Ryan Dohrn explains why generic sales emails fail: prospects don't trust mass pitches. Research a prospect's Facebook or website first, then reference a specific detail in your outreach. That small bit of relevance signals you're paying attention, not blasting everyone the same message, and it rebuilds the credibility gap every salesperson faces.
Questions this video answers
Because referencing specific, relevant details about a prospect shows you’ve done your homework, making you appear attentive and trustworthy, which directly boosts personal credibility compared to generic mass outreach.
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What is going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dorn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach. We're answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandorn.com, and we'll either answer the questions on the podcast or here on a video or whatever, or we'll drop you an email reply as well. All right, so first question comes from Rob in Nevada. Hey Ryan, I'm really kind of having trouble understanding why relevancy increases credibility. Can you give me some examples? So, Rob, it's a really good question. Out there in sales land, a lot of times because of the nature of sales, meaning just us as salespeople, we have a credibility problem. Now, you might say to yourself, I'm not understanding why would I personally have a credibility problem? Even though I might work for a great brand, I have to reestablish my personal credibility every single time that I'm reaching out specifically to new prospects. Now, your question, Rob, was about relevancy related to credibility. So typically when we're reaching out, we're typically reaching out to new prospects in pretty generic ways. A lot of times we're using mass email and things like that. What I've noticed is that the response to mass email has dropped dramatically, especially post-COVID. So what I'm doing is personally reaching out to folks, and what I'm doing is I'm using points of relevancy to increase my credibility. So for example, before reaching out to Bob Jones, I'm looking at Bob's Facebook page for his business so I can say things like, hi Bob, I saw on your Facebook page blank. Or maybe you're reaching out to somebody named Julie and you see on her website that she's doing ABC. Hi Julie, I saw on your website that you're doing blank ABC. So what I'm doing is rather than a mass generic outreach, I'm using relevancy to increase my personal credibility, which means, hey, Mr. or Mrs. Prospect, I am paying attention and I'm not just reaching out in generic sales ways. A lot of times when I'm working with my coaching client friends, of the things that I like to share with them is a store, an ice cream store, would be pretty blasé if all they did was sell vanilla ice cream. Like, you don't walk into Baskin-Robbins or you don't walk into Cold Stone Creamery and say, could I have a vanilla ice cream? It doesn't— not typically. Some of you do. Instead, you walk in and you're like, hey, I'd like this, this particular flavor. Typically generic doesn't work, whether you're selling ice cream or you're selling sales things. I like to be a lot more relevant because I'm adding the sprinkles, I'm adding the flavoring, I'm proving to somebody that I'm relevant to their needs, and in doing so, that's going to increase my credibility as well. So Rob from Nevada, I hope that's helpful to you. The rest of you out there, keep your questions coming. Send them into ryan@ryandohrn.com. Never forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. It's a great career, friends. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. Hey, if you'd like me to come speak at your national sales meeting, reach out to me. I have all kinds of different ways I can help your team. Head over to ryandohrn.com.
