Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Boost Your Sales: Inside Our Team's Strategy Session

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Boost Your Sales: Inside Our Team's Strategy Session · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Aidi.
• 0:04
  I saw sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
• 0:06
  today's recording at my home, so expect to hear some
• 0:10
  interruptions in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is
• 0:13
  to talk about business education.
• 0:15
  So please spread the word so that your friends and family
• 0:18
  members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions
• 0:21
  that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:23
  on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice.
• 0:28
  And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call SMS or
• 0:31
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, we're
• 0:40
  going to be sharing a whole bunch of stuff.
• 0:43
  It's basically a meeting summary that I had with a sales team for
• 0:46
  one of my clients. It's a three man team or a three
• 0:49
  person team because it's two guys and one lady.
• 0:52
  And we discussed a bunch of things there and I figured, let
• 0:55
  me just come here, share a summary of the stuff that we
• 0:59
  spoke about so that you listeners listening right now,
• 1:03
  you know, be able to learn a thing or two, maybe might find
• 1:06
  something of value. Then apart from that, I'm also
• 1:11
  leaving this podcast episode up. I'm going to share the link with
• 1:15
  the team later on with the three of them, Rudolph, Elsie and
• 1:20
  Shaun. So just in case you guys come
• 1:23
  across this episode, of course. Well, you will because I'll send
• 1:26
  you the link. This is also meant to be an
• 1:30
  audio summary of all the things that we spoke about today so
• 1:34
  that you guys can listen in the future and remember what we
• 1:37
  spoke about and you know, where our head was at and where we're
• 1:40
  heading to so. The.
• 1:47
  OK. The sales team, now they're
• 1:48
  involved in solar sales. Alternative, what's it called
• 1:51
  again? Alternative, Alternative energy.
• 1:56
  Gosh, I can't remember the big name, but basically they do
• 1:58
  solar. So solar inverters, what else?
• 2:03
  NHS and industry, you know, all those sorts of stuff.
• 2:07
  So that's what they do basically.
• 2:09
  And at the beginning of our engagement, I spoke with the
• 2:13
  team and Rudolph, who I like to regard as the class captain.
• 2:19
  That's because this is my second engagement with with them.
• 2:22
  So since he's the oldest and most experienced, you know, he's
• 2:26
  a class captain. So in my conversation with the
• 2:28
  class captain now, we agreed, or rather I tried to get a sense of
• 2:35
  where they're at because you know, whenever an Ogar calls me
• 2:39
  into an organization to run sales training or to do
• 2:42
  coaching, there's always what it is that Olga has at the back of
• 2:46
  his mind or at the back of her mind.
• 2:47
  Now this is where we are. This is what we need to achieve.
• 2:50
  I also like to speak to the sales team to get a sense of,
• 2:53
  look, this is what Olga has told me.
• 2:55
  Now you guys like what? What do you feel like?
• 2:58
  You rich yourself? Where are you right now or where
• 3:01
  do you think we need to? Where do you think we need to be
• 3:04
  by the time we're done with this engagement?
• 3:05
  Where would you like to see yourself in all these sorts of
• 3:07
  things? And the cast, the class Captain
• 3:11
  Rudolph and his colleagues, you know, Elsie and Cheryl, they
• 3:16
  agree that we seem to be going through this yearly thing every
• 3:22
  year around this time. You know, we're trying to, you
• 3:26
  know, I'm wondering like, how we're going to pick things up,
• 3:30
  how we're going to close out more sales.
• 3:31
  So we need to solve this problem once and for all.
• 3:34
  We need to make sure that we come up with a system that
• 3:37
  works. So basically the key focus for
• 3:40
  the team as they see it themselves, the key focus, key
• 3:44
  focus is we just need to close more deals.
• 3:48
  That's where the sales team, that's where they think they
• 3:49
  are. So regardless of what me and
• 3:52
  your guys have discussed, the sales team, they say this is
• 3:55
  where we are and I'm glad, I'm happy.
• 4:00
  Unfortunately, it takes a while before sales people realize
• 4:04
  that, you know, we can't keep carrying on like this.
• 4:09
  You know, I've sold in the financial services space.
• 4:13
  My sister used to sell in the bank.
• 4:15
  In fact, she used to call her own meeting, weekly, abuse
• 4:18
  meeting that the sale manager would just call all of them and
• 4:21
  abuse all of them basically. So unfortunately it takes a
• 4:26
  while, but eventually we have to wake up to that point that I
• 4:30
  can't just, we can't keep going on like this.
• 4:33
  Things have to change and so one of the things that we discussed
• 4:38
  in the meeting is this, if things are going to change and
• 4:44
  if we're going to close more deals, unfortunately there's no
• 4:48
  basic truth that we can't run away from.
• 4:52
  We need to dedicate more time to revenue generating activities to
• 4:57
  close more deals. You know, some people say RGA,
• 5:01
  you know, don't mind them. People just like to come up with
• 5:04
  all kinds of fancy acronyms just so they can sound more
• 5:06
  intelligent. You know, RGA just means revenue
• 5:10
  generating activities. Now this is the scope behind
• 5:15
  revenue generating activities. There are different kinds of
• 5:18
  functions in the business. There are different kinds of
• 5:20
  things that people do in the business.
• 5:21
  Let's talk about two or three. Number one, there's account
• 5:26
  maintenance. Account maintenance just means
• 5:29
  somebody is already a customer. Once in a while you call the
• 5:33
  person, you say what's up, That's account maintenance.
• 5:37
  Do you need anything else? How far, how are you doing?
• 5:39
  Do you need any help? That's account maintenance down
• 5:43
  is basic is steady in business. We need to do that to drive
• 5:46
  revenues because eventually somebody will say, hey, I'm
• 5:51
  cool, but you know, you get this kind of problem like you know
• 5:57
  when I do this, this happens that happens and.
• 6:00
  You know, lo and behold, you might be able to help them and
• 6:03
  you don't make any revenue, but sometimes they might need an
• 6:06
  update or they might need to buy something else from you to be
• 6:09
  able to solve that problem. So that's account maintenance.
• 6:15
  Then there's also customer service.
• 6:16
  Customer service is when the customer is absolutely pissed
• 6:19
  and they call you to say, what the hell, I transferred you
• 6:23
  money, where's my goods? The good has arrived.
• 6:26
  The thing is broken. Or The thing is here, the
• 6:30
  battery is always dying. You know, all those kinds of
• 6:32
  conversations. That's customer service.
• 6:35
  So there's account maintenance, then there's customer service,
• 6:40
  and then there's prospecting itself.
• 6:44
  Prospecting is going to go and look for new conversations to
• 6:48
  have with people, new people to talk to who might be interested
• 6:52
  in your product or service. Now this is 1 fundamental truth.
• 6:56
  If you are the head of your own business as per you're a one man
• 6:59
  show or you're a one woman gang and you're the one who's running
• 7:02
  your business. This is the truth of the matter.
• 7:05
  Prospecting conversations, going to go and look for strangers to
• 7:08
  talk to who might be interested or more.
• 7:10
  That's hard and we can't run away from that.
• 7:14
  It is hard, hard as hell. But then account, account
• 7:20
  maintenance, talking to somebody who's already our customer, man,
• 7:24
  that one is easy. In fact, it is sweet.
• 7:26
  It is good to call up your customers, say what's up?
• 7:28
  How now? Are you there?
• 7:30
  Happy New Year. We haven't all spoken since
• 7:32
  2025. Have you been?
• 7:33
  How are the kids? How's your staff?
• 7:35
  How's everything going? How you guys coping in this
• 7:37
  tenable economy? Omaha, Nigeria will not kill.
• 7:40
  Also, God day. He's just, you know, you know,
• 7:46
  anything I can do to help, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 7:48
  You know, remember your boy. I'm lawyer.
• 7:50
  OK. Now, while later we'll talk.
• 7:52
  You caught the call. That is a very sweet and easy
• 7:55
  call to make. Account maintenance, then
• 8:00
  customer service call, customer service call, what is hard?
• 8:03
  But The thing is the customer has already called you.
• 8:05
  What will you do? Will you block them on the
• 8:08
  phone? You have to answer the call.
• 8:12
  So the truth of matter is this, since account maintenance calls
• 8:15
  are very sweet and since customer service calls are very
• 8:20
  urgent, to be honest, as the owner of the business or as a
• 8:25
  salesperson, you will wake up and you will spend all your time
• 8:28
  doing account maintenance or doing customer service because
• 8:33
  customer service is urgent. The customer has called and the
• 8:35
  person is shouting on the phone, so you have to deal with it.
• 8:40
  Or you picked up the phone, you called the customer, the
• 8:43
  conversation was sweet, and so you continue jesting for 30
• 8:46
  minutes. So if you do not make a
• 8:50
  proactive effort every single day to say, you know what, I
• 8:54
  will go and call on brand new people, people I've never spoken
• 8:57
  to before, You will spend all your time doing what?
• 9:01
  Doing customer service calls or doing account maintenance calls.
• 9:08
  This is the problem. Customer service calls can lead
• 9:12
  to revenue. You know, somebody's angry, you
• 9:15
  handle it well, they impress the order some more.
• 9:18
  It can account maintenance calls can also lead to revenue because
• 9:24
  once in a while you're nothing new problem.
• 9:27
  But The thing is, customer service calls and account
• 9:30
  service calls, account maintenance calls, they rarely
• 9:34
  lead to new revenue. The one that leads to new
• 9:38
  revenue is when you go and look for new fresh blood, fresh
• 9:41
  people to talk to who might be interested in your product or
• 9:44
  service. Also, because of one simple
• 9:47
  dynamic in business, you know, people keep talking about sales
• 9:49
  funnel, sales funnel. So let's keep that imagery in
• 9:53
  mind. You have a sales funnel.
• 9:56
  Eventually somebody becomes a customer, you know, took them
• 9:59
  inside account maintenance calls.
• 10:04
  Those are the deals are closed. Then some deals are closed, you
• 10:07
  know, they'll call you, customer service shall all join.
• 10:10
  You know, their customers are now within the system.
• 10:14
  But the problem is there are some people, there are some
• 10:17
  deals that we didn't close. There are some deals that we
• 10:22
  forgot so we haven't touched up on them.
• 10:25
  And then there's some deals that the people just say, you know
• 10:27
  what, young man? I'm tired of hearing from you.
• 10:29
  Don't call me ever again. Block me.
• 10:32
  And in fact, maybe they block you.
• 10:35
  Now, if we spend all our times in account maintenance, if we
• 10:39
  spend all our time in customer service, where are the other
• 10:43
  calls going to come from that will be entering the funnel?
• 10:47
  This is what happens when generally looks like we're busy.
• 10:50
  We're busy. We're busy because there's
• 10:52
  people in the funnel. But then we're not looking for
• 10:56
  new people to talk to. We're only doing customer
• 10:58
  service calls. We're only doing account
• 10:59
  maintenance calls. And one day you wake up in March
• 11:02
  and like, this phone did not ring at all.
• 11:06
  It's like March 15. This phone is not wrong.
• 11:08
  What is happening? The economy must be slow.
• 11:12
  No, it's not that the economy is slow.
• 11:14
  We're talking about sales funnel lobby.
• 11:16
  Think of it as a funnel. People poured into the funnel.
• 11:22
  You took some people, you close some deals.
• 11:24
  Some people entered account maintenance, some people entered
• 11:27
  customer service. But nothing else was poured into
• 11:30
  the funnel. The funnel now ran dry.
• 11:32
  That is why your phone is dry. It's not as if the economy
• 11:36
  anything. Well, yes, the economy can help,
• 11:38
  but The thing is you stop doing the prospecting calls, you stop
• 11:41
  looking for new people to talk to.
• 11:43
  That's a problem. So Rudolph Shell, LC, whoever is
• 11:51
  listening again, that is in this situation.
• 11:53
  That's the reason why things slow down.
• 11:57
  Things are slowing down because we have not been looking for new
• 12:02
  people to talk to. We've not been making what we
• 12:05
  like to say net new calls. Net new just means, you know,
• 12:11
  minus the old people that we've been talking to, fresh blood has
• 12:17
  a problem. And I explained to them that
• 12:20
  look, me and your guys, we already had a conversation.
• 12:23
  That's the reason why now we're giving you this simple target
• 12:27
  that every day 10 net new calls 10 only 10 really 10 new calls
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  every day a brand new you didn't talk to these people before
• 12:42
  you're talking to them today just 10 Now some of you might
• 12:47
  say 10 Ah man that's hard. Well, yes, it might be hard if
• 12:53
  you are responsible for looking for leads in your business, but
• 12:58
  Rudolph LC and show they're in a good position because the
• 13:03
  company provides leads for them. In other words, while I've been
• 13:09
  trying to tell them, our people in our situation that look.
• 13:12
  Sales is hard. But your situation actually, you
• 13:14
  know, is a lot easier than most people because I told them,
• 13:18
  like, for me, my own consulting business, excuse me, I am the
• 13:21
  one who's responsible for looking for customers.
• 13:25
  So if I have a goal to talk to 10 brand new people today, it
• 13:28
  means I myself have to look for 10 brand new people.
• 13:33
  So if you look at it that sense, OK, yeah, maybe it's a little
• 13:35
  hard. But The thing is when you are a
• 13:38
  salesperson in a business that they feed you deals because this
• 13:42
  company has run some advertising and then they have paid for
• 13:47
  business Expos. You attend business Expos, you
• 13:50
  get some leads. So if you're a sales person and
• 13:54
  you work for that kind of organization, I know you think
• 13:56
  your life is hard, but let me be frank with you.
• 13:59
  Actually, you have the easiest job battle sales professionals
• 14:02
  because you only just wake up every day and call because the
• 14:06
  brand new fresh blood, new people you should be talking to,
• 14:09
  somebody else is really passing it to you.
• 14:11
  All you have to do to be frank is wake up in the morning, bath,
• 14:15
  brush your teeth, drop the children in school.
• 14:18
  If you work in the office, go to the office.
• 14:21
  If your company says work from home, go back home.
• 14:23
  Turn off the TV, no distractions.
• 14:26
  Open your e-mail, all the leads that your guys been sending to
• 14:29
  you, just begin the call. It's that simple.
• 14:37
  The part about brushing and you know, brush your teeth and then
• 14:40
  bath. You know, I don't know why, but
• 14:42
  somehow you know, when you have a bath and you know you, you
• 14:45
  smell fresh and you're right, somehow it makes the job easier,
• 14:49
  as in trying to do cold calls in sweaty boxers and sweaty
• 14:53
  armpits. And it's not it's not a good
• 14:55
  vibe when we different strokes for different folks.
• 14:59
  I know some people who have no problem, like just wake up, just
• 15:02
  do rub and shine. Your mouth is still smelling,
• 15:05
  but you pick up the phone and then you call.
• 15:06
  And some people who run business that way.
• 15:08
  It's OK, whatever works for you. But I'll recommend that when you
• 15:12
  wake up, bath brush, you know, look sweet even though you're
• 15:16
  not going anywhere. Then start calling.
• 15:21
  Now this is part of the math that I told Rudolph, Shawn and
• 15:27
  Elsie and part of the math that I want to share with you guys
• 15:33
  because really it's a numbers game with most industries.
• 15:37
  Average person will close 2%. That means average salesperson.
• 15:43
  Some people say bad salesperson. I don't want to say bad, so let
• 15:45
  me just say average. Average salesperson should close
• 15:48
  2 out of 100. If you are calling 10 net new
• 15:53
  people every day, that means you are talking to 50 a week.
• 16:00
  If you're talking to 50 a week, that means you are talking to
• 16:05
  200 at the end of the month. Now a bad salesperson or an
• 16:09
  average salesperson is closing 2 out of 100.
• 16:12
  So in other words, assuming you have never taken any kind of
• 16:16
  sales training in your life, if you're doing 200 a month, at the
• 16:20
  end of the sales cycle you should be closing for deals.
• 16:25
  Hope you guys can see how simple the math is.
• 16:28
  So you're an average person, You've never taken sales
• 16:31
  training, you don't know any tips, you don't know any tricks.
• 16:33
  You're just counting on vibes and inshallah, if you call 200
• 16:38
  people at the end of your sales cycle, you should be closing for
• 16:42
  and I told them it's that simple.
• 16:46
  So that is the focus. Now for those of you who have to
• 16:49
  look for deals for yourself, no problem.
• 16:52
  We'll talk about that in separate episodes.
• 16:54
  But for those of you that yoga has already run Instagram ad,
• 16:59
  your Madam has paid for leads from Google, or the associates
• 17:07
  have registered the business for a business Expo and all you have
• 17:11
  to do is just show up at the booth.
• 17:13
  Look, it's just a numbers game. If you can do 10 net new calls
• 17:20
  every single day, you will be all right if you do 10 net new
• 17:25
  calls every day. And this is where I struggle
• 17:28
  with people because see, The thing is, it doesn't have to be
• 17:33
  my own material because I'm not everybody's cup of tea.
• 17:37
  And I know that I don't blend with everybody.
• 17:40
  I don't jive with everybody. But I keep telling people, look
• 17:45
  for something that works for you.
• 17:48
  You don't like the sound of my voice?
• 17:49
  No problem. There are lots of things
• 17:51
  available on the Internet, podcasts, YouTube.
• 17:55
  Look for somebody you like and then start to listen.
• 18:01
  So if you attend the training that yoga and Madam are
• 18:04
  organising for you, you're doing your 10 net new calls every day
• 18:08
  and you have this other thing that you're listening to every
• 18:11
  day while you're stuck in traffic because they are in,
• 18:14
  they're in Lagos, LC Rudolph and shown they're based in Lagos.
• 18:20
  So while you're stuck in traffic every day, you're listening to
• 18:23
  this sales podcast, you're listening to this sales book,
• 18:25
  you're listening to this marketing book, you're doing
• 18:27
  that kind of self improvement every single day.
• 18:30
  That is how you go from closing 2 out of 200 to 4 out of 200 to
• 18:37
  12. And before you know it, one day
• 18:39
  you might be closing 50 out of 200 or 80 or who knows, you
• 18:47
  might even be closing half, closing 100 out of 200.
• 18:53
  You know, the goal is always to increase in our conversions.
• 18:56
  Now this one thing that people don't realize, whenever you
• 18:59
  increase your conversions small, the output on the other end
• 19:03
  actually is quite big. This how I explained it back my
• 19:05
  wedding photography days. If you get a wedding photography
• 19:08
  client back, then you finish doing everything.
• 19:11
  You pay for the book, you pay all the second shooter, you pay
• 19:13
  everybody that worked on the project.
• 19:15
  You're able to put like 200K in your pocket.
• 19:18
  That's just from one deal. If you get 2 a month or more,
• 19:22
  that's life changing. At least back then.
• 19:24
  Because two a month means that by the time you're done with the
• 19:26
  two weddings, you now have 400 in your pocket.
• 19:29
  But meanwhile, your conversions just went up small.
• 19:32
  Maybe you talk to 20 people every month.
• 19:35
  You close one, you go to closing two people out of 20.
• 19:42
  In mathematics, it looks like a small lobby.
• 19:44
  The difference between 1 out of 20 and 2 out of 20?
• 19:47
  A small lobby, but the effect on your pocket is big.
• 19:53
  If you have a fake salary, the effect within the organization
• 19:56
  will be big because yoga will see you and I'll be like no,
• 20:00
  this guy or no this big. This is a star asset on the
• 20:05
  team. They rate you different, they
• 20:06
  treat you different and it leads to more opportunities within the
• 20:11
  organization. So trust me if you go from
• 20:16
  closing 4. Out of 200 to closing 5 or 6 out
• 20:23
  of 200, it looks like it's small.
• 20:27
  The impact in your pocket will be big or the impact within your
• 20:30
  organization will be big. So excuse me.
• 20:38
  So that was the first thing that we discussed, your daily target
• 20:42
  10 net new calls and then we're only going to count people who
• 20:46
  pick up the phone. You dial somebody, they didn't
• 20:49
  answer, you send text message. That is not net new
• 20:51
  conversation. Those people now go into lead
• 20:59
  management or contact management.
• 21:01
  These people did not answer. So I have to try again.
• 21:04
  But that's not ten net new conversations.
• 21:06
  So that's the first thing that I want you guys to learn that we
• 21:09
  spoke about with the sales team. So it's the same for your
• 21:13
  business too. Just know we can't wake up every
• 21:16
  day. I'll be handling the easy phone
• 21:18
  calls which is account maintenance or the urgent phone
• 21:23
  calls which is customer service. We need to be proactive and what
• 21:28
  I recommended to them was this. Just block out nine to 12 every
• 21:32
  day. 9 to 12 is 3 hours. 3 hours to do 10 net new conversations.
• 21:37
  Especially when people are giving you leads.
• 21:39
  It is doable and will make your life a lot easier.
• 21:43
  But yes, it is harder because I can't.
• 21:45
  Maintenance conversations are sweet because the customer is
• 21:48
  our customer. They are our friends.
• 21:50
  It will be a sweet convo any time an old client calls me.
• 21:54
  We just want to catch up. They're just in Abuja.
• 21:57
  Let's let's see, you know, let's go and have coffee, you know,
• 22:00
  let's, let's hang out. Those conversations are very,
• 22:02
  very sweet but they don't always lead to new business.
• 22:04
  And they let me know if I stress it.
• 22:09
  So next thing now is Shane was a new member of the team and so
• 22:15
  he's been facing some objections.
• 22:17
  Now, an objection is any reason that somebody gives for not
• 22:20
  wanting to continue the conversation, for not wanting to
• 22:24
  buy, for not wanting to explore the agenda, for not wanting to
• 22:27
  take the meeting, for not wanting to take the next step,
• 22:30
  for not wanting to whatever, whatever.
• 22:32
  It is that they tell. You, that is an objection.
• 22:34
  So Cheryl has been facing two of these objections #1 Cheryl was
• 22:40
  saying that people will say I'm busy, call me back.
• 22:44
  And then another one is that people ask for price on the
• 22:47
  first call. They say, look young man, I am
• 22:49
  busy, will you stop wasting my time?
• 22:51
  How much is this solar panel? So those are the objections that
• 22:54
  he has been having, that people don't want to get involved in
• 22:57
  the conversation, they don't want to answer question, it's
• 23:01
  alright, that's not a problem. In fact, I told him it is quite
• 23:05
  normal. No matter where you are in the
• 23:07
  world. It is normal in America, in the
• 23:09
  UK, Nigeria. People just want to know how
• 23:12
  much is this thing, this land you're selling, how much this TV
• 23:16
  you're selling, how much this solar panel, how much this
• 23:18
  phone, how much. So it's a normal thing.
• 23:23
  We have to be prepared for it since it's normal.
• 23:26
  In other words, we need to think of these things and get the
• 23:30
  appropriate response or how we're going to deal with it
• 23:32
  before the thing happens. If you're a salesperson waiting
• 23:36
  until you have jammed the thing to try and figure out the
• 23:38
  problem, it's not very good because this is what happens.
• 23:41
  You know, you stammer, you start to talk off point, you start to
• 23:45
  talk round around and you're making the situation worse.
• 23:47
  Somebody has already told you, young man, I'm busy.
• 23:50
  Give me the quote and then you're talking from here to
• 23:53
  there's not really making sense. You're making things worse.
• 23:56
  So let's try and figure out how to deal with these things before
• 24:00
  it happens. I'm busy.
• 24:02
  Call me back. You'll meet other sales trainers
• 24:06
  who will give you tactics to keep people on the phone so that
• 24:09
  they can talk some more. If that's your style, go ahead
• 24:11
  and do that. It's all right.
• 24:13
  But I don't teach that. This is what I teach.
• 24:20
  I teach that we lean into the objections.
• 24:22
  So if somebody says I'm busy leaning, so yeah, I understand.
• 24:28
  I appreciate that you're quite busy.
• 24:30
  That's not a problem. I'll call you back.
• 24:33
  We have leaned in, we have agreed.
• 24:35
  Let the person calm down first. Let them see that, you know,
• 24:38
  recognize that they're a reasonable human being.
• 24:41
  Then the next step is you propose a time or you ask them
• 24:47
  to propose a time. It's that simple.
• 24:51
  Now, Sharon. Sorry, Sharon.
• 24:54
  Excuse me. Sharon was not comfortable with
• 24:56
  proposing a time because he thinks that that will be too
• 25:00
  aggressive. Actually, it's not, but we'll
• 25:03
  talk about that in another podcast episode.
• 25:05
  So I said OK, in that case, if you think that that's too
• 25:10
  aggressive, then what you do is you just let them propose the
• 25:13
  time. So, young man, I'm busy.
• 25:15
  Call me back. Oh, that's not a problem, Sir.
• 25:17
  I can appreciate that. You're very busy and I'll call
• 25:20
  you back. When would you like me to call
• 25:22
  you back? Well, that's it.
• 25:26
  It's as simple as that. They propose a time, you try and
• 25:32
  narrow it down so you know when they hit four and then you'll be
• 25:35
  fine. Person says call me like that
• 25:38
  kind. Wednesday.
• 25:39
  Thursday. So OK, no problem, Sir.
• 25:41
  But are you a morning kind of person or is it afternoon?
• 25:44
  I'll be evening. Well, OK.
• 25:47
  Like around that kind of evening time.
• 25:49
  OK, Sir. So if I call you anytime after
• 25:51
  three, that's OK? Yeah, it's fine.
• 25:53
  It's fine. It's fine.
• 25:55
  And then they caught the call. No problem.
• 25:57
  You now know that you can call Wednesday or Thursday.
• 26:00
  I now know they can call after 3:00 PM.
• 26:03
  And when you call greeting, appropriate greeting intention.
• 26:08
  I was the young man who called you on Monday regarding the
• 26:12
  solar panel advertisement that you responded to, blah, blah,
• 26:15
  blah. You asked for me to call you
• 26:16
  back that this would be a much more, this would be a better
• 26:20
  time to talk and you know, so, so that's why I'm calling you
• 26:22
  back. So you take it from there.
• 26:29
  But by the way, it also is not a problem.
• 26:32
  I know some of you think is aggressive.
• 26:33
  It's not a problem to say, oh, Sir, I understand.
• 26:36
  I appreciate that. You're very busy.
• 26:38
  That's no problem. Sure, I can call you back.
• 26:41
  I'm available for tomorrow between 8:00 to 11:00.
• 26:45
  Does that work for you, Sir? You can say that respectfully
• 26:49
  and it's not a problem. But for those of you who think
• 26:50
  it's too aggressive, no problem. You don't have to try that.
• 26:54
  So you ask them when they're going to be available, and
• 26:57
  that's how you deal with I'm busy, call me back.
• 27:02
  By the way, if somebody at this stage is really, you know,
• 27:06
  pussyfooting over the whole issue, it's possible that
• 27:09
  they're not really interested. But at least now, you know,
• 27:13
  rather than somebody says I'm busy, call me back.
• 27:15
  I say, OK, so I'll call you back then.
• 27:17
  You caught the call. I mean, that's the worst thing
• 27:20
  you can do. You'll just be following up for
• 27:23
  following up sake in perpetuity. Then this whole thing of people
• 27:28
  asking for a price on the first call is normal.
• 27:31
  And I told Sharon that look is normal.
• 27:32
  Everybody goes to read. As a baby lawyer, I used to face
• 27:36
  it in wedding photography. I used to face it in export.
• 27:40
  I used to face it in consulting. I still face it.
• 27:43
  You have become a politician tomorrow, OK?
• 27:46
  No politicians do we discuss price well.
• 27:50
  Well, any politicians discuss money too.
• 27:52
  So even as a politician, I will still face it.
• 27:58
  So this is what you do, or this is one of the strategies, one of
• 28:05
  the tactics, rather that I told you.
• 28:09
  So first of all, you lean in. People need to know that they're
• 28:12
  being reasonable. You lean in and you acknowledge.
• 28:15
  Then you give them a range. You throw out some figures, but
• 28:19
  then you need to ask for permission to ask them questions
• 28:22
  so you can give an accurate quote.
• 28:25
  So back in the export days when somebody would call and say how
• 28:28
  much for 20 tonnes of charcoal and looks like they're
• 28:34
  insisting, the approach is simple.
• 28:36
  Oh Sir, I would love to give you a quote right now for 20 tonnes
• 28:40
  of charcoal, always looking for new customers.
• 28:43
  However, I can't do that now because there are lots of
• 28:46
  factors that are going through this thing.
• 28:48
  I need to know a couple of things like which port is
• 28:51
  closest to you, the quality of the charcoal that you need,
• 28:57
  whether you want expedited delivery and what trading terms
• 29:00
  you prefer, whether you want it to be free on board or whether
• 29:04
  you want it to be cost insurance and freight.
• 29:06
  So So before I give you the quote, I really have to ask you
• 29:09
  a couple of questions so I can give you an exact quote.
• 29:13
  So the one I quote for you 2 tons of charcoal, 20 tons of
• 29:16
  sesame, 50 tons of sheer butter. You know, the the price would
• 29:20
  be, it's a price you can rely on.
• 29:24
  So are you OK with me asking a couple of questions?
• 29:29
  The person says, oh, no, I'm busy.
• 29:32
  What did I say? So that's no problem.
• 29:34
  I appreciate that you're busy, Sir.
• 29:37
  I can call you back. I'm available tomorrow between
• 29:40
  10:00 and 12:00. What time works for you or you
• 29:44
  go the shown route? Oh, that's not a problem, Sir.
• 29:46
  I appreciate that. You're very busy.
• 29:48
  So when would you like me to call you back, Sir?
• 29:53
  Is that simple? So that's one way of getting
• 29:59
  around this whole price thing, leaning acknowledge where you
• 30:05
  can give a range. So for wedding photography, for
• 30:08
  import and export is hard to give a range because it's too
• 30:11
  wide. You can't really give a range
• 30:14
  because the cost of sending 20 tonnes of share butter to Cyprus
• 30:19
  will depend on where is Cyprus and or sending it to America
• 30:24
  will depend on where they are in America.
• 30:28
  And then on what trading terms. So the costs FoB, sorry, FoB,
• 30:33
  yeah, free on board will be different from CIF cost
• 30:36
  insurance and freight. And you know, of course, there
• 30:39
  are other trading terms, but for my brother and I, when we're
• 30:42
  still in our business, those are the true trading terms that we
• 30:45
  dealt with the most. So for ones that you can give a
• 30:51
  range, like in wedding photography, for instance, I
• 30:53
  would always give a range. I'll say, oh, Sir, it can cost
• 30:56
  anything between X&Y, depending on what it is that you need.
• 31:02
  Either way, I have to ask you a couple of questions.
• 31:05
  Now. There was one man, and I told
• 31:06
  you about this who was really, really insistent that, look,
• 31:10
  young man, I am busy. Can you just give me a price,
• 31:13
  please? And I told him, Sir, I would
• 31:16
  really love to give you a price, but The thing is, I can't give
• 31:20
  you a reliable quote. Now.
• 31:23
  I do not know where this wedding is going to be.
• 31:26
  I do not know what kind of venue.
• 31:29
  I don't know the size of the team that I need to put
• 31:31
  together. I don't even know the kind of
• 31:34
  book you want. Do you want a normal size, a
• 31:37
  small size, or do you want the grandest size possible?
• 31:40
  I don't even know if you want 3 or 4 books.
• 31:43
  You know, one for the couple, one for you, one for Madam and
• 31:46
  maybe one for the in laws. Do you want frames?
• 31:48
  I have no idea. So Sir, really we need to have a
• 31:52
  conversation. I'll get all these details and
• 31:54
  I'll give you 1 quote and one is 1.
• 31:57
  All the information that you need is there.
• 32:01
  So Sir, if you're busy now, is it OK for us to set up a time
• 32:06
  where we can talk and get this handled And again, calm down.
• 32:11
  And that is what we did. By the way, I didn't get the
• 32:13
  deal. It's nice if you follow all this
• 32:17
  approach, you will get the deal every time.
• 32:19
  But I hope you guys are seeing how this thing works.
• 32:23
  Then I was able to give you a range.
• 32:25
  And so it's the same thing with solar panels and that's what I
• 32:27
  told shown with solar systems. So, Sir, I would love to give
• 32:34
  you a quote, but to be honest, our systems could cost anything
• 32:37
  between 20 million and 5 million.
• 32:42
  And it depends on a number of factors, where you are, where
• 32:45
  you live, how big is your house, what are you trying to power?
• 32:49
  Do you have generator or not? Do you know whatever it is that
• 32:55
  are the important factors that you have to ask as a solar sales
• 32:58
  person. But that's what I tell the
• 32:58
  person, Assad, this thing can cost anything between 20 million
• 33:02
  to 5 million, depending on where you live, the size of the house,
• 33:06
  what you're trying to power and things like that.
• 33:09
  So, Sir, I really need to ask you a question before I can give
• 33:12
  you a quote that will be accurate for you that you can
• 33:15
  rely on. So can I ask you a couple of
• 33:17
  questions, Sir? Can I ask you a couple of
• 33:19
  questions, Ma? That's the approach now.
• 33:22
  Sure. Didn't seem to OK with that.
• 33:26
  And I understand because some of you might think my way is too
• 33:30
  forceful. I get it, but The thing is,
• 33:36
  don't use my exact words, but look at the philosophy.
• 33:41
  You acknowledge that this person needs a price and it's a
• 33:44
  reasonable request. You let the person know.
• 33:47
  This is the reason why I can't give you this price because of
• 33:50
  these unforeseen factors. Can you help me answer a couple
• 33:53
  of questions and I'll be able to give you all the information
• 33:55
  that you need. It's that simple.
• 33:59
  So I now told him about how my former business partner Shegu
• 34:02
  used to handle the video aspect, how Shegu used to handle it.
• 34:08
  Shegu say something like, ah, mommy, I can't come and tell you
• 34:13
  that is is 10 million and at the end of the day is now 15 because
• 34:18
  now one is me. They'll so far also mommy, I
• 34:21
  can't tell you that it is 10. Then meanwhile at the end of the
• 34:24
  day is only like 3. We need.
• 34:27
  So mommy, to be honest, let me just come to the office.
• 34:31
  Let's discuss. Let me understand the parameters
• 34:33
  of this documentary that you want us to shoot.
• 34:35
  Then I'll be able to give you an exact quote that you can rely
• 34:38
  on. And so mommy, when are you free?
• 34:41
  Then we come to the office. So that's how she needs to solve
• 34:44
  it. But you can see that the
• 34:46
  principle is the same. So that's how you handle.
• 34:50
  I'm busy, call me back. And that's also how you handle
• 34:53
  people who insist on getting a price on the first call.
• 34:59
  By the way, there are other sales trainers, other business
• 35:04
  development coaches, other people in this space.
• 35:08
  And like I said, you don't like the way I sound, You don't like
• 35:12
  what I say. You think I'm too formal.
• 35:15
  Go and search. There are plenty.
• 35:17
  Find the person that you like. And then every day when you're
• 35:21
  stuck in traffic, listen or while you're driving, connect on
• 35:26
  Bluetooth speakers in your car and then listen.
• 35:29
  For those of you who are married, you know, if your
• 35:34
  spouse is in the car, don't do that.
• 35:35
  It'll be awkward, you know, talk to your spouse, but eventually
• 35:38
  you'll have some free driving time.
• 35:41
  And then listen. The more you listen to these
• 35:44
  things, the more you internalize it, the more effective you'll
• 35:46
  become. And the more remember we said in
• 35:49
  the beginning, your closing will start to improve.
• 35:51
  You start going from 4 out of 200 to closing 6 out of 200 to
• 35:57
  closing 20 to closing 25 to closing 50.
• 36:00
  And as you do that, the quality of your life will start to
• 36:04
  improve. Then we also discussed lead
• 36:08
  management systems or contact management systems or customer
• 36:12
  relationship management tools or whatever it is that you want to
• 36:14
  call it. But either way, there has to be
• 36:16
  something that we're using to track.
• 36:18
  How many calls did I call today? The people that I spoke to, who
• 36:21
  am I supposed to call back? When am I supposed to call them
• 36:23
  back? Am I supposed to send a message?
• 36:25
  Are they waiting for an e-mail? Are they waiting for a proposal?
• 36:28
  We need to find some tool of doing this.
• 36:30
  So Sharon was talking about how he forgets, and I told him that
• 36:33
  look, man, you will forget Standard as a baby lawyer, It
• 36:39
  happens to all of us. You go during the week, you
• 36:42
  speak to your guy, we'll send you to some people's houses,
• 36:44
  speak to three or four people, but they didn't write anything
• 36:47
  down. And then you wake up on Friday
• 36:48
  and then your guy says establishment come into the
• 36:50
  office. We say yes.
• 36:51
  Sir, I said sit down, you sit down and now says OK, so for
• 36:54
  Madam, Madam or getting based case, where are we?
• 36:57
  What are we supposed to do? You know, as I say, Sir, Sir, of
• 37:03
  course you will forget because you didn't write it down.
• 37:07
  So please, look, it's, I know it's boring as hell, but see, I
• 37:15
  don't know how else to explain it.
• 37:17
  You, you didn't write it down, you will forget.
• 37:19
  Things will fall through the cracks always.
• 37:23
  So what you do is immediately after the interaction, you make
• 37:26
  your notes and you schedule your things immediately after.
• 37:30
  So back in the days of baby lawyer, once you're leaving my
• 37:33
  Madam or getting this office and you enter inside the car, you
• 37:36
  wind out the window, you bring out your office diary.
• 37:39
  You know, you write it down meeting Milan or getting big
• 37:42
  office 12:00 PM discussion issue 1234 resolution way forward
• 37:48
  doing this dot dot dot dot next court date this this you write
• 37:52
  everything down in your diary. Then when you get back to the
• 37:55
  office, sorry lawyers, I'm not sure how people run things
• 37:59
  nowadays, but because what I'm saying is really not too old,
• 38:05
  but it's not as if, well, yeah, people have computers and
• 38:08
  laptops, but you know, it's not as if this technology was that
• 38:11
  common. I mean, when I got my first
• 38:14
  mobile phone, I think I was already in like year 4 or so.
• 38:16
  I was already quarter to graduate.
• 38:20
  So where was I? I can't remember.
• 38:24
  So when you get back to the main office, now you don't take all
• 38:27
  those details and then you now put them in the master diary of
• 38:30
  the firm so that the head of chambers, you know, can see all
• 38:33
  this information. So that way when you organ now
• 38:36
  says on Friday morning, Tavi Schema, where are you?
• 38:38
  I'm here, Sir. Come and sit down and say yes,
• 38:40
  Sir, Mrs. Ogden, where are we? You just open your diary and say
• 38:44
  OK Sir, one moment and then you flip.
• 38:46
  So we met Mrs. Ogden beyond so, so, so and so.
• 38:49
  And this is what we discussed. She wants us to do this was I'm
• 38:53
  on professional opinion. I think that that that that.
• 38:56
  What do you think, Sir? He will talk his own.
• 38:57
  So OK, Sir. What we agreed next is this is
• 39:00
  the next thing was supposed to do so getting based supposed to
• 39:02
  give us this or we were supposed to do this or miss forgetting we
• 39:05
  see fruitful conversation you now know.
• 39:08
  Where you are. And what you're supposed to do
• 39:10
  next. So it's the same thing.
• 39:15
  As soon as you finish your conversation with somebody, they
• 39:18
  might be interested, they might not be interested.
• 39:20
  This is the amount of deep freezers they have.
• 39:22
  This is the amount of freeze they have this amount of this
• 39:24
  other entity on notes. Immediately I spoke to Mr.
• 39:29
  Opabolo. Opabolo wants to power 4 deep
• 39:33
  freezers because he runs a chicken cutting business from
• 39:39
  his residence. Apart from that they have 4 ACS
• 39:43
  and they have two TV's and, and let's see what else.
• 39:47
  You know, you put everything down like that, but of course
• 39:50
  don't write it in grammar. So bullet bullet points.
• 39:52
  Mr. Bobolo, phone call, 3 PM, 12 deep freezers, 2 TV's, four AC,
• 39:59
  something, some, you know, next step, engineers, engineer site
• 40:05
  assessment, you put it there. They now schedule the reminder
• 40:08
  if Mr. Bobolo said. Somebody will be at home next
• 40:12
  week Friday. Set the reminder now or else you
• 40:15
  will forget and Mr. Bubble or to forget and that is how deals
• 40:19
  fall through the cracks. Set the reminder now so that on
• 40:22
  Thursday your phone will ping and you will now see that oh
• 40:26
  meeting with Mr. Bubble or tomorrow you will now call Mr.
• 40:28
  Bubble or Mr. Bubble or is me the young man that called last
• 40:32
  week so you haven't forgot to know is tomorrow engineer is
• 40:36
  going to come. So oh, thank you for reminding
• 40:39
  me I forgot. No problem.
• 40:40
  I'll tell our boss a day. Our boss a day will be around.
• 40:43
  And that's how you keep things moving.
• 40:45
  And that's why I explained to the sales team, some of you
• 40:47
  don't realize it, but is what happens when you don't have a
• 40:50
  lead management system. This is what happens.
• 40:52
  It's sad. What is what happens?
• 40:55
  You call somebody, you have the discussion.
• 40:57
  This thing is now top of mind. Mr. Bobolon now knows that,
• 41:00
  look, this solar thing is serious.
• 41:02
  I have to get it done. And the budget might be anything
• 41:04
  between this and that. You forget to call, you will
• 41:07
  fall through the cracks. The next person that calls will
• 41:10
  not have a layup. The person will have a smooth
• 41:12
  ceiling because it is now top of mind for Mr. Bobolo.
• 41:16
  And that's how the next person who calls to close the deal, and
• 41:18
  it happens all the time. I suffered it plenty.
• 41:23
  I called the bride, we talked, we're all good.
• 41:25
  Looks like everything is all good.
• 41:27
  And then I forget. By the time I call, I say, oh,
• 41:29
  we went. We so, so, so and so.
• 41:30
  And in my mind I'm thinking, what the hell?
• 41:31
  Like I thought we were friends. Like when you are ready, why
• 41:34
  didn't you just call me up? Let's get this thing done.
• 41:38
  What happens? I just laid it up for the next
• 41:41
  guy. The next person will come and
• 41:42
  walk in smooth and collect your deal.
• 41:46
  So we need these things, lead management system, contact
• 41:50
  management system, customer relationship management,
• 41:53
  whatever it is. So if it is how I used to do it
• 41:57
  as a baby lawyer with office diary, use office diary and
• 42:00
  check your diary every day to know where you are, what you
• 42:03
  need to do next. If you don't want to do dairy,
• 42:08
  you don't want to do CRM tools, but you have Google Calendar.
• 42:11
  Then you have a Android phone and use your Android phone,
• 42:15
  write it, open Google Calendar, today's date and then put it
• 42:19
  there. Meeting Mr. Bobolo, 3:00 PM Turn
• 42:22
  the, you know, put all the details there.
• 42:24
  You now schedule the reminder. When it's time for the next
• 42:28
  action, your phone will do zip, zip.
• 42:31
  You will see it and then you will get on the next thing and
• 42:34
  the deal will not fall through the cracks.
• 42:37
  So we'll talk about a whole bunch of stuff like Rudolph LC
• 42:44
  show. I'm sure you guys remember
• 42:46
  there's lots of things you spoke about.
• 42:47
  But if nothing else, these are the main the main things I want
• 42:50
  you to understand. Excuse me.
• 42:54
  So yeah, everybody is frustrated.
• 42:55
  We want to make progress. We're not going to make progress
• 42:58
  unless we start focusing on lead, sorry, on revenue
• 43:03
  generating activities, activities that bring money.
• 43:06
  The ones that bring money is when we go and look for fresh
• 43:08
  blood to talk to. Olga is already paying for fresh
• 43:12
  blood to come into the company through Google advertisements
• 43:15
  and Facebook advertisements and Instagram advertisements.
• 43:18
  All you have to do every day is just wake up, brush bath, drop
• 43:22
  the kids in school and then go to the office or come back home,
• 43:26
  turn off the TV, you know? So Gary, first eat custard, you
• 43:31
  know, do bread and egg or something, which I eat
• 43:34
  something. And then 9 to 12, you know, just
• 43:38
  just call. Except if mom, she calls you
• 43:41
  might be an emergency, you know, you answer mom, she and I say,
• 43:44
  oh, mommy, you know what, I'll get to that later.
• 43:46
  And then you continue. You call.
• 43:51
  Then let's see what else? OK, sales objections.
• 43:56
  Don't wait until somebody objects.
• 43:58
  Figure some of these things out ahead of time.
• 44:00
  The way you do that is by listening to my podcast or going
• 44:04
  on YouTube and looking for other podcasters who you like the way
• 44:08
  they sound, you like the way they look, you like the way they
• 44:10
  behave. And you're trying to figure out
• 44:12
  how is it that they deal with these things.
• 44:14
  And then you practice on your own or practice with someone so
• 44:19
  that when these things come up, you have a response.
• 44:23
  But I'm busy. Call me back.
• 44:26
  That one happens all the time. You need to have an answer.
• 44:30
  Somebody wants a price now, now, now, that one is normal.
• 44:34
  You should have an answer. Somebody says you're too
• 44:37
  expensive, that one is normal. You should have an answer for
• 44:40
  these things. You should have some basic
• 44:43
  responses ready or a basic philosophy.
• 44:48
  I'll be a basic understanding about how you're going to deal
• 44:50
  with these situations. And then lead management or
• 44:55
  contact management, use something, post it, note, use
• 45:00
  it. Diary, use it.
• 45:02
  Google Calendar, use it. Apple Calendar, use it.
• 45:05
  CRM tool, use it. But we need it.
• 45:12
  If you're a Carpenter who is only doing two or three deals a
• 45:15
  month, OK, no problem, maybe you don't need it.
• 45:18
  But for anybody else, you sell solar, you need it.
• 45:22
  You're a lawyer, you need it. You're a wedding photographer,
• 45:25
  you need it. You're a tailor, you need it.
• 45:29
  I mean, should I keep going? Whatever you do, you need it.
• 45:35
  Except for carpenters. Carpenter will be fine.
• 45:38
  OK, for a brick layer, you don't need it.
• 45:40
  But anybody else, you need something.
• 45:44
  So it's almost an hour. That's it.
• 45:47
  And that's all. Remember, if you'd love to
• 45:49
  connect with me, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 45:52
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 45:57
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 45:59
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.