How to recruit door-to-door reps
Referrals from current reps produce the best door-to-door candidates in most companies, followed by regional recruiting networks and campus recruiting for summer programmes. Job boards produce volume and poor fit. The default strategy is hiring many and keeping few, which works and is the most expensive habit in the trade.
Channels, roughly by yield
Referrals from productive reps, because they pre-screen for tolerance of the work. Regional recruiting networks and the conference circuit. Campus recruiting for summer programmes. Job boards last, producing applicants who mostly do not know what the job is.
Screen for tolerance, not charisma
The trait that predicts survival is handling repeated refusal without reading it as a verdict. Interviews select for confidence in a room, which is a different thing and available in candidates who will quit in week three.
Why volume recruiting persists
Because it works well enough and the costs are diffuse. Hiring thirty to keep five is budgeted as a fixed cost, and the alternative — improving ramp and conditions — is slower and harder to attribute.
Common questions
- Where do the best D2D reps come from?
- Referrals from current productive reps, in most companies by a clear margin. They pre-screen for whether someone can tolerate the work.
- Do job boards work for this?
- They produce volume. Fit is poor because most applicants have not understood what the day involves.
- What should I screen for?
- Tolerance of repeated refusal and self-direction. Interview charisma predicts the first week and not the third.
More on building a team
The manager side: recruiting, onboarding, retention and the cost of losing a rep. Where the paid tier eventually lives.