Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Increase Your Closing Rate Without Being Pushy

Transcript

How to Increase Your Closing Rate Without Being Pushy · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Unfortunately, today's episode
0:05
is going to be a very long one, but I'll try and breeze through
0:08
as quick as possible. Now, for the benefit of those of
0:11
you who are joining us today for the first time, I'm going to go
0:14
over a little recap about what we did yesterday because it, of
0:18
course, it ties into what it is that we're discussing today.
0:21
So we are currently looking at how to increase your closing
0:26
rate. OK, you know what, I'm not going
0:30
to do a summary of the episode that we did yesterday because we
0:33
have a lot of things to talk about today.
0:35
So this is your first time of listening to the podcast, and
0:37
you want to get the background to the ideas I'm going to
0:40
express here on how to increase your closing rate.
0:43
Then after you're done listening to this episode, just listen to
0:46
yesterday's episode and you'll be able to stitch both things
0:49
together and have a fuller perspective about how everything
0:53
works. But I capped off yesterday's
0:55
episode by saying that if you wanted to increase your closing
0:58
rate, which is the amount of business that you do, you know,
1:03
per 10 or per 100 customers, you know, so you talk to 10
1:07
customers, how many people do you end up doing business with?
1:09
You talk to 100. How many people do you end up
1:11
doing business with on average? So that's the closing rate.
1:15
So I capped off by saying that if you want to increase your
1:18
closing rate, the answer is not to learn how to close the deal
1:23
better. Because most people when they
1:25
notice that they have a low closing rate, they start looking
1:27
on YouTube and looking at podcasts and things like that
1:31
and they're trying to find the magic close.
1:33
You're trying to find that magic phrase or that magic thing that
1:37
you will say or that you will type that will cause people to
1:39
close better. You don't believe me?
1:42
Check your Instagram. Just go to Instagram explore
1:45
page and start searching there. You're going to see things like
1:49
use this magic close to this magic phrase to close 50% more
1:53
deals or say these three things in exactly this way to get
1:57
people to buy from you 70% of the time and blah, blah, blah.
2:00
And all these magic tricks, by the way, all those magic tricks,
2:05
those tactics, they work. Yes, they do, but they work
2:09
within the system. You have to learn the system to
2:13
make sure that you optimize everything.
2:15
And sometimes those things work within the system that you might
2:19
not feel very happy applying the whole thing.
2:25
Like for instance, all those ideas around getting people to
2:27
say 3 consecutive yeses. So if a person you can get a
2:30
person to say yes three consecutive times, then they'll
2:32
say yes to to closing the deal. Yeah, those sorts of gimmicks,
2:37
they can work. But as you can see, those are
2:39
high pressure tactics. And if you're listening to this
2:41
podcast, my guess is that you're not the kind of person who's
2:44
looking for those sorts of things.
2:46
So let's look for something that's a little bit much more
2:49
ethical. Yes, it involves more hard work,
2:53
but this is a way of closing more deals over time in an
2:57
ethical manner that you will be satisfied with and that
3:00
everybody can do. And plus, you don't have to
3:03
remember any three magic phrases or whatever, and you don't have
3:07
to change your personality. So the answer to increase your
3:12
closing rate is not to learn how to close.
3:16
Your focus should be on learning how to open deals better.
3:21
And the rationale is this the reason why we should focus on
3:27
opening deals better? I want to give you a couple of
3:29
reasons why. Because closing the deal is a
3:33
natural end result of something that something is.
3:37
You must have had fruitful conversations in the 1st place
3:40
with the right people. If it was a fruitful
3:43
conversation and if the conversation was with the right
3:45
person, you don't have to force to close.
3:48
You only have to guide to the close and the close would take
3:51
care of itself. Excuse me then another thing to
3:56
bear in mind is this. The more of the right people
3:59
that you talk to, the more deals you're going to close.
4:02
That one is just standard. I don't think I have to confuse
4:06
you about that. The more of the right people you
4:08
talk to, the more deals you're going to close.
4:11
If you aren't closing most of your deals, typically it's
4:14
because there's a misalignment somewhere and not because you're
4:19
not being forceful enough. So remember, fruitful
4:22
conversations, the right people. If the deal is not closing,
4:25
there's a misalignment. Your conversations are not
4:27
fruitful, your conversations are not relevant.
4:31
Or maybe you're talking to the wrong people.
4:33
You'd have to sit down and diagnose on a case by case
4:35
basis. But if you're not closing most
4:37
of your deals, so excuse me recovering from a sore throat.
4:41
So if you're not closing most of your deals, it's because there's
4:43
a misalignment somewhere. And then finally, something that
4:48
lots of people find surprising when they hear a, when they hear
4:53
a sales coach talk about these sorts of things.
4:55
But you really can't force someone to buy from you or make
4:58
a business decision. You can't force it.
5:00
The best you can do is to discover people's motivations
5:03
and then align your own motivation, your own motivations
5:07
with it. And then of course, make it
5:08
easier for them to do what they already intend to do.
5:12
So if you want to learn how to force people to do something to
5:14
buy against their their concerns or their best wishes, you're not
5:19
going to learn about it on this podcast, not this episode and
5:23
not this podcast. So all these things that we're
5:26
talking about now, how does this all work out in practice?
5:30
This is how it works out in practice.
5:32
If you want to close more deals, you have to open right?
5:35
To open right, you should only be talking to people who are one
5:39
interested. You should only be talking to
5:41
people who too can afford what you have.
5:44
And then #3 you should only be talking to people who are ready
5:47
to make a decision anytime soon. And I hope you guys are
5:50
beginning to see how the matrix ties in together.
5:53
You might be talking to someone who can afford and who might be
5:56
ready to make a decision sometime soon, but the person is
5:59
not interested. In this case, you repeating
6:02
magic phrases and getting them to say yes three times
6:07
consecutively. It's not going to be a good
6:08
outcome because if you do that three years thing, you get the
6:12
person to buy because he can afford and but he wasn't ready
6:16
to make a decision or sorry, he can afford.
6:18
He's ready to make a decision, but he's not interested.
6:21
Then that's where you get bad's remorse and bad's regret, and
6:24
then the person ends up thinking that look, you're a scammer,
6:26
you're unethical and this and this.
6:28
Maybe you jazzed me or something.
6:30
You're slick, you're smooth, you know, all kinds of things that
6:33
end up spoiling your reputation. So just stick to only talking to
6:37
people who are interested, people who can afford, and
6:40
people who are ready to make a decision anytime soon.
6:43
You stick to those three. You will find that you're able
6:45
to just guide things to a close. You don't have to force a close.
6:50
So now this whole thing of people who are interested, how
6:52
do you find interested people? That is by either doing two
6:57
things #1 prospecting. Prospecting is old school.
7:00
I'll explain. And then #2 you do inbound,
7:04
inbound. Inbound has always existed, yes.
7:07
But nowadays, because of social media networks, inbound has now
7:12
come to mean something in particular.
7:15
But let me just explain what these things are.
7:18
So how do you find interested people #1 prospecting.
7:22
Prospecting is when you go physically out into the world
7:24
where you think these people might be those people who are
7:27
interested in your product or service.
7:29
Then you try and initiate conversations with them for the
7:32
sole purpose of seeing if they are interested.
7:34
If someone is not interested, walk on by.
7:38
If someone is interested, see if you can take them to make, if
7:41
you can get them to take the next step or you try and figure
7:44
out the nature of their problem and if your product or service
7:48
can solve that problem. So for online food vendors and
7:52
beauty vendors, the reason why I'm sticking to online food
7:55
vendors and beauty vendors is because just like with the last
7:58
episode or maybe two episodes back, I know that when I'm
8:02
speaking in public, a bunch of you say that, yeah, you've
8:05
listened to the show. But I spend most of my time
8:07
talking about people who do things face to face and I don't
8:12
pay attention to people who have online businesses.
8:15
And yes, so excuse me. And yes, you guys are correct.
8:21
I hardly pay attention to you guys.
8:22
But it's not deliberate. It's just that I have, you know,
8:27
when I got involved in the business space, I was a
8:29
photographer. And then after that there was
8:31
the commodities business with me and my brother.
8:35
And so all the stuff I've always done has been real world.
8:39
So when I'm thinking about business examples, I'm always
8:41
thinking real world. Not necessarily online folks.
8:44
But today I'm going to pay attention to you guys.
8:48
Beauty vendors, online skin people, online food delivery
8:54
people, those of you who sell pyjamas on Instagram or whatever
9:00
it is. So I'll be talking about you
9:02
guys today. So finding interesting people,
9:05
prospecting, if you're an online food or beauty vendor on
9:08
Instagram, then that involves going to wedding fairs or going
9:12
to makeup fairs. If you're not ahead of these
9:14
sorts of things, they exist, especially the makeup fair
9:17
things. I don't think there's one in
9:20
Abuja, but I know there's a makeup fair in Lagos.
9:22
There's a makeup fair in the East and I've seen one happen in
9:25
Beniu as well. And I'm not sure which other
9:26
part of the country. So that's where makeup artist,
9:29
glam artist, gilet people, you know, all of you get together
9:32
and people who are interested in those sorts of things come have
9:36
a look, you know, buy some stuff, get their makeup done and
9:39
buy a few things. So prospecting, since it's all
9:42
world old school, would mean that you guys have to go to
9:44
these sorts of places to look for potential customers.
9:47
So go and buy a booth or if you're broke, you can do that
9:51
thing that some people do, which is go to the venue.
9:54
You don't go inside, but then you hold your Flyers and then
9:56
when people are walking in, you hand over you hand, you hand
10:00
them your Flyers. This kind of behaviour is
10:04
strongly frowned upon by the people who organize these sorts
10:08
of things. So just know that if they find
10:10
you, they're going to throw you out.
10:12
But anyway, there's some people who try nevertheless.
10:15
So go there, attend these fairs, start talking to potential
10:19
customers. You also need to do some work,
10:21
get better at telling people what you do, telling people the
10:24
kind of clients that you're looking for.
10:25
So working on your elevator page and blah, blah, blah, all those
10:28
sorts of things. So the philosophy behind
10:31
prospecting or the spirit behind prospecting is that you will go
10:36
and chase after people to get your business.
10:39
So inbound, now that is a rival business philosophy or a
10:44
different kind of business philosophy.
10:46
So inbound or lead generation or demand capture or whatever it is
10:50
that you call it slightly different.
10:53
But for the bodies of the show, let's speak about three of them,
10:56
almost as if they are the same. So inbound is where you make
11:00
yourself attractive so that the right customer chases after you.
11:04
So inbound strategies, old school.
11:06
That's for those of us who are late 70s, early 80s children
11:10
that would have been advertising, you know, Honeywell
11:14
noodles, bam bam, bam, bam, bam, La La.
11:16
The goal is if children keep singing, oh, no, no, no, no,
11:22
Honeywell. That was that was a different
11:24
generation. My generation was Indom, so
11:26
indom indomi, indomi indo me doodles.
11:30
So you play that, children sing it enough, parents get
11:33
interested, parents go and buy. That's the whole idea with
11:36
inbound. Make yourself attractive so that
11:38
the right customer chases after you.
11:40
So now with social networks, there's a strategy for doing all
11:46
of this online by content marketing, putting out useful
11:50
content, educational content, entertaining content, working on
11:54
your SEO, anything that you can do to make it easier for people
11:59
to find you and to get interested.
12:02
So the goal is make yourself attractive.
12:04
Let people chase you, you know, not them, they rush us.
12:06
That's the whole idea. Let people be rushing you.
12:09
Then lead generation is also tied into inbound.
12:13
But that just means that when you're doing all these
12:15
activities online content marketing, videos, audio,
12:20
YouTube, Facebook, everything, SEO, the spirit behind lead
12:25
generation is this, that you now do some activities that cause
12:29
people to give you their phone numbers and to give you their
12:32
e-mail addresses. That is how you're going to
12:35
chase after people who find you online.
12:38
So Instagram vendors, food vendors, beauty influencers,
12:43
lead generation would be you guys offering free consultations
12:47
on Instagram. For instance, you might do a,
12:52
what's that thing called? Instagram Live.
12:56
Yeah. So you do an Instagram Live.
12:57
Maybe it's you and your best friend.
12:59
Maybe you, you do lipstick, your best friend does eyeshadow and
13:03
maybe a third person who does skin or something.
13:06
And you guys have a panel. And at the end of it, it'll be
13:09
that. If you're interested, click
13:11
here, drop your phone number and be eligible for free
13:14
consultation so that we can advise you on skin routines and
13:18
blah, blah, blah. And you organize contests and
13:21
raffles. And to enter, people have to
13:23
drop the e-mail address or phone number or you can drop different
13:25
kind of lead magnets, you know, click here to get my free five
13:31
page, five page e-book on how to analyze skin and come up with
13:38
your perfect beauty routine, something like that.
13:40
So people click and then they drop their e-mail address and
13:43
their phone number. So you're trying to generate
13:46
leads so you see how it all works together.
13:49
Make yourself attractive so that people chase after you.
13:52
Then start engaging in lead generation.
13:55
Do something so that people can give you their, excuse me, their
13:59
e-mail address and phone number and then demand capture.
14:03
That is the part where you try and make these people who have
14:08
been interested and who have given you their e-mail address
14:10
and phone number, you do something that will help, excuse
14:16
me, something that will help nurture the relationship, build
14:21
trust and rapport, and then you also try to convert leads.
14:24
What that means is you're offering, you make very clear
14:28
calls to action. You tell them exactly what it is
14:30
that you want them to do next, and you provide good
14:33
experiences, stay top of mind and to get people to take a next
14:38
step. The next step in this case would
14:41
be something like come for a tasting if you're a food vendor
14:45
and you are at a wedding show, because I've seen some caterers
14:49
do that. I think that's a very expensive
14:51
way to promote your business, by the way, because essentially
14:53
you're telling people come and eat free food.
14:55
I've never been a fan of that, but people do it.
14:59
So come for the tasting, enter a raffle draw, come to the studio
15:02
for consultations about your skin type, call me for free
15:05
consultations, blah, blah, blah, blah.
15:08
Call me for consultations on how to make your perfect wedding
15:11
menu or the perfect food for the baby dedication and you know,
15:16
things like that. So people who respond to all
15:19
these call to actions, that is you doing demand capture because
15:24
somebody's interested, you get them to take the next step.
15:26
That is what the demand capture is about.
15:29
Now, we've said a lot over the last 15 minutes, so let me just
15:32
make a recap. Remember the philosophy that
15:35
we're trying to do here that if we only spend time talking to
15:39
people who are interested and who can afford and are ready to
15:44
make a decision, they're closing.
15:45
The deal is almost automatic. We've talked about a few ideas
15:50
about how to catch people who are interested.
15:54
So for the sake of time, let's just run quickly to how do we
15:59
spend time only with people who can afford what it is that we
16:04
have? This is something that I stress
16:08
and this is something that lots of people avoid, but please, we
16:11
cannot avoid it. Some people put it on to the
16:15
end. You're only hurting yourself.
16:17
The person is anxious about the price because they don't know
16:20
anything else about your product or your service.
16:22
So they're using price as a proxy for quality.
16:26
Let me repeat it again. Most people don't know Jack
16:29
about your product or your service, so they only have price
16:32
to go on. So you talk about how nice your
16:35
food is or how nice your paw paw skin care routine is or
16:38
something something something. Yes, they know it's nice, but
16:41
they don't know anything else. They're not in the field.
16:43
The only thing they can think about is the price.
16:45
You should be the one who brings up the pricing thing and bring
16:49
it up early. Don't wait until the end and
16:53
you're nervous and then you're scared and you guys have the
16:55
awkward conversation. Bring it up early.
16:58
So how can you make sure you're talking to people who can afford
17:00
what it is you have? Ask them politely and ask them
17:04
early so that you stop wasting time with people who are never
17:08
going to buy and you get to that awkward phase where you're
17:11
trying to get them to close the deal and there's a money
17:13
mismatch. Let me repeat, Ask them politely
17:18
and then ask them early. In this case, for all the people
17:23
we've been talking about here, you know, our Instagram people,
17:26
it's just a simple thing. You can say something like,
17:28
well, this is how I say it because I'm more formal, but you
17:31
don't have to say it the way that I am, but just get the
17:33
philosophy of what I'm trying to say.
17:35
So after you do some small Guzman, you've gone through this
17:38
whole process, you made a small presentation.
17:40
You just say something simple. The solutions, the items, the
17:44
whatever, whatever we have, this we have discussed here can cost
17:47
anything between XYZ and 123. Is this something you can afford
17:51
now and then Keep quiet and hear what they have to say.
17:55
Ask this question politely and ask it early.
17:58
If the person thinks 200K for beauty routine is armed robbery,
18:03
let us say it now that you're a thief, you're an armed robber.
18:07
And you now know that OK, this is somebody that you have to
18:09
weave that this person doesn't understand is not a skin
18:12
connoisseur. And this person is not your
18:14
ideal person. And leave the person if you ask
18:18
it early and you say that your skin care routine is 200,000 for
18:21
people who know what's up the black 200,000 for 20 purple.
18:25
I beg sign me up. When can I pay you?
18:28
So The thing is, your market already exists.
18:33
So you should be spending most of your time looking for who
18:38
your market in quote is instead of trying to force people to buy
18:43
when clearly there's no you know the relationship is matched
18:48
mismatched. You think it's not going to
18:49
work. So ask them politely and then
18:52
ask them early, is this something you can afford now?
18:55
Is this something you'd like to take action soon?
18:57
Is this in line with your budget?
18:59
You know, simple, simple, small, small questions like that.
19:02
When you ask the question, you wait for feedback.
19:05
The response is going to tell you, excuse me?
19:08
The response will tell you if these people can't afford or
19:10
they can. It will tell you if money is a
19:12
problem. So like I said of all this,
19:16
you've been listening to the show for a long time.
19:18
You know about my first wedding I was coming out fresh.
19:21
I need to do high end so I said let me charge 400 K.
19:24
The first bride I got on the phone, she said how much I told
19:26
her 400K. She's like thank you, thank you,
19:30
you want to build house? Thank you.
19:31
And it was a really awkward conversation because I was
19:34
trying to keep her on the phone. What she kept saying was thank
19:37
you, thank you. You want to build house.
19:39
It's not on top of my head. God bless your business.
19:43
It it was a weird conversation. In fact, I wish I had recorded
19:46
the conversation so that now with what I know, I can listen
19:48
back on it and then not only share the conversation with you
19:52
guys, but then try and break it down and learn some more about
19:55
how to handle money objections. So when somebody responds like
20:00
that, the person is not for you. Either that or your product or
20:03
service is not as good as you think it is.
20:05
But that's a subject for another episode.
20:07
But for now, let's assume that you're the bomb.
20:09
You're the best. If somebody responds like that,
20:11
that person is not for you. Just free the matter, let it go.
20:15
You take that person, you put the person back into lead
20:18
nurturing sequences. Remember when we're talking
20:20
about how you remain top of mind with social media and then
20:24
WhatsApp and everything? So that's just the thing.
20:26
Put the person back into that, the relationship nurturing
20:30
sequences. Because tomorrow is another day.
20:33
Eventually people's money problems pan out or people get
20:36
promoted or you know, whatever things change, tomorrow is
20:40
another day. If money is a problem, we've the
20:42
person. If the person is interested, on
20:46
the other hand, then you now say something like, oh, the next
20:52
step is we need a payment for XYZ or we need a deposit for XYZ
20:57
so we can move forward. Do you want to pay cash or do
21:00
you want to pay transfer? Do you prefer POS or do you
21:02
prefer OP? Which banks do you prefer making
21:05
transfers to? You know, blah, blah, blah,
21:07
those sorts of questions. Again, the response that you
21:10
get, the feedback that you get will tell you whether the person
21:14
is ready or not. Because there's some people who
21:15
will say, yeah, 200K for purpose skin care.
21:18
Yeah, I can do that. But then when you say, OK, my is
21:21
it transfer all cash, she will now say, let me talk to my
21:24
husband. So it happens.
21:26
So you need to ask. So that would give you a sign.
21:31
Anyway, you get the gist. You ask if the person says let
21:37
me talk to my husband or whatever, give some other
21:39
objection that you can't handle, don't worry tomorrow's another
21:42
day. Put the person back in lead
21:44
nurturing. OK man no problem, I understand,
21:46
follow my Instagram handle blah blah blah, you know best.
21:49
Maybe person needs to build more trust with you or more rapport
21:53
as you guys engage over the phone or over on WhatsApp.
21:57
But bottom line, what I'm saying is when somebody says no, you
21:59
don't have to feel crushed. Tomorrow is another day and
22:03
there are plenty of fish in the ocean.
22:05
That's the right attitude. Tomorrow is another day, there's
22:07
plenty of fish in the ocean. So you feel bad when I wake up
22:10
tomorrow and then go fishing again.
22:13
So when you get into these sorts of situations where you ask the
22:18
money questions and you have a hiccup, apart from the fact that
22:22
tomorrow is another day and there's plenty of fish in the
22:24
ocean, the problem also might be that you may have misunderstood
22:28
the person's situation or the person's need.
22:31
And because of that, your proposal is wrong or not
22:34
interesting enough or not relevant enough.
22:37
So it's possible that person wants a purple skin care
22:41
routine, but maybe the person thinks that all purple skin care
22:44
routines dry out the skin and so she's worried about how to
22:48
recapture lost moisture or something like that.
22:51
Now, of course, not everybody's going to be elegant enough of
22:54
sophisticated enough to put it like that.
22:56
You're the professional. You're the one that has to be
22:57
able to ask her more questions and be able to now figure out
23:00
what the problem is and then give her the the right proposal.
23:03
Would you be pop off skin remedy plus aloe Vera or whatever to
23:07
trap in moisture? By the way, this is not my
23:10
space. I'm just making stuff up.
23:12
So for those of you who are beauty influencers and stuff
23:15
like that, this is the point where you guys can stop
23:19
frowning. I'm not mis educating the
23:21
public. I'm just making stuff up because
23:23
you have to fill in the example somehow.
23:25
So whether you follow these processes or not that I've
23:30
spoken about, it's not a good idea to ask people for money
23:33
when you have not discussed money expectations.
23:36
It's a bad idea. Discuss money expectations first
23:39
with people before you start asking them for money.
23:43
Whether you follow my process or not, stop this whole thing off.
23:47
You discuss everything under the sun and you kind of hope that at
23:51
the end when you say my price is 2.5 M, that they have 2.5 M to
23:55
pay. Have the conversation early
23:58
about whether 2.5 is realistic for them.
24:01
If you don't, you get to that stage at the end of the
24:03
conversation where you now feel uncomfortable, like you're being
24:05
pushy or being rude and then things like that.
24:08
So have gentle conversations with people to see where they
24:11
are in the money scheme of things.
24:12
So if you sell Balenciaga bags or is Balenciaga, is that a
24:16
shoe? Sorry, I'm not knowledgeable on
24:18
these things, but whatever it is, have these conversations in
24:22
the chat and everything beforehand before you now tell
24:24
her, OK, it's it's 60K for a bag.
24:26
Because if you're talking to my wife, for instance, my wife will
24:29
never pay 60K for for a handbag. She just won't.
24:32
It doesn't mean she doesn't know what's up or it doesn't mean
24:35
she's illiterate or it doesn't mean she's not sophisticated.
24:37
It's just that she's not your target.
24:40
She's not your target base. And there are some people that
24:43
if they hear 60K for a handbag dosia that is cheap, that's 60K
24:47
is cheap. So look for your market, don't
24:51
waste time with somebody who's not going to buy.
24:53
How do you know? Make sure they're interested and
24:56
after that, have the money conversations.
24:59
So let me repeat the thought process we're going through in
25:01
this particular episode. In order to close the deal.
25:04
We're trying to only talk to people who are interested.
25:08
We figured that out. We're only trying to talk to
25:10
people who can afford. We have gone over some ideas
25:14
that you can use to make sure that people can afford.
25:18
Now we also have to make sure that we're talking to someone
25:20
who is ready to make a decision anytime soon because there are
25:24
people who are interested and who have the money, but they're
25:26
not ready to. They're not ready to move.
25:29
Now we're ready. Photographers, we see this a
25:31
lot. You meet the perfect babe.
25:34
Sorry, bride, you meet the perfect bride.
25:36
You guys chat, you're friendly and everything.
25:39
And clearly Pepa rest, you know, her father is our next chairman
25:42
or whatever, so they clearly can't afford.
25:45
But The thing is her boyfriend just proposed last week and the
25:49
families haven't really met, but maybe they're thinking about
25:53
getting married in two years time or something like that.
25:56
You know, there's some wedding photographers who hang in there.
25:59
You think that you have a deal, but please, my brothers, you
26:02
don't. Or sisters for female
26:05
photographers. There is no deal there yet
26:08
because this bride is interested.
26:11
This bride calls from a paid off family.
26:13
She loves your photography, but if she just got proposed to last
26:17
week, the family has not met, the boy has not finished his
26:22
master's. He's going to finish his
26:23
master's next year. Realistically speaking, the
26:26
parents who at least want him to graduate 1st and maybe, I don't
26:29
know, get a job or something before you start talking about
26:32
wedding dates. I mean, I don't know, could be
26:33
any number of factors, but there's no deal.
26:37
You take this bride, you put her in relationship, nurturing,
26:41
that's it. When these other things start to
26:44
materialize, when the boy takes his uncles and they go to
26:48
Popsy's house and then they start the conversations, Now
26:52
there's a deal that is beginning to align because bride is
26:55
interested. Clearly she can afford and
26:59
they've started taking some small, small steps.
27:01
The uncles and the daddies have met and they have said, OK, the
27:04
wedding is going to be December 2025.
27:08
There's a date. Now there's something you can
27:09
look towards. Now you have a deal.
27:12
So this whole thing of are people ready to make a decision
27:15
anytime soon? Really, really important.
27:17
But lots of people overlook it. It's really important.
27:23
I know that's a wedding example, but it applies to whatever it is
27:26
that you do. Is the person ready to make a
27:28
decision anytime soon? If somebody's talking to you
27:34
catering, you want to know how much baby dedication, you know,
27:38
baby's already born, but you know, to be honest, they haven't
27:43
fixed the date or they haven't spoken to the pastor or
27:45
anything. It's sketchy whether there's a
27:48
deal there or not. But if somebody calls you to say
27:52
how much jollof rice, finger food, something something,
27:55
something baby get education and then they give you a specific
27:57
date that is 3 three weeks ahead.
28:01
There's a deal. There's something here.
28:03
So we need to make sure that people are ready to make a
28:05
decision anytime soon. Now, how do you know when
28:08
somebody's ready to make a decision anytime soon?
28:10
The answer is simple. If you've been following, ask
28:14
them politely and ask them early.
28:19
I have been in that situation where, excuse me, I'll be doing
28:22
relationship building with your bride and chasing and pursuing.
28:26
I get my video guy involved and then it now comes out that the
28:31
wedding is going to be a year and a half.
28:34
Trust me, that makes you look like an absolute idiot because
28:36
you mobilize the boys. You think that is a big one,
28:38
that there's money here and, and everything.
28:41
And then, you know, the weddings a year and a half away.
28:44
You, you look like an idiot, like you just motivated your
28:48
whole crew for no reason. So ask politely, ask Kelly.
28:54
And that's something that wedding planners do very well.
28:56
Oh, congratulations, you're getting married, blah, blah,
28:59
blah. How did you guys meet?
29:00
Talk about that whole thing, blah, blah, blah.
29:02
You know, rapport building. I say, oh, so when is the
29:03
wedding date? Wedding planners don't waste
29:05
waste time. They ask immediately.
29:07
So when is the wedding date? You need to know if they have a
29:10
date. OK, then urgency and readiness
29:14
to make a decision anytime soon. The thing begins to click.
29:18
So you guys, whatever business it is that you have, you need to
29:21
Start learning how to do that. So for the Instagram skin care
29:26
food vendor, you know, people, it's very simple.
29:30
You just ask early in the process.
29:33
Oh, Madam, so far we discussed or we, we also discussed share
29:36
about carrot soap and point bar to see the one that will bring
29:40
out your natural skin colour. When you say that part, you're
29:44
just trying to recap, summarize, you know, because you always
29:46
have to recap first of all, so that the person knows what the
29:51
options are. Then this is where you ask the
29:53
question, which of which of these options are you willing to
29:56
try out? And then you wait and hear.
29:59
When you ask, you're just trying to get them to decide on
30:01
something and trying to get some feedback.
30:03
If the person says that purpose sounds interesting, but let's
30:06
try carrot soap, that is good. You've taken another step
30:08
forward. Then you now say, OK, if we're
30:10
going to do carrot facial treatment, it can cost anything
30:13
between XYZ and 123 depending upon the regime.
30:17
Is this something that's within your budget?
30:19
Is this something you're ready to go ahead with?
30:21
Remember when we spoke about money, Money and expectations?
30:27
So you ask that thing and then you keep quiet.
30:29
Let's assume for the purpose of this exercise that yes, they're
30:32
ready to go ahead. Now whatever price you called
30:34
XYZ 123 is within that budget. Then this is where you get to
30:38
the timeline thing. So you now say, oh is everything
30:41
is in order. I can get the 1st order to you
30:44
by Tuesday next week. Is that date OK for you?
30:48
You have now asked something very specific with the timeline.
30:52
The person either has to say yes, or the person has to say
30:54
no, or any number of responses. That makes you realize that you
31:01
might have missed something in the beginning and maybe the
31:03
person is not just just that interested just yet, but you ask
31:08
something timeline related. Can I ship it to you Tuesday
31:12
next week? You might be surprised with
31:14
myself. Tuesday next week, Tuesday next
31:16
week is fine. Now what about today?
31:18
It happens last time. You know that you have a good
31:21
one on your hands. So you see why this whole thing
31:23
of urgency, timelines, decisions, all of these things
31:27
are important. We have to be able to ask
31:30
questions with timelines in there.
31:33
So we know. Is this person ready to take
31:35
action? Is this person ready to make a
31:37
decision anytime soon? And the best one says Oh yeah
31:41
sure Tuesday next week blah blah.
31:43
Then this is the part where you ask for the deposit or whatever
31:47
it is you need to do to confirm the order.
31:48
So OK ma, no problem. So is it going to be transfer or
31:51
POS? Just ask it, come ask it.
31:54
Cool. If you have done everything
31:56
before this, correct this pay, this last process, this last
32:00
stage, collecting the money, this whole transfer or POS or
32:04
deposit or whatever, it will just flow.
32:08
In fact, you'll be surprised that for some people by the time
32:11
you ask the whole timeline thing, you know, blah blah blah,
32:14
Tuesday next, Oh yes, that Tuesday is fine.
32:16
You're surprised that is here where the person now ask that
32:18
oh, OK, I don't have cash on me. Can I do transfer?
32:21
And he said, Oh yes man, no problem.
32:23
This is my OPI account. So hope you guys are beginning
32:27
to see how if you follow these things step by step, this final
32:31
stage of collecting the money is going to be, I was going to say
32:37
effortless, but let me not lie you, it's not as if it's
32:39
effortless, but it's going to be a whole lot easier than the
32:42
whole thing of your nervous. Should I tell her is 250 K?
32:46
Can they afford 250K or OK she's looking like this maybe she
32:50
doesn't have money. Instead of telling her 250K
32:52
should I just say 180 K so that we don't haggle too much and
32:55
then blah blah blah. If you just follow the process,
32:57
everything is going to go fine If you follow this process or if
33:01
you follow processes like these because you don't have to follow
33:05
what it is that I'm preaching over here on the podcast.
33:07
But you'll find that any business consultant or sales
33:11
coach who is worth his or her salt has a framework and has a
33:14
process that should be followed to make it easy to close the
33:17
deal. So excuse me.
33:20
So following this process or processes like these, it doesn't
33:24
mean you're going to close every single order.
33:28
Remember I told you guys in yesterday's episode, 100% close
33:31
rate does not exist, so banish it from your head.
33:34
Does not exist. So you're not going to close
33:37
every order, but your closing rate is going to go up because
33:42
you are only talking to people who are interested.
33:45
You're only talking to people who can afford this.
33:48
People are OK with the timeline. You have proposed those people
33:53
who are not OK with the timeline or who are not interested or who
33:56
who can't afford you, just put them back in lead nurturing.
33:58
Continue to be following them, you know, on social media,
34:02
WhatsApp, e-mail, whatever. One day they'll be ready to buy.
34:05
If they never buy, it's not a problem because like I said,
34:08
there's always more fish in the water.
34:10
So go and keep fishing. Don't stress.
34:13
It's just business. Then for those people who buy
34:16
now, make sure that you do good customer service so you can ask
34:20
these people for referrals and repeat business.
34:24
A lot of you are doing business assuming that someone who buys
34:26
from you today will only buy once.
34:29
What's the point of somebody buying your your pawpaw facial
34:34
skin care treatment? You make a margin of 10K on the
34:38
person. What's the whole point of doing
34:40
going through all these stress that I've spoken about?
34:42
Now the person only buys once you make your 10K match and then
34:45
that's it. Then tomorrow you're now looking
34:46
for a fresh person. Doesn't it make sense that if
34:50
the person buys now for 10K doesn't it does It's not just
34:55
common sense that you're trying to see how the person should buy
34:57
again next month and the other month and the other month so
35:00
that at the end of the year, OK, yes, 12 months profit margin is
35:06
10K for each. So instead of making just 10K on
35:08
person, make 120 grand on the person.
35:12
It's common sense but lots of people don't do it.
35:14
So do your good customer care after service.
35:19
All that so you can ask people for repeat business and
35:23
referrals. When people come for repeat
35:27
business, closing the deal is a lot easier.
35:30
All these drama and song and dance that I just described to
35:33
you. If the lady comes back next
35:35
month, you don't have to do all these song and dance again when
35:38
she comes back next month. How long will be in case you
35:40
have an IVD? That purple thing, it's
35:43
beautiful. Do you have that purple?
35:45
Good to go and say I have no problem.
35:46
We have 5 in stock, so OK, no problem, send me two.
35:50
That deal will be easier because there's trust, there's rapport,
35:55
and we've done all the work ahead of time.
35:57
You did all that work last month.
35:58
So this current month when lady calls you again, the work you
36:02
have to go through is smaller. So repeat business, a whole lot
36:08
easier to close. It's the same thing with
36:10
referrals. When people give you referrals,
36:12
closing the deal is easier because their person in quote
36:17
has referred you. So it's easier.
36:18
You still have to do some song and dance, but not as hard as
36:21
before. And think about it.
36:25
Somebody bought from you. Paw Paw skin care facials this
36:28
month, profit margin 10K. She comes back next month.
36:33
So you've made 20K off this person.
36:36
The next month she comes again, that's 30K, but let's say this
36:39
time shall send two of our friends to you.
36:42
That is a potential another 20 K so you can see how it gets
36:45
better and better if you do everything right.
36:48
So finally, one last thing, after you're done perfecting all
36:53
these processes in your business, because it takes a
36:55
while for you to figure all these things out.
36:57
So as you're doing your online skin care, online food delivery,
37:01
online, whatever, whatever, I think you're taking notes,
37:04
you're trying to iron out all these processes.
37:06
You're writing everything down, making a note of everything.
37:12
Because after you make a note of all these things and after you
37:16
perfect your processes, you now have to teach your younger
37:21
brother who is shadowing you because your younger brother is
37:24
going to start selling on your behalf eventually.
37:27
Or teach your younger sister who helps you take care of the kids
37:30
now, but school has not resumed, so she might as well help you
37:34
sell some of your product too. You can teach your sales girl.
37:38
She's an employee sitting down in the warehouse doing nothing.
37:42
You might as well bring her up to speed so that when people
37:44
enter the warehouse, she's top notch.
37:47
Or when you're busy or sick, she can pick up your phone and she
37:51
can be able to handle all the conversations in Instagram.
37:54
Teach your husband. Your husband wants to be
37:56
supportive, so once in a while he's like, oh, what can I do?
37:59
You don't want to set him loose on customers when he has not
38:02
been properly trained. Don't do all this hard work.
38:05
And then you say, oh, darling, help me do this, help me do
38:08
this. And then he goes and spoils your
38:09
business. So the whole point of perfecting
38:13
all these things and noting it down is so that you can teach
38:15
all these people to sell on your behalf.
38:17
Teach your children because this is also a good way for children
38:21
to get into the world. Learn about accountability,
38:25
responsibility, being an adult, things like that.
38:28
By the time your daughter closes one or two deals, your son
38:31
closes one or two deals. They feel good, they feel
38:33
confident, and then all the ideas that they have at the back
38:36
of their mind that they don't think is realistic or whatever,
38:39
they start trying to do some small, small, small things.
38:44
Train your employees so they can sell well on your behalf.
38:47
People who are volunteering within your organization.
38:50
If you're people, if you're someone who takes NYSE staff,
38:53
I'm sorry, not NYSE staff, people from NYSE, train them up.
38:57
People who come for internship, train them up.
38:59
So all these things that we're talking about here, don't just
39:01
keep it in your head. Write it out on a sheet of
39:04
paper, perfect the process. Teach all these people around
39:07
you so that they can sell on your behalf.
39:10
If you can do all this, you're on the path to creating a
39:12
business that can run without you.
39:15
So Instagram vendors, I hope you guys are listening and I'll try
39:19
to remember you guys in more content in the future.
39:22
I will try. But like I said, I started off
39:28
wedding photography, charcoal, sesame seed, You know, all these
39:33
things are really face to face. You know you go and see
39:37
somebody, you go and visit somebody, show somebody
39:39
something. So I'll try and remember you
39:41
online guys more. And for those of you who think I
39:44
like fish, you can see today I did not say a single thing about
39:48
catfish in today's episode, so I'm proud.
39:52
All right, so that's all for today.
39:54
Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
39:59
The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
40:02
Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn, my name is
40:04
Tavishima Ayede. You can get the correct spelling
40:07
of my name. So you can search for me on
40:09
LinkedIn if you just use the link where you're currently
40:12
listening to this episode. You get the right spelling of my
40:15
name and then my e-mail address is also there while you're
40:17
listening to this episode. So thank you very much for your
40:20
time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
40:21
recording. Sorry, it's a 40 minute episode.
40:23
I just wanted to make sure we just squeeze everything into one
40:26
episode instead of me just breaking it up into three or
40:29
four. So yeah, that's it.
40:31
I'll catch you guys tomorrow.