Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Valuable Sales Pro: Boosting Business & Your Career

Transcript

The Valuable Sales Pro: Boosting Business & Your Career · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Aide.
0:04
I solve sales challenges and I'm making today's podcast recording
0:08
just outside the car wash. So expect to hear some noise in
0:11
the background, although I've wound up the windows.
0:13
So hopefully there won't be too much noise coming in while I'm
0:15
waiting for the car to get washed.
0:18
Now the goal of this podcast is not to talk about how and where
0:21
I get my car washed. It's actually to focus on
0:24
business education. So if you like the stuff that
0:27
you hear here, please spread the word so that your friends and
0:30
family members at home in Nigeria and abroad can benefit
0:34
from the questions that we tackle.
0:36
And if you'd love to connect, you can hit me up.
0:38
You can call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140.
0:45
Now today on the podcast, I want to share a conversation that I
0:49
had with someone, let's say like last night.
0:53
Now she's someone who reached out.
0:54
She's a listener of the podcast. She likes all the things that we
0:58
talk about over here. We had a very frank conversation
1:01
about what it would take to engage my services as a coach
1:04
and as a consultant, not just to work with her but for her
1:07
organization. And she was real upfront that
1:11
currently they do not have the budget to afford my services,
1:15
but she personally is interested in engaging my services as soon
1:20
as she can afford. Now, of course, since I always
1:24
make myself available to you guys, I mean, know how know how,
1:27
especially if we've been talking, you know, one-on-one,
1:30
we've already built some sort of a relationship.
1:32
I'm always trying to help people out as much as I can.
1:35
Of course, I prioritize paying clients, you know, those who
1:39
have actually paid me for my services.
1:41
Those are the people that I prioritize.
1:43
But I try to answer as many people as possible.
1:47
So I thought, OK, cool, no problem.
1:49
We can work together. But in the meantime, here are a
1:52
list of questions that you need to go and ask your auger so that
1:56
by the time he answers these questions, you will be able to
1:59
sell effectively in your role. Because most Nigerian business
2:05
owners, people who set up a business, who run whatever it is
2:07
that they run, they just assume that sales people are born.
2:11
They don't realize that sales people are made, that you
2:14
actually have to teach somebody to sell on your business's
2:17
behalf. And I could tell that they
2:19
hadn't given her any kind of training.
2:22
So I just gave her a list of questions.
2:23
Here's a list of things go and discuss with Oga.
2:26
Once Oga gives you the answers, you'll be able to know how to
2:29
sell. That's why I gave her the list.
2:30
And then she said thank you. And then she left.
2:33
Then she reached out a couple of days later.
2:36
They say, bro, to be honest, I want to ask my Oga.
2:41
And my Oga could not give me the answer to any of these
2:44
questions. And I laughed.
2:45
I said I'm not surprised because actually most organs, most
2:48
people who run businesses don't even critically think about
2:51
these sorts of things. And in fact, the first thing on
2:53
the list was the ICP. Who is the ideal customer
2:56
supposed to be running after? Now that is something that the
2:58
salesperson needs to know. Because if your number one job
3:01
is to sell and then you resume work 8/30, 9:00 in the morning,
3:05
but you have no idea about who you're supposed to be going
3:07
after, then you'll just be faffing about online.
3:11
You won't know who am I supposed to be talking to if you go into
3:14
the real world, you won't know, OK, which offices am I supposed
3:17
to enter? You won't even know, which is
3:20
why it is the first thing on the list and the most basic thing
3:23
that I gave her. Because at least if the OGA can
3:25
say, you know what? The people that we do business
3:28
with best are men between the ages of 65 and 70 who live in
3:34
Umohia or you know, whatever. At least as a salesperson, you
3:38
now have a very clear picture. You now clock it immediately.
3:43
You now know what to do or where to go in the real world or
3:48
online to start targeting men who are between the ages of 50
3:53
to 75, who are based in Umuya or, you know, forgive me, I'm
3:57
just coming up with some examples.
3:59
But The thing is, we have to know who the ICP is.
4:03
So she told me Olga doesn't know, but these are the things
4:06
that Olga has tried. I said, OK, no problem.
4:09
So this is what we're going to do and this is the frank
4:11
conversation that I had with her last night.
4:14
So I told her, oh, OK, it's almost my turn for the car to
4:17
get washed. So one moment, let me just pull
4:19
up over there and then I'll continue this conversation.
4:26
OK, I'm back. Sorry about that.
4:29
So it's my turn to get the car washed.
4:31
So anyways, of course I've had to step out of the car.
4:34
So I'm sure you guys have noticed that the the noise
4:37
profile has changed somewhat. You know, there's more noise in
4:39
the background anyway. So I was like, so I think I was
4:47
at the part where I was saying there are a couple of key things
4:51
that those of you who own businesses need to know.
4:54
I need to be able to advise your sales people on so that they can
4:59
sell effectively. And one of them is the ICP.
5:02
And I was having a fair conversation with a sales
5:05
professional who are struggling, and I could tell that she hadn't
5:09
received any training from her employers on these sorts of
5:13
matters. And so I told her, I gave her a
5:16
list of questions that she needed to ask her Olga.
5:19
And then based on the answers that Olga will give her, she
5:21
will now be able to sell effectively.
5:24
And one of them was the ICP. Who's the ideal customer?
5:27
Who's the ideal client? Who is the target?
5:30
Who else? Who are we supposed to be
5:32
chasing? Who are we supposed to pursue?
5:35
We need these answers and Olga said he doesn't know.
5:40
And I'm not surprised because most of Gas, most business
5:43
owners, they don't have a clear sense of who it is that was
5:47
supposed to pursue. You just have the product, you
5:49
have the service, and you're trying to chase down as many
5:52
people as possible and trying to get business from them.
5:55
So I now gave her an exercise that she should go and do with
5:59
Olga. And this is what I advised her.
6:02
And if you're listening to this podcast episode right now and
6:04
you've asked your guy that question, who is the ideal
6:06
customer supposed to be chasing? And our guy doesn't have any
6:09
information from you for you. Rather, this is the exercise
6:13
that you have to carry out with your boss.
6:15
And this is the reason why you are the one who should be
6:17
responsible for doing this. So this is what I advise that
6:23
ordinarily you should be your guy who should call you up and
6:27
give you advice on these sorts of things.
6:30
But in the situation where or guy has not called you or Guy is
6:35
not aware of what the ICP is, it is you as a salesperson that has
6:40
to take responsibility for these sorts of things.
6:42
And this is the reason why. Because other people in the
6:46
organization, they can't far about and nothing will happen.
6:49
People in accounting, they can't far about, you know, they can't
6:52
misbehave, they can't waste their time.
6:54
Not in the album, because at least they can pick like 2-3
6:57
weeks before the end of the year.
6:59
They will rush and they'll prepare.
7:00
They'll prepare statement of accounts, people in marketing,
7:04
they can faff about. They can do whatever they want
7:07
so long as at the end of the day they produce a pretty Instagram
7:10
photos or they won't be angry. The people who are supposed to
7:14
clean the company, those ones who they can faff about so long
7:17
as they pick two or three hours during the day and they make
7:19
sure that everywhere is clean, the toilet is clean, you know
7:22
they can't misbehave. No, nothing will happen but our
7:26
sales people. We are judged on the results
7:30
that we bring. How many conversations are we
7:33
having with customers? How many people are we bringing
7:35
inside the shop? How many people are we bringing
7:38
inside the office of the people that we brought to the shop,
7:41
that we brought to the office or that we're having conversations
7:43
with, how many people end up ended up becoming paying
7:45
customers? So for sales people, those of us
7:50
who have the responsibilities for bringing in revenue, all
7:55
eyes are on us very harshly, very critically.
7:59
That's the reason why we have to take the responsibility for
8:05
performing and for moving our careers forward.
8:07
And that's why I told her she's a correct.
8:08
She's a correct. She's a correct babe because
8:13
ordinarily all guys should pay for these sorts of things.
8:17
She has reached out to try and get the support that she needs.
8:21
She's honest that she cannot afford now, she's going to plan
8:24
towards it later, but she's taking responsibility for
8:27
developing herself, responsibility for acquiring the
8:30
information that is going to be able to make her a better
8:34
salesperson. So you're the one who should
8:37
take the advantage for these sorts of things.
8:40
Now, another reason why we should take the advantage of
8:43
having this conversation with yoga and going through this
8:45
exercise that I'm going to recommend right now is this.
8:49
If you go through this exercise with yoga or guy and his
8:53
business partners, or you know where your guy is a woman or guy
8:58
and hire business partners, we now quickly see that you in
9:02
particular, you have sense, you have drive, you have ambition,
9:07
you have good ideas, you're a correct person to keep around.
9:10
You are a valuable asset to the organization.
9:13
When they start seeing you in that light, good things will
9:16
happen. I can't make any promises that
9:19
they will double your salary or anything like that, but trust
9:21
me, good things will happen because you are a valuable asset
9:24
to have around. So this is the reason why you
9:27
ought to take the initiative and another reason why I told her
9:30
she should take the initiative in this conversation and why you
9:33
should take the initiative in this conversation and this
9:36
exercise with your guy is because nothing is set in stone.
9:42
Eventually you're going to leave this organization.
9:45
And when you do, if you have gotten into the habit of being
9:49
proactive around these sorts of things in whatever organization,
9:53
in whatever clique, in whatever setting, in whatever setup that
9:56
you find yourself in the future, you would have gotten into some
10:02
habits and some patterns of thinking that will make you
10:04
extremely resourceful where you're heading to.
10:06
Because I can tell you, this is Nigeria.
10:10
People have not seen an employee like you before who is willing
10:15
to invest time and resources into developing themselves and
10:21
also willing to engage in conversations with their orgasm
10:24
with their superiors to make sure that they have all the
10:27
information that they need to deliver on the revenue goals of
10:30
the business. I can assure you, people have
10:32
not seen an employee like you before.
10:36
So let's not beating around the Bush and let me get straight to
10:40
what the exercise was. I told her that she was going to
10:42
have to do three things when she gets back into the office.
10:46
She said, Olga, please, if you're free, you and I, we need
10:50
to have a chat. And of course, most organs now
10:55
don't make money, don't they? And so because of that, trust
10:57
me, organs always have time for sales people.
11:01
If somebody in accounting says Olga, we need to see Olga will
11:05
say, well, you know what, I'm coming.
11:06
I have to go here. I have to go here.
11:08
OK, I might be free for this. I might be free for that one.
11:11
Will you be free? You know?
11:12
But if a salesperson says, boss, you and I, we need to have a
11:15
chat, trust me, your guy will say I'm coming to the office.
11:20
You see me in like 30 minutes. So don't worry, don't be scared.
11:24
You just tell your guy, our boss, you know, we need to see,
11:26
there's some things that we need to discuss.
11:29
Trust me, your guy, he will show at the office or she will show
11:33
at the office. And so I told her, these are the
11:35
questions. These are the exercises that
11:36
you're going to do with yoga. You tell your guy that, look,
11:39
I'm committed to this organization and I want to see
11:43
this organization hits its revenue goals.
11:46
I personally also don't like faffing about.
11:49
Also want to make sure that I am the best I can be when I'm on
11:53
this job. And because of this, there's
11:55
some information that I need to do to be able to complete this
12:00
job, to do this job. Well, I've gone online, I've
12:04
asked around, and there's some exercises that we can do that
12:08
will give us the information that we need to move things
12:10
forward. So Olga, you are now, we need to
12:13
figure out the ICP now. And that's what we're going to
12:16
do. Olga, can you please furnish me
12:18
the records that we have, the people that have paid US money
12:21
before to provide our goods or our services, please?
12:24
Can I see it? This is the whole point of the
12:29
exercise. When you look at those invoices
12:32
or when you look at those receipts or when you look at
12:34
those WhatsApp messages or when you look at those invoices or
12:38
when you look at those. Whatever it is that you people
12:41
have that you used to track who has paid you for your products
12:45
or your services. By the time you start asking
12:48
your got some information about this guy, about that guy, about
12:51
this babe, about that babe, about this customer, you will
12:55
start seeing some similarities in psychographics and in
13:01
demographics. Now big words, but for those of
13:04
us who studied what was it called business studies in
13:08
junior secondary school, remember demographics means
13:13
qualities like age, sex, heights, occupation, location,
13:18
you know all those sorts of things.
13:20
So you will start seeing some similarities.
13:22
Now people that buy from us are usually a certain age, usually a
13:28
certain job, usually of a certain income range, usually of
13:33
a setting this of a setting this of a setting that you will start
13:36
seeing some patterns emerge. Therefore, those of us who
13:40
studied business studies again in junior secondary school,
13:45
remember when we're talking about psychographics,
13:47
psychographics are hobbies, interests, things that people
13:52
like, you know, all the soft stuff that people are interested
13:56
in that you can't quite quantify.
13:58
So when you start looking at this invoices, this WhatsApp
14:02
messages, these, whatever it is that you have, you will start
14:06
noticing some similarities in psychographics that people who
14:10
buy from us are interested in these sorts of things or that
14:13
sort of those sorts of things, or they have these kinds of
14:16
hobbies, or they are drawn to these sorts of issues or they're
14:21
trying to run away from certain other kinds of issues.
14:26
This is the beginning of you putting together a picture of
14:28
who your ideal customer is. When you go through this
14:34
exercise with yoga, you will now see you will not start having a
14:39
clearer picture when you show up the next day to the office where
14:42
you should be spending your time and investing your efforts to
14:47
start chasing down customers. Because you would have already
14:51
known that our ideal customer. People who have given us money
14:54
in the past tend to be either men or women of a certain age
14:58
who live in a certain part of the city, who are interested in
15:01
these sorts of things or who don't like those sorts of
15:03
things, or who run towards these sorts of things or who run away
15:07
from these sorts of things. You will now know where to
15:09
invest your time. Let me give you an example.
15:15
There was a time when my kids were younger, were in traffic,
15:20
people would stop me all the time and try to sell arts and
15:23
crafts, sell painting, sell books, sell toys and all kinds
15:28
of things. And so I asked my wife one day,
15:32
I said, how come these people always keep trying to sell me
15:35
stuff about kids? I'm always said, that's easy.
15:38
And I said, hey, that's easy. How is it because I look like a
15:40
father? I said, no, it's not that I look
15:43
like a father. There's a car seat in the back.
15:47
And then I smiled and I told my wife, yeah, you're actually
15:50
right. It's that simple.
15:53
For people who sell children's things in traffic, they know
15:58
that if you see a dude sitting in a car who has a wedding ring
16:01
and at the back of the car there's a baby seat, this person
16:04
most likely has children of a certain age and will be
16:07
interested in certain kinds of products.
16:10
That is the reason why these people are coming straight to me
16:13
out of all the other cars that are stuck in traffic and trying
16:17
to sell me stuff because they know who their ICP is.
16:21
They know their ideal customer profile.
16:24
You see a man, you see a woman, you see a wedding ring, and then
16:30
you see a baby chair at the back.
16:33
Go and talk to this person or these.
16:36
These people. These are the kinds of people
16:38
who end up buying this or this or that or that.
16:43
So that was my assignment that I gave to her.
16:46
Go and talk to yoga, have this exercise, get your transaction
16:52
history, Try and figure out people who have given you money
16:56
in the past. You will get a sense of who your
16:58
ICP is. Then I also told her.
17:01
Now Olga, between you and me, now tell me who are the kind of
17:05
people that you want to pay money to us for the product or
17:09
service? People who you think will be
17:10
sweet clients, that is also an important question to ask
17:19
because you know what people say now?
17:22
Now when the how do you say it? When the available is, I mean
17:27
when the desirable is unavailable, the available
17:30
becomes desirable or something like that.
17:32
So sometimes you actually do want, oh sorry, they're calling
17:39
me at the car park 1 moment. Let me pause this and I'll be
17:41
right back. OK, I'm back.
17:46
Sorry about the constant switching back and forth.
17:49
There was quite a queue of about like four or five cars when I
17:52
got here. So I didn't think they were
17:54
going to be, you know, this quick when I started the podcast
17:57
episodes. But anyway, they're not with my
17:59
car. So I'm now back in the car.
18:01
So hopefully we shouldn't have too much noise, you know,
18:03
trailers going past and all that because I just wound up the
18:06
windows. So let me finish this and then
18:08
I'll head off on my appointment. OK, now I said.
18:15
Now the second exercise that she needs to do with our guy is
18:17
this. She needs to now ask our gather.
18:20
OK, we've looked at the transaction history.
18:23
We've been able to figure out some commonalities in
18:26
demographic demographics and psychographics.
18:29
We now have a physical representation of who our
18:32
customers are, who they are, how old they are, whether they're
18:36
male or female, where they live, their jobs, what they're
18:40
interested in, what they like, what they don't like.
18:43
Psychographics are important because if we're targeting
18:45
people online with online advertising, that is the
18:48
information that we're going to put in.
18:52
So the next part was not have a frank conversation with Olga and
18:57
say, look, Olga, now who are the people that you will like to pay
19:01
off some sweet correct money? The reason why that question is
19:08
next is because sometimes you have a dream client you want to
19:11
go after, but because you can't reach them now, you now settle
19:14
for, you know, some certain classes of people, the one that
19:17
is in your front. Now that's not bad and you can
19:21
be using the customer that is in your front to be making good
19:24
revenue while you're now strategizing and planning for
19:28
the other customer that you actually want to get.
19:31
Now business owners, we all pass through this because back in my,
19:36
excuse me, our wedding photography days, please no
19:40
disrespect when I'm talking about these sorts of things, I'm
19:43
not saying some classes of people are better than others.
19:47
I'm just trying to talk about economic realities here.
19:51
So I'm not trying to say some people are better than the
19:52
others. Now, I appreciate all the brides
19:55
that were Niger based that I did business with.
19:57
I really, really appreciate them, you know, and I love them
20:00
because they were responsible for me getting a career.
20:08
Building a career in wedding photography.
20:11
Even the very first bride that paid me only 50,000 naira, I
20:14
appreciate her and I love her because she's an integral part
20:17
of my story. That is how I got started.
20:20
Now, of course, eventually I figured out that that 50K that I
20:23
charged like Omar was not worth it 'cause I charged 50K and then
20:27
I spent 47,000 naira in fulfilment.
20:31
If you charge 50K, you spend 47 K.
20:33
Can you say that that's, that's a good thing if I want to give
20:37
mom CD gist because by that time I wasn't, I wasn't married when
20:40
I gave mom CD gist. Mom, she said, look, you would
20:41
have been better off just staying at home and just
20:44
transferring 5K to the bride. I said just, you know, take and
20:47
help with your wedding. But still, I love her because
20:53
she was an integral part of my story.
20:57
But at the time, the people who paid me best usually happened to
21:04
be Niger, in diaspora. So the babe lives abroad, the
21:09
husband lives abroad, maybe their parents are here and the
21:14
parents are the ones who are organizing things.
21:16
Somehow the bride and the groom get in touch with me.
21:19
They hook me up with Mumsy and Popsy or they hook me up a
21:21
wedding planner. And those were the kind of jobs
21:24
that I like to do. That was, you know, sweet, sweet
21:26
money. And that was the first time that
21:29
me and my brother collectively charged 1M for a job.
21:33
Negotiate back and forth, ended up paying I think about 880 or
21:37
870, I can't remember. It was this sort of thing, Niger
21:41
in diaspora. So whether in the UK or America
21:46
or Dubai, the clients, the people that I loved that I would
21:50
like to pursue were all those people based in diaspora.
21:53
But Please remember, I am not saying that people who live in
21:58
diaspora are better than those of us who are home based.
22:01
I'm not saying that. I'm just talking about some
22:03
economic realities here. Now for people in diaspora,
22:08
they're used to paying maybe like let's say 10,000 for a
22:14
wedding photographer now maybe like $10,000 or $5000.
22:19
So by the time they're talking to we, well, I'm no more in the
22:22
business. But if I'm still in the business
22:24
by the time they're talking to we local photographers over
22:27
here, and then we charge what is the equivalent of maybe $1000 or
22:33
$2000, and they see the quality of our work.
22:36
For them, they're like what? This is a deal.
22:39
Those people, they pay quick, quick, quick, no hassles because
22:43
they know that if we're going to do this wedding in California or
22:47
whatever, we'll pay $10,000 or $5000, cheapest for a wedding
22:52
photographer. But we're going home to do this
22:55
thing. And I found a photographer for
22:58
$1000. Let me just pay now quickly, let
23:02
me tie this thing down. So I'm just talking about harsh
23:05
economic realities here. So I'm not saying that Nigerian
23:09
diaspora is better than Niger homegrown.
23:12
We're all the same. We're all equally in status.
23:16
It's just that you know, because of what do you call is it
23:19
purchasing parity? Because of purchasing parity,
23:22
they can happen to they, they can afford more stuff with the
23:27
dollars and the pounds that they have.
23:32
So where was I? What I'm just trying to say is I
23:37
understand. I've lived through it and lots
23:39
of business owners, we all live through it because we understand
23:41
that this is the customer I have in front of me, but the
23:44
customers I love, they're in front.
23:46
And This is why. So still we also have to sit
23:49
down and do that exercise. So yes, yoga, ooga, the
23:53
customers that you truly, truly love, they want them to be
23:56
transferring big money into the account to Bam.
23:59
Who are those customers? And then we start writing it
24:01
down. That is the second exercise that
24:08
gives us food for thought for the future.
24:11
How are we going to start targeting these people?
24:14
How are we going to start running after these people?
24:17
Now, when I asked that question, she said, oh, she has asked her
24:19
OGA that question before. And what the OGA said was
24:23
government parastatals. And I said good, good that he
24:26
asked, but I told her that look, that's still too wide.
24:29
Government parastatal can be anything from CBN to NNPC to
24:36
ministry of our Greek that is too wide.
24:40
So you need to have the conversation or a guy again and
24:42
he needs to narrow it down. When you say government
24:45
parastatals, which kind of government parastatals?
24:49
Is it the government parastatals that deal in extractive
24:51
industry? In that case, you're talking
24:53
about Ministry of Mining and Ministry of Works and Ministry
24:58
of you know, all or not. Or is it government parastatals
25:02
that are financial regulators? In that case, you will now be
25:05
thinking of Ministry of Finance, you'll be thinking of CBN,
25:10
you'll be thinking of SEC Securities and Exchange COM
25:13
Commission. But organ needs to narrow it
25:16
down. You can't just say government
25:17
parastatals is too wide. If as a sales person, my job is
25:21
to go after government parastatals and I come to the
25:23
office tomorrow, 8:30, I was supposed to be chasing
25:26
government parastate house that is too wide.
25:28
I'll spend a lot of time fuffing about and talking to the wrong
25:31
people. But as a salesperson, you tell
25:35
me that we're supposed to be chasing government parastate
25:39
house and people government parastate house that are
25:43
regulators in the financial sectors.
25:46
When I come and sit down tomorrow morning, 8:00 AM, first
25:49
thing I'll do is I'll Google government regulators, that
25:53
government regulators, financial sectors, Nigeria, a list will
25:56
come out and then I'll start tackling that list.
26:00
It'll be easier for me to do my job because the goal line is now
26:02
clear. So I told her, go back, have
26:05
that other conversation, make sure that he narrows it down.
26:09
Don't just let him off the hook. Don't let orgas say government
26:12
past data and then you leave it like that.
26:14
You need to know, are you going to be chasing ministry of our
26:17
Greek? Why are you going to be chasing
26:19
Ministry of Finance? Are you going to be chasing CBN
26:25
or are you going to be chasing I don't know where you get the
26:29
picture you need to know? So that was the second exercise.
26:33
Number one, look at your transaction history to get the
26:36
demographics and psychographics of who your ideal clients are #2
26:41
ask your Olga, what is the wish list?
26:44
Where are we going? Where would you like us to get
26:46
some big money from? But then narrow it down.
26:49
Don't be vague. So just like me back then, I was
26:53
thinking Nigerian diaspora, but Nigerian diaspora is too broad.
26:56
I would have helped myself and my brother if I was more
27:00
specific. Nigerians living in diaspora,
27:04
particularly in America or Canada, who live in this region
27:11
or this region or this county or that county or that county that
27:15
is specific. That gives someone an idea of
27:20
what kind of advertising campaigns are we going to run,
27:25
what kind of content are we going to create to start
27:29
attracting these sorts of people.
27:33
So that's the second exercise. Then the third exercise, forgive
27:39
me, I'm running from memory and right now, maybe because of
27:42
this, all this up and down, up and down.
27:43
I can't remember what the third exercise was, but I know that I
27:46
told her to do three things. OK, let me see.
27:50
So #1 transaction history #2 I remember the third.
27:57
The third exercise was this. And I'm telling all of you now
28:00
that are involved in sales and marketing.
28:04
AI tools are here, they are free, they are on our phones,
28:07
they are computers. Why are you guys not taking
28:10
advantage of them? If we had these things when my
28:16
brother and I started in business, we'll be certified big
28:19
boys now. Because if I had charge GBT then
28:24
and I was trying to fool around on charge GBT to figure out my
28:27
ideal customer profile, I would have realized that I was talking
28:31
in 2 broad terms and that my marketing was ineffective
28:34
because of that. Trying to target Nigerians in
28:39
diaspora on a Facebook advertising campaign or an
28:44
Instagram advertising campaign that is too broad.
28:49
All these tools that have helped me narrow it down.
28:52
So I told her the third exercise is go and tell ChatGPT or go and
28:57
tell Google Gemini or go and tell whatever AI tool that you
29:01
like. Go and tell them.
29:02
I'm a salesperson. I work for this kind of company.
29:05
The company sells this. My bosses ideally would like us
29:12
to target this, this, this, this that, but these are the kinds of
29:15
people that we have done business with in the past.
29:19
With this information provided, give me 5 suggestions, 10
29:24
suggestions of who you think our ideal customer, our ideal
29:28
customer profile is or who our best customer should be.
29:32
Question mark send, it will give you some ideas.
29:36
The ones that make sense keep. The ones that don't make sense,
29:39
delete. And then I now told her this is
29:42
what you will do. You will now sit down with your
29:44
guy. You have done 3 exercises.
29:47
Number one is transaction history, trading history to try
29:51
and figure out who are the people that have given us money
29:53
in the past. Exercise 2 was wish list.
29:56
Who are the people that we would love to transfer money to us in
29:59
the future. Exercise 3 was to use AI tools
30:03
for brainstorming. Compare these answers and I told
30:07
her definitely know how. Know how you will see an
30:09
overlap. The people that have paid you
30:13
money before. Some of it will overlap with the
30:16
category of people that organ wants to transfer big money to
30:20
the business account in the future.
30:21
And then some of it will overlap with some of those suggestions
30:25
that ChatGPT or Google Gemini would make.
30:29
That overlap is what I advised her.
30:32
That is where you should start spending all your time to start
30:35
finding customers. It's not a very scientific
30:40
process, but trust me, when it comes to sales, there's plenty
30:45
of trial and error. But this is not a bad way to
30:47
start the trial and error. The parts that overlaps hit that
30:51
part hard. You start seeing resources use
30:53
results. You start making progress after
30:57
a while. But remember that sales is not
30:59
like magic. It doesn't mean because you
31:01
start talking to people today, they will start transferring
31:04
next week. I mean it depends on the
31:06
product, the service and the, what's it called, sales cycle?
31:13
Yes, because different products and services have different
31:15
sales cycles. Now that I'm in the consulting
31:18
space, it is possible for me to talk to somebody January 1st and
31:23
then by January 18th they have transferred money.
31:26
As a wedding photographer. No, that was not really
31:29
possible, except if it's an emergency.
31:31
As a wedding photographer, typically it took about two or
31:33
three months. Somebody will call me up in
31:36
January because the wedding is like that, kind of March, April.
31:40
So the sales cycle for wedding photography was that kind. 2-3
31:44
months. For consulting, it's different.
31:48
Somebody can hit me up now and they can pay money next week.
31:51
Shorter sales cycles. So it depends on the product, it
31:55
depends on the service, it depends on the culture, the
31:57
context, the traditions. It all depends.
32:02
So if your product or service has on average a three month
32:07
sales cycle and you go to this exercise and you start executing
32:11
in January, God willing, good things should start to happen,
32:16
should start to reflect in your bank account.
32:19
By Aranda King March April So these are the exercises that we
32:26
go through to be able to figure out our ideal customer profile.
32:31
This is the exercise that I went through with the lady yesterday.
32:35
And for those of you who would love to engage my services or
32:39
the services of someone like me, but you cannot afford to yet,
32:43
that is not a problem. We're still here.
32:45
I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere.
32:48
And I put out these podcast episodes, you know, 2-3,
32:51
sometimes 5-6 times a week. So I'm not going anywhere.
32:56
So don't worry. There's free resources here that
32:59
you can take advantage of. You know, continue if you feel
33:03
like money is the problem. When you have enough money, no
33:06
problem, you hit me up. You know, I will continue from
33:08
there. So I'm making today's podcast
33:15
episode for people like you who find yourselves in that
33:19
situation. While I talk to you, Olga,
33:23
follow these exercises. When you do, you'll find that
33:26
your honor girl become five and six.
33:29
You'll say that this is a correct guy or this is a correct
33:31
babe. You'll start to before you know
33:34
it, you know, don't be treating you like salesperson Again, you
33:38
kind of become more like business associate, especially
33:41
when you start delivering the results.
33:47
So if nothing else, when at least you know who the target
33:51
is, you'll be able to be much more effective when you show up
33:54
at work tomorrow, 8:30, 9/30, 9:00 because at least you now
34:00
know who you should be chasing after.
34:01
Because before you guys have just been using idea up and
34:04
down. And if you are in this
34:06
situation, don't worry, don't feel bad.
34:08
That's just how most Nigerian business owners are.
34:10
And I've given you my own personal example.
34:12
In the beginning, I was just using idea.
34:15
The people that were on ground, this is what they were paying
34:17
me. The people that I loved in
34:19
diaspora, this is how much do I pay me because of that.
34:22
I love diaspora but in my mind, if anybody had asked me who is
34:26
your ideal customer, your ideal customer profile, who is the
34:30
main person we should be chasing, I would have just said
34:32
Nigerians in diaspora. But as to White Russia, that's
34:36
Nigerians in diaspora, Korea, that's also Nigerians in
34:39
diaspora. Canada is also Nigerians in
34:41
diaspora. But we have to narrow it down
34:45
anyway, 30 minutes. I think I have spoken more than
34:49
enough. I think you guys get the
34:50
picture. So if today has already finished
34:54
at the time you're listening to this podcast, no problem.
34:57
Just like I said, tomorrow you call your Olga, you say Olga,
35:01
please, I'd like to see you. There's something I orders to
35:04
discuss regarding sales. I have some ideas about how we
35:07
can improve sales. Trust me, you know, guy will
35:10
make time for that meeting because that's the reason why he
35:13
has hired you. And then you called him up and
35:16
say you have some ideas. Just he'll be happy because he
35:20
comes to work every day. She comes to work every day.
35:22
And they're frustrated that look, I have 5 sales people here
35:24
and I just come and see their faces every day and they're just
35:28
jesting. They're not doing anything.
35:29
They're irritants. They're irritating my life.
35:32
So the fact that one of you say, oh God, please come, I have some
35:34
ideas, I want to get your input. You'll be very happy.
35:37
She'll be very happy. They will show for the meeting.
35:40
So tomorrow, 8:30, 9:00, 9/30, call your guy or guy will make
35:48
time for you. Sit down, start having this
35:50
conversation with them. And trust me with diligence,
35:54
with hard work, and with prayers.
35:56
Your life is not going to see. It's not going to be the same
35:58
again. And thank you for those of you
36:00
who have been reaching out to me, who tell me that I've been
36:03
listening to your episodes. I've applied this, this, this,
36:05
this and this. And this is how much it has
36:08
benefited my life or benefited my business.
36:11
I'm only start sharing some of those testimonials.
36:13
I've been telling people that, look, I like what you say and I
36:17
really, really love the results, but I need people to believe me
36:21
that this stuff works. So I want it to be in your own
36:24
voice, not me saying I was talking to somebody and these
36:28
are the results. Especially the copper who was
36:35
getting 35,000 Alawi and she said based on the advice that I
36:39
had given, she had now hit three months of earning over 100,000
36:44
naira. Some of you will say 100,000
36:46
naira, that's more. What can we do with that?
36:48
Yes, I agree 100K is more, but for someone who is starting at
36:53
the level of 35 K, you're now doing 345 months of 100K.
36:59
That is minus Yonallawi. It's a big thing for them.
37:03
So for us, 100K is not going to solve our problem, but for them
37:07
it's something. And then it's another guy,
37:10
Alawi, also 35K. In fact, that's the one I'm
37:13
going to play first. And then for him, he how much
37:18
was it based on stuff he listened to in a couple of
37:22
episodes? In fact, in the audio, he
37:23
referred to the specific episodes that he listened to.
37:26
He went ahead, he put on an offer, 27 people took him up on
37:30
it and he ended up getting 97,000.
37:33
Now, of course, 97,000 is not going to solve the problem for
37:36
most people, but for somebody who has been living on Allawi,
37:40
remember we're talking about NYC people.
37:42
For somebody who has been living on Allawi OF35K to now say that
37:46
there's an extra 97 in the bank account is something.
37:51
But anyway, thank you for those of you who apply this advice
37:53
that I give out for free and you reach out to say these are the
37:57
results. Just know that I'll still, I'll
38:00
be happy and I'll still encourage you, but just know I'm
38:03
waiting to give you an assignment that you know what
38:05
all this wonderful stuff we've we've spoken about.
38:07
Please record it in audio the same way I record the podcast
38:11
and just send it to me as an MP3 so I can put it up on the
38:14
podcast. So from next week, I'm going to
38:16
start sharing some of these testimonials.
38:18
So that's it. And that's all for today.
38:21
Remember if you would love to connect with me then call me,
38:24
SMS me or WhatsApp me on 0806466 2140.
38:31
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
38:33
I will catch you same time, same place next week in your
38:36
headphones or in your speakers.