Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Are You Wasting Your Time on the Wrong Leads?

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Are You Wasting Your Time on the Wrong Leads? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Today the question that we're
0:04
going to tackle is how you can qualify more leads or rather
0:08
qualify leads more effectively so you can shorten your sales
0:12
cycle. So it sounds a little techy,
0:15
especially if you are a newbie listening to the show.
0:18
This is your first time, so let's hop right into definitions
0:21
so that you can get a better scope of what all these fancy
0:24
jargon is about. Now, First off, how can you
0:28
qualify leads? We need to know who or what a
0:30
lead is. Now on the podcast, my simple
0:33
definition of a lead is anyone who has raised their hand or who
0:37
has done something to show that they might be interested in your
0:40
product or your service. The oldest example that I give
0:43
on the podcast is someone who goes to a school and who hands
0:47
out what are these things called?
0:49
Flyers, leaflets to promote the bookshop that he has or the shop
0:54
that he or she has where they sell back to school, supplies,
0:58
pencils, socks, shoes, bags and those sorts of things.
1:02
So anybody takes the flyer, that person is a contact.
1:09
Any of those contacts sends you Adm or comes by the store.
1:12
That person now becomes a lead because the person has done
1:16
something to say I might be interested in your product or in
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your service. So that's a simple definition of
1:22
a lead. So yeah, how can I qualify a
1:26
lead? OK, It's not qualified.
1:28
Obviously, when you're qualifying a lead, you are doing
1:31
something to the lead or you're engaging in something with the
1:36
lead. So what does qualification mean?
1:39
Qualification is just the part of the sales process, the part
1:43
of the business relationship where you're trying to be sure
1:45
that you're talking to the right person.
1:48
Why should you bother if you're speaking to the right person?
1:51
Because if you're talking to the wrong person, it doesn't matter
1:54
the amount of time that you spend with them, the chances of
1:57
you having a good deal go down because you are not talking to
2:03
the right person. You're not talking to someone
2:05
who might be interested, someone who might have a need or someone
2:08
who might be able to use it adequately or whatever.
2:12
So qualification is really, really important.
2:14
We want to be sure that we're talking to the right person
2:16
because too many of us in the SME space and in the nano space,
2:19
you know, those of us who are small business owners or nano
2:21
business owners, we're just happy that anybody has entered
2:25
into the DM or that anybody has come to the shop.
2:28
So we keep spending time with person hoping it turns into a
2:31
sale. But the primary thing we're
2:32
supposed to do is to qualify is to figure out is this even the
2:36
right person? And then do discovery.
2:38
Can I even help this person? Is it a problem that my product
2:40
or my service can solve? So the whole point with
2:44
qualifying people is want to spend time with the right
2:48
people, the people who have the authority to purchase.
2:52
Let's see what else? And then people who have a
2:54
problem that you can solve, because if your product or
2:58
service cannot solve the problem, then the prospect of a
3:01
close sale keep going down, down and down.
3:04
So back to the school thing. Let's say the you handed out the
3:09
Flyers at one of those, you know, one of those RPC type
3:12
schools, you know, one of those expensive type schools.
3:15
And let's say for instance, people that come to this kind of
3:20
school unfortunately are the people who like the expensive
3:23
stuff, the upper class stuff or whatever.
3:26
But then in your own store, part of your unique value proposition
3:28
is that you want to help Nigerian parents save money.
3:32
So you don't stock top of the line stuff.
3:34
So maybe you stock textbooks that are made in Nigeria, You
3:38
don't buy all those textbooks that are made in the UK or made
3:42
in Canada or let's see what else.
3:45
Or you stock good quality shoes that are made in ABBA instead of
3:49
Italian shoes that have been made by, what do you call them?
3:54
People that make shoes, what are they called?
3:58
Whatever they're called anyway, you don't stock all that good
4:00
stuff, fancy stuff from Italy and fancy stuff from, I don't
4:03
know, Bahamas or whatever it is that people make fancy shoes.
4:07
So now qualification, If you're not spending time with the right
4:10
person, or rather you hand it out at that sort of school when
4:14
these people come to your shop, there's obviously a mismatch.
4:17
If you're looking for Nigerian parents who are worried about
4:20
saving a buck, then obviously you guys are in the wrong place.
4:23
You're better off just referring them to another store where they
4:27
can get what it is that they need.
4:29
Because even though your price is right, these are not people
4:31
who are worried about price or they're worried about price in
4:35
the inverse. They actually are looking for
4:37
the expensive stuff so that they can have bragging rights to say,
4:39
my son has this, my daughter has that.
4:42
And yet it still happens nowadays because I had that
4:46
conversation with my son recently and there was this kid
4:48
in his class who was who was just going down on another kid
4:54
because they didn't have the right brand of bags.
4:57
So it's my wife who usually buys this sort of stuff.
4:59
So I don't know what brand is raining now and things like
5:01
that. But you know that different
5:02
names of bags and, you know, apparently the cool kids use
5:05
some kinds of bags. And if you're using another kind
5:09
of bag, you know, then you come from a poor family and, you
5:12
know, you're not worthy of respect or whatever.
5:16
So, yeah, some of that dynamic also continues over into
5:20
parenting as well. And so, yes, you might be
5:23
thinking, let me sell bags that are good quality, affordable,
5:26
made in Nigeria, made in Ghana, that sort of thing.
5:28
But then the people who come by your store because of the school
5:32
where you handed out the Flyers, they actually are looking for
5:34
the expensive stuff. They want to buy the bag that is
5:36
made in Canada, the bag that is made in USA, the bag that is
5:39
made in Mauritius or wherever it is that expensive bags are made.
5:47
So you should spend most of your time qualifying when people come
5:50
to the store so that you know whether this is a person worth
5:53
spending time with. So if it is clear that your your
5:56
unique value proposition, the value provide is good quality,
5:59
affordable, but this person is looking for the expensive stuff,
6:01
you're better off just saying. Oh, Olga, mummy, Madam, oh, I'm
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sorry, this and this and this is what I have here.
6:08
If you're looking for this brand, this brand, this brand,
6:10
you're better off going to Chukudi store.
6:11
Just go out, turn left, go to shop B6 and Chukudi will take
6:16
good care of you. Then after that, you have a
6:17
conversation with Chukudi. I say Chukudi also, those people
6:20
I sent to you, how far? Where's my 10%?
6:22
You know, that sort of thing. So that's the idea behind
6:25
qualifying and discovery. Make sure that you spend time
6:28
with people who are likely to buy.
6:31
Now the last thing we need to define that I think is sales
6:35
cycle because the question is how to qualify leads more
6:38
effectively to shorten the sales cycle.
6:41
Now my simple definition of a sales cycle is this a size, a
6:45
sales cycle is the length of time that happens between when
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the person says good morning, good afternoon, how are you, you
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know the greeting and the deposit.
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So the length of time in between.
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Good morning Sir. And please can I have your
7:01
account number so I can transfer?
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That is the sales cycle. Now, the reason why we should be
7:07
paying attention to the sales cycle, how long it closes to
7:10
sorry, how long it takes to close the deal is because time
7:13
kills deals. If you're stretching things out
7:16
unnecessarily, you are increasing the probability that
7:19
something might happen and something might happen and then
7:23
the deal is not going to pull through.
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So we actually want to make our sales cycle as short as
7:27
possible. We want to reduce the time
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between. Good morning, Sir, and this is
7:32
my account number. You can make the transfer here.
7:35
We're trying to shorten that length of time that it takes to
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close the deal because apart from the fact that time kills
7:42
deals, that's if you're wasting too much time before you close
7:45
the deal, something can happen. There's also this thing of the
7:48
opportunity cost of a long sale cycle.
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If I'm spending three weeks chasing somebody up and down and
7:54
blah, blah, blah, and I don't end up the we don't end up
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closing the deal. This is the problem.
7:59
The problem is the three weeks that I spent chasing all these
8:01
people that never could buy means that there was an
8:05
opportunity cost. I could have been using that
8:07
time chasing other people who could have most likely have
8:11
turned out to be good customers. So that's the thing, time queues
8:14
deals, so make sure your sales cycle is as short as possible.
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Then there's the opportunity cost.
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If you shorten the length of time you're spending with any
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one person, you can spend that time more profitably elsewhere.
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So now if you look at these definitions that we've come up
8:31
with so far, what is a lead? How do you qualify?
8:33
What is a sales cycle? We can see now that the question
8:35
we're trying to answer ultimately is how do you deal
8:39
with only serious buyers in quote, because back in my
8:43
wedding photography days in Abuja, people used to say that a
8:46
lot. Oh, she's all serious, he's all
8:47
serious, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
8:48
So that's where I learned that expression.
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It's not a flattering expression.
8:54
But anyway, let's just make do with it for now.
8:56
So how do you deal with only serious buyers so that you can
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spend time going after more profitable clients?
9:04
So the answer is kind of assumed in the question.
9:09
And the answer is you need to qualify quickly and you have to
9:12
do so around your unique value proposition or around your use
9:18
case scenarios. Now I know that's technical
9:20
jargon, so let me just break it down.
9:21
This is what it means. Unique value proposition is
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what's the main reason why people buy from you.
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So back to the school example and the Flyers and everything.
9:29
If you are that guy or girl that people call you because they
9:32
want to buy that shoe that is good quality, that is made in
9:34
Nigeria and Ghana and your children will use it for two
9:37
terms. If that's the reason why people
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call you up, then that's your UVP, your unique value
9:41
proposition. But on the other hand, if you
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are that person that people call you when they want the latest
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that has just dropped in Paris or dropped in the UK, because
9:50
yes, there are those parents too.
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They want the uniforms to come from Marks and Spencer.
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They want the shoes to come from who makes good shoes anyway?
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I don't know. I'm not into fashion, but
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they're those parents. They want the uniforms to come
10:05
from the latest, the latest collection from the UK or latest
10:10
collection from America. They want the shoes to be the
10:13
latest whatever with the Italian leather, they want the bag to be
10:17
the latest one in the market, not the one that was raining
10:20
last year, so that their child will have the only bag in the
10:23
class. So, you know, there are some
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people who that is their unique value proposition.
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So yeah, the UVP unique value proposition.
10:31
Why do people buy from you? And then use case scenarios just
10:34
means when people buy your product for your service, what
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are the things that they typically use it to do?
10:40
So there are some people that have particular use case
10:42
scenarios that are different from others.
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Let me see what can I think of, OK, let's just say Toyota,
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Toyota, Mercedes, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz.
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So use case scenario for Toyotas, Those of us who Dr.
10:56
Toyotas is very simple. We want something that is fuel
10:59
efficient and that we can use for a couple of years and then
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by the time we're done using it for maybe 3-4 years, we can sell
11:05
it and still get something, you know, it has resale value.
11:07
But the person who buys a Mercedes-Benz, the use case
11:09
scenario is different. You're buying the Mercedes-Benz
11:11
so that, you know, you can flex. Also at the social capital and
11:17
one of my friends who is a lawyer, we were at a kids party,
11:24
one of our kids parties like two or three years back.
11:27
And then my guy pulls up in this wonderful Mercedes-Benz.
11:30
I have not seen this kind of car since and I've not seen it, you
11:34
know, after it was a wonderful car, keyless entry.
11:38
You know, you get close to the car, the thing senses you're
11:40
around and Choo Choo the things opens up and it lets you in and
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then the ignition is on the what's it called?
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The ignition is on the the the gear.
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You know the gear stick, but it's a thumb.
11:53
It's a thumbprint. No, sorry, fingerprint
11:56
activated. So I can sit in the car and I
11:58
can touch my thumb to to the thing, but it's not going to
12:02
start because my fingerprint is not registered.
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But of course you can register the different fingerprints and
12:08
you know, it was never like was it was a bad ass car was really,
12:12
really impressive as a correct Mercedes-Benz.
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And and I'm like, you know, dude, like this thing costs a
12:19
lot of money. You know why now?
12:20
And he's like, you know, guys represent because you know, when
12:23
you're with clients and blah, blah, blah, you know, this whole
12:25
packaging mentality and you know, I can't fault the guy
12:28
because it actually does make an impression.
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It's a it's an impressive car. So use case scenario, totally
12:37
different people who buy Toyotas typically do XYZ.
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So if you're a car salesman, you can be qualifying around that
12:46
asking questions because you're trying to figure out are they
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worried about budget? Are they worried about fuel
12:50
efficiency? Do they travel home a lot?
12:53
Like, OK, if it's the chief person like me, you know, asking
12:55
questions like how often do they travel to Marco D, you know,
12:57
blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things.
12:59
So because you know those are those are important, you know,
13:04
whether you're going to show them the Mercedes-Benz options
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or whether you're going to show them the Toyota options.
13:09
So you need to be having all these conversations around your
13:13
unique value proposition. Why do people buy from you or
13:15
the use case scenarios when people buy your product, what do
13:17
they do next? So asking all those questions
13:24
around that. Now, the mistake that lots of
13:26
people make when it comes to these sorts of questions,
13:28
qualifying conversations, discoveries, questions where
13:32
you're trying to find out about the person or find out about
13:35
the, the problems that they have or the visions they're trying to
13:38
solve is they waste too much time in, in a building
13:42
commonality and building rapport.
13:44
Now, commonality and rapport is really, really important, but we
13:47
shouldn't make that the focus of what it is that we're doing, you
13:49
know, establish rapport quickly and then move on.
13:51
So like in my own case, what I advise people to do is once you
13:54
establish two or three touch points, you know, that's good.
13:57
You can't head straight to business once you both establish
13:59
that, you know, you both went to OAU, you just about the good old
14:02
days and then quickly slide into business or you discover that
14:06
you're both from Orca, you know, establish that and then get into
14:10
business or I don't know, whatever it is, you just figure
14:15
out some commonality and then head straight into business.
14:18
So go direct into need analysis and then discovery.
14:21
Do that quickly. Now, another reason why I
14:23
recommend that is because let's face it, you're going to build
14:26
commonality and rapport anyway because it is very, very hard.
14:30
Except if you're a robot because there are some people who
14:32
actually are flat and have no character whatsoever except if
14:36
you're a robot. The thing is, your your
14:39
personality and your whatever is going to come through as you
14:42
guys are yawning. So don't worry too much about
14:45
rapport and commonality. Just establish commonality on
14:48
the couple of things, 2-3 things and then move on.
14:51
Oh, your children like Bluey? My child likes Bluey, ha ha, ha,
14:55
blah, blah, blah, you know, parenting.
14:58
And then yeah, let's get down to business.
15:01
So don't waste too much time. You're not here to make friends.
15:03
You're here to actually sell something.
15:06
So yeah, going to needs analysis and discovery quickly.
15:10
So an example that I would like to use is a very old one as the
15:13
fellow who sells chicken feed. I haven't done the chicken feed
15:16
for a while. And the last comments I got on
15:19
the podcast on Spotify was somebody saying that I like
15:22
catfish too much. So let me leave the catfish
15:23
example. Oh, by the way, the reason why I
15:26
use these examples, chicken feed person and catfish person, is
15:29
because I want to show that the principles that we discuss over
15:32
here on the podcast can apply to whatever businesses you're
15:34
doing, whether you have a fintech or whether you sell
15:37
catfish, whether you sell chicken feed or whether you sell
15:40
Mercedes Benzes, these principles apply.
15:43
And then plus, I try to stay away from all the big, big, big
15:46
sounding ones because not everybody's running a fintech.
15:49
They actually hire a couple of people here who run chicken feed
15:52
companies or who do catfish or one of my favorite.
15:57
OK, well, what I said my favorite people, but I can't
16:00
remember her name now, you know, Novix, but part of the UI crowd
16:04
and what she's into is that she sells more money.
16:07
So yeah. So that's the reason why I use
16:11
some of these examples. So now to the chicken feed
16:15
company. Now if I remember correctly, the
16:17
chicken feed guy part of his unique selling proposition or is
16:22
a unique value proposition, what he thought was valuable about
16:25
his stuff and is this whole thing of disease and mortality
16:29
amongst chickens. So for those of you who you run
16:33
a poultry or mom she ran a poultry or your grandma ran the
16:36
poultry, you know that chickens, you know they die anyhow.
16:41
Anyhow, like you make a mistake, you mess up once she can get
16:44
sick, before you know it the whole batch is sick and in who
16:48
knows, maybe in two weeks you lose like, you know, 20 heads of
16:51
chicken or something. So these sorts of things happen.
16:54
Now Mr. Chicken feed, his thing was that putting, Sorry, it's
17:01
not. Is it probiotics or something?
17:04
So forgive me, I'm not in the aggregate space and I'm not a
17:06
doctor, so I don't know how this thing works.
17:07
So I would just say probiotics, but if I'm wrong, for those of
17:11
you who know also, please send me a message and say no, The
17:13
thing is not called probiotics. The thing is called something,
17:15
something, something so that I can take dressing for the
17:18
future. So animal feed for the chicken
17:23
that has probiotic, whatever that improves the chickens gut
17:29
immunity, gut meaning stomach, so gut immunity and makes them
17:33
more immune to disease. So that was part of the guy's
17:37
unique value proposition, Buy my chicken feed.
17:40
Your chickens will stop dying because the chicken, this food
17:44
is enriched with vitamin this enriched with this and this and
17:47
this and that compound so that when the chicken eat it, they
17:50
become more healthy and they become resistant to disease.
17:53
Tested and trusted, vetted by NAFDAQ and Nigerian agricultural
17:58
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, that whole, that's the
18:01
whole spiel, that's the whole sales pitch, you know, from the
18:06
guy's angle. So that's the unique value
18:09
proposition or that's the unique selling point for him.
18:12
And then there was also the thing about fluctuating feed
18:15
prices, because for those of you who are in this business, like
18:19
when I was talking to the catfish guy, the guy who runs
18:23
the catfish training school. So there's this thing about how
18:28
you can go and buy feed today and it will cost extra amount,
18:32
but because of hyperinflation, you go and you come back and
18:36
then you now discover that it is now X * 2 or whatever.
18:40
Because there are different, different, well, any, I'm, I'm
18:47
not, I'm not in the field, but I hope you guys understand what
18:50
I'm trying to say. But there are different factors
18:51
that affect the cost of animal feed.
18:54
And so the price keeps going up. Price keeps going down.
18:57
And then it turns out that some of the companies that are going
18:59
to make it, making it imported. And that is what also affects
19:03
the, affects the price. So if you're Mr. Chicken Feed
19:07
and this is your unique value, your unique value proposition
19:11
could now be this whole disease mortality thing.
19:14
That's number one. And then #2 fluctuating prices.
19:17
So the unique value proposition, the unique selling point in your
19:20
case might be, look, this thing is made here in Nigeria with
19:23
totally Nigerian ingredients. So I can guarantee you that
19:25
whatever price you buy at today is going to be the same price
19:28
for the next three months. You don't need to worry.
19:30
So if you buy it now at 15,000 naira per 3 kilogram sack, if
19:36
you buy it in January, if you come in February, I can
19:38
guarantee you that that is still going to be the same price.
19:41
So let's say that's our unique value proposition.
19:45
So now we're talking about qualifying leads, having
19:48
conversations with people who have indicated they might be
19:51
interested in your chicken feed discovery.
19:54
Sorry, commonality. Just do small commonality.
19:58
You know, maybe you guys are both capital or you're from the
20:00
same local government, you know, establish that, then move on.
20:03
Then go straight into the discovery questions.
20:06
You need to know. You need to find out the
20:08
mortality rate of the chickens. Because if somebody has a low
20:11
mortality rate, then what's the person going to buy your own
20:13
whatever for? If the person only has one
20:15
chicken that is dying per hundred, then sorry, forgive me,
20:19
I'm not in aggregate space where I don't know.
20:22
I don't know if one chicken dying per 100 is good or if it's
20:24
bad, but my own guess, since I'm a layman, is that if only one
20:27
chicken dies per hundred, I guess your mortality rate is
20:30
good. So if someone has a good
20:31
mortality rate, only one or two chickens die per hundred, then
20:34
why would a person buy from you? Absolutely no need.
20:37
Because remember, your unique value proposition is that feed
20:40
my chickens with your stuff, your chickens will stop dying.
20:43
But then if you run into somebody who 30 chickens are
20:46
dying per hundred, aha, see, now that is something different.
20:50
You can see they can have a profitable sales conversation
20:53
because this person has a problem, a big problem, and you
20:57
have something that promises to solve that problem.
21:00
If someone who has 30 chickens diet per hundred, of course, you
21:03
see how that affects the profit margin because you end up
21:06
feeding and investing in the whole batch of 100 by the end of
21:09
the day, you're only able to sell 60 because thirty died.
21:12
So that's a 60, sorry, 70. No 60 because 40 died or 70
21:17
because thirty died. Sorry, forgive me, math is not
21:19
my thing. Then you can see how that
21:22
affects your your profit margins at the end of the day.
21:26
So go straight into discovery. If you're not talking to
21:29
somebody that has a high mortality rate amongst his
21:31
chicken, then stop wasting your time because the person who one
21:34
chicken is diaper 100, he doesn't have a big problem.
21:36
Really, you don't have a problem, Person doesn't have a
21:39
problem that your product can solve.
21:41
So just move on. If you have the regular stuff,
21:44
sell the guy the regular stuff and then just move on and start
21:46
looking for people who have high mortality rate amongst their
21:48
chickens. Then the thing about fluctuating
21:54
food prices, if somebody is a genuine big boy or big girl and
21:59
they don't care about the price of feed, they want to buy the
22:02
best for their chickens and they'll buy whatever the current
22:04
market rate is, then don't waste your time talking to them
22:07
because really they don't have a problem.
22:09
So if you have the regular stuff, the imported stuff, sell
22:11
them the imported stuff, that's what they came for, sell you
22:14
them, let them move. Then go and look for people who
22:17
actually have that problem. Look for people who plenty of
22:19
their chickens are dying, you know, 20 per 130 per 100.
22:23
And then the people who are worried about feed prices, then
22:26
you're going to be able to have profitable conversations with
22:30
them. So that is how you should be
22:32
running your qualifications process.
22:33
These are the kinds of conversations that you should be
22:36
having, you know, asking questions around the mortality
22:38
rate of the chickens, how many of them are they dying, So how
22:41
many of them are dying. Questions around how much they
22:44
spend on feed, whether they like the imported kind or whether
22:47
they're willing to consider home grown Nigerian varieties for
22:52
stable prices. Oh, by the way, you also need to
22:55
find out who produces chickens commercially.
22:57
Because if I'm doing this thing from my own backyard and it's
23:00
not really for business purposes, maybe it might not
23:04
pain me. If I bought 10 chickens and then
23:05
five died, maybe it might not because after all, I was going
23:09
to use them for Christmas, I guess, you know, slaughtering my
23:14
own Christmas or something. So we also need to have that
23:17
conversation whether this person is doing this thing residential
23:22
small scale or this person is doing these things commercially.
23:25
So with chicken feed, if you are Mr. Chicken Feed or Madam
23:29
Chicken Feed, and that's AUVP your unique value proposition,
23:32
your unique selling point is mortality amongst chickens and
23:36
then the price of feed. Then you should make sure that
23:40
you're having conversations and you're only spending time with
23:43
people who have a high number of chickens who are dying, who are
23:46
spending too much on imported feed and who do this as a
23:49
business. So that's the whole point about
23:52
qualifying people quickly so that when you are talking to
23:55
somebody whose chickens are not dying much, the person doesn't
23:58
mind buying imported feed and the person is just doing it as a
24:01
hobby or maybe because he wants his children to have pet
24:04
chickens or whatever. Then obviously this is not a
24:07
person you should be spending time to refer them to someone
24:10
else who caters to that sort of a thing.
24:13
And then you run along and start looking for other people who
24:16
match this description. Who does this chicken business
24:21
for real? Seriously, not a hobby of the
24:25
people that do this thing commercially, who are the people
24:27
that plenty of their chickens are dying and they're spending
24:31
too much money on imported feed? So I'm sure you guys get the get
24:38
the point. So those are the kind of
24:40
questions that you should be asking and that is how you
24:42
qualify effectively to shorten the sales cycle.
24:46
You pretty much have a good idea about who your ideal customer is
24:50
and you're just asking questions to try and figure out if this
24:51
person is the ideal customer. If the person is, then you can
24:54
quickly go to the proposal or presentation stage, which is,
24:57
you know, where you say, you know, that whole thing of
25:01
probiotic food, whatever in my feed, improved chicken immunity,
25:06
improved bio immune, gut response something, what else?
25:11
NAFDAQ certified, ISO blah, blah, blah, you know, Ministry
25:15
of Health certified, all that thing.
25:17
So you quickly go into the presentation and then from there
25:20
you can attempt to close the deal.
25:21
So in summary, that is how we have qualified qualifying
25:26
conversations with leads. Yeah, that's how we have
25:31
conversation with people basically so that we can shorten
25:34
the sales cycle. So remember, the whole point of
25:36
this thing is we're trying to figure out quickly, is this guy
25:37
my ideal customer? Does my product our product or
25:41
service? Can it solve their problem?
25:43
If you can, let's see if we can close the deal now.
25:45
So if I spend 3 days talking to the guy and I close the deal
25:49
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then I now have Thursday, Friday,
25:54
Saturday. Except if you're, you belong to
25:58
the Church of Latter Day Saints, you now have Thursday, Friday,
26:01
Saturday that you can go and chase after other people.
26:04
So if you make your business by, let's say you, let's say OK,
26:11
between Lagos and Ebano, I know that there used to be a bunch of
26:14
people that used to run those kinds of businesses in, you
26:17
know, the lands, you know, in between.
26:19
So maybe you spend your time driving from one local
26:21
government to another local government, checking out these
26:23
people. Then you see how speeding up
26:25
your sales cycle means that you get to talk to more people.
26:28
So if you're spending three days a week talking to one person,
26:32
then roughly you might you be able to be able to close 2 deals
26:35
a week. But if you're spending one week
26:38
talking to one person, you know, then what's the best you can do?
26:40
The best you can do is 4 deals in a month.
26:43
But for the person who is able to shorten the sales cycle to
26:46
three days and you're talking to two people in a week, sorry, if
26:50
you're closing 2 deals in a week, then that's four times.
26:55
Sorry. That's 2 * 4.
26:56
That's 88. I really hope my math teacher
26:59
doesn't listen to this because she'd be ashamed.
27:01
She'd be petrified. OK.
27:03
Yeah. So you can see the difference is
27:05
the difference between closing 8 deals every month and closing 4
27:08
deals every month. If you're closing 4 deals every
27:09
month, do the math. You know what your profits is
27:11
going to look like at the end of the year.
27:13
If you're closing 8 deals every month, do the math.
27:15
You know how your profit is going to look like at the end of
27:17
the year. So that's it in a nutshell.
27:23
Yeah. One more thing.
27:24
I know that sometimes the examples that I give overtly
27:27
simplify these sorts of things. And to be honest, yes, in real
27:30
life it can be a little bit more complicated, but it's a problem
27:37
that's solvable. You can sit down, we can tweak,
27:40
we can experiment, we can try things wrong way, try things in
27:43
another way. But eventually it might not be
27:46
as simple as I'm making it sound, that, you know, in 2
27:49
minutes you can narrow this thing down and then double your
27:51
profits immediately. But all these things are
27:56
workable problems. So that's all for today.
27:58
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
28:00
Please connect with me on WhatsApp for tips, insights,
28:04
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28:10
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28:13
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28:29
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28:36
So thanks for your time and attention.
28:37
I'll catch you guys at the next episode.