Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Close the Deal Faster

Transcript

Close the Deal Faster · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're not going to be
• 0:04
  tackling a listener question. We're going to be looking at a
• 0:08
  list of topics that I think are important that we have to go
• 0:12
  through. And then after I'm done with
• 0:14
  this particular batch, then I'll go back to the listener
• 0:18
  questions or the audience questions from my live coaching
• 0:21
  sessions. And so today, the topic that I
• 0:23
  think we ought to be looking at is how to shorten your sales
• 0:27
  cycle. So First off, let's define what
• 0:29
  the sales cycle is. For those of us who are newbies
• 0:33
  and have never heard of the term before or are not familiar with
• 0:40
  what would I say who have no idea what the sales cycle is
• 0:42
  supposed to be? So basically a sales cycle is
• 0:45
  the amount of time that happens in between when your customer
• 0:49
  says hello or good morning and all the way through when you say
• 0:56
  thank you very much for your order or when the customer makes
• 0:59
  a deposit, a payment, a transfer or the issuer purchase order or
• 1:03
  whatever. So that gap in between the
• 1:05
  moment when you first meet the customer and the time when the
• 1:08
  customer puts money in your account, that is what we call a
• 1:11
  sales cycle. Now, all situations, all sales
• 1:16
  situations have a typical sales cycle.
• 1:18
  So it will be a good idea to know what is typical in your own
• 1:21
  industry because it's a sign sometimes when things are going
• 1:24
  good or when things are going bad.
• 1:26
  So let's say you're in the wedding photography space.
• 1:31
  I've been out of touch, so I have no idea what the sales
• 1:34
  cycle is supposed to be, but let's say a month or two is
• 1:37
  supposed to be. And the typical sales cycle for
• 1:39
  a wedding photographer, if you're with a client and you're
• 1:42
  spending 3-4 months, then it's a sign maybe that something isn't
• 1:45
  going all well. So that's the whole idea behind
• 1:48
  the sales cycle. So just like yesterday's episode
• 1:51
  where we spoke about, OK, I can't remember what we spoke
• 1:55
  about yesterday, but gosh, what was it?
• 1:59
  How to get your closing? What was it?
• 2:01
  Closing ratios, I can't remember the exact time, whether we used
• 2:04
  the closing ratios or closing percentages or things like that.
• 2:07
  But if you have a sense of what the closing percentages, closing
• 2:10
  ratios are, it gives you a sense of how well you're doing
• 2:13
  relative to the market, relative to the industry, relative to
• 2:16
  your mates, relative to the competition.
• 2:18
  And so it's the same thing. Let's get a sense of what the
• 2:21
  typical sales cycle is so we know if we're doing well or if
• 2:24
  we're doing poorly. So if the sales cycle for your
• 2:27
  industry is 3 months and you're spending 5-6 months with a
• 2:30
  customer, then you are spending way too much time.
• 2:35
  But then again, if a sales cycle, if a typical sales cycle
• 2:37
  in your industry is maybe three months and you are doing 1 1/2,
• 2:41
  then you know that means you're running a very tight ship.
• 2:43
  You're able to get to the Coco of the matter and seal the deal
• 2:48
  very quickly. So all sales situations have a
• 2:52
  typical sales cycle. And what determines what the
• 2:55
  sales cycle is? It depends.
• 2:59
  I've already mentioned a number of factors, you know, the
• 3:01
  industry, the commodity, you know, things like that.
• 3:04
  But the way that I would ask that we look about these sorts
• 3:07
  of things and whether we're dealing with a simple sales
• 3:11
  cycle or a complex sales scenario cycle, context,
• 3:15
  whatever. So those are the things that
• 3:18
  will give you a sense of what the typical sales cycle is like.
• 3:22
  So for my favorite commodity, Agusi.
• 3:27
  So your wife sent you to the market to go and buy egusi.
• 3:29
  For those of us who are married and egusi is a commodity, common
• 3:34
  market commodity, it's a, for those of you who are not
• 3:37
  Nigerian, egusi is a, what do we call it?
• 3:41
  It's an ingredient. It's not a spice.
• 3:43
  It's an ingredient for making soup.
• 3:46
  It's made out of watermelon seeds.
• 3:48
  So that's a common market commodity in this part of the
• 3:51
  world. And the sales cycle here was a
• 3:53
  couple of minutes flat. That's because you get to the
• 3:56
  market and you say, oh, Madam, how now?
• 3:58
  And she says, oh, customer, how you doing now?
• 4:00
  How's Madam? How's the children?
• 4:01
  I said everything is fine, though, how we thank God.
• 4:03
  And then he said, Madam, you get a Gucci.
• 4:05
  And then she was like, yes, I have a Gucci, how many cups,
• 4:07
  blah, blah, blah. You guys start to haggle.
• 4:09
  Then you pay some pleasantries, greet your husband, take care of
• 4:12
  the children and then you leave. So that is a sales cycle and
• 4:16
  that one is a couple of minutes flat.
• 4:19
  If you spend 10 minutes there, 20 minutes there, it's a sign to
• 4:22
  the woman who sells a Gucci that something is terribly wrong
• 4:25
  here. This young man doesn't want to
• 4:27
  buy a Gucci. He has come here, he's just
• 4:29
  making small talk. He's taking up my time.
• 4:31
  I can't pay attention to other people.
• 4:33
  So when the sales cycle is going long, it's a sign that something
• 4:36
  is going on, which is the reason why market traders in this sort
• 4:42
  of scenario, by the time you're hanging around for close to 10
• 4:44
  minutes, you know, they quickly just, I mean, they just tell
• 4:47
  you, look, are you buying or not?
• 4:48
  If you're not buying, can you please leave, let somebody else
• 4:50
  come out open market. So yeah, so that's it, sales
• 4:54
  cycle for a Gucci a couple of minutes now.
• 4:59
  OK, for those of you who are new to the show, what is a simple
• 5:02
  sales scenario? So I've used a Gucci and yes,
• 5:05
  you understand because it kind of makes sense.
• 5:07
  But it will be nice to know the things that make up a simple
• 5:12
  sales scenario or a complex sales scenario or a complex sale
• 5:15
  context so that for your own industry or for your situation,
• 5:19
  you can figure out what it is that is going on.
• 5:21
  So a simple sale scenario involves low cost items,
• 5:25
  typically commodities. So Agusi is a commodity.
• 5:29
  It's a low cost, well, relatively low cost since a
• 5:32
  couple of Agusi now is about 3K or something as at the time of
• 5:36
  this recording. So hopefully in the future maybe
• 5:39
  the figure goes down or maybe you're we never know.
• 5:43
  OK, yes, so it's a low cost item.
• 5:46
  It's a commodity for a simple self scenario.
• 5:49
  The thing also has to be a simple good or a simple service.
• 5:52
  Go see. It's simple to comprehend.
• 5:54
  It's not complex. It's there.
• 5:57
  You can see it. If it's good, you can see it.
• 6:00
  It's nice and white and dry or creamy and dry.
• 6:02
  If it's bad, it looks wet and looks moldy and you know, it's
• 6:06
  just there, you can see it, you can touch it, field in your
• 6:08
  fingers, maybe throw on a few of the seeds in your mouth to see
• 6:11
  whether they taste good or not. You know, so my mother-in-law do
• 6:14
  that as you take the seed and pop it into your mouth.
• 6:16
  But yeah, don't do that. I don't believe in eating raw
• 6:18
  food. Then the number of decisions,
• 6:23
  decision makers that are involved in the simple sales
• 6:25
  scenarios are few. So maybe one or two.
• 6:27
  In this case. Wifey says can you please go to
• 6:30
  the market and buy a goosey? I want 2 cups.
• 6:32
  I get there. The market woman is negotiating
• 6:34
  with me only, so she's only talking to one decision maker.
• 6:38
  And then in these sorts of things, relationship building is
• 6:40
  not important. So I can go and buy from this
• 6:43
  woman today if I don't like the way she smiles at me or if I
• 6:47
  don't think she's clean or whatever, if I think the price
• 6:51
  is cheaper someplace else, I'll just move to another person and
• 6:54
  buy from that person. Relationship building not
• 6:55
  important. So these are the kinds of things
• 6:58
  that determine whether the sales scenario is simple, while
• 7:02
  complex sales scenarios are the opposite.
• 7:04
  So complex sales scenarios have longer sales cycles and complex
• 7:09
  sales scenarios are, well, like I said, they are complex.
• 7:14
  They're not as simple as a car. What else?
• 7:18
  Money. They typically cost more than
• 7:22
  what else we mentioned, complexity, money, OK,
• 7:26
  relationships. In this case, the need for
• 7:29
  maintaining a relationship is usually much more important than
• 7:32
  that. So let me go back to my favorite
• 7:34
  example. So usually I say, excuse me,
• 7:37
  Usually I say a Gucci and then I say cars.
• 7:40
  So a car, some people might say a car is not a complex sale, but
• 7:45
  you know, simplicity and complexity are relative.
• 7:48
  Sorry, excuse me. So a car relative to a Gucci is
• 7:52
  a complex sale, but buying a car relative to buying a private
• 7:56
  jet, for instance, you know, you can now say that the car is a
• 8:00
  simple sale and the jet is a complex sale.
• 8:02
  So there's a relativity to the scale of things.
• 8:05
  So let's not get fixated on whether this is a simple or a
• 8:09
  complex whatever, because usually it's relative to who you
• 8:13
  are, where you're coming from, you know, things like that.
• 8:16
  So in relation to a car, sorry, in relation to selling a Gucci,
• 8:20
  a car definitely is much more complex.
• 8:23
  So yeah, so for car sales, maintaining relationship is
• 8:27
  important because I buy the car. If there's any problem, I want
• 8:29
  to be able to go and Jack the person who sold me the car to
• 8:32
  say, look, you're an you're a thief, you sold me this, blah,
• 8:35
  blah, blah. Or if I need after sales
• 8:37
  service, things like that, it would be good to have that
• 8:39
  person on speed dial so I can call the person up if there are
• 8:42
  any problems. So the importance of
• 8:44
  maintaining, maintaining a relationship really, really
• 8:46
  important there. So our complex sales scenarios
• 8:50
  have longer sales cycles, simple sales scenario, short sales
• 8:54
  cycles, complex sales scenario, longer sales cycle.
• 8:58
  So the car is more complex than Egusi.
• 9:01
  Egusi can be done in a few minutes, but the car, the car
• 9:05
  sales cycle, can that be done in a few minutes?
• 9:07
  The answer is no, because this is what happens at least right
• 9:11
  now. At the time of this recording in
• 9:13
  Abuja, people check up the Instagram handle of the dealer.
• 9:17
  And by the way, this really surprised me because back when I
• 9:20
  got my first car, yeah, Instagram was a thing, but I
• 9:24
  didn't know that people bought cars on Instagram.
• 9:26
  So what I did, me and my brother was in Lagos.
• 9:29
  Then we actually went to a couple of dealers.
• 9:32
  We started off on a Wallowar Rd. a Wallowar Rd. leads into leads
• 9:37
  into Ikeja, hooked up with Allen Ave.
• 9:40
  So there's some dealers on Wallowar Road.
• 9:41
  So we tried a Wallowar Road and then we went through, what's
• 9:47
  this place? Is it Aggadingb?
• 9:48
  We went through Aggadingb and then we got to this place that
• 9:53
  is close to on the way to Ojodubega.
• 9:56
  So there are a couple of dealers there as well.
• 9:58
  So basically we just checked out those places, saw the cars, and
• 10:01
  that's how we started. But I'm surprised to find out
• 10:04
  that we have people who sell cars now and they're superstar
• 10:07
  salespeople and car people have Instagram handles, excuse me,
• 10:13
  Instagram handles with hundreds and thousands of followers.
• 10:16
  And So what happens is that now people check the Instagram
• 10:18
  handle first, they see a few things that maybe they like,
• 10:22
  then they now call or they chat the person, you know, WhatsApp
• 10:26
  for models, availability, things like that.
• 10:31
  Then they visit the car lot the first time.
• 10:34
  Maybe they come with a trusted friend or a family member.
• 10:36
  Like for me, I was with my brother and my brother-in-law or
• 10:40
  the chap who would become my brother-in-law, and we ended up
• 10:44
  buying the car through my brother in law's guy.
• 10:47
  So because I'm not really a car person, so I need people who
• 10:50
  have more knowledge, more experience, Then let's see.
• 10:56
  So you come with a family member, a trusted friend.
• 10:58
  You look at several models, you know, you don't decide on
• 11:01
  anything. You go home and you think about
• 11:04
  it for a bit. You come back a second time,
• 11:06
  this time maybe with a trusted mechanic.
• 11:08
  You know, for me, the second time I came back was your Mum
• 11:11
  C's driver. And because of course Mum C's
• 11:12
  driver knows a whole lot more about cars than me and my
• 11:16
  brother-in-law and my brother who came back with Mum C's
• 11:20
  driver. You know, then maybe you do a
• 11:21
  test drive or one or two models, you know, you figure something
• 11:24
  that you like and then you have some preliminary price haggling,
• 11:30
  blah, blah, blah. Just get some expectations and
• 11:33
  then you go home and then you come back again, this time with
• 11:37
  a mechanic for a second opinion, which is what I did after mom
• 11:39
  sees driver and I came back with a mechanic.
• 11:41
  Have a look around, you know, test drive again, you know,
• 11:45
  quote haggle. You know, your driver, your
• 11:48
  mechanic will point out some things that oh, this battery is
• 11:51
  old. We'll have to get new batteries
• 11:52
  or the tires at the back have chopped so we'll need new tires
• 11:55
  or there's no, there's no Jack in the back.
• 11:59
  We need Jack. There's no spare tire.
• 12:01
  You know, you haggle up and down things like that.
• 12:03
  Questions, warranties, the car usage and history.
• 12:07
  Where did this one come from? This one is from Kotunu.
• 12:10
  Oh, this one is Nigeria fairly used or this one is imported
• 12:13
  Canada? Is it accidental blah, blah,
• 12:15
  blah and all those sorts of things.
• 12:17
  So you can see that for the car sales, there's plenty of Gocom,
• 12:20
  there's plenty of back and forth.
• 12:21
  There's plenty of haggle, haggle.
• 12:23
  There's plenty of my brother-in-law, my mom, my
• 12:25
  sister, my driver, my wife, my dispersing, my mechanic.
• 12:28
  Some people will even come with two or three mechanics, come
• 12:30
  with mechanic this week, mechanic next week, mechanic the
• 12:33
  week after that. So you can see that for the car
• 12:36
  sales, it's more complex. Car sales, chances are this
• 12:40
  thing is not going to be closed in a couple of minutes.
• 12:42
  It's probably going to be two weeks, 3 weeks, maybe one month,
• 12:46
  maybe even two months. Excuse me, It depends.
• 12:49
  So the time between somebody hitting you up on your Instagram
• 12:52
  handle, if you sell cars, the time between somebody saying,
• 12:56
  good morning, son, do you guys have Honda Civic 2024 model?
• 13:02
  So let's say that starts the conversation and then everything
• 13:05
  ends when the person transfers the deposit to your account.
• 13:07
  So you can see that the sales cycle, the time between A&B
• 13:10
  could be two to three weeks, maybe a month or maybe two.
• 13:15
  So today's question about sales cycle, essentially we're just
• 13:19
  trying to figure out how do we make sure that sales don't take
• 13:22
  so long. That's the whole thing about
• 13:24
  sales cycle that we're talking about in this question.
• 13:26
  To shorten the sales cycle just means we're trying to limit the
• 13:29
  story, trying to limit the Durante to try and limit all the
• 13:32
  talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Because if it's possible for you
• 13:36
  to start the conversation now with someone and sell your car
• 13:39
  in two weeks, it'll profit you to sell in two weeks instead of
• 13:42
  selling it in one month. Because if you're taking one,
• 13:45
  one month to sell your cars, you have inventory that is sitting
• 13:48
  and is wasting time. But if you're good and you're
• 13:51
  able to offload this thing 222 weeks and you're moving
• 13:53
  inventory, it's also good. Your business is becoming much
• 13:55
  more profitable. And that's the difference
• 13:57
  between selling 20 cars at the end of the year and maybe
• 14:00
  selling 35 cars. So we can't cement sales
• 14:06
  professionals. We're always wondering if
• 14:09
  there's something we can do here and there to shorten up the
• 14:12
  sales cycle. So if we've been doing 3, three
• 14:14
  weeks for four weeks, let's see if we can do this thing in two
• 14:17
  weeks. If we can do it in two weeks, we
• 14:18
  can move inventory, we can make our money back quick, quick, we
• 14:22
  can increase our profit margins, we can increase our profits
• 14:27
  because we've been doing more cycles.
• 14:29
  So that's the central thing that we're looking at in today's
• 14:31
  episode. How do we make sure that sales
• 14:33
  don't take so long? The answer is simple.
• 14:36
  Well, simple ish, because you can boil it down to a couple of
• 14:40
  elements, but there are a few things.
• 14:42
  One, we need to take initiative of the sales process.
• 14:45
  If you noticed what I said with the car example, as it happened
• 14:48
  to me, me doing the buying and if you're a car salesperson, you
• 14:52
  realize that a lot of times as a seller taking the initiative.
• 14:56
  So nobody was rushing me. I was doing things on my own
• 14:58
  time. When I was ready to come with my
• 15:00
  brother, I came with my brother. When I was ready to shop with my
• 15:03
  inlaw, I came with my inlaw. When I was ready to come with
• 15:06
  mum sees driver, I came with mum sees driver.
• 15:08
  When I was ready to come with mechanic number one, I came with
• 15:11
  mechanic one. When I was ready to come with
• 15:13
  mechanic two, I came with mechanic two.
• 15:15
  I was taking my time. Nobody rushed me.
• 15:17
  I was in control. Well, that is not a bad thing.
• 15:23
  It's kind of bad for you, the salesperson.
• 15:28
  It's not that we should rush anybody, but we should try and
• 15:30
  take initiative of the sales process and make sure make sure
• 15:33
  that we are expediting the process, making thing move
• 15:36
  forward as quickly as possible or as reasonably as possible.
• 15:41
  If something can be done in one month, there's no reason why we
• 15:45
  should take two months to do it. So if somebody says how to call
• 15:48
  mechanic #1 then we should try and see how we can make mechanic
• 15:52
  number one visit occur in three days rather than living it up to
• 15:55
  the person. And then the person takes two
• 15:56
  weeks before they come back with mechanic #1.
• 15:59
  So take initiative. First thing you need to do #2
• 16:03
  spend time on needs analysis. When I came to buy my car,
• 16:07
  nobody was spending time in needs analysis.
• 16:09
  It was more or less what have you seen, What do you like?
• 16:14
  Are you interested? Do you want to buy?
• 16:16
  That was the process, pretty much.
• 16:18
  So nobody spending time it needs analysis.
• 16:20
  We're going to figure out why it needs analysis is important.
• 16:22
  Then we also have to learn how to ask direct questions around
• 16:26
  time expectations. If we know what the time
• 16:28
  expectations are, we're going to know how we can move the deal
• 16:30
  forward, you know, sharp, sharp, sharp.
• 16:32
  And of course, nobody asked me directions about time
• 16:34
  expectations, but actually I was getting ready to move to Abuja.
• 16:37
  And if I could have gotten the car before moving so I could
• 16:40
  drive the car down, that would have been good.
• 16:43
  That would have been really helpful.
• 16:45
  But of course, nobody knew this and nobody took me to task on
• 16:49
  that. And so, I mean, that didn't
• 16:53
  happen. So now let's go back to the car
• 16:55
  example. Now, if you leave it up to the
• 16:58
  customer, just like it happened with me, you will see that the
• 17:02
  customer, I want to look at the same car 15 times before they
• 17:05
  buy. It's good for the customer, but
• 17:08
  it's bad for you because every time they come again and again,
• 17:12
  first of all, taking up mental space, taking up morale.
• 17:15
  Nobody likes to have a bunch of time wasters in their DM or in
• 17:20
  their shop. And it's taking time that you
• 17:23
  could be spent talking to other customers and you know, things
• 17:26
  like that. And then plus, if somebody's
• 17:28
  coming to look at the car 15 times, that lack of focus might
• 17:31
  derail the sale. The sale might not happen.
• 17:34
  So the solution, like I said, take initiative when it comes to
• 17:37
  setting appointments or suggesting next steps.
• 17:39
  So somebody shows up, you say welcome Sir, welcome Bros,
• 17:42
  welcome Madame, blah, blah, blah.
• 17:44
  Nice to see you guys. We hope we're going to be able
• 17:46
  to get the car that is best for you guys.
• 17:49
  And then you hear the person out, let them talk.
• 17:51
  Next thing says I'm like, oh, usually people have questions
• 17:53
  around the make the model and then conditions of the car
• 17:56
  before they buy. So I'm assuming you have those
• 17:58
  same concerns Abby. And then you let them talk.
• 18:02
  That's when you now start talking about this whole thing
• 18:04
  of it's been a Republic imported or is Nigeria fairly used or is
• 18:10
  imported Canada or imported UK or imported Netherlands or
• 18:14
  whatever. Then after that you can now say
• 18:17
  like since we're in agreement, we can look at some of the cows
• 18:20
  today, Whatever the questions you have, we have all the import
• 18:24
  documents from Lagos or from Togo.
• 18:26
  If the cow is imported from Canada, then of course you say
• 18:28
  oh, we have the import import papers from Calgary, blah blah
• 18:31
  blah. They're only in the office now,
• 18:32
  there's no problem. So today the focus is let's just
• 18:35
  look at some cars, let's see what you like and let them talk.
• 18:38
  Then after that you say something like, OK, so since
• 18:41
  today we're looking at models, this is what I recommend.
• 18:44
  If you find one or two models that you like that you and
• 18:47
  Madam, like let's call your mechanic now, now so we can
• 18:49
  arrange when you guys will come for testing.
• 18:52
  There's no need to waste time. If you see a model that is
• 18:55
  suitable, you get some agreement.
• 18:57
  If they agree on that, no problem, you now take them
• 19:00
  around. You guys go.
• 19:02
  You look at cars, things like that, but at some point you have
• 19:06
  to ask them a question. OK, Olga, Madam, of these five
• 19:09
  cars that we looked at so far, which ones are you interested
• 19:12
  in? If they respond by saying, let
• 19:15
  me think about it, I'll get back to you, I'm not ready to buy.
• 19:17
  I was just looking then it means you have missed something
• 19:20
  critical in the early parts of the sales process and we're
• 19:23
  going to devote some time to that in future podcast episodes.
• 19:26
  So right now, let's assume that they don't say that.
• 19:29
  Let's assume that they say we like the blue one over here and
• 19:32
  we like that grey one in that corner.
• 19:34
  That last one that Madam sat inside.
• 19:36
  Yeah, that's the one we like. Now this is the point where you
• 19:41
  now take control of the process and you try and direct it.
• 19:44
  You've already been hinting earlier on that Sir, Madam, if
• 19:49
  you guys see something that you like, I think it'd be a cool
• 19:52
  idea. Let's just call the mechanic.
• 19:53
  Now that three of us are here, let's see when you guys can come
• 19:56
  for test driving. So what you do is yes, of you
• 20:00
  leaving them to walk away and saying let me think about it,
• 20:03
  only for the guy to come back next week this time, let's say
• 20:07
  this time he came with his wife. Next time he comes with his
• 20:10
  brother and you start the whole process all over again.
• 20:13
  In fact, you should see some car dealers when all these things
• 20:16
  happen, you see some of them get really, really, really, really
• 20:19
  frustrated. But The thing is, it's not the
• 20:20
  customer's fault. It's your own fault.
• 20:22
  You're not taking control of the sales process.
• 20:24
  So just tell the person, OK, if you're Madam like this blue and
• 20:27
  you like that grey. Just bring on your phone.
• 20:30
  Now let's call mechanic. Now let's see when you guys will
• 20:32
  come for testing. Let mechanic have a look at it.
• 20:35
  Because if you leave it up to them, they might forget
• 20:39
  something else will come up or they will get home and his best
• 20:43
  friend will say how can I go, Madam?
• 20:44
  What does? What do women know about cars?
• 20:46
  This guy, you're not even the correct guy.
• 20:48
  In fact, when next are you? When next do you want to go?
• 20:50
  I will come with you. How can I go with your wife?
• 20:52
  Women don't know anything about cars and you're supposed to see
• 20:55
  men here. Now you should have called your
• 20:56
  boys, so I will go with you. Then maybe he wants to go on
• 20:59
  Monday, but then his friend is not ready.
• 21:00
  They push it to Friday. His friend is not ready, they
• 21:02
  push it to next week Wednesday. You know, that's how these
• 21:04
  things happen. Another thing that could happen
• 21:07
  is since they haven't committed to you, they'll start looking
• 21:09
  and checking other car dealers on Instagrams.
• 21:11
  So it's things like this. This is what adds more time to
• 21:14
  the process than necessary. So take control.
• 21:17
  If it looks like the next step is mechanic then suggested while
• 21:21
  they're here in front of you before they leave.
• 21:23
  Now, OK, you like blue, you like grey.
• 21:26
  So quite a mechanic. Now let's see when he's
• 21:27
  available. You know me and I'm available.
• 21:29
  If I'm not available, Chukudi is always here.
• 21:31
  Chukudi will allow you guys to look at the can, you know, test
• 21:37
  drive, whatever it is that you you want, OK, So that's how you
• 21:41
  start taking initiative and that's how you start shortening
• 21:43
  the time and reducing all these things about.
• 21:46
  He came today with his wife, tomorrow he will come with his
• 21:48
  brother, next tomorrow he will come with his mechanic next
• 21:51
  tomorrow after that he will come with his pastor or whatever.
• 21:54
  So remember, what we're trying to do here is we're trying to
• 21:59
  shorten the sales cycle by taking some initiative.
• 22:02
  We've done that. Now let's move on to how we
• 22:04
  spend time on needs analysis. And then from there, we're also
• 22:07
  going to bleed into how to ask directions, ask direct questions
• 22:11
  around time expectations. So spending time on needs
• 22:14
  analysis just means when people come to your shop, the people
• 22:17
  come to your Instagram DM, the people come to your LinkedIn DM,
• 22:22
  you need to have the conversation and you have to be
• 22:23
  very clear on what is it they want?
• 22:27
  Why do they want it? When do they want it?
• 22:30
  If you have these answers, you're going to be able to make
• 22:32
  the best recommendation that are suited for them.
• 22:35
  So if someone comes and you're a car dealer, you have to be
• 22:39
  asking them like, why are you looking for a new car?
• 22:41
  Yes, we know that everybody who comes here wants a new car.
• 22:44
  I mean, we're not stupid. Everybody wants a new car, but
• 22:47
  you need to, you know, conversation conversationally,
• 22:51
  you know, talk like a human being.
• 22:52
  Don't be a robot. You need to try and find out why
• 22:55
  they're looking for a new car. If they are an old, older couple
• 23:00
  and they want something that the cute, the children can use to
• 23:02
  learn how to drive, you know, maybe in the house they have
• 23:05
  Mercedes-Benz and they have now Honda Civic Jeep.
• 23:08
  What's it called? There's one nice Honda Civic
• 23:11
  Jeep, this new one that people drive around.
• 23:14
  So those are the two cars they have.
• 23:15
  And they say, I don't want my children to bash this car.
• 23:18
  They want to buy a small Toyota that children can use out to
• 23:21
  learn how to drive. You need to figure that out.
• 23:24
  Or maybe it's that they're A1 car family.
• 23:27
  Madam is going to get a new job so they need a second car for
• 23:30
  Madam. Or maybe they just want a brand
• 23:33
  new car but they want to trade in the old car.
• 23:36
  We need to find out because the answers to these questions will
• 23:39
  allow you to ask follow up questions and make better
• 23:41
  suggestions. So if it is about the children,
• 23:45
  you know, how old are your kids? OK, this one is supposed to turn
• 23:47
  18, When do you want it to start driving or OK before he goes for
• 23:50
  university, blah blah blah. When is Madame starting her new
• 23:53
  job? You see like from all these
• 23:55
  questions, now you're not start getting a sense of timelines.
• 23:57
  For me, if anybody had asked and they had realized that I wanted
• 24:01
  to get this car before I relocate to Abuja, then there is
• 24:06
  a sense of urgency behind the sale and you can actually start
• 24:09
  saying things like oh actually if you need this car ready by
• 24:12
  so, so, so and so did to drive to Abuja, we actually need to be
• 24:15
  done with this paperwork, with that paperwork and then this and
• 24:17
  this and this. It will take one week to do
• 24:19
  change of ownership with Rd. safety, blah, blah, blah.
• 24:22
  You see, you can start injecting some urgency in the sales
• 24:24
  process and shorten the sales cycles.
• 24:26
  So yes, people will come to your shop, the person needs a new
• 24:30
  car, but ask why? Why?
• 24:35
  So when you ask these questions, when is Madame starting a new
• 24:38
  job, have you found a buyer for your old car, blah blah, blah.
• 24:40
  You now get a sense of the timelines.
• 24:43
  It also will determine which kind of car that you will show
• 24:45
  them. If you know that you've asked
• 24:47
  and you know that Olga has the Benz, Madame has the the Honda
• 24:51
  Civic, Jeep. So this is about the small
• 24:53
  Toyota for the car, for the kids.
• 24:55
  You now know which kind of Toyotas to show them.
• 25:00
  You now know that it's not, it might not be 2024 model that the
• 25:05
  children will take and scratch, but it could be a Toyota model,
• 25:09
  I don't know, 2001 or something, you know from Canada.
• 25:14
  The thing still looks clean, you know, it doesn't look run down,
• 25:17
  you know, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that.
• 25:19
  So you now know which kind of car you should be showing
• 25:22
  depending on whether it's for the children driving lessons or
• 25:25
  Madam getting a new job. So we need a car for Madam.
• 25:29
  So if you don't ask these questions, these are those
• 25:34
  things where, and I saw it at one of the lots where I went to
• 25:37
  where somebody came before and the person looked at Ben's and
• 25:41
  the person was now back this week and the person was now
• 25:43
  trying out Toyota. And don't be surprised that the
• 25:46
  person will leave this week and then come back next week and
• 25:48
  then start trying out Ford. That is the reason why somebody
• 25:51
  will come to your car shop or your car lot.
• 25:54
  Try Ben's today, Toyota tomorrow, next week, Ford,
• 25:57
  because you haven't asked them these questions.
• 25:59
  OK, Well, you want to buy a car bought for who?
• 26:02
  For when? The things like that and people
• 26:05
  are going from model to model to model.
• 26:07
  If you ask all these questions, you'll be able to know quickly
• 26:08
  that OK, you know what? We're only looking at Toyota
• 26:11
  models because they shouldn't need something that is solid
• 26:14
  study. The children can drive, you can
• 26:17
  take some bashing and something that looks nice and clean.
• 26:20
  You now know that OK, it's Toyota between this year and
• 26:23
  that year and you can go, you start.
• 26:26
  You can go straight to business, start making proposals.
• 26:29
  So these are things that will shorten the sales cycle or the
• 26:31
  amount of time that is required to close the sale.
• 26:35
  Then if you ask questions around timelines, it allows you to
• 26:37
  suggest closing times. Like I said, if they had asked
• 26:41
  me when I need the car and I said before I go to Abuja, they
• 26:44
  would have known how to direct the sale accordingly.
• 26:47
  If it's about Madam's first war worker, then you can architect
• 26:51
  the process like oh, OK, she's beginning work April first.
• 26:55
  OK. In that case, it would be nice
• 26:57
  for us to finalize this thing. Maybe March 15th, let her handle
• 27:01
  the car, you know, two weeks. If there's any problem, let's
• 27:03
  sort it out so that April first, when she starts, there's no
• 27:05
  problem. You now have a time frame for
• 27:08
  you to direct the sale. It's about the children learning
• 27:11
  how to drive, you know how to direct the floor.
• 27:13
  Like OK, university opens in September currently while in
• 27:17
  March. OK, driving lessons FRC says you
• 27:21
  must do driving FRC. That's the federal Rd.
• 27:24
  Safety Commission, they're the ones in charge of our licenses,
• 27:27
  car safety and things like that. So Rd.
• 27:29
  Safety says it must be three months.
• 27:30
  So if they're going to take the car to school in September, so
• 27:36
  September, September -3 months, what would that be?
• 27:39
  Is that July or something? Anybody get my point?
• 27:43
  If you have a time frame, September.
• 27:45
  I want this, my son to carry the car to school.
• 27:48
  I'm sure the boy will be very happy.
• 27:50
  Like I correct, I'm going to uni, I'll have my own car.
• 27:52
  I'll start pulling chicks. So September you can start
• 27:56
  working backwards and you can now start directing the sale.
• 28:02
  Apart from that, when you ask all these questions, you now
• 28:04
  know when you can now start making value added suggestions
• 28:07
  like in this case it was about the kids.
• 28:11
  This way you can start having conversations about how you can
• 28:13
  hook up the parents with their contacts in Federal Rd.
• 28:16
  Safety concerning driver's license or hook them up with
• 28:20
  Federal Rd. Safety approved driving
• 28:22
  instructors so that the children can even start driving lessons
• 28:25
  now as per OK, it will take us like two or three weeks to
• 28:29
  finalise this car thing but at least let the children start
• 28:31
  doing driving lesson now. You know this is value add
• 28:34
  rapport building, relationship building.
• 28:36
  So the summary is to shorten the length of time between hello and
• 28:40
  between Please transfer transfer 3.5 M to my OPI account.
• 28:45
  You have to take initiative of the sales process.
• 28:49
  Make sure that you also have a say in how fast or how slow you
• 28:52
  guys are moving because sometimes there's some people
• 28:55
  that actually want to move too fast.
• 28:56
  And if you move too fast, there's a problem.
• 28:58
  So you actually need to slow it down.
• 29:00
  Don't let that situation up where somebody will come to your
• 29:02
  car or to pay for the car now, take it leave and then for the
• 29:04
  next three weeks, they're blowing up your phone saying
• 29:06
  that this guy is rubbish, that the problem is, this is the
• 29:08
  problem. This is problem that if the
• 29:10
  person is moving fast, try and slow it down and let them buy
• 29:13
  the one that they like. And you know, buyer beware.
• 29:16
  Let them know what they're buying so that when they take
• 29:18
  the car and they go, they're gone.
• 29:20
  It's not that they'll be calling you, they'll be chasing you.
• 29:21
  They'll call police, they'll call EFCC and things like that.
• 29:24
  So you have a saying the speed, if they're too slow, make it
• 29:28
  fast. If they're too fast, tap it
• 29:30
  down. Then you also need to spend time
• 29:32
  on needs analysis so you can give the right kind of proposal,
• 29:35
  the right kind of presentation. Give them options that they're
• 29:38
  going to love and then ask direct questions around time so
• 29:43
  you can have realistic expectations about when people
• 29:46
  be ready to buy and how to close the deal.
• 29:47
  We've already done things like that.
• 29:50
  So remember, all these things I'm saying are contextual.
• 29:53
  It depends on how simple or complex the sale is.
• 29:55
  So if it's a goosey or a market commodity, few minutes you want
• 29:58
  to buy beans, come in, buy, get out.
• 30:01
  A few minutes, you're done. If it's car sales, maybe two or
• 30:04
  three weeks. All these back and forth come
• 30:06
  with Wi-Fi, come with friend call mechanic, see 2-3 weeks,
• 30:09
  maybe one month if you're buying a new TV, flat screen TV,
• 30:13
  depending on how paid up you are, maybe one or two visits to
• 30:15
  the shop and then you buy so TV, that one can be 4-5 days.
• 30:20
  You've bought the TV. Buying a family plot of land,
• 30:23
  OK, it's a little much more complex.
• 30:24
  Buying a brand new house, that one is maybe six months, maybe
• 30:27
  one year before you finalize because you know, the usual now
• 30:31
  you seek wifey's opinion. If you're a woman, you know, you
• 30:34
  seek husband's opinion or, OK, you're not married, you might
• 30:38
  still want to ask your best friends, like, OK, I have money,
• 30:41
  how to buy land in Metama District, blah, blah, blah.
• 30:44
  Oh, Sister Grace, what do you think?
• 30:46
  You know, you asked two people because very few people just go
• 30:48
  out and buy land just like that without talking to anyone.
• 30:51
  So buying land, buying house six months, one year, I don't know.
• 30:54
  I don't sell. I don't sell land, so I have no
• 30:58
  idea. But for President Tinobu buying
• 31:01
  a brand new jet, on the other hand, first of all, they have to
• 31:04
  raise requisition, people have to submit tender, they do RFP
• 31:08
  requests for proposal. There'll be committee meetings,
• 31:10
  there'll be Senate sessions, there'll be official procurement
• 31:13
  process. So maybe for official jet, maybe
• 31:16
  one year, it might be two. It depends.
• 31:18
  So your sales cycles, it's different.
• 31:22
  And these are the factors that depends.
• 31:24
  However, if you take the initiative of the process, if
• 31:27
  you spend time on these analysis and you ask direct questions
• 31:30
  around time expectations, you should be able to close the deal
• 31:33
  sooner than you expected. And that's all for today.
• 31:36
  And we wrap it up. Since we're 30 minutes, connect
• 31:38
  with me on WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140 and
• 31:43
  the country code is +234. Also connect with me on
• 31:46
  LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm
• 31:48
  the host of the show, and I confirm the spelling of my name,
• 31:51
  so you can search for the right person on LinkedIn.
• 31:53
  My e-mail address. What else?
• 31:56
  Yeah, my e-mail address is also on the link.
• 31:57
  We're listening to this episode if you're an e-mail person.
• 32:00
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 32:01
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.