Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of the Refocus: Guiding Sales Conversations Through Objections to Real Solutions

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The Art of the Refocus: Guiding Sales Conversations Through Objections to Real Solutions · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. I'm chilling at the car wash
• 0:04
  right now trying to get the car cleaned and so expect to have
• 0:07
  some interruptions in the background.
• 0:09
  If this is your first time of listening to the podcast, don't
• 0:11
  worry. This is not about how to keep
• 0:13
  your cars clean in Nigeria. The goal of this show is free
• 0:16
  business education. So remember to share, promote
• 0:18
  and talk about the show so that your friends and family members
• 0:21
  in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that
• 0:24
  we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:27
  on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice or
• 0:30
  rather player of their choice. And if you in particular have
• 0:32
  any sales and marketing questions or bring them to me,
• 0:35
  you can call, you can SMS, you can send me a WhatsApp on
• 0:38
  08064662140. So today on the show, I want us
• 0:44
  to look at the Fine girl objections.
• 0:47
  Now, some of you might be wondering, fine girl, what does
• 0:50
  that have to do with anything? Objection.
• 0:52
  What is an objection? So let's get straight into that.
• 0:55
  Now, if this is your first time listening to the show, the
• 0:59
  emphasis, the focus, the bearing of the podcast is we're trying
• 1:02
  to solve sales problems. We're trying to solve problems
• 1:05
  that come up whenever you're face to face with a particular
• 1:07
  customer, chatting with a particular customer, sending an
• 1:11
  e-mail to a potential client. And then little hiccups and
• 1:14
  things are coming up every now and then that seem to prevent
• 1:17
  you from closing this deal. Now, anything or rather most
• 1:21
  things that are going to come up during the conversation because
• 1:24
  best believe it is a conversation whether you know it
• 1:27
  or not. Or rather, you should adopt the
• 1:30
  philosophy that every single sale is a conversation.
• 1:33
  You're having a conversation with someone, not that you're
• 1:36
  trying to make a sales pitch to someone or make a sales pitch at
• 1:39
  someone. So during the course of the
• 1:42
  conversation, several things are going to come up that
• 1:44
  traditionally in sales we call objections.
• 1:47
  Now objections are any reasons that people give for not going
• 1:52
  ahead or for stalling. So if somebody says you're too
• 1:55
  expensive, that's an objection. If somebody says you want to
• 1:58
  build house, that's an objection.
• 2:00
  If somebody says in this tin noble economy, that is an
• 2:04
  objection. And those are objections around
• 2:06
  price. If somebody says, let me get
• 2:09
  back to you, that's an objection.
• 2:11
  If they say let me talk to my wife, let me talk to my pastor,
• 2:14
  let me talk to my brother, let me consult my shareholders, that
• 2:18
  is an objection. So all these things that people
• 2:22
  say that other things that people say so that they can't go
• 2:26
  ahead or because that they're stalling, then that is what we
• 2:30
  call an objection. So when objections come up, it
• 2:35
  just means that people have concerns about your product or
• 2:39
  your service or maybe concerns about you, but they're not
• 2:42
  saying those things yet. So whenever objections come up,
• 2:47
  the traditional thing to do actually is to try and handle
• 2:49
  the conversation in such a way that we get to the root, that we
• 2:52
  get to the main thing. Because famously for money
• 2:56
  objections, some people say, ah, indistinable economy.
• 2:59
  And you think the problem is that they can't afford it, but
• 3:02
  maybe the problem is they can afford it, but they just want
• 3:04
  flexible payment terms. You know, maybe drop 50% now,
• 3:08
  another 30% later on, and then maybe 20% upon delivery or
• 3:12
  something like that. So whenever you hear an
• 3:14
  objection, the goal is to continue to engage in a
• 3:18
  conversation because Please remember it is a conversation so
• 3:22
  that you can bring the agenda back on track.
• 3:26
  Find out what the real reasons are.
• 3:28
  Now, traditionally the kinds of objections that people face in
• 3:30
  business are money price. You know, budget.
• 3:33
  Those are the first things I said.
• 3:35
  You're too expensive. Chukudi sells it for, you know,
• 3:38
  200,000 naira cheaper, indistinuable economy.
• 3:41
  Do you want to build a house on top of my head?
• 3:44
  What are you saying? 2.5?
• 3:45
  Are you mad? You know, all those sorts of
• 3:47
  things. Those are money objections.
• 3:49
  Always beyond my budget. So those are money objections.
• 3:54
  Now, the reason why I'm mentioning them is because these
• 3:57
  are the ones that everybody gets.
• 3:59
  Now, there are other objections, but this is one that everybody
• 4:02
  has faced. It doesn't matter the business
• 4:03
  that you're in, if you're selling insurance, if you are
• 4:06
  selling software, if you are selling cars, if you're selling
• 4:10
  planes, if you're selling a Gucci, if you're selling Turkey
• 4:15
  for selling fried chips, Indo meat, like it doesn't matter
• 4:18
  what you sell mobile phones. Everybody has had money or price
• 4:21
  objections. Are you serious?
• 4:24
  25,000 for what? I don't have money, I'm broke,
• 4:28
  it's too expensive. I can get it from Lagos at 100K
• 4:32
  cheaper. We've all had those things
• 4:34
  before now. There is a class of objections
• 4:37
  that lots of people are not familiar with, even though they
• 4:41
  get it, but they don't know that it's an objection.
• 4:43
  And that's the reason why I'm talking about the fine girl
• 4:45
  objection. The reason why I'm talking about
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  this is because I did the training for a client in Benin
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  and he sells a he sells gadgets, electronical, electronic and
• 4:59
  computer gadgets in his store. And then he has the sales team
• 5:02
  of three associates and one of them, you know, came across this
• 5:06
  whole thing where somebody was like, you're a fine girl, blah,
• 5:08
  blah, blah, you know, all those kind of things.
• 5:10
  And I'm glad it came up because to be honest, whenever I'm
• 5:13
  coaching sales associates, you know, particularly females,
• 5:16
  sometimes I want to broach the I like to broach certain kinds of
• 5:20
  subjects. But then again, I don't want to
• 5:23
  be too forward. So when these things come up
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  live in the field, you know, I'm always happy so that we can
• 5:27
  address it. And the final define girl
• 5:30
  objection actually is an objection because remember,
• 5:33
  we're talking about reasons that people are giving for not going
• 5:36
  ahead or things that people say to stall the conversation.
• 5:40
  Now, if you don't believe me, let's take a step back.
• 5:42
  If you don't believe me, that fine girl is an objection, Let's
• 5:45
  look at the work of Brian Tracy. Now, Brian Tracy in his old
• 5:49
  material, very old material, he talks about personal objections.
• 5:54
  And for him, he says personal objections occur when people
• 5:57
  spend more time talking about you, the person that they're
• 6:00
  talking to, instead of talking about the problem or the need.
• 6:04
  Because to be honest, there, whenever people are spending
• 6:08
  time talking about you are not the problem, just check it.
• 6:12
  You'll see that all those signs that people come and assess
• 6:14
  saying, oh, fine girl, how many times do all those people by all
• 6:17
  those fine girl people check it. You see that it very rarely
• 6:20
  happens. And The thing is, it's not just
• 6:25
  it's not just fine girl. That's the form that it takes.
• 6:28
  It takes different forms where people are just trying to stall
• 6:32
  the conversation, they're trying to avoid the conversation,
• 6:34
  they're trying to wrestle themselves out of the situation,
• 6:37
  but they're trying to do it in a very polite manner, in a very,
• 6:40
  very polite manner. Now, let me give an example for
• 6:43
  how I used to get personal objections.
• 6:46
  Now you guys know that I used to be in the event space, wedding
• 6:49
  photography, wedding video, and I noticed that there were some
• 6:52
  clients that would come and they would spend a lot of time
• 6:55
  talking about my master's degree.
• 6:56
  Like, oh really? Oh, oh, you studied oil and gas.
• 7:00
  Wow, from oil and gas to photography.
• 7:02
  Ah, that is really whatever. Oh, you're chasing your dream.
• 7:06
  Oh, you're so charming. Oh, the website is expensive.
• 7:09
  Oh, I'm curious about learning wedding photography.
• 7:12
  You know, they're talking about every single thing apart from
• 7:17
  what they need, which is wedding photography and video, the style
• 7:21
  that they like and things like that.
• 7:23
  Now, The thing is, when I was young in the business, now, I
• 7:27
  was naive. I'd be very flattered.
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  And yes, I would start talking about my master's program, about
• 7:32
  how oil and gas, you know, was challenging but intellectually
• 7:38
  stimulating. Eventually, we'll start talking
• 7:40
  about How I Met my wife in Aberdeen and, you know, working
• 7:44
  in the UK and civil service and you know all that.
• 7:47
  And before you know it, that's how one hour has passed.
• 7:50
  You guys feel like you're friends and, you know, they
• 7:52
  stand up and leave, you know, But The thing is, have you
• 7:55
  noticed they did not buy, they didn't buy Shishi, they didn't
• 7:59
  buy a game. Now, most people assume that
• 8:01
  that is a good meeting because we spoke about me.
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  We spoke about, you know, we started blending on a personal
• 8:07
  level. I know some things about them
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  and the masters that they went for.
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  I spoke about my own masters too.
• 8:13
  And, you know, we seem to blend on a very, very personal level.
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  But at the end of the day, they didn't buy shishi.
• 8:19
  That is an objection. They're trying to stall the
• 8:23
  conversation. They're trying to extract Abby
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  is the extract Abby extricate trying to extricate themselves
• 8:28
  from the conversation, but they want to do it in a very polite
• 8:31
  way. So they start talking about you
• 8:33
  instead of talking about the problem.
• 8:35
  So this is what Brian Tracy calls personal objections or
• 8:39
  what I like to call fine girl objections because I've noticed
• 8:41
  that guys usually throw these on girls a lot.
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  Fine girl like you, blah, blah, blah.
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  Truth of matter is the guy is just trying to get a discount.
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  That's why the guy is talking fine girl this understand this
• 8:51
  and that and that. So don't fall for all these
• 8:53
  things. No fall for all these things at
• 8:55
  all. I mean, like I pointed out, you
• 8:57
  don't have to be a fine girl to get some of these things.
• 9:01
  We can be a fine boy or an average boy or whatever.
• 9:04
  But the moment people start talking about you, instead of
• 9:08
  talking about the problem or the need, you have fallen into what
• 9:12
  Brian Tracy calls personal objections.
• 9:15
  So like I said, the fine girl objection was the latest
• 9:17
  instance that I came across, you know, one of my current clients,
• 9:21
  the Engadget sales. And the thing was the guy came
• 9:24
  in, I wanted to buy PS4. What is it called?
• 9:27
  Pad, control pad. That's the thing that you, you
• 9:30
  know, the thing you hold on both hands and used to control the
• 9:32
  game, you know, where you tap up, up, down, down, you know, to
• 9:35
  kick out, to punch out everything.
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  So the sales associate, she did what I told them to do, which
• 9:41
  was you anchor high because everybody likes to negotiate in
• 9:45
  Niger, low price everything, everything apart from when you
• 9:49
  go to the Cyber Cafe and you want to pay for Internet, you
• 9:51
  know, But apart from that, people price everything,
• 9:53
  everything. So I told her to anchor high.
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  The idea behind anchoring high is that if somebody comes and
• 9:58
  they want something from you and really you'll be OK with
• 10:01
  200,000, if you say 200,000, they'll start trying to price
• 10:04
  you down. So if you're OK with 200,000 and
• 10:06
  they come in, you know, just say 220 or 230.
• 10:08
  By the time you guys dance back and forth, you know, you settle
• 10:10
  on 200, you're good, you've gotten the money that you
• 10:12
  wanted. So of course, she anchored high.
• 10:15
  And then the guy started off with usual price objections.
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  Oh, too expensive, blah, blah, blah or what not.
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  And then from there, another set of objections.
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  You know, we started with price objections and other objections.
• 10:28
  So you can see that he has come here to buy PS4 pads.
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  He thinks pricing is an issue. He's trying to get a discount
• 10:36
  and he's going to say anything that will get to the discount.
• 10:39
  So the next thing he just threw an offhand comment was like,
• 10:42
  excuse me? He just ran offhand comment.
• 10:44
  He just said, I'll tell you, Olga, that you only pack fine
• 10:47
  girl food this place. You know, that's the kind of
• 10:50
  thing I supposed to throw you off.
• 10:51
  But that's the point of the conversation where truly, truly,
• 10:54
  if you're a fine girl, you will now blush and then you will now
• 10:56
  smile and then you now do your eyebrows.
• 10:59
  You know you're Sony off guard. And then before you know it, and
• 11:04
  then you've given him that discount.
• 11:07
  But then luckily she was a sharp girl, so she should refocus.
• 11:11
  And she said, even yourself, you're a fine boy and see how
• 11:14
  you are pricing. And I told her that that was
• 11:18
  brilliant. What she did was brilliant.
• 11:23
  The strategy for dealing with personal objections is always to
• 11:26
  refocus, which is what she did. You guys say, I'll tell you,
• 11:31
  Olga, you just packed fine girls for this place.
• 11:34
  And she blushed. And then she said, you myself,
• 11:37
  you're a fine boy and see you fine boy, look at you up and
• 11:39
  down, fine boy, see as you are pricing.
• 11:42
  And she refocused, We should always refocus on need analysis
• 11:48
  to make sure we understand what it is that the client needs,
• 11:51
  whether the thing meets their needs, whether I can solve their
• 11:55
  problems and get the conversation back on track.
• 11:57
  That's what we should always do when we have personal
• 11:59
  objections. So for me, back in the day when
• 12:01
  people would be like, haha, you're a master's degree holder
• 12:04
  and you're doing wedding photography.
• 12:06
  Instead of me getting sidetracked and talking about my
• 12:08
  master's degree and living and working in the UK and meeting
• 12:12
  the love of my life there and then me and them, we're now
• 12:14
  talking about personal, personal, personal, personal
• 12:17
  things that we live there feeling like friends.
• 12:19
  But then they never buy things to always refocus.
• 12:22
  So yeah, yes, I do have a master's degree.
• 12:26
  In fact, that is where I learned my photography and that is where
• 12:30
  I got my love of a much more natural style of photography.
• 12:35
  So for your wedding on So what kind of photography are you
• 12:38
  looking at? Are you looking at something
• 12:39
  much more natural or do you like all the fancy Photoshop things
• 12:43
  that brides are doing nowadays? That is what I should have done.
• 12:47
  Acknowledge. Oh yeah, I studied in the UK and
• 12:49
  yeah, it's pretty interesting. And yes, that's how I love my
• 12:51
  photography and that is what has given me my unique, unique sense
• 12:55
  of style, this style of photography that I have.
• 12:58
  Is it the kind of thing you're looking for?
• 13:00
  Refocus the conversation. So if they say, Oh no, actually
• 13:03
  I prefer this, I prefer this, you know, we can't end it there.
• 13:06
  There's no need going around making friends.
• 13:08
  Look, we're in business not to make friends.
• 13:10
  So how do I put it? We're not in business to make
• 13:12
  friends. We're in business to make money.
• 13:16
  So let's remember that. So that's the goal.
• 13:18
  We're not here to get our ego stroked.
• 13:20
  So I know that is always very good when somebody shows up and
• 13:23
  they're fine, man. Look, I won't I won't deny, you
• 13:27
  know, whenever somebody comes and start talking about my
• 13:29
  looks, yeah, I get thrown off gut, especially with a fine babe
• 13:31
  that's talking to me. Yeah, nothing throws me off too,
• 13:34
  but should always refocus. And it's nice that you're trying
• 13:37
  to do your business so much like a friend.
• 13:38
  You're like you and you know, and so it's it's it's always a
• 13:42
  good stroke to the ego when somebody comes and talk about
• 13:44
  how attractive we are or how tall we are or how educated we
• 13:48
  are or how charming we are or how, you know, blah, blah, blah,
• 13:51
  blah. But look, forget that thing on
• 13:54
  our objection. A brand, Tracy calls them
• 13:57
  personal objections. They're trying to be polite, and
• 14:00
  they're trying to extricate themselves from the conversation
• 14:03
  in the most polite way possible. So my guy who comes here wants
• 14:07
  to buy APS 4. Maybe he came there thinking you
• 14:10
  can buy this thing for 5K. And then he found out that
• 14:13
  actually asking price is more like 80 something or 100 and
• 14:16
  something. Yeah.
• 14:18
  You know, you guys extricate yourself from the situation in a
• 14:21
  way that doesn't show that you know, you know, you know, to
• 14:24
  like you don't have money. So you do the normal financing
• 14:29
  thing, you know, the normal price objections, you know, too
• 14:31
  expensive, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 14:33
  And then you do the fine girl thing.
• 14:35
  You know, by the time she blushes, if you don't get the if
• 14:38
  you don't get the discount, you know, you leave, leave on a good
• 14:42
  note, you know, so don't fall for all that crap.
• 14:45
  Brian Tracy calls them personal objections.
• 14:47
  The reason why I just call them final objections is because at
• 14:50
  least in this part of the world, people tried a lot on women.
• 14:53
  I find you're like you, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 14:55
  So don't fall for all that crap. So I guess the main thing I'm
• 14:59
  trying to say here is this. Let's remember that when we're
• 15:03
  having conversations with people to see if they can become
• 15:08
  potential customers, they're always going to have concerns.
• 15:11
  Concerns about the price, concerns about the quality,
• 15:15
  concerns about your your own credibility because it is a
• 15:18
  concern. I like what I see.
• 15:20
  But is this guy or is this big professional love to deliver on
• 15:25
  the things that I need. So all kinds of concerns and
• 15:28
  these things are going to come up in many, many ways.
• 15:30
  All those things are called objections.
• 15:33
  They just show that people have certain concerns.
• 15:35
  Whatever people say at face value is not the main thing.
• 15:39
  So like in this case, when somebody says I will tell yoga
• 15:42
  that you only pack five years full here, you know, that is not
• 15:45
  the main thing. In fact, it's never related to
• 15:47
  the thing at all. The main thing is just that the
• 15:49
  guy does not want to pay full price and he's going to do
• 15:51
  whatever he can to get a discount.
• 15:54
  And then in my own case, people talking about my master's degree
• 15:57
  and my personal charm and all of that, it could have been
• 16:01
  anything. It could have been that.
• 16:02
  Well, OK, I see the photography. Clearly this is a foreign style,
• 16:07
  but I don't like this foreign style.
• 16:08
  I prefer the Niger style. Maybe that was the real issue in
• 16:12
  some of those things, but I'll never know because I got
• 16:15
  flattered and I got carried away.
• 16:17
  Now. Oh yeah, they think I'm a fine
• 16:19
  boy. Oh, yeah, they think I'm posh.
• 16:21
  Oh, yeah, they think I'm educated.
• 16:23
  And then we spend one hour talking about my life instead of
• 16:26
  talking about why they are in front of us, which is that
• 16:29
  they're getting married as so, so, so dates.
• 16:31
  They need photography, They need video.
• 16:33
  So remember, for these particular classes of
• 16:35
  objections, what we're trying to do is to refocus.
• 16:38
  And the sales associate, she refocused very well.
• 16:42
  I'll tell you a guy, he packed fine girl fool here.
• 16:44
  And then she blushed and then she smiled because she
• 16:46
  appreciated the attention. And yes, she's a fine girl.
• 16:49
  And then she refocused yourself. You're a fine boy.
• 16:51
  See yourself up and down, everything tight, everything
• 16:54
  looking smooth, see your skin. And you're now pricing, pricing
• 16:57
  this thing. Ah, come on, you're too big for
• 16:59
  this. So we always try and refocus
• 17:01
  what the main issue is. And I really hope that that
• 17:07
  young lady is listening to this, especially maybe one or two who
• 17:11
  have fallen for this fine girl objection before, You know,
• 17:14
  don't fall for this thing again. But if you're falling, don't
• 17:16
  worry, don't feel bad. It happens to everybody.
• 17:20
  So in my own case, it was fine boy, educated boy, tall boy, you
• 17:26
  know, whatever what The thing is, we all fall for it.
• 17:29
  We all get it every now and then.
• 17:31
  OK, so that's all for today, folks.
• 17:33
  Now remember, if you have sales or marketing questions, bring
• 17:35
  them to me. You can call SMS or WhatsApp me
• 17:37
  on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 17:42
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 17:45
  episode, dear listener, where we'll be talking about, let's
• 17:49
  see, OK, maybe the next episode, look at closing techniques
• 17:54
  because that's also stuff I spoke about with this particular
• 17:56
  client is sales associates. I wanted to get the ladies on
• 18:02
  point when it comes to how to close the sale, so I have to
• 18:05
  check through my list and see what are the outstanding topics
• 18:08
  that we haven't covered. But anyway, either way, it's
• 18:10
  going to be something real juicy and relevant to growing your
• 18:13
  business. So I'll catch you guys at the
• 18:14
  next episode.