Customer Relations
Money Grows on Trees
Counter to popular belief, I maintain that money
does grow on trees. How? In our industry, it’s
through canvassing in the right neighborhood.
To grow your business, all you have to do is knock and
execute your script. While the idea of canvassing brings
a feeling of dread to many—it works. I developed my
business in this way.
Allow me to explain. Rex was the first salesperson
that I hired in my heating and air business. I hired him
in the early 1990s, and I taught him how to canvass
neighborhoods. With Rex, I taught him what I knew—I
duplicated myself with him and every other sales person
that I hired later. Canvassing was always the expected
behavior when a salesperson had no leads.
Although Rex was exceptional at sales, he was often
idle. He’d hang out in the office with nothing to do,
something I found unacceptable. Wouldn’t you? To me, it
demonstrated laziness on Rex’s part.
We needed leads, and he needed to get busy canvassing,
so, I told him to get out of the office. Reluctantly, he
went.
Here is what happened
After 30 minutes, he returned to the office. It was raining
outside. Walking past my desk, he threw the flyers
down and said, Well, that was a waste of time. My
response: nothing.
Later that afternoon, a prospect called because Rex
had left a flyer on her door; we set an appointment. Rex
met with the prospect at the scheduled time, and she
purchased a system. Instead of me telling you what
happened next, read Rex’s account that is posted on the
testimonial page of my website:
It has been several years since you introduced me to the
concept of door knocking. As you know, I resisted the idea
and was skeptical. I will never forget the time I picked a
neighborhood, and 10 minutes later it started raining, so
I stopped. Before I got back to the office, the phone had
rung, and it was a lady in that neighborhood where I left
a postcard. So, I went back out and sold her a system.
She referred me to another person, and I sold her a
system. Then later, at that house, the neighbors saw our
truck, and I sold them one too. That neighbor referred
me to another person, and we sold her a system, too. I
sold four systems within two weeks from the 10 minutes
canvassing time that I so resisted and feared.
Our average ticket back then was about $7,500. So,
money does grow on trees. In this example 10 minutes
of perceived “wasted time” produced about $30,000 in
revenue—revenue that we urgently needed.
How did we realize $30,000? Through my expectation
that he would go and canvass even if he didn’t want to.
This was matched with Rex’s willingness to execute the
behavior and knock on doors.
Roger Daviston
President
The Daviston Group
Contrary to popular belief, money does grow on trees,
according to the author.
The key message is that you don’t have to like being
proactive; the battle is in your mind. You need this
behavior because it works, even if you don’t enjoy it.
Overcoming a negative mind
One searing August day, as I was canvassing, negative
thoughts came into my mind. I was focused on the same
defeatist thinking, This strategy does not work anymore.
As a result, I was discouraged.
However, I stopped and interrupted this pattern. I
stood on the sidewalk and repeated out loud to myself,
No, no. This does work. I started to count the many systems
that I had sold from canvassing a neighborhood.
I named them by name. I spoke them out loud. I sold
to Mr. Jones over on Main Street; I sold to Mrs. Smith
over on Broad Street. I counted more than 20 systems
and I moved past the negative thoughts, which lead
me to an appointment. If I’d ceded that day, I wouldn’t
have generated additional revenue.
Fear of rejection
Again, knock, execute the script and you’ll get appointments.
When you persevere, you achieve the business
you wouldn’t get otherwise. Trust me; it works. The
most significant obstacle blocking us is the fear of
rejection. Get past the rejection, and beyond it, there is
money growing on trees, waiting to be picked.
Rejection is a normal part of life. We all get rejected.
I have been rejected by people that I love. Probably you
24 ICM/September/October 2019