Canvassing.
Knocking is what happens at one door. Canvassing is the decision about which doors, and in what order, and how you know when the area is finished.
Canvassing is systematically covering a defined area rather than knocking wherever you happen to be. It covers planning which streets to work, ordering them so you are not doubling back, recording what happened at each address, and knowing which parts of the area are finished. The word is used for sales, political campaigns and nonprofit fundraising, and the mechanics are close to identical.
Common questions
- What is the difference between canvassing and door knocking?
- Door knocking is the act at a single address. Canvassing is the coverage plan around it. A rep who knocks all day without a plan has knocked doors but has not canvassed an area, and usually cannot tell you which houses are left.
- Do I need a permit to canvass?
- Often yes, and it varies by city rather than by state. Many municipalities require a solicitor permit, and some maintain a registry you have to appear on. Check the city you are working in, not the one you live in.
- What is a do-not-knock list?
- A record of addresses that have asked to be left alone. Some are maintained by a city, some by your own company. Honouring them matters legally in some jurisdictions and matters practically everywhere, because a complaint costs a company far more than one door was worth.
- How do I know an area is fully covered?
- Only by recording each address as you go. Memory reliably fails past about a hundred houses, and two reps working the same street from opposite ends will each swear they finished it.
- Does canvassing work for political campaigns?
- It is where the practice started, and campaigns still run it at a scale sales teams rarely match. The coverage discipline is the same. The conversation and the legal framework around it are not.