Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of Consultative Selling: A Step-by-Step Guide

Transcript

The Art of Consultative Selling: A Step-by-Step Guide · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to look at how to
• 0:04
  run a consultative sales process.
• 0:07
  This is not a listener question, but I think it's something that
• 0:10
  we need to address because there are a bunch of us who are
• 0:12
  running around trying to do business and we're trying to
• 0:16
  sell our products or services as if we're in the simple sales
• 0:19
  scenario. And we haven't quite realized
• 0:21
  the implication of being in the complex sales scenario, sorry.
• 0:25
  In complex sales scenarios because like I was shown on the
• 0:29
  podcast, you're trying to sell Lugosi is not the same thing as
• 0:32
  trying to sell tax consultancy services.
• 0:35
  So if you sell Lugosi in the open market, then the approach
• 0:38
  you're going to take is different because you're in the
• 0:39
  simple sales scenario. On the other hand, for those of
• 0:42
  you who sell tax, accounting, legal, you know, those types of
• 0:47
  services, the way that you should go about selling it
• 0:49
  should be different because you guys are in a complex sales
• 0:53
  scenario. But this is your first time of
• 0:55
  listening to the podcast. Then when you're done listening
• 0:57
  to the show, go to YouTube because my podcasts are now
• 1:00
  available on YouTube. Use a search function, search my
• 1:04
  name and then use my name. And then use simple sales
• 1:08
  scenario or complex sales or something.
• 1:10
  You know, those sorts of things. And episodes that I've done in
• 1:13
  the past around these subjects will come up.
• 1:16
  And then you get brought up to speed about what a simple sales
• 1:20
  scenario is, what a complex sales scenario is and the
• 1:24
  reasons why, which is so different on what the
• 1:28
  implications are. So I'm going to use a live case
• 1:34
  study. Well, not really live anyway
• 1:35
  because now it's over and done with.
• 1:37
  Or as at the time of me making this recording, you know, I
• 1:40
  don't know how the thing will end, but let's head straight
• 1:43
  into it. So basically this is a scenario
• 1:47
  a friend of mine recently wanted to engage the service services
• 1:50
  of attacks or accountant, you know, like a tax specialist,
• 1:54
  accountant specialist. You know, to be honest, he
• 1:56
  didn't even know what he should be searching for.
• 1:58
  By the way, that's one thing that those of us who I am
• 2:01
  professional services should understand.
• 2:03
  When our potential customers reach out to us in the
• 2:06
  beginning, they don't quite know what they should be looking for.
• 2:09
  Now tax people, accounting people, they offer all kinds of
• 2:12
  services, compliance services, reporting services, payroll,
• 2:17
  bookkeeping, advisory. And The thing is, my friend
• 2:22
  didn't know what's up. He didn't know what it is that
• 2:23
  he needed. So just bear in mind that if you
• 2:26
  sell professional services, legal accounting, tax, business
• 2:30
  consultancy, growth, growth consultancy, business
• 2:35
  management, our potential customers just know that they
• 2:40
  need something shy. They don't quite know exactly
• 2:43
  what it is, but a lot of us assume that our customers like
• 2:49
  they're the ones who have the problem, our potential
• 2:51
  customers. So they should know exactly what
• 2:53
  it is that they want. But The thing is, you are the
• 2:55
  professional. The potential customer reaches
• 2:58
  out to you as a tax or accounting specialist, as a
• 3:02
  growth management consultant, as a whatever.
• 3:05
  The onus is on you to guard the to guide the conversation
• 3:08
  because you're the one who knows what's up.
• 3:10
  The potential customer, he doesn't know or she doesn't
• 3:13
  know. They just have this nagging
• 3:15
  feeling that something is not quite right.
• 3:17
  I should be doing this, I should be doing that, or my friend is
• 3:20
  doing this, my friend is doing that, or Mumsy said this or
• 3:23
  Popsy said that, or Wifey thinks we should do this.
• 3:26
  So they don't quite know exactly what they want.
• 3:29
  So for those of you who are not yet convinced, because I've been
• 3:32
  saying on the podcast that we are the ones who should be
• 3:36
  taking a lead of the conversation, I hope you guys
• 3:39
  can see the reasons why I recommend that we take the lead
• 3:42
  and we take the initiative. The initiative cannot be on the
• 3:45
  potential customer because in most cases, a potential customer
• 3:48
  doesn't know what's up when it comes to simple sales scenarios
• 3:51
  like a Gucci. I mean, the guy knows exactly
• 3:54
  what he needs. His wife, I said go and get me
• 3:57
  two cups of a Gucci and he will go to the market and he'll get 2
• 3:59
  cups of a Gucci. He knows exactly what a Gucci
• 4:01
  looks like. But if he's been having a
• 4:03
  conversation with his wife and they're talking about how the
• 4:06
  business can be better, maybe they've lost some money.
• 4:10
  No, I think it is supposed to be 1.2, but they only saw 960K in
• 4:15
  the account. Or by the way, with what Tinbu
• 4:18
  is saying, are they going to be changes to how they filed that
• 4:22
  and this and this and that? I mean, him and wifey or
• 4:24
  business partners or brother or parents.
• 4:27
  I mean, they've had all kinds of conversation and the guy or the
• 4:30
  girl just knows that something is up.
• 4:32
  They don't exactly know what is up.
• 4:33
  They don't exactly know what they need.
• 4:36
  So please, for those of us who are in complex hill scenarios,
• 4:39
  for those of us who are selling professional services, if I run
• 4:42
  into any of you who argue with me on this in the flesh, I will
• 4:45
  knock you on the head because you guys are refusing to take
• 4:47
  the hint. You should be the one who should
• 4:50
  be leading the conversation because you are the pro.
• 4:54
  You are the one who knows what's up man.
• 4:58
  Let's see, OK? Anyway, just in case you haven't
• 5:01
  figured out the reason why I'm going over this whole story,
• 5:04
  sorry, excuse me. The reason why I'm going over
• 5:06
  this story and using it as a case study is because I think
• 5:08
  that there are probably lessons that we can learn here about how
• 5:11
  to organize our sales process. And you don't have to be a tax
• 5:14
  specialist, accounting specialist.
• 5:16
  It just happens to be the scenario for today.
• 5:18
  But for those of you who sell other kind of stuff, fashion,
• 5:22
  legal, lifestyle, coaching, what of cooking chef, whatever, you
• 5:29
  can learn from this approach. So the initial outreach happened
• 5:33
  on LinkedIn because my this friend of mine was just chilling
• 5:37
  on LinkedIn going through the timeline.
• 5:39
  And you know how you know people are on your timeline and you see
• 5:42
  the profile picture and then you see the is it LinkedIn bio or
• 5:46
  header or something? So that's how he saw somebody,
• 5:51
  the ladies header come up and the thing said tax something,
• 5:55
  something, tax, whatever, whatever at so, so, so, so and
• 5:59
  so firm. And so he clicked on it because
• 6:03
  after all, you know, what do you call these things?
• 6:05
  Mutual connections? Yes.
• 6:07
  So the mutual connection, OK, forgive me, I'm not sure if
• 6:11
  mutual connection is the right word, but this is a word that
• 6:13
  you call people who you are connected with on LinkedIn.
• 6:17
  So since they're already connected and that had some
• 6:19
  small chats in the past, you know, my guy figured let me just
• 6:22
  approach him, see what's up. So my friend asked the question,
• 6:26
  he said he wanted an Abuja based tax consultant and then the tax
• 6:30
  professional pushed back on the location and reasonably so.
• 6:34
  And then she was able to educate him that nowadays in 2024,
• 6:37
  filings are largely done online. So it doesn't really matter
• 6:40
  about whether your accountant or your tax person is based in
• 6:44
  Abuja or Lagos or Obama show or in Ireland or whatever that all
• 6:52
  that is needed is, you know, the person has the knowledge of the
• 6:56
  processes and things like that. The person knows how to file,
• 6:59
  where to file, excuse me and how to direct you accordingly.
• 7:04
  Sorry about clearing my throat. I'm still recovering from this
• 7:06
  thing. So I'm still on Puritan and
• 7:09
  lauritidine, although today I'm not dizzy.
• 7:14
  Where was I? OK, Yes, certainly that's what
• 7:17
  the person said. Now, since I'm not a tax
• 7:19
  consultant or I'm not an accounting person, I have no
• 7:22
  idea if this is the case. So don't say that.
• 7:24
  You heard on this podcast that it doesn't matter where your
• 7:26
  accountant is based. You know, I don't know.
• 7:28
  I'm not a pro. So if you need tax and
• 7:30
  accounting issues, you know, talk to the specialist, they'll
• 7:33
  put you through. But this is what this person
• 7:35
  told my friend. So, yeah, so that part was good.
• 7:41
  When you're involved in a complex sales scenario, you
• 7:46
  should be the one taking the initiative and educating people,
• 7:48
  like I've been saying so far, because people don't know also
• 7:51
  and they don't know what's what. So somebody's coming here with
• 7:55
  the wrong impression because the last time the person filed any
• 8:00
  tax issues was maybe like a decade ago.
• 8:02
  And I guess back in the day, your accountant had to be in
• 8:05
  Abuja because somebody would have to go into the office
• 8:07
  physically and you know, things like that had to be on location.
• 8:10
  But now it's 2024, so I guess things have changed.
• 8:14
  Then the tax consultant requested a WhatsApp number to
• 8:17
  talk some more. And I say that is very, very,
• 8:21
  very good. And that's something that a
• 8:23
  whole bunch of us should adopt because the thing with phone
• 8:26
  conversations that, you know, it's more personable, You're
• 8:29
  able to build rapport, you're able to pick up on all kind of
• 8:32
  visual cues, you know, whether this conversation is running
• 8:35
  smoothly or not. It also gives you the
• 8:37
  opportunity to get feedback very, very quickly and you can
• 8:41
  double down on some things. So the person might say
• 8:45
  something, I guess. Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you
• 8:47
  correctly. Did you mean did you say this is
• 8:49
  this or did you mean XYZ? And you can now drill in and
• 8:53
  start diving in real deep and ask the relevant questions that
• 8:59
  you need to ask. If this is handled over the
• 9:01
  phone, if it's over chat, it's very, excuse me.
• 9:07
  So if this is handled over chat, it can end up being a very
• 9:11
  cumbersome, cumbersome affair. So it's good that you requested
• 9:15
  WhatsApp phone number to talk some more.
• 9:17
  So for those of us who are in complex sales services, those of
• 9:20
  us who are selling professional services, yeah, try quickly to
• 9:25
  get off e-mail and try quickly to get out of LinkedIn DM, try
• 9:30
  quickly to get on the phone or to get on WhatsApp or get on
• 9:34
  what's SMS basic basis because WhatsApp SMS, phone call, it's
• 9:43
  just differential like when you hope on that level, it's more
• 9:47
  it's more personal than trying to keep things in Instagram DM
• 9:51
  and LinkedIn DM. Also there's the practical
• 9:56
  matter of people don't check their Instagram or their
• 9:58
  WhatsApp every single day. So once you switch the SMS, you
• 10:01
  guys are texting back and forth or WhatsApp messaging back and
• 10:04
  forth or phone calls back and forth.
• 10:06
  People respond, you know, shop shop because you can send a
• 10:09
  LinkedIn DM today and, and maybe the person doesn't see it until
• 10:12
  the end of the week. When you call the person today,
• 10:15
  you send a message. It's possible the person might
• 10:16
  return the phone call tomorrow, especially if you've done a good
• 10:18
  job building rapport and you guys are flowing like 2 decent
• 10:22
  human beings. So the first part of the
• 10:26
  conversation that I've given you guys so far is what happened
• 10:28
  over LinkedIn DM. So now we're moving to stage 2
• 10:33
  where WhatsApp inbox I thought was going to be a phone call,
• 10:38
  but tax resultant didn't call. So continued chatting.
• 10:42
  I'll make I'll comment more on that in the future.
• 10:46
  So the tax consultants now start off the conversation by saying
• 10:50
  what do you need? In my own opinion, that is not
• 10:54
  good. Remember I told you guys that
• 10:57
  when it comes to professional services like this and complex
• 10:59
  hill scenarios, the guy or the girl does not know what they
• 11:03
  need. They just know that Shah
• 11:05
  something is wrong. So the conversation, the
• 11:10
  conversation in my own opinion would have been better off now
• 11:12
  that you're in WhatsApp levels the tax, what should have just
• 11:15
  started off by confirming things that they said in LinkedIn
• 11:21
  because LinkedIn they had been chatting for five days.
• 11:24
  Now you're in WhatsApp and I'll talk about that later about, you
• 11:28
  know, the length of how time can affect sales.
• 11:30
  So LinkedIn, we're chatting five days now, we've entered WhatsApp
• 11:34
  and they're still chatting instead of the tax consultant
• 11:36
  trying to get on the phone. So she's outside of confirming
• 11:39
  that, oh, OK, nice to meet you, Mr. Bio blah, blah, blah.
• 11:42
  So based on what we chatted about on LinkedIn, my assumption
• 11:45
  is that you're into this, you do this and the possible problems
• 11:49
  that you're looking at is so, so, so and so.
• 11:50
  Is that correct? So we'll now be Mr. Bio's and to
• 11:54
  now say, Oh yes, this is exactly correct, but I forgot to mention
• 11:56
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the conversation can
• 11:59
  continue further. So the conversation should have
• 12:02
  started off by that, confirm the previous history and then see
• 12:06
  how you can ask some more questions.
• 12:07
  Another reason why I say that I think she should have confirmed
• 12:10
  the previous history is, you know, to be frank, the average
• 12:14
  customer, whether UK, Nigeria, America, maybe when we discover
• 12:21
  aliens on Mars that we start doing business with them.
• 12:23
  But you know, for humans, the average customer does not like
• 12:26
  repeating themselves. If I have spent five days
• 12:29
  chatting with you on LinkedIn, direct message is somehow that
• 12:36
  we switch to Instagram or we switch to WhatsApp and you want
• 12:39
  me to repeat the whole story? The average person doesn't like
• 12:42
  that. By the way, I hope you guys are
• 12:44
  beginning to see instances where deals can start to die or start
• 12:47
  to lose friction. Because if you are on this level
• 12:50
  with a customer, you guys did five days chatting on LinkedIn,
• 12:53
  you move to WhatsApp, you're still pinging back and forth.
• 12:56
  But some other tax consultant, because let's face it, whoever
• 13:00
  it is you're talking to is talking to two or three other
• 13:03
  people down the standard. If you're the only person, it's
• 13:08
  it's unusual or you're lucky. Average person is talking to two
• 13:11
  or three other people, maybe even more.
• 13:13
  So you are trying to ping back and forth, but maybe the other
• 13:16
  tax consultant has gotten the person on the phone.
• 13:19
  I mean, where do you guys think the traction is going to go?
• 13:22
  Attraction is going to go to the other person who is having the
• 13:26
  phone call and they're already talking swiftly because with the
• 13:29
  other person that they're talking to on the phone, they
• 13:32
  might be at the level of exploring solutions, exploring
• 13:36
  strategies. They might have said gotten to
• 13:38
  the level of explore option A, option B, option C.
• 13:41
  You are still of the level of saying, what is it that do you
• 13:44
  need? I mean, of course, the
• 13:46
  conversation that has more traction on the phone will
• 13:48
  continue. It is maybe when the
• 13:53
  conversation on the phone will now hook or something will
• 13:56
  happen and the person has doubting professional
• 13:58
  credibility that the guy will now remember that.
• 14:01
  Oh, I was chatting with this other lady from LinkedIn on
• 14:05
  WhatsApp who now starts scrolling up and down, where's
• 14:07
  that message to see how they can resume the conversation.
• 14:10
  So yeah, that's how the conversation should have started
• 14:14
  off on WhatsApp. Confirm the things already
• 14:16
  mentioned because I know that my friend mentioned the VAT, that's
• 14:19
  a value added tax filings. And he also mentioned annual
• 14:23
  returns. That's, you know, the final tax
• 14:26
  that you file at the end of the not at the end of the calendar
• 14:29
  year, at the end of the business year, because that's one thing
• 14:31
  that we owe Inland Revenue Service every year was supposed
• 14:34
  to send in our paperwork. This is how much we made.
• 14:37
  This is how much we lost because of that.
• 14:39
  This is how much we think we're supposed to pay.
• 14:41
  And here's a check for amount. They will look at it.
• 14:44
  They won't even say thank you. And then they will now assess it
• 14:47
  and get back to us to let us know whether we paid the right
• 14:50
  amount or whether we paid too much or whether we didn't pay
• 14:53
  enough. By the way, they're always
• 14:55
  trying to figure out whether we paid the right amount to see how
• 14:59
  much we still owe them then Oh, my friend also mentioned
• 15:04
  anything else in home professional opinion because
• 15:06
  like I told you at the beginning of the episode, my guy just
• 15:10
  knows that something is wrong. He doesn't know what is wrong.
• 15:12
  So of course he's like, you know, Madam accountants, you
• 15:15
  know this and this and this and this.
• 15:17
  But you man, what do you think? Is there anything else I need to
• 15:20
  be paying attention to? So there in WhatsApp, my friend
• 15:26
  went ahead and repeated the whole story that he had already
• 15:30
  repeated over the course of five days on another platform.
• 15:35
  Now when I finished, tax consultant just said I will
• 15:38
  revert. Not really, I'm being serious.
• 15:43
  The tax consultant just typed. I will revert, full stop.
• 15:48
  Now for those of you who are lawyers and accountants and
• 15:55
  let's see what else? Lawyers, accountants, who again,
• 15:59
  equity analysts, what else? You know, all you professional
• 16:05
  people than them. It's normal for you guys to
• 16:08
  speak in that language. So you can be talking to another
• 16:10
  lawyer because, you know, our background is in law and your
• 16:14
  lawyer friend just says, hey, how far would that go by my root
• 16:17
  case? Maybe you're busy or in the
• 16:19
  middle of something you just type back.
• 16:21
  I will revert your lawyer guy. I mean, you guys are lawyers.
• 16:24
  So your lawyer guy or your lawyer babe as a female
• 16:29
  colleague, she'll understand like oh OK I'll revert.
• 16:31
  Ohala, I should just drop the phone and then be off.
• 16:35
  Now that is professional jargon. So that is cool.
• 16:37
  When 1 tax accountant is talking to another, I will revert full
• 16:41
  stop. Without putting any other
• 16:42
  context behind it. It's fine when you talk to a
• 16:45
  professional colleague, when you are talking to an ordinary
• 16:50
  person, a professional, sorry, not professional, a potential
• 16:54
  customer, you don't know his background or his whatever.
• 16:59
  I will revert full stop. Without any other context, it's,
• 17:04
  it's somehow is vague. How about using ordinary
• 17:09
  language? Even if you say something like
• 17:11
  I'll get back to you, or even if you had used typing slang that
• 17:17
  we use nowadays, like I'll be right back, so I'll get back to
• 17:20
  you, I'll be right back. I mean that's better than just
• 17:23
  saying I will revert full stop. Why are you assuming that?
• 17:28
  OK, no, any Nigerians are educated so I guess everybody
• 17:31
  knows what revert revert means. But just no shot that all these
• 17:35
  expressions I will revert. It's cool when one lawyer is
• 17:38
  talking to another or when one accountant is talking to another
• 17:42
  or when one equity analyst is talking to another.
• 17:46
  But it's not cool if the equity analyst is texting the client
• 17:50
  back and says I will revert. If you guys know yourself,
• 17:53
  you've been flooring, you guys already built a relationship.
• 17:56
  You know they know how you talk. You know how they talk as a
• 17:58
  different, but this one is a talking stage.
• 18:02
  You guys have not consummated the professional relationship
• 18:04
  yet. I'll revert.
• 18:06
  I think that's too sparse, so use ordinary English.
• 18:08
  I'll get back to you. I'll be right back.
• 18:11
  I beg Novak's I'm in the middle of something.
• 18:13
  You know anything, sure, but not I will revert.
• 18:18
  Although my own opinion, this is what I recommend.
• 18:21
  Type out the proper sentence, say OK Sir, based on everything
• 18:25
  that I've heard, I will need to confirm XYZ.
• 18:29
  Is it OK if I get back to you tomorrow by 12 noon question
• 18:32
  mark? I think that's a lot better.
• 18:35
  So you guys, let's try that. When you say I will revert, the
• 18:40
  customer doesn't know what to expect anyway.
• 18:43
  But that was a message. I'll revert, full stop.
• 18:46
  And what did my guy reply? He did the thing that any other
• 18:49
  person would do. He just typed OK, full stop.
• 18:53
  By the way, it's not a good sign when you're trying to negotiate
• 18:56
  something or you're trying to build, you're trying to close
• 18:58
  the deal. And you guys now get to that
• 19:00
  stage where your text messages, you guys, sorry, I said text
• 19:03
  message in your text messages. You guys are now on that whole,
• 19:06
  you know, one word response. OK, yes, no, maybe tomorrow, No,
• 19:17
  you know all those kind of responses, not very helpful.
• 19:20
  So once you enter that kind of one word response, well,
• 19:22
  holiday, you should transfer, you can revive the conversation
• 19:27
  then tax result and gets in touch saying I will send you a
• 19:31
  contact, he will contact you shortly.
• 19:33
  Full stop. That was it, no context, the tax
• 19:38
  result didn't say I will send you another person's contact.
• 19:41
  OK, well he gave a name, the tax result and gave a name.
• 19:44
  My colleagues also will contact you shortly.
• 19:46
  Full stop. It's good that the person gave a
• 19:50
  name, but next time give a date, let the potential customer know
• 19:54
  that you know when this person might reach out to him or her.
• 19:58
  Also give a reason for the switch because like I said, this
• 20:03
  is your first time meeting. You guys are talking stage.
• 20:07
  You know potential customer doesn't know the reason for the
• 20:09
  switch. The person reaches out to you
• 20:12
  adequately. You chat on link in Instagram,
• 20:16
  sorry on LinkedIn for five days. You now switch to WhatsApp, you
• 20:21
  now chat for three days and then you just say I'll send you a
• 20:24
  colleague contact, you will contact you shortly.
• 20:26
  Or like, OK, like why the switch?
• 20:28
  You know, give a reason. So a different approach in my
• 20:32
  own opinion will be to say something like, OK, Mr. so and
• 20:35
  so based on our discussion so far, if I understand you
• 20:39
  correctly on these issues, XYZ, you actually need this kind of
• 20:44
  tax consultant and ABC kind of consultant will be able to help
• 20:49
  you best. Not me because my own specialist
• 20:51
  is so, so, so and so so because of this XYZ issue.
• 20:55
  I'm going to be sending you to one of my colleagues.
• 20:58
  His name is Adakole. Adakole will be in touch with
• 21:01
  you latest October 1st so that you guys can continue discussing
• 21:06
  options 1-2 and three. I hope you're OK with that.
• 21:10
  Can I give your number to the guy?
• 21:12
  That's a better approach. Now I'm just saying I'll be
• 21:14
  sending you a contact. You'll be in touch with you
• 21:16
  shortly. No other context.
• 21:17
  So I think that's how I should handle it.
• 21:19
  Now, if I'm going to go over the whole history and start
• 21:23
  critiquing things line by line, you know, this broadcast episode
• 21:26
  is not going to end because we're already at 20 minutes.
• 21:29
  So let me just tackle what the big problems are and I hope that
• 21:33
  you guys will be able to learn from that how we should run a
• 21:36
  consultative sales process and also how it should inform our
• 21:43
  desire to sell efficiently. So the big problem number one,
• 21:47
  in my own opinion, LinkedIn chat, like I said, LinkedIn chat
• 21:52
  was five days pinging back and forth, ping, ping, ping, ping,
• 21:55
  ping. Then WhatsApp chat was three
• 21:58
  days pinging back and forth, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.
• 22:01
  This is something I have been trying to stress to people that
• 22:03
  they don't quite business owners that they don't understand.
• 22:06
  Now so far you have been pinging with somebody 8 days.
• 22:12
  Do you think if you had managed to move this thing to phone
• 22:16
  call, you could have had a quick 20-30 minute phone conversation
• 22:21
  and they could have made progress?
• 22:23
  I mean you guys think about it, which is better?
• 22:25
  8 days of pinging back and forth or you managed to get somebody
• 22:29
  on the phone and you guys talk 20-30 minutes.
• 22:32
  Even if you talk 45 minutes, a 45 minute conversation is better
• 22:36
  than 8 days of pinging back and forth because time stalls deals.
• 22:41
  I can assure you in this situation, my guy is talking to
• 22:45
  two or three other people. If you're using 8 days to ping
• 22:50
  and you haven't even got to the level of exploring
• 22:53
  possibilities, but somebody who is sharp quickly gets on the
• 22:56
  phone and they start exploring. Proposal one, Proposal 2,
• 23:00
  Proposal three. Who do you think?
• 23:03
  I've already asked the question. I'm repeating it again so you
• 23:05
  guys can let the gravity sink in.
• 23:07
  Who do you think is going to make more traction in this
• 23:10
  thing? It's the fellow who is on the
• 23:11
  phone and who is quick, quick to get to the punch.
• 23:14
  So all these things are pinging back and forth.
• 23:16
  The problem is when you're pinging, you will not even
• 23:18
  realize how much time you're taking.
• 23:20
  So that's why I want to use this as a real life case study
• 23:22
  because to you it's small, small messages now.
• 23:25
  So it doesn't feel like that big a deal.
• 23:27
  But in real life, just open your WhatsApp or open your LinkedIn,
• 23:31
  DM the last potential customer you've been checking with.
• 23:34
  It will surprise you. Just scroll up and then start
• 23:37
  checking the dates. OK, 12th of March, 13th of
• 23:40
  March. This is.
• 23:41
  It will surprise you that that thing that looks like a small
• 23:44
  chat was actually two weeks. It will surprise you.
• 23:48
  In this kind of business, a whole lot can happen in two
• 23:50
  weeks. Somebody's chatting with you
• 23:52
  over two weeks, but chatting with two other people, one of
• 23:55
  the three of you happens to be sharper and cost to the punch.
• 24:00
  What do you think is going to happen anyway?
• 24:03
  Time stalls, deals. If you guys haven't figured it
• 24:05
  out, time stalls, deals. Try and move this thing along as
• 24:09
  quickly as possible. Even if you're going to be
• 24:11
  chatting because you're afraid of the phone or the guy doesn't
• 24:16
  want to get on the phone with you, try and see how instead of
• 24:19
  chatting it is. Try and see how you can move
• 24:22
  this thing along and chat four days instead.
• 24:25
  Try. Phone calls are more expressive,
• 24:29
  there's more interaction. You guys can feel each other's
• 24:32
  personality. You're going to be able to dig
• 24:35
  in, ask questions on things, get feedback on stuff.
• 24:39
  So please get on the phone, especially on things like these
• 24:42
  that are complicated because for you, who is the tax accountant,
• 24:45
  you know, tax specialist accountant type person.
• 24:48
  For you, everything is simple. You went to school for four
• 24:51
  years and you studied this thing.
• 24:52
  Then you went to go and do a masters for another two years
• 24:55
  and then you've been practicing for 10 for 10-15 years.
• 24:58
  So you are a specialist, you've been doing this thing for 20
• 25:00
  years. So for you it's very simple.
• 25:02
  Well, for average jewels like my friend and for me, this thing
• 25:05
  is, what's the word? Is it mystified, misty,
• 25:10
  something, you know, The thing is opaque.
• 25:12
  And then there's some element of fear.
• 25:14
  We don't even like tax officials, you know, because
• 25:17
  let's face it, all of us, Nigerian business people,
• 25:20
  everyone trying to hide from tax officials, to be honest.
• 25:22
  I mean, you know, now we're Nigerians now.
• 25:25
  So we're even trying to hide in the 1st place.
• 25:26
  So and then let me move me on that.
• 25:30
  So please don't be chatting with anybody for eight days.
• 25:33
  Try and get on the phone quickly even if the person talks too
• 25:36
  much and it's a one hour conversation.
• 25:37
  A one hour conversation that we have today is better than an 8
• 25:41
  day pigging back and forth. You know is is better.
• 25:46
  Then another thing. The first question that my
• 25:48
  friend asked was how much. The reason why my friend asked
• 25:54
  how much is simple and the reason why evil me map.
• 25:57
  When I talk to some people I ask how much.
• 25:59
  The reason why we ask is very, very simple.
• 26:02
  Like I told you, when it comes to these complex and complicated
• 26:04
  things, your potential customer is not the specialist and the
• 26:09
  person knows nothing. The only proxy that the person
• 26:13
  has to go on is price, and some of us seem to tie price to
• 26:18
  value. That is the only proxy.
• 26:20
  So what else do you expect? Of course the person will ask
• 26:23
  how much if the person was a pro or have some knowledge about
• 26:27
  these things and the person knows that there's a difference
• 26:29
  between tax accounts. Sorry, I wasn't called them.
• 26:33
  Cash accounting and accrual accounting.
• 26:36
  If the person knows there's a difference, then I'll probably
• 26:38
  be the first question the person will ask you now.
• 26:40
  Oh blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is my situation.
• 26:42
  What kind of accounting do you think is best?
• 26:44
  Tax accounting or accrual accounting?
• 26:46
  What should I be doing in my situation?
• 26:48
  If the person knows the difference, the person will ask,
• 26:50
  but the person doesn't know. So that's the reason why when
• 26:54
  people hit you up, Mr. Tax Accountant, Madam Accountant
• 26:57
  Specialist, they ask about prices because they don't know
• 26:59
  any better to be honest. And we do it too.
• 27:03
  So when you're ready to build your house, you have your
• 27:05
  millions. Of course you will ask the
• 27:06
  engineer, how much is this going to cost me?
• 27:08
  Because you don't know any other question to ask.
• 27:11
  You don't know whether to ask what kind of terrain do I have?
• 27:14
  Is the gradients too low or is it too high?
• 27:16
  Is this swampy? I'll be easy rocky.
• 27:18
  What kind of foundation do we need to build?
• 27:20
  I mean, you don't know any of those things.
• 27:21
  So of course, that's the first thing you ask.
• 27:23
  Or engineer or architect, how much will this thing cost me?
• 27:26
  So please, those of us in professional services, let us
• 27:29
  stop being offended when people ask about price.
• 27:33
  They're not trying to insult you to say that the only thing that
• 27:36
  makes tax accountant A different from tax account and B different
• 27:40
  from forensic account and C is price.
• 27:43
  That is not what they're trying to say.
• 27:44
  They don't know any better, but they know that everything has a
• 27:47
  price, so that's how they're going to start the conversation.
• 27:51
  Well, my friend asked this question.
• 27:53
  How much? They chatted 5 days on LinkedIn,
• 27:55
  no answer. Then they chatted 3 days on
• 27:58
  WhatsApp, no answer. It's been 8 days, no answer on
• 28:02
  price. Do you think that the customer
• 28:05
  is getting anxious after one week?
• 28:08
  You have not answered the question.
• 28:09
  How much do you suspect? Don't we think it's possible
• 28:14
  that potential customer is now thinking, ha, this must be
• 28:18
  expensive or this one that they don't want to say the price?
• 28:24
  We should find ways of getting to this price thing quickly.
• 28:31
  I know you don't shoot yourself in the leg and say it's going to
• 28:34
  be 3.5 M only to start the work and you see that, ah, this work
• 28:38
  is something of seven M. That is the reason why I say
• 28:42
  let's get on the phone quickly so you can ask all the questions
• 28:46
  that you need, get all the information that you need.
• 28:49
  And that's also the reason why I keep saying that we should start
• 28:51
  this question. We'll start these things off by
• 28:53
  giving a range, get some feedback and then get permission
• 28:57
  to ask more questions. There's nothing that stops you
• 29:00
  from saying oh OK Olga, you asked on day one.
• 29:04
  We've been chatting now for one week.
• 29:05
  The how much? Based on everything that we've
• 29:08
  said so far, I will still need to ask you more questions.
• 29:11
  But based on all you've said so far, Bros is looking like it can
• 29:15
  be anything between 500K and 750K forced to achieve XY and Z.
• 29:22
  Is this something that you're willing to invest right now?
• 29:26
  Is this the kind of project you're willing to undertake?
• 29:28
  You know, something like that, that kind of question and I hear
• 29:30
  what is that the person has to say.
• 29:33
  The person says, like, why now isn't not only plus and minus,
• 29:38
  come on, whatever. You now know that you're dealing
• 29:40
  with an only and someone who is not educated in this thing and
• 29:43
  who has unrealistic price expectations and other
• 29:46
  expectations. I now know that this is someone
• 29:48
  that you need to run away from or someone that you need to
• 29:51
  educate some more. But a person is like, what?
• 29:55
  So far, it's unlike, it's OK, but what are the other questions
• 29:58
  I need to have? And then you go ahead and you
• 30:00
  drill down on the conversation. But The thing is you've given a
• 30:02
  range to cover yourself. You know, some buffer because if
• 30:05
  you say between 500K and 750K, if you end up at 830, it's still
• 30:12
  close. If you say between 400K and 750
• 30:17
  and you end up at 320 K, you know it's too close.
• 30:21
  In fact, the guy will be much more happier if you ended up at
• 30:23
  320 K then if you end up at, you know, the the higher number.
• 30:31
  So that's the way to get around this price thing.
• 30:33
  I know you don't want to shoot yourself in the leg, so give
• 30:36
  yourself a range and let the person know that we still have
• 30:40
  to talk some more before I can give you something specific.
• 30:43
  So for me, that's how I move the conversation along.
• 30:45
  Based on what we've discussed so far, it could be anything
• 30:47
  between this and this. How does that sound?
• 30:50
  Is that, is this something you're willing to spend?
• 30:52
  Is that a realistic figure? I mean, depending on the level
• 30:55
  of rapport, sometimes I say, oh, it could be between.
• 30:59
  Luckily for you, it's a small matter.
• 31:01
  So it's not going to be that expensive.
• 31:02
  It can be between this and this. That's cheap, Abby.
• 31:04
  And then keep quiet and then you hear, you know, it's not a bad
• 31:07
  way of getting feedback. You say that's cheap, Abby, you
• 31:10
  know, the other guy laughs. And they will start the whole
• 31:12
  economy of that whole conversation of the tenable
• 31:15
  economy or you paid school fees, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 31:17
  You know, so that's a more human way sometimes to gain feedback.
• 31:23
  So give a range, gain feedback and then get permission to ask
• 31:27
  some more questions. Like OK, I still have to ask you
• 31:28
  questions on ABC and XYZ to give you an exact amount and come up
• 31:32
  with a specific proposal. So that's how you handle the
• 31:35
  money thing. So please do that money thing
• 31:37
  quickly. If somebody starts off the
• 31:39
  conversation by saying how much, don't go 8 days of chatting, you
• 31:42
  haven't answered the question and then you say I will now
• 31:44
  refer you to somebody else. I've been chatting with you 8
• 31:48
  days. You didn't give me information.
• 31:49
  You now say you will hand me to somebody else.
• 31:52
  Or by the way, I bet you when this other person gets on the
• 31:56
  phone with this person, my friend will have to repeat the
• 31:58
  story again. Can you guys see how we're now
• 32:01
  introducing what's the word friction into the sales process?
• 32:05
  Said the story one time, five days on LinkedIn, repeated the
• 32:08
  whole drama. Three days on WhatsApp.
• 32:11
  You pass along to somebody else. The person who comes on is also
• 32:15
  not going to take this approach. I know for short person, I want
• 32:17
  to take the approach of saying, oh, OK, Oh, my friend said this,
• 32:20
  that, that that is that correct? OK, I need to ask you some more
• 32:23
  questions on this and this and this.
• 32:25
  He's just going to come and say, So what do you need?
• 32:28
  And then my friend is supposed to repeat the whole thing again.
• 32:31
  And then if at that stage my friend doesn't respond, the tax
• 32:35
  consultants will now be thinking this guy is on serious.
• 32:38
  If he was serious, wouldn't be ghosting us.
• 32:40
  Can you guys now see some of the things that go on behind the
• 32:42
  scenes that lead to people ghosting us?
• 32:46
  OK, Yeah. So let me see.
• 32:49
  OK, the big problems pinging back and forth for eight days.
• 32:53
  Don't be chatting anybody for eight days.
• 32:55
  Get on the phone, have a quick conversation.
• 32:58
  If the person is abroad, get on WhatsApp, get on Skype, have a
• 33:01
  quick convo. The person started off this
• 33:04
  whole thing with price. Don't avoid it based on little
• 33:08
  you know give a range. Then get permission to ask more
• 33:12
  questions and let the person know that depending on what you
• 33:14
  uncover, the price may go up or it may go down.
• 33:18
  So let's see what else now I talk about try OK, 30 minutes.
• 33:25
  OK, this will be the last one. Now on the podcast, I talk about
• 33:29
  how we need to have a qualifications and discovery
• 33:32
  process. Qualification is you're asking
• 33:35
  questions about the problem. Discovery, sorry, the other way
• 33:41
  around. Discovery is that you're asking
• 33:43
  questions about the problem. Qualification is that you're
• 33:46
  asking questions about the person.
• 33:48
  You need to have a good idea of who this person is and what the
• 33:51
  problem is before you can give any kind of proposal, which is
• 33:57
  why I was confused that the chatted for 8 days and then
• 34:01
  person said I'll be sending you a contact.
• 34:05
  He will contact you shortly. Because the tax consultant, the
• 34:08
  accounting person didn't ask, excuse me, didn't ask some basic
• 34:14
  questions. Number one, I was shocked that
• 34:17
  the tax and the accounting person did not ask.
• 34:20
  OK, so thank you very much for reaching out.
• 34:22
  So what kind of business are you involved in?
• 34:24
  The person didn't ask that question.
• 34:26
  I don't know how you sell professional services.
• 34:28
  You chat with someone over 8 days.
• 34:30
  You did not even ask the person what kind of business are you
• 34:34
  in? What's the nature of your
• 34:35
  business? What kind of industry are you
• 34:36
  in? I am not an accounting person,
• 34:40
  but I'm assuming that kind of information is important because
• 34:43
  I think preparing accounting books or whatever for somebody
• 34:46
  who is in manufacturing will not be the same as producing
• 34:51
  accounting reports for somebody like me who is a one man show.
• 34:57
  So even at the very least you need to ask before you know what
• 35:01
  am I charging you or who am I sending you to.
• 35:04
  So ask the person this kind of question.
• 35:06
  Now what line of business are you in?
• 35:09
  Are you self-employed? You work for somebody else,
• 35:12
  What's your relationship with the business owner?
• 35:14
  Do you own the business? Let's see what else, what kind
• 35:16
  of industries, you know, all these sorts of things.
• 35:19
  The tax person also did not ask questions on size of revenue or
• 35:23
  size of employees. How many employees do you have?
• 35:27
  How much money are you guys making?
• 35:29
  I'm assuming that these things are also important.
• 35:31
  By the way, if you're a tax person or you're an accounting
• 35:33
  person listening to the show and I'm making too much of a big
• 35:36
  deal about some of these questions, please ping me a
• 35:38
  message and educate me so I can come back here and then let
• 35:41
  people know that. OK, you know what?
• 35:43
  I overspoke on this one. But I really don't think as a
• 35:47
  layman, because when it comes to tax, I'm a layman.
• 35:49
  I know nothing. So as a layman, I really think
• 35:53
  as a layperson, rather let's be inclusive here.
• 35:57
  I think you need to ask nature of the business, the industry,
• 36:00
  how much money are you guys making?
• 36:02
  How many employees do people have?
• 36:04
  The person who didn't ask on history of filings or returns or
• 36:08
  financial statements, you need to know how long has this person
• 36:12
  been in business? If this person has been in
• 36:14
  business for 20 years but has never filed a single tax return,
• 36:18
  no more. Your business, your, your, your,
• 36:20
  your work is cut out for you as a tax person.
• 36:23
  Think of the amount of work you're going to do, trying to do
• 36:26
  detective work over the past 20 years.
• 36:29
  So you need to ask these things. But if somebody, the person has
• 36:32
  been in business for the past 20 years and the person has filed
• 36:35
  19 times, they only missed the last two years, It's a different
• 36:39
  thing. The level of work you do has
• 36:41
  calmed down. You even know what to request of
• 36:44
  the guy. OK, you know what, it could be
• 36:46
  this, it could be that, but just send me the previous things
• 36:48
  you've had. Let me just skim through.
• 36:50
  You know, you will let me know where it is we need to go to
• 36:52
  next. So easy to ask these questions.
• 36:55
  How long have you been in business?
• 36:57
  How many times have you filed? The times that you filed, which
• 37:00
  one did you file? Did you file from ABC or from
• 37:03
  XYZ? How many annual returns Did you
• 37:05
  do? Financial statements?
• 37:07
  How many financial statements have you guys been doing?
• 37:09
  The figures you will keep? How do you do it?
• 37:12
  Is it your wife that is writing everything on pencil and paper
• 37:16
  or or is it your older brother entering all your expenses and
• 37:22
  your inflow and everything on an Excel sheet?
• 37:24
  I'll be do you guys have CRM or invoicing software where
• 37:28
  everything is passing into and everything is being stored?
• 37:32
  See, I'm a layman so I don't know much but I'm assuming you
• 37:34
  have to ask all these kinds of questions before you say let me
• 37:37
  refer you to somebody else or let me charge you 2.5 M.
• 37:41
  Then you also need to ask the question of the needs.
• 37:45
  Wait, just starting off the conversation by asking the
• 37:47
  person what do you need? The person does not know you are
• 37:50
  the professional. So as a tax person, OK, as a
• 37:55
  normal human being, yeah. But because my background is in
• 37:59
  law, I have small on this. OK, let me just make a guess.
• 38:03
  Because my background is in law, I'm assuming that if somebody
• 38:06
  reaches out to an accountant, the person might need compliance
• 38:09
  issues like OK, this is what I've been doing.
• 38:12
  Am I meeting up with the law when it comes to tax and filing
• 38:16
  Inland Revenue and all that? Or the person might need help
• 38:18
  with reporting like we have already done our whatever in
• 38:21
  house. You just take all this
• 38:23
  information, prepare the final figure and then send it to
• 38:26
  federal Inland Revenue Board on our behalf.
• 38:30
  And here take your professional services money.
• 38:34
  Or maybe the person needs payroll because you accounting
• 38:39
  and tax people can also sort that out as well.
• 38:42
  OK, you're paying this person too much.
• 38:43
  You should be paying this. This one, according to the tax
• 38:46
  code, should be this according to tax code should be that, or
• 38:48
  it could be bookkeeping services.
• 38:51
  Or sometimes it can just be general business advisory, like,
• 38:54
  oh, OK, it looks like all the things people are doing are
• 38:57
  correct. Our point.
• 38:58
  But in my own professional opinion, from a strategic level,
• 39:01
  this is how you should be handling this tax issue.
• 39:02
  This is how you're handling that tax issue.
• 39:04
  So my small knowledge of the law, because for lawyers, it's,
• 39:09
  I'm not a lawyer anymore anyway, but for lawyers, these are the
• 39:12
  sorts of things that we handle for our clients too.
• 39:14
  We handle compliance, we handle OK.
• 39:16
  We don't do reporting. Reporting is mostly accounts,
• 39:20
  Abby. Well, in a way you can say we do
• 39:23
  reporting, but it's not number, number, number reporting.
• 39:25
  Because if you're going to be making returns to, let's say,
• 39:29
  Securities and Exchange Commission or Corporate Affairs
• 39:32
  Commission, then yes, that's also some sort of reporting.
• 39:34
  So layers also do compliance. They do reporting, OK.
• 39:37
  We don't do payroll, we don't do bookkeeping, but we do business
• 39:40
  advisory. So instead of saying what do you
• 39:43
  need, start asking the person questions that will now explore
• 39:47
  exactly what it is that you're looking for.
• 39:49
  Don't say compliance because like I said, let's assume that
• 39:52
  the person doesn't know what's up and the person doesn't know
• 39:55
  what compliance means. Maybe I know what compliance
• 39:57
  means because I studied law, so I have a sense of it.
• 40:02
  But perhaps if you call one of my uncles, even the rich ones,
• 40:07
  and you say, oh, so do you, So what are your needs?
• 40:10
  Are your needs compliance? You know, if I have a rich uncle
• 40:14
  who got wealthy by farming and maybe he didn't finish.
• 40:18
  Maybe he stopped at secondary school.
• 40:20
  You know, compliance could mean I don't know anything.
• 40:24
  So use simple language, ask questions, try and break it
• 40:28
  down. So what are you looking for?
• 40:30
  Are you looking for someone who's just going to take all
• 40:32
  this information and send everything to inner revenue at
• 40:35
  the end of the year? Or is the problem that as you're
• 40:39
  running this business every single day, you don't know how,
• 40:43
  where the money is coming in, where the money is going to.
• 40:45
  So and now you know that what we call bookkeeping, we'll just be
• 40:50
  tracking where's the money coming?
• 40:51
  Where's the money going? Is that what it is that you're
• 40:53
  looking for? And you tax accounting people,
• 40:59
  you're the professional. So you know how you take all
• 41:01
  these big, big words and then you reduce it to something that
• 41:03
  is relatable that people can understand.
• 41:06
  So I think that's the final big problem that I'm covered in the
• 41:08
  whole process that a professional chattered with a
• 41:13
  layperson over 8 days and did not even ask these basic
• 41:17
  questions. We should be asking simple
• 41:20
  questions like this as part of our discovery and our
• 41:23
  qualifications process. We should be trying to figure
• 41:25
  out who is this person? We should be trying to figure
• 41:27
  out what is the problem. If you are a tax person,
• 41:32
  accountant, specialist person, please do not tell me you've
• 41:35
  chatted with somebody for one week.
• 41:36
  You did not ask the person what business are you in, what
• 41:40
  industry are you in? How long have you been in the
• 41:43
  business? How much money have you made
• 41:45
  over XYZ period? How many employees do you have?
• 41:50
  What are the filings that you have done over the past X years?
• 41:54
  What are the returns that you have given to Inland Revenue
• 41:56
  Service over the last XYZ years? How many financial statements do
• 42:01
  you have for XYZ years or do you have a current financial
• 42:05
  statements for the last accounting period 2022 into
• 42:08
  2023? And then all those questions
• 42:12
  around whether it's compliance they need or reporting or
• 42:15
  payroll or bookkeeping or advisory.
• 42:18
  So these are some tips about how those of us were in professional
• 42:22
  services. We need to run a consultative
• 42:23
  sales process. And this is the reason why I
• 42:25
  keep telling people that when it comes to running our sales
• 42:28
  process, the people we should be looking at actually is doctors.
• 42:31
  Because there is no how a doctor will prescribe paracetamol or
• 42:36
  surgery or that you have to go out and cut off your left
• 42:39
  testicle or whatever without asking you some basic questions.
• 42:43
  A doctor will not say, let me refer you to somebody.
• 42:46
  The person will call you without asking you some simple
• 42:48
  questions. When did you start feeling this
• 42:50
  way? When did they start painting you
• 42:52
  this pus? When did you see the pus?
• 42:54
  Your leg? When did your leg fall off?
• 42:56
  It's when the person ask you all this question.
• 42:58
  You know that. OK, you know what?
• 42:59
  Me, I'm a family doctor. This thing is sounding like
• 43:02
  cancer. I do not handle cancer.
• 43:04
  So let me hand you over to my oncologist.
• 43:05
  My oncologist will call you next week Monday.
• 43:08
  That's why I keep telling people the people who need to pretend
• 43:10
  to be is like doctors. A doctor will not prescribe
• 43:13
  medicine without asking you some basic questions.
• 43:15
  Oh, young man, welcome. How have you been when the
• 43:18
  detain start painting you? How many sexual partners do you
• 43:20
  have? Your father, What killed your
• 43:23
  father? Did he die of diabetes?
• 43:25
  The place you're living in, Are there too many mosquitoes?
• 43:29
  You know, question, question, question, question, question.
• 43:31
  So he's after asking all these questions that the doctor now
• 43:34
  says, OK, based on what we've spoken about so far, this is my
• 43:37
  professional recommendation. You're running mad.
• 43:40
  And because you're running mad, you need two things.
• 43:41
  You need brain surgery. We're going to cut out 1/4 of
• 43:43
  your brain and throw it away. And then we're going to refer
• 43:46
  you to a psychiatrist. So how does that sound?
• 43:49
  You see, so that's how a doctor handles that conversation.
• 43:52
  Because if you just go and sit down and the doctor says, oh,
• 43:55
  welcome, what we're going to do, we're going to do brain surgery.
• 43:58
  You will say, OK, doctor, I'm coming.
• 43:59
  You stand up and you will leave and you never come back.
• 44:01
  You see, this doctor is a madman.
• 44:03
  He didn't ask me any question. How does he know what to
• 44:05
  prescribe next? How does he know?
• 44:08
  So please, those are watching, consult professional services.
• 44:11
  Let us stop this whole thing of giving a price.
• 44:15
  We haven't asked all these questions or advising somebody
• 44:18
  to do something. We haven't even asked all these
• 44:20
  basic questions. So if you're taking nothing else
• 44:22
  out of this episode, it should be this.
• 44:23
  We need to have a process for discovery and the process for
• 44:29
  what's the other word, qualification, Qualification and
• 44:32
  discovery. You need to know some more about
• 44:34
  what that is. Like I've said, the podcast is
• 44:35
  now available on YouTube, over 925 episodes over there on
• 44:39
  YouTube. So go there, search my name.
• 44:41
  My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
• 44:43
  There's no need to put the Ayede because Tavishima is not a very
• 44:46
  popular name. So just type in Tavishima, the
• 44:48
  type in qualification. Every single episode that I've
• 44:51
  made over the 920 something episodes will show up there.
• 44:55
  Start listening to these things one by one.
• 44:57
  Have your pen on your paper. Start writing down stuff that
• 44:59
  you can apply tomorrow. I mean, apart from that char GPT
• 45:04
  is available, Google Gemini, stuff like that.
• 45:06
  You can actually you can actually put it in these things.
• 45:08
  I'm a tax accountant. I'm a something something
• 45:10
  specialist living in Abuja FCT trying to attract clients within
• 45:15
  the something something and something range.
• 45:17
  I might be having a meeting tomorrow with a potential
• 45:19
  customer who is in The Who is in the in the business or selling
• 45:26
  weed and narcotic substances. What are the kind of
• 45:29
  qualification and discovery questions that I should ask the
• 45:32
  person so we can have a productive meeting?
• 45:34
  And then you hit send Cha GPT is going to list a bunch of stuff.
• 45:39
  If it lists out 10 things and you think 5 don't make sense,
• 45:42
  ignore the five. If you think 5 look OK, but
• 45:45
  three are very promising, take those three and then turn into
• 45:48
  the into the conversation with this person and you find that
• 45:50
  you have a very promising interaction.
• 45:55
  So yeah, that's it. Use YouTube, look for more
• 45:58
  resources from me. You will learn how to come up
• 46:01
  with your own discovery qualification questions.
• 46:03
  You know now know how to run that part of the sales process.
• 46:07
  So you're having fruitful conversations then let's see
• 46:10
  what else. OK, I've already told you guys
• 46:12
  about AI. Of course there are other
• 46:15
  episodes I've done around AI so you can know how to prompt
• 46:17
  better then. OK, yes, connect with me on
• 46:21
  WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
• 46:25
  Country code is +234. Then I'm on LinkedIn connect
• 46:29
  with me on LinkedIn, the name establishing my ID.
• 46:32
  Like I said, confirm the spelling of my name from the
• 46:35
  link. We're listening to the show.
• 46:36
  So if you're on YouTube, bottom left above the title, you see my
• 46:40
  name. Just highlight and copy and then
• 46:43
  paste that into LinkedIn. And then my handsome face is
• 46:46
  when you show up and then click connect and then send me a
• 46:50
  message. So I know that you found me from
• 46:55
  the podcast because I have a soft spot for those of you who
• 46:57
  find me from the podcast. And I try to engage as many of
• 47:00
  you guys in conversation as possible.
• 47:02
  But like I said, you know, I'm trying to run a business and do
• 47:05
  a bunch of other stuff, so I might not respond to you
• 47:07
  immediately. But anyhow, anyhow, 2448 hours,
• 47:11
  you definitely will hear from me.
• 47:12
  So thanks for listening to the episode.
• 47:13
  And yeah, thanks for listening and keeping company with me for
• 47:18
  the last 45 minutes. So thanks for your time and
• 47:20
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 47:21
  episode. Hopefully the next episode is
• 47:23
  going to be shorter. So you all have a wonderful day.