Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Level Up Your Sales Game: The Power of an Account Management Mindset

Transcript

Level Up Your Sales Game: The Power of an Account Management Mindset · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello, and welcome to the show. I'm making today's podcast at
0:04
The Mechanic. It's a long story and I'll
0:07
explain later in the episode. And so you expect to hear the
0:10
interruptions in the background, you know, the boys just jacking
0:12
off, what else? You know, Okada here and there
0:15
and, you know, other people who have showed up to repair their
0:18
cars. Now, if you're tuning into the
0:20
show for the very first time, the goal of this podcast is free
0:24
business education. So don't worry, you are in the
0:26
right place. This is not a podcast about
0:28
tourism or any of those things. And if you get any value from
0:31
it, please share, promote and talk about the podcast so that
0:34
friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit
0:37
from the questions that we tackle.
0:39
They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or
0:43
any player of their choice. And if you have any sales or
0:46
marketing questions, then bring them to me after the episode.
0:49
You can call, you can SMS or send a WhatsApp message on
0:53
08064662140. Now today on the show, OK,
1:00
before we continue, I'd like to shout out Mei Baca, BP Bama from
1:07
Rivers State, listener of the podcast.
1:09
And yeah, this is also one of those really cool Nigerian
1:13
names. You know, I've been talking
1:15
about how Nigeria is really vast.
1:16
We have lots of tribes. And this is something that have
1:20
in the podcast has made me really, really appreciate
1:23
because, you know, people discover the podcast, you know,
1:25
from different corners of Nigeria and everybody has really
1:29
cool, interesting names. But The funny thing is, Maybach
1:32
has says that where he comes from in Rivers that his name
1:35
actually is popular. So he says that if you go to the
1:37
market and you shout his name, a lot of people will answer.
1:40
And, you know, we had a laugh about that because actually the
1:42
same thing with me. So, you know, I run into people
1:45
here and people like, your name is unique.
1:47
Where are you from, blah, blah, blah.
1:49
You know, is your name Japanese? Is your name German?
1:51
Is your name Irish? You know, I'm I'm thief.
1:54
And so over here in Abuja and back in Lagos, people hear my
1:58
name and they think it's cool. They think it's unique.
2:00
What do you think is if you go back to Ben Ray State, you know,
2:02
if you're in Marcudia and you're in the market and you just shout
2:04
Tarvish a man, I mean, maybe like 15 boys will answer.
2:07
So, yeah. So interesting name Mei Baker,
2:12
BP Bama from Rivers. He's also he's he's also an ex
2:17
Navy grand. I know those people are very
2:18
full of themselves now because we're saying that anybody who's
2:21
an ex jam that the person is popular.
2:23
So that's a problem with these military kids.
2:24
They're always feeling themselves.
2:26
Bernie, thank you very much for listening to the podcast.
2:28
We had a really interesting conversation.
2:29
Maybe I might talk about that someday.
2:32
So today, what I want us to look at on the podcast is this whole
2:39
thing about sales, account management, you know, carrier
2:41
choices, you know, all these, all these sorts of things.
2:43
So it's not going to be a very structured episode because I had
2:46
a conversation with someone who's a podcast listener.
2:48
I'm not going to use his real name.
2:49
Let's just call him T Diggs. And the reason why we're using
2:52
the name Taye Diggs is because the guy looks a lot like Taye
2:56
Diggs. He just looks like a Nigerian
2:57
northern version of Taye Diggs. So we're going to call him Taye
3:00
Diggs in this episode. So I was having a conversation
3:02
with Taye Diggs now, and Taye Diggs is a new digital marketer.
3:06
He's probably going to move into a sales and account management
3:09
role. He says that he has got some
3:11
useful tips from the podcast and he wants to know how to convert
3:14
leads and also how to get leads for the company that he
3:16
currently works for. So of course, I asked him like,
3:19
OK, you're talking about the company, so who's going to be
3:21
paying? Is it a good company that's
3:23
going to pay? Abby?
3:23
Is it going to be you? He said he's going to pay.
3:25
And then we had, you know, money conversation and he was upfront,
3:29
you know, when he had the figure, you know, the guy shout,
3:31
he said he's not going to be able to afford it, you know,
3:33
blah, blah, blah. But still, he didn't stop me
3:35
from dropping some value for the guy.
3:38
So I'm going to share some of the conversations that we had
3:41
right now. And then, of course, later on,
3:43
if he's going to be able to afford paid coaching services,
3:47
you know, he'll be back. But let me just share some of
3:49
the things that we spoke about. Right?
3:53
Yeah. Let me just share some of the
3:54
things that we spoke about. Hopefully some of you are going
3:56
to be able to get some Nuggets from that.
3:58
So Tay Diggs, again, not his real name.
4:01
I'm just calling him Tay Diggs because the guy resembles Tay
4:04
Diggs. He just looks like a northern
4:05
version of Tay Diggs. And when I say northern, I mean
4:08
Niger northern, like he looks like a Marlow version of Tay
4:11
Diggs. So I can put it that way.
4:12
You know, all my my little brothers, you know, I beg Novax.
4:16
Yeah. So Tay days now.
4:17
So the guy studied accounting and it's something that he
4:20
struggled with. So he thought about different
4:23
career choices. He went back and got an MBA
4:25
that's a master's in business administration.
4:28
And while he was doing that, he started doing some writing.
4:31
The guy has some hustle shaft because the guy has done both
4:34
has done both work. The guy has done, you know,
4:36
different kinds of jobs. So it's one of the things I had
4:39
to tell him, like, straight up, like, you know, the guy, he has
4:42
good view as in, you know, anyhow, Shah, he wants to make
4:45
things work. So I told him that, look, it
4:46
doesn't matter what you settle on, you're going to be
4:48
successful. So while I was doing the NBA
4:50
now, I was writing for some people, doing academic writing,
4:53
doing marketing writing, you know, picking up some small
4:55
change, collecting some small coins here and there, you know,
4:59
writing marketing content. But of course, he started off by
5:02
doing some free work for some friends and for some colleagues,
5:04
you know, reaching out to some people like, oh, I like your
5:06
business. I like what you do, you know, I
5:09
think I have some skills. So how far now can I just write
5:11
one or two things for you? You know, that's how we start
5:13
putting out some free stuff, eventually start getting some
5:15
paid stuff. And you see, when I tell people
5:18
lots, because how will I describe it?
5:22
And it started from my wedding photography days, you know,
5:24
people, they would just say don't do free work.
5:27
Everything must be paid. Everything must be paid.
5:29
And yes, ultimately you must, everything has to be paid.
5:33
But The thing is, when you're stepping new into a field and
5:34
you don't have a body of work, you don't have the expertise,
5:37
you don't have credibility, you don't have the reputation as in
5:40
how you enter and then start charging full price.
5:43
It's only people who are scammers at heart that have that
5:46
kind of mind that you've not done this work at all.
5:49
You just prevent present yourself.
5:51
And then you just tell somebody that look, you know, pay me, you
5:53
know, it's 500K, you know, a month or something like that.
5:57
So I'm not saying everybody must do free work, but I'm just
5:59
saying now for some people, you don't have a body of work, you
6:02
don't have a, a portfolio to speak of.
6:07
There's no reputation, there's no body of work, there's no
6:09
nothing that you can show. These are some of the ways that
6:12
you can enter into the field. See, especially where you're
6:15
selling services and you can do it at low cost.
6:17
So his own scope was, hey, bro, babe, I like this business, you
6:21
know, blah, blah, blah. I see your website, you know, if
6:24
we do it like this, we do like this, we can improve like this,
6:26
we can do like this or how far? Let me just try one or two
6:28
things. Let's see if it works and then
6:30
of course, if you do it and then the thing works and then you're
6:32
happy, then the person pays for future jobs.
6:34
They also refer you. It's doing stuff like this is
6:38
not a bad way to get into the market.
6:41
Now, you're not going to build a career like this, but I'm saying
6:44
in the beginning, when you do not have a body of work, when
6:48
you do not have a reputation, when nobody knows you, when on
6:52
your website there's no testimonial to put, when there
6:55
is no nothing to show any form of credibility, no nothing to
6:58
show that you can do the job. This is not a bad way to get
7:01
started. And so this is the reason why I
7:03
think Ted Diggs is going to be successful because he has been
7:07
anyhow shy. He's been trying to make things
7:09
work. So let's see then in all the
7:14
work he's been doing so far now he has been avoiding sales
7:18
responsibilities. And I understand because in the
7:22
beginning, oh, by the way, sorry about, you know, all the noise
7:26
going on in the background. Like I said, I'm at the
7:28
mechanical. You know, some of these, you
7:31
know, some of these, my little boys now they can be very, and I
7:35
don't blame them. Their job is is is harsh.
7:38
You know, it's boring, it's on the page.
7:40
You know, you're under the sun and in the rain.
7:42
So I guess, you know, they just look for ways to make themselves
7:45
feel all right. In fact, the last time I was
7:46
here, you'll believe these boys are just racing arcadas anyhow,
7:49
you know, using arcada to now jump.
7:52
What do you call this thing when you put sand together like a
7:55
ramp? Do I racing arcada, turning
7:57
tricks, jumping ramps? I said, look at these boys just
7:59
wasting fuel. They don't know that they can
8:01
injure themselves, get really, really hurt.
8:04
So then that's all the noise that we have in the background.
8:07
So Tay Diggs now the guy has been avoiding sales roles.
8:10
Eventually he ended up with an insurance company.
8:13
And of course, you know, when you're working in insurance,
8:16
you, you can't avoid it. You know, at this point, you're
8:19
practically in sales. Sometimes they will call it
8:21
something else. They will call you What, what
8:24
are the terms that they like to call again, consultant ahead,
8:28
they'll call you insurance consultant.
8:30
They will call you, you know, different kinds of things, Sure,
8:35
but don't be deceived. It's sales because you're
8:38
responsible for going out and getting people to buy insurance
8:41
policies and you're going to be paid commissions off of what it
8:45
is that you can sell. So it's sales.
8:47
Even though they call you insurance consultant, insurance
8:50
specialist, underwriting specialist, something,
8:52
something, something, forget that thing.
8:54
It's a sales job. So if you see the application
8:57
and you don't want to do sales and you see them saying the
9:00
insultant specialist underwriting consultant, some
9:02
just runaway, it's, it's sales. But if you're brave enough, step
9:07
into the role because you're going to learn lots of things
9:09
that are going to help you. Not that are going to help you
9:12
in the future because you can't start and decide that, man, this
9:15
sales thing is not for me, let me go and do something else.
9:17
And like I told Ted Diggs, the good thing about getting
9:21
involved in these sorts of roles, sales roles, account
9:23
management roles, all these sorts of things is because
9:25
you're going to learn skills that when you say I'm tired and
9:28
you're moving on, they parlay well, they translate well.
9:32
They carry over well into other endeavours.
9:35
So like me now, if I give up this whole thing, I say, you
9:38
know what, I'm done. I want to join Tina Bo and Co.
9:40
I must enter the four walls of Ashore Rock and I decide to be a
9:44
politician. All the skills that I'm learning
9:46
here, all the, you know, all the skills I'm learning here will
9:51
translate well into politics. If I say I'm going to be a
9:54
pastor, let me open my church. Let me be collecting tights from
9:56
all of you. You know, those of you that are
9:58
earning like, you know, 500 M and I'll collect tight from you.
10:02
That is how much that's like 5 M collecting your tights.
10:05
If I want to be a pastor, The thing is going to translate
10:07
well. If I want to be a womanizer, the
10:09
thing would OK, no, that's not a career choice.
10:11
But anyway, I'm just trying to say that whatever it is, sales
10:15
skills, the skills that you get when you're doing sales and
10:18
customer service and account management and everything, they
10:21
translate well into whatever it is that you want to do by the
10:25
time you say I am done with this career.
10:28
So I told him just embrace, embrace the role, embrace the
10:31
role. But he's no longer with
10:33
insurance anyway. And then from the conversation
10:36
that we had, it looked like his marketing special specialty was
10:42
more on the strategic side, on the content side.
10:44
The reason why I had to ask is because you know, there's some
10:46
of you who are marketers and you guys are really, really on the
10:49
technical side. So you guys are the ones that
10:51
are very good at deciding who the customer cohort is.
10:54
You're good at deciding the targeting that you have to use
10:59
inside of Facebook Manager or inside of Google.
11:03
What's it called? Whatever Google has that used to
11:06
buy advertisements. So some of you are really,
11:10
really, really on the technical side, but it look like him.
11:12
He's more on the strategic side. Let's decide on the content, who
11:15
are we writing it to? Let's come up with copy or, you
11:17
know, all these sorts of things. So yeah, that's what he does.
11:19
He's more on the strategy side, coming up with the pain points,
11:23
trying to figure out the users write about their problems or
11:25
their interest, you know, that sort of thing.
11:27
So eventually we go to this whole question of what should I
11:29
do? I'm currently in marketing, but
11:32
my company, they say that they will shift me into account
11:36
management or they will shift me into sales.
11:38
And he has been fighting it. And of course I wanted to figure
11:43
out if he knows the difference between sales and account
11:46
management because there's a difference.
11:48
And you know, I'm glad that what he said because he was talking
11:50
more about the similarities that whether you're doing account
11:53
management or whether you're doing sales, you need the same
11:57
kind of skills. And I'm like, yes, very, very
11:59
good, very good. But then I asked him about the
12:01
difference, and he was able to appreciate that.
12:03
Well, the difference essentially is that you're not going to be
12:05
doing cold calling. That's the way he put it.
12:08
And yeah, he's correct. That's the difference between
12:09
account management and sales. When you're doing sales, you are
12:13
running out to look for people to say, come and buy my product
12:17
or my services, come and be a customer, come and give me
12:19
patronage, come and, you know, come and do this, come and buy.
12:22
Essentially that is sales. But when you're doing account
12:25
management, you are working with people who have already bought
12:29
from your company. They bought from your company
12:32
before they were a customer before, before they want to come
12:35
and buy again. Or maybe they have bought and
12:38
there's a problem with the order that needs to be rectified.
12:41
You know, something like that. So that is the main difference.
12:43
When you're doing sales, you're running after somebody.
12:45
Come and buy, come and buy my market, come and give me
12:48
patronage, come and be my customer.
12:50
But if you're doing account management, you're dealing with
12:52
somebody that has bought before before, the person that wants to
12:55
top up, the person wants to buy a new thing, the person that
12:58
wants to upgrade or there's a problem with the previous order
13:01
and you are the person that they're going to last with.
13:04
So the account management function is kind of broad
13:07
because sometimes you will be selling like when somebody comes
13:10
and want to upgrade, you're essentially selling.
13:14
You're trying to figure out, OK, what did you buy the last time?
13:16
OK, how is it working? Did it serve you well?
13:18
What was the problem? Oh, you want to upgrade and why?
13:21
OK, if you're upgrading, OK, let's be looking at like this.
13:23
Let's be looking at like that. So you can say that there's some
13:25
sales that is involved in account management.
13:28
You will also be doing some customer service because
13:30
somebody will call and say, look, I bought this thing from
13:32
you. We will promise this.
13:33
All of you are bastards, The thing is not working, blah,
13:35
blah, blah. So you know that's customer
13:38
service going on. So you'll be doing a whole lot.
13:40
Then let's see what else and it's all we're talking sharp and
13:46
I asked some more details about the company and he says that
13:48
he's currently with the software development company and they
13:50
sell to financial institutions. Now when I heard that thing made
13:54
all the difference and this was my advice to him.
13:56
So I told him, look bro, you know what?
13:59
Since you are currently in software development and you
14:03
guys are selling to financial institutions, you know you guys
14:05
are selling to banks. What else?
14:09
Banks, Abby banks, clearance houses, you know, all those
14:14
sorts of things. I told him this is what you do.
14:16
Your next career move is go and talk to your people and tell
14:20
them like, look, you know what? I've been doing marketing for
14:22
you guys and you know, I'm good. I'm grateful for the
14:25
opportunity. But now that you guys are saying
14:27
you will expand and you want me to be doing sales, want me to be
14:31
doing account management, just tell them now look, I'm
14:34
available for account management.
14:35
I'm excited at the opportunity and I'm looking forward to
14:38
learning new stuff. So what do you guys have set up
14:40
for me and I told him throw yourself into account management
14:44
straight up not into sales 1st and let me explain why.
14:51
The reason why I told him throw yourself fully into account
14:54
management is this when you're in a sales role, typically
14:58
you're being rewarded on performance.
15:00
You have some you have small salary, you know chicken change
15:03
and then most of the money will come from the one that you bring
15:06
in. So since Tay digs used to sell
15:09
insurance, you know, he knows, he knows the scope that some
15:12
insurance firm that the monthly thing they will give you is like
15:14
50K of course, which is rubbish is not anything.
15:18
Then the big, big money that you will make depends on whether
15:21
you're able to sell big, big accounts then like while I was
15:26
still selling insurance or some companies that were dropping
15:28
maybe like 150 KA month. But the big, big money came from
15:32
whether you are able to sell big, big accounts.
15:35
And I told him that look, since you're new into this, if you go
15:38
directly into this space, something that is performance
15:42
driven, Commission driven you, you might struggle.
15:48
You might struggle, especially since there are a couple of
15:50
things you've not learned. But account management, on the
15:52
other hand, account management, they're usually usually salaried
15:55
stuff. So they pay you like they pay
15:57
everybody else. So if you go into the company
15:59
and the average salary of everybody is like 400 KA month,
16:02
if you're in account management, that's how much you collect, 400
16:04
KA month. But if you're now doing sales,
16:07
your salary will be small, then your kickback, your commissions,
16:12
your upside will be big. That's how it works in sales.
16:17
So that's one of the reasons why I told him, throw yourself into
16:19
account management. But the most important reason
16:22
why I told him, throw yourself into account management is this.
16:26
When you're in account management, because you're
16:28
dealing with people who have already bought before, they just
16:31
want to upgrade. Maybe there's problem, you know,
16:33
something like that. Don't make some inquiries.
16:36
The conversations are a lot easier.
16:37
It's less stress. You're just chilling in the
16:40
office, chilling on that, the AC, somebody will call you, you
16:43
guys have a conversation. It's a lot easier to manage
16:45
those kinds of conversations than when you're having to go
16:48
out fresh and trying to drum up business.
16:52
And then I told him because these conversations are low
16:55
stress and because these people have bought before, I told him
16:58
that throwing yourself into account management will make you
17:01
an expert on the customer. And that is one thing that makes
17:04
selling easier. It's not just being an expert in
17:08
the sales process and having the framework.
17:11
It's not just knowing the framework and knowing the steps.
17:13
You also have to be an expert in the customer.
17:16
You have to know what is it that they want, What are they looking
17:19
for? What is the problem?
17:21
What is the vision? What are their pain points?
17:23
The things that they've tried out before, How did they try it?
17:26
The ones that work, how did it work?
17:27
The one that didn't work, how didn't it work?
17:29
When you know all these things, it makes it easy for you to
17:32
handle the sales process. That's why I told him that if
17:34
you threw yourself into account management, you'll become an
17:36
expert on the customer. The fact that I advised him
17:38
being account management for one whole year, before you say oil
17:42
organ, I'm ready, let me now try sales.
17:45
When you're an expert on the customer, you will see that the
17:47
way you would carry the sales conversation will be different.
17:50
Because when you approach somebody, in your mind, you
17:53
already know that, OK, this guy, based on what he's saying, based
17:56
on what this baby is saying, is I see if she's this kind of
17:59
customers. I see if he's this kind of
18:01
customer. These kind of people are usually
18:02
concerned about this. These kind of people are usually
18:04
concerned about that. They typically have tried this.
18:07
Maybe this is where they made a mistake and this is the kind of
18:09
product that will suit them. You'll be able to have a much
18:12
more productive, much more fruitful, much more effective
18:15
conversation because you have become an expert on the
18:18
customer. So if you are in the same
18:21
situation as Teddigs or Taya Adagun, as I like to call him,
18:24
you know, I like to message on people and I say that he's Taye
18:27
Diggs is a Nigerian, like his full name is Taye Adagun.
18:29
But that's not true by the way. So if you're in this situation
18:34
as like Taye Diggs, throw yourself into account management
18:37
and stay there for one year. You'll become an expert in the
18:40
customer and you will hear it all because the people who have
18:43
problems that are calling the company to abuse the company,
18:45
you will hear it. The people who are calling in
18:48
and who are happy with the company, with the product or the
18:50
service, you will hear it. The people who are ambivalent
18:53
about the product or the service, you will hear it.
18:55
That one year you will hear it all.
18:57
So by the time you're stepping into the sales rule, you will
19:00
know so much. Your mind will just be cool and
19:03
calm. The only problem now be you will
19:06
not just be trying to figure out, OK, what selling framework
19:09
should I use? What discovery framework should
19:11
I use? How do I handle the
19:13
conversation? When it comes to the cosmopath,
19:16
No Fear. You don't have fear at all
19:17
because that one year you would have seen and you would have
19:20
heard it, you'd have heard everything.
19:22
So that's the main reason why I told him.
19:25
You know what, just threw yourself straight into account
19:27
management. So one moment, let me check the
19:29
time, OK, 20 minutes. So we still have some time.
19:32
I don't want to do 45 minute episodes anymore.
19:35
Then let's see what else. So another reason why I told him
19:39
that the guy why that TD should do account management is because
19:42
of this. So I told him that look bro, you
19:45
know that you are in a complex sales environment and he hadn't
19:49
heard that term before. So I know that there's some of
19:51
you who haven't heard that term before.
19:52
So let me repeat, lots of times when you're looking for sales
19:56
content, especially in Niger, sometimes you hear some stuff
20:00
you tried, it doesn't work. And this is the reason why
20:03
because lots of sales experts in Nigeria.
20:08
Haven't realized or they failed to tell you guys, they failed to
20:11
teach you guys that there are different kinds of selling
20:15
scenarios, different kinds of selling context.
20:17
So not every single thing works. You need to figure out what kind
20:20
of context are you in? And the two major
20:22
classifications are you have simple sales scenarios, simple
20:26
sales context, and then you have complex sales scenarios or
20:29
complex sales contexts. And this is the difference.
20:32
So anyone in the podcast I used to talk about how if you go to
20:35
the market to buy a goosey, that is a simple sales scenario.
20:38
The number of parties involved in the transaction are simple.
20:40
It's just true. There is you and there's the
20:42
lady buying a Gucci. So if my wife says, how's my
20:45
dearest? And I say yes, my love, so go to
20:47
the market, go and buy a Gucci so I can cook for you and the
20:49
kids. I say, OK, no problem.
20:51
I drive to the market. That is just two people.
20:53
There's me and then there is the a Gucci trader.
20:58
So number of parties involved in a simple sales scenario.
21:01
Simple sales context, small 2, maybe 3, but should I know
21:05
plenty? I'm back at my wedding
21:06
photography days. I'll be talking to the bride,
21:11
maybe the groom. That's just to worst case
21:14
scenario, I'll be talking to your parents.
21:16
You know, one moms here, one pops you over there.
21:18
I was never talking to more than two, three people, maybe bride
21:22
and then the groom, then moms here, maybe wedding planner.
21:25
You know, that's for that's not too many people.
21:28
So the conversations are easy to manage because you're not
21:32
talking to too many people. Then let's see, apart from
21:37
number of people ahead price, when you're in a simple sales
21:40
scenario, the price is not that big.
21:42
So a Gucci, we all know the price currently as at the time
21:46
I'm talking, OK, I don't know the price of a Gucci.
21:48
But the last time that I went to the market, I wanted to buy one
21:51
boodle of a Gucci. And I went there and I said how
21:54
much? Then woman told me, I think it
21:56
was like 5-5. I said I shout, I say 551 cup of
21:59
a Gucci. And anyway that's how bad things
22:03
have gotten, you know, with hyperinflation that come on
22:05
Agusi 55 for one cop. I say, OK Madam, give me two.
22:10
Imagine my Agusi world. Thank you.
22:12
I say hi, Nigeria don't sport. Anyway, so I don't know how much
22:15
it is now, but relatively speaking, Agusi is not as
22:18
expensive as wedding photography.
22:20
Wedding photography is not as expensive as buying a car.
22:23
Buying a car is not as expensive, as expensive as
22:27
buying a house. So you can see that when it
22:29
comes to price, the level of price complexity, you know is
22:36
there's a gradient, it increases.
22:38
So it depends. So the more affordable The thing
22:41
is, the more you are in a simpler sales scenario.
22:46
But remember you also when you're not dealing with too many
22:48
people, so you're not dealing with too many people and then
22:51
the price is simple. Then typically simple sales
22:54
scenarios is when the subject matter is simple and easy to
22:57
understand. So a goosey is very, very easy
22:59
to understand, except if you're nervous when you go to the
23:03
market, if the goosey is bad, you can see that is bad.
23:05
The thing will smell funky, the thing will look kind of black
23:07
and it will look like he's coming.
23:10
So when I don't worry, you're trying to impress your wife, you
23:13
buy the ago, see you go home. If you buy the wrong thing, she
23:15
will laugh at you. She was called you, you made
23:17
that mistake again. So you can see that that one is
23:19
quite simple. But if it comes to buying a
23:21
house now, for instance, you know, you can mess up and buy
23:24
the wrong kind of house. Maybe it's in the wrong area,
23:27
maybe it's not secure. Maybe if it's an investment
23:31
decision, it's not going to give you the kind of yield, the kind
23:35
of return that you're looking for.
23:36
So you can make all kinds of mistakes when it comes to buying
23:40
a house, for instance, or buying a car that you can't make.
23:42
If you are trying to buy a goosey.
23:45
Oh, sorry about all that noise. You know, the boys are now
23:47
trying to flush out the the gas in the compressor because it's
23:51
AC issues that I'm having. So we're having, you know, we
23:54
replace the compressor and you know, all of that jazz.
23:56
So they're just flushing out the gas.
23:58
So that's all that sound is like.
24:00
So you guys don't feel as if I'm farting on the air.
24:02
It's not me farting or his gas compressor.
24:04
It's not me. Even if it's me self.
24:07
You can't smell anything. So there's there's no problem.
24:10
Where was I now? OK, I lost my train of thought.
24:14
OK, yeah. I was talking about subject
24:15
matter and about how the subject matter is simple.
24:17
The more complex the subject matter is, the more mistakes
24:19
that you can make. So those are some of the things
24:21
that determine whether you're a simple scenario or a complex
24:24
scenario. Then the last one that I can
24:26
remember now I think is relationships.
24:28
In simple sales, the necessity for relationship is not there.
24:31
So when I go to the market to buy a Gucci, the woman can
24:33
afford to say something like, look, Bros, you're here, you're
24:36
pricing, you're not buying. If you're not buying, please
24:39
move. Let somebody else come out open
24:41
market. She can be that blunt because
24:43
there's no need for us to keep a relationship.
24:45
She's just sending a Gucci. I should also say hi, Gucci are
24:48
5K cop and if I'm there pricing, pricing, pricing, pricing and
24:51
she can't sell a 5K cup, she can't tell me look, get outlet
24:54
somebody else come and buy. There's no need to build a
24:56
relationship. But if you sell cars, you can't
24:59
be talking to people somehow like that because you need to
25:02
finesse and build small relationship.
25:04
If you sell houses, you can't tell people you know, get out.
25:07
You need to finesse and build small relationship.
25:10
You know, if you're selling expensive equipment like my guy
25:13
who I spoke about like 2-3 episodes ago, who wants to buy
25:19
equipment for processing oil, that's to make engine oil.
25:24
If you're the seller of the equipment, you guys to finesse,
25:27
you know, invite them to your office, sit down on that AC, you
25:30
know, buy, give them cold drink, you know, sit down.
25:34
You know, that whole thing. You guys build relationships
25:37
when you're in much more complex selling environments.
25:40
So these are the things that determine whether you're in a
25:42
simple sale or you're in a complex sale.
25:44
So my advice to Tay Diggs was this, look, you're in a complex
25:48
sales scenario, so just go straight into account management
25:51
because there's lots of things that you need to learn.
25:53
Complex sales scenarios, like I say, they're complex.
25:56
You know, it's not simple. So you need to learn one or two
25:59
things. When it comes to decision
26:01
makers, the number of people they're going to be dealing with
26:05
is plenty is what? As my Yoruba people will say, in
26:10
America and in the USA, they do some research.
26:12
In Nigeria, we don't research anything.
26:14
So I can't tell you what it is in Nigeria, but in America,
26:16
depending on the level of research, depending on which
26:19
figure, which figures you check out for what year is beginning
26:22
to look at safe. When you're talking about
26:24
complex hill scenarios, you're looking at anything between is
26:26
this 6 and is this 6:00 and 9:00.
26:29
I'll be 6 and 10 decision makers.
26:31
So in other words, like he was talking to me, Ted told me about
26:35
how somebody told him now, Oh, look, selling insurance is very
26:39
easy now just enter Shell or you enter Shell, you know, you talk
26:42
to one or two executives, you close on big accounts.
26:44
It's that simple. So, and of course, you know
26:48
Teddy, you know, he laughed his eye.
26:49
Is it that easy now? So then when I would just enter
26:52
shell like that, you know, it's because it's, it's, it's not
26:56
that straightforward. You know how you want to get
26:59
into the building? Are you going to talk to your
27:03
security guard when you get in? How you're going to be relating
27:05
to with the receptionist, the other parties that you have to
27:09
get to before you speak to the executive?
27:11
You know, like different things. And so I told him that when it
27:14
comes to selling software for solutions for financial
27:19
institutions, you know, banks, clearance houses, things like
27:22
that, the level of complexity goes up even more.
27:25
So I told him, you're going to be exposed to several users.
27:29
The management user, the technical user, the financial
27:32
user, I can't remember all the times, but they're different
27:35
kinds of users of your products. Now the management user is the
27:38
person who is going to look at this thing and decide that OK,
27:40
this thing makes sense more, go ahead.
27:42
That's the management user. The technical user is the person
27:45
who actually uses your software, your product, or your service.
27:48
The person who has the problem, the person who actually enjoys
27:52
using the software, who doesn't like and doing enjoy using the
27:55
software. That's the desk officer, that's
27:57
the technical user. And the financial user is the
27:59
person who is going to say, OK, no problem, Technical user likes
28:03
it management user say let's go ahead.
28:05
OK, now let me go ahead and authorize the payment.
28:08
That's the financial user. Then there are also other
28:11
stakeholders involved, like when you're selling software to
28:13
financial institutions, legal has to get involved because
28:16
legal department has to look at this thing to say that, oh, OK,
28:19
this thing is safe to use. It meets our yeah, customer
28:23
safety requirements, it meets this requirement, that
28:26
requirement, you know, blah, blah, blah.
28:27
So when you're selling software to financial institutions,
28:30
you're not just talking to one person.
28:32
It's not like me back in the day being a wedding photographer and
28:35
I'm only talking to the bride. If the bride likes it, she will
28:38
pay. If he doesn't like it, we now
28:40
have to toast Popsy so that Pops you will pay if Popsy has
28:44
abandoned them. I should grow up with Mumsy.
28:45
When I have to toast Mumsy to pay, we can sit down on the
28:48
straightforward. But then selling software to
28:51
financial institutions is different.
28:53
We're going to need an inside man, we're going to need a
28:55
champion. We need somebody to make one or
28:56
two introductions because we need to know what's up.
28:58
We need to know the layer of the land.
29:00
You need to know somebody in legal, You need to know somebody
29:02
in accounting, You need to know somebody in procurement.
29:05
If you know somebody who is in orgas office, you know all well
29:07
and good if you have the number of orgas Pennsylvania.
29:10
But you can see that you are not going to be talking to one
29:14
person when we're talking about these sorts of deals.
29:16
So in America, to say anything between 6:00 and 9:00, I'll be 6
29:19
and 10. You can see that in Niger is
29:21
roughly the same. We're talking about complex hill
29:24
scenarios. You're going to be talking to
29:25
multiple people. And when you're trying to sell
29:30
something and you're talking to multiple people to get the thing
29:33
done, you can see that you're it's becoming difficult to
29:37
managing plenty of conversations.
29:40
And that's the beauty of starting in account management
29:42
because when you're in account management, you have access to
29:45
these people easy. The management, the technical
29:50
user will call in to say yes, we're using this is the problem
29:53
we're facing blah blah, blah. This is that that you have easy
29:56
conversations with him. If I'm there, you need to talk
29:59
to people in legal because you have to clarify one or two
30:01
things. He will patch you through to
30:02
legal easy because you guys are already customers.
30:07
He ever wants to upgrade or they're trying to troubleshoot a
30:09
problem or you know, something like that.
30:11
He will pass you across easy. Or like if you're coming brand
30:14
new fresh, when it's a sale, you'll be reluctant to introduce
30:17
you to other people because it's just the nature of the game.
30:20
In the beginning, everybody's is afraid.
30:23
Everybody's keeping information to their chests.
30:26
You know, it's just the early days.
30:27
Everybody's trying to be secretive.
30:30
So OK, 30 minutes. So when you're in account
30:34
management, you have easy access to all these people.
30:37
By the time you're ready to sell, you will know for sure
30:39
that OK, if I'm going to go and sell in Zenith Bank, you will
30:42
know for sure Who is the kind of person I need to talk to.
30:46
Do I need to talk to executive director?
30:48
How do I get access to executive director?
30:50
Do I need to talk to branch manager?
30:53
How will I get access to branch manager?
30:55
The legal process of of signing this contract, how does it work?
31:00
The procurement process, what does it look like?
31:03
You will have all these things and you can see why I say for
31:05
somebody who is in a big situation, throw yourself into
31:08
account management. Do it for one year, maybe even
31:10
more. By the time you're on the sales
31:12
side, you already know a couple of things you won't be afraid
31:14
anymore. The only thing will just be my
31:16
script when I get to the gates. How can I toast the security
31:21
guard and the entire side? That's for some places where you
31:24
have to toast the security guard because if it's normal bank like
31:27
GTB, you can just walk straight in what clearance houses, for
31:30
instance, you know, because of the sensitive nature of what it
31:32
is that they do, you know, don't want to know for sure.
31:34
Yes. How can I help you?
31:35
Where who have you come to see? Do you have an appointment?
31:38
So you just working on your script?
31:39
How will I get past the gate man when I entire side?
31:42
How will I talk to secretary when I talk to secretary and
31:44
again to or guys office, how am I going to get appointment with
31:48
OCA? Or if it's only PA that I get
31:50
access to, you know, you'll just be working out all those things.
31:53
What's my framework, what's my step, what's my process, you
31:57
know, all those sorts of things. So OK, 30 minutes.
32:00
I'll be 32 minutes. So let me just quickly bring it
32:03
to a close. So that's my advice to Tay
32:06
Diggs. Yeah, right now you can't afford
32:08
to pay for me to coach you while I no problem when you get some
32:11
wallpaper, you know, just come back.
32:12
Let's have a conversation and but in the meantime, I told him,
32:16
throw yourself into account management.
32:17
You're going to learn a lot and will make you a very competent
32:20
salesperson when you come out. But then I also told a digs
32:25
something that I tell you guys, I look, dealing with me is a
32:27
risk free proposition because for those of you who have other
32:30
sales influencers or trainers or coaches or whatever that you
32:32
like, look, let's be real, you have to pay them before you can
32:37
even have any kind of conversation with them.
32:39
What deal with me is a risky proposition.
32:40
You call me on the phone, we have a cool conversation.
32:43
If I have one or two Nuggets, I'll drop for you.
32:45
And The thing is, my own material is free.
32:47
And Tay Diggs also said that he likes that my stuff is practical
32:52
because I'm giving next class steps.
32:54
This is not a podcast where I'm going to tell you acquire to
32:56
refire, to aspire to attain what you desire.
32:59
You know, motivation, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
33:02
I mean, motivation is good, but you know, that's not the main
33:05
reason why lots of us are not performing in our businesses.
33:08
It's not because we're poorly motivated.
33:10
It's because we don't know the next step.
33:11
In fact, it's even tying into our motivation.
33:14
If we know the next step, we'll go ahead and do the damn thing.
33:17
It's because you don't know that's the reason why we sit and
33:19
we're scared and we're thinking, we're wondering which way
33:22
forward. So deal with me is a risk free
33:26
proposition. Also, at one moment the mechanic
33:28
is here. Let me just go and find out
33:30
what's going on and then I will be back.
33:36
OK, I'm back. So I just confirmed that they
33:38
have carried. OK, sorry about that.
33:43
I accidentally tapped something off.
33:44
So I just confirmed from the mechanic that they've carried my
33:47
compressor. So hopefully I shouldn't be here
33:49
for for too long. What was I?
33:53
So I was saying, yeah, that dealing with me is a risky
33:55
proposition for the rest of you who have tried to get in touch
33:58
with your favorite influencers in the past, because it's
34:00
somebody that has confirmed I've tried reaching out to somebody
34:02
else, you know, e-mail, nothing, phone number, nothing.
34:06
But for me, I'm here. It's a easy casual conversation.
34:09
We'll have a chat. If I can help you, I will.
34:11
You know, if I can't, I'll direct you to where you can get
34:15
the help. If you don't have money, it
34:17
doesn't mean I won't spare you some time.
34:20
We can have, you know, a quick 15 minute chat or whatever you
34:22
have the money to to go ahead with paid coaching and
34:25
consulting. Then yeah, sure, let's roll.
34:27
Let's let's get at it. But The thing is, even if you're
34:31
looking for free options, I have over 1100 audio resources that
34:37
are available on the podcast and that are available on YouTube.
34:40
And so I told him that look, you don't even have to pay me for
34:43
even when you start making no correct money in your sales
34:46
role, you don't even have to pay for coaching immediately.
34:50
All you have to do is go to YouTube, type in Tavi Shima,
34:53
type in podcast, and then type in what it is that you want to
34:56
know. I have over 1100 free resources
35:01
available on YouTube and you're going to be able to listen and
35:04
get a sense of what the next clear steps are or what you
35:07
should be researching next. So like I told him the key terms
35:10
he should be looking for, especially after he has been in
35:12
account management for like that kind of six months, you know, he
35:15
should start looking on things for discovery.
35:18
Discovery frameworks. Frame discovery frameworks are
35:21
what guide the, the conversation that we're having with potential
35:26
customers and we're trying to figure out who they are, what
35:29
they're about, what's the problem that they're having, how
35:31
much is the problem costing them?
35:33
Where's the real pain points? You know, things like that.
35:36
Because that gives us all the information that we need to be
35:39
able to make a compelling sales pitch or compelling sales
35:44
presentation or whatever it is that you, you want to call it.
35:47
So I told him that's one thing you should be looking for
35:49
discovery and what's it called? Qualification and discovery.
35:54
So that's one of the key terms, Qualification and discovery,
35:57
another term, discovery framework, another key term
36:00
conversation framework. Let's see, what else?
36:03
Another key term sales process. So I told him that just do that.
36:07
If you go to YouTube and you type in Tava Shima, you type in
36:11
podcasts. After that you type in
36:14
qualification framework, you hit send.
36:16
Every single podcast episode that I've made of the over 1000
36:20
episodes that I've recorded so far that has anything to do,
36:24
excuse me about qualification frameworks or conversational
36:27
frameworks will be there and then just listen and he'll be
36:29
able to get the the Nuggets. So that's what I told him to do.
36:33
And of course, we're both looking forward to a time when
36:36
we'll be able to work together as a paid client.
36:39
And oh, we're already at 40 minutes and that's why I didn't
36:43
want to do so. Let me just bring today's
36:44
episode to a close. So that's all for today, folks.
36:48
Remember, if you listen to this, you got value from it.
36:50
Share from the podcast. If you have sales and marketing
36:53
questions in particular, then bring them to me.
36:55
You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp on 08064662140.
37:01
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
37:03
I'll catch you, dear listener, at the next episode.
37:05
Now let me go back and face the mechanics and see how far with
37:07
my compressor. Well, that is easy can work and
37:11
I swear I'm tired of this whole thing of driving second hand
37:14
cars. I God willing, the next car by
37:18
Gatsby brand new so that I know that I'll buy this car and I
37:21
know that I'm using this car for the next maybe like five years
37:24
and I have no problems. The only problem will be change
37:28
tire service the car, you know that kind of thing.
37:32
So just using like five years, six years, seven years, sell it,
37:35
buy a brand new car. So any that's my own prayer for
37:37
my own life shot. I'm tired of all the second hand
37:40
second car, second hand car beers.
37:43
I'm start driving brand new car. God willing, we'll all drive a
37:46
brand new car. So that's it.
37:48
I'll catch you guys in the next episode.