Fix Common Sales Issues, 4 Steps - Sales training with Ryan Dohrn

Hey friends, what is going on? Ryan Dohrn here on this month's episode. Coming up, we're gonna focus in on a 4-step process when things may not be going the right direction. You or your team is not making goal. What part of that 4-step process might you be missing? And then of course, we've got your ever-popular listener and viewer questions. Gary has wrote in asking, I'm stuck, Ryan. Nobody wants to talk value, only price. What should I do? And Rebecca is asking a question about planning. She feels like every day is a brand new day. And it's getting a little tiresome. So what should Rebecca and Gary do? You should stick around for some answers here on this month's episode. All right, friends, stick around, stay close. All that and so much more coming up. Live from the BrainSwell Media Studios, this is the Ryan Dohrn Business Show. Hey, friends and fans, welcome to the show. We're going to dig in on Gary and Rebecca's listener questions here in a second, but this month our focus of our strategy topic really is, when you're not reaching goal, is it always a price problem? And the answer is no. Is it always a client problem? Not necessarily. If you look back to '06 and '07, I think it was when I wrote one of my first books called Selling Backward. It was really about recognizing what was happening in '06 and '07. A lot of people were calling it the Great Recession. We had big-time financial problems. We were trying to get all those figured out and corrected. Of course, all the politicians once again are all blaming each other. But I came up with what I believe is a good 4-step process to figure out, is it your product, is it your price, is it your people, or is it your process? Now, a lot of you know me well to know that I believe in 3 steps almost always, and I could probably combine these 4 into 3, but it's easier if I explain kind of the 4 legs of most stools of problem, if you will. So here's the 4 legs. If you've got a good product that the price is correct and you've got good people on the team selling it and you still are struggling, it's probably your process. So, it goes, do you have a good product? Is it priced correctly? Do you have the right people on the project? And then what's your process? Okay, so let's talk about those 4 Ps. Like I said, I could probably whittle it down to 3 to follow that rule of 3 if I wanted to. Okay, first thing to talk about, the product. So, where did the product come from? Old product, new product, reinvented product? Is the product something that clients actually want? I referenced '06, '07, '08, Selling Backwards was the book then, and I suggested that rather than building products and selling them forward to customers, you should actually come up with product ideas and turn to the customers, advertisers, whatever, and say, is this a product you actually want? So, instead of us coming up with things and then taking it to market, we come up with ideas, we subtly in the background put that product into different types of surveys and test groups and ask folks, hey, is this a product you would actually pay for? So, if you know you've got a good product, that's one of those 4 legs of the stool. So, you can identify the product piece. The second then is going to be the pricing piece. So, a lot of times we come up with the price regardless of what the market is telling us. And that can fundamentally be a problem. Now, sometimes you're too cheap. It's kind of rare, but a lot of times you're too expensive. And sometimes you're just, you're just kind of just right, but nothing stands out. So it's really kind of difficult to come up with pricing. So you can't really ask your customers, what would you actually pay for this? Because they're going to always shoot you low, right? So what you want to do is look at other products in the market, unless there are none, figure out what kind of a low end might be, figure out a high end might be, and then kind of arrive somewhere in the middle, unless your strategy is to be more expensive. Absolutely. Now, I'm not a big fan of always being cheaper. I feel like that devalues the product, but if you're in alignment with the marketplace, then, you know, you usually are going to have a little bit of an easier time selling than if you're too high. And, and don't just go to the bottom. A lot of times people don't buy products because they're cheap. I know I'm one of those people, and I'm not necessarily, you know, flush with cash every day of my life, but I am always asking myself, is this priced right for me and for the actual environment? Or the product set that I'm in. All right, product, price, people is the third thing. All right, do you have the right people on the bus? And I would say that the vast majority of time when there are problems, the vast majority of time is the people. The people either on the project or the people that are selling the project. A lot of times we just don't have passion out there. Ooh, there's another P. Passion on this project. Profit. Oh, there's another P. A lot of Ps for this podcast and video this week. So when you think about it, friends, You know, that process piece is still going to be really important, but the people, the people are vividly important. Do you have the right people on the bus? So, we started out with product, then we talked about price, we talked about people, and then let's talk about the process because process is that 4th leg to that effective stool in product development and pricing. And a lot of times, we just don't want to identify that the process is off. Maybe our sales process is too slow. Maybe our sales process is too long. Maybe we're targeting the wrong people. Maybe we're asking way too many questions. Maybe we're not sharing enough success stories or whatever the circumstance is. So, a lot of times it can be our process. I work with salespeople every day, 80-some salespeople a month that I coach, and you would never be surprised. I'm never surprised that the process is normally one of the bigger problems that's out there. Now, the process then is related to the people. So, think about it. You got a good product, okay? Then you've rolled it out to the market, so you figured out the pricing piece if you did. Do you have the right people on the bus? Are you the right people? And then what's your process? When everybody— when someone says to me, hey, we're having trouble selling or having trouble reaching goals, say, all right, tell me about the product. All right, tell me about the people that you have or the price. Tell me about the people. Tell me about your process. And I would say that people and process normally are the 2 areas where we have most of the problems. Now, how do you fix a lot of these problems? A lot of these problems can be fixed with surveys, with research. A lot of the problems can be fixed by talking to your customers. See, a lot of us operate inside of a bit of a vacuum, and then we roll out products, we roll out pricing, and we just see what sticks. The problem, friends, is that's called spaghetti strategy— boiling the noodles and throwing them against the wall to see what sticks. It costs a lot of time. Wastes a lot of energy for salespeople. Now, for the leaders that are out there, salespeople are always going to say it's too expensive. I mean, very rarely has a salesperson said to me, oh, you know what, Ryan, this is priced perfectly. Almost always there's some type of problem with the price. Now, normally that comes up after the sales rep has tried to go out and sell the product or service. Then they're like, ah, nobody's buying, it must be the price. But is it? I mean, it could be. But a lot of times it's the process. Like we're just trying to force people to buy something when they're not ready to buy. Sometimes the seasonality, the timing is off. I mean, it can be the price, but a lot of times it can be you as the people. So ask yourself when you walk through those 4 steps: product's good, check. Price is good, check. Do we have the right people on the bus? Check. Is the process perfect? Check. If all of those 4 steps are in alignment and you're still not meeting goal, I would tell you this: more than likely, you need to humble yourself and need to go through the 4 steps again. Because once those 4 steps are achieved and in good alignment, friends, very rarely do I find that sales teams struggle to make their goals. So take a look at that 4-step process, friends. I hope that's helpful to you. If you're struggling out there, just remember, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. Friends, this is a great career. It will feed your family for a lifetime. All right, we're gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, we have questions from Gary and Rebecca. Gary's asking about he's just stuck. No one wants to talk value, only price. So we got some thoughts for Gary, and then Rebecca, she's just feeling like every day is a brand new day and doesn't really know exactly what to do. So we're gonna talk about strategies as it relates to time management and the structure of your day. That, friends, is all. Coming up next. Welcome back, friends. Thanks for your listener and viewer questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Gosh, we get a lot of them and we try to— we always make sure we reply back either with a video link or an explanation or a link to an article or something like that. We're always happy to help all of you. All right, first listener question sent in from Gary. in Rhode Island. Hey, Gary from Rhode Island. Gary is saying, hey, Ryan, I am stuck. No one wants to talk value. They only want to focus on price. What should I do? Because it's becoming a price-bashing game. So, Gary, it's not necessarily uncommon during times of economic uncertainty for people to tend to drift a little bit more towards the price conversation. One of the things we've got to do though is be able to flip that And turn it back over to a value-driven conversation, and that really is the basis of your question. So, one of the things that I try to do is get buy-in on the idea before we actually talk price, or if they want to talk price, I'll give them the price and then I'll say, but let's talk about what you get for that price, and always bring the conversation back. Now, when people are so fixated on price that they really don't know where to go, It's important for us to not surrender the conversation, but steer the conversation more towards success stories, especially if your price point is more expensive than your nearest competitor. But regardless, the fastest way to get people to stop their fixation on price is to tell an example or a story, share a story about another customer that's had good success with you. Now, it's not that price doesn't matter because price always does, friends, but it does matter is our ability to redirect price over to a conversation about value. So, when someone says to me, and this is very common for me to say that, well, Ryan, how much is it? And I could say, well, the price is $5,000, but if you didn't know that you were getting a Porsche or a Corvette for that $5,000, you wouldn't know what you're actually getting. So, what I'd love is just 15, 20 seconds. 30 seconds max, maybe, to explain to you the pieces and parts, what the real value is behind that price. And most of the time, people will give me the opportunity to explain that. Now, I think what Gary might be alluding to is a sales conversation that I had just a couple of weeks ago with a salesperson who was trying to sell me something. I had already done a lot of research, so I even said to the salesperson, hey, I've done a lot of research. The one thing I couldn't find is I couldn't find how much is your product or service. And then they wanted to walk me through 25 slides before they told me about the price. I really feel like they handled the conversation incorrectly. What I would have done in that circumstance is just said, awesome that you've researched on this product. What I would love to do is just share with you a couple of examples, give you that price as well of what others have done to be successful with us. Happy to get to that price piece, but I want to make sure that you understand the cool stuff we're going to do for you. It's so much more than the price that you're going to pay. When I'm done explaining this, more than likely you're going to feel like, wow, this is great value for the price that I'm going to pay. Does that sound good to you? Very rarely does someone say, no, just give me the price. Normally, when someone just wants to know price, normally it's because they've done a bunch of research online. Keep in mind, friends, the vast majority of people— I think the statistic was over 70% of people— have already figured out that they want to choose your product, but because you've hidden the pricing, they're kind of being forced to talk to you about price. So don't be surprised that they just want to talk price because you've done a good job on your website explaining that. Now, if your sales strategy is be vague on the website, force people to call us, okay. The early 2000s are calling. They want those sales strategies back, friends. You do need to be transparent with your pricing, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a conversation before you give somebody the price. If it were me though, I'd be transparent about that price. I'd be well-researched and recommend to folks that you be very competitive out there. So Gary, I hope that's helpful to you in redirecting some of those conversations. Keep your questions coming. ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, next question sent in from Rebecca, and Rebecca is writing in from New Jersey. So Rebecca from New Jersey, thanks so much for your question. Hey Ryan, we're making a lot of plans and I'm just feeling like every day is a brand new day. I've heard that I should live every day like I'm dying. Is that true in sales? I feel like my days are all running together and I'm never getting ahead. So Rebecca, you are not alone in your circumstance or how you feel about your sales day. Now, I'm the first to admit to you that not every day is a great day out there in sales land, Rebecca and everybody. Some mornings I get up and I've gotta fake it till I feel it. But I'll tell you this, what I do have is I have a bit of a schedule that is in my face every day so that when I wake up, I've got some semblance of what that day is gonna look like. Now, I personally would caution against those trainers or coaches that say to you Live every day like you're dying, because I think it's just too darn dramatic for what we're actually going to be able to achieve. It sounds good in like a Tim McGraw song or something like that, or a Taylor Swift song or whatever. It sounds good to live like life like you're dying, but it's just really not realistic for most of us that are out there. So here's where I would consider starting, Rebecca. The first thing is we know we need to prospect every day. We know that in sales. So what I would do is set aside a time block of 35 to 45 minutes to make sure you're prospecting every day. The second, not necessarily the second most important, but the second task important to me is my retention outreaches. So at least 3 times a week, I've got 45 minutes set aside for my retention outreaches. That's thanking people for their customer business, thanking the customer for their business. That is focusing in on sending retention-type gifts, whether it's a sugarwish.com gift or it's sending them a Starbucks card or something like that. So, it's the second most important thing. And then the third is following up, friends, following up on people you're trying to do business with. It's amazing how many times people will forget to follow up in a vibrant way, and follow-up is so unbelievably important. So, I've got that blocked out on my calendar. Now, I've been talking about time blocking for years. I bust those blocks, Rebecca, on a regular basis. But at least that gives me kind of a starting place to actually look. Okay, the second thing that I would do, Rebecca, is I'd look at your sales math. How much do you need to sell this month? And then break that down into little bite-sized chunks. That's the next place I would look. And then the third place I would focus is really to look at how many people are in your pipeline. What does your pipeline management system actually look like? Now, kind of go back to the beginning of this podcast or video. And think about those 4 steps, okay? Product, your price, your process, your people, and your process, okay? And kind of think about those 4 things. How does that need to weave into your day as well? Now, Rebecca and everybody else, a lot of people don't want to hear this, but sometimes what I have to do, especially if I've got crazy days, I've got to start way earlier than other people. Sometimes I've got to work later than other people. Sometimes I've got to alter my days in order to accommodate the others that are going to be booking time in my life. Now, I'm fortunate I get to work remote, and a lot of you do as well. Well, what happens then is you end up working a lot more than you actually probably should because we're so close to everything that's there. So, kind of, Rebecca, owning your schedule is super important. Setting kind of some of those ideas of living like you're dying, kind of set that stuff aside. But there's one final— well, there's 2 final things, Rebecca, I'd like to share. One is you do need to make sure you schedule times for break. Totally. throughout your day. Schedule times for breaks throughout the day, and then make sure you're taking your vacation time. You do need a break from work, Rebecca, and everybody. And so that really should equate to 3 or 4 times a year, at least once a quarter, you should be taking a couple days to get away. Like, what I do is I take half days on Fridays, and I take those throughout the year, so I have kind of a little bit longer weekend. And so that can be something that's pretty important as well. But always be making sure that You're scheduling time and really taking those breaks. But here's the last thing, Rebecca. In your email that you sent to me, I didn't read everything, friends. It sounds like you're pretty frazzled, like you might be close to being mentally burnt out. And there's nothing wrong with asking help and talking to somebody about it. Very important. I talk to a therapist. Ryan Dorn does. I'm an advocate of it. Whether you go to websites like betterhealth.com or, you know, wherever you kind of go to find somebody, ask your doctor. There's nothing wrong with Talking to somebody about the stress that you're going through. Never be ashamed to seek help. And if you can't figure out where to go, then drop me an email and I will point you in the right direction. Friends, mental health is something that's very important for all of us to make sure we're taking care of our own mental health. And friends, it does start with maybe talking to a doctor or a therapist, getting plenty of sleep, eating right, getting that— getting out of the chair and getting to the gym and all kinds of things like that. Like that. Just never forget, Rebecca, Gary, everybody, if this job was easy, everybody'd be doing it. And they're not. We're not crazy, friends, but this is stressful. It's not for everybody, but it's a great job, friends. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. Keep those questions coming. ryan@ryandohrn.com. We'll answer every question that's sent in. If I don't reply or you don't see it on the show, it's because we didn't receive it. All right, friends, that is the show for this week. We sure appreciate all of you. My family does, and I sure do as well. We've got books. I've got books over at Amazon. Just search for Ryan Dohrn, D-O-H-R-N. Of course, we have training programs available online for all of you. And as soon as we're done recording today, I'm gonna jump in a plane and head to New York, New York City, where I'm gonna be training a team here coming up in just a couple of days on 4 really great topics. So love to come in and train your sales team or speak at your conference as well. You can learn more over at ryandohrn.com. Never forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it. And they're not. This is a great career, friends. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. Get out there in the street, make us all proud. Get out there and sell something today, and we'll see you on the next episode. Take care, friends. God bless. Peace.