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Why Greeting Strangers Like Friends Kills Your Sales · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  Is it a good idea to say I hope you're doing well when you are
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  in the middle of a sales call or when you're trying to get
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  somebody to buy something from you?
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  This is a question that I had to tackle with someone recently
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  that I am currently coaching. Now she's in the habit of
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  starting off our conversations that way.
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  Hello. Hello, Sir.
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  I hope you're doing well and OK. Let me call straight, straight
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  to the chase. It's not a good idea at all.
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  And this is the reason why there are lots of things that are
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  tells that are obvious signs that when people receive the
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  call, they know that you're a salesperson.
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  And one of them is, I hope you're doing well now because
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  lots of sales people say that. It's not a good idea for you to
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  say that because it's a dead giveaway the moment you pick up
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  a call that number one, this person doesn't know me #2 this
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  is a sales call. Now, the reason why we're
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  talking this was because she had gotten to the point where in her
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  calls, I think about two out of 10 people while cutting calls on
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  her, hello, I hope you're doing well.
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  This is an FM. They caught the call.
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  They caught the call because they know that, look, this is a
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  sales call. Now for her, it was confusing
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  because she was calling leads back from an advertising
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  campaign that is people who have already responded to the lead.
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  So she didn't understand that look, this person clicked and
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  indicated that they were interested.
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  So why, why are they cutting the phone on me?
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  That's the reason why you sound like every other salesperson.
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  So don't say hello. This is so, so, so.
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  I hope you're doing well. No.
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  Or Happy Sunday, Happy Easter. No, none of that.
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  We already have customary salutations that we use in this
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  part of the world, you know. Good morning.
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  Hi. Good day.
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  Hello, Sir. Good morning, Ma.
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  Good evening. You know, stick to the customary
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  stuff. And then from there go straight
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  to your intentions that I hope you're doing well.
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  What you're trying to do is you're trying to build rapport
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  with someone and that is good. But The thing is you can't
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  manufacture rapport at the beginning of the conversation.
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  You can't. There is no rapport to be built
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  because it's the early stage. I don't know you, you don't know
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  me. After you have had a
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  conversation a little bit and you have got to learn one or two
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  things about the person, OK, then yes, you can start creating
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  rapport or start deepening rapport.
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  But even then, if you're going to do it, I hope you're doing
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  well. That sounds disingenuous.
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  It sounds inauthentic. Even if you're going to do that,
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  the more particular the better. So when people call us and
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  they're generally concerned about us, you know, they ask
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  questions like, oh, how is mumsy or how are things that work or,
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  you know, how is she there? You know, how are the kids?
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  You know, things like that. You can't do that at the
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  beginning. That comes later.
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  This is the first time you're calling the person.
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  Your primary concern when you're calling back leads at this stage
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  is you're just trying to figure out if they're interested.
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  So good morning, Sir. Am I speaking to Chief Emeka?
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  Yes, this is Chief Emeka who is speaking.
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  My name is Kemi. I got your number because you
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  responded to our advert for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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  And I was calling to see if you're still in the market for
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  this. Is this.
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  I was calling to see if you're still interested in blah, blah,
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  blah. Do you have a few moments to
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  talk, Sir? And therefore look just like
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  that. Hello.
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  Am I talking to the right person?
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  OK, Sir, this is who I am. This is the reason why I'm
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  calling. You know, can we continue?
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  It's that simple. So quite out this.
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  I hope you're doing well the moment you're going to.
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  I hope you're doing well. Happy Sunday, Happy Easter,
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  Happy new month. They just know that it's a sales
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  call. I will try not to sound like
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  sales people. So let's stop it.
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  If you don't, you're going to keep running through those
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  situations where you call someone and say hello, who is
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  this? We say, I hope you're doing
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  well. Then they just got the call as
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  far as they're concerned, Nacio's call on a 419 and they
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  don't want to get involved in both in either.
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  So you have, you've made this call, this is the first call.
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  Worst case scenario, you have a couple of seconds.
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  Best case scenario, maybe half, two or three minutes, make a
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  count, just call, politely identify the person, be sure
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  you're talking to the right person, state your intention,
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  and let's see how far we can take this call to see if they're
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  interested and see if we can do some lead analysis.
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  So let me leave it like that. So if you've been saying I hope
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  you're doing well, cut that out. It's disingenuous and it's
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  inauthentic. The time will come for I hope
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  you're doing well, but it's not now.
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  It's not on this first call. It's after you guys have been
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  talking for a bit and after you know some more about about the
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  person. OK, so let me leave it like
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  that. Apologies for the noise in the
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  background. You know I'm out and about.
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  I'm sure you can't tell. So yeah, that's it.
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  If you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text
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  message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
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  I'll catch you all some other time.