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Is Your Sales Team Closing Enough Deals? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to tackle the
• 0:04
  question is my sales team closing deals at a healthy rate?
• 0:09
  This is a question that everyone asks at some point eventually,
• 0:13
  that's if I end up doing consulting for them because
• 0:15
  everybody wants to know how am I doing, Am I doing well in
• 0:19
  relation to industry standards, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 0:22
  Now, unfortunately, this is one of those questions that does not
• 0:25
  have a simple answer. It's like when people want to
• 0:29
  know how well are my emails performing?
• 0:32
  My emails are only being opened at, you know, 7%.
• 0:35
  That must be bad. But then if you consider the
• 0:39
  industry, consider your space and maybe the industry average
• 0:42
  is 2.5%, then all of a sudden seeing that you're doing 7% is
• 0:47
  actually quite good. So this is, oh, by the way, I'm
• 0:51
  not saying that industry standards for e-mail open is 2%
• 0:54
  or 7%. I'm just trying to show you how
• 0:56
  the answer of some of these things are relative and depend
• 0:58
  on other factors. So the answer to the question is
• 1:02
  my sales team closing deals at a healthy rate.
• 1:05
  Depends. So First off, you guys who've
• 1:08
  been listening to the show for a long while know that I like to
• 1:11
  look at things through the lens of simple sales and complex
• 1:14
  sales. Because whether you're dealing
• 1:16
  with a simple sale or a complex sale, it the, IT determines how
• 1:20
  it is that you're going to, how you're going to sell, the
• 1:24
  approach that you're going to take.
• 1:26
  It also determines the kind of expectations that you have.
• 1:29
  So if you're dealing with a simple sale, then the only thing
• 1:32
  that you're worried about really is making sure that you don't
• 1:34
  have any problems with your merchandise and that you have
• 1:36
  for traffic. And if you do that, you should
• 1:38
  have healthy conversions. So back to the example that I
• 1:41
  use all the time, which is the sale of Agusi in the market, in
• 1:46
  the open market as a simple commodity.
• 1:49
  So that's a simple sale over there.
• 1:51
  So it's a simple item. It's just a Gucci.
• 1:53
  Everybody knows what a Gucci is. You see it, it either looks good
• 1:56
  or it doesn't. And everybody has access to the
• 1:59
  price. You know how much a copy is,
• 2:01
  because all you have to do is ask one or two people in the
• 2:04
  market and then you have a fair idea of how much a copy is, how
• 2:07
  much a Moodle is. Then let's see what else.
• 2:10
  You don't want to spend a lot of time because it's just in and
• 2:13
  out and then it's just you who's buying the Agusi.
• 2:15
  You know, your wife says go and get me some Agusi, and then you
• 2:17
  go and you buy the Agusi. Just buy sharply and then you
• 2:19
  leave. So this is a very simple sale
• 2:22
  scenario. So in this case, for the vendor
• 2:24
  who actually sells a Gucci in the market, the only thing he or
• 2:27
  she has to worry about is make sure that you sort out food
• 2:31
  traffic. So This is why it's important
• 2:33
  when you're dealing with simple sales scenarios.
• 2:35
  This is why it's important. Where is your stall?
• 2:38
  Where is your shop? So if you have the market stall
• 2:41
  but you're in the middle, then I guess that's a problem.
• 2:44
  But if you have a stall and it's out in front, now people can see
• 2:46
  it as the walk by, you know, then it's a good thing.
• 2:49
  So which is why in certain scenarios, it actually makes a
• 2:51
  lot of sense to pay more for the shop that is in front of the
• 2:56
  market rather than paying cheap for the store that is inside the
• 3:01
  market. Because you need to sort out
• 3:02
  food traffic when we're worried about simple sales.
• 3:04
  Because if it's a simple sale then and everybody knows if it's
• 3:11
  a simple sale like a goosey and The thing is fairly obvious, if
• 3:13
  somebody walks by and your a goosey looks like it's going
• 3:16
  rotten, you know, it's obvious and everybody know that OK, this
• 3:19
  thing is going rotten, it's going bad.
• 3:21
  So just make sure your merchandise is on point, make
• 3:24
  sure that you have access to full traffic, and then the
• 3:27
  number of deals that you close should be well.
• 3:30
  So if you run a shop, you have a sales girls there and you're
• 3:36
  worried about her ability to close, just make sure that foot
• 3:38
  traffic sorted and make sure that there's no problem with the
• 3:41
  merchandise. So if it's a large store, make
• 3:43
  sure it's in part of the mall where there's access to foot
• 3:47
  traffic and you'll be good. So that's when we're dealing
• 3:49
  with simple sales scenarios. For complex sales scenarios,
• 3:52
  just give me a moment. There's something I need to
• 3:54
  attend to right now and then I'll hop back on the mic and I
• 3:57
  will continue the discourse. OK guys, I'm back.
• 4:04
  Sorry about that. For those of you who are using
• 4:07
  really, really good earphones, I'm sure you can figure out the
• 4:09
  reason why. It's raining right now.
• 4:12
  And I had laundry outside, so I had to go dash and get them in.
• 4:17
  And you know, side note, it's really interesting because
• 4:22
  growing up in Lagos, I was a teenager in my Lagos during my
• 4:26
  Lagos years. And back then, we used to have
• 4:29
  this thing, people would say 7 days rain, five days rain, that
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  sort of thing. So I didn't know that this sort
• 4:35
  of thing happens in Abuja because in Abuja actually the
• 4:38
  last couple of days, I think we're getting on maybe five days
• 4:41
  rain now, which is kind of frustrating because there's a
• 4:44
  whole bunch of laundry to be done.
• 4:45
  And of course, you can't dry things if it's raining every
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  day. But anyway, that's a sidebar.
• 4:51
  So let's get back to what we're talking about.
• 4:56
  So my sales team, are they closing deals at a healthy rate?
• 4:59
  So I was saying that it depends on the number of factors.
• 5:01
  And we have looked at simple sales scenarios and how food
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  traffic is important and then whether you have problems with
• 5:07
  the merchandise or not. So if you sell a goosey and you
• 5:09
  sell oranges, just make sure you're where there's food
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  traffic, place your employees where there's food traffic and
• 5:16
  make sure there's no problem with the merchandise.
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  Because if you're in a place where there's food traffic, but
• 5:20
  your goosey stinks and it's going rotten, everybody can see
• 5:24
  if you sell oranges and you have the food traffic, but you know
• 5:28
  your oranges are sour, you know, everybody's going to figure it
• 5:30
  out because you know how it is. People come and they buy, they
• 5:33
  say how much you say, OK, it's it's 8 for 1000 or something.
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  And yeah, the person pays and then the person cuts one.
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  The tasty is like this thing is sour.
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  And you know, instead of buying 8 for 1000, we take a few and
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  they leave. And after a while you get a
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  reputation like, oh, this guy, his oranges are not sweet.
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  And then people stop patronizing you even though you have healthy
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  food traffic. But then when we look at complex
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  hill scenarios, now for complex hill scenarios, typically the
• 6:07
  conversions are lower. That's because you're dealing
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  with more decision makers. There are more people who have
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  to make a decision. So back to the agusi thing.
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  My wife says go get agusi. I'll go and buy the agusi.
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  But if I went to buy a house, on the other hand, I can go and
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  look at the house and I can say, correct, I like this house and I
• 6:26
  have the money, but it will make sense for me to call wifey and
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  say, hey, what's up? When are you free?
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  I've seen this place. I like it.
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  Let's come back next week Tuesday and then have a look.
• 6:37
  So it's not a straightforward thing that you just excuse me,
• 6:41
  that you just show up on by the ABC, you know, so it's sale of a
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  house. This one is complex, more
• 6:46
  decision makers. So because of that added factor,
• 6:51
  now that it's not just do I like the house?
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  Can I afford it? But you know, is my wife going
• 6:56
  to like it? You know, things like that.
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  These are some of the things that make the conversions lower
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  because you're dealing with more variables in complex sales
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  scenarios. So more decision makers.
• 7:07
  What else length of time that is involved?
• 7:09
  Because obviously if we're buying a house, it's going to
• 7:11
  take a longer period of time. Nobody walks up, looks at the
• 7:14
  house and just says, OK, I like it.
• 7:16
  How much? And then you just drop millions
• 7:17
  like that. So it's going to take a while.
• 7:19
  Then cost, when you're dealing with complex hill scenarios, the
• 7:24
  amount of money you're dealing with goes up.
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  I mean, it's higher. So a house is more expensive
• 7:30
  than a Gucci. Then what else?
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  What else? What else?
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  Relationships. Yes, the necessity of
• 7:37
  relationships. So when you want to buy a Gucci,
• 7:39
  you just go in and buy the Gucci and then you leave.
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  You know, whether she's your friend or not is not that
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  important. Although the smart market woman
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  or market man, we want to be friendly towards you so that
• 7:50
  next time you just come and go straight to his or her shop.
• 7:53
  But it's not necessary. And that's the reason why
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  sometimes you go to some vendors and you're pricing and then they
• 7:58
  just give you the attitude like look, what are you buying or
• 8:00
  not? You know, take this thing or get
• 8:01
  out of here. You're spoiling my market.
• 8:03
  I actually had somebody say that before.
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  The person said that. Well, the person wasn't talking
• 8:07
  to me, but I was talking to somebody else and the woman told
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  the guy that look, you're spoiling my market.
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  Now since you've been here, you've been haggling, you
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  haven't bought anything, you're blocking people, you're bringing
• 8:15
  bad luck that can you please leave your spoiling my market.
• 8:19
  So for complex sales, on the other hand, the relationship is
• 8:22
  really important. So it would take something
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  really, really grievous for someone in the complex sale, you
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  know, maybe somebody selling consulting solutions or selling
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  a house, you take something really grievous for the person
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  to take that kind of language with you.
• 8:37
  OK, no, forgive me, I'm going off point.
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  But what I'm just trying to say is that with all these factors,
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  decision makers, time, cost, necessity of building a
• 8:44
  relationship, your conversions will go down South.
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  If your neighbour has a shop and your neighbour sells children's
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  clothes imported from the UK, for instance, and you see that
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  she's doing fantastically well, maybe like 100 people go to the
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  shop and then fifty people end up buying, but you sell car
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  batteries, fans and spare parts and stuff like that.
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  You will in the same mall, your shop is next to hers.
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  You can't just assume that because of that, 100 people are
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  going to walk into your shop and then 50 people are also going to
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  buy as well. So these are the things that
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  affect how well your sales team, your sales people, your business
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  is going to close deals. So you should be looking at what
• 9:31
  your particular industry is. You should be looking at your
• 9:33
  target market, you should be looking at your sales process.
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  These are the things that are important when trying to figure
• 9:41
  this out. So when it comes to industry,
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  like in the tech and in the software space, average closing
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  seems to be 10 to 20%. This is something that is these
• 9:51
  are figures that we get from the West because of course in
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  Nigeria, I mean, who's who's keeping statistics on these
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  sorts of things. So sometimes that's just the
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  best that we have to go to go on for now.
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  So tech and software, 10 to 20% is considered good.
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  So in other words, if you have a tech or a software thing and
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  you're only closing at 5%, then what?
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  Holiday. But then if you're closing at
• 10:15
  40%, then it means all right, you're doing not bad, not bad at
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  all. Then for manufacturing in the
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  West, again, rates are higher, 20 to 30%.
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  So, you know, if you're a manufacturer and you're closing
• 10:28
  60% of your deals, you know, then that means you're an
• 10:30
  absolute superstar. Since industry average is about
• 10:32
  20 to 30%, then what else? OK, like I said, when we're
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  talking about complex sales scenarios, you know, the longer
• 10:40
  the sales cycle, the lower the closing rate.
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  So the closing rate for Agusi will be high.
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  The closing rate for the woman who sells clothes in her shop,
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  even though it's imported, will be high.
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  But by the time you move up a bit and you're selling cars or
• 10:55
  houses, closing rate is going to get lower.
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  Then also depends on the competitive landscape, how much
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  competition do you have in the market, you know, stuff like
• 11:04
  that. That can also affect the closing
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  rate. Now for the target market, this
• 11:09
  is how it factors in. If you're in the B to B, nice
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  business to business, not someone like me, for instance, a
• 11:17
  consultant selling to other businesses or like the client
• 11:23
  that I just finished consultations for.
• 11:27
  OK, well, not just finished, we haven't quite wrapped up yet.
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  Who then the alternative energy space.
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  So, you know, people in those sorts of things, it's a complex
• 11:34
  sale. What you're selling is
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  expensive. The people who are buying
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  sometimes are using other people's money.
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  Because when I'm talking to the so it's not always that I'm
• 11:43
  talking to the CEO or the person who owns the business.
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  Sometimes I'm talking to the business manager.
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  Now the business manager is going to seal this deal, but the
• 11:52
  business manager is not going to pay for the money himself, pay
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  for the thing himself or herself.
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  The money is going to come out of the business money.
• 12:00
  So I might be talking to business manager, but the person
• 12:03
  who is going to pay at the end of the day will be Olga or
• 12:05
  Madam. So in B to B, you have this
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  thing where you're negotiating with somebody, but it's not his
• 12:10
  own money that he's dropping or her own money that they're
• 12:12
  they're dropping. They're dropping the businesses
• 12:13
  money. Then.
• 12:15
  So with all these things, you know, B to B, business to
• 12:18
  business, you're going to have a lower closing rate.
• 12:20
  But then if you're doing business to consumer, which is
• 12:23
  that other example where in the mall, you know, Madam opens the
• 12:27
  shop, she imports clothes from the UK and from America and she
• 12:31
  has, you know, 3 or 4 sales people there who are selling.
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  So for that sort of thing, it's less complex.
• 12:38
  The people who are coming in, they're buying with their own
• 12:40
  money. It's a simpler decision matrix
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  because if a man and a woman walking, they either like the
• 12:46
  clothes or they don't. They can either afford it or
• 12:49
  they don't. They either can afford to buy
• 12:52
  one or two things now and maybe, OK, keep this one for us, we'll
• 12:55
  be back next week or they can't. So closing rates will be higher.
• 13:01
  But then the last thing that we have to consider or rather one
• 13:05
  of the the last thing that I can think of for now that we have to
• 13:08
  consider that will affect your closing ratios, your closing
• 13:15
  rate, whether your people are closing deals well enough is
• 13:17
  whether you have a sales process because you need to have a well
• 13:21
  defined and efficient sales process because this increases
• 13:24
  the likelihood of closing deals. So back to the examples that
• 13:28
  we've given so far. If you are in the tech or
• 13:30
  software space and you're closing between 10 to 20% and
• 13:35
  that is OK. If you have a well defined and
• 13:39
  efficient process, then your people are going to get better
• 13:44
  at looking for leads, qualifying leads, having conversations with
• 13:48
  people, making presentations or proposals, and then your closing
• 13:50
  rate is going to go up. So this is the reason why your
• 13:54
  sales process is also an important factor in trying to
• 13:57
  figure out if your sales team is closing at a healthy rate.
• 14:01
  So we need a well defined and efficient sales process, sales
• 14:06
  framework or strategy or whatever it is you want to call
• 14:09
  it. It increases the likelihood of
• 14:10
  closing the deal. So the things that you should be
• 14:14
  trying to fine tune as the business owner.
• 14:17
  So you're the Madam who owns the shop in the mall and you have
• 14:22
  one guy who's the store manager who holds the Instagram and then
• 14:26
  you have 3 ladies who man the floor.
• 14:29
  So you're trying to make sure that the conversions go up.
• 14:33
  Then what you need to do is you need to work on lead generation.
• 14:39
  You, the business owner, of course, in conjunction with your
• 14:42
  store manager and whatnot, you guys need to work on lead
• 14:44
  generation. Now remember, a lead is anybody
• 14:47
  who has done something, who has raised their hand, who has taken
• 14:51
  some, taking some sort of action to show that they might be
• 14:55
  interested in your product or service.
• 14:57
  So when you run advertisements, that is lead generation because
• 15:00
  if you run the ad and somebody clicks on it and the person
• 15:02
  sends you a message and says, good morning, Sir, how much or
• 15:06
  good morning, Ma are you available on So, so, so, so date
• 15:09
  and how much does it cost? That is a lead because the
• 15:12
  person has done something to show that they might be
• 15:15
  interested. So you guys need to work on lead
• 15:19
  generation. That is a part of the sales
• 15:20
  process because all sales processes are they're trying to
• 15:24
  figure out who should I be chasing?
• 15:26
  How do we chase them? How do we start conversations
• 15:28
  with them? How do we figure out what they
• 15:29
  need? How do we make the proposal?
• 15:32
  How do we get them to take the next step?
• 15:33
  How do we get them to pay us? And how do you get them to come
• 15:36
  back and do business with us again?
• 15:38
  And also how do we get them to get their friends and their
• 15:42
  family members to come and buy from us as well?
• 15:45
  So those are the sorts of things we were trying to figure out
• 15:47
  when we want to optimize the sales process.
• 15:50
  So lead generation, very, very important.
• 15:52
  Get people to raise their hand who is interested.
• 15:55
  Then you guys also need to figure out lead qualification.
• 15:58
  Qualification is just the process of trying to, it's just
• 16:01
  making sure that you're talking to qualified people in quote,
• 16:04
  people who want, people who need, people who can afford,
• 16:07
  people who have a problem and people who you can help.
• 16:10
  So lead generation, you're advertising, you want as many
• 16:15
  people as possible to come through the store, but their
• 16:17
  lead qualification, when they are in the store, you need to be
• 16:20
  talking with them to figure out that these people are your kind
• 16:23
  of customer, the right person to do business with.
• 16:25
  So I've said in previous examples that I'm not impressed
• 16:28
  by brand names. So obviously if you have this
• 16:31
  store where you bought these clothes from America and the UK,
• 16:35
  someone like me is not the kind of person that you want in your
• 16:37
  store because I'll go there, I'll nitpick out everything and
• 16:40
  I'll be doing as if I'm pricing Groundnut.
• 16:42
  You'll be frustrated. I'll be frustrated.
• 16:44
  So you don't want someone like me in the store.
• 16:46
  Now my wife on the other hand, she knows these sorts of things
• 16:50
  like OK, a sauce, a sauce is good because of this, or Marks
• 16:54
  and Spencer is good because of that, or Gap is good because of
• 16:58
  this or Wrangler is good because of that.
• 17:00
  So my wife knows these sorts of things.
• 17:02
  So you actually, if you run this kind of business, then you're
• 17:07
  actually hoping for my wife to enter the store rather than me.
• 17:10
  If I enter inside, that's bad market.
• 17:12
  If my wife enters, that's good market.
• 17:14
  So that's part of what the qualification is about.
• 17:16
  The person is is in the store, you're having the conversation,
• 17:19
  trying to size them up, trying to figure out what it is that
• 17:21
  they need. Can we help them?
• 17:23
  Is there a match here? This is a beautiful relationship
• 17:26
  or not. So if you find out that you're
• 17:28
  dealing with a knucklehead like me, then you have to find a way
• 17:32
  to try and end this thing, weave the conversation.
• 17:35
  But if you're dealing with someone who is educated and well
• 17:38
  qualified and who knows the space and appreciates good
• 17:41
  quality in quote, like my wife, then you know all is good.
• 17:44
  Then you move on to the next step, which is the sales pitch
• 17:47
  or the proposal or the presentation or the toasting or
• 17:52
  whatever it is that you want to call it.
• 17:53
  So that's something that you have to work on as well as I'm a
• 17:57
  business owner. So you guys need to come up with
• 18:00
  the right sales pitch. So now that this person has seen
• 18:02
  the advertisement, has come into the store and has had a chat
• 18:05
  with BC the sales girl and has selected it.
• 18:11
  OK, No, let me see. OK, Yeah, the person has coming.
• 18:13
  The person had a conversation on BC.
• 18:15
  What is the sort of thing that BC the sales girl is supposed to
• 18:18
  say to make everything look nice and good and sweet and get the
• 18:25
  person to put it in the basket that they're willing to, to buy?
• 18:30
  Because it's one thing to stand and to stand and look at one
• 18:37
  individual item. But oh, by the way, this is the
• 18:39
  reason why when you're going to a store, in case you haven't
• 18:42
  figured it out, especially those of us who are guys, guys
• 18:45
  listening to the store right now.
• 18:46
  That's the reason why you come in, you're there with your wife.
• 18:49
  Wife is looking at stuff. That's the reason why a young
• 18:52
  lady picks up a basket and walks to your wife and says, oh, here
• 18:55
  ma, let me help you. And then they start putting
• 18:57
  things into the basket because if you come and you just look at
• 19:00
  things from the full, a few garments and look at stuff, you
• 19:04
  guys just walk in and walk out. Well then if somebody walks up
• 19:07
  and is like, oh, hello ma, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:09
  What are you looking for? This and this and that.
• 19:11
  Oh, this one looks nice. I'm coming man, let me get the
• 19:12
  basket. And then they put two or three
• 19:14
  items down. The thing is, if they take two
• 19:18
  or three garments and put in the basket, the likelihood that at
• 19:21
  least you guys will buy 1, you know, the likelihood kind of
• 19:24
  goes up rather than you are standing and looking and
• 19:27
  discussing and then the salespeople stand back and don't
• 19:30
  do anything. You will come in, stand,
• 19:32
  discuss, and your wife will say, but I like this, but I like
• 19:35
  this. And you will say, you know what,
• 19:37
  let's come back later and then you guys will leave.
• 19:40
  So yeah, so you need to figure out all these sorts of things.
• 19:44
  At what point should BC bring over a basket?
• 19:48
  How should BC start the conversation?
• 19:50
  How should BC talk about the baby items or the teenager items
• 19:55
  or the this items? You know, this is all the whole
• 19:58
  thing about the sales pitch of the proposal.
• 20:00
  The proposal of the presentation is just where you say, I
• 20:03
  understand what it is that you're looking for.
• 20:05
  This is what we have in stock. And I think this thing is going
• 20:08
  to match what it is that you're trying to achieve.
• 20:11
  So OK, ma'am, I understand you want pajamas.
• 20:15
  They have to be baby gap from this dot dot dot dot.
• 20:17
  There's no problem. Ma'am.
• 20:19
  We actually have this and this and this in this store.
• 20:22
  It is last season something, something we're doing it
• 20:25
  whatever, 20% off. So you can take this you put it
• 20:28
  in the basket. But my if you're also
• 20:30
  interested, we also have in the main storehouse.
• 20:33
  We have the one that just came in now, now, now.
• 20:37
  Madame just bought it three weeks ago.
• 20:40
  So Madame, did you see the episode of Desperate Housewives?
• 20:42
  The one that Rihanna's baby was wearing?
• 20:44
  So so we have that model, the one that Rihanna's baby was
• 20:47
  wearing. Oh, Rihanna's baby, that one,
• 20:48
  that thing it look really nice. You don't mean it.
• 20:50
  Oh yes, ma'am, we have it. OK, I'm bring it now.
• 20:53
  And then you now call the store manager and tell him to go and
• 20:55
  get it. And then you keep engaging the
• 20:57
  other person in conversation. Excuse me, while waiting for the
• 21:01
  store manager to bring it. So this is the whole thing when
• 21:04
  we say sales speech proposal or the presentation.
• 21:07
  So you guys need to work on that as well.
• 21:09
  Then you guys also need to have a well defined process for
• 21:15
  negotiating. We need to let the sales boys
• 21:18
  and sales girls know what's up. Now look, if you're negotiating,
• 21:21
  don't go past 10%. If you give anybody more than
• 21:24
  10% discount, I'm removing it from your salary.
• 21:27
  Excuse me? Yeah, sorry about that.
• 21:30
  So if you give anybody more than 10%, I'll remove it from the
• 21:32
  salary. This one is old stock.
• 21:35
  OK, So you can give up to 50% discount, you know, blah, blah,
• 21:38
  blah. Do just make sure you have a
• 21:40
  process. This is what we can do.
• 21:42
  This is what we cannot do. This is how you negotiate at
• 21:45
  this point, if anybody's approaching closer to this,
• 21:49
  this, this and the sale is and they've selected items worth
• 21:53
  more than 50K, then make sure you call me on the phone so I
• 21:56
  can handle the negotiation myself.
• 21:58
  So anyway, you just agree on on the whole thing.
• 22:04
  Then of course, you also need to come up with Mcclair and
• 22:06
  strategy and practices for following through on customers,
• 22:10
  following through on stuff that needs to be done or follow up as
• 22:13
  the average Nigerian likes to say.
• 22:15
  So these are things that we have to consider when we're worried
• 22:19
  about whether your sales team is closing deals at a healthy rate.
• 22:22
  Do you have a world behind defined process and have you sat
• 22:25
  them down and taught them that, look, this is what we do for
• 22:28
  lead generation. This is how we bring people into
• 22:30
  the store. This is how we have
• 22:32
  conversations with people on the store when we have selected one
• 22:36
  or two items and they're in the basket and the people seem to be
• 22:41
  seem to be Hemming and hawing and they're not quite sure.
• 22:45
  This is how you make the pitch. This is how you make the
• 22:46
  proposal. This is how you you talk up the
• 22:51
  the stuff that they have. These are the benefits that
• 22:53
  you're supposed to highlight when it comes to negotiation.
• 22:58
  Make sure you do like this. Do like this, stand like this,
• 23:01
  talk like this, use this phrase. Don't use that phrase once you
• 23:04
  call the manager to do the negotiation or once you call me
• 23:07
  business owner to come and do the negotiation.
• 23:10
  And then after we close the deal and they work out, what is the
• 23:13
  process for following up with them?
• 23:15
  Make sure that everybody's happy and try and get them to come
• 23:17
  back and buy some more. So if as the business owner, you
• 23:22
  have thought about these things, you have defined these things
• 23:26
  and over time you've made this process efficient, then of
• 23:29
  course your sales team, the ability is going to get, so the
• 23:34
  ability to close deals is going to go up and up and up
• 23:37
  regardless of whatever the industry average industry
• 23:40
  average is. But OK, I've spoken quite a
• 23:46
  great deal about how everything is relative.
• 23:48
  Like you can't say my sales team is closing 50% of the deals,
• 23:53
  therefore they're closing healthy or they're closing good.
• 23:57
  You can't just say because this is not school, it's not
• 24:00
  academics. So you can't say 50% is pass
• 24:03
  mark. It all depends.
• 24:05
  But the best comparison is your own historical data.
• 24:10
  So if for the year of 2023 your people were closing at 20%,
• 24:16
  meaning 100 people enter the store out of the 100 people.com
• 24:21
  20 by, if that is how they performed in 2023, then now they
• 24:25
  were in 2024. If they're doing 40%, even if
• 24:30
  industry average is 60%, you can see that your sales process is
• 24:35
  getting better because last year the people who are closing 2 out
• 24:38
  of 100, this year they're closing 40 out of 100.
• 24:42
  So what you should be tracking, actually it's not just industry
• 24:48
  average and what your neighbours are doing, you should also be
• 24:50
  tracking your own historical data.
• 24:53
  What did I do last month? What did I do two months ago?
• 24:55
  What was I doing this time last year?
• 24:58
  So you should be tracking things like website conversions, how
• 25:01
  many people came to my website on my Instagram, then lead
• 25:05
  conversions. A lead is when someone says that
• 25:07
  they are interested in the product or the service.
• 25:09
  So from the people who came to the Instagram who said how much
• 25:14
  are you free? Do you have it in blue?
• 25:16
  Do you have it in black? How many of those people did we
• 25:19
  convert? So if 100 people, if 1000 people
• 25:25
  looked came to Instagram and then out of the 1500 century DMS
• 25:31
  and the DMS of the level of how much do you have it in blue?
• 25:34
  Can you deliver by Monday those kind of conversations out of
• 25:37
  that 500, you only closed 20. You know, those are the sort of
• 25:41
  things that we're looking at when we're talking about league
• 25:43
  conversions. Then there's also, OK, well,
• 25:47
  sales conversions, league conversions, the similar, let's
• 25:50
  just say that the same thing, but sales conversions, we're
• 25:54
  looking at scenarios where you have to give a proposal.
• 25:57
  You've listened to somebody, they've given their whole story,
• 26:00
  and then you now say, OK, Madam or God, based on what you said,
• 26:03
  this is what we can do for you. This is how much it's going to
• 26:05
  cost. So if you have a conversation
• 26:09
  with 50 people who come into the store, how many people are you
• 26:12
  able to capture business from? So you should be tracking that.
• 26:16
  You should also be tracking cart abandonment.
• 26:18
  That is for those of you who do business online.
• 26:21
  So for you online people, you know, there's somebody that
• 26:23
  will, you know, they will click on this, add this to cart, add
• 26:26
  this to cart, add this to cart. Like recently my wife, she likes
• 26:29
  to read so Nigerian fiction. So there's some, so excuse me,
• 26:34
  there's some websites like that that you can buy books from.
• 26:37
  So you click, you add to cart, you add to cart.
• 26:39
  And you know, once in a while you add to cart, you add maybe
• 26:44
  12 books and then you look at the bill and it's like, oh man,
• 26:46
  this bill is harsh. And then you remove maybe like 8
• 26:49
  books, you only end up buying 4. So you should be tracking that
• 26:52
  kind of thing. You know, how many things do
• 26:54
  people are to cut in the beginning and how many did they
• 26:57
  drop off or how many people abandoned all together?
• 27:01
  Because there are some people who in fact, I did it the last
• 27:03
  time I wanted to buy sales books on Amazon.
• 27:06
  I, this was even years ago self. There was some books that I
• 27:09
  wanted to buy. So I just, I add everything out
• 27:13
  to cart out to cart. And by the time I saw the bill
• 27:15
  it was like it was like 400 or something.
• 27:18
  Ki was like OK, 400K for books. So OK, no, I'll have no problem.
• 27:24
  I'll come back to it later. And guess what happened.
• 27:27
  I never came back. I won't tell you how I got to
• 27:30
  read the versions of the book eventually because I'm not going
• 27:34
  to endorse piracy or unethical activity, but anyway, you can
• 27:40
  read them between the lines. So yes, cart abandonment.
• 27:42
  Yeah, I've done that. I've taken a whole bunch of
• 27:44
  stuff from the website saying I want to buy and then at the end
• 27:46
  of the day I didn't buy. So you should be tracking how
• 27:48
  many people are abandoning cart. Then average order value.
• 27:52
  When people come in here, how much are they buying on average?
• 27:56
  Customer churn? OK, we had 50 customers last
• 27:58
  year. How many of them did business
• 27:59
  again with us this year? So those are the things that you
• 28:02
  should be looking at to try and get what your historical data
• 28:04
  is. So last year how many people
• 28:06
  came to the website or last year how many people came to the
• 28:08
  Instagram? This year, how many people have
• 28:11
  hit us up on Instagram? Last year how many proposals did
• 28:14
  we issue? And then how many deals did we
• 28:16
  close? This year, how many proposals
• 28:19
  have we issued? Last year?
• 28:22
  On average, how much were people spending when they entered
• 28:25
  inside the store? Were they working out with 2020
• 28:27
  K worth of purchase this year? What is the average and water
• 28:31
  value? Thank customer churn.
• 28:32
  The people that did business with us last year, how many of
• 28:34
  them came back? So these are the sorts of things
• 28:36
  that you should be tracking. Now when you have, excuse me
• 28:40
  now, when you have these details, when you have all these
• 28:44
  details, it is then that you can now make a good assessment about
• 28:48
  whether your sales team is doing well or whether they're doing
• 28:51
  poorly. So if you track all these things
• 28:55
  and you see that last year you guys were doing 40% and then
• 29:02
  this year it looks like you guys are 32%, You now know that OK,
• 29:05
  there's fire on the mountain, there's a problem, how do we
• 29:08
  solve the problem? Or your industry average is 10%,
• 29:14
  but you in your own store, last year on average, you guys did
• 29:19
  15%. This year on average, you guys
• 29:22
  did 20%. Abby, what did I say?
• 29:26
  And then forgive me, but you're the reason I'm trying to say.
• 29:29
  So it's not just industry average be tracking your own
• 29:31
  historical data. These are the sorts of things
• 29:33
  you should track and just track it every month.
• 29:37
  I think it's getting better. I think it's getting worse.
• 29:39
  Based on what you're tracking, you now know what it is that you
• 29:42
  need to tweak. So if last year Instagram was
• 29:45
  doing real good as per leads from Instagram was like on
• 29:49
  average maybe 50 people every week was were pinging you,
• 29:52
  sending you messages like how far is this thing available?
• 29:55
  Can you deliver by Monday? Do you have it in blue?
• 29:59
  How much were express delivery if you were having, let's say,
• 30:02
  100 of those conversations every week last year, but then this
• 30:05
  year you're in the second-half of this year and so far it's
• 30:09
  like you're only getting 20 per week.
• 30:11
  You now know that, OK, there's fire on the mountain, there's a
• 30:13
  problem. We need to tweak something on
• 30:16
  the Instagram. You will now call your Instagram
• 30:18
  specialist or whatever, and you guys will sit down and
• 30:20
  brainstorm and figure out, like, what's wrong is the quality of
• 30:24
  photographs that are crap or is it that you guys are running
• 30:27
  advertisements before and then you stopped or what else was it?
• 30:32
  The copy that has changed? Like, the photographs are still
• 30:34
  on point. But last year you had Abdul
• 30:36
  Rahman, who used to write all the advertising copy for you
• 30:39
  guys. But Abdul Rahman left in Japan
• 30:42
  and then you now hired Adebc. But Adebc, you know, the way
• 30:47
  she's writing is, you know, is somehow, somehow, you know,
• 30:50
  typographical error here, bad grammar there.
• 30:54
  So yeah, you'll be able to sit down and figure out what it is
• 30:57
  that is going on. So the long and short is how do
• 31:01
  you know if your sales team is closing deals at a healthy rate?
• 31:04
  Unfortunately, there are too many variables to look at.
• 31:05
  So I can't tell you that if you guys are doing 50%, you're doing
• 31:08
  fine. I can't say so because depending
• 31:10
  on your industry, depending on what you have done in the past,
• 31:13
  50% actually might be bad. Because if you guys were doing
• 31:16
  80% last year and they say you hit 50%, then actually it's a
• 31:20
  sign that this fire on the mountain things are going bad.
• 31:23
  Let's figure out what it is that is going wrong.
• 31:27
  So look at your industry, look at your target market, look at
• 31:31
  your sales process. You'll be able to figure out
• 31:33
  what is good or not. Then track your own historical
• 31:37
  data and then compare what were things like before?
• 31:40
  What are things like now? That's what I'll let you know.
• 31:45
  Also, I'll let you know whether you guys are doing good or
• 31:47
  you're doing poorly. So yeah, that's it.
• 31:50
  Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
• 31:55
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 31:58
  Nigerian, then also connect with me on LinkedIn the name to look
• 32:03
  for establishing my Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
• 32:06
  You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link where
• 32:08
  you're listening to this episode.
• 32:09
  If you're on YouTube, then of course you'll see it at the
• 32:12
  bottom left of the video. My name will be there just above
• 32:16
  the title. Then of course you are listening
• 32:18
  to the podcast. Of course, it's going to be
• 32:20
  there above the title as well for those of you who are
• 32:23
  listening over the web who feel like you've been disenfranchised
• 32:27
  because over time folks have been asking me like when are you
• 32:30
  going to be on YouTube? When are you going to be on
• 32:32
  YouTube? Finally, YouTube has sorted it
• 32:35
  out and all my podcast episodes are now available on YouTube.
• 32:38
  All 920 something episodes. They're all there.
• 32:43
  So if you're listening to this from the web browser, then just
• 32:46
  search for my name on YouTube and then subscribe and you get
• 32:49
  all your episodes there. Let's see what else?
• 32:52
  If you still can't find it and you hit me up with my contact
• 32:54
  details, just let me know. I'll send it to you on on
• 32:58
  WhatsApp or Instagram DMS. So yeah, that's it.
• 33:03
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 33:04
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.