Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Fast Sales: How to Use Deadlines to Close Deals Faster
Transcript
- 0:00Today we're going to talk about timelines and urgency in
- 0:04business. Now, the reason why this is
- 0:07important is because there are lots of you Nigerian
- 0:10self-employed people, Nigerian business business people,
- 0:14Nigerian founders, Nigerian entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, you
- 0:21know, whatever it is that you call yourself.
- 0:23There are lots of you who are in Business Today.
- 0:25And you don't realize that when you're having conversations with
- 0:28people, you should be trying to figure out what their timelines
- 0:31are and you should only be talking to people who have a
- 0:34sense of urgency. So let's see how do we break
- 0:39this down now? OK, timeline.
- 0:41Now when you're having a conversation with someone who is
- 0:44a potential customer, you want them to buy your product, you
- 0:47want them to buy your service, you want them to sign up for a
- 0:50trial or you know, whatever. It's not as if the first time
- 0:54you talk to them, they're going to just go ahead and you know,
- 0:57transfer deposits, sign up by or whatever it is that you want
- 1:02them to do. So you're going to have to make
- 1:05a couple of phone calls, you know, call them today, call them
- 1:07next week, send text message, you know, send e-mail, you know,
- 1:10that kind of thing. But if you don't have a sense of
- 1:13what their timelines are, you won't know whether you are doing
- 1:18a reasonable amount of follow up or follow through or you won't
- 1:22know if you're being a pest. In other words, if you're trying
- 1:25to get somebody to buy today, the person has the problem, but
- 1:29the person needs this problem solved in two weeks.
- 1:31But because you know, you deform, you don't have to follow
- 1:34up too much. You don't have a sense of that
- 1:36timeline. You now call the person in one
- 1:38month and person like, oh, sorry, I already went with this
- 1:41or so. And so two weeks ago, I already
- 1:43bought from someone else. I'm sure there are lots of us
- 1:46who are listening to this podcast right now who have gone
- 1:49through that experience. You talk to somebody, you say,
- 1:52let me give them space. By the time you call back and
- 1:55say, oh, I went to somebody else and your mind, you're thinking,
- 1:57I didn't know what sharp, sharp like that.
- 1:59Like I didn't know you needed this thing like quick, quick
- 2:02like that. So you made an assumption.
- 2:04You didn't ask any questions regarding the timelines.
- 2:07And because of that, you didn't know what was a reasonable
- 2:09amount of follow up or a reasonable amount of follow
- 2:11through to do so. We should be asking questions
- 2:14around people's timelines. It will determine whether we
- 2:18should be on their case like every single day or whether we
- 2:21should be on their case like every 3-3 days or whether we can
- 2:24just chill and call them maybe once a month.
- 2:27You won't know. So there are some selling
- 2:31situations where the length of the sales cycle will kind of
- 2:35give you a rough idea. Like if you're in the business
- 2:39of selling, let's say, let's say airplanes for instance, to
- 2:43airlines. There's know how somebody wants
- 2:45to buy an airplane. They'll talk to you today and
- 2:47then they'll buy the airplane next week.
- 2:49So of course, you know, obviously, you know that you
- 2:51can't be giving somebody close marking, you know, in that kind
- 2:54of situation. But for the rest of us, we need
- 2:56to know the sense of timelines. The people that we're talking
- 2:59to, what are their timelines? How soon do they want to move
- 3:03by? How soon do they want to get
- 3:04going? When would they like the
- 3:06installation done? How soon would they need
- 3:08delivery? We need to know.
- 3:10It will help us figure out how to plan and how to build the
- 3:15sales process. Now urgency, something that is
- 3:19related. Urgency just means, of course,
- 3:23urgency now like urgent. You think the urgent urgency
- 3:27just means that there is something objective.
- 3:30When we say objective, we mean, you know, nobody say with a
- 3:35guess. It's not nobody guess work like
- 3:37there's something that I have seen or there is something that
- 3:40I have heard or there's something that I can use to
- 3:44deduce that is not in my mind that would tell me that OK, this
- 3:48person looks like they're getting ready to take action
- 3:50soon. So back in my wedding
- 3:54photography examples, this one is obvious.
- 3:58You're talking to a bride and you ask her, oh, when is the
- 4:00wedding date? And she says, Oh no, he just
- 4:03proposed to me like 2 weeks ago. And I said yes, so but the
- 4:06families have not met. No, our families have not met
- 4:08yet. Oh, so there's no wedding date.
- 4:10Oh, there's no wedding date In that case now urgency no day you
- 4:15get they just proposed to her brand new.
- 4:19So she's excited. So now she bores you.
- 4:22But it's not as if there's a wedding dating view.
- 4:25It's not as if, you know, we're working towards something.
- 4:28So right now, now Josh inquiry, she didn't inquire, so don't get
- 4:32too excited. So urgency is also important.
- 4:36Can we figure out something when we're talking to a customer,
- 4:39when we're talking to a potential client, when we're
- 4:41talking to a stakeholder, when we're talking to whoever, is
- 4:43there something that we can see that based on our thing, you
- 4:48know, that we have seen, we can now reason.
- 4:50I'm like, OK, there's a sense of urgency here.
- 4:53So people that have a sense of urgency, nice one.
- 4:58Now prospect be that premium prospect.
- 5:01They have a want, they have a need they can afford and oh, it
- 5:04looks as if they're ready to take action soon.
- 5:06OK, good. Now that kind of person, that's
- 5:09the kind of person that you'll not be close marking because you
- 5:12don't want to drop it because that kind, you know, that kind
- 5:14of situation, you relax small, your competition will just come
- 5:17and carry them. So urgency, timelines, urgency.
- 5:24We need to figure this out. Now, how do we figure this out?
- 5:27Are we mind readers? But obviously the way they're
- 5:30going to figure it out, if you've been listening to this
- 5:32podcast, it should come as no surprise.
- 5:34You'll figure it out by asking questions.
- 5:39If you got it, please clap for yourself is by asking somebody
- 5:42questions and engaging them in conversation.
- 5:45Now asking people how soon Are you ready to transfer the money?
- 5:50You know, might not be the best way to go about it.
- 5:53So sometimes we have to stylishly, stylishly ask some
- 5:56kind questions. But from the questions we're
- 5:59asking, we're trying to arrive at is there a timeline?
- 6:03Is there any sense of urgency? Once we figure out, OK, urgency
- 6:07day, OK, now know that it's a serious person.
- 6:10When we figure out timelines, no problem.
- 6:13We'll know how we will stagger this follow up, how we're going
- 6:16to pursue them. Now, the example that I'm going
- 6:18to use is this one is not a fictional case study today.
- 6:22This one is a real life something.
- 6:24I'm talking to someone, she's a salesperson.
- 6:28She works for my client. My client is in the solar
- 6:31industry and she's supposed to sell solar systems, solar and
- 6:34investor installations. I'm sorry, but every single time
- 6:39I say solar system, what comes to my mind is Mercury, Venus,
- 6:43Earth, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, blah blah blah.
- 6:46Oh, by the way, my son told me, and this was years ago, years
- 6:51ago, maybe like 10 years ago, the guy came home from school
- 6:53one day and I said, oh dad, they told us about the solar system.
- 6:56I was like, OK, cool, cool. And then he says he started
- 6:58talking recycles. I said, what about Pluto?
- 7:00He said Pluto is not a planet. I said, what do you mean?
- 7:04My son said, Dad, Pluto is not a planet.
- 7:06I said that is not possible that Pluto is a planet.
- 7:08And then my son started to educate me.
- 7:11He said, yeah, Dad, when you were in primary school, Pluto
- 7:14was regarded as a planet. But right now Pluto is not a
- 7:17planet. Pluto is an object within the
- 7:19Kuiper Belt. I say what the what?
- 7:22I said the Kuiper belt. Yes.
- 7:23I said, what's the Kuiper belt? He said it is a something,
- 7:26something, something, you know, asteroid wants.
- 7:28He wants to. I say, hey, anyway, I'm going to
- 7:31go and check. And he was right that Pluto is
- 7:34no longer a planet. So for those of you who, you
- 7:38know, you went to primary school, you know, 70s and 80s,
- 7:41Pluto is not the planet anymore. So when they say solar system,
- 7:44don't be adding Pluto. Pluto is not part of it anymore.
- 7:48And they don't mind me. That's just side talk.
- 7:51So, yeah. So she's responsible for selling
- 7:55solar and inverter systems installations.
- 8:00And we've been talking about how she should be filling out
- 8:03timelines and figuring out urgency because it's really,
- 8:05really important because you can't drop somebody a proposal
- 8:08today and then you go to close, mark them every day, every day,
- 8:11every day. Meanwhile, the project that they
- 8:13want to execute is next year in March.
- 8:17And then the converse, you can't drop proposal with somebody
- 8:20today, the project is next week. But you're just thinking, you
- 8:24know, most people on average like around that kind 2-3 weeks
- 8:29before they call me back. So let me just free it.
- 8:32Meanwhile, the person is ready to move next week.
- 8:35So you ask and we come up with a couple of yeah, anyway, so we
- 8:41had that conversation, but then she was having some
- 8:44difficulties. And so it's OK, no problem.
- 8:45Let's let's revisit this whole thing again.
- 8:47Let's say we can come up with some, some alternatives.
- 8:50And so I'm going to run through some alternatives that we used
- 8:53to try and figure out timeline and to try and figure out
- 8:56urgency. Now obviously all the questions
- 8:59that we're going to do here today are related to solar and
- 9:03inverter. So I don't want you to think
- 9:10that because it's solar and inverter related that it doesn't
- 9:14apply to your business. Just try and distill, try and
- 9:18understand the principle. Where would you push if you can
- 9:22understand the principle, if you can get the scope all right, if
- 9:26you can get the angle that we're trying to come from, you see how
- 9:29you can do something similar in your business, no matter what it
- 9:31is that you do, whether startup, you know or whatever.
- 9:35All right, so just track with me.
- 9:38All right, Now before we jump back in, I'd like to tell you
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- 12:32Because these are my guys. I want to make sure that they
- 12:34take good care of you. All right, so now let's get back
- 12:36to this whole timelines and urgency matter.
- 12:40So this is what I told the sales lady.
- 12:43Let's call her. What should we call her now?
- 12:44Let's call her Snow White. Yeah, Snow White.
- 12:47Yeah. So I told her, look, Snow White,
- 12:49this is what you can tell them is another way you can tell the
- 12:52person. Look, based on these challenges,
- 12:54when would you like to install your system?
- 12:59Based on these challenges, when would you like to install your
- 13:01system? Now this kind of question
- 13:03assumes that we did a good job in qualification and discovery
- 13:06and we have figured out what their main problem is.
- 13:10So if you do a good job of building rapport with somebody
- 13:12and they talk about how NEPA, they show them Shaggy as in like
- 13:16you're in band A, but Napa is only given like one hour of
- 13:19flight a week. And you know, on top of that,
- 13:22you're paying, you know, 350,000 naira a month in electricity
- 13:26bills. And you know, there's an
- 13:27absolute Horror Story. A way of sliding into this thing
- 13:32is not to ask them. Oh, like, Are you ready to pay,
- 13:34you know, 20 million now just OK.
- 13:36Also based on these challenges now with this kind load
- 13:41shedding, when did they do? Now, why would you like to
- 13:43install your system? So you see that that kind of
- 13:46question, you give a sense of timeline, we give you a sense of
- 13:49urgency. If somebody says, look, I don't
- 13:52tire. In fact, your engineer can come
- 13:54tomorrow, tomorrow, let's come and do inspection itself.
- 13:56Let's, let's see how quick we're going to get started.
- 13:59You see, like that's the way of just figuring out people's
- 14:02timelines, figuring out people's urgencies.
- 14:04So sense of urgency based on these challenges, when would you
- 14:07like to install your system? So Please remember I'm talking
- 14:11about solar, but take the principle and apply it to your
- 14:14own business. Just try and decode the spirit,
- 14:18you know, the scope that we're using in the question, decode it
- 14:21and then you can do something similar in your business.
- 14:24Then another way of trying to get timeline and urgencies.
- 14:28I told Snow White that you can also tell customers we usually
- 14:32do a comprehensive audit, a comprehensive inspection before
- 14:38all I put it now we usually do a comprehensive inspection just to
- 14:42make sure that we design the system well for you.
- 14:45How soon can we call for what come for a technical audit?
- 14:50Somebody who is saying technical audit, can you come like next
- 14:54month? You can see that that thing is
- 14:56not urgent. Somebody who says, oh, yeah,
- 14:58yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm aware.
- 14:59Technical audit, yeah. Come around.
- 15:02My site manager will be around tomorrow.
- 15:04You see, there might be a sense of urgency there.
- 15:07Of course, you don't assume, you know, we press some more like I
- 15:10would even say if I was to say something like we usually do a
- 15:12comprehensive inspection before we usually do a comprehensive
- 15:18inspection, you know, to make sure we design a system that is
- 15:20best for you. How soon can we come from a
- 15:21technical for a technical visit? And then the person says like,
- 15:25oh, that kind next month, I will now say, oh, next month.
- 15:28So this is not something you're thinking about doing in the next
- 15:31quarter. I will ask like that person will
- 15:34say, ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- 15:35I'm thinking, you know, maybe like around that kind six
- 15:37months. I'm still saving now because the
- 15:40person has said that I now have timeline, OK, we're talking in
- 15:45March. The person says six months, OK,
- 15:47that means like around that kind of September if all is well and
- 15:51the person saying he's still trying to save and make a mental
- 15:54note of that. We'll still talk money later on,
- 15:57you see. So from asking like that and
- 15:59asking follow up questions to these kinds of questions, you're
- 16:02getting a sense of timeline, you're getting a sense of
- 16:03urgency. You now know how quickly to
- 16:06follow up with somebody. Excuse me, You know, we sales
- 16:10professionals, we don't say follow up, we say follow through
- 16:12also, we can follow through with someone.
- 16:15Then another question that she can that I told, you know what
- 16:18she can ask, especially when talking to businesses.
- 16:22And this one is even tricky when it's business because if it's a
- 16:24residential person, like let's say you're talking to me trying
- 16:27to sell me solar, you know that at the end of the day, decision
- 16:30is my own. You know, the worst case
- 16:32scenario, I'll talk to Madam Basha.
- 16:34If you're talking to me, we good.
- 16:36Or if you're talking to the Madam, you're good.
- 16:39She'll talk to a guy, you know, and you know, to get things
- 16:41going. But if it's a business, now
- 16:44there are going to be multiple stakeholders that are involved.
- 16:47You know, CEO might need to sign off accounting might need to
- 16:50sign off people in the in the maintenance team will have to be
- 16:54on ground. You know, things like that.
- 16:56You know, different, different, different things.
- 16:58Because you remember the other sales associate no longer with
- 17:02this firm who was talking to one of these Canadian schools in
- 17:06Lagos. And you know, I was telling him
- 17:08about asking questions, you know, about the decision making
- 17:12process and things like that. And he assumed that all was well
- 17:15because he was talking to the principal, only to find out when
- 17:18the proposal landed on her table, she said, I have to talk
- 17:20to the board. So I told him, see, this is the
- 17:22reason why I was telling you to ask these questions.
- 17:24Now, the thing has come as a surprise.
- 17:26You've been blowing off her phone because you thought there
- 17:29was hope. Meanwhile, Principal Guy Olga
- 17:32and your guy is the board. She has to present it to the
- 17:34board. So you now know that OK, we step
- 17:36this thing down, try and figure out when the next board meeting
- 17:38is and then, you know, we'll continue from there.
- 17:41So one question that you can ask, I told, you know, why they
- 17:44can ask is do you need any approval processes for projects
- 17:48like this? And they ask, you never know is
- 17:52what I'm talking, that you might now discover that, oh, the
- 17:54person you're talking to is not the only CEO.
- 17:56You assume the CEO, the person is actually facilities manager
- 18:00and say, yes, I have to talk to organ Mike, I have to talk to
- 18:03this, but I have to talk. You know, you're now getting an
- 18:05idea of who else might be needed to approve this thing and stuff
- 18:10like that. And in this case, now you're
- 18:12getting a clear sense of their timelines.
- 18:14You now know that, OK, this is not something that this guy can
- 18:16approve today or can approve solo, that to approve you need
- 18:23to liaise with one or two people.
- 18:25So we haven't really gotten a sense of timeline here, but you
- 18:28can see that we're now getting ideas about how long this might
- 18:32take because there are a couple of other people involved.
- 18:36Then another question I told Snow, what you can ask is, is
- 18:39there anything special you're planning towards for this
- 18:42installation? Ask because you never know.
- 18:46One salesperson who tried this also for solar sales found out
- 18:52that the guy was was the situation of a reverse Japan.
- 18:57You know that there's some people that when things are
- 18:59getting hot, they just pack up and you know, they evacuate,
- 19:02they leave the country. But now as they go outside now
- 19:04they realize that all more things are hot outside.
- 19:06So it's as if Niger is even better.
- 19:10So the guy was now doing reverse Jabba.
- 19:11So he was bringing the family back.
- 19:14So before he sent everybody else say wifey children, all of you
- 19:19go and the plan was you go and join them.
- 19:24But then when they try their lifestyle and they say, hey,
- 19:27that's not abroad be that's not that easy.
- 19:30So they now do reverse Jabba. So from asking so yeah, sure.
- 19:33My wife and kids, yeah, they're going to be back in September
- 19:36while relocating finally. So as you asked like that, see,
- 19:40by the way, all these things don't work all the time.
- 19:43You know, sometimes you get lucky.
- 19:45So yes, in that case, we're lucky that the person answered,
- 19:47answered honestly and was very specific.
- 19:50Wifey and kids are coming back in September.
- 19:52I'd like to get this thing sorted before then.
- 19:56So we don't have the sense of timelines.
- 20:01We now know when these people are ready to go and they also
- 20:03get a sense of some. Urgency because of course you
- 20:06didn't want Madame and the kids to come and land and then they
- 20:09will now be dealing with Nepal. Because the disadvantage of
- 20:12living abroad is by the time you live abroad for a few years, you
- 20:15don't get used to that, you know, used to that 247 power
- 20:19lifestyle. So for the children to now
- 20:22adapt, you come back and then, you know, heat and mosquito and
- 20:26then all that. So.
- 20:28So we now, yeah, we now have the information that we needed.
- 20:32Or Please remember, not everything works 100% of the
- 20:34time. Don't go and try these questions
- 20:36one time. The thing doesn't work.
- 20:38And then you see this thing doesn't work.
- 20:40It's not like that. That's not how it works.
- 20:43You try again and again and again.
- 20:45Am I even doing it right? You try and make it your own.
- 20:48You know, you practice and eventually you start seeing some
- 20:51progress. I remember Brian Tracy keeps
- 20:53talking about Brian Tracy. Well, old Brian Tracy, old
- 20:56material, you just talk about doing things to put the odds in
- 21:00your, the probabilities in your favour.
- 21:03So you get good at asking these kinds of questions.
- 21:05You figure out timelines, you figure out urgency and you now
- 21:08know how you package yourself, how you plan the rest of the
- 21:12sales process. So is there anything special
- 21:16you're planning towards, you know, for this installation
- 21:19then? OK, now at the time that Snow
- 21:25White and I, again, not the real person, Snow White and I, we're
- 21:28having this conversation, our fuel was close to 1300 per liter
- 21:33in Nigeria. So if you're selling solar and
- 21:36inverter solutions, it actually is not a place to ask someone
- 21:39that. Are you thinking of moving soon
- 21:40because of the fuel prices? You'd be surprised.
- 21:43Some people may ask and say, ha or Diego, this one way fuel be
- 21:461300, my sister ha. You'd be surprised.
- 21:50The conversations that you have. I see.
- 21:52This is the reason why I say that selling and sales should be
- 21:56conversational because if you're reading this thing like
- 21:58interrogation, nobody likes to be quizzed, nobody likes to be
- 22:02interrogated. The guy will lock up.
- 22:03But if it's a conversation, you're a friendly somebody,
- 22:06you're a nice somebody, you're a casual somebody.
- 22:07You know, one at a yarn, you're just talking.
- 22:10Then that is where you get to hear things like this.
- 22:13So are you thinking of moving soon because of the fuel prices?
- 22:15You ask is OK Honestly, it's OK. Remember that you're the product
- 22:22matter specialist here, so you have permission to ask some kind
- 22:25of questions. And always remember if you ask
- 22:28questions and then people rake for you, they provoke because
- 22:31they think you. They say you have stepped your
- 22:33bounds. It's very easy.
- 22:36This is Niger. It's very, very simple.
- 22:39You apologize, you empathize, then you refocus, and then you
- 22:45try and get an engagement. So advancement, let me repeat,
- 22:49you apologize, empathize, then you refocus and then try and get
- 22:55refocus on them and then try and get an advancement.
- 22:58So if you say, are you thinking of moving right now because of
- 23:00your prices and the person you rake?
- 23:03Like what? What the hell do you mean?
- 23:04Like what? What is your like young lady?
- 23:06Like what is your own? What is your own concern?
- 23:10So you apologize, empathize. Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Sir.
- 23:15I wasn't trying to, I wasn't saying anything about your
- 23:19financial situation. I beg Sir.
- 23:21No Vex, I didn't mean any insult.
- 23:23The reason why I was just asking is because there's some
- 23:28information that we need just so that we can serve you better.
- 23:30And if this was something you are thinking of moving on soon.
- 23:33I just wanted to be able to tell our technical crew.
- 23:36My technical guy, Johnny. I just wanted to tell Johnny
- 23:39them that you know, they should keep 2 battery for Mr. Okoro.
- 23:44That was all Sir. So Sir, No Vex, I didn't mean to
- 23:48offend you. That's it.
- 23:51That's just a simple scope. Then.
- 23:54Now that you've explained, you now try and get an advancement.
- 23:56So Sir, these ones that we've been discussing, so the
- 24:03storekeeper or my technical crew.
- 24:05So should I tell them? Should we keep Abby?
- 24:07We should not keep. Is this something that you want
- 24:09to do now, Abby? You're not going to do now, see?
- 24:13So you just apologize. You empathize with the person,
- 24:15Say I beg no Vex. Then you refocus on them and it
- 24:21must always be on them that the reason why I was asking is
- 24:23because this information will help me to serve you the better.
- 24:31They now try and get an advancement.
- 24:32You try and move things forward for the next step.
- 24:35Then let's see what else, what else, what else, what else?
- 24:39OK now another question you can ask.
- 24:40This one is just in casual gist. So what happens to your business
- 24:42when power fails during the peak season?
- 24:47You can ask, you can ask there's a another solar, sorry, yeah,
- 24:55another solar person who had delivered to ask the question.
- 24:59And it turns out that I think the was it a betting, I can't
- 25:03remember what it was a betting company or something.
- 25:05But anyway, because the persons, the person was using UPS UPS.
- 25:11So because the person UPS failed, I think they lost some
- 25:14data. It's not a bad question to ask.
- 25:19So when you ask now that kind of question, you're getting a sense
- 25:22of oh, OK, this is actually the serious something like every
- 25:25single time this person's power something just crash, as in data
- 25:29will just miss. OK, that kind of person.
- 25:33OK, yeah, they, they, they have a serious problem.
- 25:36So, you know, we're going to give him maybe not close
- 25:40marking, but you know, we could have followed them.
- 25:43You know, we stay on it, just not the kind of person that you
- 25:47talk to and they say, you know what, let me call him back in
- 25:49four weeks. Another question that I wish
- 25:53more people would ask, but I don't know Nigerian business
- 25:56people. You're afraid of asking.
- 25:57Is there any reason you started researching now?
- 26:01Ask for me. I asked the question.
- 26:05I will talk. We'll learn about yourself.
- 26:07Oh, is there any reason why you're reaching out to me now?
- 26:10Ask. You never know.
- 26:12You never know. You don't know what kind of
- 26:14information you're going to cover.
- 26:15Some somebody might say, look, I'm so frustrated, I'm tired of
- 26:19this Nepal situation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 26:20OK, good, good, good, good. We now know that this is a
- 26:23serious problem. We now know that this is a sense
- 26:24of urgency. Some other person will say
- 26:29nothing, nothing in particular. I was just some of the people
- 26:32who at the office were just talking and I was just wondering
- 26:35how much would the solar system cost?
- 26:38Sorry, solar and investor system.
- 26:39Forgive me. Every time I say solar system, I
- 26:41remember the planets. How much will the solar system
- 26:45cost by the time the person answer like that?
- 26:48You know that. Oh, OK, nothing deep, nothing
- 26:51serious. They're just reaching out to you
- 26:53now just because somebody in the office like you know how people
- 26:56just just that, oh, Abdul Rahman bought solar system or he bought
- 27:00his own for six million. Really. 6,000,000 yes.
- 27:03And The thing is powering the system, powering his house for
- 27:05three days, three days, 6,000,000 Oh, OK.
- 27:08And then because they now reach out to you.
- 27:10So they're just curious. So ask more of you should ask is
- 27:14there any reason why you started researching now for those of you
- 27:17who are web developers, somebody call you, they say you are
- 27:19website after you talk to them about the website idea what they
- 27:22want to just ask them or is there any reason why he reached
- 27:24out to me? Now ask if the person says,
- 27:27yeah, because we are trying to expand social and so in the
- 27:30business we want this feature to go live before 1 feature to go
- 27:34live in the next six weeks. Good.
- 27:36You now have information now, OK, Be like, say this is a
- 27:42serious something. The one that seemed to go live
- 27:45in six weeks. OK, no problem.
- 27:47More follow, you know, more follow up.
- 27:49Stay on it. You never know.
- 27:52Ask is there any reason why I'm researching now?
- 27:54Oh, no, no, no. I was just curious.
- 27:57Oh, I just saw your ad and I just got curious.
- 27:59At least you know the temperature of these people.
- 28:03Now, another question I told Snow White that you can ask is,
- 28:05is your current setup ready for solar?
- 28:12Yeah, some people say that's where you now find out that, oh,
- 28:15OK, they had solar before the thing packed up, blah, blah,
- 28:17blah. So, you know, the trunking is
- 28:19still there would just be a matter of you coming in and, you
- 28:22know, swapping out the cables or swapping out this or swapping
- 28:25out that. So is your current setup already
- 28:27ready for design? You know, it might give you a
- 28:29sense. Did they have solar before from
- 28:34asking that kind of question? That's why you might be able to
- 28:35figure out if somebody else came for a visit before, because
- 28:38there's some people who answer and say, Oh yeah, yeah, sure.
- 28:40We had another company over. They already looked at the roof.
- 28:42Unless everything is OK, at least now you know that.
- 28:45Oh, so they have been talking to other people.
- 28:48I am not the first company that they're calling, you know, so
- 28:52things like that. Now, usually I try to give a
- 28:56very structured and principled framework for how to run through
- 29:01these things. So I'm terribly sorry that today
- 29:04I didn't give you an accurate framework for how to ask
- 29:07questions like this. When it comes to timelines, when
- 29:10it comes to urgency, To be honest, I'm not even sure if
- 29:14somebody can come up with a friend.
- 29:16Anyway, I'll look, maybe someone has come up with a framework.
- 29:18But The thing is, you know, we try.
- 29:21We just keep on trying, trying, trying.
- 29:22The thing is, just as you've heard from me now, you kind of
- 29:28get the scope that I'm trying to use.
- 29:31You try and apply to your business or you hear other
- 29:35people selling and then you try and mimic what it is that they
- 29:38do. But from listening from some
- 29:41creativity and from trial and error, we can figure out how to
- 29:45get better at our question asking process.
- 29:47Like when I was talking to running office, my own solar guy
- 29:51when I wanted to buy batteries over here in Abuja and we had
- 29:54spoken and then he just said casually so OK now, so when you
- 29:57go send the bar and I was impressed.
- 30:00I was like OK, cool, I've never heard that before.
- 30:03That was the first time I heard it and I tried it on someone and
- 30:06the thing was OK, the conversation don't flow smooth.
- 30:08So OK, so when you go send bar now as a just casual two guys,
- 30:12you know, you know, two young men under the yard.
- 30:15So you just say that's how the guy said it.
- 30:18So when you go send bar, that was it.
- 30:20I was like, OK, interesting. Direct, not informal as in it's
- 30:26very direct. Washa is not too forceful.
- 30:28He didn't come out and say when are you paying me?
- 30:30He didn't come out and say when will you transfer?
- 30:33Just say when you go send bar. I said, OK, correct.
- 30:36I've now found something that I can use in my own tool chest.
- 30:40So like that, just keep on, just keep on common ways to try and
- 30:49ask, ask timeline questions, urgency questions, then listen
- 30:52to what other people do as well and then try it out.
- 30:55And over time, as Brian Tracy says, you know the the odds will
- 30:59be in our favour. So remember, for those of you
- 31:03who are Nigerian founders who are trying to build your
- 31:06product, what you're facing some software issue, the money to
- 31:11cost, you don't know code, you don't have a tech founder,
- 31:14that's not a problem. You just go to Ikanga software
- 31:16factory that is IKSF dot Ng, go there, I will get your product
- 31:23idea live in seven days. You have a free domain and a
- 31:26free hosting for one year. If at any single point you want
- 31:30to bail, that's not a problem. You can migrate the code by
- 31:34yourself. So to start, because we're
- 31:37trying to get 10 people up and going before August is over, you
- 31:42get a 20% discount. So you just type in tav TAV when
- 31:48you get to the website IKSF dot Ng or you type in IUD AYEDE.
- 31:55And when you do that, send me a text message or WhatsApp
- 31:57message. Just reach out to me
- 31:5908064662140. I'm asking because I want to be
- 32:03sure that you've been taken care of and I want to be sure that
- 32:05there are no issue because before I put my name to a
- 32:08project, I want to be sure that everybody is, you understand,
- 32:12everybody's kosher and everything is good.
- 32:14I want to be sure that I don't put my name somewhere and then
- 32:17people will rubbish me. So yeah, let me know.
- 32:20So that's it. I'll catch you all some other
- 32:21time.