Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Ask, Realign, Close: Powerful Questions to Overcome Hesitation and Win Deals

Transcript

Ask, Realign, Close: Powerful Questions to Overcome Hesitation and Win Deals · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm out and about, so
• 0:05
  expect to hear some noise in the background.
• 0:08
  Now we're going to continue with the discussion we've been having
• 0:12
  that's on how to deal with business objections.
• 0:15
  If this is your first time of listening to the show, an
• 0:17
  objection is anything that people tell you when you're
• 0:20
  trying to sell them something. And basically, whatever reason
• 0:24
  that they give for not wanting to go ahead is an objection.
• 0:27
  So if they tell you that you have body odor and your breath
• 0:30
  stinks, so excuse me, still have a sore throat.
• 0:33
  So if they tell you that you have body odor and your breath
• 0:35
  stinks, that's an objection. If they say you're too
• 0:37
  expensive, that's an objection. If they say I need more time to
• 0:41
  think about it, that's an objection.
• 0:43
  If they say I need time to talk to my son, my wife, my husband,
• 0:48
  my pastor, my lawyer, my accountant, that's an objection.
• 0:51
  Whatever reason that they give for not wanting to go ahead,
• 0:54
  that's an objection. So if it's your first time
• 0:57
  listening to the show and you've had these sorts of problems in
• 0:59
  business, you'll be happy to know that the past couple of
• 1:03
  episodes that we've done have lost track.
• 1:05
  So let me just say 7-8 have been around common objections that
• 1:10
  people get in business and then how we deal with them.
• 1:12
  And we started off this, We started off this arm of the
• 1:19
  conversation looking at you're too expensive.
• 1:23
  What else? We're too expensive.
• 1:24
  You'll be on my budget. You know, all those sorts of
• 1:26
  money objections. And that's how we've gotten to
• 1:28
  where we are today. So this your first time of
• 1:31
  listening to the show. After you're done listening to
• 1:33
  this, skip back a couple of episodes, the couple of juicy
• 1:36
  other objections that you might find helpful in your business.
• 1:41
  Now today we are going to get to that other one apart from the
• 1:46
  money ones like you're too expensive.
• 1:47
  I can't afford you, I can't afford it.
• 1:49
  We're going to get to that other one that I'm sure most of us
• 1:53
  Nigerian business people have have heard.
• 1:57
  We get a lot. And I'm sure that this one is
• 1:58
  going to be one of those universal objections.
• 2:01
  And that is when people say we need more time to think about
• 2:04
  it. I need more time to think about
• 2:06
  it. Give me a flyer.
• 2:07
  Let me think about it. Drop the material with my
• 2:10
  secretary. Let me think about it.
• 2:12
  My PA has collected your number. Let me think about it.
• 2:15
  So it comes in different variations, but it all boils
• 2:17
  down to that whole thing of I need some more time.
• 2:20
  Let me think about it. Let me call you back in two or
• 2:22
  three weeks, you know, blah blah, blah.
• 2:24
  Now, for the average sales person or for the person who is
• 2:27
  freestyling and who doesn't realize that sales has
• 2:31
  principles to wait frameworks and processes, this is the stage
• 2:35
  where they say, OK, ma, no problem, we'll talk in two
• 2:37
  weeks. Happy, OK, no problem.
• 2:39
  I'll call you back. No, that's a problem because
• 2:43
  there are a couple of typical scenarios that give rise to this
• 2:47
  sort of situations. And when Madam says Madam, OK,
• 2:51
  let me stick to Madam MD, that's what we started with yesterday.
• 2:54
  They're trying to sell stationery to a hotel or to the
• 2:58
  Access Bank that is just down the street from where you live.
• 3:01
  So when Madam MD or or Gap procurement officer or whoever
• 3:04
  says let me think about it, let's talk again maybe in like 2
• 3:09
  weeks and you say OK, no problem, you stand up and you
• 3:11
  leave. Truth of the matter is that 2
• 3:13
  weeks, they just end up ghosting you.
• 3:16
  Your proposal is dead most of the time and that's because
• 3:19
  there might have been some underlying fundamental issues
• 3:21
  that you have not addressed that you haven't teased out.
• 3:25
  And for those of you who've been listening along, if you haven't
• 3:28
  figured it out, that's the reason why I've been proposing
• 3:31
  the the method for dealing with that I propose over here, you
• 3:34
  know, where I say empathize and then ask questions is because
• 3:37
  when people give an objection, The thing is they usually well,
• 3:40
  sometimes they're just trying to get rid of you because they
• 3:42
  don't like you. Maybe you're ugly.
• 3:44
  Maybe you your breath stinks. Or maybe your proposal doesn't
• 3:52
  address any of the concerns that they have for their business.
• 3:54
  But The thing is, there is some fundamental underlying concern,
• 3:58
  and until we tease that out, we're not going to know what it
• 4:00
  is to do about it. OK, yes, I know that it sounds
• 4:07
  excessive. You know when I keep saying that
• 4:08
  whole thing of your breath stinks.
• 4:09
  Or maybe you're from the wrong tribe, But that is actually
• 4:11
  because these sorts of things happen.
• 4:13
  I've been in a situation where this was back when I was still
• 4:16
  trying to sell financial products.
• 4:18
  There was this lady who was getting objections and she
• 4:20
  decided to call it out, like, oh God, there's a problem here.
• 4:23
  You're not living with me and the guy meet us.
• 4:25
  Like, yes, the truth of matter is, you know, you're evil.
• 4:28
  I don't like doing business with evil people.
• 4:30
  But she handled like approach was like, OK, is that all?
• 4:33
  So it's just because I'm evil. So if I was able to call one of
• 4:38
  my colleagues who's a Yoruba guy just like you, would you be OK
• 4:42
  concluding the deal with the person?
• 4:44
  And then the guy said fine, so that was my problem.
• 4:46
  She went back to the office and then she picked a Yoruba dude
• 4:48
  and said look, this is the scope, this is what I'm dealing
• 4:51
  with, this how far I've gone. This thing should be a lay up.
• 4:54
  These are the terms, you know, go and close this thing for me.
• 4:57
  And, you know, when you sort it out, just sort me something on
• 4:59
  the back end and say no Wahala and then they close the deal.
• 5:02
  Now there's some people who would be offended, like in this
• 5:06
  day and age, because you're an evil person, because you're a
• 5:08
  woman, because you're blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:10
  Yes, they are those larger, ethical and all I say.
• 5:20
  So excuse me, still recovering from your sore throat.
• 5:22
  So yes, that's what these larger ethical societal issues, yeah,
• 5:25
  that we need to deal with. But at the end of the day, given
• 5:30
  the context, you're there, You're a salesperson, you're
• 5:32
  trying to sell something. So your primary concern is to
• 5:34
  get the deal closed. So when we're in church or when
• 5:37
  we are in all I said, larger political forums, you know, we
• 5:43
  can't talk about these issues. But for now, we're just trying
• 5:45
  to close the sale. I guess what I'm just trying to
• 5:46
  say is that sometimes it can be that simple.
• 5:49
  You know, your breath stinks or you're from the wrong tribe or
• 5:52
  you're the wrong gender, you're the wrong whatever.
• 5:54
  But The thing is, until you ask, you're never going to know, and
• 5:57
  you're not going to know how to resolve the problem.
• 6:00
  So by the way, OK, let me stop here.
• 6:03
  For people who have halitosis and who have genuine health
• 6:06
  concerns where, you know, this is an issue, let me not be
• 6:08
  insensitive to their plight. OK, so that was too long an
• 6:12
  introduction. So let's just get straight to
• 6:14
  the meat of what we're talking about today.
• 6:15
  Now we're looking at situations where people say we need more
• 6:18
  time to think about it. Typical scenarios where this
• 6:21
  happens, sometimes people have incomplete information.
• 6:25
  They've listened to you, maybe they might have heard some
• 6:27
  stuff, they didn't hear some other things.
• 6:29
  And so they're not quite clear about your product or your
• 6:31
  service or how it will help solve that situation.
• 6:34
  And so they say, let me think about it, because sometimes it's
• 6:39
  a barrage of information. So just like when Mumsy was back
• 6:42
  in town, this was sometime last year.
• 6:44
  I just wanted to buy ATV and I don't have a smart TV, but I
• 6:48
  have a what are they called? I don't know what kind of TV
• 6:55
  house. I know it's a high definition
• 6:56
  something something, but it's not a smart TV.
• 6:58
  So when Mumsy and I went to go and look at TV's, you know,
• 7:01
  everybody telling you the, you know, this resolution, that,
• 7:05
  this, that, that, that. So there's a whole thing of
• 7:07
  smart TV versus no smart TV. And the reason why we said let's
• 7:11
  think about it was because it was a whole barge of
• 7:13
  information. And truly, truly, truly we
• 7:15
  needed to think about it because it's a lot and TV's are
• 7:19
  expensive. So we went in and let's think
• 7:24
  about it. We came back home and then came
• 7:26
  back again. I met a helpful salesperson and
• 7:28
  they were able to get the deal done.
• 7:30
  So sometimes I need more time to think about it.
• 7:33
  Let me come back next week. I'm coming.
• 7:35
  I'll be back in three days. It's because too much
• 7:37
  information, incomplete information.
• 7:40
  They're unclear about something regarding your product or your
• 7:42
  service. Sometimes people say we need to
• 7:45
  think about it. Let me come back next week.
• 7:46
  Let me come back tomorrow. Drop the flag.
• 7:49
  Come and see my PA in three weeks is because sometimes
• 7:52
  there's an internal decision making process and there are
• 7:55
  multiple stakeholders to be consulted and the people need,
• 7:58
  the person needs time to consult.
• 8:00
  Another example I gave on the podcast in the past was the
• 8:02
  whole thing with Mom C and the solar panels that we got, solar
• 8:05
  panels, inverters and then all that.
• 8:08
  So you know, of course, you know we had kids want Mom C to be
• 8:13
  sorted out taking good care of. So she was running a couple of
• 8:17
  these decisions through me and my siblings.
• 8:23
  So if that sort of thing exists and that's why I've been talking
• 8:27
  about decision making units in this past couple of episodes.
• 8:30
  The decision making units is just trying to get a sense of
• 8:33
  who you're talking to, how do these people arrive at
• 8:35
  decisions, things like that. If there's a decision making
• 8:38
  unit, some internal decision making process, you know it
• 8:41
  helps know about in the beginning because now you know
• 8:43
  who it is that you need to bring on board.
• 8:45
  So sometimes I need more time to think about it just means the
• 8:50
  guy you're talking to actually wants to discuss with his wife
• 8:52
  first before he says yes or no. Or the woman that you're talking
• 8:55
  to now wants to discuss with her sisters before she says yes or
• 8:58
  no. Or Madam MD that you're talking
• 9:02
  to now wants to talk about head of legal and technical and know
• 9:05
  what not before she gets back to you.
• 9:07
  Sometimes it's an internal decision making process and then
• 9:11
  sometimes when I need more time to think about it, give me two
• 9:15
  weeks, give me 3 weeks. Sometimes people say that
• 9:17
  because they're genuinely undecided.
• 9:20
  They just need time to compare. You're talking about features,
• 9:23
  you've spoken prices, you've spoken benefits, you've spoken
• 9:25
  about this and this and that. They just need time to compare.
• 9:29
  Now, OK, if I'm looking at this smart TV that is 15 inches and
• 9:33
  I'm looking at this whatever, whatever that is, 12 inches and
• 9:38
  you know, on and on. They just need more time to
• 9:40
  compare. Oh, it's a good thing that I
• 9:42
  give a warning that I'm out and about because it has started
• 9:46
  raining. So let me wind up the car window
• 9:49
  and then we will continue, just so I don't get OK, sorry about
• 9:55
  that, I left the radio on, so let me just wind up and then
• 10:00
  we'll continue. So these are the kind of
• 10:02
  adventures that you have when you try to record podcast
• 10:08
  episodes live, when you're out and about South.
• 10:10
  For those of you who are thinking of starting podcasts,
• 10:13
  you know, if you don't like, well, anyway, just a regular
• 10:18
  part of my day. So where are we?
• 10:21
  OK, so yeah, so sometimes people are undecided and then they need
• 10:23
  time to compare the features, the prices, the benefits and
• 10:26
  then all that. So.
• 10:30
  So also sometimes when people say I need more time to think
• 10:32
  about it is because sometimes it might be a money issue and they
• 10:36
  just need to think, how am I going to raise this money?
• 10:38
  Sometimes it might be budgetary constraints, like if you're
• 10:42
  trying to sell to Madam MD, who is the MD of a hotel not far
• 10:46
  from where you live. Sometimes she needs approval.
• 10:49
  Maybe she has to go and talk to the board first before they can
• 10:52
  buy this or this or that or that from you.
• 10:55
  So she says we need more time to think about it.
• 10:59
  And sometimes there are other unresolved concerns.
• 11:02
  So when people say we need more time to think about it, give me
• 11:05
  two weeks, drop the fly with my PA, I'll call you in one month.
• 11:09
  Can give me two months to think about it.
• 11:11
  These are some of the things that are going through their
• 11:13
  mind. Now there are a bunch of you who
• 11:18
  will hear, We need more time to think about it.
• 11:20
  And you will say, OK, no problem ma, I'll come back next month.
• 11:23
  Is that OK? That's a bad approach because
• 11:26
  your deal could die and you'll never know why.
• 11:29
  There are some of you who are going to pretend like you didn't
• 11:32
  hear. We need more time to think about
• 11:33
  it and you're going to try and close the deal on the spot.
• 11:36
  That is also a stupid idea because you're now going to come
• 11:38
  across as someone who is dense, who is daft, who is rude, who is
• 11:43
  intrusive, who is, you know, fill in the blank and you might
• 11:48
  not close the deal now and you will burn whatever opportunities
• 11:52
  you have for interacting with that person in the future
• 11:54
  because the lawyers remember you as, oh, that's that blockhead
• 11:56
  that I was talking to that time or that was that girl who was,
• 12:00
  you know, that girl that was too forward or, you know, whatever.
• 12:02
  You know, you start getting a reputation.
• 12:04
  And we don't want either of these, either of these
• 12:09
  situations to occur. So what's the best way to deal
• 12:13
  with these sorts of situations? The same sort of thing that I've
• 12:15
  been talking about the past couple of episodes.
• 12:17
  First off, we have to acknowledge because nobody wants
• 12:20
  to feel like they're daft or they're making excuses for no
• 12:23
  reasons. So you have to acknowledge and
• 12:25
  empathize with them. And then of course, you have to
• 12:27
  ask clarifying questions because you have to know what it is that
• 12:30
  you're dealing with here. Before you try to close the
• 12:33
  deal. You need to know what it is that
• 12:35
  you're dealing with here. Remember when I spoke about
• 12:38
  selling financial services, my colleague who was a female and
• 12:41
  EBO, or rather who is, she's still alive, although I'm not
• 12:45
  selling the product anymore. So, you know, she had to get to
• 12:49
  the bottom of the matter to know what's up.
• 12:51
  And because she built good rapport, she asked the guy and
• 12:54
  the guy spoke and he was frank about it, that, look, I don't
• 12:57
  like doing business with EBO people.
• 12:58
  And then plus, you're a girl. And so she confirmed.
• 13:02
  This is why follow up questions are really important.
• 13:05
  So oh, so again, that's the only problem.
• 13:07
  So if I was to bring a guy who is Yoruba, you will close the
• 13:11
  deal right now. And I say, yeah, sure I will.
• 13:13
  And that's what she did. She went back to the office,
• 13:16
  picked a Yoruba dude, levelled with him, came back, deal was
• 13:20
  closed. She got her own share of the
• 13:21
  Commission. So this is the reason why asking
• 13:24
  questions are important, because we're trying to get to the root
• 13:27
  of what we're dealing with. With adequate information,
• 13:30
  you'll find that you'll be able to close.
• 13:33
  First of all, there's no such thing as you're closing 100% of
• 13:36
  the deals. That's not possible.
• 13:37
  So just remove that from your head.
• 13:38
  You'll never close 100% of the deals, but probability goes up
• 13:42
  if you have all the information that you need.
• 13:44
  So we need more time to think about it.
• 13:47
  Acknowledge, ask clarifying questions.
• 13:48
  We're trying to figure out what's going on.
• 13:50
  Now, there are different ways of doing it.
• 13:52
  Like I say over here on the podcast, it depends on you, your
• 13:55
  style of communication, the style of rapport that you have.
• 13:58
  So don't try to sound like me, all right.
• 14:01
  So how I would do it is I'll say something like, yeah, it makes
• 14:05
  sense. I understand, man.
• 14:06
  It's OK, Sir. I understand.
• 14:07
  Because me, ma, I never make a decision without thinking about
• 14:11
  it first. And then I would not try to
• 14:14
  slide in and ask questions like. So what exactly do you need to
• 14:17
  think over? Is there any information here
• 14:21
  that you've that you find confusing?
• 14:24
  You know, I can say things like that, like, Oh yeah, I
• 14:26
  understand, you know, I must have said a lot.
• 14:28
  In fact, when I was spoken about this and this and this, I'm sure
• 14:30
  that this and this and this must have sounded confusing, You
• 14:33
  know, Is that the case, you know, is that what happened,
• 14:36
  that sort of thing? I can lean in on that.
• 14:39
  I can also ask outright, Is there anyone you need to consult
• 14:43
  with? I can also ask.
• 14:46
  Sounds to me like I've said something that confused you.
• 14:49
  Do you mind sharing? So there are different ways that
• 14:51
  you can go about it, but you can see that depending on your own
• 14:54
  communication style, you know, the way you speak.
• 14:57
  Oh, by the way, like I said, these things don't always have
• 14:59
  to be in English. So if you guys are vibing,
• 15:01
  you're flowing, you're both Yoruba, you know you can
• 15:04
  batting, batting and you know, the the whole point is you're
• 15:08
  following the same sort of principles.
• 15:10
  So this can be done in Hausa, in Igbo, in Tiv, in Hijo, in
• 15:15
  Ichakiri, in Mandarin, in whatever.
• 15:20
  So empathize, ask questions because you're trying to gather
• 15:25
  some extra information. The goal here is you're trying
• 15:30
  to get a better sense of their priorities, their needs, and
• 15:33
  you're trying to get a sense of whatever concern that they have
• 15:38
  so that you can now retailer the proposal so that is more
• 15:42
  relevant and it is more acute. It is more whatever word you
• 15:47
  know, it blends more with whatever it is that they have at
• 15:49
  the back of their mind. So that's it.
• 15:52
  Now another approach is when you're asking questions and it
• 15:59
  looks like the person is trying to gauge based on different
• 16:02
  features or price or options. And this is what the sales
• 16:05
  person did when Mumsy and I came back last year on the whole TV
• 16:09
  thing because we found a helpful sales person who not asked
• 16:12
  specific questions like, oh, OK, the TV they are buying, Mommy.
• 16:16
  The TV door buying, is it for you or is it for your son or say
• 16:20
  always for me, oh mom, what are the kind of things that you
• 16:23
  watch, you know, blah blah, blah.
• 16:26
  Do you do YouTube? Do you do Netflix?
• 16:28
  Do you do this? Do you do that?
• 16:29
  You know, and all those questions are really, really
• 16:33
  important in somebody trying to decide am I going to buy a smart
• 16:36
  TV or not. So the other sales people who
• 16:40
  are not as helpful, all they just kept doing was dumping
• 16:43
  features. This is 16 inches.
• 16:46
  This one is only, you know, so and so 100,000 like well, yes,
• 16:53
  that was this was like a year, maybe two ago.
• 16:55
  So back then TV's were that cheap.
• 16:56
  He actually could go into a store with, you know, 100 KA
• 17:00
  150K and buy yourself a good TV. Now it looks like all the TV's
• 17:05
  cost like, you know, one M, you know, three M, you know,
• 17:08
  depending on the size. Two years ago, a year ago, TV's
• 17:11
  weren't that expensive. OK, so where was I?
• 17:15
  So these are the sorts of questions I need to ask before
• 17:17
  you can now make a definite recommendation that, oh, Mommy,
• 17:20
  based on all the things we've spoken about so far, I actually
• 17:22
  think this is the kind of TV that you should buy for your
• 17:26
  son. Yeah.
• 17:27
  There's no way your son will buy a Smart TV because he's
• 17:29
  interested in this. He only does this.
• 17:31
  He only does this. His wife does this.
• 17:32
  His wife does that. They don't need a smart TV.
• 17:34
  But for you, Mommy, I think you need a smart TV.
• 17:36
  So these are sort of things that reduce, I need to think about
• 17:40
  it. So this approach here is when
• 17:43
  people are trying to weigh features and price and options.
• 17:46
  What you're trying to do is you're trying to help them
• 17:48
  realign their value stack or realign their preferences.
• 17:52
  Because sometimes people are pre thinking about features, price,
• 17:55
  options, this like that and just assuming that everything is the
• 17:58
  same. But it is your job as a
• 18:00
  salesperson to show that all these things Madam Olga Bros,
• 18:06
  you know sister that you're trying to gauge.
• 18:09
  You know they're not all the same.
• 18:11
  There are some that are much more important than others.
• 18:13
  So don't worry, I'm not trying to force you to buy anything.
• 18:16
  But let let me just help you figure out, you know what's most
• 18:19
  valuable to you in this situation.
• 18:21
  So if you're trying to help people to realign or redefine
• 18:24
  their value stack or their preferences, then it's going to
• 18:26
  make it easier for people to decide.
• 18:28
  OK, so apart from the Mumpsi situation, let me give you a
• 18:30
  very clear example now about me and a computer purchase that I
• 18:35
  made maybe 2 decades ago. This was before I started off in
• 18:39
  photography. I had just gotten into Aberdeen.
• 18:43
  I was, I was in uni back then. I just got into Aberdeen in the
• 18:47
  UK and Scotland and I I had to think for photography for a
• 18:52
  while because I had this badass phone was a Sony Ericsson, I
• 18:57
  can't remember Sony Ericsson something something that was
• 19:00
  back when I was in uni and I took some photographs of my
• 19:03
  classmates, you know, before we graduated and the photos were
• 19:06
  mad. As in people are like Bros like
• 19:08
  you're good, you have skills if you take up this photography
• 19:10
  thing, blah blah blah. So I've been thinking about it.
• 19:13
  So by the time I got to Aberdeen I now wanted to get myself a
• 19:19
  computer because like most of us who study abroad, you know you
• 19:23
  land uni so your parents have raised money for the first
• 19:26
  school fees, things like that. And well, actually my mom had
• 19:29
  paid for school fees complete. So but I still got a job because
• 19:34
  you know student accommodation is not like Niger, where student
• 19:37
  accommodation runs with your your, what's it called, your,
• 19:44
  the course of your degree. So some of us have to get extra
• 19:46
  jobs. So I had one or two jobs.
• 19:49
  I had some small pepper and I figured let me get myself a
• 19:52
  computer, let me, you know, sort myself out.
• 19:55
  So I went in, I saw some computers and of course I was, I
• 20:00
  was overwhelmed because you know, what did I know about
• 20:01
  computers? You see different kinds.
• 20:03
  You see. 13 inches, you see. 16 inches, you see. 17 inches you
• 20:06
  see. Microsoft you see.
• 20:09
  Apple you see, OK, no there's there's there was no Lenovo back
• 20:12
  then was still IBM. You see IBM you see all these
• 20:17
  brands, all these prices. It's hard to make a decision and
• 20:20
  I was confused and so one guy was talking to me and I told him
• 20:23
  that I need to think about it. I'll be back.
• 20:27
  Luckily there was a much more senior, more or less a
• 20:31
  supervisor or floor manager or somebody who was there and, you
• 20:34
  know, he just injected himself into the situation, was like,
• 20:37
  oh, looks like you need a little bit of help here.
• 20:39
  And you know, I've levelled the guy that, look, there's a whole
• 20:41
  lot to think about. So let me just go home.
• 20:44
  I think about it and then I'll come back.
• 20:46
  But the older gentleman was a much more experienced
• 20:48
  professional, so he took control of the whole situation and then
• 20:51
  he asked me a couple of questions.
• 20:53
  Now, with my sales training, I can look back and see exactly
• 20:57
  what he was doing. But at the time I didn't realize
• 20:59
  it. He asked me a couple of
• 21:00
  questions. What is it that you're trying to
• 21:02
  do? OK, well, first of all, ask me
• 21:05
  questions about me. I was new in town from Nigeria,
• 21:08
  University of Aberdeen, blah, blah, blah.
• 21:10
  This is what I'm studying. And so, oh, are you going to be
• 21:13
  using this for school work? I was like, oh, no, no, no.
• 21:15
  Actually, I've been doing this photography, this hobby thing,
• 21:18
  and I need a computer that can edit and everything.
• 21:20
  So you can see now he's asking questions.
• 21:22
  Somebody who is a student who just needs word processing, you
• 21:26
  can see that he might not need certain kinds of processing
• 21:29
  capabilities and blah blah blah and stuff like that.
• 21:32
  But for somebody who is interested in photography, you
• 21:35
  can now start thinking about certain kinds of things.
• 21:38
  So he quickly stared me away from the cheaper ones that had
• 21:42
  smaller screens, all those 12 inches, 10 inch screens, because
• 21:45
  he's like, look, if you're going to be doing photography, truth
• 21:48
  is you're going to be editing photos for a very long, very
• 21:51
  long periods of time. So it's not going to help.
• 21:56
  Okay, 20 minutes. I actually checked the time.
• 21:57
  So it's not going to help for you to have all these tiny
• 22:00
  screens because after a while you know your eyes are your eyes
• 22:03
  are going to get tired. So why don't you look at these
• 22:05
  larger screens. I like the 17 inch, the 17 inch
• 22:09
  ones. So I now got settled on that
• 22:13
  kind of 17 inch range. So you see how it works by
• 22:16
  asking questions about me and my situation and what my goals
• 22:20
  were. We're able to remove 13 inch
• 22:23
  screens and 10 inch screens out of the equation and settle on
• 22:26
  larger screens because I was interested in photography and I
• 22:29
  was going to be spending hours editing for somebody who just
• 22:34
  needs it sharp. Sharp for word processing and
• 22:36
  not going to be spending long periods of time, you know, you
• 22:39
  can see the size of the screen or the make the brand.
• 22:42
  You can see how all these things are important.
• 22:45
  Then there were also my concerns around storage.
• 22:47
  I wanted a computer that had plenty of internal storage and
• 22:53
  we also had that conversation that yes, photography file sizes
• 22:57
  are really large and everything. And the guy leveled me that
• 22:59
  yeah, you're going to be taking photographs for a long time.
• 23:01
  Internal storage is not the deal killer like you think it is
• 23:04
  because you will always exceed your internal storage so long as
• 23:07
  it's photos and videos. So we should be looking at
• 23:10
  external storage options. So that's how we started looking
• 23:13
  at external flash drives. And so not flash drive external.
• 23:18
  What are they called, what are they called?
• 23:20
  Hard disks, external. Something sha, you know, the
• 23:23
  thing that you store your photographs and your videos on
• 23:26
  and it's not on your computer. And there was one that was I
• 23:31
  think one terabyte. So the way that we're reasoning
• 23:35
  was that yes, the internal computer has, you know, X 100
• 23:39
  number of gigabytes, but with this one that is terabytes, you
• 23:41
  should be able to be sorted for a long while.
• 23:45
  Then I was also hung up on processing speeds of the
• 23:48
  computer. And of course, like most of us
• 23:51
  know, the more the processing speed is higher, the more
• 23:54
  expensive the computer, the more expensive the computer options
• 23:59
  get. And you know, the guy was able
• 24:01
  to educate me that, look, what you're doing is just
• 24:03
  photography, you're not working on animation, you're not working
• 24:05
  on video. So processing speed is not
• 24:08
  really that much of an issue. So so long as you buy anything,
• 24:12
  any of these processors within these kinds of ranges, you'll be
• 24:15
  fine. If you are doing video, if you
• 24:17
  are doing animation, long term rendering, and then you should
• 24:20
  be looking at these things that are have higher processing
• 24:22
  speeds and blah, blah, blah. So I now fashioned the
• 24:26
  processing speed thing and settled on something else.
• 24:29
  So you see the thought process here before I said, yeah, let me
• 24:33
  think about it. But then someone else stepped
• 24:36
  into the situation and I was able to educate me to show that
• 24:40
  I was thinking about everything equally.
• 24:41
  But they're not all equal. Screen size is not, you don't
• 24:45
  give everything the same consideration.
• 24:46
  Screen side, storage, processing speed, all the considerations
• 24:51
  are like, they're different considerations.
• 24:54
  So he was able to help me realign my value stack, realign
• 24:58
  my preferences. So based on recommendations on
• 25:01
  screen size, storage and processing speed, we're able to
• 25:06
  OK and then yeah storage we go on external hard drive.
• 25:10
  I was able to come to a decision that day and I walked out of the
• 25:14
  store that day having making having made a purchase.
• 25:18
  If he had, he had not been there.
• 25:21
  And I will just talk with that first guy.
• 25:22
  And I said let me go and come back next week.
• 25:24
  And you know I would have gone back to my room.
• 25:26
  My roommate would have said something like, oh, everybody
• 25:28
  knows that Lenovo, IBM is the best and I would have gone
• 25:31
  somewhere. I bought an IBM, you know and
• 25:34
  stuff like that. At the end of the day might have
• 25:36
  worked for my situation, might have not.
• 25:38
  But a much more experienced sales gentleman was able to walk
• 25:42
  in, save the day, and that whole thing of let me think about it,
• 25:46
  let me come back in two weeks, let me come back next week, let
• 25:48
  me come back tomorrow any time to think about it.
• 25:52
  That was not a problem anymore. So in summary, the best way to
• 25:57
  deal with this sorts of thing is not to say, OK, man, no problem.
• 26:01
  You say you need two weeks to think about it.
• 26:02
  I'll come back in two weeks. That's not the best way.
• 26:05
  It also is an absolute idiot move to try and say that
• 26:08
  somebody is saying let me think about it, and you're still
• 26:12
  trying to press to close. You still want to collect the
• 26:14
  deposit. Now that's an absolute idiot
• 26:15
  move. The best thing to do is kind of
• 26:19
  in between the two. Show some empathy.
• 26:21
  Ask clarifying questions. You're trying to figure out.
• 26:24
  Is there confusion? Where did the confusion come
• 26:26
  from? Is there missing information?
• 26:29
  What do you need clarification on?
• 26:31
  You're also trying to figure out, does the person need buy in
• 26:34
  from some place someone else? Does the person need to consult
• 26:38
  with some other stakeholder? Some other decision maker?
• 26:40
  We're trying to get things like that.
• 26:42
  You're trying to get out what all these lingering doubts are.
• 26:45
  When we have all the lingering doubts on the table, we are now
• 26:48
  going to be able to provide additional information, provide
• 26:51
  additional clarifying information, give the personal
• 26:55
  additional material, whatever it is that you think you need to do
• 26:59
  to save the day. When you do all this, it is then
• 27:02
  that you're going to be able to try and close the deal again
• 27:06
  without coming across as an idiot, because at least it looks
• 27:08
  like you're trying to solve the person's problem.
• 27:10
  If closing the deal is not possible today, then you can
• 27:14
  schedule a reconnect. But if you're doing this, make
• 27:17
  sure you have an agreed deadline.
• 27:19
  That whole thing of Madam says give me like 2 weeks is OK, no
• 27:22
  problem. Two weeks, no problem.
• 27:24
  If Madam says give me like 2 weeks, you say, OK, no problem
• 27:26
  man. You whip out your phone.
• 27:28
  You look at your phone calendar, you see that today is January
• 27:31
  1st and then two weeks is January 4, January 14th.
• 27:33
  So it's old Madam. So that means like January 14th.
• 27:36
  But is that OK? She would say January 14th.
• 27:38
  What day of the week is that? It's a Monday, man.
• 27:40
  Monday. OK.
• 27:41
  Yes, Monday is a a good days. So, OK, no problem.
• 27:44
  So January 14th then. So Madam, is it OK if I call
• 27:47
  you, if I call you the Friday before?
• 27:50
  Just remind you about this meeting to say, yeah, sure, no
• 27:52
  problem. You can call me or send my PA
• 27:55
  reminder. It's OK, no problem.
• 27:57
  And then you leave. So you see, this one is
• 27:59
  different. You have gotten some sort of
• 28:01
  specificity. You've gotten some sort of an
• 28:04
  agreed deadline, This whole thing of give me one month, it's
• 28:08
  OK, man. No problem.
• 28:09
  And then you just leave. No, that's not good enough.
• 28:11
  Person says one month, bring out your diary, bring out your
• 28:13
  phone. So it's OK, Madam.
• 28:14
  One month would be like February 14th.
• 28:20
  I say February 14th. No, no, no.
• 28:21
  Don't call me February 14th, though, because actually me and
• 28:24
  my husband, we decided about traveling for Valentine's.
• 28:27
  So let it be the week after. So.
• 28:28
  OK, Ma. So the week after that will be
• 28:31
  February 21st? Yes, 21st.
• 28:32
  We'll be back in town, so. OK, no problem, man.
• 28:34
  So should I come? Should I come to the office or
• 28:37
  I'll see you at the hotel? No, go straight to the hotel.
• 28:41
  OK, no problem. So how is is 8:00 going to be
• 28:43
  OK? 8:00 is fine.
• 28:44
  Can I call you the Friday before?
• 28:46
  Yes, Ma, I can call on Friday. So you see, it is somehow
• 28:49
  specific, right? So that is what we should be
• 28:52
  aiming for. This reduces ghosting.
• 28:55
  OK, 30 minutes. I promise there's no way to do
• 28:57
  it. 30 minute episode. But I've done that, so let me
• 29:00
  just bring it to a close. I think we've yarned enough
• 29:02
  here. If there's anything that was
• 29:04
  unclear, just rewind this episode.
• 29:06
  Listen to it again. Connect with me on WhatsApp, on
• 29:09
  LinkedIn. Any clarifying questions,
• 29:11
  anything that you guys are confusing, let me know.
• 29:13
  I'll see how I can shed some more light on that.
• 29:16
  So for those of you who want to reach out to me on WhatsApp, the
• 29:18
  phone number is 0806466 2140. Country code is +234.
• 29:26
  If you're not Nigerian, then you can find me on LinkedIn.
• 29:30
  My name is Tavis Shima Ayede. I'm the host of the show.
• 29:33
  You can confirm the spelling of my name so you know who to
• 29:35
  search for from the link. We're currently listening to
• 29:38
  this episode. Most likely you find my e-mail
• 29:40
  address there as well for those of you who like to reach out on
• 29:42
  e-mail. So thanks for your time and
• 29:45
  attention, and I'll catch you guys at the next episode.