Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Happy Customers, Happy Career: The Power of Satisfaction

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Happy Customers, Happy Career: The Power of Satisfaction · 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 still on the series
• 0:05
  about how sales skills can help with personal growth and
• 0:08
  development. And today we're going to be
• 0:10
  looking at customer satisfaction, customer
• 0:13
  satisfaction skills and how that can help you build a career and
• 0:17
  how that can assist in your personal development.
• 0:19
  Now First off, we have to define what customer satisfaction is.
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  Of course, that's hard to define.
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  But from a traditional sales and business development
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  perspective, there are two elements that we should be
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  looking at when we're trying to figure out the customer
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  satisfaction equation. So the first thing we're going
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  to look at is, is the customer happy?
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  And the second thing we're going to be looking at is, was the
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  brand promise of the product or the service achieved or was it
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  met now is the customer happy? That is the much more subjective
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  part of the equation. It's the feel good equation or
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  trying to figure out if the customer had pleasant
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  experiences, if they had a pleasant user experience.
• 0:59
  And these sorts of things are easy to tell.
• 1:02
  You're able to pick up on the feel good vibes if you're having
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  a conversation with someone over the phone or you're having a
• 1:07
  conversation with someone in person.
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  You're not going to get a good sense of this if you use e-mail.
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  Because e-mail is flat, it's formal, it's official and you
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  get no nuance in in personal expression.
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  Of course, That's one of the reasons why I keep hopping back
• 1:23
  to the whole communication hierarchy.
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  Now about the brand promise. If the brand promise of the
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  product or service was met, sometimes it can be a much more
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  objective thing to filter through depending on the product
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  or the service that we're looking at.
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  Now, if you remember when I started off this this current
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  season, I was the example that I came up with was for the father
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  of a bride who goes to the market because he wants to buy a
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  cow for the wedding and whether he's looking at local cows or
• 1:57
  imported booze of cows from South Africa.
• 1:59
  Now for those of you who've been listening to the last four or
• 2:01
  five episodes, you know what it is that I'm talking about.
• 2:03
  If this is your first time of listening to the episode, then
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  when you're done listening with this, then skip back until you
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  get to the first episode in this current narrative arc and you
• 2:12
  get caught up to speed. So now in this case, where the
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  father of the bride bought the cow or I think option two that
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  we came up with was 7 goats. So whether he buys one cow or
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  seven goats, if you call him back for the customer
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  satisfaction conversation, whether the the brand promises
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  achieved is a relatively straightforward affair.
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  So was it able to serve the crowd or not?
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  Yeah. So that's the conversation
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  basically that one would be having.
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  So in this case, it's a lot easier to figure out and if
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  you're an architect, because I think we also came up with an
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  architect example, then part of the promise being met
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  conversation would be whether the building was able to be
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  erected within the budgetary scope that you guys planned for.
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  So do people love the design that is the happiness part of it
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  And then it was it able to be built within cost.
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  You know those will be some of the elements that will be the
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  brand, will be the part of the brand promise whether that was
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  met. So as you can see this part of
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  it is kind of easy but it is something that we can figure out
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  quite easily by having conversations with people having
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  frank conversations. When I say frank I mean open
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  converse honest conversations then open-ended conversations
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  and other focused conversations and question LED conversations.
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  Now again for those of you who this been listening for a while,
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  you know what this means if this is your first time listening to
• 3:44
  the show. Basically when I say Frank, I
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  mean honest. When I say open-ended, I mean
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  the conversation doesn't have. I mean you have a fair idea of
• 3:53
  what the agenda is, but you're keeping it nice and loose so
• 3:58
  that the conversation can flow to the left or flow to the right
• 4:01
  depending on where the customer or potential client is heading
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  and the kind of things that you need to learn.
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  Now when I say the conversation has to be other focused, what I
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  mean is that you should be focusing more on the other
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  person, their own opinion, their own feedback, their own
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  thoughts, their own opinions. And because of that it has to be
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  question LED. You can come in making
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  statements, you have to come in and start asking the person
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  questions and the typical questions that I advocate that
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  are the easiest to remember at this stage are the West
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  questions who, what, when, why, how, OK how is not AW question
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  but you you get the point. Now, I'm going to refer to
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  something that I've mentioned in the previous podcasts.
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  That's the hierarchy of communications.
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  And I'm going to bring it up again because we're talking
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  about having conversations with people.
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  We're talking about having Frank open-ended, other focused and
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  question LED communications. So how should we handle those
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  communications? And that's where the hierarchy
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  of communications come in. And OK, well, for those of you
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  who've been listening from the Git, you know that for me, #1 on
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  the hierarchy is face to face. Now, the reason why face to face
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  communications are the best, if you can manage that is because
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  in face to face communications, where I'm over at the client's
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  house, the client is in your office, you guys are the studio,
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  you guys are the field, you guys are the site.
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  You get the whole picture or you guys are sitting across the
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  table. You have more elements of
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  communication there. You're going to be able to pick
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  up on verbal cues, body language, tone.
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  There's going to be room for nuance and expression, you know?
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  Did she say that smiling? Did she say it with the with a
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  blank face? Did he say with an eyebrow
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  raised? Did he say it as he was biting
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  on his viral? I mean, you never know.
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  You can pick up all kinds of things.
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  You can pick up enthusiasm, lack of enthusiasm, disinterest,
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  anger. Yes, you can pick up anger,
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  especially anger of the passive aggressive sort where somebody
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  might be saying the right things, but you can see that
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  they're using passive aggressive language, sorry, body language.
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  And so maybe there's something that they haven't said.
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  So that's why face to face is the best, because you're going
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  to be able to get the fullest range of communications
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  possible. Now the second is over the
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  phone. This is the second most
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  commutative because body language is lost.
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  You can't see what's going on, but you can pick up on tone and
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  you can pick up on some elements of nuance.
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  It's hard to describe which actually can hear a smile over
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  the phone. And sometimes you can hear when
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  somebody's pissed off over the phone even though you're not
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  looking at them. So this is the reason why our
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  phone is best. Now video, I guess some people
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  would say video should be better because for video betting,
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  you're getting both the visual and you're getting both the
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  auditory, the sound, the auditory cues.
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  Well, for now it's not there yet because not everybody is
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  comfortable on video, because some people show up on video and
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  get kind of stilted when they're self-conscious.
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  But if you get on video, at least you'll be able to tell the
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  difference between somebody saying it was OK when they mean
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  everything was 100% and when they say it was okay.
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  But what they mean is the experience was bearable, It was
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  possible, it was tolerable, it was just there, it was meh, you
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  know. So you'll be able to tell that
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  difference over on video then SMS or WhatsApp.
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  That is also good because if, well these days anyway,
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  traditions might change later on.
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  But right now if you're sending somebody an SMS or a WhatsApp,
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  if you're in somebody's inbox, then you guys have achieved a
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  certain level of personal rapport.
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  And then of course there's emojis and gifts and things like
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  that that allow for a wider range of expression.
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  Also, I just said GIF, I'm not sure if it's GIFs or GIFs, I'm
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  not sure how they are pronounced.
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  Then at the very bottom is e-mail.
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  For me, e-mail is at the bottom because it is the least
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  personal. It is more formal, at least in
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  this part of the world. In Nigeria, e-mail is more
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  formal, It's official, so it leaves very little room for
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  nuance and tone. Now, why bother about this whole
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  thing of the communications hierarchy?
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  We have to bother because we're trying to figure out what people
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  really mean when they say things like it was OK or I was happy or
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  you did good. You're trying to figure out what
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  do they really mean and the extent to which they feel
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  approbation or so. Is it approbation?
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  I'll be this approbation. I can't remember.
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  But you get the whole point when they try to say it was good or
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  when they try to say it was bad. You're not just trying to figure
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  out is this a pleasant experience or not, but how
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  pleasant was the experience or how nasty was the experience.
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  That's what it is that we're trying to find out.
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  And it is going to be different depending on whether the
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  conversation was had face to face or if it was done over the
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  e-mail. So ideally face to face, but it
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  doesn't always work. So you try and it's not.
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  It doesn't always work for you to be face to face with all your
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  clients, but well anyway you get the gist.
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  If you're doing it e-mail every single time.
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  I think you can do better than that.
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  At least try and make it an SMS, WhatsApp conversation.
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  Much more personal where people feel relaxed and they can say
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  stuff or get on the phone if you can't meet face to face.
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  But anyway, you get the gist. So yeah, so put yourself in the
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  best context possible to try and figure out what people mean.
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  That is what this whole thing about the communications
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  hierarchy is about. Put yourself in the best context
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  possible. Now the reason why all of this
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  is important? Customer success, Customer
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  satisfaction. Did you achieve the brand
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  promise and all of this? It is important because, number
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  one, it helps for product or service development.
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  It helps us to refine our product, refine our service back
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  to the wedding photographer example for instance.
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  These conversations will help you refine and improve your
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  photography style. It might also help you improve
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  Okay. While I said Okay, well, that's
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  product development, how good your product is.
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  Then it can help you refine or help you improve service
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  development as well. How do you interact with people?
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  How do you handle conversations? What's the business process
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  like? So that's the reason why all
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  this feedback is important. Then all this also helps you to
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  identify your ICP. That's your ideal customer
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  profile, your ideal customer avatar.
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  The people that you work best with, your most satisfied
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  customers, people that should be spending the most time with.
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  Yeah, it helps you to refine that because from all these
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  conversations you might start getting a picture in your head
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  that as an architect, when I'm working with people aged 60 and
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  older from the southern part of the country and who are high net
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  worth individuals, it's a pleasant experience or it's a
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  bad experience. But then if I'm working with
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  younger people, younger millennials, between the age of
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  30 to 40 or whatever, I mean, yeah, I trust you guys get the
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  point from having these conversations.
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  You start seeing patterns arise. And when I'm talking with this
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  kind of people, this is what I'm hearing.
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  When I'm talking with those kinds of people, that is what
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  I'm hearing. So perhaps I should be chasing
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  category of people. I should be chasing people in
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  groups, BCD instead of groups of people in EF and G Now how do
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  all these skills? Sorry.
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  One moment. OK.
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  Yeah. Notification was coming in.
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  I had to mute that. OK.
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  So how do all these skills help with your career development,
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  these kinds of skills trying to figure out if people are happy
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  or not. Are people satisfied?
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  Were you guys on point where you're on goal?
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  It's important because at the office you need to figure out
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  which initiatives were successful or which initiatives
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  were on target. It's the same with the church
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  activities. The church department has a
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  program. They're working on this, they're
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  working on that. And you need to figure out what
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  was successful, what was on point, what was in near miss,
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  what could you have done better? It's the same with the village
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  community activities. You know when you travel home
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  from the village in December and the same when you guys have the
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  political caucus meetings, you're trying to be able to
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  figure out if the stakeholders in the office or the
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  stakeholders in the village or the church or in the political
• 12:24
  caucus, you're trying to figure out was everybody happy?
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  They're trying to figure out, did we deliver on the promise of
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  the meeting, the promise of the program, the promise of the
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  event, the promise of the program, of the project.
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  So how are we going to be able to figure it out?
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  We're going to do so using all the principles that we've spoken
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  about so far. First off, we have to talk to
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  all the stakeholders involved. The the conversations have, to
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  be frank, they have to be open-ended.
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  They have to follow people where wherever they're willing to say
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  to talk. Because you might think that
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  this aspect of the program or that aspect of the agenda was
• 13:00
  not a problem. But if the person that you're
• 13:02
  talking to thinks that it was a problem, then follow the
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  conversation in an open and frank manner and try and see
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  which way the conversation leads.
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  So open-ended conversations focused on them, the person that
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  you're talking to and then it has to be question LED.
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  Also beer in, Bear in mind the communications hierarchy and
• 13:24
  principles that we have discussed.
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  So in fact, if you're talking to the political caucus members, I
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  would say that you should do everything possible to make sure
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  the meeting is face to face. And that is why politicians
• 13:35
  always meet face to face, even if it's in the late hours of the
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  night. Because face to face is best.
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  You're there, there's no bullshitting.
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  You're able to figure out what is this person saying, where
• 13:46
  does this person stand now? How is this going to help in
• 13:48
  your career and your personal personal development and career
• 13:52
  development? It's going to help because it
• 13:54
  will help you to become a person of influence and it will help
• 13:58
  you build a better reputation. And of course you're
• 14:00
  demonstrating, demonstrating your credibility and your
• 14:04
  competence so that when you're ready to advance your career or
• 14:07
  to advance your atmosphere of influence, you should be able to
• 14:11
  do so relatively easy or easier than if you are not to do
• 14:16
  anything at all. If you're just remain an
• 14:18
  ordinary member of the house who does nothing, who just attends
• 14:20
  the meetings and sits down and eats the small chops and takes
• 14:24
  the Fanta and then stands up and then leaves.
• 14:27
  So that's all for today. I wanted to make sure that we
• 14:30
  come in under 15 minutes, so remember to connect with me on
• 14:33
  WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
• 14:39
  The country code is +234. If you are reaching me from
• 14:42
  outside Nigeria, also connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 14:45
  My name is Tavish IMA Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
• 14:48
  You can confirm the spelling of my name and the e-mail address
• 14:51
  from the link where you're currently listening to this
• 14:53
  episode. Thank you very much for your
• 14:54
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 14:56
  episode.