Some Great Door-Knocking and Walking Techniques - Ongoing
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:36 pm
There will probably be a lot more added to this post, but here are some of my top fav door-knocking and walking techniques.
Door-Knocking
Door-Knocking
- When you first knock on the door - take a few steps back. (I like to back up at least 6 feet from the door) This does a number of things.
- It lets the homeowner know that I'm not going to run in and try and intimidate with being too close.
- It causes the homeowner to come outside,
- Once the homeowner is outside, you can have his/her complete attention and have a more coherent and complete conversation
- You can then step closer and hand them information, pamphlets
- Stepping away from the door, allows those cameras on the doorbell to see you better and of course, that's way less threatening
- I wear a hat most of the time I'm outside for any length of time to protect my head, but when I knock on the door I take my hat off so that any camera or homeowner can see me more clearly
- In my introduction to the homeowner, I immediately, clearly, and slowly say "I'm a volunteer" and might even reiterate with "I'm not here to sell you anything" so that the homeowner knows that I'm not soliciting
- You should be aware of your city's soliciting rules. You can usually check online for these
- Not really door knocking, but do not leave anything in the mailbox. The mailbox is USPS property. Anything but mail in the mailbox will receive a $10,000 fine per item - YIKES!!! I like to tape the document, pamphlet or card to the door so the homeowner will see there's something on the door
- Wear comfy shoes so you're feet don't get sore. (Cotton socks for summer or winter are wonderful - they wick the sweat away and stay warm in the winter
- I wear a hat to protect my head from the sun, but when I go up to knock on the door I take the hat off so that folks can see who it is and I'm not hidden
- If I'm dividing my list up into segments, I love using the map feature on the Voter Gravity mobile app. I pop that map up, and see who's next in the direction I want to go, and tap on the next place to visit and toggle the map/list at the bottom of the screen and up pops that person I just tapped on! This is great if I'm dividing my list into parts. I often will choose a list and then do 1/3 tonite, 1/3 tomorrow night and the last third on the weekend or something like that, and using this list feature makes this soooo much easier