Ryan Dohrn says don't text cold prospects. Text only after you've talked to them or met them, and only if they've told you that's how they want to hear from you. Call first, email second, text last.
Questions this video answers
Dohrn acknowledges texting’s prevalence but advises against using it for initial prospecting. He recommends texting only after a prior conversation or meeting, after confirming the client’s preferred follow‑up method, and as a last‑resort after calls and emails have failed. He also suggests testing the approach 10‑15 times to determine effectiveness.
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Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your global sales coach, answering your listener questions. Those questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Keep them coming. Love to feature them on the Ryan Dohrn Podcast over on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Just look up Ryan Dohrn, D-O-H-R-N, and we'll be answering these listener questions. All right. Brenda from Omaha. Brenda from Omaha asks, I feel like texting clients is the new normal. How do you feel about texting clients? Well, I think texting has become pretty darn normal in a lot of parts of our sales game. So we have to just ask ourselves, what are we going to do to make sure we're efficient in the total sales process? Now, texting for me is something that I don't do initially in my prospecting. Now, I know a lot of you do, you have good success with it. In my businesses, texting as a prospecting tool typically doesn't connect well with people. Here's what I like to do. Once I've had some type of conversation with somebody, I feel like texting is completely appropriate. Now, in the follow-up process, I always ask people, hey, what's your preferred method of follow-up communication? A lot of people now are saying texting to me, and that's absolutely fine. So I'd like to just structure it. If I've met somebody, then I can text them. If I've had a meeting, I can text them, or if their cell phone is listed on their card, their business card, and I've tried every place else, every other method. So I try to call somebody on the phone, the number they provided or the number I have. I've tried to and got no reply. I've tried to email them and I've gotten no reply. Then my last attempt might be a text. I just feel it's a little too personal during the prospecting phase. Now I'm pretty bullish and I'm pretty bold as it comes to selling people. So you might be surprised to know that I don't just hit them up with a text right away. It's not a generational thing as much as it for me just being a sales professional thing. So it's not my go-to resource. I do it a lot, use texting a lot in the follow-up phase. But here's what you need to do. You just need to focus in, uh, Brenda from Omaha, focus in on what works for you. Try something 10, 12, 15 times and see what kind of response you get. If it's working for you, rinse and repeat it. If it's not working for you, then don't do it again. But texting has become a very big part of an important part of our total sales process. So I'm willing to evolve and change my mind on that, but that's kind of where I stand as of this recording today. So Brenda from Omaha, stay warm out there, and thanks so much for being a great friend and a great fan. All right, if I can train you, if I could inspire you, if I can motivate you, reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. Remember, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. So we're either crazy or we found careers that'll feed our families for a lifetime. Take care. God bless. We'll see you next time.
