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Transcript

The Power of Referrals: How to Get Them and Land More Clients · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today's episode is going to be a
• 0:04
  random episode where I'm rambling about all kinds of
• 0:07
  things. Well, first of all, apologies
• 0:09
  for the noise in the background. And that's because I'm not an
• 0:11
  audio booth. And to be honest, even when I'm
• 0:14
  in the house, I don't think I'm going to set up the audio booth
• 0:16
  anymore because, you know, after we moved, I don't know the
• 0:21
  stress of just trying to set up the audio booth.
• 0:25
  Make sure you know, all the sound is completely silent and
• 0:28
  all that. Sometimes it's a hassle that
• 0:30
  just makes me not want to record, to be honest.
• 0:32
  So it's easier for me to just report the phone and then just
• 0:34
  make the recording. So today's episode is going to
• 0:37
  be a random episode and that means I'm going to be talking
• 0:39
  about all kinds of things because there's something that I
• 0:44
  went through earlier in the day that got me thinking about
• 0:48
  referrals, about prospecting and about handling age objections.
• 0:52
  So I just going to be rambling about those sorts of things.
• 0:55
  But anyway, this is your first time of listening to the
• 0:56
  podcast. Then you probably don't know
• 0:57
  what those terms mean, so let me just go ahead and define them
• 1:00
  real quick now. Referrals is basically a
• 1:05
  referral is when somebody hooks you up, when somebody gives you
• 1:08
  the hookup. Oh, sorry, one moment.
• 1:13
  OK, sorry about that. Someone was at the door mainly.
• 1:16
  Like I said, today's going to be one of those noisy episodes.
• 1:20
  Yeah, so I was the middle of defining what a referral is and
• 1:22
  referral just means a hookup basically.
• 1:24
  So if somebody's trying to hook you up in a business context, we
• 1:26
  call that a referral. So you're looking for customers
• 1:29
  and you tell, you know, your friend I look or guy I just
• 1:32
  started business, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:34
  Can you introduce me to social? So he might be a good client for
• 1:37
  me. And the person says, no Hala, I
• 1:39
  got you. And then they introduce you to
• 1:41
  that person that is a referral. That's a hookup.
• 1:46
  In this case, my sister-in-law is the one who made the referral
• 1:50
  because I was looking for collaborators for ATV show that
• 1:54
  I have coming up and, and let me not go into the story yet, but
• 1:58
  basically that's just what the referral is.
• 2:00
  If somebody tries to hook you up in business, it's a referral.
• 2:03
  So if I send a customer to you because you and me are cool,
• 2:06
  it's a referral. If I'm happy with somebody's
• 2:08
  service and I send my wife to go and call that person, that's a
• 2:11
  referral. If you ask a client of yours who
• 2:14
  really likes you, you guys have been doing business for a long
• 2:16
  time. You want them to pass along
• 2:18
  other people to you to be customers as well.
• 2:20
  That is a referral. Then another word that I use was
• 2:23
  prospecting. If you're new to the show, you
• 2:24
  don't know what that means. Now.
• 2:26
  Prospecting just means the act of thinking, or rather the
• 2:31
  strategy involved in thinking. Who is the person that might be
• 2:36
  interested in my product or my service or this thing that I'm
• 2:38
  working on who might be interested?
• 2:40
  Where do those people hang out? Where can I find them?
• 2:43
  How do I start the conversation and how do I get them on board?
• 2:46
  So that is what prospecting means.
• 2:49
  So if you are a caterer, prospecting means you wake up in
• 2:53
  the morning and you're thinking who might be interested in
• 2:57
  ordering my services to cater for their wedding, to cater for
• 3:00
  their party? Who's looking for jello fries?
• 3:02
  Who's looking for Amala? Who's looking for continental
• 3:05
  dishes? Who's looking for XYZ?
• 3:08
  So as a caterer, you're thinking who are the people that need
• 3:10
  these services? Where do they hang out in the
• 3:13
  real world? Where do they hang out online?
• 3:15
  How can I find them? How can I start conversations
• 3:18
  with them and how can I get them to take the next step with me?
• 3:21
  So all the activity involved in that, that is called
• 3:24
  prospecting. So like I said, my sister-in-law
• 3:28
  tried to hook me up with a possible collaborator for my TV
• 3:30
  show. So that's prospecting, you know,
• 3:32
  because I'm a consultant, I'm trying to get a show on the air.
• 3:36
  I need collaborators because this is going to be a two way
• 3:38
  interview thing. So I need to find people who
• 3:41
  might be interested and who'll be willing to put their faces on
• 3:45
  TV and see how we can use this for business development, you
• 3:49
  know, on both ends. So that is prospecting.
• 3:53
  Then the first thing I mentioned I think is yes, age objections.
• 3:57
  Now age objections, that's OK. First of all, objection, because
• 4:00
  objection is any reason that people give for not wanting to
• 4:04
  go ahead with the business, with the agenda, with whatever.
• 4:08
  Now some objections that people can give are actually
• 4:10
  age-related and I made a couple of episodes about that because
• 4:14
  yes, not everybody starts business in their 30s or 40s or
• 4:17
  50s. There are some of us who start
• 4:19
  doing wrong. OK, Well not me anyway, because
• 4:21
  I started late. I started, I think I was really
• 4:25
  30 something when I tried in the photography business.
• 4:29
  So, OK, no more like late 20s. So there's some people who some
• 4:33
  of you who start, you know, 1518 and it's a problem because some
• 4:36
  people look at you, I'm like you're an 18 year old, you know,
• 4:38
  like what do you know, like you know, those sorts of things.
• 4:41
  So those are age objections. So some of you face it,
• 4:46
  sometimes it happens the other way around that people think you
• 4:49
  are too old. But either way, age objections,
• 4:52
  those are objections that also come up in business.
• 4:54
  So the circumstances that I face today, you know, got me
• 4:57
  thinking, I might as well come over here on the microphone and
• 5:00
  then just speak real quick about how to handle age objections
• 5:03
  because they happen for those of you who are very early in your
• 5:06
  career and sometimes those of you who are late in your career.
• 5:10
  But in this part of the world, especially those of you who are
• 5:13
  early. And it's something I can testify
• 5:15
  to because to be honest, I do not like baby doctors at all.
• 5:20
  So if I'm sitting down there in the room and then the doctor
• 5:22
  shows up and their face is babyish and they have pimples
• 5:25
  and you know, they look like they started university at 14
• 5:29
  and they graduated at 19 and then now they're 20 years old.
• 5:32
  I don't like that. It just makes me uncomfortable.
• 5:36
  Yes, I know some of you say that Tavish, my dad is very prejudice
• 5:39
  and I admit yes, it is. But I'm just being honest.
• 5:41
  You know, it makes me very uncomfortable.
• 5:43
  Like I'm here, I have a serious health condition and you know,
• 5:46
  you're practically a baby. So can you please go away and
• 5:50
  let somebody more senior handle the handle this issue?
• 5:53
  But by the way, I've never said that to to anyone.
• 5:56
  I thank God I've never had any serious health concerns.
• 5:59
  OK, there was that one time when I thought I had cancer of the,
• 6:04
  of the, how will I say it? There's one time I thought I had
• 6:08
  cancer of the Netherlands. Let me just put it that way.
• 6:10
  So I thought I had cancer of the Netherlands.
• 6:12
  And that is when this whole age thing came up because one of the
• 6:16
  consultants who was looking at my case then happened to be a
• 6:20
  baby doctor. And I won't lie, I was very
• 6:22
  uncomfortable. Like, this is a serious matter.
• 6:25
  This is cancer of the Netherlands.
• 6:26
  Am I supposed to trust my nether regions to the hand of this baby
• 6:30
  doctor, You know, by the time they finish, if I wake up and I
• 6:33
  hear now that baby doctor, you know, accidentally took away the
• 6:37
  whole package, Like, what's going to happen now?
• 6:39
  Because I'm a young man and, you know, I need my package.
• 6:42
  I can't be going through life package list.
• 6:45
  So, yeah, that was one of those times when the age thing came up
• 6:48
  for me. But anyway, I'm running for too
• 6:50
  long, so let me just get straight down to business.
• 6:53
  OK, First off, shout out to July.
• 6:55
  I mean, she's a listener of the show.
• 6:57
  She discovered it on Spotify. Well, he or she, I'm not really
• 7:00
  sure if July, I mean, is a boy's name any of the only, the only
• 7:02
  July Emmys I know are girls. So she discovered the show on
• 7:06
  Spotify, particularly the episode where I spoke about
• 7:08
  dominating your backyard and making sure that you do lots of
• 7:12
  local marketing because that's the way to get the business
• 7:16
  going. Now she found the episode to be
• 7:18
  valuable. And she's one of those people
• 7:20
  who said she loves the background noise.
• 7:22
  She said that it is nice and subtle and nice to hear that.
• 7:26
  So that means I can continue like this.
• 7:29
  But yes, there are some people who have said they don't like
• 7:31
  the noise. In fact, one the time that I
• 7:34
  worked with last year in the solar space.
• 7:36
  Yeah, he he said, you know, he doesn't like the noise.
• 7:38
  But you guys just bear with me right now.
• 7:40
  I'm trying to prioritize making sure that the episodes drop when
• 7:44
  they are supposed to drop. So eventually when I move to a
• 7:48
  bigger place, you know, construct the studio, have
• 7:50
  production staff, things like that I have, then we can make
• 7:53
  things more nice and polished. So like I said, today's episode
• 7:57
  is going to be a random episode. We're going to touch on things
• 7:59
  relating to referrals, relating to prospecting and age
• 8:02
  objections. And that's because today I want
• 8:05
  to go and check out my sister-in-law.
• 8:07
  She works in the training institute in Abuja and and her
• 8:12
  boss, I've been thinking about having a conversation with her
• 8:15
  boss so that he can become a collaborator on the TV show that
• 8:18
  I'm working on. For those of you who've been
• 8:20
  listening to the podcast for a while, you really know that the
• 8:22
  radio show is up and running. Radio show is almost like two
• 8:26
  months old. And then I'm currently in talks
• 8:28
  for the TV show to come online as well.
• 8:32
  And I'll let you guys know how that works.
• 8:34
  The reason why I'm pursuing radio and television is because
• 8:37
  I believe that radio and television, old media can also
• 8:39
  be used for business promotion. You can also use that to access
• 8:44
  markets. You know, I'm not one of those
• 8:46
  who believes everything gets to be social media.
• 8:48
  So social media is really, really important.
• 8:49
  But old media still works as well.
• 8:51
  So TV and radio still works. Billboards, they still work.
• 8:54
  And I'll keep you guys updated about the progress I'm making on
• 8:58
  that front. So anyway, I got her the phone
• 9:02
  number for my sister in law's boss and I sent a WhatsApp
• 9:06
  message ahead of time. Now the reason why I did that is
• 9:08
  because people don't answer phones, especially in Nigeria,
• 9:12
  people don't answer phone numbers, you know that they
• 9:14
  don't have stored on their phones down is just normal.
• 9:18
  And I think it's because in this part of the world, people are
• 9:20
  afraid of 419. So whenever I'm speaking in
• 9:26
  public events and I'm talking about how you use the phone to
• 9:28
  drop my business, some people say, hey, but people don't
• 9:29
  answer phones. This is the solution.
• 9:31
  And I'm going to say it here so that next time I run into one of
• 9:35
  you in person, none of you will tell me that people don't answer
• 9:36
  phones. The solution is to the solution
• 9:39
  is not OK. People are not answering phones.
• 9:43
  I won't make phone calls. No, the solution is send a
• 9:45
  message first. The person will see the message
• 9:48
  and get a sense of who you are, what the call is about, stuff
• 9:51
  like that. It increases the odds that
• 9:53
  somebody will answer. So the answer is not no, make
• 9:57
  calls. The answer is send a text
• 9:59
  message ahead of time, an SMS or WhatsApp.
• 10:03
  And so I sent the message, but then the boss ignored.
• 10:06
  When I got to the office today, I figured out that, you know,
• 10:09
  the boss ignored because there was 419.
• 10:11
  You know, that one is just normal.
• 10:13
  Everybody's afraid of 419 these days because these WhatsApp 49
• 10:16
  people like they, they are masterful because I heard that
• 10:19
  there's one, we know that these scam people that do send you a
• 10:21
  message and if you make the mistake of replying that
• 10:25
  message, they will clone your number just by replying not to
• 10:29
  talk of even clicking on a link. I don't know how this thing
• 10:31
  works. So there's now something on
• 10:34
  WhatsApp called, I think it's called 2 factor verification or
• 10:37
  something. So if you have WhatsApp and
• 10:39
  using WhatsApp for business, please please, please, please,
• 10:41
  please as soon as you're done listening to this episode, go
• 10:44
  and do your two factor authentication.
• 10:46
  Now what happens is whenever somebody tries to access your
• 10:48
  WhatsApp from someplace, the thing will now send you a
• 10:51
  message on your screen. You will now say security check,
• 10:55
  enter 2 factor verification or something something.
• 10:57
  Is it 2 fact? Yeah, I think it's two factor
• 10:59
  verification. So the thing when I ask you to
• 11:01
  enter a password that is 6 digits long.
• 11:04
  Now some of you might think I beg is always necessary, but
• 11:07
  look I'm not ID you since I did this thing like last year, I
• 11:12
  have received that pop up. I think up to like 20 times I'm
• 11:19
  serious up to like 20 times you think has come up I'm like so
• 11:22
  somebody's trying to access my WhatsApp as in small boy like me
• 11:27
  like I never hammer. Why are they trying to hack my
• 11:29
  stuff? In fact, that's the reason why I
• 11:30
  shut down my Facebook account. So anyway, go and set this thing
• 11:33
  up so that your WhatsApp is secure so that people can just
• 11:36
  hack your WhatsApp anyhow. What was I so the guy the answer
• 11:40
  now because that was a 419 now and by the time we showed up in
• 11:44
  the office, you know, me, my sister-in-law and him, I was
• 11:46
  just just in, you know, it turned out that I didn't mention
• 11:50
  in the text message who I got his number from.
• 11:54
  And that was the error because if he had seen that, oh, OK, I
• 11:59
  got you on. Well, let me know.
• 12:00
  Use her real name anyway. So if we if I put that at all,
• 12:04
  what's up? I got a number from Jacinta,
• 12:06
  blah, blah, blah. You know, I'm going to boss you.
• 12:08
  This is what I want us to talk about.
• 12:09
  You know, that kind of thing. Then his man would have been
• 12:11
  calm, like, OK, OK, it's from Jacinta.
• 12:14
  And then he would have seen her in the office.
• 12:15
  And so Jacinta, I received this text message.
• 12:17
  And should I say, yeah, sure, that's my brother.
• 12:19
  It's my Big Brother. And I said, OK, I know I had no
• 12:21
  problem. And then I'd have called him and
• 12:22
  then would have had the conversation.
• 12:24
  But because I didn't drop her name.
• 12:26
  Now, when the message came in, the guy looked at it.
• 12:28
  The guys are 419 and I told you that some of these things once
• 12:32
  you just reply like you don't go camp as in the hack your inbox.
• 12:37
  So he just saw it and he just ignored.
• 12:41
  So the key points that we can take for these episodes and this
• 12:44
  is where referrals comes in. Now we need to learn how to work
• 12:48
  referrals in business. Lots of us get referrals.
• 12:51
  Remember I said for the purpose of this podcast, anytime you
• 12:54
  hear a referral, it just means you hook up.
• 12:56
  So if you're hooking somebody up, it's a referral.
• 12:58
  If somebody's hooking you up, it's a referral.
• 13:01
  So when it comes to working referrals, always name drop,
• 13:05
  always use the person's name because it builds instant
• 13:08
  rapport. It builds in front instant
• 13:11
  familiarity, it builds in instant comfort with the person.
• 13:16
  So always name drop. It's like in this case, if I had
• 13:19
  sent a message and I said, hey bro, are you there?
• 13:22
  I got your number from Jacinta. I'm going to boss you concerning
• 13:24
  diseases. What time works for you?
• 13:27
  His man without being calm was like, OK, just enter, OK, just
• 13:30
  enter my staff. Cool babe.
• 13:32
  No Allah, the person that is calling me you should be a cool.
• 13:35
  You should be a cool person too. Would also give a sense of
• 13:38
  familiarity. So OK, Justin town's brother.
• 13:40
  Oh, OK, no problem. He's mine to calm down, you
• 13:42
  know, you relax, you answer the call, you see?
• 13:45
  So always name drop when it comes to referrals.
• 13:48
  So like back to the earlier example that I said, if you're
• 13:50
  trying to draw more business, you're new, you tell your friend
• 13:53
  like a brochure, you know, I don't have time marketer, I've
• 13:56
  started this business blah blah blah.
• 13:58
  I beg you know any any customers you know, and he gives you a
• 14:01
  couple of numbers, let's say shall go.
• 14:02
  Your friend gives you 5 numbers. As you call those people or as
• 14:08
  you message those people, the first thing you should say is I
• 14:10
  got your number from Shagun or dead by me.
• 14:13
  Something something something blah about the person say oh
• 14:16
  Shagun idiot, how we see now so fine, blah blah blah, me and
• 14:19
  him, my friends something so well, no problem.
• 14:21
  So young man, how can I help you today?
• 14:23
  Then from there, you know, I had a business conversation.
• 14:25
  So always name drop. So if your friend gives you
• 14:29
  contacts to call, drop your friend's name.
• 14:32
  If you're hooking up somebody to try and get them a piece of
• 14:37
  business, tell them that when you call, let them know that it
• 14:40
  is a Mecca Walkiki that gave you the phone number.
• 14:44
  So when it comes to referrals, we must always name drop.
• 14:48
  If you do it instant rapport with the other person, instant
• 14:51
  familiarity with the other person, instant coming down with
• 14:55
  the other person because they will know that, OK, you come
• 14:58
  from a trusted source and this is not a four one niner.
• 15:01
  Then another thing I want to emphasize, send a text message
• 15:04
  before the call. Make sure the text message is
• 15:08
  engaging. Make sure you state the purpose
• 15:10
  of why you might be reaching out later on.
• 15:12
  And then don't make the mistake I did name drop.
• 15:16
  And of course, confirm if the person is interested because
• 15:19
  that will let you know whether because some people look at you
• 15:22
  and say, oh, OK, thank you very much for reaching out.
• 15:25
  But actually I'm not interested or considering this, this, this
• 15:28
  at the time. Best of luck with your
• 15:30
  endeavours. Is the person who sends that
• 15:32
  kind of message. You now know that OK, no need to
• 15:34
  call. But any you never know, there
• 15:38
  might be room in the future, but I was like any I'm just trying
• 15:43
  to say confirm me treasure. Now let's you know whether you
• 15:45
  should move ahead or not because some people will say Oh no,
• 15:48
  currently not interested, currently not looking.
• 15:50
  Best of luck with your endeavours.
• 15:51
  You do not leave that person. Another person will say, oh OK,
• 15:54
  that sounds interesting, but don't call me before 3:00
• 15:57
  because I'm busy. You see Now you know that OK,
• 16:00
  I'm supposed to call this person after 3:00.
• 16:03
  And if you keep doing this, then the percentage of answered calls
• 16:05
  will now go up if you have this thing of sending an SMS before
• 16:10
  time. Now, another tip is optimize
• 16:12
  your WhatsApp profile. Your profile should say who you
• 16:15
  are, what you do while you're safe to talk to, you know, blah,
• 16:17
  blah, blah. Because there's some people that
• 16:19
  I send this message and I forget the name drop, but at least they
• 16:22
  click on my profile and then they see that, OK, OK, this guy
• 16:26
  looks like he's a reasonable somebody.
• 16:27
  And then when I call, we have the conversation and then they
• 16:31
  say, oh, by the way, how did you get my phone number?
• 16:33
  And now I say, oh, OK, I got it from Corley.
• 16:35
  I did go and say you didn't say it now.
• 16:37
  I'm so sorry. I should have mentioned.
• 16:39
  Yeah, I forgot and then we have the conversation.
• 16:42
  But now another thing that I want to point out and the main
• 16:46
  reason that I want you guys to take from all this is see you,
• 16:50
  some of you are hard on yourself.
• 16:53
  People forget. I have this podcast, I talk
• 16:59
  about sales. I've been talking about sales
• 17:02
  and sales tactics and techniques for the last five ish years.
• 17:07
  It's been over 1050 episodes and even I from time to time I
• 17:13
  forget to name drop when I get a referral.
• 17:19
  So people like me who do this for a living forget to apply
• 17:22
  tactics. Even you if you forget once in a
• 17:25
  while. Don't be too hard on yourself.
• 17:27
  We all forget. It's normal when you forget.
• 17:33
  Just take dressing and try your best to never forget again.
• 17:37
  That is why early on I recommend that people have a framework
• 17:40
  that is written out because if you have the framework, you make
• 17:43
  sure that you don't forget because you'll be looking at the
• 17:45
  framework and following the elements.
• 17:47
  But I've been doing this for a while now where the frameworks
• 17:50
  are internalized. But like I said, once in a while
• 17:52
  I forget. So it's OK if you forget.
• 17:54
  Don't beat yourself up about it too much.
• 17:57
  So that's on the whole referrals thing.
• 18:00
  And OK, the angle now for prospecting is this sometimes
• 18:05
  when you're looking who might be interested in my product, for my
• 18:08
  service, this thing that I'm working on, who is a
• 18:09
  collaborator, who is a stakeholder, who is it is how
• 18:12
  can I get them on board? How can I get them interested?
• 18:15
  How can I sell to them? Sometimes you know who the
• 18:18
  person is and sometimes only way of getting there is to use
• 18:21
  referrals is to use people close to them or to use a warm
• 18:24
  introduction. That is also a good way of
• 18:27
  prospecting because conversations are a whole lot
• 18:30
  easier when we when we add a touch of familiarity to it.
• 18:38
  So if somebody who knows you and who knows the other person is
• 18:41
  making an introduction, it might make it easier to have that
• 18:44
  business conversation. So that is the tip for
• 18:48
  prospecting today. Just try and make it, try and
• 18:51
  make it warm. Try and see how you can
• 18:53
  introduce some mutual, some mutual connections.
• 18:58
  Like there's some people that reach out to online.
• 18:59
  I noticed that they went to OAU or something like that, and
• 19:02
  that's the way I start that conversation.
• 19:04
  Like I just, you know, like, oh, greatest effect.
• 19:06
  I agreed. You went to where you Yes, I
• 19:07
  did. When did you graduate?
• 19:09
  Well, I graduated in 2005. Person say an embryo me, I
• 19:14
  graduated in 1981 and yes, that has happened.
• 19:17
  Excuse me, that's actually happened to me before.
• 19:20
  I noticed somebody was on where you graduate.
• 19:21
  So I entered the guy's office. I was like great affairs.
• 19:23
  Is it great? I say what year did you
• 19:25
  graduate? I said I graduated 2005 and I
• 19:28
  say I graduated in 1981. I'm sure you are not even born
• 19:31
  then and you know we laughed over it, but you can see that
• 19:35
  you know that commonality just mellow everything down a bit so
• 19:38
  that you guys can you know, you talk personal bills from rapport
• 19:41
  first before you enter into business.
• 19:43
  So that's the angle on business. Also A1 moment.
• 19:48
  Sorry about that. Another notification, I came
• 19:50
  from my phone, just wanted to be sure it was not something that I
• 19:53
  have to deal with urgently. Let's see what else.
• 19:57
  OK, that's prospecting age objections.
• 20:00
  Now this is the reason why I now remember the age objections is
• 20:03
  because my sister-in-law, she's a young girl.
• 20:06
  She's in her 20s, twenties, 30s and I don't know sha but I don't
• 20:11
  think she's up to 32 sha and let's just say 282831.
• 20:17
  OK, so and like I said, she's an instructor in our school.
• 20:22
  Now, when I entered the classroom, she told her students
• 20:24
  to greet me. And then, oh, they all greeted
• 20:25
  me. Oh, good afternoon, Sam, blah,
• 20:26
  blah, blah. And the first thing I noticed is
• 20:29
  there's some mature women in this class, like 40s and 50s.
• 20:34
  And so it's something I had a conversation with her.
• 20:36
  Like, like, compared to your students, like, you're younger.
• 20:39
  Has it been a problem? She said Uncle T has been a
• 20:43
  serious problem. Yeah.
• 20:45
  I said, OK, so how did you deal with it?
• 20:46
  She just said, look, I just had to put my foot down.
• 20:49
  And there was one person in particular now she said, how
• 20:52
  can, how can you ask me to wash plates?
• 20:54
  And so you had to tell the lady that, look, I'm here, I'm your
• 20:57
  instructor. And yes, I'm younger than all of
• 21:02
  you. Some of you here are here old
• 21:04
  enough to be to be my mother. But I'm the one who has the
• 21:07
  expertise and I'm the one who has the knowledge.
• 21:10
  So me saying that you should wash plates, it's not as if I'm
• 21:13
  trying to load it over you is because here all of us in the
• 21:17
  kitchen, there's nobody that been watching for us.
• 21:20
  When you finish and you start the business or you start
• 21:23
  working in somebody's kitchen, you will have to be cleaning up
• 21:26
  as you go. And if this is going to be a
• 21:29
  problem, if my age is going to be a problem, then it's either
• 21:34
  mommy is either you leave the class or me, I will leave the
• 21:36
  class. And the other woman started to
• 21:40
  provoke, but then the other classmates told the woman, I
• 21:42
  look Madam, just pipe down. Let's do our business and let us
• 21:45
  leave. If it is this much of an issue,
• 21:47
  you can leave the class because this instructor, she, she's not
• 21:50
  going anywhere. And she said that that's how she
• 21:52
  has handled it. She's hard to be firm and it's
• 21:56
  something that I've spoken about over here on the podcast.
• 21:59
  Now, whenever somebody's looking at you because you're too small,
• 22:02
  just simply restate your expertise.
• 22:07
  And then after that, confirm if the age is going to be a deal
• 22:11
  breaker because there are some people who age is a deal
• 22:15
  breaker. Like for me, back when I had the
• 22:19
  cancer of the Netherlands episode issue, I would like, I
• 22:25
  wasn't very comfortable once I saw the senior consultant or my
• 22:29
  mind calm down. OK, At least there's a grown up
• 22:31
  here in the operating room. It's not as if I wake up and see
• 22:34
  that they have, you know, they have taken away several inches.
• 22:40
  So we have to ask the person because if it is a deal breaker,
• 22:44
  it is a deal breaker and there is nothing you can do about it.
• 22:49
  It's shocking for some of you to hear this one is not age, this
• 22:51
  one is tribe. But back when I was selling
• 22:52
  insurance, there's a lady who said that she could tell that
• 22:57
  things are not quite working out.
• 22:58
  And so she asked the guy out front that look, bro, it looks
• 23:02
  like you're not comfortable with me.
• 23:04
  It looks like you're not comfortable with me that you
• 23:06
  know, clearly there's a problem. So like, what's the problem?
• 23:10
  And then the guy was like my sister, you're correct.
• 23:12
  The thing is I can't do business with you, both people.
• 23:14
  And she said he said, yes, I will not do business with an
• 23:17
  able person. And so she asked her, OK, no
• 23:21
  problem. So if I was to bring one of my
• 23:23
  Yoruba colleagues to you right now, does that mean you will
• 23:26
  sign this contract? The guy said, oh, yes, if you
• 23:28
  bring a Yoruba person or sign this contract, it's OK, no
• 23:30
  problem, Sir, let me take care of that.
• 23:32
  Then she left the office. She put out the call to somebody
• 23:34
  in the office. Hey, Bio, what's up?
• 23:38
  This person I've been working on, this is the stage where if I
• 23:40
  agreed, every, every, every, everybody says he needs a Yoruba
• 23:43
  person to come in before we can sign this contract.
• 23:46
  So how far will you come in? I beg and help me push this
• 23:48
  thing over the line. When we're done, I'll give you
• 23:51
  XXX percent bio. So, OK, no problem.
• 23:53
  So bio came in and then closed the deal and then that was that.
• 23:56
  Now, I'm not condoning that we should, I'm not suggesting that
• 24:02
  we should condone all these sorts of things, tribalism or
• 24:06
  ageism as people put it these days, tribe and age and sex and
• 24:10
  these sorts of things. I'm not trying to say we should
• 24:12
  condone that. And you'll find that some
• 24:14
  offices have very, very, very strong policies towards this.
• 24:17
  There are some businesses that have very strong policies that
• 24:20
  look, if you are face to face with a client and this happens
• 24:22
  and this happens, just get up and leave.
• 24:26
  We want the money, but we don't want the money that bad that we
• 24:28
  have to subject you to this kind of abuse.
• 24:30
  But what I'm just trying to say is, excuse me, call it out and
• 24:34
  at least you know what it is you're supposed to do.
• 24:36
  So this lady, she called it out and she knew that, OK, the fact
• 24:39
  that she's EBO is a problem. So excuse me now.
• 24:42
  So she now knew the next step. OK, we'll get your person from
• 24:45
  the office. So in this case, if age is a
• 24:48
  deal breaker, call it out and call the person's bluff.
• 24:53
  Because The thing is, if it's a problem now, it will always be a
• 24:55
  problem. It is better for you to call it
• 24:57
  out now. Now for the thing to now surface
• 25:00
  later and start giving you all kinds of problems.
• 25:02
  If it's a problem now, it'll always be a problem and it's not
• 25:05
  going to go away. So we state your expertise and
• 25:08
  then call the person's bluff, ask if it is a deal breaker.
• 25:12
  So OK, sorry, I understand that you're uncomfortable, blah,
• 25:15
  blah, blah. Because yes, I'm a young
• 25:19
  surgeon. Is that going to be a problem?
• 25:22
  And the person says yes, I'll be much more comfortable if we have
• 25:24
  a senior surgeon around. So OK, no problem Sir.
• 25:27
  Let me just go and check if the head of if the head of so so so
• 25:33
  so is around. Maybe he can come and have a
• 25:35
  conversation with you. Would that make you more
• 25:36
  comfortable or yes, that would. OK, one moment, Sir, just wait
• 25:39
  here and then you go off and you look for the senior consultant.
• 25:43
  So I'm not saying that you should condone people looking
• 25:45
  down on you as a baby doctor, but I'm not saying at least if
• 25:47
  you call out the bluff, you don't know what the next steps
• 25:51
  are. So like in my sister in
• 26:03
  So if this thing is going to be an issue, the only two options
• 26:06
  are you either leave the class or me, I will leave the class.
• 26:10
  So what's it going to be? So for those of you who have
• 26:13
  fetching objections, I've made lots of episodes about it and
• 26:17
  you know, that's one way that you can deal with it.
• 26:20
  I think the last time I made an episode on age objections, the
• 26:23
  guy was, the guy is a realtor and he's still in uni.
• 26:27
  So at that time the guy hadn't even clocked 20 yet.
• 26:31
  So people were kind of uncomfortable talking real
• 26:34
  estate, talking millions and millions, 10s of millions,
• 26:37
  hundreds of millions with somebody that is not even green
• 26:40
  mustache ambia. So some people are uncomfortable
• 26:42
  about that. So it's just, it's just, it's
• 26:45
  unfortunate. Well, it's just one of those
• 26:49
  things. It's just one of those things,
• 26:50
  if you're talking 10s of thousands or hundreds of
• 26:54
  thousands, maybe like catering or wedding photography and the
• 26:58
  fact that the person is a small boy won't be a problem.
• 27:01
  But then by the time you're talking about building a whole,
• 27:04
  selling a whole office complex building and it looks like this
• 27:07
  guy just started puberty yesterday and the value of the
• 27:10
  contract is 100 M or something like that.
• 27:13
  You know, it's just normal that some people will get
• 27:15
  uncomfortable. So we state your expertise, call
• 27:18
  it out, nervous, a deal breaker. You will know what the next step
• 27:22
  is. So that's all for today's random
• 27:26
  episode. Now if you'd like to connect
• 27:28
  with me for a strategic session for a business audit or you have
• 27:32
  questions you'd like for me to answer, the number to hit me up
• 27:35
  on is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 27:42
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my what's up
• 27:44
  number as well. And remember, please, for those
• 27:47
  of you who use WhatsApp for business purposes, in fact, for
• 27:49
  those of you who are listening to this podcast, even if your
• 27:51
  WhatsApp is still personal purposes, I better go and do
• 27:54
  that two factor or then whatever that thing is called, one check
• 27:57
  security settings. Nothing will really, really,
• 28:00
  really save you because yourself, you'd be surprised how
• 28:04
  sometimes when they put up that two factor thing, it's just a
• 28:06
  random check to make sure you're still in control of your phone.
• 28:09
  But you'd be surprised how many times that thing comes up, you
• 28:12
  know, meaning that people are actually trying to hack into
• 28:18
  your WhatsApp. So please protect your WhatsApp.
• 28:21
  Then you can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 28:24
  The name to look for is Tava Shima Aede.
• 28:26
  I have a YouTube channel of the same name as well, Tava Shima
• 28:30
  Aede. So thank you very much for your
• 28:31
  time and your attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 28:34
  episode.