Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Keep the Deal Moving: Handling Customer Concerns Without Stalling

Transcript

Keep the Deal Moving: Handling Customer Concerns Without Stalling · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 0:04
  I saw sales and marketing challenges, and I'm making
• 0:06
  today's recording in my living room, so expect to hear some
• 0:09
  noise in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast,
• 0:12
  like every other one I make, is business education.
• 0:15
  So please spread the word so that your friends and family
• 0:17
  members, both home and abroad can benefit from the questions
• 0:21
  that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:24
  on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice.
• 0:28
  And if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me
• 0:31
  on 08064662140. Today on the podcast, Hopefully
• 0:38
  this is going to be a short one in the last episode and I think
• 0:42
  the episode before maybe like 5-6 episodes, I've been saying a
• 0:45
  lot about dealing with objections.
• 0:47
  And so that's what I want to tackle today.
• 0:49
  And that's because I just got off the phone with one of my
• 0:52
  clients that I've been consulting with for a while and
• 0:55
  they pulled one kind move with a potential customer and I move
• 0:58
  no, no two pure. So I said, let me just come and
• 1:00
  make this recording just in case you're in that kind of a
• 1:03
  situation and you self, you know, you now do something that
• 1:06
  would just torpedo the deal, even though you don't know
• 1:09
  actually what's going on. So what is an objection for
• 1:13
  those of you who are tuning in for the first time?
• 1:15
  An objection is just any particular reason that people
• 1:18
  give because they don't want to go ahead with the discussion,
• 1:21
  with the transaction, with your agenda, with your proposal, with
• 1:25
  your whatever. So like the example that I gave
• 1:27
  last time is let's say you're a member of the Catholic Church,
• 1:30
  you're in parish pastoral council, you're proposing let us
• 1:33
  celebrate these, let's celebrate these.
• 1:35
  And people are saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, all that,
• 1:37
  no, no, no, that is objection. If you're involved in business,
• 1:41
  you're a fashion designer, somebody's talking to you.
• 1:43
  The Madam says she wants peplum and you're thinking that based
• 1:48
  on how body size and everything, peplum will not do pure.
• 1:52
  You're trying to recommend that she try something else and then
• 1:56
  because of that, it looks as if she's backing down.
• 1:58
  That is an objection. You're trying to get somebody to
• 2:01
  buy something from you and then the person says like, are you
• 2:03
  mad? If I go next door I can buy it
• 2:06
  at 50% off? You're too expensive.
• 2:08
  That is an objection. So any kind of common question
• 2:12
  mark, slowing down, matching brake, changing the topic, you
• 2:17
  know, whatever, any kind of speed bump like that, that is
• 2:21
  what we call objections in the sales process.
• 2:24
  And sometimes we business people, we don't handle
• 2:29
  objections too well. Well, number one is because we
• 2:32
  don't know. And number #2 because sometimes
• 2:34
  body they're hot. So you will now just be
• 2:37
  provoking unnecessarily. And that's what happened in this
• 2:39
  case. So that's the reason why I'm
• 2:40
  making today's podcast episode. So this is exactly what went
• 2:43
  down. Now I've been advising for a
• 2:47
  client in the real estate space. You know, they have an app that
• 2:50
  is supposed to make it easier to connect, you know, landlords
• 2:54
  with tenants, people who want to sell a house, you know, buy a
• 2:57
  house, all that kind of thing. And they have a proprietary
• 3:02
  algorithm that helps, you know, do all this, you know, stuff,
• 3:05
  you know, fancy, fancy stuff, you know, tech things.
• 3:08
  So, you know, I don't understand the mathematics behind it, so I
• 3:12
  don't even bother. My only just OK, I'm advising
• 3:15
  for you guys. So it's a matter of, you know,
• 3:17
  hooking you guys up with clients, making sure that you
• 3:19
  have access to, you know, certain kinds of people,
• 3:24
  whatever the priorities of the client seems to be for the day.
• 3:27
  So I'm just advising them now. There's this deal that they've
• 3:30
  been working on that they've been pursuing and I've been
• 3:33
  advising them. And so the CEO, when I was
• 3:37
  talking to other people and so we had draw proposal that we're
• 3:40
  doing something around December. We need you guys to secure XYZ
• 3:46
  number of shortlists. You know, was was plenty was
• 3:49
  running into thousands. Actually, we need you to secure,
• 3:53
  you know, XYZ number of short let's stay hotel, you know, this
• 3:57
  kind of thing running into thousands and thousands.
• 4:00
  And then, well, first of all, the CEO said why you guys draw a
• 4:04
  proposal? That was 1 goof and the the
• 4:08
  liaison officer now called me and I was like, no, that's not
• 4:13
  how you will draw proposal. Now you don't just, you know,
• 4:17
  just go and write anything and say this is proposal.
• 4:19
  And then you send first of all, you need to ask the client, OK,
• 4:22
  you are doing this thing in December, you know, like what's
• 4:24
  going on? What's the plan?
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  You try and get a sense of the vibe, try and get a sense of
• 4:28
  what the problem is trying to solve.
• 4:30
  Then you cannot make a convincing proposal.
• 4:32
  Your proposal will now say that, OK, we XYZ Corporation have been
• 4:36
  engaged to, you know, provide services to you, blah, blah,
• 4:40
  blah. This is what you're trying to
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  do. This is what you're trying to
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  achieve. These are the results that
• 4:45
  you're looking for. These are the outcomes that you
• 4:47
  want at the end of the day, you know, having understood these
• 4:49
  problems, we so, so, so and so we can able to help you to
• 4:53
  achieve this. You know, that's the way that
• 4:55
  you put together a proposal, you know, from the other person's
• 4:57
  point of view. So it's not just you just put
• 5:00
  together 1 document. This is me, This Is Us, this is
• 5:03
  our board of director, this is our specialty.
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  These are the services that we provide.
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  This is how much will charge you.
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  Then you send no, no, no, you write the proposal from the
• 5:12
  other people's point of view, any other the put together
• 5:15
  proposal. Now did the mathematics.
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  You know, we need X number of people who need this, we need
• 5:20
  this, we need that. By the time they put together
• 5:22
  the proposal and I looked at the number at the bottom, I saw that
• 5:26
  this this number was sweet, as in millions big, big, big, big,
• 5:30
  big number. And I was thinking, oh, more
• 5:32
  this one, even if they say, you know, yes, we've agreed on your,
• 5:38
  your, your professional rate. But because, you know, out of
• 5:42
  gratitude, come and take 1%, at least my house looking like,
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  man, even 1% of this number is correct.
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  At least 1% means that my house rent is sure, school fees is
• 5:52
  sure and maybe fuel for like 3-4 months.
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  You sure? That's how sweet the deal was.
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  So I was looking at the number. The number is very, very sweet.
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  Then in my mind now, I was now calculating all the things I
• 6:03
  need done in my Life, OK, the car that I need to fix, you
• 6:05
  know, all these, all these things, they're my children.
• 6:09
  They don't like this DSTV package, one that is 19 K.
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  So in my mind, I'm not like, OK, I'll be paying the 19 K package.
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  I was not calculating everything in my head.
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  And then my mother is always warning me.
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  She says that look, young man, stop counting money before the
• 6:23
  thing has arrived. And I say, yeah, mommy, I know,
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  I know. But I'm always doing that
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  counting money in my head even though the paper has not yet
• 6:29
  landed. So as I've been waiting for them
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  to finish this thing now so that when Pepe rest, you know, do
• 6:37
  settle everybody and then I know that OK, some things are now
• 6:41
  clear from my own mind. I was waiting for Pepe then
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  that's how liaison office sent me a message to the liaison
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  officer. I said how far now what happens?
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  So the thing has scatter, scatter because of how said
• 6:54
  because they were asking us to provide a list of the
• 6:57
  residences. So we say no, you have to engage
• 7:00
  us first and then we ended the whole thing.
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  Let me repeat, this is how the deal scattered the other people
• 7:07
  who are trying to engage the services of my client to go and
• 7:10
  secure residences. They now told them give us a
• 7:13
  list of residences and then my client said no, we will not give
• 7:17
  you a list because the whole point of you engaging our
• 7:21
  services is for us to go and secure these accommodations.
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  If we provide you a list ahead of time, you might as well just
• 7:27
  go ahead and you will now do it yourself and cut us out.
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  So because of that, we're not giving you a list.
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  And then that's all the whole deal scattered.
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  So in that case, give us a list. That seems like an objection
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  because, you know, from my own point of view, it was looking as
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  if they want us to do something that will end up, you know,
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  cutting us out of the picture at the end of the day.
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  So I'm not told, leisure officer, that no, now that's not
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  how you do things. Calm down.
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  People ask questions for any number of reasons.
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  The problem is maybe because you know, body the hot economy is
• 8:04
  hard or all kinds of things. We on the sales side, we now
• 8:07
  start assuming that we know exactly what is behind them
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  asking. We just assume that they're
• 8:13
  trying to cut us out of the picture.
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  Maybe it's not. There are some clients who are
• 8:18
  fraudulent, yes, who want to do things like that, but it might
• 8:21
  not be that might not be the case.
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  So whenever you're faced with an objection, instead of assuming
• 8:26
  you know what the other person is thinking, then you now react
• 8:29
  like calm down, lean in, acknowledge, ask a couple of
• 8:33
  questions, figure out what is going on, and then you'll be
• 8:37
  able to now resolve the matter. Before I tell you what I've
• 8:41
  asked my client, let me give you 1 practical example that some
• 8:43
  people have been doing business with for a very long time.
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  And you know, when you do business with people, you will
• 8:48
  get comfort, comfortable with each other.
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  You know, sometimes you know, see finish, you know, maybe they
• 8:52
  won't rate you highly. So the time came now to drop a a
• 8:59
  proposal, a draft proposal. I sent them the figure.
• 9:02
  Then that's how the desk officer got back to me and she said
• 9:05
  please, we need a breakdown. I was now angry.
• 9:09
  I was now thinking, OK, because me tavish and I'm civil.
• 9:13
  I'm always available, I'm always helpful.
• 9:16
  So this is how you guys are looking at me now.
• 9:18
  I've given you invoice. You want me to break it down so
• 9:21
  that you can now start slashing my money and removing things.
• 9:26
  So I now picked up the phone. By the way, we should always
• 9:28
  pick up the phone. It's easier to handle these
• 9:29
  things in person. And then I called the desk
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  officer. Her name is Angel.
• 9:34
  She doesn't listen to this podcast so I can use her real
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  name. So I said, Angel, how far?
• 9:38
  Like what's what's going on? I received this e-mail even want
• 9:42
  me to break down all my figures. I be so that you start
• 9:44
  negotiating things on my own behalf.
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  I told her, look, I'm not going to do that.
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  I'm not going to send you figures.
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  You cannot keep pricing by something you know you like.
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  You're not going to do that to me?
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  But then she was like please that we need the figures.
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  And so me angrily I said look, you know what, OK, to facilitate
• 10:02
  this thing, I need to send boys to Lagos.
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  I need to send boys to Cano, I need to send boys to Anugu.
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  This is how much will cost me. This is how much will cost me.
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  This is how much will cost me. After all this stress, I people
• 10:12
  saying that I should not at least have a few, you know
• 10:16
  something to put in my pocket while this is the breakdown,
• 10:18
  this is my profit margin. Why are you now tell me how much
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  am I supposed to keep? And I left it like that in
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  anger. And next thing Angel is like
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  Tara Schumer is not like that. The thing is just that
• 10:31
  accounting said they cannot pay out anything unless they see the
• 10:36
  breakdown. We're ready to pay.
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  Accounting just needed breakdown.
• 10:40
  Once you give the breakdown, the payment will be in your account
• 10:43
  by next week Wednesday. That's why my man came down.
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  I said, so that's all she said. Yes, that was just it.
• 10:50
  Accounting is just is a compliance issue.
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  Accounting just needs some kind of breakdown.
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  We are not, we're not criticizing anything now.
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  And I started feeling like I'm a fool because I seriously provoke
• 11:05
  for Angel because I assumed that I knew what the question was
• 11:09
  about or what the objection was about.
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  I just assumed I didn't ask. If I had asked and I realized
• 11:15
  that was a compliance issue, I would have just gone ahead,
• 11:19
  prepared something, anything, and then sent it in.
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  And then the next question, of course, would have been OK, when
• 11:25
  are we expecting payment? How soon can we go ahead?
• 11:29
  So of course, be feeling like a fool now.
• 11:31
  And that's how, Angel, I beg. No, Vex, you know, times are
• 11:35
  hard. You know how these things can
• 11:37
  be. She laughed and said, yeah, I
• 11:38
  understand. That's the reason why I'm not
• 11:39
  married. I said, hi, Angel, calm down
• 11:42
  now. How can you say, you know,
• 11:44
  because of small, small financial difficulties.
• 11:46
  You know, you won't. You won't get married.
• 11:48
  Yeah, I told her you're a fine girl, like you suppose married.
• 11:51
  You can't just be staying like this.
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  But anyway, we'll discuss all these things later.
• 11:55
  And then that's how we ended the phone call.
• 11:57
  And then eventually I got paid. But I assumed that I knew what
• 12:02
  the objection was about. And I responded.
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  So 1 moment. OK.
• 12:10
  I thought the phone call was coming in.
• 12:11
  So instead of always assuming when people object, so there's
• 12:16
  some objections that is kind of clear.
• 12:18
  If somebody says, are you mad? If I go next door, you could do
• 12:21
  give it to me for 50% off that one.
• 12:23
  Clearly the objection is about money, but there's some
• 12:27
  objections that we receive, excuse me, that we really don't
• 12:31
  know what's at the back of the mind of the customer.
• 12:34
  Now when they say, let me think about it, let me get back to
• 12:37
  you. Sometimes they might be saying
• 12:39
  that because they don't have money, that's how they say let
• 12:41
  me get back to you. Sometimes they may be saying let
• 12:44
  me get back to you because the customer needs some more time to
• 12:47
  process. He wants to discuss with his
• 12:49
  wife, she wants to discuss with her husband, They want to talk
• 12:52
  to somebody else. Let them understand.
• 12:55
  Sometimes they'll say, let me get back to you because maybe
• 12:57
  they don't have confidence in you that you can't deliver what
• 13:01
  it is that you're promising. So they need sometimes to
• 13:04
  process. So there are some objections
• 13:06
  where you really don't know where they're coming from.
• 13:08
  So you cannot address it until you ask where they are coming
• 13:12
  from. So back to my client now, the
• 13:17
  one that millions, 1,000,000 millions, everything has
• 13:18
  scattered and I have to now start looking for school fees
• 13:22
  and house rent for 2026 because this one has scattered.
• 13:26
  So where was I? So I told her that look, people
• 13:31
  ask questions all the time for different reasons.
• 13:33
  You can't just assume and then react.
• 13:37
  So I told her you should have just answered.
• 13:38
  I said, oh, can you give us a list of housing?
• 13:40
  We have to say we are sure we can, you know, ask your
• 13:44
  question. Is there anything in particular
• 13:46
  that you are concerned about? You ask and the reply might just
• 13:50
  be as simple as, oh, we just want to know the quality or the
• 13:54
  standard of accommodation that you're going to provide for our
• 13:56
  guests. Then in that case you say, oh,
• 13:58
  OK, that's not a problem. We are looking at so, so and so
• 14:02
  property on Lucky, so, so and so property on the mainland, So, so
• 14:06
  and so property on Banana Island.
• 14:08
  You give them like 5 or 6, you know, will this kind of things
• 14:11
  match the standard that you're looking for?
• 14:14
  And some people look and say, oh, OK, if we're looking at
• 14:16
  these kinds of things, that's absolutely fine.
• 14:18
  And then the conversation continues.
• 14:20
  Now, it doesn't mean that the deal will close.
• 14:22
  But The thing is, you've gotten to the root of what their
• 14:25
  concern was. Then you can address it instead
• 14:28
  of assuming that they want a list of all the thousands of
• 14:31
  properties that were supposed to give them.
• 14:33
  And then you say, look, if you do that, you want to cut us out,
• 14:37
  you know, therefore the deal is off.
• 14:40
  So when dealing with objections, first of all, always try and
• 14:44
  empathize with the customer or the client.
• 14:47
  You try and tap things down. Then you ask questions, you try
• 14:50
  and figure out what exactly is going on.
• 14:53
  You will now know how it is that you're supposed to respond.
• 14:56
  So in the situation where somebody says, are you mad that
• 14:58
  Chukudi can give it to me for 50% down, you know, empathize.
• 15:01
  You say, Oh yeah, I know that Chukudi can give it to you a 50%
• 15:06
  off, but the thing that you could is promising you exactly,
• 15:10
  you know like what is it? So what you could promise the
• 15:14
  this this this model 2 and they say oh OK sure, no problem.
• 15:19
  I have the model 2IN store. But Bros, based on what you have
• 15:22
  told me, the model 2 is not going to be adequate for what it
• 15:25
  is that you want to achieve. Model 2 is best for this and
• 15:28
  best for this and best for that. That is the reason why me I
• 15:31
  recommended for you Model 5. So yes, you can go to Chukudi
• 15:36
  and get it at 50% cheaper, but it will not do.
• 15:40
  You will not solve these particular problems that you
• 15:42
  want solved. In fact, OK, instead of going to
• 15:44
  Chukudi, I get need a 5050% off buy it from me and you know I'll
• 15:50
  give you a further 2% discount on what it is that he's arguing.
• 15:53
  So if it is a matter of model 2, the model 2 is here and take it
• 15:57
  at this price without even further discount.
• 16:00
  But just know that most of your problem, so you see how if you
• 16:05
  lean in, you ask a couple of questions, you're going to be
• 16:08
  able to on earth what the customer is thinking and then
• 16:11
  you will be able to address it. So in this case that you could
• 16:16
  is selling it at 50% less by the time you ask questions, you now
• 16:20
  know that OK, you can now educate the customer about how
• 16:22
  this sort of thing is inadequate because you've asked some
• 16:26
  questions about what it is that he's going to receive when he
• 16:29
  goes next door to go and meet Chukudi.
• 16:32
  So that's always the approach. Just calm down.
• 16:34
  We get very emotional because times I had and body, they're
• 16:39
  hot and we all have concerns that we want to meet.
• 16:42
  So you know something I'm really trying to learn because my
• 16:44
  mother tells me I should stop counting money in my head.
• 16:46
  Me, I'm always counting money in my head.
• 16:48
  So by the times she looks as if we're close to time for the
• 16:50
  money to drop and then some comma, some speed bump, some
• 16:56
  question, some queries, some something comes out of nowhere.
• 16:59
  Sometimes you think just destabilizes me because in my
• 17:01
  head I'm already seeing hundreds of thousands or millions in my
• 17:06
  bank account. So when something just comes
• 17:08
  like that, my initial whatever is just like my client is for,
• 17:12
  you know, palpitation. But we should learn to be calm,
• 17:17
  empathize, ask questions, figure out what's going on.
• 17:20
  We'll be able to resolve the situation.
• 17:22
  If we can't resolve the situation, it's just one of
• 17:24
  those things, you know, become, be cool, you know, money comes,
• 17:28
  money goes. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
• 17:30
  That's just life. Some opportunities come, some
• 17:32
  opportunities go. You lose this one today.
• 17:35
  Don't worry, next month, next week, next year, next two years,
• 17:42
  something will come up. Another elephant project will
• 17:44
  come up. So that's just what I wanted to
• 17:48
  say today about dealing with objections because since in the
• 17:52
  work that I'm doing with Shagging LLC and Rudolph, we've
• 17:56
  been talking about this particular objection, this
• 17:58
  particular objection. I just wanted to come here and
• 18:01
  then take the take the big view to show the philosophy about how
• 18:07
  we deal with objections. Empathize first, acknowledge
• 18:10
  first, then ask a couple of questions.
• 18:14
  Figure out what the real issue is.
• 18:16
  When you address what the real issue is, you'll be able to get
• 18:19
  things back on track. So don't end up in a situation
• 18:23
  where, you know, like me, you pick up the phone and you say
• 18:28
  Angel, like what the hell is going on is that is easy finish.
• 18:32
  Everyone now wanting me to break down all my figures so that you
• 18:37
  guys will start determining what is the right profit margin for
• 18:40
  me. You know, calm down.
• 18:45
  So it doesn't get to that situation where you're vomiting
• 18:47
  unnecessarily over the phone or we're like my client, you
• 18:50
  torpedo a deal that might be sweet for all of us just because
• 18:53
  you think they're trying to cut us out of the deal.
• 18:56
  You lean in first, you ask questions.
• 18:58
  When it is now clear that, oh, somebody's trying to cut us out
• 19:01
  of the deal, then you can be frank with them.
• 19:02
  Like, how can you be asking me this kind of thing?
• 19:07
  If it's like that, no problem. Just go and do the job yourself.
• 19:10
  I'm not going to use my own hand and put me put me out of put me
• 19:13
  out of a deal. And then, you know, that kind of
• 19:15
  fun conversation, you know, of course, only will laugh now.
• 19:18
  And you know, yes, it has scattered, but at least it has
• 19:19
  scattered on the level of we're still mutual friends.
• 19:22
  We can still do business tomorrow.
• 19:24
  Not that we torpedo everything in bad faith.
• 19:27
  So that's how we deal with objections.
• 19:29
  Again, acknowledge, empathize, make it look as if you're on
• 19:34
  their own side. Ask a couple of questions.
• 19:36
  So in this particular case was a matter of sure, no problem.
• 19:40
  We can provide you a list of properties.
• 19:42
  Is there anything you are concerned about?
• 19:45
  Question mark? You hear what it is that they
• 19:47
  have to say. Based on their response, you
• 19:49
  will now know the lay of the land and you don't know whether
• 19:52
  you have to go left or whether you have to go right.
• 19:54
  So that's it. And that's all for today's
• 19:57
  episode. And remember, if you'd love to
• 20:00
  connect, then you can call. You can SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 20:04
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 20:09
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 20:11
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.