One Week As a Door Knocker

9 million door bells, 500,000 angry dogs, 12,000 beautiful veranda’s and too many old people who want to chat for too long. That’s what one week in flyer distribution feels like, the numbers slightly exaggerated. .I made it though. Monday to Friday 11-5, a few rainy days and my first paycheck, now I’ve seasoned my pitch and walk with a little extra spice in my step.

Yesterday on my last block, a frail old man answered the door and I spoke too fast for him to understand. After about 3 repeats he just said “are you hungry, come I have fresh fruit”. In better judgement I would have declined the offer. Seeing as it was nearly the end of my shift and I was in fact hungry, fresh fruit was the nicest thing I had heard all day. He had already walked into the kitchen, with an old manly stagger listing the fruits and breads, ham, cheese... leaving the door and the offer completely open.

Most of the day people look at me like I’m an alien from solar panel planet, come down to abduct them and their wallets. Which is kiiinnndaa what I am doing I guess, but I mean well. I’m just a commercial that comes to the door during the tv series or paramount production of peoples day. So naturally the response is a physical skip button with a smug undertone of why are you wasting my time.

I followed the old man into the kitchen, he pulled out rock melon, grapes, pear, kiwi. “You can make a sandwich, make yourself at home, if you’re shy I won’t look. Take what you want.” I couldn’t refuse and the door was still open, so unless this was an elaborate set up and the fridge actually emits a sleeping poison into the all the things inside, there was no need to worry.

His name is Tony and he just had a surgery or an accident that disabled his arm and leg. So in saying help yourself, he really meant it. He put everything out on the table though, with some pineapple orange juice and then took a seat. He asked me questions about the day so far. Tony had done this job before too and although he wasn’t interested in solar panels “at his age” he would still give me his time and some good food.  His wife bakes beautiful baklava and breads, he makes fig jam and wine as a hobby. I sat there for about an hour eating and sharing some Jamaican recipes my mom makes. My boss might be upset but it was the perfect end to a day of space invading residential folks.

Knocking on doors is a weird moment that repeats itself.. Hi how are you.. why are you here?...Hey how’s your day... good. what do you want? I can change my knock and change my intro but most responses end up the same. The most popular are “we can’t afford it” than I follow up with an over enthusiastic line about how the price has gone down 1/3. Or I ask when was the last time they looked into solar panels.. I’ve got to give people knowledge and keep them engaged...bam bam sales gun..

The saddest of all responses is “I don’t think we’ll be here long enough” I used to ask when/if their planning to move. . then I always got the same answer. “well I mean we are old, we don’t know how much longer we’ll be here”. OH.. That happens more times per house than I make it through my whole pitch per house. Like how do I follow that? Okay, good luck bye. .. uuhh solar panels start paying for themselves uhh in just as little as 3 years..

It’s dog eat dog... this worlds cut throat mate ..take what you can! That’s what my roommate said to me Saturday when I was offered a free souvlaki even though I wasn’t hungry. Not entirely related to my door knocking but a good segue to  break away from old people excepting death over solar energy.

This job came to me just at the time I needed. 1. Money.. 2. Confidence and honestly..3. social skills... Now I can afford to go to Japan when my visa expires. And I'm constantly face to face with people who need to know who I am and what I'm about. Usually I just frolic around making everything a metaphor, drinking tea and cleaning toilets.. Which has gotten me this far , which is good! But a new set of wheels was needed for this volks wagon. Booya.

Anyways ..Monday down , I’m Tuesday deep in the work week, I’ve been fed and loved, I met a cat in a plant and the leads I generated last week are being followed up on by sales guru’s. I feel like my calender went from 0-100 in about 8 days not to mention only 33 days left till my visa expires ... 

Untill next time.. check how much you're paying for electricity and do some research about solar energy!