Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Sound More Professional (And Make More Money) on Calls
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Ayede.
- 0:04I'm the host of the podcast, and I'm making today's recording at
- 0:07home, so expect to hear some noise in the background.
- 0:10Now, the goal of this podcast is solving business problems.
- 0:13So if you're struggling to get customers, if there's a problem
- 0:15with your marketing, if your side hustle isn't moving, if
- 0:19something is holding your business back, then this is the
- 0:21show for you. So subscribe on Spotify,
- 0:24YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice.
- 0:27And if you'd love to connect, then call SMS or WhatsApp me on
- 0:3008064662140. Today on the podcast, I want us
- 0:37to look at simple things you need if you're going to make a
- 0:39living using the phone. I repeat, simple things you are
- 0:43going to need if you want to make a living using the phone.
- 0:48And of course, who are those people who make a living using
- 0:51the phone? It's you and I, self-employed
- 0:53people, business owners, whether we like it or not, we have to
- 0:56pick up the phone every once in a while and call someone or we
- 1:00have to receive phone calls from customers, from stakeholders,
- 1:04from partners, from enquirers, from whoever.
- 1:08We have to pick up the phone. So we're going to look at some
- 1:11simple things that you need. Now, the reason why I want us to
- 1:16look at this today is because there are too many of you who
- 1:18are trying to grow a business or too many of you who are kind
- 1:22trying to build a career in sales and you don't have some
- 1:25basic setups that will make you more effective and they'll make
- 1:29the job easier for you. So some of you salespeople,
- 1:32you've already started picking up some kind bad habits.
- 1:35You don't have some simple setups to make sure that you're
- 1:37effective. That's wrong.
- 1:39You're getting into business, you know, for the first time,
- 1:42you ought to be a wedding photographer.
- 1:44You ought to be a wedding planner, you want to be a
- 1:47developer. You know, whether full stack,
- 1:49front end, back end, you know how you tech people like to call
- 1:51yourselves or you know, you want to develop an app or you want to
- 1:56be an architect or you want to be a Carpenter or whatever it is
- 2:00you do and you don't have some basic setups to make your job
- 2:03easy. That's wrong.
- 2:05So that's the reason why we're looking at today's podcast.
- 2:09So let me see anyway, I'm assuming that you all get what
- 2:15it is and I'm trying to say because this whole thing about
- 2:20phones, because some of you still might not be convinced.
- 2:22So let me just put it this way with all these examples that
- 2:26I've given, whether a carpentry or whether being a farmer or
- 2:31whether being an architect or whether being a web developer.
- 2:37The thing is at some point you're only trying to make more
- 2:39money. Trying to make more money means
- 2:43you will either be making more calls yourself because you're
- 2:48chasing customers or you will be receiving more calls and texts
- 2:54because maybe you've been doing some advertising or you've been
- 2:57getting some referrals and then things are working.
- 3:00But we can't run away from it in trying to grow our business.
- 3:03It is either you will start making more calls or you will
- 3:09start receiving more calls and more messages.
- 3:15Now essentially the problem is most of you listening to this
- 3:18podcast right now, you are still trying to process all your
- 3:20calls, process all your messages, make all your calls
- 3:25and send all your messages by holding the phone to your ear
- 3:29and by using your thumbs. That is a problem.
- 3:34So what do you need? You need some kind of keyboard
- 3:40support because the phone keypad is, you know, it's impressive,
- 3:46but typing with thumbs and typing with the full range of
- 3:49fingers, like you can't compare. I have met one person who says
- 3:54she's very, very comfortable. And she said that she wrote her
- 3:57thesis, that's her university masters paper on the phone just
- 4:01by using her forms. You know, that is impressive if
- 4:05you're that kind of person. Well, then this podcast episode
- 4:07is not for you. But for the rest of us normal
- 4:10people, we are faster typing out some kind of keyboard than
- 4:16typing on the phone keyboard. So you need some kind of
- 4:19keyboard support if you're going to grow your business or if
- 4:22you're going to build a carrier in sales.
- 4:25I keep telling people Bluetooth keyboard, of course, because
- 4:28that's the one that I have, you know, connects to my phone and
- 4:31essentially I have a mobile office.
- 4:33But you don't have to do that because it's not for everybody.
- 4:37Like my sister-in-law says it looks like work and she says
- 4:41you'll make her feel like she's serious and plugged in all the
- 4:44time. So well, she's a Baker.
- 4:47I don't understand her objections, but I can't see how
- 4:50it's not everybody's cup of tea. So for those of you who have
- 4:54refused Bluetooth keyboard, you need to find some ways of
- 4:59coping. One way that I've seen lots of
- 5:01people do is they connect their WhatsApp business to their
- 5:09computer so that at least WhatsApp messages, they can be
- 5:13replying from the computer and that won't make sense.
- 5:16That's good. So consider that if you're not a
- 5:19Bluetooth keyboard person, look for a way of connecting your
- 5:22WhatsApp, your business profile to your computer.
- 5:26If you don't know how to do it, just go on Google and do a
- 5:28search. You know the instructions will
- 5:30come up. It will make your life a whole
- 5:32lot easier. You will find that you're going
- 5:34to be able to be processing messages, responding to
- 5:37customers. Sharp, sharp, sharp, sharp,
- 5:39sharp. So those people that my wife
- 5:41likes to buy chicken from, you know, that's how they do.
- 5:44So a long time ago, I went to the to their shop to pick up an
- 5:50order. And while I was standing around
- 5:52waiting, I just stretched my neck, you know, because I saw
- 5:55the day I was on the computer typing where I stretched my
- 5:58neck. And then I saw WhatsApp.
- 6:00This was years ago. And I was like, wow, OK, I
- 6:02didn't know that you can do WhatsApp from your computer.
- 6:04And the guy was just typing, you know, responding to people.
- 6:09So that's the way. So if you run a meat shop, you
- 6:14supply chicken to your customers and stuff like that, you know,
- 6:17people are constantly pinging you.
- 6:20I have transferred 20K to your account.
- 6:22Have you seen the transfer? I paid in the morning.
- 6:25Have you seen, have you seen the transfer?
- 6:29You both told me you come at 11, where are you?
- 6:31All those messages just be dropping ping, ping, ping, ping,
- 6:34ping. If you're going to be using your
- 6:35thumb, you'll be frustrated. But therefore like that
- 6:39business, if you hook up what's up my business to the computer,
- 6:43somebody can sit down a very fast typist and just be typing
- 6:47and responding to everybody and making things happen.
- 6:50Then I've also mentioned in the past about how you can connect
- 6:54your Android phone because I'm an Android user to your Google
- 6:57Chromebook. Now, I don't have a Google
- 6:59Chrome book, but my kids do. And I created a profile on my
- 7:05son's Google or my son's Chromebook.
- 7:08And then one day the thing sent me a message.
- 7:10The thing said, do you know you can connect your Android so, so,
- 7:13so, and so to Google Chromebook just by doing this and that, you
- 7:18know, are you interested? Would you like to try it?
- 7:20And then I clicked on no, because of course, you know,
- 7:23it's meant for my kids. It's not meant for me, but it
- 7:26was nice to know that I can be done.
- 7:28I've never done it before, but I've received the notification
- 7:31and so I know that it can be done.
- 7:33So if you have a Chromebook and you have an Android phone, you
- 7:36can connect your phone to your Chromebook, excuse me?
- 7:42And then that way you will be able to send.
- 7:45So excuse me. That way you'll be able to send
- 7:48messages from your computer, both text messages and WhatsApp
- 7:52from your computer. And you will also be able to
- 7:55make calls from your computer. So that way your phone doesn't
- 7:57even have to be with you. You can be with the computer
- 8:00here at your desk, but your phone is in your room.
- 8:04Meanwhile, business will just be flowing normal because if
- 8:08somebody sends you SMS, you see you reply.
- 8:12If somebody sends makes a call, you will respond.
- 8:16If you want to make a call, you will make the call.
- 8:19Then you can also connect your iPhone to your Mac.
- 8:24Now, that's the only one that I know.
- 8:26I've, I've done for sure by myself because a long time ago,
- 8:29maybe a decade ago, I had a Mac and I had an iPhone.
- 8:33And yeah, yeah, it was Mumsy. Mumsy told me that you could
- 8:37hook the whole thing up. And I was like, Are you sure?
- 8:40She said, yeah, let me do it for you.
- 8:41I gave it to her. I don't know how she did it, but
- 8:43lo and behold, my phone and my MacBook were connected.
- 8:46And oh boy, I was free because just like I said, my phone could
- 8:51be in the living room and I could be in the bedroom and just
- 8:58be carrying on business all as normal.
- 9:01If somebody wants to do FaceTime, I will answer from my
- 9:04Mac. If somebody wants to do ordinary
- 9:06call, I'll answer from my Mac, send text message, I will send
- 9:09from my computer, receive text message, I will read from my
- 9:13computer. And that was freedom.
- 9:15That was bliss. But to grow your business and
- 9:20for a career in sales, since you are going to be sending and
- 9:25receiving lots more phone calls, you need some kind of Bluetooth
- 9:28support. These are some of the options.
- 9:31The problem with typing with your thumbs is that it puts
- 9:33pressure on your shoulders. You will now begin the haunch.
- 9:37And it's not nice. It's not nice.
- 9:40You're a young man, you'll be slouching like a gorilla.
- 9:42Why? It's not nice.
- 9:45You're not looking good, You're not looking presentable.
- 9:48Huh. Don't go and become Hunchback of
- 9:50Notre Dame or you're a young lady you're typing on listening.
- 9:53You're now launching slouching like why?
- 9:56It's not nice, it's not sweet. You don't look on points, right,
- 10:01Get some keyboard support and let's keep our posture of nice
- 10:06so that you know when we show up in public, you know people will
- 10:09see us and be like what? Who is that fine guy?
- 10:10Who's that fine girl? You are a specimen.
- 10:15It's not go around all hunchback.
- 10:17It's not good at all. Now The thing is this, even if
- 10:22you say I don't care, I want to be hunchback, no problem.
- 10:25Slouching is OK when you're 18 or 28 or 38.
- 10:31Eventually you get to be 4850860878.
- 10:38Then all that slouching behaviour that you did in your
- 10:40youth will not be causing you serious complications in your
- 10:43old age, right. So when I say these simple kinds
- 10:51of things, you need keyboard support.
- 10:54So you'll be thinking, yeah, there he goes again.
- 10:56He just wants us to be to buy Bluetooth keyboard for the sake
- 10:58of Bluetooth keyboard. No, it's because there are some
- 11:02simple, small nasty habits you're doing when you're 182838
- 11:08that will cause complications for you when you're 4850860878.
- 11:13Cap that thing now, if you don't believe me, next time you're on
- 11:17the villa, you know, just go and reach your auntie.
- 11:20How now? How you do?
- 11:21Oh, my knee, my back, my shoulder, my arm, my wrist.
- 11:26You will hear it. All these things happen because
- 11:28of bad decisions that we make when we're young.
- 11:31So we need this kind of support. Then what else do you need?
- 11:35You need some kind of hands free support because holding your
- 11:39phone and making phone call to your ear.
- 11:44Well, it depends on the number of phone calls you make.
- 11:46Me, I make lots of phone calls. After a while it is taxing on
- 11:50your neck and then your biceps. You will end the phone call.
- 11:53You be like this one of my bicep is is as if I went to the gym to
- 11:57go and do curls. So you need some kind of hands
- 12:02free support. My former partner shared with
- 12:06the video guy what he has is he has desk speakers in his office.
- 12:11So anybody that calls The thing is wired through Bluetooth
- 12:13speakers. So he just talks normal.
- 12:16I mean, nothing looks fancy and we're like, it looks very, very
- 12:19fancy, looks very high tech. The problem is no privacy
- 12:23because whenever I'm a Sherman's office, it doesn't matter who
- 12:26calls, whether it's his wife that calls or if his business
- 12:30partner that calls or if he's a politician that calls.
- 12:34I can hear the whole conversation.
- 12:37Now, of course, he does the smart thing by saying, you know,
- 12:39when somebody calls, hello Bros Novak, I beg you on speaker.
- 12:42And then they continue chatting just so that the other person
- 12:45knows that the person won't say anything to you understand too
- 12:49on toward any secret that is not supposed to say.
- 12:51He won't say. But with those with those desk
- 13:01speaker things, there's no privacy.
- 13:04And if you're working from home, well, you know, I don't know if
- 13:09you're working from, I don't know if you want your wife or
- 13:11your girlfriend or your husband or mom's or Popsy to be hearing
- 13:14absolutely all the details of all the business conversations
- 13:18that you're having. And then if you walk in an open
- 13:22office setting, after a while, your line manager will call you
- 13:25and say, look, you know what? This is a distraction.
- 13:26You can't be making phone calls this way because your phone
- 13:29calls are disturbing everybody else.
- 13:34So but any that's an option, desk speakers.
- 13:37But that's if you have your own dedicated office.
- 13:39Like my guy Shagun, he has rented the place, he has his own
- 13:43office. Normally it's just him all to
- 13:46himself, but when somebody else comes like me when I come to pay
- 13:50a visit, you know, there's no privacy.
- 13:53Then you can also try wired earbuds with microphones, like
- 13:58this Orimo Orimo something. Something very, very not, not
- 14:03expensive at all. I've seen it sold one or five.
- 14:05I've seen it sold three or five in some places.
- 14:08So it makes me wonder, is it that day's original?
- 14:11And then there's fake, but any harsher, Those things are all
- 14:15bad. They're affordable and the good
- 14:17thing about them is they don't need charging.
- 14:19So you can use them as long as you like.
- 14:22Then there's also Bluetooth gaming headsets.
- 14:26They are very expensive, Very, very expensive.
- 14:30I have a pair so I'm speaking from experience.
- 14:32But The thing is they have good battery life.
- 14:35Forget like the one that I'm using is a Noble Noble BT30 6BT
- 14:43or something like that. It's an entry level something.
- 14:47Sorry, it's a mid level something.
- 14:49But on a full charge the thing has 200 hours of playback and
- 14:56talk time. You hear what I said?
- 14:59The thing has 200 hours. So that means if I use my
- 15:04headphones for 10 hours every single day, I will use that
- 15:10thing for almost 3 weeks before I have to charge again.
- 15:15Yes, you heard me correctly. And this is not even a top of
- 15:18the line model. If I use my headphones 10 hours
- 15:21every day, and of course that's not possible, who uses
- 15:24headphones for 10 hours? I will use that thing for almost
- 15:273 weeks before I have to charge that thing again.
- 15:30The battery power on those things is mad.
- 15:33I have never been afraid that the battery power will die
- 15:36during a phone call. Never.
- 15:38In fact, my wife, she owns the same pair of headphones, no
- 15:41different color. My own is green, her own is red.
- 15:45My wife, she charges her own maybe like twice a year because
- 15:48my wife is not really heavy headphone person, you know,
- 15:52maybe when she's cooking podcasts, you know, but maybe
- 15:55that's like 3-4 hours and then that's it.
- 15:59Then maybe weekend if she wants to watch film on her computer,
- 16:03children are shouting too much. All of us by disturbing her, she
- 16:06will now cover her head with headphones and you know, watch
- 16:09her thing. So my wife, she charges her
- 16:12headphones maybe twice, maybe 3 * a year Max.
- 16:16The battery life is that good. So you guys should consider it
- 16:19if you can't afford Bluetooth gaming headsets, good battery
- 16:23life, then the microphone quality also is good.
- 16:26Very very good. The problem is gaming headphones
- 16:31are big and so for females it doesn't always blend with every
- 16:35single lifestyle. Because maybe you do Bob and the
- 16:39crop, maybe that's your hairstyle.
- 16:41If you now put gaming headset, it will spoil your hair.
- 16:44So that's just the only problem. Apart from that, they're good.
- 16:47Then we also have Bluetooth earbuds.
- 16:49The battery life is not great because using those things, you
- 16:52know, the battery life is maybe like 4 hours, 5 hours.
- 16:55So that means by the time you make phone call from like 8:00
- 16:57to 12:00, you now have to charge it so they can use it again for
- 17:00the rest of the day. So it's not fantastic, but
- 17:03they're comfortable and the audio quality is good.
- 17:07Some of them wouldn't have noise cancelling, so they're good.
- 17:10Then we also have call centre headsets.
- 17:14These ones are perfect. The ergonomics, the design is
- 17:17perfect. I don't know how to describe it.
- 17:21Boy, you see you, you see what I mean?
- 17:23These things are just designed for calls only.
- 17:25So a simple band that goes across the top of your head and
- 17:29then it connects to an earpiece and then it connects to a
- 17:32mouthpiece. Perfect.
- 17:36But The thing is, I don't know if they're very good for
- 17:37listening to music though, because may I work with music
- 17:39every day. But those call centre headsets,
- 17:43they're perfect and they're comfortable.
- 17:46You can wear them for hours, hours and hours and hours at an
- 17:49end. So it's good.
- 17:51So The thing is whether you're left-handed or whether you're
- 17:53right-handed, taking long calls is going to test your neck and
- 17:57it's going to test your biceps. Right now, if you're new in the
- 18:01business, you won't feel it because you're not making too
- 18:03many calls. Once you get to the stage where
- 18:05every single day you're receiving customers.
- 18:08So you're receiving calls from happy customers or angry
- 18:11customers, maybe like four or five every day.
- 18:14And then you're also trying to chase some business.
- 18:15So you're calling people maybe two or three times a day.
- 18:18So on average you're having like, you know, 810 calls every
- 18:22day. You will now see the difference
- 18:25that you can't continue this way.
- 18:27Then finally, and this one is really, really important because
- 18:34one day I was talking to one of my clients and wanted to do
- 18:37screen share but the guy didn't time it well.
- 18:40So by the time he did the screen share, now the camera just
- 18:43flash. And then before he quickly
- 18:45changed our cover, I now saw that my guy was working at home
- 18:51in bed with singlet and boxers. Can you imagine?
- 18:58Because we can't work from home, some of us think it's OK to be
- 19:02making phone call, to be pursuing business in singlet and
- 19:05boxer. Then you're lying down in bed.
- 19:09Now, if you have some people like Brian Tracy and the rest,
- 19:12they'll say no, that psychologically it's not all
- 19:15right. Now, when you at least dress up
- 19:18presentable, you know, look decent, that it will inform the
- 19:24way you make phone calls. I give you a certain measure of
- 19:26confidence. So as a young man, you lie down,
- 19:29you never bath, you never brush your shirt and boxer and then
- 19:32you're making a phone call. It's not all right, but anyway,
- 19:35I will force you to do that. But I'll tell you one thing.
- 19:40Calling while lying down in bed or when hunched in bed, it's not
- 19:44good at all. Boys, listen up, young men.
- 19:49You know, those of you who are 18 all the way up to my age and
- 19:52beyond, you know, there's a way we like to sound on the phone.
- 19:55We like to sound that we have presence, you understand?
- 20:00When you're lying down, you lose out on the vocal resonance.
- 20:04You know everything bouncing around in your chest cavity.
- 20:07You miss those, those sweets, the sweet bass tones, you know,
- 20:11the rich tones in your voice. When you're lying down, you're
- 20:14canceling out all those things. So as a young man, you're never
- 20:17sounding correct. No, sit down to make that call.
- 20:25No slouch on the bed. Don't lie down on the bed.
- 20:29And therefore girls, young ladies, 18 to my age, you know
- 20:35that line now thing? You'll be sounding too casual
- 20:38and it's not good if you catch my drift.
- 20:43Young people take you seriously but already complaining that
- 20:47patriarchy is a problem. Don't make the solution worse by
- 20:51calling and lying down. And then you sound as if you're
- 20:53having bedroom voice. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- 20:56Sit up and then call. Get a desk.
- 21:01Get a chair. In fact, some sales
- 21:04professionals prefer to stand with wireless headsets and make
- 21:08phone calls. So what's his name?
- 21:12Grant Cardone, And people like him.
- 21:14That's what they recommend. Now look, if this is a serious
- 21:16phone call, use hands free and then stand.
- 21:20Your whole body is engaged. Your call is engaged.
- 21:24You are alert. You sound smart.
- 21:27You sound sharp, you're getting full resonance of your vocal
- 21:30cavity and your chest and everything.
- 21:32You sound like a correct guy. Some people in advocate that as
- 21:36you're doing that phone call, you know, be pacing that the
- 21:38dynamism even helps. But I'm not going to say go that
- 21:42far. But I will say at the very
- 21:46least, desk and chair, please stop slouching in bed.
- 21:51Even if you don't want to brush and bath, you still want to wear
- 21:55singlet unboxer. At least sit down in a chair
- 21:58with that singlet unboxer for young men.
- 22:02Better vocal range because you all want to sound like we have
- 22:04bass in our voice that will capture that bass well for you.
- 22:11Right? So am I saying we should all go
- 22:14out and spend money? No I'm not saying that.
- 22:17Remember why are the earphones 3K?
- 22:19You will have, I've seen for 1/5 now, plastic chair and table,
- 22:24That's what I'll recommend so that you can set it up in the
- 22:28corner of your room, dismantle it, you know when you're done.
- 22:31But those ones now, because of how expensive things have
- 22:33become, those ones now it's like 100K if you want to buy
- 22:36everything together because the chair alone is like 2025.
- 22:41And sometimes these people refuse to sell it single
- 22:43shingle, they will sell it instead.
- 22:45So that means you have to buy the table +2 chair.
- 22:50But please, table and chair, spend 3K on the phone for table
- 22:57and chair. OK?
- 22:57No, for table and chair, just tell mom.
- 22:59See that? Hey mommy, you know what?
- 23:03You know I'm getting into business now and the only
- 23:07support I need for you is this side of the dining table.
- 23:09Please, nobody should be putting anything else this side of the
- 23:12dining table. This is now my office.
- 23:15Go and tell mom. See.
- 23:15Go and tell Popsy. I'm assuring you, your parents
- 23:20will be proud of you. They will laugh or stay here.
- 23:23So you become a business person. OK, no problem.
- 23:26You can use that side of the dining table.
- 23:28Nobody will disturb you, but they will support you.
- 23:32They will respect you. If you're married like I am, you
- 23:38tell your wife you say wifey. I know you don't like you too,
- 23:41but don't you like can afford office space?
- 23:43This dining table, this is now my office.
- 23:46You will require a small. Your wife will say no.
- 23:49It's a dining table. It's meant for food, blah blah
- 23:52blah. You quarrel back and forth, but
- 23:53eventually you reconcile. You can just be managing dining
- 23:57room table until you can buy your small plastic table and
- 24:01chair and put in one corner of the house.
- 24:05But eventually you'll be able to get some money and you'll be
- 24:08able to get a nice proper office like my guy Shego has done.
- 24:12Bluetooth keyboard. OK, that one is expensive.
- 24:14I looked around, I saw for 13 Ki, saw for 17, I saw for 20
- 24:19something very fine, fine, sexy keyboards.
- 24:22But I also saw for 11 K. That's if you just want to be
- 24:26practical, like let's get going. And by the way, the Chinese
- 24:31ones, they're fantastic. So there's no problem at all.
- 24:36I started off, my first one was the Chinese one.
- 24:38It cost me 5K. It needed two Tiger batteries
- 24:42and those two Tiger batteries used to last about a month and
- 24:441/2. So to be honest, there's nothing
- 24:47wrong there. Basha, start with earphones.
- 24:53Let that be your starter kit. The other thing is you can be
- 24:56doing small, small, small. But either way, what I'm
- 25:00advocating is this. What I'm advising is this.
- 25:02Set yourself up for success so that you can work faster and you
- 25:07can work healthier. For those of you young men who
- 25:11are trying to build a business, you say you're trying to build a
- 25:13billion dollar business, but you didn't brush, you didn't bath,
- 25:18you didn't comb your hair, you wear a shirt and boxer, then
- 25:21you're lying down in your bed and making business calls.
- 25:24I mean, come on, let's be real here.
- 25:26Let's be real. Anyway, so that's it and that's
- 25:29all. Remember, if you'd love to
- 25:31connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
- 25:37Thank you very much for your time and attention.
- 25:39I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
- 25:42in your speakers.