Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / A Structured Plan for Client Conversations
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the podcast.
- 0:03Today's episode is going to be, well, not going to be actually,
- 0:07it's one of those late night episodes.
- 0:10So I can't talk really loud because I don't wake up the
- 0:13whole house. I don't want wifey and the kids
- 0:15to wake up and be like, what's this old man doing again?
- 0:19Anyway? So today what we're going to be
- 0:21talking about on the podcast is we're going to explore more
- 0:24ideas about building rapport in business.
- 0:27Now, for those of you who've been listening for a while, you
- 0:30know, the reason why we're still on this rapport business is
- 0:33because I've happened to catch some chatter on LinkedIn where
- 0:38people are asking questions around these sorts of things.
- 0:42And unfortunately, there are some people who have some very
- 0:45half baked ideas about these things and they're throwing
- 0:49their ideas about on LinkedIn. And and I just don't want those
- 0:55of you who listen to this podcast to be LED astray in case
- 0:59you've been coming across, you know, these kinds of
- 1:02conversations. Now, there is one thing that
- 1:06I've some of these people have said on LinkedIn that is
- 1:09absolutely correct. And that is that building
- 1:14rapport is not just about asking random questions.
- 1:19Now, the reason why I want to emphasize that, Avi, does it
- 1:23emphasize any? The reason why I'm going to
- 1:25agree with that over here and expand on it just a little bit
- 1:28is because if you follow any sales offer, let me just put it
- 1:39that way, if you follow any sales author on the Internet,
- 1:42whether Nigerian or foreign, there's some stuff that we've
- 1:46said about rapport, which is that building rapport involves
- 1:52asking questions. And that is correct.
- 1:55But unfortunately, lots of people don't give very helpful
- 1:57guidelines about the kind of questions that you are supposed
- 2:00to ask. Oh, by the way, if this is your
- 2:02first time listening to the podcast and you don't know what
- 2:05rapport is, then this is kind of like a Part 3 or maybe a part 4.
- 2:10So after you're done listening to this episode, skip back,
- 2:12listen to two or three more episodes and you get caught up
- 2:15to speed. But basically rapport is the
- 2:19state in the business relationship or in the sales
- 2:24conversation where we're trying to achieve a certain level of
- 2:27ease, a certain level of comfort, a certain level of
- 2:30familiarity between you and your potential customers so that
- 2:33everybody's cool and you guys can have a serious business
- 2:37conversation. So those are the things that
- 2:40we're trying to set up when we talk about rapport.
- 2:44So in previous podcast episodes, I've spoken about the 5 W
- 2:50framework, which is who, why, what, where, when?
- 2:54And some people say how, even though how doesn't start with
- 2:57an, doesn't start with AW, obviously.
- 3:01Well, that's the five W framework.
- 3:03Who, why, what, where, when? And I've mentioned that when
- 3:07we're trying to build rapport with potential customers,
- 3:10potential clients, potential investors, whoever it is you're
- 3:13having a conversation with, so long as you're having open-ended
- 3:16conversations with people that start with, you know, who I
- 3:19what, where and when you should be making good progress.
- 3:24But looking back now, I don't think I gave a certain idea as
- 3:30to the kind of structure that these questions should be built
- 3:33around. So that's the reason I'm making
- 3:35today's episode. So First off, if you listen to
- 3:38the former episodes about building rapport and you liked
- 3:41everything that you've heard, cool.
- 3:44If you've tried applying some of those things, you know even
- 3:46better. But I forgot to mention then, so
- 3:48let me make mention it now. The questions that you're going
- 3:52to be asking your potential customer, the potential client
- 3:55should be built around their own needs, the needs of the person
- 3:59that you have in the conversation with.
- 4:01So don't just ask questions, who, why, what, where, when, how
- 4:06in a very general sense, but the question should be oriented
- 4:09towards the person. So there's an old framework, a
- 4:14much older framework from Zig Ziglar that I've spoken about on
- 4:17the podcast before, and that is Pogo.
- 4:20Pogo, that's an acronym. And each of the letters in this
- 4:27acronym stands for something. Now, forgive me, I don't think I
- 4:31can remember the last OI think the first is a person, the next
- 4:36is organization, the next is goals and objectives or
- 4:39something like that. But either way, when you're
- 4:43having a conversation with someone and you're trying to
- 4:45build rapport with the person, you should be asking them
- 4:48questions, you know, personal questions about them because
- 4:50you're trying to figure out who they are.
- 4:52Then organization, you should be asking them questions, you know,
- 4:56carrier questions around their business, you know, things like
- 4:59that. Then goals, you should be asking
- 5:02them questions around their goals, what they're trying to
- 5:04achieve, and then say objectives or outcomes.
- 5:08And I can't remember, but you get the sense.
- 5:11So Zig Ziglar, the legendary Zig Ziglar, what he says is when
- 5:16you're talking to people in a business context and you're
- 5:18trying to build rapport, you should be asking questions about
- 5:21them. Personal questions,
- 5:22organizational questions, career questions, business questions,
- 5:26questions about their goals, questions about their outcomes.
- 5:29Shah, you're trying to ask questions about the people them.
- 5:33Now that is what gets you to build a certain level of rapport
- 5:38with them. Now, if you're not for all these
- 5:42fancy acronyms like Pogo, a simpler approach basically is
- 5:47when you're having a conversation with person a
- 5:49person and you're trying to close the deal.
- 5:52You're trying to close this here with the person.
- 5:54You should be trying to figure out some very simple following
- 5:58elements. Number one, you should try to
- 6:01figure out who this person is. Then you should also try and
- 6:05figure out the person's background.
- 6:08Then you should also try and figure out the particular
- 6:10problems that the person has at the moment or try and figure out
- 6:16the particular vision that the person is seeking to achieve in
- 6:21their business life or in their personal life.
- 6:25When you have conversations with people using this kind of
- 6:28framework, I'll be using this kind of backdrop, it is then
- 6:32that you have the information that you need to be able to
- 6:37build relationships effectively and make a convincing proposal
- 6:40or a convincing sales pitch later on down the line.
- 6:46So these kinds of approaches, the reason why they're important
- 6:51is because they help the other person to feel seen and they
- 6:55help the other person to feel validated.
- 6:59So that is the reason why when we're trying to build rapport
- 7:03with people is not just about asking conversation.
- 7:07Those are just about asking random questions.
- 7:09Anyhow. The questions that we ask should
- 7:13have a certain goal towards them, should have a certain feel
- 7:18towards them, and that's the reason why I'm making today's
- 7:21podcast episode. So if you're trying to do
- 7:25anything else, if you're asking questions randomly, if you're
- 7:30not focused on this person, what their needs are, what their
- 7:33goals are, what the outcomes they're trying to achieve, then
- 7:36at the end of the day, it's going to look like a random
- 7:38conversation. And it's going to be a nice
- 7:40conversation. But it's a conversation that
- 7:43won't have any particular goal. And it's a conversation that
- 7:45won't have any particular structure to it.
- 7:48And it's a conversation that ultimately is not going to help
- 7:51you move the person towards buying your product or your
- 7:55service. This has been your first time
- 7:58listening to the podcast. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm
- 8:00a former lawyer turned business consultant.
- 8:04And if you like these sorts of things, subscribe to the podcast
- 8:06on Spotify, Apple iTunes, or you know, wherever it is that you
- 8:11listen to your podcasts, then if you'd love to connect with me,
- 8:16you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on
- 8:1908064662140. I'd love to hear particularly
- 8:26from people who have potential clients, potential customers.
- 8:32You're trying to build rapport with your potential customers
- 8:35and you don't seem to be making any progress whatsoever.
- 8:38Then reach out to me. Let's see if we can help you put
- 8:42more structure and get more effective with the kinds of
- 8:47conversations that you're having with your prospects and with
- 8:50your potential customers. Also, I'd love to hear from
- 8:53people who are trying to build businesses.
- 8:57You have 345 ideas and you haven't particularly made
- 9:01progress with any single one. So reach out to me so we can
- 9:04help you start your business journey or to build your
- 9:08business in the three easy steps.
- 9:10So we're going to teach you how to select the right idea first
- 9:14of all, instead of juggling 3 or 4 balls at the same time.
- 9:17Then we're also going to help you validate the business idea
- 9:21so that we select the idea that has promise to it, the idea that
- 9:27people are willing to pay for and the idea that people are
- 9:30willing to pay good money for. And then after that, we're also
- 9:32going to help you build a selling system around that
- 9:37particular idea. So that's it.
- 9:40And that's all for today. Thank you very much guys for
- 9:42listening. I will catch you all some other
- 9:45time.