Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Beyond the Sale: Building Customer Loyalty & The Repeat Business Engine

Transcript

Beyond the Sale: Building Customer Loyalty & The Repeat Business Engine · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today the question we're going
• 0:04
  to tackle is on building loyalty and repeat business.
• 0:09
  For those of you who've been listening to the show for any
• 0:13
  length of time, you know that this is already a familiar
• 0:16
  topic. But like I say, this is
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  something that we can't overflog, that we can't
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  overstress. So why a loyalty, loyalty or
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  some sort of brand affinity is something that comes ahead of
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  repeat purchases and referrals. Because unless people are loyal
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  and unless people have some sort of brand affinity with you,
• 0:38
  they're not going to come back to buy again and they're not
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  going to refer. We can look at this in the
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  negative aspect. If people are totally pissed off
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  at you, then rest assured they're not going to buy from
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  you again and they're not going to refer anyone.
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  Now, there are some people who are in a monopoly situation.
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  So if you're in a monopoly situation like you are a utility
• 1:00
  provider, for instance, in Nigeria, yes, they all go by
• 1:04
  different names, but essentially it's all Napa because PHCN you
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  know, back when they made the the name change, PHCNI, remember
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  some people used to say the problem has changed name instead
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  of the what's it called power holding company of Nigeria.
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  So some people just say power has changed name.
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  So for those of you who are not Nigerians listening to the show,
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  the PHCN is the power utility provider in Nigeria right now.
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  So it's not like the UK when it comes to gas where you have
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  alternatives of some sort. Because back in the UK, I'm not
• 1:42
  sure about now, but back then there was Scottish gas and there
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  was UK something I can't remember.
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  And that's how your your house, your business or whatever gets
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  powered. So in a way, you had a choice,
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  but right now in Nigeria, there's no choice.
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  Everybody has to use the PHCN. And yeah, so if you're in that
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  sort of situation, if you're enjoying monopoly, then to hell
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  with all this stuff. We're talking about customer
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  referrals and loyalty and brand affinity.
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  People don't have a choice. You want power, they're going to
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  come through you. Now for those of us who don't
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  have monopoly situations going on, then loyalty or brand
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  affinity is the thing and it's a precursor to us having repeat
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  purchase and referrals. So we have to work on these
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  sorts of things. Now.
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  Why is it a worthy goal? If you listen to the episode
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  that I did, I think 2 episodes back on maximizing lifetime
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  customer value, then it's going to make a whole lot of sense.
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  So building loyalty, all kinds of brand affinity, all this is a
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  worthy goal because you have maximize lifetime customer
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  value. You're going to be able to get
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  the larger amount or the maximum amounts or fuller amount that
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  you can possibly get from your customers because they're coming
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  back to you again and again. And then also it makes
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  attracting sales a whole lot easier because when people come
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  back again and again, you don't have to go through the whole
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  toasting phase in order to get them to buy from you.
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  And when they refer people to buy from you, let's say a
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  regular customer you've been doing business with for three
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  months or maybe even a year or something, if they refer someone
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  to you, there's a certain level of credibility that you can take
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  advantage of. So if Chukudi says deal with
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  Chemi, Chemi is the correct babe.
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  She's the one that catered my children's naming ceremony or
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  whatever. There's a certain level of trust
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  and credibility that goes with the fact that Chukudi is
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  referring you. So if people think Chukudi is a
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  correct guy and Chukudi says deal with Kami, people just
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  assume, OK, Chukudi is a correct guy, therefore Kami must be a
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  correct girl. Therefore she is a correct
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  vendor to deal with when it comes to catering for weddings,
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  birthday parties, baby baptisms, all these sorts of things.
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  So it makes attracting sales a whole lot easier because the
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  business deals that are going to come in will be pre qualified.
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  Because if you look at things from your own end, if Chukudi is
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  a correct guy, Chukudi has sent, I mean Chukudi always pays on
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  time. He pays ahead of time.
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  He has referred to people to you, they pay ahead of time.
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  Then you can assume that all the deals that are coming through
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  Chukudi will already be pre qualified, will be correct guys
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  correct. Girls who pay on time, who don't
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  give hassles. But of course that doesn't mean
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  that you should abandoned the good business practice of having
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  sales. Sorry.
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  Having discovery conversations. And what's the other one?
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  Discovery qualifications and qualification conversations.
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  Asking questions about the person, asking questions about
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  the problem, trying to figure out what it is that's going on,
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  what it is that they are trying to achieve, things like that.
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  Having the money conversations. We should still have all those
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  conversations with people. It's just that when people are
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  loyal to you and referring deals to you, opportunities to you,
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  this whole toasting phase, it goes a whole lot quicker because
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  there's a certain level of trust that has already been built.
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  There's a certain level of rapport that has already been
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  built. And This is why loyalty and all
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  kinds of brand affinity are worthy goals to pursue in
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  business. Now the question as usual, I'm
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  going to break it up in two parts so that we can handle this
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  Sydney systematic way. So First off, how do you build
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  loyalty? This is not a question that I
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  can answer adequately because this is a question for customer
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  service experts, for customer relationship experts, account
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  management specialists, you know those sorts of things.
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  So if you want to know a whole lot about building loyalty with
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  your clients, especially if you want to learn about it in a
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  holistic, systematic, you know, 365 version, you should be
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  paying attention to podcasts that are devoted to these sorts
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  of things. However, like I say on the show,
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  sales and business development, which is my area of speciality,
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  has a lot to say about different aspects and different facets of
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  business. So from a sales and business
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  development perspective, yes, we do have important things to say
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  when it comes to getting repeat business and when it comes to
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  getting referrals. And by what will I say?
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  By extension, you can kind of read them between the lines and
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  you'll be able to figure out a couple of things that you can do
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  that will be good for building loyalty with your clients.
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  But remember the caveat that I've given so far, you want a
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  fuller treatment of this. You should be looking for
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  podcasts that have to do with customer service, customer
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  relationships, account management, what else?
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  Account management, CX, customer experience, what else?
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  UX, user experience in all those sorts of things, you paying
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  attention to them. Unfortunately, I don't know any
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  Nigerian podcast that I can refer to you guys at the moment.
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  So you just have to make do with all the western stuff that is
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  out there. And that is the reason why
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  podcasts like mine and absolute treasure to you guys, especially
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  those of you who are Nigerian because we don't have a lot out
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  there that are trying to take these principles and translate
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  them into the Nigerian experience, into Nigerian lingo
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  so that we can apply it accordingly.
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  So where was I? OK, yeah, so I was saying that
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  sales and business development, yes, we have some important
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  things to say about getting repeat business and by
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  extension, building loyalty amongst your customers.
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  Then the second-half of the question is repeat business
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  because, you know, it's twofold, building loyalty and then repeat
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  business. So let's look at the repeat
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  business angle here. Now, when you're trying to get
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  repeat business, it's a function of a couple of things.
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  I'll say 2 main things #1 is what I like to call the customer
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  debrief really important, And then #2 is the whole thing of
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  asking for referrals. Because some people just assume
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  that if I'm the very best at what I do, that people will
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  refer me. It's true, but it's also kind of
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  not true. Even if you're the absolute
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  bomb, the people who are going to refer you are going to be
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  really, really, really small, really minute.
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  So if you want the percentages to go up, you have to ask.
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  Now, I learned that the hard way, my wedding photography
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  practice, because I think I had done about 20 weddings until one
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  bride referred me and I was absolutely over the moon.
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  The thing didn't click anyway, but I settled over the moon and
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  then I sat down. I thought about it like guy
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  come, there's a serious problem. You've done 20 weddings and only
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  one person has referred you. So at the time I assumed that
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  there was a problem with me with my art, not necessarily there
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  was just a problem with my business processes.
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  Am I selling, selling frameworks and processes Because I was not
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  asking for referrals. Now those of you who do the I
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  just did greet thing, Nigerians, you know where you just call and
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  say, ah Madam, how you doing? I just want to greet you Bros
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  how far now I just did heal. You know all those kinds of
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  conversations. You'll notice that the number of
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  referrals that you get goes up because you're remaining top of
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  mind now you are not asking for referrals, but you can see how
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  simple things that don't even add value like Bros.
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  I just did heal Madam. I say make I greet you, the
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  children, how those sorts of things and even increase your
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  referrals not to talk of when it's now come up with policies
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  in place, practices in place for actually looking for referrals.
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  So yeah, back to the two elements.
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  So like I said, in my own opinion, is the customer debrief
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  and then it's asking for referrals.
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  Now the customer debrief or the follow up as some of us call it
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  Niger, is that place? Is that a part of the business
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  relationship where you call someone, you follow up with
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  someone and the whole point of the call is, you know, Bros, are
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  you happy, Madam, are you happy? And we're also trying to figure
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  out if the brand promise was fulfilled.
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  The technical sense of these technical names for this is
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  customer satisfaction and customer success.
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  So what that means is, is the customer satisfied?
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  Are they happy? And then the thing that they
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  bought your product or service for, did they achieve that goal?
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  So if you sell exercise equipments, exercise bikes, I'm
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  sure you think my bikes cost 300 grand, that top of the line, OK,
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  No, no, maybe not 300 grand cause the price of things have
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  gone up. I don't think I've seen an
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  exercise bike for 200 or 300 in a while.
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  So let me say 500. So your bikes are 500 top of the
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  line. You deliver it to Madam and you
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  think problem solved and you're now hoping that maybe Madam, she
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  has lots of rich friends, maybe she belongs to Ikeja Country
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  Club, that's for those of you in Lagos and you think she will
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  just automatically refer you to her friends.
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  That OK, I bought an exercise bike from this guy, from this
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  girl and it's top of the line. You know that's not how it
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  works. You should be in touch with
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  Madame, let's say Madame Bianca later on.
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  You should be in touch with Madame Bianca later on.
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  They say Madame, how are you doing?
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  Hope you're enjoying the bike. There's no problem.
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  It hasn't broken down as you should be following up.
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  It's not just enough that she's happy with the bike.
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  Want to be sure that she has been using the bike.
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  That is where the whole thing of the brand promise being
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  fulfilled comes in. So if you need to recommend
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  personal trainers or if you need to send her YouTube videos or
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  something that will help her use the equipment, you know, that is
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  where all this relationship nurturing and all this
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  relationship building and all that comes in.
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  Because if she's happy with the equipment, but then the brand
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  promise is actually fulfilled, she ends up using this thing and
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  she ends up losing. Let's see, let's say she loses
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  12 kilograms in two months. Let's say, OK, no, that's too
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  much. Let's say 12 kilograms in three
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  months. It is then that she will now
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  tell her friends that are near. There's this guy who's on the
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  island. He saw my exercise bike.
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  He hooked me up with this person.
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  He did this, he did that. That's the reason why as you're
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  looking at me now, I have come down from size 22.
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  I'm now size 18. That is the kind of thing that
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  builds referrals, repeat business, stuff like that.
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  So when I'm when Madam Bianca gets bored with the exercise
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  bike and she's thinking what else can I add to my routine,
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  that is the reason why she will call you for something else.
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  Because you did the debrief. You called up.
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  But I'm Bianca. I hope you're happy with the
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  purchase. Hope you're making progress.
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  You're not making progress. What happened now is just in the
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  house. You're not using it.
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  OK? There's too much boredom.
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  And no problem. I know this guy, Brandon, or I
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  know this lady. Get me this phone number, she
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  can be coming by the house 2-3 times a week.
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  She's not too expensive, just follow her routine, blah, blah,
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  blah. Everything will be well, OK, you
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  don't want strangers in your house, OK, that is YouTube
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  resources I can send, blah blah, blah.
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  So is the level of concern, that level of follow up.
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  I'm trying to make sure that they are successful with the
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  purchase. That is what is going to get you
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  repeat business and referrals. You know when you ask later on.
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  So there are two things, the debrief and sorry, two things
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  need to debrief. Are they happy?
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  And then was the brand, was the promise fulfilled?
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  OK, yeah, let's scratch brand. So are they happy?
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  And was the promise fulfilled for buying the product or the
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  service? Now, the reason why I picked
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  exercise equipment was because, well, First off, I think it's
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  the worst kind of example that I can't pick now because all of us
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  know that uncle or that auntie or that colleague, in fact might
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  even be your wife or your husband who bought said exercise
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  bike back when it was 80K or 120K.
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  But the thing has been in your house gathering dust for the
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  last five years. In fact, what you guys do is you
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  hand the children's school uniform and that is what you
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  hang the children's school uniform on so that in the
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  morning when everybody's ready to go to school, you just take
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  it off the exercise bike and then the children get dressed
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  and then they leave. So I picked the worst possible
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  example ever. And that is also the reason why
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  for those of you who have exercise bikes in your house,
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  whenever somebody says, oh, can you refer me where you bought
• 14:46
  this equipment? That is the reason why you
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  cannot even remember where you bought the damn thing.
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  You can't remember the person's number, you know that?
• 14:54
  OK, the shop was somewhere on Lagos Island.
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  I'm not quite sure that time. I used to work at this place,
• 15:00
  that place, Maybe it might be this street, maybe that might be
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  that street. That's the reason why I can't
• 15:05
  remember. They can't make a referral even
• 15:07
  when your friends ask because the person who sold the exercise
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  bike never followed up with you, never called called up to say
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  Bros how you did. I hope you're enjoying this
• 15:15
  exercise bike, Madam. I hope everything is good with
• 15:18
  the exercise bike should be is not breaking.
• 15:20
  It's not breaking down. The pneumatics are still in
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  points. It's not rusting.
• 15:24
  It's not this Oh how how you going with the with the weight
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  gain dieting for training. You need other resources.
• 15:34
  You guys never had those conversations and that's why
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  till today your exercise bike is in your house.
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  The past 10 years, you can't remember who sold it to you, You
• 15:42
  can't remember the shop. And even if anybody asks, can
• 15:45
  you refer, you can't refer because you can't remember the
• 15:47
  dude or you can't remember the lady who you bought the thing
• 15:50
  from. So that's why I picked that as
• 15:53
  an example. So we have to do the debrief, we
• 15:58
  have to make sure they're happy. We have to make sure that the
• 16:01
  promise of mind, the product or service was fulfilled.
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  And then after that we have to ask for the referrals.
• 16:08
  So tomorrow we will go into some more details because we've
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  already done some details right now about how to handle the
• 16:16
  customer or the client debriefs. So yeah, 16 minutes.
• 16:20
  Let me bring it to a close. I don't want to keep doing any
• 16:22
  more 30 minute episodes, especially since I've been
• 16:25
  fairly regular these days and I guess a 30 minute commitment
• 16:28
  every single day. It's too much to ask of you
• 16:29
  guys. So thank you very much.
• 16:32
  Connect with me on WhatsApp. The number is 0806466 2140 and
• 16:39
  the country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 16:41
  Nigerian, also connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 16:45
  My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show and you can
• 16:48
  confirm the spelling of my name from the link.
• 16:51
  We're currently listening to this episode.
• 16:53
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 16:55
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.