Proven Door-to-Door Sales Strategies - Golden Door Insights from Pest Control Pro Tristan Smith | The D2D Podcast

Join us as we chat with Tristan Smith, the "Pest God" from Ohio, who shares his journey from beginner to Golden Door Award-winning door-to-door salesman. Learn practical strategies and insider tips that helped Tristan close over 830 pest control accounts, achieving more than $650,000 in revenue. Discover how discipline, consistency, and a competitive mindset can transform your door-to-door sales game.

You'll find answers to questions such as:

What are the top sales techniques for door-to-door pest control?
How to handle and overcome common objections in door-to-door sales?
How can salespeople stay motivated after frequent rejections?
What daily routines do top door-to-door sales performers follow?
How can small pest control companies compete with big firms?
How to balance family life and a demanding door-to-door sales career? 

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Transcript

00:00

So when you go out there and you're changing your pitch, what's the reason for that? Because in your mind, you're probably changing it because you want to win on every single door. You want to sell every single person you talk to, which it's never happened. It doesn't happen and it never will happen. So you just got to live with the fact that you're going to lose more than you're going to win. So the ones you do win, you just got to be satisfied with knowing that you did your best on that door and you did your best on the ones that told you no.

00:33

Welcome everybody out to the D2D podcast. We got a special golden door deep dive for you with the pest God himself, Tristan Smith, brought to us from Ohio. We're extra blessed to have with us Tristan all the way from Dayton, Ohio, I believe. Dave. Yeah, he flew in this morning specifically just for this, no, I'm just kidding. He's here at a sales conference. He's coming to hang out for a little bit.

01:03

works out for us big time. So dude, walk me through your stats. He's a Pest Control guy, a golden door winner. Walk me through your stats. How'd it go this past year? Yeah, so this past year, I sold just shy of 840 accounts with about a 780 contract value. So I just cleared 650. So I ended with like 650, 1000 in Pest Control revenue.

01:32

And yeah, that's definitely no walk in the park. And you were in, knocking in your hometown out in Ohio. So dude, I wanna just dive in. We were jamming before the podcast, kind of about your story, where you're coming from. But like, let's dive right into that. What's your story? How'd you get into the industry? How'd you get Golden Door? Like, let's dive in.

01:58

Yeah, so this is my third year in selling pest control back. 2021 was my first year. I worked for a lawn care company before that doing cold call sales, some door to door through some of the summer months and stuff like that. This is on the phones mostly. Mostly on the phones. And it was different because there was no contracts involved and there was no cards on file. So it was completely different. So I always

02:24

I don't like to really say I've been in door to door for this many years, because it's just completely different. But I have sold for about eight years now, three years in pest control. So the lawn care company, Long Store Short got sold and you can't go back in the lawn care for a certain amount of time once the company sells. So you gotta find something else to do. Interesting, isn't that? Yeah, so it's different. I know pest control, it's not typically like that, but.

02:51

So the company was sold and we had to get into something else, find something else to do. And Pest Control was kind of slightly similar to Lawn Care just as far as like, you know, this many services a year and it's a subscription service. So we just read a book called Door to Door Millionaire by Lenny Gray. Shout out. Yeah. So we read that book and we created a little presentation card and March 1st, 2021, we just started hitting the doors.

03:21

I did 330K my first year. That was my first summer out there doing that. And then I went to door-to-door con and I was exposed to what a golden door was. Had no idea what that was. I thought 330K was out of this world. I definitely chalked myself up as the best to ever do it at 330K until I went to door-to-door con and saw the other guys who doubled me. And there was 15 of them, 20 of them that doubled me.

03:49

little bit of a humbling moment. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I definitely was. Talk about pest control. I felt like an aunt when I got there and saw all these guys up on that stage. But definitely not that they were so much better than me, but I saw them. And it was a competitive nature for me. And I'm like, oh, there's more to this. There's more to what I've done, you know, and I'm only going to get better. So I put a target on on their backs and I I made a commitment to myself that in those seats at door to door, con on the VIP section that first year, I was going to be up there.

04:19

following year. So I mapped it out and you know, 2022, I did 650, 651 K again, but I did 895 accounts. So my contract value was a little bit lower the prior year. And then didn't just want to be a one hit wonder. I didn't want people to say, ah, the guy with no training, he was in a good area, or he, you know, he got a little bit better and did it. So about April of this year, I decided

04:48

that I'm gonna do it again. And yeah, that's all she wrote. And she wrote it. And here we are. Yeah. It's fascinating to listen to your story. And I love how just like the simplicity behind it of just like, you know, we had this crazy idea. We're just gonna start a pest control company and we're just gonna read a sales book on it and go out and do it. And it turns out you crushed it.

05:17

Well, why do you think that was? Yeah, I'd say probably discipline is the biggest part of it. I'm not the guy where my hardest door of the day is my car door. That's not me. I go with a plan that when I get in my car, that that's like I'm all in for the day. And once I get out of my car, I don't get back in. I'm not the guy that goes and takes

05:46

lunch breaks and coffee breaks and bathroom breaks and stuff like that. When I'm out, I'm out kind of like when I'm on a ride, I'm on the ride. Like once I strap in, I'm not getting off. That's just what it is. So discipline is a huge thing that I've had because I don't have access to being able to call guys and say, hey, walk me through this objection and help me out with this mind stuff. And I'm getting in my head about this and stuff like that. So I really had to just rely on the fact that

06:14

I knew what I was capable of. I knew that even going to door-to-door con, that 330K was not small compared to what, like not being brought into pest control from, you know, guys who have already done it for years and years. But I knew that I could progress and do more. So my discipline and my competitiveness, just seeing those guys up there and just realistically just knowing that they weren't better than me. And you know, I feel like I was able to prove that.

06:44

you know, doing a golden door the following year and then, and then backing it up with another one right behind it. Um, so I'd say that probably discipline and, and uh, you know, just not letting, not letting external issues affect my, my days. And absolutely. And it's interesting too, because it's like you guys almost kind of backed yourselves up into a corner where you either, you know, you knew you had two options, rise to the occasion or crash and burn. Yeah. And

07:13

I feel like having that level of like belief and having that level of discipline where you could say to yourself like, oh, I'm going to take this and I'm going to be successful with it no matter what. And I feel like what really, well, yeah, let me ask you this. What really made you want to rise to the occasion? You know, I, there was, well, I'll tell you that this, the, the, we'll get into the nitty-gritty.

07:41

of it here. There was a guy unnamed that tried to recruit me from another company. I didn't like the way he went about it trying to recruit me. And he was a golden door winner. And I put a target on his back, you know, to be honest, I thought I just didn't like it. And I thought I was better than him. Not that he was some, you know, shady salesperson. I didn't know how he sold or anything like that. I just thought, you know, I just didn't appreciate the way I was. I was trying to be recruited.

08:09

And when I went to door to door con, I made it my goal to keep up with him. And, um, and yeah, I wanted to beat him. That was, that was really what it was. It was a one-on-one. Um, I wanted to beat him. Um, and of course he didn't know this. Uh, no, he did, he did not know this. Um, he probably, I doubt he still knows this to this day. Um, and you know, that was my motivation. My first year to winning golden door was I'm, I'm better than him. And I, and I want to prove it.

08:37

And me winning, me being up on that stage, I think with, with all of the barriers I already have that other guys don't have starting out. So like, if I start out with active, that guy is already a little bit of a head of when I started because I have access to nothing, you know? So I think all the other barriers. So I think me winning a golden door at that time, I, you know, I, I, I, in my eyes, I chalked it up. I was better. So I made a goal. I manifested it and I just, I crushed it. I feel like I did it, you know?

09:07

fairly without a crazy amount of hiccups. Yeah. And did you beat him? Well, he didn't win a Golden Door that second year. So whether he did it or didn't because of this or that, he wasn't on the stage. So I would say, yes, I beat him. Let's go. It's so interesting. Yeah, like hearing stories like this where it's like,

09:37

getting that extra push of motivation, outsourcing it to something other than money, something other than, you know what I mean? It's like creating that internal competition, that internal rivalry of like, I have something to prove and this is the standard I'm gonna hit. Well, what's funny is on top of that, his golden door was only 550K.

10:00

So you had you hit 100k more than so and well so what I what because I actually Texted Sam right after a Rourke on and I said I like I Almost made like a deal with him and I said hey if I went a golden door next year and I double my revenue Let me be on the pest control panel. Let me be on the panel and he's like, of course Which he then later told me like dude It's crazy that you actually want a golden door because that you don't know how many people message me and text me like I'm gonna Be up there next year and then you never hear from him again

10:29

But I was, you know, I made sure that I vocalized it because I wanted to be that guy where I was shamed if I didn't hit it because I was so confident that I was gonna hit it, that I could easily vocalize it even to the guy who created the golden door. You know, when everything was going against me to be able to say that I could hit it was unbelievable. You know, so that was another thing as well that was in the back of my mind the whole year was like.

10:58

Yeah, I texted Sam and I told him I was going to do it. So now I have to do it or, you know, I can't go to go to door to door kind of look at him if, you know, if I don't hit it. So yeah. And what's interesting about this, you saying that is there are a lot of people who love to vocalize their goals like that and tell everyone they'll tell everyone and their mom, I'm going to hit the golden door next year. But it's almost like they take that and then they feel like they, they did it at that point.

11:26

You know what I mean? Where it's like, when times get tough, they don't want to push. Yeah. They don't want, they feel like, you know, just saying that, oh, I'm going to hit a golden doors enough. Kind of like have a dopamine hit for them to, to keep living their life the way that they are. Yeah. Um, what do you feel like is the biggest differentiating factor in, in this?

11:50

You know, I've actually thought about this a lot recently. And I think what it is is my want for a golden door was bigger than my want. Like on the days where, because obviously when you get back from door to door con, you're really high on, you know, this and that. And there's all kinds of like, I'm everybody's hitting a golden door when they leave door to door con. Like, you know, every single person who's there, that's their goal pretty much next year. They're long to be up there someday. But it's not as big as they think it is.

12:19

And it's on the days where they want to leave early, the golden door is not more important than then leaving early that day. And that goal is not more important than, then, you know, going and taking a lunch break when you know you shouldn't or skipping a Saturday or, you know, coming out to your area late and stuff like that. It's not more important. So like for me, I just made a decision that like, anything that's not.

12:46

an emergency situation, obviously it's not more, you know, golden door's not more important than my wife and kids, but everything else, it's more important then. So if I'm having a day where I'm at, you know, at a crossroad with myself, like, dude, I just don't want to go out today. Like I can afford to take off because I'll make it up tomorrow. When those thoughts came into my mind, I just really played it out and is it like, what's more important here? And I just, I made sure that was more important. So I think that the guys who say they're going to hit it and they don't hit it, I think

13:15

It's, you know, obviously actions speak louder than words and those are really just words. And I think they're, you know, they're running more off motivation, which motivation is a, you know, you wake up, you're motivated by the time you walk out your front door, that motivation is gone most of the time. So, you know, they're, they're fueled by motivation and not discipline. And that's, that's the biggest difference I think between door, like people who win golden doors is their motivation is very, very low on the totem pole for them because it's

13:44

if it drives you, it will drive you down farther, if anything. So yeah, because the true key to all of this is, um, replacing motivation with drive. Yeah. Because yeah, motivation comes and goes. It's the ficklest of all emotions in my opinion. But when you replace motivation with discipline, I mean, we're getting like David Goggins territory right now. Cause it's like.

14:13

You know, anyone and their dog can be motivated to do something. But when push comes to shove, when that motivation ends, you're left with, you know, you rise and fall to the level of your training. Yeah. You rise and fall to the level of your discipline, not to the level of your motivation, not to the level of your goal. You're not going to rise to the occasion unless you have the systems of, of discipline and belief in your back pocket. Yeah.

14:38

And I think that's awesome. And even just being here with you, it's like, gosh, I feel your conviction. I feel your self-belief. I feel like you have something to prove. How does someone develop that within themselves? And maybe they want to. It's like, I want to be driven. I want to do this. But I just can't break past that threshold. It's funny, my mentor, which is also my partner, his name is Chris, he always has this saying where he's like, just be like Nike.

15:08

just do it. I think that's really where I came to the conclusion where it's like, discipline I don't think is something that's taught because you can't really teach because it's internal. It's something you've got to flip a switch to do. Because I've not always been crazy disciplined. I mean, my first year, my 330K year, I don't think I worked a single Saturday the entire summer. I was very lax. I just didn't have that discipline because I had nothing.

15:34

to work towards, I just went out and had a job. In my eyes, it was more like a nine to five. I'd just go out, make my money and go home. But when I went to door-to-door con, I realized that if I wanna be able to hit 650K or 550, they raised it later, but 550K at the time that I couldn't afford to do that. So something had to change. And I just made the decision right there that no matter what, and that goes into like,

16:04

that goal being more important than the other stuff and it meaning more to you than anything else. Because when you allow other things to creep in and other mindsets to creep in, or you do run off motivation, that's where that goal, by the time you get, because Door to DoorCon is in January, people don't start knocking until March, April, May, stuff like that. So that's gone after week two. After week two of Door to DoorCon, that motivation's gone. Oh, we've seen it time and time again. Yeah, so it's, I really,

16:33

I genuinely think once you genuinely make up in your mind that you're going to do something and you actually make up your mind, I think it just kind of comes with it, which I think people are starting to figure that out. That's why more and more people are getting up on that stage. Because again, it's the 1%. So statistically, even if you do try, you're not going to do it. But I think the ones who actually make it up in their mind, which will be very, very few, I think they'll always crush that goal because it's just a guarantee at that point.

17:03

put it first and you put it ahead of everything else, I mean, you're pretty much a one way ticket there. What's up guys, Sam Taggart here. Pardon the interruption, I'm gonna throw this out there. We have launched a mastermind called The League. It's for sales leaders and top performers that wanna go level up. We decided that proximity is power and every single high level person is gonna say your network is your net worth. And if you're not somebody investing in community, learning, events, rubbing shoulders with the best.

17:31

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17:59

is come run with the best in the league. Go to thedddexperts.com and schedule your demo today. Tristan, something super unique about you is you come from a very small company and you're not surrounded by 30 golden door winners. To boost you up and give you a little synergistic push kind of thing.

18:24

How do you manage that? How do you create your own internal culture to where you can self-motivate that way? I don't think it's necessarily, I think me going through a year without having it just kind of like prepped and primed me to not have to need it. Obviously it was good at door-to-door com, but I also wanted to prove that I didn't need it. Because again, I'm very competitive and it seemed like that was kind of the...

18:53

That was kind of the thing. Like, you either are with the big companies and you win a golden door or you're not with the big companies and you're just an average Joe. And I just thought somebody had to break that mold and I didn't wanna leave my company. So I wanted to be with the people I was with. So, I think that was the biggest thing for me is like, I wanna be the anomaly. I wanna be somebody who has never done it like me before.

19:23

It's easy to replicate something that's been done time and time and time and time again. I'm not saying easy, like there's no effort, but I'm saying it's possible. You know, if somebody goes to one of these big companies, you have a significantly greater chance of winning a golden door than if you come and work for a company that's never had a golden door winner. So I wanted to break that mold. And I just put in my mind that that's like, I have to be sharp every single day.

19:50

I have to put the right things in my mind every single day. I'm a spiritual guy. So, you know, I have a close relationship with God. I keep my family close and stuff like that. I try to make as much time for them as I can. So I'm not just a slave to the doors. So it's easier, you know, to fall off when, you know, when you are. So, you know, I think really just those things all coupled together, you know, it's, it's, it's really helped me. And again, the main thing was just.

20:18

breaking that mold and I wanted to help guys like me who didn't think it was possible, who maybe don't have the competitiveness of me to be able to go out there and hit it, that they're able to rise to the occasion and get it done if I could do it. Yeah, absolutely, because a lot of guys, they won't have the opportunity to go with a big company. They don't have the opportunity or the resources that maybe a bigger company might have. They don't have the access to the people. So...

20:46

you know, as an industry, you know, we appreciate your efforts into proving that, hey, like this can be done because especially, um, you know, sometimes there are a lot of benefits to working for a smaller company. There are a lot of benefits to starting your own company too. And a lot of people want to build something from the ground up. They want to feel that sense of accomplishment. Um, and they don't want to just necessarily make the big guy bigger money. So, uh, not that there's nothing wrong with it, whatever way.

21:16

you want to do it is totally fine, but I do love that there is more than one way to do it. Absolutely. Yeah. And there wasn't before I did it. Unless if there was, those guys didn't make themselves known and nobody shed a light on them at all. But yeah, no, I'm happy to do it. Yeah. So how big is your company? So we have currently, we just opened up an office.

21:46

this past year in Tennessee. And what it was is one of the two brothers that owned the company moved and he started just a small portion. So with both companies combined, we have only about 5,000 customers. So we're fairly small. You know, we're not by any means like the biggest company in Ohio or anything like that. We have less than 50 employees in the company. Gotcha. So. So you're growing, you're new.

22:16

What's your strategy to grow? Well, I mean, it's definitely helped to get, you know, a few million and a half in three years. So definitely, you know, it's definitely, that's helped a lot. And then just really making everything count, whether it's like marketing and whether it's like technicians popping sales off and stuff like that, or it's just teaching, obviously guys to get up and do stuff. Cause again, I mean, obviously.

22:45

We now have training because, you know, obviously I'm training guys and stuff like that. But when I, when we first started, I couldn't really train guys a ton cause I didn't even know what I was doing really. So, the blind leading the blind. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was tough in the beginning, but I would say, yeah, just relentlessly going out, knocking, making the most of every single sale. And then also, I mean, our retention is unbelievable. I've, I've preached that I'm the highest retention in the country.

23:14

I can guarantee you I'm the highest retention on the golden door stage every year that I've been on it. And that's due to the way we run our company. It's not a traditional pest control company. We don't hire marketing companies or anything like that. We run it the same way we ran our lawn care company. We were able to hold a 80% retention with a company that held no contracts, no cards on file. So it's now very easy to hold 80 plus percent company wide.

23:44

with, you know, when somebody's locked in to keeping us for 18, 24 months, 12 months, stuff like that. So that's helped us a lot too. That's incredible. Yeah, there's, it's cool to, you know, dive back in and look at, you know, what are the like the pros of a smaller company of doing something yourself. And it's awesome. And I love seeing that growth and I'm excited to see you guys grow even more. It's gonna be really cool. So.

24:13

shifting gears a little bit into kind of like your like day to day, because you're telling me a little bit before the podcast, you know, you're married, you got two kids. You're not the kind of guy that's going out from nine to nine every day. Um, what is that like? Like walk us through. Yeah. So, um, what my day looks like is I'm going to wake up. Um, my kids go to school. Uh, they're four and five years old. So I go Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Um, on those days, I take my daughter to school. She has to be there at eight 30. Um,

24:42

I get into the office after that. Typically I do some stuff because I do a lot of stuff at my company. I a lot of different roles. So I manage a team. I do payroll for all my sales guys and stuff like that. So I do all the payroll. I do some of that stuff. And then I also manage a couple of other businesses that we have to. So I do some stuff with all of that. And typically my knocking time is anywhere between noon and. Three o'clock to about seven to nine.

25:11

just really depends. I'd say typically my average knocking day is between six and seven hours. It's probably my average knocking day. You know, and then I, obviously when I'm done knocking, I get home and I spend that time with my wife and my kids. That's typically how my day goes. Yeah, so family man, making it happen. Because a lot of guys, you know, it's like, it's almost like they're.

25:37

in the military. Like, like in there in buds, like every day is like 5am wake up, cold plunge, six mile run, like all these things, which is great. Absolutely. Never going to dog on that at all. It's a huge hack for mindset. But you know, sometimes we have other people that we have to rely on and other, cause I remember when I was on the doors and then it was very different being single than being married. Yeah. Being married, it was like,

26:07

Oh, like, I can't just like go to the gym for like two and a half hours every morning. Yeah, I can't just see my wife for an hour a day. I gotta I gotta change that. So yeah, it's it's it's definitely different. I I started I mean doing the pest control with two kids, a wife and you know, so I didn't really ever get that like being dropped off and for four or five months and and then just coming back afterwards. I never got that experience. But definitely, you know.

26:35

Don't preach against it. I think it's great. I think the guys who do it is great. Obviously, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So I'm not here to break the mold. I'm here to create a separate mold. Yeah, absolutely. Just to show guys that that is possible, that a lot of guys do feel overwhelmed when they have a wife and they have kids out on the doors.

26:58

Sometimes I genuinely wonder how people do it. I'm like, wow, you have multiple kids, you've done this for 10 years, that's wild. But diving into managing, balancing family life and such a high demand career, what are your best hacks for that balance? Yes, I mean, it's tough. I mean, it's definitely no walk in the park, but I will say, when I went to Door Door Con in 2020,

27:27

I guess it would be 2022 in January, but 2022, my first year at door to door con, I can't remember who said it and who spoke it, but they talked about deposits and withdrawals and when I'm, when you're not working on the doors and when you're not out for the summer, you know, you're, you're depositing with your family, with, with your company, with your people, with, you know, whoever, and you're constantly making those large deposits. It's just like an ATM. You can't withdrawal.

27:55

from nothing, you can't withdraw from a negative balance. But if I've put tons and tons and tons of deposits come the time I need to withdraw, there's plenty there. If I've got, in a money wave, if I've got millions in the bank, taking 500K is not a big deal. I've got millions in the bank, but if I've got $0, there's no chance to be able to pull 500K. So you gotta make sure that you're making a ton of deposits in the off season.

28:24

going on trips with your family and spending time with your kids and going on dates and stuff like that. Cause realistically you're not gonna be able to do that as much if at all when you are, especially if you're trying to achieve a goal like a golden door. Obviously if that's not your goal, you might have a little bit more flexibility, but you can't get away with working three days a week and win a golden door, I don't think at least.

28:49

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And because that's the thing. And I love that principle. I remember reading about that in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People about the, like, yeah, the emotional bank, the principle of making deposits, making withdrawals. Because yeah, if you zero out the account and then you are demanding a withdrawal, then that's when we're running into issues. Yeah.

29:18

You got a whole nother problem there. Yeah, so I think that's a very, very wise advice for anyone that is managing a family and managing being married and being out on the doors. It's a very demanding, we have a very demanding job. And family comes first, but there's also ways to manage that aspect of it as well. Absolutely. I think that makes a ton of sense.

29:48

your sales process, because you didn't have like the traditional training that other guys had. You had Lennie Gray's door to door millionaire and the determination in your heart was about it. How did you learn the sales process? How did you learn to overcome objections? What did it take for you to get the process down? Yeah, so the cool thing is,

30:14

The one thing that helped me with doing lawn care is it's a lot of the same objections. Yeah, I do it myself. Yeah, so yeah, I do it myself. So yeah, I do it myself. I, you know, my cousin does it. I've got a company that does it. You know, I don't do anything or I don't have bugs or, you know, certain things like that definitely is. I like the bugs. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So a lot of those same objections just kind of, I was able to kind of morph what I used in lawn care to be able to kind of do that.

30:44

But it was just a lot of hard knocks. I mean, definitely going in and just having to learn with the process. I mean, there was a time where somebody would give me an objection, I'd be like, okay, have a great day. And then I would just leave the door because I had no idea what to say and no idea what to do. But we definitely did our research on the process and how we treat and stuff. And obviously we knew what other companies were essentially doing as far as like how they treated. And it's all kind of basically the same for most companies.

31:13

But the one thing that I found that helped me the most is I keep it simple. It's just, it's a super simple process. My average sale typically lasts about seven minutes is on the average. I'm not the guy that's there for 15 minutes going over this and that. It's just not me. So I think that I just, I make it such a simple process that it's, it's hard not to buy it because it's, it's just. When, when, when I leave the doorstep, it was so simple.

31:42

as just a yes or no, there was no big reasons behind it or something like that. It was just, it's not a car loan, it's not a house loan, we're not pulling out, there's no interest, there's nothing like that. I mean, it's pest control. It's once every few months. I mean, it's pretty easy, you know? And like just certain objections that I would get, like I got to talk it over with my wife and I'm like, you're already getting it, you're already paying for it.

32:07

it's pest control, you know, and it's just super simple. It's not something that has to be this big talk with your husband or your wife. And it definitely helps me being married because I'm like, I definitely don't think I'd have to talk to my wife about buying something we already have, replacing it, you know, if it's the same and it's worth better. So I think it just not knowing actually helped me because I didn't try to figure out what other guys were doing. I just tried to make what I was doing work and what I had worked for me. So like definitely.

32:38

you follow me, it's going to be a lot different from some of these other guys who sell because they have their own process that's been passed down from this guy to this guy to this guy, where mine's just a very simple quick pitch and it's just building rapport with the customer. And it does help that we are a local business. People like to support local. I'm selling right in my backyard. So I'm definitely, I'm going to have, and we have a great presence. We have like

33:02

1500 reviews, 4.9 stars. So I mean, we're the highest rated pest control company in all of Ohio. There's nobody rated higher than us in Ohio. Now there's people with more ratings, but nobody's with the amount of ratings, how we have with the same, so it definitely helps us on that point. People know who we are. So we've built that presence. So that definitely helped for sure. And the book, Lenny Gray's book had, what to say to certain objections and stuff like that. So definitely helped us out for sure.

33:29

Yeah, glad you had at least something. Yeah, no, it was enough. It was definitely enough and it got us to where we're at now. Yeah. And guys, if you're listening to this, my plug personally is take advantage of all the training opportunities that you do have. Tristan's going out.

33:50

He's never done door to door. He doesn't know what he's looking at. If you know of resources that you have, your company has training. If you have door to door university, like take advantage of those things. Like never sell yourself short on good training. But also there is this great principle of just determination. And I love that so much. It was just like, you know, like, cause time and time again, every podcast basically we say it's not the pitch. It's never about the pitch.

34:21

It's always about how you go out there, how you show up, how you choose, your determination, essentially. Because if you want it bad enough, you'll get it. And I've always said this too, I'm like, guys, if you just took a robot with an iPad that just went door to door to door to door, it'd probably sell more than you. Yeah, because it's the guys who change it up and the guys who, there's always a problem with sales guys where they've got this.

34:50

they go out one day and they hit five sales and they're like, dude, what I said, I said this new thing and it helped me. And the next day they get two and they're like, ah, that didn't work. So I'm getting rid of that's what I said. I'm getting rid of that part or I'm changing it up and they change it where mine is just, it's the same. I don't change it. You know what I mean? I'm not the guy that has a different approach every single door or, you know, if I'm hearing this, this, this and this and the, you know, in the neighborhood, I'm not necessarily the guy that's gonna be starting

35:20

with what everybody else was saying and stuff because everybody's different, you don't know. And I've definitely came into people where I'm like, hey, so I noticed a lot of the neighbors had this and you guys probably have them too. And they're like, no. And I'm like, well, that backfired, so okay. So my goal is just to go into it the same every single time and it's just very simple. And yeah, the guys who change it up and who are always looking for newer ways to do it and different ways to do it.

35:46

changing up every door and stuff, or typically the guys who are constantly doing this, because that's what they're doing. I mean, their pitch is just like that and everything. So it's not always, you know, it's not, you're right. It's not always about pitch. If you just keep your pitch the same, it doesn't, there's no special pitch. And that doesn't mean you have to be a robot. It just means you have to have a system and you have to be a damn good listener and understand what people are saying to you.

36:13

Cause then if you know what they're saying to you, then boom, plug and play, you know exactly what to say. Yeah. Whereas if you're like, Oh, and yeah, are you the king of the castle? Oh, that line didn't work. Uh, I'm going to say something different. I'm going to be like, build rapport. Like, Oh yeah, you got such a nice yard and blah, blah, blah. It's not, it's not saying that those things don't work. It's just like, find a process and stick to it. Yeah. Sometimes we just get so like ADHD, like boom, boom, boom. We just have to.

36:43

reinvent the wheel. Yeah, I always tell my guys that no matter what you do, you're going to lose more than you went on the doors. Doesn't matter. If you went to golden door, you hit 1.5 million, I can guarantee you that you were told no more times than you were told yes. So- 100,000 percent. So when you go out there and you're changing your pitch, what's the reason for that? Cause in your mind, you're probably changing it because you want to win on every single door. You want to sell every single person you talk to, which-

37:10

It's never happened. It doesn't happen and it never will happen. Um, so you just got to live with the fact that you're going to lose more than you're going to win. So the ones you do win, you just gotta be, you gotta be satisfied with knowing that, that you did your best on that door and you did your best on the ones that told you, no, you know, so it's, it's just, you, you got to be able to live with that part and just not that that'll help you as well, not having to change it up every single door when you know that, you know,

37:38

most people are gonna tell you no, regardless. It doesn't matter. 100%. And I think that is such an important point to hit on, especially with Golden Door, because you did how many accounts again, 800? About like 835, 831, somewhere around there. So about 830 yeses. Yeah. To probably 10,000 noes. A lot, a lot. Maybe even more. Yeah, I think I closed it. I think I closed it like,

38:08

which is going to sound low. Cause I, again, my, my knocks are tracked differently. Like my, my, my, most guys only count like the decision maker. Like my no is anybody who answers the door and I don't sell them. It's just different. So I think I sell it like 16% of the people I talk to, which do the math. Yeah. Cause that, I mean, and that's any and everybody too. Like, um,

38:33

Gosh, it's just crazy. And I think we forget to value the power of those nos. I remember my second year knocking, it was like I literally would track the nos. Cause I knew the more of those I got, the more yeses I got as well. And the nos are what makes you better. The yeses don't make you any better. The nos are what makes, you know, cause if I get a no, I work on that objection. I get better. I, you know, I, I, I write something out to figure it out. If I get a yes, then I did everything right. And that's good. So.

39:03

I think you learn more off of the nose and you've, you know, that's, I think they're just as important. Exactly. Give me the hard days, not the easy ones. Cause that's what makes me stronger. Shout out Zach Anderson, but.

39:18

With all of that rejection, it gets to a lot of guys. How do you manage that? You know, I've made a goal and a commitment to myself that.

39:32

Like I said, living with the rejection, it goes back to that exact same thing that I know most people are gonna tell me no. So the way I view it is, you know, have you ever heard of the 90, 10% rule? Like 90% tell you no, you sell 10%, you know, whatever. So for me, a lot of guys will get, they're okay with putting people who just shut the door in their face at the 90%. It's easy for those to be a no, but the ones who get all the way through the pitch, all the way through the contract, and right at the end, they back out. Most guys are like, you're kidding me.

40:02

That was the 10%. But really, it wasn't. It was still the 90%. If you walk away without a sale, it's 90%. So I have programmed myself to know that, to where, no matter where I'm at in the process, if I don't walk away with a sale, then it was a part of the 90%. I can't be upset if I drive all the way to Utah and I've got to put gas in my car. Right? It's going to happen. So I have to do it. And I've got to be ready for it. So for the guys who.

40:30

do allow that to get to them and affect them so badly, you're being unreasonable. It's an unreasonable thing that you're doing because you gotta go into it knowing that statistic already. And you've also gotta know your own statistics. You know, if I close at 16%, that doesn't mean the first 16% I'm gonna sell, the middle 16%, it's an average. That 16% could be drawn over the course of a week. Could have a horrible week, and then on Saturday, I hit a big day. So you're really...

40:59

prematurely getting in your head until, you know what I mean? Until you've gotten past and known your statistics and you get over the fact that you're not gonna sell everybody. And you're not, you know what I mean? You're not going to not sell everybody either. You know, there will be people that you sell as long as you're doing the right thing. So yeah, you gotta live with that guarantee that most people are gonna tell you no. Yeah.

41:26

Dude, I love that so much. Yeah, don't expect me to drive out to Utah and not put gas in the car. It's just part of the job. And I think if you let it affect you, it's just an ego thing at that point. You're like, oh, they rejected me. They don't like me. Oh my gosh, guys, stop making it about you. It's not about you. They just were tired. They didn't wanna deal with you. There's so many other reasons why they did not listen to you. And guess what? Out of all those people, again, it's the 90%, like you just said. Go find the 10% that it's gonna buy. And also give yourself

41:56

Like one thing I do is every time I walk up to a door, I tell myself, and if somebody's following me, I tell them on every single door, I'm gonna sell this person watch. And they're like, why do you keep doing that? And then I sell the person, I'm like, told you. And I'm right, you know what I mean? So I'm, in my eyes, I've never been wrong. Because eventually I saw somebody that I said, I'm gonna sell. So, you know, I just walk up to every door.

42:25

Cause a lot of guys will walk up and they'll see a certain car in the driveway or maybe they'll see they've, they've got no cobwebs up top. So they probably have a company. So what's the, what's worth, what's the worth in trying and going for? So I've already counted them out and I just am under the impression that I'm, I'm the best to ever do it. So I'm going to, I'm, I guarantee I'm going to sell them, guarantee it. And if I don't, they were part of the 90% and I want to sell the next person until I sell somebody. Then I'm like, told you, sold them.

42:53

So that's the way I go into it is I just have that belief that I will sell everybody that I talk to. I know it's a little bit contradicting based on what I just said, but it's not like I genuinely believe it. It's just more of like a little fun game to me that I play where eventually I will end up selling somebody that I said I'm gonna sell. And then I've got a good success rate on that. Yeah, and maybe if they say no, maybe it's a, oh, I can, I'll still sell them eventually one day. They just said no for right now. Sure.

43:22

Yeah, and being selling on the same market three years in a row there's definitely been people that told me no last year That I sold this year. So boom So I love that so now kind of shifting over a little bit into DDD con and I love that we've been talking about it throughout It sounds like it was a big you know That was where you realized, you know, I could do this thing called the golden door. Yeah What are you most excited about?

43:52

for DDDCon this year? I'm excited because I mean, obviously the lineup is pretty cool. I'm an athlete, I wrestled in high school. I've done a couple of MMA fights and I'm just a competitive guy sports wise. And I feel like the way they're doing it, like the speaker champions, what Sam was saying is like.

44:18

That's kind of more down my alley. I don't categorize myself as much as a salesperson as I am a competitor. So when I'm out there, I'm not like, I'm competing against other salespeople. So at that point, I feel I'm more of a competitor. That's all I'm doing anyway. I'm not in it for making this, as much these big fat checks, but ultimately I'm in it to be the best. That's what I wanna be. So I think that's what it's gonna bring this year is it's gonna bring out more of like the guys who are competitive.

44:45

rather than just everybody goes home and they're like, yeah, I think a lot of guys are gonna go home and they're gonna wanna be winners. And I think that that's, I think they're playing a really good play on this year's Door to DoorCon with it being like champions and people who have time and time and time again been at the top of their game. And they're not just like public speakers and they're famous speakers and stuff. Cause I think a lot of the times that doesn't really resonate well with certain people, cause if, you know what I mean? Just certain people doesn't. And I think-

45:13

everybody in the sales game can relate to what's going to be brought this year. Because it's we're all doing the same thing. We're competing against each other, whether we think it or not. That's what we're doing. Yeah. So I think this is going to be, I think this is going, I think you're going to have a lot more golden doors produced after this year than than years in the past. Absolutely. And I couldn't agree more. And something I started doing recently on the podcast that I actually am kind of loving is you have any call outs for people that you think can get golden door that haven't done it yet.

45:44

anyone in your company that you want to be like, I'd challenge you, it's time, step up. There's a guy in my company's named Ricky Ramirez. And he did about 350K this year. And I think if he puts in the effort, puts in the hours and he's disciplined, I think he's as good as anybody else. And yeah, I challenge him. I think he can get it done. Ricky Ramirez? Ricky Ramirez. It's on the record. He's the guy.

46:13

Go get that golden door. 2025, this 2025, that's when we'll have you on the stage. I love that, man. And then...

46:25

You know, with DDDCon, a lot of people, you know, they kind of don't want to like take the plunge. They're like, maybe they feel like, oh, the ticket price is too high or this or that. What would you tell someone that's on the fence about coming to DDDCon? Well, I can't speak for other guys. For me personally, DDDCon, I would not have hit a golden door had I not went. So I mean, if you take whatever sales rep is listening to this, whatever your commission

46:56

do $350,000. And that's what I produced more than I did my first year after going to DDD Con and multiply that by your commission. And I'd say a $700 ticket is probably a little bit less than a 40, 50% commission on 350k. So I'd say that probably my seller selling point is, I mean, it helped me win a golden door. So absolutely. I love that. Tristan, what like parting words for the industry would you would you give?

47:25

I would say, speaking to the small guys, to the guys who are at just startup businesses, local businesses, businesses, you don't got to go with the trend of going with these big marketing companies and these big franchises and stuff like that to win a golden door. Yeah, they've got the cultures, they've got the cool Instagram posts and they've got this and that, but ultimately, they've don't got the only way to win a golden door. So just remember that fact that...

47:52

me being on this podcast can show the guys that don't believe it's possible, because everybody thinks it's impossible, but the ones who actually believe in their hearts that it's impossible because they're where they're at, that the deciding factor is you, it's not where you're at. You're the one who's gonna win the golden door. It's not gonna be your company is up there for the golden door, it's gonna be you. And that's no matter where you're at, you can win a golden door and you will if you want to. I love it.

48:20

Well guys, this has been another episode of the Golden Door Deep Dive segment of the podcast. Keep tuning in, take notes. There's so much to learn here from all of these Golden Door winners. So we'll see you on stage this year, dude. Let's do it. Thanks for coming on. Lock it, lock it, lock it.