So, you are looking at a commission job, but you can’t decide if you should leave your safe job and test the waters. What do you do and what is the best option? You’ve come to the right place. We are discussing the traits you might have that would make you a perfect candidate for working a commission-only job. Do you think you are a perfect fit for a commission-only job? Keep reading to find out.Â
Experience In The Streets
So, it’s interesting there’s a parallel that I want to run, between the blue line and the front line. We’ll call this “the streets”. It’s kind of this emotional resilience and what it takes to kind of succeed in this job. And being a cop, knocking down doors, having to have the hard conversations, having to have a backbone, having to almost sell people on not doing the wrong thing, and selling them on the right thing. You know, there’s a lot of bureaucracy and I guess those are some of the parallels you’ve seen that have helped you be successful that you learned in the cop training and through experience in the field that’s now transitioned into the streets. Those benefits of working in the streets I would say easily help. You have a strong advantage. You can relate and this is any industry. If you’re a worker, if you’re a cop and you actually work hard, you can relate to any walk of life. You can relate to the rich. You can relate to the poor. You can relate to the middle class. There is any walk of life you can relate to, which is an advantage instantly. You can also get a sense of a community or a neighborhood within about 30 to 45 minutes of hanging out and driving around in there. You can kind of figure out how it runs, who runs what, who the HOA president is- I can really tell by their house. It’s just, you just figure it out. It’s not some special talent, but when you hang out in neighborhoods for 10 years, you learn pretty quickly how to deal with them. So, any past experience in the street does help you in the door-to-door industry.
Commanding A Presence
For me, the number one thing that really helped, and it’s funny because I still remember my first, second day and guys who were big in the company, they’re telling me, hey you know, it takes a lot of guts to knock on doors so don’t get deterred. I literally wanted to laugh in their face. Like, you have been knocking on doors for five years. I have been a police officer. I said people don’t call the cops when they’re having a great day. You know, so I’ve been knocking on doors hoping I don’t get shot. I’ll knock on doors and if they want a roof, they want the roof. They can have a great day, that’s fine. But, it’s what apparently you know that really helped and what puts us above was our command presence from our experience in the police force. When we go to the door, we’re there for a reason. When you’re a rookie and a cop and you’re worried as long as you know what you’re there for and like if you know uh the material and what you believe in, what you’re selling, you know game over. You’re not going to you know put enough objectives for us to get you know off your own, you know uh off your doorstep I mean, unless you have a gun then yeah, I’m going to leave. But, besides that, I’m going to sell you a roof. So, I would definitely say the command presence of how we walk up to the door, I think they can kind of tell we have a presence and we mean business, we aren’t a scam.
When I do training, I actually teach there are two ways to approach. It’s the happy-go-lucky fun Sam, look at me, I‘ll make a joke, I’ll break for occupation, and then and you might have even seen it when we were out there I was like you want me to put my cop face on. I’ll say I‘ll say hi I’m Sam this is my permit with the city and this is my license uh we’re just in charge of what’s going on in the area I’m assuming you’ve probably been notified already uh but it’s really important that we talk to the homeowner and I’m like very much like commanding and they’re you know like it’s almost like oh like it’s like my badge my shirt my my I am a cop and you wouldn’t tell a cop if you knocked on your door hey not interested sir it’s like I’m a police officer man like you know I have this commanding tone and this commanding authority figure and it’s like it and and when I pitch that way especially with a bowl or a strong personality they kind of just put the tail between their legs like oh I was just gonna to brush you off like every other door-to-door person I brush off and it’s hard to brush off somebody that really can command a door like that that can command the room that can command movement and I think that there’s an element that you probably developed over time with that I think
Reading People
I think that is true, but personality more so, too. It’s like you’re big on the personality traits, on how you sell them. From my experience as a police officer, it takes me split seconds to figure out what personality I’m dealing with. Whether this person is going to be a train wreck a month down the road or they’re going to be smooth as can be. That’s a big advantage because you can read people super quick and you’re a lot quicker on your feet. Because, in your old job, your complacency killed you. But. in this job, your complacency just cost you money. So, those are both very important ones.
Take Ownership
Having these qualities or experience makes you .quicker. You’re a quick thinker and I also think, too. In our agencies, you’re the only deputy for a certain square mileage, so you got to be a decision maker there are no people there to hold your hand. You have to be able to make a decision while you’re on a team. You don’t have time for the Monday morning quarterback thing. So, I think that’s an important aspect too. Like, it gives you the ability to make decisions on your own like a big boy, you know? Ya, take ownership. It’s the same thing with an area. It’s like so many people, they go knock on doors in pairs, but why? You’re almost like, you’re fear of man. If I’m on my own, what if I fail? If I fail, somebody else takes part of the blame and it doesn’t hurt as bad. I can allow them to take half the blows and leech on their work ethic. When you’re the only deputy in your neighborhood, essentially, you’re like, this is my territory. I know everything that I need to know about this and I’m accountable to making sure that I protect or you know, change roofs. or sell solar, or whatever that is you’re peddling. It’s like, you need to make sure that you take ownership of that job or that area and the capability of taking ownership is very beneficial in door-to-door.Â
Hopefully, this helped you decide if you would be a great candidate for working in door-to-door or in a commission-only job. For more information or if you want to be matched with a company, hit us up. We strive to help the door-to-door industry and we would love to hear from you, reach our
