Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Don't Guess What They Want: How Making Assumptions Kills Your Sales

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Don't Guess What They Want: How Making Assumptions Kills Your Sales · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  There are lots of Nigerian business people or lots of
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  Nigerian salespeople who sell on behalf of an employer who are
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  making mistakes in their sales process because they are making
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  assumptions about buyer intent. To put it another way, the
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  reason why some of you aren't growing in your business or the
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  reason why some of you are not growing in your career is
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  because you're making too many assumptions around who the
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  customer is about what the customer wants and about whether
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  the customer is going to buy. Now, because you're making some
• 0:32
  of these assumptions, you are not having a full and proper
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  sales conversation. You're not having a proper sales
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  process and you are contracting the conversation.
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  And there is no way that you're going to make money or there's
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  no way that you're going to start making proper sales if you
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  are contracting the sales process.
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  That's the reason why those of you whose philosophies look
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  Auger, you did buy, I mean, you won't buy Abby, you know, I'm
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  back. That's the reason why you guys
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  are struggling. It's because your process is
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  contracted. You don't have a process of
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  figuring out who the OR guy is. You don't have a process of
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  figuring out what or guy wants. You don't have a process of
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  figuring out what or guy wants to use it for on what terms he
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  wants to buy when he needs the thing.
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  By lots of things, you're cutting the process short.
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  Your own attitude is if they're serious, they'll buy.
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  And so because of that, Madame comes into the shop and then you
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  look at my down script in the face and they say, Madame, you
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  they buy Abu No, I buy. That's the reason why you're
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  struggling. Now before we get into the meat
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  of the episode, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call
• 1:31
  me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 1:39
  If you're interested in having a 15 minute sales audit or a
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  business audit, you can WhatsApp me on the same number
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  08064662140. Or if you'd like to join my
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  WhatsApp channel, send me a message on the same number and
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  I'll hook you up. Now, speaking about the 15
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  minute sale audit, I just finished having one of those
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  conversations now, although to be honest, it ran into 30
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  minutes in this guy's case. And the fellow's name is
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  Hezekiah. He has the most, one of the most
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  interesting names I've come across so far since I started
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  the podcast is Hezekiah, and the surname is 100.
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  Yeah, you heard me correctly, Hezekiah 100.
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  Anyway, he used to be on reality TV and he used to be on radio.
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  He also used to have a podcast, but he's moved on and he now has
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  a career with Nike. So it's one of those boys that
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  is making good money because, you know, he's selling in,
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  selling in dollars, collecting Commission in dollars.
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  So again, we have the conversation now.
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  Typically I limit these sale audits or business audits to 15
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  minutes. But to be honest, I was enjoying
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  the conversation. And then apart from that, he is
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  the first person I've spoken to who's doing international
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  retail. So I wanted to, you know, feel
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  the conversation out because that's not the part of the, the,
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  the business sector in Niger that I have been exposed to
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  directly. I mean, of course, if you forget
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  all those other guys, you know, the ones that I spoke to, you
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  know, the fellow, the two guys based in China who sell trucks
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  back here in Nigeria, you know, sell Sino trucks, whole walls,
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  you know, trucks and you know all of that.
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  You know, I don't want to classify that one as
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  international because all I put is any get what I'm trying to
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  say, it's not international retail.
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  So I was enjoying the conversation.
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  So we actually spoke for more like 30 minutes.
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  Anyway, how did I get here? OK, so Hezekiah, Mr. 100 is tied
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  directly into this whole thing. Because of the conversations I
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  was having with Mr. Hezekiah, it became clear that the thing that
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  is limiting his career growth because remember, he's a
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  professional salesperson selling on behalf of someone else.
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  So the guide is sell for a company that is a distributor
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  for Nike International. That's why Hezekiah is making
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  good money. Good money, by the way, for
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  those of you who are listening on the podcast and who thinks
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  that jobs are scarce in Nigeria or that economic, you know,
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  opportunities for economic advancements are scarce in
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  Nigeria. You see, this is also one of the
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  reasons why I make the podcast when I'm talking concrete like
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  this and I'm giving examples, Can you hear how other Nigerians
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  are making money? You can see what's going on.
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  You can see how things are moving.
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  Imagine boys are collecting money and wearing Nike on top,
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  stepping fresh looking fly. So just shine your eye.
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  You know, it's possible there are people that are moving
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  small, small, you can be moving as well.
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  That's also one of the reasons why I make the podcast.
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  So back to Hezekiah. OK, so back to Hezekiah now and
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  then the assumptions that are limiting his health growth.
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  So he's employed by a distributor who's responsible
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  for Niger and Africa, if I remember correctly.
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  And of course, Nike International is their boss.
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  So they have two physical locations, 1 location is in
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  Ikecha City, Ikecha City Mall and that's the one in a Lausa.
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  I'm surprised know that it's still there because I remember
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  when the thing opened like 20 something years ago, I mean then
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  that was that was like the height, you know.
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  So even if you don't have money, you just go to the car park, you
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  just go and park there, you know, feeling like a big boy.
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  You know, your mom sees car, you just, you know, just the flex.
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  You just go and buy ice cream. You sit on your boots and, you
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  know, be feeling like you're a big boy.
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  They go to scope Cheeks because you don't have liver to go and
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  approach any of them. So I'm surprised to see that
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  location is still open. And that is where they have
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  their premium, I think. What did you guys say?
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  Their premium store is Nikkeja City.
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  So if you're in Nikkeja City Mall and you're passing through
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  and then you see the Nike store, then yeah, that is where those
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  are the people that Hezekiah sells on behalf of.
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  But Hezekiah, you're not going to find him in the store, all
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  right, because he's responsible. He's responsible for online
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  sales. So if you ever try buying
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  through Nike and you can't find what it is you're looking for
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  and they hook you up to someone, the person you're going to be
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  talking to most likely is as a guy.
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  So as a guy now, like most sales people, he wants his Commission
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  to grow. He wants his career to grow.
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  That's the whole point of listening to this podcast,
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  because you want to make more money.
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  You know you have salary and you want or got to start giving you
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  Commission or you have Commission and you want your
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  Commission to grow. That's the whole beauty of being
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  in sales, that the harder you work, the more money you earn.
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  So let's say you work for one of these organizations.
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  By the way, he didn't tell me how much he earns, but let's say
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  you work for one of these organizations and maybe your
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  salary basis maybe 20 M every year.
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  And then this year you make Commission only two or three
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  million. You know, you can sit down
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  reasoning that if only I had sold extra units of this extra
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  needs of that, I could have been making Commission of, you know,
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  5M or Commission of 10 M or something.
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  So if your base is 15-M20M, you can now support it again with
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  Commission. If you're working hard, you
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  can't be increasing and increasing your Commission.
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  You can say that it's not bad. It's not bad at all.
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  And that precisely is a struggle for people who are, who sell on
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  other people's behalf. So that's a struggle.
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  We're trying to maximize that Commission.
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  Now, I asked, I tried to get a sense of the, the funnel because
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  whenever you're trying to up your, whenever you're trying to
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  up your commissions, there are several levels that you can
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  take. Now, typically what most people
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  try to do is they try to increase lead generation.
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  They try to increase the number of people that they're talking
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  to at the top of the funnel. So in other words, the rationale
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  is something like this. Now let's say last year you
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  spoke to like 200 people. Out of that 200 people, maybe
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  you closed 500 deals and that 500 deals gave you X amounts
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  billions. So for most people now, just
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  trying to use a common sense perspective, what they will try
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  and do is OK, if last year I spoke to 200 people, I closed 50
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  deals. From those 50 deals I made 200
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  M, they would, they would say, OK, this year, let me try and
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  see how instead of talking to 200 people, let me say I can
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  speak to 600 people. You know, the assumption is that
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  if I speak to three times as many as many people, I'll make
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  three times as much money. Now it's not always the case
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  mathematically, but yes, there is some sort of progression that
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  if I spoke to 200 people and I made X amount of money, if I
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  speak to 400 people, I'll make X amount of money higher.
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  If I speak to 600 higher, 700 higher like that, like that.
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  So that's the thing I looked at Legion, but unfortunately Legion
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  is capped, is fixed because he's not in his hand, he's not in,
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  he's not in his control because he's Nike that is in control of
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  that. And it is Olga who is in control
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  of that. So if Olga and Nike decide that
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  they want to advertise plenty, then you know, the leads, people
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  calling in, there'll be plenty. So for someone who is in
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  Hezekiah situation now, the only way to move forward now is
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  conversions. Conversions just means this that
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  when you're having a conversation with a potential
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  customer, with a potential client, the ability for you to
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  get them to take the next step, that's a conversion.
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  Now let me go back to the example that I always give,
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  which is back when I was in the event space.
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  So I preferred to promote my own business by attending business
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  exhibitions, bridal shows. So I'll go to your bridal show.
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  You step on the floor, brides everywhere, all those brides and
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  a potential customer. You try and talk to as many as
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  possible. You try and bring a few down to
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  the table. So if you're on the floor, you
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  talk to 50 brides, no problem. From the 50, if you're able to
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  bring 30 back to the table for in depth one-on-one convo is
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  good. If that is a conversion, you
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  talk to 5030, people follow you to the stand, that's conversion.
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  Then from the 30, let's say you're able to get phone numbers
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  and e-mail addresses from let's say 20.
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  That's also a conversion. So you spoke to 5030, followed
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  you to the table, That's conversion.
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  From the 30 that followed you to the table, 20 gave you contact
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  details. The other 10 say no, no, no,
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  don't worry. Just give me your, just give me
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  your brochure. Now fly be this, now business
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  card, be this and no problem. Now if I need you, I will call
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  you. That's how those ones escape.
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  But at least you've got 20 contact details.
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  So for those 20 that you've gotten down on a conversion,
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  then of course when the bride affair is over, you will now
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  call up those 20 to try a hook meeting.
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  Let's say five goes to only 15. Answer 15.
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  I agree that you know they will have meeting.
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  That's conversion. OK, so 30 people came to the
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  table. You collected 24 numbers.
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  You spoke to 15 people and I agreed that you have meeting.
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  Now people saying we'll have meeting doesn't mean meeting
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  will actually hold. So out of those 15, at the end
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  of the day, let's say now only 10, only ten of those meetings
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  held. That's conversion.
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  You set 15 appointments. You're only able to get 10
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  minute meetings. That's conversion.
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  Then out of that ten meeting, you talk.
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  Let's say you issue proposal to maybe only 8 because two people
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  saying you know what? Let me think about it and you
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  know how they come. You know something, something,
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  something as our tool will escape.
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  So you only issue proposal to it.
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  Now out of those eight that you give proposal to you manage and
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  squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
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  You now come and close like 5 deals.
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  So that is conversions. You spoke to 50 people.
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  At the end of the day you close 5 deals.
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  So you spoke to 50 people on the floor. 30 follow you to take to
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  your to your your booth, your show booth, the 30 that follow
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  you to the show booth 20 drop contact details to 20 that drop
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  contact details. You said 15 meetings from the 15
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  meetings only 10 people show from the 10 people will show you
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  issue a proposals or the eight proposals where you issue you
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  close the deal you collect deposit from 5:00.
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  So that is what we call conversions step by step by step
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  by step. So now what someone like
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  Hezekiah has to work on is conversions.
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  You're there in your office, the AC tight, just minding your
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  business next to your inbox. Do ping him because excuse me,
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  because somebody from Nike international or from the local
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  distributor, they couldn't find something.
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  They can't find shoe, they can't find your guy, they can't find
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  whatever. And so they talk to customer
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  service Rep, customer service reps here, no problem.
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  You get one guy, Hezekiah in go hook you up.
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  Let me transfer you. So in your inbox, ping him,
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  message your show. Good.
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  Now you have to work on your conversions.
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  Are you going to be able to have good conversations, engaging
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  conversations, promising conversations with these people
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  and then move them one step along through the process until
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  ultimately some people who buy. But of course, he also said that
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  he has a problem because some people did go stamp, which is
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  normal, which is normal. I've said it before, I even told
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  him and I'm going to say it again because not everybody
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  listens to every single episode. But look, ghosting is a normal
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  fact of life. So it should not confuse you.
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  It should not disturb you at all.
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  No, hold on. No, it should not confuse you.
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  You should not disturb you in an emotional sense.
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  They should feel heartbroken. That and then the ghost me.
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  Well, you should be keeping track.
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  Like OK, for every 10 people that I talk to, 8 of them are
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  ghosting me. In that case, it's a problem,
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  you know that you're making some mistakes, need to figure out
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  what's going on. So you just keep on tracking it
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  so you can get a sense of what it is that is going on so that
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  we can fix the problem so that we can cure the problem.
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  But no, BC people are ghosting you.
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  And then because of that you're lying awake at night and you're
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  thinking this customer. I thought we were getting along.
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  I thought was going good. I thought we were going to buy
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  what happened. So no emotional angst about
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  these issues at all, but be tracking because it could be a
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  sign that something is going wrong.
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  So I told him, look, ghosting is normal, but then a high
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  percentage of ghosting means that there's a problem.
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  Usually it means that you have a problem with your qualification
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  and discovery. Now, qualification and discovery
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  is the part of the sales process, is the part of the
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  business relationship where you are trying to figure out this
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  guy, this babe that has reached out to me, who is this person?
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  What do they want? Why do they want it?
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  When do they want it? Are there other opportunities
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  that they need to do they have a time frame, do they have a time
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  frame when they want these needs satisfied?
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  You know, questions like that we need to ask people questions
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  because it determines what it is that we present at the end of
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  the day. It determines the kind of
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  proposal or the sales presentation that we're going to
• 14:33
  make. Well, should be asking people
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  questions. So I asked as a kind of
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  question, which if any of you call, I'll ask you, especially
• 14:42
  if you're paying me money and we're working on the consulting
• 14:44
  session. Cause for as a car, we just talk
• 14:46
  on the surface level. But if you're a client, we'll go
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  deep, deep, deep, deep, deep deep down.
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  Go dive deep down. Because if you're paying me
• 14:53
  money, we need to get rid of this thing.
• 14:55
  What's going on? We need to unlock your destiny
• 14:57
  so that we can move forward and start ending these higher
• 14:59
  commissions. So I asked him, look, what's
• 15:01
  what's, what's your process for qualification and discovery?
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  The guy who cooks small, I said, OK, when people hit you up in
• 15:08
  the DM, like what do you say? Then he started telling me about
• 15:11
  his philosophy, which is he wants good customer service.
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  And definitely we suppose that customer services are like all,
• 15:20
  I put it now that's our true north.
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  So everybody is supposed to deliver customer, good customer
• 15:26
  service. And then he also says he wants
• 15:27
  to give the best. And we spoke about a couple of
• 15:29
  things like that and all that is commendable.
• 15:31
  So if you're one of those people who believes that you should be
• 15:33
  professional, you should give good customer service, you
• 15:38
  should ready to give people the best, you should be timely, you
• 15:43
  should be on point, you should be courteous, all those things
• 15:46
  are wonderful. But The thing is, saying that
• 15:49
  this is what I expect of myself or saying that this is how I'm
• 15:52
  going to handle a business conversation, saying that this
• 15:55
  is how this is the tenor of the business conversation that I
• 15:58
  want to have. It's not the same thing as
• 16:00
  saying you have a sales process. You actually have to sit down.
• 16:04
  It requires some thought. Now, luckily with these AI
• 16:08
  tools, we can use 30 minutes and just come up with something
• 16:12
  roughly that we can use to start.
• 16:13
  But in the old days, what we can, I shouldn't say the old
• 16:16
  days, forgive me because I'm a very young man.
• 16:18
  So before all these tools existed, we actually had to sit
• 16:23
  down the sheet of paper and you start thinking, you start
• 16:26
  writing out the questions you need to ask or you start looking
• 16:31
  for information that you're supposed to source.
• 16:33
  Now let me go back to events for wedding photography and for for
• 16:40
  wedding events, basically, if you're in the event space, of
• 16:44
  course you need to know the person's name.
• 16:47
  Of course you need to have their contact details.
• 16:49
  Then you'll need to have the wedding date.
• 16:52
  Very, very important because somebody that doesn't have
• 16:55
  wedding dates is not a serious customer.
• 16:58
  They're just, you know, well, first of all, have they been
• 17:00
  proposed to? Some of you be saying that these
• 17:03
  things are obvious. Look, it's not obvious.
• 17:05
  You'd be surprised the number of people who call you up your
• 17:07
  wedding photographer. You would discuss price and then
• 17:10
  at the end of the day say, oh, no, no, no.
• 17:11
  I was just curious. You know, they haven't even
• 17:13
  proposed to me yet. And in my mind I'm wondering
• 17:15
  like, so why the hell are you calling me?
• 17:16
  See, trust me, that's happened to me.
• 17:18
  There's one of my friends she buzz me and she was like oh how
• 17:22
  much should do tried and everything I study shout and say
• 17:24
  hey correct neck. I don't happen you don't have
• 17:26
  one that's not her real name anyway.
• 17:28
  I just said I beg Joe and then we had the conversation and I
• 17:33
  drew up invoices. Honestly I drop 2 invoices and I
• 17:37
  sent it to her and I said OK so often now so like what's the
• 17:41
  next step now? When are we going to collect
• 17:43
  deposit and she said Oh no actually nobody else proposed
• 17:45
  are just doing research. If you are laughing at me,
• 17:49
  please, I want you to laugh very well, very, very well, because
• 17:54
  I'm not making this stuff up. It happens.
• 17:57
  So if you meet somebody in the event space who has a list of
• 18:00
  questions and wants to ask all their questions, it is not
• 18:03
  because they're being lazy or not creative, they're being
• 18:07
  slavish. No, it is because these things
• 18:09
  are important. So have they proposed to you?
• 18:13
  It is a question that the wedding planner will ask.
• 18:14
  It's a question that a a wedding photographer will ask.
• 18:18
  It's a question that the wedding videographer will ask.
• 18:20
  Have they proposed to you as a family?
• 18:23
  Met people are fixed. Wedding dates are good.
• 18:26
  Where's the hall? Very good.
• 18:29
  May God bless your marriage. This is that that you know, it
• 18:32
  sounds like it's casual conversation, but we are doing
• 18:34
  qualification and discovery. Who is this person?
• 18:37
  What do they want? What are the timelines?
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  What do they need? Do I have the skill set to be
• 18:41
  able to fulfill their, their request, their wants, their
• 18:44
  wishes? It is a process and you need to
• 18:48
  actually come up with a process. So in the beginning for me, mine
• 18:51
  used to be on a sheet of paper. And if you asked my wife, I
• 18:54
  would never take a call back in my early days without having my
• 18:57
  sheet of paper. We could be driving and then
• 18:59
  somebody calls and then you know, oh, it's a wedding.
• 19:03
  I say, oh, sorry, give me one moment.
• 19:04
  I'll call you back in 5 minutes. Are we pack on the road
• 19:07
  Immediately I bring down my sheet of paper.
• 19:08
  I have that conversation because I had the list of questions and
• 19:11
  I wanted to ask those questions. I didn't want to forget
• 19:13
  anything. So if you're in Hezekiah
• 19:15
  situation, in fact, so long as you're in business, whether you
• 19:19
  sell for somebody or not, you need to have that sheet of
• 19:22
  paper. You need to write down a list of
• 19:24
  questions. It doesn't have to be plenty.
• 19:27
  Even if all you have is 3/4 questions, it will help you to
• 19:30
  be able to figure out who is this person, what do they want,
• 19:34
  what do they need, when do they need it buying, you know
• 19:37
  different things, but we need to ask questions.
• 19:40
  So I told him that good. So you know what, next time now
• 19:43
  when somebody reaches out to you, what kind of question will
• 19:46
  he ask? And then remember, I'm talking
• 19:48
  about assumptions that people make.
• 19:49
  That is why Hezekiah said something that was fatal, fatal
• 19:53
  to the business, not fatal to him because you know, he's does
• 19:55
  business now, not in kilos. He said look that people who
• 19:59
  reach out, who come through Nike's website, that definitely
• 20:01
  those people are ready to buy. Now I understand why he would
• 20:05
  say that because Nike, it is Nike.
• 20:09
  I remember when I was in school those things were expensive.
• 20:13
  If I remember one time my brother that time went
• 20:16
  Timberland, the rain. My brother spent 14K on
• 20:19
  Timberlands. I wanted to die.
• 20:21
  I went home and I told my mother that.
• 20:24
  Do you know what your son just did?
• 20:25
  She said, I already heard I really great, great, great.
• 20:29
  My mom was like, look, just forget it that you know, he
• 20:31
  wants the Timberlands, wants the Timberlands.
• 20:32
  I wanted to die 14K on that's for one pair of shoe, one pair
• 20:38
  of shoe. Back then our school fees was
• 20:40
  like 6K. So my brother's school fees 6K,
• 20:43
  my old school fees 6K. Then he went to go and spend 14K
• 20:47
  on shoes. So I already know that for the
• 20:51
  shoe culture, it's expensive and Nike is Apex.
• 20:54
  So definitely anybody wear enter Nike store.
• 20:56
  The guy who bar serious bar and of course, I mean Hezekiah,
• 21:00
  we're talking you know, he mentioned now that I guess on
• 21:02
  shoes with you know, 200 K, 250 K400 and something Ki think he
• 21:06
  was a 600 or something K So yeah, some of you will be
• 21:09
  shocked, but see, don't be shocked.
• 21:11
  It's not about what you want. It's about what other people
• 21:14
  want. There are some people who if
• 21:16
  they step out, they want their kicks fresh 500K brand new pair
• 21:19
  of shoes. Now only me gets up one in town.
• 21:22
  So for some people that's their value.
• 21:24
  Now you will never catch me doing that.
• 21:26
  But for some people that's their value.
• 21:27
  So with that thing in mind now, because now Nike, Hezekiah, as
• 21:32
  you say, anybody wear bosom is ready to buy.
• 21:36
  And I told him, look, it's not the case.
• 21:38
  So I reminded him, OK, well, he didn't know.
• 21:41
  I told him about the episode where I decided to enter
• 21:44
  Guangzhou automobiles in Abuja. The headquarters is here in
• 21:48
  Abuja. I decided to enter the office
• 21:51
  not because I have money at the time the car was like ATM the
• 21:55
  Jeep the GS 8 correct car real sick mad car real nice.
• 21:59
  Just go and Google it. When you finish this thing just
• 22:01
  type in GACG the GS 8 correct car.
• 22:07
  I was just curious. I was frustrated like look this
• 22:09
  my Toyota is giving me hell. I say OK GS Chinese car OK man,
• 22:15
  let me just go and see. So I entered and I think that
• 22:18
  day I had a business meeting. So that day I was you understand
• 22:21
  now I bath, I dress right, you know, spray perfume, looking
• 22:26
  sweet, smelling sweet. So the babe just assume that
• 22:30
  this is a serious person. Meanwhile, I'm not a serious
• 22:32
  person. The fact that I entered GAC
• 22:35
  headquarters does not mean I have 80 million to buy a car
• 22:39
  does not mean. But there's some of you who just
• 22:44
  make some assumptions that this NAJIC, everybody knows that the
• 22:50
  cheapest thing we sell here is 40 million.
• 22:52
  So anybody went out here, the person is ready to drop by.
• 22:56
  We can't be assuming we can't that people are ready to buy.
• 23:02
  So you have to go through a process.
• 23:04
  If you assume that people are ready to buy, you will now be in
• 23:07
  order taker mode. And the problem with order taker
• 23:09
  mode is you're in a subservient relationship.
• 23:12
  You're not a boy boy. It's just a matter of do you
• 23:14
  have it, give it to me, buy and leave.
• 23:16
  And that's not how we build sales.
• 23:18
  No, we're supposed to be a consultant.
• 23:20
  We're supposed to be a specialist.
• 23:21
  So you consider yourself to be a Nike specialist, a Nike
• 23:24
  consultant, A footwear consultant, a lifestyle
• 23:26
  consultant, a lifestyle specialist, a culture
• 23:31
  specialist, a you know, whatever it is you want to call yourself,
• 23:34
  but you have to be cha, you're a specialist.
• 23:36
  You get my point. So you might not sell Nikes like
• 23:43
  Hezekiah does, but 100% you're a consultant or you're a
• 23:47
  specialist in something. If my own business is Sharma and
• 23:51
  assume I will not consider myself to be a Sharma like is
• 23:55
  your Sharma I'm selling, I don't know how I'll couch it, but I
• 23:58
  will think of something I'll be a specialist of.
• 24:00
  So some I don't know all I said I'll think about butcher, even
• 24:05
  if it's only as soon as our moms I'm selling.
• 24:08
  There's a way I'll consider myself a specialist.
• 24:12
  So we started walking through a couple of suggestions.
• 24:17
  So thank you very much for reaching out.
• 24:18
  How can I help you today? Where he said no, that he starts
• 24:21
  the conversation differently and he says, oh, hello there.
• 24:24
  This is Nike contact support. Hello there, This is Nike
• 24:27
  contact support. And so I told him, I look this
• 24:29
  your Cardinal scene, apart from the fact that you do, you assume
• 24:34
  that people are ready to buy, you're keeping sales in personal
• 24:37
  and we can't keep sales. Selling is a very personal
• 24:40
  thing. Selling is a conversation.
• 24:43
  You should make it clear that you're talking to a human being,
• 24:46
  not to a business. It is easy to ghost the
• 24:47
  business. And I told him I've ghosted
• 24:50
  Amazon lots of times because now Amazon, there are a couple of
• 24:55
  books on it to buy. I was loading it, I was loading
• 24:57
  it, I was loading it. That was back when we had our
• 24:59
  first born, you know, just they buy diaper and you know, things
• 25:02
  like that. Then I also had the studio, so
• 25:04
  paying rent and everything. By the time I loaded up all the
• 25:07
  books, now you know how to cut, how to cut ready to pay.
• 25:09
  I saw that the amount was now 100 and something key.
• 25:12
  I say 100 and something key on top books.
• 25:16
  At this stage, I say if I buy this thing, no, no, no, no, no.
• 25:19
  The kind of quarter we're going to sue in my household, you know
• 25:22
  as well, we have a baby on ground.
• 25:24
  So that's how I just I just I just leave them, you know, you
• 25:27
  click on how to cut everything will be in the cart.
• 25:29
  Then Amazon would send you emails, you know, oh, you
• 25:33
  abandoned cards. Do you want to buy?
• 25:35
  Oh, we have discount. We have this we have.
• 25:37
  I was just ignoring them because now Amazon is easy to go to the
• 25:41
  business. But if throughout that process
• 25:44
  less I was talking to somebody, you know, Natasha at Amazon.
• 25:48
  So she did send me e-mail direct as a human being, you know, it's
• 25:51
  different. I'll feel bad that hey, this guy
• 25:54
  don't disappoint her. So keeping for the process of
• 25:59
  collecting money, keeping things on the official official is not
• 26:02
  a very good idea. Make this thing personal.
• 26:05
  So I told him. Now look, you say it's not a
• 26:08
  matter of hello there, Nike contact support.
• 26:10
  No, it's hello there. This is Hezekiah.
• 26:13
  I'm with Nike Contact Support. Personalizing yourself like
• 26:16
  that, you're a human being. It makes a difference.
• 26:21
  Now, people still goes to human beings, but I'm not saying that
• 26:23
  people goes to businesses Easy. Even me our ghost Nike contact
• 26:26
  support center easy, I'll just ghost so inject some humanity
• 26:35
  there inject some personality there.
• 26:37
  So if you've been doing that, please excuse me.
• 26:39
  If you've been doing that, please in your business, don't
• 26:41
  do that. Don't say hello.
• 26:45
  This is a 249 architectural design services.
• 26:48
  No, if you're an architect, it's hello there.
• 26:52
  This is chair Maka. I'm the head designer at 249
• 26:56
  architectural design services. You're still professional.
• 27:00
  He's a human being. The person knows that.
• 27:02
  Oh OK, no be bought as we do relate one-on-one a human being
• 27:07
  so personalize it. So hello there, Hezekiah Nike.
• 27:11
  I'm Nike contact support. So at this point he keeps
• 27:14
  correct. He doesn't say anything.
• 27:15
  I'm not like right now mistake. You don't say anything.
• 27:18
  The customer will feel in the silence and then they will say,
• 27:20
  do you have edge order? You're already in in order taker
• 27:26
  mode. That mode of give me one rice,
• 27:29
  give me two meats, give me 4A goosey, give me plus one
• 27:33
  Coca-Cola 1 beaky. Oh yeah, how much take your
• 27:36
  money and that is order taker relationship.
• 27:40
  Excuse me. So one engage people in
• 27:42
  conversation. So I told him that no, no, no,
• 27:44
  no, no, no, no that. So I tried to figure out whether
• 27:48
  he has any background information on the people that
• 27:50
  are coming in because whenever you have any background
• 27:52
  information, start with that background info wrong with it.
• 27:57
  So he said normal, normal, the guy doesn't get background
• 28:00
  information, but sometimes somebody might call him and say,
• 28:03
  oh, you know what, I'm about to send this person to you.
• 28:06
  This person is looking for a lounge where we don't have it in
• 28:08
  the shop. But I told the person that, you
• 28:10
  know, if they contact you, you know, you will come, you will
• 28:12
  come up. Now in that kind of scenario
• 28:14
  where somebody now reaches out, you don't say hello there.
• 28:19
  Nike customer care support you now keep quiet.
• 28:21
  No, it's Hello there. This is Hezekiah from Nike
• 28:24
  Contact support. I had a chat with Ismael earlier
• 28:29
  and Ismael told me that you're looking for a pair of
• 28:32
  comfortable loungewear. Is that correct?
• 28:34
  Question mark conversation don't start.
• 28:37
  That is it. It is a conversation.
• 28:39
  You're not an order taker. You don't engage.
• 28:43
  That's how we sell. Engage with somebody.
• 28:48
  Then from there it's so excuse me.
• 28:57
  OK, Next thing I told him to do is to drive the conversation
• 29:00
  forward. Typically for every product or
• 29:01
  service, there are different use case scenarios.
• 29:03
  A use case scenario just means people who want to buy your
• 29:06
  product or service, they typically want to use it for
• 29:08
  something. It is an OK way to start the
• 29:11
  conversation by exploring your use case scenarios.
• 29:14
  Now, in his own case, somebody's looking for a lounge rear.
• 29:17
  So I asked him, OK, which one is lounge rear?
• 29:19
  Because you know, I'm not fashionable.
• 29:21
  You know, my wife says I have the fashion sense of a Ghanaian
• 29:24
  school teacher. So those of you who are
• 29:28
  Ghanaian, I beg Novix. Those of you who are school
• 29:30
  teachers, I beg novix. And I just hope my wife said and
• 29:33
  my mother agreed 100% that I have a fashion sense of a
• 29:36
  Ghanaian school teacher. So anyway, so honestly, I don't
• 29:40
  know what lounge way is. So he had to now explain what
• 29:44
  lounge way is and what people use it for.
• 29:46
  So as the guy told me that lounge way, it's a very casual
• 29:49
  or something like people just want you.
• 29:51
  I'll be the one hang out. Then you just wait.
• 29:55
  In fact, when we're done with this convo, I need to go online
• 29:58
  and I need to Google Nike lounge wear.
• 30:00
  Let me see what it looks like. Maybe I should start dressing
• 30:02
  like that. So so those are the use case
• 30:07
  scenarios. Now people want lounge wear.
• 30:09
  They're either looking for casual wear or they're looking
• 30:11
  for somebody to hang out. So it is OK to say when the
• 30:15
  person says, oh, is that correct?
• 30:16
  And person say, yeah, I'm looking for some lounge where it
• 30:18
  is OK to say, OK, cool. So what you're looking for, is
• 30:21
  this something that you want to wear in a hangout with your guys
• 30:25
  or just some you just want something casual you can use
• 30:27
  around the house or use around the office.
• 30:29
  I hear what the person has to say when the person says, oh,
• 30:32
  no, something casual for, you know, casual Fridays around the
• 30:35
  office. Good.
• 30:38
  You can be building rapport. I say, oh, that's cool, baby.
• 30:41
  I hope you don't mind me asking, where do you work?
• 30:44
  I mean, because typically in Niger, casual Friday is
• 30:46
  traditional. So where do you work?
• 30:48
  So, oh, I work with so so, so and so blah, blah, blah.
• 30:51
  You know, or he might not give you some details, might just
• 30:53
  say, oh, I work in, in corporate in Niger and in our own place.
• 30:57
  It doesn't have to be tried, but from there you can ask more
• 31:01
  questions, say OK, right, no problem.
• 31:02
  So does it have to be in the company colors, yes or no?
• 31:05
  OK, so these are the colors we have available.
• 31:07
  What are the kind of things you're looking?
• 31:09
  See, as you are having conversation like this, you
• 31:12
  know, you're getting more information into who this person
• 31:15
  is and what they want. You're also getting ideas about
• 31:17
  the things that you can recommend at the end of the day,
• 31:21
  and this recommendation part is important.
• 31:23
  I made a podcast episode, I think like 3 or 4 days ago,
• 31:26
  where I spoke about how lots of you are losing out on sales
• 31:28
  because you don't know your superpower.
• 31:30
  Your superpower is that you're a consultant, you're a specialist,
• 31:33
  and when you're a consultant, people expect you to make
• 31:35
  recommendations, and recommendations are the things
• 31:38
  that will help you close the sale.
• 31:39
  If you're only talking about one item, the answer is either yes
• 31:42
  or no. That's a terrible place to be
• 31:44
  because the answer somebody can give you is yes or no or ghost.
• 31:48
  But then if you have three or four options that you are
• 31:50
  contemplating, there's room to play around with.
• 31:53
  So if by the time you have this conversation with someone.
• 31:56
  Hello, this is Hezekiah, Nike care support.
• 31:59
  I had a chat with Ismail as my answer.
• 32:00
  You're looking for loungewear, is that correct?
• 32:02
  So yes. All right, cool.
• 32:03
  Oh, Allah, people who usually need loungewear, is that because
• 32:07
  wonderful hangout. I'll be just something casual
• 32:09
  like home or the office. So like, what do you have in
• 32:12
  mind? Oh, now, casual office wear.
• 32:15
  Office wear. Are you a Nigerian?
• 32:18
  I beg Novix, say yes, I'm in Nigerian.
• 32:19
  OK, Because you're not in Niger now casual way is usually a
• 32:23
  Friday something and usually a traditional something.
• 32:26
  Oh yeah, but I'm in corporate in so and so and these all were OK,
• 32:29
  cool, no problem. So do you have to match the
• 32:32
  company colors or do you have something in mind?
• 32:34
  The conversation is continuing now based on all these call, for
• 32:40
  now you will not be able to give options.
• 32:42
  And these were the examples that I gave as a kind on the call.
• 32:46
  I told him that you can now say, oh, OK, we have this Gray one,
• 32:49
  we have this red one, or we have this one that Nike used to
• 32:53
  commemorate Steph Curry. And then we have this one that
• 32:56
  Nike used to commemorate was this guy.
• 32:59
  This guy. Now people call him the GOAT,
• 33:02
  although people say that MJ is the GOAT and what's his name now
• 33:04
  LeBron, you know, put four options on the table.
• 33:08
  So this Gray one did, this black one did, this red one did, then
• 33:12
  this Steph Curry one is also good CM.
• 33:15
  This LeBron James one is also on the line.
• 33:20
  So what's which one is catching your fancy?
• 33:23
  What are you leaning towards right now?
• 33:26
  Which one stands out to you? Which one is calling your name?
• 33:29
  Remember, I keep this thing conversational.
• 33:32
  Divine has to be conversational for the purposes of sale though.
• 33:36
  Divine has to be cool and conversational after sales when
• 33:41
  it comes to implementation. You know when people are signing
• 33:43
  contracts and everything ahead, we can get all legally gained,
• 33:48
  but with four options. Now you see now that we can be
• 33:51
  keeping this guy in conversation.
• 33:55
  If the guy says, let me think about it.
• 33:56
  You saw OK, sorry, I understand. Four of them together, that's
• 34:00
  collectively like about 4000 lbs.
• 34:02
  I wouldn't spend 4000 times without talking to my wife
• 34:04
  anyway. So yeah, that that makes perfect
• 34:06
  sense. But I'm just curious, like,
• 34:09
  which one seems to be reaching out to you, the guy who identify
• 34:11
  one, maybe identify 2. All right, no problem.
• 34:14
  You know, maybe let the guy off easy.
• 34:16
  I'm sure most of our happy ex customers take about 3-4 days to
• 34:20
  consider this. Would that be OK for you?
• 34:22
  You know, yes. OK, so in that case, can I hit
• 34:24
  you up next week? So I say, yeah, sure, no
• 34:27
  problem. So that next week, now you have
• 34:29
  room to pick up the conversation to say, hey, bro, what's up?
• 34:31
  How you been? Are you still in love with this
• 34:34
  Steph Curry something? See, that's a different
• 34:37
  conversation to have. Now you call somebody, I say how
• 34:40
  far or happy Monday or I say I just want greet you.
• 34:43
  That's lousy. But with three, four options on
• 34:50
  the table, we can stay in the pocket.
• 34:52
  We can stay in the conversation. Eventually we'll have to get to
• 34:57
  the point where we get the person to make a choice and then
• 35:00
  we try and make it close. Or luckily for Hezekiah, cause
• 35:04
  in retail, especially when you sell on behalf of somebody else,
• 35:07
  they're usually some discounts. You know, there's some things
• 35:10
  you can use to prompt the sale. So like now for instance, let's
• 35:13
  say you're talking to the person now, now, now I told the person,
• 35:16
  look, you know what, it looks like you really like this Steph
• 35:19
  Curry one, even though LeBron is your guy.
• 35:23
  But you know what, Easter is coming up and normally, normally
• 35:27
  Nike International, you know, then they do promo around that
• 35:31
  time. So how about we do this?
• 35:33
  Let me book Steph Curry and let me book LeBron James for you.
• 35:39
  Now put them on hold. Then we'll see what this Easter
• 35:43
  special is going to be like. Last year, I think they gave 20%
• 35:47
  off on something, something, something.
• 35:49
  So if that's the case, you'll be able to collect Steph Curry and
• 35:52
  collect LeBron James. You collect 20% on them and then
• 35:57
  you can now add that third one so you'll be able to collect the
• 36:00
  three of them. You should come up to about so
• 36:02
  and so amount. Now the reason why I'm saying
• 36:04
  this is because somebody has pulled that move on me before.
• 36:09
  That's back when I was in Aberdeen and I wanted to buy
• 36:12
  something nice for and then let me see what it is I need to buy
• 36:16
  or something natural woman related.
• 36:18
  And but no is my my wife then she was my girlfriend.
• 36:21
  So I selected 3 and then the mistake I made that shows that I
• 36:26
  brought my wife there. So I selected 3.
• 36:28
  So I selected 5. By the time we got to the to
• 36:32
  this to the teal, the baby said, oh, that is a machine cause was
• 36:35
  an up and down something. The baby now said, oh, we only
• 36:38
  carry 4 up. That is a machine.
• 36:39
  So I only carry 4 down. That is the matching up for
• 36:43
  women. I'm sure you can figure out what
• 36:44
  I'm talking about. And their mouth was like, oh
• 36:47
  really? I say, hey, you don't have one.
• 36:48
  That's how they carry us upstairs.
• 36:50
  And then of course, the team passed my budget because I
• 36:53
  already told my wife, my girlfriend at the time, that
• 36:55
  this is how much they want to buy.
• 36:57
  So these are mathematics that they did for me.
• 36:59
  They say, oh, OK, you know what sales currently going on
• 37:02
  something, something, something. So you take this 5 down that you
• 37:06
  buy. Then if you're interested, you
• 37:10
  give you 3 of the matching up because of the sale.
• 37:14
  It will amount to so, so, so, and so, and then this discount
• 37:17
  that will kick in on so, so and so they will be able to reserve
• 37:20
  this order to hold it for you. So what do you think about that?
• 37:23
  Now, ordinarily I was sweating. I was sweating bullets.
• 37:27
  I was dying because I had exceeded my budget.
• 37:30
  Honestly speaking, I had exceeded my budget.
• 37:32
  But I saw the smile on my girlfriend's face.
• 37:34
  My wife, no, you should not go and tell my wife that I was
• 37:37
  buying something for girls was his hair that I was buying for.
• 37:42
  So I was sweating, but I saw the smile on my face.
• 37:44
  I said, what salary is coming in?
• 37:47
  So, so, so, so, so, so I just. OK, no problem.
• 37:50
  So that's how we worked out with five of the down.
• 37:56
  But then the up, we had paid for all five of them.
• 38:01
  Abby. Yeah, we are paid for all.
• 38:02
  No. How do you do it again?
• 38:04
  OK. We walked out with five down,
• 38:05
  Walked out, three up, then two on hold.
• 38:07
  I'll come and pick them another day when they were ready or they
• 38:10
  said they could deliver to the address.
• 38:12
  So it's a move that they put on me or retail before.
• 38:14
  So these are some tricks that people in retail do.
• 38:17
  So if you're in retail and you're selling on behalf of
• 38:19
  somebody else. So all these holiday promo
• 38:21
  discount buy 2 get one free one thing, one thing.
• 38:24
  These are also some of the things that you can use to close
• 38:27
  the deal a whole lot easier. Oh dear, 40 minutes.
• 38:32
  OK, Now applying these principles can be tricky, all
• 38:34
  right? So if you need me to look at
• 38:36
  your own particular circumstances or to look at your
• 38:38
  own particular business, just call me, send me a text message
• 38:41
  or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 and I'll do my best
• 38:48
  to help. So that's a pretty much for
• 38:50
  today. But the main thing I wanted you
• 38:53
  just know is let's stop making assumptions.
• 38:56
  Some people talk good, some people look fresh, some people
• 38:59
  smile nice. Some people look as if they have
• 39:01
  all the money in the world does not mean they're ready to buy.
• 39:03
  Don't contract your sales process.
• 39:05
  Make sure you have a sales process.
• 39:07
  Make sure you have a list of questions or a checklist or a
• 39:11
  framework or whatever for asking people questions to figure out
• 39:14
  who they are, what it is that they want, when do they want it,
• 39:17
  why do they need it. It'll give you options so you
• 39:20
  can make a convincing proposal. So as a proposal, make a
• 39:24
  convincing presentation, Abby, any proposal presentation,
• 39:29
  whatever it is you call it in your business, you're happy to
• 39:31
  make a compelling one at the end of the day, but don't assume
• 39:34
  that because somebody hit you up that they are ready to buy.
• 39:37
  And don't be in the position of an order taker.
• 39:40
  Order takers are in free of status.
• 39:42
  That is the reason why when you go to Auntie Andrew B or you go
• 39:45
  to Mr. Biggs or you go to Tasty Fried Chicken or whatever,
• 39:48
  that's the reason why you rate those people like you do because
• 39:51
  they are just order taker. It's just them.
• 39:56
  I'm not saying you should be rude to them, but they're just
• 39:58
  order takers. That's the reason why you go
• 40:00
  there. You don't greet them, you're
• 40:02
  rude to them. Sometimes you shout at them
• 40:03
  because now order taker MB is boy boy.
• 40:07
  We should never be order takers. We are consultants.
• 40:10
  We're specialists no matter what we sell.
• 40:12
  No matter what we sell, you sell Nikes.
• 40:15
  Don't think of yourself as a shoe salesperson.
• 40:18
  No, you're a consultant. You're a specialist.
• 40:21
  You're a specialist on, I don't know, on culture.
• 40:24
  We're a specialist on sports. You're a specialist on
• 40:27
  lifestyle. You're a specialist on, I don't
• 40:29
  know, go and research. You'll be able to find a way to
• 40:32
  think of yourself or talk of yourself as a specialist of
• 40:34
  something. We're all specialists in our in
• 40:37
  our business. That is our superpower.
• 40:39
  Let's not forget that, please. We're not boy boy.
• 40:42
  We're not order taker. No, we're not.
• 40:45
  Don't fall into that kind of thinking.
• 40:47
  So that's all for today. If you've gotten value from
• 40:49
  today's episode, just like Hezekiah got value from having a
• 40:53
  conversation with me earlier. Subscribe to the podcast on
• 40:57
  Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, wherever it is you listen to
• 41:00
  podcast and then share with your boys.
• 41:03
  Let your boys know that we have a wonderful business content
• 41:05
  like this in Nigeria, homegrown. You don't need to rely on
• 41:09
  foreign business podcasts anymore.
• 41:11
  Share with them, let them know and remember if you'd like to
• 41:15
  connect with me just like Hezekiah did.
• 41:18
  If you want to keep it 100 just like he did, call me, send me a
• 41:21
  text message, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 if you're
• 41:29
  interested in a 15 minute sale audit or business audit.
• 41:33
  WhatsApp me 08064662140 if you want to join my WhatsApp
• 41:39
  channel, send me a message the same number and I'll hook you
• 41:43
  up. By the way, Hezekiah because
• 41:45
  eventually we discussed the money because I'm reasonable
• 41:48
  price Hezekiah say I'm cheap 5X Hezekiah say I'm cheap as no
• 41:54
  problem that money would be fine.
• 41:55
  It's just one of those things. Of course he quickly apologized.
• 41:58
  But I'm telling you guys that see Hezekiah thought that when I
• 42:02
  was talking that he was only here big money.
• 42:06
  He was already shaking his leg. They shake in mouth, they
• 42:09
  quiver. When he heard the money, he said
• 42:11
  that's cheap before he quickly caught himself.
• 42:14
  I say no, no, no, I didn't mean cheap, you know, like that.
• 42:17
  So give me a call. Let's have a chat.
• 42:19
  I'll catch you all at the next episode.