Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of Closing High-Value Deals: A Consultative Approach

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The Art of Closing High-Value Deals: A Consultative Approach · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. I'm not in the audio booth
0:04
today, so expect to have some interruptions.
0:08
Today's episode is Oh yeah. So today's episode is I decided
0:16
to move back to a list of running list of questions that I
0:20
compile. And how I get these things
0:22
basically is whenever I'm at an engagement and people asking ask
0:26
questions and I think they're interesting, I just write them
0:28
down in the book or, you know, transfer them to my phone.
0:31
So I have a running list. And then there are also some
0:34
interesting things that come up in client engagements.
0:37
You know, those sorts of things just like the intimate training
0:42
session that we had, OK, well, relatively intimate because it
0:45
was a gathering of close to 70 people.
0:50
So I guess that is not intimate ish, but I like to get people
0:54
involved anyway. So I was out in the crowd but I
0:57
really couldn't do my thing much because breathing was a problem
1:01
for me because of my nose and throat issues.
1:04
So yeah, I was trying to involve people and it turned out to be a
1:06
fairly intimate thing. Most of them are young anyway,
1:09
between the ages of 17 and 25, so we had loads of fun.
1:13
So they were rowdy and disrespectful and I was also, I
1:17
also matched their youthful vigour.
1:20
So we turned out to have a really, really good time.
1:22
You know, by the time I was leaving people, Twilight high 5,
1:26
you know, stuff like that. So it was real nice.
1:29
So anyway, that's how I get my questions.
1:31
So I had engagements, people ask questions, I try and answer.
1:34
I think that's interesting. I put it down on the list and
1:36
then I try and tackle it on the podcast episode so that we can
1:44
the family over here on the podcast, you can share some of
1:47
the some of that goodness. So today's question, we're going
1:50
to look at how to win high value deals.
1:54
And one assumption that I'm going to make in tackling this
1:57
question is that you already have the deal before you.
2:00
So I'm not going to go into prospecting strategies about how
2:02
you run after high value clients.
2:05
You know we can do that in a future episode.
2:07
I'm trying to make sure that what we do here is manageable
2:12
and not to unwieldy. So today we're going to look at
2:16
how to win high value deals. Before we get into that, let's
2:21
have a look at the geek list or the nerd list.
2:24
So currently on Spotify, I'm listening to Scott Storch.
2:28
Now, Scott Storch is a music producer.
2:30
For those of you who are born, I don't know, those of you who are
2:35
born 2000s, I don't expect you guys know who Scott Storch is.
2:40
He's a music producer. He's done some really, really
2:42
cool stuff. Chris Brown.
2:46
Let's see. Busta Rhymes.
2:49
He also did some work where I'm with the Roots.
2:51
That's the Band of the Roots exhibit.
2:54
Mario, Beyoncé, Terror Squad. Terror Squad.
2:59
That's that Used to be Fat Joe and Fat Joe, his guy, what's his
3:03
name? Big Pun.
3:04
Yeah, Big Punisher. My Carrie has in the guy has
3:07
done lots of work, so nice steady hip hop beats.
3:11
So that's what I'm listening to right now on Spotify.
3:13
Scott Snorch, of course, he's a music producer, so he's not as
3:16
if he sang on any of them. But it's just a compilation of
3:20
stuff that he's worked on. And he's really, really good.
3:23
But the caveat is if you're born again Christian, this is
3:26
probably stuff that you would not like to listen to because
3:29
most of his songs, most of the artists that he works with, you
3:31
know, is about the three BS. Let's see, three BS.
3:37
What are they again? Boobs, babes and Bom Bom, I
3:40
can't remember. Anyway, so most of his most of
3:43
the stuff is, you know, kind of three BS.
3:45
So if you're born again and wifey is born again or your
3:49
husband is born again or your parents are born again, this is
3:52
not the kind of playlist that you want to have playing in the
3:56
car, basically. So Scott Storch on Spotify, then
4:00
on Netflix, I finally started the House of GAA, something from
4:04
Bolale Austin Peters Momsie recommended it.
4:07
Watching it now, I can see why Momsie recommended it because
4:10
production value is also on point, just like Lisabi.
4:13
And then my mum's first degree was in theatre arts.
4:17
So you know, this is kind of like a background.
4:21
So from a production value standpoint, I see my mum, she
4:24
recommended it and I would recommend it to you guys to
4:27
watch as well. House of God, I'm not done with
4:29
it yet. The only problem that I have
4:32
with it and you know, people that have discussed these kinds
4:35
of things with per say, they don't think it's a problem.
4:37
It's just, you know, the whole thing of this portrayal of the
4:40
oil empire as one of tyranny. And you know, when you talk
4:45
about empire, you know, it's hard.
4:47
You know, it's rough, but it is what it is.
4:50
All of humanity has a history with empire.
4:53
So in this part of the world or your empire, Kaano Empire, the
4:58
Korrafa empire, that didn't last too long.
5:02
Benin, what else? Dahomey then, you know, go over
5:10
to those of you in the West, Mongolian Empire, Roman Empire,
5:13
you know, on and on and on. And some people would say
5:16
British Empire kind of. And I'm one of those people who
5:20
would say the American Empire. But you know, that's a very
5:23
loose way of talking about these sorts of things.
5:25
So empire conquest is part of human history.
5:28
But I don't really think we should keep making all these
5:30
movies where every single time we portray Nigerian Empire like
5:35
or your empire, it always has to be tied back to tyranny.
5:39
I think the other aspects of the empire that we can explore
5:42
because fortunately or unfortunately, empires also mean
5:47
that there is a certain amount of peace because you don't have
5:50
warring factions, warring factions here and there, you
5:55
know, like people talk about the Pax Romana, you know, the peace
5:58
that the Roman Empire brought and how that helped with
6:05
civilization. So it's a very touchy subject
6:07
and there's no way you can do it justice in any single movie.
6:10
But House of God, I definitely, I definitely would recommend it.
6:16
Lisabi has much more blood, you know, stabbing, decapitation,
6:22
you know, jazz and all that kind of stuff.
6:24
So if you really want the, the action, the FEC, the CG effects,
6:29
then you should watch Lisabi. But House of God, not bad.
6:32
Hopefully I'll finish in another day or two and then I'll get
6:35
back to you guys on that. Let you guys know my my thoughts
6:39
on the matter. OK, so that's it for the geek
6:43
list. The nerd list for today on
6:44
Spotify, Scott Storch, check it out.
6:47
Do not listen to it if you're born again or if your spouse is
6:50
born again. Do not play it in their presence
6:52
or else it's going to lead to a very interesting discussion.
6:55
If you have children, definitely do not play this list because or
6:59
else you know, you find that your son or your daughter will
7:01
ask you, you know, daddy, what is you know XYZ or mom, what is
7:04
XYZ, and then you're in a very uncomfortable conversation and
7:09
then on Netflix House of God. So now back to the topic at hand
7:12
on how to win high value deals. So like I said, I'm going to
7:16
assume that this high value deal is already before you face to
7:19
face. The problem is you're just
7:21
wondering how am I going to seal this thing now?
7:23
Am I going to collect this Muller?
7:25
How am I going to get get this money?
7:27
So First off, we have to define what the high value deal is so
7:30
that you know what it is. When you look at it in simple
7:33
layman's terms, high value deal just means something that is
7:36
juicy, as in very, very juicy financial returns juicy.
7:41
But we can't define this in objective terms because what is
7:44
juicy is relative. So for a wedding photographer,
7:48
I'm not sure what boys and girls in wedding space charge these
7:51
days, but during my time, if you're first with a client and
7:55
you are packaging, packaging, packaging everything.
7:58
And the bill was rising to, oh, sorry about that.
8:03
My neighbour runs a commercial kitchen.
8:05
So, you know, they do all this grinding and, you know, stuff
8:07
like that. It shouldn't be the case.
8:09
But this is just a factor of living in Nigeria.
8:11
You know, people do not respect zoning laws.
8:14
So these sorts of things happen. So what was I?
8:19
OK, I think I was talking about how what a high value deal is,
8:24
you know how it is relative because during my day if you are
8:29
handling a wedding and you started entering into that 800K
8:32
space, I mean that was a real juicy deal because the returns
8:37
that you could get on that would be real nice.
8:39
So 500 to 800 K might be a high value deal for wedding
8:43
photographers. Please.
8:45
I've been out of the game for a while, so I do not know if that
8:48
is still considered a good deal now, especially with
8:51
hyperinflation and stuff like that.
8:54
So for a wedding photographer several years ago, 500 to 800 K,
8:59
that would have been considered a high value deal.
9:02
But for somebody who is in engineering or in solar sails,
9:07
you know, those kinds of things, 800K is rubbish.
9:10
That's more money. There's some people who say,
9:12
look, don't bother me with that kind of whatever.
9:14
So high value deal, it's relative to you, your industry,
9:18
the kind of business that you're trying to build.
9:20
So for a wedding photographer, wedding photographer, I hear
9:23
800K and the person will jump at it because Omar, that is some
9:26
good money. But therefore an engineer, if he
9:28
has 800K, like I beg, don't disturb me.
9:31
Go and meet a foreman or go and meet all these local supervisors
9:35
on the building site. Go and meet them.
9:37
Let them take care of this deal. Don't disturb me, don't call my
9:39
phone. So how you measure high value
9:42
deal? You know, it depends on revenue.
9:45
Revenue is the total amount, how much is coming in like the where
9:49
photography example. If you're looking at revenue
9:51
800K, you know that looks big sounds juicy.
9:54
Then there's profitability. How much money did you keep at
9:57
the end of the day? Because verily, verily, I say on
10:01
to thee, it does not profited you much.
10:04
If you go out and you're getting deals 800 K, 800K800K, but every
10:10
single time you execute on that deal, you spend 750K And so you
10:14
only put in 50K in your pocket. So you can see that
10:18
profitability, everything is 800 K.
10:21
The only thing that entered your pocket is 50K.
10:24
Can we say that that's a high value deal?
10:26
So these are things that we have to pay attention to.
10:29
There's also one of the reasons why sometimes you shouldn't jump
10:31
too quick, especially those of us who are self-employed
10:34
hustlers and you know, stuff like that.
10:35
Sometimes don't jump too quick when you hear the money, you
10:39
know, you look at it and do some rough math in your head.
10:40
OK, yes, this person is saying 3 M.
10:43
But by the time I pay 1M for this and I pay 200K for that and
10:47
I pay several 100K for this and then I pay 50K here, I do this,
10:51
I do this and then you know, of course I have to greet the
10:54
person that brought the deal to me and then I give him 10%.
10:56
How much will be left? So those are the math that we
10:59
have to be doing in our head for we know whether this is a high
11:01
value deal or not. So revenue, how big is the money
11:05
profitability? How much will enter your pocket
11:07
at the end of the day? And then there's also another
11:10
thing to consider and that is strategic importance, OK,
11:15
strategic importance in Nigeria. Strategic importance just means
11:18
open doors. As per you do this thing and
11:21
everything clicks, you're going to get new kinds of customers,
11:26
you're going to be introduced to new kinds of clientele or you're
11:29
going to be able to explore new product lines or you might now
11:33
get access to new technologies for your business.
11:35
So when we talk about strategic importance on this podcast, for
11:39
those of us who are Nigerians, every time you hear strategic
11:40
importance, just think open doors.
11:44
So sometimes you do things because the money is big, the
11:48
one that went inside our pocket is big, or because if you tap
11:52
into this thing, you will receive open doors.
11:55
So those are the things that we have to consider when we're
11:57
looking at high value deals. So how to win the high value
12:01
deal? Remember, I'm assuming that you
12:04
are already face to face with somebody.
12:06
The money is big or maybe the money is not big, but the profit
12:10
that will enter your profit, sorry, the profit that will
12:12
enter your pocket is big or strategic importance.
12:15
Maybe the money is average. But if this thing clicks, it
12:19
will lead to customers that will be big or new product lines that
12:23
will be big or speaking opportunities or whatever
12:26
opportunity that will be big. So I'm assuming that you're face
12:30
to face with that. Now, one thing that we need to
12:33
do to get our mindset right is that we need to understand that
12:35
lots of times, not always, but lots of times when we're dealing
12:39
with high value deals, we're in a complex sales scenario.
12:44
For those of you who've been listening to the podcast for any
12:46
length of time, you know, I say this over and over again and I'm
12:49
not going to stop repeating it because this thing is absolutely
12:52
foundational and lots of people don't get it into their head.
12:56
There's a difference between selling a Gucci and there's a
12:58
difference between selling accounting software.
13:01
It's not the same thing. So I'm going to keep on
13:03
repeating it, repeating it, repeating it because people
13:06
forget. We start off selling small.
13:08
We move off into situations where we're selling big, but we
13:12
never outgrow the habits and the way of thinking of when we
13:15
started selling small. So this is a complex sales
13:20
scenario. Complex sales scenario typically
13:23
is when we're dealing with big, big money, large amounts, plenty
13:27
of zeros, that is. Yeah, that's one of the factors.
13:31
Another thing to look at is the subject complexity.
13:35
OK, so like I said, a goosey and then accounting software.
13:38
A goosey is straightforward. Everybody knows what good a
13:41
goosey is and what bad a goosey is.
13:42
If you get there and The thing is not yellow, the thing has
13:45
some black in it, you know that look, this thing is spoiled and
13:47
you ignore and you move on to another trader.
13:50
Accounting software, now that has some complexity.
13:54
I mean, like who are you selling it to?
13:58
Is it the local neighbourhood shop or is it the big time shop
14:04
at the local mall in your city? Or are you selling the
14:09
accounting software to, I don't know, a government parastatal
14:12
that might need to keep track of accounts?
14:15
Maybe you, you know, your uncle is now in the Auditor general's
14:19
office, so you want to see where they can sell them accountants
14:23
accounting software or something?
14:25
Well, First off, I don't even know if people in the accountant
14:27
general's office would need accounting software.
14:29
You know, this is just me freestyling like I do on the
14:31
podcast. So you can see that this one now
14:34
has a certain measure of complexity to it.
14:37
How large is the business? How many users, what kind of
14:41
things are they selling? What kind of things, what kind
14:43
of accounting are they going to be doing?
14:46
Is it a cruel accounting? A big cash accounting?
14:49
Oh, by the way, those of you who are accountants, if I'm making a
14:52
mess of things here, please just bear with me.
14:54
I'm freestyling here. I'm just trying to explain to
14:56
the other people. So if I say anything that is
14:58
inaccurate, please reach out to me and give my contact details
15:01
at the end of the show and let me know that oh boy, you know,
15:04
you goofed here, you goofed here.
15:05
So I can come back and tell people later on that, oh,
15:08
please, in the last episode when I said this, I was goofing then.
15:13
Yeah. So that's on subject complexity.
15:16
And then you also know if you if you have a complex hill
15:19
scenario, excuse me, depending on the number of stakeholders or
15:23
number of decision makers that are involved.
15:25
So for the sale of a Gucci, the number of stakeholders that are
15:28
involved are just two. Your wife says go and get me a
15:31
Gucci. You go to the market, you buy a
15:33
Gucci, the stakeholders are just two.
15:36
But for the person who is in the market, the only stakeholder
15:38
she's dealing with is the person who is standing right in front
15:40
of her or him. So stakeholder just one.
15:44
But now when it comes to selling accounting software is a
15:47
different thing. You can go to your local shop in
15:50
the local mall in your place and talk to the store manager.
15:53
And the person says this is a very, very sweet idea, very,
15:56
very good. It will make my life a lot
15:57
easier. But I need to speak to Madam
16:00
MDCEO. She's the one that will approve.
16:03
So you can see now that another stakeholder, another decision
16:07
maker has entered the whole thing.
16:09
You might find a way to get hooked up to Madam CEO and Madam
16:12
MD. And now you're talking to two
16:14
people. You're talking to the store
16:15
manager and Madam CEO. But then Madam CEO thinks that
16:19
maybe she needs to run in by her husband because after all,
16:21
they're both in business together.
16:23
You can see now that the number of stakeholders has increased to
16:25
three for Agusi one person Accounting software.
16:30
We're ready now at 3:00. Her husband might now say, OK,
16:34
this looks like a very good idea.
16:36
But in my office, there's somebody who's good with
16:38
accounts. So let me bring this guy and let
16:40
him evaluate the whole thing. And you now see that we're
16:42
dealing with another stakeholder.
16:44
So that is how things get more and more complex.
16:46
You can see why it's called the complex Hill scenario because
16:49
for simple sales scenarios, you're just dealing with one
16:52
person. The money is not big.
16:53
We can't decide Now. We're not going to waste a lot
16:54
of time. But for complex sales scenario,
16:57
money is big. The subject matter is complex.
17:00
We're going to be talking to many people.
17:02
It's going to take a long period of time to buy a Gucci is sharp,
17:06
sharp, 5 minutes Max. But therefore, the accounting
17:11
software, I don't know, it could be a month.
17:14
I'm not in that space, so I don't know, it could be a month,
17:16
it could be 3 months, maybe six months.
17:19
I have no idea. But you can see that is not
17:21
something that you're just going to walk in and Madam MDC was
17:24
going to drop money immediately. And then there's the importance
17:26
of building relationships and these sorts of things.
17:28
When you're at a complex hill scenario, you need to finesse
17:30
things. You need to have relationships
17:31
with people, so you go in, you build a relationship with store
17:35
manager. That is what will make store
17:37
manager bring this idea to Adam CEO.
17:39
You also gas to finesse Madam CEO and be cool with her because
17:43
we're trying to get the deal done.
17:45
And if it turns out that husband is also important, you need to
17:48
broaden the Nets. You need to be cool with all
17:50
three of them and by the time they bring in this external
17:54
stakeholder, I know for you might it might sound frustrating
17:57
like what the hell is going on? Like I started with one person
18:00
and now I'm talking to four people like was all this
18:02
rubbish? You know, my brother and my
18:04
sister don't get annoyed. It's just the nature of the
18:06
game. That's just how complex those
18:07
scenarios are. So just, you know, become try
18:10
and build relationship with them, everybody.
18:12
So that's the first mindset that you guys need to adopt when
18:15
you're dealing with the complex. So when you're dealing with a
18:19
high value deal, realise that it's going to be a complex
18:22
scenario. This thing will take time.
18:24
After all, the money is big. The thing is complex.
18:27
There are plenty of people that need to be toasting in the
18:31
process. I have to be building
18:33
relationships. So just know that this one is
18:36
going to be a small marathon. It's not something that you're
18:38
just getting sharp, sharp and then get out.
18:41
So this whole thing that you see in movies where you know, some
18:43
quick deal, big, big, big thing, you know, one or you know, boys
18:47
just get together, do one or two things.
18:48
You know, next thing that millionaires, you know, these
18:51
things happen. Yes, they do, but it's not the
18:54
typical. It's not the typical thing.
18:59
Then please also realize that when Hollywood makes all these
19:01
movies like that one where these two guys, American American boys
19:08
went to, was it Central Africa or some central, I can't
19:13
remember where they went anyway, but they just became arm
19:15
dealers. So the way the movie made it
19:17
very, very sexy. Like these two boys came
19:19
together and like Omo, there's what happening in some parts of
19:22
the world. There's money to be made.
19:23
If we can supply guns, we can buy guns here in America.
19:26
We can supply to this part of the world.
19:27
Come together, business plan, fly down, hook up the deal.
19:31
Next thing that billionaires rolling in dough, you know, for
19:34
the purposes of film, you know they'll make it sexy and they'll
19:38
make it seem short, short, short and easy, easy, easy.
19:41
But in real life is going to be a whole lot more complex.
19:43
Trying to buy guns. Anyway, it's not my area of
19:46
specialty, so let me stop here. I'm not an arms dealer, but I'm
19:49
not trying to say that trying to buy significant guns so you can
19:52
take them and sell to Central African Republic or to the
19:54
Middle East. You know, you're going to have
19:57
to be building relationships with arm dealers and there's a
19:59
whole thing of travel and then passports and then security.
20:02
And then when you get to Middle East or Central Africa, the
20:06
central part of Africa, wherever it is you try to sell the
20:09
weapons to, you're going to have to build with different
20:12
relationship with different warlords and you know, blah,
20:14
blah, blah, and things like that.
20:15
So you can see actually, it's complex, but for the sake of
20:17
film, Hollywood will make it look like it's smooth.
20:21
You just wrap everything up in one hour.
20:23
They came together, they met, they became billionaires.
20:26
But in real life, it's a lot different.
20:29
So that's all we need to, we need to get our mindset right.
20:32
Then next we also have to be consultative in this sort of
20:34
thing. What I mean when I say
20:37
consultative is this, we have to pretend to be a doctor, Don't
20:40
pretend to be a groundnut seller.
20:42
When the groundnut seller is walking on the road, what he
20:45
says or what she says basically is groundnut, groundnut.
20:48
And then you say groundnut, come here, give me two cops and then
20:53
she gives you 2 cops and then that's it.
20:55
Or he gives you 2 cops and that's it.
20:56
And then you go, you pay your 500 bucks.
21:01
Yeah, I think it's 500 bucks now for two cups of groundnut.
21:05
I say our groundnut has become really expensive.
21:07
Shocking. There's the time when if you buy
21:10
groundnut 100 bucks, you'll be able to finish it.
21:12
You have to keep it and easy tomorrow.
21:15
But the doctor, on the other hand, the doctor is not going to
21:18
go around shouting Dr. doctor. And then you say, you call the
21:23
doctor and then the doctor says, what do you want?
21:24
And then the doctor gives you exactly what it is that you
21:26
said. The doctor is going to go
21:28
through a consulting process. Young man, welcome.
21:32
What brings you here today? OK, Your head is painting you.
21:34
Where again? Your leg.
21:36
OK. How old are you?
21:37
What is your family history? What have you been doing?
21:41
Oh, you drive 8 hours a day. OK, come here.
21:44
Let me check your blood temperature.
21:45
These are that. Go for this.
21:47
Go for that scan. You see, the doctor is going to
21:49
ask a whole host of questions. And then when he's done, he's
21:52
going to say, OK, this is what we need to do.
21:55
You have a hematoma, blood clot, something, something.
21:57
And because of that, we need to cut off your left leg.
21:59
If we don't cut off your left leg, you're going to die in 48
22:01
hours. See.
22:03
And then because the doctor has gone through this whole process,
22:06
you trust the gang? You say, OK, doctor, let's go
22:08
cut off my left leg. By the way, I would hope that
22:10
you'd seek a second opinion just in case doctor is wrong.
22:14
But you can see there's a different approach.
22:16
Groundnut seller just says groundnuts.
22:18
And then you say groundnut. Yes.
22:20
And then the person comes, you say, give me two cops, should
22:22
give you 2 cops. And then they go, the doctor on
22:25
the other hand, you might come in and say, doctor, my leg is
22:28
painting me. I think it's time to amputate my
22:29
leg. The doctor will not say, OK,
22:31
yes, let's go and amputate. The doctor will ask you a bunch
22:33
of questions. Let me see your foot.
22:35
OK. Is it painting when I do this?
22:37
Is it painting when I do that? What happened?
22:39
What did you do? What is your lifestyle?
22:43
Do you have diabetes? Do you have high blood pressure?
22:45
Go for this scan. Go for that scan.
22:47
Go for tests. And then the doctor will now
22:49
make his own recommendation. So that is the mind frame that
22:53
we need to come when come with when we're dealing with high
22:56
value deals. We have to be consultative.
22:58
We're the doctors. We need to go straight into need
23:01
analysis and we need to start asking questions, open any
23:03
questions to try and figure out what is going on.
23:06
So this accounting deal is it might be a huge deal.
23:13
OK, let's say let's just assume that people in accounting
23:15
General's office need accounting software.
23:19
By the way, if I'm wrong, accountants, don't be annoyed.
23:21
I just need to come up with some sort of example.
23:23
So let's assume that they need it and because of your uncle
23:28
being inside man, and your connects in the market is going
23:32
to be like a 15 billion Nair deal for you or something.
23:36
Don't just run in there and then start saying this is the latest,
23:39
this is the greatest, this is the best.
23:41
Everybody's using this accounting software.
23:42
Something, something, something, everywhere you go, sales,
23:45
speech, sales, speech, sales, speech, sales, speech
23:48
presentation, you need to be coming down.
23:51
You add time to the organization or first of all, you know, one
23:54
or two people. Remember I said that this is
23:56
going to be since the complex Hill scenario, we're going to be
23:59
talking to different stakeholders.
24:02
So maybe you'll talk to Accountant General's office.
24:08
Do they have MD? And I don't know if they have
24:10
MD. Do they have OK?
24:12
No, they don't have MD. I don't know what they're
24:16
called. So for now, let me just pretend
24:18
that they have MD. So you speak to MD, you speak to
24:20
group head of this, you speak to group head of that.
24:22
You talk to head of procurement, You talk to this person.
24:25
You, you know, you know, that's how you're going to run this
24:28
whole thing. You're talking to different
24:29
people, but each person, you're going to be asking them
24:32
questions. No.
24:33
OK, How come you guys have been considering this software now?
24:37
I mean, this organization has been in existence since 1960,
24:40
Whatever. You guys have never considered
24:42
the software. So what are the problems that
24:44
you're facing now that is even allowing you guys to even
24:47
entertain me to have this conversation?
24:49
I mean, that's the kind of scope.
24:50
And then you listen whether they've been having problems
24:54
with reconciling things manually.
24:55
So digital is going to help and this and this and that and that.
24:58
You ask about their goals, what are they trying to do?
25:00
Maybe the federal government has some things of eliminating paper
25:03
by 2027, so everything must be digital and in the cloud.
25:07
And you know, Nigeria now how with every government, everybody
25:11
announces some new policy and things like that.
25:13
But The thing is you go in there like a doctor and start asking
25:15
them questions. As you're asking them questions,
25:18
you're trying to figure out is there a problem here and can
25:21
this accounting software solve this problem so that by the time
25:25
you get to presentation stage, by the time MD says, OK, you
25:27
know what, young man, this thing sounds interesting.
25:30
Young woman, this thing sounds interesting.
25:32
Like I call the board on October 15th, come and make presentation
25:35
to us. At that stage.
25:38
You will now be able to make a very, very effective
25:40
presentation because you have uncovered what the department's
25:43
key motivations are and you see how it mutually aligns with
25:46
yours. So basically you'll be able to
25:48
go in there and say that OK, members of the board, thank you
25:51
very much for allow me to make this presentation.
25:56
I'll not take up too much of your time.
25:57
If I understand it correctly, under the distinguished, you
26:01
know this is Nigeria, so you have to kiss us basically.
26:04
So under the distinguished leadership of Professor so and
26:08
so in line with the directive of of honourable probably this is
26:15
the honourable President, honourable President and Grand
26:19
Commander of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinibu and
26:22
how we are going to achieve paperless whatever by 2025.
26:25
And so, so and so if my understanding of these
26:28
departments priorities are correct, you need to be able to
26:31
achieve 123 and 456. This solution that I'm
26:34
presenting here today will help you achieve that by doing this
26:37
and this and that and that. And you see how that is, that's
26:40
how your proposal is now going to flow because you went in not
26:44
as a groundnut seller, you went in as a doctor.
26:48
You asked a bunch of questions. You figured out what's going on.
26:52
This is complex. So you are talking to many
26:53
people. Don't just talk to the person in
26:55
procurement. Procurement people don't be
26:57
worried about price. Also talk to the boys and girls
27:00
in accounting. Those are the people who will be
27:01
using the software. You know, there'll be some kind
27:04
of things that they will prefer to see or they'll prefer to use
27:08
in the solution. So that's the scope basically.
27:13
So mindset #1 it's a complex scenario.
27:16
So it'll be coming down. You're not going to finish this
27:18
thing soon at all. Money is big.
27:20
The thing is complex. The lots of decision makers you
27:23
need to build relationship with. Lots of people go in there,
27:26
pretend you're a doctor, ask a bunch of questions so that your
27:29
proposal, your presentation, that's where you're making your
27:32
recommendation basically. Then excuse me, another thing to
27:38
consider, if you end up closing this thing and this is where
27:41
lots of Nigerians mess up because you close the deal and
27:44
you just collect your money and then you go, you do anyhow and
27:48
then you go. The thing is like, you know, I
27:56
keep saying this whole thing of repeat business referrals,
27:59
maximizing lifetime customer value.
28:02
The the sweetness of The thing is not that you collected, you
28:05
know, 1.5 OK, 1.5 is big, not for why SM is here.
28:11
So let me say, let me say, let me say 5 M So the sweetest sort
28:15
of thing is not that you collected 5 M Now the sweetest
28:18
sort of thing is that you collect 5 M now, but then you're
28:21
able to collect another two or three M next year.
28:25
And maybe the person refers you to another person and maybe
28:28
those other people also buy from you at 1.8 M, You know, each
28:31
time, I mean, that is when the thing becomes real nice, real
28:35
sweet. So because of that, we should be
28:38
taking a conscious approach when we're dealing with high value
28:41
deals. Consciousness just means you're
28:42
holding people's hands basically and holding you're worried about
28:46
customer success, worried about customer satisfaction.
28:49
So it's not just that you, you get the deal, you install the
28:54
accounting software and then you leave, you install it, you check
28:57
up on them once in a while, you pass through, greet or get
29:00
procurement, go and greet the boys and girls in the accounting
29:03
department. You know what's the problem?
29:05
Is everything working OK? Sure, there's no problem.
29:08
If they complain about something, you know, try and say
29:10
you can patch it up sometimes out of pocket if necessary.
29:17
I said if necessary. There are times when
29:19
legitimately, if there's a problem, excuse me, you might
29:23
have to sort it out, but then bill them for it, then let's see
29:26
what else. So excuse me, my throat issues,
29:34
what was I so concierge approach because this whole idea is that
29:38
what we're trying to do is repeat businesses.
29:40
So repeat purchases and referrals.
29:43
So don't do this Nigeria thing off you collected the money, you
29:45
go and do Thanksgiving, you give your pastor 10%, then you lie to
29:50
your wife so that you can have some extra cash to give your
29:55
side chicks on the side and you know, things like that.
29:57
So I'm not saying you don't have side chicks, and I'm not saying
30:00
you don't pay your tights. I'm not saying don't lie to your
30:03
wife. I'm just saying that when that
30:05
first big money hits the account, yeah, rejoice.
30:10
But just realize that it doesn't profit you to just collect 5:00
30:15
AM now and then you're broke for the next three years.
30:18
So take a conscious approach. Be concerned, worry about
30:24
customer success. Are they satisfied?
30:26
Do a little bit of hand holding. The goal is to get them to buy
30:29
again or to hook you up with other people that are going to
30:31
buy. So if you entered Accountant
30:34
General's office today, try and see how you can leverage that to
30:38
enter Ministry of Finance tomorrow or I don't know, Zenith
30:44
Bank next year or whatever. Just try and leverage it up like
30:48
that. So yeah, when you collect the
30:51
money, that's not the end of the thing.
30:52
So celebrate, do whatever it is that you want to do.
30:56
Go on holidays, you know, but concierge your approach.
30:59
We're trying to get the money to come again and again and again.
31:03
So we're going to do some more. OK, it's 30 minutes already.
31:06
So there'll be more talk about high value deals in the coming
31:09
days because I the main question was how to win high value deals.
31:13
Well, then there were small sub, sub sub questions that we'll
31:16
deal with later. So thank you very much for your
31:19
time and attention. And yeah, connect with me for
31:24
insights, questions, tips, or even to discuss things that you
31:27
disagree with. I'm available on WhatsApp.
31:29
The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
31:37
Then I'm also available on LinkedIn.
31:39
My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
31:42
So if you want to get the correct spelling of my name,
31:44
just look at the link. We're currently listening to
31:46
this episode. Do the highlight thing, copy my
31:49
name and then paste it in LinkedIn and you'll see my
31:52
handsome smiling mug right there and connect with me.
31:55
And I should respond to your messages in a day or two.
31:58
So thanks for your time and attention.
32:00
I'll catch you guys at the next episode.