The Economics of a Door to Door Pest Control Sales Bro

A good friend just spent the summer selling pest control in Philly.

I (of course) had to interview him for the inside scoop, so here you go:

Money Stats:

Doors knocked per day: 100

People spoken to per day: 30

Sales per day: 3

Contract value per sale: $714

Commissions made per sale: $280

Contracts signed: 124

1st year revenue: $92,000 after 2 cancellations.

Take home cash after 4 months: $35k in 4 months or $36/hour per hour spent knocking.

60 knockers in his area started, and only 40 finished.

He was 75th percentile in sales, closing about 10% of people he spoke to. His partner closed 20% and the average was 5%.

The company banks 100% of revenue from year 2 on, and pays 35-50% of 1st year revenue to the knockers.

The more they sell, the higher the % split.

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Time Stats:

16 weeks, 6 days per week.

10 hours per day, never missed a day.

1 knock every 6 minutes, on average.

Rode a segue to save time and energy walking and could knock about 50% more doors this way.

His manager made $225k in 4 months and the regional owner made $300k. They spend the other 8 months recruiting.

In typical Utah fashion, the company pays healthy bonuses and swag for recruiting their friends to knock as well, as much as $50 per contract signed all summer.

The door knockers are mostly returned missionaries from Provo/SLC area of Utah.

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Costs:

5 of them shared a 2 bedroom Extended Stay hotel in the suburbs and each paid $600/month to be there.

They paid for their own gas and food and brought their own cars.

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Notes & Takeaways:

They used an app to track which doors answered vs otherwise and would hit the same neighborhood 4-5x.

The more they came back, the higher the likelihood of a sale once the customer did answer.

There were less people home in the mornings but the probability of a sale was higher, as people were less rushed.

Most of the sales bros were on adderall, and noticed their sales dropped considerably when they ran out.

His favorite sales tip? Be quick to respond but slow to speak.

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For example:

Sales bro:

"Is anyone doing your pest control right now?"

Homeowner:

"Yeah Terminix" - immediately interjects as soon as the last word is said, while speaking very slowly and saying:

"Perfect! You've seen them spray right, they aren't doing anything else yeah?"

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The transition word "perfect!" is critical because it's positive and energetic, and then they "box in" the competitor by pointing out how they aren't doing enough, but *his* company does *more* than just spray.

He said that if you can overcome 4+ objections then the chance of a sale is significantly higher. If you don't have the stamina to get to 4 objections then you're NGMI anyway.

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I advised Matt in the spring to NOT take this job, as I'd heard that you had to sell your soul to be successful. I've never done door to door sales.

He reported back that this wasn't always true. There were guys that sold their soul and sold twice as well, but you could still do very well while being honest and simply overcoming objections.

He also said there was a direct correlation between lower IQ and higher sales ability, as they would just turn their brain off and go. There's a lesson there, I'm sure.

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You could apply these lessons to solar, alarm systems roofing, and what else am I missing for door to door sales?

I feel like there are hundreds of untapped verticals that this would work for. I knew a guy making bank buying electronics door to door.

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Why am I posting this? Because I find the economics of anything super interesting and thought you might as well.

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That's Matt cheesing for you on the job below.