Ryan Dohrn breaks down a three-step sales call format inspired by MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech: state the current situation, paint a picture of the desired outcome, then outline concrete steps to bridge the gap. He argues this narrative approach beats pushing PowerPoint slides regardless of what the prospect needs.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, Global Sales Coach, and this is your sales training tip of the week. I am asked all the time, hey Ryan, what is the most— what is the best format for hosting sales calls? Well, I could spend 2 or 3 hours, I could spend 2 or 3 days rehearsing with you what the best format looks like, but I'd like to go back to Martin Luther King's speech, the I Have a Dream speech, to find the best format possible. After all, by far one of the best speeches that was ever given. All right, what's the format that he used that others have stolen over the course of time to have a dramatic speech with a dramatic impact? Well, it all starts like this. What Dr. King did is he started, his first step was, here's where we are. His second step in the speech was, here's where we wanna be. I have a dream. Then the third thing he did were the steps to get from here to that dream. And I believe that's one of the best formats for sales calls that's ever been invented or talked about. Well, I don't know if it was invented, but you know what it is that I'm saying. So you want to start out with all customers like, here's where we are, here's what the baseline is, here's where we would love to take you with our product, our service, our offering, and here are the steps that you would take to get there. Now I know that that sounds like super simplistic format, but a lot of times what most salespeople do is you show up and throw up, and it's a PowerPoint. No matter what the client says, you just keep rolling forward, and that really isn't a format that's going to inspire somebody. So what I typically do, I validate time, I'm sharing success stories, I'm really trying to help somebody be successful and help them along the way. Here's where we are. Here's the circumstance where we are. Here's the— here's where we want to be if you buy our product or service. And here are the steps that you and others have taken to get there. And that's the I Have a Dream speech format. And I've translated that to work really, really well in sales as well. Hey friends, we talk about that format in my new book, Selling Forward. All the proceeds from this book are going to go to the Golden Harvest Food Bank. So make sure you check that out over on Amazon Kindle, Audible, you name it. And then I'd love to come and speak at your sales conferences. I do it all the time. I love to inspire folks. I think that's why I'm here on earth. So reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. Don't forget, subscribe down below if you're watching this on YouTube as well. All right, friends, never forget, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. This is a great career, friends. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. All right, we'll see you next week.
