Ryan Dohrn explains why prospects avoid unknown salespeople, just like kids avoid strangers. He recommends mentioning existing clients and success stories in every email, call, and meeting to build trust. Social proof from third parties makes strangers feel safer enough to engage.
Questions this video answers
Stranger danger in sales refers to the natural reluctance people have to engage with unknown salespeople. It can be overcome by consistently using social proof—citing existing client relationships and success stories—in every interaction (emails, meetings, voicemails, referrals) to shift trust from the salesperson to reputable third‑party references.
Chapters
What's going on, friends and fans? We're answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. And first question comes from Terry in Georgia. Ryan, you talk about stranger danger being real in sales land, and I'm just not quite following you on that. Could you give me a little more detail? So Terry from Georgia, across the river from me here in South Carolina, happy to shed some light. As a kid, you were taught not to talk to strangers because that was dangerous, right? Well, in sales land out there in real life, most Most of us as grown adults don't like to talk to strangers either. That's why during the sales process, we need to fight the stranger danger by mentioning social proof. Every interaction that we have, whether it's email, it's working with somebody in person, or looking for a referral, should mention some type of social proof. So Terry, let me give you an example. Let's say that I'm at a meeting with somebody. I want to share about 3 other businesses that I've worked with where we've had a great relationship or some great success. That's using social proof to help the person I'm meeting with that's a stranger move away from the ROI being on me, the proof being on me, to the proof shifting to other companies that I've worked with. Terry, another example for you. Say I'm prospecting somebody. It might be, hi Terry, we're working with Company A, Company B, and Company C. Love to work with you too. Social proof helps you beat stranger danger. That's why— and we've talked about it in some other videos— I don't ask people to call me back when I leave a voicemail, because it's unlikely they're going to call a stranger back. So because stranger danger is real and most of us don't like engaging with strangers, we need to use social proof in everything that we're doing. So Terry from Georgia, thanks for your question, and keep those questions coming in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Thanks, Ryan. Don't forget to subscribe below if you're watching this on YouTube. And I'd love to come and motivate your sales team. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. And don't forget to buy my new book, Selling Forward, over on Amazon. Never forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. This is a great career that'll feed your family for a lifetime. All right, we'll see you next week.
