Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Missing Piece of Your Sales Pitch (And How to Find It)

Transcript

The Missing Piece of Your Sales Pitch (And How to Find It) · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Aidi.
• 0:04
  I'm the host of the podcast Making today's recording at
• 0:06
  Home. So expect to hear some noise in
• 0:08
  the background. Now, the goal of the podcast is
• 0:11
  solving business problems. Problems like how to get new
• 0:13
  customers, what to do when your marketing isn't working, how to
• 0:16
  beef up your side hustle or to figure out what is holding your
• 0:19
  business back. So if you have any of these
• 0:22
  kinds of problems, this is the show for you.
• 0:25
  So subscribe on Spotify to YouTube, Apple, or any player of
• 0:28
  your choice. And if you'd love to connect,
• 0:30
  then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 0:38
  Today on the podcast, this is going to be another diary
• 0:40
  session where we discussed a few things with implications on how
• 0:46
  we use band that is BANT and Spin SPIN.
• 0:51
  Both of them are qualification frameworks, qualification and
• 0:54
  discovery frameworks. Now, if this is your first time
• 0:57
  listening to the podcast, that sounds like some very big
• 0:59
  English. But what this just means
• 1:01
  basically is this. When you're having conversations
• 1:04
  with someone who is a potential customer or a potential client,
• 1:08
  the flow of the conversation is you're trying to be asking
• 1:11
  questions so that you can discover who this person is and
• 1:14
  discover what problems that they solve, what problems that they
• 1:16
  need. It is only then that you can
• 1:19
  make a convincing argument or a convincing sales pitch to say,
• 1:23
  buy my product or my service because it will help you to
• 1:25
  solve this problem. So it is a tool.
• 1:29
  It's a simple framework that professional sellers use just to
• 1:33
  manage the conversation. So whether in your head you cram
• 1:37
  the framework, most of them are acronyms like spin, SPIN and
• 1:42
  BANT. BANT.
• 1:43
  So you have that crammed the framework or you write it out on
• 1:45
  a sheet of paper. Now I'm in favour of writing
• 1:48
  everything else on the sheet of paper in the beginning because
• 1:53
  you have to use frameworks once you know, time after time after
• 1:58
  time before the thing becomes ingrained in you.
• 2:04
  So I'm not, I wouldn't recommend you try and cram it first.
• 2:08
  Just try and write it down first, try and apply it
• 2:10
  overtime. Then the things become
• 2:11
  internalized. Now, this your first time
• 2:13
  listening to the podcast, Don't worry, it looks like lots of
• 2:17
  you. When you find the podcast, you
• 2:18
  start binging and going backwards.
• 2:20
  So as you binge and go backwards, you'll find all those
• 2:22
  other episodes where I spoke about the qualification
• 2:26
  frameworks. But let me just give a little
• 2:31
  explanation of what of what those acronyms mean.
• 2:35
  So spin is SPIN. You ask questions about the
• 2:39
  general situation, you ask questions about the problem that
• 2:42
  the potential customer is facing, ask questions about the
• 2:45
  implications of, you know, whether they solve that problem
• 2:48
  or not. And then you ask them questions
• 2:51
  about the need payoff. That's like the benefit what
• 2:53
  they will achieve if we go ahead.
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  And in fact, the first case study that we're going to look
• 2:58
  at ties into that. So like I said, this is a diary
• 3:01
  session. So as my usual people, my 3
• 3:02
  Musketeers, Rudolf Shell and Elsie, one of these meetings
• 3:06
  that we had a while ago, this was I'll be like 2 weeks back.
• 3:10
  So so as usual I'm just looking at my notes so I may have
• 3:14
  forgotten some of the details then let's see.
• 3:20
  OK so First off was Rudolph and then where are we?
• 3:25
  So Rudolph was talking to someone who is based in Hemo
• 3:27
  state and this guy wanted to hook up his house in the village
• 3:35
  and they discussed numbers and was looking like everything was
• 3:39
  going towards like 13 M. But then this person was
• 3:42
  peculiar about, but really particular about the lifestyle
• 3:45
  lifespan of the batteries, because the guy was ready to
• 3:48
  hook up the house in the village before and he used tubular
• 3:50
  batteries. Now tubular batteries is kind of
• 3:52
  old technology is a better batteries that looks like looks
• 3:56
  like a standing tower. I mean, for those of us who are
• 3:58
  familiar with old school computers, the CPU, that's what
• 4:02
  a, a, a tubular battery looks like.
• 4:06
  But then these newer batteries, what are they called now?
• 4:10
  Lithium maybe is it lithium batteries?
• 4:12
  So these no one lithium batteries, you know, they're
• 4:14
  sleek, they look sexy, they look sci-fi.
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  So that's what people who have serious bar, that's what they
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  use nowadays. So the guy said that you already
• 4:23
  had tubular batteries before and the things went bad and Rudolph
• 4:27
  mentioned to him that and the reason why they were bad is like
• 4:31
  any piece of equipment, you can't just buy something, no
• 4:33
  matter how correct and just leave it like that, follow and
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  the thing will spoil. So the problem is this is
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  Village House. They want to spend all this
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  money on these things. But then the thing will I follow
• 4:44
  for 11 months, you will now come and live in the place one month
• 4:47
  and then cut out again. So he mentioned that this is the
• 4:51
  kind of thing that makes some things rundown.
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  But The thing is Rudolph being he didn't press on that matter.
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  The conversation continued. So after the conversation was
• 5:01
  done, I told Rudolph that, you know, I'm glad you were able to
• 5:04
  educate this guy. That is not as if the one he
• 5:07
  bought before was bad. It's just that you buy this
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  thing and just pack it in the house, 11 months you come back,
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  use it, one month you cut out. Of course, this seems to just
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  die because nothing that happened at all.
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  You're not using it. The example that Rudolph gave
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  was if you buy I think Bruce, like Range Rover and if you buy
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  Range Rover and just keep in the village, even if somebody's
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  coming to warm it once in a week, but the person is not
• 5:30
  driving it. You know, know how know how tire
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  go less and you know, small, small problems here and there,
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  you know, because it's a correct car, but you just pack it in the
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  village, it's not going anywhere.
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  So problem. And so I told Rudolph that, you
• 5:48
  know, it's nice to close every kind of sale, but The thing is
• 5:52
  there's some customers that will really have to dig into.
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  So this is where implication and need payoff comes in with some
• 5:59
  customers, some potential customers they are chatting
• 6:01
  with. Excuse me, you really have you
• 6:04
  really need to have those hard conversations about the
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  implications and the and the need pay off like you know, Sir,
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  you know, respect for you. 13 M is quite a bit of change if we
• 6:17
  go ahead and there's no plan for these things to be charged and
• 6:23
  discharged because you know, you suppose charge the battery and
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  then discharge it again, just like with our phones.
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  So if there's no plan for these things to be charged and
• 6:30
  discharged regularly, these are the kinds of problems that are
• 6:34
  going to happen. So given the setup in the
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  village or maybe in the family, like is there any plan for this?
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  You know, because you need to have these, you need to have
• 6:47
  these conversations. And if we go ahead and we do
• 6:50
  this, you know, the result is that you're going to be able to
• 6:52
  have uninterrupted power for one month in the year.
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  But The thing is, since you are rarely there and there's the
• 7:03
  possibility that, you know, things might break down if
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  they're not being used, you know, is it, is it worth the
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  cost? Is it worth the hassle?
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  It's a conversation that you need to have so that when a
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  customer with their own money goes ahead and pays this thing,
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  they can't say tomorrow that you did not tell them.
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  When you explain it the first time, most people just, you
• 7:28
  know, do we hear and don't understand?
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  But it's not as if the thing has sunk in.
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  So you need to be having implication and E payoff
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  conversations. Is this worth this, Sir?
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  We will discuss truly, truly, is it worth this for this small
• 7:41
  benefit? What is the benefits you're
• 7:43
  actually going to gain out of these things?
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  If we go ahead and we do this thing?
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  What are the possible arrangements that you know could
• 7:50
  be done to make sure that this thing is maintained properly?
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  Implication and need payoff. You need to dig in, dig in, dig
• 7:57
  in so that people will understand.
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  So if they understand and they say, let me go ahead, they're
• 8:05
  going ahead with their own food chest.
• 8:07
  You, you've been absolved of responsibility.
• 8:09
  So all these things, all these fancy frameworks, I know it
• 8:13
  sounds like plenty, plenty, plenty, but they serve a
• 8:15
  purpose. So if you're somebody who likes
• 8:20
  spin, if you listen to the episode about spin, I think the
• 8:24
  last two episodes I did about spin, I had that in the title.
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  So just go back, look at the title and if you see spin there,
• 8:31
  then listen to it. If you like the spin framework,
• 8:34
  then these are some of the things that I want you guys to
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  bear in mind. Don't forget the implication and
• 8:39
  E payoff questions because lots of people focus on situation and
• 8:42
  problem. Situation and problem is, you
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  know what you ask basically like what's going on?
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  Like what's going like, what's the plan?
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  You know, all those sorts of things.
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  OK, like back to my wedding photography days.
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  Now situation questions are the questions that any photographer
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  would act like ask like, oh, congratulations, you're getting
• 8:57
  married. When is the wedding date?
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  OK, where's the hall? What are the colors for the day?
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  OK, what about mumsy and popsy? They're going to be their
• 9:05
  grandparents. OK, who was the bridal train?
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  Like, you know, a photographer is asking all these questions
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  because in their mind you're trying to plan one or two
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  things. OK, since the parents are alive
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  and coming, we'll do family portrait.
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  OK, Brad, I'll train is 20 girls and then the on the boys side is
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  like 12 boys. So your head you now start
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  mapping out some current things. OK, how are we going to arrange
• 9:28
  this photo? Where's the venue?
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  If you're familiar with the venue, you now start planning
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  some things in your mind. Which hotel you now that's how
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  you now start seeing things in your mind.
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  Like OK, on the wedding day, we'll shoot this one here.
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  We'll shoot that one there. See those are situation and
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  problem questions. Just basic like what's up?
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  What's going on? What are we planning?
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  Where are we heading to? You know, was your idea?
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  So implication I need payoff. They go deeper and deeper and
• 9:53
  deeper into this whole problem thing just to make sure that we
• 9:59
  know what we're heading into. This is the problem that we're
• 10:01
  solving. This is what we hope to get out
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  of it, you know, and these are the implications for whether we
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  succeed or whether we don't succeed.
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  So implication, I need payoff. Very, very important.
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  So that's on spin. Then another one that we have
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  discussed recently on the podcast is banned.
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  Now. Banned is a qualification
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  framework where you're talking about budget, authority, need
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  and timelines. Now budget just means you ask
• 10:26
  questions about money. This is where lots of Nigerian
• 10:29
  business people air for you don't really have the
• 10:31
  conversation about money. You say the price, you leave it
• 10:34
  there, but you don't really dig in.
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  And then people start ghosting you and you know, you're
• 10:38
  wondering and you know, you start doubting, you know, but we
• 10:42
  need to have frank conversations about budget, about the price
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  authorities, about decision making.
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  You want to be sure that you're talking to the right person, the
• 10:50
  person who can authorize the sale.
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  Because if you're talking to somebody who can't authorize the
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  sale, you are wasting your time, surely wasting your time.
• 10:59
  Like before moving to my new house, I went to Austin Austin's
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  by cutting guy and I discussed one thing with him and Austin
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  said, Are you sure? And I said, well, I think so
• 11:10
  that yes, we're going like this. Boston is a sharp guy.
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  Austin realized that at least in in some marriages that the
• 11:18
  husband cannot come and tell you the color of the curtain.
• 11:20
  So Austin didn't take what I said to heart.
• 11:23
  He waited, he gave me all the different costume, but he waited
• 11:26
  until I came with my wife and then he now asked my wife and lo
• 11:29
  and behold, we have curtains that my wife selected contrary
• 11:34
  to what me I would have wanted, you know.
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  But you know what they say now they say is the woman that owns
• 11:39
  the house, That's what they say. So anyway, we have the curtains
• 11:42
  that my wife selected, not me. So because Austin was smart,
• 11:45
  Austin knows authority. That is not about who is paying.
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  Austin knows that when it comes to cutting, it's not the husband
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  that will come and give the instruction.
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  The transfer might come from the husband's account, but the final
• 12:00
  instruction is what the wife says.
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  So Austin knows his thing. He knows authority.
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  So all those things I was telling him, he was writing it
• 12:06
  down, but I could see he was not taking me seriously.
• 12:09
  And that's the reason why, because he knew that at the end
• 12:12
  of the day, last last is what the wife is, what the wife
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  wants. That will happen when it comes
• 12:16
  to cutting bedsheets, you know, all these sorts of things.
• 12:20
  So authority, you need to be this.
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  Make sure discussing to the person who is going to be able
• 12:24
  to authorize the transaction and then like back to my wedding
• 12:28
  photography days, only to partner with one guy who used to
• 12:30
  do drinks. And the guy said we can't
• 12:32
  partner together. I said, why, you're a vendor.
• 12:34
  I'm a vendor, we can't partner. He said, no, that you you're a
• 12:37
  photographer. The people that pay your money
• 12:39
  is usually the bride. I said, so who pays for who pays
• 12:43
  for the drinks? He said no, that the bride does
• 12:45
  not pay for drinks is the groom When he said the thing clicked
• 12:48
  and like, Oh yeah, it's true. It's true photography and video,
• 12:52
  yes, The girl wants to make sure that everything is captured on
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  fleek, on points on everything. When it comes to the drinks,
• 12:58
  Shallow, of course, is the boy and his guys now.
• 13:01
  They're the ones that will run that whole affair.
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  So it might be the same thing wedding, but me as a wedding
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  photographer, a authority my eye is trooped squarely on the bride
• 13:16
  because that's who is going to pay me then for drinks, not my
• 13:20
  other guy authority. His eyes took squarely on the
• 13:24
  groom because those are the people that are going to pay
• 13:26
  him. So authority very important.
• 13:28
  Who's going to authorize this transaction?
• 13:30
  Then of course need what do they want?
• 13:32
  And then timelines. How soon is this going down?
• 13:37
  So Cheryl had a conversation with someone.
• 13:39
  The person said the budget was 3 to 5:00 AM.
• 13:42
  And then Shell, just to add around a rough figure like, OK,
• 13:46
  based on what we discussed, it could be like 4.7.
• 13:48
  But you know, Sharon didn't talk much about that.
• 13:52
  And then later on now submit a proposal and then the guys say,
• 13:55
  oh, well, you know, I have two or three other offers.
• 13:57
  Let me think about it and get back to you.
• 14:00
  So these are the kind of things that happen when we don't
• 14:02
  qualify hard on budget. You know, we need to ask if you
• 14:05
  tell somebody that look, this might be like 4.7, he asked the
• 14:09
  person 4.7. Is this a figure that you're
• 14:11
  comfortable moving on with? Because the guy said he wants to
• 14:16
  round up. The guy said he wants to round
• 14:18
  up by end of the month. So he needs to ask.
• 14:21
  OK, Sir, based on what you said before, I put pencil to paper
• 14:23
  and give you final proposal. What we're looking at is 4.7.
• 14:27
  So is this with this amount, especially since he's within
• 14:30
  this bracket, 3 to 5, is this the kind of thing you're ready
• 14:33
  to move on before the end of the month?
• 14:35
  And then you ask and then hear what the guy has to say So that
• 14:38
  if there are other quotes, the guy will tell you then and there
• 14:41
  that well, however quotes are, people said they will do it for
• 14:43
  much less. Now the information is out and
• 14:47
  you now know the conversation that you're having now that you
• 14:49
  have the guy on the phone, but you end this call.
• 14:52
  Now you send the proposal. Now you must start hearing story
• 14:55
  later. So budget you need to qualify.
• 14:58
  I'm not going to go over different ways how you can dig
• 15:01
  deep on the whole money thing because I've done that in
• 15:04
  previous episodes. But we need to learn how to have
• 15:06
  these money conversations on. By the way, I told Sharon later
• 15:10
  on, and I'm telling you guys over here, when it comes to
• 15:13
  money thing, don't hang yourself by giving one figure.
• 15:16
  Always give a range. If you tell somebody 4.7, by the
• 15:21
  time you sit down to put pen and paper and you see that the exact
• 15:24
  figure actually is more like 4.9, the person will say, you
• 15:28
  told me it's 4.7 before. In your mind you'll be saying as
• 15:32
  a professional, you'll be saying, ah, the difference
• 15:34
  between 4.7 and 4.9, it's not much now, just 200 key.
• 15:38
  That's what you'll be thinking. But The thing is, once the
• 15:40
  customer hears 4.7, that's where their mind is.
• 15:44
  If you come back and say it's 4.5, they'll be happy.
• 15:46
  But if you come back and say it's 4.85, they'll be angry.
• 15:50
  So please, when you're having money, quote conversations
• 15:53
  always give a range. OK Bros, based on what you said,
• 15:57
  OK, To be honest, Sir, it's looking like this thing, we
• 16:01
  could be able to do it anything between 4.5 and maybe like 6.56
• 16:06
  point 5 M. So what do you think about that,
• 16:09
  Sir? Or how does that sound, Sir?
• 16:11
  Is that still within your budget, Sir?
• 16:13
  And then you hear what they have to say.
• 16:16
  So depending on what they say, you will now know where it is
• 16:19
  that you stand. Always say the bigger number
• 16:20
  first. So you say between 6.5 and No
• 16:24
  4.5. If the person shouts like 4
• 16:28
  point, what? You don't know that.
• 16:29
  OK, really there's no idea here if the person says, well, that
• 16:36
  6.5 is on the high side. But are you guys open to
• 16:40
  discounts? Are you guys open to
• 16:43
  negotiation? You know that kind of person,
• 16:45
  you know that, OK, there's room. You might be able to argue
• 16:50
  something, you might be able to meet somewhere.
• 16:53
  What is the reason why you have the conversation?
• 16:55
  The person that wants to shout, let them shout now and leave.
• 16:59
  The person that is looking like, OK, it can't work.
• 17:02
  It might work, You know, let the person say it now so you know
• 17:05
  where you stand. So these are the reasons why
• 17:07
  these frameworks are important. I know sometimes it sounds like
• 17:12
  extra jargons to be put in your head, but trust me, these things
• 17:16
  that will save you, it's a lot to take in.
• 17:20
  So what you just do is you write it down on a sheet of paper.
• 17:23
  So when I was a baby photographer, this is what I
• 17:26
  used to do. I always had my sheet of paper
• 17:29
  and I used to then I didn't know about qualification frameworks,
• 17:31
  but I knew the information that I needed.
• 17:33
  So I always used to write it down.
• 17:35
  Wedding date, I'll just put date dash hall dash bride dash.
• 17:43
  Now it's very important to because remember authority.
• 17:45
  Sometimes the babe that calls you finish, discuss.
• 17:48
  You know that you now here after 20 minutes, I know I'm actually
• 17:51
  the sister of the bride. I'm not the one who's getting
• 17:53
  married. Those are the conversations I
• 17:55
  used to hate the most. I'm like, I've wasted 45 minutes
• 17:59
  of my life talking to the sister of the bride because all those
• 18:01
  sisters of the bride, nothing good can come from that one.
• 18:04
  Nothing good at all. So it was part of my list,
• 18:08
  Bright Dash. It was part that I have to ask
• 18:11
  that are you the one who is getting married or you're
• 18:13
  calling on behalf of somebody else?
• 18:16
  Because I need to know now. It will affect how I'm going to
• 18:20
  pursue this thing. I'm going to follow up.
• 18:22
  So I had my paper hall dash, date dash, bride dash.
• 18:30
  When I say dash, I mean space for me to write down.
• 18:33
  Then what again? OK, then album dash because I
• 18:37
  need to know big or small frames dash, I need to know how many
• 18:40
  and the size. So like that.
• 18:42
  Like so I had my checklist. Anytime I'm talking to your
• 18:45
  bride, I have my checklist. So might be overwhelming, but
• 18:49
  please in the early days it has to be like this or else you will
• 18:52
  skip some steps. And these are the things that
• 18:55
  will make your deals to be small to be falling.
• 18:58
  So if you're in a tradition or if you're in a business where
• 19:01
  people have their own tradition, like in wedding photography,
• 19:05
  collect the checklists from them, from your seniors and just
• 19:09
  follow the checklist. After a while, we'll be
• 19:11
  internal, but it will guide your process.
• 19:14
  Then later on, as you become good and as you become strong,
• 19:18
  you can now Start learning some of these professional sales
• 19:24
  frameworks or checklists or scripts or whatever it is you
• 19:29
  want to call them, and they will make it even better.
• 19:31
  But freestanding in the beginning, very, very bad idea.
• 19:35
  Do not be freestyling. There are always frameworks.
• 19:38
  There are always processes. Go and learn these processes.
• 19:41
  If what I'm saying sounds like too much grammar, but there are
• 19:44
  seniors in your industry who are willing to teach you, go and
• 19:46
  learn from them. And then keep a pen and a sheet
• 19:50
  of paper handy in the beginning, write down all these frameworks.
• 19:54
  Always in bullet point, this, this point dash, this point
• 19:58
  dash. Get all the information you
• 19:59
  need. It will help you to be able to
• 20:01
  close the sale. So.
• 20:04
  That's it and that's all. Remember if you'd love to
• 20:08
  connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 20:14
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 20:16
  I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
• 20:19
  in your speakers.