promptly carry out some upgrades on their properties after signing the deal.
This gives them the impression that the project is already in progress and reduces their propensity to dump the whole deal.
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How to lead new reps and get them slinging deals
Onboarding new reps in door-to-door sales, especially in solar, takes a lot of effort. You don’t want to dump on the doors and expect them to close deals miraculously.
You don’t want to shadow them excessively either, so they can take some beating and accelerate their mental adaptation.
Ashton’s formula involves leading out from the front. On the first day, he takes his reps to the field so they can see him knocking in real time.
He teaches them actionable sales frameworks and implements these systems right on the doors. After a while (preferably still on the first day), Ashton takes a backstage role, watching the reps implement the education he gives them.
From there, he can identify potholes in their communication that he can immediately correct. The next day, he lets them knock wholly on their own and master their demons.
On the third day, he comes back to knock with them to tackle some of the problems they faced on their knocking on the second day.
This way, the rep has valuable on-field guidance, accelerating their integration into direct sales.
Ready to catapult your sales career into the stratosphere?
Experts like Ashton Buswell are laying down their record-shattering strategies at the Sales Enablement Summit 2024. This is your golden ticket to transcending the ordinary and achieving astronomical success in door to door sales.
Whether you’re new to the game or a seasoned pro, Ashton’s insights are the fuel to ignite your sales potential and close deals like never before. Don’t let this chance slip away; secure your spot now and transform your approach to sales. This is where champions are made. Are you in?
I knocked doors since I was 11! Never bought into the whole hourly normal job, and used direct sales to be the vehicle to create MASSIVE success. I Started the Direct Sales division for Solcius as their VP building it up to have 70+ sales reps nation wide. In 2018 I left to pursue a greater mission to unify and uplevel the Door to Door industry and founded the D2D Experts.
