In this solo Q&A podcast, sales coach Ryan Dohrn answers a listener’s question about the most important parts of the sales process. He outlines a three‑bucket framework that he uses to stay focused: (1) Prospects – people in the pipeline you’re trying to get a meeting with, managed in the CRM with a specific tag and a prospecting cadence of voicemail then email, waiting three business days before repeating; (2) In‑Progress – contacts who have met with you, re‑tagged in the CRM, and receive a different, less aggressive follow‑up rhythm focused on delivering value and moving toward a close; (3) Retention – post‑sale relationship work such as thank‑you platforms (THNKS, SugarWish), handwritten cards, and seasonal outreach, which statistically boosts re‑sign rates by 60‑70%. Ryan also shares his personal quirks, encourages listeners to subscribe, submit more questions to ryan@ryandohrn.com, and offers his services for sales team training and motivational speaking.
Questions this video answers
Ryan outlines three critical pieces: (1) Prospecting – getting meetings and tagging prospects in the CRM; (2) In‑Progress – following up after meetings with a different cadence; (3) Retention – post‑sale relationship work such as thank‑you platforms and handwritten notes, which boosts re‑sign rates.
Chapters
What's going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach. And this week we're answering your listener questions sent into me, ryan@ryandohrn.com. ryan@ryandohrn.com. I could use that sign back there, right? Keep your questions coming. I love these questions. Never forget, if you're listening to the podcast, be sure to subscribe. Watching us on YouTube, click down below to subscribe, hit the bell button. Make sure you never miss any of our updates. All right, keep those questions coming. Next question comes from Taylor in Pennsylvania. Hey, Taylor. Ryan, I'm curious what you feel is the most important part, or the pieces or parts of the total sales process. I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to maximize sales. Thanks for the help. You bet, Taylor. Thanks for the question. So I feel like there are 3 pieces of the sales process And I take a little bit of heat for this because I do things a little bit differently, but hey, I like to be different. Why not? How about you, Taylor, and everybody else? All right, so I like to work 3 specific lists to help me stay focused as a part of my sales process. So obviously the traditional process is going to be stoking up your pipeline, have a great pipeline, then you're going to have a prospecting process, and then you're going to have a meetings-to-close process. So here's what I like to do. I like to break that down a little bit. A prospect for me, okay, so having a prospecting process is really about getting a meeting. See, a lot of you, what you do is you'll keep somebody in prospect, categorized in your CRM as a prospect until you close them. The problem with that is, in my opinion, Taylor, is that a lot of times you communicate differently than to a prospect than you would to somebody you're in progress with, like after you've met with them. You're communicating with them differently. You're going to work them a little bit differently. So my 3 lists, which are a part of my total sales process— my first list in my CRM is people that are prospects. These are people that are in my pipeline. I'm working them, trying to set a meeting with them. Okay, Taylor, once I get a meeting with them, then I change their category in the CRM, or the tag, or whatever it is that you particularly use. in your CRM. So they go from being a prospect to being in progress. I don't know why I keep doing air quotes. In progress. I'll keep it going to be consistent. In progress. So I've got my prospects that I'm trying to get a meeting with. Then once I get a meeting with them, I change them to in progress in the CRM because I'm going to be communicating to them differently. I'm going to be following up in a different way, you know, that kind of thing. See, when I'm prospecting somebody, it's voicemail, email, wait 3 business days. Voicemail, email, wait 3 business days. Well, I'm not going to do that to somebody that's in progress because I've met with them and they're at a different place in my sales process. So in progress is where I'm working about— I'm worried about having, or focused on having, great meetings with them, following up persistently but maybe not as aggressively as when I'm prospecting, and those types of things, providing information back and that kind of stuff. So my second list, or my second step, is in progress. As a part of that in progress, then I'm going to close them as a part of in progress. My 3rd step in my sales process is retention, and it's one of the things I talk about all the time. Those that listen to the podcast and watch these videos online, I talk about retention all the time. That's using websites and platforms like Thanks, like, uh, THNKS, like SugarWish, sending handwritten thank you cards, remembering people around Thanksgiving. Not getting lost during Christmas with Christmas cards, that kind of thing. Because I know that retention is super important. You're 60 to 70% more likely to re-sign somebody that's already bought from you, right? And that's statistics that you can find anywhere online if you don't, if you don't believe me. So Taylor, those are the 3 pieces of my sales process in kind of big buckets. And then inside of each of those buckets are little kind of things that I'm doing, but maybe we could cover those on a separate video and a separate podcast. So Taylor, Thanks for reaching out. Those are the 3 pieces of my sales process, and I'd encourage you to consider that as well. Taylor, everybody, don't forget, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. I used to say we're crazy. We're not crazy. I guess we're a little bit crazy. We're not crazy. This is a great career. Sales will feed your family for a lifetime. I absolutely promise you that. Keep your questions coming to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Love to come and train your sales team. Love to come and motivate your group at your national sales meeting. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. All right, friends. Bye. We'll see you next week.
