[alan andrewswestsi]

the advice from ian is spot on , you really do need to knock the doors to build a round , if you rely on leaflets only you,ll be skint in no time , get out and knock i,ve been out today and picked up £95.00 of new work , and i,m going out every night until my round is full , fed up having a 3/4 built round and its time to get serious regards alan

[Londoner]

the advice from ian is spot on , you really do need to knock the doors to build a round , if you rely on leaflets only you,ll be skint in no time , get out and knock i,ve been out today and picked up £95.00 of new work , and i,m going out every night until my round is full , fed up having a 3/4 built round and its time to get serious regards alan

You can deliver 1000 leaflets in a day. That should bring in about 10 responses, maybe not straight away. When you are starting out thats a good result. Later, door knocking is worthwhile to fill in between existing customers and keep your round compact. To start off though just deliver as many leaflets as you can, thats my advice.

Its easier to deliver leaflets, when you get a phone call 9 times out of 10 they are a genuine customer and you have time to gather your thoughts and have a look at the house before you ring the doorbell to give them a quote.

Door knocking can drain your confidence especially when you are first starting out. You need to work up to it a bit.

[michael papworth]

The approach that Vince suggests will certainly work. It's not the only approach.

Another is to deliver a smaller number (say 100 to 200) one day and then follow up a day or two later with door-to-door canvassing. That will get you a steady stream of work day-by-day. It will be fairly compact since it's in the area that you are canvassing in!

Yes, you will get lots of people with dirty windows who tell you that their son/husband/father-in-law does them or that they are otherwise not interested. They are not rejecting you, they are rejecting your service - and that's OK. There will be a few who ARE interested, and those are the ones that you are interested in.

I would suggest that you DON'T work up to it. Get in there and do it.

I was terrified of canvassing at first. Now I LOVE it. I smile and look upon it as as the opportunity to meet lots of wonderful people on their doorstep and offer them the chance of bright, shining windows. 99% of them are really polite and pleasant. The very few who aren't are someone else's problem.

[Sanity]

Also remember that you will get most of your work via word-of-mouth.

Somebody will tell a friend otr a releative about your service and so you get more customers...

Also, when first working an area, try to spread 3 jobs over 3 days (1 per day).  this gives people in the area a chance to see you out and about and to ask for details and to examine the results of your work for themselves before they commit.
Many people will say no to you at the door, but will come later to ask for a card / leaflet / price.