Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of the Deal: Tailoring Your Sales Approach

Transcript

The Art of the Deal: Tailoring Your Sales Approach · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Aidi.
• 0:04
  I saw sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
• 0:07
  today's recording at home. It's the public holiday after
• 0:10
  former President Buhari's death. So everybody's home, including
• 0:13
  the neighbors. So there's just noise left,
• 0:15
  right and centre. So expect to hear some
• 0:17
  interruptions. Now, the goal of this podcast is
• 0:20
  not to tell you about my family situation or the politics of
• 0:23
  Nigeria, but we're here to do some good old fashioned business
• 0:26
  education. So if you're impressed by the
• 0:29
  time you're done with this podcast, please spread the word
• 0:32
  so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad
• 0:35
  can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
• 0:37
  They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or
• 0:41
  any player of their choice. And if you'd love to connect
• 0:44
  with me, then you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 0:53
  Now, today on the podcast, we're going to have another diary
• 0:56
  session with the work that I'm currently doing with Shell,
• 1:00
  Elise or Elsie, as some people like to call her.
• 1:04
  And Rudolph. Yeah, Rudolph, Elise and Shell,
• 1:09
  then. Oh, by the way, am I the only
• 1:12
  one who used to, you know, just run around calling anybody whose
• 1:17
  name was ELYS EE? Sorry.
• 1:20
  No, not ELYSE. Anyway, don't worry.
• 1:22
  No need to go into all that. Where was I?
• 1:27
  OK, so this is just a diary session basically.
• 1:29
  So on one of the meetings that we had during the week, let's
• 1:35
  see, what did we do? OK, well, we did the daily check
• 1:38
  insurance because it's necessary to make sure that are we doing
• 1:42
  the daily activities that will keep us on track.
• 1:46
  Sometimes people think these things are pointless, but it's
• 1:48
  not. It's a matter of probability.
• 1:51
  And I've used the example of a football team.
• 1:54
  If you're not, if you don't have good ball position, you're not
• 1:57
  handling the ball, you won't have enough chances for short on
• 2:01
  goal. And if you don't have enough
• 2:03
  trust chances for short on goal, you're not likely to score
• 2:08
  goals. So all the things are important.
• 2:10
  What is our ball position like? It is important.
• 2:13
  Are we doing 10%, fifty percent, 70%, it's important shots on
• 2:18
  goal. What are we looking at?
• 2:21
  You know, because nobody scores every single goal that they
• 2:25
  take. So it's normal.
• 2:27
  You, you know, you shoot some, some will enter, you shoot some,
• 2:30
  the goalkeeper will deflect. There are other circumstances
• 2:33
  that are beyond your control, whether in sports and it's the
• 2:36
  same thing in in sales and business as well.
• 2:41
  So your own is just stick to the process.
• 2:44
  If we have agreed internally as a team, 10/10/10 every day just
• 2:48
  be doing the 10:10, so long as you're also working at being
• 2:52
  effective with the calls, working on conversions, you now
• 2:56
  see that on average some good things will start to happen by
• 3:01
  the end of your average sales cycle.
• 3:03
  So if you're in the business that the sales cycle is, you
• 3:08
  know, kind of like a month and a half, two months like back in my
• 3:11
  wedding photography days, you only just continue the
• 3:14
  activities if you've agreed that it is LinkedIn.
• 3:17
  So I say LinkedIn, if you've agreed that it's Instagram and
• 3:20
  it's a matter of post 5, post on Instagram every day.
• 3:23
  You only just wake up every day and begin the post 55555555.
• 3:29
  Over time things will align well for you.
• 3:33
  So I wasn't good at the Instagram game.
• 3:35
  So I used to attend bridal shows.
• 3:37
  So my own was every year three bridal shows that I must attend.
• 3:43
  Brides and babies was one. I didn't like missing brides and
• 3:46
  babies, so I'd attend brides and Babies.
• 3:48
  Then there was also Abuja International Bride Affair,
• 3:53
  although that one didn't last long.
• 3:55
  They've stopped but they're still in Lagos I think and pH.
• 3:58
  Then there was also which one, I can't remember.
• 4:01
  So for me it was very simple. Apart from social media, I have
• 4:05
  to be at these three wedding shows to get a certain number of
• 4:10
  clients a year, to make a certain number of amount of
• 4:13
  money a year. So it's the same thing.
• 4:16
  So all these things, you know, when I say we did our daily
• 4:19
  check in, it's really, really important.
• 4:21
  I know it gets boring to be saying yesterday I did 10, the
• 4:26
  day before I did 10, the day before that I did 10.
• 4:30
  Today I'm going to do 10. Tomorrow I'm going to do 10.
• 4:34
  But don't worry, the exciting one happens, which is when you
• 4:36
  hear ping him and somebody has transferred money into your
• 4:39
  account. You know, the excitement is
• 4:41
  coming. But we have to do our daily
• 4:42
  check insurance. So we did that part daily check
• 4:44
  insurance. Who's been making calls?
• 4:48
  Excuse me? How many calls have you made?
• 4:50
  How many conversations have you had?
• 4:53
  How many proposals have you issued?
• 4:55
  You know, you see how it happens.
• 4:57
  The same in business as in sports, swim, football, ball,
• 5:00
  possession. What's our presented short on
• 5:02
  goal? What's our percentage?
• 5:04
  How many go? What's our percentage?
• 5:06
  Each stage is a conversion. So it's the same thing.
• 5:09
  My daily calls every day. How many did I make?
• 5:11
  The people that answered? How many conversations did I
• 5:14
  have? The people that I blended with?
• 5:16
  How many people did I sign proposal?
• 5:17
  Because it's only when you send proposal that somebody will say,
• 5:19
  Oh yeah, account number and then transfer the money.
• 5:22
  So that's how it works then. OK.
• 5:26
  We also have that conversation again about simple sales versus
• 5:29
  complex sales. If this is your first time
• 5:31
  listening to the podcast, I'm not going to repeat.
• 5:33
  So just listen to the previous episode and you should get
• 5:36
  caught up up to speed. If it's not last episode, maybe
• 5:39
  2-3 episodes back, but basically the number of parties in the
• 5:43
  sale, how expensive your product or service is, the subject
• 5:47
  matter itself, whether it is simple or it's complex, the time
• 5:50
  frame or the sales cycle, the length of sales cycle involved,
• 5:53
  and then the necessity for building relationships.
• 5:57
  That is what determines whether you're in a simple sale or a
• 6:00
  complex sale. Now, the reason why we looked at
• 6:04
  this thing again, simple sale versus complex sale is this.
• 6:07
  The implications are different when you're in a simple sales.
• 6:10
  You can't rely on charisma, personality.
• 6:13
  The reason why I bring that up is because there's one member of
• 6:15
  the team who likes to do precisely just that.
• 6:18
  You know, talk to people, influence people, get mind,
• 6:22
  share, persuade somebody, finesse somebody.
• 6:27
  You know, what I think is it works in simple sales scenarios,
• 6:31
  but not necessarily in complex sales scenarios, because in
• 6:34
  complex sales scenarios there are lots of moving variables.
• 6:39
  There are other considerations beyond personality.
• 6:42
  So when you're in a complex sales scenario, you have to be
• 6:45
  process driven. So if I'm saying selling
• 6:47
  something simple like you know, this small computer games that
• 6:52
  have Tetris on it that look like Game Boy and that is still
• 6:56
  selling. Now if you're selling that kind
• 6:57
  of thing, you can finance somebody.
• 6:58
  Now you can say Bros is, you know, you just buy this thing
• 7:03
  for these children. Now, how much is it now, Bros
• 7:05
  and only 10K, you'll begin at 10K.
• 7:07
  Just carry this thing. That's a simple sale.
• 7:11
  It's a toy for a kid you can't finesse and you say, ah, my
• 7:17
  brother brotherly how No, you don't take how are the kids now
• 7:23
  a public holiday and do something for the children now
• 7:26
  should be it's just this common game that he wants now and I
• 7:29
  have no problem. You say you don't have 10K or I
• 7:31
  bring 8K bro, you're bigger than this thing.
• 7:33
  Just bring AK collect this thing for the children that will work
• 7:37
  in a simple sale. That is not going to work in a
• 7:40
  complex sale. You cannot finance anybody or
• 7:44
  romance somebody to buy financial products like
• 7:50
  insurance. It's not going to work.
• 7:52
  That's a complex health situation.
• 7:54
  Now this team that's selling solar products, you can't
• 7:56
  finance anybody into buying solar.
• 7:59
  That's lots of money, 5101520M for a system.
• 8:03
  You can't finance somebody into doing that kind of thing.
• 8:05
  You can't. And even if you do, the person
• 8:08
  will feel like you're fool, feel taken advantage of.
• 8:10
  They will never come back to you.
• 8:11
  And whenever they see you, they'll rubbish you.
• 8:14
  They'll say that guy scammer, stay away from him.
• 8:17
  So even if you can, I'm begging you, please don't.
• 8:21
  If it's a complex I'll situation, even if you know how
• 8:24
  to finesse people, you know how to do charisma, you know, you
• 8:27
  smile, you put on your charm. If it's a complex I'll
• 8:30
  situation, I'm begging you, please don't.
• 8:34
  Those things are backfire. So the implications are this.
• 8:38
  If it's a simple sale, then please, by all means, go ahead.
• 8:41
  Use your charisma bath, freshen up, wear perfume, smile well,
• 8:47
  whiten your teeth, try and convince somebody.
• 8:50
  Go and read 48 Laws of Power. Go and read 48 Laws of
• 8:54
  Seduction. Go and read all of those books
• 8:56
  and then put your game on and then finesse somebody, seduce
• 9:00
  somebody into the sale if you're dealing with a simple sale
• 9:04
  scenario. So deal with the complex,
• 9:06
  complex hill scenario. Now, my friend, you'd need to be
• 9:09
  process driven. You need a framework and you
• 9:12
  need to be consultative in your approach.
• 9:15
  Now, remember on this podcast, I keep saying every single time
• 9:18
  you hear a consultative, I mean, let's pretend that we're a
• 9:21
  doctor. A doctor is not worried about
• 9:23
  finessing you. A doctor is not worried about
• 9:26
  charming you. A doctor is not worried about
• 9:28
  smooth talking you. A doctor is not worried about
• 9:31
  trying to jazz you, trying to charm you, nothing.
• 9:35
  The doctor will say, young man, how can I help you?
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  You ask you a couple of questions.
• 9:39
  You ask about your family history.
• 9:40
  You'll run some tests and then he will tell you straight up.
• 9:43
  Now, Bros, based on what I've looked at right now, you have
• 9:45
  gonorrhea and these are the next step forward.
• 9:47
  You either take this medicine or take this medicine or take this
• 9:51
  medicine, and then he'll keep quiet and leave it up to you.
• 9:54
  It is you who will now say this medicine is too expensive.
• 9:57
  Do you have a cheaper version? The doctor's only just.
• 10:03
  He's there, he's consultative. He will let you know these are
• 10:07
  the options. And then you know, it's up to
• 10:12
  you to take action. It's the same approach when
• 10:15
  you're in the complex hill. You only just to sit down, be
• 10:18
  nice, be professional, ask questions, try and figure out
• 10:20
  what the problem is and then say, OK, based on what I've
• 10:23
  heard, Mr. and Mrs. Customer, these are the problems we're
• 10:26
  trying to achieve. Abby, OK.
• 10:28
  So based on that, any of these options are from AB and C should
• 10:30
  be able to solve the problem. Each of them could cross between
• 10:33
  this and then this and that. Does that look like it's a
• 10:36
  reasonable investment? And then you wait and hear what
• 10:39
  it is that they have to say. The answer will determine what
• 10:43
  the next way forward is. But either way, in complex
• 10:46
  sales, have a process, be consultative, have a framework
• 10:52
  that you're following that will guide you the kind of
• 10:55
  conversations to have and the kind of questions to ask.
• 10:59
  So in the complex hill, that is what you do.
• 11:03
  People think price is the most important thing.
• 11:05
  It is not the price. Any of you who have been in the
• 11:07
  medical emergency know what it is that I'm talking about.
• 11:12
  You have a medical emergency and they say Doctor Trukudi is the
• 11:15
  guy. Then even if Doctor Trukudi is
• 11:17
  more expensive than 5-6 other people, it's a matter of look,
• 11:21
  let's raise the money and go and do this thing.
• 11:24
  Nigerians do it all the time. You have certain kinds of
• 11:26
  medical emergencies and people say look, for this one, we can
• 11:29
  do it in Nigeria, but best bet is go to India and people do it
• 11:34
  all the time. They call it medical tourism.
• 11:36
  The people who leave Niger go to India.
• 11:38
  The people who leave Niger go to Saudi.
• 11:41
  The people who leave Niger go to Egypt.
• 11:43
  The people who leave Niger go to America, go to the UK.
• 11:47
  There's one very popular Nigeria right now that all of us knows.
• 11:51
  He leaves Nigeria and he goes to France every couple of weeks to
• 11:54
  go and sort himself out. And we all know him and it's
• 11:57
  called medical tourism. So when is a complex something
• 12:04
  and the stakes are high, people don't always look at price.
• 12:08
  So if it's a simple sales scenario, you're selling toy
• 12:11
  toys for children, you're selling Game Boy Knockout for
• 12:14
  children, then yes, price is an issue.
• 12:16
  You can bamboozle the guy and then you tell him, OK, you know,
• 12:19
  or bro, since you have three children, instead of buying one
• 12:22
  at 10,000, just carry one at 8000.
• 12:26
  You now pay 24K. Yeah, that's a simple sales
• 12:29
  scenario. You can smooth talk someone and
• 12:32
  you can make price a big issue. But then when it comes to
• 12:36
  complex sales, price is not the only determining factor.
• 12:41
  I'm not saying price is unimportant, I'm just saying it
• 12:43
  is not the only determining factor.
• 12:48
  So for complex hills, we need to be process driven and we need to
• 12:53
  be consultative. I'm not saying don't package,
• 12:55
  but please, by all means, you know, package, bath, brush your
• 12:59
  teeth, use perfume, do teeth whitener, comb your hair, you
• 13:05
  know, whatever it is where your perfect black suit or wear a
• 13:10
  lucky red dress or whatever. Yeah, by all means do all that.
• 13:12
  But just realize that all those ones is extra.
• 13:15
  It's not as if those are the main, the main, the real things
• 13:17
  that are going to get you to close the deal.
• 13:20
  So that's why we discussed a simple and complex sale
• 13:23
  scenario, just to realize that it has implications for how we
• 13:27
  sell. Then there was also a question
• 13:31
  about when to involve leadership on the sale because one of the
• 13:36
  sales people show rightly pointed out that, look, if
• 13:39
  relationship building is important and credibility is
• 13:41
  important, then we should be able to get extra resources from
• 13:45
  the company to close this deal. And I said, guy, you're correct.
• 13:47
  Now what kind of extra resources are we talking about?
• 13:50
  Because I was going to say brochures from the marketing
• 13:53
  department and things like that. And then he said, actually, it's
• 13:56
  not just a matter of brochure and everything, but once in a
• 13:59
  while, we suppose call Auger CEO or maybe Olga CEO to follow us
• 14:05
  to close the deal. I wanted to know, like was, was
• 14:11
  the way forward? When can we pull in CEO or CEO
• 14:16
  to close the deal? And by the way, for those of you
• 14:18
  who are owners of the company listening to this podcast, I
• 14:21
  know some of you don't want to sell, but actually it does make
• 14:24
  sense. There are times when your sales
• 14:26
  team will say Olga like man, like I don't try like I pushed
• 14:31
  it like this, like this, like this.
• 14:32
  And I think at this stage, you are the one that would tip this
• 14:35
  thing over for us to close the deal.
• 14:37
  So once in a while, if your sales team call calls you, you
• 14:42
  know, just, you know, based on faith, just go ahead.
• 14:48
  If it was a wrong call after you close the deal, you now sit down
• 14:51
  at the office and you now tell them, I look this and this and
• 14:54
  this is what you did wrong. Next time wait until like this,
• 14:56
  like this, like this before you involve me because this is
• 15:00
  something you could have closed on your own.
• 15:03
  But be in the habit as an auger, the owner of the business to be
• 15:08
  in the habit of. Be ready to always volunteer
• 15:11
  yourself when the sales team come and says auger, I'm working
• 15:15
  with a high profile something, the profile somebody.
• 15:17
  I don't feel as if I have the social cache to close this
• 15:20
  thing. But you, you know, as per CEO to
• 15:23
  CEO, if you come in this situation, I will be able to
• 15:25
  close this thing, collect good money.
• 15:27
  So once in a while, go ahead with your team.
• 15:31
  So that was the question that we now discussed.
• 15:35
  So we agree relationship building is important.
• 15:40
  We need to add credibility to the sales process.
• 15:42
  So once in a while, I should be able to go back to the business
• 15:44
  for extra resources. And sometimes the extra resource
• 15:46
  can mean head of account. Please follow me.
• 15:49
  Let me close this meeting or COO follow me.
• 15:52
  Let's close this meeting. The CEO is chief operating
• 15:54
  officer or CEO, chief executive officer.
• 15:57
  Follow me. Let's close this meeting now.
• 16:02
  This is what we arrived at. I told the team firstly show
• 16:11
  that we have to do qualification and discovery, proper
• 16:14
  qualification and discovery first before we involve senior
• 16:18
  members of the team. Because senior members of the
• 16:20
  team, they're much more preoccupied with strategic
• 16:25
  issues and typically they have their hands full.
• 16:28
  So if they follow you for a 2 hour meeting, it takes a lot out
• 16:31
  of their day. So I told him that you need to
• 16:33
  make sure that it is worth the time of your chief operating
• 16:38
  officer or your chief executive officer or your line manager or
• 16:42
  your whatever. And then we do that is by making
• 16:45
  sure you do proper and thorough qualification and discovery.
• 16:50
  That is the part of the sales relationship where you will
• 16:53
  engage in conversations and you're asking them questions to
• 16:55
  be sure you are spending time with the prospect.
• 16:58
  Who is likely to become a paying customer?
• 17:01
  There's no point in pulling orga out of a meeting or pulling Orga
• 17:05
  out of a holiday or pulling Orga out of time with his family or
• 17:09
  her family. If this is not a customer who is
• 17:11
  going, who is likely to become a paying client?
• 17:16
  So qualification and discovery, we're asking questions.
• 17:18
  We're trying to figure out do these people have a want or a
• 17:21
  need for our product or service? Can they afford the product or
• 17:25
  service? And is there a sense of urgency
• 17:27
  around their problem? Urgency just means are they
• 17:30
  ready to take decisions anytime soon?
• 17:33
  The best way that I explain it is using my experience as a
• 17:35
  wedding photographer. I can meet a bride who wants my
• 17:40
  wedding photography. She loves my wedding shooting
• 17:43
  style. She can't afford it times 2.
• 17:47
  But the problem is she doesn't have boyfriend.
• 17:50
  It has happened to me before. Somebody called me up.
• 17:53
  She's a friend of mine and she was like oh that for next year
• 18:02
  blah blah blah. I bet give me a quote.
• 18:03
  And I was like congratulations, I beg to everyone, no, no, no,
• 18:08
  please, just let's forget that. Let's just discuss.
• 18:11
  I just thought she was embarrassed that she didn't want
• 18:13
  to tell me who her boyfriend was because I'd be on her case for a
• 18:16
  while. She used to work with her Sigma
• 18:18
  pensions and I did some stuff with them.
• 18:21
  So I was always on her case like, you know, if I can get
• 18:23
  you, don't suppose marry. So I thought she was
• 18:26
  embarrassed. And then we spoke about
• 18:28
  everything. This is where her village is
• 18:31
  Abuja here like this, like this, like this, blah, blah, blah,
• 18:34
  blah, blah. And I dropped the quote and I
• 18:37
  sent it to her. And I said, our boss, seriously,
• 18:40
  now who's the lucky guy? She said he hasn't proposed yet.
• 18:44
  I said he said, yeah, he hasn't proposed yet.
• 18:47
  I'm just trying to be prepared. In other words, I wasted two
• 18:51
  hours of my life. Well, not a waste because she's
• 18:54
  my friend, so not really a waste.
• 18:58
  But let's pretend that this person is not your friend.
• 19:00
  There are situations where you can waste two hours of your life
• 19:03
  talking to somebody and preparing a proposal.
• 19:06
  Meanwhile, everything is not properly on ground.
• 19:08
  That is what qualification and discovery means.
• 19:10
  We want to make sure that everything is on ground.
• 19:12
  There's a want or a need for the product or the service.
• 19:15
  The person can afford it. Then there's a sense of urgency.
• 19:18
  We know they're likely to take action sometime soon.
• 19:21
  And as a wedding photographer, if you're spending all your time
• 19:23
  talking to people that boyfriend has not proposed, you're wasting
• 19:26
  your time. Or if boyfriend has proposed but
• 19:29
  the family has not met, you're still with.
• 19:30
  Well, it's not really. Is it a waste of time?
• 19:35
  OK, it's not really a waste of time, but it's not proximate.
• 19:38
  It's not now, now, now. The person who they have
• 19:40
  proposed to share said yes, the family has met and the family
• 19:45
  has said the wedding is going to be December 2025.
• 19:49
  That those are the kind of people that you spend time with
• 19:52
  because you see that there's a want, there's a need they can
• 19:56
  afford, There's a sense of urgency.
• 19:58
  The family has said December 25th.
• 20:00
  In fact, it is even best when. The family has gone ahead and
• 20:04
  they have booked a specific wedding hall for the reception.
• 20:07
  Those are the best people to spend time with because you can
• 20:09
  see that there's a sense of urgency.
• 20:12
  You can see that some things have happened that are time
• 20:14
  bound. So now back to the solar thing
• 20:18
  now or whatever it is that you're selling.
• 20:20
  You want to involve CEO, chief operating officer.
• 20:24
  You want to involve CEO, chief executive officer?
• 20:27
  You want to involve your line manager?
• 20:30
  Excuse me, you're head of admin or you're head of procurement or
• 20:33
  you're head of accounting. You want them to come in and
• 20:34
  help you close that deal. You make sure that the meeting
• 20:38
  you're calling them for there's a want or there's a need for
• 20:40
  your product or service. You make sure you have discussed
• 20:43
  budgetary concerns with these people and it looks like it
• 20:47
  looks like they're ready to shake body.
• 20:49
  And then you want to be clear that is a sense of urgency.
• 20:53
  If you call your secretary officer here for a meeting, the
• 20:56
  people have money, looks like they're interested.
• 21:00
  Well, then they say, well, you know, currently in 2025, we are
• 21:06
  assessing opportunities. We're thinking that this is
• 21:09
  something we'll likely take action on in the third quarter
• 21:13
  of 2028. By the time we leave that
• 21:16
  meeting, your guy will knock you on the head.
• 21:18
  I can assure you. He will say, really, my public
• 21:23
  holiday now I'm supposed to be spending time with my, my wife
• 21:26
  and my children or my husband and my children.
• 21:28
  You pulled me out for, for, for this meeting.
• 21:30
  For what when 2025 they said I'm not ready to take action until
• 21:34
  2029. You have to call me out of my
• 21:36
  holiday because of what? So that's how you know when to
• 21:41
  involve the senior brands within your organization.
• 21:44
  Make sure you have done good qualification and discovery.
• 21:47
  This whole thing of want need, afford an urgency.
• 21:50
  It's something that Brian Tracy talks about in his old material
• 21:54
  because now Uncle Brian Tracy, you know Brian Tracy, you know,
• 21:57
  in all the old. So nowadays he's talking about
• 22:00
  some so very, you know, spiritual, metaphysical, you
• 22:08
  know, new age something, something I'm like now.
• 22:11
  Now what happened to Uncle Brian Tracy now, So any his old stuff
• 22:14
  is very, very practical. If you follow his new stuff is
• 22:20
  almost like law of attraction type things like manifest it and
• 22:24
  it will appear kind of whatever if you have manifest in person.
• 22:27
  Yeah, you can be listening to Uncle Brian Tracy of today, but
• 22:30
  left to me, just pay attention to Uncle's old material.
• 22:34
  Brilliant stuff, especially the old material.
• 22:36
  So Brian Tracy of, you know, 1970 something, 1980 something,
• 22:42
  1990 something, correct stuff. So let's see what else?
• 22:48
  OK, then we also looked at effective phone conversation
• 22:51
  openers because there are some members of the team who start
• 22:54
  off a conversation by saying something like this.
• 22:56
  They will call someone Broom, broom personal answer.
• 23:00
  They will now say, oh, good morning, Sir.
• 23:01
  Thank you very much for taking my call.
• 23:03
  I realize you're very busy and this is a follow up call to find
• 23:06
  out where you're at with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:09
  The moment I heard that, I say, no, you cannot start a call like
• 23:13
  that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 23:15
  Once you call somebody, I say thank you for taking my call.
• 23:18
  You're thanking the person for taking your call you now.
• 23:20
  So I realize that you're busy. Something something when you do
• 23:24
  that man, you're already on the back foot on the defensive.
• 23:27
  You are now assuming lower socioeconomic status and I told
• 23:31
  you in Nigeria is important and we'll pick up the phone.
• 23:34
  We have to sound like I am that person's equal.
• 23:38
  I'm not saying you should sound rude or brash, but you don't
• 23:42
  always have to sound like a sales, like a houseboy or a
• 23:45
  house girl. No, that is not helping you.
• 23:48
  It is hurting you. So yes, nobody has more money
• 23:53
  than me. But if I'm on the phone, we're
• 23:54
  done with it. I will hold a decent
• 23:56
  conversation. I don't have to sound like a
• 23:59
  houseboy because he's a billionaire and you know me.
• 24:03
  I'm still counting money in hundreds of thousands.
• 24:07
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So this is what we agreed.
• 24:12
  When you're calling somebody and it's a stranger, the person is
• 24:15
  usually thinking who is who is this person calling me?
• 24:18
  How did they get my number? Why are they calling me?
• 24:22
  So your introduction should just answer all these questions.
• 24:25
  So you just say good morning. My name is adequately I'm
• 24:28
  calling you from XYZ company. We handle this is da da, da, da,
• 24:32
  da. And the reason why I'm calling
• 24:34
  is then you go straight in that way you are not losing social
• 24:40
  standing. You call you go straight into
• 24:44
  into the conversation. If the person is busy that ones
• 24:47
  I'll now tell you, oh young man, I have a lot on my plate right
• 24:49
  now. I'm busy, and if you've listened
• 24:51
  to the podcast episode from last week, you already know how to
• 24:54
  handle this. OK, Sir, it's perfectly fine.
• 24:56
  I understand that you're busy. When would you like me to call
• 25:00
  you back? That is one option.
• 25:02
  Although me, the one I prefer is OK Sir, no problem.
• 25:04
  I can call you back. I'm available tomorrow morning
• 25:07
  between 8:00 and 10:00. Can I call you back by then?
• 25:12
  But when it comes to rescheduling the call, don't say
• 25:15
  OK Sir, I'll call you back. Then you cut the call.
• 25:18
  They now try and reschedule the meeting.
• 25:20
  After you've got the call or more you enter into ghost mode
• 25:23
  or what Americans like to call text tag, which is I send you a
• 25:26
  text, you text back, I send another text, you text back or
• 25:30
  e-mail tag and send an e-mail the e-mail back.
• 25:33
  You e-mail them, Sir, what about tomorrow this other time and say
• 25:37
  no, I'm busy. You send another one, Sir, what
• 25:39
  about this other time? They reply, I'm busy.
• 25:43
  It will get things that get very, very complicated and
• 25:46
  tiring after that. So you reschedule the meeting or
• 25:49
  you reschedule the call right now that you have the person on
• 25:54
  the phone. So the woman says, young man,
• 25:57
  I'm busy, please call me back. He said, OK ma, no problem, I'll
• 26:00
  call you back. Does Wednesday 8:00 AM work for
• 26:03
  you? I mean here what she has to say.
• 26:05
  Nope, I'm going to be in transit on Wednesday.
• 26:08
  How about Thursday or Friday? I'm available for both days.
• 26:13
  It doesn't have to be an exact time, but if you're able to
• 26:15
  narrow it down to a specific day for me, I think that's good
• 26:17
  enough. If she says well sometime on
• 26:20
  Friday but she can't come into a time, no problem, then you say
• 26:23
  OK, no problem ma Friday. Is it OK if I call you back on
• 26:27
  Thursday or call your PA on Thursday to confirm our meeting?
• 26:32
  You know, so that's the scope, but you try and reschedule while
• 26:38
  you have this person on the phone, while you have this
• 26:41
  person on the Zoom call, while you have this person on the
• 26:44
  Microsoft team meeting, while you have this person face to
• 26:47
  face in the conference room, you will reschedule.
• 26:49
  Now you will say, OK, no problem, we'll reschedule.
• 26:53
  And then when they leave, you're now trying to reschedule by text
• 26:56
  or by e-mail. So let's see what else?
• 27:02
  OK, But on effective phone conversation openers, I just
• 27:04
  told them that look, my own personal preference anyway, this
• 27:07
  is what I do. Not everybody's comfortable with
• 27:09
  that. I don't bother with my name, my
• 27:11
  company and blah, blah, blah. I call and I try and confirm who
• 27:14
  I'm speaking to. So I will call and say hello, am
• 27:16
  I here speaking to adequately gold?
• 27:19
  So yes, this is adequately gold speaking.
• 27:21
  And then I'll go straight into our prior context.
• 27:24
  Oh, I met you last week at the AM VCAS and we exchanged numbers
• 27:28
  while we were talking about your property investments in Lecky
• 27:33
  and adequately gold will say, Oh, I remember, I remember
• 27:36
  Brohan how you did. I'm good.
• 27:37
  I'm good, man, I'm good. So you know that thing we're
• 27:39
  discussing now. So and then from there, just
• 27:42
  continue because quite frankly, my own opinion, people don't
• 27:47
  care your name or your company name.
• 27:49
  So I just assume that the person hasn't stored my phone number
• 27:52
  and I call, confirm I'm talking to the right person, going to
• 27:55
  the previous context, and then continue the conversation.
• 28:01
  So that's my own approach. But anyway, more about that in
• 28:04
  future podcast episodes. OK, It's 12:10 and I have to be
• 28:09
  somewhere soon. So that's it.
• 28:10
  And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to
• 28:13
  connect with me, then you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 28:16
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 28:21
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 28:23
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.