grassroots sales; door-to-door marketing
Refers to persistent, on-the-ground sales activities where salespeople visit many small businesses or households, often likened to walking along ditch covers (ドブ板) in older shopping districts. Conveys a gritty, hands-on approach.
See also: ドブ板
New employees first do grassroots sales, visiting local shops one by one.
His experience in door-to-door marketing sharpened his sales skills.
飛び込み営業 is unscheduled cold-calling or drop-in sales, while ドブ板営業 emphasizes methodical, repeated visits to a defined area, often with a gritty, persistent image.
Standard katakana-kanji spelling; ドブ板 is the most common written form for the 'ditch cover' component.
Hiragana-kanji variant; less common than the katakana form but still seen.
Kanji spelling using 溝板; rare and may not be immediately recognized.
Compound of ドブ板 (どぶいた, 'ditch cover', from ドブ 'ditch' + 板 'board') and 営業 (えいぎょう, 'sales'). The image is of walking along the narrow ditch covers in front of shops in old commercial areas, suggesting persistent, ground-level sales effort.