Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Look Boss, Sound Street: Naija Sales That Close

Transcript

Look Boss, Sound Street: Naija Sales That Close · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to look at whether we
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  should sound professional to close sales again.
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  Today we're going to be looking at whether sounding
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  professional, looking professional, being
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  professional, you get the point, whether that is going to help
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  you make more money. Now if you're interested in this
• 0:20
  question and other kinds of questions like this, then
• 0:23
  subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any
• 0:26
  player of your choice because this is what I do every two or
• 0:30
  three days. I've been doing this for the
• 0:32
  last five years or so. My name is Tavishima Aide.
• 0:36
  I'm the host of the podcast. And if you'd love to connect,
• 0:39
  then call, send a text message or a WhatsApp message on
• 0:42
  08064662140. Warning, I'm recording the
• 0:49
  podcast at home, so there's going to be noise in the
• 0:51
  background, especially since it's a Tuesday.
• 0:53
  For those of you who listen every single week, you know that
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  Tuesday is when the house gets cleaned.
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  So the cleaning lady might have to interrupt me every now and
• 1:01
  then because she needs my attention.
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  So yeah, this is not not about my personal life.
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  We're looking at the question whether we should sound
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  professional to close sales. And the answer in typical
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  fashion is it depends whether we should sound more professional
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  to close sales. You know, it depends.
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  And this question that I'm looking at today, it's not a
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  theory something it's very practical.
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  Lots of times I run into people who that is their primary
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  preoccupation. They are trying to sound
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  professional. You guys remember a particular
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  company, I won't say which company so as not to embarrass
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  them, but when I asked them about why they use e-mail as
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  their primary communication means, that was the first thing
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  that they said. They are trying to sound more
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  professional. And of course, the hope is that
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  if you sound more professional, you will close more deals.
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  So is that the case? The answer is it depends.
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  Yes, we ought to look professionally to close more
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  sales. So it's a traditional gospel in
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  this industry that you dress appropriate to the context and
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  you dress relative to what your potential customer or the
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  potential clients, you know, given the culture or given the
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  context, given the industry, what do they expect to see?
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  And you dress according to that. Now, some of you start this
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  whole thing about Steve Jobs, blah, blah, blah.
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  Yeah, those, those are, those are outliers, right?
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  And then for some people, there are some people who like they
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  pay their dues. Like take Chris Brown in the
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  beginning, Chris Brown the musician, the guy paid his dues
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  looking like a Nickelodeon boy, looking like a Disney kid, if
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  you understand what I mean. There were the guy don't blow as
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  when Chris Brown has become Chris Brown.
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  Then Chris Brown started doing tattoo.
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  Anyhow, torn jeans dye his hair orange golden today who pull
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  bling on his teeth tomorrow he won't brush his teeth.
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  You know, just be looking like one kind of riff raff.
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  So yeah, please don't point out those exceptions.
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  You know, if you are exceptional, you won't be
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  listening to this podcast. And if you had paid the cost to
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  be the boss so that you can dress how you want, you won't be
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  listening to this podcast. So please don't come and tell me
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  about those people. For the rest of us, we have to
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  look professional, meaning we have to dress appropriate.
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  Remember to the context. In other words, if you are a
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  cardiothoracic surgeon, you will dress in a certain way.
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  If you're a salesperson selling fumigation tools, you will dress
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  a certain way. If you're a wedding photographer
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  going for a meeting with a potential customer, you will
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  dress in a certain way. If you sell insurance, you will
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  dress a certain way. You get where I'm coming from.
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  So there is no fixed formula like suit and suit plus tie.
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  So whether suit and suit plus tie will depend on the industry,
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  on the trade, on the context, on the level of rapport and
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  relationship that you've built with people, what people expect
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  to see. So as a wedding photographer,
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  yes, you can get away with jeans and T-shirts.
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  You're going for client meeting. As a cardiothoracic surgeon,
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  jeans and T-shirt for a client meeting might not inspire
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  confidence in you. So I can't give a general
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  one-size-fits-all answer, but yes, we shall pose dress
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  appropriately to the context. Now the reason why is it
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  establishes a certain level of credibility and confidence.
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  So back to the wedding photographer example.
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  You know, nowadays artistic types and quote, I expected to,
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  you know, behave a certain way. So if I will start my wedding
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  photography career again, yeah, maybe I would have dreadlocks
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  and a nose ring and a couple of tattoos and let's see what else.
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  So if I show up, dreadlock nose ring, you know, But you're not
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  giving that creative vibe as far I'm leaving my best self kind of
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  thing. Yeah.
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  Yeah. That might be OK for a wedding
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  photographer, but for a cardiothoracic surgeon, you're
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  carrying that down your head. Plus nose ring plus white beta
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  sharp, plus torn jeans. It does not inspire credibility.
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  It does not inspire confidence. I didn't make the rules.
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  It's just the way it is. When you see a doctor and the
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  doctor looks dishevelled, you know, you just think this guy or
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  this babe, do they really know? You understand?
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  So it's the same dynamic. Dress appropriate to the context
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  and make sure you look professional no matter what
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  industry that you're in. Then part of also sounding
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  looking professional is the matter of professional
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  credentials. Yeah, By all means, if this is
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  typical in your industry, then talk about it, display it.
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  The reason why you should is because it shows competence.
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  That's the reason why wedding photographers back in the day,
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  you know, we, you know, we like to flex more.
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  You say, oh, this is a good idea.
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  Yeah. This is the sort of thing that
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  we did for down with his daughter's wedding.
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  You know, meanwhile, you are just there to help somebody.
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  You're not the main guy, but you just said, you know, because
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  you're trying to show that you are credentialed.
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  And then for those of us, OK, well, not me anyway, because I
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  was self-taught as a photographer.
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  But then there were some people who did go to, is it New York,
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  something, something school or photography or whatever.
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  There's some of those people who put it up on your website.
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  You know, by all means put it up on your website.
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  It will impress some people if you have the credentials.
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  Talk about it displayed. You don't believe me?
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  Next time you go to any of your specialist doctors, maybe you're
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  accompanying your older auntie to go and see a a cardio.
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  What are they called? Cardio something, something.
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  You know, people who work on the human heart.
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  As you're sitting down there and talking, talking, just look
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  around the guy's office. You'll see the graduation
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  certificate will be there. If the guy studied cardio,
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  whatever, whatever at Harvard, you best believe that his
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  Harvard degree is framed and is up there on the wall.
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  So yes, if you are in that industry where credentials, I
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  think talk about it displayed, it shows competence.
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  Competence means the things that we are talking about, I can do
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  this thing. So yes, displayed, talk about
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  it, put it there with your full chest because it can help you
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  close sales. We're trying to establish some
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  competence. We want people to feel that as
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  they have seen us in the flesh looking credible and as we are
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  talking that say one of two things, we're looking competent,
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  they will say this is the guy or this is the very babe that I
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  ought to do business with. So yes, in that sense, look
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  professional and if you're credentialed, you know, talk of
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  your credentials. However, what about sounding
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  professional? Because remember the last
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  company that we had, I had this conversation with, they picked
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  e-mail as their primary means of communication because they were
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  trying to sound professional. So should you sound
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  professional? Unfortunately, nowadays,
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  especially in Nigeria, when people are trying to sound
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  professional, they also end up sounding very formal.
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  Now for the purposes of sales, and I repeat, we're talking
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  about sales and business development here.
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  For the purposes of sales, I'm repeating again because some of
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  you reach out to me and say, oh, I'm illegal, I'm in HR, I'm in
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  accounting, excuse me. This does not apply to all those
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  other disciplines. So one last time, for the
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  purposes of sales, you're trying to convince somebody to buy
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  something from you. The answer is no, don't sound
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  professional if sounding professional means formal.
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  Why you might ask? The answer is because for the
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  purposes of sales, we're trying to build rapport, we are trying
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  to be relatable, and we are trying to reduce complexity.
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  Let me repeat. That's a whole lot.
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  So let me slow it down. Don't sound professional if
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  sounding professional means you're going to sound extra
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  formal, because for the purposes of sales, we are trying to build
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  rapport. Rapport means I'm flowing with
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  you, you are flowing with me. If I'm sounding extra formal,
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  you will not floweth with me. No matter how much I'm trying to
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  flow with you, you will not floweth with me.
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  That is just life. It's just how it is.
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  So the salesman, the salesman, the marketer, you're talking
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  with somebody, you're trying to close business, you are trying
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  to build some rapport. It is hard to do when we're all
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  buttoned up and formal and stuffy.
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  We're also trying to be relatable because most people do
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  business with people that you know, there's unrelatable, you
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  know, you understand, like you can feel the person now we're
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  not going to be able to achieve relatability if we're
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  excessively formal or stuffy. And then we're also trying to
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  reduce complexity because a lot of us listening to this podcast,
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  we're in complex hill scenarios. We sell things that are
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  high-priced and we sell things that are difficult to understand
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  and have different elements that are involved in making of the
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  thing or in making a decision. So we have to reduce complexity.
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  The last case study we did on the podcast was the fellow who's
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  selling tyres, who's trying to take over the family company.
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  You're trying to retire, Pops. He's our pops.
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  You don't try me. I don't graduate.
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  So Pops, you go and rest. Let me take over this company.
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  He's selling tires. It is complex because the tires
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  you need for the tractor that is a digger might not be the same
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  tire that you need for a tractor head that is going to pull water
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  or pull oil and gas. Or there is a mover of Earth
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  Abby or F mover or whatever they call them.
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  So there's some complexity there and of course since that guy has
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  been in the tyre business 15 years, of course Popsy has been
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  in the business much longer. You know a lot about tyres, you
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  know the insurance and outs, which one is the better thread
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  count, which one is the better size, which one is better
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  millimetre? Plenty of complexity.
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  You are hindering your ability to sell if you're coming in
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  excessively stuffy and excessively formal.
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  We're trying to reduce the complexity.
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  We're trying to break things down so that people will feel
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  us, we flow with us, and we'll make it easier to make a
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  decision. Some of you try to sell by, you
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  know, doing lots of gizbang, using lots of big terms.
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  It happens. You can't bamboozle people into
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  a sale. You throw one or two terms
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  around and be like, this guy is intelligent, this baby is
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  intelligent. Yeah, you can bamboozle people
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  into a sale. Was a lot easier to, and I put
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  it to remove obstacles to the sale.
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  So you sound professional means we're going to sound excessively
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  formal. Then the answer is no because
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  we're trying to build rapport, because we're trying to be
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  relatable and also because we're trying to reduce complexity.
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  So by all means, look professional, look professional,
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  dress appropriately, play up your credentials.
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  But then when it comes to the flow, when it comes to the
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  conversation, sound conversational and sound easy to
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  understand. I repeat, look professional,
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  package yourself, wear your suit and suit plus tie or whatever it
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  is that your industry requires. If you like to intimidate
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  people, wear your Rolex, you know, whatever it is, show up to
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  that meeting when you know in your BMW, if that's part of your
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  packaging because there's some people who are like that.
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  You know, I was going for a meeting and I have my trusty
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  Toyota Camry and someone's like, oh boy, we can't roll up in this
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  thing. I say hi.
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  What's what's wrong now is, you know, a car, say no, now we roll
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  up in a Camry, they'll look at us somehow.
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  Now suppose pull up in a Jeep as I had.
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  I don't want to argue. I said no problem, Momsy's car
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  was around. So we just took Momsy's Jeep and
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  then we went for the meeting, you know, But what's the point
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  of telling all these lies if the Jeep is not your own?
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  The Jeep is not your own. Eventually you have to show up
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  in your own car. So if a Camry is all you have, I
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  beg, in my own humble opinion, show up in the Camry.
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  Anyway, where was I? I can't remember.
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  So look professional, show up your credentials, talk up your
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  credentials, but in the conversation part, sound
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  conversational and sound easy to understand.
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  How do we do that? I'm not trying to say sound
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  daft. What we can do is all the
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  official language in your industry, reduce it or explain
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  it. All the technical, all the
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  official, all the high sounding language.
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  Reduce it, explain it, do away with it.
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  You don't have to sound different.
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  You can't sound like yourself. But don't remove all that
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  official sounding language. Let me give you some examples,
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  and these are the kind of examples that Tom Hopkins would
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  talk about. Tom Hopkins is one of the sales
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  trainers that I reference here all the time.
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  He's an American sales trainer, real estate.
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  He's one of those old guys, you know.
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  Yeah. People who have been in the
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  business since 1976. Nineteen 86.
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  Yeah, but remember what I say. It doesn't matter how old these
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  people are. It's not about their age.
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  It's about whether the principles that they express are
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  valid and applicable. So forget the age of these
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  people. So forget the fact that they're
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  white and forget the fact that they're old.
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  Brian Tracy still works, still good.
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  Tom Hopkins still works, still good.
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  The book that I quote a lot, spin selling Neil Rackham, Yeah,
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  that one is old, 1986, still works, still good.
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  Read them, listen to them, take the knowledge, see how you can
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  apply to the Nigerian experience.
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  That's why we have this podcast. So yeah, this is basically Tom
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  Hopkins approach. So let's start with a demo
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  because there are lots of people that I talk to and they say, oh,
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  the next step is we tell the customer or not that I want to
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  schedule a demo. See, first of all, demo here.
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  You and I know what it means because yeah, we're educated.
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  You know, we scoot abroad and, you know, we read fancy business
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  books. The average customer probably
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  doesn't know what demo means. And even if they did, like, what
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  are you trying to form for? Stop saying let's schedule a
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  demo. How about making it more
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  relatable, making it more practical?
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  How about asking after you give them your UVP, the unique value
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  proposition? Why should people do business
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  with you? The next thing you ask, would
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  you like to see how our XYZ can help you achieve ABC?
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  That's an easier way. And of course, most people say,
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  yeah, yeah, I'm curious. It's OK.
• 17:27
  No problem, Madam. But to do that, we actually need
• 17:30
  to hook up a meeting with engineer here.
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  Natural because here our choice is the one that is the expert
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  who'll be able to tell you how this software, this solution,
• 17:39
  this whatever can help you achieve social sponsoring your
• 17:42
  business. And the Madam will say, OK,
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  sure, no problem. And you will go ahead and you
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  will schedule the meeting. When you say let us schedule a
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  demo for customers who understand what demo means, the
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  vibe that you'll be getting is you want to set up a meeting so
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  that you can show off your solution, show off your
• 18:05
  software. It's all about you all about
• 18:07
  you, but you should make these these interactions about your
• 18:11
  customers. So excuse me, so instead of
• 18:15
  saying can we schedule a discovery call, can we schedule
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  a demo? Ask those simple questions.
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  Would you like to see how our XYZ can help you achieve ABC?
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  See that is conversational. Then like I mentioned, this is
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  Tom Hopkins approach. So Tom Hopkins in his old
• 18:35
  material, Uncle TomTom will continue to say that stop going
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  around saying buy, buy, buy. So back to this guy who is
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  selling tyres in the family company, don't want to say would
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  you like to buy the MDZ 5000? Let's say the MDZ 5000 is a is a
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  brand of tyre that they sell. No, Uncle Tom says when you say
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  bye, bye, bye, what most people hear is spend money, spend
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  money, spend money. And we are not trying to, we're
• 19:05
  not lying to people because yes, they're spending money, but that
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  is not what we are trying to emphasize in their minds is not
• 19:14
  what we're trying to play up. So Uncle TomTom Hopkins, what he
• 19:18
  likes to say in his material in his books is instead of saying
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  would you like to buy the MDZ 5000, say something like, would
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  you like to own the MDZ 5000? Would you like to use the MDZ
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  5000 as part of your fleet? How soon would you like to
• 19:36
  experience the benefits of having an MDZ 5000?
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  So you can see that we are still trying to move them forward and
• 19:47
  we're still trying to make the point while just not using the
• 19:50
  word buy. But you know, formal people,
• 19:58
  that's what they will say bye then contract.
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  Yes, the most the the most formal or the most professional
• 20:08
  thing to say actually, would you say now let's sign the contract?
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  But Tom Hopkins says when you say sign contract, most people
• 20:22
  begin to lock up. They begin to, they feel as if
• 20:26
  contract, contract means let me sit down, let me scrutinize, let
• 20:32
  me look for the loopholes, Let me look for the trap.
• 20:34
  There's a trap here somewhere. So Tom Hopkins says, let's keep
• 20:40
  this thing conversational. That's all I'm saying.
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  Next step is for us to sign the contract.
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  Are you free for Tuesday morning?
• 20:48
  Just say, oh, the next stage is it's time for us to sort out the
• 20:51
  paperwork so that we can move forward.
• 20:53
  You can see that sort out the paperwork sounds much more
• 20:55
  casual, much more, you know, can I send you a draft Monday 8:00
• 21:02
  so you can show your boys in legal, Keep it cool, casual,
• 21:06
  confirmational. So yes, the formal thing to say,
• 21:12
  the professional thing to say is yes, we're heading into
• 21:14
  contracting stage. Or just say paperwork, keep it
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  cool. Formal language leads people to
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  be uptight, leads people to be nervous.
• 21:25
  Sometimes it confuses people because they don't know what it
• 21:28
  is that you are trying to say. For instance, there is Nigeria
• 21:34
  when they hear a contract, I'm sure the average Nigeria when
• 21:37
  they hear a contract, they think of A50 page document with 102
• 21:42
  provisions and each provision has a, you know, 5 or 6
• 21:46
  subtitles or something. I say subtitles, sub sub
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  provisions, subheaders. Well then if you say well next
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  all we have to do is just sort out the paperwork and then you
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  send them a one page document, very simple.
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  And at the bottom they just authorize.
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  Well, that's all. I think when you say sign here,
• 22:10
  it sounds very somehow like I'm signing my life away.
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  Well, I said OK, so we're cool with everything in the document.
• 22:17
  All we just have to do is authorize here and here and then
• 22:19
  we can get started. Of course, I've already gone on
• 22:29
  and on about our brothers and sisters in the tech space.
• 22:35
  You know, UUIUX, we have three, you know.
• 22:38
  So I'm going to pick on you guys today.
• 22:42
  Moja, look professional, Look professional, address
• 22:47
  appropriate to the context of trying to show up some
• 22:50
  credibility here. Inspire confidence in the other
• 22:52
  person. If you are credentialed, display
• 22:54
  your credentials. Talk about your credentials, try
• 22:56
  and weave them into the conversation so you can show
• 22:58
  some competence when you're trying to move the conversation
• 23:02
  forward. Don't be formal, don't be
• 23:04
  stuffy. Don't use technical terms.
• 23:07
  Let's keep you smooth. Let's keep you conversational so
• 23:10
  that we can build rapport, build relatability and also reduce
• 23:14
  complexity. But before I sign off, remember
• 23:17
  I said that this applies to people who are in sales only
• 23:22
  because in sales our goal is we're trying to sell something.
• 23:27
  This applies only to sales and marketing.
• 23:30
  Those of you in legal, please use your legal terms so that
• 23:34
  when the contract shows up in court, the document is all I put
• 23:42
  it is precise and leaves no room for misinterpretation and no
• 23:47
  room for ambiguity. So legal you need to be precise.
• 23:53
  HR, those of you human resources, you guys also need to
• 23:55
  be very, very clear with your communications.
• 24:00
  So legal and nature, you guys state it as clearly as possible.
• 24:04
  It is left to the person receiving the document to now do
• 24:07
  some homework to try and understand exactly what it is
• 24:09
  that is being expressed. Accounting, accounting.
• 24:11
  Also, you guys have to be very, very clear about what it is that
• 24:14
  you do. So outside of these sorts of
• 24:17
  things, if we're trying to close a sale or trying to collect
• 24:20
  money from someone, then please do not sound professional.
• 24:26
  If sounding professional means sounding excessively formal.
• 24:30
  Of course, there are other elements to being professional,
• 24:32
  like being polite, for instance. Being polite, being on time,
• 24:38
  What else? Yes.
• 24:39
  So all those other aspects of being professional, please
• 24:42
  invite them. So yeah, that is all I came to
• 24:46
  drop on the podcast today and I hope I've been able to minister
• 24:51
  to someone. And now they can see that even
• 24:56
  though you can use terms and technicality and sound formal
• 25:00
  and bamboozle somebody into a sail, it's a lot easier to just
• 25:03
  remove restrictions and relax and be casual.
• 25:07
  But Please note, because I say it should be casual, I didn't
• 25:10
  say iguan show up in jeans and T-shirt.
• 25:13
  If in your own industry, what is required is suit on suit plus
• 25:17
  tag. Anyway, let me wrap it up here.
• 25:20
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 25:22
  Remember, if you would love to connect, you can call, send a
• 25:25
  text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 25:33
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 25:35
  I'll catch you guys some other time.