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From Stalemate to Action: Closing the Deal in Business & Life · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show today.
• 0:03
  We're still on how sales skills can help for personal growth and
• 0:07
  development. Now the sales skills that we've
• 0:10
  been looking at just for a little bit of a recap, The
• 0:14
  skills that we need to build trust and rapport with potential
• 0:17
  customers and clients, also to help understand clients better.
• 0:21
  Also, how to make effective presentations, getting people to
• 0:24
  commit to the next step, making sure that everyone is happy and
• 0:28
  then getting repeat business and referrals.
• 0:30
  So what I've done for the last two or three days and what I'm
• 0:35
  going to do for the next few days would be to show how these
• 0:38
  skills, even though we talk about them in a business context
• 0:44
  where someone is promoting a business or promoting a specific
• 0:47
  product or service. We're going to try and see how
• 0:50
  if you learn these skills, if you get a handle on these
• 0:52
  skills, then it's also going to make you a better church worker,
• 0:56
  a better employee at the office, a better, you know, village
• 1:01
  person when you go home for your town's meeting and you guys are
• 1:03
  trying to deliberate on this community development project or
• 1:06
  that community development project.
• 1:09
  So we've done a couple of items on this list so far.
• 1:13
  So today what we are going to be paying attention to, how to get
• 1:16
  people to commit to the next action steps.
• 1:20
  In the previous episode, what we did was we looked at how to make
• 1:26
  effective presentations. Yes.
• 1:28
  And the reason why we're taking this step now is because there's
• 1:31
  no point in saying you had an effective presentation, or if
• 1:34
  you had a beautiful presentation or a convincing proposal or
• 1:37
  whatever it is. And if at the end of the day,
• 1:40
  nobody took the next action step, nobody took the next
• 1:44
  desirable action that you want them to take.
• 1:48
  So if you make what you think is a beautiful proposal, but nobody
• 1:51
  took the desired action, then your proposal actually wasn't
• 1:54
  effective or as wonderful as beautiful as you think it was.
• 1:58
  So getting people to commit and take the next action step is
• 2:02
  important because if at the end of this current meeting, at the
• 2:06
  end of this proposal, at the end of this departmental meeting, at
• 2:08
  the end of this, whatever it is that you're doing right now, no
• 2:11
  next clear steps have been taken.
• 2:15
  Then the business transaction, the sale, the committee meeting,
• 2:22
  the departmental meeting, whatever it is that you're
• 2:24
  involved in, is not going to make progress and you're going
• 2:27
  to end up having meetings for the sake of meetings.
• 2:30
  Those of you who work in the civil service are familiar with
• 2:33
  these sorts of things. That's how people get together.
• 2:36
  You have a four hour meeting, everybody shouts at each other.
• 2:39
  At the end of the day, it looks like there's some consensus.
• 2:41
  Everybody feels happy. But then all of you go home
• 2:44
  without deciding on what are we doing next?
• 2:47
  Who is going to do whatever is who is going to do the next
• 2:50
  thing that needs to be done. Then you show up in a month or
• 2:54
  in two months or three months for the next committee meeting,
• 2:57
  and then you start having to rehash all the issues all over
• 2:59
  again. This is what we said.
• 3:01
  This isn't what we said. This is what we agreed.
• 3:03
  This isn't what we agreed. Why didn't you do this?
• 3:06
  Nobody told me to do this. We didn't do this.
• 3:08
  We didn't do that. And so if you've been in civil
• 3:11
  service meetings and sometimes there's some church meetings,
• 3:16
  this is the, the, the dynamic that keeps going on and on where
• 3:19
  you're having meetings for the sake of having meetings.
• 3:22
  And it takes, you know, three or four meetings before you make
• 3:25
  progress on any specific action item or agenda.
• 3:30
  And that's because the chairman, the chairperson, the lady
• 3:35
  chairperson, whoever it is that is handling the meeting and
• 3:37
  people in the meeting, there's no one there who is skilled in
• 3:41
  getting people to commit to the next action steps.
• 3:45
  So these sorts of things happen, and then the meeting, the
• 3:51
  initiative, the whatever, just sometimes some of these things
• 3:54
  just dead quiet death. And the reason why this happens?
• 3:57
  Because people are not good at getting future commitments or
• 4:01
  agendas at the current meeting. And also because people are
• 4:04
  scared of asking for a commitment or asking for a close
• 4:07
  of some sorts. Now if we're talking about a
• 4:09
  sales or a business scenario, it's obvious because usually
• 4:14
  we're dealing with huge sums of money.
• 4:16
  And in the beginning, anyway, it's hard to open your mouth,
• 4:20
  especially if you haven't handled real money before and
• 4:22
  say that, you know, drop a deposit of 500K or drop a
• 4:27
  deposit of 1.5 or something. So in the beginning, you know,
• 4:30
  that is kind of scary. And then of course, in
• 4:33
  interdepartmental meetings, church meetings, those sorts of
• 4:35
  things, it's scary to put your hand up and to try and be a
• 4:40
  leader of some sorts. So yeah, so these are the
• 4:44
  reasons why these sorts of things happen.
• 4:46
  And then a lot of us just end up in meetings just for the sake of
• 4:50
  meetings. Now if you want to get a future
• 4:54
  agenda or a future course of action or gain commit commitment
• 4:58
  on something at the current meeting where we are, because
• 5:01
  remember, we should always be securing the commitments at this
• 5:04
  current meeting. So if I'm having a meeting now
• 5:07
  with the potential customer now, I want us to agree on what the
• 5:12
  next thing we are going to do before we end this meeting.
• 5:15
  So if it's a phone call, I should be wrapping up the phone
• 5:17
  call with a clear sense with both of us, me and the potential
• 5:22
  customer. Having a clear sense of this is
• 5:24
  going to be the next step. So that next time I call the
• 5:27
  customer, I'm not just following up for the sake of following up.
• 5:30
  And it's the same thing if you're on the civil service or
• 5:32
  if you're in the church departmental meeting.
• 5:34
  You guys want to wrap up this current meeting with everybody
• 5:37
  having a clear sense today right now that this is the next thing
• 5:42
  we're going to do. This person is going to be
• 5:44
  responsible for doing this and we must have achieved XYZ before
• 5:48
  we come back next month for the next meeting.
• 5:51
  So if you want to get future agendas at the current meeting,
• 5:56
  first of all you have to realise that there's a distinction
• 5:59
  between two really important things.
• 6:02
  One of them is called a continuation and the second one
• 6:05
  is called an advancement. Now this is a distinction in
• 6:08
  traditional sales theory from about late 1970s into 80s, and
• 6:13
  it's from a book called Spin Selling, if I remember correctly
• 6:16
  written by Neil Rackham. So yes, it might sound
• 6:22
  unnecessary theoretical, but the distinction is important.
• 6:25
  So just pay attention. Now.
• 6:28
  The continuation is what happens when people have a meeting I
• 6:31
  call a potential customer or we have that church meeting, or we
• 6:34
  have that political caucus meeting, or we have that
• 6:37
  departmental meeting, you know, our Ministry of Finance or
• 6:39
  whatever civil service organization that we belong to.
• 6:43
  Everybody's having cordial fun. Everybody's getting along.
• 6:47
  We have wonderful meetings, but we're never really sure what's
• 6:51
  next. We're never really sure what
• 6:54
  we're supposed to be doing, and we Well, anyway, you get the
• 7:02
  whole idea. If we're having this meeting,
• 7:03
  and the meeting was fun and it looked like we achieved
• 7:06
  consensus, but we're not really sure what it is that we need to
• 7:08
  do next, then this is what is called a continuation.
• 7:12
  Because you're stuck in a circular loop, you're not really
• 7:15
  making progress. Because we finished this
• 7:17
  meeting, we're not sure what we're supposed to do next when
• 7:20
  we come from when we come for the next meeting, We're just
• 7:23
  continuing from the same confused point where we were
• 7:26
  before and we're not really making progress now.
• 7:29
  An advancement, on the other hand, is when we have a next
• 7:32
  clear step for the next meeting, for the next phone call, for the
• 7:36
  next departmental meeting, and of course advancements.
• 7:40
  The next agenda has to be decided at this current meeting.
• 7:45
  Now let me use an example. I hope it's not inappropriate,
• 7:48
  but I hope that this is going to help you guys get the picture in
• 7:52
  case I haven't been able to explain it explain it properly
• 7:56
  so far. Now there was a young man and
• 7:59
  that young man is me and more than a decade ago.
• 8:03
  OK, well, we've done 12 years of marriage so far so and we dated
• 8:07
  4 years. So let's say is that 1617?
• 8:11
  So let's say 1617 years ago I was a young man and I was
• 8:15
  toasting my girlfriend who was now who is now my wife.
• 8:19
  And we had a wonderful afternoon of grilled chicken and chips
• 8:25
  because, well, I don't cook, but you know, I wanted to impress
• 8:28
  her. So I got some oven fried potato
• 8:33
  chips and then some oven fried chicken.
• 8:38
  Gosh, what are they called? You know, all those small
• 8:40
  chicken stuff, finger foods. So I figured I'd show up at her
• 8:43
  flat and impress her with this wonderful meal.
• 8:46
  So I prepared it there and we watched some of her TV shows
• 8:51
  because Mark is ATV person. She's always watching all kinds
• 8:53
  of game shows. So if it's a game show, she has
• 8:58
  watched it. So Steve Harvey, Family Feud,
• 9:02
  What else? You know, those ones where they
• 9:03
  do house renovations. The ones that are bridal shows,
• 9:07
  comedy stand up shows, Desperate Housewives, I mean, you name it,
• 9:12
  if it exists, she has watched it.
• 9:14
  America's Next Top Model with Tyra Banks, you know, on and on.
• 9:17
  So she has lots of shows that she watched.
• 9:19
  So that was how we spent the afternoon, grilled chicken and
• 9:23
  chips, and we had fun. And by the time I was leaving
• 9:27
  her flat, I asked if she had fun and she said yes.
• 9:30
  And so I asked if I could come by in the evening because I knew
• 9:35
  a place, a Kismat, on campus, where they had some really nice
• 9:40
  raps, really wicked raps, you know, shawarmas and all that
• 9:43
  fancy stuff. And she said, yes, She said OK
• 9:47
  to that. Now that is an example of an
• 9:49
  advancement. If you're in this kind of
• 9:52
  situation personally or professionally, then you are
• 9:56
  making progress and the deal is going to close soon.
• 10:00
  And evidence of that is that we are married today.
• 10:03
  So we had a fun afternoon before I left.
• 10:07
  I got a clear advancement about what the next course of action
• 10:10
  was, and it was a sign that we were making progress and was a
• 10:14
  sign that the deal was going to close.
• 10:16
  And we are married today and we have kids.
• 10:20
  Now let's consider an alternative.
• 10:22
  Let's say I came over that same afternoon and after the grilled
• 10:28
  chicken and the chips and the programs on TVI asked if she had
• 10:33
  fun. But she was kind and
• 10:35
  noncommittal and she said it was OK And then I asked if I can
• 10:40
  come by later in the evening because I have from real cool a
• 10:46
  cool place. I have to.
• 10:49
  I asked if I can come by in the evening so we can go to the
• 10:51
  Kismat so she can try out, you know, some kosher arm and stuff
• 10:53
  like that. And she says no, that she has
• 10:55
  something else to do this evening.
• 10:57
  And then I ask her about tomorrow and she says she has a
• 11:00
  church meeting. And then I say, how about
• 11:02
  Saturday? And then she says, Oh no, she's
• 11:03
  going to be washing the bathroom all day.
• 11:06
  And then I, you know, I'm desperate, so I decide to just
• 11:10
  leave an open way commitment. And I say, OK, but can I see you
• 11:13
  some other time or can I call you some other time?
• 11:15
  And then she says yes, Yeah, no problem, Call me when you're
• 11:18
  free. Now, in this case, there is no
• 11:22
  clear commitment. What we have here is a
• 11:25
  continuation. A continuation is just an
• 11:28
  agreement to agree, a meeting to meet.
• 11:31
  You're not really making progress, so just going round
• 11:33
  and round and round. So what we'll have there will be
• 11:36
  lots of polite conversations, some polite visits, but this is
• 11:40
  not a deal that is going to close unless you figure out what
• 11:43
  the objections are or what the problems are.
• 11:47
  So maybe it's that she thinks I'm an OK guy, but my breath
• 11:49
  stinks. I need to find a way to be able
• 11:52
  to get to the root of the problem so I can fix my bad
• 11:55
  breath. Maybe go and see my dentist so
• 11:57
  they remove my tonsils in case halitosis is the problem.
• 12:01
  I mean, you see my point, but The thing is, you come when it
• 12:04
  comes to personal matters and political matters, you know, you
• 12:08
  want to attend caucus meetings and departmental matters.
• 12:11
  A lot of people are OK with being stuck in this whole
• 12:14
  meeting to meet, talking, to talk, chatting, to chat,
• 12:18
  agreeing to agree. But you're not really making
• 12:21
  progress. So excuse me.
• 12:24
  So if the sales meeting or the business meeting or your
• 12:29
  boardroom meeting or your church committee planning meeting,
• 12:32
  let's see if you are planning to raise, you know, 10 M to rebuild
• 12:36
  the church or something or a political caucus meeting ends
• 12:39
  with let's keep in touch. Or people say you go be no Allah
• 12:44
  or people say surely we go run them.
• 12:46
  I'll call you later. Or people say this was a fun
• 12:50
  meeting, let's talk in the future then.
• 12:52
  Please don't deceive yourself. You do not have an advancement
• 12:56
  and things are not looking good for this deal because any kind
• 13:00
  of response that sounds like that is just really an agreement
• 13:03
  to agree a meeting to meet, a phone call, to call following up
• 13:08
  for the sake of following up. You are not making progress.
• 13:11
  This is not an advancement, it's just a continuation.
• 13:14
  You guys are going round and round and round in circles now.
• 13:18
  Now that we've used my dating history to try and flesh out
• 13:21
  what an advancement is and what a continuation is, the second
• 13:25
  part of the equation is Now, how do you get people to make a
• 13:28
  commitment? It's very simple.
• 13:31
  Well, there are lots of ways, but there are two easy options
• 13:34
  that I'd like to introduce to you guys today.
• 13:37
  Number one is you take the lead and just tell them what you
• 13:40
  think the next best step should be.
• 13:43
  So back to the example of me and my girlfriend, now my wife, I
• 13:48
  told her what I thought the next best step should be and she
• 13:51
  thought was OK and you know, things panned out.
• 13:54
  All right, Next is to ask the person what they think the next
• 14:00
  best step should be in their own opinion.
• 14:03
  Now, some people are going to argue one way or another that
• 14:06
  one is better than the other. I'm not here to say which is
• 14:08
  best. I'm just here to tell you that
• 14:10
  these are the options. That it?
• 14:11
  At the end of your sales meeting, at the end of the
• 14:15
  business meeting, the boardroom meeting, the church meeting, the
• 14:19
  political caucus, the options are #1.
• 14:23
  You say, OK, yeah, we've had a good meeting.
• 14:25
  And then you tell people this is the next step.
• 14:27
  So excuse me. And you tell people this is the
• 14:28
  next step. And then you wait and hear what
• 14:30
  it is Now they're saying, or you ask them, OK, now that we've
• 14:34
  discussed all this, what do you think the next step should be?
• 14:38
  Either way, whichever approach you take, you'll find that
• 14:41
  you're going to leave this meeting with very clear next
• 14:45
  steps of what people are supposed to do, and people would
• 14:48
  have committed to something and their own share of action to
• 14:53
  make things happen. Whichever of these ways you
• 14:55
  follow, if you don't leave this meeting, if you take these two
• 14:58
  approaches and you don't have an extra course of action, it's a
• 15:02
  sign that, well, there's a problem.
• 15:04
  You didn't build rapport on scenario.
• 15:06
  We actually aren't agreed on what the core issues are.
• 15:09
  You know, it's a sign that there's a problem that we hadn't
• 15:11
  resolved, that we hadn't resolved in the past.
• 15:14
  But let's now pretend that there are no unresolved problems.
• 15:19
  So in a business scenario, it might look like something like
• 15:21
  this. So let's say there's a realtor.
• 15:23
  You know, real estate people, yeah, I think they're called
• 15:26
  Realtors. So let's say there's a realtor
• 15:28
  who has a potential client that is looking for investment
• 15:31
  properties for their portfolio. There's some people who buy buy
• 15:34
  houses because they want to live in them.
• 15:36
  And there's some people who buy houses as part of investment
• 15:38
  portfolio properties. They buy because they want to
• 15:41
  sell or they buy land because they think it's going to
• 15:44
  appreciate, and then later on they sell it.
• 15:48
  So let's say that this is the scenario.
• 15:50
  You as the realtor, you've done value discovery.
• 15:53
  If you don't know what value discovery is, listen to the
• 15:55
  immediate two or three episodes. Before this, I did a whole
• 15:59
  section on that. That's where you're just trying
• 16:01
  to figure out what is valuable to this person.
• 16:03
  Those are the things that are going to form the core of your
• 16:05
  presentation. So you've done value discovery
• 16:10
  and you've been able to narrow down into narrow down three
• 16:13
  properties that they have looked at that matches their key, their
• 16:17
  key criteria because people who buy properties for investments
• 16:21
  usually have a specific criteria.
• 16:23
  They're thinking Abuja property is hot or Lagos property is hot
• 16:26
  or alluring property is hot. You know these cities are
• 16:30
  opening up, so they want properties close to central
• 16:34
  area. This is just my guess by the
• 16:36
  way. They want properties close to
• 16:38
  the central area that cost cost not more than so and so and
• 16:43
  they're hoping they can appreciate in three to five
• 16:45
  years or you know whatever. Every investor has their own
• 16:48
  criteria. So you are the realtor, you've
• 16:51
  done value discovery, you know what they're looking for.
• 16:54
  You've given them three properties and then this week
• 17:00
  you the realtor, you've gone on inspection with this person or
• 17:03
  with this couple and you have viewed three of the properties.
• 17:08
  Now this is what happens for most people at this stage.
• 17:11
  After you look at the three properties, the average business
• 17:14
  prospect will say something like thank you very much for the
• 17:17
  wonderful properties that you have shown me.
• 17:19
  Please give me 3 weeks to discuss with my husband, to
• 17:22
  discuss with my wife, to discuss my business partner, to discuss
• 17:25
  my pastor, blah blah blah, blah blah.
• 17:27
  And I will get back to you. And the average realtor will say
• 17:30
  sure, no problem because it sounds reasonable and you think
• 17:33
  you're making progress. Actually, you are not making
• 17:37
  progress. You are stuck in a continuation
• 17:40
  because there is no clear sign about what the next step is
• 17:44
  supposed to be. Most people are happy with this
• 17:47
  kind of soft commitment, so it might be enough for the average
• 17:51
  business person. But if you're listening to this
• 17:53
  podcast, then you're a consummate sales professional,
• 17:55
  you're a consummate businessman, a businesswoman, so that should
• 17:58
  not be enough for you. You should ask for a commitment
• 18:03
  at this stage. And in this case, it could be
• 18:06
  something like this. By the way, I am guessing I've
• 18:10
  not handled any realtor transactions.
• 18:12
  So I'm guessing this is this sort of thing that should happen
• 18:15
  next. So let me see.
• 18:18
  OK, so asking for the commitment, in this case, you
• 18:20
  could sell. OK, where was I?
• 18:22
  Yeah. So I told you that there are two
• 18:24
  options. Number one is where you
• 18:25
  determine what the next step is going to be and you just tell
• 18:27
  them and give feedback. And then next would be to ask
• 18:31
  them what they think the next step should be.
• 18:33
  And then same thing, you wait and you see what their response
• 18:38
  is. So option one, you can tell them
• 18:41
  what the next step is going to be.
• 18:42
  So it'll be something like this. If you're happy with all the
• 18:45
  options that we've looked at so far for most of our clients, the
• 18:49
  next step at this stage is the payment of a deposit for XYZ
• 18:53
  amount or to fill a form for lot allocation or you know, whatever
• 19:01
  the usual processes are if you're somebody in the realtor
• 19:03
  space and then you keep quiet and you wait for a response.
• 19:07
  So let's go over this again. So if you're happy with
• 19:10
  everything we've seen so far, for most of our clients at this
• 19:13
  stage, what they do is if they're ready to move ahead,
• 19:17
  it's a payment, a payment of the deposit for XYZ amount.
• 19:21
  Then you keep quiet, you see the response or we can do the host
• 19:26
  for you and then say the next step is we're going to fill a
• 19:30
  form for lost allocation. Now, if somebody's not willing
• 19:34
  to move forward with the payment of the deposit, I mean there's
• 19:38
  some people that of course will try and haggle on the deposit
• 19:41
  amount. That's not necessarily a bad
• 19:42
  thing. But if at this stage somebody is
• 19:44
  refusing to commit, then it means that there's a problem
• 19:49
  that we have not paid attention to earlier in the sales process.
• 19:53
  Perhaps the properties that we looked at are a mismatch.
• 19:56
  Perhaps we are mismatched when it comes to price and budget
• 20:00
  expectations and other expectations.
• 20:03
  So if at this stage, truly, truly, truly, this was someone
• 20:08
  that was qualified for the meeting and that you found
• 20:11
  options that seem to suit the person's investment appetite,
• 20:16
  then if the person is not willing to go ahead at this
• 20:19
  stage, then there's something wrong we hadn't paid attention
• 20:21
  to prior. So this is an option where you
• 20:25
  tell them what the next step should be.
• 20:27
  So if you're a realtor. If you're a realtor, OK, I
• 20:31
  should have spoken to a realtor before I came up with this
• 20:33
  scenario any. So if you're a realtor, this is
• 20:37
  a point where you just tell them the next typical thing.
• 20:39
  So the next step is pay a deposit.
• 20:42
  Or the next step is come over to the office on Wednesday morning
• 20:45
  and let us fill the lot allocation form so that we can
• 20:48
  do governor search and blah, blah, blah.
• 20:50
  And all the things that need to be done when you're trying to
• 20:53
  sort out all these land transactions.
• 20:56
  Now, if you are scared and you're not that bold, you don't
• 21:01
  want to seem to be forcing them to.
• 21:05
  You don't seem to be forcing them to do something.
• 21:08
  Or maybe the money is sounding heavy in your mouth.
• 21:10
  Maybe this is your first transaction and you've never
• 21:13
  handled 500K before. So you opening your mouth to say
• 21:18
  payment of the deposit for two M You know, maybe it sounds heavy
• 21:21
  in your mouth. That's not a problem.
• 21:23
  The other option is that you now ask them what you think the next
• 21:26
  appropriate step should be. So if you as the realtor, you're
• 21:30
  not sure or you're afraid, then you just ask the question and
• 21:33
  put the ball in the court. So you said, OK now that you've
• 21:35
  had a look at property lots AB and C, which of them is more to
• 21:39
  your liking, They will now tell you that, well, A was not bad, C
• 21:44
  was OK. But that property B, that B is
• 21:47
  looking, is looking sweet. It's looking OK And then you ask
• 21:50
  them, OK, Sir, Madam, Mr. and missus, what would you like to
• 21:54
  do next? And then you keep quiet.
• 21:57
  So whichever step that you take at this stage, it's fine.
• 22:02
  The most important thing is that you have put the potential
• 22:04
  customer in a situation where they have to make some sort of a
• 22:07
  decision. Whatever their answer is, they
• 22:10
  are now committed to doing something.
• 22:13
  And like I said, if they remain non committal then it means we
• 22:16
  have made a mistake in the sales process leading up to this.
• 22:19
  Remember the example of my girlfriend who is not my wife?
• 22:23
  If I said can I come in the evening?
• 22:24
  He says no. I'll be sleeping.
• 22:27
  What about tomorrow? I'm studying.
• 22:30
  What about Friday? I'm going to church.
• 22:32
  What about Saturday? I'm washing the bathroom.
• 22:34
  OK, Sure. Can I call you up anytime?
• 22:36
  Yeah, sure. No problem.
• 22:37
  You can call me whenever you're free.
• 22:39
  That is being noncommittal. You're not making progress.
• 22:43
  It means that there's a mistake. There must be a problem with me.
• 22:47
  Maybe I said something that offended her.
• 22:51
  Let's see what else It could be Any number of things.
• 22:54
  There's something that we need to go back and to fix before we
• 22:57
  can make progress, because until that thing is fixed, we're not
• 23:00
  going to make progress. So it's the same personal
• 23:03
  affairs, business affairs, political affairs, any kind of
• 23:06
  affair. Because if someone is remaining
• 23:10
  non committal at this stage, they're refusing to fill the
• 23:14
  form, they're refusing to pay the deposit, they're refusing to
• 23:18
  suggest the next step. Then it means there might be
• 23:20
  uncertain about certain aspects of the land, certain aspects of
• 23:23
  title. Maybe they're not comfortable,
• 23:26
  maybe, probably could be on their own end, maybe they think
• 23:29
  the property it costs good at 30 M but they're worried about how
• 23:32
  they're going to finance this transaction.
• 23:36
  There could be any number of things about the value
• 23:38
  proposition as a whole that we have in front of them.
• 23:40
  So if we get to the stage where people are noncommittal or the
• 23:44
  beginning to hesitate, then we have to requalify and we have to
• 23:47
  do recovery. We're trying to figure out if
• 23:49
  we're talking to the right person, if they have capacity to
• 23:52
  go ahead with this transaction and if the proposition that we
• 23:56
  have put forward meets their needs.
• 23:58
  We also have to be sure that we understood their needs properly
• 24:01
  in the 1st place. Because it's possible that you
• 24:03
  just assumed the person is looking for investment property
• 24:07
  and you have shown them investment property.
• 24:10
  But actually what they're looking for is a home where they
• 24:14
  can move into later on with their teenage children.
• 24:18
  So obviously in that kind of scenario, of course the person
• 24:21
  will remain noncommittal because you've shown them stuff that
• 24:23
  makes sense for investment but doesn't make sense as a family
• 24:26
  home. Now, how does all this grammar
• 24:29
  we're talking about? How does all this work in the
• 24:31
  career context, in the boardroom context or other interpersonal
• 24:34
  context, the philosophy is the same.
• 24:37
  So at the end of your meeting, when people are in Ministry of
• 24:41
  Finance or your Incentive Banking, people have had the
• 24:43
  meeting as a point where you stand up and you say Mr.
• 24:46
  Chairman or you say Lady Chairperson or however it is
• 24:49
  that you address your Orga in these institutions.
• 24:52
  So. So you address them properly.
• 24:55
  And then because you know this, Nigel, you have to be
• 24:57
  respectful. If people think you're a rude
• 24:59
  twat, it's going to cause problems for you.
• 25:02
  So and that's the point where you now summarize and you, yes,
• 25:07
  kind of summarize everything. So you see now that we've
• 25:09
  deliberated on all the options, it's looking like option four,
• 25:12
  option 10 and option 12 are the most feasible things that we
• 25:16
  should do as a department to move forward.
• 25:19
  What I propose is, well, there are some organizations where you
• 25:23
  have to actually move a motion. Yeah, I know for those of you
• 25:26
  who are listening from other parts of the other parts of the
• 25:29
  world, it might sound somehow, but there are some Nigerian
• 25:32
  institutions that can be bureaucratic like that.
• 25:34
  So yeah, if you're in one of those organizations, then you
• 25:37
  say you now say lady chairperson, I propose I move
• 25:40
  the motion for, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:42
  So this is stage where you start moving motions.
• 25:44
  So you move the motion that we should vote and narrow down to
• 25:48
  one course of action. So you can see that if you start
• 25:54
  moving things like this and lady chairperson or Mr. Chairman
• 25:59
  takes your suggestion, after 20-30 minutes it's going to be
• 26:03
  clear that OK, this is what we need to do next.
• 26:07
  And it's only going to make sense that if we're doing option
• 26:09
  10, then this the people is in charge, the people who are in
• 26:14
  charge of it at this department and that department.
• 26:16
  So you know, they're supposed to do this and supposed to do this
• 26:18
  and supposed to do that. So that's option one, You trying
• 26:22
  to decide or trying to suggest. This is what the next lecture is
• 26:25
  supposed to be. Now for the second one, where
• 26:28
  you toss it into your other person's court, you just say
• 26:30
  lady chairperson. With all this talk that we've
• 26:33
  done so far, it's looking like option four, option ten, option
• 26:36
  12 looks like these are the most suitable option so far.
• 26:38
  So, Lady Chairperson, what would you like us to do next so that
• 26:43
  we won't leave this meeting and then come back and then start on
• 26:45
  issues all over again? So, Lady Chairperson, what do
• 26:48
  you think we should do next? Now, whatever answer that Lady
• 26:50
  Chairperson gives, you're most likely going to have a clear
• 26:54
  course of action and people are going to be committed to some
• 26:57
  course of action today. Because I doubt that Lady
• 27:01
  Chairperson or the chairman is going to say, you know what,
• 27:04
  we've had a productive meeting. But let me let me think about
• 27:07
  this. We'll we'll decide at the next
• 27:08
  meeting. I doubt that Madam Chairperson
• 27:11
  is going to do that. So OK, wow, this is 30 minutes.
• 27:18
  I've gone on for too long. OK, So what are the key
• 27:20
  benefits, basically, of adopting these kinds of sales and
• 27:23
  business development practices in your company?
• 27:25
  If you're an employee or in your church, if you're a church
• 27:28
  worker, or if you're volunteering in the charity, or
• 27:31
  if you guys are travelling home for your annual village
• 27:34
  Christmas meeting? Oh, by the way, these strategies
• 27:37
  that I'm talking about, they work whether you do them in
• 27:41
  English or in IBO or Hausa or Yoruba.
• 27:44
  The reason why I'm emphasizing this is because I have been at
• 27:48
  an event where somebody thought was unprofessional for a this
• 27:53
  one was actually a realtor realtor client relationship, and
• 27:57
  the person thought that it was unprofessional for the realtor
• 28:00
  to switch into pigeon or to switch into vernacular.
• 28:03
  Now it is not unprofessional. OK, well, if you work for
• 28:07
  organizations like the British Council and the American Embassy
• 28:09
  and stuff like that, they have strict language policies that
• 28:13
  you have to adhere to. But in a general business, in
• 28:17
  the general business setting, provided that other people also
• 28:22
  understand and get the gist of what is going on, it might
• 28:25
  actually be much more effective to switch into vernacular if it
• 28:28
  is going to help to get the point be made.
• 28:31
  So this strategy works whether you're speaking English or EBO
• 28:35
  SO or Yoruba. So do whichever way you feel
• 28:38
  much more comfortable with. So the key benefit of adopting
• 28:44
  this way of gaining commitment and moving things forward is
• 28:48
  that you're going to become a valuable member of the team or
• 28:51
  the organization. Everybody is going to know that,
• 28:53
  that Kingsley is a sharp guy or that Catherine, she's a correct
• 28:57
  girl because every time they're in a meeting, we make progress,
• 29:01
  we move things forward. You're going to be gain the
• 29:03
  reputation of being a problem solver.
• 29:04
  You're going to gain the reputation of being a go getter.
• 29:07
  And that's a good thing. It helps you get along in the
• 29:10
  church. It helps you get along in your
• 29:13
  ministry work. It helps you get along with your
• 29:16
  village association meeting, you know, stuff like that, of
• 29:19
  course, so long as you're also paying attention and deferring
• 29:22
  to the appropriate authority structures.
• 29:24
  So if you're going for a village village meeting in December, you
• 29:29
  know, please don't. All I said, don't be too
• 29:32
  forward. You know, always defer to the
• 29:34
  older people, you know, things like that.
• 29:36
  But you can still exercise influence.
• 29:38
  Now, there is some downside if you adopt this approach.
• 29:44
  There are some people in your church, in the village meeting,
• 29:48
  and in the departmental meeting, especially if you work in the
• 29:50
  civil service. There are some people who are
• 29:52
  not as progressive as you are, and they're going to become
• 29:55
  increasingly jealous of your growing influence.
• 29:57
  That is the downside. So if you don't want people to
• 30:00
  become jealous of you, then please ignore everything I've
• 30:03
  said in this podcast episode. Keep your head down.
• 30:06
  Go below the radar and let people to continue to meet, to
• 30:10
  meet, call to call, agree to agree, let them continue to
• 30:14
  follow up, to follow up. So just keep your head down and
• 30:17
  let things move along. But if you're not scared of
• 30:19
  people with being jealous of you, then this is how you go
• 30:22
  ahead to make sure that things get done.
• 30:25
  And tomorrow, we're going to deal with sales skills that help
• 30:28
  you ensure customer satisfaction.
• 30:30
  And then we'll see how that can help you move your career along
• 30:34
  or move your political ambition or help you with, you know, your
• 30:41
  PowerPoint meeting or your Omuna meeting or whatever.
• 30:44
  So that's all for today, folks. Remember to connect with me on
• 30:47
  WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
• 30:52
  Country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 30:54
  Nigerian, then connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 30:57
  My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
• 30:59
  You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address
• 31:02
  from the link. We're currently listening to
• 31:03
  this episode. Thank you very much for your
• 31:05
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 31:07
  recording.