Your first week on the doors
The first week is mostly nobody answering, punctuated by short conversations that end quickly. That is the normal shape of the job rather than a sign you are bad at it. Knowing the shape in advance is most of surviving it, and measuring conversations rather than sales gives you something that moves inside a week.
What a normal first week looks like
Most doors end with nobody home. Of the ones that open, most end within a minute. A first week with no sales is completely unremarkable and reps are rarely told that before they start.
The gap between what recruiting described and what the week feels like is the single biggest cause of people quitting in the first fortnight.
Measure something that moves
Sales are too rare in week one to tell you anything. Doors worked and conversations had move every day, and they are the inputs you actually control.
A week where you had twelve conversations and no sales is a different week from one where you had two, and only one of those is a pitch problem.
The mistakes that make it worse
Counting empty houses as rejection, changing your pitch daily on no evidence, and comparing yourself to a rep working a denser area. All three are common and all three make a hard week feel like a verdict.
Common questions
- Is it normal to make no sales in the first week?
- Yes, and it says very little either way. Sales are rare enough at this stage that a week of them is mostly noise.
- How many doors should I do in week one?
- Fewer than an experienced rep in the same area, and the gap closes faster than you would expect. Consistency matters more than the number.
- When should I worry?
- When conversations are happening and none of them go anywhere over several weeks. That is a pitch signal. Empty streets are not.
More on the rep
Ramp, rejection, burnout and turnover — the career side of knocking, from a rep’s point of view.