Improving Your Call-to-Close Ratios! Sales training with Ryan Dohrn

Hey friends and fans, Billion Dollar Sales Coach Ryan Dohrn here, and welcome to another edition of the program. Let's get started. Here comes your quick sales tip of the week, friends. One of the things that I teach and talk and coach about is understanding your sales math. So this is not the first time that we've talked about it, friends, but it's important for us all to recognize every one of us has sales math that we need to control. Now, some of the sales math our customers are going to control, right? Because they may not reply as fast as they want, they may not get involved in one of the sequences we're sending, or whatever that circumstance is. So there really are 2 pieces of sales math that you need to kind of wrap your head around, if you will. The first is, what is your prospecting booking meetings rate. So let's just say as an example, if you were to do 10 phone calls and send 10 emails, just as an example, to one customer— keep in mind now, not 10 and 10 total to various customers— let's just say over the course of a prospecting cycle, you've done 10 emails and you've left 10 voicemails. If you do that, how often do you actually book a meeting from that? So if you realize, hey, I can send 5 emails, do 5 voicemails and 2 texts, and that gets me a meeting, then that's a process, a piece of math that you can potentially rinse and repeat. Now we do need to recognize that there's some scale in the numbers because a lot of you, as you're working through these scenarios with me, you'll say, ah, probably if I reach out to 10 people and do that pattern I'll book a couple of meetings. Well, we don't want to live in the land of probably, like we're probably going to be a success. Instead, we want to understand booking meetings is a little bit of science, it's a little bit of trust, a little bit of relationship building, but we do want to use our booking meeting rates to our advantage so we can figure out how many emails, how many texts, how many phone calls, etc. Do I need to make or put on each customer in an effort to get a response? So you'll need to do this across a larger number so that you can recognize, hey, I'm going to use this piece of prospecting sales math to my advantage. Okay. The second piece of sales math is your closing rate. So we first figured out how much do we need to do to get a meeting. Now we need to figure out how many meetings do you need to host in total To get a closed deal. Here's the problem. A lot of us are like, well, I need to close 10 deals, so I better prospect 10 people. Well, that only works if your closing rate, understandably, is 100%, and Jesus of Nazareth didn't have a closing rate of 100%, and like, he was really good at his job. So just ask yourself, how many meetings does it take? Now, I observe that typically I see about a 30% close rate with most of the customers I'm working with. So, 3 qualified good meetings, okay, out of 10 typically close in a sale. Now, you might be saying, well, I need 50%. Well, I mean, that's fine. But just recognize, is that actually a close rate that actually makes sense for you? Is that just a pipe dream that you're trying to make happen? So, how many outreaches do you need to book a meeting? Then use that math to to get to the meetings, the number of meetings you need. Now, how many meetings do I need? What's my closing rate so that I can be on enough meetings to close enough deals to potentially get to goal? Now, I just want to share with everybody. Friends, I am not a big fan of math. I mean, I love my commission checks. Don't get me wrong. But to me, math and processes and all that kind of stuff, that's just like really, really boring. But I recognize that at every moment in my sales career where I've had some great sales success, I've had a process. It's been based upon relationships but also math. And I need to work enough customers to book enough meetings, to get enough meetings and know my closing rate so that I will be over goal every single month. Sales math, it really is the spice of life in the sales business. And friends, I just want you to know that I'm having to do this exact same thing now too, recognizing that amidst political and economic uncertainty, I'm having to prospect more and book more meetings in order to get to goal or to get over goal each and every month. All right, now it's time for your prospecting tip of the week. Friends, time really does matter. In a previous video, I talked about you should be using delayed delivery and Send later, 20, 30, 40 times a day. Make sure your emails are going at a time that's great for your customers. Now, time of day really does matter, so let's talk about normal psychology and a normal day of doing business. All right? So typically, when someone gets to work, say 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, the first thing they're doing is they are in delete mode. They're going through their inbox and trying to tidy that up. If they already haven't done it with their morning coffee or laying in bed with their cell phone first thing in the morning or sitting on the train or whatever the circumstance is. I don't wanna be the first email in somebody's inbox, and the reason is because of where their head is at. Typically, people first thing in the morning are in delete mode, so I typically don't use that time of day for prospecting. Now, in most cases, 10 o'clock is a very, very common meeting time for folks. So I don't use 10 o'clock to my advantage. The first time that I see most business owners kind of get their sort of ducks in a row for the beginning of the day is around 11 to 11:30. Now I do want to hit somebody before lunch because typically people don't book meetings before lunch because they don't want to interrupt lunch, right? So 11:15, 11:30 usually work for me in corporate America. All right, lunch occurs. Don't try to be— don't follow the stupid advice people give online. Be the first person in their inbox. Be the first person, an inbox advantage there when you've got the sandwich in hand and they're eating lunch. Like, what? It makes no sense. So the next time after lunch someone's going to have a meeting is typically going to be 1 or 2 o'clock. Most people don't book a lot of meetings at 3 or 4 because they don't want to interrupt going home. So what I typically do is when I hit at non-meeting times, so that 3:15, 3:30, 4 o'clock, that afternoon segment is always really important to me. But bigger than, better than that, watch your CRM. Watch when people reply to your emails. If you're in an industry, you might find there's an industry trend, that trend that you can follow, or you might need to personalize your outreach. I have a person I work with, his name is Mike, And Mike is always somebody that answers emails in the afternoons. So what I want to do is use delayed delivery or send later to make sure those emails hit at a perfect time for Mike. Friends, sales is all about strategy. I mean, sure, you need talent, you need some good charisma and hootspa. I get it. But friends, if you're not understanding sales strategy, you're kind of flying by the seat of your pants. And let me share something with you. Randomness flying that way, friends, you're going to get tired and you're not going to be able to maximize your effectiveness. All right, now it's time for your sales tech tip of the week. As you know, I'm a really big fan of clients of mine using a customer relationship management tool, a good old CRM. Now you might be saying to me, Ryan, no salespeople like to use a CRM, and I'm just here to tell you that that is absolutely not true. My superstar sellers that I work with almost always know their CRM inside and out. They're like admin-level experts. So one of the things that I'd like to share with you is understand how to work lists inside of your CRM. I have three primary lists that I work. I have a prospecting list. I have an in-progress list, then I have an active and retention list. Each day I'm going to review that list. So I'm going to be using my prospecting list mornings and afternoons, 11 and 4. I'm going to use my in-progress list, that's people I've already met with but I haven't yet closed, right? I'm going to follow up with them, you know, maybe 3-ish in the afternoon or maybe around 11 o'clock in the morning. And then that third list is my money list, ching-ching list, and that's my list of active customers that I need to retain. So every CRM out there, you can create lists. If you can't create lists in your CRM, you need a completely different CRM. So just ask yourself, friends, what can I do to work lists inside my CRM? And that will keep me very focused. I'm one of those people that's like, squirrel, where? Okay, I need focus. I need to work my lists. And if you work lists, and if you're managed from lists, all you managers out there, supervisors, you in your one-on-one meetings, use the CRM to guide that meeting. Stay airtight, friends. Even though I don't really like a process, I realize every time in my life when I've made the most money in sales is because I've had strategy and process. I'm using it to my advantage. So use lists. Inside your CRM to maintain focus and expand your marketing outreach. Now it's time for your retention tip of the week. Friends, for the last 3, 4, 5 years, I've been using a company called sugarwish.com. Now they are not paying to be a part of this video. I just really like the service a lot. So what you have the ability to do is log in to sugarwish.com and set up the cards that you want sent to people, choose the candy or cookies or coffee or wine that you want your client to choose, set a budget per client, and then an invite is sent to them. Then they can choose what it is that they want— dog treats or donate to charity or whatever— put in their mailing address, and then SugarWish will put together a nice little box for them that has cookies or treats, whatever it is they chose, And it'll automatically send to them with your customized note in that box. Now, this does lead me, especially this time of year, budget for retention, friends. I have no idea why companies are like, well, we'll reimburse things. Have a strategy for retention. And friends, I really think that you'll love the services offered by sugarwish.com. If you use the service, make sure you tell them that Ryan Dohrn sent you. I don't know that that'll mean anything, but at least it'll help me if I try to get them as a sponsor here of the program. So sugarwish.com, friends. I really enjoy them and use them on a very regular basis. All right, friends. Now it's time for our listener question of the week. Keep those questions coming to ryan@ryandorn.com. If we don't answer your question here on the show or on the podcast, you're going to get an email back from me. If you send in a question and you've not heard back from the team, resend it again. We take great pride in answering all of your questions. All right, this question comes from Renee in New Mexico, and she asks this question: Ryan, what is, over the course of your career, your favorite subject line, and why is it your favorite subject line? So Renee, my favorite subject line is a date. Now, not a date, a date. Like if I want to meet with somebody on December 3rd, the subject line would be December 3? The reason I think that it works is because it's a little startling to people, like December 2nd, did I miss something? Do I have something coming up? And what I notice is I get a tremendous open rate. Now, that does lead me to something else. I track all of my opens. I use a tool called MailSuite. And it tracks all of the opens and how many times people open that email. So I'd love to potentially see that as well. So I get a lot of opens and I get a tremendous amount of replies to that, but I think the replies are based upon the number of opens that I get, right? So I love that date, a date as a subject line. And then just as a little bonus for you, Renee, and everybody else, I very often will put the name of a competitor of the client that I'm talking to or want to talk to in the subject line. And the reason, especially if I have that competitor as a customer, it's startling a little bit when you see the name of your competitor pop up in a subject line. You're like, what is that? And it really forces you to open that email. Now keep in mind, the reason I can get away with that is I'm big on recommendation-based selling. So I'll say, hey John Deere, you know, we're working with Kubota tractors and we'd love to work with you as well. So the subject line would be Kubota, as an example. A John Deere person, that's the orange tractor, a John Deere person, the green tractor, sees that and goes, hey, what is that? And so I get a really good open rate when I put the name of a competitor in the subject line. Now, that second one takes a little more guts, right? The first one is a little bit easier for most people to absorb, but I can tell you, Renee and everybody, a date has been the greatest subject line I've ever used, I've ever learned in my entire sales career. Now remember, Renee, and everybody, you can't use the same subject line over and over again on customers, right? You need to track it in your CRM and be a little bit careful about that. So Renee, thanks for your question. Thanks for your love and support. Keep listening and watching. If you've got a question you want answered, send it in, ryan@ryandohrn.com, D-O-H-R-N. Thanks, Ryan. All right, now one of my favorite segments, all about brain works and what we can do to help our brains. Friends, helping your brain is about staying on task and staying on track. So whether you use G Suite, the Google suite of services, or you use Microsoft Outlook or the Office 360 suite of services, recognize that both of those tools have an app for tasks. So it is just called Tasks. The Google app is called Tasks, and then the Microsoft app is called Microsoft To Do. Both of them will sync up with your desktop, on your phone. It allows you to track birthdays, anniversaries, clients that are a pain, clients that need to be touched more often, folks that you need to reach out to, all those kind of things that might tend to slip your mind. I have a customer that I refer to as high touch. He's kind of a big whiny baby, but I do love him to death. I got to reach out to him often, but I kind of forget. And so he'll very often reach out to me, you know, Ryan, not feeling the love out there. And that's because I haven't done a great job of reaching out on a regular enough basis. So I put that joker in my Tasks app to remind me. Now a lot of you, you like to use a written to-do list. I'm not against written to-do lists. But that device, your phone, it goes with you to the bathroom, to the bus, to the beach, to the bar, to the bedroom, wherever it is, it goes with you. And that written to-do list is not going to go with you. So I do, if I'm being honest, I use both. I've got my app and then I've got my sort of today, here's my list of things right here in front of me. But I love the fact that that Tasks app will pop up right next to my email. So it's always, friends, right there forward in front front of my face because in order to keep my brain sharp, I've got to stay on task. And staying on task, why not use the technology that's out there? Now, there's all kinds of productivity apps. I just like these 2 because they sync up with my email, my calendar, and I can kind of keep it all really in one place. Friends, I hope that this show and these programs are helpful to you. What I'd love for you to do is go down in the comments. Of course, Like, give me a thumbs up and subscribe, but go down in the comments and let me know. You might disagree. I love that. That's okay. Disagree in the comments. Let's talk about it. Let's become friends. Let's build a community of sellers that are looking to be better each and every day. Friends, never forget, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. I mean, I mean, we're a little crazy, right? But this is a great, great career, friends. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. Hey, head over to ryandohrn.com, find the podcast, find all this helpful information we put online each week for you. And I'd love to come to your national sales meeting and get your team all pumped up. I speak about 40 times a year and I love it. So please, friends, invite me to your meeting and let me be the person that motivates your team to success. Alright, stick around and stay close. We've got another show that's coming up here next if you stick around, and it's all about what we can do to reevaluate our elevator pitch. That's coming up next. We'll see you next week.