D2D Legal Issues? Must Know Before Knocking Doors For Roofing Sales

You do not want to get a ticket. And it's happened. So this video, I'm going to answer the question, is it legal to knock doors? And what do you need to know? Now, many of us have knocked doors for even years and have never faced an issue. And you might be listening or tuning in saying, this is totally irrelevant. Adam, why are you even wasting my time? Well, guess what? It's just like the person, and I am not. I don't drink alcohol. I stopped four years ago. And I do not condone this example. There are many people I know who drink and drive, who for years and years and years, and they get away with it until that one time. Now, I know that the consequences, both on the legal side and the safety side and the life at hand is much more grave when we talk about drunk driving than we do a ticket or some legal issues from knocking doors. But that being said, it's the same analogy. Just because you haven't been caught or it hasn't been an issue yet doesn't mean that it won't be. Because here are two threats that are going to be facing you in the coming weeks, months, years, doesn't matter. Number one is the neighborhood watchdog. This is how a story I'll tell you in a minute happened to a gentleman, and we're going to call him Mike, a canvasser that I hired for us. The neighborhood watchdog is sitting here and they're looking and they see Mike walking from this house to the next, and they say they're not allowed here. I don't see the thing. And she calls the police. The police show up, write Mike a ticket. I had just hired Mike, our canvasser. Mike calls me up, Adam, I just got the police called on me. I just got a ticket. I'm done working for you. Click more on that in a minute. Now, that neighborhood watchdog didn't even have her door knocked on yet. Or number two is as our streets get even more competitive with roofers doing sales door to door, you'll get complaints from a competitor who, if they're operating legally, is going to just try to snuff you out. Why? Because if they stop you from being on doors even for a day, they can get a stronghold in that neighborhood and take over. Light the world on fire. And they can be at the door saying, hey, I just want to caution you, if you don't see this from the next person you're not knocks on your door, I recommend you call the police because they're not operating legally. Now, what is the thing that, my friend, is what we are about to touch on right here in this video. First, I want to say welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist and everything I do here is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And to help you do that, if you haven't done it already, I want you to head over to the roofstrategist.com right now. There's a link in the description so you can get your hands on this freebie. This here is a free copy of my pitch. Like a roofing sales training video library, it's every video I've ever done, organized by category and we even update it every couple of weeks with the latest videos. Why? Because in here we are able to keep you binging on the topics that matter most. From canvassing to pitching to roofing sales basics to body language and psychology, to closing to the contingency agreement. You name it, there's videos on it. Alright, so get yours right now 100% free at the roof strategist or by clicking the link in the description. Now let's get to today's video. Is it legal to knock doors? Let me give you the long and short short first, the answer is yes, but you need to follow what I'm going to tell you now. Quick disclaimer. I'm not an attorney. I am not your attorney. This is not legal advice. It is up to you to make sure that you are operating in compliance with local, state and federal law. Let's begin. So there may or may not be a permit required to knock doors. That's the key thing here. So let me give you an example. This area where Mike the. I've changed his name, by the way, who was out knocking doors, I didn't know there was a permit required in this town. Why? Because I was young at this. I was only a few years in. I just hired Mike. I had had customers in this neighborhood before. I found that there wasn't a lot of competition and I was like, let's blow this thing up. And that's when it happened. So to wrap up that story with Mike, the canvasser that I hired, who got a ticket that landed on his personal record, I ended up going to court. I still carry this weight. I felt so guilty. I end up going to court, fighting for it, trying to take. I said, please pass it on to the company or at the very least to me. This is my fault. I ended up paying the fine, but that ticket stuck on my Canvasser, and it made me feel horrible. And I want to show you how easy it was to avoid that from happening. There's two terms. So these permits that are required door to door are not required. By the way, everywhere you have to check the city, township or area that you're working, there's two phrases you're going to search. Number one is solicitor's permit and then the town. And number two is peddler's permit and then the town. I've done two examples. If nothing shows up, you can always call the local police department or the city council or the village or the township and ask. If there's not one, you're totally good. So, solicitor's permit to Forest, Wisconsin. Look at this seller's permit. I can click right onto the website and the instructions on what to what are needed here is right here. Direct seller's permit. They're regulated, they're required. There's the application document and the ordinance for direct marketing and sales, which is what we do. Simple enough. Follow the directions. Here's another one. Peddlers permit, Sun Prayer, Wisconsin. You can see. Just googling it and then. Actually, let me pop back here what you'll see. Well, I missed it. Direct sellers, peddlers and solicitors permit. All right, different languages. Peddlers, solicitor, canvassers permit. The two that I found to be the easiest is just peddler's permit or what was it here? Come on now, solicitor's permit. My apologies, I was mixing up my head. Now, the interesting thing is each municipality has different fee schedules. So this place, for example, is some of the most strict I've seen anywhere. They're wanting a weekly permit or a monthly or annual, up to $300 per year per person. I know this gets expensive. Other ones, it's like a background check and 20 bucks. So the point and the key takeaway is you need to know three things. I'm going to touch on them very quickly. All right? Number one, simply search solicitors or peddler's permit with the name of the town you're working in and do this before you get out there. Number two, just be mindful that private property, when I say door knocking, is legal. Every municipality is different. This is a giant can of worms on the no soliciting. I have heard anecdotally that if you see no soliciting, but you do solicit and someone files a complaint, it can be criminal trespassing. Now, again, this is all anecdotal to me. I've got my own views on that I've covered in another video on no soliciting, which you can check out. But the reason I want to share that is it's up to you to know those laws and to make sure that especially in gated communities or private areas that you're legal. And then the last thing is just recognizing again private property. So no soliciting paired with the private property or gated communities so long as you know your laws. Yes, you have validation that door to door sales and direct sales is 100% legal. All you got to do is make sure you're compliant with a quick Google search, solicitors, peddler's permit and the town. Now that's all for this video. And before we wrap up, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the comments and the questions and engaging in thoughtful discussion down below. Because I see those not only do I respond, but other people respond and all of us can collectively learn together. So if you like this video, give it a thumbs up and click the subscribe bell so you don't miss a thing. And if you agree or disagree or have further questions, please I invite you to put them in the comments for all of us to learn from. Thank you again for joining me today. And just because our time here about to wrap up doesn't mean you're in. My time has to. So if you haven't yet done it, pop on over to theroofstrategist.com to download a free copy of your pitch Like a Pro Roofing sales training video library, binge to your heart's content. Or you can click here to jump into that no soliciting video I told you about and I'll see you on the next one.