Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Losing Deals: The Nigerian Biz CRM Quick Fix

Transcript

Stop Losing Deals: The Nigerian Biz CRM Quick Fix · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at horror
• 0:04
  stories in business. We're going to look at why
• 0:07
  having ACRM tool is important in business.
• 0:09
  CRM tool is a customer relationship management tool and
• 0:12
  I'm going to explain a little bit more about that in a few
• 0:15
  minutes. I'm also going to talk about
• 0:19
  advancements. Advancements are the dynamic
• 0:23
  that are behind complex business deals.
• 0:28
  The idea behind an advancement is every time you're having a
• 0:31
  conversation with a potential customer, with a potential
• 0:34
  client, what you're trying to do is you're trying to move the
• 0:37
  business deal forward 1 little step at a time.
• 0:40
  Because when you're talking about big purchases, complex
• 0:44
  purchases where lots of interests are involved, lots of
• 0:48
  partners are involved, and it's important for business
• 0:50
  relationships to be upheld. You can't just come in and
• 0:54
  expect to collect millions in one swoop, so you have to take
• 0:57
  things one step at a time. So hopefully by the end of
• 1:01
  today's episode, it's going to be a bit of a rumble shot
• 1:03
  because I didn't really organize my ideas before starting to
• 1:07
  record. Because this thing just happened
• 1:09
  fresh. This Horror Story happened.
• 1:11
  Fresh as in my heart was broken today.
• 1:13
  Fresh as in I won't cry when I heard the news.
• 1:18
  So anyway, those are the sorts of things that we're going to be
• 1:21
  looking at today. Now I'm making today's recording
• 1:24
  at home. This is one of those late night
• 1:25
  recordings and it's a cool rainy night in Abuja.
• 1:28
  So there's going to be some noise in the background.
• 1:32
  Now, if you're tired of listening to podcasts where they
• 1:34
  just keep talking Americana and you know, the ideas don't seem
• 1:37
  to relate to Nigeria, then you're in the right place.
• 1:41
  This podcast is for you. This podcast is your jam.
• 1:44
  Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tavi Shima IED.
• 1:48
  Now for years I've been doing just that, dropping Nuggets
• 1:52
  almost on a daily basis. OK, well, let's just say on a
• 1:54
  weekly basis, while I keep on giving good advice, useful
• 1:58
  Nuggets on how to grow your business the Nigerian way.
• 2:03
  So if you're interested in these sorts of things, then stay
• 2:05
  locked in. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube,
• 2:08
  Apple or any player of your choice.
• 2:10
  And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a
• 2:13
  text message, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 2:21
  So I said to do on the podcast now story story also upon a
• 2:27
  time. We're going to be talking about
• 2:29
  horror stories here. And look, this is the basic
• 2:32
  context. All those things I said in the
• 2:34
  beginning about CRM and advancements.
• 2:36
  You see how everything ties in. But shall let me give you the
• 2:38
  Horror Story. Tina wanted to make me cry
• 2:40
  today. So now you've been listening to
• 2:44
  the podcast for a while. You know that I've been having
• 2:47
  some coaching clients, you know, back-to-back.
• 2:49
  So the people that are doing this startup thing in the
• 2:53
  content space, you know, then the the real estate startup,
• 2:59
  that one, they are there. But then you know, my longest
• 3:03
  running engagements, well, two engagements now because we did
• 3:07
  one last year and then we're doing another one this year.
• 3:10
  That's the solar company that is based in Lagos and they had a
• 3:13
  fresh, newly mentored sales guy who was a member of the team and
• 3:18
  was my job to get him up to speed.
• 3:22
  So now with the team, if you've been listening, you know that
• 3:27
  it's been a constant struggle getting these people to adopt
• 3:31
  the CRM. But the problem is, you know,
• 3:34
  most Nigerian sales people, they just think CRM is technology for
• 3:39
  technology's sake. But that's because they don't
• 3:42
  understand how complex deals are put together and how this thing
• 3:44
  can help you. So if you're listening for a
• 3:48
  while, you know that I've said this thing over and over again,
• 3:53
  that by the time you have two 345 clients, you need something
• 3:59
  that will help you stay on track.
• 4:00
  Who am I talking to? When did we talk last?
• 4:03
  What did we discuss? What am I supposed to do?
• 4:06
  What is this person supposed to do?
• 4:08
  Let me schedule the next appointment.
• 4:10
  Let me make sure that this deal is not where to fall because
• 4:13
  it's hard to do these things by your brain.
• 4:18
  By the time you have 345 clients, if you only have one or
• 4:21
  two is fine, you can schedule from your head, but by the time
• 4:24
  you have 456, it becomes hard, becomes very, very hard.
• 4:32
  But The thing is, well, in a sense, maintaining the habit is
• 4:35
  hard. But The thing is, lots of you
• 4:37
  don't realise that we lose money in the process when we don't use
• 4:41
  these sorts of external tools to keep us on track.
• 4:44
  And that's today's Horror Story. So the newest member of the
• 4:48
  team, now let me not call his name is his client that we're
• 4:53
  pursuing in Port Accord. He called the woman, you know,
• 4:59
  tried talking to the woman was for the sale of solar.
• 5:01
  Somehow the conversation just went quiet.
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  And of course, apart from coaching, I'm also offering call
• 5:07
  support. So I said no problem, let me
• 5:09
  have the man's number. Let me see if I can resuscitate
• 5:11
  this deal. So that's how I called, you
• 5:13
  know, we'll, we'll, we'll do my answer.
• 5:17
  You know, from there we start. And, you know, from the
• 5:23
  conversation we're having, she seemed like a decent prospect.
• 5:27
  She wanted solar panels and inverter systems for her house
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  because she already had at the office done by another company.
• 5:37
  Well, by the way, this new person, he didn't ask, can he
• 5:42
  ask the woman like, oh, OK, you already have solar panels in the
• 5:45
  office. So how come we didn't use those
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  guys? Because I told him the new
• 5:51
  salesperson, let's just call him Steven.
• 5:54
  I told Steven. Now, look, we should.
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  There are some questions that we know we ought to ask.
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  And if somebody already has one or two suppliers that they are
• 6:03
  affiliated with, it's not the problem to ask them now.
• 6:05
  OK. You know, Madam, if you know
• 6:07
  there's other people, how come you're not going with them?
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  I know it sounds kind of rude. What do you think is we're going
• 6:12
  to get valuable Intel from there.
• 6:14
  So since he didn't ask me, I asked Madam.
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  So you see already household line in the office to say yes.
• 6:20
  What do you have in the office to say?
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  I have 10 KV who provide who provided it.
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  She called her name. I think it's song king ahead
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  song king. I said song king they do that
• 6:29
  kind of installation. He says I thought oh OK.
• 6:32
  I thought Song King was all these small, small system that I
• 6:35
  used to charge phone and, you know, watch TV, that kind of
• 6:38
  thing. He said no, no, they do big
• 6:39
  systems. That's OK Madam, the system is
• 6:43
  OK. She says fine, there's no
• 6:45
  problem with the system. She said there's no problems.
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  I said, so Madam, how come you're calling us now?
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  How come you shouldn't just go with Song King?
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  He said the reason why I'm, no I'm asking is because I had that
• 6:56
  there are some things that people attach to solar system.
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  I said things like what she tried explaining.
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  He was not really making sense, so I said to ask more questions,
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  OK. With our own company, what we do
• 7:09
  is we have remote monitoring so that from anywhere in the world
• 7:14
  you can monitor your system. We can also monitor your system.
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  If there's going to be any problem with your solar and
• 7:21
  inverter system, we will know about it.
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  Sometimes before even you can even send an engineer down to go
• 7:28
  and say we should check this component, that component that.
• 7:30
  Is that what you had in mind? She said, hey, I was hearing
• 7:33
  that some people do things like that.
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  I saw what are my systems do that.
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  However, there are also other things as well.
• 7:40
  And then I told her about is it charge controller?
• 7:44
  So I can't remember the name because you know, I'm not
• 7:45
  technical. I mentioned charge controller,
• 7:48
  abuse surge controller, but basically the inbuilt protection
• 7:52
  that makes sure that every single time NEPA misbehaves and
• 7:55
  the current jumps up that if it would damage or deep freeze and
• 7:58
  stuff like that. No.
• 7:59
  So I spoke about two or three other things that can be come in
• 8:03
  between your solar and inverter system and your house to protect
• 8:09
  your house. And she said she was interested.
• 8:13
  She said she was interested. I said, OK, Madam, you know what
• 8:16
  is what I'm going to do That guy that called you first, that's my
• 8:20
  engineer. So I'm going to discuss with my
• 8:22
  engineer. We're going to come up with
• 8:25
  different options. By the way, Ma, when you
• 8:30
  initially responded to us, you said your budget was 5 M But
• 8:34
  Madam, based on all the things you said about all the
• 8:37
  appliances in your house and this and this and that and that,
• 8:41
  Madam, this will cost to if I come back with a budget of 10 to
• 8:45
  15, is it too much? Roman said don't even reach 10,
• 8:51
  Madam, we should not even return.
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  He said look, if you pass a cover beyond 10, you will cause
• 8:57
  a problem for me. I said OK Madam, no problem.
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  Now that part of the conversation, this is where
• 9:03
  we're doing qualification and discovery, trying to figure out
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  who's this person, what are they on about, do they have a
• 9:09
  problem? What's the extent of the
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  problem? We should be comfortable with
• 9:13
  asking money questions quick with people so that we know
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  where we stand. You don't have to say it in the
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  2 formula way. You had the formula that I used.
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  I just told him, OK Madam, initially you say 5 M, but based
• 9:28
  on all these things that were saying, Madam, if I come back
• 9:32
  between 10 and 15, you know, is it too much?
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  I asked her like she said, don't go a cobo past 10.
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  In our words, if you go a cobo past 10 million, you will cause
• 9:47
  problem for me. That's what she said.
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  Then I wrote it down in my book cause problem for me.
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  See, you always have to be as many times as possible that you
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  can refer to people's exact words.
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  It helps. It shows that they are being
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  listened to so that if I call the money.
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  Next answer, Madam good news. Oh, we have an option that came
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  in at 8.9 because I don't want to cause problem for you.
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  That's the kind of thing that will cause people to laugh.
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  I don't want to cause problem for you.
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  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha you know you laugh, you're building
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  rapport. See this reason why I say pen
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  and paper, sometimes the tech that you need to increase your
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  grow your business doesn't have to be that high tech.
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  Pen and paper be writing things down as they're saying important
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  things. So that's the money part of the
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  conversation. So now I now knew the OK based
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  on always spoken about so far between 5 M and 10 M we can be
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  jumping up and down. So I told her, OK, no problem
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  Madam, I've gotten all the information I need.
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  The guy that called you first, Steven, that's my engineer.
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  I'll call him back. We'll come up with some options.
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  I'll call you back on Monday. How does that sound?
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  She said Monday we have an event on Sunday.
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  Monday, I'll be resting. Call me Tuesday, don't call me
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  later than 10. I said no problem, we'll call
• 11:06
  you. OK, That's how we ended our call
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  and I'll quickly call Steven. I said, Steven, what's up now?
• 11:12
  So I'm good. Say that, Madam.
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  Yeah, I called her. Did she answer?
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  I said of course she answered, but she doesn't used to pick my
• 11:18
  call. I said, you know what, Steven?
• 11:20
  That's a separate matter. And yes, it is a separate matter
• 11:24
  mostly. The thing is this, whenever
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  you're calling a potential customer, right, if on every
• 11:29
  single phone call you're not adding value to the person, you
• 11:33
  become a pest. And yes, don't stop answering
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  your phone call. So be confident that you are the
• 11:38
  sales professional here, that you're the professional.
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  You're the one who knows your industry in and out.
• 11:43
  It's OK to call people up, to ask them questions, to give an
• 11:47
  honest point of view, you know, to give some advice.
• 11:51
  If every single time you call you're just sounding like a
• 11:53
  houseboy or an order taker, there's absolutely no reason for
• 11:57
  people to pick your call. And then those that goes to you.
• 12:00
  But as a separate banter, we'll make another podcast episode
• 12:03
  about that. So that's the reason why, you
• 12:05
  know, they really pick Stevens call again.
• 12:09
  Steven is not his real name, trying to protect his identity.
• 12:13
  So I told him this is what we're going to do.
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  You have been complaining, Stephen.
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  Every single time you send people proposal, they ghost you.
• 12:24
  And I said this is the problem. You and your colleagues, you've
• 12:27
  gotten into the habit of sending only one proposal.
• 12:30
  The problem is this, when you send a proposal with only one
• 12:33
  option, the answer is going to be either yes or no.
• 12:36
  And that is not a good place to be in.
• 12:39
  So what you do is this, every single time you talk with
• 12:42
  someone, come up with three options, option A, option B,
• 12:47
  option C, Either one should be able to solve the problem.
• 12:51
  They should have different advantage and disadvantage.
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  And you know, they should all fall within the comfortable
• 12:59
  price point that you know, that we've spoken about.
• 13:02
  And they will say, is it not too much?
• 13:03
  I say, no, it's not too much. But this is the benefit of the
• 13:07
  optional thing. When you give people options,
• 13:10
  you're still staying in the conversation because when you
• 13:12
  give them three options, you now have to get back in the loop.
• 13:16
  I have that conversation of saying option A that the
• 13:19
  advantage be this, option B that the disadvantage belief, option
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  C that the advantage be this. You're continuing the
• 13:26
  conversation. You're engaging with the
• 13:29
  customer, you're engaging with the client.
• 13:31
  They're talking some more about the problem.
• 13:32
  You're able to figure out what are their priorities and what
• 13:35
  real problems are they trying to solve.
• 13:37
  So this whole thing are giving somebody three options.
• 13:40
  Very good idea to stay in the conversation because this kind
• 13:44
  of thing, Madam say don't go over 10.
• 13:47
  If you now send a quote for one option only and it is 9.8, it
• 13:53
  will just register. Madam said OK, 9.8 and I should
• 13:56
  put your own down. Should now continue talking to
• 13:59
  the other people. Somebody will say 9.4, another
• 14:04
  person will say 9 points, you know, 99.
• 14:07
  Another person would say 10.2. She'll now call that 9.4 person
• 14:10
  unless they're having a conversation with them.
• 14:14
  But if you gave three options, there's some bandwidth for the
• 14:19
  conversation to continue. There's opportunity for you to
• 14:23
  educate the customer, enlighten the customer that look, these
• 14:26
  are the different options. This is what we'll cover.
• 14:29
  These are the different advantages.
• 14:30
  You know, mommy, I understand that money is important, but
• 14:34
  still mommy be thinking like this, be thinking like this,
• 14:37
  you're not standing out as a professional.
• 14:40
  So I told my guy, I said Steven, you know what Madam say do not
• 14:46
  call me later than 10:00 AM on Tuesday morning because he has
• 14:52
  event on Sunday. As I said it, they now clicked
• 14:56
  in my head. That was my unique mistake.
• 14:59
  You suppose ask like war events, you know, just casual like yeah,
• 15:03
  you have event. Congratulations.
• 15:04
  My is it bad day to say no? It's charge something.
• 15:08
  You know what you know from there you're building rapport,
• 15:11
  getting some more details so that by the time I call her back
• 15:13
  on Tuesday, I start up the conversation, say, oh, hello Ma,
• 15:16
  is that child from Abuja that called you last week concerning
• 15:20
  solar, how far the church went. Now everything went well.
• 15:23
  See like you're building rapport and see this is what I told you
• 15:26
  guys that everybody goofs. So me, I goofed the moment she
• 15:29
  said I have event on Sunday, I should have leaned in there to
• 15:33
  find out what the event is. But of course, if you come out
• 15:35
  and say what event are you having doing somehow?
• 15:39
  So be conversational when she said I'm having the event on
• 15:42
  Sunday, congratulations, my birthday party or house warming,
• 15:48
  you know, conversational. That's how you tease out some
• 15:51
  small information. So I made a note that OK, when I
• 15:55
  call this room on Tuesday, I'll start the conversation I had
• 15:58
  how's the event? How's the party?
• 16:01
  I hope you I hope you chop remain.
• 16:04
  You know what I kind of conversation just build some
• 16:07
  small rapport, you know, be a human being because you called
• 16:13
  your son a robotic, you know, like it's not helping.
• 16:16
  It's not helping the situation at all.
• 16:19
  So and I told him Steven is all you do based on all this
• 16:23
  information I've given you because you you're the engineer.
• 16:25
  You know what's up, give me 3 specifications for a solar
• 16:29
  system that's going to solve all these human problem.
• 16:32
  The price range should be anything between 5:00 and 10:00.
• 16:35
  Don't pass 10. So when I call her back, I can
• 16:39
  now feel her again. You see where she's feeling on
• 16:43
  price Then I'll now throw you back into the equation.
• 16:46
  You would now start having that conversation with her again.
• 16:50
  That option A you know is alright.
• 16:53
  Option B is because like this, like this.
• 16:55
  Option C is like this. You will now start having all
• 16:58
  those technical conversations with the woman and then, you
• 17:01
  know, trying to figure things out like, OK, Madam, you know,
• 17:05
  if we want to power this, we'll do like this.
• 17:06
  If I want to power this, we'll do like that.
• 17:08
  You know, you stay in the conversation.
• 17:12
  So he said, right, no problem. Stephen, give me a proposal.
• 17:15
  Stephen, give me a proposal problem.
• 17:18
  I didn't even want him to write out the proposal.
• 17:20
  I said just give me the range. Give me the range so I can have
• 17:25
  this conversation with the woman.
• 17:27
  When I have the conversation with rumor, you can drop the
• 17:28
  formal document. So that's how Thursday pass as
• 17:33
  our Friday pass, as our Saturday pass as our Sunday pass.
• 17:36
  And I also told him, take the CRM, put all these details in
• 17:40
  the CRM. Set a reminder so that we do not
• 17:44
  forget. You guys say, yeah, I've done
• 17:45
  it, I've done it. Say yes, boss.
• 17:47
  Yes, boss. I've done it.
• 17:51
  So yeah, like all these yes, boss, yes.
• 17:54
  But it's not about yes, boss, yes boss.
• 17:56
  Do the damn thing anyway. So he said he accepted.
• 18:02
  But of course, you know, life goes on.
• 18:04
  Me, I have other clients. He hears other people that he's
• 18:06
  talking to. So that's how one day now when
• 18:10
  we're having sales meeting on a Tuesday, another member of the
• 18:14
  team mentioned how far that Lady in Port Accord.
• 18:17
  Then if it was like it's true, I said, Steven, how far now I
• 18:23
  said, oh, I'm working on them working.
• 18:25
  I said, you suppose I've given me this figure since that is
• 18:28
  woman said no later than Tuesday, 10 AM and then I call
• 18:33
  her, she's in a meeting. That's how you know, we just
• 18:37
  missed that. We missed the opportunity.
• 18:43
  See this reason why CRM tools are important, if somebody says
• 18:47
  call me no later than Tuesday 10:00 AM, first of all you go to
• 18:53
  the CRM, you put down all this history that this is what me and
• 18:57
  deaconess Madam, you know whatever discussed and she said
• 19:01
  call me no later than 10:00 AM. You now set reminder in the CRM
• 19:04
  for 8:30 so that 8:30 in the morning, you know when you have
• 19:09
  your breakfast, you know you have your bread and custard or
• 19:13
  carry on bread as you're eating it.
• 19:15
  You also bring him on your phone.
• 19:17
  When you look at it, you will see meeting with deaconess
• 19:19
  Madam. So, so, so, so 10 AM you say,
• 19:22
  ah, yes, it is true. You will now prepare so that no
• 19:25
  later than 10:00 AM, you boss Madam.
• 19:28
  And then the conversation continues.
• 19:30
  See, this is what we call advancements, where you and the
• 19:35
  potential customer, you agree on what the next step is supposed
• 19:38
  to be. You secure an advancement ahead
• 19:40
  of time and you make sure you meet those advancements.
• 19:43
  That is how you keep and maintain momentum when it comes
• 19:47
  to complex sales. And when you're selling solar
• 19:50
  and inverter systems, you are in a complex sale.
• 19:55
  So that's how we mess up. That's how we missed Tuesday 10
• 20:01
  AM. You can see the Horror Story.
• 20:03
  This is somebody that said don't pass 10 M.
• 20:08
  The first conversation was at 5. She now said don't pass 10.
• 20:13
  You can see that we're dealing with big, big money.
• 20:14
  You can see that we're dealing with nice, nice margins on top.
• 20:19
  We're not talking thousands of naira.
• 20:21
  We're not talking 10s of thousands.
• 20:25
  We're not talking hundreds of thousands.
• 20:27
  We're talking millions. So that's Horror Story #1 so of
• 20:33
  course, as coded Stephen, I say Stephen, look, this is how we
• 20:37
  are going to lose this deal from all these small, small, small
• 20:40
  mistakes. This is how we are going to lose
• 20:42
  this deal. Because this woman for sure is
• 20:45
  talking to two other people. The first people that supplied
• 20:48
  her house is Song King. So definitely Song King.
• 20:51
  They're talking in her hair, in her ear.
• 20:54
  Song King is doing Cho Cho Cho. She's talking to another person,
• 20:56
  they're doing cha cha cha. This is how we lose this deal.
• 20:59
  He said yes boss, yes boss, no problem.
• 21:02
  I've said the reminder, I've said the reminder, the guidance
• 21:05
  said the reminder. And you know, life gets busy.
• 21:10
  Like I say, me, I have other clients, he too, he has other
• 21:13
  people that is pursuing. So that's how today, now excuse
• 21:20
  me, another member of the team asked me the half hour down my
• 21:26
  import accord and I say hi Jesus and I went straight to the CRM
• 21:32
  and I checked it. You believe I was supposed to
• 21:35
  have spoken to that woman? We are supposed to have called
• 21:38
  her last September 11th. I repeat, was supposed to have
• 21:42
  called her September 11th. Today's date as I'm making this
• 21:47
  podcast is October 6th. You heard me.
• 21:51
  Well, we were supposed to have called Deaconess Madame.
• 21:54
  September 11th. Today's date is October the 6th,
• 22:01
  2025. How many weeks is that?
• 22:04
  How many days is that? As far as I'm concerned, it's as
• 22:07
  good as one month. Some of you say one more.
• 22:10
  No reach now. You still remain like 5 days.
• 22:14
  Well, in the mind of the customer, might as well be two
• 22:17
  months since you guys spoke. Last I checked the notes that I
• 22:24
  told my guy to prepare, he prepared it.
• 22:27
  Well, there were three options there.
• 22:29
  I was going to call Madam Deaconess.
• 22:32
  I said oh Madam, Remember Me, I got a call from Abuja Solar
• 22:38
  company. So yes my son, how you are
• 22:40
  Madam, I'm OK. So Madam, I have good news
• 22:45
  because I don't have to cause problem for you.
• 22:46
  She will now laugh. I said now you say we should not
• 22:48
  go past 10, so that won't cause problem for you.
• 22:51
  So I'll say, Madam, when I have three options, each of those
• 22:54
  three options will be able to work well in your house.
• 22:58
  Option A, we say we'll give you 8 kva solar and inverter.
• 23:03
  Option two, we say we'll give you 10 kva solar and inverter.
• 23:08
  Then option C, we say we'll give you 12 kva solar and inverter.
• 23:12
  And the price range, but I'm no virtual because I disappoint you
• 23:16
  small. The price ranges are from 6.9 to
• 23:19
  10.9 million. So Madame how you see him and
• 23:25
  I'll keep quiet. I hear what she has to say.
• 23:27
  Based on how reaction I'll now know whether I can dig in or
• 23:30
  not. If she says look young man I
• 23:33
  told you if you pass 10 you're causing problem for me also.
• 23:36
  OK Madam says I said we should look at option A&B then the
• 23:39
  eight KV and the 10KV. If you say, OK, I'll now talk
• 23:43
  small about the 8 KV which is 6.9.
• 23:46
  I'd have not talked small about the 10 KVA which is 8.9 million.
• 23:52
  Then remember my goal is I'm trying to bring Steven who is
• 23:56
  the real sales professional, me, I'm just a consultant.
• 23:59
  I'm posed to bring him back into the picture.
• 24:01
  So that's OK Madam, that my engineer Steven, he will call
• 24:05
  you so we can talk about this thing in more details.
• 24:08
  So he will tell you the benefit of each and how we are going to
• 24:11
  share the load in your house if we do these things.
• 24:14
  So that was the scope. That part was recorded in this
• 24:17
  area. Steven did now not set reminder.
• 24:23
  Steven did not now schedule notification.
• 24:30
  Are you people hearing me? This is where the Horror Story
• 24:33
  started from. He did not set reminder.
• 24:36
  He did not set notification. Life gets busy, Life gets busy.
• 24:43
  You're chasing other things and that is how you're supposed to
• 24:47
  talk to a customer. September 11th.
• 24:49
  You wake up one day. It is October 6th.
• 24:52
  One month has passed. You didn't call this person back
• 24:57
  one full month. If there's any of you that are
• 25:00
  saying one month never reached, they shot by 5 days, I will
• 25:03
  knock you on the head. In fact, from the point of view
• 25:06
  of the customer, it will feel as if you haven't spoken in two or
• 25:10
  three months. So I said thank you for
• 25:17
  reminding me. I quickly check the CRM just to
• 25:21
  refresh my mind on the deal and I called woman back quickly.
• 25:24
  I called Deaconess back and then Deaconess she was in a meeting
• 25:30
  but still she answered the course.
• 25:31
  Oh young man, how are you Sir, my mommy are vinyl that sorry I
• 25:35
  beg I lost track of our conversation.
• 25:38
  Sorry mommy was my fault. I hope you haven't gone ahead
• 25:41
  with somebody else. She said my dear I've gone ahead
• 25:43
  with somebody else. I said mommy why now?
• 25:47
  He said that song can give me a good offer.
• 25:50
  Really binary. The system is OK.
• 25:53
  She say your system is OK. How much did he go for?
• 25:56
  So, you know, I can't really talk right now.
• 25:57
  I'm in a meeting. OK, no problem, man.
• 25:59
  No problem. No problem, Mommy.
• 26:00
  I'll call you back later. Say OK.
• 26:03
  So that's the Horror Story. That's how a promising customer
• 26:11
  jobs work. I like that Now when I was in
• 26:17
  the law, because my first degree is in law, we used to say that
• 26:22
  some cases, the reason why they fail is lack of diligent
• 26:26
  prosecution. Lack of diligent prosecution is
• 26:30
  another way of saying lawyer, Now you have up that the reason
• 26:34
  why this case fell apart is because lawyer, you lawyer, now
• 26:38
  you have up, this was a matter of the business was falling
• 26:43
  apart. This case fell apart because of
• 26:45
  lack of diligent prosecution. We didn't prosecute this thing.
• 26:48
  Well, the advancements that we were supposed to hit Tuesday
• 26:55
  don't call me later than 10:00 AM.
• 26:58
  We missed that one. From there we started entering
• 27:01
  voicemail. The September 11th one, we
• 27:05
  missed it by nearly 4 full weeks, 4 full weeks.
• 27:14
  Now, some of you don't realize the importance, but see, this is
• 27:17
  where lots of you are losing your business.
• 27:21
  Deals, advancements, moving things forward one step at a
• 27:25
  time, remembering staying on the ball, not missing calls, not
• 27:31
  missing meetings, not missing appointments.
• 27:33
  This is where the deal is falling apart.
• 27:39
  Our potential customers and clients are talking to other
• 27:41
  people. You're not the only person.
• 27:45
  If you don't call on Tuesday morning before 10 AM, trust me,
• 27:50
  another vendor will. You do not call on September
• 27:57
  11th like you were supposed to. Another vendor will.
• 28:02
  And this is how we lose money in business.
• 28:07
  We lose it small, small, small. If the problem is not tenable,
• 28:11
  the problem is not the economy, The problem is not the people in
• 28:15
  your father's village who do not like your branch or the family.
• 28:18
  Yes, they don't like you, and maybe they've been doing jazz
• 28:21
  for you. But The thing is, the jazz
• 28:25
  doesn't even have to work because you yourself, you're the
• 28:27
  one using your hand to spoil your business, to spoil your
• 28:30
  commissions. These things are important
• 28:35
  schedule reminders. If you don't have a CRM like
• 28:42
  Steven, set the reminders on your phone.
• 28:46
  So that Tuesday be not later than 10:00 AM, you will boss
• 28:51
  Deaconess. That is how you stay in the
• 28:53
  conversation with Deaconess. So that September 11th, you will
• 28:57
  call Deaconess. This is how you stay in the
• 28:59
  conversation. So excuse me.
• 29:04
  So that's the Horror Story that I'm telling people today.
• 29:07
  Like I said, it was not 10,000 naira.
• 29:11
  It was not 100,000, Naira was not one.
• 29:20
  M was potentially 10.9, potentially best case, worst
• 29:25
  case 6.9. I'm not saying that this deal
• 29:29
  would have closed and would have won it.
• 29:32
  I'm not saying that. But The thing is, the way we
• 29:36
  pursued this case, we were not even a contender at all because
• 29:42
  we did not even stay on the starting block.
• 29:45
  We did not even take shot on goal.
• 29:48
  We started the conversation, but we left this, we left the net
• 29:51
  wide open for other people to take shot.
• 29:54
  And of course, somebody else called the goal.
• 29:57
  So when you are hearing me on the podcast or when you're
• 30:02
  hearing other people who are sales professionals talking
• 30:05
  about advancements, talking about CRMS, it is not theory.
• 30:12
  You lose money live and in the real world when you do not
• 30:16
  follow these precautions. They are precautions.
• 30:21
  They are there to keep us on track.
• 30:26
  So my brother and my sisters, that's that's a horrible story
• 30:30
  for today. And these things will continue
• 30:35
  to happen if you, the business owner or you, the sales
• 30:42
  professional who is in charge of following some things, if you do
• 30:45
  not heed this very simple advice.
• 30:52
  I told you guys that it can be bad.
• 30:54
  This is one of those cases. 4 weeks, 4 weeks, it's probably
• 31:01
  happening to you. The thing is just that since you
• 31:05
  don't have a system of record in the 1st place, since you don't
• 31:08
  have ACRM, since you're not using a Google Calendar, you
• 31:11
  just don't realize how bad The thing is.
• 31:13
  Your mind you think, oh I should have called her two weeks ago.
• 31:16
  If you had something exposed to record and keep, you'll be
• 31:19
  surprised that you know your maybe that's even your own has
• 31:23
  like 6 weeks 7 weeks and it does it.
• 31:29
  That's a Horror Story that I heard today.
• 31:32
  Anyway, that's a problem of being an employee salesperson.
• 31:39
  At the end of the day, you still collect your salary, but for the
• 31:41
  business owner. Actually, it's a sad story
• 31:47
  because for all these leads, these leads are paid for.
• 31:52
  You go and run advertisements on Google, you run advertisements
• 31:57
  on Facebook or on Instagram. That's how you get these leads
• 32:00
  only for you to slip through your fingers anyway.
• 32:06
  So that's a pretty much. So please let us avoid horror
• 32:11
  stories. Let us avoid stories that touch.
• 32:18
  Let us avoid all these small, small things that can be given
• 32:21
  us BP in our businesses. If you don't have ACRM, remember
• 32:27
  like two or three episodes ago I spoke about overcomer of Weibo.
• 32:31
  What Mr. Hofweibu uses is he uses what I use again, Google
• 32:37
  Sheets. That's like Excel.
• 32:39
  That's where he keeps all the details.
• 32:41
  Then he now uses Google Calendar to schedule the reminder that
• 32:46
  calls also Tuesday 10 AM or call this person September 11th.
• 32:51
  That's why he uses Google Calendar for you can do that or
• 32:56
  you can just Google my use whatever calendar is available
• 32:59
  on your phone. So if you're using techno and
• 33:01
  this techno calendar, use techno calendar be managing it as your
• 33:06
  CRM for now, but shall use something to avoid stories of
• 33:13
  the heart to avoid matters that touch please.
• 33:20
  Anyway, so that's my Horror Story.
• 33:25
  What is enough advice? Let's try and avoid horror
• 33:28
  stories in our in our businesses.
• 33:32
  Anyway, it's 30 minutes. Let me just bring it to a close.
• 33:34
  Besides, it's night time. I should be going to bed.
• 33:36
  I have to drop the kids in school tomorrow morning.
• 33:39
  So that's it. And that's all basically.
• 33:43
  Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a
• 33:45
  text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 33:52
  And if you're having fun so far, you like all the things that
• 33:54
  we're talking about, you think is relevant to the Nigerian
• 33:57
  market, then cool, you're in luck.
• 33:59
  You're in the right place. Keep scrolling.
• 34:02
  We have over 1200 episodes here. Practical insights.
• 34:07
  I don't talk theory too much. So whether you're on YouTube,
• 34:11
  Spotify, Stitcher, Encore, anywhere, Scroll down, listen.
• 34:18
  There are plenty archives. As you listen, write down one or
• 34:22
  two things. As you write, apply one or two
• 34:25
  things to avoid stories that touch.
• 34:29
  Sometimes the reason why your business is suffering has
• 34:32
  nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do
• 34:34
  with the economy, and has nothing to do with the witches
• 34:37
  and Wizards in your father's village.
• 34:39
  Sometimes the reason why your business is not moving actually
• 34:42
  is you. You had a problem.
• 34:45
  You're letting all these small, small advancements slip through
• 34:48
  your fingers. Tuesday, 10 AM you let that one
• 34:51
  sleep. September 11, you let that one
• 34:53
  sleep. Eventually you call and your
• 34:56
  customer has moved on with someone else.
• 35:01
  You're now there, heartbroken, crying.
• 35:03
  Had I known? Anyway, I'll be in touch.
• 35:08
  Everyone have a good night.