Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Secret Ingredient to Business Success: Prospecting and Relationships

Transcript

The Secret Ingredient to Business Success: Prospecting and Relationships · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show Today we're going to be looking
• 0:04
  at what kind of sales or business development training
• 0:06
  you need if you have some serious problems, especially if
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  the business problems are from a lack of poor lead generation.
• 0:14
  Now I know that there are lots of technical terms here for
• 0:17
  those of you who are newbies, but don't worry in a couple of
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  seconds we're going to explain what all these big grammar means
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  you know, sales, business development, lead generation,
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  you know blah blah blah. Well, basically the reason why
• 0:26
  we're doing this is because was inspired by a question that was
• 0:29
  asked by a podcast listener and his name is Alozi.
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  He commented on Spotify asking about where to get sales
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  training for people who are new in their careers.
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  So I figured I'd devote a couple of episodes just trying to flesh
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  that out, not necessarily to answer the question per SE,
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  where you can get the kind of sales and business development
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  training that you need because obviously I'm here.
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  But to give you a sense of what kind of training would be
• 0:54
  adequate to whatever situation that you are with.
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  Because in yesterday's episode, we looked at how lots of
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  problems that people get in their businesses, lots of
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  revenue problems as per money is not really coming in.
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  We looked at how your problems could be because you have poor
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  lead generation. So 1 moment.
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  Let me look at my paper. I think I wrote down some stuff
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  from what I recorded yesterday. Let me see.
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  OK. Uh huh.
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  Yeah. So most of the problems can be
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  because of poor lead generation or because poor inbound
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  activities, poor conversions, or poor customer or client
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  retention. Now, if you're a newbie and you
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  don't know what any of these terms mean, then when you're
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  done listening to this episode, just skip back, listen to
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  yesterday's episode. It wasn't wrong like that kind
• 1:36
  of 15 minutes. So you should be done with it
• 1:38
  pretty soon. So that's basically what it is
• 1:41
  that we're going to tackle today.
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  Now before I continue, just to let you guys know, obviously
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  today is going to be a noisy episode because the kids are
• 1:48
  home. I'm not in the audio booth.
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  Then I'd also like to shout out someone who's been listening to
• 1:52
  the podcast and you know me and her.
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  We chatted a little bit. Her name is Uho Tu Itodo, sorry
• 1:59
  for mispronouncing your name. She's Abuja based although she's
• 2:03
  a binary person like me but she's Edoma and her side hustle
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  is in perfumes and body oils. Her name, again, is Eho Tu.
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  You told her most of her business is done over WhatsApp,
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  so there's no social media handle that I can send you guys
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  to. But it's a perfect example about
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  how people can be involved in business and then forget
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  conventional wisdom and still achieve a certain measure of
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  success. Now, she's only been in the
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  business for 2-3 months, but she has ignored websites, she has
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  ignored Instagram. So she's mostly doing it over
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  one time. But she has two distributors in
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  Abuja and then a bunch of clients here.
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  And there's some people in the office, you know, all together,
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  not a bad start. And I suspect that there are
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  bright things ahead, you know, since she's willing to put in
• 2:51
  the level of work that is required to move things forward.
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  So thank you very much, Ihuo to Itoto, thank you for listening
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  to the show and also thanks to Alos here for listening and for
• 3:03
  commenting and for inspiring the podcast episode yesterday and
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  the ones that are going to come for the next couple of days.
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  So back to the main question, what kind of sales training do
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  you need if you have serious problems?
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  And those serious problems stem from poor lead generation?
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  First off, we have to define what the lead is so that the
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  newbies will be with us. Let us be, let us be walking in
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  one step. So the lead basically is just
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  anybody who has taken some kind of action, whether online or
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  offline, on the Internet or in the real world, to show that
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  they might be possibly interested in your product or
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  service. We don't need 100% confirmation
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  that they're good to go. So long as the person has done
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  something to show that they might be interested in your
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  product or your service, then that person is a lead.
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  But of course, that person should have given you some, you
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  know, like some implied permission that you can talk,
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  that you guys can talk later. That person is a lead.
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  So back to that example that I gave in yesterday's episode.
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  Somebody shows up to my son's school sounding out Flyers.
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  Another parent picks the flyer, calls up the person.
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  They say, well, how far I saw your flyer?
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  Do you guys have Ben Tenberg? Do you guys have Superman bag?
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  Do you guys have Batman bag? So in that kind of case, now the
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  person has done something in the real world because the person
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  picked up the phone and then he buzzed you, he called your
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  business and the person has asked about Ben 10, Spider Man
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  and Batman. So it shows that he might be
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  possibly interested in buying a bag or something for his kids.
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  And since the person used his phone to call you, you know, he
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  didn't do number blocking and all those things, it's safe to
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  assume that we have permission to call the guy up later on to
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  say hello, Sir, this is the business that I called
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  yesterday. We thought you were interested.
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  We were supposed to have come on Monday, but we didn't see you
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  again, Sir. So are you still interested how
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  far you know, blah, blah, blah, those kind of phone calls.
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  So in that case, that is a lead because somebody has done
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  something, whether on the Internet by sending you Adm or
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  in the real world, by picking up the phone and calling you or by
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  using their two legs to walk into your store to show that
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  they might be interested in your product or your service and
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  there's some implied permission. They've given you a phone number
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  or they've given an address or they've given something.
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  That is the definition of a lead.
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  Of course, you're going to run into people who have much more
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  technically precise definitions, but for now that is just focus
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  on this simple definition. Anybody was done something that
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  you can see with your own two eyes that they might be
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  interested and he has given you implied permission that you guys
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  can talk shows that he or she might be interested in your
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  product or service. Now, since we know what a lead
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  is, then obviously lead generation is just answering the
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  question, how do I get more people to raise their hands to
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  say that they might be interested in my product or
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  service? Because the more people raise
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  their hands, the more I know who I'm going to pursue.
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  Simple as that. Of course, like I said, you're
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  looking for a technically precise definition of lead
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  generation. Some people will say this is
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  inadequate. But for now, to know enough to
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  start chasing after people, this is all we need to know.
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  Lead generation just means, how would I get more people to
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  signal to raise their hands? So that's it.
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  Now, if lead generation is your problem, you don't know how to
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  get people to raise their hands, to show, to signify to whatever
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  that they're interested in your product or your service.
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  Then what you need is training around three things #1
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  prospecting #2 lead generation #3 relationship building.
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  So let me repeat, if lead generation is your problem, then
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  you need training around prospecting, lead generation and
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  relationship building. Obviously we've, we've already
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  defined what lead generation is. So let's just read that one.
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  Number two is prospecting. Prospecting is any process or is
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  any activity or is any strategy where you are asking yourself
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  the following questions. Who might be interested in my
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  product or my service? Where do these people hang out
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  in the Internet or in the real life?
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  Now that I've found these people, how am I going to start
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  this conversation with the people?
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  And then prospecting includes the process of going out to
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  execute. Because if we sit down with our
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  GPT or sit down with your brother, or sit down with your
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  wife or your husband, or sit down with Popsy or Momsy, or sit
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  down with your business mentor, and you do all this
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  brainstorming, who might be interested?
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  Where can I find them? Which social media do they hang
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  out? Do they attend the ECOE club?
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  Do they attend the Christ Embassy Church?
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  When I find these people, how am I going to start the
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  conversation? If you do all this beautiful
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  brainstorming, but you don't go out and see somebody, you don't
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  pick up the phone, you don't send advertisements, you don't
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  do nothing, then you're just wasted everything.
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  So prospecting is not just the strategy, but prospecting is
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  also the execution. The reason why I'm stressing
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  this strategy and execution is because there are some people
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  who assume that prospecting is mindless activity.
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  Because you see people walking up and down, you know, you're at
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  the mall, you're chilling there with your family, somebody comes
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  and meet you with Flyers and stuff like that.
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  You look at them as if they are daft.
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  You know, they're not really daft.
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  They sat down, they thought at home, what is the best strategy
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  this one might work? And then they head out into the
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  market and nothing is 100%. So they're not daft.
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  So some people think that when you see marketers walking on the
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  street in traffic, you know, hunting our Flyers, just as OK,
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  these people are illiterates. And because of that you don't
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  want to get involved in the activity because you don't want
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  people to look at you as somebody who is illiterate.
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  You don't have anything better to do.
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  So you're in traffic, you're handing out Flyers.
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  So there's strategy involved, there's brain work and then
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  there's also execution. So that is what prospecting is.
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  Figure out who might be interested, figure out where
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  they hang out. The main reason why we need to
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  know whether they hang out is because we now need to know
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  where to reach them. If you think that the people
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  that you're chasing after, the profitable customers, they go to
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  Christ Embassy Church, then you better find a way how to target
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  people who attend Christ Embassy either online or you better buy
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  your bus ticket and head to Benin and attend one of the
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  church services. You know, whatever it is that I
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  need to do to move the business world.
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  By the way, I don't know if Christ numbers, if they have
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  branches in Abuja, Lagos and all over the place.
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  So I'm just asking, Oh, sorry, I haven't mixed it up.
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  That is, that is Oyaki Lome who is in Benin, right.
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  And let me stop here before I offend some people.
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  So that is what where was I? That's what prospecting is now
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  really defined lead generation. Next is relationship building.
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  If lead generation is your problem, you're going to learn
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  prospecting. You're also going to learn
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  relationship building. Now, relationship building has
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  different meanings, especially for people who are in the
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  relationship space. If you're finding boyfriend or
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  you're finding girlfriend, relationship building means
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  something altogether different. But for the purpose of sales and
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  for the purpose of marketing, relationship building just means
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  trying to figure out other people's priorities because that
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  is the only way you are going to close the deal by getting people
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  to buy what they actually want, what they actually need, what
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  they actually desire, and what they can actually afford.
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  So for the level of toasting, relationship building might be I
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  go to a house, I pay higher, visit, I crack some jokes and I
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  buy some gifts. That is relationship building on
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  the level of toasting. But for the level of business,
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  for the level of marketing, for the purpose of sales,
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  relationship building is me. I'm sitting in front of someone,
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  I'm having a conversation with someone, and while we're doing
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  all these chit chat, it looks like casual chat to everybody.
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  I'm actually trying to figure out who is this person?
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  What do they need? What are their priorities?
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  What vision are they trying to achieve?
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  Because if I know that information, I now know how I'm
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  going to be able to align with whatever it is.
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  I'm going to be able to align my product or my service to
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  whatever it is that they're trying to achieve.
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  That's the only way that I'm going to be able to seal the
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  deal. Now, it's important for me to
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  stress this definition of relationship building and how
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  when it comes to business, you're focused on the other
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  person. In fact, when it comes to
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  toasting as well, you actually should be focused on the other
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  person, not on you. It makes it easier to close the
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  deal. But that's a topic for another
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  podcast episode. But the reason why I'm stressing
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  this whole element that it's not about you is because some people
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  think they're doing relationship building by visiting offices, by
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  going here, by going there. You say you're doing
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  relationship building, but every single time you went to all
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  those places, all you did was talk about yourself.
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  If you go to your place and you say, oh, Udogu, blah, blah,
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  blah, how's the family? This and this, that and that,
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  and then immediately you go into Udogu.
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  We now sell this, we now sell this, we now do this, we now do
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  that. We can also do this.
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  We can also do that. That is not relationship
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  building. You're going around and it's
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  just making yourself a nuisance. But if you show up and sell
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  Udogu, how now, How's the family?
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  OK, Your business. And how is business going?
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  Oh, you don't mean it. This deal did not pull through.
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  What happened? Now, what about this?
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  What about that? Yeah, Anyway, don't worry, this
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  won't work out. This won't work out.
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  In fact, if you need any support from me in any way, just let me
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  know. If there's something I can do,
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  I'll do my best and no problem. So, Chief, I just said I agree
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  to you. And then you stand up and you
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  go. Now that is relationship
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  building. You didn't come and make a pitch
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  and say my product does this, my service does this.
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  You came and you spoke to Chief. You find out from Chief what his
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  business is up to. You find out from Chief what
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  problems it is that they are having and things like that.
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  And you've made an offer to be able to be of help later on, in
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  the future, later on during the week.
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  You can now think and say with this problem that Chief is
• 13:05
  facing and with this problem that Chief is facing, my product
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  or my service or my skill set might be able to help here and
• 13:11
  here and there and there. So that in two weeks time or
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  three weeks time or one week's time, you cannot call Chief
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  against a handchief. I think we're discussing when I
• 13:20
  was at your office when you mentioned this and this and that
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  and that. I am thinking that this and this
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  and this should be able to help. This is how I can come in.
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  Of course, if your product or service cannot help, but still
• 13:32
  you call Chief because you know somebody else who's going to be
• 13:34
  helpful. I mean, that's that's even good,
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  even make you stand in Chief's eyes like you have enhanced
• 13:39
  credibility because it's not something that will pay you,
• 13:42
  that will enter your pocket, but you're trying to hook chief up
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  so they can solve a couple of problems.
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  So that's what relationship building is.
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  It's not about you showing up with gifts and fancy
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  conversation and flattery and or whatnot.
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  So that will work on the level of toasting one-on-one.
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  Besides, if any of you want to build relationships with me,
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  that would work. Show up, flatter me, give me
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  gifts, that's going to work. It will make me very happy.
• 14:07
  But for the purpose of business, when you're in front of these
• 14:10
  people and you're trying to build relationship with your
• 14:12
  customers or your stakeholders, the bubbles are all actually
• 14:15
  chat and all they're talking back and forth is you're trying
• 14:17
  to figure out this person, what is their problem?
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  What is their priority? What is their vision?
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  What is their mission? What is their whatever?
• 14:25
  Where are they heading to? What are they interested in?
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  Because if we have all this information, then we're going to
• 14:30
  be able to make a convincing proposal at the end of the day.
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  So I will stop here because we are at 15 minutes currently.
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  So tomorrow or future episodes if I'm unable to make tomorrow's
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  episode, we're going to keep discussing these things in more
• 14:46
  detail. But summary, if you have a
• 14:50
  serious business problems and I think the problems is because of
• 14:53
  poor lead generation, then the kind of training you need is
• 14:56
  need to learn prospecting. How do you go and figure out who
• 15:00
  might be interested in your product or your service?
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  How do you start conversations with them?
• 15:04
  Then you need to learn relationship building.
• 15:07
  Now that you're talking to a bunch of people, how do you
• 15:10
  figure out what it is that is important to them?
• 15:13
  What's the thing that choking them?
• 15:14
  What's the thing that is painting them?
• 15:15
  What is the thing that they are lost in after the thing that
• 15:17
  they're desiring after? Because if you know that you're
• 15:21
  not going to be able to make a good proposal at the end of the
• 15:23
  day by saying, OK, this thing that you're lost in after my
• 15:26
  product or my service, this is how it would going to help you
• 15:29
  achieve this sort of thing. That's what these idiots do.
• 15:33
  You know, those idiots that I tell you about that, you know,
• 15:35
  I'm just chilling somewhere. And because I'm big, you know,
• 15:38
  they assume that I have erectile dysfunction.
• 15:40
  And then they show up and say, bro, it's eye healing.
• 15:43
  And it's oh, you buy this one, your waste.
• 15:46
  No problem. Your this no problem, sugar, you
• 15:49
  will go down. You know all that, you know, all
• 15:52
  the toasting that they normally do.
• 15:55
  So that's just it. They're trying to figure out
• 15:57
  what kind of problems does this guy have.
• 16:00
  If this guy's problem is weight loss, then they'll say Bros.
• 16:02
  This is the one that will give you weight loss.
• 16:05
  If the guy's problem is that Madame is not happy, they'll say
• 16:07
  Bros. Take this one, This one will
• 16:09
  satisfy Madame. If the problem is, let's see
• 16:13
  what else that the guy has. Pile too much sugar, they'll say
• 16:16
  Bros, This one will solve pile. That essentially is what sales
• 16:20
  and relationship building is about.
• 16:23
  By the way, I'm not saying you should become a roadside Hawker,
• 16:27
  but I must admit I admire their hustle because every single day
• 16:31
  they hit the streets, they're playing up and down, and I think
• 16:35
  they're wrong. The way they go about it, I
• 16:36
  think it's really wrong because it's kind of an insult to show
• 16:40
  up to a guy and assume that the guy is having problems with you,
• 16:43
  understand? But anyway, I admire their
• 16:46
  hustle. So let me cut it short today.
• 16:49
  If you'd love to connect with me and explore opportunities, the
• 16:52
  phone number is 080 64662140. The country code is +234.
• 16:58
  If you're not Nigerian, If you want to connect with me on
• 17:00
  LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my idea.
• 17:03
  I'm the host of the show. That's where I spend most of my
• 17:05
  time. Please do not send me messages
• 17:07
  on Facebook. I check Facebook maybe like once
• 17:09
  every three months. Do not send me messages on
• 17:13
  Instagram. You'll hear from me next year,
• 17:15
  but LinkedIn, you'll hear back from me tomorrow.
• 17:19
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 17:20
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.