Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Master Negotiation: It's Not Just About the Deal

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How to Master Negotiation: It's Not Just About the Deal · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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Today on the podcast, I'd like to look at negotiation sales
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techniques. But before we continue, the
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usual apologies, I'm not in my recording booth.
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And then even though the Olympics are over, one of my
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sons has taken the liking to Formula One racing.
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So that's some of the noise that you guys are going to hear in
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the background. And then also, I'm much better
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now with the sore throat. Let's see what else?
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So anyway, today's episode should be cleaner.
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We shouldn't have as many sniffles.
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So with that out of the way, let's head straight to
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negotiation techniques for sales.
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Oh yeah, listener shout outs. Shout out to Kika Michael.
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He reached out to me on WhatsApp, discovered the podcast
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on Spotify, listened to a couple of episodes.
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He has a shoe brand. I didn't get the Instagram
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handle. I also didn't get the CD that
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he's, he's from Nigel Boy. Most definitely.
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Then let's see what else. Oh, yeah.
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Then he said that he came across the episode in, you know, good
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timing because he had been considering lowering his prices.
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And then he came across the podcast episode where I spoke
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about how you shouldn't lower your prices, but just make sure
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that First off, you're dealing with your ICP.
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That's your ideal customer profile.
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Make sure you're dealing with your people, basically, whether
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you call it your ideal customer profile, your target market,
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your whatever. Just make sure that you're doing
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that first before you start tweaking the price because too
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many people tweak the price. And the thing just helps with
1:32
your mental and it doesn't help your game at all.
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And imagine the kind of spiral when you start off whatever it
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is you're trying to sell and you say that your price is X and
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then you think that OK, the price is too much and now make
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it X -, 10. And then you're now getting BS
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from people and you now make it X -, 12.
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And then you keep minus and then minus it just it, it, it totally
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screws with you. And starting off in the wedding
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photography game, I've seen how the thing can really mess people
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out of the industry. So tweak price.
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Yeah, sure, at some point you will have to, you might have to
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tweak your price. The price might be a significant
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part of the equation. But trust me, for most of you,
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before you tweak the price, there's a whole bunch of other
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stuff that you need to learn how to tweak first.
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Are you talking to the ideal customers?
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Are you talking to the right people?
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Need to sort that out first. After you sort out this thing of
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you're talking to the right people, you even need to figure
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out, do I have a sales process? Do I know how to sell?
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Is there a couple of things that I need to learn about handling
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sales conversations or about negotiating?
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In fact, that's what we're doing today, negotiating techniques
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for sales people. So there's a whole bunch of
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other things you need to learn before you got your price.
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And I'm happy that I was humbled that Kika Michael was able to
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come across my material in good time and not drop his price.
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But not only that, he raised his price.
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And I'm, I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad when I come across
3:00
stories like that. So he raises prices and yeah,
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for all the intents and purposes, you know, he's not
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suffering, he's not drinking, Gary.
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So that's the way forward, especially since in Nigeria
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where in this, I don't know what kind of inflation this is, but
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you guys, you know how it is for those of us who are still in
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Niger, you know who haven't Jack Ma, you know, you go and buy
3:17
something today and then two weeks later the price is up and
3:20
then three weeks later the price is up.
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And then so this whole thing that prices are just going up
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and up and up and up like that. So you can't say you're going to
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keep your price constant or cut your price and then
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realistically think that, excuse me now, whatever your hustle is,
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whether you're selling shoes or whether you're selling carpentry
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services or even if you're merua, you can't think that you
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keep your prices stagnant and things will be well with you not
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to talk of cutting the price. So anyway, bottom line, Kika,
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Michael, thank you very much for listening to the pod.
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And if you found anything of value, as you undoubtedly have,
3:59
like you mentioned in our chat, please share the podcast with
4:02
other people so that you can come across some Nuggets here
4:07
that can help them with building their businesses.
4:11
So who knows, if you share something here with someone, you
4:14
might be that catalyst that helps turn somebody's business
4:19
around or at least prevent them from making some really, really,
4:22
really bad jam bite mistakes like cutting your price every
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time you think that sales are not doing too good.
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So with the listener shout out of the way, let's just head
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straight to negotiation techniques for sales.
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So negotiation, again, plenty of definitions.
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So I'm going to use a very simple everyday definition over
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here, something that every single man or woman listening to
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the show right now, all boys and girls can remember.
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Pull it out of your pocket and apply.
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So negotiation basically is just trying to get your own desired
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outcome in a business conversation or in a business
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relationship. That's the old school
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definition, pretty much. I'm yawning with you right now.
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You and I, we're trying to get the business up and running or
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we're trying to, you know, we're trying to do something.
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And me, I'm looking out for my own outcome.
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So old school definition, that's negotiation.
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But new school people, however, the way that new school people
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look at it is it's not just your own share that you're going to
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take because old school people are caught throat.
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As in I'll take my own share if your blood is on the floor, like
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I don't care. As long as I get my own, I'm
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good. That's an old school, real
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cutthroat kind of thing, especially in Western climes.
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So North America, Western Europe, you know, that's that
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old school cutthroat kind of thing.
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Like shy. I collected my own, you know, if
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you didn't collect your own, that's that's that sucks for
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you. So new school ideas are more
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about keeping an eye on mutually desirable outcomes.
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Like me, I'll collect my own share, but you know, I'll still
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use something for you. So, you know, I chop yourself,
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you a chop, that kind of thing. Because if people feel like
6:00
they're taking advantage of, then there's less room in the
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future for future relationships. And in fact, there are some
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negotiations professionals who are going to talk about these
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sorts of things to say you need to look at whether a future
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relationship is desirable or not.
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And if your future relationship is not desirable, if this is a
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one off, then you know, what the heck, just enter and just take
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your own and, you know, make sure you're good yourself.
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And then just, you know, just leave.
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But new school people are not that cutthroat.
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So whichever school you want to fall into, I will, I'll leave
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that up to you. But of course, since you know
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that my own focus over here is to try and see how we can get
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repeat business and referrals and stuff like that.
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You know, obviously old school ideas about taking your own
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share, take the lion share. Probably it's not going to work
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with the stuff that I talk about here about on the podcast.
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Well, then caveat warning, my specialty sales, my specialty is
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not negotiation. So you should actually should be
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listening to negotiations podcasts, reading negotiations
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books, you know, things like that.
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And there are a bunch of previous sources that I'm going
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to talk about at the well, I hope I remember to talk about at
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the end of the podcast. So OK, Now one thing I need to
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tackle for those of us who are sales minded is negotiation a
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stage. Now, the reason why we have to
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tackle this is because some people think negotiation happens
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when you sit down at the table and then the other person is
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there, you know, the person says, Oh yeah, let's negotiate.
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So some of you don't realize that you're in a good
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negotiationship until you're at that level.
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So back to my constituency wedding photography.
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Now some wedding photographers who think you're only at
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negotiation stage when the bride says I got photographer is, is
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this 350 you that 350 is how sure you will do something now,
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blah, blah, blah. So some people think that is
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when the negotiation stage begins, but actually the answer
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is no, that is not when the negotiation stage begins.
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For most people who are in business, whether you're in
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business as a wedding photographer or as a shoe
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person, or even if you're a sales professional because
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you're selling, selling cars or whatever.
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The thing is, as a sales professional, when you're
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handling these conversations, you are constantly trying to
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prioritize stuff, move some things up, move some things
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down, make some things more important than they are.
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And then you're also deep prioritizing some things,
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minimizing some things, making it less important, and then
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you're making concession on some kinds of stuff as the business
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relationship progresses. So even though as a wedding
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photographer you didn't start haggling, when you got to the
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part where you say my bill is 250 K and this is 350, like how
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now, like I'm Kelly's friend, blah, blah, blah, give me a
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discount and whatnot. You think you're negotiating,
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but the negotiation started happening earlier at the point
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where you guys were talking about is it one day or two days?
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And even though your normal rate is 350K for one day, but she
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said and now that the second day is just registry is not blah,
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blah blah, it's all what not. So in that case you made a
9:13
concession ordinarily supposed to be 350K for one day, but
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actually say and now that registry is just one hour.
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Now we see registry is just here now is not anything.
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And now, OK, I'll add 1K and our other 10K or something.
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You can see that at that level, you guys are already making
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concessions. She's saying, and now this thing
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is small yourself, you'll be saying and now this thing is big
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and that's how you guys are moving priorities back and forth
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and making concessions. So negotiations has started then
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even though you didn't haggle on price.
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So whether you get to the stage where somebody sits down at the
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table and say or let's start haggling on price, The thing is
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in most business relationships, whether it's cake or shoe or
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wedding photography or catfish or whatever, negotiations have
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already started from the beginning.
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The thing is just that you don't know the business person.
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You don't know that negotiation started since that's the reason
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why lots of times you lose out all these things because by the
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time you get to the price and you started haggling the price,
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you've already made concessions on lots of things.
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So back to the wedding photography example, you know
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Murphy is 250 K one day what you say and now and then you agree
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because registry is just one hour the next day.
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So you agree already. You make concessions on time and
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then think about the value of time or the value of your time
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rather the number of hours that is going into the gig.
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You can see that you didn't haggle on price per SE, but
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because you've made concessions on time, you actually have
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started diluting the price. So most times just shine your
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eyes. Negotiation starts from day one,
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even if at the end there's going to be another formal meeting
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where the bride will say, look, come to my house.
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Daddy is the one pain Daddy wants to negotiate.
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Even if there's that further stage where you still meet with
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somebody else and negotiate. Truth be told, negotiations have
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started from day one. So everybody listening to the
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pod right now, shine your eye. You've been negotiating from day
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one. You just don't know.
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Negotiation is not just about money.
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Negotiation is money. Timelines, deliverables, man
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hours, you know, woman hours, What else?
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Different ways of defining the scope of the contract.
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You know, different things. It's not just money.
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So some of you think negotiation is money.
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It's not just money. So things to consider in
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negotiation. You need to understand the deal,
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you need to understand the client.
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You need to understand both people's angles coming into the
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the negotiation, whether it's you as the vendor in this case,
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you know, you supply shoes or you supply or you supply wedding
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photography or or you sell cakes or banana bread or whatever.
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You need to understand where it is you're coming from.
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You know know your margins. You need to know what is that
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the client needs as well. Then product or service
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knowledge is absolutely essential because you need to be
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a master of your product or service.
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You need to know what can go right, what can go wrong, and
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what we can realistically be expected to deliver.
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Because there's some people who say that is not a big deal.
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Now it's not just one, you know, blah, blah, blah.
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If you're a newbie in the industry, you think of it like
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it's not that big a deal. So let's say wedding videography
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now a video, that would be a good example.
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So maybe you say it's just one hour, like, what's the big deal?
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Well, then an experienced videographer knows that to get
12:45
one hour's worth of footage, OK, like back to the wedding day,
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you know, you will record them coming in.
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You record small interview like, oh, we got married yesterday,
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this is registry, it's the best day of our life, blah, blah,
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blah. And there's a recording that
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Momsie will now say, me too, let me appear in the video.
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That's how you now interview Momsie.
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Poppy will now say, so today is only the Women's Day.
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That's how you now interview Popsy and some of the uncles
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will say, but we have some words of wisdom for our niece.
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That's how they too, They will enter the video.
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But bottom line, what I'm trying to say is this, if you're a
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newbie and you don't understand, have good product or service
13:19
knowledge, you won't realize that that one hour of footage
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that you're going to deliver for the registry, you might actually
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sit down and record like 3 hours before you edit down to one
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hour. And then even that three hours
13:30
that you record, you actually have to listen over those three
13:33
hours and then edit it down. But what I'm just saying is that
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the bride says it's just one hour.
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Now actually, that is just one hour now might actually equal 16
13:43
hours of your time. So you need to have good product
13:47
or service knowledge so that you know what is realistic.
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Because some people will say it's just this now, it's not
13:54
just one. It's not just one extra #1 extra
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slippers. You as a professional know that
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OK, one extra slippers to produce that slippers, you pay
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the boys, you buy the material. That one extra slippers equals
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17 K in material costs. So the person is saying, is it
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just one? You know, you actually know that
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it's more than one. It's bigger than that.
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So understand your product and the service.
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Know what goes into it, what can go wrong, what is realistic.
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You also need to know your clients, their needs and their
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pain points. You know what's interesting for
14:26
them, what's important to them, Because when you know all these
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things, you now know truly, truly what are the small things
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and what is not worth, what is not worth quibbling about,
14:38
arguing about, then yeah, understand.
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Just know what it is that they're trying to achieve.
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Not just them, but you too. What are you trying to achieve?
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How much are you trying to capture?
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Your boss, your sales manager, What are they thinking?
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What do they want to capture on this deal?
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What is going to be good for the company?
14:58
You know, different things like that.
14:59
Then a word on negotiation styles.
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So, you know, at the beginning of the part I spoke about how
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there's old school styles, especially in western climes and
15:09
then the new school way of thinking about things.
15:11
So you need to anticipate people's approach because some
15:13
people are cutthroat, they're aggressive, you know, they'll
15:16
come out blazing. Some people even raise their
15:18
voice, you know, slam table and all kinds of, you know, rubbish
15:24
behaviour. There's some people are very
15:27
passive or submissive and some people are collaborative.
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You need to just kind of source them out.
15:34
Guess where they're coming from, try to fill them out and it will
15:37
help. Because if you head in with a
15:40
collaborative mindset and you get there and the people are
15:42
absolute idiots and they want to take advantage of you and
15:44
everything, then that's going to be a problem.
15:46
So you need to gauge this person before you guys start
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negotiating. Well, like I said, this is not
15:54
my area of specialty. So you should be looking for
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podcasts, looking for blogs, looking for YouTube videos,
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looking for books, looking For more information from
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negotiations and specialists. Then your goals and outcomes
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have to be clear. You have to know for sure what
16:10
it when you're heading in. Now look, you know what, for
16:12
this job to make sense for me, my profit margin on this, it has
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been 100K. If my profit margin is 80 K is
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not, you know, it's not going to work for me.
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You need to be clear about your desired outcomes.
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There's something back when I was in undergrad, they used to
16:29
tell us best alternative to negotiated agreement, Batna.
16:33
BATNA. My undergraduate was in law.
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So was it OK? No, I think that was in law
16:40
school that they told us that best alternative to negotiated
16:43
agreement. So and basically this whole
16:46
thing is just around your walk away point.
16:47
You need to know what works for you, what doesn't.
16:50
If you and your wife have sat down and you've looked at the
16:52
math that look for this family to function every single time
16:55
you go out and you come back, we're supposed to bring is 120 K
17:00
in profit. Then you need to know that you
17:02
need to be able to stick to it because by 10 people start
17:04
pricing and the profit margin is entering 50K.
17:07
I guess 50K is better than nothing, but truth be told, are
17:10
you going to come back with 50K? Then your wife is angry and then
17:13
she has to stay at home with the kids for the whole weekend
17:18
because you're out shooting the whole wedding or doing whatever
17:20
it is that you're doing and it just leads to all kinds of
17:23
whatever. Just know your walk away point.
17:25
So by the time they start pricing and they think I started
17:27
entering 100K, you can say, oh, you know what, I'm not the
17:29
vendor for you. Let me refer you to somebody
17:31
else. At least if you refer to
17:32
somebody else and you tell the other person that you know what,
17:35
any deal you guys negotiate, I beg, just throw me like 10K,
17:37
throw ME20K. You know now it's better.
17:41
It's better than nothing. So understand, know your goals,
17:44
know your expectations, understand your walk away
17:46
points, when to stand up and say you know what, this is enough.
17:50
I'm leaving. Determine your lowest acceptable
17:55
deal. Then make sure that your price
17:58
ranges are realistic. We need to make sure that the
18:00
people also have realistic price ranges.
18:02
And that's the reason why I keep saying on the podcast, we need
18:04
to have qualification conversations.
18:07
This is where we, you figure out who is this person, what are
18:10
they about? And then you set all kinds of
18:12
expectations around budget and you set these expectations
18:15
early. If you say in the beginning
18:17
that, oh bro, from what we've been talking about so far, all
18:20
these things can cost anything between 4.5 M and 3.2 M on the
18:24
lower end. Is that the kind of thing you're
18:26
willing to invest in right now? You keep quiet, you hear what he
18:29
says, the person says 3.2 bowel for who?
18:32
You now know that this deal is not for you.
18:34
And then you leave because 3.2 is your lowest and the person is
18:39
saying 3.2. How so you just leave it.
18:42
But if you do something like that and the person says 4.5,
18:45
well, 3 point, it sounds just about right.
18:47
But I'm I'm, I'm preferring that 3.2 sha.
18:51
You now know that OK, there's something here.
18:53
You know, there's room, some of you might be scared of talking
18:57
like this, but really the first time I tried it, this is how it
19:00
went. We finished talking to the babe.
19:04
It was at was at Abuja Wedding Expo.
19:08
Yeah, it was Abuja Wedding Expo. She seemed clean, you know,
19:12
masters everything, blah, blah, blah.
19:15
How much I said it could be between this and between that.
19:18
I gave the high end, I gave the low end and she said, OK, sounds
19:22
about right. When can I come and see?
19:24
When can I come and see my mother-in-law?
19:26
I was shocked. I didn't.
19:28
Maybe you know, his beginner's luck as far as the first time
19:30
I'm trying it. But really that's how I worked.
19:32
He said, OK, sounds about right, although we won't be hitting so,
19:36
so, so and so. But when are you free to come
19:37
and talk to mother-in-law? And then we showed up.
19:39
We spoke to mother-in-law, but man, mother-in-law was gangster.
19:42
That woman negotiated died. Like I was frustrated I had to
19:46
leave the place. My video guy shagging was
19:48
coming. So I sent him a text message
19:49
like guy me, I'm leaving or this one is talking OPT when you come
19:53
here, you continue. He told me, no, just leave it,
19:55
just leave it. And then he came in, you know,
19:58
doing what Yoruba boys do. You know, he came in at a car
20:00
lemma, you know, this, this, this some Batimbati language
20:03
language. Next thing to her laughing and
20:05
everything. And she tried pulling the tactic
20:07
on on him as well. And you know, he did that whole
20:11
Yoruba thing, you know, like kidney something, something,
20:14
something. And then he tried to re anchor
20:16
high. And anyway, it was it was a
20:19
wonderful experience. And for me, it was the beginning
20:21
of me understanding that like everything doesn't have to be
20:26
done in English. So it's actually it's an
20:27
advantage. If you come in, you're on my bad
20:30
on the other person is on my bad on too.
20:32
And you guys start speaking lingo, you know, rapport, all
20:34
these things, it helps. But bottom line, what I was just
20:38
trying to say is set the expectation early.
20:40
It can cost between this can cost between that.
20:42
So how far, what do you think? And then keep quiet and hear
20:45
what they say. You do that early, you now know
20:47
what kind of negotiation that you're heading in for.
20:50
You need to know, do these guys have real estate price
20:53
expectations? You also need to make sure I own
20:55
price expectations realistic because don't forget that when I
20:59
wanted to enter into this business 15 years ago, the first
21:03
bride I spoke to, I told her 400 Ki just said thank you very
21:07
much. You want to build house.
21:08
Thank you. And she didn't even negotiate.
21:10
She was trying her best to leave the conversation.
21:12
I was trying my best to keep her on the phone and it was
21:14
absolutely pathetic. And I hope you guys, I hope none
21:17
of you ever fall into that kind of situation because you leave
21:20
that whole thing feeling like like a jilted lover basically.
21:25
So I hope you none of you guys fall into that situation.
21:28
So yeah, I didn't have realistic price expectations because look,
21:33
wedding photography, there are already some guys that are on
21:35
ground. People have established names,
21:37
established brands. You can't just come from
21:38
somewhere because you're coming from abroad.
21:40
You now just start the quoting XYZ price.
21:44
You know, it just doesn't work that way.
21:47
It's not just what you think you're entitled to.
21:48
They're also market forces at play.
21:50
So make sure they have realistic price expectations.
21:53
Make sure you have realistic price expectations as well.
21:56
Let's see what else? OK, Before you head in, make
22:00
sure you have an idea of where you can make concessions.
22:05
That's something I also did later on in my practice.
22:07
By the time I sorted out my packages, I didn't negotiate on
22:10
the actual packages themselves. I had fixed amounts of packages
22:14
and then there was a service charge.
22:15
So on the service charge, I knew that if I remove, you know, 1020
22:20
K on the service charges, that's not that much of a problem.
22:23
But on the wedding, wedding packages itself, I didn't remove
22:26
anything because it was pegged to cost.
22:29
The what I charge on the packages was a multiple of cost.
22:32
I'm not going to say how much, how many eggs.
22:36
So none of my former brides will listen and say, yeah, nothing.
22:39
That he charged us 450. It actually cost you 150 to
22:42
produce. I'm not going to say that, but
22:45
it was a multiple of cost. So I didn't touch that.
22:47
I was like, look, that one is fixed.
22:49
So the package, I'm not removing anything.
22:51
The service charge, yes, I might go up or down.
22:53
So know those things before you enter that if you're making
22:57
concessions, you can make concessions on here or you will
23:00
make concessions on them. Then also the stuff that I say
23:04
about building trust and rapport, active listening,
23:07
paying attention to people, trying to show empathy, concern,
23:11
you know, things like that. So all those things are really,
23:13
really important. Of course, open-ended
23:16
questioning techniques, use that to gather information.
23:20
What do you guys think about this?
23:22
What about this? What about that?
23:24
Don't go there, try to sound like a lawyer.
23:25
You say I put it to you that, you know, don't put anything to
23:28
anybody. You know, ask a question.
23:30
How about this? What about this?
23:32
If we do this, how does that affect that?
23:34
What outcome are you looking for on this?
23:36
So all those sorts of things. Then also get ready to handle
23:39
objections because there's some objections that everybody's
23:44
going to say. One thing that everybody would
23:47
say is that's too expensive. It doesn't matter what it is
23:49
that you sell. If you sell light bulb, somebody
23:51
would say that's too expensive. If you sell shoe, somebody who
23:54
say it's too expensive. If you sell car, somebody who
23:56
say that's too expensive. If you sell TomTom and you're
23:59
trying to supply it at distributor price as in TomTom,
24:02
somebody who say that's too expensive.
24:04
Because let's face it, in Abuja now TomTom is 10 naira for one,
24:08
and that's mad. In my own opinion, I think
24:10
that's mad like TomTom 10 naira, it's crazy.
24:14
So of course, even for TomTom people who say that's too
24:16
expensive. So now that you know, before the
24:19
negotiation, people are going to say you're too expensive, you
24:23
and your crew, you and your wife before you enter that
24:26
negotiations or the other way around.
24:28
You know, wife, if you're the business person and your husband
24:31
is the one who works full time, but you know he's a loving,
24:33
supportive spouse, have that conversation with him.
24:35
How are you guys going to handle this thing?
24:36
I'm going in for this deal. I know these people will say I'm
24:38
too expensive. If they say I'm too expensive,
24:40
what am I going to do next? You don't wait until you get
24:43
into the deal before you start trying to handle objections.
24:45
Try and figure out some of those objections beforehand, then
24:50
let's see. OK, closing the deal.
24:52
Now some people think, OK, let me put it this way.
24:56
When it comes to closing the deal, the thing you see in
24:58
films, that's just film trick. This whole thing of somebody
25:01
enters the room, says a magical speech, something, something,
25:04
something, and then he gives one beautiful line and then he
25:08
closes the deal and then everybody class for him and all
25:10
that. That's just film trick.
25:12
In real life, there's no closing the deal in one big, dramatic or
25:16
decisive step. What you do is you guide
25:18
conversations. Small, small, small.
25:21
You decide upon small things, small, small, small.
25:24
You build consensus around smaller items leading up to the
25:29
bigger items and that is how you close the deal.
25:32
That is how it was done, especially in complex sales.
25:35
If you're selling TomTom bashes on some example, then well, now
25:40
you just go in and haggle and and then pay and go.
25:43
But if you're selling your car, if you're selling wedding
25:45
photography or if you're trying to supply, I don't know, diesel
25:51
to a bank branch in your neighbourhood, let's say, yeah,
25:54
that's your thing. There's Zenith Bank in your
25:56
place, there's an Access Bank in your place and your uncle owns a
25:59
filling station. You want to supply diesel to
26:01
banks for generator. So those sorts of things you are
26:06
actually trying to make agree upon small, small things along
26:10
the way before you lead up to the big close.
26:12
So there's no closing the deal. Bam, in one big step it is
26:15
small, small, small, small, small, then you close the deal.
26:18
Now an example about that. Also back to my legal
26:21
background. Well, this is one of the
26:22
benefits of a multidisciplinary background.
26:26
When you come into business, for those of us who are coming into
26:29
business from different angles, it doesn't matter where you
26:31
studied law or you studied accounting or whether you
26:33
studied theatre arts, whatever it is that you learned in your
26:36
undergrad day, your undergrad days is going to be very
26:39
valuable in business. So just, you know, shine your
26:42
eye, keep your eye open and learn to apply the things
26:45
accordingly. So this is one of the stuff that
26:48
came through my legal background days back through undergrad and
26:53
stuff like that. So OK, I'm not, I'm not sure how
26:58
it is in America, Australia, all these parts, but in Niger, what
27:03
you do is you do your undergrad then is it before NYSE or after
27:09
NYSE? There's a part before or after
27:11
NYSE where you do, I can't remember what it's called, some
27:14
form of tutelage where you go to a law firm and you do some work
27:16
for a while. So while I was there, some of
27:19
you have listened to the show. You already know that experience
27:21
of mine because that was the first time I saw a check for I
27:24
think it was 7.5 M or something. That was my first time seeing
27:27
like good money, big money. That was a long time ago.
27:30
Now 7.5 M is no money because what can I do with 7.5 S?
27:36
What was I? Yeah.
27:38
So the we went in there and my OGA at the time, he was
27:44
providing legal support. There was an Italian company,
27:48
there was a Nigerian company. I can't remember of NAPC was
27:51
there. Then this guy with Jerry, Jerry
27:53
Carls Bismarck Bismarck Rouhani from financial something he's he
27:59
was like, he was considered to be like a financial guru in
28:01
Niger, Asia. Although the first time I saw
28:03
him, I was wondering like, what's this papillo doing with,
28:06
with Jerry Kois? Because the only person I knew
28:09
who had Jerry curls was Mumsy back in the 80s.
28:12
So it was me. For me, it was strange seeing
28:15
this guy like we're no longer in the 80s.
28:17
You're an old man, clearly older than my father, and you have
28:20
Jerry curls. Well, of course, I still have
28:22
respect for Mr. Bismarck Rouhani.
28:24
So for those of you listening to the podcast, I'm not taking
28:27
shots at our uncle. I'm just saying that I thought
28:30
it was weird at the time, but I even saw him on channels TV
28:34
during the the nationwide protests.
28:37
That was like last week and he still had the Jericho's.
28:39
So I guess that's his that's his thing.
28:42
So I notice that what my God did was he got them to negotiate
28:47
heads of agreement first before we start negotiating all the
28:52
big, big things later on. Now what heads of agreement
28:55
means is just that you negotiate all these small details first,
29:00
all the non binding things first.
29:02
Basically just negotiate a small document that says these are the
29:05
main terms between A&B and these are the essential things that
29:10
we're going to argue about or agree on and you know, stuff
29:14
like that. So it makes the whole thing very
29:16
helpful. So we went in there and we
29:19
outlined heads of agreement. So there was talk about price of
29:22
valuation, there was talk about the payment terms.
29:25
Those talk about in fact this price evaluation thing.
29:27
That was where Bismarck, Rwanda came in real handy.
29:29
And I was really, really impressed because if you're
29:32
negotiating this thing, you know, the price of crude and the
29:35
price of this and price of that, you know how it is now a war
29:38
breaks out in Kuwait or whatever.
29:41
And then you know, the price of this goes up, the price of that
29:44
go up. So just agreeing on simple stuff
29:48
like how do you value this? How do you value that?
29:51
I remember people that were talking about, OK, I can't
29:56
remember the valuation terms that they were talking about and
29:59
occurring about it. And then Bismarck ran, it was
30:01
like, no, yeah, instead of Libor, Libor and neighbor, I
30:05
think Libor is London interbank opening rate.
30:09
Anyway, let me not tell you guys the wrong information, but those
30:11
of you who know finance, you know that this Libor and this
30:13
neighbor. So they were shouting back and
30:15
forth, Libor, Libor, neighbor and then Bismarck was like, no,
30:19
because of this is this night that applies.
30:21
How about doing this? And everybody was calm.
30:23
Now you see how if you go and negotiate heads of agreement and
30:26
you agree that is how we're going to value something.
30:28
You can see now that everything is calm and cool so that when
30:32
you now get to the stage where you're negotiating the big, big
30:34
thing, at least we have settled this whole thing of how we're
30:37
going to value everything in the 1st place.
30:40
Then what else? Timelines, milestones.
30:44
One thing we discovered we discussed now was governing law.
30:46
Like if there's basic and everything goes to blazes, where
30:50
are we going to settle this thing?
30:51
Is it Nigerian law? Is it this law?
30:53
Is it that? Is it arbitration?
30:55
Is it, you know, quarrel all those things?
30:57
Now you see, this is called heads of agreement in law.
31:01
You negotiate all these foundation, all these small
31:04
foundational issues first so that when all these things are
31:06
calm, we can now go and start tackling the big thing.
31:10
And really, that's how deals are closed.
31:12
Settle the small, small, small, small things first 'cause the
31:15
small stuff turns out to be foundational and then it gives
31:17
you room to start arguing and shouting when the main thing
31:21
comes up. So 31 minutes, A lot more can be
31:25
said on negotiation, whether it's before negotiation or after
31:30
negotiation. How do you follow up?
31:32
How do you document the agreement?
31:34
How do you outline the terms and conditions?
31:36
How are you going to focus on building the relationship?
31:39
You know, like it's, it's more, it's plenty.
31:42
So you should be looking for people who this is their daily
31:46
bread. Negotiation is not my daily
31:48
bread. I'm just telling you a bunch of
31:50
stuff over here, but go and look for people who they wake up and
31:53
they think negotiations, they dream negotiations.
31:56
All they do is negotiations. So look for a specialist in that
31:59
field. There's one podcast that I used
32:02
to listen to negotiations Ninja podcast.
32:05
I'm not sure if that's still running, but listen to it
32:06
because that was very, very practical because the guy also
32:09
comes from a sales background. So excuse me, he was talking
32:13
about negotiations from basically how people like you
32:16
and I will handle the whole thing.
32:17
So it was not too high, was not too high tech like that, like
32:21
that. You know, it's not about
32:22
negotiating oil rights or, you know, huge construction projects
32:27
or something like that. So it was that's a good podcast
32:29
to listen to. So look for negotiations Nature
32:31
podcast, Audible guy, American. Let's see then Harvard
32:37
University. I've noticed that Harvard has
32:39
been putting out some free online resources on
32:41
negotiations, not just negotiations, other stuff.
32:44
But I'm surprised that they have stuff from the negotiations
32:47
program because they used to have, I don't know about Nausha,
32:50
but back when I was in school, they used to have real world
32:52
famous negotiations kind, not faculty.
32:57
So I say faculty. OK, let me just say negotiations
33:00
faculty. So, you know, professors,
33:02
writers, things like that around the whole topic of negotiations.
33:07
And the first seminar that I attended on negotiations and
33:10
alternative dispute resolution actually was a Nigerian graduate
33:16
from Harvard. And you know, that was his whole
33:19
thing. So negotiation specialists,
33:21
actually they're they exist and they're here already in Niger
33:27
and they've been here for at least two decades.
33:29
So if you look, you will find them then.
33:31
So our bottom line, all these factors we've talked about,
33:35
consider all these things. You consider all these things,
33:38
then you increase your chances of getting a successful outcome
33:43
when you actually are negotiating with people.
33:45
Also, just remember that negotiations start earlier than
33:48
you think. But please don't just take
33:50
everything I've said here as the Bible.
33:53
Pay attention, go and look for negotiation specialist, you
33:56
know, learn from them, especially to see how it applies
33:58
to you people because we're all coming from different
34:00
backgrounds, listening to these things.
34:02
So kick out my girls. He's into shoes.
34:04
I started off wedding photography.
34:06
Now I'm in consulting and I've. And media production.
34:11
Some of you Julia. So is it Julia?
34:15
Yeah. Julia is into more money.
34:18
Who else I can't remember. Zainab is into like all of
34:21
Russia. We're all into different stuff.
34:23
So listen to the negotiations pros and then you see how that
34:27
wisdom applies to you in your business.
34:29
So I'm going to wrap it up here since this is 34 minutes.
34:31
So that's all for today, so connect with me on WhatsApp for
34:34
questions, quick tips and insights.
34:36
The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code for Nigeria
34:42
is +234. Also connect with me on
34:44
LinkedIn. It's the best social network for
34:46
business, career development and networking.
34:49
So you all should be taking it seriously.
34:51
The name of the search for is Tavishima Ayede.
34:54
So thank you very much for your time and attention.
34:56
I'll catch you guys at the next episode.