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Why You Need 3 Options in Your Next Proposal · 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 how to
• 0:05
  use proposals to sell or the better way to use proposals and
• 0:09
  price quotations to sell. My name is Tavishma Ayede, I'm
• 0:12
  the host of the podcast making today's recording at home.
• 0:15
  So expect to hear some noise in the background.
• 0:19
  So again, we're going to be looking at how to use proposals
• 0:21
  to sell or the proper way to use proposals to sell.
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  And the reason why was because lots of us over here in Niger,
• 0:27
  we assume that the proposal is the end of the process.
• 0:31
  I repeat, we assume that we're going to show up, dazzle
• 0:34
  someone, then we'll send them a proposal or a price quote.
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  And then based on the strength of that document, somebody's
• 0:40
  going to transfer money to us. Now, there are situations where
• 0:45
  that works and there's some people who know how to play that
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  game, but except if somebody has actually trained you in the art
• 0:54
  of killing people with proposals and presentations.
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  In fact, that's where my mum puts it.
• 0:59
  Because remember, for those of you who listened for a while, my
• 1:02
  mum was a marketing exec and so that was her thing.
• 1:06
  She said she liked to kill people with PowerPoint
• 1:08
  presentations. That is a skill in itself.
• 1:12
  So unless you're one of those people who has learned how to
• 1:15
  kill people with PowerPoint or you seem to have that as an
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  innate skill for the rest of us, we can't rely on the PowerPoint,
• 1:25
  We can't rely on the PDF. We can't rely on the whatever to
• 1:30
  do the selling for us. I repeat, we can't rely on the
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  PowerPoint. We can't rely on the PDF, on the
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  Word document, on the invoice, on the treatment, on the
• 1:41
  whatever it is that we prepare. We can't allow that to do the
• 1:44
  selling for us, but we can use that as a tool to advance the
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  conversation forward. And I'm going to explain how for
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  those of you who are quick to drop a proposal or a price
• 2:00
  quote, I'm sure you guys have already realised a certain
• 2:04
  pattern of events that happens. You talk to someone, sounds like
• 2:08
  you're doing OK, you guys are friendly, everything is cool.
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  It sounds like you might get this deal.
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  Then they say send me a proposal, send me a price point,
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  a price quote. You send over that document,
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  then they stop picking calls, they stop answering your
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  messages. The reason why is because you've
• 2:28
  given them a proposal. That's the information that they
• 2:30
  need. They're going to take that.
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  They're going to price shop. There's no other reason for you
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  to stay in the game. This is one of the reasons why
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  in traditional sales theory, we do not issue one quote or one
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  possible cause of action. We give two or three because
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  there is room to continue the conversation and there's room to
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  engage in something that is called priority ranking, or some
• 2:56
  people call it priority destabilization.
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  Let me repeat. Some people call it priority
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  ranking and some people call it priority destabilization.
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  Priority ranking. Priority just means what is
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  important to this person, the thing that is important, that is
• 3:12
  priority. So if you're going to be issuing
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  multiple proposals, multiple course of actions, multiple
• 3:17
  presentations, option A, option B, option C, you can now use
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  that to stay in the conversation and engage in priority ranking.
• 3:24
  Let me give you an example. OK, let me start with the
• 3:29
  personal example, the one that happened to me before.
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  I talk about one that I'm currently working on with one of
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  my clients. Now, when I had just landed
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  fresh off the boat in the UKI needed to go and buy a computer.
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  And like most people, I did the research on what I wanted and I
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  went straight there and I picked up this computer.
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  Then I went to the counter to go and pee and the guys had a
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  chatting with me. So welcome.
• 3:56
  You're just brand new. Which school?
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  I say University of Aberdeen. The guys like, oh, OK, I went to
• 4:00
  Robert Gordon, blah, blah, blah. I'll be he's no, he was
• 4:03
  currently in Robert Gordon, but working there, you know, just
• 4:06
  make some extra pay. So currently Robert Gordon
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  chatting. Oh, by the way, what are you
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  buying this computer for? I said, well, I'm interested in
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  photography. I want to be taking pictures and
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  guys like, you know what, yes, this looks like a good deal
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  because it is this size and that.
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  But if you're going to be doing photography, you're going to be
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  spending lots of times looking at images on your computer.
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  You want something that's going to be a bit more comfortable.
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  Are you OK with me just showing you a couple of things?
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  I'll leave this here on the counter in case I want to come
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  back to it. I say sure.
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  The guy got off from behind the counter.
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  We begin the worker. We went to one place and the guy
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  showed me one that was an Acer 17 inches.
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  I did not know the computers come in 17 inches.
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  When I opened the thing and I saw it, I was like, ah, yeah,
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  you're right, pictures will render well on this thing.
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  The guy asked me what kind of camera do you have?
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  I told him how many M BS. I told him was like OK, good, if
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  you will render well on this sort of thing.
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  The only problem is this particular computer, even though
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  it's 17 inches and the display will work very well for you,
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  this is the speed everything would render Sharp, sharp, fast,
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  fast, quick, quick. The problem is the hard drive is
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  only so, so, so and so is not a problem.
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  I say, well, I think I would like to have some space because
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  apart from photography, I also like music and you know, I have
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  my music library and stuff like that.
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  The GAS, OK, no problem. All we can do is this.
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  We have this external storage. So, so, so and so TB.
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  That was back in the day when anything that was like one
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  terabyte, it needed its own independent power source.
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  As per you have your hard drive, you will now plug your hard
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  drive into the socket to power it before you can use it on your
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  computer. So the guy gave me I think was
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  like one terabyte or something like that, and I thought it was
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  cool. Then he now said, OK, now with
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  this, it's slightly more than the other whatever, but I
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  honestly believe that you're going to be happier with this
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  arrangement overall. And The thing is, I was happy
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  paying more money because I could see that the first one,
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  everything fit in my budget, but then this one larger screen, I'm
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  carrying extra stuff. But The thing is, you know, now
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  I have more than enough storage for my files and I have a
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  pleasant working environment because of the 17 inch screen.
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  So what the guy did was this. Maybe he knows it, somebody
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  taught him, or maybe he doesn't know what is what We do it in
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  traditional sales, priority ranking or priority
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  destabilization. You're having a conversation
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  with someone, you're trying to figure out their wants and their
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  needs and then your mind, you begin to stack them one after
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  another. Like which one does this guy
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  value? The one that the guy values is
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  the one that you key in and start to sell on.
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  I repeat, as you're asking them questions to figure out what
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  they want, you begin the rank it, stack it in your mind which
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  one does the person value? The one that is up, that's the
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  one they begin to key in on the one that is down, you just leave
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  it. So by asking me questions, what
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  do you want to do? Where are you from, blah, blah,
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  blah. The guy's just trying to figure
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  out who is this guy, you know, what does he need this computer
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  for, you know, and just, you know, so that's how he was
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  ranking the whole thing, photography so that everything
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  should see well, render well, render quick, OK, that priority
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  is up. So the guy put that one first
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  and the guy keyed in. That's how he was selling.
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  Eventually we got to the whole thing of memory space and say,
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  OK, he can cure that problem by bringing a standard hard drive.
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  But you can see how he was trying to figure out it was not
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  just some of you are trying to sell computer.
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  You just say, oh, buy this HP HP Vertigo is the best or something
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  like like how do you know HP Vertigo is the best?
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  You calm down. You begin to ask the guy
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  question, then start to rank his priority.
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  There's some people that like the nicest, the best, the
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  sweetest. If in your mind, you know, that
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  is what the person wants, then by all means bring HP Vertigo or
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  HP Stardust or HP Starship or whatever, because it is the
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  latest that they just released in the UK Festival of Tech and
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  Science or whatever. So there's no good, there's no
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  ultimate. You know, it depends on the
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  priorities that the person has asked them questions, figure out
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  what they want, rank the priority in your head.
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  Of course, ask them more as their own opinion.
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  Because if the guy asked me and I said, oh, that I'm not
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  particular about the size of the screen, you know, of course, the
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  answer is simple. The guy would have said, OK, in
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  that case, no problem, Let's go back to the tail and I will
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  check you out, Sir. Enjoy the rest of your day, but
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  because he asked and I was like, hey, 17 inches or modest in
• 9:00
  suite die. Then we started looking at
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  options. So you see how it works.
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  Stay in the conversation do need analysis, figure out what they
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  want, rank the priority sell accordingly.
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  Now some salespeople call it priority destabilization.
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  What priority destabilization means is this.
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  Sometimes people have a priority in their head, but the priority
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  is not correct. So you need to educate them and
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  get them to flip the priority. It's not something I engage in,
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  you know, but it's one of those theories.
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  So in that case, even though, even if I had told the guy that
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  17 inches, well more, you know what doesn't make a difference
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  to me? Priority.
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  The distabulation would not have been him going in deeper to try
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  and dig into the implications. Like, OK, said you're doing this
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  for photography, right? So is this going to be casual or
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  eventually do you see of yourself working as a
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  professional? If I had said casual now, OK,
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  maybe who give up. But if I said eventually
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  professional, he will not start to educate me.
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  Professional photographers, yes, typically I want to start with
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  smaller screens, but eventually, because of comfort of editing,
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  you're sitting at the computer for long hours and this and this
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  and that and that and that economic reasons, eye health,
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  please, that, that, that, that this is the reason why you
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  should be considering a 17 inches and above.
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  And by the way, that, you know, that kind of reasoning is
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  correct because, yes, professional photographers, you
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  know, for those of you been listening for a while, you know
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  that I used to be, excuse me in the photography space.
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  So I'm kind of retired now in photography.
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  But you know, yes, the more time you spend, you know, when the
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  screen is big shot, it's just it's just easy.
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  Like even for editing, you don't have to zoom, pinch zoom, zoom,
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  zoom, zoom. And then, you know, clone as in
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  once you just like, if you're sitting down with a 35 inch
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  monitor, you just load the image.
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  Everything just open bra, you can already see, Oh, OK,
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  imperfections. Let me be carrying here.
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  And you know, you just be moving sharp, sharp, sharp.
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  So that kind of reasoning is correct.
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  So that is what priority ranking is.
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  And that is what priority destabilization is.
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  But either way, talk to the person, figure out what they
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  want rank. The priorities in your head ask
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  them questions to be sure that you understand that this ranking
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  is correct. Then you make your professional
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  recommendation for some people, if you think they're going to
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  make a mistake you This is the point where you now educate
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  them. You know this is when like 1.
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  I watched on TV. Where is one of these my wife
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  shows my wife loves all these desperate.
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  Sorry not desperate. Is it desperate?
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  That's not it's desperate housewife.
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  There's something housewives OK, there's basketball wives.
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  Then there's something wives Potomac something wives.
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  What again? Is it Desperate Housewives?
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  OK, I can't remember. Anyway, something wives
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  housewives of Orange County and all those shoes.
• 11:57
  So one of those shows now the lady went in to go and see the
• 12:00
  doctor and that was like, oh, welcome any complaints.
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  Woman said no complaints, it's OK, now let's do the
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  examination. It was a, what do you call them?
• 12:09
  OPS guy, obstetrician, gynecologist, OB, Y/GYN,
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  whatever they're called. So you want to say OBYGI
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  gynecologist? So they started doing the
• 12:22
  scanning the room and say, oh, I can see small Poly up, I can see
• 12:26
  small fibroid, I can see small something.
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  Well, it might be benign, it might not be benign, you know,
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  blah blah blah. They started discussing options.
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  So basically don't mount once they did the example massaging
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  one or two fibroids. Now the way that the client was
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  looking at it, the client was thinking me that I'm supposed to
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  be going on tour. I suppose they do shows that
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  this is not the time for you to not be cutting me up anyhow,
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  like if you caught me, the thing will spawn my body.
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  That's what she was coming from. Now as a doctor in that case, of
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  course you will advise the clients that you know.
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  Madam, I understand you don't want to see scar.
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  You don't want to unsnatch. You suppose they tall, but you
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  will not advise like the doctor side advising.
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  Look Madam, you see this thing that we're seeing we're supposed
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  to check out first. If this thing is benign, no
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  problem, continue the tour, no problem.
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  But if it looks as if one of these things is malignant, it
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  means, Madam, that we're getting closer and closer to cancer.
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  That we suppose caught you up and remove this thing once and
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  for all. So you can see that in that
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  case, now you won't do priority ranking because as a doctor,
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  this one is not about the money you make from the operation.
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  Like you are duty bound to let the Madam load.
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  I see, Madam touring is one thing, but if you go on your
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  touring, but as you did tour, you're getting closer to cancer.
• 13:45
  Like Madam. Which one?
• 13:47
  Wait, Madam, check it. So there are cases where you do
• 13:51
  priority destabilization. Now back to what we're talking
• 13:54
  about about the proposals. Now for those of you who think
• 13:58
  the proposal is the end of the process, you just submit the
• 14:00
  pros are the person who does go goes on you come up with option
• 14:03
  A, option B, option C and this is how I'm working.
• 14:07
  I one of my clients, both of us together as a training something
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  I say, you know what, let me call the client.
• 14:14
  You'll be listening. Well, what don't you will advise
• 14:17
  me on how I was supposed to do it, but holding this is the
• 14:19
  scope, I am going to get enough information so that we can come
• 14:22
  up with option A, option B, option C, since you're one has
• 14:28
  the technical knowledge, we'll now come up with the parameters.
• 14:31
  When I call her back, It is now to say, Madam, we're going to be
• 14:36
  sending you three options, all of them within your, all of them
• 14:40
  within your price range and everything is going to fit
• 14:43
  exactly what it is that you need as all of them will solve the
• 14:47
  outcome and the offer within your price range.
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  So I'm going to send it to you so that we can discuss some
• 14:54
  more. So you can see that in this
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  case, sending over 3 proposals now is an invitation to continue
• 15:01
  the conversation so that we can figure out her priority and we
• 15:05
  will rank it or we would destabilize it.
• 15:08
  Of course, I prefer ranking, but destabilizing it's also an
• 15:16
  option. So this was the case, my client
• 15:21
  cells, solar systems. So we spoke to the lady, the
• 15:25
  customer and lady is like, Oh yeah, that she already has a
• 15:29
  system and the system is working fine.
• 15:32
  I say, hey, I really have a system, but I'm using for the
• 15:34
  house or for the office. It says for the office.
• 15:36
  I say, oh, OK, really? So what what kind of setup do
• 15:38
  you have in the office? See, this is qualification and
• 15:42
  discovery, asking questions about the person, asking
• 15:44
  questions about the problem or trying to understand what's
• 15:46
  going on here. You cannot be making
• 15:48
  recommendations until you know what's up.
• 15:50
  But too many of you just jump quick.
• 15:52
  The person will say, oh, I already have system for the
• 15:55
  office. You say, oh, it's just for the
• 15:56
  house. You say, yes, I said OK, tell me
• 15:58
  about your house. Ask questions.
• 16:02
  Now some of you are scared of this line of reasoning, but
• 16:04
  trust me, nobody will kill you. This conversation I'm talking
• 16:11
  about, I just did it two nights ago.
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  So I said, tell me about the system in the office.
• 16:16
  And she said it and I said oh Madam, that's set up, everything
• 16:20
  is working well. She say yes because what she has
• 16:22
  is 5 kva in the office with 12 panels.
• 16:25
  She say everything is working fine.
• 16:27
  So I said oh Madam, if everything is working fine and
• 16:30
  it's something that I gave you, why not just call something to
• 16:32
  do for the house? Some of you will be shaking.
• 16:36
  You say how can I ask that kind of thing?
• 16:38
  Listen, This is why because if somebody's perfectly happy with
• 16:43
  their system, they already have a provider that is no problem
• 16:45
  with, but the person is calling you.
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  There's a reason why the person is calling you.
• 16:49
  Figure that reason out. It might be good, it might be
• 16:52
  bad, we don't know, but figure it out.
• 16:55
  If I have a trusted tailor and my tailor is OK, I want to go
• 16:58
  and be looking for another tailor.
• 17:01
  So if I call you up and in the chat with me, you realize that I
• 17:04
  already have a regular tailor. Ask, say, OK, you already have a
• 17:07
  regular tailor, so how come you didn't go and meet him?
• 17:10
  Now all I was wrong. Where did your tailor F up?
• 17:13
  And then here in my own case, I might now say as because my
• 17:16
  potbelly, my tailor always making things tight, tight,
• 17:19
  tight. You know, I like it nice and
• 17:20
  loose. Now you know what the problem is
• 17:23
  that when you're giving me design, you will not make
• 17:25
  anything tight so that my potbelly can breathe.
• 17:30
  This is why it is important to ask these kinds of questions
• 17:33
  like, OK, is your system in the office is really working?
• 17:37
  If there's no problem, why didn't you just want to call
• 17:39
  Song King to do this thing? Of course, ask it a nice
• 17:42
  conversational way. And then she said I didn't
• 17:47
  because I I heard from other people that there are some
• 17:51
  things that you can extra things that you can fix on the solar
• 17:54
  system that Song King did not fix.
• 17:56
  I say, really, Ma? She said yes, So she wants to
• 17:59
  know about those extra things. So I now said, oh, Madam, yeah,
• 18:03
  there's some other things that you can do, like with my own
• 18:06
  company, not my own company, you understand, I'm pretending to be
• 18:11
  a salesperson to this woman now on behalf of my clients.
• 18:14
  Hope you understand the scope. So, and I say, well, Madam, for
• 18:17
  my own company, one thing that we can attach is this not that,
• 18:22
  which has remote monitoring features.
• 18:24
  It allows us to be able to diagnose the system from our
• 18:26
  headquarters in Lagos so that if there's any problem with your
• 18:29
  system, we will even know before you do and we can send an
• 18:32
  engineer out to go out and fix it.
• 18:34
  She was like, oh, good, good. Those are the kind of things I'm
• 18:36
  looking for. And I said, OK, we also have
• 18:40
  control, we also have AC and DC controls that can that are
• 18:47
  inbuilt to protect against Nepal fluctuation so it doesn't damage
• 18:54
  your equipment. She said Oh yes, yes, that's
• 18:56
  good. Those are some of the things
• 18:57
  that I was hearing. Then the final thing, what did I
• 19:00
  say? Hey, charge control that is
• 19:03
  going to be good with limiting the amount of money that you
• 19:06
  spend because it automatically switch between NEPA and solar,
• 19:12
  whichever 1 is much more available.
• 19:14
  And she was like, Oh yes, yes, yes.
• 19:16
  All those things sound interesting.
• 19:17
  So it's like, OK, those are the things that you're curious
• 19:19
  about. We say yes.
• 19:21
  And then I told her, look, Madam, you know when you
• 19:24
  responded to our advert, what you pick was 3 to 5.
• 19:28
  But from all the things that you're saying, because I already
• 19:30
  asked her about her house, she has five bed, she has three
• 19:33
  freezers, 5TV2 AC, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:37
  So from what she said, I said, Madam, you know what all the
• 19:39
  things that he was saying, you know, it would exceed this
• 19:41
  budget or say I say yes, my it will.
• 19:46
  But just so I know if I go out and talk to my sales engineer,
• 19:49
  by the time I come back, if I come with a budget that's
• 19:51
  between 10 and 15, it's not too much.
• 19:55
  She said I will be too much. Now see what I'm doing is this
• 19:58
  is qualification around money. I want to be sure that she has a
• 20:02
  realistic sense of budget. I want to know who it is and I'm
• 20:04
  talking to. If somebody has on a realistic
• 20:07
  sense of budget, this is where we need to kill the
• 20:09
  conversation. Because if somebody thinks that
• 20:11
  the realistic budget is 1.5, but based on all the things that
• 20:14
  they are saying, honestly, it's more like 10 M, kill this
• 20:18
  conversation. The gap between 1.5 and 10 is
• 20:20
  too much. If you ask this kind of question
• 20:24
  and you figure out that the person is maybe like a 7.5
• 20:27
  person, well, maybe we can stretch it between 7.5 and 10.
• 20:31
  I don't know. You know, we, we can come down
• 20:33
  to 8 point something. They might be able to come up to
• 20:37
  to 8 point something. You never know.
• 20:40
  But we need to have ways of asking these conversations.
• 20:42
  Now I am more on the direct side, so I just go out and ask
• 20:45
  it like that. That's so if I come up with a
• 20:48
  budget of 10 to 15, would that be too much?
• 20:51
  She said don't exceed 7 to 10. I said really much. 7 to 10 is
• 20:56
  absolutely mean. She said yes.
• 20:58
  She said don't go a cobble above 10 M, Anything above 10 will be
• 21:03
  a problem for me. I'm quoting her word for word.
• 21:06
  Don't go a cobble above 10 M Anything above 10 M would be a
• 21:11
  problem for me. That's what she said word for
• 21:12
  word. I now have a sense of harm,
• 21:14
  financial expectations. Now my client was listening on
• 21:20
  this conversation. You can see that even though she
• 21:23
  selected 3 to 5 is looking as if 7 to 10, you go work, we can
• 21:28
  make it happen. So we now need to ask questions
• 21:32
  about timelines. Call.
• 21:34
  If you just go and check any of my podcast episodes on
• 21:36
  qualification and discovery, you will hear about this in much
• 21:39
  more details. We always need to ask about
• 21:41
  timelines. That's OK, No problem.
• 21:42
  So if I can find something that's within this 7 to 10 that
• 21:46
  meets all these needs you're talking about, all these things
• 21:50
  you have in the house. And then plus we can also do
• 21:53
  this remote monitoring and then fluctuation control and you
• 21:56
  know, everything how soon we'll be willing to go ahead.
• 21:59
  And she said around that kind next month, that's OK, no
• 22:04
  problem. Next month.
• 22:07
  So now this is where some of you mess up.
• 22:10
  So when you say, OK man, I'll be in touch.
• 22:12
  And then you send over the proposal and you wonder why she
• 22:16
  goes. We need to seek an advancement.
• 22:19
  And advancement is when both of you agree on what the next step
• 22:21
  is. You're the one as the
• 22:23
  salesperson to set that advancement.
• 22:25
  You're the professional. You know what is realistic?
• 22:28
  So I told her, OK, so ma'am, all right, in this case, this is
• 22:33
  what we're going to do. I'm going to go back and talk to
• 22:35
  my sales engineer and he's going to come up with a series of
• 22:40
  proposals that match this budget so that we can talk some more.
• 22:45
  We should be able to have this proposal ready for you over the
• 22:48
  weekend. How does that sound?
• 22:52
  She now said, no weekend we have events, we have this, we have
• 22:55
  that. And in fact Monday I'll be
• 22:56
  resting. So I think Tuesday is more like
• 22:59
  it's OK. So Tuesday I can send over the
• 23:02
  my sales engineer can my engineer can send over the
• 23:05
  proposal to you on Tuesday. She said yes, Tuesday.
• 23:09
  I now try to narrow it even down because some of you will say OK,
• 23:11
  Tuesday and leave it like that. And I asked, OK, So what do you
• 23:13
  prefer my morning or evening? We're trying to get an
• 23:18
  advancement. So excuse me, we're trying to
• 23:20
  get an advancement. We're trying to get the next
• 23:21
  step. So the more narrow I can get it,
• 23:23
  the better. If she had told me morning, so I
• 23:27
  say morning after she had told me afternoon, no problem, I'll
• 23:29
  leave it like that. So it's nice if I the
• 23:30
  interrogate time, you understand, But how no case, she
• 23:33
  said morning preferably anytime after 10.
• 23:38
  AMI said, OK, that's not a problem, so we'll be in touch
• 23:41
  Tuesday morning at 10 AM. He said no problem.
• 23:46
  She said, Oh also asked, should I send it on e-mail or over here
• 23:50
  on WhatsApp? You say you can send it over on
• 23:52
  WhatsApp? This is my WhatsApp number, by
• 23:55
  the way. Hint, hint.
• 23:58
  Regardless of what she has said, I was still going to send it
• 24:00
  over e-mail and WhatsApp anyway because people who say e-mail,
• 24:05
  I'll send it on e-mail. People who say WhatsApp, I'll
• 24:08
  still send it on e-mail so that you still have it in records,
• 24:11
  but also send it on WhatsApp because WhatsApp is a much more
• 24:13
  conversational channel. We can continue to chat in
• 24:16
  WhatsApp. So regardless of whatever the
• 24:18
  person says, I still send an e-mail WhatsApp.
• 24:22
  So we now agree, Monday, all these things are writing it
• 24:26
  down. See, this is the reason why you
• 24:28
  need to have a pen and paper ready with you when you are
• 24:31
  selling. Now there's some of you who sell
• 24:34
  simple stuff, that's not a problem, but I'm talking to
• 24:35
  people who are in complex sales environments.
• 24:37
  These details are plenty. The system that she has in the
• 24:40
  office, I'm writing everything down.
• 24:42
  Number of solar panel, number of KVA and this and this and that
• 24:46
  for the house, number of bedroom, the number of AC,
• 24:48
  number of freezer, number of TV, number of KVA that she wants.
• 24:52
  I'm writing everything down. So after the call told my
• 24:59
  clients, OK, you understand the game plan.
• 25:00
  Abby person said yes, but then he said, look, based on what
• 25:03
  we've been discussing there, to be honest, the best thing for
• 25:07
  this woman, what she has said, they think that work for this
• 25:10
  house is 12 kva. It's just that that 12 kva will
• 25:13
  be 10 points something I said, ah, but you heard woman now.
• 25:18
  But the client said, you know what, let's just see, let's just
• 25:21
  try, OK, no problem. That one will be option C Let's
• 25:24
  now look at option A. The guy said OK, no problem.
• 25:27
  Since in the office she's already using 5 kva for the
• 25:30
  house, she's thinking 10 kva. What can we do?
• 25:34
  The guys OK, no problem. We can definitely do A10 kva
• 25:36
  based on what you said, I think will be cost like around that
• 25:39
  kind. You know a point something I
• 25:40
  said, OK, let's write it down. That's option A.
• 25:43
  So I said what was option B now she said OK no problem the woman
• 25:46
  is saying 10KV but we can make an AKV work as well.
• 25:50
  She won't be powering everything so we'll do AKV at all across 6
• 25:53
  point something. OK good I said that's option
• 25:55
  two. He already told me option C
• 25:58
  which is the perfect one for him which is sorry 12 KV at 10 point
• 26:02
  something so OK fine no problem. So I now told him this is the
• 26:07
  scope. Before what you would normally
• 26:09
  do is you only send one document.
• 26:11
  Next, you now start following up with a woman.
• 26:12
  She will ghost you. What is what we'll do?
• 26:15
  First of all, go and talk to your boys.
• 26:17
  Be sure that the calculation is correct because it'll be
• 26:21
  embarrassing to give the man a figure only for the boys to tell
• 26:24
  you that Oh no, based on what we have in store, you know the
• 26:27
  price you give her is wrong. So we'll confirm first.
• 26:30
  Then I will now call this woman up on Tuesday.
• 26:35
  I will send proposals, but I'll call up to say, Madam, we're
• 26:38
  ready. My engineers have looked and we
• 26:41
  have 3 proposals for you. They're all within your price
• 26:44
  range except one. When we went forward, we
• 26:47
  encroach it small, but all these options will be able to cater
• 26:52
  the load that you have for. And then it also has remote
• 26:56
  monitoring. It also has the currency
• 27:00
  fluctuation protection. And then it also has the so
• 27:04
  what's it called again? Charge control so that we can
• 27:07
  keep your bills in check. Before I send over these
• 27:12
  proposals, would you like to hear about them?
• 27:16
  Of course you will say yes anyway.
• 27:19
  Some people say no, just send me the proposal anyway, no problem.
• 27:24
  But sending 3 puts us in a better position and not just
• 27:28
  sending 1. So I can now start engaging her
• 27:31
  on the conversation to say option A is this KVA and at this
• 27:35
  price we'll be able to achieve this, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:38
  But the drawback is you won't be able to run your ACS 24/7.
• 27:43
  Is that the problem? As you say, well, me, I have to
• 27:47
  sleep in my AC or the children, they can sleep with fun.
• 27:49
  That's OK. You can see that we're now
• 27:51
  trying to figure out what is important for her option B,
• 27:59
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the problem is those 3D
• 28:01
  freezers, if there's a tough light situation, maybe we might
• 28:05
  only put one on 24 hours, you know, the other two, maybe we
• 28:08
  switch them off after, you know, so, so, so hours.
• 28:11
  I know he was, she has to say. So the more she's talking, the
• 28:15
  more we're going to be able to figure out what are her
• 28:18
  priorities and we'll be able to rank it all.
• 28:26
  Some people would like to do. We'll be able to destabilize it
• 28:29
  and that is all be able to help us to make a professional
• 28:32
  recommendation at the end. But in this case, hope you can
• 28:36
  see now that for those of you who you rush quick, quick and
• 28:39
  then you send one proposal, you're shooting yourself in the
• 28:42
  foot. The person will look at this
• 28:43
  document and then start pressure up with other people.
• 28:46
  You are no longer in the conversation.
• 28:48
  The proposal should help you stay in the conversation.
• 28:51
  But like I said, remember my mother used to be a marketing
• 28:55
  exec, All those people who studied, you know, MBA
• 29:00
  advertising, blah, blah, blah, and my mum worked in
• 29:04
  professional advertising circles.
• 29:05
  Look, that one is different. They are trained in the art of
• 29:09
  pitching. So if you're in that
• 29:11
  environment, then yes, disregard all I've said because you have
• 29:14
  been trained to kill them with the PowerPoint presentation or
• 29:18
  to kill them with the PDF. For those of us who have not
• 29:24
  been in those circles, do not play that game because it's too
• 29:28
  high risk. You either hit or you miss.
• 29:31
  If you hit it, you collect good money.
• 29:33
  If you miss, they ghost you and you don't even know what you did
• 29:38
  wrong. It is better to come up with
• 29:40
  Option A, Option B, Option C, and then engage in priority
• 29:45
  ranking or priority destabilization.
• 29:49
  At least we are staying in the conversation and we know how far
• 29:53
  we have hope. Now, let me repeat something
• 29:57
  because people like to get their hopes up.
• 29:59
  Because we're engaging in this exercise does not mean that this
• 30:02
  is a done deal. It does not mean that this deal
• 30:04
  is ours. Sales is a matter of
• 30:07
  probabilities. We're trying to stay in the game
• 30:11
  long enough and we're trying to increase the odds in our favour,
• 30:14
  not just with this client, potential client, but with other
• 30:17
  potential client that we are talking to.
• 30:19
  It is a game of probabilities. Excuse me?
• 30:23
  It's a game of numbers, as the Americans like to say.
• 30:27
  So nothing is guaranteed in sales.
• 30:30
  So even if you do everything correct, but you lose the deal,
• 30:36
  then like I told you guys last week, as Jay-Z said, does the
• 30:40
  shirt, does the dirt off your shoulder?
• 30:43
  Keep pimping, keep moving. Some will click, some will
• 30:49
  click. And so, and you know, we just
• 30:52
  keep moving. The one that clicks, we thank
• 30:54
  God we do Thanksgiving. You buy shawarma, you flex, you
• 30:57
  know, and then you keep it moving.
• 31:01
  The one that doesn't click, you know, that's what AB some click,
• 31:04
  some doesn't. Don't get depressed over
• 31:06
  nothing. Just keep moving.
• 31:08
  It's a game of numbers, as the Americans say.
• 31:11
  It's a game of probabilities. Now, when I was in secondary
• 31:16
  school back then in Nigeria, people used to say you only need
• 31:19
  one. You know, that was back when the
• 31:22
  military was still in power. So, you know, people used to say
• 31:25
  you only need one contract and it will change your life.
• 31:29
  So that's it. Let's forget the ones that don't
• 31:32
  click. We only need one.
• 31:35
  Let one click. We thank God and we'll continue
• 31:39
  another one We click. We find God, we continue another
• 31:43
  one we click after a while. All these are small, small
• 31:49
  victories. They compound and they add much.
• 31:55
  Anyway, it's 30 minutes. Let me just bring this to a
• 31:57
  close. So thanks for listening.
• 31:59
  Remember, if you'd love to connect, the number is
• 32:02
  08064662140. You can send me a text message.
• 32:08
  You can call, you can send a WhatsApp message.
• 32:11
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 32:12
  I'll catch you at the next episode.