Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Ultimate Guide to Business Meetings: When to Say Yes (and When to Say No)
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the show. Pardon My voice this evening.
- 0:04Because this is a late night recording.
- 0:07Then I'm also not in the audio booth, so I expect to hear some
- 0:10interruptions in the background. And yeah, the noise you can hear
- 0:13is just this, you know, it's this thing that's been going on
- 0:17in Abuja for a while. You know, guys just buy, you
- 0:21know, super cars like Ferraris and stuff like that.
- 0:24Then they, you know, they modify the exhaust and then they soup
- 0:27it out and they put like like fluorescent lighting underneath
- 0:31the cars and things like that. And then when it gets close to
- 0:34midnight, you know, boys are just driving and blasting these
- 0:37things all over the place. So that's the those are the
- 0:40nuisances that you can hear outside the window.
- 0:43If you can hear all that zooming and everything, it's just money
- 0:45miserable basically. And then my wife says that it's
- 0:48mostly boys from Lagos, you know, Aspire, you know, Tinaboo
- 0:54is now in so Lagos boys have moved down and things like that.
- 0:57So the trend of people just flashing their supercars, they
- 1:01think as a it's on another level these days.
- 1:05Anyway, today's episode is not about supercars and about trends
- 1:12in the auto industry, if we can put it that way.
- 1:16Today I'm going to take a detour from what we've been discussing
- 1:19because we've been looking at prospecting in How to Grow Your
- 1:25Business by Prospecting. And the case study that I've
- 1:28been using the last 2-3 days has been a young female lawyer, 10
- 1:32years Boost call, trying to build a consultancy practice
- 1:36when it comes to securities compliance.
- 1:41Yes. So today I'm just going to take
- 1:44a little break to address something else which just came
- 1:47up recently and which also buttresses something I've been
- 1:51talking about on the podcast, which is qualification and
- 1:54discovery. Now this is your first time
- 1:56listening to the podcast. There's a central theme that I
- 1:59keep coming back to over and over again, which is that if you
- 2:02want to build your business, you need to pay attention to the big
- 2:04three. And if you've been listening for
- 2:06the last, you know, 2-3 minutes, I'm sure you'd have figured out
- 2:09that the big three are actually prospecting, qualification and
- 2:13discovery. Now prospecting is all around.
- 2:16Who might be interested in my product or my service?
- 2:18Where do they hang out online or in the real world?
- 2:21How can I find them? How can I initiate conversations
- 2:24with them? That is prospecting.
- 2:26Now, when it comes to qualification and discovery,
- 2:29that is the process of you actually having those
- 2:31conversations. What are the sorts of things
- 2:33that we should be having conversations about?
- 2:36And that is what I want to discuss today because I had an
- 2:39interaction with Wonder Woman. And when I say Wonder Woman, I
- 2:44don't mean Gal Gadot. I mean, even though she's a fine
- 2:47bee man, you know, if any of you are connected to her, just
- 2:50please give her my phone number so that you know me and how we
- 2:53can start liaising because after I'm looking for a second wife.
- 2:56So won't be a bad idea to have a multi Abbey.
- 3:00He's a multinational Abbey international wife who is also
- 3:02earning in dollars in the Hollywood space.
- 3:05So that would greatly increase my how would I say you'll
- 3:10increase my wallet charge? Let me just put it that way.
- 3:12So if any of you know, Gaga dots just all out harsher, just let
- 3:15her know that boys in Nigeria were saying what's up?
- 3:20So where was I? So there's somebody else that
- 3:25I've called, I've been calling one woman over here on the
- 3:27podcast and that's just a code name for a young lady in Nigeria
- 3:32in Benway State, Benway State University, who is in the
- 3:36catering space. And we've been following some of
- 3:38our adventures over here on the show.
- 3:41So Wonder Woman reached out. There's been some developmental
- 3:44historians. So I figured, let me just hop on
- 3:47here and then make a recording real quick and now touch on the
- 3:51importance of qualification and discovery in sales.
- 3:55Now before I continue the usual shout outs today, I want to
- 3:58shout out Margaret Spicy. That's a very nice name, very
- 4:03interesting name. She was a listener to the show
- 4:06on Spotify and she commented on Spotify.
- 4:09Now she's also a consultant in the Oriflame thing.
- 4:15Now Miss Oma, who also listens to the podcast, has really told
- 4:18me that Oriflame has nothing to do with sheer butter.
- 4:21You know, Ori, the sheer butter thing.
- 4:24So I guess those of you who are Oriflame beauty consultants,
- 4:27please, you guys make me educate me on the business, especially
- 4:31Margaret Spicy because she says she has a couple of questions.
- 4:35So I dropped my contact details on on the chat in Spotify and
- 4:41I'm going to do that again. So if you'd love to connect with
- 4:43me, you know, for a business audit for a strategy session or
- 4:46if you have questions just like Margaret Spicy does, then the
- 4:49phone number is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234.
- 4:56For those of you who are not Nigerian, then also connect with
- 5:00me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my ID.
- 5:04If you don't dig Spotify, you can find my stuff on YouTube.
- 5:10Same name as well. OK, so today we're taking a
- 5:13detour. So we're not going to be
- 5:14discussing anything legal related.
- 5:17Today is going to be all cuisine and all food and all chef like,
- 5:21you know, stuff like that. So like I said, today, the focus
- 5:26is qualification and discovery in sales.
- 5:28Now, this is a very important topic because it helps us to
- 5:33figure out a couple of things #1 the reason why I think we should
- 5:37be paying attention to qualification and discovery.
- 5:39And remember, qualification and discovery basically is just the
- 5:42conversation phase. As per you've already figured
- 5:45out who should I be talking to? Where do they hang out?
- 5:48Now you guys are face to face or ear to ear or keyboard to
- 5:52keyboard or whatever it is that you have in this conversation.
- 5:55Now, the next step is what are the kind of things that we
- 5:58should be talking about? That essentially is what
- 6:00qualification and discovery is about.
- 6:04Now, qualification and discovery is important because it helps us
- 6:07figure out two things. Number one, when to take a
- 6:10meeting because you will find that in some cases, I mean, for
- 6:15those of you who sell products like maybe or reflame people, I
- 6:18guess there's no need for maybe there's no need for a meeting.
- 6:20And it depends because we sell products like let's say you sell
- 6:24gadgets like Bluetooth keyboards or something.
- 6:26I guess it's a matter of qualification and discovery.
- 6:28You guys with a chat back and forth, once you figure out what
- 6:31it is that the person wants you just tell them a look Orga,
- 6:35we've been chatting for like 3 weeks now.
- 6:37I've told you Bluetooth keyboard IS250K if you're already this is
- 6:41my account details. So I guess there's no need for a
- 6:43meeting. But for other people like Wonder
- 6:46Woman, remember she's a chef, she's into catering and all that
- 6:49kind of stuff. And I started off as a wedding
- 6:51photographer. Now I'm a business consultant.
- 6:54And even for our sister self who wants to start off legal
- 6:58consulting services for people like us, at some stage, we guys
- 7:02take a meeting because there's some things, some complex hill
- 7:07scenarios that you can't just wrap things up by just sending
- 7:09people your account number. At some point you have to take a
- 7:11meeting. Now qualification and discovery
- 7:14is going to let you know when to take a meeting and whether this
- 7:18is something that you should even be taking a meeting in the
- 7:211st place. So number one, that's why
- 7:24qualification and discovery is important.
- 7:26We'll help you figure out when should you take a meeting next
- 7:29is also going to help you figure out when to issue a proposal or
- 7:32when to start talking about price.
- 7:34Because if you do your qualification and discovery real
- 7:37good. One of the things that will help
- 7:39you achieve is it will help you know that you know what, this
- 7:42thing is not serious. This person is not serious.
- 7:45There's no need for a meeting. I'm never going to dignify this
- 7:48guy or this girl and start talking price.
- 7:50Let me just flashy this thing. It actually is a benefit.
- 7:54Some of you might think is a downside, but remember,
- 7:58sometimes it's not just about looking for the right people to
- 8:01talk to. It's also a matter of getting
- 8:03rid of the wrong people so that we don't waste time with them.
- 8:06Now, let's define qualification and discovery.
- 8:09Qualification and discovery. Yeah, there's lots of technical
- 8:12definitions, but for the purpose of this episode, every time you
- 8:15hear me talk about qualification or discovery, I just means
- 8:19sorry. That's it.
- 8:20It doesn't means sorry. Forgive me.
- 8:22Like I said, it's a late night recording, so my brain is a
- 8:24little slow today. It was a long day.
- 8:29So when we're having questions about the person, the person
- 8:33that you're yawning with that you guys are seeing face to face
- 8:36or ear to ear. If you're using a phone or
- 8:39keyboard to keyboard, if you guys are doing e-mail, you need
- 8:42to be able to figure out who is this person, who is this dude?
- 8:45Who's this guy, who's this girl? All those kind of questions.
- 8:49That is qualification questions. Then you also ask questions
- 8:55about the opportunity or questions about the problem or
- 9:00questions about the vision, what the person is aiming towards.
- 9:03Those are called discovery questions.
- 9:06So when you hear qualification and discovery basically just
- 9:08means that part of the conversation we are trying to
- 9:11source out who is this person, what's the problem self, what's
- 9:16the opportunity? Is the opportunity juicy or is
- 9:20the opportunity rubbish? All those questions, that's
- 9:22qualification and discovery. And remember I said the reason
- 9:26why qualification and discovery is important is because it would
- 9:30give you information. You will know whether this is a
- 9:32person worth talking to. The person is worth talking to.
- 9:36Then by all means diving, but the person is not worth talking
- 9:39to. Try and weave this thing as I
- 9:41tell the person is not going to be a good fit or try and refer
- 9:44to somebody else that might be a good fit.
- 9:46And then you call the other person and say, look, dude, I
- 9:49think this kind of client is more like your thing.
- 9:53So we think clicks just send me 10%, you know, have that
- 9:55conversation, then let's see what else.
- 9:59So qualification and discovery will help you figure out is this
- 10:01person worth working to? Then it's also going to help you
- 10:05figure out, is this something that is worth my time or is this
- 10:08something that is worth me getting emotionally invested,
- 10:11especially in the early days for those of us who consider
- 10:13ourselves to be artists. So you yeah, catering people,
- 10:16you guys consider yourself to be culinary artists, you know, so
- 10:21know how know how any gig that you take, you will be
- 10:25emotionally involved because there's, there's more.
- 10:28Well, there's creativity and artistry involved in most
- 10:31businesses. But so I started off as a
- 10:34wedding photographer and I just noticed that wedding
- 10:37photographer caterers, you know, cake people.
- 10:40Who else? Fashion designers, you know, we
- 10:44get very touchy with our craft. Anyway, that is criticism for
- 10:51another day. I have.
- 10:54So I said the reason why I'm looking at qualification and
- 10:56discovery now is this. Remember that now we're talk,
- 10:58we're back to Wonder Woman's matter.
- 11:00And Please remember, when I say Wonder Woman, I don't mean Gal
- 11:03Gadot. I mean the lady who is based in
- 11:06Makudi, who is a student of Bengal State University, who is
- 11:09in cuisine and catering and chef.
- 11:12And, you know, that's our business.
- 11:13Yeah. And we started exploring her
- 11:16matter over here on the podcast when we're looking at the issues
- 11:21that she has around business expansion.
- 11:24So she's been doing this for a bit.
- 11:25She wants to expand the business.
- 11:27So that's how her matter came over here on the podcast.
- 11:30Now I did an episode, I think the last episode that I did
- 11:33concerning Wonder Woman was on whether she should accept equity
- 11:38investment. That was the episode where I
- 11:41went on and on about why you shouldn't do business with your
- 11:43boyfriend or do business with the toaster.
- 11:46Now, even though we started off with boyfriend and toaster,
- 11:48eventually we explored the broader topics so that if you
- 11:51are considering equity investment and equity just means
- 11:55somebody's dropping back, the person is dropping pig and the
- 11:57person wants a certain share of your business.
- 12:00Because in our own case, the there was a potential investor
- 12:08who, yeah, there was a potential investor who was thinking of
- 12:12dropping money on an equity basis.
- 12:14And so that whole episode was on, look, my own opinion
- 12:19basically was like, look, don't do business with a boyfriend or
- 12:22a toaster on or with anybody who might have some kind emotional
- 12:26entitlement in the future. But even if you want to do so,
- 12:29these are the sorts of issues you should be discussing.
- 12:32So whether you have friendly benefits or emotional
- 12:35entanglement or we're just friends or whatever, it's a good
- 12:38episode to listen to. But even if you're looking for
- 12:41institutional investors, it also is a good episode to listen to
- 12:45because I went through a number of things that you should be
- 12:48discussing before you guys exchange, exchange, exchange
- 12:57contracts and exchange money. And please, I hope that's the
- 13:00only thing that you guys will be exchanging.
- 13:02No exchange anything else. Where was I?
- 13:07OK, now, so this is how Wonder Woman came back into the
- 13:11picture. So me and Wonder Woman, we've
- 13:13been chatting and the good news is, is like she's got a
- 13:22Commission, a possible Commission, a possible
- 13:24engagement. You know, someone reached out,
- 13:26you know, are you available in marketing?
- 13:28You know, of course she responds yes.
- 13:30Then she asked a couple of questions.
- 13:31Is this private or is this a restaurant?
- 13:33The person says private, and then summary person says, OK, we
- 13:36have a physical interview tomorrow.
- 13:38And then she's like, OK, send the address.
- 13:40And then that's how the conversation ended.
- 13:42And of course, it turned out not to be a bad meeting.
- 13:45But anyway, how it turned out. I meant to leave that for Wonder
- 13:49Woman to share the testimony amongst her friends and her
- 13:52family. But the reason I'm making this
- 13:55episode is just to say that the conversation could have been
- 13:57handled a little bit more differently.
- 14:00Sorry. Look, forgive me, I'm really
- 14:02slow this night. The conversation could have been
- 14:05could have been handled better because the way she handled the
- 14:09conversation was OK. Are you available in marketing?
- 14:12Yes. Is this private or restaurant?
- 14:14Private Physical interview tomorrow.
- 14:16She says OK, send me the details.
- 14:18Now that's cool and I'm glad it worked out well.
- 14:21But The thing is, most of the time, for those of you who are
- 14:24listening to this show and you guys are caterers, you know,
- 14:26it's not every single meeting that you take because sometimes
- 14:29exchange happens like this. You show up for the meeting and
- 14:32then by the time you see the people and by the time they open
- 14:34their mouth, you'll be like, hi, me, Sir, why did I come for this
- 14:37meeting? I went out one chance like
- 14:39nothing good is going to come from come out of this.
- 14:43So we need to be able to have ways of engaging in
- 14:45conversations. That tells us a couple of things
- 14:49about whether this is a good meeting to take, whether we
- 14:52should even start talking money with these people.
- 14:55Is this person we're talking to, is this something that is worth
- 14:58my time? Oh, by the way, I told Wonder
- 15:01Woman that she was going, that she should carry 1 personal, you
- 15:03know, and this is just being real as per security conscious
- 15:08in Niger. Because you know, these days,
- 15:10you know, with the kid, we, they hear all kind stories, all kinds
- 15:13of stories. So it just helps if I even my
- 15:17wife sometimes when I'm going out, she's like, where you
- 15:20going? Where you going?
- 15:20I'm like, look, babe, don't worry, I've been doing this for
- 15:23a while. I always meet people in public
- 15:25places, you know, so Co working space or you are going to check
- 15:29the person's office, you know, like I check address and you
- 15:32know, things like that. So you know me.
- 15:34So if I don't want to go somewhere and then miss, you
- 15:36know, before you know it, I'll wake up and then maybe my head
- 15:39is inside basin and then they Call My Name three times and
- 15:41that's not for meeting dollars, you know, that kind of thing.
- 15:43So so security has so it's kind of thing.
- 15:49Do your research ahead of time or and then of course young
- 15:52ladies, go with somebody, let somebody know where you're
- 15:55going. I was like, so security issues
- 16:00aside, yeah, we need to be able to figure out should we take
- 16:02this meeting or not? Is this person somebody of
- 16:07timber and calibre or is this personally useless Anyhow,
- 16:11personal is this, is this what a meeting was taking?
- 16:14So we actually should be having much more qualification and
- 16:16discovery questions whenever people hit us up in the DMS on
- 16:20e-mail or they call us up on the phone.
- 16:21You don't just show up for a meeting like that.
- 16:24So qualification and discovery more questions.
- 16:29Remember from previous episodes that we try and keep the covers
- 16:32the questions conversational because you know, like I keep
- 16:35saying Nigerians they don't like interview or query.
- 16:40It was sounds like you're interviewing them.
- 16:43You know they will they will just lock up.
- 16:46You know, the attitude will be like, therefore tree of this
- 16:48girl, I'm calling you for money and you're the one that's not
- 16:50interviewing me. Even all serious.
- 16:52I beg, just get out, let me call somebody else.
- 16:54You know, that'd be like the attitude that they'll give you.
- 16:56So you keep this thing nice and conversational and then you keep
- 17:00the conversation, you keep it open-ended.
- 17:03So it doesn't sound like it's a it's a query or as an
- 17:07interrogation. So the first question that she
- 17:11asked about Home Office. Yeah, that makes sense.
- 17:13You know, that's that's cool. That's a nice question to ask.
- 17:16And then they respond, Oh no, that is a private something.
- 17:20Then you just run into some more questions now, like, OK, like
- 17:23number of meals per day, you know, is this going to be like a
- 17:26breakfast, lunch, dinner kind of thing?
- 17:28Or is it just like one or two meals in a day?
- 17:30You know, from the answer, you now be able to know how you how
- 17:36I put it based on what they say, you know, know, whether you can
- 17:40probe more, you know, into size of the home or size of the
- 17:42office, that kind of thing. Like it was an office thing, but
- 17:45only one meal a day. It was like, oh, OK, so this is
- 17:47just going to be a lunch thing. And lunch is usually like what,
- 17:501:00 PM? So Oh no, no, lunch in this case
- 17:53is going to be like between 3:00 and 4:00.
- 17:55So how come? How come most other
- 17:58establishments is 1? So, Oh no, in our line of
- 18:00business, something, something, something.
- 18:02So oh, OK, what line of business are you in?
- 18:04So you can see that as a conversation is flowing like
- 18:07that, you'll begin to be teasing out one or two things.
- 18:11Who are these people? What are they about?
- 18:13What am I getting myself into before you show up for the
- 18:16meeting? But it's also possible I show up
- 18:20for this meeting and then you find out that it's a maybe it's
- 18:23a local government school or something like that.
- 18:25And it's going to be maybe 40,000 naira a month or
- 18:31something. And you see that you just wasted
- 18:34your time. You took bolts 2K to drive their
- 18:39bolts going back will be 2K. You spend 4K to go and discuss
- 18:43with somebody that what do I thinking is full time employment
- 18:47for 40K in a month, You know? So This is why I have to ask a
- 18:50couple of questions before you leave.
- 18:52So Home Office, yes, number of meals, is it breakfast, lunch
- 18:55and dinner? Obvious only dinner only.
- 18:57How many times a week? What's the size of the home?
- 19:01Alzheimer's, the office or how many children do these people
- 19:03have? How many people are in the
- 19:05office? Now of course, the usual
- 19:08question now what kind of cuisine is it going to be
- 19:10African cuisine or continental cuisine?
- 19:12You know, you also need to know because some of you in the in
- 19:15the cuisine space, you know, some of you are local champions,
- 19:19you know, you don't know how to do full English breakfast,
- 19:21Scottish breakfast, that kind of thing.
- 19:23You need to know upfront before you say yes.
- 19:26You show up for the meeting and then they start telling you that
- 19:28we want eggs and ham and bacon and something and you're
- 19:31thinking like bacon, eggs, ham. Like all I know how to do is I
- 19:36know how to make tuition cover. I know how to do pardon yam.
- 19:39I know how to do at my life. Any of those things you're on
- 19:41your own. So you need to ask these kind of
- 19:43things before you show up. Also, because there's some of
- 19:45you that are very, very Snooty the other way around.
- 19:49You know, you've been to, I don't know, some fashion
- 19:53cuisine, something in London or Paris or you schooled in New
- 19:57York or something like that. So you only know how to make all
- 20:00these fancy fancy. You know, Sunnyside up eggs and
- 20:05toast, something you consider pounded them to be beneath you.
- 20:09So you need to ask before you show up for the meeting.
- 20:12And they say that, oh, this one is going to be straight up rice,
- 20:16beans and pounded yam. And you think, OK, some of that
- 20:18is beneath you. You're looking for something
- 20:20much more challenging. You know, you want to broaden
- 20:23your your expertise, you know, broaden your palace, broaden
- 20:27your craft, you know, have all these conversations so they
- 20:29don't just show up for a meeting and you're like, I just wasted
- 20:32my time. So when there's African or
- 20:35continental dishes, you have that kind of questions.
- 20:37Yes, you have the conversation. Then I also think I don't know
- 20:42'cause I'm not in the catering space room, but I'm also
- 20:44thinking you should be asking questions around shopping.
- 20:47OK, market runs and call who'll be doing the market runs.
- 20:50Is it that I show up and you guys are really prepared
- 20:52Everything down Mone is just show up and cook and then leave?
- 20:57How far we're cleaning? Do you guys have cleaning staff
- 20:59that will be doing the whole thing or do I come with my own
- 21:02crew so that as you drop everything, I cook it, maybe
- 21:07we'll clean and then we leave. You may ask all those kinds of
- 21:10questions. Obviously that I'm the one
- 21:13that's going to be going to the market.
- 21:14You transfer the money to me and then blah, blah, blah.
- 21:16But I have all these questions. Then I would also recommend that
- 21:22you have asked some questions stylishly about the previous
- 21:26person. Oh, how come there's a vacancy
- 21:28now? OK, the other lady just left.
- 21:31So OK, she just left. I mean, what's the situation
- 21:35there? What happened?
- 21:36Was she fired or why did she leave?
- 21:39You know, has those kind of questions, 'cause it would be
- 21:42nice to know, is it that Lady Jack back and so now they need a
- 21:48new cook or is it that she was sacked or something?
- 21:52Maybe because I've been doing this for a while, I know how
- 21:54I'll be able to ask the question.
- 21:56I'll be able to figure out whether there's a back story
- 21:59here. We need to figure out what it is
- 22:01that you're walking into. Because it's a way like if you
- 22:05ask the question of stylish, it is a way you will know that OK,
- 22:07this place that I'm going, these people are problematic.
- 22:11Just so you know what you're letting yourself up for.
- 22:15So at least if you show up and you do your best, but then
- 22:19there's plenty of quarrel and after two months they psych you,
- 22:21well, you won't come as a surprise because he asked the
- 22:23questions. So all those sorts of things.
- 22:26Then I'm also assuming you can ask questions based on dietary
- 22:29restrictions because there's some people that don't eat.
- 22:32Let me see, like some people say, you know, I'm old.
- 22:39Doctor Sasha not be eating pounded yam, Dr. Sasha not be
- 22:42eating meat. So all those sorts of things you
- 22:44need to ask, they might also be apart from dietary restrictions,
- 22:49that might also be religious restrictions or cultural
- 22:53restrictions. Because you know, our brothers
- 22:57and sisters in certain part of Nigeria for instance, you know
- 23:01those who that they chopped up, you know they eat dog meat.
- 23:04You will know yourself, I'm not calling any tribe.
- 23:07So these people that like to chopped dog meat, they eat dog
- 23:10meat. You know, you need to know
- 23:12because there's some people that will say, yeah, me cook dog.
- 23:15No abomination. Where I come from, we don't
- 23:18touch dog or cook cat meat. Where I come from, we don't cook
- 23:23cat. You know, ask all these
- 23:25questions so that you don't show up for the meeting.
- 23:30And then they ask you, you know, there's now to now prepare dog
- 23:34meat and they bring dog for you and they ask you to to start
- 23:37cutting dog. And then it's there that you now
- 23:39say, ah, me torch dog, OTO abomination, blah blah blah.
- 23:44So we need to have all these conversations.
- 23:46Oh, by the way, my brothers and sisters from other parts of
- 23:49Nigeria where you guys eat dog, don't be offended, I beg.
- 23:52You know I take shots at other tribes.
- 23:54So I guess it was only a matter of time before I will.
- 23:59I will enter your matter. But let me stop here before I
- 24:03get hit us from certain parts of the country.
- 24:06Anyway, the point of what I'm just trying to make is this, I'm
- 24:11happy for Wonder Woman that someone reached out and I'm glad
- 24:14that it all turned out well. And you know, it's this is
- 24:18January the 26th right now that I'm making this recording.
- 24:23So you know how December can be December, January can be long
- 24:29because you spend money in December and then house rent and
- 24:32then school fees and this and this and that.
- 24:34So generally can be very tight. So sometimes the temptation is
- 24:38that every anybody that calls you in January, you just rush
- 24:41like me, like I need this, I need this paper, I need this
- 24:44dough. You just rush for the meeting.
- 24:47So I'm not saying you should be for me though, I'm not saying
- 24:51ask a couple of questions first, figure out what's going on so
- 24:55you can decide is this a meeting worth having or not?
- 24:58Because like I said, if you show up for this meeting, assuming it
- 25:04is a private school, but actually turns out that is local
- 25:07government school and what they're offering is 40,000 naira
- 25:11every single month. And like I said, you took both
- 25:14one or five going, one or five coming, that's three K, you've
- 25:17lost money. So we actually need to ask these
- 25:20questions so you can figure out when should I be taking a
- 25:24meeting? Who should I be taking a meeting
- 25:28with? Should I issue a proposal?
- 25:32Is it worth talking price to these people?
- 25:35Is this a person that is worth talking to?
- 25:38Is this something that is worth my time?
- 25:40Should I even bother getting emotionally invested?
- 25:43So qualification and discovery, that is the and I put it now
- 25:50that is the part of the business relationship where we figure out
- 25:53all these things so we know whether to dive forward or
- 25:56whether to scale back. And then of course, like I said,
- 26:00you know, the security implications involved.
- 26:03So if you're a young lady like Wonder Woman and you're going
- 26:06for this meeting, especially when the meetings last late into
- 26:09the night, you know, go with somebody or let people know
- 26:13where you're going. You know, this bold thing, you
- 26:15enter into the bold security feature or share the address
- 26:19with someone, you know, do all of that.
- 26:22And I'm pleased I'm not being sexist or by saying that Wonder
- 26:27Woman should do that because I told you that even me, there's
- 26:30some kind of meetings I'm heading out for more often.
- 26:32I'll be asking, you know, this time, where are you heading?
- 26:35And I have to tell her, no, don't worry, calm down.
- 26:38I already asked the person one or two things.
- 26:40I did some research. I know this part of town.
- 26:43And besides, this is a public place.
- 26:45I'm the person who even selected this venue.
- 26:48So in Abuja there are some places, there are some eateries,
- 26:54there are some Hangouts, some, you know, some public places now
- 27:00that you can, some mutually safe places that you can recommend.
- 27:05OK, let's meet us. So, so, so, so blah, blah, blah.
- 27:07OK, no problem. Do you know so, so, so and so
- 27:10Cafe on this place, this place, that place.
- 27:12Oh yeah, sure. OK, we'll be there.
- 27:15Let's meet there. 4:00 PM. You know, that kind of thing,
- 27:19public location, you know it, you know, it is a safe place
- 27:27that OK, nothing can happen even if ya wants to bust in this kind
- 27:30of place. You know, I know how I can do
- 27:33like this. Or do ladies do like that?
- 27:35So I'm not being sexist here. It's just practical.
- 27:39Whether you're a man or a woman, you're just unfortunate that
- 27:43lots of times all the horror stories that we see on social
- 27:46media usually is not, you know, the behavior that was taken
- 27:51advantage of anyway. Let me not be talking bad news,
- 27:55but my prayer is that so wrapping down 2020 also wrapping
- 27:59down January and as a good calls have started coming in for
- 28:05different people, not just for Wonder Woman.
- 28:07You know, other people that I'm in touch with.
- 28:08You know, even me matter some people that have you know
- 28:11already say saying that you know, guy we like what you're
- 28:14doing. Let's see how we can work
- 28:17together, you know, blah, blah, blah.
- 28:18So yeah, all those meetings are going to happen.
- 28:20So it's my prayer that more of these opportunities and more of
- 28:25these meetings, more of these enquiries will come for the rest
- 28:31of 20/20/25, you know, for February, you know, and beyond.
- 28:34So it's my prayer that all our businesses will grow.
- 28:36Just remember that we should always do good qualification and
- 28:40good discovery so that we won't drive down for this meeting or
- 28:47spend money going to build for this meeting.
- 28:50And then when we're leaving the meeting, we'll be hang.
- 28:52We'll now be angry that ha, I will step 5K come in here on top
- 28:58is our deal or a deal that was not cool in the 1st place.
- 29:02So just ask a couple of questions.
- 29:06If you need ideas, check Google or check ChatGPT or whatever.
- 29:12Just type qualification and discovery questions for you know
- 29:17XYZ. Put your discipline.
- 29:19So let's say you are a must use. You do massage, for instance, go
- 29:25to ChatGPT and type it there. I must use I'm a must use slash
- 29:30massage artists. I mean massage therapy something
- 29:34something based in over state Nigeria.
- 29:39What are good qualification and discovery questions to ask
- 29:42potential clients before before going in for a consultation?
- 29:48Question mark, send a list of questions will come up.
- 29:53Some of them you look at some of them and think, oh brilliant,
- 29:57ask those questions. Some of them you look at them
- 29:59and think useless questions or these questions don't apply to
- 30:03Niger. Delete those questions.
- 30:06But either way, if you do that research and start off with
- 30:09this, over time, you'll be able to refine and you'll be able to
- 30:16refine it as in ask the questions better, add some more
- 30:19to the list, reduce some. But I'm just saying, once you
- 30:25take your qualification and discovery, once you take that
- 30:31philosophy to heart in running our businesses, you can't go
- 30:34wrong with it basically. All right, 30 minutes.
- 30:36Let me just bring it to a close again.
- 30:39If you'd love to connect for a business audit, a strategy
- 30:42session or you just have some questions, call me.
- 30:46WhatsApp me. The number is 08064662140,
- 30:52country code +234. For those of you who are not
- 30:55Nigerian, also connect with me on LinkedIn.
- 30:58The name to look for is Tavishima IED.
- 31:00Please ignore the other socials. I'm in the middle of deleting
- 31:03all those other profiles. If you see any other Tavishima
- 31:07IED somewhere, that is not me, especially if the person decides
- 31:13to ask you for money in the first, the first interaction.
- 31:17I'm saying this because they tried to hack my WhatsApp a
- 31:20couple of times and that's one of the reasons why I'm taking
- 31:23everything down apart from LinkedIn, at least LinkedIn I
- 31:26use all the time. So thank you very much guys for
- 31:31your time and your attention. And ladies, I will catch you at
- 31:34the next episode.