Pitch problem or timing problem
If people are not answering, you have a timing or area problem and the pitch is untested. If people answer and say no, the timing was fine and the pitch or the offer is the issue. Most reps cannot tell these apart because they track only sales per day, where both failures produce the same number.
The same bad day, two different causes
Forty doors and no sales can mean thirty-eight empty houses and two short conversations, or twelve conversations that all went nowhere. Those are entirely different days that feel the same by the evening.
Only the second one says anything about your pitch.
Diagnosing it
Split the day into doors, contacts and sales. If contacts are low relative to your own normal, change when and where you knock. If contacts are normal and sales are low, work on what happens after the door opens.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Rewriting a working pitch because of a timing problem is one of the more demoralising loops in this job. The rep changes something that was fine, results do not improve, and they conclude they are bad at selling rather than that they were knocking at the wrong hour.
Common questions
- How many days of data do I need?
- About a week to see contact rate reliably. Sales are rarer, so close rate usually needs longer before it says anything.
- What if both look bad?
- Usually the area rather than you. An area that is wrong for the trade produces few conversations and poor conversion in the ones you get.
- Can the pitch affect contact rate?
- Barely. Contact rate is mostly decided before you speak, which is exactly what makes the split diagnostic.
More on your numbers
Contact rate, close rate and knock math — and telling a pitch problem from a timing problem.
- How to calculate your close rate
- Contact rate and close rate are different problems
- The knock-to-close ratio
- What counts as a good close rate
- Dispositions, and why they are the whole record
- The KPIs worth tracking on the doors
- Setting a daily knock goal
- Why streaks beat big days
- Proving you actually got better