Ryan Dohrn says drop-in visits still work, but only if you bring real value. Prospects have gotten used to deciding without meeting sellers, so unexpected visits get icy receptions. Lead with a competitive analysis, case study, or local insight instead of a pitch.
What's going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach, and we are answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Keep those questions coming. Love to get your questions. All right, next question is going to come from Trevor in Houston, and Trevor asks, hey Ryan, whatever happened to dropping in on customers? During COVID it seems that nobody wanted to see us. Now it's definitely behind us and still nobody wants to see us. Should we keep dropping in in local sales? Trevor from Houston. So, uh, Trevor in Houston, you're right. It used to be that we could kind of drop in on folks. Um, we'd get a pretty good reception, like, hey Ryan, hey Trevor, what's going on? Come on in. Maybe you could bring coffee or donuts or whatever the circumstance is. Then when COVID came into play, people were like, whoa, first of all, don't come to my office. Don't want to make me sick. Whatever the circumstance was, you do you. And it sort of basically just kind of went dark. And now we're having to resurrect the local sale, resurrect drop-ins, resurrect having meetings with people. So Trevor and everybody out there, unfortunately what happened during COVID is people realized they didn't have to meet with us live, live to make a decision. And now they're kind of carrying that forward. I think you and I would both agree, Trevor, and everybody else that's listening or watching this online, that There's nothing better than meeting with a customer face to face. So, this is the reason, this is what you can do to try to increase your reception. Because a lot of times now I get icy receptions when I drop in on people. Create value. When you are dropping in on somebody, are you dropping in to sell them? Are you dropping in to bring them value? If you listen to the podcast, you watch the videos, you hear me speak live at conferences, I want to be dripping in value. Every email should have value. I mean, why would someone respond to an email that's not valuable? Every voicemail should have some type of value, like, if you call me back, you'll get this. If you reply to this email, you'll get this. If you give me a good reception when I drop by kind of out of the blue and unexpected, you know, you're going to have some value to that. Every interaction with a prospective client or with an old client should have some level of value to it. Now, it doesn't have to be gargantuan, like, hey, if you let me in your office, I'm going to give you $500. It doesn't have to be like that, but there needs to be some type of value. Could it be a competitive analysis report? Could it be a local media summary report? Could it be something that has to do with their competition, or a competitive analysis of what their competitor is spending in the market, or something along those lines? Case studies, Product demos. I mean, anything that when you walk in the door, you're seen as valuable and not seen as a salesperson. Now, just in a couple of minutes, those are some ideas for you, Trevor. But just recognize that— don't, don't feel bad. It's, it's that you walk in, you get kind of an icy reception. It sort of is what it is. Especially though, if you're walking in and the first thing you're doing is wanting to sell, you're seen then as a salesperson and not necessarily as A helpful person. So just think about what you can do to bring value to the circumstance, and definitely don't give up on dropping in on people. So Trevor down there in Houston, hey, Houstonians are really, really nice people. So Trevor, get out there, beat the street, and get some sales done. Keep your questions coming, friends. ryan@ryandohrn.com. Love to come to your office, come to your national sales meeting, and pump your teams up. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. All right, more listener questions next week.
