Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Don't Ignore the "Small Boy": How to Turn Every Lead into a Future Client

Transcript

Don't Ignore the "Small Boy": How to Turn Every Lead into a Future Client · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:03
  Today, what we're going to look at is how to talk to people who
• 0:09
  you're having a conversation with right now.
• 0:11
  You're having a business conversation with a person right
• 0:13
  now, and it's clear that this person is currently not a good
• 0:18
  customer for you, not a good potential client, not a good
• 0:22
  referee, not a good referral, not a good anything for you at
• 0:26
  the moment. What do you do now the typical
• 0:29
  Nigeria thing when somebody calls you and you know we behave
• 0:32
  in Nigeria now, let's say the person is a small boy and
• 0:35
  because the guy now small boy, you know get money.
• 0:38
  So the typical Nigeria thing to do is you say Oh no, we don't
• 0:41
  handle, we don't do that kind of business here, blah, blah, blah.
• 0:43
  You just cut the phone and you leave the guy hanging.
• 0:46
  Now I understand why most of you would handle the conversation
• 0:49
  like that is because some of you are paying for advertising leads
• 0:53
  and when you pay for advertising leads, you are expecting good
• 0:55
  juicy contacts to come through on the other end.
• 0:59
  You expect that if you're paying for advertising from Facebook,
• 1:02
  then the people that are going to call you will be people who
• 1:04
  are serious and people who have money.
• 1:06
  Even if you're not paying for leads, you know, you're paying
• 1:08
  for shop rent, you're paying for office space, you're paying for
• 1:11
  all kinds of things. So it is your hope, it is your
• 1:14
  prayer, and it's your expectation that when people
• 1:16
  walk through the door or when they slide into your DM or
• 1:20
  however it is that they meet you, you're hoping, you are
• 1:23
  trusting that this person is interested, this person has
• 1:26
  money and they're ready to go. So it doesn't help when you're
• 1:30
  just chilling, somebody reaches out to you and then just anyhow,
• 1:33
  anyhow, person workout past person, person, you know, the
• 1:37
  guy doesn't have money or the babe doesn't have money somehow.
• 1:40
  But now this is the proper thing to do.
• 1:43
  By the way, I keep on saying on the podcast, and I'm going to
• 1:45
  continue to insist that we all are children of God, mainly this
• 1:51
  image and in his likeness. And so because of that, we
• 1:53
  should respect everybody. All right, excuse me, but I
• 1:57
  recognize that we're in the business of making money, not
• 1:59
  money would they find also because of that, we're looking
• 2:02
  for, you know, a certain kind of person, but it doesn't mean that
• 2:06
  we should not disrespect everybody who comes our way.
• 2:09
  So for this, I'm using a live case study.
• 2:13
  It's minding my Business Today, dealing with some issues for
• 2:16
  clients. And then a message came in on my
• 2:19
  WhatsApp DM, Pimpim. That's why I checked, the person
• 2:23
  just responded, the person just wrote hello.
• 2:26
  So of course, I replied back, I said good morning, how can I
• 2:29
  help? That was my reply.
• 2:31
  By the way, for those of you who are in business, you know the
• 2:35
  way we use WhatsApp, it's like it's accepted Nigerian culture
• 2:38
  for you to just send a message to someone saying hello.
• 2:41
  But The thing is, if you don't have this number stored, if
• 2:44
  there's no previous contact, then you people don't really
• 2:46
  don't know each other. So just sending a message to
• 2:48
  someone saying hello, it's not a pretty good way to start the
• 2:51
  conversation. If you're going to reach into
• 2:53
  someone's DM like that, just send a message and then go
• 2:56
  straight into your intent or maybe do the Nigerian thing, The
• 3:00
  other Nigerian thing, which is, you know, send a message,
• 3:02
  identify yourself, and then say the reason why you're reaching
• 3:04
  out. So in this case, the fellow
• 3:06
  should have said hello. I want to buy generators for my
• 3:09
  business. How much does it cost?
• 3:11
  That's the better way of starting off the message.
• 3:14
  But anyway, send a message saying hello.
• 3:16
  I responded, good morning. How can I help?
• 3:20
  And then the guy replied back good morning, I want to buy a
• 3:23
  generator for my business or inverter.
• 3:26
  How much down payment? So once I saw this message, I
• 3:32
  wasn't going to continue chatting because remember, I
• 3:35
  talk about the communications hierarchy, that some forms of
• 3:38
  communicating are much more efficient or much more effective
• 3:41
  than others. And whenever somebody reaches
• 3:45
  out to you, you don't really know anything about this person.
• 3:48
  You don't know the quality of the lead.
• 3:49
  So unless you engage, you will not know whether this is a lead
• 3:54
  worth pursuing, a contact worth prioritizing or not.
• 3:58
  So my typical thing is when people come in like this and
• 4:01
  then we get to money, I don't type out money conversations.
• 4:04
  I call the person and we head straight into the matter.
• 4:07
  So I call the guy. By the way, for those of you who
• 4:09
  are listening to the podcast for the first time, I'm a former
• 4:12
  lawyer, now turn the business consultant.
• 4:14
  I am not in the business of selling generators and I am not
• 4:18
  in the business of selling solar and inverter equipment.
• 4:22
  However, I have clients in this space.
• 4:25
  And so there have been times where I have called on behalf of
• 4:29
  my clients. I have called from time to time
• 4:31
  to, you know, sort out things. And of course, whenever I call
• 4:33
  on behalf of my clients, I just pretend that I'm a part of the
• 4:35
  company. So I'm not surprised that there
• 4:37
  are some people in Nigeria who have started seeing my number
• 4:40
  come up. You know, you're looking for
• 4:42
  solar and then my name, my number comes up and it's
• 4:44
  associated with the company. I'm actually not associated with
• 4:47
  the company. Just in case you ever searched
• 4:49
  for me and you saw my my name next to a certain company.
• 4:53
  That company, they're just my clients and I come in once in a
• 4:56
  while to train that sales team if they have any issues.
• 5:00
  For me, it's a lot easier sometimes to call the customer
• 5:02
  direct and then talk to the customer, try and figure out
• 5:04
  what the problem is. And then you know, me and the
• 5:06
  sales team, we can now start trying to rebuild and address
• 5:08
  the issue from there. But I don't sell generator
• 5:12
  equipment. You know, I'm a sales coach, I'm
• 5:14
  a business development consultant.
• 5:16
  And if you would like to get in touch with me, you can call me,
• 5:18
  send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 5:25
  If you want to look at any part of your sales process, your
• 5:28
  business process, you call me the same number 08064662140 or
• 5:35
  you can just send me a message so you can be on my WhatsApp
• 5:37
  channel. In case you're shy and you don't
• 5:39
  want to talk, that's not a problem.
• 5:40
  Send me a message on the same number and then I'll hook you
• 5:43
  up. So I just wanted to establish
• 5:46
  that I don't sell generators. I don't sell inverters, just in
• 5:49
  case there are a couple of you who need the product and you
• 5:51
  reach out to me. You know, it's I'm not the one
• 5:54
  who's in that line of business. But of course, you know, if you
• 5:56
  reach out to me, I say, hey, you say you have clients in this
• 5:59
  space, you know, yeah, I'll give you their phone number so you
• 6:01
  can have a chat with them. But anyway, so I decided to call
• 6:05
  the guy because I don't know if this is a quality lead.
• 6:09
  I have to call the guy first. If it turned out it was a
• 6:11
  quality lead, I'd have now called off my client and say hey
• 6:14
  bro, you know what, somebody buzzed me.
• 6:16
  These are the details, you know, take on both shoe if the team
• 6:19
  click where I'm in my 10%. So I called up the guy and we
• 6:25
  had a brief chat. So I asked him what line of
• 6:29
  business is he in? But before I called him, I could
• 6:32
  see based on his WhatsApp business profile, that they fix
• 6:36
  and repair broken phones. Remember what I spoke about a
• 6:40
  couple of podcast episodes ago, data enrichment.
• 6:43
  Before you call somebody data enrichment, you need to have a
• 6:46
  sense of what kind of business that they're involved in.
• 6:49
  That is what is going to give you an idea about the proposal
• 6:52
  that you're going to make, about the packages that you will
• 6:54
  discuss, about the prices that you're going to discuss, about
• 6:57
  the recommendations you're going to make.
• 6:59
  So it gives you a sense, so I've already seen that this guy is
• 7:03
  into fixing broken phones. So, you know, I, I could tell
• 7:07
  that, you know, you understand that it might not be too pure,
• 7:11
  might not be too sweet, you get. But at least I had an idea of
• 7:17
  what, what it is that we might have to discuss.
• 7:19
  So I called the mum and then I said, Oh yeah, I just, I just
• 7:24
  got your, I just got your message.
• 7:27
  What line of business do you do? So a lot of you when somebody
• 7:33
  reaches out and the person says, do you have generator or
• 7:36
  inverter? How much you will now send the
• 7:38
  person back Price list. That is a colossal mistake.
• 7:42
  Why are you sending somebody a price list when you don't even
• 7:44
  know who this person is? Do you know if this is a genuine
• 7:48
  you know, you know this is a good lead.
• 7:50
  Do you know if this is a sweet lead?
• 7:51
  Do you know if this person is broke?
• 7:53
  Do you know if they're done with it?
• 7:54
  You have no idea. Engage first, feel this person
• 7:57
  out. Know who you're talking to and
• 7:59
  then you'll be able to make a recommendation.
• 8:01
  By the way, when somebody says how much, don't just send price
• 8:04
  list. When you send a price list with
• 8:06
  20 options on it, you don't know that you're confusing most
• 8:08
  people engaging a conversation with someone.
• 8:11
  Figure out what they want. By the time you know what they
• 8:13
  want, you'll now be able to say, oh, OK, you know what?
• 8:16
  Option A option B, option C send them two, three options.
• 8:19
  From there, it's easier to narrow down the conversation
• 8:21
  rather than somebody saying generator how much inverter, how
• 8:24
  much you now send them price list of generator with 50
• 8:28
  options there. How is somebody supposed to
• 8:30
  decide some of you? This is the reason why you're
• 8:33
  struggling in your business. So stop this bad habit.
• 8:37
  Somebody reaches out to you. I want to buy generator for my
• 8:39
  business. I want to buy inverter for my
• 8:41
  business. Pick up the phone and holler at
• 8:43
  somebody. Call this guy, call this babe.
• 8:46
  Now if they don't like to talk, they'll respond.
• 8:48
  They'll say busy now message please no problem, continue to
• 8:52
  message. But the scope is who am I even
• 8:54
  talking to? What do they even need?
• 8:56
  From there I go give her a recommendation.
• 9:00
  Simple. Then the conversation will start
• 9:01
  to move. So I asked him, what line of
• 9:03
  business are you in? I just assumed, you know, some
• 9:08
  people answer, I say, oh, I'm in the social and so business, but
• 9:10
  actually I want to buy from my house.
• 9:13
  You see, I've gotten some extra information.
• 9:15
  They want solar, the one generator, they want it for the
• 9:17
  house. Then we'll switch conversation
• 9:19
  accordingly. Oh, for your house.
• 9:21
  Oh, OK, cool. How many bedrooms?
• 9:23
  How many TV, how many days? You know, all these other
• 9:26
  questions I will follow. But I'm engaging the person.
• 9:29
  So my hunch was correct. I said, what line of business do
• 9:32
  you do? And so, yeah, they fixed his
• 9:34
  phones and he's thinking of expanding so that he can add a
• 9:38
  charging business to his to the current business, a place where
• 9:42
  people can come and be charging phone.
• 9:43
  The guy wants to now expand so you can see now I have the
• 9:48
  context. Somebody has reached out to me,
• 9:50
  excuse me, he wants to buy generator or inverter.
• 9:54
  How much? That's his question.
• 9:56
  I didn't reach out to my client and say, oh boy, pass in deal
• 9:59
  and then hand them over. I didn't reach out to my
• 10:03
  clients. I say, oh boy, how far?
• 10:05
  When I get price list and then send out, I didn't do that.
• 10:08
  I engage the person first to try and figure out the quality of
• 10:13
  the person that we're dealing with.
• 10:16
  Is this person interested? Do they have a problem?
• 10:21
  Do they have money? Are they ready to take action?
• 10:24
  Now? I need to know all these things
• 10:27
  before I take action. And so do you.
• 10:29
  You need to know this in your business.
• 10:32
  I repeat again, if you're one of these people who somebody slides
• 10:35
  into your DM, they say how far you get, generator, how much and
• 10:38
  then you send price list. Stop it now.
• 10:41
  What you're doing is wrong and that's the reason why your
• 10:44
  business is not growing. Sending somebody price list with
• 10:48
  20 options, ten options. You confuse somebody,
• 10:52
  conversation will start. Then when the time comes to
• 10:55
  follow up, you will not be buzzing the person like why are
• 10:57
  you buzzing them? What conversation did you have
• 10:59
  before? You're doing a follow up call to
• 11:01
  follow up on what to follow up how?
• 11:04
  What conversation are you trying to continue?
• 11:07
  So engage somebody in conversation first.
• 11:11
  Some of you say, but that is work.
• 11:12
  Of course it is work. What else are we going to do
• 11:15
  with our time? We are self-employed or we've
• 11:17
  decided to be entrepreneurs. This is the nature of the job.
• 11:21
  Don't complain. Some people cope by buying a
• 11:25
  Bluetooth keyboard. That is what I do so I can type
• 11:27
  quickly. Some people learn how to do
• 11:31
  voice. You know this voice tapping
• 11:33
  thing, Learn it. There's some people who take
• 11:36
  their phone and they hook up their WhatsApp to what's called
• 11:39
  WhatsApp Desktop so that they can type quicker.
• 11:43
  The other people who have, I don't even know how they do
• 11:46
  itself, but my client even does it.
• 11:48
  You take your line and then somehow you're able to put two
• 11:52
  or three people on the same business line so that even if
• 11:55
  you're not available to respond, you know your assistant can
• 11:59
  respond or something like that. Either way, there are options
• 12:04
  and this is the job, so let's not complain.
• 12:05
  Let's get to it. OK, so I've now figured out that
• 12:10
  he wants a generator or that he wants inverter.
• 12:14
  I've now figured out what he needs it for.
• 12:17
  He needs it for charging business.
• 12:20
  Now can you now see that talking about big, big systems or
• 12:25
  sending him price list that has 5.6 kva, 10 kva.
• 12:29
  Can you see that all of that is completely unnecessary for
• 12:34
  somebody who just wants a system that can charge forms.
• 12:36
  Can you see that already in your mind?
• 12:39
  You already know the kind of money you can start discussing
• 12:41
  with the person. But remember, especially since
• 12:44
  we've been discussing at this last week, excuse me, how to go
• 12:48
  into what quality of person is this?
• 12:50
  Does the guy have money? Because some people don't sound
• 12:52
  right. Some people don't look right.
• 12:55
  But by the time you enter their bank account, you see now money
• 12:58
  be these. So don't assume based on how
• 13:03
  fresh somebody sounds or not. In fact, one client that I
• 13:08
  worked with earlier in the year was into audio production.
• 13:10
  The guy admitted he's into audio production for authors.
• 13:15
  By the time the potential client picked up the phone, in his mind
• 13:19
  was like I this one was sweet. The person did not sound.
• 13:25
  You understand me, You know how we are in Niger.
• 13:27
  The person did not sound like he had money, but that was the
• 13:31
  cheapest, sorry, not cheapest. That was the quickest deal he
• 13:35
  did for all of last year. The persons are there anyhow,
• 13:38
  anyhow, but by the time they got to money and he told the person
• 13:41
  that the budget for what they have discussed was $4000, the
• 13:45
  person said account details, please.
• 13:48
  The guy is shocked and these things happen in business.
• 13:52
  All right, you look at somebody, the person, no package.
• 13:55
  Well, person no dress well, the person doesn't sound well, but
• 13:57
  then be surprised that that's the person that has money.
• 14:01
  So it's not based on how this person sounds.
• 14:04
  You have some more questions to try and narrow down on.
• 14:07
  What kind of quality of person am I dealing with?
• 14:10
  So I went straight into money conversation and this is the
• 14:13
  reason why I say bring up money conversations early and bring
• 14:16
  them up often. Let me repeat again for those of
• 14:21
  you who didn't hear me or maybe you're not understanding, I'll
• 14:23
  repeat it and then we'll slow it down.
• 14:25
  Bring up money conversations early and bring them up often.
• 14:32
  When I say bring up money conversations early, what I mean
• 14:34
  is this. Some of you won't have the money
• 14:36
  conversation now. You continue to send the person
• 14:39
  price list and you go to follow up.
• 14:40
  Go to follow up in three weeks time.
• 14:42
  The person will tell you you're too expensive.
• 14:44
  You have wasted three weeks of your life.
• 14:48
  I repeat, you have wasted three weeks of your life.
• 14:51
  Bring up the money conversation early and find out now that the
• 14:58
  person can't afford you so that you can move on and be looking
• 15:01
  for other people who can afford you.
• 15:05
  You hear me? Remember what I said, Everybody
• 15:10
  is worthy of respect. So don't talk down on anybody
• 15:13
  because you know, he's a small boy.
• 15:15
  Don't talk down on small boys. You know, respect everybody.
• 15:18
  But you know, it's just nature of the game, you know, Now money
• 15:20
  will be fine. It's a business we're looking
• 15:22
  for. So if somebody's not a hot lead
• 15:24
  right now, we will de prioritize them and prioritize other
• 15:28
  people. So it's not a matter of
• 15:29
  disrespect. So I had the money conversation.
• 15:33
  I told together, OK, look for what it is that you are
• 15:36
  describing. It looks like you're better off
• 15:39
  buying. I better pass my neighbor.
• 15:41
  I better pass my neighbor. Those are small, small, small
• 15:44
  gents. I first discovered them when I
• 15:46
  was going for well, I've always known that they exist, but it's
• 15:49
  not until I was serving in Kano because that's what we had in
• 15:52
  Coppers Lodge and man, those things are resilient.
• 15:55
  I would like those things are resilient.
• 15:57
  You fill up the tank and then you run it.
• 15:59
  The thing will run for maybe like 10 hours or something.
• 16:03
  So that's how we used to cope because in the village where I
• 16:05
  was in Rano local government in Kano, we only saw NEPA there
• 16:10
  once and even now one time now flash, then flash room.
• 16:14
  Well, actually they tried the light was there for like maybe
• 16:16
  like two or three hours, but spending a whole year in a
• 16:20
  village, you only see light for like 3 hours.
• 16:22
  So to us you felt like now flash then flash.
• 16:25
  So I better pass my neighbor. So I told the guy straight up
• 16:28
  that look, based on what we've discussed so far, it looks like
• 16:31
  you're better off doing a better pass my neighbor, because if you
• 16:35
  must buy solar, even if it's a small solar, based on what we
• 16:38
  discussed will be like a 1.5 KVA and that 1.5 KVA now, you know,
• 16:44
  cost you anything between like that carrying 3 to 4 million.
• 16:47
  Do you have like 4 M now for this kind of project?
• 16:51
  I asked him. You say people handle the money
• 16:54
  conversation. My own preferred technique is
• 16:57
  that you give a range, then you throw the range back to the
• 17:01
  person. Based on the feedback, you now
• 17:02
  know which who you're dealing with.
• 17:04
  Some people say 3 to 4 million. Oh, the price has even come
• 17:08
  down. You now know that.
• 17:09
  OK, this person has been doing research before.
• 17:12
  Some people say 3 to 4 million. I didn't think you'll be that
• 17:14
  expensive. OK, we now know the quality of
• 17:16
  person we're dealing with. Some people will say 3 to 4
• 17:20
  million because you think I'm an armed robber.
• 17:23
  That kind of person who responds like that, you now know the
• 17:25
  quality of the person that you're dealing with.
• 17:26
  But either way, you get a range. The range has not committed you
• 17:29
  to anything, but you throw that range out.
• 17:32
  In this case, I said 3 to 4 million.
• 17:36
  It allows the conversation to continue so that you can now
• 17:39
  discuss and then you can now come up with three proposals
• 17:41
  later on and say, OK, based on what we've discussed there, if
• 17:44
  you go with this brand, it will be 3.4.
• 17:47
  If you go with this brand, it will be 3.6.
• 17:50
  If you go with this brand, it will be 4.2.
• 17:52
  But either way, you can see that it is it's close, it's within
• 17:56
  the range. So the range gives you the
• 17:58
  freedom to continue the conversation.
• 18:00
  So that's one reason why I say just use this range technique,
• 18:04
  the other techniques. But remember, I'm trying to
• 18:07
  prioritize people right now who like, like you're brand new, you
• 18:11
  don't even have any any knowledge.
• 18:13
  So I'm just using some simple techniques.
• 18:15
  This simple range thing will help.
• 18:18
  So range and then feedback. So that's why I told the guy
• 18:21
  it's OK that based on what we've discussed is as if you should
• 18:25
  buy a better pass my neighbor. Because if not solar, even if
• 18:29
  it's 1.5 KV, it will be anything between 3:00 and 4 million.
• 18:34
  Do you have 4M to invest in this kind of thing?
• 18:37
  The guys say, ah, no, no gear, 4M.
• 18:41
  Yeah, said it. Now you can see that I know the
• 18:44
  quality of person I'm dealing with.
• 18:45
  When I say quality here, please let nobody misunderstand me.
• 18:49
  I'm not saying quality in the sense of, you know, dealing with
• 18:51
  a qualified buyer, somebody who has a want, who has a need, who
• 18:56
  can afford and who is getting ready to take action soon.
• 18:59
  I'm not saying that people who have money are better than
• 19:01
  people who don't have money. Please hold your ears and hear
• 19:04
  me correctly. I'm not saying that because this
• 19:06
  guy and a small boy, therefore he's not a quality person.
• 19:09
  I'm just looking at it purely from a sales perspective.
• 19:12
  All right, I'm sure he's a decent fellow.
• 19:14
  So the guys, I don't care for him.
• 19:17
  I said OK, no problem. So I told him in that case, I
• 19:20
  better pass my neighbor, I think is the way to go.
• 19:22
  And I asked him where are you based?
• 19:26
  The guy said in Ibadan. I said OK, where exactly in
• 19:31
  Ibadan? So that I will just tell you
• 19:32
  some places where you can go and look for a better pass.
• 19:35
  My neighbor and then he told me that he's in Ring Rd.
• 19:37
  I said OK, no problem in WhatsApp I'm going to send you
• 19:41
  some information so that you check one or two people on Ring
• 19:44
  Rd. to see if you can buy that system for you.
• 19:47
  He said, ah, thank you very much boss.
• 19:49
  I appreciate. I said no Walhalla and then we
• 19:51
  end call. Very simple.
• 19:54
  The person called I was now trying to figure out who am I
• 19:58
  talking to and this is a quality lead.
• 20:00
  If I knew I had the quality lead, my options would have
• 20:02
  been. Pass him along to my client and
• 20:04
  I say, boss, if this guy, why are you 40 M, you must put my
• 20:08
  10% inside there, you know? So ascertain the guy.
• 20:15
  Sorry, Abby. Yeah, talk to the person.
• 20:17
  Ascertain who it is you're dealing with.
• 20:18
  Then you know the options. Now, I knew that this was not a
• 20:22
  qualified customer. Now, qualified customer is based
• 20:25
  on what it is you're looking for.
• 20:26
  Now, if I was in the business of selling generators, OK, I maybe
• 20:29
  I could have continued the conversation and see how I can
• 20:33
  get some money from him for I better pass my neighbor.
• 20:38
  But the problem is me, I'm in Abuja, the guys in the bad door.
• 20:40
  So since still you know what makes sense as in by the time
• 20:45
  you put delivery money and or whatnot.
• 20:47
  Anyway, let's continue. So, so now that I know I was not
• 20:57
  dealing with a qualified contact, a qualified lead, a
• 21:02
  qualified, a good quality potential customer, the next
• 21:05
  thing to do actually is to send the person along, refer him to
• 21:10
  somewhere else where he can get his needs met.
• 21:14
  The reason why you want to do this is because you want to be a
• 21:16
  helpful resource. You want to be respectful and
• 21:19
  you want to be the kind of person who takes good care of
• 21:21
  people who come across your way, whether they can give you money
• 21:24
  today or not. And the reason why we do that is
• 21:28
  this Small boys of yesterday can become big boys of tomorrow.
• 21:33
  I repeat, small boys of yesterday or small girls of
• 21:36
  yesterday can become big boys. Big girls of tomorrow Wouldn't
• 21:42
  be a bad idea if let's say 100 small boys or 100 smile small
• 21:47
  girls pass through you. This year.
• 21:50
  Won't be a bad idea if you know 2 years from now when they are.
• 21:53
  Big boys won't be a bad idea if you know 5 or 6 of them come
• 21:58
  back and buy for you from you just because you're the only one
• 22:02
  that treated them like a human being.
• 22:05
  So this is the scope. Also, if you can't take care of
• 22:10
  a person and you send the person someplace else, the person is
• 22:12
  taking care of you know, you're being, you're being a valuable
• 22:15
  resource. You're being a valuable resource
• 22:17
  to the other person. Because remember my client,
• 22:19
  let's say this was a good deal, 4050 million naira kind of deal.
• 22:23
  I sent it to him and the thing closed.
• 22:25
  You think my client will be happy or not?
• 22:26
  You'll be happy because that's an extra 40 M that he did not
• 22:29
  have to chase. So even for my client who is in
• 22:35
  solar, you know I'm being a valuable resource to him.
• 22:39
  Of course the guy will appreciate me.
• 22:41
  Send me my own my own cart. So after we ended the phone
• 22:48
  call, I just did a quick search. It didn't take time just quick
• 22:52
  search and I sent him a place. I just told him to go to Ogunpa
• 22:57
  market. Sorry forgive me.
• 23:00
  You know I know how to speak Yoruba so I'm assuming it's
• 23:02
  pronounced the Ogunpa generator Ogunpa market.
• 23:06
  So the same to Ogunpa market. I even told him specific brands
• 23:10
  like LA Park like Lucian or Tiger because those are the more
• 23:14
  affordable brands. Then I also advised him that he
• 23:17
  should ask for 100% copper because some generators they use
• 23:20
  aluminum coil and aluminum coil used to spoil in Nigeria.
• 23:24
  Heat the heat I don't I don't I don't even know whether it's
• 23:27
  heat that causes it because I'm not an electrician.
• 23:29
  But just remember that you know, in Kano we had a better pass my
• 23:32
  neighbor that's in our village in Rano local government.
• 23:36
  So that quite call you should spoil anyhow.
• 23:39
  Anyhow, anyhow, So I just told him that when you're going ask
• 23:42
  for 100% copper, copper because I've seen first hand what
• 23:46
  aluminium can do, right? You mean the middle of watching
• 23:50
  World Cup and then next thing generator or just that?
• 23:55
  What's the problem? Like Coy, you know, I start
• 23:59
  talking with the electrician how you fix coral, how you replace
• 24:01
  coral, you know, meanwhile the match is going and of course you
• 24:06
  sleep in heat at night. So then I also sent him some
• 24:09
  estimated prices. So I told him I look for a
• 24:12
  better pass my neighbor you should hold like between 1:20
• 24:17
  and 160 K that's less than one kva.
• 24:22
  Then for the medium that's 2.5 kva to 3.5 kva.
• 24:26
  Told him to hold 350 to maybe like around.
• 24:28
  I count 500K. Then for large generator order
• 24:32
  one key start. That's the one that I'm see
• 24:35
  bought. In fact that's what I knew we
• 24:36
  were arriving. That's a mumsy bought key start
• 24:39
  generator back when I was a teenager.
• 24:41
  Instead of, you know, using your hand and drawing that you just
• 24:45
  use key. Just type it one time.
• 24:49
  The thing will now just be humming silently.
• 24:51
  So on that level, I told the guy that I showed like 150K and
• 24:55
  above, I'll just put in the options there.
• 24:59
  So that was the interaction. I had a conversation.
• 25:04
  I figured out the quality of person I was dealing with.
• 25:07
  It's not a good deal there for me.
• 25:09
  I tried to refer him to other places where he can get taken
• 25:13
  care of and the fellow was very, very thankful.
• 25:16
  I said I know Allah, no problem, good luck now because this
• 25:21
  person is not a qualified customer or qualified potential
• 25:25
  client. This is not the kind of person
• 25:27
  that we're going to put into lead nurturing or you know, or
• 25:31
  relationship building or things like that because you know, the
• 25:33
  guy don't qualify well. But if you must, OK, no problem.
• 25:36
  Maybe he's the kind of person who'll be receiving emails from
• 25:40
  you every two months or every three months about generator
• 25:42
  maintenance, about the latest in solar technology, or, you know,
• 25:49
  whatever shall like shall let the guys just receive e-mail,
• 25:52
  you know, But small boys of yesterday, small girls of
• 25:56
  yesterday, eventually, sometimes not always, they end up becoming
• 26:00
  big boys and not becoming big girls.
• 26:02
  So we treat everybody with respect.
• 26:04
  When people come in through our inbox, we're trying to figure
• 26:07
  out who it is that you're talking to.
• 26:08
  The easiest way to figure out who you're talking to is you
• 26:10
  have a quick phone conversation. The reason why I was able to
• 26:13
  dispatch with this young man quick, quick, less than 5
• 26:16
  minutes was because I picked up the phone.
• 26:18
  If we have been chatting back and forth, you know, you send
• 26:21
  message, they respond, you send message, they respond.
• 26:23
  This is a chat that you will be chatting back and forth for like
• 26:26
  5 hours on top, something that you can't even recover good
• 26:31
  money from. So this is also another reason
• 26:32
  why I say pick up the phone. When you pick up the phone is
• 26:35
  quick, quick, quick, straight to the point.
• 26:37
  You figure out who you're dealing with, whether it's a
• 26:40
  serious thing, and then you move accordingly.
• 26:46
  Then let's see what else? What else we discussed today
• 26:50
  again. So uh huh.
• 26:51
  Money conversations. Remember, please have money
• 26:54
  conversations. Do it early and do it often.
• 26:59
  Because I had the money conversation early, I was able
• 27:01
  to be done with this guy in less than 5 minutes and I moved on
• 27:04
  with my day. If you leave the money
• 27:07
  conversation on to the last, what will happen is you'll be
• 27:10
  sending this person messages back and forth and you guys will
• 27:13
  be chatting for six hours over the course of the next three
• 27:17
  days. And then on the final day, the
• 27:19
  person will tell you that you're too expensive, or the person
• 27:23
  will start telling you that he found something cheaper or
• 27:27
  something, something, something. You take the responsibility, you
• 27:32
  take the initiative, you bring it up early.
• 27:36
  If you're looking for a technique about how to have the
• 27:37
  money conversation, once you're able to figure out what the
• 27:40
  person might be looking for, give them a range, not an exact
• 27:43
  price. You say boss, you say Madam, you
• 27:46
  say chief, you say odogo, you say deaconess, you say Alhaji,
• 27:49
  you say alhaja. Based on what we're discussing,
• 27:53
  it looks like it can fall anywhere between 15,000,000 and
• 27:57
  10 million. Do you have up to 15,000,000 to
• 28:00
  be able to start this project right now?
• 28:02
  Then you keep quiet. Most people will respond and
• 28:06
  they will tell you based on what they hear, which what you hear,
• 28:10
  you know where to go. See the first time that I tried
• 28:12
  it out, I told the lady based on what we discussed so far, that
• 28:15
  was back in my event days, your coverage could be anything
• 28:19
  between 350,000 and 500,000. And the lady said and see I'm
• 28:26
  I'm quoting her. The lady said 500,000 sounds
• 28:29
  about right. I was shocked that she would say
• 28:32
  that because I was used to most people playing things close to
• 28:36
  their chest. I was shocked that she would say
• 28:37
  that say yes, 500,000 sounds just about right.
• 28:41
  Now. When the lady responded like
• 28:43
  that, do you not think he gave me confidence that, OK, I'm
• 28:46
  talking to a better kind of somebody?
• 28:53
  Of course, these things don't always work right?
• 28:56
  So I was shocked that the first time I tried putting out a range
• 28:59
  that it worked and it gave me a sense of who they were.
• 29:02
  So that's why confidently I was like, OK, sure, no problem.
• 29:05
  Cool. I'd like to come and discuss
• 29:06
  options. Is that I come to the office.
• 29:09
  Oh no, no, I work from home saying oh, Ala now should be now
• 29:12
  who say to I can come through tomorrow morning and say, Oh no,
• 29:16
  tomorrow morning is not good moms, you will not be around
• 29:18
  blah, blah, blah, Say how come? Oh is momsie is paying Abby, He
• 29:21
  said, of course, now momsie is paying.
• 29:23
  Am I the one who is working? You see from no conversation.
• 29:26
  Now I'm also getting some more information about what I'm
• 29:29
  dealing with 500K she says, sounds about right.
• 29:32
  I now know that is mumsy that is going to pay so confidently.
• 29:38
  I can go to their house and have this meeting.
• 29:40
  I spend my own transport because I know that OK, this is the kind
• 29:44
  of person at the end of the day, 500 can come out if I do a good
• 29:48
  job. So money conversations, early
• 29:52
  money conversations often apart from that, when people call us
• 29:56
  the first thing, our goal is not send them price list or send
• 30:00
  them proposal or send them quotation.
• 30:03
  The first point of call, please. The very first point of call is
• 30:07
  who am I talking to? This is a big boy or a small
• 30:11
  boy, big girl or a small girl. Odo go or middle class worker
• 30:19
  pass or just make an inquiry. Do they have a big problem or
• 30:25
  they don't have a big problem? OK, they have a big problem.
• 30:27
  Do they have budget for the problem or not?
• 30:30
  OK, they don't have budget for the problem.
• 30:32
  No problem. How can I refer them to someone
• 30:34
  else or still be a helpful resource and politely get them
• 30:37
  out of my way? OK, they have budget, but you
• 30:39
  know, it's not something that I might be able to solve at the
• 30:41
  moment. OK, how can I refer this out to
• 30:43
  somebody else? I'll collect my 10% or my 5% or
• 30:46
  however it is. It works in your own industry.
• 30:49
  So that's the scope and this is how you deal with situations
• 30:54
  where you're talking to somebody and it's like the person is a
• 30:56
  small boy or the person is a small girl.
• 30:59
  This is how we deal with it. But don't assume that person is
• 31:02
  a small boy or a small girl based on how they sound.
• 31:05
  Immediately you start the conversation, it's not based on
• 31:08
  how they sound. It's not based on how they look.
• 31:10
  You run through your qualification and discovery
• 31:12
  process, ask them the questions. The answer that will give you
• 31:15
  will tell you which kind of somebody you're dealing with.
• 31:18
  So that's it. All right, it's been 30 minutes,
• 31:22
  so let me bring this to a close. Thank you very much for your
• 31:24
  time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to
• 31:26
  connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a
• 31:29
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. You want me to look at some of
• 31:36
  your sales problems? That's not a problem.
• 31:39
  08064662140. If you're shy, no problem, you
• 31:45
  can stay on my WhatsApp channel and yeah, at least just get
• 31:51
  updates and see things that we talk about over there.
• 31:55
  So that's it for today. Thank you very much for your
• 31:57
  time and attention. I'll catch you some other time.