Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Closing Deals Faster: The Power of Urgency

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Closing Deals Faster: The Power of Urgency · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Today's question is still in the
0:05
same spirit of trying to figure out how to close deals faster.
0:09
And so the question we're going to be tackling is how we can use
0:12
urgency to our advantage when it comes to closing deals.
0:17
So yeah, First off, we have to define what urgency is.
0:24
OK? So urgency is that urgency is
0:29
not how I put it, the propensity, or rather should I
0:33
say the closeness, the closeness to taking action.
0:38
Yeah, let me put it that way. So urgency is that sense of a
0:41
closeness to taking action, you know, that people have when they
0:45
have to make a decision. So of course, this is tied to
0:49
timelines, timeliness, you know, all those sorts of things.
0:54
What we're trying to look for basically is whether people have
0:56
a compelling reason to take action.
0:59
Yeah, I think that's a better way of looking at urgency.
1:01
So regardless of how urgency is going to be defined in, you
1:05
know, Oxford Dictionary or whatever dictionary it is that
1:09
you use for the purposes of sales and business development,
1:12
when we hear urgency, let's think about compelling reasons
1:16
or compelling timelines to take action.
1:19
Yeah, that's a better one. So compelling reasons or
1:24
compelling timelines why people need to take action now.
1:30
Why is this important? And why do I keep stressing on
1:33
this again and again and again? Because if you've been listening
1:36
to the podcast, you hear me talk about urgency.
1:39
If you've been in any of my live sessions or you've been on the
1:42
receiving end of any of my trainings, eventually I have to
1:45
bring up this thing urgency. And I'm sure you're wondering
1:47
why is this dude on this whole thing about urgency, urgency.
1:51
The reason why is because if there is no urgency, there is
1:55
nothing that you can do to make this deal move forward.
1:58
Except if the person decides that they just want to bless
2:00
your life, they want to bless you also.
2:02
There is nothing that you will do to move this thing forward.
2:06
Because if there's no urgency, then there's no stimulus to take
2:10
action. Let me repeat it in case some of
2:15
you here didn't get it. If there is no urgency, you
2:18
can't move this deal forward except if the person says, let
2:21
me just bless your ministry, let me just bless your life.
2:24
I like this young man. I like this young woman.
2:26
She's enterprising. Let me just help her market.
2:29
And that is not a pretty good place to be in because we can't
2:32
count on the fact that people just want to love us and support
2:35
us and then do business with us. It also has to come from an
2:38
overwhelming sense of what it is in their self-interest.
2:41
And that's where the big money comes from.
2:43
So OK, well, there's something I've mentioned on the podcast
2:48
before. Let me repeat it again.
2:50
One of the biggest things that I learned from Brian Tracy, and
2:55
that's also another reason why I say that for those of us who are
2:57
involved in sales, business development, entrepreneurship,
3:00
we need to have a habit of regularly trying to improve
3:04
ourselves, you know, things like that.
3:05
So we need that information that we have to be listening,
3:08
listening to stuff. Because even if you listen to
3:12
500 things, but one thing clicks and that one thing is able to
3:16
transform your, your framework and your business, and it's
3:20
worth it. And for Brian Tracy, the biggest
3:22
thing I took out of it was when Brian Tracy was talking about
3:27
being pushing in sales. And his own take was, look, you
3:29
can't be pushing in sales except if you're talking to somebody
3:32
who doesn't want what you'd have, who doesn't need it, who
3:35
can't afford it, and who doesn't have a sense of urgency.
3:37
And so for me, that transformed my worldview because I was, you
3:41
know, we introverted reserved types of boys and girls, you
3:46
know, we don't want to be a bother.
3:48
And that freed me up to continue selling because so long as I'm
3:51
talking to somebody who wants it, who needs it, who can afford
3:53
it, and who has a sense of urgency, then I'm not being a
3:56
pest. And so let's remember the
3:59
urgency is a part of the matrix because if there's no urgency
4:03
there, then you can't get the person to take action.
4:06
I mean, let's look at some very simple, basic stuff.
4:09
If someone thinks they have a just an ordinary headache,
4:14
nothing is going to happen, then you know, no sense of urgency.
4:17
They're not going to be treated. But if the person is convinced
4:19
that look, this thing is malaria and of course malaria can kill,
4:22
then they'll go to the pharmacist and buy something or
4:26
go and see the doctor or whatever.
4:28
So urgency is a key part of the decision making matrix decision
4:33
making phenomenon. And we cannot close deals
4:38
without going to close deals without urgency, which is where
4:41
I keep on using that very, that overused the example that I use
4:46
over here on the podcast about wedding photographers.
4:48
I use that because that's where I started off in the business
4:50
game. So a wedding photographer,
4:52
you're talking to a bride. If a wedding is in two years,
4:56
there's no urgency. You can't get this deal to move
4:58
forward. Now, of course, this thing is
4:59
contextually, shall I say is culturally or contextually
5:06
different because in the West, in America and in the UK
5:09
especially, if you're a big short wedding photographer, you
5:11
are used to people booking you a year in advance.
5:14
So that one is different. Your bride's wedding can be two
5:16
years away and yes, you will drop money now, but that's a
5:18
different culture. That's a different climate in
5:21
Nigeria. OK, well, let me just speak
5:23
about Lagos and Abuja because that's where I did business,
5:25
Lagos and Abuja. And there's nothing you can do
5:27
to get a Nigerian bride to drop money for you for her wedding
5:30
two years in advance. Nothing because urgency is not
5:33
there. But then if you guys are closer,
5:37
let's say the wedding is 3 months away.
5:40
You see, you see how that colours the, the, yeah, that big
5:47
one? I use propensity.
5:49
You see how that colours the propensity to take actions?
5:51
Option one is 2 years away. Why bother?
5:54
There's still time. Option 2 is 3 months away.
5:58
And so she'll be talking to her fiance like, dude, let's get
6:01
this thing sorted. The wedding date is coming and
6:03
I'm getting anxious. I've only bought dress.
6:06
We haven't booked hall. We haven't done this, we haven't
6:08
done this. I beg, I'm getting anxious.
6:09
Let's sort this thing. So that's why urgency is
6:12
important. So now the question is, how do
6:14
you use urgency to your advantage?
6:16
How do you use urgency to close deals?
6:20
There are two ways of looking at it.
6:22
There are two approaches. 2 philosophies, the philosophy.
6:27
Philosophy number one, that all of you know and that everybody
6:29
defaults to, which is create urgency.
6:32
Now, if you've been listening to this show for a while, you know
6:34
that me, I don't like create urgency, but still I'm going to
6:38
talk a bit about it. Philosophy #2 is not the common
6:41
one, which is to use the already existing urgency in the
6:46
situation. Because the problem I have with
6:48
manufacturing urgency is if you take any of these tactics that
6:51
we're going to talk about, and a lot of them are built around for
6:54
more dynamics, that's fear of missing out.
6:57
If you try and kick this one more thing and the thing doesn't
6:59
work, then come on, you're your own because you've done your
7:03
worst case scenario and the person hasn't moved.
7:05
So now what? That's why for me, I think let's
7:08
just use the already the urgency that already exists in the
7:11
situation and then plan our sales process around that.
7:14
So let's look into philosophy #1 which is create a sense of
7:17
urgency in the process. And like I said, it's built
7:20
around for more dynamics, fear of missing out.
7:22
Let's get this person to feel as if.
7:24
Like if I don't, if I don't take action now, I'm going to miss
7:28
out on this. I'm going to miss out on that.
7:29
Oh, by the way, sorry about the noise coming in through the
7:32
window. Just chilling.
7:34
I'm not in my usual recording space.
7:36
So you're going to hear lots of noise coming through the through
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the microphones. There's some people that are
7:42
just doing a promo type thing. Yeah, it looks like some, some
7:48
sort of promo. You know, these people that do
7:50
Rd. shows. I think it's an absolute waste
7:52
of time because in today's day and age, I don't see any reason
7:56
why people continue with this sort of activity to promote your
8:01
businesses. Because I, I don't think anyway,
8:06
today's podcast episode is not about how you can use roadshows
8:11
or not use roadshows to promote your business.
8:13
So let me just go ahead and yeah, let me continue from where
8:18
we stopped. OK, so I was talking about the
8:22
two different ways that you can use urgency to close the deal.
8:26
And one way is to create a sense of urgency around fear of
8:29
missing out. And then another one is to use
8:31
already existing urgency that is in the situation.
8:35
So now this whole thing about formal fear of missing out, this
8:38
is where people start talking about limited time offers,
8:41
discounts if you move now, bonuses if you move now, blah,
8:44
blah, blah. And you know, buy one, get one
8:47
free, limited to the 1st, 21st, 21 people or limited until
8:52
December 21st, all those sorts of things.
8:55
So you can see how you're trying to get somebody to take action,
8:58
to move quick, quick, quick. And the idea is if they don't
9:03
move now, then this sweet deal, this sweet benefit, they're
9:07
going to miss out on it. And that's the whole idea behind
9:11
it. So let's go over some examples
9:13
that we should be familiar with. So one of them that we should be
9:17
familiar with, we Nigerians is this whole thing of a flash
9:21
sale. So for those of us who have
9:23
kids, the children are back in school as at the time of this
9:26
recording, Lagos and Abuja, I think pretty much everybody's
9:29
kids are now back in school. We are currently in September,
9:34
excuse me, September ending as are the date of this recording.
9:38
So all the kids are back in school leading up to everybody
9:42
getting back to school, everywhere you look for those of
9:45
you who don't have kids, you won't have noticed it.
9:47
But you know, those of us who are parents, we keep somehow we
9:51
see all these things because it's in our best interest.
9:53
So you would have seen it left, right and center.
9:55
Flash sale here. 50% going back to school.
9:57
This going back to school, that uniforms on offer, buy 2, get
10:02
one free, you know, textbooks on whatever, 15% off, no clearance
10:08
sale, last season's school bag, you know, all those sorts of
10:12
things. And we even went to one of those
10:14
things we were doing a clearance sale on, I think it was school
10:17
bags from last year. What my wife had in mind was
10:20
actually what she had in mind was shoes.
10:22
Shoes for the kids. Yeah, because they had to get
10:25
them new shoes. What else?
10:27
So anyway, we went there, but we're targeting new shoes,
10:30
actually. And then we bought a bunch of
10:31
stuff. So that is one way of creating
10:34
urgency using a formal dynamic. Somebody's just minding their
10:37
business and then they see a sign that says flash sale, 50%
10:41
off on all bags from 2023 session, all bags imported from
10:47
Marks and Spencer's. You know, that sort of thing can
10:49
get someone to take action like, oh, my children need new school
10:52
bags. I don't like Nigerian school
10:55
bags. This one is Marks and Spencer.
10:57
OK, maybe it's last season, but who cares?
10:59
Let me just have a look. So that kind of thing can get
11:01
people to take action. Then there's also the early bird
11:06
discounts. And I'm sure we're very, very
11:08
familiar with that over here in Nigeria, especially since, you
11:12
know, we're now in this, we don't have a conference habit in
11:16
Niger because all professional organizations are doing
11:19
conferences these days. So MBA, Nigerian Bar
11:22
Association, that's for lawyers, you know, they have their annual
11:25
conferences. Then the smaller business
11:27
conference and all the conference conference medical
11:30
people have their own conferences.
11:32
There's this centre in Abuja, National Air Force and event
11:36
centre anyway. And I've noticed that dentistry
11:39
association, Nigerian dental something, something, you know,
11:42
they've done their own conferences there a bunch of
11:45
times. I've seen like 3-4 times in the
11:48
last maybe year or two. And then you know, conference,
11:52
this conference that you know, even church conferences,
11:54
professional conferences, all kinds of conferences.
11:57
And so one of the things that conference for waters do to try
12:00
and get people to buy is to do early bird discount.
12:04
So you have the conference, let's say a Nigerian dental,
12:08
Nigerian dental something, something Commission conference
12:13
on. I can't think of anything
12:17
Boscha. They advertise the conference
12:19
and then they say 75, they say 50% off for the 1st 200
12:24
delegates that register. So that's the whole idea.
12:27
You want to create four more. You want people to think, ah,
12:29
this thing costs 15K, but if I pay now, I will only pay 75.
12:34
And then people will rush and even for music conferences,
12:40
because there was this time that Benson, the Nigerian musician,
12:43
Benson, the guy that did Guagualada and I did Guagualada
12:49
and there's this song he did with this guy that sang Booga.
12:52
I can't remember his name. Anyway, so Benson was having
12:57
this conference. Oh, by the way, if you want to
12:58
check out his stuff, it's not Benson as in Ben.
13:01
You know, somehow the idiot decided to spell Benson.
13:04
BXNXNI mean that's ridiculous because if you hear Benson, are
13:09
you going to think BX and sorry BX.
13:13
And anyway, it's AB and an X, it's not AB and an E.
13:17
That's not how he spells his own.
13:18
So when Benson was doing his conference now in Abuja while
13:21
advertising it on the radio on Sound City, that's my own radio
13:26
station, not that I own it as per that's the one I listen to.
13:29
So the advertising it, you know, conference is coming two weeks
13:32
to go, one week to go. So, so they to go book now 50%
13:36
off on tickets and entitled to something, something, something
13:40
on 1st class table and you know all those things.
13:43
So that's the whole thing. For more early bird discount buy
13:46
now get these benefits, buy now, get 70% off, buy now get an
13:51
extra bottle of Moi and Shandong on your table.
13:53
That's the people still drink Moi and Shandong.
13:55
You know I'm not a clubbing type, so I don't know what
13:58
drinks are raining nowadays. So that's the whole idea.
14:02
Then they even are some product people that do early bird
14:05
discounts and I didn't know about that because my phone is a
14:08
Xiaomi phone Xiaomi 13 C. That's the correct phone.
14:11
If I don't consider it a phone, I consider it a computer that
14:14
fixing fits into your pocket. And that's the reason why I do
14:16
everything from my phone and and you know, while we're talking to
14:21
the lady was one of the things that actually, quite frankly,
14:23
got me to take it to take action now because she was like the
14:27
phone call. So so, so and so and I was
14:29
surprised like so cheap as I say, yes, so that Jaomi that's
14:33
what they do now when they release a new phone for the
14:35
first week or two, they crashed the price.
14:38
Then after that they raised the price.
14:39
So if you want to buy it, you know, now is the time.
14:41
I was like, OK, no problem. Looks like a bad asshole.
14:44
It was available for, I think we got, I got this one for 90
14:48
something K, So for 90 something K, no problem, let me buy it
14:51
now. And that's how we're able to
14:54
afford two other phones, one for me and one for wifey.
14:58
And just like the lady said, after I'd paid for it, one day I
15:02
was doing some work and one of my video guys looked at me and
15:06
said, oh God, you have this one? I said, yeah, so this is my
15:08
brand new phone. I said, how much did you buy it?
15:10
I told the person that in some cases he's a lie.
15:12
So it's true. I bought it 90 something cases.
15:14
A lie is a lie. He went to go and check and at
15:16
that time was really close to like 200 grand or something.
15:19
And I explained to him the scope that the girl told me so that
15:23
she said that Jaomi, that's what they do that if the phone is
15:26
being released now, they're going to crash the price.
15:28
After two or three weeks, they're going to raise the
15:30
price. So just chill.
15:33
The next time they're releasing another model, that's the time
15:35
to to move. So yeah, so there's some product
15:39
people that do it just like Xiaomi phones.
15:41
So reduce the price now, Jack the price up later.
15:44
Then another way of creating urgency, doing this whole formal
15:47
thing, fear of missing out, is when people use a limited
15:51
inventory. Now this is something that
15:53
people in the luxury market, they do this thing a lot like
15:56
Nike. Now let's say let's pretend that
16:00
I was a basketballer and I'm not.
16:02
By the way, my basketball career stopped when I was in secondary
16:07
school. Yeah, I was in Saint Greg's,
16:08
tried playing basketball a few times while somebody dunked on
16:11
my head, and I was like, no more.
16:14
I'm not ready for this kind of disgrace.
16:15
So that's how my basketball career ended.
16:18
Apart from that, I was pretty good at dribbling.
16:20
And for some reason I couldn't dunk.
16:22
I just couldn't make it on the standard rim.
16:25
If you reduce the rim, yeah, I can dunk.
16:26
But on the standard, as in nine foot, I'll be level foot.
16:29
I can't remember. I couldn't dunk.
16:31
So yeah. So let's pretend that in some
16:35
alternate dimension I was a badass superstar.
16:37
Like I'm Nigel's first Michael Jordan, like I'm a correct
16:41
basketballer, that kind of thing.
16:42
Then me and Nike went into an arrangement where I want to
16:45
release some some shoes. And then maybe the shoes would
16:48
be called the Tavi Shima Air Wakanda, Nike, something,
16:52
something, you know, all these fancy names that they give all
16:54
these shoes. You know, back when I was a kid,
16:56
Michael Jordan, the one that rained during my time was the
17:00
Air Force Ones. So the Jordans Air Force Ones.
17:04
So my own will be the Tavishima Wakanda.
17:07
Yeah, Tavishima Wakanda Air Force.
17:09
So as they're releasing it now, part of the marketing campaign
17:11
will be that they're bringing out this new shoe based on this
17:15
Nigerian NBA superstar, Tavishima, son of the soil.
17:19
But they are only, We are only making 150 pairs, full stop.
17:24
We will never make another 150 pairs again.
17:27
And then that's how people will just rush the shoe because
17:31
formal, because you know that once this Wakanda Air Force
17:35
disappears, there will never be another Wakanda Air Force again.
17:38
And it's a good thing because that's what keeps the secondary
17:40
market of shoes going. And there even Nigerian people,
17:43
surprisingly, the people that I know who do it are babes.
17:47
I thought it would be guys who will be in this business, boys,
17:49
babes that are running this game.
17:51
So that's what gives it a secondary market.
17:53
So if somebody has an Air Force One and the Air Force One is
17:59
authentic, I mean, it's limited edition.
18:02
It's not as if they made it and every time they can, Harry has
18:05
it. In fact, some people buy who buy
18:07
the Air Force ones and maybe only wear it once you wear it,
18:10
you enter club, you come back, you know, just keep it in the
18:12
box, you know, bragging rights as per I have Air Force ones, I
18:16
have this, I have that. So limited inventory, that kind
18:20
of formal who works in a luxury environment environment.
18:23
So Nike, they do that kind of thing.
18:25
This is limited edition. We're only making 200, you know,
18:28
buy it now or you know, a cool guy or a cool babe.
18:32
Adidas has done stuff like that. I think that the partnership
18:35
there was a partnership between Kanye West and was it Adidas
18:39
also? No, not Adidas versus other
18:42
people. Any Kanye West had one of these
18:44
partnerships where they released limited edition shoes and of
18:47
course that was the whole scope like Wheezy, the shoe drops
18:50
January 1st buy now only 50 being made in the whole wide
18:56
world. So if you buy, you know, you
18:58
have bragging rights as per you're the only one out of OK,
19:02
well, 88 billion people in the world.
19:04
So you have bargain rights that looked only released 50
19:06
additions of the shoe and then I have one of them then custom
19:10
leather bags. They also do that sort of thing
19:12
as well. There's this leather
19:15
manufacturer, bag manufacturer. I don't know the name, forgive
19:20
me. You know, I'm not a popular.
19:21
I don't know what's up. I'm not I'm not culturally.
19:25
Was that word fluent? So there's the one that the bag
19:27
is the, it has like 3 colours. I think it's like red and is it
19:32
like yellow and green or something like that?
19:34
Is this pasta like in Abuja that used to wear this thing a lot?
19:38
All I haven't been seeing him in the news again.
19:40
What's his name? Koza here Cosa Pasta usually
19:42
like wearing that brand that he has those 3 colours.
19:47
Yeah. So they also do those sorts of
19:49
campaigns. They can release a bag and maybe
19:52
the bag has Ankara print on it and maybe with that Ankara
19:56
print, they're only releasing like 500.
19:59
The run is going to be limited to 500 for this season only and
20:03
then everybody will be rushing to go and buy it because it's
20:06
limited edition. Then even people in the NFT
20:10
space, that's non fungible tokens.
20:11
That's a trick that they also try to use to get people to buy
20:15
stuff like this is a limited edition.
20:17
We're only maintaining this copy of the NFT.
20:20
So buy now and stuff like that so.
20:24
You can see how you can create a sense of urgency by using formal
20:28
fear of missing out. So this whole idea of if you
20:32
don't act now, you're going to miss out on these benefits.
20:34
So that is the one that everybody knows and that most
20:38
sales people tell you to use when it comes to creating
20:40
urgency in the business. But I hope you guys can see with
20:46
the use cases that we have come up with so far that these things
20:49
are limited. If you sell insurance, how do
20:52
you want to use informal to get somebody to buy insurance?
20:55
Or if you're an architect, how do you want to formalize
20:58
somebody to use you to design the building?
21:02
So this will formal thing very, very, very limited.
21:05
And that's why I say that that's why I don't recommend you to go
21:09
here first. Because if you try this for more
21:10
thing and the thing fails, you know then what?
21:13
So if you say you're doing limited offer only 200 run and
21:16
then people don't want to buy it, then what?
21:18
You're stuck with all your shoes, so it doesn't apply to
21:24
everything. For those of us in the service
21:25
businesses trying to do this whole formal thing, I, I don't
21:29
know how you would make it work, but if you're a service
21:32
provider, you sell insurance, you sell consulting services,
21:36
you're an architect, maybe you're a Carpenter.
21:39
Let's see what else. You're a wedding photographer.
21:41
If you figured out how to use for more to promote your
21:43
business, you know, please hit me up.
21:45
Let's have a chat so I can share it as a case study over here on
21:48
the podcast. So what I prefer is that let's
21:51
use the urgency that already exists in the situation and then
21:55
try and figure it out. Let's try and work with that
21:57
sense of urgency. So that is why I tell people to
22:01
ask questions around response times.
22:03
So after a while, you get the sense that, OK, in this
22:06
industry, it takes people two weeks to decide on this or not.
22:10
So it's something that you can bring up now.
22:11
Most of our happiest clients usually take blah, blah, blah,
22:13
blah, blah X period of time to decide on this and that, you
22:17
know, would that be OK by you? Do you think that's reasonable
22:20
or something like that? And you're trying to move this
22:22
deal along, trying to get timelines that matter to the
22:26
other person or that are typical to the other person.
22:29
So ask questions around response times.
22:32
Or you can also try and figure out, because we try and build on
22:36
this around purchase frequency, maintenance frequency.
22:40
So for those of you who sell things that need to be
22:43
maintained and things like that. And that's why I say mechanics
22:46
in Nigeria are doing a very, very terrible job.
22:49
Because if somebody buys this car brand new, OK, well, second
22:52
hand or whatever, you know, reasonably speaking, you can
22:55
expect that this person has bought this car brand new, so
22:59
second hand. So you can expect that if it was
23:01
in top shape, maybe the first three months we will need to
23:04
call you. But really use your common
23:06
sense. From month three, you should be
23:07
coming up your clients to say, oh, how far, I hope the car is
23:10
still performing well, blah, blah, blah.
23:12
Because that is around the kind of time that things start
23:16
happening, that cars need servicing.
23:18
The brake pad has worn down, all these sorts of things.
23:22
And you can see how you can use urgency now to increase your
23:25
business. If you're a mechanic or you're
23:26
somebody who sells cars and you know, things like that, how you
23:29
can start making some extra money just because you're using
23:32
urgency that already exists because no, how, no how, the car
23:36
will need servicing. The brake pad will fail.
23:38
The sorry, no fail will wear down.
23:41
You know, God forbid that brakes should fail because that will
23:44
lead to a serious accident. Then what else?
23:48
Spark plug is going to need maintenance for car electrical
23:51
systems. I'm not a pro, so I don't know,
23:54
maybe you need to service the electrical system maybe like
23:57
once every two years. So you see why I keep saying
24:00
that we can use our phone as a CRM tool?
24:02
So if you sell cars to people and somebody bought a car from
24:05
you in 20 in 2022, you know about now, your phone should be
24:10
pinging up for you to call the person and ask how far you know.
24:13
Is the car all right? Is everything OK?
24:15
What about the electrical system?
24:16
I'm sure there's no problem. How about you bring it back to
24:18
the store? Let me have my boys look at it.
24:20
Let's make sure that everything is all right, everything is
24:22
cool. While the guy brings it back and
24:24
the people are looking at it. You're having conversations with
24:26
the guy. You never know.
24:28
Maybe now he wants to get a new model, he wants to upsell or
24:33
something. And then you might, you might be
24:34
in the mood like, OK, if you bring this car back, it looks
24:38
like he's in good condition. We can take this car at the
24:41
value of, I don't know, 500K and then offer you the newest model.
24:46
We now remove that 500K from the price or something like that.
24:49
So this is how you can use urgency that already exists in
24:54
situations to get new business, to upsell, to get people to take
24:58
action. Then there are some people that
25:01
seasonal patterns. So like for the paint industry,
25:04
that's something I learned very easy very quickly when we moved
25:07
to Lagos because there was a family member who was in the
25:10
paint business and I just noticed that you know, sometimes
25:13
he was. So I know a family member, a
25:15
family friend noticed at some point of the year, he was pretty
25:18
much not doing anything because it was rainy season.
25:21
But then when it's dry season, especially in Lagos, I don't
25:24
know about the technology now, but back when I was 13, you
25:29
couldn't paint in rainy season. So when is dry season,
25:32
especially in, you know, that part of the country, you know,
25:34
down South, plenty of rain and everything, dry season, that's
25:37
like premium time. So everybody is rushing.
25:40
So the urgency is already there. So during rainy season, you
25:43
can't get anybody to buy paint. Back then when I was 13, I don't
25:46
know about now, maybe there's paint now that can dry in the
25:49
rain. So back then, rainy season,
25:53
you're trying to close sail, nothing for you but dry season,
25:56
you can't close the sale because everybody's rushing.
25:58
Because I know that here in this part of the country, it rains
26:01
plenty. It rains a lot.
26:03
We only have this brief window of so, so, so, so months.
26:06
So if I do not finish painting the whole estate now, yeah, Argo
26:09
gas is a problem. So everybody will just be
26:12
rushing. So we should be looking for
26:13
urgency that already exists in the situation to move the deal
26:17
forward. And that is the reason why back
26:22
when I was still talking to wedding planners and wedding
26:25
photographers exclusively trying to get them to increase their
26:28
sales, that is the reason why I kept asking them questions.
26:31
I kept telling them to ask questions like when you're
26:32
talking to the bride and groom, it's not just enough that they
26:37
can afford and they look like they have paper, you know, like
26:39
they're from a big family or whatever.
26:41
You should also be asking the simple questions like, oh,
26:43
congratulations, when is the wedding?
26:46
Have you booked the hall? Which hall did you book?
26:49
Has the family met? When were you proposed to?
26:52
You know, it's looks like it's common.
26:54
It looks like it's it's a casual conversation, but it's not.
26:58
There's a reason to it. If the babe was proposed to last
27:02
week, as she said yes, but the family has not met, then
27:07
realistically speaking, there's no urgency here because in this
27:10
part of the world, you know, until the family meets, the boy
27:13
says, will you marry me? You say yes.
27:14
You know, you put pictures on Instagram and everything.
27:17
It doesn't mean that there's a deal in the waiting.
27:19
It is onto the boy mobilizes his uncles and then the uncles and
27:22
Popsy go to the girls Popsy's house and then they have a
27:24
meeting at hand and things can all start moving.
27:27
But on the other hand, issue was supposed to six months ago and
27:30
then the family is has met and the family is thinking December
27:34
of that kind of January they should do the wedding because
27:37
December or January the people will be able to travel, people
27:40
who are coming in from abroad and stuff like that.
27:43
Now that's a different thing. You can be here in September.
27:46
They can now be thinking, OK, this is a deal that could close
27:49
reasonably soon because you can see the urgency that is there.
27:52
You can see the timelines that is there.
27:54
Proposal check, family meeting, check, Wedding date, check.
27:59
Now it's even going to be stronger if you ask, have you
28:03
guys booked the wedding hall? Which wedding hall is it?
28:05
If they have already paid for the wedding hall, best believe
28:08
that there is even stronger urgency because they've booked
28:12
the hall. Now you know for sure that they
28:15
have already started talking to vendors.
28:16
If they have booked the hall, definitely they're talking to
28:18
Katra. If they're talking to Katra,
28:21
definitely they're talking to planner.
28:23
So if they've booked the hall, they're talking to decorator,
28:26
Katra, planner. You know, eventually you'll get
28:29
to your turn. They'll start talking to
28:31
photographer, they'll start talking to video people.
28:33
And then last, last MC, the forgotten stepchild.
28:37
Everybody waits until the last minute before they book the MCI.
28:39
Don't know why, it just is what it is.
28:42
So sorry for your wedding MC. Is that nature of the game for
28:46
now? Maybe trends might change one
28:49
day and then the MC will be more important or something.
28:52
So you can see how you can use urgency that already exists in
28:56
the situation that will move this thing forward.
29:00
And when I was talking to a sales person who was in the
29:04
solar sales on one of the deals that she was handling, I told
29:07
her that that's where she goofed.
29:09
That if this guy said the reason why I want this thing to be in
29:11
place is that my wife and my children, they're coming on so,
29:15
so, so and so did. I don't want them to come and
29:17
jam this NEPA wahala. So I want us to fix this thing.
29:20
I told her, this is where you goofed.
29:22
You should have been leaning in on that whole thing.
29:26
You know, how's Madame House, whatever.
29:28
Or they're still coming in September 15th, right?
29:30
No problem. You know, you confirm the
29:32
timeline and later on that is what you use as urgency because
29:36
you have to let the person know eventually.
29:37
Look, OK, if Madame is coming September 15th, the way we run
29:41
our business, we would like to know that the system has been
29:43
installed for at least one week and there's no problem.
29:46
So if Madame is coming September 15th, we want the machine to be
29:49
installed September. What's that?
29:52
September 7th. Now for us to install September
29:56
7th, we actually need to mobilize the boys and arrange
29:59
everything. That will take another one week
30:01
and before that can happen, we need a deposit.
30:04
So Olga actually if we need this thing ready for September 15th
30:08
as per no problem, you actually need to make your payment today,
30:12
August. You have need to make a payment
30:15
latest August 29th. That's the only way we can make
30:18
this thing happen on time. So you see how you're using the
30:21
urgency that already exists in the situation.
30:24
So spoken close to 30 minutes. Let me just bring it to a close
30:28
right here. Summary Urgency is one of the
30:31
things that you can use to make the deal move faster.
30:36
So remember, we should be paying attention not just what people
30:38
want or what they need, but we should try to figure out whether
30:41
they can afford and whether there's a sense of urgency.
30:44
You can create urgency by doing all this formal stuff. 50% off
30:48
discount early bird sales or do limited edition if you're in the
30:54
luxury space. But my own opinion, if you ask
30:57
me, I will always start with what sense of urgency already
31:01
exists in this situation. If we can figure out the urgency
31:04
that already exists, let's just align with that timeline and
31:07
start running it from there. That gives us the strongest
31:10
chance. Who knows, maybe if you're one
31:12
of these really, really creative people, you can take two things
31:15
and combine so you can take the figure out that timeline.
31:19
Like the guy who says his wife and children are coming
31:23
September 15th. You can be working with that
31:25
timeline and then maybe you can now throw in some formal thing
31:28
that oh Olga, by the way, we have a discount from a
31:33
manufacturer that is last from so, so so and so.
31:35
So if you take advantage of that now and you pay today, instead
31:40
of paying 5.5 M for this system, you will actually be paying 5.5
31:46
point 250 or something like that.
31:48
So you can create 2 tactics in this case to even increase the
31:54
urgency using the person's timeline and then using some
31:56
formal. So yeah, that's it.
32:00
Oh, and by the way, that's the role of creativity when it comes
32:02
to sales. That's the reason why I also say
32:04
we should try and learn as many things as possible, as many
32:07
principles, as many tips, as many tactics.
32:09
Because sometimes we know one or two things that work very well
32:12
on their own, but then we combine them together and they
32:15
might work even super. So that's all for today.
32:18
Thanks for your time and attention.
32:19
I'll catch you guys in the next episode.
32:21
Contact details The same phone number is 08064662140.
32:28
The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
32:30
Nigerian. So you can hook up me directly
32:33
for tips, tricks, questions, queries, insights so we can have
32:38
a chat then also connect with me on LinkedIn.
32:41
The name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show.
32:44
To get the right name so you know who it is you're looking
32:47
for, just check the link where you're listening to this
32:49
episode. You will get the correct
32:51
spelling of my name. If you're listening on the
32:52
podcast, you'll find my e-mail address as well as well, in case
32:56
you're one of those e-mail people.
32:58
So I'll catch you guys tomorrow and everyone have a good one.