Area canvassing is essential to any recruiter’s prospecting plan. Canvassing is assumed to market oneself on their area. While that is true, I would say that you’re missing multiple pieces. Let’s attempt to break down what area canvassing is assumed to be and what it actually should be.
Every recruiter knows that one must establish oneself in their area… and fast. NCOICs or station commanders say go and market yourself by posting flyers and hanging business cards around in specific businesses and in high visibility areas. The recruiter will now have to drive around, for hours sometimes, looking for businesses and places to market themselves. This is what we assume area canvassing is. Driving around our areas and attempting to market our piece of military recruiting. This approach will get the job done, but it isn’t efficient at all. It wastes time, money, and effort.
There is a right way to area canvassing that will be more productive and time efficient for a recruiter. I’m going to attempt to provide an example for you:
0800-0830: Admin time in office (Emails, “Army tasks”, and text/email prospecting)
0830-1015: Area canvass on the way to your event
1015-1030: Setup event
1030-1300: Execute event
1300-1500: Area canvass (different area) on the way back to the office
1500-MC: Tele-prospecting, interviews, etc
Area canvassing is when you strategically market yourself AND meet prospects face-to-face within your area to obtain exposure and to put it simply… ask someone to join. I have found that the best way to area canvass is on your way somewhere. Any destination really within your recruiting area. The goal is to have an event every day or to visit a target market area with the intent of gaining entry to an event (more events will equal more opportunities to ask someone to join). This will eliminate just driving around for hours in hopes to find somewhere to hang a poster and to pin your business card. This will save time.
Effort is another thing that every recruiter should focus on. An example would be that you have an event at a high school on a Tuesday. Today is Monday. You can get online and research where you want to visit on the way to your event. You can type it up in your notes on your phone for easy reference the next day. This will save time but also save you a lot of effort trying to do this on the fly.
The second part of area canvassing is to meet prospects face-to-face. Too many times recruiters will just drive around and post flyers and hang business cards without having a single conversation regarding joining the military. This is the largest and most important part of area canvassing. You will see people out in your area. Have a conversation. Ask them if they ever considered joining the military. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Just ask and see what happens. I believe that you’ll be surprised.
Another common mistake that recruiters do when area canvassing, or scheduling events in general, is they do not take into consideration market share. You always have this at your fingertips. I plan on writing a blog diving into the ins and outs of market share at a later date, but for now you can use this as a tool to make you incredibly efficient. You can have your NCOIC pull your market share for your area (chances are they already have it) for the past 3 or 5 years. You will glaringly see where your hot spots are within your area. This is referred to as military propensity. Generally, areas within your recruiting area will have higher than normal military propensity. The higher the enlistments over the past 3-5 years equals higher propensity of joining. Focus in these areas. This will give you a larger opportunity to find people that want to join while saving time, money, and effort.
Area canvassing can be extremely easy. It can also be incredibly efficient. It will all boil down to the effort that you put into it. As mentioned in previous blogs, I am not a fan of wasting time. My time is valuable and so is yours. Do not waste it. Put in the effort to make this prospecting path work for you.
My next blog will be on or around February 29th discussing prospecting via direct mail. Until next time.
~ Xpert Recruiting
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