Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Find Clients Who Are Ready to Pay

Transcript

How to Find Clients Who Are Ready to Pay · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Sometimes your business problems are not as simple as you think
• 0:06
  it is. Now, the reason why we're
• 0:08
  looking at this today is because I had a conversation with a
• 0:11
  listener of the podcast, her name is Natasha reaching out
• 0:14
  from South Africa, and she's in the spiritual advisory business
• 0:20
  and she likes to help people work with people who are in the
• 0:24
  period of transition. So people who are in the period
• 0:27
  of transition, when it comes to relationships, when it comes to
• 0:30
  career, she's doing spiritual advisory, life coaching, all
• 0:34
  those sorts of things. Now, when Natasha reached out to
• 0:38
  me initially, she thought that the problem that she has is with
• 0:42
  scheduling because she owned up that she does a lot of her
• 0:48
  business over on WhatsApp and then she tried switching over to
• 0:52
  calendar just to make things a little bit much more organized.
• 0:56
  Now for those of you who don't know, Calendly is a booking.
• 1:01
  I want to put in a booking tool, a scheduling tool.
• 1:04
  So you plug it into your calendar.
• 1:07
  And then that way if your potential customers, your
• 1:10
  potential clients want to have a meeting with you, all they have
• 1:13
  to do is open up Calendly. They have a look at your
• 1:15
  calendar, and then they're going to be able to see the meeting
• 1:18
  time that you have available. So that instead of talking with
• 1:21
  people back and forth, you want to have a meeting?
• 1:24
  OK, when are you available? OK, me, I'm ready on Sunday.
• 1:26
  Oh no, Sunday I'm going for a wedding, how about Monday?
• 1:29
  Oh no, Monday I'm travelling, blah blah, blah.
• 1:31
  Instead of that back and forth. The whole idea behind Calendly
• 1:34
  is you just send someone the link, they open it, they see the
• 1:38
  time slots available and then they pick a time.
• 1:41
  So that was one problem that she thought she had.
• 1:44
  Should she continue doing business using WhatsApp or
• 1:47
  should she switch over to Calendly?
• 1:50
  In fact, she had tried Calendly for about a month.
• 1:53
  And then she also mentioned that she had been having
• 1:55
  conversations with people and it looks like they're trying to get
• 1:58
  free advice and then they talk and talk and talk.
• 2:00
  And then after that they don't end up booking a session.
• 2:04
  So these are some of the problems.
• 2:06
  But then in the conversation that continued with Natasha, we
• 2:09
  spoke for maybe about 30 minutes or maybe more, it became clear
• 2:14
  that the other business problems there, and even if you don't
• 2:21
  have, even if you don't have money to reach out to me so that
• 2:26
  we can have a paid session, the free chats that Ioffer, you
• 2:31
  know, I just answer one question.
• 2:32
  It's going to be helpful because if nothing else, it's going to
• 2:35
  be able to show you where the real problems lie in your
• 2:38
  business, just like in Natasha's case.
• 2:40
  So after chatting, I became clear that actually the problem
• 2:43
  was that she doesn't have a qualification and discovery
• 2:46
  process. Now a lot of you Nigerians
• 2:49
  listening, you're wondering what is qualification and discovery?
• 2:52
  Oh, and also S Africans listening because I asked
• 2:56
  Natasha, she knew about qualification and discovery and
• 2:59
  you know, she hadn't heard about those technical terms.
• 3:01
  So let's break it down now using some real simple English.
• 3:05
  Oh, by the way, now that I am aware that there are some S
• 3:08
  Africans who are listening and people from other countries who
• 3:11
  are listening, You know, I've always known that looking at the
• 3:13
  stats that people in South Africa listen to the podcast,
• 3:18
  people in China listen to the podcast people, you know, all,
• 3:23
  you know, different parts of the globe.
• 3:24
  I always assumed that it was Nigerians in diaspora who are
• 3:27
  listening because if you remember the podcast episodes I
• 3:31
  made about the guys from China, you know, they turned out to be
• 3:34
  Nigerians who live in China who do business back home.
• 3:39
  But, you know, they're doing lots of their sourcing from
• 3:41
  China. So I just assumed that even
• 3:42
  South Africa and then all that was just Nigerians listening.
• 3:45
  So to be honest, when Natasha reached out and we had the
• 3:47
  conversation, you know, they think of me much more mindful
• 3:50
  that OK, perhaps I should be careful, you know, maybe not
• 3:54
  used too much slang or maybe not used too much pigeon because
• 3:57
  there might be some people who are listening who are not
• 3:59
  Nigerian or anyway will worry about that in the future.
• 4:05
  So where was I? I had some qualification and
• 4:08
  discovery. Now, when it comes when you're
• 4:12
  dealing with a potential client, there comes that part in the
• 4:16
  conversation in the business relationship where we're trying
• 4:19
  to figure out who they are, whether they have a significant
• 4:22
  problem, whether they have the budgets to solve the problem and
• 4:26
  how severe the problem is. If you have not been approaching
• 4:32
  conversations with potential customers that way, then you are
• 4:34
  wrong and it's one of the reasons why you're not having
• 4:37
  productive conversations with people.
• 4:39
  Whenever you're having conversations with people, you
• 4:41
  should always be trying to figure out who am I talking to?
• 4:44
  What problem do they have? What vision are they trying to
• 4:47
  achieve? Do I have the skill sets?
• 4:50
  Do I have the inventory to be able to solve this problem?
• 4:53
  Does it look like these people have their budgets to be able to
• 4:55
  solve this problem? Does it look like these people
• 4:57
  are serious about solving this problem?
• 5:00
  Because like I keep saying on the podcast, there's no amount
• 5:03
  of magic that you're going to do if you're talking to somebody
• 5:06
  who is a worker pass. Worker pass means somebody is
• 5:08
  just curious. The person is just passing
• 5:09
  through. If somebody is a worker pass, it
• 5:12
  doesn't matter how much toasting you're going to do, it will
• 5:14
  never lead to business. I repeat, it will never lead to
• 5:20
  business. I've given you guys an example
• 5:21
  about how I went into this showroom for Guangzhou.
• 5:28
  That's GAC, Guangzhou, Automobiles in Abuja, the
• 5:31
  headquarters in Abuja. I went there, you know, just to,
• 5:34
  you know, just, you understand, I chose to do sightseeing.
• 5:38
  It's not as if I was ready to buy, you know what, because my
• 5:41
  body is fresh, my skin is fresh, I have port belly and I'm the
• 5:43
  fine boy. Once I entered the showroom, the
• 5:46
  sales girls assumed that, oh, I had money and so I was ready to
• 5:48
  buy a car. But meanwhile, not just not just
• 5:53
  curiosity, in that situation, I was a worker pass, you
• 5:57
  understand, you know, I had gone to Rapid Broadcasting TV because
• 6:03
  that's where I was hoping to get a get ATV show.
• 6:06
  And then after I was leaving, I said, ah, Guangzhou, so they're
• 6:10
  here. And I saw the OK, some of these
• 6:12
  cars look nice. So now I just stretch.
• 6:14
  I just entered. I said, let me just see, you
• 6:17
  know, even though I don't have money, let me just see the cars
• 6:20
  that are there. And then the salesperson assumed
• 6:22
  that I had serious bar because I was looking fresh.
• 6:26
  Meanwhile, in that situation, I was a Walker pass.
• 6:30
  Walker pass. I was just curious.
• 6:32
  I was just passing through. I was just walking on by.
• 6:35
  I didn't have anything to do. I had some free time on my
• 6:38
  hands. Let me just, you know, I'm
• 6:40
  curious. I've not seen what the Chinese
• 6:43
  cars look like up close. So you know, oh, electric
• 6:46
  vehicle, diesel engine, petrol engine, this one, this one, this
• 6:49
  one, Chinese cars. OK, let me just see.
• 6:52
  I was a Walker pass. So everybody needs to have a
• 6:56
  stage in their business where you are engaging with somebody
• 7:00
  and your primary goal is not to solve their problem and your
• 7:05
  primary goal is not to try and get them to buy something.
• 7:08
  Your primary goal is just to try and figure out who exactly am I
• 7:11
  talking to? Is this person serious?
• 7:13
  Do they have a problem? Are they just curious?
• 7:17
  Is this person a worker pass or is this person a serious
• 7:19
  somebody? It is when you figure out that
• 7:22
  you're dealing with a serious somebody that then you can now
• 7:24
  start trying to push and press and get them to buy for you and
• 7:28
  schedule a meeting and stuff like that.
• 7:30
  Why are you trying to sell your goods when you don't even know
• 7:32
  who it is that you're talking to?
• 7:35
  So that was Natasha's main problem.
• 7:37
  She didn't have a process for that.
• 7:39
  For a lot of you, that's the problem that you have in your
• 7:41
  business. Nigerian business owners
• 7:43
  especially because you know, over here now, all of us, we,
• 7:46
  they motivated, you know, we get ginger, we get drive.
• 7:50
  So wake up every day and we're trying to, you know, win the
• 7:53
  day. So therefore, you know, in that
• 7:55
  spirit, you know, without bravado, you understand, we just
• 7:59
  keep moving, moving, moving, moving, moving.
• 8:01
  Everybody we meet is a potential customer.
• 8:03
  We must close every single potential.
• 8:05
  Relax first. Not everybody's a potential
• 8:08
  customer and everybody's a good customer.
• 8:10
  You're supposed to slow down first.
• 8:12
  Who is this person? What is their problem?
• 8:15
  Are they serious? Are they just curious?
• 8:17
  Do they have budget? Is there any sense of urgency
• 8:20
  And that is what Natasha needed to do with her business instead
• 8:22
  of worrying about whether it is WhatsApp or whether it is
• 8:26
  Calendly. By the way, if you're a Nigerian
• 8:29
  business owner or a South African business owner and
• 8:31
  you're worried about this whole thing, WhatsApp versus Calendly,
• 8:33
  the answer is honestly, it depends because different things
• 8:37
  work for different people in different contexts depending on
• 8:40
  the skill set that you have, depending on the industry, you
• 8:42
  know, things like that. So Calendly can work, it can
• 8:47
  work. But unfortunately she only ran
• 8:50
  the experiment for one month and during that one month she only
• 8:53
  got 2 two bookings. But then she shot it down.
• 8:56
  So currently can't work. But anyway, one of the reasons
• 9:00
  why she started asking me about the currently thing was because
• 9:03
  she had listened to a podcast episode where I'd spoken about
• 9:05
  how scheduling tools are not good in the Nigerian context.
• 9:11
  And let me repeat again, just in case there's another South
• 9:13
  African listening to this episode, another Ghanaian
• 9:16
  listening to this episode, or another person from Mauritius or
• 9:20
  somebody from the UK or you know, whatever.
• 9:24
  Sometimes when those of us who are sales coaches, sometimes we
• 9:29
  give advice that is culture specific.
• 9:32
  So now in this part of the world, scheduling tools are not
• 9:35
  very helpful because when you are a salesperson, now you
• 9:40
  define market. Now you they pursue somebody.
• 9:43
  So in this part of the world, when you are the one who is
• 9:45
  chasing after someone because you want their business, when
• 9:48
  you send them a calendly link, it's kind of like standoffish.
• 9:52
  It's kind of like, oh really? You want me to buy from you and
• 9:56
  then you are sending me calendar link so that I will now look at
• 10:00
  your own calendar and pick the time that is suitable for you.
• 10:05
  OK, no problem. Hope you hope you Nigerians get
• 10:08
  the gist. All right, so in this part of
• 10:12
  the world for now in 2026, it's a bit somehow to be sending
• 10:16
  somebody calendar link. And this is the way that I
• 10:18
  explained it before and let me explain it again.
• 10:19
  So let's say I did pursue Dangote because I want to do
• 10:22
  business with Dangote. I did pursue arm, I did pursue
• 10:24
  arm, I did push arm. Then finally I get Dangote's
• 10:27
  phone number. Now the time comes to have a
• 10:29
  meeting and I say, OK, Dangote, this is what I'm going to do.
• 10:32
  I'll send you a calendar link, set the time that is suitable
• 10:34
  for you, blah, blah, blah. In Dangote's mind, that will be
• 10:36
  thinking, who's the small boy? Who are you?
• 10:40
  I should look at your own calendar then I will select the
• 10:43
  time on your own calendar that is suitable for me so that we
• 10:47
  will not have meeting you understand.
• 10:50
  So that's the reason why in Nigeria this whole calendly
• 10:52
  thing, it's no pay for the purpose of sales for the purpose
• 10:58
  of sales. Now if between Doug Antonio
• 11:01
  Lumelu, for instance, because you know both of them are
• 11:03
  billionaires that big boys then be they're trying to fix a
• 11:06
  meeting and you know it's hard. Yes, between two of them, their
• 11:08
  PA can be sending calendar link back and forth and then those
• 11:11
  fix a time that is appropriate for them.
• 11:13
  Then they will have the meeting. You understand, but that's the
• 11:16
  situation where you know, it looks like there's some level of
• 11:18
  parity there. But then for the bubbles of
• 11:22
  sales you did a Porsche passing you're now sending them calendly
• 11:25
  link in Nigeria. OK, continue.
• 11:30
  But then the example I gave now also give another example where
• 11:37
  the script is reversed. If it is down with a, for
• 11:39
  instance, and I'm trying to hook up a meeting with down Gote and
• 11:42
  then down Gote tells me that you know a young man, let me send
• 11:45
  you my calendar link. Pick the time that is suitable
• 11:47
  for you. That one is different, not me.
• 11:49
  They find something, I mean they pursue if down Gote says here's
• 11:51
  my calendar link, of course I will look at it and select the
• 11:55
  time. But you see there things are
• 11:59
  kind of reversed. So for those of you who are
• 12:02
  listening from South Africa, from Ghana, from Mauritius, from
• 12:05
  Seychelles, from America, from UK, in fact, especially from
• 12:08
  America, from the UK, the culture there is different.
• 12:11
  So currently link is, is perfectly fine.
• 12:13
  You won't send it is perfectly fine.
• 12:15
  The reason why I've been talking about not using currently in
• 12:17
  Nigeria is because a lot of Nigerian business people, you
• 12:21
  know, a lot of us have master's degrees from abroad, you know,
• 12:25
  master's degrees from from the UK, advanced degrees from
• 12:28
  America. So, you know, we go there, we
• 12:30
  learn a bunch of stuff and then we come here and then we forget
• 12:33
  that things are culture specific and we start trying to implement
• 12:36
  these sorts of things. So I was just telling all those
• 12:39
  smooth boys and all those small girls who have gone to the US to
• 12:42
  the UK and they have seen Calendly and you're coming home
• 12:45
  and you're trying to be doing sending Calendly link up and
• 12:47
  down and you're wondering why you're not booking meetings.
• 12:50
  That is the reason why because even myself, somebody tried that
• 12:53
  move on me. The guy said he will send me
• 12:55
  calendar link. No, I'm mine.
• 12:56
  I'm like are you like really? You send me calendar link?
• 12:59
  I didn't say anything. I just said alright, no problem.
• 13:01
  I kept quiet. The guy sent the link, I didn't
• 13:03
  click on it like what the hell, you're not even paying me for my
• 13:06
  time. You could send me calendar link
• 13:07
  for what? So that's how I just left the
• 13:10
  guy. So please, it's culture
• 13:13
  specific. So for now, in 2026, currently
• 13:16
  is not a good idea if you are in sales, if you are trying to hook
• 13:21
  up a meeting with somebody who is your, you know, your equal or
• 13:27
  how will I put it? Forgive me, I can't find the
• 13:30
  right way of just expressing it. So let me just put it like that.
• 13:31
  If you're trying to hook up a meeting with someone who's your
• 13:33
  equal, no problem. You can be sending calendar
• 13:35
  links back and forth, scheduling links, you know, you pick your
• 13:38
  time. That is no problem.
• 13:39
  But if you're trying to chase somebody, please, Nigerian
• 13:43
  business people and Nigerian sales people, if you're trying
• 13:46
  to chase somebody, you happen to get the person on the phone.
• 13:48
  The time to hook up the meeting is now that the person is on the
• 13:51
  phone. Don't be doing calendly nothing.
• 13:53
  So if I'd pursue Dangote and I managed to get down with his
• 13:57
  phone number and I'm talking to Dangote now, best believe I'm
• 14:00
  setting this meeting on the phone now.
• 14:04
  Now I'll tell you boss, I can be in Kano next week.
• 14:10
  OK, today's I'm making today's recording on Saturday.
• 14:12
  I can tell him I Bros, I can't be in Kano Sunday morning.
• 14:16
  Sorry, Kano Monday morning 9:00 I can be office.
• 14:19
  Is that cool? If he says yes, no problem.
• 14:21
  Once you cut the phone, I'll go and you know, next thing is to
• 14:25
  used to book a ride so that I'm on my way to Kano because I have
• 14:28
  a meeting with Dangote. If Dangote is like, oh, forgive
• 14:30
  me, I don't have my calendar right now.
• 14:32
  This disease that that that that I can tell.
• 14:34
  OK, Sir, you know what? Tentatively, let's just agree
• 14:36
  I'm going to be in your office 9:00 in the morning, but to be
• 14:39
  on the safe side, can I get your PS phone number so that I will
• 14:43
  speak to him and then we'll see when we can put something firm
• 14:47
  on the calendar. You see, as in I have dangled on
• 14:52
  the phone now I'm trying to book the meeting now not I will cut
• 14:56
  the call. Then I would send calendar link
• 14:58
  up and down or I would send e-mail back and forth.
• 15:01
  Then when download it doesn't reply.
• 15:03
  You'll now be wondering what happened now that the guy did
• 15:05
  carry shoulder or something, Something, something, no.
• 15:09
  So culture specifically for those of you who are in South
• 15:13
  Africa, it doesn't mean that you should follow this advice.
• 15:15
  Things may be different in South Africa because, you know, I
• 15:18
  haven't been there. You know, my mom has spent a lot
• 15:20
  of time doing business in South Africa as a marketing executive,
• 15:24
  but you know, I haven't. You know, one day I hope to go
• 15:26
  there. In fact, maybe even own property
• 15:28
  there because I've seen some mad properties online, like mad,
• 15:32
  like all those houses by the beach and everything.
• 15:34
  Like Kai. South Africa is a beautiful
• 15:36
  country, very fine country. All right, so that's it about
• 15:42
  currently. So let's see what else.
• 15:45
  So the major problem was that Natasha didn't have a process
• 15:49
  for qualification and discovery. She didn't have a process for
• 15:51
  figuring out who is this person, What is their problem?
• 15:54
  What problem do they want to solve?
• 15:56
  What issue are they running away from, or what kind of state of
• 16:00
  enlightenment or what kind of state of peace or what kind of
• 16:03
  state of achievement are they running towards?
• 16:05
  Do these people have a budget for those sorts of problems?
• 16:07
  So in the conversation with Natasha and I, we just came up
• 16:10
  with some simple ways that she can find out these sorts of
• 16:15
  things. Now First off, Natasha was doing
• 16:17
  an automated something on WhatsApp and I told her the
• 16:19
  basic stuff that I do, which is look there for small and medium
• 16:23
  scaled entrepreneurs, trying to do automated messaging is a bad
• 16:27
  idea because you don't have enough data to train these bots
• 16:30
  on what the appropriate response is.
• 16:32
  And whenever you craft all these standard things and leave it
• 16:36
  there as an automated response, it doesn't provide any value to
• 16:39
  most people. So there are lots of people who
• 16:40
  are being frustrated. So instead of that whole, you
• 16:48
  know what, I'm going to make a podcast episode about her
• 16:53
  WhatsApp, automatic automated WhatsApp response.
• 16:56
  Although she said she's going to take it down, but I'll just use
• 16:58
  that as an example of what not to do.
• 17:00
  So basically, I think those are who are chatting.
• 17:05
  OK, hold on, let me check my notes because I wrote down a
• 17:07
  couple of ideas. So basically I told her that
• 17:11
  look, if she's going to do an automated message, let me see.
• 17:15
  Let me see. OK, No, first of all, I told her
• 17:16
  to take off the automated message and just reach out
• 17:19
  whenever she's available. Now, Please remember, this is
• 17:22
  something in that is culture specific.
• 17:24
  What I'm about to advise now, so in Nigeria in 2026 as at the
• 17:29
  time of this recording, if you get back to somebody one hour, 2
• 17:33
  hours, 3 hours after they reach out, it's not bad.
• 17:36
  I repeat, in Nigeria in 2026, if you get back in touch with
• 17:41
  someone you know one to three hours after they call you 4
• 17:44
  hours self, it is not bad. If somebody sends you a WhatsApp
• 17:48
  message at 10, you know, are you available, how much blah, blah,
• 17:51
  blah, you respond by two, it is not bad.
• 17:54
  You are still in the play. Now in America that's different.
• 17:57
  In American in the UK, what they are trying to achieve, they're
• 18:00
  trying to achieve minutes that if somebody sends a message in
• 18:05
  Instagram DM 1023, the person says the message is 10/23 how
• 18:10
  much they want to respond by 10241025 S in American in the UK
• 18:16
  they are chasing minutes and they're chasing seconds in
• 18:19
  Nigeria or not at that stage yet.
• 18:21
  So in Nigeria, again, I don't know what pertains in South
• 18:26
  Africa, but in Nigeria it is not a bad idea if somebody sends you
• 18:29
  a message at 10:00 saying how far, how much are you available?
• 18:33
  And then you respond by 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon saying I
• 18:36
  beg no vex, sorry for the late reply.
• 18:38
  And then you continue the conversation.
• 18:39
  It's not bad at all. It's not bad.
• 18:43
  So remember this part is cultural specific.
• 18:45
  So just try and do research and figure out what applies in your
• 18:49
  own country. So what I advise her was just in
• 18:51
  case South Africa happens to be like Niger, and I'm assuming
• 18:55
  it's not a bad problem at all. If somebody sends you a message,
• 18:58
  let's say they send you the message at 10:00 PM at night,
• 19:01
  it's not a problem, free it, leave it now.
• 19:04
  Leave it tomorrow morning, wake up, bath, brush your teeth, drop
• 19:08
  the children in school, you know, all of that and then
• 19:11
  settle down at your desk. 839 reply to the message.
• 19:15
  Thank you very much for reaching out.
• 19:16
  I'm terribly sorry for the late response.
• 19:19
  Yes, I would love to guide you on your journey.
• 19:21
  But before we start talking about price, there are a few
• 19:25
  things I need to learn about your path.
• 19:28
  I would need to know more about you and I need to know more
• 19:32
  about what you're looking for before we start talking about
• 19:35
  price. So I told her that's the way to
• 19:38
  start the conversation. And then you start asking
• 19:39
  questions because in our own case, when people reach out to
• 19:42
  her, lots of times they they just say, how much were you
• 19:45
  based? You know, that kind of thing.
• 19:47
  So anyway, she said that I was like, oh, interesting.
• 19:49
  So I guess it's a common something because in Nigeria
• 19:52
  that's how it is to say, ah, where are you?
• 19:55
  How much are you based? You know, that kind of thing.
• 19:59
  So I told her, yeah, that's how you start the journey.
• 20:02
  And so since people were actually saying how much and
• 20:06
  where are you based that first preamble that I gave, let me
• 20:09
  repeat it again. Thanks for reaching out.
• 20:11
  Sorry for the late response. I would love to guide you on
• 20:14
  your journey. But before we start talking,
• 20:15
  before we start talking money, before we start talking price, I
• 20:19
  would need to know some more about your path.
• 20:21
  I will need to know more about you and your spiritual journey.
• 20:24
  I need to know more about what you are looking for before we
• 20:27
  start talking price. That's Part 1 and Part 2.
• 20:29
  Now they say where are you based?
• 20:32
  So I told her you replied I'm based in Kalani, will that be a
• 20:35
  problem? Question mark is it?
• 20:37
  I'll get the conversation going or I'm based in Kilani.
• 20:40
  Why are you asking? Are you interested in coming in
• 20:43
  for a physical session question mark?
• 20:45
  You know that kind of you will get the conversation going.
• 20:47
  Are you interested in coming in for a physical session question
• 20:49
  mark? That's my respond.
• 20:51
  Oh yes, I would love to come in for a physical session.
• 20:53
  That's the reason why I was asking you how much is the price
• 20:55
  and when you are available. You see conversation on the
• 20:58
  start. Now as the conversation starts,
• 21:00
  we are trying to figure out who is this person?
• 21:03
  What kind of problem do they have?
• 21:05
  Do they even have money? Because if the person does not
• 21:07
  have money, why are you talking to this person?
• 21:10
  Then if the person has money, but the person thinks that this
• 21:13
  is not a serious problem, why are you talking to this person?
• 21:15
  You're just wasting your time. So I told her that some of the
• 21:18
  questions that you can ask, he asked questions around the
• 21:21
  previous history, because questions are on the previous
• 21:24
  history. We'll let you know, we'll give
• 21:27
  you some guides. We'll give you some idea about
• 21:29
  whether this person get money or not.
• 21:32
  Some of you are wondering how very simple.
• 21:35
  So in her own case now, since she's Natasha is a spiritual
• 21:39
  somebody, you know, she's a spiritual healer.
• 21:41
  You start asking the person when did this thing start?
• 21:44
  The person would say, oh, OK, when I was 15 years old, I was
• 21:48
  hanging out with this boy wanting, wanting, blah, blah,
• 21:50
  blah, blah, blah. And I saw the trauma start,
• 21:52
  blah, blah, blah, you know, So if the person says, oh, when I
• 21:56
  was 15, when I was a teenager, oh, you now know that, OK, this
• 21:58
  is a problem. There is a long going problem
• 22:02
  like this trauma, this trauma, don't they since is a serious
• 22:05
  matter. And then you continue to talk
• 22:07
  and then you ask, OK, what steps have you taken to solve the
• 22:10
  problem? If the person says, well, I have
• 22:14
  spoken to a clinical psychologist in the central in
• 22:20
  the General Hospital. I've spoken to a this, I've
• 22:22
  spoken to a that. Can you see now you don't get
• 22:26
  some signs. You don't get some cues that
• 22:28
  this person is willing to spend money to solve the problem.
• 22:32
  Because if you're like Natasha and your spiritual healer, your
• 22:35
  spiritual counselor, you're a life coach.
• 22:37
  Not everybody is willing to spend money on this kind of
• 22:40
  thing. There's some people who will say
• 22:42
  that they have a problem, but then by the time you give them
• 22:44
  your bill, you say, OK, you know what?
• 22:46
  Let's have a session. Each session is 200 K Don't say
• 22:49
  200 K because of what they'll say.
• 22:51
  No, no thank you. I will say my prayers and I will
• 22:54
  sleep. I'll be fine.
• 22:55
  They will say God is my healer by the time you give them pill.
• 22:58
  So you need to find out first of all, what have you tried doing
• 23:01
  to solve the problem? The person who says I've gone to
• 23:03
  a clinical psychologist, I have gone to a therapist, I have gone
• 23:06
  to a pastor, I have gone to the village, I have gone.
• 23:11
  This person has put money behind trying to solve the problem
• 23:13
  before. So it is possible that the
• 23:16
  person will be willing to put money behind solving the problem
• 23:19
  now. So can you see how trying to
• 23:24
  figure out who is this person? What is the history of the
• 23:26
  problem? When did the problem start?
• 23:28
  What is the vision where they run it?
• 23:29
  Can you see that this would give us a sign about whether this
• 23:32
  person get money or not? If the person who get money then
• 23:37
  like free the matter put them in relationship nurturing.
• 23:41
  Well, I'd love to be helpful. Unfortunately, what offers a
• 23:44
  paid service? I do have some free resources.
• 23:46
  All you have to do is draw my e-mail list where I give helpful
• 23:50
  tips on spiritual healing and recovery and intimacy building
• 23:53
  and something something you know you know our kind thing.
• 23:56
  I know you free them. They've down your e-mail list.
• 23:59
  They'll be getting helpful tips from you.
• 24:00
  Every once in a while when they're ready and they're ready
• 24:02
  to drop by, they will call you again.
• 24:06
  But the personal gain money. Why are you wasting your time?
• 24:09
  Sorry, that's up for South Africans who are listening.
• 24:11
  If the person doesn't have money, if the person is not paid
• 24:14
  up, if the person doesn't have dollar box, if the person
• 24:17
  doesn't have Rand, the person doesn't have, you know, no
• 24:20
  paper. Why are you wasting your time?
• 24:23
  There's no amount of toasting somebody who is broke that will
• 24:25
  lead to a good outcome. Outcome for you, None.
• 24:29
  But then there's also some people who have money but
• 24:31
  they're not willing to spend at all.
• 24:35
  They're not willing to spend. There's some people who have
• 24:38
  trauma, serious trauma, but the moment you give them B, they
• 24:42
  will say what? I'd rather go and talk to my
• 24:44
  priest. That's what they will say and
• 24:48
  they'll go and talk to the priest.
• 24:49
  It's free because they'll say trauma with my trauma, no reach,
• 24:52
  you know, reach that level. So do these people have a
• 24:56
  budget? How serious is this problem?
• 24:58
  Does it look like they're going to spare money to solve the
• 25:00
  problem? Doesn't look like there's an
• 25:02
  urgent need. Then another example that I gave
• 25:05
  around urgency, urgency just means how soon do you think
• 25:10
  somebody's ready to make a decision?
• 25:12
  How soon do you think they're ready to make a decision?
• 25:15
  So asking about the history, asking about their goals, you
• 25:18
  know, you can give you a timeline.
• 25:20
  Like for instance, Natasha also does counseling for people in
• 25:23
  relationships. So let's say this woman, this
• 25:25
  baby has trauma. The trauma started when she was
• 25:28
  15 because unfortunately, she has some kind bad issues with
• 25:31
  somebody in her youth. And then now she has made the
• 25:35
  love of her life and she wants to marry the love of her life,
• 25:39
  but she feels as if she suppose uproot that trauma first before
• 25:44
  they start talking about wedding planning.
• 25:48
  Now, if Natasha just that kind of person like, Oh really?
• 25:51
  Or has he proposed? Oh, wonderful.
• 25:53
  Tell me some more about the proposal.
• 25:56
  She'll be talking about the proposal proposal.
• 25:57
  How did you guys meet? Blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:59
  Oh, he's the love of my life, desire that I did the good ages,
• 26:02
  you know, just and laugh and everything that's building
• 26:06
  rapport. Apart from that, Natasha is
• 26:08
  getting ammunition. She's getting all the
• 26:10
  information that she needs to close the deal.
• 26:12
  Eventually she will ask when are you guys planning on getting
• 26:14
  married? If the babe says and we haven't
• 26:17
  fixed the date yet, my friend, that means that there's no sense
• 26:22
  of urgency. The person is not ready to solve
• 26:23
  the problem yet. But if the babe tells you, well,
• 26:28
  we're getting married in about 3 months.
• 26:31
  And that's the reason why I'm reaching out to you because I
• 26:33
  don't want to enter into this, my new marital home, carrying
• 26:36
  this kind of spiritual trauma on my head.
• 26:41
  A woman who reaches out to you saying I have serious trauma,
• 26:44
  I'm getting married in three months.
• 26:46
  Can you see there's a sense of urgency, there's the timeline,
• 26:49
  There's something we can point to that shows that this person
• 26:51
  is ready to take action sometime soon.
• 26:54
  When people have a budget and when people have a sense of
• 26:56
  urgency, then we know that there's a chance that they're
• 27:02
  ready to drop money and there's a chance that they're ready to
• 27:04
  move ahead. So before you think that your
• 27:09
  problem is with calendar or with WhatsApp, make sure that you
• 27:12
  have these basic processes in place first.
• 27:16
  You need to have a framework. You need to have a process, you
• 27:18
  need to have a script, you need to have a plan.
• 27:20
  You need to have an outline. You need to have a whatever it
• 27:22
  is you want to call it for asking these kinds of questions.
• 27:27
  So that's just around history. Ask about how did this problem
• 27:31
  start? What is their vision?
• 27:33
  Where are they running to? Where are they running from?
• 27:35
  Who are they trying to embrace? Who are they trying to cut out
• 27:37
  of their life? How have they tried to solve
• 27:39
  this problem before? Why did you reach out to me now?
• 27:42
  Oh, OK, You're not having bad nightmares.
• 27:45
  Oh, OK. The nightmares are affecting
• 27:47
  your ability to work. Yoga is saying that the usaku,
• 27:50
  if you continue to come in and leave for work, OK, you see
• 27:52
  these kind of trauma being expressed in those terms now
• 27:55
  shows that this person might be willing to take action.
• 28:00
  Then also told Natasha she needs to ask questions around decision
• 28:02
  making. Because there's some people who
• 28:04
  reach out, you know, who might be minors and I don't know how
• 28:08
  things work in South Africa, but in Nigeria now if an 18 year old
• 28:11
  reaches out to you, they say that they have trauma.
• 28:13
  Let's face it, which time only does an 18 year old have?
• 28:17
  So for me, when students reach out, I ask them that working
• 28:22
  with me could be a considerable investment.
• 28:24
  If we're going to go ahead. Would you require parental
• 28:27
  assistance or is this something that you can cut a check by
• 28:29
  yourself? Is this something you can take
• 28:31
  care of by yourself? I ask if somebody says, Oh no,
• 28:37
  I'm cool, I can sort it out no problem.
• 28:39
  I know that we'll continue talking.
• 28:41
  If somebody says that they require parental assistance,
• 28:43
  then well, if I can't rope the parent into the conversation,
• 28:48
  then I would just limited them to, I would just limit them to,
• 28:51
  you know, a free session where I answer one question for them and
• 28:55
  then after that I put them in relationship nurturing.
• 28:57
  I have a free podcast. Subscribe to the podcast.
• 28:59
  You keep getting value from it. You know, eventually things
• 29:02
  change. 18 year old will become 19.
• 29:03
  After a while she person will become 222325.
• 29:06
  Do you have some money? And then they might remember and
• 29:09
  then they might call me back and then things change.
• 29:11
  You never know, but you ask decision making authority
• 29:17
  questions. You're trying to figure out
• 29:19
  who's going to be responsible for making decisions, who's
• 29:21
  going to be responsible for cutting the check.
• 29:23
  So I told Natasha, if a minor reaches out to you, you ask if
• 29:28
  it's something that you're going to be able to foot the bill for
• 29:31
  by yourself or are you going to require parental assistance?
• 29:34
  You ask. You don't have to sound as
• 29:36
  formal as me, but you look for a way and you ask.
• 29:42
  Then let's see what else, what else, what else, what else?
• 29:47
  Anyway, another reason why I told Natasha that she needs to
• 29:51
  engage in qualification and discovery, asking people
• 29:53
  questions, trying to figure out is this a serious person?
• 29:56
  Is this a walk up pass? Do they have a significant
• 29:58
  problem that needs solving? And I think the reason why I
• 30:02
  asked her to engage in this and why every single Nigerian or
• 30:05
  South African business person, business owner should engage in
• 30:08
  this, it's because it is only when you ask people questions
• 30:11
  around their need that you can make an effective proposal and
• 30:14
  that you can give adequate pricing.
• 30:16
  Because trust me, I've been in this situation before.
• 30:20
  It absolutely sucks for somebody to come to you and we would
• 30:23
  discuss and then you tell them your bill is 2.5 million.
• 30:26
  And then the person says, OK, no problem, person pays 2.5.
• 30:30
  Then by the time you start the work, you now realize that for
• 30:32
  this thing to make sense, you should have charged them 5.6.
• 30:35
  That thing sucks. It's painful, it's painful.
• 30:40
  It's really, really painful to remove yourself from that kind
• 30:42
  of situation where you quoted somebody 3,000,000, meanwhile
• 30:46
  you should have quoted them 5 million.
• 30:48
  It sucks to get the extra money. It's plenty of quarrel.
• 30:54
  So you need to ask people questions about the problem,
• 30:57
  about what's going on, about the scope of the project, so that by
• 31:00
  the time you build them, you build them once and there's no
• 31:03
  back and forth. You collect your money once, you
• 31:06
  collect your money. Neat.
• 31:09
  No back and forth, no query. That's why we ask questions like
• 31:14
  this also, because apart from adequate pricing, that is what
• 31:21
  helps us to make a defective proposal.
• 31:24
  If you don't ask about the person's level of trauma in this
• 31:26
  case, like in Natasha's case where she's a spiritual healer,
• 31:30
  you're not asking about the level of trauma and things like
• 31:32
  that. You start making a proposal for
• 31:34
  something that will involve 2 weeks of counseling.
• 31:36
  Meanwhile, maybe it's something that you can fix in a 20 minute
• 31:39
  session. It will seem like overkill
• 31:41
  because even as you're telling the person or two weeks of
• 31:44
  counseling, we'll do like this, we'll do like this.
• 31:46
  You know, we go smoke shisha, then we'll say some prayers,
• 31:49
  then we'll go make meditate, then we go levitate, then we'll
• 31:52
  do counseling session, then we'll do this.
• 31:54
  We'll fix your chakra, We'll fix the person will start thinking
• 31:56
  that all of this on top, on top, on top waiting on top of this
• 32:01
  small problem, you know, but it is when you talk to somebody and
• 32:04
  you try and figure out what the problem is, it is there you be
• 32:07
  able to know that oh you know, what there actually is, is
• 32:11
  simple something that we can fix in like 5 minutes.
• 32:14
  The go, come on, this one is not too much.
• 32:16
  All you have to do is just, you know, come over to my studio in
• 32:19
  Kalani, you know, we have a sit down in about 20-30 minutes.
• 32:23
  I should be able to have you on your way.
• 32:25
  Especially with one or two helpful resources, you should be
• 32:27
  able to take care of yourself. You make a proposal that by the
• 32:31
  time you speak, the person will see this.
• 32:36
  Natasha, she's been listening to me.
• 32:39
  She knows me, she's vibing with me, she gets me, She understands
• 32:45
  the problem. So that's why all these
• 32:47
  conversations are absolutely important.
• 32:50
  So anyway, it's been 30 minutes, so let me not overflog it.
• 32:55
  Let me just bring it to a close right now.
• 32:56
  But Shah, one of the benefits of reaching out to a consultant is
• 33:02
  sometimes you think your business problem is one thing,
• 33:05
  but by the time you talk to a pro, you find out that your
• 33:07
  problems are something else. So Natasha reached out to me
• 33:11
  because, you know, her problem was Calendly versus WhatsApp.
• 33:16
  Meanwhile, that is not where the problem lies.
• 33:18
  So it's not a matter of calendly or WhatsApp that that's the
• 33:21
  reason why people are ghosting her, or that's the reason why
• 33:23
  people know they drop money, or that's the reason why people
• 33:25
  know they book. It was other things, but I
• 33:28
  advise her that you know what, you know, depending on who you
• 33:31
  are, what you're trying to build.
• 33:32
  Yeah, I told her you can explore the calendar thing, but give it
• 33:34
  one more. Give it, give it more time.
• 33:36
  If you're trying to, you're trying out a new tool like
• 33:38
  Calendly. You can't just try for one month
• 33:40
  and then assume that that's enough to, to solve the problem.
• 33:45
  So yeah, that's it. So anyway, thank you very much,
• 33:50
  Natasha, for reaching out. Shout out to Natasha for other
• 33:53
  listeners of the show who are based in South Africa.
• 33:56
  Reach out to me. I'd like to hear from you.
• 33:58
  I gave my phone number at the beginning and at the end of
• 34:00
  every single podcast episode. So you can call, you can send me
• 34:03
  a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 34:10
  For those of you who are reaching out from South Africa,
• 34:12
  like Natasha, what you have to do is you put a +234 in front of
• 34:16
  the number and you will get through to me.
• 34:18
  So reach out. I'd like to know more of my
• 34:20
  South African listeners, what kind of businesses that you're
• 34:23
  involved in, the kind of problems that you're facing.
• 34:26
  If there's any way I can help out, I will.
• 34:29
  And we ran the numbers because Natasha asked about pricing.
• 34:33
  I'm reasonably priced. Don't worry.
• 34:35
  We ran the numbers. And I don't think there's
• 34:37
  anything that I offered that was more than 3000 Rand a month.
• 34:41
  So it's, it's, it's not bad at all.
• 34:43
  It's not bad at all at all, at all, at all.
• 34:46
  So, but even if you know, 3004 thousand 5000 Rand is too much
• 34:50
  for you, that's not a problem. I answer, I'm willing to answer
• 34:54
  questions for free, but just let me know that is really advice
• 34:59
  you're looking for. That's not a problem.
• 35:00
  And I will answer one question and one question only.
• 35:03
  And hopefully I'll be able to use that to search you on the
• 35:05
  right path, just like I said, Natasha on the right path.
• 35:08
  So thank you very much for listening.
• 35:11
  I will catch you all some other time.