Ryan Dohrn says don't ask prospects for a specific follow-up time like "Tuesday at 2 p.m." Instead use a vague window: "Tuesday after 2 p.m." or "Thursday between 10 and noon." It gives them less room to say no and signals you'll call multiple times.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your sales and marketing coach. I've got a tip for you that you probably are going to be surprised that I'm actually going to tell you. Since the beginning of my sales life, I've always been told, get specific or get lost, as it relates to setting a time for follow-up. Here's something I found. When I say to somebody, hey, can we follow up on Tuesday at 2? It gives them an opportunity to say no. Because they might have something booked at 2. So what I'm now doing is I'm saying, hey, could I follow up with you Tuesday sometime after 2? And what I find is people say, uh, yeah, because that's moderately vague. But what it does is it gives me the opportunity to call them as many times as required to get them to pick up. If I call and say, hey, could we speak Tuesday at 2? And they say yes, and they're not there, That's because something came up or they're in a meeting or whatever. But if I say, can I follow up with you Tuesday sometime after 2:00, it gives me sort of the implied permission that I can call multiple times to get through to somebody. Think about it. It works also in setting meetings with people as well. Now, I understand a lot of you aren't going to like this piece of advice, and that's okay. If we agree on everything, man, that's pretty boring, right? But I'm recognizing that when I ask for a specific time, it's actually backfiring a little bit because if they have something at that time, their only alternative is to say no to you. Hey Bob, could I call you Thursday morning sometime, you know, between 10 and noon? The answer is almost always yes. And what I find is I can reach back out over and over again until I get that person because we actually didn't have a specific time to meet. Give it a shot. If it doesn't work, go back to the old school way of doing it. All right, I'm Ryan Dohrn, your sales and marketing coach, always looking for new ways to challenge old school sales. If I can be of help to you, reach out to me, ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, friends, we'll see you next time.
