Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Structure Proposals to Win High-Value Deals

Transcript

How to Structure Proposals to Win High-Value Deals · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Today on the podcast, we're going to be going over a
0:03
proposal review. What should go into your
0:08
proposal? How should you structure your
0:10
proposal? You know, those sorts of
0:11
questions. And the reason why we're doing
0:13
that today is because we are continuing with the follow from
0:19
last week. I don't want to use his real
0:20
name because now we're going in depth.
0:22
So I don't want to expose his, you know, so it's the fellow who
0:28
is stepping in to run his father's tire company.
0:32
And I think that's commendable by the way.
0:33
So for those of you who have family owned businesses, really
0:38
just think of it as NYSE, think of it as National Youth Corps.
0:43
Just go in there, bid your time, do your bid, you know, help the
0:47
company blow. It's an asset that is going to
0:49
pay all of you as a family at the end of the day.
0:52
And also you're going to learn lots of transferable skills so
0:55
that when you now start your own hustle, you'll be better off for
0:58
it. So this fellow is helping his
1:03
father run the tyre company. And it's not just tyres, you
1:07
know, like ordinary tyres for, you know, Toyota Corolla, Toyota
1:10
Camry, those kinds of things. It's more like industrial,
1:14
industrial tyres, industrial sized tyres, So tractors, truck
1:19
heads, you know, all those sorts of things.
1:22
Now, in stepping into this company, the fellow had a good
1:26
idea that was going to help boost the sales of the company
1:30
by running round a couple of corporate bodies and dropping
1:36
proposals there about how it would be a good idea for them to
1:41
do business with them. Oh, by the way, for those of you
1:45
who listened to that particular episode, remember that I pointed
1:48
out one thing that lots of people don't realise, that when
1:51
it comes to certain kinds of businesses, especially high
1:54
value businesses like this where it's B to B, business to
1:57
business, you will find that the company you're talking to
2:01
already has somebody that they're doing business with.
2:05
There is an incumbent. So you're actually trying to do
2:08
2 things when you're running around dropping your proposals
2:11
just like this guy does. You are not just trying to sell
2:16
your own market, you are also trying to unseat whoever is
2:21
inside that organization. So you sell tyres like this.
2:25
The challenge is twofold. You're going to an organization
2:29
to say buy from me. Or the truth of the matter is
2:32
this, especially in B to B, business to business, the people
2:37
that you're going to already have a vendor that they've been
2:40
doing business with. No one is just standard.
2:44
It is very rare that you are going to be the first person.
2:47
So just know if you're in this situation, you're trying to do 2
2:52
things, sell yourself, and you're trying to unseat
2:55
somebody. Now we're also going to look at
2:57
some ways that we can unseat somebody because truth be told,
3:03
like I said, they will already be somebody who is there.
3:09
So yeah, these are the sorts of things that we're going to be
3:12
looking at today on the podcast. Now, if you love learning about
3:15
these sorts of things and if you love scratching your head about
3:17
these sorts of things, then stay tuned in to this podcast.
3:21
Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your
3:25
choice. This is all we do here 2, three
3:28
times a week. Business problems.
3:30
How do you grow the business through sales?
3:32
How do we grow it through marketing?
3:34
How do we troubleshoot on a bunch of things?
3:36
My name is Tavishy Mahade, I'm the host of the podcast.
3:38
If you'd ever love love to connect with me, then call, send
3:42
a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
3:50
So like I said today we're doing a proposal review.
3:54
The company based in Lagos, what they sell is tires and
3:59
industrial tires for trucks, tractor heads, those sorts of
4:03
things. And the fellow who is coming in
4:07
to run the family business assumes that you can grow the
4:10
business by dropping proposals with certain corporate entities
4:15
saying buy from us. Now, that is a very good idea.
4:21
There are lots of things that can be done when you want to
4:23
grow your business. I keep on talking about over
4:26
here on the podcast. If you want to simplify it, you
4:28
can think inbound and outbound. Inbound are tactics, tips,
4:33
strategies that try to make you look pretty so that people can
4:37
chase you. So you know all that SEO,
4:39
content marketing, things like that.
4:41
The whole idea is you're there in the office, you're chilling
4:44
in the AC, and then people are sending you emails, they're
4:46
sending you DMS, they're knocking on your front door to
4:48
say, oh boy, how far, how much is your tire?
4:51
That is inbound. Then there is our bound.
4:54
Our bound is you're going outside and chasing people.
4:57
Now inbound is good, yes. Our bound is also good, yes.
5:01
Which one is best? Neither of them.
5:03
You should be doing both. However, inbound is a long term
5:08
approach. If you're going to be putting
5:11
our content on LinkedIn to establish thought leadership so
5:14
that people will come and buy your tires, Just know that if
5:17
you start it in January, don't expect that business will come
5:20
from it in December. It doesn't work that way.
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It takes a while to build thought leadership.
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So if you're going to do inbound, just know inbound is
5:30
going to take time. So excuse me.
5:34
So just know that inbound is going to take time.
5:37
I'm putting it out there just so that you know.
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Now, one of the reasons why I favor outbound approaches is
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because when it comes to outbound, you have a certain
5:46
measure of control over the results.
5:48
So this guy now that is going out to go and drop proposals.
5:52
If he drops only one proposal, well, some success might come
5:58
from it and some might not. If he drops 20 proposals a
6:02
month, OK, now he's making sense.
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If he's able to drop 100 proposals in a month, OK,
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assuming that he's effective at what he's doing, excuse me, His
6:16
effort will be directly correlated to how soon can he
6:20
get progress and how much progress can he get.
6:22
So that's one of the reasons why I like outbound approaches.
6:26
In a way. You are in control, small.
6:30
If you do plenty of work, good. If you don't do work, work any
6:34
work at all, then you know, too bad for you.
6:37
But every business should be doing both.
6:39
So it's my assumption that apart from dropping proposals that
6:42
this guy is also trying to do some content marketing, some
6:47
online, whatever to boost the business as well.
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But anyway, whenever people pick up the phone or whenever people
6:55
go from office to office, I always applaud them and say well
6:57
done also because that is the kind of activity that builds all
7:03
those transferable skills that I'm talking about.
7:05
You will learn how to have a conversation with someone.
7:07
You sit down in somebody's office, you shake their hand,
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you see them eye to eye. And whether you're a small boy
7:12
or you're a big man, whether you're a small girl or a big
7:15
girl, you have to sit down, you have to face somebody.
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You have to know how to handle yourself, know how to carry
7:20
yourself. So this kind of activity,
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whenever people do it, I say very, very good, very good, you
7:27
know, continue. So where was I now before I
7:34
started making this podcast episode?
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The guy had already listened to the previous episode and he sent
7:38
me a message saying I had that. He has realized one problem.
7:42
I said, what's the problem? He said that the problem is that
7:45
he has been sending the same documents to every single
7:47
company and he realizes that that was wrong and that's what
7:50
he's going to change. Now, I don't remember talking
7:53
about that in any previous episode, but just in case, you
7:56
know, I didn't, but somehow he inferred.
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Let me repeat it here just in case it wasn't clear enough.
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Yes, indeed, if you're running around dropping proposals, it
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actually is a problem. If you're dropping the exact
8:07
same document in every single establishment, the only thing
8:11
that you're changing is the company name.
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So your proposal is the same when you drop it for Zenith
8:16
Bank, you just simply erase MD Standard Chartered and you now
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put Zenith Bank. You carry the same document, you
8:25
take it to Stampic IBTC, you now erase Zenith Bank and now put
8:31
Stampic IBTC. Then you take the exact same
8:33
proposal, you take it to Union Bank, you now erase Stampic IBTC
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and you now put Union Bank. No, you're not increasing the
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odds that your document is going to be read.
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Dropping the same document with every company is a problem.
8:50
Proposals should be targeted or personalized or customized or
8:54
whatever word you want to use to increase the chance of it being
8:57
read or the chance of it being considered.
9:00
Because especially know that we're talking about business to
9:05
business. Now you're selling to other
9:06
businesses, B to B, other businesses.
9:11
They receive proposals all the time.
9:14
So they know all the tricks. They know when they receive a
9:18
document that are this one, that template, they know.
9:22
And nobody's going to waste time reading templated documents.
9:27
They have a business to run. Other people are trying to sell
9:30
to them every single week. And 8090% or however many
9:35
percent of people are sending in templates.
9:37
So they already know. I can assure you, if your
9:41
proposal looks like a template, if it smells like a template,
9:45
it's going to be treated like a template document.
9:49
So increase the odds in your favour.
9:51
The guy has realized it, but that some of you maybe who you
9:54
have not realized. If all you're doing is changing
9:56
the name of the MD and changing the name of the institution when
10:00
you submit the proposal, that is not enough to increase the
10:06
chance that this thing is going to be read, considered, maybe
10:09
acted upon. Target it, customize it to each
10:15
individual business. But then some of you say that
10:19
has work. Of course it is work for those
10:23
of us who are sales professionals.
10:24
What do we get paid for? We get paid for the work.
10:29
It was as simple as just taking templates and sending it out to
10:33
organisations. Your auger would not hire you in
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the 1st place. Your auger will just create the
10:38
template himself or herself and send it to 1000 companies and
10:43
then problem solved. No need to have a salesperson.
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So yes, it is work to customize these things, but that is
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precisely what we get paid for. Now, you, the business owner,
10:56
just like this guy who's stepping in and running the
10:58
company, it's the same thing. It's a lot of work, but you
11:02
know, that's just life. We put in some hard work, we
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yield it yield some results. If it was that easy, because
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remember, he's stepping in to take over a family business.
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It was that easy. His father who was running the
11:17
business would have just been take printing template and
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sending it to 1000 companies and there'll be no need for the son
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to step into the family business because right now they'll be
11:28
billionaires if it was that easy.
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So yes, it's a lot of work. So be a big boy, be a big girl,
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do the work. It's one of the reasons why I
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don't like when I hear people saying work harder, not smarter.
11:41
Like, can we stop all that rubbish please?
11:44
It's both. You work hard and you work
11:48
smart. But my fear is that with the way
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the world is, especially for men, young boys, when you hear
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work smart, it usually leads to boys thinking in shortcut
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mentality and that doesn't help in business.
12:03
OK, so customize the document. Now the document starts off the
12:08
proposal that this guy is going to submit because that's, for
12:10
example, it starts off with a cover letter and you know,
12:14
that's good, that's good. So yeah, we all have a cover
12:19
letter. I won't go into any more detail
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with that. Then the thing was addressed to
12:24
the procurement manager and that was my first question.
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You addressed it to procurement manager.
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How do you know it should be addressed to or treated by the
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procurement manager? In the episode that I made
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before this one, I think maybe it was last week, I mentioned
12:40
about how it's a good idea to show face in the company 1st or
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call the company 1st and try and figure out who is responsible
12:48
for XYZ for whatever it is you sell.
12:52
Because for some companies it's different.
12:55
There's one of my clients that before we started, we assumed
13:01
that it was the business development manager we should be
13:03
calling upon. By the time I made one or two
13:06
phone calls, I said they say no, they gel, they say no, they
13:08
blend. So I changed the approach.
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I started asking who should I be talking to, who is responsible
13:13
for XYZ? And they say, oh, he actually is
13:17
the community manager. And then I started asking for
13:21
the community manager and I started getting better results.
13:25
So before you send your proposal, do not assume that The
13:29
thing is getting to the right place.
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Except if you know like it's your business.
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You've been doing this for 25 years, so you already know the
13:36
industry. You know the every every.
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In that case, no problem. But if you're coming in green,
13:43
you're coming in fresh, it won't hurt.
13:46
Pick up the phone and call. Try to find out who's
13:48
responsible for or walk into the office.
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The first person you meet will be the receptionist.
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Be polite, be a human being, be respectful, introduce yourself.
14:00
And then you ask who's the person responsible for that is
14:05
who, you know, who the proposal is supposed to be addressed to.
14:08
But yes, I think it makes sense that he sent it to the
14:11
procurement manager. But the reason why I'm asking,
14:14
you know, is it the right person is because somebody's business
14:16
also have a fleet manager. Sometimes it's the fleet manager
14:19
who's responsible for buying tires.
14:21
Sometimes there's a maintenance department who is responsible
14:24
for, you know, all these things. So it is not always procurement.
14:31
Procurement definitely is the department that at the end of
14:34
the day procurement we release the money.
14:37
So procurement is the one that will authorize the transaction
14:39
for the thing to heat your account.
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It doesn't necessarily mean that procurement is where the process
14:45
starts. So my brother, that's one thing
14:49
you need to check. Don't be just addressing the
14:52
whole thing to procurement manager, except if you know,
14:55
POPSY has been doing this for like 25 years and you know,
14:58
that's just the way Nigerian companies roll when it comes to
15:01
buying tires. They're OK.
15:03
Yeah, sure, no problem. But for this, your idea, you
15:06
know, go to one or two offices, be nice to the receptionist and
15:09
ask her who is responsible for, you know, I don't know how you
15:13
say it. Who's responsible for managing
15:16
trucks? I'll be who's responsible for
15:20
purchase replacements or whatever.
15:23
Well, she tells you. Yeah, that's a good place to
15:26
start. Then in the cover letter, they
15:30
spoke about strategic partnerships.
15:33
And I've said in the podcast in the past, but I guess I've not
15:36
said it too many times. So let me say it again today,
15:39
Please, in whatever document you sent to somebody, do not put
15:42
strategic partnership there at the SME level, at the small
15:47
level. I'm not talking at the big boy
15:48
level or the big girl level business.
15:51
Don't don't the businesses don't understand what strategic
15:53
partnership mean. It's just fancy grammar.
15:57
What people like in this part of the world is they like money or
15:59
they like customers. So if you're sending somebody a
16:02
proposal to say that, look, I can save you XYZ amount or I can
16:07
help you make XYZ amount or I can help you attract XYZ number
16:11
of customers, people understand that that is a value proposition
16:16
that business owners in the SME space in Nigeria understand very
16:20
well. If you go in and you're telling
16:22
somebody strategic partnership, they would just know this guy
16:27
his master's educated and this guy schooled abroad and you'll
16:32
be impressive, but you know, that's it.
16:35
So please at this SME level where we are now, when we become
16:40
Titans of industry, won't reach down, go to his level and here
16:44
we can start talking strategic partnership.
16:46
It's always like down what it says.
16:47
I have strategic partnership, people will listen, but we're
16:50
not there yet. So at this level, the value that
16:53
people understand is money or customers.
16:56
So if you're talking to somebody, you're either saving
16:58
their money or you're helping them make money or you're
17:02
helping them get customers. So start from there.
17:06
You can't go wrong. Then in the document, in the
17:12
cover letter, the the proposal also spoke about operational
17:16
efficiency and cost savings. Good.
17:19
Now you're making sense. The only thing I will just say
17:21
is in the proposal, yes, it's good to use big words like that,
17:26
operational efficiency, but you need to look for ways to make it
17:29
much more conversational to let the business know that.
17:33
Look, the reason why I'm reaching out to you today is
17:35
because by my XYZ product, I'm hoping to save you XYZ amount if
17:45
we get the chance to work together.
17:48
That's a much more given the Nigerian context, that is a much
17:52
more how I put it. Now let's say effective, it's a
17:58
better way of saying operational efficiency then cost savings.
18:02
OK, Yeah, that's OK. I think it's already I'll be
18:08
I'll be all joined. OK, let me just say it's the
18:10
same. When do you you get my point?
18:12
So all these big words, they're good.
18:13
We just look need to look for more conversational ways of
18:16
fleshing it out. So it's nice that the cover
18:19
letter hinted at that, that look, doing business with us,
18:23
you get more efficient, you'll be spending too much doing
18:27
business with us. We're going to be saving costs.
18:29
So that's good. Then the proposal also had a
18:34
brochure attached. OK, there's another one of those
18:37
words. I say brochure book, you know,
18:41
I'm Catholic now in the Catholic Church, you know, we say
18:43
brochure. So it had a brochure attached
18:47
was my Catholic brothers who say a brochure.
18:50
So the brochure was attached and that is good kind of.
18:56
But remember that you're reaching out to total strangers.
18:59
So a personalized proposal letter in the beginning is the
19:02
best. When they ask you for brochure,
19:06
then you can now submit brochure.
19:10
One thing you need to know about brochures is this.
19:12
When you submit a brochure, I'm being real with you here
19:15
yourself, you know because you've done it.
19:17
Brochures are schemed. Somebody will give you a nice
19:21
brochure for the business. They have spent money producing
19:24
this thing. It's nice and glossy.
19:26
You will just take it and just flip through and then you drop
19:30
it on your desk and then you forget and the thing better gets
19:34
looked at again. So it's nice to have all these
19:41
marketing collateral is good. We need it, we should make it.
19:45
But don't lead with the brochure.
19:47
Don't show up. Show that you're paying
19:53
attention to people. Show that you understand what
19:55
their problems are. Show that you have a sense of
19:57
how you can help them. Lead with all that.
19:59
First, your brochure or your brochure can come later.
20:06
Then there was an executive summary.
20:09
You know, it's OK, it's OK. It's also not bad.
20:13
You have to put your executive summary.
20:14
But the problem is that, you know, executive summary in this
20:17
case and talking about their years of experience.
20:19
And of course that is chest beating.
20:21
That's the problem in executive summary.
20:23
Executive summary just means you're, you're, you start off by
20:27
by boasting we're the greatest, we're the best, blah, blah,
20:29
blah, blah, blah, all these sorts of things.
20:32
But from the executive summary, I found out some interesting,
20:39
how I put it. There are some interesting UVP
20:43
buried inside the executive summary.
20:45
UVP is a unique value proposition.
20:47
The unique value proposition is the answer to the question, why
20:50
do people do business with me or why should people do business
20:54
with me? And so there was something there
20:56
that was buried in the executive summary, which I think should be
21:01
the vanguard, like the focus, the driving force of them going
21:06
out to reach for people in the executive summary in the
21:08
proposal they have here that their pricing average is on
21:13
average 10% below the competition.
21:18
I repeat, their pricing average is 10% below the competition.
21:23
And they can achieve that because they do bulk imports.
21:27
So the tire company is able to save 10% on costs on average
21:32
because they buy in bulk, import from Obodo IBU and they import.
21:39
Now that is not a small thing. Think about it.
21:44
In other words, what they're saying is if you have been
21:47
spending one M buying tires, doing business with us, expect
21:51
to spend 900K. Now that's not beans, especially
21:56
for people who own a fleet of trucks.
22:00
And of course, you can't buy tire one rather buy them two two
22:03
or you buy them, you know, 4466 you understand.
22:09
So 10% savings is huge. Then also in the executive
22:13
summary, they also had it there that they have helped some of
22:17
their clients achieve 20 to 30% reduction in tire related costs,
22:25
20 to 30% reduction in tire reserve costs or more.
22:28
That's huge. That is good.
22:31
Remember at the beginning of the podcast, I was telling you
22:35
people that this thing of strategic partnership, stop
22:38
talking strategic partnership at the SME level.
22:42
Nigerian businesses don't want to hear that what they know or
22:46
what they value is. If you do business with me, I
22:49
will help you save money or I will help you make money or I
22:54
will help you get customers. So speak in those terms.
22:58
Now buried here in the executive summary, can you see that this
23:01
is a sweet unique value proposition here?
23:05
This is sweet. Do business with us, spend on
23:10
average 10% less on buying the tire.
23:14
Do business with us when it comes to anything tire related,
23:18
we could be saving you anything between 20 to 30% in tire
23:22
related costs. Now in my own opinion.
23:25
Now this thing in the executive summary, especially if it is
23:28
true, and I think it is true because they've been in business
23:31
for over 15 years. So I think it is true.
23:35
This is a good problem statement to start the conversation, and
23:39
this is precisely the reason why I think somebody in this guy
23:42
situation should go in to start the conversation.
23:46
This thing is buried in executive summary.
23:49
People hardly read these things because everybody, you know, did
23:52
not see templates up and down. You cannot emphasize it because
23:57
it's buried in the document. But when you're talking to
23:59
somebody face to face, it is something that you can say it is
24:07
a good problem statement or a conversation opener.
24:11
You can go into the secretary's and say Madam, my name is
24:16
Chukuye Buka. Something, something, something.
24:19
I'm a so, so and so tyre company.
24:21
I hope I can do some business with your company.
24:23
I beg my Novak's please. Who is responsible for
24:27
maintaining the fleet, replacing the tyre?
24:29
Something, something, something. Oh, it's Boss Chukuna M.
24:33
OK. Can I book an appointment with
24:34
him? Chukuna M is not around.
24:36
It's not on seats. And he traveled to the village.
24:38
He'll be back next week Wednesday.
24:40
OK. Next week Wednesday.
24:40
So can I come back next week Wednesday?
24:42
And I won't promise you, Sir, but he can come and say our
24:45
sister Beg. Let me get your phone number.
24:48
You say? Why?
24:49
No, No. I just want to No, nobody say
24:51
anything. I just want to call you just to
24:53
find out. When Boss Chukuna M is around,
24:57
she won't give you her personal number because she thinks you
24:59
know, you're a young man. You look shifty, and she's
25:02
happily married, so she'll give you the organization's number.
25:05
So, Sister Novak, I beg your name, please.
25:07
So when I call, like I ask for you by name.
25:10
So my name is Patricia. OK.
25:11
No problem, man. I'm Patricia.
25:13
So since Boss is coming back on Wednesday, I bet Novak I'll call
25:17
you on Tuesday. My name is Chukudi.
25:19
It's OK, Chukudi. No problem.
25:21
That's it. You leave then.
25:23
You know, Boss, on Tuesday you say how far the weather, you
25:27
know, if you could you know who came last week.
25:28
Oh, hey, I remember, blah, blah, blah, how it's working, how this
25:31
disease that that how family. Then you move straight to the
25:34
point. You know, bro stricken AM Is he
25:36
going to be back tomorrow? Oh, yes, he is.
25:38
I beg, please, I don't mind. Oh, I would like book
25:41
appointment. Let me just see the guy.
25:43
So anyhow, anyhow, sure, eventually you get to sit down
25:47
with bro stricken AM instead of dropping broke your instead of
25:53
dropping template proposal. If you start off the
25:56
conversation by saying good morning, Sir, thank you very
25:59
much for your time. I know you're a busy man, so I'm
26:01
not going to waste your time. The reason why I'm here
26:03
basically is this we're from so so and so company.
26:06
We've been doing business for 15 years.
26:08
And for all the clients that we've been working with all of
26:11
them, we've been able to save them 10% on the cost of buying
26:16
tires. And I looked at your trucks
26:18
outside, Sir, I recognize those models.
26:20
That is the MDZMDZ. So, so and so on average, we
26:24
know that the competition spends 1.2 per tire.
26:28
So if you're managing your whole fleet and going through us, we
26:35
can be saving 120K per tire on every single thing that you have
26:40
there on that fleet. So Sir, does that sound
26:42
interesting to you or do you want to see how we can help us,
26:46
how we can help you achieve that level of cost savings in your
26:48
business? Bam, you give it like that
26:51
opening statement, who is not going to be impressed or curious
26:58
that for the fleet that I have in the back by 10 trucks each
27:04
tire I've been buying 1.2 M you're now coming and saying
27:07
that you can help me save 120K per tire.
27:12
Who will not be interested Or you start off the conversation
27:17
by saying you know, of course the whole preamble, you know,
27:20
brochure couldn't. I am.
27:20
Thank you very much for your time.
27:21
I know you're a busy guy. Let me get straight to the
27:23
point. This is who we are.
27:24
This is what we do 25 years experience on average we've been
27:28
saving our customers 20 to 30% reduction in tire related costs.
27:34
Would you like to see how we can do that for your business?
27:40
Now, I'm not saying that if you come in with that approach, you
27:42
will close every single deal, but you will get somebody's, you
27:49
will get lots of people's attention that way.
27:50
Some people say 20% how you say you say, Sir, this one nobody
27:56
say. It's not as if I'm boasting,
27:57
Sir. We've been doing a study for our
28:00
clients. All we have to do is let me just
28:04
go back with you. Now let's look at your trucks.
28:07
Let me see the model. Let me gauge the tire.
28:09
Let me see the everything you know, let's discuss just level
28:13
will be how much have you been spending on this, on this, on
28:16
that, on that, on that. Let me look at things right now.
28:20
In fact, the thing wouldn't even take time.
28:22
Pop C is in head office now as we finish this meeting and go
28:25
back to your office, I'll call Pop C1 time and we can let you
28:28
know how much we can save you if you start being if you start
28:32
doing business with us today. So bro, in this executive
28:40
summary, this thing that you have there, especially if it is
28:43
true and over the last 1520 years, This is why people have
28:47
been helping people. One more, OK, that is a key
28:51
something the key conversation starter that you used to be
28:55
starting conversation with people.
28:57
I really think you should enter and be starting conversation
29:01
with people first. After that conversation, you
29:05
will now send proposal because before everything you spoke was
29:09
mouth, mouth, mouth. So proposal is now you're
29:13
putting it down on paper. The proposal will now be this
29:17
company proposal for that company, you know, priority
29:21
discussion that we had on so, so, so date and the need
29:25
assessment, the assessment we did on so, so, so and so, you
29:28
know, is it prior to following from those discussions?
29:33
This is our proposal and this is how much we should be able to
29:37
how much in savings we should be able to help you guys achieve
29:40
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
29:43
Yeah, provided we can get a three-year contract from you
29:46
guys, you know, something like that.
29:49
You see the proposal will now be formality that you're doing
29:52
after the fact to now wrap up the whole thing because you had
29:58
a meeting, you gauged that they were interested.
30:01
And then you're you, you, your unique value proposition.
30:04
You put it out there, bam, are you interested?
30:07
And it looks like they're interested.
30:09
By the way, you now see how you will all seat somebody in this
30:13
situation. If what you're saying is true,
30:17
that you're saving people 10% on average per tire.
30:22
And then when you join all the cost, everything combined tire
30:25
related, you're saving people 20 to 30%.
30:28
See the truth of the matter is this.
30:29
Even if you don't help somebody save 20%, you said 20 to 30% by
30:33
the end of the day, you help them save 15.5 is still
30:36
impressive. Trust me, still impressive
30:42
anyway. So bro, in your executive
30:44
summary, you have gold buried in there.
30:46
Remove it from the executive summary.
30:49
Let that be part of a conversation starter that you're
30:53
having with somebody face to face, provided you're talking
30:56
with the right person. Then there was a company
31:01
overview in the document. You know you have to pull
31:04
company overview, but don't stress it because you're talking
31:07
about yourself and talking about yourself honestly is not the way
31:13
forward. I'm the greatest, I'm the best,
31:17
I'm the brightest. This is how we started the
31:18
company. Black me, me, me, me, me, me,
31:20
me. That's not the best.
31:21
You'll be focused on your customer.
31:23
Them, them, them, them, them. Then there was also a vision
31:28
statement there. Well, you know you have to put
31:30
vision statement, but then again, don't stress about this
31:33
thing because to be honest, nobody cares about your vision
31:35
statement. I can assure you.
31:37
If you drop your proposal with 100 contacts, I can assure you
31:41
98 of them will not read your vision statement.
31:49
There was also a mission statement, I can assure you,
31:51
nobody cares about your mission statement.
31:53
Then there was also stuff there about your core values.
31:56
I can assure you nobody cares about your core values.
32:00
So some of these things are just taking up space then.
32:07
I'm sorry, hold on. Let me check my notes because as
32:09
I was reading the proposal, I was making some notes.
32:12
I'm just free starting on the things here.
32:17
Then there's a section in the proposal that was portfolio
32:19
products ahead. That is good because there they
32:22
had different categories and different key products and
32:24
different specs. You know, tractor tyre, this
32:27
tyre, that tyre, this millimetre, this gross gross
32:31
tonnage, gross metric ton, gross, all those things.
32:34
No problem. Now those ones, that part of the
32:37
document, they will read it because it makes sense to them
32:45
which tyre, which metric ton, from which country, from which
32:48
spec, how many millimetre, how many thread, they'll read that
32:53
one. It's important to them.
32:55
People actually care about that instead of putting portfolio
33:00
product in the back. This is actually stuff that you
33:02
should move early on to the proposal so that people will see
33:06
quick, quick. Then the section on pricing and
33:11
delivery, of course they didn't put any number there, you know,
33:13
which is smart. You should not put pricing
33:16
number down until you have done qualification and discovery,
33:20
until you have had a conversation with them about the
33:22
company, what they do, you know, stuff like that.
33:26
They're interested, especially since your unique value
33:29
proposition is saving 10% on the cost of each tire and then the
33:34
total cost of everything combined saving 20 to 30%.
33:37
You actually need to run some comps with them, run some
33:42
comparisons with them. How much are you spending on
33:44
this? How much are you spending on
33:45
that? OK, going through US, this one,
33:48
this one, this one, we could serve, we could be saving you X
33:51
amount if you go with option AX amount, if you go option BX
33:55
amount if you go with option C. It is then that you now put
34:00
something down on paper in a proposal after you have had the
34:04
conversation mouth to mouth, face to face or phone to phone
34:09
so that the proposal is just a summary.
34:11
It's just, it's just a formality for me.
34:14
Honestly, that's how I prefer to do business.
34:16
I, I personally never leave with the proposal.
34:19
We have the conversation 1st and it looks like we're making sense
34:23
and we're going to work together, right?
34:25
No problem. Let me send you a proposal.
34:26
So you have things in record on black and white so you can refer
34:29
to. So where was I?
34:35
Pricing and delivery? Yeah.
34:41
So that's it. It's good that they didn't put
34:44
price there, but then they say after vendor registration, you
34:47
know, when you put things like this.
34:49
So this is also after vendor registration.
34:51
It looks kind of sneaky, you know, like I will show you my
34:55
own until you show me your own first, you know, somehow.
34:58
So don't play those games with people.
34:59
So in this case, it should be a straightforward conversation.
35:01
Just like I said, we've been able to save our clients on
35:05
average 20 to 30% in operational costs and we're sure that we
35:08
should be able to do the rest by you as well.
35:10
So let's just have a conversation.
35:14
Let's go Outback, let's look at the trucks.
35:15
Let me give you a sense of how much it is that we can save.
35:20
OK, very cool. So this is the pricing that we
35:22
can promise you. But in exchange you will give us
35:25
three years contractor and the person who say 3 year contract,
35:30
how you say our boss now you sell check out now while giving
35:33
you 10% in savings. You can't just buy from us once
35:39
and then just expose like that. Now.
35:41
Come on now, you know, saying our family business, you know,
35:45
Popsy is in the head office. I can't go back and say that,
35:48
you know, you only bought 2 tires.
35:50
See bro, this is a sweet deal. Trust me, this will pay you.
35:55
Check the numbers. So you give us a three-year
35:59
contract. OK, well maybe you should ask
36:00
for a five year contract then you guys, you know, jump back
36:03
and forth and then you settle on, you know, a two year
36:05
contract or something, you know, but that's how you do it.
36:08
Not this, you know, show me yours, I show you mine kind of
36:11
thing, you know, payment and delivery after vendor
36:14
registration, this Niger people will not want to register as
36:20
vendor first and then now find out, oh this is the price and
36:23
they say no, don't want to back out.
36:26
So let's see what else? What else, what else, what else?
36:33
And then they also put value proposition of the company
36:36
there. Nobody cares about that except
36:42
if you're talking about causing value proposition that they were
36:46
talking about. What did they talk about again?
36:48
Is it professionalism and you know, stuff, stuff, stuff, you
36:51
know, some of this fluffy stuff. Honestly, you can just take this
36:53
out of your proposal. Then there's also a part where
36:57
in the proposal they said that compliance and supporting
37:00
documents available on requests and well, OK, that's not bad.
37:04
But The thing is, how about this should be another part where you
37:08
make this thing conversational, Have a conversation with the
37:10
person. When it looks like you are
37:12
making progress, you will now ask the fleet manager or ask a
37:15
procurement manager or ask whoever it is.
37:18
So OK, cool. If I'm going to take the next
37:21
step, then I need to know what documents you need for internal
37:25
compliance. The guy will say, what do you
37:28
mean? You say, you know, I work with
37:29
some people. There's some people that say
37:32
procurement cannot pay to anybody unless we have CAC
37:36
registration on file and we have what's this thing called TIN tax
37:42
identification number CAC and teen and something and anti
37:47
money, anti money Abby AM V AM something, something I can't
37:53
remember anti money, anti anti money laundering something,
37:56
something. So there's some businesses or
37:59
there's some companies that that is just the those are just their
38:04
protocols that before they buy with you, you must submit all of
38:07
those clearance. Anti money laundering submits
38:10
the paper. Tax identification, submit the
38:12
paper. Corporate Affairs Commission,
38:15
submit the paper. Now for those of us who used to
38:21
do charcoal, charcoal exports, Ministry of Agriculture was the
38:26
Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Trade, I can't
38:28
remember anyway, but there were some clearances that we needed a
38:31
Ministry of Environment. You must submit all the papers.
38:34
So ask them, they will now tell you this is what we need for
38:38
compliance, internal compliance. You say, oh sure, no problem.
38:42
If that's what you need, I can make those documents available.
38:47
Then when you're submitting the proposal in that section,
38:49
instead of saying compliance and support available on request,
38:53
you also put it there as per our conversation on so, so, so and
38:56
so date. We will be supplying the follow
38:59
documents as part of your internal compliance, CAC
39:03
registration, blah, blah, anti money laundering something tax
39:08
identification. You just list everything down
39:10
there. And then the proposal is more of
39:14
a formality. As we've spoken, the main, the
39:16
main proposal is just let me put this thing down in writing so
39:22
that everybody can see what we've agreed.
39:25
Then there was a section on references and testimonials, you
39:28
know, available on request, you know, as usual.
39:30
But, you know, like I said, instead of asking that, how
39:33
about when you're having those meetings?
39:35
You ask when it looks like you're making progress now.
39:39
Yeah, I've made lots of claims so far, and I can understand if
39:42
you're skeptical, like, you're worried, like, can I really meet
39:45
these claims? I'll be willing to share some
39:47
phone numbers with you from our previous customers that we've
39:51
worked with in construction. OK, yeah.
39:54
Because for in this document actually they put one company
39:57
that was construction and I think they put one company that
39:59
was catering. Was it catering or something?
40:01
And I was, I was just wondering, you know, catering by the way,
40:07
you would tell them we have wide variety of clients who work with
40:11
people from construction all the way to catering.
40:13
So I'm willing to give you 2 or 3 numbers so we can call people
40:17
and verify our claims. So would you like that?
40:20
Yes. What kind of industries did you
40:22
prefer? Yes.
40:24
Or are you familiar with social company?
40:26
Well, yes, I know them now. We've seen their work.
40:29
We've seen this is. Yeah, we did some work for
40:33
Odugu. So, so and so they have his
40:35
number. You can call him directly.
40:37
Really. Yeah, sure.
40:37
I can give you the phone number. And then of course, in the
40:42
proposal that you're sending, it will be like that.
40:45
Now references and testimonials as per our conversation on so,
40:48
so, so and so, here are the numbers for so, so, so who can
40:55
verify our claims on saving 20 to 30%, you know, blah, blah,
40:59
blah. So let's see, OK, they also
41:07
claim that they had somebody who didn't have 0 breakdowns for six
41:11
months. OK, I think that's impressive.
41:13
But anyway, let me just move on. You know, when you're looking at
41:17
documents like this, there are plenty of things that you can
41:19
comment on. And then plus I've already been
41:22
this episode is already over 40 minutes.
41:24
Let me just bring this to a close, but basically my brother
41:30
summaries. I love as you're stepping in and
41:34
so pop ups you on this thing and with the level of household that
41:38
you're bringing to this thing, I know that you guys go far.
41:41
My honest recommendation, don't just print out documents and
41:45
then go to office and then be dropping.
41:47
Drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. If it's like that you can drop
41:50
proposals. I mean is it not proposal print
41:52
and drop? You can print and drop 100
41:57
dropping 100 companies in Lagos in one month.
42:00
It can be done. You can rough it and be shy be
42:05
dropping like 25 proposals, OK, no, Lagos is plenty of traffic,
42:10
OK, maybe 100 proposals, maybe that will take you two months.
42:14
But The thing is, it can be done.
42:15
But this is not just about dropping documents.
42:18
It's about making sure that documents are read.
42:20
It's about making sure that the documents are effective.
42:23
It's about making sure that people take action on the
42:25
documents. So my recommendation, go in, try
42:32
and identify who the right person, the right person to talk
42:35
to is. When you're sitting in front of
42:37
that person, start with a problem statement or going with
42:40
your UVP summaries. Thank you very much Sir for your
42:45
time. I know you're a busy person.
42:47
So let me just go straight to the point.
42:48
Me and Popsy been doing this also 25 years and so far on
42:55
average we've been saving our people 10% off of tire costs or
43:01
between 20 to 30% on anything that is tire related.
43:07
Then don't just leave things on the on the theoretical level
43:15
when you are going into the office, let's say you saw some
43:17
of the trucks parked outside, you know the models and you know
43:20
the tire that they buy, just use as an example.
43:23
So for instance that MAN truck that you have outside there and
43:29
recognize those tires. We will have something similar.
43:32
That is the XYZ 5000. On average people are buying one
43:37
in the market, 560K with us, you'll be taking about 60 K off
43:43
of each individual tire. And Sir, look at it, that truck
43:46
plus the tractor bed, all of them is 12 tires.
43:49
If we're saving 60K off of 1 tire and it's 12 tires, that
43:55
should be a total of blah blah blah blah blah.
43:57
So Sir, would you be interested in seeing how we can help your
44:03
company achieve these kind of savings?
44:07
By the way, remember Bros, that's provided what you're
44:10
saying is true. Give it to the guys straight
44:12
like that. You will not end up doing
44:15
business with everybody. But I can assure you some people
44:17
will be interested and say really, you can save me.
44:21
So, so, so and so. I don't believe it.
44:24
And then the rest of the conversation is look, Sir, I do
44:27
this for a living is a very straightforward something.
44:29
Let's just go out back. Let me see your trucks.
44:32
Popsy's in the office now. I can call him on the phone.
44:35
We can do this thing shop shop. I can tell you per each truck
44:40
how much will be saving you if you're willing to go for a two
44:44
year commitment with us. In fact, after we finish this
44:49
meeting, because remember, we should be securing advancements
44:53
after we finish this meeting and me and Popsy show you the we
44:59
show you the figures. I can be back here again next
45:02
week Wednesday to drop a hard copy on your desk.
45:06
And then you know, the next day you can come over to warehouse,
45:11
come and see all the tires live and direct.
45:13
Come and see what we have. Nobody say I'm just using mouth.
45:19
See what you're trying to secure advancements.
45:23
So we've had this meeting. Now the next step is I come and
45:26
drop proposal so you can show to the board while you're trying to
45:30
run the thing with the board. How about you now come to the
45:32
warehouse, come and see what we have.
45:35
So you don't know your business. So I'm not sure how you're
45:37
supposed to lay out the whole thing.
45:39
But just remember at every stage be securing advancements,
45:44
advancements. What is the next step?
45:45
What is the next step? Don't let any conversation end
45:49
with and we go young or I'll be in touch or this is impressive
45:56
or nice one. Don't let any conversation end
45:59
on that note. Then one more practical thing
46:05
for your proposal, you spent a lot of time talking about your
46:08
company in the proposal, my brother.
46:10
It's not necessary. Spend more time talking about
46:13
the other person's company. How you do that?
46:16
It's very easy. We have AI tools on our phone.
46:19
I'm assuming you're an Android user, just like I'm an Android
46:22
user. There's something from Google
46:24
that is called Notebook LM. Notebook NOTE and then book Bo
46:29
OK, and then LM capital letters, everything written together as
46:33
one word. Notebook LM download it.
46:37
When you download Notebook LM on your phone, you now take the the
46:42
link, the website link of the company that you want to send
46:45
the proposal to. Copy it and put in Notebook LM.
46:48
Now you will now be able to ask Notebook LM some questions about
46:51
the company you ask Notebook LM. Say, dear Notebook LM, tell me
46:57
what this company is about. Tell me what products they do.
47:00
Tell me what is there that tell me what are the kind of things
47:04
that the company might want to do about this one.
47:06
Like you can ask it any kind of question, provided the answer is
47:09
on that website. Notebook LM will crawl the
47:12
website and give you the information that you need that
47:14
you can now use to personalize your proposal.
47:18
This is part of what I mean when I say that these tools are here
47:23
and people are debating about job loss and debating about this
47:26
dot dot dot. Don't join them in all these
47:28
debates. We can use these things to make
47:30
our business the better. While they are debating about
47:34
whether AI is good or not, be using it to grow your business,
47:38
especially while these things are free.
47:40
Because my fear is this, that Google is letting us have it for
47:44
free for now. Don't be surprised if in the
47:46
next five years or 10 years, do not start charging us for this
47:49
thing that if you want access to no Book LM, you go and pay them
47:52
20K per month or something. So while this thing is free bro,
47:56
you should be using this thing now.
47:59
My brothers and sisters be using these things.
48:02
Go and learn about these tools. No Book LM is on my phone.
48:06
I use it every day. In fact, the name of the podcast
48:12
episode that I'm going to use when I upload this podcast, it
48:17
is Notebook LM that I'm going to use to derive the title for this
48:20
podcast. I use Notebook LM every single
48:23
day. Use these tools.
48:27
Use them. So I guess the biggest summary,
48:31
what I'm trying to say is proposals have to be tailored #1
48:36
and then proposals are not about you, the sender.
48:39
It should be about the customer. I think we can imbibe those two
48:42
main things. I think you should be good.
48:44
I think you should be OK. So that's it and that's all.
48:47
Thank you very much for listening for, you know, 15
48:49
minutes. Remember, if you'd love to
48:52
connect, you have a question, a comment or a query, then hit me
48:56
up. My name is Tavi Shima IED.
48:57
I'm the host of the podcast. The number that you can call,
49:00
send a text message or WhatsApp message to is 08064662140.
49:10
Thanks for your time and attention.
49:11
I'll catch you later. Oh, and by the way, the other
49:13
more interesting episodes over 1200 episodes.
49:17
So just keep listening, keep applying.
49:19
I'll catch you guys some other time.