Better Detecting With Business Cards

Most detectorists who advocate walking up to someone’s door to ask permission to hunt their yards suggest you carry business cards. This is great advice. But like all great advice, it’s often ignored. Maybe you’re one of those people who don't think cards are a necessity because you plan on spending your entire detecting career doing parks, schoolyards and other public places and won’t ever need to knock on a single door. Fact is, you never know who’s going to walk up to you while hunting those public places, and pen and paper isn’t something most of us carry in the field. If someone needs your detecting help, a little professionalism goes a long way. If your handwriting is anything like mine, nobody would be able to decipher your name and phone number if you did write it on a scrap of paper.

Or maybe you might be inclined to reason, "There’s a Big Mac Value Meal calling my name, and my kid is begging for a Happy Meal with a Mulan action figure. Why should Kinko’s get my cash for printing business cards?" It’s still a sensible idea to be prepared with some business cards simply because you can put those ubiquitous little cards to work for you to open doors. Besides, Ronald’s just a corporate clown who thinks its fine and dandy to dispatch cattle with a bolt gun to the head, and no matter how you look at it, a large cent sitting in your booty bag thanks to a business card will provide more satisfaction longer than a Big Mac.

Business cards for the detectorist needn't be elaborate affairs. You can get them for a few bucks per hundred down at your local print shop, especially if you use a print shop’s stock template. Print shops have several ready-made, bare-bone designs to choose from, and it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks. A plain white uncoated card with your name, address and phone number is all you need. As a huge bonus, you can add a personalized line below your name which identifies you not only as a detectorist, but you can justify your existence on our fine planet by doing good deeds for the public, too. A highly descriptive and benefit-rich line like, "Metal detecting. Lost items and treasures found" somewhere on the card will do fine. Never underestimate the value of, and need for, that little tagline beneath your name or somewhere else on the card. Like messages in bottles, business cards wash up in the unlikeliest of places. They usually end up the garbage can, but equally as often, they circulate far and wide, changing hands tens of times before ending up in the lap of someone who can actually put your hobby to good use. When that time comes, you don’t want anyone thinking you’re an insurance salesman.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through the detecting forum posts and read where a detectorist was refused permission to hunt a onetime drive-in. The property owner had given permission to other detectorists in the past, and they expressed their gratitude by leaving the land looking like a moonscape with unfilled holes. As far as the drive-in owner was concerned, this guy was just one more dimtwit with a detector who needed Aretha Franklin to beat him with a big stick while singing "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" as he swung the coil. The detectorist who posted the message apparently feels once a property owner says no, that's that and it's time to amble on into the sunset.

Could that detectorist have salvaged something from an otherwise flat refusal from the drive-in owner? Quite possibly. And maybe by doing nothing more than chit-chatting with the owner and presenting a business card. I’m not suggesting in any way that you be pushy when a property owner refuses a request to hunt his land. Plain and simple, no means no. But it doesn't mean you have to simply walk away. Rather than going home and crying in your beer when a property owner says no, you have two missions, Jim, if you decide to accept them: 1) To leave the property owner with a way to contact you should he have a change of heart somewhere down the line by leaving him your business card, and 2) To leave the property owner with a more favorable opinion of detectorists (and you as a person in general) by very subtly sowing the seeds to bring about that change of heart.

In some instances, you can innocuously create a change of heart. If a single dream can persuade Ebeneezer Scrooge to give his lowly, browbeaten employees Martin Luther King Day off, its an equally possible – and plausible – dream for the stone-hearted miser with a Civil War-era estate to give you the go-ahead to poke around for any large cents lurking next to his front steps. But unless you leave old skinflint with parting gift of a card with your name, address and phone number on it – and leave the old miser thinking you’re a friend rather than simply some opportunistic vulture of a hobbyist – the dream won’t happen.

Hold on a minute. Turn him into a friend? Huh? I don’t want to be friends with the old dude. I just want to detect his property. I hear you scoffing at me from the four corners of the globe, kind reader. Don’t worry; we’re not talking about becoming beer swilling, poker-playing buddies here. We’re talking about using basic principles of salesmanship in which a friend is defined as someone in which you feel comfortable in placing a certain degree of trust. It’s about changing perceptions. In this case, it means transforming yourself in someone’s eyes from being a complete stranger off the street who wants to dig holes in their lawn to someone they like who wants to dig holes in their lawn. You can accomplish this by giving the property owner your business card and then establishing some sort of common ground within a few seconds which will put you in a very favorable light.

The way to do that is by opening the door for them to talk about themselves, something they own, or an interest of theirs. Before you ring the doorbell, find something on or about the property to use as an introduction that’ll transform you from being a stranger metal detectorist into someone that’s interested in something that’s an extension of the property owner.

Let’s see how such an exchange would take place.

You: Hi, I’m John Q. Public. I’m a metal detecting hobbyist and I’d like to know if I could have your permission to detect on your property. There seems to be a bit of history to your property, and I’d like to see if there’s anything interesting there.

Owner: No. I gave someone permission before, and they started hacking up my lawn real good.

(Note: At this point, you might be inclined to try to convince Owner that you wouldn’t leave holes by offering to demonstrate or explain your plug-digging technique. Don’t do this. Owner really doesn't care, and he'll think you’re just being difficult or pushy. There’s a reason people don’t like car salesmen, you know.)

You: Well, I can certainly understand that, and I don’t blame you a bit for saying no. Here’s my card with my name, address and phone number, just in case you run across anyone who can use someone with a metal detector to find anything lost or hidden, like rings, old pipes, stuff like that -- normally at no charge.

Owner: I’ll keep that in mind.

You: Hey, can I ask you something?

Owner: What?

You: I noticed your walkway between the sidewalk and the house is paving stone instead of cement. It’s a nice touch. I’ve wanted to do the same thing at my house. How long ago did you have it done?

Owner: Oh, not long. About five years ago.

You: Did you do it yourself or did you have it done for you?

Owner: We did it ourselves. Only took a weekend to do.

You: Well, you did a nice job of it. What do I need to know if I do mine myself?

If there’s one truism about human nature, it is that everyone’s pretty much an authority on a thing or three, and they love to share their knowledge with people who ask for it. That’s why Owner will probably keep you occupied for the next half-hour imparting all the know-how he’s accumulated about installing a paving stone walkway. But do you see what’s happened here? Within minutes, you’ve gone from being a metal detectorist interested in the treasures in his yard to being a fellow homeowner in need of advice. Take a look again at the questions I used. They can’t be answered with a simple yes, no, or a grunt. They require Owner to actively participate in a conversation with you. So remember to ask questions that create a true conversation, not an empty yes-no questioning session.

However, know that people aren’t stupid. They can smell gratuitous butt-kissing and empty compliments a mile away. Do that and you’ll be dead in the water. And remember, you've handed him your name and address on a card, so he has something to refer to when he tells everyone he knows what an idiot you are. Don’t expect the doors to fly open by telling Owner he has a nice lawn or a nice house. If you’re going to mention something nice on which to base a conversation, mention something you can actually talk about. Don’t ask Owner about his 1964 Mustang in the driveway if you don’t know a thing about cars. Don’t ask him how he keeps his lawn looking great unless you’re prepared to hold up your end of the discussion over fertilizing schedules or the proper phosphorus-nitrogen mix for weed and feed. If there isn’t anything in which you both have a decent mutual-interest discussion over, just leave you card and go on your way.

Don’t worry about how good your conversation skills are. Even the most socially inept can talk up a storm when it comes to something that floats their boat. I work with a guy like this. Martin is pretty much a mope as a human being in general, but bring up politics or baseball and you'd think you were having an audience with Dick Cavett or George Will.

But let’s assume for the sake of a more interesting article there was something obvious over which you and Owner can hold a decent conversation. If you’re lucky, at some point, he will turn his attention to your hobby of metal detecting (which is what we were really after all along):

Owner: So. You do that metal detecting thing, huh? Ever find anything good?

You: Oh, sure. I’ve found my share of gold and silver jewelry, older coins, stuff like that in yards just like yours.

Owner: You have? Do you think there would be something like that in my yard?

You: Well, you never know. I’ve hunted some older yards that do and some that don’t. You never know until your start detecting.

With this little exchange, you’ve given him exactly what he’s looking for: Something to dispel his biggest fear, which in this case would be you turning his finely-manicured lawn into mush. I’ve made a living in sales and marketing in the past, and what every great salesman says about hearing the word "no" from a prospect is absolutely true: A customer’s "no" is simply an expression of a fear. Maybe of paying too much. Maybe of not knowing enough about a product right now to buy it right now. Every great salesman knows another truism about human nature: A customer who says "no" will actually tell you how to erase his fears if only you take the time to listen. Our matter-of-fact response of, "Oh, sure. I’ve found my share of gold and silver jewelry, older coins, stuff like that in yards just like yours" gives Owner a reason to believe you’ve done this kind of thing before. (This is why you should have your pinpointing and plug-digging skills down pat before ever approaching a property owner. Once you’ve perfected your skills in the park, hunt the yard of a relative who doesn't care much about their lawn ’s to make sure you can leave a yard looking like you were never there. By doing this, you’ll at least have a reference who can assure Owner you won’t leave his yard looking like an exploded minefield. If the owner does ask for a reference, you don’t have to say it was your relative’s yard you hunted. Just give the relative’s name and contact number. If he’s satisfied with the relative’s answers, Owner will call you.)

At this point, Owner will probably keep you talking. If he does, don’t take it as a sign he’s getting closer to changing his mind about letting you hunt his yard. He probably is, but still work on the assumption his no still means no. Don’t assume otherwise until you hear an obvious invitation, such as, "So how are you not going to hack up my lawn like the other guy?" At which point you would say, "Well, I have my detector in the car. Would you mind if I show you?"

See how a plain old business card and a little friendly initiative on your part can open doors? Legend says the gentle flap of a butterfly's wings can create hurricanes and tidal waves clear across the globe. Same principle can happen here.

© 1999 Scott Buckner