Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Power of Expertise: Selling with Confidence

Transcript

The Power of Expertise: Selling with Confidence · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be a noisy
• 0:05
  episode because I'm out and about, although it looks like a
• 0:07
  relatively quiet place, you know where I'm parked, but you never
• 0:12
  know, somebody might just walk by or drive by.
• 0:15
  So today we're going to look at effective prospecting.
• 0:19
  We're not going to cover all that today because I figured
• 0:23
  it's about time I did one of those longer narratives where I
• 0:26
  take one case study and, you know, I use one case study and
• 0:32
  then use it to just flesh out a couple of ideas.
• 0:35
  OK, I think I've already done one.
• 0:37
  I think the last one I did was in December.
• 0:38
  I can't remember what it was about exactly.
• 0:42
  But now what I'm going to do is we're going to look at how you
• 0:45
  can prospect effectively. And if you're new to the show,
• 0:49
  prospecting just means looking for people who might be
• 0:52
  interested in your product or your service.
• 0:55
  And it is the first step to making sure that you get better
• 0:59
  at sales and you improve your your business revenue.
• 1:05
  Now, of course, there's one more thing.
• 1:07
  OK, well, it's still part of prospecting anyway.
• 1:09
  That is where you figure out your ICP.
• 1:11
  That is your ideal customer profile because you know, it's
• 1:13
  all part of the same search. If you're going to go out and
• 1:16
  look for people who might be interested in your product or
• 1:18
  your service, then tied into that question is we're trying to
• 1:21
  figure out who the right customer is, excuse me, who the
• 1:24
  right person is in the 1st place.
• 1:27
  So over the next couple of days, hopefully we're going to learn
• 1:30
  how to identify potential customers.
• 1:33
  We're going to learn how to qualify potential customers.
• 1:36
  What that means is we're going to learn how to start
• 1:38
  conversations with them. You know, conversations from
• 1:41
  hello up until you know, they transfer the money into your
• 1:46
  account. We're going to learn how to
• 1:48
  build target lists. We're going to learn how to
• 1:50
  prioritize leads because that's also something people don't do
• 1:53
  very well. And remember, a lead is someone
• 1:56
  who has raised their hands to say they might be interested in
• 2:00
  your product or service. So back to that age-old example
• 2:02
  that I give over here on the podcast of somebody who was
• 2:05
  handing out Flyers outside my son's schools.
• 2:07
  So if he handed out 200 Flyers and out of the 200, let's say 50
• 2:11
  people responded. And out of the 50 people, let's
• 2:15
  say 30 people sent DMS on Instagram.
• 2:19
  And let's say 10 called in. And let's say the final ten went
• 2:22
  into the shop. So those 50 people, those are
• 2:26
  leads because they have done something that shows that they
• 2:28
  might be interested in the product or the service.
• 2:31
  Because 30 people sent Instagram DMS to say, hey, oh boy, how far
• 2:35
  do you have mathematics textbook level 5.
• 2:40
  And a couple of other people might have sent another DM
• 2:43
  saying, oh boy, how far I saw your, I saw your Flyers.
• 2:48
  Do you have a SpongeBob SquarePants school bag or you
• 2:52
  know, whatever. Sure.
• 2:53
  So those are leads now because 50 people hit you up from the
• 2:58
  campaign that you did doesn't mean all of them are equal.
• 3:01
  We have to learn how to prioritize them.
• 3:04
  And in fact, all things being equal, I would assume that the
• 3:08
  person who drove into your store should be given higher priority
• 3:12
  than the others. So it's not as if you want to
• 3:14
  attend to everybody, you will. But if I'm pinging back and
• 3:18
  forth with you over the DMS and then somebody walks into the
• 3:24
  store, you know, I would recommend that you prioritize
• 3:27
  the person who walked into the store.
• 3:29
  Now, of course, you can just drop a small message.
• 3:32
  What do they do nowadays? BRB and be right back.
• 3:35
  So you just do a BRBI turn to this guy sharply, you know,
• 3:38
  collect your money and then go back to the DMS.
• 3:41
  So these are the sorts of things that we're going to try and
• 3:43
  learn over the next couple of days.
• 3:45
  How do we prospect effectively? How do we look for people who
• 3:49
  might be interested in our product or service?
• 3:51
  How do I identify the right people that we're supposed to
• 3:53
  chase after when we found those people, how do we start
• 3:55
  conversations with them? How do we build up target lists
• 4:00
  so that we stay on point? Because if you're trying to
• 4:03
  prospect and running everything from your, your mind, from your
• 4:06
  head, you'll forget. You're better off taking your
• 4:10
  daughter and writing it down 12345678 and write down 8 names.
• 4:14
  Or you know, getting your phone and type it out 12345678 or
• 4:18
  however it is you want to do it. Even if you're going to be doing
• 4:21
  Google Calendar and then you put two names on Monday, 2 names on
• 4:24
  Wednesday, 2 names on Thursday, 2 names on Friday.
• 4:27
  However, sure, you're better off running this thing from a list
• 4:30
  that you've written rather than trying to run it from memory.
• 4:33
  And then of course, privatize leads.
• 4:35
  So those are the things that we're going to do.
• 4:37
  Now, if you'd love to connect with me, the phone number is
• 4:40
  08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 4:47
  If you are not Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn as
• 4:50
  well, the name to look for establishment IED.
• 4:52
  You'll also find me on YouTube. So these episodes are going to
• 4:54
  be up there as well. Now, I'm going to be using a new
• 4:57
  case study this time because I've used all kinds of case
• 5:00
  studies in the past. I've used crayfish, I've used
• 5:03
  wedding photographers, I've done architect, I've done engineer,
• 5:06
  I've done Carpenter, I've done what else?
• 5:10
  I think I've even done swimming coach.
• 5:13
  But today we're going to use the case that we're going to use is
• 5:17
  a young female lawyer. I figured, let me go a bit more
• 5:22
  highbrow, you know, because I've done services, but I want to do
• 5:26
  services, services, services as a very high kind of service.
• 5:30
  So the case study we're going to use for all of this is we're
• 5:33
  going to use a young female Nigerian lawyer who wants to
• 5:37
  start up a practice for securities compliance.
• 5:41
  Now securities compliance just means she's just trying to make
• 5:46
  sure that for companies who want to sell their shares on the
• 5:51
  stock market or who want to list their shares on the stock market
• 5:54
  or who want to bring new kinds of investment products into the
• 5:57
  Nigerian market, you know, to sell to Nigerian people.
• 6:00
  He just wants to make sure that all these people are dealing
• 6:03
  with all the regulations that they need to comply with so that
• 6:06
  they don't run into trouble and also so that they don't package
• 6:09
  rubbish products and then end up defrauding Nigerians like the
• 6:14
  Wonder Banks. Maybe like five years ago there
• 6:16
  was his bank, I can't remember what the bank was called.
• 6:19
  So I'm not really a bank per say, what people just called it
• 6:21
  the Wonder Bank. And what they were doing was, I
• 6:26
  think what they were saying was I think like you would drop
• 6:28
  maybe like 50K and then after like 10 days you can withdraw
• 6:31
  100K or something like that. And you know, people are just
• 6:33
  piling in and turn out to be just a Ponzi scheme.
• 6:37
  So young female lawyers who are in the compliance space, they're
• 6:45
  pretty much just there to make sure that all these kinds of
• 6:48
  things, you know, don't happen. So if you're coming out with a
• 6:50
  new investment product, they want to make sure, oh, good
• 6:53
  thing I warned you guys. Looks like somebody's here and
• 6:55
  driving out. So if they if they put together
• 7:00
  investment products just to make sure that the investment
• 7:02
  products are above board. And if they're trying to do
• 7:08
  something unknowingly, because sometimes people come up with
• 7:12
  business ideas and you don't realize that your business idea
• 7:15
  is illegal. So if you're one of these people
• 7:18
  who's thinking of setting up one of these wonder bank things, a
• 7:21
  compliance lawyer like this young female lawyer, that's our
• 7:24
  job to say, OK, I know you think it's a good business idea.
• 7:27
  But actually under section, this is this of section that, that,
• 7:30
  that what you're trying to do is absolutely wrong, is absolutely
• 7:34
  illegal. You could go to jail.
• 7:36
  So that is what people, that's what compliance lawyers do.
• 7:41
  So this young female lawyer, let's give her a name.
• 7:45
  OK, Let me just call her Cami Adenica.
• 7:49
  Yeah, let's call her Cami Adenica.
• 7:51
  Let me write that down because this is going to be a long
• 7:54
  running series. I don't want to forget the name,
• 7:57
  so let me just write it down. Cami Adenica, If there is a real
• 8:03
  live person named Cami Adenica listening to this show right
• 8:09
  now, apologies, this is not you, but would really be interesting
• 8:15
  if there's a Cami Adenica listening to the show right now,
• 8:18
  who also happens to be a young female lawyer and who is also in
• 8:20
  the securities and compliance space.
• 8:22
  So let me put out my disclaimer. This is a work of fiction, and
• 8:26
  any likeness resembling anybody is purely coincidental.
• 8:33
  So yeah, I just made that name up, Cami Adenica.
• 8:36
  So let's call her Cami. Now, remember, now what we're
• 8:40
  trying to do is we're trying to do effective prospecting, and
• 8:42
  prospecting is looking for anybody who might be interested
• 8:46
  in your product or your service. So you're a fresh graduate.
• 8:48
  Came here, Danica. And OK, no, let's not make her
• 8:52
  fresh. If she's fresh, it will be hard
• 8:53
  to break into the market. So let's say she's been doing
• 8:56
  this for a while, maybe like 10 years.
• 8:58
  So came here, Danica. Now you want to become a
• 9:00
  compliance lawyer. And yeah, you're ready to break
• 9:04
  out on your own. Now, the first thing that we
• 9:06
  need to do, before we even talk about prospecting, looking for
• 9:08
  who might be interested in a product or service, the first
• 9:11
  thing we have to sort out is subject matter expertise.
• 9:15
  Let me say that one more time. The first thing we need to sort
• 9:17
  out is subject matter expertise. Now, what does this mean?
• 9:22
  It means obviously that if you're going to be doing
• 9:24
  something, there's going to be a subject matter behind it.
• 9:28
  You want to make sure that you're the expert.
• 9:30
  So let me go back to wedding photography.
• 9:33
  I started off as a wedding photographer and OK, no, I
• 9:37
  didn't start off as a wedding photographer.
• 9:38
  Well, I started off as a lawyer, but the first, like me trying to
• 9:42
  make money on my own was wedding photography.
• 9:44
  So subject matter expertise means that when it comes to
• 9:48
  handling camera, when it comes to editing, when it comes to
• 9:51
  posing, when it comes to lighting, when it comes to
• 9:52
  whatever, you have better be the expert.
• 9:56
  Now, subject matter expertise, it's something that Brian Tracy
• 10:01
  says is foundational. If you listen to, I think it's
• 10:04
  called psychology of selling or something.
• 10:06
  That's one very old cassette that Brian Tracy released.
• 10:10
  I didn't have the cassette because, you know, I have some
• 10:14
  pirates in my family. SO1 Pirate in particular, my
• 10:18
  younger brother, he was able to get the cassettes on CDs and he
• 10:25
  ripped off the MP threes and then sent them to me.
• 10:26
  So yeah, that's how I got that by Tracy one, it's because I
• 10:29
  happened to live with the pirate at the time.
• 10:31
  Oh well. Or because I'm I was related.
• 10:33
  I am related to a pirate. So that's how I got it.
• 10:36
  But I think it's called psychology of sales or something
• 10:38
  like that. So by Tracy says that subject
• 10:41
  matter expertise is absolutely foundational to being good at
• 10:46
  sales. And this is the reason why if
• 10:51
  you are not the subject matter expert, it will affect your
• 10:55
  credibility. People will look at you, they'll
• 10:58
  look at Cammy and be like this babe relaxation.
• 11:02
  No to I don't know, I don't know and people will be looking at
• 11:06
  you one kind. So if you're not the subject
• 11:08
  matter expert, it goes straight to the credibility and it goes
• 11:11
  straight to the competence. You won't appear credible and
• 11:13
  people will think you are competent.
• 11:15
  Now, another reason why subject master expertise is important
• 11:20
  and the main reason why Brian Tracy was talking about this
• 11:22
  sort of thing is because it affects your personal
• 11:26
  confidence, because you and I listening or OK, well me, I'm
• 11:31
  talking you, you're listening. So you and I were normal people.
• 11:35
  We're not psychopaths. We cannot sell something that we
• 11:38
  do not believe in. There are people that can sell
• 11:41
  stuff that I don't believe in, like they sell something that
• 11:44
  says the best thing since sliced bread and blah, blah, blah.
• 11:46
  But you know that The thing is rubbish.
• 11:48
  Most people are psychopaths or psycho, something as insured,
• 11:51
  they have mental problems. That's what I'm trying to say
• 11:56
  more than people like you and I. We don't have that skill.
• 11:59
  If what we are selling is useless.
• 12:02
  There's a way that we'll be trying to speak with food,
• 12:04
  chairs and confidence and everything, but so will be able
• 12:07
  to people be able to feel like something is not quite right.
• 12:11
  Like I can't put my finger on it, but there's something that's
• 12:13
  not quite right here. And that's because the ordinary
• 12:16
  person does not know how to sell crap.
• 12:18
  So it is important that you are not selling crap to begin with.
• 12:22
  So that's why subject matter expertise is important and it's
• 12:25
  the cornerstone of sales. You better make sure that you're
• 12:27
  the expert. Now, of course, people are going
• 12:30
  to ask, you know, what level of expertise.
• 12:32
  And you know, all of that is relative.
• 12:36
  Now, I'll put it this way, expertise is relative.
• 12:38
  Yes, let me put it that way because like I've said time and
• 12:40
  time again on the podcast, I'm here because I can teach you
• 12:44
  guys a thing, a thing or two about sales and selling and
• 12:47
  about business, but I probably can't teach Dangote a whole lot
• 12:52
  about certain kinds of businesses.
• 12:55
  So that's what I mean when I say that expertise is relative.
• 13:00
  So based on where you are and based on where I am right now,
• 13:04
  I'm the expert. So that's also something you
• 13:08
  have to bear in mind because some people also, they will hear
• 13:10
  this whole thing of you have to be the subject matter expert.
• 13:13
  And so because of that, they will feel as if they have to be
• 13:16
  perfect before they begin. So Khemi Adenike, of course,
• 13:22
  made-up, not a real person. So if you're someone in the
• 13:26
  situation or Khemi Adenike, you're a young Nigerian female
• 13:29
  lawyer and you want to set up practice for securities
• 13:32
  compliance in Niger, don't feel as if you need to know all the
• 13:36
  law. You don't have to know all the
• 13:38
  law. You don't have to have graduated
• 13:41
  first class because remember, like I said, expertise is
• 13:45
  relative. So for people who are just
• 13:48
  coming into the market new, maybe this is their first time
• 13:51
  trying to set up an investment firm or something like that, if
• 13:56
  you have enough expertise relative to them, it is going to
• 14:00
  be fine. So now let's flush out a few
• 14:03
  things. So let's say Kemi Adenica, what
• 14:07
  did we say? So we said 10 years.
• 14:10
  I'm just picking 10 years because if you're trying to come
• 14:12
  and start this kind of business is your first time out of law
• 14:15
  school, I won't lie, it will, it will hurt you.
• 14:18
  It will be very hard because there are going to be some of
• 14:22
  your senior colleagues that have been doing it five years, three
• 14:24
  years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and you want to come year
• 14:30
  one. It's I mean, let's, let's just
• 14:32
  be realistic. I mean, it can happen, but I'm
• 14:34
  just saying let's be realistic here.
• 14:36
  When people have been in the game like 1520 years, you can't
• 14:38
  just come year one and say from nowhere, you now come and be the
• 14:44
  expert and then capture market share just like that.
• 14:47
  So let's be, let's be realistic. So that's why I say, let's say
• 14:51
  she's been practicing law for 10 years in Lagos.
• 14:56
  And let's say that in that her firm that she's worked, worked
• 15:00
  at in Lagos, she has worked, she was part of a team that has
• 15:04
  successfully brought 4 investment products to the
• 15:06
  Nigerian market. So let's say Uba was trying to
• 15:10
  launch some investment something, they went to her law
• 15:12
  firm. You know, she was on the
• 15:14
  committee. Then maybe another bank or
• 15:17
  another whatever. I was trying to bring out
• 15:18
  something. She was now the head of the
• 15:20
  committee, another one. She was the secretary of the
• 15:22
  committee. You know, Bosha, anyhow, Shash
• 15:25
  has done like, you know, four of these big, big case, big, big
• 15:31
  investment products being launched in Nigerian market.
• 15:34
  You know, the kind of thing that you see on NTA and on channels,
• 15:38
  TV and maybe on this day newspaper.
• 15:40
  And so because of that, she feels as if like, like, you
• 15:44
  know, I'm something now I've been doing this 10 years and I'm
• 15:48
  related to these 4 campaigns. You know, I'm, I must be legit.
• 15:51
  I must be the shit. So let me try and launch my own,
• 15:57
  my own law firm and our own thing is just that.
• 16:01
  We'll just be doing securities compliance.
• 16:05
  So subject matter expertise, absolutely essential.
• 16:10
  It is important so that when people see you, like in this
• 16:14
  case, when they say Cammy, I didn't care, I mean, should have
• 16:17
  been practicing for 10 years. So that means she got her LLB,
• 16:19
  that's her bachelor's in laws. She must have done master's and
• 16:23
  then she's been working for 10 years.
• 16:26
  So for her to have done master's and she's working for 10 years
• 16:29
  and that means maybe she has been called to the bar for like
• 16:32
  1215 years. So basically she's not a baby
• 16:34
  lawyer. This is a lawyer that has done
• 16:36
  like 15 years. In fact, the very fact that, you
• 16:40
  know, you graduated and you've been working for like 15 years,
• 16:43
  there's a way you carry yourself that people know that, OK, this,
• 16:45
  this is not just a baby lawyer. So, yeah, subject matter
• 16:50
  expertise, really, really important.
• 16:52
  So she has gone to the right schools, she has gotten the
• 16:54
  right qualifications. She has done the work and she
• 16:59
  can trace her, well, let's say her experience back to, you
• 17:06
  know, four or five things that you know, even you that are here
• 17:09
  having a conversation with her that you can remember like, oh,
• 17:12
  OK, so that you be a product. OK, You are part of that team.
• 17:16
  Oh, OK, I see, I see. What was your role in it?
• 17:19
  You will talk back and forth and everything.
• 17:20
  You know, that is you now flexing and showing that
• 17:24
  credibility and building up that competence.
• 17:27
  And also you can see how it will give you the confidence to sell
• 17:33
  yourself effectively because you know that you are not making
• 17:36
  stuff up. If Kemi Identicare was to come
• 17:40
  at this like fresh, let's say she just graduated law school
• 17:44
  January 2025 and then March 2025, she's now trying to start
• 17:49
  her firm. And then somebody comes, you
• 17:51
  know, there's a way that her mouth will not be strong because
• 17:53
  even she she will know that look, I just finished three
• 17:56
  months ago. I have not done gang.
• 17:59
  I've not done Shishi. I have done nothing in this
• 18:01
  space and make it difficult for her to sell herself.
• 18:06
  So any summary of all this, all this long story that I've been
• 18:11
  saying so far is, is justice. And if we're going to go about
• 18:16
  prospecting, want to find people who might be interested in our
• 18:18
  product or service, the first thing we need to make sure is
• 18:21
  that we have taken care of ourselves in house.
• 18:24
  We need to make sure that we have some subject matter
• 18:27
  expertise because it will affect the way that people view us.
• 18:30
  And it will also affect the amount of confidence that we
• 18:34
  have to talk about ourselves, to boast about ourselves and to
• 18:38
  pitch ourselves successfully. So it doesn't matter what
• 18:42
  business that you're in. Like right now I'm talking to
• 18:44
  somebody who's on or re or reflame beauty and skin care
• 18:51
  specialist. So if Oriflame is your business,
• 18:55
  I think Oriflame, I think that's like a skin care thing based out
• 18:58
  of sheer butter. So if you're an Oriflame person,
• 19:01
  you better make sure that you're you're you're subject matter
• 19:04
  expert. Make sure that you have gone to
• 19:06
  Oriflame. Sorry, excuse me, Oriflame, like
• 19:09
  the mother company, make sure you have studied all their
• 19:12
  courses. You've taken all their courses,
• 19:15
  you've taken all their certifications.
• 19:16
  Make sure that you have it because that's a, it's a multi
• 19:20
  level marketing thing. So I'm assuming that not only do
• 19:22
  they give you products to sell, sure that they must, they must
• 19:25
  also certify you as well to know that you know all the
• 19:31
  ingredients, you know all the products.
• 19:32
  So if you're an Oriflame person, make sure that you're the
• 19:34
  specialist. Make sure you've taken all the
• 19:37
  courses, make sure you know all the product lines.
• 19:40
  That's without looking at the brochure.
• 19:42
  You know, there's some people that if somebody's talking to
• 19:44
  them, they'll say, and you can use this product or you can use
• 19:46
  that product, but they're looking at the brochure.
• 19:49
  You know this thing back to front, front to back, so that
• 19:52
  from the back of your skull you'll just be talking.
• 19:55
  You know, you can say this, we can try this, or there's this
• 19:58
  product or there's this, or there's that.
• 20:01
  Maybe you might bring out the brochure just to show the custom
• 20:03
  audience you're talking about, but you have to be the
• 20:05
  specialist. So whether it's Oriflame skin
• 20:08
  care or whether it's a wedding photography or whether it is,
• 20:13
  you're starting off as a baby, OK, No, not baby lawyer because
• 20:16
  she's 10 years. You're starting off your own
• 20:19
  firm as a 10 year old lawyer and you want to sell securities
• 20:23
  compliance. You have to make sure that
• 20:25
  you're the subject matter expert.
• 20:27
  So we'll wrap it up here today because we've taken 1 main idea
• 20:31
  subject matter expertise and we've stretched it out quite a
• 20:34
  bit. So next we're going to try and
• 20:36
  identify who the potential customers are, who the ICP is.
• 20:41
  That's the ideal. I, I, I be ICP, What is it
• 20:47
  called again, ideal customer profile, The ideal customer
• 20:51
  profile. The potential person that came
• 20:54
  here didn't care is supposed to be running after.
• 20:57
  This is important because if you do not figure out who you're
• 21:00
  supposed to pursue, you are going to waste time, you're
• 21:03
  going to waste resources chasing persons or chasing people rather
• 21:08
  who mind you might not be able to close the deal at all.
• 21:13
  So all of this is part of prospecting.
• 21:15
  So that is what we're going to do in the next episode.
• 21:19
  So again, if you'd love to connect, the phone number is
• 21:21
  08064662140. Country code is lost 234.
• 21:28
  That's my also up number as well and then connect with me on
• 21:32
  LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED.
• 21:34
  I'm also available on what's I think called on YouTube.
• 21:40
  Yes, on YouTube. So you'll find these episodes as
• 21:42
  well. So thank you very much for your
• 21:43
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 21:45
  episode.