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Door-to-door

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Door-to-door is a marketing strategy where company or organization representatives directly visit homes or businesses to sell goods, provide services, or convey information. This approach, which has evolved from traditional peddling, now integrates technology and data analytics to enhance targeted sales. This strategy is prevalent in industries such as construction, telecommunications, energy, and home improvement. Despite facing legal obstacles and changing markets, door-to-door sales have seen substantial growth over the last decade. This method isn’t only used for sales; it’s also employed in religious evangelism, law enforcement, and detective work. Even with issues like safety risks and competition from online platforms, door-to-door maintains its importance due to the value placed on face-to-face interaction.

Door-to-door (Wikipedia)

Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a product or service to the general public or gather information. People who use this sales approach are often known as traveling salesmen, or by the archaic name drummer (someone who "drums up" business), and the technique is also sometimes called direct sales. A variant of this involves cold calling first, when another sales representative attempts to gain agreement that a salesperson should visit.

Members of the Dutch political party GroenLinks canvassing door-to-door in Groningen

Historically, this was a major method of distributing goods outside large towns, with the salesmen, often self-employed known as pedlars or peddlers, also hawkers. With the huge growth of retail shops in the 19th century, it became less important, and the development of mail order and finally sales via the internet gradually reduced its significance in advanced economies except in a few fields, such as repairs and improvements to homes.

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