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Are You Too Expensive, or Are You Talking to the Wrong Crowd? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:02
Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies
0:05
because today is an out and about recording so expect to
0:07
hear the usual interruptions. Although luckily I'm not close
0:11
to any chickens at the moment so you shouldn't hear any.
0:15
What do they do? Is it croaking or screeching
0:18
coming in through your earphones?
0:21
Now? In the last episode, if I
0:24
remember correctly, I think we did an intro to objections and
0:29
rejection and how to handle that in business.
0:31
And so the next couple of episodes that I'm going to
0:33
record will be just conversations between you and I
0:37
I'll be trying to figure out what are the typical objections
0:39
that people receive and what are the best ways to go about
0:42
handling those objections, dealing with those objections.
0:45
And the objection we're going to be looking at today is it's too
0:49
expensive. Now the reasons why I'm picking
0:52
that one is obvious because there's nobody in Nigeria who is
0:56
involved in business that has not received that objection
0:58
before. Whether you sell bathroom
1:00
slippers or you sell soap or you sell consulting services or you
1:03
sell chickens or you sell aircrafts or you sell hotel
1:07
accommodation, everybody has received that objection that it
1:10
is too expensive. So I think it's a good one to
1:13
open the conversation with. Now for those of you who are
1:16
listening to the show for the first time, definitions, we need
1:20
to rewind because if it's your first show, then you don't know
1:23
what that objection is. Now an objection is any reason
1:26
that people are giving for not going ahead with the sale, going
1:31
ahead with the project, going ahead with the business
1:33
relationship, going ahead with the agenda, not taking the next
1:36
step. Whatever reasons that people
1:38
give, that is an objection. And if somebody says it's too
1:41
expensive, that is a reason for not going ahead with the sale or
1:45
the business relationship. And that makes a lot of sense.
1:47
But before we continue, I also like to rewind for those who are
1:50
listening to the show for the first time that there's a
1:53
difference between an objection and a condition.
1:55
A condition is an absolute prerequisite.
1:58
And so if that is the case, the business deal is not going to
2:01
move forward. And one of the examples that I
2:04
remember giving was if you sell shoes, sorry, excuse me, if you
2:09
sell female shoes and you're trying to sell and you're having
2:12
conversations with a man and the man doesn't have a wife, maybe
2:15
he's a widower. And let's say the man doesn't
2:17
have any daughters. He only has sons, and let's say
2:20
he's not on good talking terms with his sisters and maybe the
2:24
man's mom is dead. And let's say he's introverted
2:28
and he doesn't talk to females. Now, given this unlikely
2:31
scenario, it is very hard for you.
2:34
In fact, it is impossible for you to pull out a sale under
2:37
those circumstances because if you're talking to a man about
2:40
buying female shoes, then it's a prerequisite that he at the very
2:44
least should have females that he would intend buying the shoes
2:49
for. So one moment, I'll have to take
2:52
a little break and then I'll be back with you guys very soon.
2:58
Hello and welcome back. I'm really sorry about that, but
3:01
I had to attend to something briefly.
3:04
Obviously, like I said, I'm out and about.
3:06
So yeah, that's why I had to clip that recording, go and do a
3:09
bunch of stuff. And now I'm back.
3:11
So if I remember correctly, I was talking about, I think I was
3:15
defining objections, and I also spoke about what a condition
3:20
was. Yes, And higher condition is a
3:22
prerequisite to the sale. So someone either meets the
3:25
prerequisite or they don't meet the prerequisite.
3:28
So I gave the example about you're in female, yourself,
3:32
female shoes, and you're speaking to a man who has no
3:34
connection with females whatsoever.
3:37
Then let's look at legal conditions.
3:40
Now let's say alcohol drinking. So technically speaking, or
3:45
rather legally speaking, you should not be in a situation
3:48
where you are trying to sell alcohol to someone who is 16
3:51
years old or 15 years old because there we have a very,
3:55
very, very strong condition in place.
3:58
So you should not be trying to close the sale under those
4:01
circumstances. I mean, if you're trying to sell
4:03
alcoholic products and the person looks at you straight in
4:06
the face and the person says I'm 15 years old, you stop
4:08
immediately because that is not an objection that you are
4:11
supposed to overcome. The person has told you I am a
4:14
miner. You know, legally you're not
4:16
supposed to sell to minors. Once the person brings it up,
4:19
you stop immediately. So there's some things that are
4:22
objections. You listen, you empathize, you
4:24
ask questions. You try and figure out Is there
4:26
a way we can move here? Is there a way we can move
4:28
there? Can we haggle?
4:29
Can we negotiate? Can we do this?
4:31
You try and make room and close the sale, but when you're
4:34
dealing with objections and you sorry with conditions and you
4:37
uncover a condition, you stop immediately, ask for a referral
4:41
if it's appropriate, or run off and look for somebody else to
4:45
spend time with. But if you are dealing with
4:48
objections, try and figure out what's going on.
4:51
You might be able to close the deal.
4:52
If it's a condition, stop immediately.
4:55
Do not try to make any room. Now that we're done with
5:01
definitions, let's look at the perspectives.
5:04
Now, if you listen to the previous episode I mentioned
5:06
there that if you want to deal with objections, First off you
5:09
have to empathize with people. Because people don't like being
5:14
contradicted. They don't like being made a
5:15
fool of. So you need to let the person
5:17
know that whatever their objections are, it makes sense
5:20
because nobody's a fool. So listen, empathize.
5:24
Let the person know that what they say makes perfect sense.
5:27
And then you try and ask questions because you're trying
5:29
to figure out what it is that we're going on.
5:31
Because it's only when we have information that we're going to
5:34
know how we're going to deal with the objection.
5:37
So those of you who hear an objection and then start trying
5:39
to solve it, you better stop that because you're making
5:41
things worse for yourself. If someone says it's too
5:44
expensive and then you ignore and keep on trying to close the
5:49
sale, you you come across as a what's that word?
5:55
Intrusive. Intrusive.
5:58
Rude. Aggressive.
6:02
You know any man of things. So whenever you meet an
6:05
objection, actually empathize. First show that you are
6:09
listening. Ask some questions.
6:11
Try and get more information. That is what will determine what
6:14
you do next. Because if you ask more
6:17
information and maybe what is needed is more clarity then all
6:21
you have to just tweak your presentation to say oh Bros or
6:24
Orga or Madame or gentleman or gentle lady.
6:29
Actually when I said blah blah blah blah blah, what I meant was
6:32
so, so, so and so. I'm terribly sorry that you got
6:34
that impression. It was my fault.
6:36
Now that I've clarified things and you know, would you be
6:39
comfortable with, would you be comfortable with purchasing now
6:43
now that I've clarified and hang up, you know, I mean the person
6:45
says I'm still not comfortable. Then of course he asked more
6:49
questions like oh, I'm sorry, I thought that ABCXYZ, those are
6:53
the key, most concerns. It looks like you have something
6:55
else that you haven't said, you know, so what's on your mind?
6:58
Let's see if I can help. And then you continue with the
7:00
conversation. So that is the spirit of what
7:04
we're going to be advocating for all the other objections that
7:07
we're going to be looking at the next couple of days on the
7:10
podcast. So now it's too expensive.
7:13
How do we deal with this? Even when you take the framework
7:17
that I have shared over here on the podcast so far, which is
7:23
empathize, show that it makes sense, Ask questions, Figure out
7:27
more information. Tweak your proposal with this
7:31
new information, ask for the clothes.
7:35
If you can't move ahead, of course, then try and get a
7:37
referral out of the situation where appropriate.
7:42
OK, so even with that general framework, they are two
7:44
different perspectives. Well, there might be more, but
7:47
right now at the top of my mind, there's only two different
7:49
perspectives that are coming to my head when it comes to dealing
7:51
with objections like it is too expensive.
7:55
And these are the two perspectives, #1 is to engage
7:57
with the objection. That is what I described earlier
8:00
with the whole thing of show some empathy, show that you
8:04
agree with them they're not idiots.
8:06
It makes sense. And then ask more questions when
8:08
you engage with the objection, the whole point is to try and
8:11
move the deal forward. So they've given a reason.
8:16
I'm trying to figure out is this region reason, is it cogent?
8:19
Does it make sense, Is it weighty?
8:21
Is there something that I missed out in my presentation?
8:24
Now that I have this extra information, how can I bring
8:26
that on board so we can move the deal forward?
8:28
That is option one engage. Option two is the failure of pre
8:35
qualification. I'll explain what that means
8:37
later. But when we are the failure of
8:40
pre qualification, what we are trying to do now is to what
8:44
we're going to do now is to ignore the deal and then we're
8:51
going to ignore this deal basically and then move on to
8:54
others so that we can spend our time there.
8:58
Now let me OK, yeah, this is the right point.
8:59
Let me now explain what failure of qualification is.
9:02
When you're doing business with people or when you're trying to
9:05
close the sale, there's a stage of the business relationship or
9:09
there's a stage where you guys are having conversations that in
9:11
sales we call qualification. Qualification is when you want
9:15
to be sure that you are speaking to the right person.
9:17
The person has a problem, the person has a need, the person is
9:21
a good candidate. You know all these sorts of
9:23
things. Now, if the person truly cannot
9:28
afford your product or your service, then the problem is not
9:31
from the person that you're talking to.
9:35
The problem is from you because you didn't qualify in the
9:37
beginning. If I sell Mercedes Benzes and I
9:42
spend most of my time talking to people who are security guards,
9:46
the problem is not that they are security guards.
9:49
The problem is that I am not doing my job at qualifying.
9:53
I am not talking to people who even have a reasonable hope of
9:57
buying what it is that I sell. So me dealing with that
10:01
objection is too expensive actually is for me to ignore
10:05
security guards and spend more time with people who might be
10:09
able to buy my Mercedes-Benz. Now, I am not saying that people
10:13
who are security guards are not human.
10:15
I'm not saying that they are less than and they're not worthy
10:17
of being respected. I'm just using an extreme
10:19
example to point out something. Now sometimes the reason why you
10:22
guys are hearing it's too expensive is because of failure
10:25
of pre qualification. We should be qualifying people
10:28
right from the get go, right from the beginning.
10:30
We need to be able to be sure that this is the right person
10:33
who might be able to afford this thing in the 1st place.
10:36
If you spend more time talking to people who could afford, then
10:40
the chances of you hearing is too expensive goes down.
10:45
If you get rid of this objection, it's too expensive.
10:47
That's a good thing because now it means that we can spend our
10:50
valuable time dealing with other things that might be scaring
10:53
them off or that they don't understand.
10:56
So those are the two perspectives #1 Engage with the
10:59
objection, but The thing is too many of you rush first into
11:02
engage. #2 is failure of pre qualification.
11:06
We need to be sure that we qualify the people right in the
11:09
1st place. If truly, truly, truly we have
11:12
ignored sorry we didn't qualify properly, then ignore the deal.
11:17
So those are the two perspectives.
11:18
Engage and move the deal forward or have qualification
11:23
conversations and ignore the deal if appropriate.
11:27
Now let's look at the engage option.
11:29
I've already spoken about what that entails.
11:31
You agree or or you empathize. If somebody says it's too
11:34
expensive, you agree. You say, yeah, yeah, Madam, I
11:38
understand. Yeah, I understand.
11:40
It's expensive. It's teenable economy.
11:42
Yeah, I know how things are going, you see, So you make the
11:45
person sound like they're a reasonable person.
11:50
And what they said actually makes sense.
11:52
So forgive me with the sniffling.
11:54
The baby has come down with a sore throat.
11:56
And as usual, I'm the one that. OK, well, it's not the baby this
11:59
time. It's my older son that has got
12:01
the sore throat. And as usual, I have one.
12:04
I'm the one in the house who has caught the virus.
12:07
OK, so you say, yeah, man, yeah, I understand.
12:10
It makes sense. I know things are really harsh
12:12
with this teenable economy. I know how things are going,
12:14
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that is the engaging part.
12:18
Now the next part is when you ask questions because remember,
12:21
we're trying to figure out what it is that is the problem.
12:25
So you say, I understand my yeah, it's expensive, you know,
12:27
blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Now one line of question that
12:30
you can ask is the compared to what questions.
12:34
So you can say, yeah, Madam, I understand things are harsh,
12:37
it's expensive, but who have you been talking to exactly?
12:42
You know, am I the first person that you've spoken to or what
12:45
are you comparing me to? You know, you're trying to
12:47
figure out these questions because it's possible that they
12:51
may not have had realistic price expectations in the market.
12:54
So if you sell inverter batteries and your inverter
12:57
batteries cost OK, I don't know how much inverter batteries
13:01
cost, so let me just guess. Let's just say inverter
13:03
batteries now cost 400,000 naira 400K and the person needs to buy
13:08
eight batteries. If the person say it's
13:10
expensive, you say ah Madam, I understand though you know
13:13
attainable economy 4X. You know that's why these
13:16
batteries are expensive like this one.
13:18
But then you ask, you're trying to figure out what she's
13:20
comparing it to and they ask, Madam, have you spoken to other
13:22
people? Have you spoken to XYZ company?
13:25
Am I the first person you've spoken to so far?
13:27
OK, I'm expensive, I agree. But expensive compared to what?
13:30
Or compared to who? And the person might say, I
13:33
spoke to Chukudi on Tuesday and Chukudi said his batteries are
13:37
120 K Now since you're an expert in the business and you know
13:42
that there are 120 K batteries, this is the point where you're
13:46
going to now educate and say, ah Madam, that 120K battery run
13:50
away from me too. That 100 and K120K battery,
13:55
that's the battery that we used to use 10 years ago.
13:58
Those are the ones that are made of lithium base.
14:00
Those are the ones that after a while that they swell and they
14:02
explode and they catch fire. Madam, if anybody's giving you
14:06
120K run, I'm telling you run. The only battery you should be
14:10
looking at are tubular batteries that you put liquid this inside
14:15
that you do this, you do this, you do that.
14:17
You know that whole technical speak, even if you sell inverter
14:19
batteries, this is the point where you now educate them so
14:24
you see how it works, empathize first and then start asking
14:27
questions because you want to know what you're being compared
14:29
to, who you're being compared to.
14:31
So you can educate them and let them know what the realistic
14:33
price expectations are. Because my guess is the matter
14:38
of the business you're involved in.
14:39
You're probably not involved in the in the luxury space because
14:43
in luxury markets don't have this problem because for luxury
14:47
the inverse is the case. The more expensive you are the
14:50
better when you're dealing with the luxury space.
14:52
So luxury people, they don't hear this is too expensive.
14:54
So if it's Balenciaga bag and all those sorts of things, the
14:58
babe you're talking to is not going to say it's too expensive,
15:01
You know, if she has money, she will drop it now because she
15:03
wants to show that she's a correct babe.
15:06
Or if it's a guy who is buying mobile phones for his wife or
15:10
his girlfriend, he wants to impress his girlfriend.
15:12
You guys get there. This is Samsung phone something,
15:15
something. The price is 1.4 million.
15:17
You know he wants to impress the babe now, so he will drop it
15:19
straight. He might even drop, you know,
15:21
2.8 and collect 2 phones, one for him, one for the babe.
15:25
Because we're now dealing with luxury situations.
15:28
So by outside of luxury situations, this is one option
15:30
for going about it. Agree, empathize.
15:32
Yeah, Madam, I understand that you know things are expensive.
15:36
More is not also sustainable economy exchange rates.
15:38
That's why the batteries are expensive.
15:40
And then you ask questions to try and figure out who you're
15:42
being compared to and then educate her.
15:44
If she has seen 120K battery, tell her these are the reasons
15:47
why 100 and K20 batteries are not good.
15:49
If she hasn't spoken to anybody at all, then that's the point
15:51
where I say, ah Madam, no wonder I'm the first person that you're
15:54
talking to. Now you know what, Why don't you
15:56
go to the market, go and talk to other people Now talk to a
15:59
couple of people, find out how much these batteries are.
16:01
When you find out, come back. Let's talk now, by the way, you
16:05
only make this garbage if you know for sure that your prices
16:08
are reasonable. So the chances are, if they
16:11
didn't have realistic expectations and you're the
16:13
first person that they're talking to, she'll go into the
16:15
market and she'll find out that on average good batteries are
16:18
costing 384 hundred 420. Now if she does that and you
16:25
call her up in three days time and say, oh Madam, how far have
16:27
you asked around? Now that's your price of 400K
16:31
per battery. Even though it is expensive, it
16:34
doesn't seem so unreasonable after all.
16:37
So that is the first option of agreeing, empathizing, trying to
16:42
engage. Ask questions to figure out what
16:46
you're being compared to, who you're being compared to.
16:48
Now the next set of questions that you can ask are to drill
16:51
down to their specific needs. If you're asking to drill down
16:55
to the specific needs, what you're trying to do is to adjust
16:57
the quote so the person says my batteries are too expensive,
17:01
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you hold things up.
17:03
Madam, I understand though, you know myself, you know, house
17:07
rent has gone up everything, exchange rates, blah, blah,
17:09
blah. These batteries are imported
17:11
from Japan, imported from Saudi Arabia is exchange rate.
17:14
That's causing it, You know, that whole empathy, whatever.
17:16
And then you say, Madam, you know what?
17:18
This is what we can do based on what we discussed for your
17:21
house. Initially, I was saying that we
17:24
need 8 solar panels, we need 4 batteries and we need 1600
17:29
meters of wire or whatever. OK, no 1000.
17:32
That's too much. Now we need 10 meters of wire.
17:35
So you can now say OK Madam, since this thing is high like
17:38
this, you know what? What in the house is not
17:41
important. Maybe we can remove deep
17:43
freezer. We can remove AC.
17:45
We can remove the TV in the children's room so that it's
17:51
only the TV in master bedroom, the TV in the parlor that will
17:56
be connected to this system. Then the fans will be connected.
17:59
Who would This would remove the AC and then we'll remove deep
18:04
freezer. So if we do that, the cost will
18:08
come down because the number of panels that we need will go
18:10
down. The number of batteries we need
18:11
will go down South. Madam, what do you think?
18:13
Madam will say, no problem. Now you're talking say.
18:16
OK, good. So now let's do that.
18:18
And then you go through the whole thing.
18:20
You figure out exactly what it is that she needs.
18:23
Which TV are you disconnecting from the solar, Which deep
18:25
freezer, which whatever. And you might be able to come
18:28
down to a quote that involves only four solar panels instead
18:31
of eight and that involves 2 batteries instead of four.
18:38
So in this case, you have not negotiated your price because
18:42
the price of one solar panel and the price of 1 battery is still
18:44
the same. All you have done is you've
18:45
drilled down on the specific needs and you have adjusted the
18:48
specs, the specifications on the quote And because of that the
18:52
price will now come down. So you can see that in this
18:56
engage option, show that they're reasonable, empathize with them,
19:02
and then ask questions. Two ways that you can be trying
19:05
to go about this is figure out what is this person comparing
19:09
you to and then educate them accordingly.
19:12
Either way, you're going to get them realistic price
19:14
expectations. And then #2 drill down on their
19:17
specific needs, cut out all the things that they do not need and
19:21
then, sorry, excuse me. And then your quote is going to
19:27
go down or maybe up accordingly because there are times when you
19:31
ask the questions and you actually figure out that the
19:34
first quote you gave did not even make sense and then you
19:37
might actually have to raise it up and then start negotiating
19:41
from there. So another option, the one that
19:47
some people do and I am not a fan of this, but it is there.
19:50
So let me just share with you guys.
19:53
People try to educate people. When people say it's too
19:56
expensive, people now start trying to educate them on price
19:59
versus value. They're trying to say, Madam, I
20:02
understand though, but you understand that price is what
20:04
you pay, what value is what you're getting.
20:07
And then start trying to convince the people on the value
20:09
of what they're getting. Now, the reason why I'm not a
20:11
fan of this is trying to educate people is is is too much work,
20:17
especially when you're guessing. And for the average person, when
20:21
you start this whole thing of price is different from value,
20:23
you have lost them. They think you're just being a
20:26
salesperson, A salesman, A saleswoman.
20:29
So excuse me, they think you're just being sharp.
20:32
You're trying to bamboozle them. So some trainers talk about
20:37
these kind of tactics. I would not recommend you guys
20:40
do that, but it's out there. So I'm just letting you guys
20:43
know, educate them on difference between price and value.
20:45
Price is what you pay for something.
20:48
Value is what you get for that thing.
20:51
So before you try and educate someone, try and ask them
20:54
questions. I figure out where they're
20:55
coming from first. At least that way you know that
20:58
when you're educating, you're educating someone on a specific
21:02
point. Now the second perspective we
21:05
are done with, well, OK, maybe now we're done because we can
21:09
always keep going and going and going.
21:11
But I've introduced you to guys to one way which is engage with
21:14
the objection. Now let's look at failure of pre
21:17
qualification. Now failure of pre qualification
21:20
just means you are attracting the wrong people or you are
21:23
talking to the wrong people. Because remember, qualification
21:26
is the part of the business relationship or the conversation
21:29
where you're trying to figure out who is this person, what are
21:31
they about? What's the problem?
21:33
Can I solve the problem come my product or service meet this
21:35
whole thing? So you have to be sure.
21:40
So excuse me now, just speaking to the right person in the 1st
21:42
place. So failure of pre of pre
21:44
qualification just means that you are attracting the wrong
21:50
people. So to solve this problem, if you
21:55
are attracting the wrong people, remember the example that I
21:58
gave, the extreme example of you sell Mercedes-Benz, but you keep
22:02
talking to people who are security guards.
22:05
So what you do is, number one, you change your advertising copy
22:11
or change whatever it is that you're putting out there.
22:12
Copy just means the words, the text that you write not to
22:15
promote your business, change it, introduce the price, or
22:20
introduce some other criteria that will weed out certain kinds
22:25
of people so that security guards and people who don't have
22:29
money to afford these are just selling.
22:31
Once they see it, they'll say no, this one is not for me and
22:34
they won't bother calling you or booking a meeting with you.
22:38
Now an example of this of someone I didn't end up working
22:41
with the person, but something that they did and I thought was
22:44
brilliant was in the beginning they found that they were
22:46
talking to certain kinds of people.
22:48
By the way, I am not insisting that people who cannot afford to
22:51
pay for your Mercedes-Benz or whatever it is that you buy.
22:53
I'm not saying that these people are lesser than.
22:56
I'm not saying that they're not human beings, they are human
22:58
beings. But I'm just saying that what
23:00
we're trying to do here is we're trying to sell something.
23:02
And if you're trying to sell Toyotas or Mercedes-Benz is,
23:04
you're better off speaking with people who can afford it.
23:07
But everybody's worthy of our respect.
23:08
So let's respect everybody. Let's not look down on anyone
23:12
because they can't afford what we're selling, OK?
23:16
Sorry about that. I think from here I need to go
23:17
to the pharmacist and get some medicine.
23:21
All right. So what this guy did was they
23:22
changed the advertising copy. So instead of saying, are you
23:26
interested in solar? Are you live in Lagos?
23:28
Do you have Napa problems? Do you want to buy solar?
23:30
Call us on so, so and so. And then of course people
23:33
calling and people are saying too expensive, too expensive.
23:37
They changed the advertising copy to say are you curious,
23:41
would you like to see what kind of investor solutions you can
23:44
purchase with 4 million naira? If so call us this number, this
23:48
is what at blah blah blah blah blah office at so, so, so and
23:51
so. Now that was a brilliant move
23:54
because that is good pre qualification.
23:58
Somebody who only has 2.5 M will see the advert and say 4
24:02
million. Not for me.
24:04
And the person will go someplace else.
24:06
Somebody who has five M will say, hey, very good, I'll be
24:10
saving 1,000,000. Let me give them a call.
24:13
Somebody who has 3.8 million might say, you know what, let me
24:17
try my luck. They're saying 4.
24:20
What I have is 3.7. I have 3.8.
24:22
Let me try my luck. But in this case, you can see
24:24
how changing your advertising copy will be attracting some
24:28
kinds of people. I will be sending away certain
24:31
kinds of people. So change your ad copy, your
24:36
advertising copy, your promo copy, redesign your Flyers, all
24:39
those things that you're putting out, so that you put things
24:43
there, either numbers or other kinds of cues, sometimes even
24:47
photos, if you only put photos of big men on your advertising
24:50
copy, big men and big women. By the way, I'm speaking in
24:53
Nigerian context. When you say big man or big
24:55
woman, you mean somebody who is affluent, somebody who is well
24:57
off. So if you only use photos of
25:00
people that are affluent and well off, then some people will
25:03
not bother giving you a call. Let me give you another example.
25:08
It's not one that I like, but I'm Nigerian.
25:11
You know we're all Nigerians, so we're real.
25:13
We see these things happen in Lagos and in Abuja there are
25:15
certain schools that would only advertise their schools by
25:18
putting white children or half caste children on their banners.
25:23
You know, white caste, white kids, half caste children
25:27
looking well fed with smooth skin and all that.
25:31
That is for pre qualification, so that those of you who do not
25:35
look like you are within that economic bracket of people who
25:40
are married to expatriate spouses or who travel a lot or
25:43
whatever, you just want to apply.
25:45
You know that OK me what I have is became what they're
25:48
advertising. They're advertising children,
25:51
you know, so I don't have children.
25:53
I have became. So let me take my became and go
25:55
someplace else. They let those who have children
25:58
apply to the school. So you get my drift.
26:01
So that is one way that you can stop attracting the wrong kind
26:05
of people. Just change your advertising
26:07
copy, change your Flyers introduced quite introduced
26:12
criteria there like my inventor guy who put 4M on the on the on
26:19
the Instagram advertising that will attract the right kind of
26:21
people. Then if you're using content
26:24
marketing, then change your content marketing focus, use
26:28
upscale themes, you know, things like that.
26:30
So let's say let's say back to the inverter person, you're
26:33
selling inverter systems. Let's say if you're in examples,
26:37
you keep talking about bungalow and two-bedroom and blah blah,
26:40
blah, blah, blah. Of course you will be attracting
26:42
people who want to buy inverter for one bedroom, 2 bedroom, you
26:46
know, that kind of thing. And maybe that kind of person
26:49
does not have 4M which is your ideal target market.
26:53
So in your content marketing, you can start talking about
26:56
projects where you guys powered shopping malls in Abuja or
27:01
shopping malls in Lagos or in six bedroom houses or how you
27:06
design solar power solution for hotels in Ikeja or hotels in
27:10
central business district in Abuja and things like that.
27:14
So people who come across that kind of content marketing, you
27:17
know, somebody who only has a one bedroom house is not going
27:22
to get in touch with you if every single time you post on
27:25
LinkedIn or on Instagram, you're showing the wonderful palaces or
27:29
the wonderful offices or the wonderful shopping malls that
27:32
you have provided solutions for. And then people who own those
27:36
sorts of establishments will call you because that is what
27:39
you're putting out there. So that's the whole thing about
27:44
failure of pre qualification. You're attracting the wrong
27:46
people and this is how to attract the right kind of
27:48
person. And remember when I say
27:50
attracting the wrong people, I'm not saying that people who can
27:52
afford certain kinds of niceties.
27:54
I'm not trying to say they're not human beings.
27:56
They're human beings. So pleased.
27:57
Respect everyone. I'm not saying we should look
28:00
down on folks. So another approach for
28:05
qualification is by the time you're having conversations with
28:08
people, oh, OK, 25 minutes. OK, let me rush.
28:12
So by the time you're having conversation with people, you
28:14
need to be having money conversations early so they can
28:17
weed people from the beginning. There's no point in having a 45
28:20
minute conversation with someone only to find out in minute 50
28:23
that they can't afford. You're better off bringing up
28:26
the money conversations early in minute 5 S that if it's the
28:30
wrong deal, then you can leave and the other person can leave.
28:33
You've saved yourself some time, so there are different ways of
28:36
doing it, but be conversational. Use approaches that work with
28:39
you. You can start off by saying
28:42
things like most of our happiest customers spend between X&Y.
28:47
Is this something you can afford?
28:49
It's a very direct question. By the time you say most of our
28:52
happiest customers spend between 4 million and 6,000,000 for
28:56
investor systems, this is something you can afford.
28:59
The person will. I mean, you know, pretty much
29:01
where you stand. There's some people, they'll say
29:02
4 to 6,000,000 and no problem. Sounds reasonable.
29:05
Yeah. Let me see, what do you have in
29:07
that case? You know that you're talking
29:08
with someone who might be able to afford, but if the person
29:11
responds, 4 million Are you serious?
29:15
Do you want to build a house or come and be going, come and be
29:18
going, that kind of thing? You know that you're talking to
29:20
someone who like there is no meeting at all because for them,
29:27
4 million sounds outrageous. Another person, you say most of
29:31
our happiest customers stand between 4 million and 6,000,000.
29:33
Is this something you can afford?
29:35
And the person says, yeah, that seems doable.
29:37
You know that there's room. You might have to haggle, you
29:39
might have to negotiate on price, but there's room.
29:43
So that's one way. Some people don't want to be
29:45
that direct. There are different ways of
29:47
going about it. You can say, OK, Madam Olga,
29:51
young man, young lady, from all the things we've discussed so
29:53
far, it looks as if this thing could cost between Y&Z doesn't
29:59
make sense for us to continue talking and then you hear what
30:02
they have to say. So if the young lady you're
30:05
listening to, you're talking to, and you tell her that, OK, for
30:09
all the things you've discussed so far, there are handbags that
30:13
can meet this whole thing. But the handbags will be between
30:16
the cost of 150K for one handbag to 250.
30:19
Doesn't make sense for us to continue.
30:21
If the young girl looks at you and she bats her eyes up and
30:24
down, you now know that OK, there's no room here.
30:28
If the young lady looks at you and says yourself 200K for one
30:32
handbag, I beg you know I was talking to Susan and so the
30:36
person has something for 120. But you know what?
30:39
Let's be talking. Let me see what you have.
30:41
In that case, you know that there is room.
30:45
So you see how it helps to have these conversations, money
30:48
conversations early so that people who are not interested.
30:51
Oh, sorry about that. OK, Yeah, 30 minutes.
30:57
Let me see. OK, I think I'm done.
31:01
Pretty much. You're attracting the wrong
31:03
people. So change your advertising copy.
31:04
Oh, by the way, that was the alarm going off that I spent too
31:07
much time on the podcast. Then bring up the money
31:11
conversations early and that way so that you know, let the person
31:15
go and you can also go and spend time with someone else.
31:20
So you can say people usually spend between this and this, you
31:25
know, to solve the problem, Is this something you're
31:26
comfortable with? So just use your own, use your
31:33
own verbiage. It doesn't have to be English.
31:35
You can speak Pigeon, You can speak house, you can speak
31:37
Yoruba, you can speak IBU. It's it's the same thing.
31:40
You can speak French, you know, in case you're a Nigerian
31:42
person, you're living in Bena Republic, everybody speaks
31:45
French. You know, this conversation goes
31:46
down well in French as well. However, there's one thing, this
31:52
whole thing of trying to weed out people and or what not the
31:57
kind of words that you use, the kind of expressions that you
31:59
use. You know, it depends on your
32:01
product, your service, your industry, the kind of clientele,
32:04
then the business culture and also the people culture.
32:07
I'll mention this one before we leave because from what I've
32:11
heard so far about folks in Japan, because in Japan they
32:14
have a premium on honor and they have a premium on saving face.
32:18
So in Japan, talking to a guy and insinuating that the guy
32:24
does not have money might be a problem.
32:26
The guy will feel very insulted that look at this young guy,
32:30
Look at this, this this guy. The guy is coming.
32:33
The guy is insulting me. He's trying to say that I'm not
32:35
a man. Now, you know, I can't take care
32:36
of my family, you know, that kind of thing.
32:38
But in Nigeria, it's not a problem.
32:40
If you ask somebody that usually cost between this and this, you
32:44
know, to solve this kind of problem, my behalf or what do
32:47
you think the best will even be happy with you?
32:49
The person will say 4 million. OK, please come and be going.
32:53
Sorry that I wasted your time. No, really, I can't afford it.
32:56
You know, I really can't afford it at all.
32:58
So in Nigeria, it's not a problem.
33:00
In Japan, maybe it's not a good idea because I have a premium on
33:03
saving face and a premium on honor.
33:05
So take that on board. What might be fine in Nigeria
33:11
might be an insult to somebody in Japan.
33:14
So those are some of the considerations that we should be
33:19
making when it comes to trying to weed out people and have the
33:21
money conversation early. So that's all for today folks.
33:24
Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp.
33:26
The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234 for
33:32
those of you who are not Nigerian.
33:34
And then connect with me on LinkedIn.
33:35
My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show and you
33:38
can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address from
33:42
the link. We're listening to the episode.
33:43
So thanks for your time and attention.
33:45
I'll catch you guys at the next recording and we'll move on to
33:48
the next set of objections that we typically encounter in our
33:52
businesses.