Discovery Summer Sales - My Experience

I wanted to post for other Canadian students my personal experience I’ve had with Discovery Summer Sales over the last few years (previously known as Genesis Marketing when I started working with them). Like most students who will read this who are considering working for Discovery it’s probably a new concept to knock on doors for a summer job, it certainly was for me. While we have people come by where I live in Ontario, the thought of selling something door to door was a bit foreign. I did my due diligence though and talked to other students that had worked for them in previous years and heard about what they liked most and disliked most about the job. That was three years ago and I can say while it’s been by far the toughest job I’ve ever done it has also been the most rewarding.
 

I’ll start with the pay, because that’s why most people even consider this job in the first place. To be clear, the pay is 100% commission based. This means you only get paid on commission, but it allows you to make as much money as you are willing to put in the work for. This is maybe the best and the worst part of the job. It allows you to have no ceiling on how much you will make, but it also means on the days that you don’t do so well you won’t make much for that day. Overall though, the benefits far outweigh the negatives if you are willing to work hard. Most contracts you sell are around $400 for a year worth of service, and depending where you finish on the pay scale you’ll likely end up between 25-40% commission (it does go up to 50%, but very few will hit that). So for every sale you make you’ll earn anywhere from $100-160. Consider most reps sell between 2-4 accounts per day (really good reps will sell 5-7) and that’s some very good money for a student to make. There will always be sales reps who don’t like the system or don’t do well, but it’s mostly a few first year reps who struggle at the start of each summer and allow themselves to get discouraged. This job has a learning curve and you have to be committed and patient to see the pay off at the end of the summer. I worked with other students who made over $30,000 but the reality is most reps will average around $12,000-17,000. Most of the experienced sales reps I worked with were earning $20,000 and up, so this job definitely allows longer term payoff if you stick with it for a few years.

As for what you’re actually selling, pest control, it is a ton more common than I ever knew. Most Canadians will probably never have thought of a pest control service, but in the United States it is simply another utility – just like the electricity bill, pool guy, yard and maintenance bills – it’s something that most people choose to have. Some people will try to take care of the pest control themselves, which is great because they don’t have another company. If you are worrying about selling something you don’t know or don’t think people will want, stop worrying. The majority of homeowners already have another pest control company so when you go to their door and are able to offer a better service that’s being offered to their neighbours and friends then most people will want to listen. It is a natural sale, not some kind of ‘hard sell’ that you hear about people hocking encyclopedias door to door. It is legitimately cheaper for the pest control company to service 10 people in one neighbourhood in the same day rather than driving out to random individual homes when customers call into the office, that’s why we can offer cheaper services going door to door in a community.

Sales, especially door-to-door sales, sometimes gets a bad rap. There will always be, just like in any industry, individuals who think edging on the deceitful way of things will get them ahead. There is always that one sales rep who exaggerates a little too much, or feels the need to make false claims. In this job you don’t need and shouldn’t want to be that person. There is a definitely a specific skill set for selling door to door, but any kind of deceit is not part of it. Like I said it’s a simple sale, but as the sales rep your job is to engage a prospect within sixty seconds so they can even give what you’re offering a chance. This job will teach you how to communicate with others and how to persuade others better than any formal training that is out there – period. Think about somebody selling something at a kiosk in a mall, their job is hard enough to try and convert the few people who stop by their booth into paying customers, now think about walking up to someone’s home and persuading them to make a decision they had not previously thought about. Luckily pest control is a basic, straight forward and needed service, so if you can grab the attention of a prospect, build value in the service and create urgency for the prospect to purchase while you are there, then you will be successful. It isn’t easy, but after your first summer of knocking doors you’ll undoubtedly be leaps and bounds more confident, outgoing, fearless, personable and able to communicate with pretty much anyone in any situation. Use the skills that your managers teach you, who have done this for years before you, the best way to learn is to emulate those around you who have experienced previous success.

On the topic of managers, this is particularly one of the reasons I’ve chosen to work multiple years with Discovery Summer Sales. The owners and managers are all like-minded individuals who have gone through exactly what you as potential first year sales reps are going through, and know exactly how to train you to be successful in what is such a demanding job. They hold correlations each and every morning of the summer, to ensure that any roadblocks, questions or concerns are being addressed in real time – if a rep is struggling no problem, go out knocking with your manager and see how easy this job really can be. The managers I’ve had the opportunity to work with have been the type of people that are approachable, determined and above all else hard working. In a job like this where there are so many ups and downs it is reassuring knowing you have your team and manager behind you helping you get back on track and to keep improving throughout the summer. How many sales you make is ultimately up to you, but the management in place to help motivate you and keep you pushing helps make it that much easier to go out there every day and give it your all. There are reps I started my first year with that have grown through the ranks and earned themselves management roles, so to think this job is just knocking doors is wrong as there is a lot of room for those who want to seek advancement in the company.

I hope overall you’ve been able to get a better idea of what Discovery is about and what knocking doors is really like. I can honestly say it is the toughest job I’ve had but everything I’ve gotten from it, being able to travel across the United States, meeting new friends and of course the great money, has been more than worth it. The job is what you make of it – you can make as little or as much money as you are willing to put your head down and work. You have the chance to work with other like-minded individuals and to gain real life skills that you will take with you for the rest of your life. If you’re the type of person that can be successful in this job then the rewards are truly endless.