Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop "Toasting" Clients: How to Sell Without Charisma

Transcript

Stop "Toasting" Clients: How to Sell Without Charisma · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at unhelpful
• 0:04
  sales training exercises. And the reason why is because
• 0:09
  people get together at events. Or maybe you're a business owner
• 0:13
  and you're trying to train your sales team and you have seen on
• 0:16
  YouTube or in a movie or something, some sales training
• 0:20
  exercises that you think will help people improve their sales.
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  And to be honest, a lot of people misunderstand what these
• 0:29
  simple things, what these simple sales training exercises are
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  like. For instance, the famous one
• 0:35
  Sell Me this pencil or one that I saw a speaker do at a tech
• 0:41
  event recently in Lagos. And yes, this is a continuation
• 0:44
  of the conversations with the Tech Bro series, just in case
• 0:48
  you've been listening to the podcast for the last week or so.
• 0:52
  So this guy got on stage and did a different version of Sell Me
• 0:57
  This Laptop. So that was the sales training
• 1:00
  exercise or the sales exercise that they went through.
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  So excuse me Now, a lot of these exercises are very, very, very
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  unhelpful and they perpetrate lots of stereotypes about sales,
• 1:15
  which quite frankly, don't help anyone.
• 1:19
  And yeah, so that's what we're looking at today.
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  We're going to look at unhelpful sales training exercises, why
• 1:26
  you should not be doing them with your teams.
• 1:29
  And we're also going to realize the true value behind those
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  exercises because actually the exercise of sell me this pencil
• 1:40
  or you tell somebody on the spot, sell me this laptop or you
• 1:46
  grab a salesperson and you tell them, sell me this phone, sell
• 1:49
  me this mug. There is something good behind
• 1:55
  those exercises that is not quite captured by the movies, by
• 1:59
  the TV dramas, and by the speakers on stage who do not
• 2:04
  have a background in professional sales and business
• 2:08
  development. So if you like these sorts of
• 2:12
  things, how do we sell? What is the right way to sell?
• 2:15
  How can we be much more effective in selling?
• 2:18
  How can we increase our business revenue by selling?
• 2:21
  Then subscribe to the podcast, subscribe on Spotify, on
• 2:25
  YouTube, on Apple or any player of your choice.
• 2:29
  And if you'd love to connect with me, my name is Tavishima
• 2:32
  Ayedi. I'm the host of the podcast.
• 2:34
  And you can call me, send me a text message or send me a
• 2:37
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So excuse me.
• 2:46
  And yes, just in case some of you are wondering, yes, I am
• 2:48
  Nigerian in case you haven't figured out from the title of
• 2:52
  the podcast episode. So let's get straight into it
• 2:55
  today on helpful sales training exercises.
• 2:58
  Now, the reason why I'm looking at that today is because I have
• 3:01
  been reviewing a video that I received from a listener of the
• 3:04
  podcast a few weeks ago. And this was an event in Lagos
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  where a famous tech bro was talking about things that start
• 3:15
  up founders in Nigeria should expect to learn or expect to
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  execute when it comes to sales and marketing if they want to
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  grow that their fintech, their start up, their whatever it is.
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  So I've been running commentary for the past couple of days
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  about things that he got right in the video, things he could
• 3:36
  have said better. And yeah, I've just been running
• 3:39
  a commentary. So at some point during the
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  conversation, he said, you know, he wanted people to go through
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  an exercise. And so he had the crowd
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  basically this whole, you know, say good morning to your
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  neighbor, turn and face your neighbor.
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  Now sell your neighbor your laptop, that kind of exercise.
• 3:57
  Now, like I've said, these kinds of exercises are very unhelpful
• 4:01
  when they are performed by laypeople.
• 4:04
  Now, when I say laypeople, I'm putting it in context.
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  There are some of us who have devoted our lives to advancing
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  the cause or advancing the discipline of selling
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  effectively and selling properly.
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  If you run into one of those people like me, we are not lay
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  people because we are versed in the science of sales.
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  Now, unfortunately, there are other people who have made a
• 4:29
  successful go at business and because of that, they think they
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  know a lot about sales, but they haven't educated themselves when
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  it comes to sales and they haven't devoted a significant
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  amount of time to studying sales or marketing.
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  So when these individuals take the stage and now do things like
• 4:49
  sell me this pencil, sell me this laptop, they are putting
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  forward very, very wrong ideas about sales.
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  And I'm making today's podcast recording because I'm worried
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  that too many people are being affected by this kind of
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  approach. Now, when you tell somebody,
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  sell me this pencil or like this guy did, turn to your neighbor,
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  you say neighbor, neighbor, greet yourself, you're looking
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  good, blah, blah, blah. And then you now say, Oh yeah,
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  sell me this laptop. What you have people thinking at
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  the end of the day is this. Now to be good in sales, you
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  need to have the gift of gab aspire.
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  You need to have sweet mouths. You need to be able to toast.
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  You need to be able to think on the fly.
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  You need to be extroverted. You need to have a bubbling
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  personality, you need to have charisma, you need to have
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  courage. When people do these exercises
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  on the spot, or assembly this pencil or assembly this laptop
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  or assembly this phone or assembly this mug, Those are the
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  ideas that are put now in the market.
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  Now, is it true that you need to have sweet mouth, you need to be
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  extroverted, you need to have a bubbling personality, you need
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  charisma, you need courage, need you to think on your feet to
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  sell. Is that true?
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  Well, it depends. All these things are nice, but
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  they are not absolutely necessary for selling.
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  I repeat, if you're listening to this podcast for the first time,
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  I'm sure you are shocked by what I've said so far.
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  All of these things will be nice.
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  If you have sweet mouth is good. If you're extroverted, it's
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  good. Bobbing personality and you go
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  help. Charisma, No problem.
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  Courage, very good. But these things are not
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  absolutely necessary for selling.
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  If you have them, they will help you.
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  If you don't have them, it's not a problem.
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  The things that are required and absolutely necessary for selling
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  are two things. Number one, understanding value
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  and then #2 communicating value. Let me repeat.
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  Number one, understanding value. You need to be able to
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  understand why is this thing important to this particular
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  person that I am talking to at this moment.
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  If you think it's about golden mouth and personality and
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  charisma, when you say sell me this pencil, you begin the
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  vomit, you start to unleash, buy this pencil.
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  The pencil is the best. It is triple HB.
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  It is made in Canada. It is authentic LED.
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  It is its writing period is is five years.
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  It is this, this, this. It is the pencil that Michael
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  Jackson used. You'll just go.
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  They vomit, they vomit, they vomit all these things.
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  You're vomiting on the person. How do you know that the person
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  believes you, that the person finds all these things
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  convincing and that all these things you're saying are indeed
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  effective? How do you know?
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  You don't know, you just did of vomit because you think that
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  selling is about your charisma, it's about your personality.
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  The same thing with sell me this laptop.
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  If you think it's about your extroversion or your courage,
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  and they say send me this laptop, what will you do?
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  You begin day of vomit. Buy this one Intel so so so and
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  so 300 terabyte storage, HD screen something something
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  backlit keyboard, blah blah blah.
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  It can convert into tablet, you can use stylus, you can connect
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  directly to the satellite in space, on and on and on.
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  You just go there, vomit all the things you're vomiting.
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  Are they effective? You don't know.
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  Is the person interested about these sorts of things?
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  You don't know. Is this thing helping your cause
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  to sell the computer? You don't know, but you are
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  vomiting on the person confidently because you got you
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  have sweet mouth, because you're extroverted, because you have
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  the personality, because you have the charisma, because you
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  have the courage. What you are lacking is a skill
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  that is called understanding value.
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  Understanding value means are you able to chill, listen to
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  someone, figure them out, source them out so that you can know
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  what is important to them. Why is it important to them?
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  Why do they find this thing valuable?
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  What are the real things that they actually desire?
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  If you can't get into this understanding value stage, you
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  will be terrible at selling. Even if you have sweet mouth,
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  even if you're extroverted, even if you get the personality, even
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  if you gas the charisma, even if you have the courage.
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  If you're poor at understanding value 0, your sales will be
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  tough. It'll be hard.
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  Understanding value is key. The next thing is communicating
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  value. Communicating value is being
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  able to say what is great about your product and why, but you'll
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  be poor at communicating value if you didn't do the work of
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  understanding value in the 1st place.
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  You need to be able to understand what the person
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  likes, what the person deems important before you can now
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  start vomiting on them that this is the best, this is the
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  brightest, this is the fastest, this is the latest.
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  Buy this, buy this, buy that. Take for instance, me and my
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  wife. You come at me, sell me this
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  laptop. You are wasting your time if you
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  don't do understanding value because I don't use laptops for
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  different reasons. For a very long time, over the
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  last maybe decade or so, I have decided that I'm going to work
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  exclusively from phones or tablets and that is all I do.
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  So this sell me, this laptop challenge, you will fail if
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  you're with somebody like me who does not use laptops, who does
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  not desire laptops, as in when it's a matter of laptop, my eye
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  is not there. But my wife, on the other hand,
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  she works in the government regulatory department.
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  They consider lots of documents. My wife has some eye issues.
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  So of course, she's always looking for computers that are,
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  you know, lightweight, modern, quick, you know, on and on.
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  So it is only when you do understanding value.
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  Who am I talking to? What does this person do?
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  What is their normal work day like?
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  What do they need a computer for?
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  How much word processing do they do?
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  How much information crunching do they do?
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  How much data gathering do they do?
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  Then of course, ergonomics. Do they walk from the bed?
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  Do they sit at the desk? You know, all these sorts of
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  things. It is then you'll be able to
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  sell this laptop convincingly because you have taken the time
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  to understand value. Who are you talking to?
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  What do they want? What do they find valuable?
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  Why do they find it valuable? How does it improve their life?
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  How does it improve their business?
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  How does it improve their XYZ? Whatever it is, understanding
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  value and communicating value, those are the two things that
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  you need to succeed in sales. Not all these other thing of
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  sweet mouth, smooth tongue, extroverted, good personality,
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  charisma, and then courage and packaging and everything.
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  So you see, like I said, if you have all these things, it'll be
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  nice, but if you don't have it, it's not a problem so long as
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  you know how to understand value and you know how to communicate
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  value. That is precisely the reason why
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  there are fine people who can sell.
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  There are ugly people who can sell.
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  There are tall people who can sell.
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  There are short people who can sell.
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  There are men who can sell. There are women who can sell.
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  There are extroverted people who can sell.
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  There are introverted people who can sell.
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  There are people who have wonderful personalities who can
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  sell. There are people who have flat
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  personalities who can sell. There are charismatic people who
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  can sell, and there are people who lack charisma who can sell.
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  There are courageous people who can sell and they are timid
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  people who can sell. It is because it is not because
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  of any of these things. So please, those of you who get
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  on stage, you've been successful in business and because of that,
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  I clapped for you. I applaud you.
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  Or please stop doing these sorts of exercises.
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  You are giving people the wrong impression about sales.
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  So please, any tech brother, any tech sister listening to this
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  right now, stop doing these exercises.
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  Send me this pencil, send me this laptop.
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  Sell me this mug, sell me this this, sell me this headphone.
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  Stop it, please. Now, some of you will say, if
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  these exercises are useless, some of these pencils, some of
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  these laptop, then why do sales professionals do these
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  exercises? Because actually they do.
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  I think there's this movie. I remember what it's called.
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  Was it Wolf of Wall Street or something?
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  And one of the characters in the movie, this was sort of the
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  guy's thing. If you wanted to test you, you
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  say I asked him with this pencil.
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  So yes, those of us who are responsible for training
• 14:34
  salespeople and for hiring salespeople, we use these
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  exercises, but we don't use it in the way that you think.
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  You think the ability to sell the pencil on the spot is
• 14:45
  important or the ability to sell the laptop on the spot is
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  important? But actually, I had the guy's
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  name, Jordan Belfort. But actually Jordan Belfort,
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  right? And all of us who tried these
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  exercises, when we ask, it's not because there's a correct
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  answer. We're not even concerned whether
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  the person is successful at selling the thing or not.
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  What we're trying to do is we're trying to gauge the person's
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  process and the person's way of thinking.
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  We're trying to gauge the person's sales philosophy.
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  We're trying to see if this person is process oriented, if
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  the person has a system for selling.
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  That is all we're trying to check.
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  So whether the person stammers through it or talks confidently
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  through it is not important. So if Jordan Belfort asks you
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  that question, he's just trying to see that this person I'm
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  talking to, does the guy have a system for thinking through
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  these things? So remember when somebody says
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  send me this pencil, somebody's laptop, there is no right
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  answer. They're just trying to test you.
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  Do you have a system? You have a process of thinking
• 15:55
  about these sorts of things? So somebody who starts to vomit
• 16:01
  by this pencil, because it is 2 HP, it is imported from Canada,
• 16:06
  it is reinforced laterite, it is this is this.
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  It is not done that you now know that you're dealing with an
• 16:14
  average person, an average person who believes that all
• 16:18
  these other things I spoke about are important.
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  But then if the person starts asking the other person
• 16:26
  questions, we now know that we're dealing with a consummate
• 16:31
  sales professional because the consummate sales professional.
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  And if you want to get good at selling, you will not try to
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  sell anything unless you have asked somebody some questions
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  first or else you are just shooting in the dark.
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  It's 5050. You might hit the target, you
• 16:50
  might not. So in this case, sell me this
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  pencil or sell me this computer, you start asking the person
• 16:59
  questions around their use case scenarios as it deals with the
• 17:02
  product. Sell me this parcel.
• 17:04
  OK, no problem. Hello, Mr. So, so and so.
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  What kind of job do you do? Oh, you're an architect.
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  OK, that means you use pencils every day.
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  Oh, what do you use pencils for? What kind of pencils do you use
• 17:22
  on and on and on and on and on? Oh, you're a Carpenter?
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  Oh, do you use pencils at work? And you continue.
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  Oh, you're a journalist. Do you use pencils?
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  If the business say, know that they prefer to use a big, big
• 17:36
  buy row, then why are you continuing to sell?
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  I've said it lots of times on the podcast and it's not
• 17:43
  original, it's from Brian Tracy once need afford.
• 17:48
  You can only get somebody to buy if they want what you have, if
• 17:50
  they need what you have, if they can't afford what you have.
• 17:53
  And then of course, other thinkers add urgency.
• 17:57
  That means people must be willing to take a decision,
• 18:01
  excuse me, must be willing to take a decision anytime soon.
• 18:07
  You know, because of circumstances, either in
• 18:09
  personal life or in business, there is something that is
• 18:11
  prompting them to make a decision soon.
• 18:13
  So if the person does not want this thing, if they do not need
• 18:16
  this thing, if they cannot afford this thing, and there is
• 18:19
  no personal circumstance, there is no business circumstance that
• 18:22
  is going to force them to take any decision soon.
• 18:24
  Why are you selling? So if you ask the person
• 18:27
  questions, you're talking to a teacher, you're talking to an
• 18:30
  architect, or you're talking to a Carpenter and they happen to
• 18:32
  use pencils. Good.
• 18:33
  Continue asking questions. You stand a chance.
• 18:38
  If the person is a teacher or a politician or a Doctor Who only
• 18:43
  prefers to use biros, then why are you selling?
• 18:46
  You can't sell them this pencil. So when a Jordan Belfort or when
• 18:51
  someone like me asks you sell me this pencil, these are the
• 18:54
  things we are trying to assess on.
• 19:01
  We're trying to assess you on the spot.
• 19:05
  We're not looking for the person with the quickest mouth and with
• 19:08
  the most creative demeanor who can actually, you know, bulldoze
• 19:11
  A sail through on a total stranger.
• 19:14
  That is not what we are trying to assess.
• 19:18
  So ask questions about them. Ask questions about the use case
• 19:21
  scenarios as it relates to the product or the service.
• 19:24
  Try and figure out if they're currently in market.
• 19:26
  Also ask them questions about solutions that they have tried
• 19:29
  before. So for the architect, you need
• 19:31
  to know what kind of brand of pencil have they used before.
• 19:35
  If what brands of pencil they've used before is 2 HB and two HB
• 19:38
  continues to break but the pencil that they gave you is 2
• 19:42
  HB, then why are you continuing to sell?
• 19:46
  Because the option that you have to sell to this person is
• 19:49
  precisely the thing that the guy has said does not work for him
• 19:53
  in the past. So why are you continuing to
• 19:56
  sell? So you can see that when you say
• 20:00
  sell me this pencil or sell me this laptop, there is no right
• 20:04
  answer. But the reason why a Jordan
• 20:05
  Belfort would ask or the reason why I would ask or a Grant
• 20:09
  Cardone would ask or a Brian Tracy would ask or Tom Hopkins
• 20:12
  would ask or any other person would ask who is involved in
• 20:15
  sales Is this is what we're trying to test you?
• 20:18
  This guy that I'm facing now, this babe, we are the face she
• 20:22
  get process. I be she just a freestyle.
• 20:24
  That's what we're trying to figure out.
• 20:26
  Who is this person? So all these things around
• 20:36
  toasting, selling on the spot to a stranger, sweet mouth, smooth
• 20:40
  tongue, extroverted, bubbly guy, fine boy, fine girl, correct
• 20:45
  personality, charisma, you get courage.
• 20:48
  All those things are not bad at all.
• 20:50
  Not bad, not bad. If you get them, it's OK.
• 20:55
  Well, if you try and toss your way through sales, you will fail
• 20:58
  more than you need to. You will find yourself talking
• 21:01
  to a guy like me. You're trying to sell laptop.
• 21:04
  Meanwhile you don't stand a chance in hell of selling me
• 21:07
  laptop because I don't use laptops.
• 21:10
  Get good at understanding value and communicating value.
• 21:14
  So you will make sure that you're talking to the right
• 21:16
  person from the beginning. So you can now start trying to
• 21:19
  sell your pencil. You can now start trying to sell
• 21:21
  your laptop. The reason why I'm making this
• 21:24
  podcast today is please, tech Bros, those of you who take the
• 21:29
  stage and take the stage and tech sisters and you continue to
• 21:33
  do this Sami pencil, Sami laptop exercises, I beg stop it now.
• 21:37
  Leave the selling for sales professional.
• 21:41
  You can go up there and give your own personal perspective on
• 21:44
  what worked for you. When you are doing your own
• 21:47
  startup or you are doing your own fintech, when you are doing
• 21:49
  your own whatever, go and give your own personal perspective.
• 21:53
  Leave the starting professionals like us to now take the stage
• 21:56
  and say, correct, this is what worked and This is why.
• 21:59
  And this was the dynamics and these were the principles behind
• 22:03
  what made it work. And these are the contexts or
• 22:06
  these are the situations, these are the scenarios under which
• 22:09
  you can apply this principle, this principle, this tactic,
• 22:12
  this tactic, this strategy or this strategy.
• 22:17
  So please stop it. If you're not a sales
• 22:22
  professional, you haven't devoted your life to sales.
• 22:25
  You haven't studied sales. You don't learn sales every
• 22:29
  single day. You're not always trying to
• 22:31
  improve yourselves on the art of selling.
• 22:33
  I beg, leave these sales training exercises.
• 22:39
  Leave it through professionals. You see one of us do it on stage
• 22:43
  and you say, ah, that's masterful, that's masterful you
• 22:46
  now try it and just relax. There's a reason why we are
• 22:49
  doing it. We know why you don't, so please
• 22:54
  stop. So that's it, and that's all for
• 22:59
  today. Thank you very much for your
• 23:01
  time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to get
• 23:03
  in touch, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp
• 23:06
  message on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 23:12
  time and attention. I'll catch you some other time.