Ryan Dohrn explains why sales feel more transactional now: buyers distracted by health and remote work want quick ROI and clear pricing, not relationship building. He says relationship selling isn't dead, just delayed. Focus on delivering measurable value and let buyers come to you.
Questions this video answers
Dohrn acknowledges that the market has become more transactional due to COVID‑related distractions, but assures that relationships will return. He advises sellers to focus on pricing, value, and ROI now, and not to force relationships.
Chapters
Hey friends, Ryan Dorn here, your global sales coach. How you doing? Love answering your listener questions sent in to me at ryan@ryandorn.com. All right, let's pull up our first question here, and this comes from Rex in Atlanta. Hey Rex, how are you? Rex's question, uh, the transactional sale, is it the sad but new reality? Uh, so Rex, a great question. Unfortunately, in a COVID selling land, and whenever we move to post-COVID selling, my observation has been just that. Now, that is a sad reality for me because I'm a relationship kind of guy, but friends, relationships will come. What we've noticed is people are more concerned about other things than you. If you look back at the data and the information we've shared, 80-some percent of people would rather go to the dentist than talk to a salesperson. That's well documented. Google it. In the midst of COVID people are concerned about their family's safeties, getting their kiddos back to school. Maybe they're not working from the office. They're all remote. There's a lot of other distractions that are out there. So friends, it's not that relationship selling is dead. It's just changed a lot. And COVID has accentuated that. So just recognize that relationships will come. But in this particular selling season, as we see it right now, people want us to cut to the chase, figure out what the pricing is, what's the tremendous value that you're going to bring to them. And what does the ROI— what does the return on investment metric look like? Here's the takeaway. Friends, if you try to force a relationship on somebody, they still want to buy your product, they just don't want to have a relationship. Don't force it on them. You want to get a little bit better at rolling with the flow. So Rex, I hope that helps you, my friend. I know it's sad, but just kind of roll with the flow. Transactional sales are the way that it's going right now, and I'm sure relationships are going to be built here in the very near future. It's here to come. Send your questions in to ryan@ryandohrn.com, and to learn more about what I can do to help you And your company, check out the website, ryandohrn.com. All right, friends, we'll see you next time.
