Supercharge Your Busy-Season Sales: Expert Tips for Pest Control Door-to-Door Teams

With the busy season in full swing for pest control companies with door-to-door sales teams, right now is a critical time to maximize outreach and secure new business. While the summer is a period of opportunity, it’s also one of intense competition and, potentially, burnout. To help you and your team make the most of this season, here is some advice from sales experts who have been guests on our Pest in Class podcast.

Developing the Mindset for Success

Success in door-to-door sales starts with the right mindset. As part of that mindset, it’s important that your team needs to truly believe in the value of your pest control services. Per Sam Taggart, the founder and CEO of D2D Experts, encourage your team to adopt a “superhero” mentality—they’re not just selling a service; they’re solving a problem and providing peace of mind. 

"In sales, if you look at it like 'I'm really serving people, I'm a superhero,' I have to believe so much in what I'm doing that I won't take no for an answer," Taggart says. "And whatever you're selling, you can do the same kind of mental shift."

As a seller, having strong belief in the quality of your services is a pre-requisite for having success, and if your team doesn’t have that belief, it will show. 

“If I didn't do something about this and I didn't show up to your house, you'd never fix it,” says Taggart on Pest in Class, whose company is a FieldRoutes Marketplace partner. “And I firmly believe that. And so whether your method of selling or what you're selling, I hope you have that conviction.”

Building Resilience and Perseverance

Rejection is part of door-to-door sales. So it's essential to prepare your team mentally for the high amount of rejection they’re going to face. Like an athlete getting back up after a fall, having resilience is key. Encourage your sellers to learn from each experience and to not take "no" personally. While setbacks will happen, they don’t have to be anything more than temporary and persistence will pay off over time.

As Taggart coaches, “The risk of failing and getting hurt: I don't think people see the Instagram videos of the cool snowboard jumps and they're like, ‘Wow, that guy just landed this epic trick.’ And you're like, ‘Yeah, but how many did he not land?’ And he was willing to get back up on the hill and try the rail again or try the half pipe again.”

It’s also worth teaching your team to be the right amount of persistence while still being polite—never pushy but not giving up too easily. Many potential buyers need gentle persuasion, and the right approach paired with consistency brings results.

As John Ely, the owner of Procare Pest Services in Atlanta, GA, explains, “My goal in any door I knock is to walk away friends with anybody, whether they want to be my friend or not. It doesn't matter. You don't want to come off pushy, but you do have to be politely persistent because otherwise you'll sell very little. You'll just get people that are waiting to buy.” 

Training and Continuous Improvement

Sales is a discipline that requires continuous development, so be sure to invest in your team’s training while encouraging a culture of steady improvement. Door-to-door sales, by nature, require quick thinking, so ongoing coaching is vital as unique situations will always come up.

“Training isn't something we did,” Taggart says. “It's something we do. Meaning whether you've been there for five years or one year or one month, you should always be training. I'm always training.”

And when sellers inevitably hit a slump, work to identify the cause and explore the best ways to provide support and reignite passion before coaching them up on technique.

The mental battle is central to sales, Ely says on Pest in Class, and staying positive sets the right foundation for improvement. 

“In door to door, it's a mental game,” Ely says. “You're out there on your feet, but it's a lot of mental pumping yourself up, just checking yourself each pitch, making these small incremental changes. You could tell somebody how to sell. ‘Here's a script. Here's what you say.’ But it's about how you say it. It's their nonverbal, paraverbal communication. How are you closing? Are you building value in your intro when people tell you ‘no’?”

Setting Up Accountability and the Right Systems

Hold your team accountable for their progress. Implement systems to track performance and identify areas for improvement. Whether it's daily door knocks, conversations, or closes, metrics are crucial. Develop a systematic approach to all stages of the sales process, including lead generation, presentation, and closing.

Confidence and Personal Style

Confidence is key, but it must be what Ely calls “confidently genuine.” Your team should believe in themselves and their offerings while remaining authentic and approachable. Building rapport is also essential. Even if a sale doesn’t happen, aim to leave a positive impression.

"[People will] buy from you if they like you and feel comfortable with you," Ely explains on Pest in Class. 

Consider encouraging your sales reps to develop their own authentic sales approaches and styles within reason. Get them to understand the reasoning behind certain sales techniques or scripts on which you train them, not just memorizing the exact words themselves. 

“If you don't come off as yourself, you just come off fake, right?” Ely says. “A lot of times guys try to come off sweet, but they're coming off very fake and not genuine. My style is confidently genuine. ‘Hey, I was just with Tony. Thought I'd meet you since we're here every three months for him. He likes what we do differently than what he had before.’”

Creating the Right Urgency

Give customers a compelling reason to buy now and have your team prepared to address potential objections proactively. It’s critical they know they are approaching people who may not have planned on pest control at that moment, but if they can tailor their approach the right way they can create urgency without being pushy.

“Urgency has to be built in the approach,” Ely says. “You’ve got to have some sort of presentation that builds urgency from the beginning and then also at the end to help connect the dots in their head that now's the right time to buy and not just, ‘leave me a card and I'll call you when I want you.’”

Additionally, understanding the underlying reasons and emotions around buyer decisions allows for more meaningful conversations at the doorstep. It’s worth reminding your sellers that they are there to serve people and improve their lives with your services, and this belief will show through to potential customers.

As part of that, they should be ready to address customers’ worries about pests and demonstrate how your services offer relief and security.

“You can play on every element of emotion with a pest control sale,” Taggart says, “You can make this as theatrical as you want, as you go and poke wasp nests and and you walk around the backyard and find the mole holes. You can really go and point and see and feel the financial element of it. And that's what's fun about that sale.”

It Starts at the Top

Finally, sellers need to be ready to evolve—and company leaders can set the best example.

“It's really about striving for the best version of yourself,” Taggart says. “Because if the business owner has started a culture of, ‘I am always mastering, I am investing in myself, I am training,’ that is contagious down to the rep.”