Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why Your Big Proposals are Getting Ghosted

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Why Your Big Proposals are Getting Ghosted · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:00
Hello and welcome. Today we are continuing the
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conversation about how to determine who are the prospects,
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who are the contacts, who are the potential customers that we
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should be spending the most time with.
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Because too many people don't bother to figure out who am I
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talking with. And so because of that, you
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don't spend enough time with the right people or you spend too
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much time with the wrong people. And so we've been talking about
0:25
this for the last, I don't know, maybe 3-4 episodes.
0:29
So today's episode actually is a case study, was meant to be a
0:33
Part 2. You know, I recorded the Part 1
0:35
and then I forgot. Sorry about that, you know,
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because I don't have a production assistant, at least
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not yet. So, and then later on, these
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accidents, I believe these incidents should happen less and
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less. But anyway, today I'm coming up
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with a case study to flesh out some of the things that we
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discussed in a Part 1. To be honest, I know the Part 1
0:54
was last week. I can't remember which episode
0:56
was Part 1, but don't worry, if you've listened to the first
1:00
part, you know, you will now understand like oh, OK, OK, OK,
1:03
now Part 2 BDS. But if you're listening to this
1:07
one first and you don't know which one is the Part 1, don't
1:09
worry, you're still going to be able to get value from it.
1:11
But like I said, excuse me, I've been discussing these sorts of
1:15
issues for the last time couple of days.
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So the case study for today is a fictional case study.
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And let's say we're dealing with a founder based in Lagos and
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let's say his name is Tunde Balogun.
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Now if there's any Tunde Balogun listening to the podcast right
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now, I beg no Vex, it's not as if I'm trolling you or anything.
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The name is completely made-up. I just need the name.
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So came up with Tunde Balogun. Now let's say Tunde Balogun is
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the head of growth and let's say he's the Co founder and the
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business is running. Let's say he calls it Swift
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Logistics. So excuse me.
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So again, if you run a logistics business and the name of your
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business is Swift Logistics, please, this is purely A
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coincidence and this has nothing to do with you.
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I'm just coming up with some names just to make things
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concrete. So let's say today, now and his
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business, Swift Logistics, they are in the business of doing B
2:13
to B Haulage Solutions. Now B to B just means business
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to business. Business to business means
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you're a business owner and the kind of customers that you like,
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the kind of customers, the kind of clients that you like are
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other businesses. So you're not talking to people
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one-on-one. You're trying to get business
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from a customer. So a business to business person
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in this kind of a bTB business in this case now since he's into
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logistics Tunde Balogo now and his company is Swift.
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Don't be talking to somebody like me, private individual to
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come and collect business. I mean, like if I come along,
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yeah, sure, no problem, maybe. But don't be chasing me.
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They'll be chasing other businesses.
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OK. Like in my estate now, for
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instance, there's a lady who runs a what's this thing called
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now yogurt. She has a yogurt factory in my
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estate. Some of you be saying yogurt
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factory. Yeah, you know this Niger now
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people don't pay attention to zoning laws anymore.
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So people just, you know, poultry, dog rearing, what else?
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Anyhow, anyhow, she had a factory anyhow, they'll be
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putting putting up stuff. So she runs a, a factory where
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she sells yogurt. Now Tunde Balogun can enter into
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business with this woman and decide to be distributing her
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yogurt to distributors, to suppliers, to shops, you know,
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things like that. So that's what I mean when we
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say BCB. Now the other end is BTC.
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That is business to consumer. That is when a business person
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targets single, single, single customer, one-on-one private
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individuals like DSTV. So DSTV, they like to get money.
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That's perfect example. DSTV has B to B and they have B
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to C. So B to C just means DSTV is
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trying to capture people like me.
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They're trying to collect money from me as a solo individual.
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Then DSTV also has ABTC division.
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That means bTB division. That means I try to capture
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other businesses. So DSTV can go and approach
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maybe like NNPC now for instance and say, hey, NNPC will not
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suppose give all of UNA director DSTV direct into their office.
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So let's have a conversation and let's see what we can work out.
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We'll give you multi channel package something something you
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know. So that's BCB.
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OK, so BCBBTC business to business and then business to
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consumer. So let's say 2 day now 2 day
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Balogun their business, Swift logistics business to business.
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So they're targeting other businesses.
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Now let's say today is facing a problem and the problem is that
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their revenue don't stagnate. So before revenue was going up
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or money was going up, but now the team don't hang.
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You know, it's not going up, it's not going down, just the
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flat. I know that that's not really
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good. And then let's say that the
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sales team is on the verge of a burnout.
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Burnout just means, Oh my, don't tire.
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Like I'm spent. Like I'm exhausted, like I can't
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even deal. Like, man, today as you see me
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in the office, you're supposed to thank God because I'm tired.
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So that's what burnout means. So let's say that's, that's
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where the sales team is at right now.
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So let's say Sunday today. Now he's beginning to reason
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this thing. He's thinking this thing that
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ah, see, doing my business is now, So what I'm hearing from
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my, from my head of sales, see what all these people are saying
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that he's now looking at the CRM and the CRM has a pending calls.
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Now, CRM is a customer relationship management tool.
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It is just anything that you use in the business to try and keep
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track of who are the customers you currently have?
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What conversations are you having?
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What conversations are pending? Who should you talk to next?
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Who looks like a deal is close to a close to closing so you can
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figure out what you need to do to move the deal forward.
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So that's the CRM. Now for some of you who don't
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have CRMS in your business, they're probably using an Excel
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sheet or a diary or you're probably just using Google
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Calendar, you know, on your office computer or whatever.
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But most important thing is we need to have something that
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exists outside of our head that will help us to keep track of
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all these conversations that we're having, we're having
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because if now bring you the use, if you're trying to run
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this thing from memory, you, you mess up, you forget things and
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it happens to everybody. We're all, we all have been in a
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situation where it does mind your business.
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And they're just scrolling through your phone and then you
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see somebody's name and say, isn't it so, so, so, so, yeah, I
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was supposed to have called him last week Monday.
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I now start crumbling, scrambling, ha.
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What will I do now? What will I do now?
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What will I do now? So everybody has been in that
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kind of situation before. It happens because you either
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don't have a CRM or the CRM will you get, you know, to the use
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them. See, it's normally happens.
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So don't feel bad. The thing is just make sure that
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you stay on top of it. So today is looking at the CRM
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now and then you just be seeing pending, pending, pending,
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pending deals, pending calls, pending calls.
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So let's say for the last six months now, the focus has been
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today has been trying to get his sales team with Swiss Logistics
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to chase big, big corporate contracts because that's where
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all the money is. And let's say his sales team,
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they've been working like 12 hours every day.
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You know, you show up, you know, now it's normal Lagos also
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culture, you know, you show up like to the office around like
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maybe like 8:30 or so and then nobody leaves around that time,
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maybe like 7:00 PM, you know that thing.
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And they've been calling, they've been calling, they've
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been calling, they've been chasing, chasing, pursue,
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pursue, pursue the pursue customer up and down.
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And then every single time they're sending out proposals,
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you know, 5 page proposals, 20 page proposal, 15 page proposal
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and then sending out price quotes for every single person
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that they've been talking to. And that's the reason why the
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sales team is burnt out because actually they've been chasing
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people meeting. They will go phone call, they
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will take any which way that they chase that's in a pursue.
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They want money. So on paper, when you look at
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our current thing as business owner, you will see that
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everybody is busy. The sales boys are busy PRPRPRPR
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running all over the place, sales girl to elect everybody on
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the move. But then you'll not be thinking
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now wow on top all this activity closing rate is just 5%.
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What that means is you talk to 100 people and then only 5, only
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five of them give you money. Again, closing rate just means
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the, the amount of people who end up giving you money out of
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all the people that you're talking to.
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So you can look at it as per over 10 or over 100 or over 20
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or whatever it is you want to call it.
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You know, if I'm talking to every 10 people, how many people
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give me money? If I'm talking to every 20
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people, how many people give me money?
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If I'm talking to every 100 people, how many people give me
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money? So 5% just means if I'm talking
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to 100 people, five of them give me money.
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Then if I'm talking to 20 people, Abby, 20 people, 5% will
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now be what now? Well, you know what, let me stop
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here because my children, when they grow older, they might be
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listening to this episode. And I don't want them to see
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that Daddy is not Google Mass. So let me just stop there.
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But you got the point. So 5% just means you talk to 100
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people, 5500 and give you money. Then let's say now 2D, I mean,
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is it Tunde that we say his name is?
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Yeah, Tunde Balugo. Sorry, I had to check where I
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wrote it down. So where was I now?
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OK, so we're talking about how they're closing at 5% and then
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Tunde is worried. Then let's say now Tunde has a a
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sales executive, their chief or their lead sales executive,
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let's say her name is Informer. And Informer has spent three
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weeks, 1233 weeks pursuing one big company is a top tier
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customer. They're into manufacturing.
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So you know, if you win this kind deal, as it will be correct
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because I'm, you know, every day you'll be transporting things
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for them, you know, from the, from the manufacturing plants to
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the customer or from the manufacturing plants to the port
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or to, you know, good, good business, good business.
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So, so I've been chasing this guy, this company for three
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weeks. Then let's say the proposal now
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the package proposal everything 150 million that's for annual
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contract for the whole year, not month, month, month, you know,
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for the whole year. Then if I'm now sent it to the
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client and then the guy just went quiet ghosting, no
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feedback, no nothing. The guy know they pick called
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the guy not respond to e-mail, nothing.
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The guy didn't say too expensive.
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The guy didn't say anything. The guy just collected the
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proposal 150 million say oh, OK, thanks.
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I'll get back to you now. I'll get back to you if for
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money here anything again from him.
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Now, sometimes the reason why a lot of us fall into this problem
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because we have all fallen into this problem and have fallen
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into it. If you've not fallen into it,
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you know, God forbid, but the time will come when you will
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fall into it. The reason why is because
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sometimes we fall in love with something that looks like it's a
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big deal, but we didn't check whether it was real.
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You're talking to somebody, the money is sounding big.
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You're hearing 10 million. You've never heard terminal in
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your life. You know, you're now feeling and
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look, it's not an insult. Everybody, everybody gets there.
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I remember the first time that I was doing something that's in
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the event space and by the time we're calculating the bill, they
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think came up to 900 or something.
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I'm ashamed to admit this, but it's actually what happened.
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They think came up to 900 or something.
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I say, hey, 900, this one don't remain small for enter one MI
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now use my pencil. And now council, council,
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council, council. I brought it down to 800.
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That's OK. Let the team not be too close to
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1M. So I'm admitting I've done that.
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We've all done that before. You know, until one M hits your
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account. It sounds like it's big.
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And if you're working on something, anything is too close
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to 1M. Instead of you saying, hey, you
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know what's close to 1 M, let me just round the top.
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Let me just make it 1.1. Make it 1.2.
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Be afraid. You now scratch it down.
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So yes, I'm not proud to admit I scratch it down to 800.
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And then the interval price you just paid.
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I was now thinking, yeah, oh, had I known for just round her
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mop one M neat. Anyway, that was them.
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So if former was probably happy, like things are not moving on at
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the office, occasionally they rake the complaint, you know,
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the morale is just down. So for her, if she could just
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close this 150 M like everybody in the office would be happy to,
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they'll be happy. People will clap, you know, then
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we'll give a boost, moral, moral boost.
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You know, people in the office, everybody with a ginger, you
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know, 'cause when money comes in, everybody's happy.
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So what Orgut 20 is supposed to do in this kind of situation is
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Orgut 20, if you're listening, whether it's a real name or not,
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because I know that there's somebody in this situation that
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is in this Orgut 20 situation. What you need to do is you need
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to stop making your people court machines everyday.
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Quote, quote. Quote, quote, quotation,
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quotation. Invoice, invoice.
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Invoice. No, no, no, no.
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OK, Tunde. What you need to do is, excuse
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me, you need to get your people to take a consultative approach.
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Everybody is a consultant. If you're listening to me now,
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it doesn't matter what business it is.
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You do. You're a consultant, right?
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If you run a betting shop, no. Don't think of yourself as a
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gambler or whatever. You're a consultant.
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I don't know how you couch it as a consultant.
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Give me some time, I'll think about it.
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But you're a consultant. If you saw clothes for people
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and stuff like that. No, you're not a tailor, you're
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a consultant. You know, how will I put it now?
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You're a fashion stylist. You're a shall wear consultant.
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No matter what you do, you're a consultant.
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So ogaturally what you should do in this situation is you coach
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your people. How did you become consultants?
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You coach your people how to become consultants.
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And the first thing that we do as a consultant is because is
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somehow, somehow to be talking to people.
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You now give them free consulting or whatever.
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And then they say, oh, you're too expensive, blah, blah, blah,
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blah, blah. Look, it's very, very
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frustrating. So what you do is you get your
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team to be able to test affordability in the beginning.
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You get your team to have the school to be able to check
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budget early, early so that you invest time.
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If deal is going to come to 150 M, don't wait at the end of
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three weeks and send the thing of 150 M and then the person
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will look and then say, oh, OK, I'll get back to you next week.
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Then from there, quiet, you bring it up, it's OK.
15:11
Based on what we're talking about so far, annual revenues,
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something, something looks like this could be, it could be
15:18
within the range of maybe about a 3050, about 160 million.
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Does that sound about right? The other person here, what they
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have to say? The person says what?
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My current supplier, we don't pay him more than 80 million
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annual. Once the person responds like
15:35
that, you know what it is that you're dealing with because you
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gave a range first, you gave a budget first, you got some
15:43
feedback 1st and he now know that OK, what we were looking at
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is between 130 and 160 million or Bross says that he has never
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paid anybody more than ATM. At least you've gotten some
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feedback. You can now go back to your car
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or Gatunde and then both of you begin to brainstorm like OK,
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what's the way forward? We won't be this guy 150, but
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the guy talks say 8 million Max. You know, they pay at least now
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you know. So there are ways that you have
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these conversations that you test budget, you just give a
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small range. You also, OK, look, based on the
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volume you're doing right now, a solution like ours typically
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requires a monthly budget of around maybe 5 to 8 million.
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So does that work with what you set aside for logistics for this
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year? Bam.
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And then you ask and then you hear what they have to say.
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Ask the question and then keep quiet.
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OK, Chief Odogo, Madam, blah, blah, blah.
16:43
You know a larger OK, we've been looking based on all the
16:46
movements, everything is looking like a Honda kind of five to
16:49
8:00 AM. So, so my, how you say I'm now
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OK, no, you don't have to be that informal, but you know, you
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ask, does that sound about right?
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Is that a figure you're comfortable with?
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How does that compare to how much you're currently spending
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on logistics every single month or every single quarter?
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Ask and then hear based on what they say, you will now know
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whether OK, I'm dealing with serious somebody, I'm dealing
17:13
with a good situation or you know that I'm more, we're off
17:17
the mark, so let me go back to the office, let me call or
17:21
Gatunde, we'll sit down and then we'll see how we'll strategize.
17:24
But at least know who it is you're dealing with.
17:26
Do a budget check. No, don't assume that everything
17:30
good, everything fine. Then also or Gatunde or anybody
17:36
else in this kind of situation, you need to talk to your team
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and you need to get them to be able to identify how would I put
17:43
it now? Authority, Yes.
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Authority, the person who has the power to say yes and who has
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the power to say no. Because too many of us, we spend
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time talking with people who can only say no, but people who can
17:55
say yes. It happens to everybody.
17:57
The first time you have. OK, well, it wasn't the first
17:59
time happening, but the biggest one that I can remember, I was
18:01
talking to this babe. And I won't lie, the way she
18:04
sounded confident, I thought she was the bride.
18:07
Remember, I used to be in events.
18:08
I'm a former lawyer, now a business consultant, but I did
18:10
events for some. For a while, we had confidence.
18:13
I assumed that she was the bride by the time we started
18:18
discussing. As you say, I'll get back to
18:20
you. So no.
18:21
But I thought we were OK on the budget and everything.
18:24
Yeah. Well, yeah, you know, but it's
18:25
my sister's wedding, and I felt like I need you.
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I say I was talking to the sister of the bread.
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The younger sister of the bread. Of course, nothing came out of
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it. It was not her fault.
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It was my own fault. I did not bother to ask
18:44
questions to even see who it was that I was talking to.
18:47
All I know was she sounded confident, she sounded like it
18:49
was a good deal. She did not push my number back
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and forth. You know in my mind I was
18:55
thinking correct. 600K600K600K600K.
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The thing came to naughty because at the end of the day,
19:03
the younger sister of the bread decision making power no.
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If you're in the event business, you're talking to younger sister
19:12
of the bright and it depending on family dynamics.
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The younger sister has the power to say no, but she doesn't have
19:17
the power to say yes. She can tell her sister that
19:19
sis, you know what this guy. I don't like this guy.
19:21
Don't use this guy. Bam, everything will just end
19:23
there, but she doesn't have the power to say yes.
19:26
Is it her wedding? No.
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Is she the one I'm paying? No.
19:31
So Ogatundi, when you're coaching your employees, Madami
19:36
Foreman or Madam Informer, you're the sales lead, you're
19:39
coaching your juniors, whatever you sell, if you're looking at
19:41
one or two deals, we need to know people's authority.
19:44
Are they the ones that can make the decision?
19:47
So Madam Informer, you send out 150 million naira deal, the guy
19:52
doesn't get back to you. It depends.
19:54
Maybe you are talking to somebody and at the end of the
19:56
day, the person is just desk officer.
19:58
And maybe in our company desk officer cannot authorize
20:01
anything above maybe 200K. Then what you drop on this table
20:06
is 150 million for the whole year.
20:08
Of course you say I'll get back to you now because it's somebody
20:12
else who is up in the company that needs to sign this thing.
20:17
So how do you ask about decision making, you know different ways
20:20
for somebody in this situation. Now Okatunde now coaching Madami
20:24
former, so Madami former anybody who you know, you're a Madami
20:28
former, you're in that kind of situation, whatever former you
20:31
can be asking when you're talking to somebody, before you
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send proposals, say OK, oh, besides you, who else in this
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company needs to be looking at technical specifications before
20:42
we start talking budget, before we start talking contract?
20:47
Simple question, OK, apart from you, when it comes to logistics,
20:50
apart from you, who else needs to look at this proposal?
20:55
Or OK, I'm working a proposal, I want to send it to someone or
20:58
apart from you, who else would I need to share this proposal
21:00
with? Oh, Mr. So so, so and so in the
21:05
former companies that we've been working with, usually this is
21:07
how it happens. I handle what the proposal to
21:09
you, the person that involves the procurement manager.
21:11
Is this how it works in your own company?
21:14
You're asking you're just trying to get a sense.
21:16
Is it only you that I'm talking to that will give this proposal?
21:20
I'll be are we going to be talking to procurement manager?
21:22
I'll be do have like ask. It's the first time.
21:25
You don't know when you do it for the first time.
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I know how the company works and everything.
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OK, you can be assuming, OK, Last time this is how we did it.
21:33
This time, this is how happened. By the beginning.
21:36
Ask. If you're trying to figure out
21:38
who has the authority, who is making decisions, then Mr.
21:42
Tunde, you're talking to your employee, Madami Former.
21:45
You need to teach Madami Former how to gauge urgency.
21:49
Urgency just means that people are ready to take action now.
21:53
Urgency is the most important thing that lots of business
21:55
Nigerian owners do not pay attention to.
21:58
Urgency just means the person right, They have a reason for
22:01
wanting to go ahead now. There's something that we can
22:04
point to, something that we can see, something that we can
22:07
discern that shows that they are ready to take action now.
22:09
Too many of us are spending time talking to people who have no
22:12
sense of urgency now. I was lucky that I after law, I
22:17
started off in events and in events, urgency is everything.
22:23
If you have 5 brides, potential brides you're talking to now,
22:27
two of them, OK, I'm making this recording now in May of 2026.
22:31
Let's say two of them are getting married within three
22:33
months, then one of them is getting married in another two
22:37
years, and then the remaining two, well, the boyfriend just
22:41
proposed, but the family hasn't met.
22:42
They haven't spoken about dates anybody in the event space knows
22:46
that that one those two that are getting married in three months
22:49
will put fire on them will stay on their case.
22:51
Now close marking won't drop it because if we drop that one,
22:55
another person will pick it up quick because they're getting
22:59
married within three months. Their date is is fixed.
23:01
That is urgency. Then the other two that where
23:06
you know they propose, but you know, the family has no hard
23:11
meeting yet no dates and those ones will be following them.
23:13
Bob, you know, soft, soft motion our Hey, what's up?
23:17
How you doing house wedding planning.
23:19
Oh, by the way, do you guys have a wedding date yet or they don't
23:22
still have a wedding dates? No problem with the holiness
23:23
also. But at the moment that they have
23:25
wedding date priority, we now stay on their case because if we
23:30
don't pick it up, if we drop it down, another person will carry
23:33
that in swiftly because they have wedding date that is
23:36
urgency. Then the one that in fact now is
23:40
one that is tricky. And to be honest, I only had one
23:42
like that because you know, in Nigeria, we Nigeria, we don't
23:45
like to plan like that, like that.
23:46
We plan when it comes to wedding anyway, we plan short, short,
23:49
you know, three months, six months.
23:51
So that was the first time I came across a bride from a very
23:54
high class family and are planning this wedding two years
23:56
out. So I won't lie, I'm not proud,
23:59
but I admit your boy froze. I didn't know how to pursue this
24:03
one. They're getting married.
24:05
OK, confirm. They have money.
24:06
OK, confirm. I've seen the boy, I've seen the
24:09
girl, I've seen the mom sit behind this one.
24:11
The wedding is 2 years out. To be honest, I I couldn't think
24:15
of anything. I have rules.
24:16
So I lost it. I lost that one.
24:20
So to be honest, yeah, I'm not creative enough, at least for
24:22
now anyway. Maybe if I sit down, I think it
24:24
again, you know? But anyway.
24:27
But this won't mean by urgency. Urgency just means timelines.
24:32
Is there any timeline? Is there any reason why they
24:33
have to move ahead? We figure this thing out.
24:37
It is then that we'll know that, OK, this 150 million proposal
24:40
I'm sending is a good proposal. Chance day.
24:45
The thing might work because they know their timelines, you
24:48
know, their urgency. So if somebody says we might
24:57
need some soon, and then as a logistics company, you're trying
25:01
to say you're trying to figure out soon, but they're not
25:04
committing to you. You say, oh, like soon.
25:06
So does that mean, you know, are we talking next month to say,
25:10
well, you know, and then you try again.
25:12
So OK, like within this quarter and like they haven't committed
25:16
to anything. Honestly speaking, you don't
25:18
know if you have a good deal on your hand or not because they
25:21
say maybe soon, but as soon you can't get them to commit.
25:28
But if you're talking to these people and they already have
25:33
people that they're using, but they're ramping up supply and
25:36
maybe the current person is not able to meet it.
25:38
And so because of that stock is already parking inside the
25:42
warehouse. Come on.
25:43
If you're in logistics, you're talking to somebody and they're
25:45
saying that we already have stock that is sleeping in
25:50
warehouse that we need to move. No be urgency, be that that is
25:54
urgency. So we need to ask people how
26:01
soon would you like for us to start or is there any reason why
26:04
I reached out to us. Now that's an easy one for
26:06
getting timelines. Because if you ask somebody, is
26:08
there any reason why? OK, like take OK, I had the STV.
26:11
I had the STV issues. So those one time that we're
26:17
travelling home and mom said, I've been calling the STV guy,
26:20
you know, come, come, come, come.
26:22
You know, the STV guy just asked, oh, is there any reason
26:25
why? And he said, yes, like my
26:27
grandchildren are coming home. I want this thing sorted before
26:30
they get here. I was like, oh, OK, it's not it.
26:34
You say yes, so it's not even a big problem that says, OK, if
26:36
it's like that, mommy, no problem, I'll come tomorrow.
26:38
I was thinking it was a big thing.
26:41
You see, the DSTV guy was thinking, oh, it is something
26:44
big. It is something big.
26:45
Let me wait until like I cleared the whole day for mommy.
26:48
But she found out that it was just a simple something, just go
26:51
and hook up the thing quick because grandchildren have
26:53
something just pass through the next day.
26:55
Finished it one time and then went about his business.
26:59
So even the question as simple as, you know, any reason why
27:01
you're calling now or how come you're calling now?
27:03
Or like, you know, I don't know how to explain it.
27:07
Anyway, some creativity. Also use some AI, you know, to
27:10
fool around and come up with some ideas.
27:12
But you can find questions to be able to gauge urgency.
27:16
Why are somebody calling you now?
27:17
When do they want to take action?
27:18
Why are they thinking about taking action now?
27:22
How soon would you like us to proceed?
27:23
How soon do you want this thing delivered?
27:25
You know, just urgency and timelines now.
27:31
So Orga Tunde or someone in the situation of Orga Tunde now,
27:36
this is what's going to happen when you start doing this for
27:38
your team, unfortunately, I would love to tell you that the
27:41
day you start doing this, that your business, you know, we,
27:44
your business, we double your profits.
27:46
I would love to tell you that, but I'm sorry, that's not the
27:48
case. That's not the case.
27:50
Well, this was going to happen. First of all, you want to notice
27:53
that your sales people, they're going to start feeling so
27:56
overworked because they're not just sending out proposal
27:59
proposal anyhow. They will see that, oh, the
28:04
proposals that we're sending out now, OK, now good college
28:07
proposal. There's hope.
28:09
Not that whole, we sent out 50 proposals and then 15 people
28:13
didn't respond. And then, you know, they'll just
28:16
notice, you know, like the energy, energy will readjust.
28:22
Energy will readjust. Don't be sending a proposal
28:26
anyhow. Then some people will be going
28:28
into natural sequence, you know, go to send them e-mail every
28:32
once in a while, you know, happy new month, happy Easter, blah,
28:36
blah, blah, blah blah. These are the logistics
28:38
solutions that will provide something, you know, just, you
28:40
know, like that like that. Then your social will find out
28:43
now that the energy that they're focusing on now the proposals
28:49
that they're talking to, they'll find out that OK, these ones
28:52
that it seems more it seems more reasonable, it seems more good.
28:56
Don't be this whole thing of you sent 20 proposals, 15 people
28:59
ghosted. No.
29:04
So the profits on double overnight.
29:07
But Mr. Tony, I can assure you or Madami former, if you're head
29:10
of the sales team, I can assure you in this situation, give it
29:13
2-3 months because you're asking good questions.
29:17
You're doing qualification and discovery well and you're
29:20
talking to the right people and sending proposals to the right
29:22
people who have the authority and who have the budget and who
29:25
have a sense of timeline for when they want to move.
29:27
You find out that within 2-3 months you see that money will
29:31
just be, you know, coming in small, small, small.
29:33
So be patient with this. This is not one of those things
29:35
that you change it today and then next week you see millions
29:38
in your bank account. It's more like you make these
29:40
changes today because you've made the changes to the proposal
29:43
process. You will now start having more
29:45
fruitful conversation. So, you know, this thing is not
29:49
a science, so I'm just guessing. So let's say 2-3 months, you
29:54
should start seeing some progress.
29:56
So this is how someone who is in this situation and Olga Tunde,
30:00
for instance, who is a founder of a, you know, logistics
30:04
company, this is how you can start increasing your deals,
30:07
small, small, small, not by doing more advertisements or
30:10
anything, but just by increasing the quality of the conversations
30:13
that you're having with potential customers.
30:17
So if there's anything I want listeners today to take away is
30:21
this. Let's not like to be sending out
30:25
quotations and invoices and everything is good.
30:28
But let's, let's not focus too much on the number of invoices
30:32
that we sent out last week. Let's focus instead on on the
30:38
quality of the conversations we're having.
30:41
Are people qualified to have those conversations?
30:44
Because you're better off If you look at last year and you see
30:47
that you sent maybe 100 quotes for 150 million each, maybe only
30:51
one closed. OK, alright, not bad.
30:55
But it's not better that you send maybe, I don't know, 20 of
31:04
that kind, 8080M100100M, maybe 5050 M.
31:09
And out of the 20 that you closed, you know 12 of them
31:12
closed. That's a much better outcome
31:17
because it shows that you're better at conversions.
31:20
Conversion just means you're able to get somebody to take the
31:23
next step. The better you are at converting
31:26
and the better you are sending, getting people to take the next
31:29
step, it now means that when you scale and start talking to more
31:34
and more people, the numbers will increase and increase and
31:36
increase. So it's not about the number of
31:42
quotations and invoices that we sent out.
31:44
That is good. We should be sending them out,
31:46
but let's make sure that we're having qualified conversations
31:49
before we send somebody a price quote.
31:51
We need to figure out this affordability thing.
31:55
We need to come up with a way. Does this person have money?
31:58
Do they have a go? Do they have bar?
32:00
Does it look like there's room here?
32:02
Affordability. Then authority.
32:04
Who am I talking to? Who am I talking to?
32:07
If I'm talking to the houseboy, the houseboy cannot give me a
32:10
yes. The houseboy can say no because
32:13
the houseboy can say organo de go, whether or guys around or
32:17
not. The houseboy can tell me no.
32:18
He can say organo de and you know, will I beat him?
32:21
I will go now. The emergency.
32:27
Do they have a timeline? Are they getting ready to move
32:30
anytime soon? Have we seen anything?
32:33
Have they done anything? Have they said something that
32:35
shows they're ready to move? If you have not gone through
32:39
this simple checklist, you've not tapped on affordability, you
32:43
have not scratched on authority, you have not done any kind of
32:47
motion to see whether they have a sense of urgency.
32:52
My personal recommendation, Just keep your proposal in your
32:55
pocket for now. Hold on to this proposal for
33:00
now. Just calm down.
33:01
Let's try and figure out these things first.
33:03
When we have the answer to all three of them.
33:07
See, life is not perfect. It's possible that you may only
33:09
have answers to two. OK, no problem.
33:10
At least if we have answer to 2, is something OK?
33:13
The person has the authority. OK, it looks like they have a
33:16
budget. OK, we're not able to find out
33:18
whether they have urgency. Well, how far do I more same
33:22
proposal even if we can just get started to no problem, it's
33:27
better than not having any answers at all and then being
33:30
heartbroken. They sent out a quote 150
33:33
million and then the person just they go silent.
33:37
You didn't hear anything again. So that's it.
33:40
Thank you very much for listening.
33:41
I'll catch you all some other episode.
33:43
I think I have a couple more case study episodes to go
33:47
through. And please forgive me again for
33:50
messing up the Part 1, Part 2 thing, but I'm trusting that if
33:54
you listen to this podcast episode for the first time that
33:56
you still got value from this. So if you'd love to connect with
33:58
me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp
34:00
message on 08064662140. So thanks for your time and
34:06
attention. I'll catch you some other time.