Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Secret to Spotting Real Buyers vs. Window Shoppers

Transcript

The Secret to Spotting Real Buyers vs. Window Shoppers · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. I had a session about two weeks
• 0:07
  ago with the sales team and the members of the sales team
• 0:11
  complained that after they would give proposals or price
• 0:15
  quotations to potential customers that they would now
• 0:19
  ghost or they would start sounding unsure, start sounding
• 0:25
  not ready, start sounding confused and and one or two
• 0:29
  people said that they were weighing their options.
• 0:33
  Now this is perfectly normal. So if you're trying to sell, if
• 0:36
  you're trying to convince someone on something, yes, it's
• 0:39
  perfectly normal that you're going to run into people who are
• 0:40
  not ready, you're going to run into people who are confused and
• 0:44
  you're going to run into people who are weighing options.
• 0:47
  The problem is lots of you don't have a process for figuring out
• 0:51
  these people before you give them a proposal.
• 0:55
  If somebody's not ready and you give them a price quote, what do
• 0:58
  you think is going to happen? They're going to ghost you.
• 1:01
  They're not ready. They've gotten the information
• 1:04
  that they need. They're not ready.
• 1:06
  If somebody's confused and then you give them a price quote,
• 1:10
  what is going to happen? They're not going to take action
• 1:13
  because they're confused. And worse still, you're not even
• 1:17
  sure what it is that they are confused about.
• 1:19
  So you don't even know how to help.
• 1:21
  But you've already given them a quote and so, well, they're
• 1:24
  ghost. They're going to fade.
• 1:26
  If somebody is weighing options, would you've already given them
• 1:28
  a price quote. What do you think is going to
• 1:30
  happen? The person is not going to take
• 1:32
  action because they're wearing their options and you are in a
• 1:38
  bad state because you don't even know what is important to them.
• 1:42
  So you can't even go ahead and advise them that.
• 1:43
  Luke Bros, you know, you suppose reason I'm like this or Madam,
• 1:48
  you know, you've said previously that this was important to you.
• 1:51
  So because of that, I recommend this.
• 1:53
  I recommend this. I recommend that.
• 1:56
  So don't be angry and don't be frustrated that when you're
• 2:02
  trying to sell your product or your service, you keep running
• 2:04
  into people who are not ready, people who are confused, or
• 2:07
  people who are weighing their options.
• 2:08
  It's just part of the human condition.
• 2:10
  It's perfectly normal and you go through the same step yourself
• 2:13
  when you want to buy something. So don't be angry.
• 2:17
  So some of you are going to wonder, So what is our
• 2:19
  protection or how do we handle this?
• 2:21
  The way that we handle this is we need to come up with a way
• 2:25
  for figuring out who is who. We need to be able to sort out
• 2:28
  people who have serious intentions, people who are
• 2:31
  merely curious, you know, people who are worker pass.
• 2:33
  We need to know who is who from the beginning so that we can
• 2:36
  treat them accordingly, so that we're only going to send a
• 2:40
  quotation, proposal or whatever to people who are ready, people
• 2:46
  who are clear and people who are ready to take action soon.
• 2:51
  Therefore, those people who are kind of curious, we're not going
• 2:53
  to invest too much time with them.
• 2:54
  We're going to put them in relationship building or
• 2:57
  relationship nurturing sequences.
• 2:59
  We get in touch with them every once in a while.
• 3:01
  It's not as if they're red hot. It's not as if they're ready to
• 3:04
  to buy now and then For people who are work up us, there's no
• 3:09
  need really to go through all the trouble of giving them a
• 3:11
  price quote. You can just verbally tell them
• 3:13
  one or two things and then yeah, just put them in relationship
• 3:15
  building or relationship nurturing.
• 3:18
  So what we're going to do now as self-employed people, as
• 3:23
  Nigerian business owners, as Nigerian entrepreneurs is we're
• 3:27
  going to try and figure out a way for sorting out these people
• 3:32
  and we try and sort it out before we give them a quote.
• 3:37
  Once you give people a quote, once you give people an invoice,
• 3:40
  once you give people a whatever, if they're not ready to take
• 3:42
  action, they will just go to you.
• 3:45
  Oh, by the way, apologies for the noise in the background.
• 3:47
  I'm making today's recording at home and it's a weekend, so the
• 3:51
  kids are home. By the way, if you'd love to
• 3:52
  connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a
• 3:55
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're interested in the 15
• 4:02
  minutes you'll audit WhatsApp me on the same number, 08064662140.
• 4:08
  And if you'd like to drop my WhatsApp channel, then send me a
• 4:10
  message on the same number and I'll hook you up, get you
• 4:13
  started. So traditionally in sales, the
• 4:18
  process of figuring out who is interested, who is serious, do
• 4:21
  they have money? Are they ready to buy?
• 4:23
  Are they ready to take action? Now that whole process is called
• 4:26
  qualification and discovery. So qualification and discovery
• 4:30
  is the stage where, excuse me, we're trying to ask questions
• 4:34
  about the person, ask questions about the problem.
• 4:37
  We're trying to figure out a couple of things now, the
• 4:39
  definition of those terms itself, qualification and
• 4:41
  discovery, you know, it's open to some dispute.
• 4:43
  There's some people who quarrel and say qualification means
• 4:46
  this. There's some people who quarrel
• 4:47
  and say discovery means that. But when I'm in the middle of
• 4:52
  training the team, I try not to get involved in these sorts of
• 4:57
  squabbles. So the approach that I've been
• 4:59
  taking and the approach that I'm going to take when I'm trying to
• 5:02
  help your own team to sell better is I will ask you, what
• 5:06
  does qualification and discovery mean to you?
• 5:10
  Now that I have explained what we're supposed to be doing at
• 5:13
  this stage in the beginning that we're talking to a potential
• 5:15
  customer, what does this mean to you?
• 5:18
  Whatever it is that you say is whatever it is that we're going
• 5:21
  to do. So for this sales team that I
• 5:24
  was talking to now, let's call them Catherine and or let's say
• 5:31
  Kilichi. OK, so 2 ladies, Catherine and
• 5:34
  Kilichi. So I asked them what does
• 5:38
  qualification and discovery mean to you?
• 5:42
  And then one person said qualification and discovery
• 5:47
  means excuse me, we are trying to check in with these people.
• 5:52
  We're trying to say that there is a good fit, like we would
• 5:56
  like working with these people and they would like working with
• 5:58
  us. I said very good.
• 6:01
  She also said that qualification and discovery is we're trying to
• 6:04
  figure out who is likely to buy because we know who is likely to
• 6:09
  buy, then we can now double down, spend time, invest time
• 6:14
  with that person. I should explain that likely to
• 6:18
  buy means we want to see whether they can afford this thing.
• 6:22
  We're trying to test whether they are serious.
• 6:25
  We're trying to test whether they're interested or we're
• 6:28
  trying to figure out whether not just inquiry.
• 6:32
  They didn't enquire because there's some people like that.
• 6:34
  They call you up and they say how much is the XYZ?
• 6:37
  So, so, so, so some of you here, oh, how much?
• 6:40
  And you think, good, I have a buyer.
• 6:42
  No, the guy just didn't enquire. And the example I've given on
• 6:46
  the podcast was when I went into GACS headquarters in Abuja,
• 6:50
  that's Jiaomi Automobile, Jiaomi Automobile Company.
• 6:54
  I went to go and look at the GS8, not because I have 80
• 6:57
  million naira, but just because I had finished the meeting at
• 7:02
  Rapid Broadcast Network. I was trying to get the TV show
• 7:05
  there. So I finished the meeting on
• 7:06
  Rapid Broadcast Network and as I was driving out of the studio I
• 7:09
  was like oh Guangzhou, so they are here and this my Jellopy
• 7:14
  keeps breaking down. Well, I enter, let me just go
• 7:16
  and see because after all my people say the fact that you
• 7:21
  don't have money doesn't stop you from looking.
• 7:22
  So I wanted to go and look, but of course I had gotten ready for
• 7:26
  a business meeting. So I was looking the part.
• 7:27
  I was looking sweet, I was smelling fresh and I went to go
• 7:30
  and look at the GS8 at the time, a car that was close to like 80
• 7:34
  million naira. So I looked like I had 80
• 7:38
  millionaire, but I didn't. And even if I did, I, you know,
• 7:42
  clearly wasn't going to buy today.
• 7:45
  So me showing up on the floor, I was just making an inquiry.
• 7:48
  Sometimes people just they inquire.
• 7:50
  That's all you need to know. Is this person just inquiring or
• 7:56
  is this a serious buyer? If it's just an an inquiry, then
• 7:59
  no problem. Answer the person's questions,
• 8:01
  maybe keep the person's collect the person's details and then
• 8:05
  every once in a while put the person on the newsletter.
• 8:07
  Once in a while you could send them WhatsApp messages, you
• 8:10
  know, stuff like that. Relationship building,
• 8:12
  relationship nurturing, but not as if you'll be following the
• 8:16
  person that oh bro, so follow me, come by.
• 8:18
  When are you buying? Are you interested?
• 8:20
  This is the kind of car financing that we have and blah,
• 8:22
  blah, blah, blah, blah. You don't know if the person can
• 8:26
  afford it. You don't know if the person is
• 8:27
  serious. You don't know if the person is
• 8:28
  interested or if it's just an inquiry.
• 8:31
  And in my case, honestly speaking, I was just passing by,
• 8:36
  finished a business meeting and I thought, oh, wouldn't it be
• 8:39
  nice if I can stop driving this jalopy, the GSA, It looks like
• 8:43
  it's a pretty good car. Let me go and see this thing up
• 8:45
  and close. So that is not one of the ladies
• 8:49
  said, remember, in this case we are what did I say?
• 8:54
  OK, Kelechi and Catherine, again, not their real names, but
• 8:58
  their real life sales team that I'm currently working with.
• 9:01
  So one person said qualification and discovery just means we're
• 9:04
  trying to check is this person a good fit?
• 9:06
  Are they likely to buy? Can they afford?
• 9:08
  Are they serious? Are they interested or is this
• 9:10
  just an inquiry? And then I asked her, how are we
• 9:14
  going to do that? She said, we're going to do that
• 9:16
  by asking questions. And I said, perfect.
• 9:19
  I said, you are not far from the truth.
• 9:20
  The Kingdom of God is not far from you.
• 9:23
  We're going to figure out, is this a good fit?
• 9:25
  Are they likely to buy? Can they afford?
• 9:28
  Are we, are they serious? Are they interested?
• 9:29
  Is this an inquiry? We're going to figure all this
• 9:32
  out by just asking them questions.
• 9:35
  So on to ask them questions that will tease answers to all these
• 9:38
  things. We should not be giving them a
• 9:42
  quote, going through the trouble of delivering a quote because
• 9:47
  for Kelechi and Catherine, they're involved in a business
• 9:50
  that the quoting process, you know, takes a bit of time.
• 9:54
  You get some information, you transfer the information to the
• 9:57
  engineers. The engineers come up with a
• 9:58
  quote, you know, so it's something that could take maybe
• 10:00
  like 3-4 hours. Then I asked the second
• 10:05
  personnel in in the team, So what does qualification and
• 10:09
  discovery mean to you? She said.
• 10:11
  Qualification and discovery just means we're trying to figure out
• 10:13
  these people that we're talking to, which one of them is worthy
• 10:16
  of being pursued? I hope you guys are getting
• 10:20
  that. Which one of them are worthy of
• 10:22
  being pursued? Because it's not everybody who
• 10:24
  comes to your to your shop, not everybody who slides into your
• 10:27
  DM that is worthy of pursuing. So back to the example of me
• 10:30
  walking into Guangzhou automobile, I'm looking at the
• 10:33
  GS8. While I was there, another
• 10:37
  gentleman came to look at the GS8.
• 10:40
  Your goal as a salesperson is to figure out which of these
• 10:42
  gentlemen is worth pursuing. You don't just assume that
• 10:45
  because they're standing next to the GS 8, because they are
• 10:47
  looking at the GS 8, because they are taking pictures or
• 10:50
  Googling the GS8, or because they're asking you questions of
• 10:54
  the about the GS8. It doesn't mean that they are
• 11:00
  worth pursuing. So you ask the salesperson, you
• 11:02
  engage, you ask them questions as you're asking them questions,
• 11:07
  you're trying to figure out can these people of all these
• 11:09
  things, are they serious? Are they interested?
• 11:11
  Decisions and inquiry. So I told her, you're absolutely
• 11:15
  correct. We are trying to figure out who
• 11:18
  is worth pursuing here. I said, how do you do that?
• 11:22
  She said, well, I'm trying to figure out if they can afford.
• 11:25
  I'm trying to figure out if they're the decision maker and
• 11:27
  I'm trying to figure out if there's any urgency.
• 11:29
  And I told her, very good. The Kingdom of God is not far
• 11:32
  from you. Yes, we're trying to figure out
• 11:34
  if they can afford, because what's the point of trying to
• 11:37
  sell an 80 million naira car to somebody if the person's budget
• 11:40
  is 11,000,000? What is the point then?
• 11:45
  She said she's trying to figure out if the person is the
• 11:47
  decision maker. I said very good, because what
• 11:49
  is the point of trying to sell an 80 million naira car to
• 11:53
  somebody if at the end of the day, the person is just the
• 11:55
  driver? The salesperson didn't ask me
• 11:59
  any question about what it is that I do.
• 12:01
  News from drivers take pride in their appearance.
• 12:03
  I could have just been the driver who has executive
• 12:07
  presence. So trying to figure out the
• 12:09
  decision maker. That's absolutely good.
• 12:11
  And then she also said she'll try and figure out if there's a
• 12:14
  sense of urgency. And I said fantastic.
• 12:16
  Urgency just means what are their timelines?
• 12:18
  Are they ready to take action now?
• 12:20
  Because what is the whole point of hassling someone who is
• 12:23
  looking at an 80 million naira car?
• 12:25
  The person can afford the 80 million naira car no problem.
• 12:28
  But The thing is, person doesn't want to take action now, and it
• 12:31
  doesn't look as if there's anything compelling the person
• 12:33
  to take action anytime soon. Now, for those of you who have
• 12:40
  heard it before, OK, you know what?
• 12:42
  There's some people who aren't just listening to the podcast
• 12:44
  for the first time today. So let me repeat the whole
• 12:46
  story. I was there at Grand Automobiles
• 12:50
  and I was looking fresh and I was looking like a billion
• 12:52
  bucks. So the lady assumed that I can
• 12:56
  afford the 80 million naira car. While she was not there, I
• 12:59
  engaged the other gentleman in conversation.
• 13:01
  The other gentleman was not looking to how I put it wasn't
• 13:06
  look too sharp, but I engaged him in conversation.
• 13:11
  He bought his wife a Mercedes-Benz Jeep and she had
• 13:14
  it totaled. He was going to fix the car, but
• 13:18
  he didn't think that the car, the price of fixing the car was
• 13:21
  worth it. So he was considering selling
• 13:25
  the Mercedes-Benz G class that he bought for his wife.
• 13:29
  He wanted to buy her something else brand new.
• 13:33
  So he was thinking that he'll buy the GS eight for his wife
• 13:39
  and then he will continue using the Mercedes-Benz that he uses.
• 13:44
  And then he wanted to know from me if I knew people who are good
• 13:47
  at fixing cars or people who would just buy the car as is.
• 13:52
  And that's the conversation that we had.
• 13:54
  Now the lady came back and clearly she had made-up her
• 13:56
  mind. I looked fresh.
• 13:58
  I looked on point. So therefore I'm the one who's
• 14:00
  going to buy the car. Meanwhile, the gentleman who I
• 14:04
  was speaking with, the one who didn't look to put together, I
• 14:08
  suspect this one was closer to buying the car than we are.
• 14:12
  If she had engaged him in conversation, should have been
• 14:14
  able to figure out that he clearly can't afford it because
• 14:17
  he had just bought his wife a Mercedes-Benz AG class Jeep.
• 14:22
  She totaled it. They wanted to fix it.
• 14:25
  The repairs are coming up to like close to 50 million.
• 14:27
  And it's like, what's the point of fixing the car with 50 M
• 14:30
  where you can go a brand, buy a brand new car are close to the
• 14:33
  price. So his biggest challenge now
• 14:36
  was, OK, is this a good car to buy?
• 14:38
  And then he also needed to know who are people that can buy this
• 14:43
  car and then fix it so we sell or they would just buy it as it
• 14:46
  is and take this thing off my hand.
• 14:49
  But she didn't engage in conversations with either of us.
• 14:52
  She answered our questions. Oh, is he keyless entry?
• 14:54
  Is this this? Is this that?
• 14:55
  She didn't ask any other question.
• 14:58
  She didn't ask why we were there today.
• 14:59
  She didn't try and figure out what it is that we both do.
• 15:05
  She didn't try and get a sense of whether we had a budget like
• 15:07
  absolutely nothing. She showed up and she answered
• 15:10
  every single question that we asked.
• 15:11
  So I know that the car has some fancy digital dials, it's
• 15:14
  keyless entry and you know, automatic braking system, blah
• 15:18
  blah, blah and on and on and on and on and on.
• 15:21
  But she didn't ask any question. So the reason why a lot of you
• 15:25
  salespeople and Nigerian business owners, the reason why
• 15:27
  you're frustrated is because you're talking to a whole bunch
• 15:28
  of people who are not ready, a whole bunch of people who are
• 15:31
  confused, a whole bunch of people who are weighing their
• 15:33
  options. You're not asking any questions.
• 15:39
  Ask questions, dig deeper, engage in conversation.
• 15:43
  Sales is conversational, open-ended questions. open-ended
• 15:47
  questions just means the kind of question that you ask that
• 15:49
  somebody has to begin with the story.
• 15:53
  So if we showed up and she just said, oh, good morning, my name
• 15:56
  is Amaka. How can I help you today?
• 15:59
  That kind of question gives room for people to talk.
• 16:02
  So hello, how can I help you today?
• 16:04
  Would have given room for the other gentleman to talk about
• 16:09
  all the things on his mind and for me or I've just answered.
• 16:12
  Oh, I just finished the meeting and I was passing through and I
• 16:14
  was curious. She will now know that.
• 16:16
  OK, Mr. curious more given flyer.
• 16:19
  Let me collect his phone number just in case.
• 16:22
  Then the other gentleman should now know that.
• 16:25
  Oh, OK, the guy kind of scruffy, but he'd be like saying, oh bar
• 16:29
  he'd be like say the guy get money should now focus on him.
• 16:34
  So simple open-ended questions are the way that we go about
• 16:36
  doing qualification and discovery.
• 16:39
  I'm not going to give any examples here in today's podcast
• 16:42
  episode because it's something that I talk about a lot more on
• 16:45
  the podcast. But just know that one reason
• 16:47
  why you're currently angry and you're frustrated is because,
• 16:53
  excuse me, you're talking to a whole bunch of people who are
• 16:54
  not ready. They're confused, they're just
• 16:56
  weighing their options. But you've gone ahead.
• 16:58
  You've told them prices, you've given them a quote.
• 17:01
  A lot of them are going to ghost you.
• 17:04
  There's nothing you can do to change that.
• 17:05
  Next time, be better prepared. Try and figure out from the
• 17:08
  beginning who is ready, who is not ready, who is confused, who
• 17:11
  is not confused now who they weigh options versus who is not
• 17:14
  weighing options. Who is getting ready to take
• 17:16
  action today? Then invest all your time in
• 17:20
  those people. Now.
• 17:21
  Remember what I keep saying on the podcast, Nothing is 100%
• 17:23
  guaranteed. Even if you figure out the
• 17:25
  people that are red hot and close to getting ready to take
• 17:31
  action, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to close
• 17:33
  all of those deals. But we should just do the best
• 17:38
  that we can do to increase the odds in our favour, to increase
• 17:42
  the probabilities that we're going to be dealing with people
• 17:43
  who buy. So this is your first time
• 17:47
  listening to the podcast. You know, keep listening because
• 17:49
  we keep talking about things like this almost every other
• 17:53
  day. But even if you're not going to
• 17:54
  bother subscribing to the podcast, please these two terms,
• 17:57
  qualification and then discovery, use those two terms
• 18:00
  and then go and start checking on YouTube.
• 18:03
  I look for material that you can learn that can help you and
• 18:06
  expose you to other conversational and other
• 18:08
  conversational frameworks for how you achieve qualification
• 18:11
  and discovery. Or use your AI tools and say
• 18:15
  something like I'm a high end premium capital based in Abuja,
• 18:20
  Nigeria. I want to engage in
• 18:21
  qualification and discovery better with potential clients
• 18:24
  that I'm talking to. Give me examples of questions
• 18:27
  that I can ask or what sort of issue should I be paying
• 18:30
  attention to when having conversations with potential
• 18:32
  customers? That is a prompt.
• 18:34
  Send a prompt in an AI tool. And I'm telling you, if they
• 18:38
  give like example of 20 questions, you know, maybe like
• 18:41
  15 might not make sense, but I'll show you the five that
• 18:43
  makes sense or the three that you think you can apply.
• 18:46
  If you start using them in conversations with potential
• 18:48
  customers and clients, you will start dealing less with people
• 18:52
  who are not ready. You'll be dealing less with
• 18:55
  people who are confused. You'll be dealing less with
• 18:57
  people who are weighing their options.
• 18:59
  They'll be dealing more with some serious folk.
• 19:04
  So even if you don't start making more money immediately,
• 19:08
  you find that your Peace of Mind and your quality of life, at
• 19:10
  least we better for now. And then over over time, the
• 19:13
  money will begin the trickle in. Small, small, small.
• 19:16
  So remember, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call
• 19:18
  me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 19:25
  Interested in the 15 minute sale audit?
• 19:27
  WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140.
• 19:32
  If you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, just WhatsApp
• 19:34
  me on the same number. I'll hook you up.
• 19:35
  I'll get you started. So thanks for your time and
• 19:38
  attention. I'll catch you all some other
• 19:40
  time.