Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Nigerian Entrepreneur's Guide to Negotiation: Anchor High, Build Rapport, Focus on Value

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The Nigerian Entrepreneur's Guide to Negotiation: Anchor High, Build Rapport, Focus on Value · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to be looking
• 0:04
  at negotiation tactics for Nigerian entrepreneurs and how
• 0:08
  to get the best deal for your business.
• 0:11
  Now, I'm not going to do the whole thing of trying to
• 0:15
  culturally or contextually apply what it is that I'm saying over
• 0:19
  here on the podcast, because there are loads of episodes
• 0:22
  where I have done that already, especially the episode where I
• 0:26
  tackled the question on whether there's a uniquely Nigerian way
• 0:30
  to try and sell in Nigeria. What is that tautology?
• 0:34
  OK, well, I know you get the point.
• 0:36
  So there's been an episode where I already tried to tackle that.
• 0:39
  Is there a way for selling in France that is different from
• 0:44
  selling in Nigeria that is different from selling in Ghana
• 0:47
  that is different from selling in Japan?
• 0:49
  So I've already tackled that. I've showed how sales principles
• 0:53
  are universal, but then the order in which we apply them,
• 0:57
  the things that we stress, the things that we emphasize, the
• 1:02
  things that we take out, how that is determined, how
• 1:06
  application of these principles are determined on a case by
• 1:09
  case, on a cultural basis. So since I've already done that
• 1:13
  in previous episodes, we can assume, especially if this is
• 1:16
  your first time, sorry if you're a long time listener of the
• 1:18
  show, that you can take whatever advice or tactics or principles
• 1:25
  that we discuss here and apply them locally to your own
• 1:28
  context. If this your first time of
• 1:30
  listening to the show, you are still going to get something out
• 1:33
  of this episode or just know that there's a larger
• 1:36
  conversation that we've been having across the over 850
• 1:39
  episodes that we have over here on the podcast so far.
• 1:42
  So there is juicy good stuff that you can refer to in the
• 1:47
  past so that you can learn about the the particulars you know.
• 1:51
  If you're curious about selling to a house a man, is that
• 1:55
  different from selling to an Ebo woman?
• 1:56
  Is that different from selling to a Yoruba teenager or
• 2:00
  whatever? So negotiation tactics.
• 2:05
  Now before we begin, I must confess these are just of my
• 2:08
  random thoughts and in no particular order.
• 2:11
  So if you want a more systematic approach for negotiation, my
• 2:14
  recommendation actually is that you should follow a negotiations
• 2:17
  podcast. Because just like how there is a
• 2:19
  conceptual framework, there are principles, there's a process to
• 2:24
  sell and try to be persuasive in business communications.
• 2:28
  It's the same thing when it comes to negotiations.
• 2:32
  So selling is my speciality, especially personal sales, that
• 2:38
  is my unique Forte. Negotiations is not.
• 2:42
  So if you want something much more systematic, something much
• 2:48
  more thorough, then you should be following podcasts that are
• 2:51
  based around negotiations. Now, if negotiation is not my
• 2:55
  specialty, why am I bothering to answer this question?
• 2:57
  Well, I'm I'm answering the question because you guys asked,
• 3:01
  and that's what I do over here on the show.
• 3:02
  I hop up. I answer questions that have
• 3:06
  been asked in the past, whether people have sent me DMS or
• 3:09
  whether questions that have been asked at live training sessions.
• 3:13
  And I figured, OK, this would be a good one for the show.
• 3:16
  So it's a question that I've been asked before by one of you.
• 3:18
  So I'm answering the question. Yeah, so that's my caveat.
• 3:24
  After this, look for a good negotiations podcast and then
• 3:27
  follow How are you going to know a good negotiation podcast?
• 3:30
  Unfortunately, you have to follow a bunch and listen to
• 3:33
  them and just start with the one that catches your fancy.
• 3:37
  So long as the person is taking a systematic approach, stay away
• 3:41
  from people who say do this greatest hack, do this greatest
• 3:45
  tip, do this greatest trick. Stay away from those folks.
• 3:47
  You get into a lot of trouble because you'll be trying to
• 3:50
  apply negotiations tactics without having a broader sense
• 3:54
  of what works and why and when it works because you're going to
• 3:58
  do something that is going to make you that's going to fall
• 4:01
  flat, like the negotiations taxing about using silence
• 4:06
  strategically. So you might listen to a podcast
• 4:09
  and they say do this one killer thing and win all your deals and
• 4:13
  talk as little and then remain silent.
• 4:16
  Now if you are someone who is well versed in the art of
• 4:19
  negotiation, you're going to be able to know when and how
• 4:22
  strategically to use silence. But if you're a newbie and you
• 4:24
  listen to that episode and I think this is the key to making
• 4:27
  my millions, and then you show up, you say as little as
• 4:29
  possible and you keep quiet a lot, you might come across
• 4:32
  looking like an idiot. So that is why I say stay away
• 4:37
  from all these people who say this is the greatest hack.
• 4:39
  This is the greatest tip. Follow this trick to triple your
• 4:42
  business in 2025, in 2020, whatever, he said.
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  Look for people who have a system who are trying to break
• 4:48
  things down. Now, this is what a negotiation
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  is. This is how negotiations work,
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  works with these stages, you know, blah, blah, blah.
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  So that's what you should be looking for.
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  So yeah, so let me give you my my 2 cobalt or my two cents on
• 5:06
  on negotiations. So excuse me, what was I?
• 5:12
  OK. Oh yeah.
• 5:14
  So let me just give what my opinions.
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  I'm especially for those of you who in sales roles have customer
• 5:22
  facing functions and you have to negotiate with counterparts.
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  So these are some of my thoughts for you guys.
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  So First off, what is a negotiation?
• 5:31
  Different definitions, but in my own opinion, I would say that
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  negotiations is when you're in that situation where you are at
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  the that stage in the relationship or you're at that
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  stage of the conversation where you guys are doing give and
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  take. Bottom line is I'm trying to get
• 5:45
  a favorable outcome for my deal. The other person is also trying
• 5:49
  to get a favorable outcome for their deal.
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  So if you're in that process, then you actually are in
• 5:56
  negotiations. The reason why I'm using this
• 5:59
  definition, this functional definition, is because there are
• 6:03
  some industries where you get to the stage where someone says,
• 6:07
  OK, now it's time for negotiations, Everybody stand
• 6:09
  out. The lawyers are going to sit
• 6:10
  down and negotiate. That happens in high stakes
• 6:13
  environments, complex deals, you know, like telecoms, oil and
• 6:18
  gas, blah, blah, blah. So there is that stage where Oga
• 6:22
  will say, OK, now we're done, the lawyers will handle
• 6:24
  negotiations and then everybody leaves.
• 6:27
  But for most of us, we are not at that stage yet.
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  So for the average person, you sell catfish, you do wedding
• 6:34
  photography, you're a tailor, you're a business consultant, or
• 6:38
  maybe you're a retired police officer and you want to make you
• 6:43
  want to make some money by offering security, contracting
• 6:48
  services or whatever. So for most people who are not
• 6:51
  at the big boy level yet or the big girl level yet, whenever you
• 6:57
  get to that stage of the conversation where you people
• 6:59
  are doing give and take and you're trying to see how can I
• 7:03
  make this thing work For me, even if that happens at the
• 7:08
  beginning of the relationship or towards the end of the
• 7:10
  relationship, you are actually are in a negotiation.
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  You just haven't realized it yet because somebody didn't declare
• 7:18
  like, OK, we're at the negotiation stage.
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  So please use this functional definition.
• 7:24
  If you're ever in a situation where there's give and take and
• 7:27
  you're trying to look for favorable outcomes, you are in a
• 7:29
  negotiation. And by that definition, most
• 7:32
  Nigerian people, no matter the business you're involved in, you
• 7:36
  actually are negotiating more than you actually know.
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  So that's the reason why this is important.
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  So why should we be looking for favorable outcomes?
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  We should look for favorable outcomes because that is what
• 7:47
  allows you to stay in business longer and also to provide the
• 7:52
  best possible services to your customers.
• 7:56
  For those of you who keep cutting it close, your profit
• 7:59
  margin is Let's say your profit margin is 50K on every single
• 8:02
  product, but each time you go into negotiations you allow the
• 8:06
  person to take off half of that, and each time you're going back
• 8:09
  with profit margins OF25K. This is what you're doing.
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  If the profit margin that is required to keep you in business
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  and to pay school fees and to pay Nappa and to pay Internet
• 8:22
  and to pay everything and to provide enough money for rice
• 8:28
  and chicken at Christmas and at holidays.
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  If what you've calculated is 50,000 is what's going to allow
• 8:35
  you guys, that's 50,000 as a profit margin on each service or
• 8:39
  on each product. Sorry, excuse me, my throat.
• 8:44
  And yes, you're right, it's the sore throat.
• 8:46
  But apart from that, I've been having a bunch of speaking
• 8:50
  engagements back-to-back. So I think my voice is taxed at
• 8:54
  the moment. And I know I've said it on the
• 8:57
  podcast before, but I think I have to start paying attention
• 9:00
  to voice training and all that. You know, all that whole thing
• 9:03
  of drink, warm water and lemon and do vocal exercises and
• 9:06
  things like that. OK, so was I yeah, favorable
• 9:11
  terms. So the reason why we need to
• 9:12
  look for favorable terms is because if truly, truly, truly
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  50K profit margin or every single item you sell is the
• 9:20
  profit margin that is required for you to maintain your shop,
• 9:23
  to pay your school fees, and also to put aside little
• 9:25
  something so that you and your spouse or you and your boyfriend
• 9:27
  and girlfriend can enjoy yourself every now and then.
• 9:30
  Then every single time you take a hit on the profit margin and
• 9:34
  you collect 25K instead as profit instead of 50K.
• 9:38
  What you're doing is that you're giving yourself more work in the
• 9:42
  future, because if you take 25 now instead of 50, The thing is
• 9:51
  that extra 25 still has to come from somewhere.
• 9:54
  That extra 25. Remember, you have done the math
• 9:57
  and you need 50K to pay for your shop space, to pay for your
• 10:03
  sales boys and sales girls to pay for school fees, pay for
• 10:07
  Gen. pay for Christmas, holiday, everything.
• 10:11
  So if you take a hidden of 25 K, that 25 K still has to come from
• 10:16
  somewhere. You still have to make it up
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  somehow. You're still going to have to do
• 10:21
  the work in the future to get that extra income.
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  So sometimes taking a hit is you're not doing yourself.
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  You're not really doing yourself a favor like you think.
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  You understand Times can be desperate, and every single
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  change will count, but the more favorable terms that we can get,
• 10:43
  the better. Now, how to get the best deal
• 10:47
  for yourself? First off, you need to know the
• 10:50
  terms and conditions under which you absolutely need to make
• 10:53
  things happen. Like I've said, you need to know
• 10:56
  your numbers. How much do you need to keep the
• 10:58
  shop running and things like that.
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  How much profit margin do you need to be making on every
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  single microwave oven that you sell, or every single cooking
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  pots, or every single sorry, every single baby toy, or
• 11:12
  whatever? You need to know what it is that
• 11:15
  you need to make things happen. You need to know the price or
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  price terms work for you. What timing options work for
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  you, what delivery options work for you and other expectations
• 11:26
  that are being made. Because sometimes you might
• 11:29
  stick to your guns and say, look, I'm not budging on the
• 11:34
  price, but you know it will give you a discount on the delivery
• 11:37
  and then you sign the deal only to discover that the delivery is
• 11:40
  out of state. And so delivery is going to cost
• 11:42
  more than you thought. So we actually need to know all
• 11:46
  these things. So we need to look inwards and
• 11:49
  figure out a whole bunch of stuff first before we start
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  negotiating. Because some people are
• 11:55
  negotiating and putting themselves in an unfavorable
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  position, and they don't realize that they're putting themselves
• 12:00
  into a favorable position until the end of the month.
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  When you start tallying up the books and you look at your bank
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  account and your bank account is not accounting and The thing is
• 12:09
  not making sense. So this is how it happens.
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  So we need to do some homework and know what is good on our own
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  end, first of all, before we start negotiating with people.
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  Then we also need to discover what terms work for the
• 12:23
  counterpart, what pricing, what timing, what other expectations
• 12:29
  are they looking for. Because The thing is, if we know
• 12:32
  what it is that they're trying to get, if we know the real
• 12:34
  thing that they're trying to get, and we can help them do
• 12:36
  that, then we're able to make get a deal that can make
• 12:40
  everybody happy. If we know what truly, truly
• 12:42
  they're searching after and we help them provide that, it
• 12:45
  avoids the amount of shifting that we have to do on our own.
• 12:47
  And so that's the reason why having qualification and
• 12:52
  Discovery conversations are important.
• 12:54
  For those of you who are new to the show.
• 12:56
  Discovery conversations are conversations around the
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  problem. What kind of problem are they
• 13:00
  trying to solve? Blah, blah, blah, What
• 13:01
  specifications would they need? All these sorts of things.
• 13:04
  Then what's the other one? Qualification, qualification,
• 13:11
  conversations or questions around the person.
• 13:14
  You need to have a sense of who this person is.
• 13:16
  You need to know the sense of what problems are they facing or
• 13:18
  what goal are they trying to achieve and how your product or
• 13:21
  service can help. So we need to have, do all of
• 13:24
  this, have all these conversations.
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  By the way, you can't be having these conversations when you
• 13:29
  guys had the negotiation. All these conversations must
• 13:31
  have been had at the beginning, which is the reason why I keep
• 13:34
  on stressing over here on the podcast that the Big Three are
• 13:37
  absolutely critical to your business success.
• 13:41
  And the Big Three are prospecting, running out to look
• 13:45
  for people who might be interested so you can do
• 13:48
  business with them and then qualification and then
• 13:51
  discovery. So you run around, You look for
• 13:53
  people. Where can my market come from?
• 13:55
  Where can my daily bread come from?
• 13:56
  So you wake up in the morning, Is the Heavenly Father.
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  My life is in your hands. I'm about to head out today.
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  May you bless the work of my hands.
• 14:02
  And then you hit the streets or you hit the Internet or
• 14:05
  whatever. So that's prospecting.
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  Then you start having conversations with people and
• 14:09
  you try and figure out who is this person.
• 14:11
  What problem are they trying to solve?
• 14:14
  Let's see, what kind of exam can I use?
• 14:15
  OK, since I already said microwave, let me see.
• 14:19
  OK, let me stick to microwave. Let's see what I can think of.
• 14:22
  So microwave. That's what you sell.
• 14:24
  You sell kitchen appliances. So now that you're talking to
• 14:27
  someone, you need to have a conversation with Madam before
• 14:29
  you start negotiating on the microwave oven.
• 14:32
  You need to. You don't have a chat with her.
• 14:34
  What does Madam do? Share housewife, Does she work?
• 14:37
  What's the size of a household? All these questions are not just
• 14:41
  small talk when you ask them about question of size holds
• 14:44
  household. It's important because it
• 14:46
  determines the kind of size of oven that will be adequate to
• 14:51
  her. Because microwave orphans and
• 14:53
  some of these are plans. They come in terms of liters.
• 14:58
  Yeah, they come in terms of liters.
• 14:59
  I know some of you might sound surprised, like liters.
• 15:01
  What does liters have to do with microwave ovens?
• 15:03
  But this is how it works. They measure the cooking
• 15:05
  capacity of this thing in liters.
• 15:07
  What that means is a microwave oven of this size can only take
• 15:11
  containers that that are large enough to accommodate 5 liters
• 15:16
  worth of of food or something. So that's how they're measured.
• 15:21
  1 litre. OK, no one litre is kind of
• 15:23
  small. Let me just guess.
• 15:25
  Let me say 5-10, you know, and on and on all the way up to like
• 15:29
  industrial kitchen type microwaves.
• 15:31
  Like those huge huge huge ones. So that's the reason why you
• 15:35
  should be engaging in all these small talk.
• 15:37
  Because if Madam has a small family, just Madam husband and
• 15:41
  they have one baby, then OK, you might not have to stress instead
• 15:47
  of haggling too much on the 20 liter microwave and looks like
• 15:51
  she's not budging on the price. You might just look Madam, you
• 15:53
  know what? Really it's a small family, just
• 15:55
  both of you and then baby instead.
• 15:57
  You know this 20 liter microwave, just be looking at
• 15:59
  this five liter one and this five liter one.
• 16:01
  It means your your price spot on.
• 16:05
  No need to negotiate anything and you might be able to make a
• 16:08
  good deal there and save yourself some margins.
• 16:10
  So you've recommended a lower product for Madam.
• 16:14
  It meets her needs and you didn't have to continue haggling
• 16:18
  on the 20 liter one and then start discounting so that she
• 16:21
  can buy that one. So this is the reason why
• 16:22
  qualification and Discovery conversations are really
• 16:25
  important. So who is she?
• 16:26
  What does she do? She a housewife?
• 16:28
  Does she work? How many children is it that she
• 16:31
  has four children and then seven other people live in their
• 16:35
  house? OK, in that case maybe A5 litre
• 16:38
  microwave is not going to work because we're going to microwave
• 16:41
  a goosey for a House of what did I say?
• 16:44
  I said four children, four children plus husband and wife.
• 16:48
  That is 6 + 7 relatives living in the house, uncles and
• 16:52
  aunties. So 6 + 7 is 13.
• 16:55
  Yeah, so trying to microwave a goosey for 13 people in A five
• 16:59
  liter microwave oven, I mean, that's gonna be stressed.
• 17:04
  You have to be putting in small container, small container,
• 17:06
  small container. So in that case, yeah, you might
• 17:11
  have to continue having discussion about the 20 liter
• 17:14
  microwave. So I had to put one big bowl
• 17:16
  there and that's enough to microwave a goosie for the whole
• 17:19
  household. Then again, if you've been
• 17:21
  asking questions, those kind of questions you get, you gauge the
• 17:24
  size of a household and you know that she works and she works in
• 17:27
  Access Bank and, you know, stuff like that, you might figure out
• 17:30
  that, OK, this Madam, she might have some money, she's not
• 17:35
  willing to let up, but she might have some money because after
• 17:37
  all, she's a banker. And look at her household, 13
• 17:40
  people. You know, if you're a Papa, you
• 17:42
  can't have a household of 13 people.
• 17:44
  So these are the things that give you the context, give you
• 17:47
  the background, give you the confidence to be able to
• 17:49
  negotiate. And that's the reason why I keep
• 17:52
  saying that the Big Three are the foundation to business
• 17:55
  success. So prospecting.
• 17:57
  Who am I going to do business with?
• 17:58
  So shine your eyes, whether online or in real life.
• 18:01
  Say your prayers. Shine your eyes, Go forth and
• 18:04
  try to prosper. But make sure you're talking to
• 18:07
  the right kind of people. Because if you're selling
• 18:09
  microwave ovens, but you keep on talking to people who are
• 18:11
  security guards. By the way, I am not saying that
• 18:14
  security guards are bad people. I'm just saying that security
• 18:17
  guards probably cannot afford to buy microwave ovens, at least
• 18:21
  not brand new microwave ovens where they can buy them second
• 18:24
  hand from the market or something.
• 18:25
  But I'm not saying you sell microwave ovens.
• 18:27
  We have to look at the certain kinds of people that should be
• 18:29
  running across. But then again, all human beings
• 18:33
  are made in the image and likeness of God.
• 18:35
  We're all worthy of respect and we all have value.
• 18:38
  So I'm not saying that people who can't afford your products
• 18:40
  or services are less than. I'm just saying be realistic.
• 18:46
  Who can do business with you? Look for those people
• 18:48
  accordingly. When you find them, start having
• 18:50
  conversations with them around who they are and the problems
• 18:56
  that they're trying to solve. They will help you in
• 19:00
  negotiations later on. Now also, trying to discover
• 19:05
  what is important to your counterpart sometimes involves
• 19:07
  you doing some research and that is made easier these days by the
• 19:12
  GPTS, you know, CHA, GPT, Gemini, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:15
  You can hop on there and research market rates,
• 19:17
  competitor pricing, industry standards, you know, stuff like
• 19:19
  that. So you don't go in there blind.
• 19:21
  So if it's a big negotiation, like I was in the business
• 19:24
  centre earlier, I went to go and print out some training
• 19:29
  material, that's because my my printer packed up.
• 19:32
  It didn't pack up, it's just old.
• 19:33
  It's obsolete because I've had it since university.
• 19:36
  The thing was working so I didn't bother.
• 19:38
  But then you know, all these people now they keep on making
• 19:40
  updates and changing this and changing that and so the
• 19:43
  computer doesn't work with anything anymore.
• 19:44
  So it's just that. So I went to a business centre,
• 19:48
  not far from where I am to print out material for a training
• 19:52
  session I was going to be doing. And then there was this fellow
• 19:55
  there who was putting together a proposal and the proposal was
• 19:58
  for what's it called, Electrical.
• 20:03
  I can't remember. I shouldn't have been violating
• 20:05
  the guys privacy. But The thing is, from where I
• 20:07
  was sitting, I saw the tally at the bottom and I saw 20
• 20:11
  something M and I'm like that's some good money, 20 something MI
• 20:14
  like to make a killing that that big, you know, I mean.
• 20:18
  Put a quote. Now I'm collecting 20 M on top
• 20:20
  so I saw 20 MI say OK, all business is is brussing.
• 20:24
  So I started trying to read the proposal over the guy's
• 20:26
  shoulder. But unfortunately my children
• 20:29
  broke my glasses. I was without my glasses so I
• 20:31
  couldn't get the full scope when we long and short is boys and
• 20:35
  girls are making good money in this country, in Abuja, in
• 20:39
  Lagos, you name it. That people that are making good
• 20:41
  money putting out good bits. So OK research.
• 20:45
  Yes, that's what I was talking about.
• 20:47
  Now somebody like that who is selling electrical components
• 20:51
  something something, something I didn't get the whole detail
• 20:53
  selling to Oracle property developers and all these sorts
• 20:59
  of people. Now that kind of guy, before he
• 21:02
  goes for the negotiation, it will help because you put
• 21:05
  together your proposal and what you put there is you put 20
• 21:07
  something M and that's your that's what you're hoping for.
• 21:13
  It would also not be a bad idea to go online Google, Bing, all
• 21:16
  these whatever try and get a sense like OK competitors how
• 21:19
  much are they selling. You want to be sure that you're
• 21:21
  within a certain range because for the specs that you have put
• 21:26
  if you put all that thing for 20 something M, but it's something
• 21:30
  that your competition wants to jump down to.
• 21:32
  I don't know, 15 M or whatever, That's going to be a hard sell
• 21:36
  because legitimately during the meetings somebody can say, look,
• 21:40
  you know what, I'm tired of this conversation.
• 21:42
  You've been saying 20 something. MCI will show you.
• 21:44
  Now look at this one. This is the invoice that
• 21:47
  somebody sent me. You can see here, can you see it
• 21:49
  17 M So I think I'll just go to 17 M people.
• 21:52
  If you've done the research ahead of time, you know what
• 21:54
  market rates are and you know why the market rates are
• 21:58
  different, then you can now go into that whole thing of trying
• 22:01
  to differentiate to say that, OK, yeah, This 17 M, yes, yes,
• 22:05
  it happens that people that do that.
• 22:07
  But did you ask them about this capacitor, this regulator, this,
• 22:10
  which, this, whatever, Because it's not just a matter of 16 M
• 22:13
  and you know, whatever. We need to ask about this
• 22:16
  component. This is how this effects that
• 22:17
  project. This is how that affects that
• 22:19
  project. If you skimp on this and on
• 22:22
  that, it's going to affect the final product here and affect
• 22:25
  the final project here because of this and this and that and
• 22:28
  that. So you'll be well armed if you
• 22:30
  have done your research ahead of time going into the meeting.
• 22:32
  So don't go in there blind. So do some research.
• 22:35
  That's the beauty of the Internet.
• 22:36
  It's not just for, you know, watching all those silly videos
• 22:41
  on on Facebook, by the way. You people that watch videos on
• 22:44
  Facebook and on Tiktok. Why do you guys stay in public
• 22:47
  Like you're in the bank while down on the queue and then
• 22:50
  you're just playing Tiktok videos, you know, full volume.
• 22:53
  Like, you guys are disturbing us.
• 22:54
  We're here because we're trying to reverse transactions and
• 22:57
  everything and you're just blasting Tiktok all over the
• 22:59
  place. So if you're one of those
• 23:00
  annoying people, please stop it. Or at least use your earphones
• 23:04
  when you're playing your Tiktok videos in the banking hall or at
• 23:07
  the cyber cafe. So yes, that's why we have those
• 23:11
  things, so we can do research as well.
• 23:14
  Now, another reason why you should try and figure out what
• 23:17
  people want out of the deal is because if you go into a deal,
• 23:20
  I'm telling you guys now, if you go into a deal and you, you
• 23:23
  extract everything from the other person, you get the
• 23:26
  person's lifeblood. You go out feeling like, ah,
• 23:28
  correct, I made a good deal. But The thing is, now that
• 23:31
  person is angry. That person is sour.
• 23:33
  That person feels robbed. It's not going to be a good
• 23:36
  experience for both of you because for now, the person
• 23:39
  might take it because you know he's he's down and he might just
• 23:44
  take it. But rest assured, he's not going
• 23:46
  to do everything with his full chest like he would have done if
• 23:50
  you walked out of it. Out of it feeling like, OK,
• 23:52
  Mima, there's something that I got, there's something that I
• 23:55
  could put inside, put in my pocket.
• 23:57
  So it's not a good to a good idea to walk in and try and rob
• 24:02
  everyone and make them feel bad. One example that I heard in a
• 24:07
  different podcast was there's one guy that had where's this
• 24:12
  guy Donald Trump. So that Donald Trump Trump
• 24:16
  Tower, you know, that's his. His like his.
• 24:19
  It's like that's his big thing. Trump Towers.
• 24:22
  You know his office with gold and all that.
• 24:24
  But apparently there was another development that he wanted to
• 24:27
  acquire and build, but the people refused to do business
• 24:31
  with him. And on this podcast I found out
• 24:33
  the back story. The reason why The reason why
• 24:36
  they didn't want to do business with him was because years
• 24:39
  before when levels were not pure, Donald Trump did some
• 24:43
  business with his people and typical Donald Trump fashion
• 24:46
  like the guy as in he he taught him a new one as in he, he, he
• 24:54
  did the Donald Trump thing. He made sure that he got the
• 24:57
  best deal possible for himself and he didn't give a hoot about
• 24:59
  who who or what these people were about.
• 25:02
  Later on now you know ground is level.
• 25:06
  These other people have mature. You know they're too they're now
• 25:08
  players in the space and then they have this property
• 25:10
  development And for them was a big thing was like, oh, this guy
• 25:14
  like we are not selling to you. No.
• 25:17
  And they didn't sell to Trump. There's another rival developer
• 25:20
  that they sold to instead, And that was pretty much the back
• 25:23
  story. Like you.
• 25:25
  Again, it's not you. And they went for somebody else.
• 25:29
  So walking into deals feeling like I'm a bad guy, I will
• 25:33
  collect everything. I will drain their lifeblood
• 25:35
  from them. Generally not a good idea.
• 25:38
  It works out now. It doesn't always pan out them
• 25:41
  for the future, then for negotiations.
• 25:43
  Another thing we should be paying attention to is no
• 25:45
  unprincipled concessions. And on principal concession, if
• 25:48
  you're the first time, first time listener of the show and on
• 25:51
  principal concession is this, you're talking with someone, You
• 25:55
  say A, they say B, you say 2005, they say 2000.
• 26:00
  If you're making a concession in one place, you should be asking
• 26:02
  for something else. The example that I typically
• 26:05
  give over here on the podcast is, let's say you're selling,
• 26:08
  let me see, what can I say, computers.
• 26:10
  You're selling computers and you're negotiating with central
• 26:14
  bank, OK, no, Let's say you're negotiating with your children's
• 26:17
  primary school, don't want to buy computers.
• 26:20
  So you say, look, school, you don't want to buy 100 units and
• 26:25
  we're pricing each of these units at how much are computers
• 26:28
  these days off? I don't know.
• 26:30
  OK, let me just say 150 K So if you want to buy 150 units, so if
• 26:34
  I buy 100 units and we're pricing this thing at 150 K, you
• 26:39
  will start negotiating. You say 150 K they say no, we
• 26:43
  can't do 150K, we can do 140K. If you cave in at 140 K, what
• 26:50
  you can do is say OK, no problem, 140 Ki can sell it to
• 26:53
  you, but I now can't sell you 100 units.
• 26:56
  Again, if we're doing 140K per computer instead of 150, instead
• 27:01
  of buying 100 units, you guys, you must buy minimum 130 units.
• 27:07
  So that is what we mean by on principal concessions.
• 27:10
  You have taken a hit on, you have made a concession in one
• 27:15
  way, you get them to make a concession the other way.
• 27:18
  So what you have lost on unit price, hopefully you can make up
• 27:22
  in volume. So that is like the classic
• 27:25
  thing about on principle concessions.
• 27:27
  You say A, they say B, it's OK, no problem, BB it is.
• 27:32
  But if I'm giving it you are B humor, you must do C and that's
• 27:37
  the whole idea. So no on principle concessions.
• 27:39
  So under no circumstances must somebody say, look, I can't do
• 27:43
  this thing at 25. I'll give you 2/3 for you to
• 27:47
  just say, OK, 2-3 and then leave it like that.
• 27:49
  Then the operational concessions, not a good idea
• 27:53
  except. But anyway, we've done the
• 27:55
  podcast episode about discounting.
• 27:57
  So listen to the discounting episode and you'll see how that
• 28:00
  can be part of your business strategy.
• 28:03
  We're already 30 minutes, so I don't want to go on for too
• 28:05
  long. Then let's see.
• 28:11
  Oh, price anchoring. That's something I forgot.
• 28:14
  Set your price anchoring at a reasonable level because
• 28:17
  Nigerians like to hack away or whatever figure you give.
• 28:21
  I run to some folks. I went to school with some
• 28:24
  Indians, so I hear that Indians are like that too.
• 28:27
  That is just the principle that if you tell them 5K, they'll say
• 28:32
  5K, how then they'll price you down to three.
• 28:34
  So it's just the principle. I also run into some Egyptians
• 28:38
  and they say that that's the way their culture is.
• 28:41
  So it's not like the UK where people pay sticker price or
• 28:44
  America where they sticker price.
• 28:45
  There's some cultures where it's just it's it's like it's a
• 28:48
  sport, it's part of the game. So in Nigeria it's a given
• 28:52
  sticker price, There's no sticker price except if you walk
• 28:55
  into the shop. But if you're not selling in
• 29:01
  Ikeja City mall or something like that, just know that if you
• 29:04
  say 5K, you don't want to say 3. It's just the principle then,
• 29:07
  the most price. So set your price anchor high.
• 29:12
  Because if you say 3K and the price is down to three, why not
• 29:17
  just start off the conversation at 10K and maybe they'll try and
• 29:20
  price it down to seven. So put yourself in a good
• 29:23
  situation from the beginning. That's the whole thing about
• 29:26
  price anchoring. So don't anchor low, anchor
• 29:30
  high, Start the conversation high.
• 29:32
  But of course, do your research ahead of time.
• 29:35
  Know where you fall within the market.
• 29:37
  Know how you can justify your bid.
• 29:40
  Then let's see. Ask questions whenever something
• 29:43
  is unclear to you. Don't be shy.
• 29:44
  Some people think it's unprofessional or it's somehow
• 29:48
  to ask questions. But don't be shy.
• 29:52
  Ask questions. If you don't understand this.
• 29:53
  Ask a question. If they're asking on this
• 29:57
  concession, this concession, you know, go ahead and ask, like
• 30:00
  back to the laptop thing. If the school keeps insisting
• 30:02
  140K140K, you know, go. If you don't understand that The
• 30:06
  thing is exasperating you go ahead and ask like OK,
• 30:09
  principal, like I really told you, now you know how this thing
• 30:12
  is, you know Niger is and you're still saying one like this 140
• 30:15
  KS of like 140K. You might you might find out
• 30:19
  that they're trying to pressure up you 'cause they have an
• 30:22
  alternative bid, you know, in that case, if you think it's too
• 30:24
  sneaky or whatever, just walk away and leave.
• 30:27
  But I'm also find out that the reason why the guy is asking
• 30:29
  440K is because maybe they're cash strapped.
• 30:32
  In that case you guys might start talking payment plans like
• 30:34
  OK, you know what, I can't give you this thing I wonder.
• 30:37
  And 40K. But we can come up with the
• 30:39
  payment plan. You only have 140 K per units.
• 30:42
  No problem. I'll deliver the full 100.
• 30:44
  You paid 140K, the balance of 10/10 K per all the other units.
• 30:49
  This is how we'll do it. When parents pay next time
• 30:52
  school fees, you raise me 25%. When they pay the next one, you
• 30:57
  know you raise me another 50%. You know.
• 30:59
  So payment plans. So ask.
• 31:02
  Ask questions. It will, you know, like the good
• 31:07
  book says, asking you shall receive.
• 31:08
  When you ask. You get more information, and
• 31:11
  with the more information you have, you'll be able to.
• 31:14
  You'll be able to see where the land is, the lay of the land.
• 31:18
  I'll be able to know how to make make decisions.
• 31:22
  Now. OK, finally, let me just say two
• 31:26
  things since we're over 30 minutes.
• 31:28
  Take notes, get feedback on contentious issues.
• 31:31
  Too many people go into negotiations and you're not
• 31:33
  writing anything down. You will shout, shout, shout,
• 31:35
  shout, shout. You quarrel, shout, but shouting
• 31:38
  numbers up and down. You finish.
• 31:40
  You shake your hands. You think you guys have agreed
• 31:42
  but the thing was this. Lots of shouting.
• 31:43
  Lots of things were said, but nobody was writing anything.
• 31:46
  So take notes. You take notes.
• 31:49
  You will shout back and forth. You like, OK, this is the price.
• 31:51
  Write it. You shout back and forth.
• 31:53
  Delivery date, You write it, you shout back and forth.
• 31:56
  Warranty. You write it.
• 31:57
  You write everything down. And then get feedback on the
• 32:01
  contentious issues. If you guys spent 30 minutes
• 32:03
  quarreling on price and you ended up writing in your book
• 32:06
  5002, ask the person before you guys leave the meetings.
• 32:09
  OK, so this 5002, we've agreed by like there's no changing.
• 32:14
  Like when you come back next week, it's 52.
• 32:15
  You won't come and tell me something else because it's 52.
• 32:17
  We've agreed say yes, it's 5/2 per unit.
• 32:20
  So take notes, don't be a secretary, and then write
• 32:24
  everything down. You know, it's stenographer.
• 32:26
  Just highlight the main issues. The reason why this is important
• 32:30
  is because if you guys are going to drop a contract later on,
• 32:34
  this will make sure that there's no quarrel because you said that
• 32:37
  look, you were there. Now I asked you should we call?
• 32:40
  You were there at this meeting too.
• 32:41
  I showed him that. Now he said that there's no
• 32:43
  problem. So you why you will chase him
• 32:45
  out now. You guys cannot change him out
• 32:46
  now this is what we agreed. You show them your notes,
• 32:49
  hopefully they have their own notes too.
• 32:50
  If italies, then you guys can drop your paperwork, you drop
• 32:53
  the invoice and then you come over here with the the
• 32:56
  transaction. Then overall, I'll say focus on
• 33:01
  value. Don't focus on price.
• 33:02
  Sometimes these conversations end up being about price too
• 33:06
  much. And sometimes price is not the
• 33:09
  only thing you should be focusing.
• 33:12
  You should be trying to get a sense of what people find value
• 33:15
  valuable. I say you can deliver that
• 33:18
  because when it comes to price and other positions that people
• 33:22
  take in negotiations, you find that sometimes there's a
• 33:24
  difference between the position somebody takes and the thing
• 33:29
  that they actually find valuable.
• 33:31
  Now, as a young lawyer, this was a lesson I learned the hard way
• 33:34
  because I was fresh in Kano and I was with a law firm and I was
• 33:39
  supposed to handle a a a land matter, Not really a land
• 33:44
  matter. It was an eviction matter
• 33:46
  because the tenant was refusing to leave the hotel.
• 33:49
  Our client owned the hotel. The the fellow on the other side
• 33:53
  was refusing to leave the hotel. So my boss couldn't make make it
• 33:57
  and he had me go and represent him.
• 33:59
  So I went there now and you know, I was fresh out of law
• 34:02
  school. I was feeling like a family
• 34:04
  lawyer, so I wanted to show my value.
• 34:08
  So I got there. I can't remember whether I was
• 34:11
  emotional or hearing. But by the time we were done, I
• 34:14
  walked to the other lawyer on the other side because when
• 34:16
  we're in law school they kept on telling us about how you need to
• 34:19
  be cool with people on the other side, You know, be friends, like
• 34:21
  your clients are quarreling. It doesn't mean you 2 have to
• 34:23
  quarrel. And it makes sense because if
• 34:26
  you as a lawyer are cool with the other lawyer, you guys can
• 34:29
  sit down reasonable heads and you can you can figure out
• 34:34
  something that works. So I was trying to flex my
• 34:36
  creative muscle now sure that I'm a correct guy.
• 34:38
  Like I finished from over you, so I know book and I'm a good
• 34:42
  lawyer. So I went to the other lawyers,
• 34:44
  struck up a conversation, try and figure out what was going on
• 34:46
  and everything seemed really reasonable from my own end.
• 34:49
  And what I agree with the other lawyer was, look, this thing is
• 34:52
  relatively straightforward. We've been in court already on
• 34:54
  this matter for several months. So if I convince my principal to
• 35:02
  let go of the action, you guys just enter into an undertaking
• 35:05
  that you'll be out of the property in three months.
• 35:07
  And the other way I said, ah, correct, no problem, we should
• 35:09
  can't. And then we left.
• 35:10
  By the time I go back to the office, my orga was waiting for
• 35:13
  me and my orga exploded. Who gave you authority to do
• 35:17
  this? Who gave you the authority to do
• 35:18
  that? As he gave me a severe washing
• 35:21
  anyway it turns out that and this is where some of the
• 35:25
  cultural things come in. It turns out that in that Yoruba
• 35:28
  community in in Kano the our client who owned the hotel is
• 35:33
  like he's a he's an Edborn in the Yoruba community.
• 35:35
  Edborn is Big Brother. Yeah Big Brother name put it
• 35:40
  that way or senior brother. So I born senior brother.
• 35:43
  So he's like a senior brother. He's like a big boy.
• 35:47
  He's, he's he's a guy within the community, the other fellow, the
• 35:52
  tenant who's refusing to believe the plot is kind of like an
• 35:56
  upstart and put it that way. And so in me going to make
• 36:01
  concessions on behalf of Ebon, Ebon was now losing face to the
• 36:06
  upstart. So it was somehow like last last
• 36:10
  at the end of the day, instead of the little miscreant to be
• 36:15
  humiliated, it was ebon, our clients.
• 36:19
  It was the senior brother who now lost face at the end of the
• 36:24
  day. And so I learned a very, very
• 36:26
  important lesson that day. First of all, the agreement that
• 36:29
  I negotiated was thrown out, as in my clients rejected it.
• 36:34
  I received the washing down. But the most important lesson
• 36:36
  that I learned that day was this.
• 36:39
  Sometimes people take positions and it's not about the position
• 36:42
  because if you look at things on the face of the paper it looked
• 36:45
  as if my client wanted this miscreant out of the property.
• 36:51
  But it wasn't just I wasn't just about the mystery and leaving
• 36:55
  the property. There was also an element of
• 36:57
  pride there. He also didn't want to lose
• 36:58
  face. And yes as a young lawyer I
• 37:01
  thought that was it was I thought it was irrational, like
• 37:07
  he's a hotel. I need to make money.
• 37:10
  If this guy has been there for already eight months and this
• 37:12
  thing is just dragging, dragging out, alright, just get rid of
• 37:15
  this guy and then get somebody else to to to what's the word to
• 37:22
  rent out my property so I can make money.
• 37:25
  But it look like my principal was fine with the way things are
• 37:27
  because he didn't want to lose face.
• 37:29
  So that's what I mean by people have positions, but positions
• 37:33
  and interests are not always the same.
• 37:36
  So I thought the position was get this guy out and it was tied
• 37:38
  into commercial interests. Get this guy out.
• 37:41
  Let me rent somebody ready to somebody who's going to be
• 37:44
  paying. But you know, there was a
• 37:46
  difference. So focus on what people find
• 37:48
  valuable, focus on what their interests are.
• 37:50
  Sometimes the price and the position is not just the main
• 37:52
  thing. So if you can play to more
• 37:56
  people's values and interests are, then you might be able to
• 38:01
  come out with positions that everybody is unhappy with at the
• 38:04
  end of the day. So sorry for this very unusually
• 38:07
  long episode. Connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 38:09
  The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 38:15
  Now connect with me on WhatsApp. The name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 38:18
  Sorry, On LinkedIn, yes, I was going to spend most of my time.
• 38:22
  The name is Tavishima Ayede. I am the host of the show.
• 38:25
  You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from
• 38:27
  the link. We're currently listening to
• 38:30
  this episode. So thank you very much for your
• 38:32
  time and attention. Remember to look for a podcast
• 38:35
  that is dedicated to negotiations, because what I do
• 38:38
  is sales, and I've only given you some rambling ideas about
• 38:45
  how I would approach some of these things as a sales
• 38:48
  professional. So thanks for your time and
• 38:50
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 38:52
  episode.