Opening Doors or Getting Slammed?

GROWTH FROM D2D SALES.

Preston Peterson has been involved in D2D sales for 20 years, starting while he was selling in college, working during summer months. He is a co-owner of Alta Pest Control, Round Rock, Texas, which has experienced significant growth with 18 locations spread across the country, including Washington, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia.

In the early days of running his company, Ardent Pest Control (which later merged with Alta Pest Control), Peterson said the process for running the business wasn’t so much “strategic” as it was a team working together. Eventually, the company did become more strategic, working to grow in, and understand, each individual market in their respective geographic locations.

“The more concentrated we are, the more valuable we are; the more resources we can put into that, the better leadership we have in those areas,” Peterson said. “It’s hard to build a lot of markets with great leadership” but it is something the company strives for.

Daniel Headrick began working as a technician for Moxie Pest Control, Irving, Texas, in 2009, when the company operated just five locations. After a hiatus, Headrick returned in 2020, so he has observed first hand Moxie’s rapid growth. “It’s been a wild ride over the last four years specifically, and we’re just loving it,” he said.

D2D has become one of Moxie’s main marketing channels. Headrick discussed how Moxie decides when to enter a new geographic area: “We start by looking at what are the emerging markets that we would want to…get into from a growth perspective and we start concentrating there,” he said.

The key for Moxie, he said, is to make sure they are getting the right customers in each area — the ones that are going to stay with the company for 20-plus years.

Byron Gifford, owner of Evergreen Pest Solutions, began his career in D2D sales and it has spurred growth for Evergreen, which is headquartered in Ogden, Utah — the state that is an epicenter for D2D sales.

Gifford’s company has focused less on trying to expand geographically, instead concentrating on organically growing existing regional locations.

“For instance, [in 2024] in our [Virginia] market, [we] expanded out to Roanoke, but we [had] extra sales force,” he said. “We expanded in that direction because we’ve got the resources to do it. We’ve got the manpower, and we’ll get a bigger numbers commitment,” Gifford said. “We just scale according to what we can do without breaking the system we have — without spending too much money.”

Gifford said the key to successful growth is making sure the company has the resources to accomplish its goals.

SELLING ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

Having employed D2D sales teams in a variety of regions across the U.S., these companies have had to face different types of sales environments; some which might not be as receptive to this sales strategy. “There would be differences to some degree, but you adapt. [We’ve] trained ourselves to…simply adapt to the market,” Gifford said.

Headrick emphasized that, for him, the key to selling in various diverse environments is being aware of how people are interacting with the salesperson while they are trying to make a D2D sale.

Similarly, Peterson said that when Ardent enters a new region, they observe, listen and learn. “You find out the benefits [of that region] — the things you need to focus on in those areas and you just sell according to that,” he said. “It’s a matter of a different learning curve by region.”

BUILDING A GREAT SALESPERSON.

D2D sales are not for the faint of heart. There are several qualities that these PMPs said make an ideal salesman.

“The more people you talk to, the more you’re going to sell. It’s like a math equation, two plus two equals four,” Gifford said. “You want to talk to as many people as possible; get in front of as many faces as possible.”

Peterson said it’s important for his company to have a salesperson with genuine work ethic.

“It’s hard to teach a good work ethic,” he said. “If we find someone who has a good work ethic and they’re disciplined, we can teach them the other skills they need to be successful. Then it’s a matter of building that culture around them.”

At Moxie Pest Control, Headrick said there are two elements to how they train potential salespeople: character development and competence.

“[The book] ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ is the cornerstone of everything we’re teaching,” Headrick said. “[This includes] even simple things like when you’re in sales talking to a person and recognizing, ‘This actually isn’t a good fit for them. I can’t take advantage of this person,’” Headrick said.

He emphasized teaching new employees to not use people as a means to an end. When selling, it’s important to empathize with customers.

“This is a very personal thing we’re doing,” Headrick said. “We’re going to someone’s house, right? We’re inviting them to learn about pest control. We want to do that the neighborly way.”

D2D salespeople often face a high level of daily rejection. Some workers might not be able to handle it. “(It’s) tough,” Gifford said. “I probably had a 10%, maybe 15%, success rate of those that I talked to.”

Gifford explained there is a learning curve to training new salespeople. To make sure employees are doing their part, the company looks a revenue generated per month in terms of YTD. Each month the salesperson should produce a certain percentage of their overall sales.

DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY.

Figuring out how to use new technology in different ares of the business and in each market can often be challenging. But once you do find the right spot for it, new technology can be a real high point.

For example, Gifford said years ago, he used only paper contracts.

Now, his company uses software with multiple functions, including employee training and ensuring that locations are not overlapping.

“All of this is accessible to our representatives now,” he said. “Back in the day that just simply wasn’t there. It’s making things much easier, simpler, streamlined.”

Headrick’s company has been using an app for several years that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI).

The app records doorknockers’ conversations and slices them up, identifying the flow of the conversation and giving suggestions for improvement.

“Then they can submit those to the manager, and the manager, without being right next to them, can give them feedback on, ‘Hey, focus on this. I listened to your conversation. This is where you want to sell,’” Headrick said.

Peterson said technology has helped all pest management companies — older companies, smaller companies and those in between. “It’s been nicer for the industry as a whole because a lot of technology [is] beneficial,” he said. “They’re beneficial for our reps and...the company, but they’re also beneficial for us to be able to help monitor what our people are doing out there so that we can make sure that we have the best resources and tools.”

MANAGING HYPERGROWTH.

While it’s difficult for everyone to be successful at D2D sales, many firms have found massive success — adding hundreds of accounts every year. Headrick’s company opened 10 branches in six weeks in 2024, starting in April. The preparation for this massive growth period started a year before with a branch manager training program.

The program made sure people were prepared long before the branch was opened. A lot of training and fieldwork with new employees went into their preparation. “Training is my answer to how you handle growth. Things are not ever perfect when you’re growing in hypergrowth, they never are,” Headrick said.

The author is a PCT contributing writer.