Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Power of Why: Discovering Serious Customers in Nigeria with Implication & Need-Payoff

Transcript

The Power of Why: Discovering Serious Customers in Nigeria with Implication & Need-Payoff · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome, my name is Tavi Shima Ayedi.
• 0:04
  I'm focused on solving sales and marketing challenges through
• 0:07
  business education. And I'm making today's recording
• 0:10
  outside because the kids are playing with the neighborhood
• 0:13
  kids. And anyway, I'm just hanging
• 0:16
  around. I want to make sure that they're
• 0:17
  not up to any shenanigans. So expect to hear some noise in
• 0:22
  the background. And if you're impressed with the
• 0:24
  podcast, please talk about it. Let your friends and family
• 0:27
  members know in Nigeria and abroad so they can join us and
• 0:30
  benefit from the questions that we tackle over here.
• 0:33
  They can subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of
• 0:37
  their choice. And if you'd love to connect
• 0:39
  with me, you can call, you can SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 0:42
  08064662140. Now today on the podcast, this
• 0:49
  is going to be a Part 3. This is something that I started
• 0:53
  2 episodes ago where we've been talking about qualification and
• 0:55
  discovery frameworks. Qualification and discovery just
• 0:59
  means how do we have conversations with our potential
• 1:02
  customers, our potential buyers, our potential clients?
• 1:05
  How do we try and figure out who is serious?
• 1:08
  How do you try and figure out who is the time waster?
• 1:10
  How do we try and figure out what it is that they need?
• 1:13
  You know, all of this is interesting, so I don't
• 1:15
  interesting. All of this is important because
• 1:17
  it helps us to give an accurate quote.
• 1:18
  You know, let's not go and give an invoice and by the time you
• 1:21
  start the work, you realize that you underpriced yourself.
• 1:24
  And then it's also going to help you determine who to spend time
• 1:29
  with and how much time to spend time with.
• 1:32
  Because people who are just curious, really you don't need
• 1:35
  to spend 2-3 weeks with them. Like, OK, this person is just
• 1:37
  curious. Give them the information that
• 1:39
  they need and put them in a relationship nurturing sequence.
• 1:42
  You send them emails once in a while and you send them text
• 1:45
  messages or send them WhatsApp messages once in a while just to
• 1:48
  remain top of mind so that by the time they have a serious
• 1:52
  need, they can now reach out to you again.
• 1:54
  And then you guys can start talking proper, proper.
• 1:57
  But then if you're talking to someone who looks like they have
• 1:59
  an urgent need, it looks like they have pepper, they have
• 2:01
  money, you know they're ready and is a serious customer, then
• 2:04
  you follow that person and be talking on a serious level and
• 2:06
  then try and close that deal. So this is the reason why
• 2:08
  qualification and discovery frameworks are really important
• 2:11
  if this is your first time of listening to the show.
• 2:13
  I already introduced the rest of the community to spin selling
• 2:18
  and also to band selling. So listen to those two episodes,
• 2:24
  you get caught up to speed, you figure out what this whole
• 2:26
  qualification and discovery thing is about.
• 2:28
  And hopefully you'll you, you know, give it some hard thought
• 2:33
  and then maybe you can even use ChatGPT, Google Gemini or
• 2:36
  whatever it is that you have AI tools and then come up with
• 2:40
  simple questions that you can incorporate into your own
• 2:43
  selling process. But you know, more on that in
• 2:45
  future episodes because the conversation that I've been
• 2:49
  having around conversation around qualification and
• 2:52
  discovery, I've been having them with shown LC and Rudolph, who
• 2:56
  are sales team, they sell solar solutions, inverter batteries,
• 3:00
  you know, all those sorts of stuff.
• 3:02
  So we actually did have a session where we used AI to try
• 3:06
  and generate some questions that we can use as part of
• 3:12
  conversation. How do I put it now conversation
• 3:14
  starters, I'll be conversation fillers, you know, Sharad, the
• 3:16
  kind of question you can been asking people when you are
• 3:19
  having business conversations with them.
• 3:21
  So in the future episode, yes, we'll have that talk about IT.
• 3:24
  How I say ITAI, how we can incorporate AI, artificial
• 3:29
  intelligence into our sales process.
• 3:31
  So if I remember correctly, I think after I introduced you
• 3:36
  guys to Spin Selling, I said I was going to talk about how we
• 3:40
  used it in particular with Rudolph.
• 3:43
  Now, Rudolph is the oldest member of the team and the
• 3:46
  reason why I introduced the team to Spin Selling was because it
• 3:49
  seems to be something that Rudolph and Elsie already seem
• 3:52
  to be doing natively. It's like that's their their
• 3:58
  default setting because there are lots of times that people
• 4:01
  are doing things and you don't realize that what you're doing
• 4:03
  is considered good sales practice.
• 4:05
  But the reason why it's not as effective is because First off,
• 4:08
  you don't have the expertise to realize what you're even doing
• 4:11
  yourself. So you don't even know when
• 4:13
  you're doing it wrong and how you can do it right or how you
• 4:17
  can improve upon what you're doing.
• 4:20
  So I used, if this is your first time listening to the podcast
• 4:26
  and you think it's not making sense, don't worry.
• 4:28
  Just listen to the previous episode.
• 4:29
  I think that the example that I used to illustrate spin selling
• 4:35
  in the last episode, it was either for weddings and events
• 4:39
  or weather for fashion. But you know, those be much more
• 4:42
  simpler examples to follow. So if you listen to this
• 4:44
  episode, you're not getting it. Just rewind.
• 4:46
  Listen to the episode that came before now when we were talking
• 4:52
  to when I was talking to the team, not talking to Rudolph,
• 4:55
  Shell and Elsie. I decided to use one example
• 4:58
  from Rudolph because we it's something we had just discussed
• 5:01
  during the class. So I wanted the people to see, I
• 5:03
  wanted them to see live how some of them already doing spin.
• 5:07
  They just don't know that they're doing spin.
• 5:09
  So I said, Rudolph, that case that we're talking about now,
• 5:12
  refresh our memory. Just tell us what's up.
• 5:15
  And of course, I'm not going to go into any details because, you
• 5:17
  know, you know, Rudolph Show and they all go like they're my
• 5:21
  clients. So that is no problem.
• 5:23
  But their own clients, you know, have not consented for their own
• 5:26
  matter to be discussed over the year.
• 5:28
  So I'm not going to say give any particular details.
• 5:31
  Basha, they're talking to a guy who interacted with one of their
• 5:36
  Facebook advertisements, the person who wants to have solar
• 5:39
  installed in the guy's country home in the eastern part of
• 5:41
  Nigeria. I won't say which part.
• 5:43
  The guy has a minimum budget of 10 million naira.
• 5:47
  Oh, I would love to have 10 million naira as a budget to do
• 5:50
  solar because Napa has been showing us Shaggy in this estate
• 5:54
  over here in Abuja. So if I had a cool 10 million at
• 5:58
  least I use like between like 3 and five and put one small solar
• 6:03
  just to be managing my the three bedroom that I have here.
• 6:06
  Let me and my small family be managing.
• 6:08
  Do you mean 5 million? I'll just pocket it using and do
• 6:11
  other things. So anyway, I hope you guys can
• 6:14
  see why money is good. That's why I say we will chase
• 6:16
  this money and we will get this money and we must hammer.
• 6:21
  So the client has 10 million. And after Rudolph had a
• 6:25
  conversation with the fellow, Rudolph's opinion was like,
• 6:27
  look, boss, based on what you want to hook up because it's two
• 6:31
  buildings, block of flats, Abby, 2 buildings, block of flats in
• 6:34
  the villa. Rudolph thinks a minimum of 15
• 6:38
  mil is needed to do the job. The in that community in the
• 6:44
  east, they've been having serious Nepal problems and now
• 6:46
  it's just normal because at least in our community they get
• 6:49
  lives once in a while. You know, in my father's
• 6:52
  village, there's no such thing as well, there is such a thing
• 6:55
  as Nepal because you, as you see the, the cable, sorry, one of
• 7:03
  the kids was just misbehaving outside.
• 7:05
  That's a problem with these neighborhood kids.
• 7:07
  They're just rough years, all of them.
• 7:09
  Anyway, where was I? So I said at least that guy now
• 7:14
  in his own village, the whole village is, is OK because at
• 7:17
  least they see like once in a while.
• 7:19
  In my father's village, I've only seen NEPA there once, just
• 7:22
  once. And they think flash for like 5
• 7:24
  minutes and then disappeared. So anytime we have to do
• 7:26
  anything in the villa, you have to budget for generator
• 7:29
  generator. So in our community, they had
• 7:33
  installed 2 Transformers and the Transformers were stolen.
• 7:36
  I mean that was normal, you know.
• 7:37
  Welcome to Niger. I'm in chocolates or village.
• 7:40
  Even when I was in Lagos and we used to live in Oba, those one
• 7:43
  community that was not far from us in Oba.
• 7:45
  And I don't know how in the community of you know, you know,
• 7:49
  Lagos now as in everybody's always open about their people
• 7:52
  that are always there. Somehow people manage to steal a
• 7:55
  whole transformer. You just wake up one day, your
• 7:58
  transformer is not there again. When did it happen?
• 8:00
  Nobody knows. How did it happen?
• 8:02
  Nobody knows. Did you see anybody carrying
• 8:04
  trailer to come and live this thing?
• 8:06
  Nobody knows. Transformer just means.
• 8:09
  So yeah, it happens. Transformer gets stolen.
• 8:12
  Where was I? So they had done Transformers 2
• 8:16
  and they were stolen. And the guy has a generator for
• 8:19
  each of the buildings, but it's a country home.
• 8:21
  He's only there once in a year. So just the country estate, you
• 8:25
  know, you just come into the country, you know, go to the
• 8:30
  village and that whole Christmas New York festival, every, every,
• 8:33
  every, you know, just spend, spend a couple of, a couple of
• 8:38
  weeks there, maybe one month maximum.
• 8:42
  So once Rudolph just told everybody and I said, OK, now
• 8:46
  you guys pay attention. This is how you guys have been
• 8:49
  using SPIN and this is the reason why I introduce you guys
• 8:51
  to SPIN. Now.
• 8:53
  The first part in the acronym S stands for situation questions.
• 8:57
  You always have to be asking situation questions.
• 9:00
  So definitely Rudolph started off the conversation by asking
• 9:03
  questions like, oh, what's up? Thank you very much for reaching
• 9:05
  out. So you want to buy, you want to
• 9:08
  do so that what are you trying to achieve?
• 9:10
  You know, where is it? Where's the community, blah,
• 9:11
  blah, blah. So all of that, the situation
• 9:13
  questions, any of those what's up?
• 9:17
  I said, no, what's up? Like what's up?
• 9:18
  Like, oh, so what's up now? So like, what do you need?
• 9:21
  Or like how far any what's up conversation?
• 9:23
  Any how far, any how far conversation, any conversation
• 9:29
  around how can I help you? You know, those are situational
• 9:31
  questions. We're just trying to figure out
• 9:33
  exactly what it is that is going on.
• 9:36
  So if you are talking to a client like this and you have
• 9:42
  all these kinds of details and you're in solar sales, it means
• 9:45
  you have already handled situation because we already
• 9:48
  know what the situation is. We know who this guy is, we know
• 9:51
  what he's trying to achieve. Now, problem questions are where
• 9:54
  you now start asking particulars.
• 9:56
  Now, the reason why I was saying that Rudolph and LC already do
• 10:00
  problem questions is because they already asked the kind of
• 10:03
  questions that give us this kind of detail.
• 10:06
  They get one solar for two buildings, how many rooms?
• 10:11
  What is he trying to carry generator?
• 10:14
  What is generator capacity? You know, what are the problems
• 10:18
  that they've tried, what are the things that they've tried to
• 10:20
  solve the power situation in that community before?
• 10:25
  So those very, very narrow and particular questions, those are
• 10:28
  the problem questions. They give you a scope of what
• 10:30
  the problem is. And we should all be asking
• 10:32
  these questions. Whether you're an architect,
• 10:34
  whether you're a wedding photographer or whether you're
• 10:37
  an artist or whether you design websites, you have to be asking
• 10:39
  problem. But in fact, for those of you
• 10:42
  who design websites, you will say full, full and front stack,
• 10:45
  back stack. This is where you guys mess up.
• 10:48
  You guys don't ask problem questions.
• 10:50
  Somebody will come and say I want a website.
• 10:52
  You will say, OK, my child is 550K per website.
• 10:55
  And then you start pricing Like what?
• 10:57
  You haven't asked the person any question.
• 10:59
  You need to ask the personal question.
• 11:01
  So what's up? Thank you very much for reaching
• 11:02
  out. OK, you want a website?
• 11:04
  Oh, that's cool. What line of business are you
• 11:06
  in? Oh, OK, you're into retail.
• 11:08
  So that means that this website should have capabilities like
• 11:11
  this, like this for placing order for this and this and
• 11:13
  that. Oh, yes.
• 11:14
  OK, So what else do you need? What else do you need?
• 11:17
  Retail websites usually have these kinds of features.
• 11:20
  These kinds of features are you interested in this?
• 11:21
  Ain't no interested in that be having these conversations.
• 11:25
  It just amazes me how many of you full full stack front stack
• 11:28
  front and back end web developer, you know how you
• 11:31
  would like to call yourselves. You collect money from somebody.
• 11:33
  You didn't ask all these questions there.
• 11:35
  At the end of the day, you start complaining that the client was
• 11:37
  unappreciative. Unappreciative how?
• 11:41
  The fault is your own. You didn't ask them what they
• 11:43
  need. You use your own idea to go and
• 11:45
  create a correct website and maybe objectively it's a correct
• 11:50
  website. It's just not the kind of
• 11:51
  website that they need. So you people in this digital
• 11:55
  space be asking problem questions before you collect
• 12:00
  money. That's the reason why you will
• 12:02
  quarrel with a lot of your clients.
• 12:04
  You say that Nigerians are uneducated, They don't know
• 12:06
  about web three, they don't know about this, they don't know
• 12:08
  about that. No, the problem is not with the
• 12:10
  customer, the problem is with you.
• 12:12
  You didn't ask, you just assumed that Web 3 is raining in
• 12:16
  America, is raining in Australia is raining in whatever.
• 12:18
  So whatever you build should be Web 3 compliant crypto
• 12:22
  something, something you know top of.
• 12:23
  Like just ask the person what they want and then give your
• 12:28
  professional recommendation. Yes, but at the end of the day,
• 12:32
  give the person what they want. So those are problem questions
• 12:38
  and you can see that the team already asking problem
• 12:41
  questions. Now the problem was that the
• 12:46
  team now especially Rudolph and Elsie, they're asking situation
• 12:50
  questions and they're asking problem questions, but they are
• 12:55
  not asking implication or need payoff questions.
• 13:01
  Also, one moment the call's coming.
• 13:02
  I need to answer this. OK, sorry about that.
• 13:07
  I had to answer a call and then also had to settle quarrel
• 13:10
  amongst the kids. So yeah, so the problem for
• 13:15
  Rudolph and Elsie in particular also, I just wound up because
• 13:18
  their noise has been getting too much.
• 13:19
  I was going to get to me. Yeah.
• 13:22
  They're not asking implication and need pay off questions.
• 13:25
  And that's a problem because if you don't ask implication or
• 13:30
  need pay off questions, you have no idea whether you're talking
• 13:32
  to a serious customer or not. So implication questions, those
• 13:39
  are the questions where you explore how bad is this problem
• 13:43
  and what would happen if a solution isn't implemented.
• 13:46
  So Rudolph in particular didn't have those conversations with
• 13:48
  these chief now. OK, chief, you know, nice idea.
• 13:52
  You know, blah, blah, blah. You already have two generators
• 13:55
  running. You know, you're only going to
• 13:57
  be here for one month of the year.
• 14:00
  Do you really need to hook up a 10 million naira solar solution?
• 14:03
  Or is this something that you can just, was it something that
• 14:08
  you can just manage with these generators and then, you know,
• 14:11
  problem solved, especially since you have security guards on
• 14:15
  ground who can protect the generators.
• 14:18
  See, when you're selling complex solutions, that is a level that
• 14:22
  is the detail of question that you should be getting into
• 14:25
  because when you have these conversations, you now know
• 14:27
  whether this is a serious thing for the person or not.
• 14:30
  And you'd also be able to understand what their
• 14:31
  motivations are because I told Rudolph and the rest of the
• 14:35
  team, if you asked Chief these kinds of questions, you now know
• 14:39
  whether for Chief this is a vanity project.
• 14:43
  And if it's a vanity project, then OK, just do whatever Chief
• 14:45
  says. Because some people are trying
• 14:49
  to get solar solutions because they're looking at you from a
• 14:51
  practical angle or from an economic angle.
• 14:54
  So for me, I'm just tired of never harassing me and my
• 14:56
  family. So even though we have a better,
• 14:59
  I think it will make sense. Let's just add solar join.
• 15:03
  So I now know that I have Peace of Mind and you know me and
• 15:06
  NEPA, our quarrel is minimized. So I'm looking at it from a
• 15:11
  practical point of view. I'm looking at comfort.
• 15:14
  There's some other people who are making a financial decision
• 15:16
  about these sorts of things. Remember the episode where we
• 15:20
  talk about the value Trinity, physical, psychological,
• 15:23
  financial. Those are what people are trying
• 15:25
  to get out of any single purchase that they make with
• 15:27
  you, your product or your service.
• 15:29
  They're trying to get a physical benefit, like for me, some
• 15:32
  comfort, you know, Peace of Mind, security.
• 15:34
  Or they're trying to get a financial benefit, like people
• 15:37
  who try to buy solar systems, like people who do data centres,
• 15:42
  betting companies, things like that.
• 15:44
  For them, it's financial. They don't want their systems to
• 15:46
  crash. They don't want their systems to
• 15:47
  go offline because every single time Nepal misbehaves, they
• 15:51
  don't receive power for like 8 or 12 hours at a stretch.
• 15:55
  You know, computer shut down, you know, you lose data, it
• 15:59
  impinges on the customer experience, you know, those
• 16:02
  those sorts of things. So for those people it's a
• 16:04
  financial decision. So, you know, on and on.
• 16:08
  So but we need to be asking these sorts of questions.
• 16:11
  So he's then we'll know whether Chief is making a financial
• 16:14
  calculation. And if Chief is, then we'll now
• 16:17
  know the OK at the end of the day we'll just stick to his
• 16:19
  generators because it's cheaper to just fuel 2 generators for
• 16:26
  one month in a year than to invest in the system or solar or
• 16:33
  10 million that is going to be in villa all the time.
• 16:37
  And believe me, if you install a solar solution worth 10-15
• 16:40
  million in the villa, you definitely need security on
• 16:43
  guard 247 because remember they have already stolen 2
• 16:47
  Transformers so you don't want to drop 15 M only to now come
• 16:53
  during Christmas. I hear that armed robbers came
• 16:55
  and paid you people a visit and just lifted the whole thing.
• 16:59
  So we need to be asking implication questions then need
• 17:01
  payoff questions. They focus on the benefits of
• 17:06
  going ahead, you know, so those are, you know, where you ask
• 17:09
  chief, like, OK, so Chief, OK, we've been going back and forth
• 17:13
  on price and this and this and that and that.
• 17:14
  So Chief, if you don't sort this thing out by Christmas this
• 17:17
  year, you know, like was like was, was that what happened?
• 17:24
  You know, not everybody can be as direct as me.
• 17:27
  So look for your own way because we are chief like that chief
• 17:30
  says. And if I don't do it this year,
• 17:31
  there's no problem now we'll just run generator in that case.
• 17:34
  You now know that the possibility of this deal closing
• 17:37
  this year is a 5050 something. It's not as if this thing will
• 17:40
  close by force by force because already we are in at the time of
• 17:44
  this recording. Already we are in.
• 17:47
  Why are we yourself? We're in July, yes, July at the
• 17:49
  time of this recording. So you now know that what that
• 17:52
  is in my close this year or not might be a 5050 something.
• 17:56
  But you can see how by asking these kinds of questions, you're
• 17:59
  getting a sense of how serious is this problem?
• 18:03
  How serious is this person? Is there a painful need?
• 18:08
  Like do they need to go ahead now, now, now or is this
• 18:11
  something they can just relax and do later?
• 18:14
  So that is the importance for asking implication and E payoff
• 18:17
  questions. So that's why I introduced the
• 18:19
  team to spin because Rudolph and Elsie, they already asked
• 18:22
  situation questions. What's up?
• 18:24
  How you doing? OK, You want to do solar by
• 18:27
  Sure, no problem. What's the situation with your
• 18:29
  house? OK, How many fridge do you have?
• 18:32
  How many AC? How many TV?
• 18:34
  OK. Do you want something that will
• 18:35
  power for 24 hours? Are we looking for 8 hours?
• 18:38
  Are we looking for 12 hour coverage?
• 18:40
  OK, no problem. What do you have on ground?
• 18:42
  Do you already have battery on ground?
• 18:44
  Do you have solar before? Abby, you're trying to upgrade?
• 18:47
  See, all those are situation questions, problem questions.
• 18:51
  The problem now was that Rudolf and LC, they were not going
• 18:56
  deeper to not ask the implication questions and the
• 19:00
  need pair of questions. And quite frankly is when you
• 19:03
  ask implication and need pair of questions that you now get
• 19:06
  people into the frame of mind where they're ready to move
• 19:09
  action or you get the ammunition that you need to be able to ask
• 19:12
  people questions. So that I'll put it, you'll be
• 19:18
  able to ask people questions so you get all the information that
• 19:20
  you need to put together a compelling sales pitch.
• 19:24
  Anyway, this is 20 minutes and I promise I was not going to do
• 19:27
  any more long episodes. I managed to do 15 minutes on
• 19:29
  the other one. This one has overshot, so let me
• 19:32
  just call this very close. So that's it.
• 19:34
  And that's all for this episode. Yeah, let me just leave it like
• 19:39
  that. So remember, if you'd love to
• 19:41
  connect with me, then please call, SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 19:44
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 19:49
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 19:51
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.