Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Close Deals Faster with Social Media

Transcript

How to Close Deals Faster with Social Media · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show today.
0:03
The question that we're going to tackle is, well, we're going to
0:07
look at the benefits of social selling and how we can use that
0:10
to accelerate the sales cycle and speed up the sales cycle.
0:14
Now, the reason why I'm tackling this today is because in working
0:17
with individuals and with companies, small businesses, I
0:20
run into people who, you know, for them, they think hasn't
0:23
clicked in their head yet. You know, they think you're
0:26
either doing this online thing or you're in real life, you
0:29
know, or you're doing this real life thing and online thing is
0:32
crap. But the reality is our sales
0:36
people, you know, are supposed to be like assassins, are
0:38
supposed to be like ninjas, you know, use whatever it is that's
0:41
at our disposal to get the job done.
0:43
So I would strongly recommend that you should be running both
0:49
online, offline, you know, whatever it is that you need to
0:53
close the deal to find customers to move the relationship
0:56
forward. So stop thinking either or, you
0:59
know, like, oh, I'm a real life person.
1:01
I don't do online or me, I'm an only an online person.
1:05
I don't like talking to human beings face to face.
1:08
I don't like going to offices, you know, just like run
1:10
everything together sharp. Of course.
1:13
Yeah, we can be better at one thing than another or have a
1:17
preference for one thing over another.
1:19
Like clearly I have the skill set for content and I also like
1:26
talking to people, you know, when people's offices, taking
1:30
meetings, phone calls, those sorts of things.
1:32
So yes, we can have, well, I'd say things that come easier to
1:38
us. Bashar, we should be running
1:40
everything. So yeah, definitions, benefits
1:44
of social selling and how do we speed up?
1:46
How do we use that to speed up the sales cycle?
1:49
So let's start off with this whole social selling thing.
1:52
Now it's something that people have stopped talking about
1:55
because maybe two years ago, a year ago, maybe two years ago,
2:01
because the date of this recording is in where are we?
2:06
We are in September of 2024 as at the date of this recording.
2:11
So if you skip back like 2 years, everybody was talking
2:13
social selling, social selling, social selling, you know, just
2:16
one of those things. Some topics become trendy and
2:18
then after a while they stop being trendy.
2:20
And that's the reason why I tell business people, especially
2:24
sales people, just ignore whatever the main trends are.
2:27
There's fundamental attitudes and fundamental principles to
2:30
business. Just make sure you learn them.
2:32
Some things will come around and be trending and then they'll go
2:35
away. So the fact that people are no
2:37
more talking about social selling does not mean that
2:40
social selling is not a value thing to do and it's not a
2:42
useful thing to do to grow your business.
2:45
It is and it has always been. I mean since gosh, when I say
2:52
Internet open up in Niger and you catch my drift.
2:56
I mean for people who are my age anyway, you're in business now.
3:01
It's something that is valid to do and it has been for a very
3:04
long time, even though people are no longer talking about it.
3:07
So that's why I say ignore the trends, just learn the
3:10
fundamentals. You'll be fine regardless of
3:12
whatever the trends are and you find that you can always take
3:16
trendy topics and relate it to the business fundamentals that
3:19
you've learnt anyway. So what is social selling?
3:22
Social selling is just using social media to build
3:25
relationships or to engage with people, engage with potential
3:30
customers, more or less. So that's what social selling
3:33
is. And when we say social media,
3:37
really what we're talking about is social networks.
3:39
So we're talking Facebook, we're talking LinkedIn, we're talking
3:43
Instagram or talking TikTok, although TikTok is a really wild
3:51
animal for me. So yeah, I have a bunch of
3:53
videos there, maybe 100 and something, but I never really
3:57
went back, never conquered it. So yes, TikTok and let's see
4:02
what else. If I've left anything out, you,
4:04
you know, Sha, some people like to say WhatsApp is social media.
4:09
I'm not quite convinced, but you know, since we have access to
4:12
people one-on-one and then there's channels popping off on
4:15
social media and then there are people who watch other people's,
4:20
what's it called, WhatsApp status and things like that.
4:23
I can see how you can argue that it's social media, but for the
4:27
purposes of this podcast, I'm not going to put it there.
4:29
Well, by the way, I'm looking at this in the uniquely Nigerian
4:33
context. So yes, I am aware that in
4:36
India, there's some social networks that those of us that
4:39
you know, that are popping up for you guys.
4:41
But in Niger, we haven't heard PIM, we don't know anything
4:44
about it. And the same thing with those of
4:46
you guys in China, a few people listening in China, very, very
4:49
few, 0 point something percent. Yeah, you guys have social
4:55
networks that we haven't heard anything about in this part of
4:58
the world. So if you're going to use social
5:00
networks, your Facebooking, your Instagramming, and you're using
5:03
that to build relationships, you're using that to engage with
5:05
people. And you're engaging not just
5:08
with anyone. What people you think can be
5:10
potential customers, then what you are engaged in is social
5:14
selling. Now, how do you do that?
5:16
Well, you do that first of all by connecting with folks.
5:19
You remember the story. Now for those of you been
5:21
listening for a while, remember the story about I told you guys
5:23
about the wedding planner who scolded me seriously when she
5:27
noticed that I had taken my Instagram.
5:30
That was back when I was a wedding photographer and I
5:32
started deleting people left, right and centre.
5:35
Now, the reason why I was deleting people is because I was
5:37
tired of seeing people's crap in my timeline.
5:40
I want my Instagram to be sane. But as she scolded me,
5:43
rightfully so. Now look, it's business, you
5:49
know, you meet customers, you meet clients, meet potential
5:51
customers. You follow as many people as
5:53
possible because a bunch of them will follow you back.
5:56
When a bunch of them follow you back and you keep posting your
6:00
stuff, your photographs from the weddings and the events that you
6:03
do, a bunch of them get the chance to see it.
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And when a bunch of them sees, you remain top of mind with a
6:09
couple of people. And that's how you use social
6:11
media to grow your business. So that was the scolding that
6:15
she gave me back then. So part of social selling is
6:20
connecting with folks on these things.
6:22
So you should be connecting with people who could be potential
6:24
customers on your Instagram. So Mr. Wedding Photographer or
6:28
Madam Wedding Photographer like me currently, you don't like
6:32
people messing up your timeline. Still follow those brides and
6:34
grooms. This is what you do if you don't
6:37
like people messing up your timelines because they're
6:38
always, you know, tweeting or posting or whatever about the
6:44
economy and you know, you don't want to hear about the economy,
6:46
you don't want to hear about fuel queues.
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What you do is still leave the person in your network as per
6:52
you follow the person and you know, you guys are mutual
6:54
contacts. What you just do is when you see
6:57
that post come up about fuel scarcity or about Ghanaian Jolof
7:04
and Nigerian Jolof, which one is better or Ghanaian bom bom and
7:07
Nigerian Bom bom, which one is bigger?
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Just, you know, click the three buttons and then you select not
7:15
interested or show less of this or something.
7:17
I can't remember what it's called on Instagram.
7:19
So you do that and then eventually your timeline is
7:21
going to be cleaner. But then you don't actually have
7:24
to delete the brides and grooms that you've been following in
7:28
the past. You know, they should still be
7:29
there. Let them get a chance to see
7:31
some of your stuff. So you should be connecting with
7:33
people on Instagram, on Twitter. Sorry, it's X nowadays, at least
7:38
at the time of this recording anyway.
7:40
So be connecting with everyone who can be a potential customer.
7:44
The next thing is you should be sharing value on your social
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media or you should be sharing some people say entertaining
7:52
content, but you know where my opinions are on this whole
7:55
entertainment thing. So let me just leave out the
7:56
entertainment. Well, I think entertainment is a
7:58
waste of time. Well, let me leave that out.
8:00
But yes, it is a valid strategy. There are people who do that.
8:03
But let's face it, you and I, chances are we are not brain
8:08
jotter. So trying to put up entertaining
8:11
content, you know, we're not bring just our not Mr. Macaron,
8:14
we're not Brother Shaggy, we're not those kind of people.
8:17
So trying to put up entertaining content, I mean, like, how is it
8:19
going to help your business? Like, I have no idea.
8:21
Like I saw this guy on Facebook, he did this challenge and he put
8:27
the thing that yeah, it was funny.
8:29
The whole point of the video was he I think he wanted to meet his
8:33
ex-girlfriend, but maybe she broke his heart and so she
8:36
dodged him and then they started doing the dance and then he was
8:39
chasing her around and everything and it was funny and
8:41
I laughed and I now thought, OK, how are you going to use this to
8:45
build your business now? You didn't want to challenge the
8:48
thing trended. You got, you know, 10,000 views.
8:50
OK, so how you grow your business?
8:53
Anyway, that's a podcast, episode 4, another day.
8:57
So you'll be putting out content, valuable stuff,
9:00
insightful stuff. We're trying to build thought
9:01
leadership. We're trying to use content
9:03
marketing, trying to put it all out there.
9:05
Then the reason why we should be doing that actually is this is
9:09
stuff that your people, the potential customers that you
9:13
followed should be able to consume around the problems that
9:18
you solve and then, you know, things like that.
9:19
So back to the wedding photography example, you'll be
9:23
connected with a bunch of brides and grooms.
9:25
Let's say you attend. OK, Yeah, in Lagos are still
9:29
doing wedding fairs. You know, Abuja has dried up, so
9:32
no more wedding fairs over here. So in Lagos are still doing
9:34
wedding fairs. So there's Web Expo Lagos.
9:38
So let's say 2024 edition Web Expo Lagos, you go there and you
9:42
get a booth, maybe like 200 people come by a booth.
9:46
Yeah, 200 brides and grooms come by a booth out of that 200,
9:50
maybe 180 on Instagram you follow 180 and maybe out of that
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180, I don't know, let me see, let's say maybe 120 follow you
9:59
back. OK, So potentially now those
10:04
people should be able to see stuff that you put up on your
10:07
put up on the gram. So if you're putting up valuable
10:10
stuff, I remember value is always in the eye of the
10:12
beholder, or I'll be the eye of the beholder, I'll be the ear of
10:15
the beholder or whatever. So you're putting up valuable
10:18
stuff. Then potentially these brides
10:21
and grooms are going to be on your timelines and then they'll
10:23
be seeing stuff, the wonderful photographs that you put out, or
10:27
maybe tips and tricks about how to select a wedding photographer
10:30
or tips and tricks about how to handle lighting at your events.
10:35
Let's see what else you know, all those kinds of things.
10:38
Forgive me, I've been out of the space for a while.
10:40
So if you're putting up this sort of content that they find
10:43
valuable, then they're going to engage in this sort of thing.
10:46
And then if you monitor your social media handles, then these
10:49
are where opportunities for conversations start, start
10:52
coming up. You notice that over the last
10:54
two weeks, you put out 20 posts out of the 20, maybe two or
10:58
three particular brides seem to like half of them these
11:00
opportunities to slide into the DM.
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So you see, this is how all these things work.
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And then, you know, for monitoring, you also get a sense
11:09
of what the what your audience, what the market needs, you know,
11:15
based on what people are liking, you know, things like that.
11:17
It gives you a sense of, OK, this style of photography is
11:20
popping off or this style of editing is popping off, or these
11:25
are the kind of portraits that babes like nowadays.
11:28
So that when you're covering their weddings, you know, that's
11:30
how you do it and all those sorts of things.
11:32
So this is how social selling works, pretty much.
11:35
So take these social networks, get on there and connect with,
11:40
connect with folks, share valuable content, people,
11:43
engage, monitor, see what's going on with the engagement.
11:46
We'll give you a sense of where the market is heading.
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Now, the goal of doing all these activities is not just to feel
11:52
good. It's not to feel all right, to
11:53
feel like, oh, I have 10,000 followers on Instagram, so
11:57
10,000. By the way, I don't, I just have
11:59
maybe 1000 something, but that's not the point.
12:02
So the point is not to feel all right.
12:03
The point is not to feel good. The point is lead generation.
12:07
Now, if you've been following the podcast for any length of
12:09
time, you know my definition of a lead.
12:11
My definition of a lead is anybody that has done something
12:14
to show that they might be interested in your product or
12:17
your service. So you've been putting up this
12:19
thing. Like I said, you put up to any
12:21
posts. You notice that 3 brides in
12:22
particular who happen to come for Lagos, Lagos Wedding Expo,
12:30
I've been liking them. So does that make them a lead?
12:35
I don't think so. But this has an opportunity
12:38
there to slide into the DM or at the very least, if you now put
12:41
out one of those things, one of those kind of posts like are you
12:46
getting married in between November and December of 2024?
12:52
Retreat this or do this or take advantage of this.
12:58
You know how to get 10% off, You know something, 10% of wedding
13:01
photography or 10% of your video.
13:03
You know all those challenges that I don't know if they do
13:05
them now, but back when I was still in the game in wedding
13:08
photography, people used to do things like that.
13:10
Like, OK, share this post on your timeline.
13:13
Tag 20 of your friends. Tag at least twenty of your
13:19
friends. If you do this, you'll be
13:22
entitled to a lucky draw to see who is going to get 10% off my
13:29
wedding photography if you're getting married between the
13:31
month of October and December of 2024.
13:34
So people used to do stuff like that.
13:35
The whole point was to get your videos or your photos or
13:38
whatever to be seen by a bunch of a bunch of more people.
13:42
But I'm not sure if people do that thing nowadays because I
13:45
hardly spend time on Instagram anyway.
13:47
So anyway, any movie on that? So what did I say?
13:52
OK, so the goal is lead generation.
13:54
So in doing that, I had like this example that I gave, you
13:57
know, you're getting somebody to share 20 times and enter
14:01
themselves into a draw. So you see that these are things
14:04
that people are doing that might indicate that they could be
14:07
interested in your product or your service.
14:09
So that's the goal when we're thinking about these sorts of
14:11
things. Then, of course, brand
14:13
awareness, you know, no one is always there because you want
14:16
people to see you. You want people to know you.
14:19
And where were we? OK, yes, The main topic that
14:25
we've been talking about self accelerating the sales cycle.
14:27
Yeah. So the whole thing, this is how
14:29
it shortens the sales cycle because if you're able to
14:33
achieve brand awareness, then it means that a whole bunch of
14:37
people already trust you before you guys start yawning deeply.
14:43
So remember the example that I gave you go to wedding web Expo,
14:47
you catch up, two 100 people come by, you follow 180 out of
14:54
the 180 and what did I say? Maybe 120 follow you back out of
14:59
the 120. You notice that three of the
15:02
brides seem to be liking and doing a lot of what it is that
15:06
you, you know, you put up. So in theory, and you'll find
15:10
that it also happens in practice.
15:11
Those 3 brides in particular, you guys might have achieved a
15:16
certain level of trust because they've been seeing, they've
15:18
been liking, they've been whatever.
15:20
They can tell that you're legit. They see the photos, they see
15:23
your behind the scenes, they see your reels, they see your
15:25
everything. So if an element of trust has
15:28
now been built up, when you start yawning with those three
15:31
babes in particular, you now have to trust is almost like a
15:37
done deal. You now have to move to the
15:39
other 3 stages in the framework when it comes to closing the
15:43
deal. Now for those of you who are
15:45
listening for the first time, what I'm referring to is the
15:48
framework by Tom Hopkins. Tom Hopkins, American sales
15:51
trainer, although he started off in the was it automobile?
15:56
No, not automobile real estate in the real estate space.
15:59
Now some of you say real estate. What does real estate have to do
16:02
with wedding photography? What does real estate have to do
16:04
with whatever my business is, and I'm going to repeat it here,
16:08
that sales, selling, business development, the principles are
16:12
universal, so they apply to all businesses.
16:15
All that changes is the order that we apply them and the
16:17
context in which we apply them. So yes, you can listen to a
16:20
podcast that is made by someone who teaches other people how to
16:24
sell more and more. Even if you're an insurance
16:27
salesperson, you can hear some principles about how to sell
16:30
more and more that you can apply to selling insurance.
16:32
And then of course, the other way round, you can listen to a
16:35
podcast that is about how to sell insurance and you will hear
16:39
some principles there about selling insurance that you can
16:41
use to improve your my mind business or your catfish
16:44
business or whatever business it is that you that you run.
16:48
So my own opinion, don't just say some, oh, this thing is real
16:52
estate. I won't listen.
16:54
It's all sales. Listen 1st and see what can I
16:57
apply. If you're listening 23456
17:00
episodes, I'm like this guy, The torrent, she is too much, the
17:03
grammar is too much. I don't know how I'll be able to
17:05
apply it. Oh yeah.
17:06
Then by no means by by all means, yeah.
17:08
Then drop the podcast and then move on.
17:10
But listen first with a listening ear to see what you
17:13
can apply. Then do some creativity and see
17:15
how you can apply it. And then you'll be all right.
17:17
You'll be fine. So the stages here, Tom Hopkins,
17:22
he likes to say that sales, that sales just has 2 main stages.
17:26
Basically. There's sales resistance and
17:29
then there's sales acceptance. So sales resistance is in the
17:31
beginning where people are skeptical, they don't want to
17:34
trust, they don't want to talk to you, they don't want you to
17:36
bother them. You know that sort of thing.
17:38
So that is sales resistant. Everybody have their guard up,
17:41
you know the lock up, they don't want to say anything.
17:44
You know those of us in the wedding space, you remember now
17:46
you know how how I used to be back, back in those days.
17:49
They don't want to say anything at all.
17:52
They just want to come in and get the price and then leave.
17:55
They don't want to say anything. They don't want to drop phone
17:57
number, they don't want to drop e-mail address.
17:59
Even their name gone, they don't want to tell you that is sales
18:02
resistance. So Tom Hopkins says once you
18:06
handle the dynamics well and you overcome sales resistance, you
18:09
move to the next stage using sales acceptance.
18:11
That's when people are calm. When people are calm and they
18:14
trust you, you guys cannot have a conversation.
18:15
That's when they relax. People are now on their first
18:18
name basis and you know you're talking, you're flowing.
18:22
You know they let you know when the wedding date is.
18:25
You can have one tease out maybe what their sense of budget is,
18:30
you know, when things calm down and conversation is flowing
18:33
smoothly. So that's how Tom Hopkins like
18:35
to look look at things. And in the beginning, when
18:37
you're face to face with someone, be ready to overcome
18:40
sales resistance. It's only when you can overcome
18:43
sales resistance and move to the next stage of sales acceptance
18:47
that you now have a chance of closing this deal.
18:48
So for Tom Hopkins, there are four elements.
18:50
There's trust, there's need, there's help, there's hurry.
18:54
Let me repeat again, trust need help, hurry.
18:59
By the way, this is one that you don't need to write down because
19:01
Tom Hopkins material is available on YouTube.
19:05
I'm not saying you should go and pirate the guy, but you know,
19:08
some people have put up his audio book and stuff like that
19:11
on YouTube. So I'm not saying be a pirate.
19:14
I am. OK, well, let me keep quiet
19:16
before I implicate myself. So Tom Hopkins available on
19:19
YouTube, so trust need help and hurry.
19:22
So if you're able to get people to trust you and you're able to
19:25
get a sense of what they need, you should be able to overcome
19:29
the sales resistance part of the equation.
19:32
And then sales acceptance, that's where you worry about
19:36
help and hurry. So I'm not going to go into any
19:38
more details about this, but you can check my own channel on
19:43
YouTube. Just type in Tavishima and then
19:46
type Tom Hopkins episodes where I've spoken about Tom Hopkins
19:49
and this framework, it'll come up.
19:51
Or you can type in Tavishima trust.
19:53
Everything I've said about trust will come up.
19:56
So excuse me or Tara Shima need or help or hurry and all the
20:02
stuff will come up where most likely I've spoken about those
20:07
topics either in isolation or in reference to Tom Hopkins
20:13
framework. So what I'm just trying to say
20:15
is all this activity, all this paros that we're doing on social
20:18
media now, you know, the posting, the connecting, the
20:20
valuable, whatever, the monitoring, the conversations,
20:23
all that, all that takes care of trust.
20:26
So you do a good job there. Eventually when the Bay picks up
20:29
the phone and say, are you available for November 1st, the
20:32
conversation should flow smoothly because she kind of
20:34
trust you a bit. So that's the whole idea about
20:36
how social selling can shorten the sales cycle.
20:42
Now let's define the sales cycle for those of you who are
20:44
listening for the first time, because I'm sure those of you
20:47
who've been listening to the last two or three episodes,
20:49
you're tired of hearing the definition of sales cycle.
20:50
But don't worry, they're new comments here, so let's define
20:53
it for them. Now.
20:54
A sales cycle is just steps that you, you who are listening now,
20:58
the business owner steps that you guide the customer through
21:03
that takes them from initial contact, that time when they say
21:07
good morning, hello, how are you?
21:09
Are you available? All that early conversation all
21:14
the way to when the sale closes. Can I have your account number?
21:17
Is it OP, is it POS, you know, blah, blah, blah.
21:20
That conversation, excuse me? So the space in between initial
21:25
contacts and when they give you money, that is what we call the
21:28
sales cycle. So it runs through a couple of
21:31
stages. So you're the business owner,
21:32
you're the self-employed person you should be.
21:34
This is the stages. There's a prospecting stage
21:38
where you're looking for people who might be interested in your
21:41
product or service and then you approach them, you start having
21:43
conversations with them. That's where the hello, the
21:46
talking stage, that's where it all starts.
21:47
Then all through needs analysis because you need to figure out
21:50
what it is that they need. This is one thing that a bunch
21:52
of you are not doing. You just meet somebody and then
21:55
you just start telling them we have 3 packages, gold, silver
21:58
and whatever. Like why are you Golding and
22:00
silver and you don't know what it is that they need first of
22:02
all. So going to needs analysis
22:04
first. You might discover that, yeah,
22:06
you have gold, silver and platinum package, but neither of
22:09
your packages matches exactly what it is that they need and
22:12
that you have to come up with a custom package or maybe you
22:14
refer them to someone else who can sort them out.
22:17
So you need to do need analysis. What do they want?
22:20
Who is this person? How bad is the problem?
22:22
What kind of vision is it? Can I solve that if I?
22:25
Let's stick with the wedding photography example.
22:27
This is where wedding photographers, a lot of us run
22:30
into problems. You're not doing need analysis,
22:33
you're not doing discovery. So you don't know what the
22:35
problem is. You don't know what vision it is
22:37
that they're trying to solve. Somebody might have an
22:40
understated sense of elegance, but every single time you're
22:44
showing her wedding albums, you're showing her the grand
22:47
thing, the excessively photoshopped thing, the
22:50
wonderfully posed photos and blah, blah, blah.
22:53
I don't know that you are killing yourself.
22:56
You're showing her the wrong thing.
22:57
If you have a conversation with her, you engage with her.
22:59
You might not figure out that, oh, Keichi is this person that
23:02
has quiet, refined elegance and a subtle sophistication about
23:06
her. I think you should be showing
23:08
her the simplest of the things that more blends with her own
23:11
personality. So for wedding photographers,
23:15
video people, fashion designers, you know, those of us who have a
23:19
much more artistic bent, you can see now this is where everything
23:24
starts to fall apart. You didn't do needs analysis.
23:27
You don't know who you're talking to.
23:28
You don't know what vision it is that they're trying to solve.
23:30
And so you're showing them the wrong thing.
23:33
So you might have somebody like me who has the fashion sense of
23:39
a Ghanaian school teacher. That's what my wife says.
23:43
For those of you who are Ghanaian school teachers, no
23:44
offense how big, I don't even know how Ghanaian school
23:47
teachers dress, but that's just what my wife says.
23:49
So if you're talking with someone as a fashion designer,
23:52
the person has the fashion sense of a Ghanaian school teacher and
23:55
they are showing him the kinds of thing that Ramsey Noah will
23:57
wear. Of course the person will be
23:59
saying like hi, this thing is too loud, this thing is too
24:01
flashy. This thing is too this, this
24:02
thing is too that. But then on the other hand, if
24:06
you're talking to somebody who is kind of like Ramsey Noah and
24:10
then you're showing him stuff that, you know, a Ghanaian
24:13
school teacher will wear or the kind of suits that I will Logan
24:16
by will wear, you know, the person will be offended.
24:18
The person might be thinking, you know, so is this how you
24:20
rate me? Is this how you see me?
24:22
So wedding photographers, fashion people, are we artistic,
24:29
artistic type people? We need to be paying attention
24:33
to these sorts of things. Now, people who come from
24:35
technical businesses, technical backgrounds, they know this sort
24:39
of thing like people who sell, let's say people who sell
24:44
tractors, they won't just say, oh, we have three different
24:47
kinds of tractors. We have golden tractors, premium
24:51
tractors, lower range tractors. They don't start the
24:54
conversation like that. They'll start by asking, what
24:56
are you farming? Are you farming and, or rice or,
24:59
or sheer butter, you know, because do you need sheer butter
25:03
for tractors? I mean, do you need tractors for
25:05
share? But well, you catch my drift.
25:07
You know what it is that the kind of thing the person is
25:10
planting will determine the kind of tractor that the person will
25:12
buy. Is it the one that digs 10
25:14
inches into the ground and you know, 20 inches apart?
25:18
Or, you know, so people from a technical background, they know
25:22
that you have to do need analysis or as you tell somebody
25:24
the wrong thing. So hope you guys can see how now
25:28
why sales principles are universal.
25:34
It's just the order in which we do it that is different.
25:37
But everybody has to run people through a sales cycle.
25:39
Everybody has to do prospecting, that toasting stage, the
25:43
approaching people. We all have to do needs
25:45
analysis. We all have to do a
25:46
presentation, the proposal, you know, deal with whatever
25:50
questions they have, you know, objections.
25:52
And then we try and close. So we all have to do the whole
25:55
thing. But you can see how for a
25:56
wedding photographer the emphasis will be different.
25:59
For somebody who sells tractors, the emphasis will be different,
26:01
but we all have to do it. So what was, I forgive me, I got
26:08
lost, OK, I was defining sales cycle.
26:14
So yes, the sales cycle from early talking stage until they
26:17
give you money and then these are the stages that people run
26:19
through. So as a business owner, you
26:21
should be cautiously trying to run people through this.
26:24
If you do well on social media, you would have cut out most of
26:29
the trust path. And then if the trust is there,
26:31
you can see how needs analysis is going to flow very, very
26:35
well. So like I said, back to the
26:37
wedding photography example, in the beginning, when they don't
26:39
trust you, the bride won't say anything.
26:41
She won't tell you where she's getting married because if
26:44
you're in Abuja, she says Lagos, she might be thinking that OK,
26:47
if I tell the people I'm getting married in Lagos, in their mind,
26:50
they'll now start calculating airfare to add everything on top
26:53
to build me. Seriously.
26:54
So all those sorts of things, if I give them my real name and
26:57
they go and check, they'll now see if they check on social
27:00
media or if they check on LinkedIn, they'll now see that
27:03
my father is local government chairman.
27:05
And then they automatically add 500 K to my wedding bill.
27:07
You know, those sorts of things. So in the beginning, everybody's
27:10
cagey. They just say just call me NECA.
27:12
They'll just leave it like that. They won't tell you anything
27:15
else. But after you have a certain
27:17
level of trust, yeah, then she can be upfront, she can be open,
27:19
and then she can start talking freely.
27:22
So how is social selling going to make things move faster?
27:27
Basically, if you do all this online stuff very well, do your
27:30
prospecting and approaching people online, putting content
27:34
online, thought leadership online, doing small, small
27:37
conversations online. Then when it gets to the offline
27:41
stage, you know, that's the stage that I like the most,
27:44
where you're now on the phone, you guys are now talking
27:47
one-on-one or they have come to your office or your studio or
27:50
you have gone to their house or their office or whatever and you
27:53
are now talking. The need analysis is going to
27:55
flow very well. You need analysis flows well.
27:59
You should be able to deliver your proposal that matches what
28:02
it is that they're looking for. So if your proposal matches, you
28:05
know, then the chances of closing the deal go up.
28:09
Please, this is not a guarantee. I know sometimes it sounds as if
28:15
if you follow all these all these things, then it's a
28:17
guarantee. No, it's not a guarantee.
28:19
You're not in charge of every single thing.
28:21
The best you can do is to follow your process and then let the
28:23
things fall where they lie. So for those of you who've been
28:25
listening for a while, remember when we're talking about what's
28:31
it called closing rates to know other people are doing good
28:34
closing rates. I'm sure you noticed that there
28:37
was no industry where I said closing rate is 100%.
28:41
It doesn't happen, it doesn't work, it's not going to happen.
28:44
There's no way that if you're talking to 20 people, you
28:46
collect money from all 20. And like I told you, if you're
28:49
talking to 20 people and you collect money from all 20, it's
28:52
a sign that you are too cheap. What you do is the bomb.
28:56
What you do is the best. Because of that, people say, eh,
28:59
at this price, such a good deal. Let me take it while it lasts.
29:02
So if it's if you're talking to 20 and you close 20, you're
29:07
being too cheap. So there's no close rate will
29:11
never be 100%. So according to the different
29:13
industries that we looked at, there were some industries where
29:15
closing rate was 10%, where some was 20, some was 30.
29:19
I don't know of anywhere they expect to close 50%.
29:23
But what I'm just trying to say is have realistic expectations.
29:26
Don't assume that because you follow this whole process,
29:28
you're going to end up doing business with everybody who
29:30
comes by your way. But the hope is if right now you
29:34
talk to 10 people, you end up doing business with one.
29:37
The hope is if you follow this process after a while, a few
29:40
weeks, a few months, months, you'll be able to go from doing
29:46
one out of 10 to 2 out of 10. And we've time 3 out of 10, four
29:50
out of 10, you know? So that's the whole idea.
29:55
Yeah. So that's it.
29:55
That's how it all works. Remember, we should not be
29:58
thinking online, offline. It's a combination of both.
30:01
And if you want to use social selling, then the scope is to do
30:09
all that online stuff so that when we now switch, when we now
30:12
get off of the online thing and we're now whatsapping and we're
30:16
now phone calling and we're now seeing people back in the office
30:19
and things like that would have made the ground smooth so that
30:22
the video can flow a whole lot smoother.
30:25
So that's it pretty much. So connect with me on LinkedIn,
30:29
the name to look for establishing my IED.
30:31
You can get the correct spelling from the link.
30:33
We're currently listening to this episode.
30:34
You'll find my name there. If you're on the podcast, you'll
30:37
find not just my name, but you'll also get my e-mail
30:39
address. For those of you who prefer to
30:41
do e-mail, then also connect with me on WhatsApp.
30:45
The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for
30:52
those of you who are not Nigerian.
30:54
So thank you very much for your time and attention.
30:55
I'll catch you guys at the next episode.