Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Your Email Sign-Off is Killing Your Sales Pipeline

Transcript

Your Email Sign-Off is Killing Your Sales Pipeline · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at how to
• 0:04
  wrap up your emails, how to sign your e-mail.
• 0:08
  And in particular, we're going to be looking at one case.
• 0:11
  I was in a coaching session with a client, Abby.
• 0:18
  Yeah, let's say a client, but she has a team of four.
• 0:23
  Yeah, a team of four. And we were going through ideas
• 0:27
  about how to make emails much more conversational.
• 0:31
  Because if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of
• 0:34
  time, you know that I keep saying that there is a
• 0:36
  communications hierarchy. Some things are more effective
• 0:40
  than others. And e-mail is the least
• 0:43
  effective communications platform for a number of reasons
• 0:48
  #1 e-mail has the worst open rate, worst open rate.
• 0:55
  People open emails the least. Also, e-mail is not a good
• 0:59
  conversational platform. It is very formal, it is very
• 1:03
  stuffy. People don't open the emails all
• 1:05
  the time. SMS and WhatsApp text messages
• 1:09
  and WhatsApp have a better open rates.
• 1:12
  In the West, North America, Western Europe, depending on
• 1:16
  where you check, open rates are between 93 to 97%.
• 1:21
  So if you're sending an e-mail, people will just fashion you.
• 1:25
  If you send a text message, most likely people are, you know,
• 1:28
  more, what would I say, more prone to open text messages or
• 1:34
  WhatsApp messages. So it kind of makes sense that
• 1:37
  if you want to communicate, you pick a mode of communications
• 1:41
  that is high up on the hierarchy.
• 1:43
  So of course, face to face is king because you're getting all
• 1:47
  the visual cues. I can see you, you can see me.
• 1:50
  I can kind of guess what you're saying based on body language
• 1:54
  and you can feel me and figure out what I'm saying based on
• 1:57
  body language, based on tone, based on delivery.
• 2:01
  After that is voice, phone call, WhatsApp call, Telegram phone
• 2:06
  call. After that is video, you know,
• 2:11
  Zoom, what else? You know, Zoom, WhatsApp video,
• 2:17
  you know, then at the very bottom is e-mail.
• 2:22
  So I keep preaching all the time, e-mail for the purposes of
• 2:26
  sales because to close a sale, what we're trying to do is we're
• 2:30
  trying to build relationships and we're trying to carry on
• 2:33
  conversations. You cannot close a deal unless a
• 2:37
  conversation is flowing, unless we are vibing.
• 2:41
  And so if you use a channel where people know the vibe from
• 2:44
  the get go, how do you expect to close deals?
• 2:48
  But then again, I'm also realistic.
• 2:49
  And for this client, I know that for them, you know, they like to
• 2:52
  be professional, the gas to be on point.
• 2:56
  And I know that despite me hitting them over the head, I
• 3:01
  know that once I end that session, they will go back to
• 3:04
  doing their e-mail. So I say, let me give myself a
• 3:07
  brain and let me be realistic as OK, when I talk, say you would
• 3:11
  die on top of this e-mail you no problem.
• 3:14
  So let's figure out how to use e-mail conversationally.
• 3:17
  And that was the whole point of the engagement that I had with
• 3:20
  this client and her team of four.
• 3:24
  So as we're talking about how we make e-mail conversation now and
• 3:28
  we got to the end of the to, to the part of, you know, signing
• 3:32
  off on the e-mail, one of the guys said something that I've
• 3:35
  seen a lot in Nigeria emails. So the guy said who wrap up his
• 3:40
  e-mail by saying kindly confirm receipt.
• 3:44
  That thing just boasts my brain. The guy said, you end up his
• 3:48
  e-mail by saying kindly confirm receipt.
• 3:51
  So I had to stop them there. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 3:53
  no, you will not. You will never, never, ever,
• 3:57
  ever end your e-mail by saying kindly confirm receipt.
• 4:02
  So today essentially that's what we're looking at on the podcast.
• 4:05
  Is it OK to wrap up your e-mail by saying kindly confirm
• 4:10
  receipt? I know some of you say yes
• 4:12
  because you see it all the time. After all this is Niger now,
• 4:14
  everybody does that. Even today you received an
• 4:17
  e-mail and the person told you kindly confirm receipt.
• 4:21
  So that's what we're going to be looking at today.
• 4:24
  I'm making today's recording at home.
• 4:26
  This is one of those late night podcast recordings and then the
• 4:29
  house is full 'cause you know in laws are still here.
• 4:31
  So there will be some noise in the background.
• 4:33
  Now, this podcast is not about my family situation.
• 4:36
  We solve business problems here, including how to use e-mail
• 4:39
  effectively to move your business forward and to close
• 4:43
  deals. So if you're interested in these
• 4:45
  sorts of things, then this podcast is your jam.
• 4:49
  Welcome to the podcast. I'm the host, Tamishima Ayede.
• 4:52
  Now for years, this is all I've been doing, answering these
• 4:54
  sorts of questions and tackling these sorts of issues.
• 4:57
  So if you want to move forward, grow your business the Nigerian
• 5:00
  way, subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of
• 5:03
  your choice. And if you'd love to connect,
• 5:05
  call, text me or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 5:14
  Now again, we're talking about how to wrap up your e-mail.
• 5:18
  Can you end by your e-mail by saying kindly confirm receipt?
• 5:22
  And I've already given you guys the background.
• 5:24
  So let's go straight to answer the question.
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  The answer is a capital NO, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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  Kindly confirm receipt. No, that is true formal.
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  We're trying to close a seal here.
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  We're trying to build a relationship with a potential
• 5:42
  client. We're trying to get a
• 5:43
  conversation going. How are you now, Andy?
• 5:45
  By saying kindly confirm receipt.
• 5:48
  So I asked the guys because there are three of them on the
• 5:50
  call. Your guy is a woman.
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  Then four of them they're guys. So I say when you're tosing the
• 5:56
  babe, will you tell her kindly confirm receipt.
• 5:59
  No, you don't talk like that when any relationships or in
• 6:02
  business for the purpose of sales, remember, I'm saying for
• 6:06
  the purpose of sales, you want to collect money, you want to
• 6:09
  collect value, you want to collect deposit, you're trying
• 6:11
  to move things forward. So for these purposes, we try to
• 6:15
  keep it as of course, polite and professional, but as
• 6:18
  conversational as possible. And in Nigeria, kindly confirm
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  receipt is not conversational. Please find hitherto attached in
• 6:30
  this e-mail as APDF is not conversational.
• 6:34
  You can say these things if you want but you need to look for a
• 6:39
  much more conversational way of saying these things.
• 6:42
  But in my own opinion, all those things find hitherto attached.
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  Kindly confirm receipt. You're not helping your case.
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  All that is too formal, so kindly confirm receipt is not
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  good for a relationship is not good for a poor building.
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  Worst of all, it is a close ended question. close ended
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  questions are when you tell somebody something and then
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  their response will either be yes or no.
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  The problem with questions that can be answered yes or no is
• 7:15
  that you can move the conversation forward.
• 7:17
  Let's go back to this boyfriend girlfriend thing because like I
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  said, your guy is a woman and then the our team, all of them
• 7:24
  do our guys. If you're talking to a babe, I
• 7:28
  ask you a question and the answer is yes, no.
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  How can you carry on the conversation with the babe like
• 7:40
  that? How you can't the same thing.
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  You're a girl, you're feeling the board, you guys go out for a
• 7:46
  date, you're trying to get some conversation and the boy is only
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  saying yes, no, how you carry on that conversation.
• 8:01
  So we use open-ended conversations.
• 8:03
  Sorry, I'll be open-ended questions when we're having
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  conversations with people. So if you say kindly confirm
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  receipt, somebody can just respond.
• 8:11
  Oh, yes, thank you. OK, so what's what's next?
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  What's the next e-mail? You know you're putting yourself
• 8:18
  on pressure to carry on this conversation.
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  But remember, conversation should be a two way thing.
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  I say A, you say BI, say C, you say D.
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  Then The thing is flowing. There's opportunity for building
• 8:28
  relationship, opportunity for building rapport.
• 8:31
  So when you say things like that, kindly confirm receipt,
• 8:34
  close. Another question.
• 8:35
  You cannot push the conversation forward.
• 8:37
  Things like this like conversation stopper, even if
• 8:40
  the conversation doesn't stop, you will get tired because it's
• 8:43
  like you're the one that is pushing this conversation.
• 8:45
  You they push you, they push you they push and sales is a
• 8:48
  creative profession. After a while almost let's face
• 8:51
  it, you'll be out of ideas. OK, how will I carry this
• 8:54
  conversation forward? If this is how you'll be ending
• 8:56
  your e-mail, kindly confirm receipt.
• 8:58
  Please find hit her to attached at the bottom of this e-mail in
• 9:02
  PDF format. Now the goal of all these e-mail
• 9:10
  conversations. OK, let me just stick to kindly
• 9:12
  confirm receipt. The goal when somebody sends
• 9:14
  something like that, kindly confirm receipt.
• 9:17
  The person is trying to say oh sorry, I didn't even explain.
• 9:20
  Kindly confirm receipt RECIEPT. Sorry forgive me here.
• 9:26
  This is one thing my mumsy tried to teach me and my English
• 9:28
  teacher but I still haven't mastered it.
• 9:30
  I'm not sure if it is receipt. I'll be his receipt so kindly
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  confirm. Receipt just means please
• 9:36
  confirm that you have read my e-mail or please confirm that
• 9:40
  you have received my e-mail. So for those of you who are good
• 9:44
  in English, I know somebody has corrected me before.
• 9:46
  So you let me know what it is. Is it kindly confirm receipt or
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  kindly confirm receipt. I'll be received as the document
• 9:53
  and then receipt is you have received it.
• 9:55
  Anyway, I wait to hear from you guys which one is correct.
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  So when you are sending somebody kindly confirm receipt.
• 10:02
  The goal is you want to confirm, did this person see my e-mail?
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  Did this person receive my e-mail?
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  So I understand, I really, really understand.
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  That's the purpose. But what we should be trying to
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  do actually is we should be trying to propose something.
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  We should be trying to get advancements.
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  We should be trying to get a reply.
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  We should be trying to put a call to action.
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  Let me explain. Excuse me.
• 10:26
  A call to action is when you include something in your
• 10:30
  messaging that suggests what the other person should do next.
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  The reason why we should always use call to actions in our
• 10:38
  emails, in our marketing communications, in our sales is
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  that deals are closed one step at a time.
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  Small, small, small. We need to get people to take
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  one small step. That is why we should be using
• 10:52
  Ctas call to actions in our text messages, in our conversations,
• 10:57
  in our emails, in our whatever. Even if you design A flyer, put
• 11:01
  call to action. If you design A flyer, The thing
• 11:04
  is beautiful, but at the bottom of the flyer, you don't say call
• 11:07
  to book now or text message. So, so, so and so for 50%
• 11:12
  discount, you don't put something like that, then what
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  are you doing? You're just designing something
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  pretty. But that pretty thing is not
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  getting people to take any action.
• 11:19
  So if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of
• 11:22
  time, please always remember CTACTA, call to action, call to
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  action, call to action, everything you do call to
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  action. You visit somebody in the
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  office, you stand up, you're about to go Chief, it was nice
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  meeting you call to action, what are we going to do next?
• 11:37
  You send somebody an e-mail, call to action, what are we
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  going to do next? And like I told the boys during
• 11:43
  that meeting, because I think two of them are in school, when
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  you're back on campus and you go for a date with the babe, you
• 11:53
  guys have fun. You walk out back to the hostel.
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  You don't say I'll be seeing you around.
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  That was rubbish. That's BS.
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  Which ones I'll be seeing you around.
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  What you tell her is I had fun today, I hope you did too.
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  See question. She will smile as you say yes
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  because she's feeling you. If she squeeze her face, you
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  know your own. And then you also say I would
• 12:19
  like to hang out some more with you.
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  I hope you want to spend some more time with me too.
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  She will smile and she will blush and she will not because
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  she's feeling you. If she squeezes her face, you're
• 12:30
  on your own. Then CTA call to action.
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  How about this Friday? Are you free?
• 12:43
  If you say that's OK, I don't have anything planned, then you
• 12:47
  now tell her at the cinema they are showing so, so, so and so.
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  What do you think? Would you like to go see call to
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  action? Next step, Proposing something,
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  scheduling something. This is what we call an
• 13:02
  advancement. We are making progress.
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  One step, one step, one step. It is the same thing in
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  business. You send an e-mail, don't end
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  with kindly confirm receipt, propose something, ask a
• 13:18
  question, use a call to action, try and get some advancements.
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  And how you do it is you just ask a question that is aimed at
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  moving this interaction forward, moving this e-mail chain
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  forward, moving this conversation forward, moving
• 13:37
  this agenda, this relationship forward.
• 13:40
  So at the end of the e-mail, you can ask do you have any
• 13:43
  questions about section XYZ, question mark, send that kind of
• 13:49
  thing begs a response. The person can now respond, Oh
• 13:55
  no, actually everything seems all clear.
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  You cannot propose the next step.
• 13:58
  OK, if everything seems clear, next step is we should move
• 14:02
  forward by you transferring the deposit of 30% to the amount of
• 14:06
  so, so, so and so. Is that something you're willing
• 14:09
  to do right away? You see proposing next step,
• 14:13
  proposing something, moving this thing forward.
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  Or you can end e-mail by saying, if you're OK with everything,
• 14:20
  how about we proceed with ABC? See the kind of thing, excuse
• 14:26
  me, that you will say will depend on, you know, what was in
• 14:29
  the body of the e-mail. But I'm just trying to show you
• 14:32
  that statements like this kindly confirm receipt.
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  You are not helping yourself ask a question that is aimed at
• 14:39
  moving this interaction forward. Now, in this case, what we were
• 14:46
  dissecting was an e-mail that was meant to confirm
• 14:51
  availability for a meeting. So some of the options I told
• 14:55
  was like, look, we've already in the previous chain, we've
• 14:58
  already established that the person is interested and that
• 15:01
  the person is willing to meet. And you have said 4:00 PM
• 15:04
  tomorrow. How about asking, does that time
• 15:09
  work for you? Should I go ahead and pencil
• 15:12
  this on the calendar? Is there any particular item
• 15:16
  that you would like for us to discuss tomorrow?
• 15:19
  I mean, you, you see how like just sit down with small
• 15:22
  creativity. You can come up with something,
• 15:25
  anything that is a call to action that ends with a question
• 15:29
  that begs the response that moves the conversation forward.
• 15:35
  Well, bottom line, if you are a listener of this podcast and I
• 15:38
  hear that you have been ending your emails with kindly confirm
• 15:42
  receipt, I will disown you. I will disown you if I see you,
• 15:50
  I will say I know you not depart from me.
• 15:54
  That is what I will tell you. I'll say depart from me to the
• 15:57
  land of no prophet where there is weeping and gnashing of
• 16:00
  teeth. I will disown you.
• 16:03
  Do not be handing your e-mail like that from today henceforth
• 16:06
  no more kindly confirm receipt. So remember when you send an
• 16:17
  e-mail Andy with kindly confirm receipt, you think the goal is
• 16:20
  to confirm whether the e-mail was read or not.
• 16:23
  No, the goal is not to confirm whether the e-mail was read or
• 16:26
  not. The goal is to get the other
• 16:29
  person to reply or to get the other person to take some sort
• 16:32
  of action. So we should always keep our
• 16:35
  emails simple, keep them conversational.
• 16:39
  All that fancy formal talk that we learned in primary school and
• 16:42
  secondary school was necessary to pass exam.
• 16:47
  We have passed the exam now we are in the real world.
• 16:51
  People don't talk this way, at least in Nigeria.
• 16:55
  Keep it simple, keep it conversational.
• 16:58
  Even in the e-mail. I'm not saying you slang simple
• 17:03
  and conversational but professional.
• 17:06
  So always use a call to action at the end.
• 17:10
  You want the person to do something next.
• 17:14
  If you can't figure out what a call to action should be, just
• 17:17
  remember the simple rule from Tavishima.
• 17:19
  Always end your communication with a question mark, especially
• 17:24
  before you have collected deposit.
• 17:26
  After you have collected deposit or collected payments and you
• 17:29
  can go back to your bad e-mail habits.
• 17:31
  But this stage where we're toasting them, your e-mail
• 17:36
  should not end with the declaration.
• 17:39
  Your e-mail should end with a question.
• 17:42
  And for those of you who are still in school and we're trying
• 17:45
  to love up, I'm giving you free advice here that will help your
• 17:48
  life after the date, please call to action.
• 17:55
  You finish the date with the girl and you say I'll be seeing
• 17:57
  you. This is what will happen.
• 17:59
  And I'm telling you from experience, I'll be seeing you.
• 18:01
  She will smile and she will say, OK then you come next week
• 18:05
  Friday, you say you want to check her.
• 18:07
  Then they'll say Necker is not around, she's not around, not be
• 18:11
  feeling somehow like I thought we had a good time.
• 18:16
  OK, where is she? You'll be thinking maybe she was
• 18:18
  going to go and read and also that she went out with only they
• 18:23
  had to now sink like he coolly. Then as you're leaving the
• 18:30
  hostel now, you see them under the tree in the car park,
• 18:34
  laughing and giggling. And before she leaves, he gives
• 18:37
  Kony a Peck on the cheek. And then you just want to die
• 18:39
  inside. Then you'll be thinking Kony is
• 18:43
  a bastard now, how can he do this to me?
• 18:46
  You know it's free for all. The business is free for
• 18:49
  everybody's chasing your customer, everybody's chasing
• 18:51
  your client. Cooley is following up.
• 18:55
  Well, he's doing call to action. You're not using call to action.
• 18:59
  That's the reason why, right. OK, and then let me leave you
• 19:05
  there before I say something that will get feminists upset.
• 19:10
  Anyway, I'm not sure of any shot.
• 19:11
  I'm, you know, I'm just trying to flesh out this thing in a way
• 19:13
  that you guys will understand. So for those of you who are
• 19:16
  still in school, you know, by the time you go back and, you
• 19:19
  know, you be in some kind of situations, you remember that.
• 19:21
  Oh, OK, this is what I vision has said.
• 19:24
  And you will always apply it in business too.
• 19:26
  So that's the reason why I use these examples.
• 19:30
  All right, so let me wrap it up here.
• 19:31
  And like I said, kindly confirm receipts.
• 19:33
  No, none of that. Please confirm receipt of
• 19:38
  invoice PDF here to further with attached to this e-mail.
• 19:43
  Please, no language like that for the purpose of sales, for
• 19:48
  the purpose of sales, for the purpose of trying to collect
• 19:51
  money, trying to collect a deposit, simple conversational
• 19:55
  call to actions, advancements. What is the next step?
• 19:59
  That's what we're trying to do. So that's it.
• 20:01
  And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to
• 20:03
  connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message
• 20:07
  on 08064662140. And if you love this stuff, then
• 20:13
  please subscribe, Scroll down, there's over 1200 episodes, lots
• 20:20
  of stuff about how to grow your Nigerian business.
• 20:24
  So I'll catch you soon. Oh, by the way.
• 20:27
  As you listen, write it down. I said it in the last episode.
• 20:30
  As you write down, you apply. If it works, let me know.
• 20:35
  It doesn't work, Let me know you agree with something.
• 20:39
  Let me know you disagree with something.
• 20:41
  Let me know you try to apply something and then you hook.
• 20:45
  Let me know. We'll discuss.
• 20:48
  We'll make a podcast episode about it so other people can
• 20:50
  learn as well. So I'll catch you guys.