Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Paintbrush of Persuasion: Equipping Your Sales Team for Success

Transcript

The Paintbrush of Persuasion: Equipping Your Sales Team for Success · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. It's available on YouTube, Apple
• 0:05
  Podcast and Spotify. I'm your host, Tavi Shima Ayede.
• 0:09
  Today's going to be a noisy episode because it's a weekend
• 0:11
  and everybody's home, so I expect to hear some
• 0:13
  interruptions in the background. And if you'd love to connect and
• 0:17
  explore opportunities with me, then call me on 08064662140 or
• 0:25
  you can WhatsApp me on the same number.
• 0:26
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 0:29
  Nigerian, then for social media, connect with me on LinkedIn
• 0:33
  because that's where I spend most of my days, well most of my
• 0:35
  time anyway on social media. Then the question that we're
• 0:39
  going to look at today is what content and resources that your
• 0:42
  sales team or your employees need to succeed.
• 0:46
  Now, since I spend most of my time here talking to peoples in
• 0:50
  the SME space, small and medium scale or micro, sorry, not
• 0:54
  micro, is it micro or nano? So I can't remember, you know,
• 0:57
  so many times I'm going to use the words sales team or
• 1:02
  employees interchangeably because when you're an SME,
• 1:05
  essentially everybody is doing sales.
• 1:08
  I was chatting with one of my classmates.
• 1:11
  Well, this was a while ago anyway.
• 1:13
  So she started work with a company that does chemicals.
• 1:18
  Well, they work with Petro chemicals.
• 1:21
  You distill some of the Petro chemicals and then you use the,
• 1:25
  the, what's it called? When you distill something, the
• 1:29
  byproduct, you use the byproduct to now create other kinds of
• 1:33
  things, not just plastics, but some things they can use in
• 1:37
  pharmaceuticals. And what she was doing was she
• 1:42
  was handling, I think human resources.
• 1:44
  And, you know, we're having a chat about how she is, you know,
• 1:48
  making the switch. That's for those of us who
• 1:50
  studied law. And then now you're in human
• 1:51
  resources. And at some point she was like,
• 1:54
  look, essentially what she's doing in sales, I'm like, how,
• 1:56
  how do you mean? And she's like, look, it's a
• 1:58
  small company, so everybody has to sell.
• 2:01
  Because even though she carries the human resources badge, The
• 2:05
  thing is, if not everybody in the business is selling, then
• 2:07
  the business doesn't make money and then salary is not
• 2:09
  guaranteed and the business goes under.
• 2:13
  So for most of us who are small and medium scale business
• 2:16
  people, you'll find that your employees have to sell.
• 2:21
  So you don't just have a sales team, but most of your employees
• 2:24
  have to end up selling anyway. Now the sorry, forgive me, it's
• 2:31
  how my time here. So this code is really coming on
• 2:36
  strong. Although to be honest, I spent
• 2:38
  most of last week drinking very cold stuff and that's just me
• 2:42
  being irresponsible. Where was I?
• 2:47
  OK, yes, I am. So I just explained why the
• 2:52
  question was relevant to most of us over here.
• 2:55
  Because if you're in the SME space, then whether you have
• 2:58
  employees or a dedicated sales team, everybody has to sell.
• 3:02
  Now the philosophy behind this question, what content and
• 3:05
  resources do your sales team need to be successful?
• 3:09
  The philosophy behind it is what people in the industry call
• 3:11
  sales enablement. Now, sales enablement basically
• 3:14
  just means giving your employees or giving your, your sales team
• 3:19
  the resources that they need to sell effectively.
• 3:22
  Because it's not enough to gather a bunch of people and put
• 3:24
  them in the room and then say go ye forth and sell.
• 3:27
  That's not how it works. Yes, you gather people together,
• 3:31
  you say go ye forth and sell, bring in the profits, but then
• 3:35
  there are certain resources that they need to sell effectively.
• 3:39
  And so this whole thing about sales enablement folks in this
• 3:45
  space, we've been thinking of the kind of training that your
• 3:49
  employees need, the kind of materials that your employees
• 3:52
  need, and the kind of technology that your employees need as
• 3:55
  well. So I'm sure we can talk about it
• 3:57
  in wider terms, but for now, let's keep it that simple, this
• 3:59
  training, this material and this technology.
• 4:02
  So you don't just gather people into a room and say go ye forth
• 4:05
  and sell. You know, like my friend who is
• 4:07
  now working in a company that deals with some petrochemical
• 4:12
  stuff, you don't just gather everybody and say go ye forth
• 4:15
  and sell. Sales people go out and sell.
• 4:18
  Human resources people go out and sell.
• 4:20
  Accounting people go and sell. You need to equip them with
• 4:23
  training material and technology.
• 4:25
  So First off, when it comes to training, the one that everybody
• 4:28
  starts with is product training. And that one is absolutely
• 4:31
  necessary because like Brian Tracy says, you know, it's the
• 4:33
  beginning of selling effectively because if you don't know what
• 4:38
  the hell the product is, then how are you going to sell it?
• 4:41
  Now, you heard that I was trying to describe what it is that my
• 4:45
  friend does in this human resources firm.
• 4:48
  And it sounded kind of sloppy, but maybe you got the idea.
• 4:51
  And that is because last last, at the end of the day, I don't
• 4:54
  have a good understanding of what it is that they do.
• 4:56
  I know that there's petrochemicals involved and I
• 4:59
  know that you distill the petrochemicals to get other
• 5:01
  things and those other things. You can now use it in
• 5:03
  pharmaceuticals and you can use it in plastics.
• 5:06
  That's the most that I know. But that's probably not enough
• 5:09
  to go out and sell it. So product training, you need to
• 5:13
  sit your people down. Oh, sorry.
• 5:14
  One moment I have to go and clear my throat.
• 5:20
  OK, sorry about that. I'm back.
• 5:23
  I'm trying to make sure that I don't, you know, do the sniffles
• 5:26
  and the coughing into the microphone too much before I
• 5:28
  lose subscribers. Where were we?
• 5:32
  Yes, I was talking about how product training is absolutely
• 5:34
  essential. So when you gather everybody
• 5:35
  into the room, before you say go ye forth and sell, the first
• 5:38
  thing you need to do is you need to teach everybody.
• 5:40
  This is what we do. This is what we produce, this is
• 5:43
  how the product works. You know, all these sorts of
• 5:45
  things. Product knowledge, absolutely
• 5:47
  important because if you send somebody out into the field and
• 5:50
  they have no product training, even though the person looks
• 5:53
  right, sounds right, dresses right, the moment the customer
• 5:57
  asks one question and you can't answer and you begin to fumble,
• 6:01
  that is how you start losing the sale.
• 6:04
  Especially for people who are in these sorts of technical spaces.
• 6:08
  So if what you do is you produce diapers, then I guess you don't
• 6:11
  really need in depth product training per SE.
• 6:14
  But you find that for most of us, even if what we sell is
• 6:17
  beauty or skin care products, we actually do need product
• 6:20
  training because it's not enough to say if you use this, all your
• 6:23
  pimples will go away. Nowadays parents, let's say
• 6:27
  you're selling for kids. Parents are more, what's the
• 6:30
  word? They're more informed.
• 6:32
  So of course, and mum, she will ask you like, OK, does this
• 6:34
  thing contain sunscreen? You need to be able to answer if
• 6:36
  it contains sunscreen and if the answer is yes, it contains
• 6:39
  sunscreen. And the mumsy asks you, OK, is
• 6:41
  the SPV 45 or SPV 60, whatever. You need to know that there's a
• 6:47
  difference, why that difference is important and what exactly is
• 6:50
  contained in this cream for children that you're selling.
• 6:53
  So we all need product training. Then there's also a certain
• 6:58
  level of industry training that people need to know about.
• 7:00
  You need to know what's going on in the industry, what are the
• 7:03
  trends, what are the competitors, you know, stuff
• 7:05
  like that so that people can have a sophisticated discussion
• 7:08
  the next time they're with your customers.
• 7:10
  Because you know how sales can be.
• 7:11
  Now you come in, you're trying to sell something, but then
• 7:14
  sometimes the conversation goes off track and there's plenty of
• 7:18
  chitchat, small talk. You know, people need to be able
• 7:20
  to handle themselves. So they need to be abreast about
• 7:22
  what the industry is. And so back when I was in the
• 7:26
  financial product space, in the insurance space, that's
• 7:29
  something that really came in handy because if you're talking
• 7:31
  to your customer and your customer doesn't like your
• 7:33
  product and then they say, but XYZ insurance does this, you
• 7:37
  need to be able to have the knowledge and the competence to
• 7:40
  say, Oh yes, XYZ insurance does this.
• 7:42
  But this product is actually better suited for this, that,
• 7:45
  that, that, that and doesn't apply in your situation because
• 7:48
  here is how. And then you have that
• 7:49
  discussion. And then you're able to show the
• 7:51
  customer how the particular product that you're trying to
• 7:54
  sell to them, particular insurance product or the
• 7:56
  particular financial product, how it is best suited for them.
• 7:59
  So industries training, you need to, excuse me, your sales team,
• 8:04
  your employees, they need to know what's up.
• 8:06
  Then on the training aspect, you also need to make sure that your
• 8:09
  people have sales process training.
• 8:12
  And this is where most business owners in Nigeria, this is where
• 8:15
  they drop the ball. You teach everybody about the
• 8:17
  product, you let everybody know about the industry and what the
• 8:19
  competition is doing. But then you don't teach your
• 8:22
  people that, look, there's a process of selling.
• 8:24
  It's not about going out and looking handsome and pretty.
• 8:28
  You know, it's unfortunate, but I was talking to someone last
• 8:31
  week. The person wanted to hire a
• 8:32
  sales force for their team and better standard talking about
• 8:37
  how we need beautiful girls, you need light skinned girls and
• 8:40
  blah blah, blah. And so in no offense my my
• 8:45
  mother's and Big Sisters listening to this podcast, but
• 8:49
  really some people think that that is all that is required
• 8:51
  when it comes to sales. That if you so excuse me, that
• 8:57
  if you get a sales force that is largely female attractive, light
• 9:01
  skinned and properly educated, you know, people who have
• 9:04
  master's degrees, education and stuff like that, there's some
• 9:07
  fun is that you'll be able to sell very well because that is
• 9:10
  all that is required. Attractive women out in the
• 9:12
  field. And that is why every once in a
• 9:15
  while I keep going on on the rant and I haven't written about
• 9:18
  it on LinkedIn a long time ago. That look, it's more than just
• 9:25
  getting pretty women with correct shape or boys who know
• 9:28
  how to speak funny and then putting them out in the field.
• 9:30
  It's not that simple. So we need to learn that this is
• 9:34
  a sales process. How do you identify the person
• 9:37
  that you're going to talk to? How do you start the
• 9:39
  conversation? How do you figure out the
• 9:41
  problems? Now that I know what the problem
• 9:42
  is, how do you make an effective presentation or a proposal when
• 9:46
  you guys start talking about price?
• 9:47
  How are you going to negotiate? When you guys have negotiated
• 9:50
  everything? How do you know that it's time
• 9:51
  for the close? How do you initiate the close?
• 9:54
  Are you going to take part payment or full?
• 9:58
  Then there's fulfilment, you know, are you going to stage
• 10:02
  fulfilment? Fulfillment is basically when
• 10:06
  you're trying to deliver on what it is that you sold.
• 10:09
  Are you going to figure out if customers are happy, if there's
• 10:12
  any issues, what's the customer service process?
• 10:15
  So there's there's plenty of talk and training that needs to
• 10:18
  be done on this end because people are entering into the
• 10:23
  field with the right product, training with the right industry
• 10:25
  knowledge, but they don't know that there's a way to handle the
• 10:27
  sales process. And that is where people fumble
• 10:29
  things. So there's plenty to talk about,
• 10:32
  but let me just put a pin on it here on the training aspect,
• 10:35
  because we've already done 10 minutes into the show already.
• 10:39
  Then next is material because remember I said we were looking
• 10:41
  at this at it from a three pronged approach.
• 10:44
  So you want your people to sell effectively.
• 10:46
  You want your employees to sell effectively.
• 10:48
  You want your girl in the shop to sell effectively.
• 10:50
  You want your boys out in the field to sell effectively.
• 10:52
  There's training this material, this technology.
• 10:55
  So we've handled the training aspect.
• 10:56
  Now let's look at material. When we say material here on the
• 11:00
  podcast, we just mean marketing collateral, that's all.
• 11:03
  What's the website going to look like?
• 11:05
  Because of course, you know, nowadays we have to refer
• 11:07
  somebody to the website. Well, depending on what you do,
• 11:10
  you have to refer somebody to the Instagram.
• 11:12
  So for those of you who are in the beauty and skin care space,
• 11:15
  most likely will be the Instagram that you'll be sending
• 11:17
  people to. So what does the website look
• 11:19
  like? What does the Instagram look
• 11:21
  like? What did the other online
• 11:22
  resources look like? Then if we're sending people out
• 11:26
  with Flyers right now, Flyers and brochures, those ones are
• 11:29
  really raining now in Abuja. For people who are selling real
• 11:33
  estate development projects, a lot of them are in traffic now
• 11:36
  carrying their Flyers and their brochures and stuff like that.
• 11:40
  I'm not saying that that's what you should do.
• 11:41
  I'm just telling you guys that in Abuja, that's what is raining
• 11:44
  for now as at the time of making this podcast.
• 11:47
  So I have no idea about what's going on in the East or what's
• 11:49
  going on in LAG then. Yeah.
• 11:54
  So what kind of Flyers are we sending them out with?
• 11:57
  What kind of brochures, what kind of written material so they
• 11:59
  can leave behind? Are we sending them out with
• 12:02
  business cards? How do we design the card?
• 12:05
  What do they look like? What is the call to action on
• 12:08
  the Flyers? You know, so these are the kinds
• 12:11
  of things that we talk about when we mean material, it just
• 12:14
  means marketing collateral as they're out in the field and
• 12:16
  they're talking to people and they need supporting material to
• 12:19
  explain something, to illustrate something or an excuse just to
• 12:23
  give somebody material so that you can get their phone number
• 12:26
  and call them back. What kind of things I'm going to
• 12:28
  send them out with. And that's material.
• 12:30
  Then the last technology, also something that people ignore.
• 12:35
  Technology doesn't have to be high tech.
• 12:37
  A diary that's also technology. I've spoken about how starting
• 12:41
  off in the legal space years ago, close to two decades ago,
• 12:47
  how back then this is how we used to run things back then.
• 12:52
  Everybody, every single lawyer, from the baby lawyer up to the
• 12:58
  most experienced lawyer, everybody has their own diary.
• 13:03
  And in the diary, you put everything there when you're
• 13:05
  supposed to see a client, when the matter comes up in court.
• 13:08
  What the ruling was, when, when things are drawn to everybody
• 13:12
  had their own diary. Then the firm itself, the law
• 13:16
  firm, the law office itself also had like a master diary where
• 13:21
  all the extra information will be entered into.
• 13:24
  So the person who is the police. By the way, I've not been in
• 13:28
  love for a very long time, so I'm not sure if this is how law
• 13:30
  firms still work. So I'm telling you what used to
• 13:33
  happen, but I don't know about now.
• 13:34
  I'm sure things have changed. So there'll be somebody then who
• 13:37
  used to be called the head of practice.
• 13:39
  I don't know if they still have head of practice in law firms.
• 13:41
  So head of practice now is the person who'll be responsible for
• 13:45
  making sure that if the 15 junior lawyers went out on 15
• 13:49
  separate matters and came back all the information that was
• 13:53
  gotten about the particular cases we have in their Diaries,
• 13:57
  we have to make sure that the main office file is updated.
• 14:00
  And we also have to make sure that the main office diary is
• 14:03
  updated as well so that anybody can go to the main master diary
• 14:07
  or the main file with the client's name and open it.
• 14:10
  And you'll be able to know that, OK, for this particular client,
• 14:13
  this is how the matter started. This is where we're at and this
• 14:16
  is what we have to do next on that particular matter.
• 14:19
  So you can see that technology doesn't have to be fancy.
• 14:22
  A diary also is technology. So if you tell your people, go
• 14:26
  you forth and sell where it was, leaving them to their own
• 14:28
  devices, leaving them to do things on their own, not exactly
• 14:31
  a good idea. Even if you get people, you give
• 14:35
  all of them diary, small, small diary.
• 14:38
  You know, 2024 diary, OK, right now the yes and and then 2025
• 14:43
  diary. And then you try and teach them
• 14:49
  simple stuff about how to use a diary, how to schedule stuff,
• 14:52
  how to record stuff. You are doing a lot to move
• 14:56
  things in your favour rather than when you just have a
• 14:58
  meeting every Monday morning. And then you tell your people
• 15:01
  where go ye forth and sell. Even if you give them a diary,
• 15:04
  you're helping them. Then phone, phone.
• 15:08
  That's also good technology. Lots of people don't pay
• 15:10
  attention to this. You leave your people to sell
• 15:13
  any which way and to use their own phone.
• 15:16
  Well, there's debates about it one way or another.
• 15:20
  There's some people who say, look, let them just use their
• 15:23
  phone. And there are some people who
• 15:24
  say, no, I will give them a dedicated official line because
• 15:28
  you want to be able to keep all the contacts and the data that
• 15:32
  goes along with using the phone. So well.
• 15:35
  Anyway, that's the subject for another podcast episode.
• 15:37
  But diary, that's technology. Phone, that's technology.
• 15:42
  There are some people who use Excel sheets.
• 15:44
  I was interviewing someone recently that's back when I was
• 15:49
  doing some consulting work in the alternative energy space.
• 15:51
  My client wanted to hire a sales manager.
• 15:54
  And so for the guy he was selling for, I think was Sun,
• 16:01
  Sun Systems or something like that.
• 16:03
  And when we got to discussion about how you manage contacts
• 16:06
  and things like that, and the person was talking about how
• 16:08
  they used Excel and it was really, really impressive.
• 16:10
  But it just goes to show that, you know, Microsoft Word, you're
• 16:14
  opening a Word document, you open Excel sheet, you can
• 16:17
  actually can use that to manage your daily sales activities.
• 16:21
  That OK, today I've seen Mr. Ogdenbe, next tomorrow I need to
• 16:24
  see Mr. Chukudi and the day after that I need to see law.
• 16:28
  Law is in there or whatever. So Excel sheet can also work.
• 16:34
  But if you're going to do things the right way in court, then you
• 16:37
  need to have ACRM. That's a customer relationship
• 16:40
  management tool and CRM tools basically is just something that
• 16:44
  shows you who are you talking to right now?
• 16:47
  Who are you chasing? What stage of the conversation
• 16:50
  are you at? What stage of the relationship
• 16:53
  are you guys at? What are you supposed to do next
• 16:56
  to move the deal forward? Are the people owing you
• 17:00
  something? Are they supposed to send you
• 17:01
  something before that, before the deal moves forward?
• 17:05
  So the CRM basically just a tool that is there to answer all
• 17:07
  these questions. So the name of all your contacts
• 17:10
  are there the people that are not serious separated into a
• 17:15
  separate category. So you can do relationship
• 17:18
  knowledge, sorry, relationship nurturing, yes.
• 17:21
  Then the people that are serious, it looks like the deal
• 17:25
  might go forward. You know, you create a dedicated
• 17:28
  deal and you start tracking it through the stages.
• 17:30
  What stage are we at in the deal?
• 17:33
  So CRM, that's also part of our technology.
• 17:36
  But of course, for those of you who've been listening to the
• 17:38
  podcast for any length of time, I've been saying that if you
• 17:42
  can't afford CRM or you don't know any free CRMS or you just
• 17:46
  don't want to use CRM, you actually can use your phone as
• 17:49
  the CRM tool. So if you're not listening to
• 17:53
  this podcast episode and you're curious and you want to see how
• 17:57
  you can use your phone as the CRM tool.
• 17:59
  So excuse me, then just go to YouTube because all the podcast
• 18:03
  episodes I've done so far, over 970 of them are available on
• 18:06
  YouTube. So I'm saying YouTube just
• 18:09
  because it would be easier to search within YouTube than
• 18:11
  trying to search within your podcast player.
• 18:13
  So go to YouTube, type Tavishima, then type CRM and
• 18:18
  then type phone or something like that or Tavishima on phone.
• 18:22
  And every single episode that I've made about how to use your
• 18:24
  phone as ACRM tool is going to come up.
• 18:27
  And then of course, listen with a pen and a paper, make some
• 18:30
  notes about how you can use your phone, your note taking
• 18:35
  functions in the phone, your diary functions in the phone,
• 18:39
  what else? Your notification functions in
• 18:41
  the phone, just to do some basic stuff like, you know, who are
• 18:45
  you talking to? Who should you talk to next?
• 18:47
  What stage are you at? You know, all these sorts of
• 18:51
  things. Then when it comes to
• 18:54
  technology, there's also the thing of company car.
• 18:56
  Yeah, there is that conversation.
• 18:59
  My one of my sisters started off in the banking space.
• 19:03
  Well, she has since left but back then anyway, it was a
• 19:05
  thing. The bank could provide company
• 19:07
  cars so that they could go out in groups of five and there are
• 19:11
  some business owners who still try and do that today.
• 19:14
  Although with the cost of fuel now being 1000 to in Abuja I
• 19:19
  anyway, it's been long since I've spoken to any business
• 19:22
  owners about how the cost of how the fuel increase has affected
• 19:27
  the way that they run their business.
• 19:28
  I've only spoken to one person who is in the paint space.
• 19:32
  He sells paint. He sells paint.
• 19:36
  Sorry about that. And yeah, he was complaining
• 19:40
  about shirling the car for the boys and girls to get out into
• 19:44
  the field. So essentially we're trying to
• 19:47
  answer the question, what content and resources do my
• 19:49
  sales team need to succeed? That whole thing is called sales
• 19:53
  enablement, and we are looking at sales enablement.
• 19:55
  You're thinking primarily training.
• 19:57
  What should I be training them? Material.
• 19:59
  What kind of things should they be carrying?
• 20:01
  Technology. What kind of tools do they need
• 20:03
  to do their job? So now let's use a case study to
• 20:05
  try and flesh this out. OK, good.
• 20:08
  Since I spoke about this guy myself, paint, I'll just use him
• 20:12
  as an example right now. Just all the things that we're
• 20:15
  talking about, it's not going to be excessive fury.
• 20:18
  And then, yeah, it will be a good example to talk about
• 20:21
  because when Hamatan, excuse me, at least in Abuja anyway,
• 20:25
  Hamatan is. And the heat and the dust is
• 20:28
  going on real strong. So I think this will be the
• 20:31
  perfect time to look into paint sales.
• 20:35
  Now, for those of you who are in the paint industry, forgive me,
• 20:37
  maybe I'm saying some things that are not correct.
• 20:39
  But The thing is, back when I was a boy, a real young boy,
• 20:43
  back when I was an embryo, people did not paint.
• 20:48
  Used to be a seasonal thing. Like you couldn't sell paint in
• 20:51
  the rainy season. I don't know why.
• 20:53
  Maybe it's that if you paint in the rainy season and it rains,
• 20:56
  then The thing is going to wash. Or maybe it's that if you paint
• 21:00
  in the rainy season, there's not enough sunshine so things will
• 21:02
  take too long to dry. I have no idea.
• 21:05
  But just remember because my father used to do a bit of
• 21:07
  building back then, that back then, people will not paint in
• 21:11
  the rainy season. So if that is still the case now
• 21:14
  that we're in Hamilton, I was assuming that for those of you
• 21:17
  who sell paint, you guys are getting ready for your busiest
• 21:19
  time of the year. So now if you sell paint and now
• 21:23
  we're in Hamilton and you're thinking, so 1 moment, sorry
• 21:30
  about that. So if you sell paint right now
• 21:34
  entering Hamatana, you're thinking, OK, now is the time.
• 21:36
  Gather all the boys and girls into the office, give them
• 21:40
  motivational speech and now say go ye forth and sell.
• 21:43
  No, it doesn't work that way. You need to gather the boys and
• 21:46
  girls into the office and there's a couple of stuff that
• 21:49
  you actually need to teach them. You need to use the boys and the
• 21:52
  girls, the product specs or the use case scenarios.
• 21:55
  These are the different kinds of paints that we have here.
• 21:58
  These kind of paints, they work best for residential buildings
• 22:01
  because they're cheap or because they have this.
• 22:03
  These kind of paints work best for commercial buildings because
• 22:07
  commercial buildings are this tall or this wide or exposed to
• 22:11
  this amount of sunshine. So you need paint that is of
• 22:14
  this specs or the aspects. Then what else?
• 22:18
  These kind of paints, they're very good for killing mold or
• 22:22
  these kinds of paints are very good to use in children's
• 22:25
  bedrooms because they don't have allergens or whatever.
• 22:28
  But you need to give them this sort of training so that
• 22:30
  depending on who it is that your people are talking to, whether
• 22:33
  they're talking to a property developer or whether they're
• 22:36
  talking to your mom, see who don't want to paint the
• 22:37
  children's room only or they're talking to a, excuse me, sorry,
• 22:46
  forgive me. Whether they're talking to a
• 22:47
  landlord who wants to allow Lord who wants to paint the outside
• 22:54
  of the house, they need to be able to have that knowledge so
• 22:56
  you can have a very good and profitable conversation with the
• 23:00
  people because the people need to sound knowledgeable.
• 23:03
  So you need to make sure that your boys and your girls, you
• 23:05
  have taught them every single thing you know about all the
• 23:09
  different products that you sell.
• 23:11
  So this paint range is different from this paint range.
• 23:16
  This one. These are the advantages.
• 23:17
  This one, these are the disadvantages.
• 23:19
  These ones. If you're talking residential,
• 23:21
  talk about this one. This one.
• 23:23
  If you're talking commercial, talk about this one.
• 23:25
  This one. If you're talking about factory
• 23:26
  use, talk about this one. So all those things, then you
• 23:32
  also need to teach your boys and girls when it comes to selling
• 23:35
  paint, you need to talk to them about them.
• 23:37
  FAQs and objections. Now, FAQ just means frequently
• 23:41
  asked questions. You just send your people out
• 23:44
  into the field knowing the kind of question that most people ask
• 23:47
  because let's face it, some of you might not believe because
• 23:52
  maybe you're new in business, but don't just continue.
• 23:54
  By the time you do business like 2-3 years, you realize that
• 23:58
  every single question that a customer could possibly ask, you
• 24:00
  have heard everything. After about two or three years,
• 24:03
  once in a while you hear something like, ah, where did
• 24:05
  that? Excuse me?
• 24:07
  Once in a while you hear something and I'll be like, OK,
• 24:09
  that's a brand new question. I've never heard that before,
• 24:12
  but The thing is, those basic questions that people ask every
• 24:15
  day, every week, you should be compiling them in the office.
• 24:18
  That's what we call an FAQ, frequently asked questions.
• 24:22
  Your people need to know what the FAQ are so that they will
• 24:24
  not be surprised if you teach them in the office that most
• 24:28
  people say your price is too high.
• 24:31
  When they get into the field and somebody says your price is too
• 24:34
  high, they will not be confused because back in the office, you
• 24:37
  guys already had that, that conversation that look,
• 24:41
  everybody you talk to, they will say your price is too high or
• 24:44
  they will say, what makes you more expensive than Dulux?
• 24:46
  Let's say you're selling for another company, you're not
• 24:48
  selling for Dulux. You need to have that question.
• 24:51
  Now when somebody says why are you more expensive than Dulux?
• 24:54
  After all, Dulux is international market leader.
• 24:58
  So you need to teach them, this is the FAQ.
• 24:59
  This is what people will say when they say it.
• 25:01
  This is what you were saying next, or this is how you will
• 25:03
  handle it. Excuse me.
• 25:06
  So those are FAQs and objections.
• 25:08
  So it's part of the things you have to talk to the boys and the
• 25:10
  girls before you tell them go ye forth and sell paint.
• 25:14
  Then you also need to talk to them about market trends or
• 25:17
  what's going on in the competition.
• 25:18
  So like I said, we're selling paint, you're selling a
• 25:21
  different kind. Dulux, I'm assuming that Dulux
• 25:24
  is a market leader in Nigeria because well, back as a boy back
• 25:29
  then Dulux, the ones are raining back then Abuja and Lagos, but I
• 25:34
  don't know about now. So let me assume that Dulux is
• 25:36
  still raining. So you teach them, you let them
• 25:40
  know what's up, OK. When it comes to residential,
• 25:42
  these are the brands that reign. When it comes to commercial,
• 25:45
  these are the brands that lots of people try to use.
• 25:48
  These are the market trends. This is where we're trying to
• 25:50
  break in. This is where we're trying to
• 25:52
  enter this class of market. So we're trying to enter that
• 25:54
  class of market, you know, blah, blah, blah, those sorts of
• 25:58
  things. Then what I said about training
• 26:00
  them, about skills process, you need to tell them a whole bunch
• 26:04
  of stuff from prospecting to closing.
• 26:06
  Prospecting is when you're trying to figure out who might
• 26:08
  be interested in my product or service or who is the ideal
• 26:11
  candidate for my prospect or service.
• 26:12
  How do we identify them? How do we start toasting them?
• 26:15
  How do we start the conversation?
• 26:17
  How do we book a meeting? If we want to do demonstration,
• 26:20
  how do we run the demonstration? Can we give them samples?
• 26:23
  How many samples are we supposed to give them?
• 26:25
  When we give them samples, how do we follow up?
• 26:27
  How do we close the deal? How do we collect the money
• 26:31
  after we have collected the money?
• 26:32
  How do we schedule delivery? How do we handle customer
• 26:36
  service conversation? We need to have all these
• 26:38
  conversations with the boys and the girls before we sell them,
• 26:41
  send them out into the field to go and sell our paint.
• 26:44
  Then when it came to prospecting, I was talking about
• 26:47
  the ICP oil buyer personas. This is one thing that business
• 26:52
  owners forget to stress. You don't just gather boys and
• 26:55
  girls in the room and then say go and sell.
• 26:58
  You need to tell them, who are we supposed to be chasing?
• 27:02
  Because there's a company that I, I've done some small work for
• 27:07
  and they hit the field and I was talking to one of the people and
• 27:10
  they sent me some videos about people that I've been talking
• 27:14
  to. I'm just looking at the video.
• 27:17
  In my heart of hearts, I could already tell that, look, these
• 27:20
  people that you're talking to, these are not the kind of people
• 27:24
  that have the money to buy this product that you people are
• 27:28
  selling. So it's the kind of thing that
• 27:33
  can happen when you send your boys and girls out to sell for
• 27:36
  you and you don't even tell them that who are you chasing?
• 27:39
  You need to tell them we are only going after these kinds of
• 27:43
  people because of what we sell. So only talk to people that look
• 27:47
  like this, that sound like this or this old or who work in this
• 27:51
  industry or who live in this part of town.
• 27:53
  You need to tell them if you are selling, let me see, our worker
• 28:02
  is raining. Now if you're selling those new
• 28:06
  Land Rover Jeeps or those new Toyota Jeeps, those fancy ones
• 28:11
  with correct grill, the one that the grill lights up at night,
• 28:14
  you know, has like crisscross diamond patterns, as in sweet,
• 28:17
  sweet cars. But I can't wait to make some
• 28:19
  nice money so I can buy myself one of those cars so I can start
• 28:22
  flexing on all of you. So if you're trying to sell
• 28:25
  those kind of cars and then you come to my own neighbourhood and
• 28:27
  I'm trying to sell that car, you know, you've missed Rd. because
• 28:30
  people in my own part of town, what we drive is Camry, what we
• 28:34
  drive is Corolla, what we drive is Honda Accord.
• 28:40
  Maybe somebody might have Toyota Jeep, but won't be 2024, you
• 28:44
  know, will be maybe 2001 version or something like that.
• 28:49
  I'm not saying we're broke. I'm, I'm just saying that you
• 28:54
  understand that, you know how Niger is.
• 28:56
  So if you're selling those kind of cars and they're coming to my
• 28:59
  neighbourhood, they're trying to sell in my own neighbourhood,
• 29:01
  you've missed Rd. You need to be able to tell your
• 29:03
  boys and your girls that look based because of what we sell
• 29:06
  and based on the research that we have, just focus on this kind
• 29:09
  of person, focus on these kind of jobs, focus on these kind of
• 29:12
  neighbourhoods. You know, it's just common
• 29:14
  sense. And like I keep saying it, that
• 29:16
  is the reason why people who sell pure water, that's the
• 29:19
  reason why they don't come to neighbourhoods like mine,
• 29:23
  because in neighbourhoods like mine, everybody's there inside
• 29:27
  their own house, water board is running, everybody has a fridge.
• 29:30
  So nobody's buying pure water, none.
• 29:33
  That is the reason why people who sell pure water, they go to
• 29:36
  the garage, they go to the park and they don't go there in the
• 29:40
  morning. They go in the afternoon when
• 29:42
  it's hot. And then they shall pure water
• 29:44
  because people who are coming out from the bus who are hot and
• 29:46
  frustrated need something to cool them down and then they'll
• 29:50
  buy the pure water. So that's just the common sense,
• 29:52
  whether you're selling pure water or you're selling
• 29:54
  expensive cars, this whole thing of ICP very important.
• 29:58
  Who is the ideal customer? Who are the buyer personas?
• 30:01
  Where do they live? Where do they hang out?
• 30:03
  How can we find them real life online, offline?
• 30:07
  How do we go to them? Really, really important.
• 30:10
  Stop telling your boys and girls your sales teams go you forth
• 30:14
  and sell, but you have not told them.
• 30:15
  Who are we chasing? Tell them clearly or else
• 30:18
  there'll be no situation where they're talking to people and
• 30:22
  some of us can see that you're wasting your time.
• 30:25
  These people that you're talking to, there's no room here.
• 30:28
  There's no going to be any business.
• 30:29
  So you need to have those conversation with your boys and
• 30:31
  girls before you send them out to go and sell your paint.
• 30:34
  Then also have those conversations around CRM or lead
• 30:38
  management or advancements. Basically what you're trying to
• 30:41
  say is when we're talking to people, this is where we're
• 30:43
  going to keep our records. So remember when I was talking
• 30:45
  about diary or phone or Excel or CRM, This is where that's
• 30:49
  important. When you talk to somebody, this
• 30:51
  is how you record it in the diary.
• 30:53
  This is how you schedule the follow up, you know, blah, blah,
• 30:57
  blah, stuff like that. So you need to have these
• 31:00
  conversations with them. When we're talking to people,
• 31:03
  how do we decide who is a valuable contact to keep up with
• 31:06
  for the valuable contacts, where do we record the information?
• 31:09
  When we record it? How are we following up with
• 31:11
  them? How are we calling them?
• 31:12
  How long should we schedule? If you talk to somebody and the
• 31:15
  person is interested, should we schedule an appointment for one
• 31:17
  week? So we're settling for two weeks.
• 31:19
  Should we schedule for three weeks?
• 31:21
  What comes first? What comes next?
• 31:23
  Should we give them sample now or should we talk about money
• 31:26
  first? After we're OK with money, then
• 31:29
  we now know that we give them a sample before we visit site.
• 31:32
  You know, we need to have these conversations.
• 31:34
  You need to have a conversation with your boys and girls.
• 31:36
  Helps them to sell effectively then.
• 31:40
  OK. Yeah, the technology thing.
• 31:42
  Official line. Well, the fellow I was talking
• 31:43
  to for him was an official line person and giving his own
• 31:46
  business. I would say yes, give everybody
• 31:47
  the official line because it's something that the guy has
• 31:50
  suffered in the past. Everybody was selling from their
• 31:52
  own phone. So the day that somebody says
• 31:54
  Olga, I'm tired, I resign and they leave.
• 31:57
  That is it. You do not have access to those
• 31:59
  contacts anymore because they're on that guy's phone.
• 32:02
  I want to forcefully take his phone from his hand and then
• 32:05
  transfer all the contacts. You can't.
• 32:08
  So right now, my guy is an official line guy.
• 32:10
  So there's some of you who might want to consider that, that yes,
• 32:13
  everybody has a phone, but when you go out into the field and
• 32:16
  you're selling, you will only use this official line that is
• 32:22
  so that you have access to your data and you own your contacts
• 32:25
  and then things like that. Then the thing about company
• 32:28
  car, well, like I said, there's not lots of Nigerian employers
• 32:33
  that do that. The banks used to do that, you
• 32:35
  know, get one company car, then attach 1 driver and you know,
• 32:39
  five people or something. The paint guy I was talking to,
• 32:41
  that's how he runs his business. Although he was thinking maybe
• 32:44
  he might get rid of that because of the cost of fuel and then
• 32:47
  things like that. But anyway, it's tough to
• 32:50
  consider. It doesn't have to be company
• 32:52
  car. There's some people who give a
• 32:53
  daily stipend like OK, you're going out today.
• 32:56
  We expect that you're going to this and this and this part of
• 32:58
  the country. So this is your daily stipend of
• 33:01
  for transport. And some other people who say,
• 33:03
  look, everything is in the salary.
• 33:05
  So we paid your salary, go sort yourself out.
• 33:07
  So it depends then. OK, this is 30 minutes.
• 33:13
  Let me just bring this to a close because we've spoken a
• 33:15
  lot. I just hope that me trying to
• 33:17
  use this case study, you know, that's for somebody who is in
• 33:20
  the business of selling paint, whether in Abuja or Lagos or
• 33:22
  Port Harcourt, They're trying to show you how to think about this
• 33:25
  thing taking in terms of training, material, technology.
• 33:31
  What do we need to give our boys and girls who are selling for us
• 33:34
  so that they can go out and be successful?
• 33:38
  Whether you agree with some of the methods that I've spoken
• 33:40
  about or not, the summary thing that I want to pass across, what
• 33:43
  I'm hoping that you guys will take on board is this.
• 33:46
  Don't just hire salespeople or don't just hire employees.
• 33:51
  Don't just hire boys and girls, put them together in a room and
• 33:53
  then tell them go and sell. Go and bring sales.
• 33:56
  That's not how it works. There are some small, small,
• 33:59
  small conversations you need to be having with these people on
• 34:02
  the daily, on the weekly or the monthly, and what I've talked,
• 34:06
  what we've spoken about over here on this podcast, sales
• 34:08
  enablement. These are the things I was
• 34:10
  supposed to be doing. You gather them once in a while,
• 34:13
  training material, technology. If you're doing this in a small,
• 34:17
  small, small, small, small, you will notice that their
• 34:20
  effectiveness will begin to rise.
• 34:22
  The person that was only bringing in one customer a month
• 34:25
  might now start bringing in two. The person that I was bringing
• 34:28
  in five customers a month might now start bringing 7.
• 34:31
  Now the difference between 2:00 and 7:00 seems small, but for
• 34:34
  those of us in the SME space, think about it this way, to go
• 34:40
  from 2:00 every month to three seems small.
• 34:45
  But The thing is, the profit margin is kind of big.
• 34:47
  OK, let me put it this way. This is how I explained it to
• 34:49
  wedding photographers when somebody challenged me.
• 34:52
  This was years ago about how if you are doing 3 customers in a
• 34:56
  month and you now do four, that has not a big enough return.
• 34:59
  So this is how I explained it to them.
• 35:00
  OK, all of us here now, we're all wedding photographers.
• 35:03
  Abby, we're doing 4 customers a month.
• 35:06
  Abby. Let's say with each person, the
• 35:09
  profits that we're making on each person's head is 100K.
• 35:15
  And then that means that doing 3 customers every month, you're
• 35:18
  making 300K per month. So now I explained it this way,
• 35:21
  if you're able to go from three customers to four, even though
• 35:27
  that seems like a small increase, actually what that
• 35:29
  means is you now have 100K extra that you didn't have last month.
• 35:34
  And if you step back and you look at it from a yearly
• 35:36
  perspective, that means that you have now have an extra.
• 35:39
  What is the 100K times 12? What is that now?
• 35:44
  Is that 11M? Is that 1.2 M?
• 35:49
  I'm not sure. Anyway, if it's 1.2 M, then
• 35:51
  yeah, good, I'm correct. I hope my math teacher is not
• 35:53
  listening. If it's not 1.2 M, then do the
• 35:56
  math on your own and whatever figure you arrive at, that's it.
• 35:59
  So getting an extra 1 customer per month can be the difference
• 36:04
  between how much you made last year and an extra 1.2 M in
• 36:07
  revenues this year. So do not despise days of little
• 36:10
  beginnings. I know that we all want our
• 36:13
  people to go from bringing 5 customers every month to
• 36:16
  bringing 10 customers every month.
• 36:18
  Now if your if your people go from doing 5 customers every
• 36:21
  month to 10 every month, then or more your your life has changed
• 36:25
  drastically. But The thing is actually it's
• 36:28
  not bad if they go from bringing 5 customers every month to
• 36:31
  bringing 6. They're even that extra 1
• 36:33
  customer per month. If you take that profit margin,
• 36:37
  you see that it's, it's not bad. So summary, don't just get hired
• 36:40
  people put them in the room and say go and sell.
• 36:43
  You need to give them a couple of stuff, training, materials,
• 36:47
  technology, so they can go and sell effectively.
• 36:49
  So that's all for today. Thank you very much for your
• 36:51
  time and attention. And remember, if you'd love to
• 36:54
  connect with me and explore opportunities, call me.
• 36:57
  The number is 08064662140. That's my WhatsApp number as
• 37:04
  well. So you can WhatsApp me.
• 37:05
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 37:07
  Nigerian, therefore, social media connect with me on
• 37:11
  LinkedIn. So I'll catch you all tomorrow.