How to doorknock

Greg Wyatt • March 19, 2024

Doorknocking is an old-school sales approach you may well have experienced, such as when a young person with a clipboard rings your doorbell and asks you to change electricity provider.

My wife even bought from exactly this scenario.

But while it’s not uncommon in a business-to-consumer situation, it can also work business-to-business… if you can get past security.

Although technology has moved on, the principle is the same, whether in person, by phone, email, letter or LinkedIn:

You approach someone cold and create your own opportunity.

This isn’t an approach for everyone, and certainly requires a modicum of chutzpah, but if you are used to a high failure rate in applying through job boards and agencies - what do you have to lose by not gaining a job through being proactive?

And more than that - look at all the advice on LinkedIn on how to improve your odds in a job search.

It’s all transactional and applicable, available to everyone - if you all follow it, everyone takes the same step forward.

While taking steps others are less prepared to do means the approach alone may stand out.

Of course, if you encounter the equivalent of a sign which says ‘Tresspassers will be shot’, that’s something to consider if the rules are important.

I’ve never applied through traditional means to a job. Here’s my successful application history -

  • Walked into the Cinema and asked for a job

  • Walked into Office World and asked for a job

  • Worked for Dad

  • Talked to one of my ex-colleagues and gained some by-the-call phone research work

  • Temped through an agency

  • Walked into the Pickerel Inn and asked for a job

  • Referred to Workplace Law

  • In managing their (small-scale) recruitment, I got to know the MD of Whitehill Pelham as a supplier. I went to work there.

  • Tapped up to return to a more senior role at Workplace Law

  • Started my business upon being given the boot


It’s true I did apply through job boards and agencies, but it’s mainly through my own means I’ve secured my employment.

Doorknocking has one key advantage and one key disadvantage as a route to a job.

The key advantage is that you approach companies by category, not because they are recruiting. These categories can be:

  • All the employers in your local business park you can walk around

  • Top 100 employers in your particular domain, whether industry or tech

  • Companies that have recently had funding and are about to scale

Or however you choose to categorise a list.

The point is to make contact and make a case for yourself, on the principle of

the right person, right time, right place, right message, right offer, and right price.

So of course, there’s an element of luck involved, for these elements to all come together.

We’ll dig into this in the next section.

The key disadvantage is that they may not be recruiting, or ever have a need to employ you, and even if they do have a vacancy, you still have to establish the right fit.

That means a logically low hit rate.

But again, let’s go back to job board applications - how many hours have you spent applying for jobs where you never even heard back?

The difference is the anonymous rejection of a volume based application versus the personal rejection from your direct approach.

Your threshold for an acceptable failure rate will inform whether this is the right approach for you.

Right person, right time, right place, right message, right offer, right price.

This is a principle of any marketing activity, including other means of looking for work.

Let’s reorder the list and see how we can make them work for us:

Right Place

Those Categories above. The place is the Company, and how you contact them. You can go in blind, if you are a bold prospector by nature, or you can research them in advance.

Right Person

Typically this will be the ‘next one up’, Head of department, Director, CxO or Owner.

Who would be the budget holder at work? Those are a good target. Research, as usual, can help - look them up on LinkedIn, PR, news, video platforms. What can you find out?

Right Time

In most situations, if you categorise by anything not time-related, this will be pot luck.

What if, instead, you categorise by timed factors? What might be a hiring trigger?

Perhaps you could contact a list of companies who have just announced funding, or a big win - events that can trigger investment in the business through hiring.

Or maybe you hear through the grapevine that Janine is about to go off on maternity leave.

If their process isn’t time-related, can you make it time-related?

“We aren’t hiring right now” might mean they’ve run out of headcount in H1 (Jan to June), and may have a new budget in July. What can you find out that helps you both?

And if you have radio silence, why not try again in a month or three months?

Think about how you buy - if you don’t need something it doesn’t matter so much about how good the message is.

If you do need something, someone who keeps in regular touch might sell you what you need.

Right Offer

You have more opportunity for career creativity, in being unemployed, than someone entrenched in a 9 to 5 permanent job.

What problems can you fix for a company, in a non-traditionally employed capacity?

Let’s say an employer has a problem that needs fixing. They don’t have capacity to do it right now, it isn’t burning enough to seek professional help, and there isn’t sufficient work in view to make it a job.

What if you caught them at the right time?

An out-of-work TA Manager who offered to revamp an onboarding process.

A web designer who notes lots of issues with their website.

A strategic operational issue that is their unknown unknown, but your expertise identifies.

A swamped team who could benefit from their admin burden being reduced.

An orchard that needs pickers at harvest - no shame in that.

Who knows what that might be?

What starts out as a short-term / project / part-time piece of work can become proof of concept. The FD of one company I’ve recently recruited for created his own job, contacting them a couple of years ago because he loved their products.

Right message

This is both nuanced and vulgar.

It’s nuanced because nailing the message CAN create an opportunity a poorly written message can miss.

But it’s vulgar because sometimes you can just catch people at the right time, no matter how cruddy your message is.

This is very much the case in recruitment - I’ve picked up several senior appointments by happenstance.

“I’m glad you called Greg, I’m just starting to think about my maternity cover in June.”

Had I not called, that HR Director may well have gone to the specialist HR recruiters she is also in touch with.

If you have a strong hook in your message -such a key area of rare expertise, or a clear issue you’ve identified which companies may have - great, go in with that.

But if you don’t - done is better than procrastinating:

“Hi Greg, I live locally to Bircham Wyatt Recruitment. Love what you do. I wondered if you might be recruiting for an apple picker at any point? If you can’t help, could you point me in the right direction?”

Right price

I’ve left this til the end because much of this is variable and subjective. What are your needs? What can they afford? What does the market say? How flexible can you be?

Research will help, if you can get a sense of what they generally pay through indeed, glassdoor or others. Or maybe what comparable companies who are advertising will pay.

One approach might be simply to pro-rate your salary over the period you’ll work there.

As a related aside, door-knocking can sometimes inadvertently give you access to jobs that are being actively recruited. Consider it a happy byproduct of your work, if you find yourself in this situation.

Like any activity in a job search, it’s worth persevering. Otherwise it’s too easy to think, after 10/20/100 unsuccessful efforts that the approach itself is at fault.

There is always an element of good fortune in any marketing activity.

This may be out of your comfort zone, in which case it’s an opportunity to grow.

Or it may be out of your capacity, which is understandable.

You may even find other approaches are more effective than you.

But the only certain thing is that if you don’t try you definitely won’t benefit from it.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg

p.s. if you found this article helpful, may I ask that you share it with fellow job seekers? This will always be a free publication, and I have no intent to monetise career coaching, which I hope allows it to be as accessible and objective as possible.

I’ve no idea if ‘liking’, commenting or reposting helps. What about ‘commenting for coverage’ 😂?

Why not share it in a LinkedIn post? You may start some interesting conversations, and help others you don’t yet know.

Why five? Innovation from Iteration, pt 1

By Greg Wyatt • February 26, 2026
So here were are, the start of a new series. This series may be around 10 editions, looking at the things other industries do that we can implement into recruitment. These were written 3 years ago, right at the start of the AI zazzle, and in some ways have dated quite a bit. In others, the way in which they haven't dated at all, because the principles of how we live our business lives can be universal. So, I'm not sure yet, how much editing I'll do, whether there will be any inclusions, or whether I'll leave articles intact, as a moment in time. I've learnt all of these notions from candidates and clients, as I came to understand the function of their vacancies. Hearing about the daily practice from people doing jobs, I couldn't help but notice the same relevance in recruitment. So while these articles are hardly comprehensive, perhaps they'll make you look at your candidates differently, in what we can learn from them, and how that might improve our recruitment. Why five? December 2022 Ask anyone involved in active recruitment what their key problems are, and they’ll likely talk about skills shortages and candidate behaviour. On the face of it, problems which are out of our control, worthy of complaint with little opportunity to find improvement. But what if these were issues that weren’t entirely out of our control? What if we could apply a replicable process to understand what’s really going on, and how we can make a difference? Fortunately, we needn’t invent the wheel, as other industries have already done this for us. One such is 5Y, or Five Whys, a problem-solving technique that was developed by Toyota in the 1930s. It's part of the Toyota Management System that has inspired much of my work. Five is the general number of “Why?”s needed to get to the root of a problem. Often you can get to the heart of the issue sooner, sometimes later. Often there are multiple root causes. More than just solving problems, it’s about establishing practical countermeasures to prevent these problems from coming up in future. 5Y is an example of Toyota’s philosophy of “go and see”: working on the shop floor to find out how things work in practice to find ways for iterative improvement. This isn’t a theoretical idea to try out on a whim – it’s based on grounded reality and almost always works. There are two costs – time and accountability. Here’s a practical example, then a recruitment one. (Names have been removed to protect my identity) Problem 1 : The children were late for school. Why? Traffic held us up. Why? We left the house late. Why? The children weren’t ready on time. Why? Their school uniforms weren’t prepared. Why? We hadn’t set them out the night before. Here the countermeasure is to get everything ready the night before, rather than blame traffic for being late. Perhaps we might have gotten to school on time without heavy traffic, but that is an element out of our control. Of course, here there is another root cause – very naughty children – but better to focus on the simple changes. And sometimes traffic is the root cause after all, once you’ve ruled out other elements in your control. (2026 note: my eldest now often drives my youngest to school. A time laden solution I hadn't considered three years ago. Now I don't care if they're late 😆) Problem 2: Candidates keep ghosting us. Why? They weren’t committed to responding. Why? They didn’t accept my requirement for a response. Why? They saw no value in my requirement. Why? I didn’t create an environment where this requirement has value ( root cause 1 ). Or because they are very naughty candidates, with a bad attitude. Why have we allowed someone with a bad attitude in our recruitment process? Because we didn’t prequalify them well enough ( root cause 2 ) The first root cause is something we can work on by giving candidates what they need, building trust, and working to mutual obligations. There are many ways to do this – I’ve already talked about examples in previous newsletters. It comes down to good candidate experience and reciprocity. The second root cause requires us to work harder at understanding candidate needs, aspirations, behaviours and attitudes at the outset of a recruitment process. There’s a reason for their behaviour. We can be accountable for finding it. That’s no mean skill to develop, yet an essential one for anyone whose core responsibility is recruitment. And it’s hard to do in a transactional volume process, so the question then becomes, does your process help more than it hinders? You can apply 5Y to any issue you come across, as long as you are prepared to be accountable. At worst you may find that the things that were out of your control are at fault. In this case, you are at least armed with good information to report to your stakeholders, by ruling out other possibilities. What’s the point of doing all this? For me it’s continually improving how I recruit, with the consequence, in the example above, that I am rarely ghosted at all. And you can 5Y any issue you come across. Are poor agency CV submissions their fault, or in part down to your briefing and process? Are skills genuinely scarce, or is your requirement unrealistic? Is it true that your agency hasn’t listened to you, or do you engage the right partners in the right way? 5Y has the answers. Regards, Greg

Map the Market. Jobseeker Basics XVIII

By Greg Wyatt • February 23, 2026
What follows is Chapter 21 in A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . It's a good example of how a job search is an inverted recruitment exercise, but also how the same principles from recruitment can be applied in a job search. Market mapping is one of the first steps of a search process in what is often called headhunting. Here though, instead of an exercise that helps find a person for a job, you help find a job for you. This can be in one chunk, at the outset, and iteratively, as you learn more information. It's a great example of how LinkedIn can be used as a data repository, given the vast majority of professionals are present here. And if they are present here, the insight that is their careers is too, allowing you to identify potential viable employers, who works there, and therefore where else they may have worked, with further potential hiring managers. The snake that eats its own tail. Try doing the iterative work above, every time you come across someone new, whether in an application or in networking . You can use this to build out your network, identify companies to contact proactively. Simon Ward and I will talk more on this in our LinkedIn Live on Tuesday February 24th at 1pm GMT. You can join us, and view the full recording afterwards, here: Is The Nature Of Networking Changing for Job Hunters? If you happen to read this as a hiring authority, market mapping is one of the invisible processes in a structured search. It can often take me 80 to 100 hours to fully map a role for potential viable candidates, given I try to find non-traditional candidates as well as those that are easier to find through sourcing. 21 - Map the market Market mapping is a common activity in executive search. Why wouldn’t you adopt the same approach in your inverse of a recruitment exercise? The idea is to fully understand your market, so that you are better able to navigate it. This is a summary chapter because market mapping is both a strategic and a tactical exercise. I’ll cover some of the How of mapping in Part Three. There are three ways in which to map the market. The vacancies you are qualified for This is about determining which vacancies you should focus your attention on. In which domains does your capability directly apply? This could be context related, if your expertise is in start-ups, growth, downsizing or other contexts. It could be industry related - your process manufacturing expertise might directly apply in food, plastics or pharmaceuticals. It could be job related, with the right applicable skills. Establish where there is a market for you, and if what you offer is needed by that market. Advice on the transferable skills trap (p55) and whether you are qualified (p178) to apply will help. The geography of your job search Where are all the employers and vacancies that you can sustainably commute to? A geographical map can help you target opportunities by region. What resources are available to help you with this map? Searching online for local business parks, even driving around them, can give a list of viable companies to contact. Directories and membership hubs. Local newspapers, social media stories. If you see a company you like the look of, say from an advert, search on their local post code. Who else might be there? The chapter on doorknocking (p241) has more ideas. The people of your network Every time you come across someone you might build a relationship with, connect with them on LinkedIn. Then check out their career history. Who else have they worked with? Where else have they worked? This works for peers, hiring managers, and recruiters - a headhunter in one company may well have worked in a similar domain in a previous one. Is there anyone at these previous companies you should introduce yourself to? What about their listed vacancies? Building out a map of relevant recruiters to develop relationships with (if they answer the phone) can lead to vacancies. Treat it as an iterative exercise. Check out the chapter on networking (p236). This map isn’t just about potential opportunity. It’s also about information that might be helpful now and in future. This might be for job leads. It might be industry insight you can share through content. It may even be topics for conversation in interviews or with peers. Make sure you track it in the right way, whether through Notion, Excel or other resources you have available. With any information, check it is accurate, then prune appropriately. Prioritise on degrees of separation (closest first) and context fit (where what you need is most closely aligned with what you offer).