Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Write Proposals That Actually Work: ​Stop Guessing!

Transcript

How to Write Proposals That Actually Work: ​Stop Guessing! · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:02
  Today I want us to look at why lots of you are sending
• 0:07
  proposals the wrong way and why you're sending out proposals
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  that are ineffective and proposals that are not going to
• 0:14
  get read. The reason why is because in
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  Nigeria, it's a common practice in some industries that when you
• 0:22
  want to run after certain kinds of individuals or certain kinds
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  of businesses that might be big prospects.
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  It's customary in this part of the world to create a proposal.
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  So you design the PDFs, you make sure that everything is well
• 0:38
  formatted, the graphics look nice.
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  If you're going to send a physical copy of the proposal,
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  you make sure that it is spiral bound and all that.
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  And then you send it to the prospect and you are hoping that
• 0:49
  that is going to start a conversation with the prospect
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  that might lead to business. So I'm here today to let you
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  know that that is actually wrong.
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  It might work a couple of times, but if you want to see your
• 1:03
  success success rates go up, you need to change the amount that
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  you go about creating, presenting, and sending over
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  your proposals. My apologies because today's
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  going to be a noisy episode. I'm making it at home.
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  And for those of you who listen to the podcast regularly, you
• 1:22
  know that today's a Tuesday and the house gets cleaned on
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  Tuesday. So there's going to be some
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  noise in the background. And my name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 1:29
  I am the host of the show. I'm a former lawyer turned
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  business consultant. If you'd love to connect with
• 1:34
  me, you can call, send me a text message, my WhatsApp message on
• 1:38
  08064662140. So if you're one of those people
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  who has been using a proposal LED strategy to reach out to
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  customers, give me a call. Let's have a chat.
• 1:51
  Let's say we can fix your process.
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  Again, the number is 08064 662140.
• 2:00
  So let's say you are in the business of solar.
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  You sell solar solutions, inverters, batteries,
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  alternative energy solutions. Or let's say you're into audio
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  production. For instance, you create you
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  record podcasts for your clients, or maybe you record.
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  OK, since I've worked with somebody who does ebooks for
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  Nigerian authors. So let's say you present you
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  sorry, not present. You create ebooks for Nigerian
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  authors. It'll be easy to think, OK, I
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  sell solar, I want to get into Zenith Bank.
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  Therefore let me sit down on my computer and type out a
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  wonderful proposal. Make sure everything looks nice
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  get the design guys to do a good job finish have it spiral bound.
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  OK, no, since it's Zenith Bank, maybe have it leather bound and
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  then have it sent to the GM and see if you can sorry, not the
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  GM, the branch manager. See if you can use that to start
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  a conversation. So if you're in the audio space,
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  you could be thinking, OK, so this is 1.
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  So it's a very famous podcaster. It would be nice to have this
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  person record the podcast at my own studio.
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  So you, you do the same thing, you sit down, you get the
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  proposal written up nice, you know, everything.
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  And then you send and then the final one.
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  Let's say you do audio books and you notice that maybe Chimamanda
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  Adiche hasn't put up any single audio book.
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  By the way, I don't know if she has or she hasn't 'cause I don't
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  read fiction. So let's pretend that she
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  hasn't. And you think Chimamanda will be
• 3:35
  a good big fish. So you create the, the, you
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  know, the whole, the same old process because maybe, you know,
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  she's in Lagos. And so you find a way to get it
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  through to her for anybody who knows.
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  Now the problem with this whole process is this when you are
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  sending over this kind of proposal, essentially there are
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  two big problems #1 the proposals are usually about you.
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  You're telling the people I'm the greatest and the brightest
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  and the cheapest and the fastest.
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  I have the best experience, I have the highest quality, I have
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  the, you know, it's all about you.
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  The first paragraph, that's the problem.
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  And that's the reason why I proposal are not being read.
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  Because people are busy. Chimamanda is busy.
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  She has a lot on her mind. She's trying to build her
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  business. She's trying to write another
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  book, You know, all kinds of things going on.
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  Why do you think she'll open your proposal and then, you
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  know, be going on about how you know yours is the best studio
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  did this, this, that, that, and, you know, on and on and on.
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  Why do you think she would just sit down and read your proposal?
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  The same thing with the branch manager for whichever Zenith
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  Bank branch you're looking into. You could be worried about, you
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  know, their profit loss reports or maybe expenses are not
• 4:44
  looking good. Maybe there's some managerial
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  issues or maybe there's some human resource issues.
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  Like all kinds of things can be going on.
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  Why do you think the girl will just come and read your proposal
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  when it says I'm the greatest, I'm the brightest, I'm the best,
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  I'm the this, I'm the that? Why do you think somebody will
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  sit down and listen to your proposal when it is absolutely
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  about you from beginning to end? That's the first problem.
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  We need to stop making the proposals about you.
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  We need to make the proposals about them now.
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  The second problem is that your proposal has plenty of guesswork
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  because you haven't spoken to Chimamanda Adichie and you don't
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  know what's important to her. You don't know the books that
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  she's writing, and you don't know what her plans are for
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  monetizing her books in the future.
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  You are essentially guessing that she's interested in having
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  her book turned into an audio book.
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  You're guessing. You could be wrong, but if it
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  took you 4 hours to get that proposal and you're sending out
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  maybe 4 hours, sorry, 4 proposals, maybe a month, you
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  know, you are wasting essentially.
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  You could be wasting essentially that's like 16 hours every month
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  because you're doing guesswork and that is painful guesswork,
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  guessing for four hours straight only to send this thing and then
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  the thing doesn't even land. It doesn't resonate.
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  People don't connect. They're not driving with it.
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  What you're sending is guesswork.
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  The same thing if you're on the solar space and you create that
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  proposal and then you send it over to the bank, the branch
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  general manager, you are guessing that the guy has a
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  problem with how much diesel that they're spending.
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  You are guessing that maybe they don't already have solutions in
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  place. You are guessing that maybe they
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  recognize that there's a problem, but perhaps they have
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  already started working on it and they're in conversations
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  with three or four other vendors.
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  You're making, you're making plans.
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  It's it's too much to guess, work too much.
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  So this is what you need to do to fix your proposal writing
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  process. By the way, I do recognize and I
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  admit now when it comes to the civil service, you know, you're
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  trying to push something through for Federal Ministry of Finance
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  or you know, CBN or whatever. OK, I recognize that it's Niger
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  business culture that you need to get that big thing inside
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  orgas office 1st while you are doing leg work to see how you
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  can get a meeting. OK, fine, no problem.
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  If you're selling to government sector, yeah, by all means, go
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  ahead and make that thing. In fact, make it as big as
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  possible because you know for sure nobody will read it.
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  So you know they'll look at it, The thing will look hefty and
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  you package it nice. It looks hefty, looks packaged
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  nice. Maybe my accounting in favor.
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  But let's pretend, let's just pretend now that we're no longer
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  looking at government sector, now we're looking at private
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  individuals. What you actually need to do is
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  to find ways to be having conversations with people first
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  or have conversations with people who are representative of
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  that industry first. So you can figure out what their
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  their key concerns are. You can figure out the chief
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  problems that they have. You can figure out the agenda
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  that they have. And then your proposal can now
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  be putting forward solutions or proposals about how your product
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  or service can best address these sorts of challenges.
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  But at least when you do this now, your guesswork is
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  minimized. So if you talk to, let's say
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  you're not able to meet Jim Amanda, but you talk to a
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  Nigerian author, maybe two or three others, and you find out
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  that, yes, lots of them are looking forward to putting the
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  books in audio form. And a lot of them are looking to
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  explore how audio books can help them get international, get
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  access to international audiences and things like that.
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  Chances are if you start putting those things down in your
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  proposal, chances are one or two of these things might click with
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  whoever it is that you send it to.
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  But the reason why it's best actually have a conversation
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  with somebody first before you send a proposal is because you
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  will hear from their own words. You will hear from their words.
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  You will hear from their tone. You will hear from their body
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  language. And you will get a sense of what
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  their biggest problems are, what they're trying to solve, where
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  they're trying to run through. And then you can write a
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  convincing proposal that speaks directly to those problems.
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  In fact, the chief advantage of talking to somebody before you
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  write a proposal and why I recommend people do that is
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  because they will use some specific words and guess what,
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  Don't you think your proposal is going to be much more effective
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  when in your proposal you are using the actual words that they
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  said? If, if a Nigerian author says
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  they want access to foreign audiences and it looks as if our
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  Ukraine are reading Nigerian books, if the author says that
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  exact phrase I want Ukraine meaning people in Ukraine, maybe
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  Nigerians in in in diaspora Ukraine or something.
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  But person says I want Ukraine. And then in your proposal,
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  there's a section where it says strategy for targeting I want
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  Ukraine. Do you think this author is
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  going to listen will be reading or not?
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  It is her exact words. So I'm not saying you should
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  completely abandoned this Nigerian thing of creating the
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  proposal first, doing leather binding, doing spiral binding,
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  doing, you know, that binding that you know has silver edge
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  and all that. I'm not saying abandoned these
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  fancy proposals. I'm just saying that wherever
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  you can, wherever possible, if you can speak to one of the
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  gatekeepers, one of the assistants, one of the PA is one
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  of the somebody, and you can have a direct meeting with Orga
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  first where you discuss one or two things.
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  It doesn't have to be a lengthy meeting, but at least you have
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  the conversation with Orga. You have a conversation with a
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  potential customer, with Madame, with a potential client, and you
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  figure out whether this is a problem that they have, whether
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  they're trying to solve it, what they have tried to do to solve
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  the problem in the past, what their vision is.
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  It will help in putting down this proposal.
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  So if you can talk to somebody to say, oh, you work in so, so
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  and so I beg, I want to see Olga GM.
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  How is that possible? He was able to hook up a quick
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  meeting and you pass through, you know, greetings, blah, blah,
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  blah. Sorry not to take up your time.
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  I'm in solar. This is what we do.
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  And I was just wondering, most businesses in this area, because
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  of the Band-Aid charges or because of this or because of
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  that, struggling to cope with the high cost of diesel prices.
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  So is this a problem you all are facing in this particular
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  branch? And you ask him the question, if
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  he says yes and you're able to talk to him some more about that
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  and figure out exactly how much it is that they are spending on
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  diesel, how that is affecting their operations or how that is
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  affecting their balance sheet and then things like that.
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  So even if it's a sharp, sharp, sharp 15 minutes, you're able to
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  get one or two things like that when you go back and you write
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  the proposal. And these are some of the
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  headers, these are some of the sections.
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  These are some of the main things that you're pushing
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  forward in your proposal about how your service is going to
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  save them money or make them more efficient or, or give them
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  make them much more comfortable because generator noise is not
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  blaring in the background. 247 And then you're using the words
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  that Olga GM himself has used. Don't you think he's more likely
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  to read the proposal? So don't abandoned the strategy,
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  but just try and find a way. Try and find a way without
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  talking to the gatekeepers, whether talking to the
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  secretary, whether talking to the PA, whether talking to your
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  friend, whether to somehow shall try and talk to the person.
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  If you're not able to talk to the person, if you're able to
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  talk to someone who is representative in that industry,
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  it will help. So if you do not know how to get
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  to the GM of Zenith Bank, which is where you want to do, but
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  maybe your uncle is AGM in a smaller bank, maybe like
• 13:06
  Keystone Bank, and you have access to your uncle, you can go
• 13:09
  and have those conversations with your uncle.
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  Chances are, whatever it is your uncle says as the GM of a
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  smaller branch like Keystone might apply to somebody who is a
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  branch manager in a bigger branch or a bigger bank like
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  Zenith. So stop sending our proposals,
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  which is essentially guesswork. Don't be doing guesswork.
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  Talk to somebody 1st and hear first hand from either the
• 13:40
  person or someone who is representative of those group of
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  peoples here first hand the problems that they're dealing
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  with. So their proposal will not be
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  guesswork. Then try and put a paragraph
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  about these people in the intro and get them to read.
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  We are all vain. We all like ourselves.
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  If somebody sends me a proposal and it's all blah, blah, blah,
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  you know about the other person, you think I'm going to read it.
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  But if somebody sends me a proposal and somebody actually
• 14:06
  did saying, oh, you're the foremost, You're the foremost
• 14:10
  business podcast in Africa, the most consistent something,
• 14:13
  something a strong, clear voice given practical and tactical,
• 14:16
  wanting, wanting, wanting. Of course, I'm going to keep on
• 14:19
  reading. How do you think I got my brand
• 14:26
  redesign? Elizabeth Dem, the lady I spoke
• 14:28
  about, that's how they reached out to me.
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  Now you think that the first people that reached out to say,
• 14:34
  you know, my artwork is scrappy and I need to make something
• 14:37
  new. People have been telling me, you
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  know, since since day one that my artwork was scrappy.
• 14:42
  They were the first ones who said reach out and try to toast
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  the boy first. They say how far we noticed that
• 14:50
  you are this and you are this and you are that and you are
• 14:52
  like this, you are like this, you are like this and you are
• 14:54
  good and good and good like this, like this, but you go
• 14:57
  help. If you know you do one or two
• 15:00
  brand design, you change that like this, you change that like
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  this. That's how the conversation
• 15:03
  started. All right, so it's been 15
• 15:06
  minutes. Let me not keep you guys longer
• 15:08
  anymore. I think you guys have gotten the
• 15:10
  gist of the message. If you would love to connect
• 15:12
  with me, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message
• 15:15
  on 08064 662140. So thank you very much for your
• 15:21
  time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
• 15:23
  time. And I'm looking forward to
• 15:24
  speaking to individuals who you've been building your whole
• 15:27
  business process around this whole sending proposal, sending
• 15:30
  proposal thing. And you're tired, you don't
• 15:32
  think it's working. You want to make some changes,
• 15:35
  Reach out, holla at your boy. Let's have a conversation.
• 15:37
  Let's see how we can make it happen.
• 15:39
  So 08064662140, don't be afraid if you don't have money, I'm OK
• 15:46
  with giving free advice. Just let me know that you want
• 15:49
  free advice right from the beginning and then I'll answer
• 15:52
  one question only. So think hard about that one
• 15:54
  question before you call. And for the rest of you who want
• 15:59
  to go in depth, that is not a problem.
• 16:01
  We have coaching packages available, whether monthly or
• 16:04
  weekly or daily or hourly. There's something for every
• 16:09
  single budget, including those of you who don't have money at
• 16:13
  all. That's why I'm going to answer
• 16:14
  one free question. So don't forget to connect
• 16:18
  08064662140. I'll catch you all some other
• 16:22
  time.