Ryan Dohrn tells Bruce that relationship selling still works, but it's changed. Buyers research online now, so salespeople need to be precise instead of being the knowledge source. Use LinkedIn to find personal details about prospects, reference their alma mater or past employers, and get straight to the point.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your Global Sales Coach, and we are answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. I love getting your questions, so keep sending them in. All right, next question from Bruce in Tallahassee. Ryan, what happened to relationship selling? I'm 55 years old and I'm not good with the transactional selling game. It's just not my thing. What should I do? Well, Bruce, you know, we don't know each other, but I'm gonna have to have a little heart-to-heart conversation with you, buddy. So you're not old. First of all, 55, you're not old. I'm 49. Okay, I'm not old. If you think I'm old, you're wrong. You're not old. But things have changed a little bit. Now, it's not that relationships won't come, but first and foremost, I think it's important for all of us to recognize you don't have to have a relationship with somebody to sell them. Okay, you don't have to. Now, it's very helpful And I like building relationships, but Bruce, it's important to recognize that relationships aren't what they used to be. Bruce, you and I were old enough to remember when people really wanted to go to dinner, people really wanted to go to lunch, people really wanted to get together for coffee. Well, a lot of things have changed. First, it used to be that you needed to engage with us as salespeople to learn about products and services and things like that. I remember selling. And working in the business before we had the internet. Now, as the internet has progressed, as people can do more research online, they don't need us as much as they used to because they can find so much of their information online. It's not that relationship selling is dead, it's just that you need to be a lot more precise. So for example, in researching a client on LinkedIn, I want to go in and find out where do they go to university at, where they go to college, Where have they lived in the past? What does their resume look like? The way that I'm going to build a relationship is not going to be about football, golf, or the weather. Definitely not politics, religion, or things like that. Where I'm going to find the fastest way to connect with people— hey, I saw on LinkedIn that you did this. That's really intriguing. Tell me about that. I saw on LinkedIn that you worked for Breitling, the wristwatch company out of New York, in their New York office. Tell me about that. I'm a wristwatch aficionado. Ficcionado, or whatever the circumstance is. Relationship selling isn't dead. It's not all transactional. But Bruce, you're gonna have to wrap your head around the fact that people are buying sort of kind of like this: What do you got? How much is it? How will it work for me? It's it's it's actually a lot easier than it used to be, in my opinion, because it used to be that you had to kind of build a lot of pomp and circumstance around the company and what you're selling. And now it's sort of kind of a cut to the chase. How can I help you? Kind of scenario. So kind of embrace that and wrap your arms around it. And I think what you'll find is you'll be a lot more successful in the, in the sales business as you move towards the third act of your sales career. Okay, just like me. All right, friends, if you got questions, send them over to me. I love them. ryan@ryandohrn.com. I'd love to come to your office, train your sales team, speak at your national sales conference. I'm a moderately funny kind of guy and motivational as well. Find out more about what I can do for you and your team over at ryandohrn.com. All right, friends, we'll see you next week.
