In this brief sales‑training video, Ryan Dohrn explains that at any moment buyers fall into three distinct categories: roughly 3% are actively ready to purchase, about 40% are poised to start buying soon, and the remaining 56‑57% are not ready at all. He emphasizes that salespeople should use this segmentation to set realistic expectations, avoid over‑pressuring the unready majority, and allocate more effort toward the poised segment while recognizing the small pool of ready buyers. Dohrn advises aligning marketing tactics and outreach cadence with where prospects sit in the funnel, leveraging "sales math" to predict conversion rates, and maintaining a steady, non‑overbearing approach. He concludes with a call to visit his website for more resources and speaking engagements.
Chapters
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your global sales coach. Hope your sales week is going well. Here's your sales training tip of the week. Recognize that there's 3 main categories of buyers. At any given time, only about 3% of people out there, according to Voresight Consulting, only about 3% of people are actively buying. About 40% of people are poised to begin some type of buying, and about 56-57% of people, they're just not ready at all. So when you think about the percentages and you're looking at your sales math, you're trying to manage your sales math to meetings, recognize, friends, that the vast majority of people you're going to contact are actually not ready to do anything. So don't get frustrated. Recognize where they are in your sales funnel. Recognize that 56-some percent of people are not ready to do anything, and it's okay. If you overpressure them when they're not ready to do anything, as they move into the phase 40 phase where 40% of people are poised to begin, they're not going to reach out to you because you overdid it when they weren't ready. Be steady, but make sure you're not overbearing when somebody's not ready. That's why it's important to adjust your marketing plan based upon where people are in that funnel— when they respond to your media kits, when it is that they respond to your emails, and all of those types of things. So recognize 56, 57% of people not ready to do anything. About 40% of people are poised to begin doing something. That's where we start hitting them a little bit harder. Only about 3% of the people you're going to call today are actually ready to do anything. That's not a horrible percentage, but just recognize that just because you need to sell something doesn't necessarily mean everybody's out there wants to buy it. Use sales math to your advantage. All right, friends, we've got more blogs and videos and all that kind of stuff on that over at ryandohrn.com. Love to speak at your sales conference. Love to train your team. I'm double vaccinated, so to speak, and ready to get back out on the road. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. Don't forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We've found careers, friends, that'll feed our families for a lifetime. All right, we will see you next week. Get out there and sell something.
