Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why Screaming Won't Close Big Deals Faster

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Why Screaming Won't Close Big Deals Faster · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:00
How many deals did you close this week?
0:03
How many deals did you close today?
0:05
How many deals did you close yesterday?
0:08
How many deals did you close last week?
0:10
These are the kinds of questions that sales managers, business
0:14
owners, country reps, territory managers, distribution managers,
0:19
you know, people in the entrepreneurial space.
0:20
You have a startup, you have a team.
0:22
These are the sorts of questions that you're probably asking
0:25
people who sell for you because you're trying to ginger them,
0:28
because you're trying to motivate them so that they can
0:30
close more deals and get sales done.
0:34
Unfortunately, this kind of question, how many deals did you
0:37
close this week is not a very helpful question to ask.
0:40
And that's what I want us to explore in today's episode.
0:44
So if you're a sales manager, if you're a business owner, you
0:47
have a startup, you have boys and girls selling for you.
0:50
If you're a country Rep, if you're a distribution manager,
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if you're a territory manager, if you are the kind of person
0:56
who has to oversee a team, whether it's two people, three
0:59
people, five people, 20 people and you're anxious, you guys are
1:03
not meeting your numbers, you're not meeting your goals and you
1:05
want people to sell well so that the business can move forward.
1:09
Then asking these kinds of questions, how many deals did
1:11
you close? Ikeja department, I'm not seeing
1:15
any numbers. Why are there no numbers?
1:16
Why are people not moving? Why are you not selling product
1:19
Abuja? Those of you in charge of Abuja,
1:21
why the numbers is low? People are not selling or are
1:23
selling now. Sell, Go, go, go, go, go, go.
1:26
So today we're going to look at why this is not a very helpful
1:29
approach. And these are not the kinds of
1:31
questions that you should be asking your sales team or your
1:35
associates to be able to get them to sell.
1:38
Better for the business, better for the organization, better for
1:42
the department. Now before we get to the meat of
1:44
the matter, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call
1:47
me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806466
1:53
2140. If you're interested in the 15
1:56
minute sale audit, business audit, any kind of process audit
1:59
in your business, then WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
2:07
If you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, then WhatsApp
2:09
me on the same number and I will hook you up.
2:12
So let's get back to the Coco, to the meat of the matter today.
2:16
How many deals did you close this week is the kind of thing I
2:19
hear over and over and over again when I'm brought into a
2:22
business. They're struggling with their
2:23
sales. They're trying to get the sales
2:25
up routinely. They think that the orca, they
2:28
think that the business manager, the thing that the sales
2:30
manager, they think that whoever is in charge does every single
2:34
day or every single Monday for those of you who have Monday
2:37
meeting or every single Friday for those of you who have the
2:39
meetings on a Friday. Shah is the same thing.
2:43
They all say how many close? Kenichi, how many deals did you
2:47
close this week? Chukwudi, how many deals did you
2:49
close this week? Abdul, how many deals did you
2:52
close this week? You're not being very helpful.
2:55
However, if you are a business owner, if you are a sales
2:58
manager, if you are a country Rep, if you're a territory
3:01
manager, if you're a distribution manager, and you
3:04
have been asking these questions, I have to give you a
3:06
thumbs up because I know that the reason why you're trying to
3:09
do it is you're trying to motivate people.
3:11
You're trying to put some fire under them, You're trying to put
3:14
some ginger under them because you want your team to be the
3:16
best that they can be. It's not just about making money
3:20
because you can see one or two people on the team.
3:22
You can see that this is a correct guy or that is a correct
3:24
babe. Meanwhile, then they slack,
3:26
they're not doing anything. So you mean well when you call
3:29
people on Monday morning and you shout or you call them on Friday
3:32
and you shout, begin the rake, begin the provoke, you mean
3:36
well. So the goal is to motivate
3:38
people. However, if you're going to keep
3:42
shouting at people like this every single day or every Monday
3:47
or every Friday, you're just causing stress in your
3:51
organization because you're repeating the same thing over
3:55
and over again. How many deals did you close
3:58
this week? How many deals did you close
3:59
today? How many deals did you close
4:00
last week? You're repeating the same thing
4:02
over and over again. Things not going to get you the
4:05
results and in the beginning, you're going to cause acute
4:08
stress. Now I've seen this first time
4:10
because my sister used to be a salesperson for I won't call the
4:15
bank anymore because I've called the bank before.
4:18
And you know, I shouldn't continue blasting the back
4:20
because actually my sister stopped working with them over a
4:23
decade ago. But in the beginning, you know,
4:26
she'd come back from work and she would be stressed out, like
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stress the F out, serious stress because the manager would call
4:36
and abuse them. So that's what you're causing
4:38
your organization stress. But then something really
4:43
interesting happens. After a while, people get used
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to the drama. They get used to the fact that
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Oga Chuks is going to call everybody on a Monday and shout
4:53
and nothing happens, and then next week is going to shout and
4:57
then nothing happens. So if you're that boss, if
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you're that Oga Chuku, if you're that Madame Kemi, if you're that
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you know whoever, think about it, you have been shouting every
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day for five days in a week. That is 20, right?
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20 days in a month, that's 200 and something days in a year.
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Don't you think that your team has actually gotten used to you
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shouting right now you're just background noise.
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In the beginning, yes, used to terrify people because of like
5:34
forget you could you don't call me again.
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But after a while, you are honestly, you're just background
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noise and you're not making any progress.
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So people are just acting the same drama every single day,
5:44
every single week, repeating the same thing over and over and
5:47
over again. But this is one reason why if
5:50
there's an Orga Chukudi or a Madame Kemi or you know, Aceo
5:55
type person listening, one of the reasons why this is not
5:58
going to work is because a lot of times you're calling people
6:01
and shouting at them. How many deals did you close
6:03
this week? Because you have an expectation
6:07
that people can actually close a deal this week, but meanwhile
6:12
the business that you're involved in is a complex sale.
6:15
And The thing is, complex sales, most of them don't close week to
6:19
week for complex sales. It's nice if you talk to
6:22
somebody January 1st, then by January 10th they have
6:25
transferred money. Now it happens.
6:28
But I'm just saying that perhaps it's an unrealistic expectation,
6:31
but we'll have to take this on a case by case basis.
6:34
So let's say you sell clothes, jeans and T-shirts.
6:39
OK, no problem. You can't be shouting at your
6:41
staff. How many days did you close this
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week? How many days did you close this
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week? You can look at the security
6:46
footage and you can see that 200 people walked into the store.
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And from security footage, maybe you can see that your sales
6:54
staff, they just sat back behind the desk.
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They didn't engage, you know, the one on their phones or on
6:59
their tablets or whatever. So yes, if you sell jeans, you
7:02
can shout at people. How many deals did you close
7:04
this week? How many deals did you close
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last week? How many deals did you close
7:07
yesterday? Because it's a simple sale and
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we can expect reasonably that if 200 people walk into the store,
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if I engage with them, even if I don't have any kind of training,
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surely, surely, surely sales Moss, we must hear pinging, we
7:23
must receive deposit. Surely, Surely.
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But that's when you're dealing with a simple sale.
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Now, for a lot of us who have our managers shouting at us, OK,
7:33
I don't have a manager anymore. But for lots of you managers who
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are shouting or for a lot of you who are receiving the shout from
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your CEO, from your CEO, from a sales manager, from the business
7:45
owner, from the territory manager from the country Rep,
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you guys are in complex sales situations and things are not
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that easy in complex sales. Things just don't close.
7:55
Anyhow, now the reason why I'm making today's episode is
7:58
because actually I'm one of my clients who is in the business
8:01
of selling and ad tech, ad tech software.
8:04
So basically what they're doing is they're trying to sell an
8:07
advertising solution that is going to be much more cost
8:10
effective than using Google to advertise or than using Facebook
8:15
to advertise. So it's supposed to be much more
8:17
cost effective, and it's also more supposed to lead to
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increased conversions. That's what they're selling.
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So this is a complex sale. Unfortunately, the country Rep
8:32
is in the habit of shouting every single day.
8:36
How many sales did you close this week?
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Now, of course, I was brought in by an individual salesperson.
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So my, you know, not enjoying me country manager because he's not
8:47
my client. But looking at this dynamic and
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that's the reason why I'm making today's episode because I have,
8:55
I've worked for different clients, you know, people who
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sell computer gadgets, for instance.
9:00
So you own the business, you have a sales team of four or
9:04
somebody who sells solar, you own the business, you have a
9:07
sales team of 6 or like in this case Antec Software, you are the
9:13
regional distributor, you have people for different countries
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and then Niger, they have a sales team of you know, XYZ
9:20
number, what else you know, on and on and on and on and on
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these kinds of situations. So when you're selling a complex
9:34
product and usually multiple decision makers are involved
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because like in this case ad tech, you might have to talk to
9:42
founder, might have to talk to CEO, might have to talk to a
9:45
person who is in the marketing manager, people who are in
9:49
charge of customer acquisition, people who do online marketing.
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You know, you have to talk to a bunch of people.
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Then this is also the kind of thing ad tech software, for
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instance, where decisions, decisions have to be justified
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based on ROIROI just means return on revenue.
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Return on revenue just means if I put down 500K, how much money
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do I expect to get back? So they run the calculation and
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they see that we drop 500K, we only get 600K to say, you know,
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2 tap, you know, 2 pure. Or if I drop 500K, let's say
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they're used to dropping 5500K and they only get 200K on
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profit. And then you come and say, look,
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if you drop 5500K with me, what you get is 700K profits.
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And I cannot see somebody's ear will go up to say really that is
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just what ROI means. For every single naira that I
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put down, how much do I get back?
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So for them in the ad tech software space, they're looking
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at customer acquisition costs. You business owner that you're
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advertising on Facebook, you advertising on Google, how much
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are you spending to acquire 1 customer?
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How much money in total? What's your ad spend?
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How much money did you spend last quarter, last year, last
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week, last whatever last decade last, you know, whatever the
10:59
evaluation period is? How much did you spend in total
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on advertising then? How effective was your
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targeting? You know, things like that.
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These are the kinds of questions that people are act asking when
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you're selling ad tech software because it's a complex sale.
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These are not the kind of things that just close, you know, you
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call somebody on Monday, Friday, they'll transfer you money.
11:21
So in that kind of environment, shouting at your boys, saying
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how many deals did you close this week?
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Shouting at your girls, saying how many deals did you close
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this week? Or guy, No, they help at all.
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No, they help. You're not helping.
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No boy, you're causing stress. And then #2 by the time you
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shout from January 1 to January 31st, then you shout from
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February 1st to February 27th, by the time you start shouting
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in March, everybody's used to it like natural goodie.
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Now that should be and when you hire a new person, they will
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tell the new person, I don't sweat it, don't worry that now.
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So it's just the daily rhythm or that you could do a shout.
11:58
It's just that's how we use no mind.
12:00
That's how it is. So it's not helping.
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You've been a complex sale. Let's say you own the
12:09
architectural firm and you want your architect, your junior
12:13
architects to be responsible for revenue.
12:14
So you're trying this thing about how you can get your
12:18
junior architects to start networking more and start
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bringing in deals. Architecture is a complex
12:23
something. You can't be shouting at people.
12:25
How many deals did you close this week?
12:28
Because it's not as if an architect can go for a
12:31
networking session today or Friday and then, you know, next
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week Friday, somebody will now transfer money.
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How how it's a complex deal. Things like this are pricey.
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Things like this require relationship nurturing,
12:48
relationship building. Things like this require
12:54
qualification and discovery. Getting to know the person,
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getting to know the problem, getting to know the vision,
13:00
getting to know the mission. As an architect, you can't just
13:05
design bungalow for everybody. Now you need to know exactly
13:08
what it is that the person does That will determine whether you
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design bungalow or duplex or triplex or Skype or skyscraper
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or underground bunker, you know, So if it's a complex hill, you
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can't be shouting at your boys and your girls.
13:24
How many deals did you close this week?
13:25
Don't be. So that's not how you do it.
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In fact, for these people with clients of mine, they're in our
13:31
tech software space. You know what they sell is
13:34
expensive and it's dollar denominated.
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And you know why in Niger, once you put here dollar, you know
13:39
that I who does, you understand there's way people just shake
13:43
anytime you call dollar. So if you tell somebody $2000,
13:48
they will say what you know, they have a heart attack.
13:54
If you tell somebody 2.8 million, oh, you know, they'll
13:58
think he's high, but it's not as if they're going to bug out
14:02
because he had 2.8 million. But funny enough, guess what?
14:05
Actually it's the same thing as at this date of recording, $2000
14:09
is 2.8 million naira. You're selling products that are
14:14
dollar denominated. You're going around, you're
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telling people that is going to be $2000.
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Of course people will shake you say you say how much $2000 so
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long as they hear dollar that I will draw.
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So this is not something you can be shouting at people and be
14:31
saying. How many deals did you close
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this week? How many deals did you close
14:35
yesterday? How many deals did you close
14:39
last month? Shouting every day is not going
14:43
to make this thing go quicker. Shouting every week, shouting
14:47
every month is not going to make this thing go quicker.
14:50
What you need to do instead is you need to look at some key
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metrics or some key behaviors, some key activities, some key
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yardsticks, some key signs that normally show that a deal is
15:03
progressing or that a deal is moving.
15:05
You need to track those things. Let's assume you're the shouting
15:08
kind. Instead of shouting, how many
15:10
did you close this week? You need to be shouting.
15:12
How many XYZ did you do today? Now the activity, you suppose
15:17
the track, you get me? You don't want shout.
15:21
How many deals did you close today?
15:23
So you track the activity. So now for our tech sales.
15:25
Now, for instance, calls are important.
15:29
How many people did you call today?
15:31
How many brand new people did you call today?
15:33
For the people that you spoke to last week, how many of them did
15:36
you call again? Then meetings are also going to
15:39
be important in closing the deal because we can't collect money
15:42
from somebody until you know, you have a meeting.
15:44
Now you will see yourself, you judge or you understand.
15:47
So how many meetings did you have?
15:49
There's also a matter of meeting.
15:51
If you attend meeting but you don't drop proposal, no, the
15:54
people can say yes or no to anything.
15:56
You have to drop a proposal before somebody can say yes,
15:58
I'll do business with you or no, I don't want to do business with
16:01
you. How many proposals did they
16:03
drop? Then in some industries, there's
16:07
somewhere we call proof of concept.
16:09
Some other different industries call it defense.
16:11
Defense just means basically that look, we've given them the
16:14
proposal, they've looked at it. Then I want to ask us question
16:18
to say how we one or two things work.
16:22
So it's not for every single industry.
16:23
Boys like that. So tech boys like to call it a
16:25
proof of concept. So how many proof of concept
16:27
meeting do you have? Proof of concept is just like in
16:31
this case where you know, you tell them that look, you are
16:33
using Google, this is how much it's costing, this is how much
16:36
we can do for you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
16:38
Then they will fire you, question you answer that.
16:40
No, we, we work like this. We do, we go down like this, we
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go down like that. This is how we'll justify this.
16:45
This is how we do like this. I will do all of that.
16:48
That's proof of concept or some people call it defense.
16:52
So how many proof of concept? How many defense did we do?
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So these are the activities, these are the metrics, these are
17:01
the yardsticks, these are the hurdles, these are the whatever
17:06
that when people do them steady every day, every week, every
17:10
month, then it will lead to progress.
17:12
So if you're the shouting kind, that is what you should be
17:15
shouting. Don't be shouting.
17:16
How many deals did you close this week?
17:18
Go and shout Chukui. How many calls did you make
17:20
today? Chukui will say I only made two
17:23
calls, then you can shout Chukui and I say, chukui, are you mad?
17:26
OK, I'm just kidding. Don't talk to your stuff like
17:28
that. That's what you can now say.
17:30
True Cody. Now, look, the time is currently
17:33
12. You've been in the office since
17:35
8:30. How can you tell me that between
17:37
8:30 and 12:00 now only two phone calls you have made since
17:42
then. You guys will have that
17:43
conversation. I might realize.
17:45
OK, True. Cody needs to learn how to
17:47
manage his time better, prioritize his tanks better, you
17:50
know, do time blocking better, you know, things like that.
17:54
But you can see that when you start asking these kind of
17:56
questions on the metrics, on the fundamentals, on the specifics,
18:00
on the yardsticks, on the host, on the hurdles, on the whatever
18:03
it is that you want to call it, on the revenue generating
18:05
activities, you know, we call them different things.
18:09
When you start tracking all these things, small, small,
18:10
small, you will now see where the problem is.
18:14
So if you more shout, don't shout.
18:15
How many days did you close this week?
18:17
Line up all your sales people, line up all your, you know,
18:21
whatever you call them, sales associates, your rainmakers,
18:24
your associates, your whatever they shout.
18:28
How many calls have you made today?
18:32
Now we'll make progress after that.
18:34
You now shout again, How many meetings have we had today?
18:39
If you talk and then chemist says oh, today she has had three
18:42
meetings and you say 3 meetings from 8:30 to 12:00, you have
18:46
three meetings so far. You see that from having that
18:48
kind of specific conversation or you had those meetings.
18:50
What do you discuss? What did you agree on?
18:52
What did you, what's the plan? What's the follow up?
18:55
What is the next appointment? You see that you are now making
18:57
progress coming and shouting. How many deals did you close
19:01
this week? You're not making any progress.
19:03
People are just shaking, shaking, shaking.
19:05
In the beginning, after two months, they're used to you.
19:08
They're not taking you seriously.
19:09
You will shout, they will stand up, they will go outside, they
19:12
will, you know, drink Coke, eat gala, come back.
19:15
And then the day continues as normal.
19:18
And like in my sister's branch, the branch that she worked for,
19:21
they started calling it Abuse Friday.
19:24
That's it. Do we even give they won't give
19:26
the team a nickname Abuse Friday.
19:28
So your boy Alpha in the office and Abuse Friday wants to show,
19:33
show, show. So these are the questions you
19:37
ask. How many calls did you make
19:39
today? How many meetings did you get
19:42
this week? How many proposals did you send
19:45
out last week? Proof of concept on call?
19:48
How many people have called us or proof of concept and we're
19:51
dropping proposal? People are not calling us or
19:52
proof of concept. Well, I mean, there's a problem.
19:57
These are the things that you should shout if you're a sales
20:01
manager, you're a business owner, you're a CEO, you're a
20:03
founder, you're a country representative, you're a
20:07
distribution manager, you're a territory manager.
20:09
These are the things that you'll be shouting because if you are
20:14
shouting, but at least you're shouting is getting people to
20:18
look at what kind of activities are we doing, Then over time you
20:22
should start getting the right results, all things being equal.
20:25
When I say all things being equal, it means first of all,
20:28
you had the right kind of people that reasonable somebody's Step
20:31
2, you're giving them some level of training because if you take
20:34
a novice, you take a jam bite, somebody will not get background
20:37
in, you know all of these things, you just throw them
20:39
inside. So why I begin a make call?
20:41
There's no how that person will be effective.
20:43
Now you put him down and say I'll begin the call as in begin
20:47
the call. How like OK, when I call, what
20:49
should I say? You understand, So assuming
20:55
you've hired the right person, you don't give us a level of
20:58
training. So I begin to make up, OK, the
21:00
person knows, OK, this is who I'm calling.
21:02
When I call, this is what I will say.
21:05
This is what the outcome of the phone conversation ought to be.
21:09
If I'm able to achieve this on this phone call and set a
21:12
meeting for a follow up dates, then this is going to be a good
21:14
phone conversation, you know? So all things being equal,
21:19
assuming these things have been met, you have the right person
21:21
in the seat, you've given him some training.
21:23
Good. Then the more calls that Shukudi
21:26
makes on a daily today, the chance that business will come
21:31
in next month or in two months time goes up.
21:36
So don't be shouting. How many deals did you close
21:38
this week? You're helping nobody.
21:41
In fact, you are giving yourself high BP because you shout
21:46
requires, what's the word? But you know what I mean, To
21:50
shout every day, you know, you have to this way, you have to
21:53
motivate yourself to shout. And then of course, you know,
21:56
you're not a professional actor now.
21:57
So generally when you are shouting 20 days a week, 200 and
22:02
something days a year, generally you're concerned if you're
22:05
putting yourself under so much stress, so much stress.
22:09
Meanwhile, your sales people, they've gotten used to it.
22:11
Everyone started laughing. So the right activities are
22:18
going to lead to the right results over time.
22:19
Shouting how many deals did you close this week?
22:22
That is not the right approach at all.
22:25
Now, understanding these principles can be tricky.
22:27
So if you need me to look at your particular circumstances,
22:29
that's not a problem. Just connect with me, call me,
22:32
send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 0806466
22:37
2140. You want a 15 minute audit of
22:41
your business, of your, of your process.
22:44
WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140.
22:50
If you think I'm a cool guy, we'll be nice to stay connected.
22:53
You just want to sit on my WhatsApp channel, you know, just
22:55
the watch status. In the meantime, while you're
22:58
figuring out what to say, that's not a problem.
23:00
Send me a WhatsApp message on the very same number and then
23:04
I'll hook you up. So that's it pretty much for
23:07
tape, if you've gotten value for today's episode, then subscribe.
23:10
Spotify, YouTube, Apple, any player of your choice.
23:13
Also share the show with other people so they can get value
23:17
from it as well. And also, please spread the word
23:20
fire and wide. Tell people that we now have
23:23
good content, Good, good, good content.
23:26
It's not just me. There are other podcasters as
23:29
well that are making good podcast content, business
23:33
content in Nigeria and on the African continent.
23:37
So we have good sales podcasts, Nigerian, Ghanaian, South
23:42
Africa, at least I can speak for those ones.
23:45
We have good podcasts on branding.
23:47
We have good podcasts on different things.
23:49
So in fact, it's one of the things, when you hit me up, ask
23:54
and I will share, It's not a competition with other people
23:56
who are doing good stuff. I'll also let you know as well
24:03
because I'm not everybody's cup of tea.
24:04
Some people don't like my style. So if you're looking for a good
24:08
Nigerian business broadcast, for instance, that are hosted by
24:10
women, let's say you think I'm too much of A bro, that's not a
24:13
problem. I'll hook you up.
24:15
I'll let you know anyway. So that's all for today.
24:19
If you've gotten value from the episode, connect with me, call
24:21
me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
24:28
Thanks for your time and attention.
24:29
I'll catch you all at the next episode.