Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Unmasking Needs: The Sales Skill That Makes You Everyone's Best Friend
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the show. Yesterday we started the series
- 0:05on how sales skills can help for your personal growth and
- 0:09development. Now the reason why I'm tackling
- 0:11this topic is because I figured that most people who are
- 0:14listening to this podcast are probably in business for
- 0:18themselves, self-employed, or intend to be involved in some
- 0:22entrepreneurial endeavour at some point in the future.
- 0:26But then I figured that, well, it's just a guess anyway,
- 0:30because I can. The level of analytics that we
- 0:33get over here on the podcast are quite poor.
- 0:35So even if loads of you here already in business, then that
- 0:41means they're still going to leave a small percentage of
- 0:44folks who are listening to the show right now and who are
- 0:46probably thinking that all these things that these people discuss
- 0:49over here about sales and business development, all the
- 0:52questions that they address, how do these things affect me?
- 0:56So that's the reason why I have started.
- 0:58The last narrative arc has been around this question, how can
- 1:02sales skills help for your personal growth and your
- 1:05personal development, whether you carry a quota as a
- 1:07salesperson or not, whether you are involved in business for
- 1:11yourself or not. Now some of the sales skills
- 1:16that we started looking at yesterday that we need for the
- 1:19purpose of well that traditionally that we need for
- 1:23the purpose of growing a business, building trust and
- 1:27rapport with potential customers, understanding client
- 1:30needs, coming up with effective presentations, getting people to
- 1:33commit to the next action steps and then also making sure that
- 1:37everybody is happy and satisfied and then trying to get repeat
- 1:40business and referrals. So these are the traditional
- 1:44skill sets that are needed when it comes to sales and business
- 1:47development. And I am dedicating last
- 1:51episode, this episode and the next couple of episodes that
- 1:53come to show you guys that if you pay attention to these
- 1:58skills, it's going to benefit you.
- 2:00No matter, no matter whatever it is that you do, whether you're a
- 2:05sales person or not, employee or employer or not, whatever it is.
- 2:10So if you want to find out what we discussed yesterday, then
- 2:15just after you're done listening to this, then scroll back one
- 2:18episode. We have over 790 episodes so
- 2:21far, so don't just stop there. Don't just stop listening to
- 2:24yesterday's episode, the other loads of interesting episodes
- 2:27that you can listen to and gain benefit from.
- 2:30But today we're going to be looking at how skills around
- 2:34understanding your client needs can help with your own personal
- 2:38growth or development. So remember when I mentioned the
- 2:42skills that we listed yesterday? One of them was being able to
- 2:46understand your clients needs. So let's try and figure out what
- 2:50are the subset of skills that are involved in understanding
- 2:53client needs and how this can help with your own personal
- 2:55growth and development. Whether you're a pastor, whether
- 2:58you work in Zenith Bank, what else, whether you're a stay at
- 3:02home dad or mom or whatever. Now, what are the skills that
- 3:09salespeople traditionally need to understand their their
- 3:13client's wants or their client's needs?
- 3:15Now, first of all, I would say that you have to realize that
- 3:18there's a difference between value discovery and value
- 3:21communication. Now, the reason why I'm saying
- 3:23this is because when most people think about sales, what they
- 3:26think is value communication and value communication are those
- 3:30scenarios or contexts where you are telling the other person how
- 3:34good you are, how great you are, how wonderful your company is,
- 3:38how wonderful your product or service is, why people should
- 3:40work with you. These are the benefits of
- 3:42working with you, blah, blah, blah.
- 3:44So these are what people traditionally think when they
- 3:46hear sales, but that is just a part of it.
- 3:49That is value communication. Now there's a much more
- 3:52important part of it, in fact a much more foundational part of
- 3:55it, which is value discovery. Now value discovery is trying to
- 3:58figure out the chief benefits or the chief solutions or the
- 4:02chief. Well, like it says here, the
- 4:04chief value that the customer is going to get or trying to get in
- 4:08interacting with your product or your service.
- 4:11This is foundational because until we know what it is that
- 4:14the customer finds a valuable, we might spend a lot of time
- 4:18communicating value saying do business with me because I'm the
- 4:22latest, I'm the greatest, I'm the best, and because you will
- 4:24benefit XYZ but you later find out that the customer is not
- 4:28concerned with XYZ, the customer might be concerned with 123.
- 4:32So that's the reason why value discovery is much more of
- 4:35foundational and much more important than value
- 4:37communication. We need to figure out what the
- 4:40client is interested in, what the potential customer is
- 4:43interested in, and it is only then that we're going to be able
- 4:46to make an effective presentation to say that if you
- 4:50do business with us, you will indeed achieve XYZ and ABC.
- 4:55Now how do we go about value discovery?
- 4:57We do this well. First of all, we've been
- 4:59listening to the show for a very long time and if you are not
- 5:02subscribed to the show, this is a good reason why because he has
- 5:05sort of things that we discuss over and over and over again.
- 5:07So it's good to get yourself caught up to speed, I'm reminded
- 5:11from time to time. So how do we go about value
- 5:14discovery? We do that by having open-ended
- 5:17conversations and we do that by having question LED
- 5:20conversations. Now this is what that means when
- 5:23we say open-ended conversations it means that we should be OK,
- 5:29Let me start from the back. So question LED.
- 5:31I guess that one is much more obvious.
- 5:33You should be asking questions and not making statements.
- 5:35So if you go into the room thinking about bragging about
- 5:39yourself, this is me. I graduated first class.
- 5:43I'm very articulate. This is my product.
- 5:46My product or service does this I'm so great.
- 5:48I'm so good. I'm the best.
- 5:50If you start off the conversation that way you might
- 5:53think you've had a fun conversation and you might have
- 5:56a fun conversation and I'm not be able to have.
- 5:58I have seen some individuals who are really skilled at having
- 6:01those sorts of conversations and get people, you know, generally
- 6:04interested and laughing along and things like that.
- 6:06So yes, you can have a fun conversation that way.
- 6:08It's just not a very useful or valuable conversation when it
- 6:12comes to networking and sales and things like that.
- 6:15Because you go in there, you say a ton about yourself, but you
- 6:18don't know much about the people that you've spoken to.
- 6:21So when the time comes to build relationships or to actually try
- 6:23selling something, there's nothing that you can wrap your
- 6:26head around to try and sneak in the sales conversation.
- 6:29So it should be question LED, not statement LED.
- 6:32So this is not you going in and trying to see how well you can
- 6:36talk, whether you can talk for 20 or 30 minutes straight and
- 6:39then get people laughing and eating out of your hand.
- 6:42That's not the goal. So the goal is it should be
- 6:45question LED. You're talking to one person or
- 6:47a group of people. You're asking them conversations
- 6:50and those conversations have to be open-ended.
- 6:52So you're asking who, why, what, where, when, kind of questions
- 6:56and you're just having a feel to see where the conversation will
- 6:59go. No agenda yet for the
- 7:03conversations. Now the agenda is going to come
- 7:05in later on when you know who it is that you're talking to.
- 7:09Because if you're having an agenda to try and close someone,
- 7:12to try and get the person to invest your company or whatever,
- 7:15but you don't know who this person is, whether they can
- 7:17invest, whether they can afford, afford, things like that and you
- 7:20just waste your time. So you're better off having
- 7:23open-ended conversations now, then later on, you can think
- 7:26that, OK, I spoke to Mr. Jake, I spoke to Madam Jacqueline, and I
- 7:31spoke to Miss Miss EC and Mr. Isiaka, Mr. Isiaku.
- 7:37So from the conversations that I had with them, Madam EC is
- 7:41interested in this, Madam Isiaku is interested in this, Mr. Jake
- 7:45is interested in this, and Madam Jacqueline is interested in
- 7:48that. So it looks like I might have
- 7:50much more fruitful conversations.
- 7:52If I pay attention to Madam Jacqueline and misses EC, then
- 7:56you can now go into the conversation with an agenda.
- 7:58So that's how it works in the beginning, open-ended because
- 8:01you're trying to fill out who is this person, what are they
- 8:04interested in. Of course you already know what
- 8:06you're interested in and then you can figure out how your
- 8:08interests align for the future and you know how you're going to
- 8:10try and build the relationship or try and sell or deepen the
- 8:14network or whatever it is. So value discovery, number one,
- 8:19it has to be question LED. It's not you going to go and
- 8:21talk and then #2, it has to be open-ended.
- 8:24So who, why, what, where, when? Questions and no goal in mind
- 8:29yet. You're just trying to feel this
- 8:31person out. You're trying to figure this
- 8:32person out. You're trying to source out the
- 8:34opportunity first of all. Then the agenda can come in
- 8:37later on. Now in my own opinion, if you're
- 8:39going to go about these conversations, there's a
- 8:41hierarchy and the hierarchy of conversations is this number one
- 8:45face to face. The best conversations are the
- 8:48ones you're going to have face to face, whether they come to
- 8:49your office, you go to their office, it's a networking
- 8:52session. They meet in your house, you
- 8:53meet in their house. You run into each other at the
- 8:57market or at the church. I mean, you, you get the point
- 9:00face to face. That's where you're going to get
- 9:02the best because you're going to be able to hear what the people
- 9:06are saying. You're going to be able to get
- 9:08feedback, visual feedback, auditory feedback, body language
- 9:13feedback, all kinds of feedback. You won't be able to see what is
- 9:16landing, what is not, what they're interested in, what
- 9:19they're bored by, what they're excited about.
- 9:21You know, all these things. They matter.
- 9:23So face to face, number one, top of the hierarchy #2
- 9:26conversations voice. So this is phone call, WhatsApp
- 9:32call, Skype. What else?
- 9:36Telegram call. You get the whole point, #2
- 9:39would be voice. This is because voice can be
- 9:43quick. You're going to get some
- 9:44auditory signals because you can tell when somebody's excited.
- 9:48Maybe when somebody is not quite convinced, you can pick up on
- 9:52some non what's that word non. When you're trying to
- 9:59communicate through words, I can't remember what it's called
- 10:01anyway. But basically you can pick up on
- 10:04not just what the person is saying, but how the person is
- 10:07saying that. The emphasis, what the person
- 10:09emphasizes, what the emphasizes, things like that.
- 10:11So that's why voice is #2. Next, I would say voice is #3,
- 10:15especially in today's day and age post COVID, where people are
- 10:18now used to doing zooms and stuff like that.
- 10:20Now the reason why the Zoom call, the WhatsApp call, the
- 10:24Skype with the video call, the Telegram video call, why that
- 10:27would be important is because you're going to get more signals
- 10:31quite clearly over the screen. You're going to be able to tell
- 10:33when somebody's bored, when they're looking away.
- 10:35It looks like even though they're there, maybe they're
- 10:39playing chess on their phone or something.
- 10:40Something else has gotten their attention.
- 10:42You can tell where attention is wavering and then things like
- 10:47that. So that's why video is next on
- 10:49hierarchy. Then I'd say after that would be
- 10:51SMS. That is either sending text
- 10:53messages or sending WhatsApp messages or Telegram messages or
- 10:56whatever chat messages that you do.
- 10:58I think there's something called Z WeChat or we Go or something
- 11:01like that. I've seen some youngsters up
- 11:04north use that in Abuja. I haven't seen it in been with
- 11:08state, I haven't seen it. I haven't been to Lagos in a
- 11:10while, so I don't know if other people use it in other parts of
- 11:14Nigeria, but I know that there are different chat things that
- 11:18are out there. So I'll say that is next.
- 11:21And that's because as of today anyway, in 2024 in Nigeria at
- 11:28least, these forms of communications are seen are
- 11:31taken to be more personal forms of communication.
- 11:35So if you're SMS ING with someone, your whatsapping with
- 11:37someone, then the assumption is there's on trend, there's you
- 11:42guys are kind of personal, then at the very least I would now
- 11:46say e-mail. And that's because e-mail, at
- 11:50least in Nigeria anyway, As of the date of this recording in
- 11:522024, e-mail is the least personal. e-mail is the very
- 11:57official, impersonal form of communication.
- 12:01It also has the least context behind it.
- 12:04You just have a wall of text. You can't tell whether
- 12:06somebody's excited to say this, or bored about saying that, or
- 12:10enthusiastic about this or not enthusiastic about that.
- 12:13You can't tell if somebody is falling asleep while typing,
- 12:17because it happens that you start typing an e-mail and then
- 12:19you fall asleep and then you wake up at your desk, and then
- 12:21you finish the e-mail. You know the person can't tell
- 12:23that. You just type this thing in the
- 12:28you know that you typed it in a you know, in a very bored,
- 12:32nonchalant, like a lackadaisical manner.
- 12:34You know, you can't tell these sorts of things.
- 12:36So there are no interpersonal queues.
- 12:38There's no context. It's the least personal.
- 12:40It's the most easiest to be ignored or to skim, because
- 12:43there are people who just take the e-mail, you open it, you see
- 12:46it's 600 words and 10 paragraphs.
- 12:47So you just, you know, flip, flip, flip, skim.
- 12:49I say, OK, I think I get the gist.
- 12:52So these are the reasons why I think it's at the bottom,
- 12:54because of all these deficiencies.
- 12:56But unfortunately it is the easiest to send because
- 12:59everybody can send a message and it's the easiest to deliver.
- 13:02So most people start here. If I try face to face, it's easy
- 13:06to snub me and to block to say, OK, Bros, you know what, let's
- 13:11see next week. And then next week you don't
- 13:12answer your phone or, you know, or I show up and you're not
- 13:16around, you know, things like that.
- 13:17So but for the e-mail, The thing is when you send it, you have
- 13:21sent it. When it delivers, it has
- 13:23delivered. And so there's some comfort in
- 13:25knowing that you wanted to shoot your shot.
- 13:27You sent over the salvo. Salvo has been received.
- 13:30But unfortunately, like I said, it's impersonal, No context, no
- 13:34interpersonal queues, most likely to be ignored or to skim.
- 13:37So that's the reason why I say that there's a hierarchy for
- 13:39having these sorts of conversations.
- 13:41So face to face at the top if you can, the bottom is e-mail.
- 13:46But the most important thing that you have to consider, no
- 13:49matter the form of communication that you choose, is that you are
- 13:53having a conversation, even if you send emails.
- 13:57Because I've noticed that when it's face to face, people know
- 13:59they're having a conversation. But for some reason when it
- 14:02comes to WhatsApp, SMS and e-mail, people just think that
- 14:05you are talking at people. So you're copying and pasting at
- 14:09people, you're blasting people you know, that sort of things.
- 14:12You forget that it's a conversation.
- 14:15So even when you're sending emails, make it a conversation.
- 14:19Don't talk at people, ask questions.
- 14:22When you ask questions, prompt feedback, try and clarify that
- 14:26you have understood correctly and then talk naturally.
- 14:29So for some reason people start off face face to face
- 14:32conversations by saying hey guy, how far now, long time happy New
- 14:37year, how have you been? But then if it's e-mail they say
- 14:40please here to forthwith refer to my previous hitherto e-mail
- 14:45that I sent forthwith Betwixt 3 follow up emails last weekend.
- 14:51You know, that kind of thing. All that formal talk.
- 14:54Now let's give an example about how these sorts of conversations
- 14:57are supposed to flow and at least in the business context,
- 15:01and then we can learn from there.
- 15:03Now, I'm going to use an example that I've used time and time
- 15:05again over here on the show, and that is the person who is a
- 15:07vanity pajama vendor. And that's because Christmas
- 15:11Mark likes to buy Christmas pajamas.
- 15:13And of course, there's no point in buying the same pajamas this
- 15:15year that you bought last year, only in the bigger size.
- 15:18That way, if you do that, then you know there's no thrill for
- 15:22the kids or for anyone else. So it's become little bit of
- 15:27Christmas tradition over here in the ID household.
- 15:30So let's say you are the person who sells these pajamas and then
- 15:34someone reach reaches out to you on Instagram and let's say
- 15:37that's my wife. Now of course, given the
- 15:39scenario that someone has reached out to you on Instagram
- 15:42DM, the phone call or video call most likely is not an option
- 15:47because there are some people that hit hitch up on IG to say
- 15:51Instagram to say do you have this inside 16?
- 15:56OK, no, size 16 is big. Size 16 is big.
- 15:59Children, let's say size. OK, let me guess, let me say
- 16:02size 8. I'm not a fashion person anyway
- 16:04so they hit you up on Instagram saying do you have this in size
- 16:068. My guess is that most people, if
- 16:10you if you reach back out to them saying no, yeah sure I have
- 16:13it. But can we have a phone call or
- 16:14a video so I can video chat so I can figure out exactly what it
- 16:17is you want. I'm assuming that most people
- 16:18will just fashion you and move over to the other person who
- 16:21responds to the Instagram DM saying yes I have it, it's
- 16:2615,000 for boys and 18,000 for girls.
- 16:30Ages this to this, all size that to that.
- 16:33So in my own opinion, someone I've reached out to you on
- 16:35Instagram DM, I think it's cool continue with the DM in chat but
- 16:39don't go straight to to price. You have to do some value
- 16:42discovery. Now the possible conversation
- 16:44points or the questions that you could be asking could be you
- 16:46know how many kids that they have, the ages of the children,
- 16:50the things that they're interested in, the themes for
- 16:52the pajamas in question. You also want to figure out why
- 16:58mommy or daddy or whoever is reaching out, why they think
- 17:01that the children will like these sorts of characters and
- 17:04not these other kind of characters.
- 17:06Trying to figure out what the kids like.
- 17:08What are their favorite TV shows, favorite computer games.
- 17:11Trying to figure out timelines. What celebration do they want to
- 17:14delivered for? Is it birthdays?
- 17:16Is it holidays? Is it Christmas?
- 17:17Is it blah, blah, blah. There's some special occasion.
- 17:19Is there going to be a family photo planned that allows you to
- 17:23know whether you can try and upsell Mommy and Daddy on pajama
- 17:25options to, you know, all these sorts of things?
- 17:28Now, if you're a salesperson, these are the kinds of questions
- 17:31that you need to ask before you deliver a price, because it
- 17:33gives you all the information that you need.
- 17:35You now know that they're interested in Christmas pajamas
- 17:38that are Mickey Mouse themed or maybe Dragon Balls themed, and
- 17:43between the sizes of this and this and they need it in the
- 17:46next three weeks. You now know that you can give
- 17:48an accurate quote based on these two options because you can give
- 17:52prices for Option A, Disney Option B, Dragon Balls, and then
- 17:57you're going to be able to add in express delivery since they
- 18:00need it in less than two weeks or less than three weeks or
- 18:03whatever. So this is the reason why it's
- 18:06important to do value discovery. So another reason why it's
- 18:12important is because when you ask all these questions, it
- 18:14allows you to build rapport. You now know a little bit about
- 18:16mom because it's not how you can be asking all these questions.
- 18:19They don't get a sense of who mommy is or who daddy is.
- 18:21And mommy is also going to know a little bit about you because
- 18:25if you're smart, you're going to be do some build some rapport.
- 18:28So if mommy says, oh, I have 4 kids, you know, you can say
- 18:31mommy, you're trying to me, I only have two.
- 18:33And sometimes I only kill myself.
- 18:35I mean, how do you cope, you know, that kind of thing.
- 18:38OK. No, not kill myself sometimes
- 18:40I'll pull my hair out, you know, how do you cope?
- 18:41You know, you have that talk. You guys bond over that whole
- 18:44mom would thing. So with all these talk chatting
- 18:49back and forth, you guys probably are going to be on a
- 18:51first name basis. I might feel more comfortable
- 18:54now talking to each other. So these are reasons why from a
- 18:57sales perspective value discovery is really, really
- 18:59important and we must always go through all these things.
- 19:02Now, let's pretend that you've been listening to the show and
- 19:05you are definitely not a salesperson.
- 19:07You are not in business. You don't sell pajamas.
- 19:10Why is it important to learn all these skills, To learn to ask
- 19:12all these who, why, what, where, when questions, to try and
- 19:15figure out who the person is, where they're coming from,
- 19:18things like that? Because if you adopt this kind
- 19:21of philosophy when it comes to having conversations, you're
- 19:26going to be a much more better conversationalists.
- 19:28So making friends is going to be easier.
- 19:31Networking is going to be easier.
- 19:33So I mean, who couldn't use more friends or better friends and
- 19:37better networking opportunities in the future?
- 19:39Then you're also going to be able to build a better
- 19:41relationship with colleagues at work or collaborators in
- 19:44business. You might not be in business
- 19:45now, but eventually you might have a side also or be in
- 19:49partnership with someone who has a side also.
- 19:51Even if you're not going to do all of this and you're going to
- 19:53do the Niger thing of eventually you want to run for office, it's
- 19:56better because you're going to be able to have wonderful
- 19:59conversations with political associates then if you're a
- 20:02pastor. Of your Big Brother in church or
- 20:05a Deacon or your some deaconess or auntie in church or whatever.
- 20:10It's also useful having these sorts of skills as well.
- 20:12And then as your children grow older and they enter the
- 20:14teenagers, you know, teenagers, that's when they don't want to
- 20:17hang out with us, when they'd rather hang out with their
- 20:19friends and do cool stuff, you know, take your car and drive
- 20:23and go drinking with the boys or attend parties and sleepovers
- 20:27with the girls and all that. That's for those of you with
- 20:29daughters. So and at this stage is going to
- 20:33help you better prompt conversations with them so you
- 20:35can know what it is that is going on in your loved ones
- 20:37lives. But most importantly, it's going
- 20:39to make you less fearful of being thrown into, sorry excuse
- 20:43me, potentially awkward social situations because you're going
- 20:46to be confident that you can use conversations and feel your way
- 20:49out of it. So if somebody nominates you for
- 20:51some church committee, it's not going to be a problem.
- 20:54You're not going to start palpitating and sweating blood
- 20:58because you know that you're good at conversations.
- 21:01You'll be able to figure it out. You'll be able to handle it.
- 21:04The same thing at work. They put you up for a committee.
- 21:08You're going to get the sense of you want to be able to handle
- 21:10it. So no matter what it is, you're
- 21:12going to be less awkward, sorry, less fearful of being in those
- 21:15awkward situations. Now, I hope you are convinced
- 21:18that sales training is going to help you whether you run a
- 21:20business or not. If you're not convinced, you
- 21:24should. And don't worry, listen to more
- 21:26episodes. I'm going to devote, so excuse
- 21:29me a couple more episodes to try and convince you guys now.
- 21:33So that's all for today folks. Remember to connect with me on
- 21:35WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140.
- 21:40The country code is +234 for those of you who are not
- 21:43Nigerian. And then also connect with me on
- 21:45LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
- 21:47I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of
- 21:51my name and e-mail address from the link.
- 21:53We're currently listening to this episode.
- 21:54So thanks for your time and attention.
- 21:56I'll catch you guys at the next recording.