In this solo Q&A video, sales coach Ryan Dohrn answers a listener’s question about which old‑school sales techniques remain effective today. He critiques outdated advice (e.g., calling before a receptionist arrives, avoiding voicemails) and highlights timeless tactics such as the feel‑felt‑found script, using a whiteboard to draw concepts during face‑to‑face meetings, keeping handwritten notes alongside a CRM, and leaving strategic voicemails that reference recent emails and request a reply rather than a callback. Throughout, Ryan emphasizes that "old school" should be judged by relevance, not age, and promotes a low‑pressure, high‑finesse sales philosophy. He also invites listeners to contact him for speaking engagements and further questions.
Questions this video answers
Ryan highlights the feel‑felt‑found script, whiteboard visualizations, strategic voicemails that prompt email replies, and keeping handwritten notes alongside a CRM. He stresses that old‑school methods are valuable when they remain relevant, and he promotes a low‑pressure, high‑finesse approach.
Chapters
What is going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach, and we're answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, next question comes from Maggie down in Dallas-Fort Worth. Hey, Maggie. Uh, Ryan, my question is going old school. You talk about old school sales strategies and how they usually don't work, but what are some of the old school strategies that you still employ or deploy today? Maggie, really great question. And so sometimes I would have to admit I'm a little bit harsh on some old-school sales techniques, but I'm really talking about things like that don't exist anymore. For example, there's still books that will say to you, hey, you need to call before the receptionist gets to the office of the prospect you're reaching out to. Well, do people even have receptionists anymore? So I just would challenge folks that when you seek sort of, if you will, an old-school strategy, is it still applicable to today? There's a lot of old-school sales strategies that work really, really well. Like, I don't even know who came up with feel, felt, found. Might have been the great, God rest his soul, Zig Ziglar or Chet Holmes or somebody like that, or Brian Tracy, who knows. When you think about feel, felt, found, for example, old-school sales strategy— I understand how you feel, so-and-so felt the same way, this is what they found out after working with us— that's an old-school sales technique that tends to work really, really well. Drawing things out in front of your customers. If you have the privilege of being able to meet with them face-to-face, being able to draw upside down, be able to draw the triangles to kind of show why people buy advertising or why people buy your software from you and things like that. This is an old-school sales strategy that I use on a regular basis. I use a good old-fashioned 8.5 by— I know it looks really messy— an 8.5 by 11 whiteboard that you can put into a high school kid or junior high kid's locker. Why do I keep this in front of me if I'm such a big fan of CRMs, customer relationship management tools? I'm just one of those people that likes to have things in front of me in writing. Like I've got a bunch of notes that are written down here. I've got listener questions that I'm reading that I actually print out. I've got a whiteboard over here that I write on, and I'm not an old person. So old school doesn't necessarily mean old in age as much as it means does it still apply to the circumstances of the day today. Like if someone says, call before the receptionist arrives at the office, well, do they actually even have a receptionist? People will say, well, don't even use the phone. Why even use the phone? Why leave a voicemail? No one listens to voicemails. Well, it's not an old-school sales strategy. It's just smart. Pick up the phone. You're 10 to 15% more likely to have a good conversation about sales if you actually get somebody on the phone. Just as an example. Now, I had somebody that said old school is leaving voicemails. Nobody leaves voicemails anymore. Well, why not? I like voicemails. I use them to get a better reply to the email that I just sent. I don't even ask people to call me back. Now, that's sort of old school in my book. They're not going to call you back, so why do you ask them to call you back? I use a voicemail and say, hey Bill, I sent you an email with the subject line such and such. If you give me a quick reply, I'd appreciate it. You don't even need to call me back. Because they're not going to call you back if they don't know you. So it's not about old school versus new school as much as it is about relevance to the sales world that you live in today, Maggie, and everybody else. What does that world look like? And are you using the best skills and strategies out there to be highly successful? See, my programs are low pressure, high finesse, because I don't believe that high pressure sales actually works in almost anything that I sell today. But I have a lot of strategies. There's a lot of high finesse that's involved in it. Maggie, I hope that's helpful to you. There's a lot of good old-school strategies that are out there. Once you get a little gray hair like Uncle Ryan here, then you'll start really deploying all of those strategies to see what works. And that really is an important part of it, seeing what works. Keep your listener questions coming to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Love to come and speak at your national sales meetings. So reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. And then don't forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it. And they're not. We're not crazy. It's a great career. It'll feed your family for a lifetime.
