Are Door to Door Sales Dead? Discover the Truth About Door Knocking and Marketing Alternatives

You may wonder if business owners still invest in door to door sales, and the truth is some do. But there are many drawbacks to this marketing tactic. Besides it being a very time-consuming and a cost-heavy strategy, door knocking doesn’t have high conversion rates like it used to. Today there are far more effective marketing alternatives. Find out exactly how door knocking and direct mail compare in this latest article…

Door to door sales was the original marketing tactic before the printing press or the internet ever came into the picture. Even though it’s the oldest form of marketing, it still exists today, and some companies continue to use it in their marketing plans.

But you may wonder, what is the door-to-door sales success rate? Studies show that the average number of conversions from door-to-door sales is 2% of leads. This would mean that for every 100 doors knocked on, two people convert.

While door knocking does have some benefits, there are certainly drawbacks too. Yes, an in-person conversation has the potential to help build trust and a real-life relationship with the salesman. This is of course dependent on the prospect actually desiring the product or service being advertised.

So while there is potential to close a sale with this method, it could swing in the opposite direction, where the prospect feels threatened by a stranger knocking on their door. With the increase in crime in many areas around the country, there can be a general distrust of any face that isn’t familiar and asking for an unplanned conversation.

Door salesmen often come off as a major inconvenience and a nuisance when families have busy schedules and don’t feel like hearing a sales pitch in the middle of their day. The only choice is to completely ignore the person at their doorstep, or awkwardly try to back out of the conversation after opening the front door.

Do companies employ door-to-door sales people anymore? They actually do, but there are better marketing alternatives that deliver a much higher return on investment without the additional hassle of having to manage a door knocking sales team.

First, research shows that direct mail marketing has a 5% higher conversion rate than other marketing channels. In fact, 84% of marketers say that direct mail has the best conversion rates of any marketing channel they use.

Here are some main reasons why direct mail marketing performs better than door-to-door sales in 2025:

1. Postcards, letters, or brochures in the mailbox are unobtrusive. Homeowners can casually look at your print advertisements when they have time and want to investigate your company further. There is no pressure for them to respond immediately or interrupt their schedule to listen to a sales pitch. The postcard or letter can sit there and be read at their leisure.
2. People look forward to looking at their mail as opposed to talking to strangers or sales representatives. The mailbox has an exciting allure to it because most people associate mail with fun things, like receiving packages, gifts, or letters. This makes receiving a postcard a positive experience. Studies show that 49% of Americans (almost half!) look forward to checking the mail every day.
3. Direct mail builds trust and doesn’t destroy it. While a person on a doorstep could leave a negative impression on the prospect, direct mail offers an unobtrusive way to build trust. About 67% of people find mail trustworthy when it comes to privacy concerns. This is because families want to maintain their privacy and their safety in regards to how they manage their property and personal spaces.
4. Mailers can get into any community. While in-person salesmen may have trouble getting into gated communities or other exclusive areas that don’t allow solicitations, direct mail will always arrive in a mailbox.
5. Direct mail gives the marketer many targeting options, including homes based on value, lot size, income, age, gender, presence of children, and more.

Some other benefits of investing your marketing budget in direct mail instead of a door-to-door sales team is that direct mail is very affordable and can be customized to any budget. You can also scale up your investment at any time.

Instead of wasting a team member’s precious hours on driving around neighborhoods and knocking on doors, they can use it for other purposes. Door knocking is a time-consuming and tiring process. Sales people also have the potential of becoming discouraged over time since the conversion rate is low.

Instead, working with a direct mail marketing professional like us allows you to save time, resources, and money all at once. Automated direct mail also allows you to set your campaigns on autopilot too. After creating specific triggers, such as when a prospect visits your website or fills out an online form, your mailers will go out automatically. You don’t even have to lift a finger. As your postcards get mailed out, the leads come in.

So does direct mail really work better than door-to-door sales?

The research backs it up, but some of our clients have experienced it firsthand. Take IntegriSolar for example.

Owner Chris Barrow started his solar business in High Springs, FL. Solar energy businesses have relied on door to door sales for a very long time. But when Chris started IntegriSolar he realized that people were not open to door sales people as much anymore. Then he began looking for a better marketing strategy to reach people.

He received some information about direct mail and decided to launch a direct mail marketing campaign with PostcardMania. Chris liked the fact that mailers were a contact-free way to get knowledge of his services into local communities.

He mailed 1,000 postcards a month for a year. He timed the postcards to coincide with when residents would receive their electric bills in the mail so they could compare the cost difference between electric and solar energy.

As a result, he generated $18,000 in revenue. The direct mail marketing works so well for him that on average, Chris receives 3-4 responses after each mailing. This steady flow of new business has caused him to continue with direct mail marketing long term.

In fact, within just one month of starting his mailings, Chris made back all the money he spent on the postcards – an ROI of 100%, and he expects to achieve a 550% ROI once he closes the referrals.

If you are looking for more ways to generate leads without knocking on doors, give us a call! We have multiple marketing plans available to you that include direct mail, digital ads, TV ads, and more. These marketing plans are customized to your business needs and marketing budget.