hehe - Ian Wallace & co just knocked on my door to sell the wife a membership.
dont think she knew what to do

Ozlink - I believe Audrey missed out! (or did she just hide )

btw - I have never actually heard the doorknockers spiel....they obviously do a great job, but what do they say???

"Hi I'm from the local karate club and we're just in the area..."

Some of them have been known to continue through the whole spiel when the person standing at the door has been dressed in white gi, gkr badge, belt on etc etc about to leave for class.

I like to give them a hard time, provided they don't recognise me first of course. Ask them all these difficult questions about where are the classes & when, who teaches there, are they a black belt. That sort of thing. Hopefully, and I do mean hopefully, they have at least most of the answers though they should know all that before they start at the first house.

"I know that guy you said teaches! But I've heard that he is a real !" lol

I know, that's sooooo mean.


Mick

I got door knocked once by a newly recruited SDC

I was about to allow him to go through his speil when Nicola Jones popped her head round the corner and blew my cover....

I was so waiting to here what they have to say.

They are in my area again! I got some new students last night and a couple of the SDC's stuck their heads in the door.

I hope I'm not out if they come calling down my street lol

Now, that just sounds evil!


Mick

lol - seems I missed a great opportunity for what seems to be the "senseis revenge"

can someone explain to me what an SDC is and why/how do they "door-knock"???

ive never come across or heard of them before

SDC = Self Defence Consultant

They are the fulltime branch of GKR.
Your sensei at your dojo receives no payment for training you each week. They do it because they want to do it.

The SDC's are fulltime with GKR. They make a living from going door to door trying to recruit people into the club. You could probably call them door to door salespeople and you would have a more correct title for them than their current title of SDC

agent 99

Can I ask how you joined then if you have never come across the door-knockers? I assume you must have walked in the door and joined?

Not that it matters, but most people do join from having someone knock on their door and selling them a membership.


Mick

a friend from work was training karate and invited me along to watch one day after work. the sensei there was very nice and told me there was no use in watching and asked me to join in to see if i liked it. i did like it. the next time she went to that class i tagged along again and he let me join. it cost me $80 and i think its the best $80 ive ever spent.

Ditto - this was actually the first time in 6 years of living here I got door knocked!
Dave (ozlink) came around one night many years ago all excited about joining this karate club.....I went with him, tried it out, paid on the spot and never looked back!!

Hello,
I just came across this forum by chance, but felt v strongly I had to defend my title as an SDC!! So I signed myself in.
I shudder to think of myself as a "door to door salesperson" Most of us SDC's joined up, as we are given the opportunity to train full time in GKR Karate! we are all passionate about Karate and are training at instructor level so that soon we will be given our own classes.
Almost every instructor in GKR began as an SDC, it gives us a great opportunity to learn about what the general public want from Karate and to straighten out any mis-conceptions people may have. I am really happy to say that I have introduced people to the Martial Arts who would never have dreamed of approaching a club on their own, generally these are the people who NEED it the most, those with shyness or confidence isses, who without a little encouragement and reassurance might never have taken that vital first step.
Add to this the fact that if you sign up through an SDC you pay a fraction of the usual Registration fee, and its winners all around.
My experience with the general public so far has been invaluable in terms of learning about peoples fears expectations and reservations about Karate, I feel as though i have inside knowledge to help me on my way as an Instructor and cant wait to start!

Ok Im done now, rant over

Hi Enerjenny,
Welcome to the Forum!

I used to know a couple of SDC`s and it can be a fairly profitable business to be in, plus as you say, you`re helping people get into Martial-Arts who otherwise wouldn`t even have considered it.

How did you get the position? Was it through your RM or from advertisments etc. I only ask, as the guys I knew were expected to teach - usually to cover classes whilst the regular Instructor is on holiday etc.
But these guys started out as regular students, then progressed to senior class, then taught, then became SDC`s, rather than the other way round.

Wow - one dredged up from the deep distant past. weren't we a different bunch back then?

Glad you enjoy your work EJ.
My gripe is use of the words "Self Defence Consultant" when GKR is pretty much sport based, with little real self defence practiced. It just seems like false advertising to me. Even 'Karate consultant' would be more appropriate, but not as flashy I guess.

And yet you sell membership of GKR door to door. I can't think of a better description than door-to-door salesperson.

'Self-defence Consultant' just doesn't wash I'm afraid. I could be a self-defence consultant. I think my 15 years + in martial arts, my 3-4 years working as a bouncer and my real-life experiences would qualify me to advise and guide people on the subject of self-defence. On the other hand, a few months (years even) practice of a simplified non-contact sport based karate system doesn't qualify anyone to advise the public on self-defence.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but I do think you're deluding yourself. You earn your crust by selling membership of GKR, not by providing expert and impartial advice on self-defence.

Mike

I agree there are a lot of people who would "get around to it one day" if left to their own devices. And we're our own worst enemy when it comes to advertising/promoting ourselves to the public to get new students - at least the majority of instructors are who only care about karate and haven't any interest in taking time out for marketing - though there are a few exceptions.

These days there are even real estate agents who go door-to-door, though most still just drop leaflets in mailboxes. Next it'll be used car salesmen and then we'll know that society has bottomed out

Although I would like to point out that every other caller I've had who was selling something has mentioned up front when you go past the point of just talking about it (because they're supposed to) that by law here we have a cooling-off period for any products offered by direct selling. It's also in the paperwork. I remember because they wouldn't connect our pay TV until after the cooling-off period. Not that I get to watch it. Ever.


Mick

Does that mean legally if someone was sold a membership to GKR by a "door to door salespaerson" that they also have a cooling off period and can legally obtain their money back? It would have to.

I agree with mike about the self defence consultant side of things. There are other names they could use surely.

Welcome aboard btw enerjenny

*gets the feeling Enerjenny has just opened pandora's box*

Yes I think you learn invaluable things about fears, expectations and reservations about Karate - then take those and package your selling program to suit them whether they are true or not.

I signed up for self defense. I was not taught self defense and I felt that I was lied to.

The other thing I don't like and I will never ever give another sales person the luxury of even finishing his spiel is the pressure selling. "This offer is only valid today" sort of thing. If you are so convinced about your product, you should be able to give me a chance to look at it / read the small print / make up my mind BEFORE I have to part with money.

I know that all sounds bitter and twisted but it's not. GKR wasn't for me and that's that. I still go to the tournaments to cheer on my friends etc. They know what they are getting and they are enjoying themselves, there's nothing wrong with that. The one thing that really gets my hackles up tho, is when it's sold as something that it isn't. Passionate you SDC's might be, but passion can't replace knowledge.

When they came knocking at my door I was out but the other half was in.....he told the guy he'd have to talk to me about it so to come back later. We had been talking about sending Josh to karate so we were interested. The guy came back that evening and told me all about GKR......I still wanted to think about it so sent him away again.....We decided to go for it so gave him a call and got him to come back again.
Now I admit that I didn't ask the right questions because I didn't realise they needed asking (you know...the whole Black belt issue) I just made assumptions on that front but I can't say I felt particularly pressured to sign up there and then without a chance to think about it.
Maybe that was just because I'm pretty hardened against hard sell types.
I remember the SDC suggesting that we take it up as a family but at the time we only signed Josh up....I signed myself up a few weeks later after watching a few of Josh's lessons.
The first Sensei he had was the RM who isn't a BB but seemed a good teacher.......I thought he was going to be the regular Sensei so I went for it.....little did I know that he would soon be replaced by an orange belt instructor
Rambling a bit I know but if I had known to ask the question at the door I wouldn't have bought
Having said that I have now found a Sensei who has a wide MA background and is actually a BB in GKR (not that he's allowed to wear it) but I am now happy with GKR.....as long as I don't try to go to lessons with the other Sensei in the region
I would love an SDC to come round now that I know the difficult to answer questions.......I would love to know how they go about answering them without sounding crap.
Of course it is probably easier to sell GKR in a long established region where the SDC can honestly say the Sensei have some experience.

I know what you mean about asking the question, stuffed. You just don't know when you've never been involved in the ma before. Same as you don't know if a b/w is any good if you haven't got the experience to compare him/her to anything else. In that respect, I'd love them to knock my door these days just to make them squirm with the asking the right questions.

BTW stuffed, if your sensei is a bb in GKR, they would let him wear his belt. They are as keen as anyone else to drop the b/w and get their bb.

The RM wants all the Sensei to look the same.......The RM isn't BB so.......Let's just say I'm lucky my Sensei hasn't left

Got to laugh. The RM wants all the sensei to look the same? More like the RM doesn't want anyone 'under' him wearing a black belt when he hasn't got one himself. So much for karate subjugating the ego.

Mike

P.S. Maybe the BB in question should stage a coup and get rid of the RM?

I was trying to be a little more tactful than that but basically yeah.

Don't think GKR would like the way he would run the region.....they want more dojos opening not having the ones they've got closed down cos there's nobody qualified to teach in them.