How to Apply the Vacuum Cleaner Sales Method and Succeed Online

With the vacuum cleaner sales method, you can sell anything.

The vacuum cleaner sales method completely transformed my life when I understood the power of this simple and logical process of reaching your goals. It’s not just a sales strategy, it’s a life-changing approach to achieving success.

When I started as a vacuum cleaner sales rep early in my career, I had no idea what it would mean to my entire life. The challenge of starting by knocking on the doors of people who didn’t expect my visit and stepping out after an hour or two with a check in my hand only happened with a studied and well-trained strategy. This method is not just a theory; it’s a proven strategy that can lead to success.

In this article, I will share how this vacuum cleaner sales method opened my eyes to what actual sales are all about. Hint: It’s not what you think!

In different descriptions and even movies, you’ve probably got the idea that a vac sales rep is that cunning person who puts a foot in the door and almost forces the surprised person on the other side to let you in. Let it stay as a funny description, but nothing can be more far from the truth.

Once inside, a well-trained monologue starts, in which the sales rep shows all the vacuum cleaner’s “fantastic” features and almost obliges the customer to buy. We can all laugh about it, but nothing of this is true. With all the laws and regulations in place, such an approach shouldn’t lead to any success at all.

The 7-step Formula of the Successful Vacuum Cleaner Sales Method

Let’s reveal the real work after killing the false vacuum cleaner sales method. In the following 7-step, we will analyze in detail how it works and simultaneously examine how to apply it to a successful online business.

Step 1: Step inside

Knocking doors, or “cold canvassing,” as we call it when selling vacuum cleaners, starts long before knocking on the first door. By investigating the various zones, you need to pick an area with the necessary purchasing power. This allows you to niche into the homes where potential customers might exist.

In the online business, you have to do the same work. Depending on your product or service, it’s essential to niche in the correct audience to consider as potential customers.

When knocking on the door, you need to be appropriately dressed and present an impeccable image. Do not wear sunglasses or have unshaven faces (if you are a man). The correct introduction phrase should be decent and exciting.

For your online business, this corresponds to having the correct headline if it is a written message and the proper landing page if it is part of your sales funnel.

You have 5 seconds at the door to get the person on the other side to accept or reject you. The same metrics apply to your online business. As you are still reading, the title and the introduction probably create curiosity and interest in continuing to read.

“If a vacuum cleaner salesman rings your front door, he will be selling HIMSELF first. The vacuum cleaner is secondary.”

Gene Simmons

Step 2: Break the ice

Now, you are inside the potential customer’s home, but a certain level of fear still exists.

“Who is this guy I just let in?”

The advantage of being invited is that it allows you to figure out what kind of home you visit. Photos, trophies, and other decorations give you a quick overview, and you can start to talk about things related to what you see. People love to talk about their interests, and it’s an efficient way of “breaking the ice ” and getting a friendly and less tense talk.

Why should online marketing be different? People like to talk about themselves and their interests. Thus, this phase in the process is all about them, not you and your company or your products.

You should not continue until you notice you’re on the same speaking terms level. Sometimes, when selling vacuum cleaners, we only go through the family photo album to let the customer feel comfortable and proud of what we’re doing.

Step 3: Need analysis

The sales process starts in step 3, and here, it’s essential to find out what the customer really feels is important when it comes to a clean home. It could be anything from being a cleaning addict to somebody in the family being allergic. You can find all this when “breaking the ice.”

In online marketing, we often talk about finding the “pain point,” precisely the same as when selling vacuum cleaners. If you ignore this part, you will not be on speaking terms. It will undoubtedly damage the process and cause the customer to come up with many difficult-to-counter objections when closing the deal.

Step 4: Adapt the needs

Many salespeople forget this crucial part of the process. Instead of demonstrating your vacuum cleaner, you need to have the customer confirm what it should mean that he or she could solve the problem. Approach this phase by “pulling out” answers from the customer. These confirmations could be your winning tool when it comes time for the closing. Using the customer’s answers when objections pop up is powerful.

Dedicate time to finding out your customers’ “pain points” and use them as valid arguments to finally get them to purchase from you.

Successful lawyers often use this method when handling court cases. By using the statements of the suspected person or witnesses, the case can be a winning one when the court delivers its judgment.

Step 5: The proof

Following the court metaphor above, this is the moment you’re going to prove, based on the previous statement, who the murderer, thief, or whatever it could be is.

As a vacuum cleaner rep, this is the moment of truth applying the vacuum cleaner sales method correctly.

The potential customer doesn’t want to know how much horsepower your vacuum motor has or the suction efficiency of the hose and nozzle. Instead, the professional sales rep starts to vacuum what the customer previously declared the most critical point. By showing plenty of dust piles right where the “pain point” is, the reaction will be a favorable surprise (for you) and an astonishment for your customer.

As you can notice, the online marketing process follows exactly the same path. By showing your potential customers how your product or service hits exactly where it” hurts” the most, the reaction brings you closer to a purchase.

Step 6: Acceptance of the proof

But we are not ready yet! At this point, your customer starts to notice what direction we are heading, and objections begin to pop up. Many are afraid of objections, believing they are a way to lose the sale. However, it’s the opposite, and often, an objection can be another way of raising a question, which is a sign of interest.

If you do the previous work correctly, you use the customer’s own declarations made earlier. I was afraid I would never get any objections, as it was a sign that the customer wasn’t ready yet.

Successful online marketing follows the same pattern. The Internet is overwhelmed by online business opportunities, and the process setup distinguishes the successful ones from those who fail. A successful online business isn’t a quick fix but a long-term adventure where you build trustworthy relations with your leads and potential customers.

After all, they buy from a person, and that person is you. In my business, it’s not very common for a purchase to occur the first day the lead signs up. Often, purchases occur weeks, and even months, after the sign-up.

Step 7: Closing process

The closing process can be labeled in many different ways—the scary part, now or never, to mention two of them. However, if you have done your work properly, the closing is the most logical part. It’s the moment of truth when your customer will brutely qualify your preparation.

The previous conversation with your potential customer, with your well-directed questions and the customer’s corresponding answers, should now lead to a logical decision by the customer.

You are not selling but helping the customer make a clever purchase decision. Your customer’s objections are only questions you have to help the customer answer.

The pattern is exactly the same in your online business. With all the previous information through training sessions, frequently asked questions, testimonials, proofs, and much more, your work in this phase should be focused on helping your potential customer overcome that last hurdle and finally become your lucky customer.

Dealing With Objections Using the Vacuum Cleaner Sales Method

So far so good, but…

After flawlessly executing the sales steps, it seldom happens that your customer buys straight away. Objections, always seen as a nightmare for the untrained sales rep, are actually your best tools to close the deal.

Watch the video and get tips on successfully handling the objections to your advantage.

Dealing With Objections Using the Vacuum Cleaner Sales Method — Own creation together with Canva

These are the links to the pages mentioned in the video:

https://thegoldenagelifestyle.com/ModernWealthy251124

https://thegoldenagelifestyle.com/LaunchYou251124

https://tvdmexonline.com/deal-with-objections

In one of my previous articles, we discussed the technique for helping people identify problems they are unaware of. Knocking on the door, stepping inside, and selling a vacuum cleaner follows this pattern to a high degree.

Most online businesses follow the same pattern. Your process starts with a “hook” that catches the potential customer’s interest. The headline for your approach should focus on the “pain point.”

Conclusion of the Vacuum Cleaner Sales Method

The 7-step method revealed in this article applies to everything in life, not just sales. Everything in life is a “sale,” and your task is to follow the process. It applies to lawyers winning a court case, politicians getting necessary forums for political ideas, and any area you can think of.

Sales is not about making sales but about helping your counterpart make the decision you are convinced is best.

In my online business, we never try to sell anything but chase the correct audience, introduce them to a multi-step process to find out the actual “pain point,” and figure out the needs together.

People signing up for our ModernWealthy training will be introduced to possible solutions to their most pressing concerns, helping them find the correct route to a lifestyle that has been a simple dream so far.

The funny part, or perhaps the sad part, is that too many have difficulty defining the dream they unconsciously chase. Your mission is to help them!