Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of Outreach: Random Thoughts and Practical Tips

Transcript

The Art of Outreach: Random Thoughts and Practical Tips · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, the usual
• 0:05
  apologies because today's an out and about episode.
• 0:07
  In fact, I'm in the middle of market runs and it's going to be
• 0:11
  a tight day today. So I figured, let me just make
• 0:13
  the podcast episode real quick. But at least I wound up the
• 0:17
  windows, so that should minimise some of the noise in the
• 0:20
  background, you know, people driving by, people haggling,
• 0:24
  people selling their wares and all that good stuff.
• 0:28
  So today's episode is going to be a random 1.
• 0:32
  I don't have one topic in particular that I want to
• 0:34
  discuss, you know, some stuff. How do I put in?
• 0:41
  You know, when you are a professional salesperson, it's
• 0:45
  just something that you notice. You know how people are trying
• 0:48
  to sell. When you notice good examples of
• 0:51
  people selling well or examples of people selling poorly, you
• 0:54
  just notice. You just notice these sorts of
• 0:57
  things. Sorry.
• 0:58
  Hold on. Let me take off my glasses.
• 1:02
  Yeah, because I'm not reading, so I don't need the glasses.
• 1:04
  Now, where was I? Yeah.
• 1:07
  So you just noticed stuff here and there.
• 1:10
  I noticed that it's. It's not just me, but other
• 1:12
  people who are business owners, self-employed people, but who
• 1:16
  like the discipline of selling. You just noticed a couple of
• 1:18
  things. So there's been a bunch of stuff
• 1:20
  that has happened around me and, you know, it's got me thinking.
• 1:24
  And I figured that these would be good case studies to come and
• 1:27
  talk about over here on the podcast.
• 1:29
  And so today's episode is just my random thoughts when it comes
• 1:33
  to outreach and inbound. So like I said, they've been a
• 1:36
  couple of other stuff, but I think let me just deal with two
• 1:41
  today and then if I can remember the others, we'll take it from
• 1:45
  there. So the first random thing that I
• 1:49
  want to make a comment on is this whole thing of whether you
• 1:51
  should say your name and your company name and all that, you
• 1:54
  know, when you're calling people out for the first time, when
• 1:56
  you're doing outreach. OK, Well, First off, let me
• 2:00
  define what outreach is for those of you who are newbies
• 2:03
  listening to the show. If this is your first time,
• 2:05
  outreach is just like it sounds, any activity that you're doing
• 2:10
  to reach out to people to see how you can get business from
• 2:13
  them. So if you're on, so it's not
• 2:17
  really the platform per SE that determines whether it's outreach
• 2:20
  or not. It's it's the initiative who
• 2:21
  determines because like I said, I'm talking about outreach and
• 2:24
  inbound. So it can be outreach even
• 2:29
  though you're on Instagram. If you're the one who sent the
• 2:32
  DM, then that's outreach. But if you're on Instagram and
• 2:36
  you received the DM, then that is inbound.
• 2:40
  Inbound just means other people reaching in to you.
• 2:45
  So it's not really the and the platform.
• 2:47
  Please, I want to stress this because there are a bunch of
• 2:49
  people who just assume that, oh, they just say Instagram, e-mail,
• 2:53
  blah, blah, blah, all of that inbound.
• 2:55
  And no, it's not the case. It's about the initiative who
• 3:00
  initiated the activity. Oh, sorry if I sound funny and
• 3:04
  I'm breathing heavy. It's because, you know, the
• 3:06
  usual, my son came back with who knows what he came back with
• 3:10
  this time and, you know, sneezed all over me and, you know, now I
• 3:13
  have it. And apart from that, looks like
• 3:15
  he's coming down with an ear infection.
• 3:17
  So we even have to go to the hospital later on in the day.
• 3:19
  It's one of the things that is making my day tight.
• 3:22
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 3:25
  So apologies. So today's episode, tomorrow,
• 3:27
  maybe the day after tomorrow. Yeah.
• 3:29
  Labored breathing, sniffling, nasal sounding, all those sorts
• 3:33
  of things. Aha.
• 3:35
  So where was I? Aha.
• 3:36
  So I was talking about the difference between outreach and
• 3:38
  then inbound. So there are some people who,
• 3:41
  when they do outreach, they like to, you know, do the whole
• 3:43
  spiel. Hello, my name is Chukudi.
• 3:46
  So, so, so, so I'm a that, that, that, that, that, and I'm with
• 3:50
  ABC company, you know, something, something, something,
• 3:54
  you know, the usual. And well, first of all, I, I
• 3:58
  think it's good practice to say who you are and what you're on
• 4:03
  about. But I think that because of the
• 4:09
  amount of messaging that people receive nowadays and because of
• 4:17
  the availability of modern communication and, you know,
• 4:21
  stuff like that, I think people are really, really overwhelmed
• 4:24
  with all this messaging. And I think that when you reach
• 4:27
  out to people, they don't really give a who, who you are.
• 4:31
  Well, in a sense, yes. But I think the two main
• 4:33
  concerns are, you know, who is this person?
• 4:34
  Why is this person calling and when you pick up the phone or
• 4:38
  when you go to somebody's office and you start or whatever by my
• 4:40
  name is Chukwudi, I'm from XYZ company, something, something we
• 4:43
  specialize in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 4:45
  That is really one minute that you've taken off the person's
• 4:48
  time and you haven't gotten to the root of why is this person
• 4:50
  here? And that part is just white
• 4:53
  noise. And I really don't think it's
• 4:55
  effective. However, when I work with
• 5:00
  people, depending on where they're at, sometimes I just let
• 5:03
  them do it because it's a crutch.
• 5:05
  If you tell them just do without it.
• 5:08
  Some people find it inconceivable.
• 5:10
  So I figured, let me just use an example today to show my
• 5:13
  philosophy around it and to tell you how I go around this thing
• 5:17
  of name, company name, blah blah blah.
• 5:20
  So my own opinion, should you say your name or your company
• 5:23
  name when you pick up the phone? Should you introduce yourself
• 5:25
  like that? My own opinion, the answer is
• 5:28
  no. Instead of going through pains
• 5:31
  to say who you are, what your company is, what you specialize
• 5:34
  in and blah blah blah, I think should just get straight to the
• 5:36
  .0. By the way, this is not for
• 5:38
  everybody. I mean it takes a while.
• 5:40
  So I've been selling for a bit. I finished my legal training
• 5:46
  almost 20 years ago. So.
• 5:50
  So you know, legal practice, wedding photography, me and my
• 5:55
  brother, the export business and then now selling consultancy
• 5:59
  services. So this is not my first time
• 6:02
  I've had some practice. I've built some confidence along
• 6:05
  the way. So for me, it's not a problem.
• 6:07
  So for you, if you're a first timer, yeah, this might seem
• 6:10
  scary. So if you're a first timer,
• 6:12
  continue with the whole thing of my name is Shukudi, XYZ company,
• 6:16
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We specialize in this da da da
• 6:18
  da. Do the whole 1 mini thing.
• 6:21
  Well, for those of you who have some experience behind you, you
• 6:26
  don't have to say your name or your company name because nobody
• 6:28
  gives a you know, I'm not use foul language.
• 6:33
  So don't rather confirm that you're talking to the right
• 6:38
  person because after you've been doing this introduction thing
• 6:42
  for a while, you realise that you spend a great deal of time
• 6:44
  introducing yourself to the wrong person.
• 6:46
  You're going, hello, my name is Chukudi.
• 6:48
  So, so, so and so company HPS in this, this and da, da, da, da,
• 6:51
  da. You do your homage bill and then
• 6:53
  it turns out that the person you're talking to actually is a
• 6:55
  secretary and she has to pass you along to somebody else.
• 6:58
  Then you get passed along to that person and then you're
• 7:00
  going to your host bill of my name is Chukudi.
• 7:02
  So, so, so company, we specialize in this, this, this
• 7:04
  and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 7:06
  And you might not be talking to the right person as well.
• 7:09
  So for me, I think it's just calling 1st order of the day is
• 7:15
  confirm that you're talking to the right person and then from
• 7:18
  there it is OK to go straight into your intention on what the
• 7:21
  purpose of the call is. From there you can slide into
• 7:26
  need analysis. If you are making traction on
• 7:31
  this call, if you're talking to the right person and you guys
• 7:36
  have an understanding around your value proposition and your
• 7:40
  needs, analysis. By the time you are done, they
• 7:44
  are the ones who will ask you about your personal details.
• 7:48
  And I use that as a sign of whether I am making progress or
• 7:53
  not. So I call, I confirm I'm talking
• 7:57
  to the right person, state my intent, I'm going to need
• 8:00
  analysis. If by the time we're done,
• 8:04
  there's no meeting of the minds as as per we're not blending
• 8:09
  what I have on offer, they don't need clearly at that point
• 8:13
  they're not going to ask me. Oh young man, by the way, what's
• 8:15
  your name again? But if I have a wonderful
• 8:17
  conversation and it looks like my products or services might be
• 8:20
  able to help them, of course they will ask, oh young man,
• 8:23
  what did you say your name was again?
• 8:26
  So part of the reasons why I ever stopped doing the whole
• 8:30
  introduction thing was because especially my wedding
• 8:33
  photography days, I realised that, you know, back then I used
• 8:36
  to take this thing personal, that they didn't store my phone
• 8:38
  number. And maybe other industries are
• 8:41
  different, but for wedding photography in the early days,
• 8:48
  the bride is talking to 5-6 other wedding photographers.
• 8:51
  She's talking to two or three wedding planners.
• 8:54
  She's talking to two or three videographers.
• 8:56
  She's talking to two or three caterers.
• 8:59
  For bridal dress, she's considering maybe two people.
• 9:02
  Bottom line is the bride in wedding, when it comes to
• 9:06
  events, the bride is talking no joke.
• 9:09
  She's talking to like 30 vendors at any given point in time.
• 9:14
  Given those situations, the bride is not storing anybody's
• 9:16
  number except if like you guys are making progress.
• 9:21
  So I used to get offended that we thought what I we had what I
• 9:28
  thought was a nice conversation during the bride affair, only
• 9:31
  for me to call up later on. I said like, oh, sorry, I didn't
• 9:34
  store your number. And that used to piss me off.
• 9:36
  Like you didn't store my number. Like really?
• 9:39
  We used to used to upset me. So anyway, me not introducing
• 9:43
  myself and everything, that's where it started from.
• 9:45
  Like it doesn't matter anyway. So I would just call and just
• 9:47
  get straight out of the business.
• 9:49
  And I just realized that after a while, if you're making traction
• 9:51
  with some people, they would end up storing your number, taking
• 9:54
  an interest in company name and blah, blah, blah, and all those
• 9:56
  sorts of things. So summary, there's no need to
• 10:00
  say your name, confirm that you're talking to the right
• 10:02
  person. Go on, state your intention,
• 10:04
  your purpose, moving to need analysis.
• 10:06
  If you're making traction, they will request all these details.
• 10:09
  If there is no traction, they will politely refuse whatever it
• 10:12
  is that you have to sell and they won't ask for your name or
• 10:15
  your company name and it's fine. You can just move on.
• 10:18
  No harm, no foul. It's just business.
• 10:22
  You thank them, you move on, and you live to fight another day.
• 10:26
  Tomorrow you call somebody else, or if you had a list today, you
• 10:29
  call on another person. So that's just how it works.
• 10:32
  So as a case study, let me use the personal outreach that I did
• 10:36
  yesterday. I was calling into the Abuja
• 10:39
  Property Development Company in Abuja.
• 10:42
  And that's because if you've been listening to the show for a
• 10:44
  while, you know that I did some work with Cairo, some HOF, that
• 10:49
  is the property development firm that is owned by Dibanj Dibanja
• 10:55
  and his brother. You know Dibanj, the famous
• 10:57
  musician, you know, he had his old jam like like when I was in
• 11:03
  uni. Is it Tongolo make a tell them
• 11:06
  the Coco, you know, that whole thing.
• 11:08
  So the Banj and yeah, Don Jazzy. Yeah, Don Jazzy used to.
• 11:12
  They used to be, there were like 5 and 6 back in those days.
• 11:15
  That's before they broke up. So where was I?
• 11:23
  Yeah. So I've done some work for
• 11:25
  Cairo's HOF, the Banjee property firm, and I think the engagement
• 11:29
  that we did with them at the time was how to close the deal
• 11:33
  in real estate. Then it turned out to be a good
• 11:40
  program. And of course, since then, some
• 11:42
  of the people that I roll with have thought it's something I
• 11:44
  should package up and sell to other property development firms
• 11:49
  as well. And so that's the reason why I
• 11:50
  have some of these companies on my list for outreach.
• 11:56
  So I remember when I was talking about outreach and inbound, you
• 12:01
  know, so now you see the difference.
• 12:03
  I have a list of companies I'm going after.
• 12:05
  I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling them up or I'm going to
• 12:07
  the offices. That is outreach.
• 12:10
  I'm the one who is reaching out to people.
• 12:13
  But then if any of them happen to listen to this podcast and
• 12:17
  they like the episode on how to close the deal in real estate
• 12:22
  and then they call me, that is inbound.
• 12:25
  So remember, for those of you who are newbies.
• 12:27
  So that's the difference. So yes, I called into Abuja
• 12:33
  property development company. Now most of you would like to
• 12:35
  start off the call by saying something like hello, my name is
• 12:38
  Chukudi, I'm a sales consultant, I'm a business development
• 12:41
  coach. I have over X number of years
• 12:45
  experience in the whatever we work with companies that do
• 12:48
  this, that, that, that, that and we have also served social and
• 12:51
  so competitors in your space. And the reason why I'm calling
• 12:53
  you is ABC and XYZ. So I've already told you guys
• 12:58
  that, that, that Turinge that long talk, I think it's, it's
• 13:02
  too much. You're calling somebody out of
• 13:04
  the blue and you're going to spend the 1st 2 minutes of the
• 13:06
  call talking about yourself. That's a waste of time.
• 13:09
  So what I did was first of all, to be sure that I'm talking to
• 13:13
  the right person. Typically I tried to do some
• 13:15
  research before I call into people because the conversation
• 13:18
  is going to flow a lot smoother if you call in and you say
• 13:21
  hello. Is this so?
• 13:23
  Oh yes, that's the company. Can you put me through to
• 13:25
  Chukudi, please? Or can I speak to Chukudi,
• 13:27
  please? That is a much quicker
• 13:29
  conversation because you're calling in, you have somebody's
• 13:32
  name, the secretary, the customer service person, whoever
• 13:35
  answered the call, you know, they know how to just route the
• 13:38
  call quickly rather than you calling a general line and you
• 13:41
  trying to see if you can make a sales call out of the number
• 13:45
  that is on their website or the Instagram handle.
• 13:48
  But unfortunately for which a property development company,
• 13:51
  when I just did my basic research, you know, I checked
• 13:55
  those websites, I had a bunch of phone numbers there.
• 13:59
  And it's something I've been talking about on the podcast.
• 14:01
  Like guys, really, there's no point in you having 10 numbers
• 14:04
  up on the website if only two of them are working.
• 14:07
  There's like this, there's, there's no point really.
• 14:09
  You're just frustrating people. And the average person I think
• 14:12
  might call the first 3 and like, whoa, these people aren't
• 14:15
  serious and then go and call somebody else.
• 14:17
  Anyway, they didn't have 10. I think they had more like 7
• 14:20
  phone numbers and I had to get to the fourth number before I
• 14:22
  got one that was working. So for those of you who have
• 14:25
  websites that have been piling on numbers, look, don't pile on
• 14:27
  numbers. There are three services.
• 14:30
  I've been like, like I'll say there are three or four services
• 14:33
  in Nigeria. There's MTN, there's a Tisa lot,
• 14:36
  there's Glow and there's what else?
• 14:38
  There's Airtel. So I know it is a lot, 9 mobile,
• 14:41
  so that's four. So if you're running on this
• 14:45
  whole whatever that you want people to be able to reach you
• 14:47
  all the time, then just get those four lines.
• 14:50
  That'd be 4 numbers, an MTN number and it's this lad number
• 14:56
  a, an Airtel number and whichever one the 4th 1 is and
• 14:59
  then that's it. Full stop.
• 15:01
  This whole thing of 710, I've seen 11 and you know, the person
• 15:07
  calls, this number is no longer registered.
• 15:09
  This no longer is no longer. This user is something,
• 15:12
  something, something all those error messages.
• 15:14
  So stop stacking all those phone numbers.
• 15:17
  Certainly I called and eventually I got through.
• 15:20
  And so step one, confirm that you're talking to the right
• 15:22
  person. In this case, I did my research.
• 15:24
  I could not get anybody's name. So I asked to speak to someone
• 15:30
  in the sales and or marketing division.
• 15:34
  And then the person is, oh, yeah, sure, no problem, I can do
• 15:36
  that. But before I do so, can I have
• 15:39
  the nature of your call? Why are you calling?
• 15:41
  I'm paraphrasing because, you know, I can't remember.
• 15:44
  It was yesterday and. Well, anyway, yeah.
• 15:47
  So what's the nature of your call?
• 15:49
  I said alright, sure, no problem.
• 15:51
  And then I went straight into my intent, which was how did I put
• 15:55
  it? I didn't write it down because,
• 15:58
  you know, at this stage I don't write down all my sales scripts.
• 16:02
  You know, I'm good enough to freestyle and run from memory
• 16:05
  because I've been doing this for a while.
• 16:09
  But basically, I must, I must have said something around, you
• 16:14
  know, I'm calling up property development companies to see if
• 16:21
  they have any problems with sales and marketing processes
• 16:24
  and to see how I can provide free solutions for that.
• 16:27
  And yes, I say free deliberately.
• 16:29
  The whole point is that I want to be able to have a, an audit,
• 16:34
  an audit conversation with whoever it is that is the
• 16:37
  decision maker. And if the audit conversation
• 16:39
  turns out to be a valuable one from then, I will be able to now
• 16:43
  make a pitch or a proposal about how we can work in work in some
• 16:49
  paid engagements. So that's my scope when calling
• 16:51
  into these sorts of people. This is not my scope when
• 16:54
  calling into every single person, but that's the scope
• 16:57
  when I'm calling into property development companies in this
• 16:59
  case. So what I'm saying is when I
• 17:04
  said that I'm trying to solve their challenges for free,
• 17:07
  actually that's just an excuse for me to have a discovery call.
• 17:10
  I'm trying to figure out do they have any problems that I have
• 17:14
  the skill set to be able to solve in the 1st place.
• 17:17
  And you see the reason why I recommend these, these sorts of
• 17:22
  approaches that's going straight into needs analysis.
• 17:25
  So we have we. Oh, yeah, By the way, it turns
• 17:29
  out that I was lucky. And yes, there's a limit of lock
• 17:33
  in sales because the person that I happened to be talking to
• 17:37
  turns out that he's the head of, so I was it again, he's the head
• 17:43
  of, sorry, forgive me, I've put everything down in my CRM.
• 17:47
  He's the head of corporate communications for the business,
• 17:49
  Abuja Property Development Company.
• 17:51
  So he's head of corporate communications.
• 17:54
  So it turns out I was talking to the right person.
• 17:56
  And yeah, of course, it was cool to have the conversation.
• 18:00
  So we just started this thing, rapport building.
• 18:04
  Well, First off, you know, I asked his name, he gave me an
• 18:07
  evil sounding name and I was shocked.
• 18:09
  I told him, oh look, you sound like a northern.
• 18:11
  I wasn't expecting a neighbor name.
• 18:13
  I was like, Oh yeah, I grew up in KD.
• 18:15
  So remember when we talk about commonality?
• 18:18
  So that was the level of commonality that we established.
• 18:21
  Oh like oh, you, you grew up in KD and when Abuja boys say
• 18:23
  Abuja, which school, CKC, small talk blah blah, blah blah, blah.
• 18:28
  But not to believe about the issue, we're not here to make
• 18:30
  friends. So establish that level of
• 18:34
  commonality. We're both Northern ish kind of
• 18:38
  guys. And then moved on.
• 18:41
  And then I started asking questions about the business.
• 18:45
  I wanted to get a sense of the strength of the sales team.
• 18:48
  That's where I start all these sorts of conversations because I
• 18:50
  want to figure out what kind of sales team do they even have and
• 18:53
  what are the problems that they're facing.
• 18:54
  And we had a wonderful conversation and it was really,
• 18:56
  really interesting. It turns out they only have a
• 18:59
  sales team of four people for the whole organization.
• 19:03
  I found that strange, but then I pressed some more and then found
• 19:06
  out that for them, their business is built around online
• 19:10
  marketing and the websites, and also they have marketing
• 19:15
  officers that are attached to each project site.
• 19:18
  So let's say they have something going up in Wagwalada.
• 19:24
  You know, the building project in Waggle Ladder is going to
• 19:28
  have a marketing team that is attached to that, and that
• 19:30
  marketing team are mostly agents who are 100% commissioned.
• 19:37
  And yeah, it's an interesting model.
• 19:39
  So it turns out that the sales people that they have are mostly
• 19:43
  account maintenance people. So what that means is they
• 19:45
  handle customer service issues. Yeah, they handle customer
• 19:49
  service issues basically. So I wouldn't consider that
• 19:52
  sales, but anyway that's what the organization call sales.
• 19:57
  So of course giving the setup, you know, I just pointed out
• 20:00
  quickly that look, it looks like everything is going on well.
• 20:02
  Oh, another thing that was really interesting about the
• 20:04
  conversation was their problem is not sales because in fact
• 20:07
  their own problem is inventory. They have cranked up the
• 20:10
  website, marketing and online everything so much that they
• 20:15
  have leads coming in, but they do not have inventory to supply.
• 20:18
  They don't have the houses. And the estates enough to meet
• 20:23
  their demands. So they're actually trying to
• 20:24
  scale back sales activities. So at that point, I was like,
• 20:32
  bro, looks like you guys have a tight ship.
• 20:34
  Looks like everything is running perfectly fine.
• 20:36
  It's like there's no, like, there's really nothing I can do
• 20:42
  for you guys. And it's like, yeah, of course
• 20:44
  now. But, you know, definitely now
• 20:45
  we're supposed to keep in touch, that sort of thing.
• 20:48
  So by the way, what's your name again?
• 20:51
  And that is when I now dropped my name.
• 20:54
  I didn't drop the business name because at this stage I don't
• 20:56
  think business name is important.
• 20:58
  Everybody will see your business name when you send the invoice
• 21:00
  anyway. So I never say the whole my
• 21:02
  company is something, something, something.
• 21:04
  So he asked me what's my name? I told him and I said I'll send
• 21:09
  him a text message because not everybody knows how to spell
• 21:12
  Tavishima. Lots of people have not even
• 21:14
  heard Tavishima before. So lots of people hear it and
• 21:16
  they think, you know, who's your property?
• 21:19
  German is your popsy German, you see Japanese, you know, where
• 21:24
  are you from? You know that whole thing.
• 21:27
  So then I told him my name. I remember what I told you guys.
• 21:31
  Now that's the sign that I'm making traction.
• 21:32
  So OK, cool. Even though there's no
• 21:34
  opportunity for business now, a warm introduction has been made.
• 21:39
  He's going to go into part of my networking cadence.
• 21:44
  And who knows what tomorrow may hold, But for now, there's no
• 21:48
  room there because they don't have any obvious lapses in the
• 21:53
  sales and marketing processes that I can help them, that I can
• 21:57
  help them fix. So his name goes into my CRM as
• 22:02
  a contact, not as a lead because there is no lead to pursue now.
• 22:08
  So here's my CRM just as a contact.
• 22:11
  And then I scheduled a follow up activity.
• 22:14
  I can't remember what the follow up activity was.
• 22:17
  It has it has to be something value add anyway, I can't
• 22:21
  remember what it was, but anyway, I remember that the the
• 22:25
  activity that I scheduled for follow up was for was it 4
• 22:30
  weeks, 4 weeks or six weeks? I can't remember.
• 22:33
  But bottom line, it's all there. It's my notes.
• 22:35
  I don't even have to remember because six weeks from now my
• 22:38
  phone is going to do pinging and I'll look and we'll be there.
• 22:43
  Reminder head of corporate communications Mr. So so so and
• 22:47
  so I will click on it. The note will open up and it
• 22:49
  will say there last conversation had on 23rd September 2024.
• 22:56
  Outcome of the conversation. Next step is do this, do this,
• 22:58
  do this and I will just simply follow the instructions six
• 23:03
  weeks from now that I put into my phone yesterday.
• 23:07
  You see why I've been telling you guys that having ACRM or
• 23:14
  using your phone as ACRM is one way that we can grow our
• 23:18
  businesses. We cannot remember everything.
• 23:22
  I had a conversation with this fellow yesterday.
• 23:25
  I'm trying to run from Running from Memory now and clearly I've
• 23:28
  forgotten a lot of the details. But six weeks from now, a
• 23:31
  reminder will come up on my phone with all the key details.
• 23:35
  I need to remember who it was, who I spoke to since I ran the
• 23:40
  call through the CRM. It will even show there, you
• 23:43
  know, how long the phone conversation was.
• 23:45
  And most importantly, the next steps that I need to take as
• 23:48
  part of my networking sequence. Because remember, in this case,
• 23:51
  there's no deal. It is there.
• 23:54
  So please, the episodes that I've made about using the CRM or
• 23:57
  using your phone as ACRM, please, you guys pay attention
• 24:00
  to that. Check YouTube, put my name
• 24:04
  there. Tabishima, type in CRM.
• 24:08
  All the episodes I've done around that CRM is just customer
• 24:11
  relationship management or client relationship management
• 24:15
  tool. So it'll come up and then you'll
• 24:17
  help guide you. So yeah, so this is just one
• 24:24
  example about how this whole thing works.
• 24:28
  Now, if you're new in business, I understand it is going to
• 24:31
  sound scary, but for those of you who've been doing this for a
• 24:34
  while, you've been running things two years, three years,
• 24:36
  four years. Give it a try instead of that
• 24:39
  whole 2 minutes. You know, my name is Chukudi.
• 24:41
  So, so and so. I am the best, I'm the
• 24:43
  brightest, I'm the greatest ABC company.
• 24:47
  So, so and so incorporated this blah, blah, blah. 12 years of
• 24:50
  experience. You know, that whole 2 minute
• 24:52
  thing. Just cut it out.
• 24:54
  Be sure that you're talking to the right person.
• 24:56
  In fact, if you do small research, you check the LinkedIn
• 24:59
  handle, you check the website, and you know that the person
• 25:01
  you're supposed to call speak to is the.
• 25:05
  OK, let's say you sell. Let's let me see.
• 25:10
  Let me see. OK, I'm next to a bookshop right
• 25:13
  now. So let's say you sell
• 25:14
  stationary. If you go and check that
• 25:17
  LinkedIn and you see who is the head of procurement?
• 25:20
  Yeah, I think if you sell stationary, the person you
• 25:22
  should be talking to is the head of procurement.
• 25:24
  If you get the head of procurements phone number and
• 25:26
  the lady's name is Ngozi Ngozi Henatro, you really, really pay
• 25:32
  for you to just simply pick up the phone call in.
• 25:35
  Don't do the whole this da, da, da, da, my company something,
• 25:39
  something, just call in. Hello, is this ABC Construction
• 25:44
  company? So yes, it is.
• 25:45
  Please can you, can you put me through to Ngozi Henatro?
• 25:49
  So. OK.
• 25:50
  I mean, you have a much more promising conversation.
• 25:52
  I mean, that way if you call in, you have a specific name, you
• 25:55
  tell the person, the person will route you, most likely they'll
• 25:57
  want to know what's the purpose of the call.
• 25:59
  And you just, you just tell the person and yeah, you won't have
• 26:05
  a promising conversation that way.
• 26:06
  So confirm you're talking to the right person, state your
• 26:08
  intention, go straight into needs analysis.
• 26:11
  If it looks like there's room, then the next step is you're
• 26:15
  going to schedule a meeting where you guys have a Zoom call
• 26:18
  or you go to their office or you get them to come to yours so you
• 26:21
  guys can start exploring the problem in some more detail.
• 26:26
  So that's part of my random thoughts when it comes to
• 26:29
  outreach and the reason why I say please cut out that whole 2
• 26:33
  mini thing of saying your name or your company name, how much
• 26:35
  experience you have and everything.
• 26:38
  Just be sure you're talking to the right person.
• 26:39
  Go straight into the meat of the matter.
• 26:42
  Then something else I wanted to talk about.
• 26:44
  This one is inbound related. Oh, it's almost 30 minutes.
• 26:47
  OK, let me just wrap this one up quickly.
• 26:49
  So on the inbound front, this is because of that friend of mine
• 26:54
  who is looking for a tax or accounting specialist.
• 26:58
  Now, eventually the accounting people got back to him and the
• 27:03
  conversation started off with what do you want?
• 27:06
  So I want to address you people who start off the conversation
• 27:09
  by saying what do you want? Because I've run into some of
• 27:12
  those people myself. And I don't think that that is a
• 27:15
  very helpful way to start off the conversation, especially
• 27:19
  when you are in a complex sale. If you're a Carpenter, you can't
• 27:22
  start off the conversation by saying what do you want?
• 27:26
  But if you sell legal services or if you sell accounting
• 27:30
  services or business consulting services, what do you want is
• 27:32
  not a helpful way to start off the conversation when somebody
• 27:35
  calls you inbound. Because when you're dealing with
• 27:39
  complex sales, the customer does not know what they want.
• 27:42
  They have a hint, but they don't know what they want.
• 27:45
  It is you who knows what they want.
• 27:48
  So if you call up someone and you ask if someone calls you up
• 27:53
  as a lawyer and say what do you want?
• 27:55
  I mean, the person doesn't know if it's a landlord tenancy
• 28:00
  thing. I guess the landlord just wants
• 28:02
  the person to leave the house. But you as a lawyer, you're the
• 28:05
  one who knows that, OK, you need to follow this legal process.
• 28:08
  You need to send a letter first or you need to go to this court
• 28:11
  or you need to do this or you need to do that.
• 28:13
  And you're the one who has the professional knowledge.
• 28:15
  So just start off the conversation by, well, first of
• 28:19
  all, you have to take the initiative.
• 28:21
  This whole thing of throwing the ball into the customer's court
• 28:23
  is not going to help when you're dealing with complex I'll
• 28:26
  scenarios because they don't know what they want.
• 28:28
  They're kind of confused. So just use open-ended questions
• 28:33
  and then try and lead the conversation along with you
• 28:38
  exploring with questions and with insights.
• 28:40
  So you can start with open questions.
• 28:42
  One of the questions that we explored in the past is, is
• 28:44
  well, how can I help you today? So when you start off with how
• 28:46
  can I help you today, the person is going to go into the whole
• 28:49
  story of the person is just going to give you the whole
• 28:54
  story. And as the customer narrates the
• 28:57
  story, because you're the professional, you're now going
• 28:58
  to be able to ask particular questions to narrow down what
• 29:03
  the next step is going to be. So as they're talking, use
• 29:06
  questions to tease out the issues from the issues you're
• 29:09
  going to be able to make a proposal or a recommendation.
• 29:12
  And hopefully if you're talking to the right person who can
• 29:17
  afford and you can indeed solve their problems, you know, maybe
• 29:22
  there might be a chance of you closing the deal or not.
• 29:24
  So back to my friend and the whole tax thing, tax thing and
• 29:27
  say, what do you want? So my friend, I said honestly,
• 29:30
  like, you know what? I really don't know what it is
• 29:33
  that I want because I know nothing about tax.
• 29:35
  This is my background. I used to run this company.
• 29:38
  This is what we did. I know that we filed this and
• 29:40
  this before and now I'm into a new thing and I want to comply
• 29:46
  now. So Olga, what do you think?
• 29:50
  So that's how the conversation, that's how the conversation
• 29:54
  went. So how I put it?
• 29:59
  Oh yeah. So that's how the the
• 30:00
  conversation, that's how the conversation started.
• 30:04
  And because my friend is also in the sales space, he was one who
• 30:11
  took the initiative for leading the conversation along and were
• 30:13
  able to come up with an action plan about what needs to be done
• 30:16
  next. But don't count on the fact that
• 30:19
  your customer is going to be able to take the initiative all
• 30:21
  the time. You are the one who will be
• 30:22
  taking the initiative. Just start off with open-ended
• 30:25
  questions. You know, how can I help you
• 30:26
  today? Let the person say the whole
• 30:28
  story and then you ask questions to try and narrow down what the
• 30:31
  problem is and then you lead the conversation.
• 30:34
  But summary, let me just put it this way, since we're already at
• 30:36
  30 minutes, I've been saying time and time again on the
• 30:39
  podcast that we should always pretend to be doctors.
• 30:42
  No matter what you do. Pretend to be a doctor.
• 30:44
  If you're a lawyer, pretend to be a doctor.
• 30:46
  If you're a computer, pretend to be a doctor.
• 30:48
  If you saw a catfish, pretend to be a doctor.
• 30:50
  If you sell cement, pretend to be a doctor.
• 30:52
  And This is why, Because the doctor consultation model is the
• 30:59
  best way to run a sale. Because a doctor will never say,
• 31:06
  OK, welcome young man, sit down, what do you want?
• 31:08
  A doctor will never ask you that.
• 31:09
  Because the doctor knows that you know nothing about your
• 31:11
  body, the whole system, how it works together.
• 31:14
  The doctor was OK, how can I help you today?
• 31:16
  Or is this a follow up visit or you know something, all these
• 31:19
  general whatever. Then you will now start telling
• 31:21
  the story that oh, my head is paining me, my leg is paining
• 31:24
  me, blah, blah, blah, this and this and that and that.
• 31:27
  You're the one, the Doctor Who now ask for the relevant
• 31:30
  conversations at the end of the day will say, oh, OK, yes, we
• 31:32
  know what the problem is. The problem is your left
• 31:33
  testicle. We have to operate and we have
• 31:35
  to remove it. Now, if you leave it to the guy
• 31:39
  himself, the guy will not know that, you know, pain in the head
• 31:42
  and pain in the leg, that the problem might be in the left
• 31:45
  testicle. By the way, I'm just making
• 31:46
  stuff up so the doctor doesn't doesn't say what do you want and
• 31:52
  then try to give you what you have said.
• 31:54
  The doctor will listen to what you think the problem is, but
• 31:57
  the doctor will ask you questions and come up with his
• 32:00
  or her own recommendation about what it is that needs to be
• 32:03
  done. So it's the same thing no matter
• 32:06
  what it is that you sell. Just pretend that you're a
• 32:10
  doctor. So if you sell tax services,
• 32:12
  it's no matter of what you want, 'cause like I explained in that
• 32:15
  episode, for tax accounting services legal, you know, there
• 32:20
  is. You can sell compliance or you
• 32:25
  can sell this compliance. What again, I can't remember,
• 32:30
  you know, because I've, I've been out of the field for a very
• 32:32
  long time. But you sell, OK, There's
• 32:36
  there's registration, there's compliance, there's monitoring
• 32:40
  where there's, you know, different kinds of services that
• 32:42
  you can sell when you're in that space.
• 32:44
  So you don't expect the person to say, oh, OK, I need
• 32:47
  compliance services on something, something, something
• 32:49
  this and this and that and that. Ask the questions.
• 32:52
  Let the person tell the whole story.
• 32:53
  You're the one that will now say that.
• 32:54
  OK, based on what we said so far, I think the main problem
• 32:57
  they're facing is, is, is that that, that, you know, is that
• 32:59
  correct? The person will say yes or maybe
• 33:02
  no. We ask some more questions.
• 33:04
  Eventually I'm going to be able to narrow things down, come up
• 33:07
  with a specific proposal based on what we've heard.
• 33:09
  I think the next of our action is that we should do it like
• 33:11
  this, like this, like this. I'll be how do you feel?
• 33:13
  So, OK, I think that can solve the problem.
• 33:15
  OK, Based on what we've discussed so far, to solve this
• 33:18
  problem, we can use either options AB or C and it should
• 33:24
  cost anything between, you know, 2.5 M and 3.2.
• 33:29
  Is that something you're willing to invest in today?
• 33:31
  And then you keep quiet and then you hear what the person has to
• 33:34
  say. The money qualification part
• 33:39
  really, really important part of the thing that helps you know,
• 33:41
  whether you're dealing with a serious buyer in quote, because
• 33:46
  in Lagos and then when I got to Abuja in in the wedding
• 33:49
  photography space, I noticed that vendors used to say those
• 33:52
  things a lot like don't mind that she's a serious bride.
• 33:55
  So I hope you know, whether you're talking to a serious
• 33:56
  buyer or not. But anyway, yeah, I've been
• 34:00
  waffling over the I've been talking too much.
• 34:03
  Let me just bring it to a close. So my random thoughts on
• 34:06
  outreach and inbound today basically is when you are
• 34:08
  reaching out to people, there's no point in introducing yourself
• 34:11
  and your company and years of experience and everything.
• 34:13
  Be sure you're talking to the right person.
• 34:15
  State the reason why you're calling.
• 34:17
  Go straight into needs analysis. If there's room, then fix an
• 34:21
  appointment. If there's no room, say thank
• 34:22
  you very much for your time and you end it there.
• 34:25
  There's no point. Tomorrow you'll call somebody
• 34:27
  else. Then if it's inbound, don't ask
• 34:30
  the person what do you want. It's not helpful. open-ended
• 34:37
  questions. How can I help you today?
• 34:39
  For those of you who are Instagram vendors, have you seen
• 34:42
  anything on the site in particular that you like?
• 34:45
  And then you start the conversation from there.
• 34:47
  So if it's the whole pyjama thing, the woman who sells
• 34:49
  pyjamas, because my wife likes to buy pyjamas around Christmas,
• 34:53
  Christmas pyjamas, she always buys for the kids.
• 34:56
  She never buys for me. I mean, woman, you should buy
• 34:59
  stuff for your husband. It's not nice.
• 35:03
  Yeah. So is there anything on the side
• 35:05
  that you've seen that catches your fancy?
• 35:06
  OK, Nice. Good colour.
• 35:07
  That colour. Oh, by the way, how old are your
• 35:09
  children? Or are they boys or girls?
• 35:11
  Oh, OK, boys. OK.
• 35:12
  For that, we would also recommend this and this and that
• 35:15
  and that. You know, that's how you drive
• 35:16
  the conversation along. So.
• 35:20
  Yeah. So that's what my random episode
• 35:21
  today. You know what?
• 35:22
  I think I'll just go back to answering questions tomorrow.
• 35:24
  Perhaps these random rambling episodes are not the best use of
• 35:27
  your time. OK.
• 35:29
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 35:32
  Please connect with me on LinkedIn the name to look for
• 35:35
  establishment. Ayede, you can confirm the
• 35:37
  spelling of my name from the link where you're listening to
• 35:40
  this episode. Then also connect on WhatsApp.
• 35:43
  The phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234.
• 35:50
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 35:51
  I'll catch you guys in the next episode.
• 35:53
  And don't worry, I'll try not to make too many rambling episodes.
• 35:56
  I think I'll to be on the safe side tomorrow, we'll just go
• 35:58
  back to answering questions so that episodes are much more
• 36:02
  focused and less rambly. So I'll catch you guys at the
• 36:05
  next episode.