OP must have been trolling wrt 'good idea'. Nobody with the tiniest part of a brain would actually think that.

The missing girl thing would be a terrible way to make money. But it got me thinking of ways to help out local sports teams and things like that.

You all ever heard of CBeyond? They use anyone/everyone they can hire to go door to door, selling T1 lines and cell phones to small businesses. Hands down the worst job I've ever come across. Was given a zip code as my territory and spent my day wandering strip mall to strip mall, getting the GTFO treatment from every shop I visited.

Wow, I get maybe one or two a month here in the middle of a mid sized city. I guess you're in a big city?

I live behind gates for this very reason, lol.

Many years ago, I lived in a very isolated house in the mountains. I was talking on the phone when there was a knock on the door. When I answered, there was a tiny (maybe five feet tall) man who looked at least eighty years old standing there.

I thought that I must have left the gate open, but when I looked down the drive I could see that it was closed. I asked him if he had really climbed over the gate, walked up the hill, climbed up two flights of stairs and then knocked on my door to sell me something.

He told me he was a Jehovah Witness and asked if he could come in. When I said no and told him his religion was a little too negative for me, he looked hurt and asked why. I laughed and told him that the very brochure that he handed me had a picture of screaming people being eaten by a two headed dragon and that I didn't think I could really get into anything like that.

He left dejected, but I thought that I was being nice by opening the gate for him to get out. I'll give him credit for determination though.

You should probably find a less obtrusive job OP.

Ugh door to door. Did it once in my career for tru-green chemlawn. It sucked. Just couldn't get enough confidence to make sales calls without having a panic attack. Funny thing is now I'm in b2b and occasionally have to make cold-calls to a storefront. I work with a company that has a lot of name recognition in the local areas of my territory so usually its no big deal. Only had one bitchy lady in a 1000 tell me to GTFO. Contrast with true door to door and its 1in5.

The key to a lot of sales is being able to shoot the **** with somebody for a few minutes before you give them a sales pitch. Also try to have a TRUE story about a neighboor that has used your service with good results. Don't LIE. If you set an apt. or tell someone you will call follow through. It's not really rocket science.

Door to door is a grind.

Home Depot, Lowes, many suburban city offices, and most local HW stores and paint shops have bulletin boards and contractor lists. Go introduce yourself to the owners and contractor desk workers.

Get on Angie's List

Put in a lowball bid on a high profile house on a busy corner. Make sure to put out Lawn signs during peak drive times.

Ask your local HW store/paint store if you can set up a table outside their store.

Ask relatives and friends of family to consider you for work or at least let you put up a lawn sign on their property.

The early jobs are most important. A successful April job can generate several jobs throughout the Summer. Give discounts for early start commitments.

Go to construction sites and ask if they are already locked into a paint crew

Go to construction companies and builders and introduce yourself.

Ask other painters to send you jobs they might not want or be able to deliver. Even a small half day gig might make your week while a bigger crew wouldn't want to bother.

I answered once holding a machete. dudes eyes never left it, haha. said I wasn't interested and he was out quick.

I once asked two guys, "Did you hear that?" and walked them around my friends property checking windows. I had them guarding the corners to the garage when I went back inside the house and ignored their knocking a few minutes later.

You do not have a general contracting license. What license are you claiming to have? What are you insured for?

You guys are pretty rough on the salesmen. Part of why I've always liked them, a breed apart.

bc if I wanted to buy something I can go buy it? I don't need someone knocking on the door telling me what I need.

To be fair kioshk was going door to door before TV's were invented and nobody had seen vacuums before.

haha, it was the early 80s.

Great old traveling salesman song:

People are being appropriately negative about, but too hard on the door-to-door salesmen. A lot are just naive teenagers / college kids.

When people sell me stuff, including all the college fund / newspaper crap that may or may not be a scam, I tell them that if I want it, I'll look it up on the Internet. A lot of them have it in their scripts to ask why you're crushing their college dreams. I even have a whole speech I give now:

"I think you're either lying or being lied to. If you're telling the truth and this isn't some scam of yours, some terrible company has come up with a way to exploit community teenagers to go sell their worthless products for their dying businesses. Go learn Search Engine Optimization and help small businesses get found on the Internet. It's a 21st century skill that people will actually pay for."

As for the religious types, I inform them that I'm uninterested in hearing about a religion that makes people go door-to-door and preach without even bother finding out what religion I am first.

"What's your duty? To influence people and change their lives? Or to get a good dose of door-slamming so you can go back to church and cry about how persecuted you are?"

Came across first no solicit sign.
Didn't solicit.

There's a law here that they cannot come to your door if you have the sign. It's cut down a ton. Occasional idiots still come by. The law distinguishes between peddlers (people selling stuff at that time), solicitors (someone trying to get some sale later), and people just giving information (political, religious, etc...). All are banned if the sign is there, but only the first two need permits from the city. I printed out the law and keep it near the door, and when they come by, I ask if they have a permit, take a picture of it, then tell them I'm reporting them, and show them the sign. They usually freak out and it's funny. But I never report because it's too much a pain in the ass. The religious ones try to tell me they aren't selling anything and they are allowed to knock, and I'll show them the law, and tell them I'm calling the cops if they are belligerent. Had some mormon guys come by, they were nice about it, I told them they probably should avoid people with that sign in the future because of the law, and they were pretty cool about it. Jehova's Witnesses were the most obnoxious, though.

Still get the occasional flyer, which they aren't supposed to leave, but oh well, I throw them away.

Think I have only bought once off door-to-door salespeople, U-Verse came to town and I was pissed at Time Warner, so I was willing to talk and got a few free months to switch and all, plus they had Big Ten Network and Time Warner didn't.

The worst was when my mom was visiting from out of town and I hadn't gotten home from work. I drive in and see her on the front porch talking to some salesman. She falls for this crap super often and is a door to door salespersons dream. I park the car in the garage, close the door, and go in the garage door rather than go in the front door. I figure ignore her and let her talk and just wait til she's done. She calls me out to talk to them. Guy is some pest control place pointing out ants we have outside. Don't really care about some ants in the front yard, not interested anyway, can just spread some ant killer myself pretty easily. I tell him I'm not interested, and then my mom starts selling his services to me, how wonderful they are and free estimate or whatever nonsense he had. I ask her if she's gonna split the commission with the guy, then walk inside. So annoying.

Think my wife signed us up for a free energy audit too from a guy coming door to door. Went about as I expected, found out I could spend like $10K to save $50 a year on electricity.

2/8/2014

Today nothing crazy happened. Which is unfortunate because now I have nothing interesting to talk about. Everyone who answered the door was actually very nice and took the time to listen to what I had to say. I got some more interested people and will be giving them an estimate soon. Now I'm sitting in Pizza Hut listening to a manager lady yell at an employee about breadsticks.

I love the OP's direct, oblivious approach. If he's playing a character, he showed tremendous discipline in not taking the bait when another poster suggested he put pics of missing children on his flyers.

For some reason, he reminds me of the Super-Bowl-or-freeroll guy when he and his friend are hypothesizing what the Broncos and Seahawks coaches are saying to motivate their teams at halftime. I know that's oddly specific, but given the recency of that thread I can't help but point out the similarity.

Yeah, why would anyone have a problem with a complete stranger (and possible con artist) showing up uninvited at their door?

Eventually this internet thing will catch on and be used for getting the word out on a product or service. Until then, we'll have to rely on the hard work of door-to-door salesmen.

Nearly every single one of your posts make you seem like a horrible person to be around.

Can they dodge prison time by claiming, "My bad, I thought that said 'No Smoking?'" Because I've had like 5 people at work try to pull that.

Lol who would have a No Smoking sign in their house or facing a window? No one person is ignorant enough to smoke in anothers house without getting told to gtfo.