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Prove Your Worth: The Real Secret to Persuasion · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  Hello and welcome. Today we're going to look at why
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  you don't have to be a good storyteller to improve your
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  sales or to grow your business. Now, the reason why I want us to
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  look at this today is because, as usual, I've been seeing some
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  chatter over social media. There are people going around
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  saying that if you want to be good at sales, you want to be
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  able to convince people, you want to be able to persuade
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  people, you want to be able to create content that is going to
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  move people, then you have to become a very good storyteller.
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  And I'm here to let you all know that that is not actually the
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  case. Now, people who think you have
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  to be a good storyteller in order to grow your sales or to
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  grow your business are confusing.
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  Two things now for those of us who studied, I think was social
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  studies in Nigerian primary school.
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  You remember the lessons on culture where they were trying
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  to define culture. And at the end of the day, they
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  split up culture into two things.
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  There's artifacts and then there's the beliefs.
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  So the, the culture is people's actual beliefs, what people
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  believe and do, you know, on a day-to-day and on a week to
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  week. But then the artifacts are the
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  outward signs that we see that are kind of evidence of those
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  kinds of behavior. So there's some people, for
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  instance, because I'm TIF, I'm from Beno State, some people
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  assume that black and white dresses is part of TIF culture.
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  And in a sense, you know, it is part of TIF culture.
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  But The thing is, the black and white dress is just an artifact
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  of TIF culture. Artifacts change over time.
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  You can come back in 1000 years and maybe tea culture will no
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  longer be black and white. You know, who knows, maybe it
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  might be black and brown then. So artifacts can change over
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  time. The visible signs of things can
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  change over time. So what some people notice is
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  that people who are good are producing content or people who
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  are good at selling, a lot of them seem to be very good at
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  telling stories. And so because of that, people
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  say, oh, if I want to make more money, therefore I have to be
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  good at telling stories as well. Unfortunately, people are just
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  being confused by the artifacts. There's some people who listen
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  to this podcast and say, guy, you're good at storytelling.
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  So because of that, people assume that I'm good at selling
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  because I can tell stories. Well, I'm here to let you people
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  know the good news. And the good news is that is not
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  the case. It is not storytelling by itself
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  that is going to make you successful in your business or
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  much more persuasive when you're face to face with people or when
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  you're producing content, to be good at sales or to be good at
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  selling or to be good in business.
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  We need to be able to find ways to get people to understand the
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  value proposition that we have so that they can see what's in
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  it for them if they use our product, if they use our
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  service. So the principle actually is not
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  the storytelling. The principle is just that in
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  order to be good at persuading people or to be good at sales
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  and selling, you have to be able to illustrate things about your
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  product or service. To illustrate just means to
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  show. Now how you want take shwam
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  depends on you. So there's some people like me
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  who throw it into a story. The other people who use a
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  demonstration, they will say Madam come and see or auger com
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  and see and then they will physically demonstrate.
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  Then there are some people for some products or services who
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  use their presentations or charts.
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  The important thing is not the chart in itself.
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  You don't have to be good at creating PowerPoints proposals
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  to sell. The important thing is not the
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  stories in itself. You don't have to become good at
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  telling stories to sell. The important thing is that when
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  you are face to face to the potential customer, a potential
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  client, a potential stakeholder, a potential investor, you can
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  get them to understand the value that you bring.
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  And you do that job by using illustrations.
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  The illustration is up to you. So if you're not a storytelling
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  person, well, it's not a problem.
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  You're fine. You don't have to go and learn
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  how to tell stories. If you're the kind of person who
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  illustrates things by using bar chat and graph and everything,
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  then bar chat and graph your thing.
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  If you're the kind of person who illustrates things by showing a
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  demonstration, by saying auger, Madam, look at my product.
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  See how The thing is. If you touch it, you will do
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  like this. If you do like this, you will do
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  like that, blah, blah, blah. If you're that kind of person,
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  do your thing. If you're the kind of person who
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  does wonderful proposals over PowerPoint, you know, if you can
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  illustrate using PowerPoint, do your thing, but you do not have
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  to be a storyteller. However, it's non negotiable.
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  We have to be able to show people somehow that if you use
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  our product or our service, this is what you will enjoy or this
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  is how it will help you solve this problem, or this is how it
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  will help you achieve this goal. This is how it would help you do
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  this, help you do that. So that one is non negotiable.
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  We have to be good at illustrating the value that we
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  bring. Whether you do it through
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  stories, sorry, forgive me. Whether you do it through
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  stories is up to you. Whether you do it through
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  presentations, PowerPoint is up to you.
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  Whether you use physical demonstrations, it's up to you.
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  Well, don't be hoodwinked by people.
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  And then next thing you Start learning storytelling
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  techniques. It will distract you.
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  You will get distracted. Stop going around learning
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  storytelling techniques. You don't need that.
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  You go online, you start doing research about narrative acts
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  and about the character's journey and you know all these
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  other things, and then you Start learning story structure and you
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  know you will get distracted. You do not need to learn how to
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  tell stories. Please, all these people going
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  around on the Internet saying learn how to be a good
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  storyteller. They mean well, but they will
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  mislead you. For those of you self who want
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  to tell stories, there's no need for you to learn any fancy
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  character development, narrative art and all these sorts of
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  things. All you need to be able to do is
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  just talk honestly about the benefit that your product or
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  your service delivered to somebody.
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  So if you're in the situation where you have a conversation
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  with the customer, and by the way, that's what I do.
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  It's just that sometimes it comes out in stories.
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  All I'm doing is just saying that, look, this is how you do
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  things. As a matter of fact, there was
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  this particular person. This is what we were working on
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  while we were working on it. We face this and this challenge.
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  At the end of the day, this is the value that I provided to the
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  person. That's all.
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  It's an illustration, right? So don't go and Start learning
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  fancy story techniques. It's simple enough for you to
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  say something like let's say you're in solar cells, like oh
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  Olga, I understand perfectly that you think 50 million naira
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  for a solar system, A10 kilowatts, you know, whatever,
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  whatever, whatever is expensive, I understand perfectly.
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  In fact, Ogga, there was one client that I had in Ibadan and
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  that was precisely what he told me while we were talking.
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  Anyway, he went ahead and he got the system.
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  I spoke to him 1 1/2 years later, the system is working
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  fine, even though he has had to add extra panels and everything.
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  He has confirmed that that 50 million naira investment has
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  either results in his business or it has made his home, you
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  know, more comfortable or whatever.
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  And instead of spending 4400 every single month in
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  electricity because he is in Band-Aid, over the course of the
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  last year all they spent on Napa was now 10,000 naira.
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  The solar system carried the rest.
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  So even though he invested heavily in front by paying
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  50,000,001, 1/2 years later he has seen the benefits.
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  So you can see in this case, that's not any fancy
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  storytelling. That is just you telling the
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  customer that, oh, OK, I understand perfectly.
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  This is a similar circumstance. This is what we faced before
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  then this is how we dealt with it and this was the solution at
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  the end. This was the joy at the end.
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  This was the result for the customer at the end.
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  And that same value that we got to that customer is what I want
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  to provide to you today. You can see it's not fancy
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  storytelling. It's just illustrating this is
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  the value proposition. This is the chief benefit that
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  you will get in using the product, in using the service.
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  In fact, there was a customer similar to yours where we face
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  this kind of situation and this is how we handled it today.
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  This is the benefit that we're enjoying.
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  That's it. You are just trying to
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  illustrate the benefit. That's all.
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  Just in case there's somebody who didn't understand, let me
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  say it again. You do not have to be a
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  storyteller. Stop running around researching
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  storytelling techniques. What you should do is to learn
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  how to illustrate the benefit, and you can do so in the mode
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  that kind of comes naturally to you.
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  So yes, those of us who tell stories, you know, it seems
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  magical, it seems fun, it seems interesting.
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  But if you're one of those people who likes to draw lines
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  on paper, continue drawing lines on paper, so long as you can
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  draw lines effectively to illustrate the benefit to the
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  person. And yes, there are people like
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  that. So there are people who sell
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  solar who will give the story that, oh, I had the customers
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  who this was the situation. This is how we resolved it
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  today. This is where they are.
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  This is the benefit, chief. I want you to have that benefit
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  too. There are other solar people who
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  bring out a paper and say, OK, Sir, so it's like this.
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  Then they will draw a box. It's OK, this is your house.
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  The reason why we're worried about this is this is because
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  the sun rises in the east and sets in the West.
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  So therefore the thing must slant like this.
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  Then they will draw a line. They will draw a circle.
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  This is the sun. This is your roof.
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  Then the solar, you know, there's some people who does
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  their thing. They draw a line and they draw a
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  circle. If that's your thing, continue
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  to draw. I learned how to draw very well.
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  But the goal, what we're trying to do is we're trying to
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  illustrate the benefits to the customer.
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  So please don't be deceived. Don't run around feeling like
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  you have to tell stories. And even if you must tell
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  stories, don't look for any fancy storytelling technique.
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  It's just a simple thing of, you know, someone or you dealt with
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  another customer who was in a similar situation and these were
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  the challenges. This is how you overcame the
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  challenges. These are the results.
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  These are the benefits that you're able to give them.
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  And so, Mr. Dear customer, if you just relax, let me ask you a
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  few questions. Let me inspect, let me look
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  around. That's all I'm just trying to do
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  today, trying to see how I can bring you to that same level of
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  benefit. That's all illustrating a
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  benefit. That's it.
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  So please do not get distracted by the artifacts, right?
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  Please don't. There's a friend of mine who one
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  day she approached me and she told me, ah, must be easy for
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  you because after all, you're tall.
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  In my mind, I'm thinking, what does height have to do with
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  anything? So what next?
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  If you notice that people who are good at selling all of us
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  have to be tall, what next? Will you go for surgery and
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  increase your height? What is done is done.
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  OK. Yeah, average height by Niger
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  standards. That's just an artifact.
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  Don't get, because don't be confused, That's not the secret
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  to why I can sell well. So it's not the stories, it's
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  not my height, it's not my education, it's not my
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  upbringing, it's not my whatever.
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  All those things are just artifacts.
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  There are principles behind how to sell well.
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  Learn the principles, apply them for your circumstance.
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  You will be fine. Please do not learn
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  storytelling. If you're a storyteller, good.
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  If you're telling stories like me, good.
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  Then learn your craft. Hone your craft.
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  But what we're trying to do is we're not trying to win Grammys
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  here. We're just trying to illustrate
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  the benefit. Anyway, it's been over 10
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  minutes. I guess there's no need for me
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  flogging this issue, so let me just bring it to a close.
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  So thank you very much for listening.
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  If you'd like to connect with me, you can call, send me a text
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  message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
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  If in selling situations you've had difficulty in trying to
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  convey to your customer, convey to your client the unique value
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  that you provide, then reach out to me 08064662140.
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  Let's see how we can, how we can help you get that straightened
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  out, get that sorted out. Yeah.
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  So that's it. Thank you for your time and
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  attention. I'll catch you all some other
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  episode.