Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Run Effective Client Meetings
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome to the show today.
- 0:02I'm not in the audio booth, so apologies for any noise that is
- 0:05going to come in through the background.
- 0:07I've been talking about over here on the podcast about how
- 0:10it's a good idea to watch business shows, watch movies,
- 0:14not even business shows self. I mean, like watch anything on
- 0:16TV and then always keep an eye out for how people are
- 0:19conducting themselves, you know, on air because you know, whether
- 0:24in movies or regular programming, you see business
- 0:26people, other people who are trying to run their businesses,
- 0:28other people who are trying to move market, other people trying
- 0:31to negotiate, other people trying to network, other people
- 0:35trying to do things. And sometimes you can get good
- 0:37ideas from TV about what to do and sometimes what not to do.
- 0:41So one of the popular examples that I've been talking about
- 0:43over here on the podcast is Dragons then.
- 0:46And I think for those of you based in America or who have
- 0:49that kind of programming, I think it's called Shark Tank,
- 0:52where people go and make a pitch to an investment board, not
- 0:58because we need investment for our businesses, but because in
- 1:01the conversations that happen, you know, the back and forth,
- 1:04you know, you say something, this is me, this is my business,
- 1:06blah, blah, blah. You know, the investors, them,
- 1:08you know, they will fire you to fire one question or fire
- 1:10another question. So from now back and forth, you
- 1:13know, they fire you question, you respond, you know, all that
- 1:15back and forth, you now begin to learn that, oh, OK, when it
- 1:19comes to business, these are the kind of things that investors
- 1:22are looking for. These are the kind of things
- 1:23that make a business healthy. These are the kind of things
- 1:25that make a business grow, you know, stuff like that.
- 1:29So I always recommend that for those of us who are
- 1:32self-employed, we run businesses, you know, we have
- 1:34SME, we have nano business, micro business, whatever it is
- 1:37that you're trying to do, whatever you're hustle, always
- 1:40be watching film, watching TV, just keeping an eye out.
- 1:43OK, this guy did this, this babe did that.
- 1:45Why did they do this? OK, maybe I should do this.
- 1:48Maybe I should try that. It's a good way to learn how to
- 1:50promote your business. Now, the reason why I'm
- 1:53remembering all these things today is because over the
- 1:57weekend, actually it was on Thursday, my wife was watching
- 2:00Real Housewives of Atlanta. That was before NEPA.
- 2:03I decided to show her Shaggy because I have moved from my old
- 2:07house into the new house. And one of the reasons why I
- 2:09left the old place, apart from the fact that the landlord, you
- 2:13know, the usual now you know, I want my property, we're going to
- 2:15double your house rent, blah, blah, blah.
- 2:16One of the reasons why I left was because NEPA used to show us
- 2:19serious Shaggy, you know, 'cause like vandals came, like the van
- 2:24of Transformer in the old house had been vandalized.
- 2:28I think it's like like twice. The last one was serious
- 2:31vandalization. Like we didn't have life after
- 2:33like 2 weeks. So as I was leaving the old
- 2:36house now, I was thinking, you know, thank you Jesus, I'm free
- 2:39from Napa. No, no more suffering, no more
- 2:41sorrow or chilling in the new house.
- 2:44You know, light is OK. We're blasting AC watching Real
- 2:47Housewives of Atlanta and then next team pure Napa took Light
- 2:51and lo and behold, you don't believe.
- 2:52But as I'm talking to you now, I've been without light for
- 2:54three days and I'm thinking what kind of rubbish is this even not
- 2:58for the inventor. Like what kind of what kind of
- 3:00life is this anyway? Just one of those things, you
- 3:03know, you can't avoid the Nigerian state, You know, if you
- 3:07successfully evade NEPA, you know what about to go and jam
- 3:11you in front. So just one of those things
- 3:13anyway, forget about my NEPA woes.
- 3:16What I'm just trying to say is this.
- 3:17Before NEPA did a strong thing and took our life for the last
- 3:19three days, my wife was watching Real Housewives of Atlanta.
- 3:24For those of you guys listening to this podcast now, I know that
- 3:2790% of you have never heard of this show before.
- 3:30You know, don't be alarmed. Even though for my wife, to be
- 3:33honest, I wouldn't know these kind of shows at all as well
- 3:36'cause my wife likes the Real Housewives of Atlanta.
- 3:39What again? Real Housewives of Lagos, Real
- 3:42Housewives of Bottlomac Real Housewives of something.
- 3:47I I know Shia that do you have wives?
- 3:48You know them plenty, Shashi. She likes watching those kind of
- 3:50shows and you know, just to boost intimacy in the marriage.
- 3:56Now, you know, once in a while she's watching something which
- 3:59I'll sit down now, you know, put my idea to watch as well.
- 4:02You know, it helps the marriage to grow.
- 4:04So those of you who are in new relationships or in new
- 4:07marriages, you know, these are ways that you can boost
- 4:09intimacy. So let's say you don't like
- 4:11football, but your husband is UEFA, UEFA, UEFA.
- 4:13Once in a while Mayu is playing, just sit down, you know, put I
- 4:17just watch, you know, just small, maybe 20 minutes.
- 4:21Then you stand up and go just be doing it like that.
- 4:23Whenever he's watching match, just do it two or three times a
- 4:25week, you know, helps build intimacy.
- 4:27The same thing your husband, you don't care about Real Housewives
- 4:31whether they're in Lagos or Washington DC, but your wife
- 4:33likes that kind of thing. Once in a while, just sit down,
- 4:36you know, put I, you know, watch one or two things, you know, it
- 4:38helps intimacy, it helps conversation, helps
- 4:41relationships grow. So this is how it ties to this
- 4:45business thing that I was saying in the beginning.
- 4:47Now there's this character on the show.
- 4:49Her name is Portia. Portia is all fine babe as
- 4:52incorrect babe, very, very fine. But she is Akata as in Akata as
- 4:55hell, serious Akata babe, but she fine.
- 4:59Excuse me? As in I admit Portia is a fine
- 5:03babe. This real house has a photo
- 5:04mark. So Portia now has Carrie Bella
- 5:06for this guy, can't remember his name.
- 5:10Is it PJ or something 'cause he's a, he's a big boy.
- 5:13He, he owns a franchise. He owns a franchise chain in
- 5:18America. All they do is I think they do
- 5:21steaks and things like that, you know, steaks, you know, like
- 5:23roasted meats, you know, like oil bosu, yeah, that kind of
- 5:25thing. So now it's his business and
- 5:28he's a big boy called Farm. So now Porsche has Carrie Belle,
- 5:33she's about to give birth. The already planning baby
- 5:35reveal, you know where you invite your friends and your
- 5:38family and then you reveal the gender of the baby.
- 5:40So they called a a party planner.
- 5:43Now I saw her come come and make do presentation for us.
- 5:47Now as per Porsche now because she wants this thing to be
- 5:50large, wants this thing to be live.
- 5:52She was now telling the guy that look we'll do everything.
- 5:55The guy said, what about clowns say yes, so we'll have clowns
- 5:58OK, what about the castle and we'll have bouncy castle.
- 6:01Look, what about small shops and we'll do small shops Now what
- 6:04about this? We'll do this.
- 6:05What about fire breathers? We could do fire breathers.
- 6:07We'll do this, we'll do this. As if Porsche was just saying
- 6:10every every everything. The camera was showing P JS
- 6:13face. P JS face was stiff PJ the bone.
- 6:16I understand. I understand that feeling.
- 6:19I understand that feeling very well because even I don't like
- 6:22spending money. So as Porsche was saying we'll
- 6:24do this, we'll do this, we'll do this.
- 6:25PJ was just money anyway, So when they finished everything
- 6:29now, and This is why I want you guys to pay attention.
- 6:32The party planner, he and his team member, they now he now
- 6:37asks Portia, So what is the budget like?
- 6:42And then Portia responded, you know, like a typical I got, I
- 6:44said, I don't know. That's why she responded, I
- 6:47don't know. And you can't you can't blame
- 6:49her because you know, this is her first Billy.
- 6:52This is going to be the first baby.
- 6:54So truly, truly like most of your customers, how is she
- 6:58supposed to know what the budget is going to be?
- 7:00So she responded, I don't know. They look at PJ.
- 7:05Of course, PJ was born in because every time Porsche says
- 7:10small shops will be there, bouncy castle will be there,
- 7:14fire breather will be there, alcohol will be there, people on
- 7:18stilts will be there, animal petting will be there.
- 7:22You know, of course, in his head he's just seen dollars upon
- 7:24dollars upon dollars. So that guy just said, OK, no
- 7:27problem, I've got all your information, I'll put together a
- 7:30proposal, I'll e-mail you later, and I'll be right back.
- 7:33And then they left. As much as I'm telling you guys
- 7:38that you should be watching TV and be learning from how people
- 7:40run their businesses, this is one thing you must absolutely
- 7:44not do in your business. Lots of people complain about
- 7:48ghosting. OK, I went to a customer's
- 7:50house. We had a wonderful meeting, a
- 7:52deep presentation. The babe was saying, yes, she
- 7:54likes this. She likes that.
- 7:56She, in fact, she was even happy.
- 7:57She was excited with all the ideas we left.
- 7:59I sent them e-mail. They never responded to me.
- 8:02The babe now, I mean, she's ghosting me.
- 8:06This is one of the first ways that you enter into this, you
- 8:09know, voicemail ghosting trap. If you leave that meeting
- 8:15without getting a soft commitment about what the budget
- 8:19is, whether they're interested and what the next step could be,
- 8:23you could easily fall into this whole thing of e-mail my
- 8:28secretary. OK, that sounds interesting.
- 8:30I'll get back to you. Let me discuss with Porsche.
- 8:33After all, Porsche is the one who's interested.
- 8:35I'll get back to you. Porsche.
- 8:36I was. OK, Let me discuss with PJ.
- 8:38We'll get back to you. You know, blah, blah, blah,
- 8:39blah, blah. You know, that kind of thing.
- 8:41That's how you you've entered voicemail.
- 8:45People are now ghosting you. So never leave the meeting, this
- 8:50kind of meeting, if you're in the event space or whatever
- 8:53business you have, where do people have told you exactly
- 8:55what is that they need? And then you just say, I will
- 8:57e-mail you a proposal. What you need to do is, OK, let
- 9:04me look at it this way. Now what the guy was trying to
- 9:06do, because everything Porsche was saying, I like it, I like
- 9:09it, I like it. Add this one, add this one, add
- 9:11that one. He had the reasonable concern,
- 9:14which is look, Madam, all this one you're adding, adding,
- 9:16adding. Do you guys have Pepe?
- 9:18Can you pay? That's the main thing on his
- 9:20mind, right? OK, Now of course, this will be
- 9:23the main thing on your mind, but this is how you do it next time
- 9:25you don't now ask what is your budget?
- 9:27Because if you ask what's your budget, she will look at you to
- 9:29say, I don't know. And of course, what do you, what
- 9:33do you expect her to say? She's not a professional party
- 9:35planner. How is she supposed to know that
- 9:38if you want a party with bouncy castle, with a pet tiger, with a
- 9:42pet donkey and a horse, with bouncy castle and small shops
- 9:45plus alcohol and people walking on stilts, how much is a Bush to
- 9:48know how much it costs? It is you who are the party
- 9:51planner. Who knows now, OK, if we are
- 9:54renting tiger, tiger cost so, so, so if we are renting horse,
- 9:57horse cost so, so, so, so if we're renting stick walkers,
- 9:59stick walkers come so, so and so.
- 10:01Fire breathers charge so, so, so and so.
- 10:03Small shops would be this naira per plate or this dollar per
- 10:06plate, you know, since then Atlanta.
- 10:10So this is what I'm asking. What's the budget?
- 10:12And then she say, I don't know what you say is for clients that
- 10:20we've worked with in the past who have had a similar, who have
- 10:23explored these similar ideas, the typical budget have been
- 10:26anything between $20,000 and $28,000.
- 10:33Does that sound about right? And you keep quiet and you hear
- 10:36what they have to say. That is how you will now be able
- 10:41to know whether these people have bar or not, whether they
- 10:44can afford your services or not. And it's a way that you're going
- 10:49to be able to get feedback about whether this is somebody you
- 10:52should be pursuing or you should leave it.
- 10:54Because if you say between 20 to $20,000 and then Porsche says,
- 11:00Oh yeah, cool, you know, I'm happy, yes, that kind of thing.
- 11:04And you know, PJ is still frowny, face small.
- 11:06You know that there's room because, OK, the wife thinks
- 11:09that this thing is cool. The husband in a very small,
- 11:13maybe there's hope. Well, you said 20 to $28,000.
- 11:18And then Porsche says for what are you a thief?
- 11:24And then maybe the husband, PJ now laughs and shakes his head.
- 11:28You know that. OK, these people, this thing
- 11:31that we're discussing, it is too much.
- 11:35There's no point in following up.
- 11:36We can't close this thing. You know their their vision is
- 11:39hard and their pocket. You will now know whether this
- 11:43are people that need to invest time in nurturing the
- 11:49relationship and trying to carry on the trying to see if we can
- 11:53get business from this. So these are ways that you can
- 11:57use questions to figure out what it is that is going on.
- 12:01But The thing is you must never leave a meeting without a next
- 12:06clear step. So even in this case that you've
- 12:11called the 20,000 to 28,000 and Porsche has said yeah, and PJ
- 12:18has not said anything. You think it might work in this
- 12:22case? You can either propose the next
- 12:24step or you can ask them what would you like us to do next.
- 12:34You might be able to propose and say, OK, In this situation,
- 12:37typically our happiest customers to move forward, what we do is
- 12:43we need a 50% deposit in the amount of so, so, so, and so, so
- 12:47that we can confirm your XYZ date.
- 12:50That can be the next step. So that's something you can
- 12:56propose. But The thing is we're not going
- 12:58to leave this meeting only to e-mail them something and to
- 13:02here let me get back to you. We're going to propose the next
- 13:05step so that when we leave, the three of us, the four of us will
- 13:08be clear. Me, the party planner and my
- 13:10assistant and then Portia and her husband were very clear that
- 13:14OK, as we have finished this meeting today, this is the next
- 13:17clear step. So that follow up we're much
- 13:21more straightforward so that when I call PJ, it's not as if
- 13:24I'm harassing him is because look, he was there, his wife was
- 13:27there. This is what we agreed.
- 13:29So you know how far or you can ask them.
- 13:36So Portia, I'm really, really glad that you don't want
- 13:42agreement on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 13:44So what would you like to do next?
- 13:49The most important thing is this.
- 13:50We're trying to get a sense of what the next thing is to do so
- 13:52that we can move the business forward step by step by step.
- 13:55If Porsche says I'm absolutely excited, I can't wait to start.
- 14:00The first thing I would like to do is I would like to see the
- 14:04I'd like to work on the small shops menu.
- 14:06Then now that you leave that meeting, the next time you call
- 14:10them to follow up, you have something specific that you're
- 14:13following up on. You're calling to say Boss PG.
- 14:16How far now? Remember that last meeting?
- 14:19Porsche said that we'll see next week.
- 14:23We'll see this week. I will start on the small chops
- 14:25menu. How far are you guys free?
- 14:29See, that's a different conversation than you just
- 14:31calling aimlessly or just calling to say, hey boss, PJI,
- 14:34just seem I agree to you. I've not heard from you guys.
- 14:37That's not how you follow up. So as much as we can watch TV
- 14:45and learn from what's going on on TV, sometimes we'll watch TV
- 14:48and we'll learn things that we absolutely should not do.
- 14:51If you're in a meeting with someone, do not leave that
- 14:53meeting without two things. OK, that's it.
- 14:56Was it 2 things I can't remember in the bottom line, don't leave
- 14:59that meeting without having a clear sense of this is what
- 15:02we're going to do next. And please do not leave a
- 15:05meeting. And the meeting, the resolution
- 15:07of the meeting was I will send you a proposal.
- 15:09I will send you an e-mail. I will send you no, no, no, no,
- 15:11no, no, no, no. I will send you a proposal.
- 15:13I will send you a summary. I will send you whatever.
- 15:16That is not a good way to end the meeting.
- 15:18End the meeting with a very clear step about what it is that
- 15:21we are going to do next. When it comes to traditional
- 15:24sales, we call these advancements.
- 15:26We finish this meeting, we need to have an advancement so that
- 15:28we're moving forward. If we don't have an advancement,
- 15:31what we have is continuation. Continuation just means I'm
- 15:33following up. For the sake of following up,
- 15:35I'm following up. I'm not quite sure where I'm
- 15:37following up or I'm following up.
- 15:39I know where I'm following up. But the other people, Portia and
- 15:42her husband, they don't know why it is.
- 15:44And me, I'm buzzing them so as not to enter into this ghost
- 15:50mode thing. They're just ignoring me.
- 15:53They also need to know that look, this is the reason why I'm
- 15:56following up. So Bros PJ sister Portia, the
- 15:59reason why I'm calling you today is because last week we agreed
- 16:03that is what we're going to do. So this week we said we're going
- 16:06to agree on small chops menu. So how far are you guys free?
- 16:10Should I come to the house or should be you guys who come to
- 16:13my studio? Sorry, you guys come to my
- 16:16office. So I was like, anyway, summary,
- 16:24you have a boyfriend, you have a girlfriend.
- 16:26You want to get to know them better watching their TV shows.
- 16:29Nice way to connect. So let's do that.
- 16:31Apart from building wonderful businesses, let's also build
- 16:34super intimate, super cozy relationships and super cozy
- 16:37marriages as well as we're watching, try and keep an eye
- 16:41out. Learn a couple of things about
- 16:43how to conduct your business. See mistakes that people make.
- 16:46Make sure you never repeat that mistake.
- 16:48This is one of those mistakes. Always leave a meeting with an
- 16:51advancement. An advancement is the next clear
- 16:53step about what it is that we're going to do.
- 16:55If you do not know how to get an advancement, it's very simple.
- 16:59Ask the people, OK, we're in agreement, what would you like
- 17:02to do next? Or you propose the typical next
- 17:05step and say, OK, for most of my clients, this is typically what
- 17:09we do next. Are you good with that?
- 17:12If they say yes, good, you're making progress.
- 17:13If they say no, then ask OK, what would you like to do next?
- 17:17Then when it comes to the money thing, do not ask somebody what
- 17:20is your budget, Because if you ask budget, most people are
- 17:23going to say I don't know and you can't blame them because
- 17:26they are not the pro, you are the pro.
- 17:30Give them a range as they're talking in their head, be doing
- 17:34the mathematics. She said OK, she wants more
- 17:36chops. She said there'll be 40 people.
- 17:38Be doing that mathematics in your head.
- 17:40OK, Small shops. From what you have said, the
- 17:42small shops will be like 2000 naira a plate. 50 people 2000 *
- 17:4750. That's also another reason why I
- 17:49say have a pen and paper ready. So you're writing these things
- 17:52down because it's hard to do this matter math on your head.
- 17:55If you're there with your assistant, your assistant is the
- 17:57one who should be writing it down.
- 17:59Small shops, 2000 naira per head at 50 people should write it.
- 18:03Do the math. People walking on stilts.
- 18:07You now know that. OK, we have those people.
- 18:09The last time we rented them, we rented them at 10,000 naira per
- 18:12person. She said she wants 4, so 10 * 4
- 18:16is 40,000. Write it down.
- 18:19She says she also wants a horse there or petting zoo.
- 18:22The last time you had to rent a horse, you rented the horse at
- 18:25150,000 naira. Write it down.
- 18:28You're writing all these things down so that at the end of
- 18:30everything, instead of asking them, what's your budget?
- 18:33And then Porsche will say, I don't know, you say, OK, Madam,
- 18:36from all the things we've discussed so far is looking like
- 18:39it can fall anywhere between that kind 5 M and 5.4.
- 18:47What do you think about that? And then you hear what they have
- 18:49to say. Is this something you're willing
- 18:51to invest in? Is this something that you can
- 18:52raise? How soon you'll be ready to make
- 18:56a deposit, you know, some sort of question to get a commitment.
- 19:00So that is how you try and source out.
- 19:02You try and figure out these people that I'm talking to now,
- 19:05you know, do we have the same money expectations?
- 19:07Are we within the same range? Are they the kind of people I
- 19:10should waste my time following up with?
- 19:12Or are they the kind of people that I should just drop that?
- 19:14OK, they have, they want the whole world, but they don't have
- 19:17money to back it up. So these are the reasons these
- 19:20are helped. So Real Housewives of Atlanta,
- 19:27is this something I recommend you watch?
- 19:28If your wife is into those things, watch it.
- 19:30But for those of you who are feminists, I really think you
- 19:32guys should lobby to get that show off the air because it only
- 19:35shows the worst of of women. It's just women, you know,
- 19:40Beijing arguing, being jealous, fighting, backstabbing.
- 19:44And I really, really think that there's more to womanhood than
- 19:47that, especially since I was raised by a single mom.
- 19:50And I know that lots of you women are actually doing your
- 19:53thing. Very difficult circumstances,
- 19:56trying to take care of a home, trying to raise children, trying
- 19:58to build businesses, trying to build careers.
- 20:00So I think that there's a lot that we can do to present the
- 20:05struggles of women in a much more positive light.
- 20:07So left to me, we should actually ban Real Housewives of
- 20:10Atlanta or make it a different kind of show.
- 20:12But my wife laughs at me and my wife says, look, my husband, it
- 20:15shows that you don't understand entertainment, that if we ban
- 20:18this kind of things, what else will people watch?
- 20:20And in a sense, my life is right.
- 20:22If you make a show about successful business women and
- 20:25how, you know the travails of building the business and all
- 20:28what not, yeah, people won't watch it.
- 20:30But if you make a show where Portia has gotten pregnant for
- 20:32PJ and PJ is having an affair with other three women on the
- 20:36back, but Portia doesn't know. Her friends are trying to tell
- 20:38her that she's now fighting with everybody and quarreling with
- 20:41everybody. And they squirrel up and down
- 20:42and Katakata and, you know, chaos and everything.
- 20:45Yeah, That's the kind of thing people will watch.
- 20:47But anyway, I've just gone off on the rant.
- 20:49Look, if you'd love to connect for a strategy session, the
- 20:51business audit, audit or you have a couple of questions you'd
- 20:53like me to answer, then connect. The phone number is 08064662140.
- 21:00Country code is +234. For those of you who are not
- 21:02Nigerian, ask my WhatsApp number as well.
- 21:05Then connect with me on LinkedIn.
- 21:07The name to look for Establishima Agede then OK Also
- 21:11have good stuff on YouTube as well.
- 21:14So thank you very much for your time and attention.
- 21:16I'll catch you guys in the next episode.
- 21:17Until then, have fun watching TV with your spouse, with your
- 21:20partner. And I hope you learn one or two
- 21:22things about what to do in business and also what not to do
- 21:26when it comes to business.