Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why You Aren't Closing: Diagnosing Poor Sales Performance

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Why You Aren't Closing: Diagnosing Poor Sales Performance · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. Today's broadcast episode is
• 0:04
  going to be a three-part series and we're going to be looking at
• 0:08
  how to deal with poor performance in sales.
• 0:12
  So this is going to be targeted at people who are employees.
• 0:17
  So you have an auger, you have a Madam, you have a sales manager,
• 0:22
  you work under a founder and entrepreneur.
• 0:25
  So today's episode is for folks like you.
• 0:29
  So you're dealing with general poor performance in your career
• 0:32
  as a salesperson. So excuse me then.
• 0:36
  Also, what to do when you have troublesome clients in
• 0:39
  particular? Now, before we continue, I'd
• 0:42
  like to crave your indulgence. Today's episode is going to be a
• 0:46
  noisy one because I'm making today's recording in the
• 0:49
  evening. And so, you know, the kids are
• 0:51
  home, wifey is home, everybody's home.
• 0:53
  So expect to hear some noise in the background because today I
• 0:56
  had a rough day. Real rough, you know, my jalopy
• 1:00
  started misbehaving and and it had to replace 2 tires and, you
• 1:05
  know, anyway, it was a long story, but we're not here to
• 1:07
  talk about my walls with my car and all that.
• 1:12
  You guys are joining me in prayer so that, you know, before
• 1:15
  the end of the year I should be driving my brand new Jeep
• 1:19
  because I can't keep living this this gay whole lifestyle.
• 1:23
  OK, where was I? So yeah.
• 1:27
  So for sales people, now you work under somebody, you answer
• 1:31
  yes, Sir, you answer yes, Madam. And you're dealing with, you
• 1:35
  have general poor performance. You know, you've been selling
• 1:38
  for a while, two months, three months, four months.
• 1:40
  You're trying, you're not hitting your quota.
• 1:43
  What's the problem? How do we diagnose what it is
• 1:45
  that is going on? And if you have some troublesome
• 1:47
  clients, especially troublesome clients who are trying to put
• 1:50
  the squeeze on you, you give them a quote.
• 1:54
  I it's too expensive. You give them discount, it's too
• 1:56
  expensive. You give another discount, it's
• 1:58
  too expensive. You give them another discount,
• 2:00
  they say it's too expensive. So what do you do now?
• 2:03
  I'm sure you've been able to figure out that the issues that
• 2:05
  I involve man is multitude. As in it is lesion as in it is
• 2:11
  poor. It is plenty.
• 2:13
  That is the reason why I'm breaking down this episode into
• 2:17
  three because if I say want to tackle everything in one
• 2:21
  episode, this episode is going to last, I don't know, maybe 2
• 2:24
  hours or so. So let's begin.
• 2:27
  The reason why we're doing this is because there's a listener of
• 2:29
  the podcast who has reached out to me.
• 2:31
  We're going to call him Fresh Prince.
• 2:33
  Of course, Fresh Prince is not his real name, but I'm trying to
• 2:38
  preserve his identity. But of course, if you are
• 2:42
  listening to this podcast episode and you suspect that it
• 2:46
  is about you, then yes, it's about you, Fresh Prince.
• 2:51
  All right. So Fresh Prince is someone who
• 2:54
  is based in Lagos. He's been selling for a while
• 2:58
  with a new employer. They sell roofing sheets and
• 3:02
  he's been suffering from general poor performance for the last
• 3:05
  three months. And he has one troublesome
• 3:07
  client in particular. Now, when it comes to diagnosing
• 3:10
  what's going on when you have poor performance, unfortunately
• 3:14
  it can't be any number of things.
• 3:16
  Now, remember, I regard myself as a doctor of sorts.
• 3:21
  I'm a doctor of businesses. And just like other doctors,
• 3:26
  when you go to see the doctor, the doctor has to ask you a
• 3:29
  couple of questions. And the reason why the doctor
• 3:32
  asks you a couple of questions is because the body is a system.
• 3:36
  You know, there's the circulatory system, there's the
• 3:39
  muscular system, there's the lymphatic system, there's the
• 3:44
  what else, You know, all the different systems, the
• 3:46
  respiratory system, digestive system, you know, so all these
• 3:49
  systems working together. So when the doctor asks you
• 3:54
  questions, he's trying to tease apart which, you know, like
• 3:57
  where is the problem exactly? Where is it coming from?
• 4:01
  So we can now come up with a plan of attack and how to heal
• 4:06
  the person. So it's the same thing.
• 4:09
  If you're going to approach me just like Fresh Prince did, and
• 4:13
  we're trying to figure out why is your performance poor?
• 4:15
  You know, unfortunately there are too many things that we can
• 4:18
  be that we have to look at now one way, one area that I like to
• 4:23
  look at is the area of targeting.
• 4:26
  Targeting just means, you know, who am I running after, Who am I
• 4:29
  chasing? Because we want to be sure that
• 4:31
  we're talking to quality prospects, quality people who
• 4:37
  might be interested in the product or the service or who
• 4:39
  need the product or service. We want to be talking to people
• 4:42
  who are the ideal customer because there's no amount of
• 4:47
  talking to the wrong person that will make you end up getting a
• 4:51
  good deal out of it. Now, for those of you who
• 4:53
  listened to the podcast last week, you remember the episode
• 4:55
  where I spoke about one of my colleagues.
• 4:57
  That was back when I sold insurance and he and the line
• 5:03
  manager walked into the building and and they were accosted by
• 5:06
  the security guard. And anyway, sure, the guy ended
• 5:09
  up getting into a conversation with the security guard over
• 5:12
  insurance products. And so the line manager when
• 5:15
  they go back to the office, well, not when they go back to
• 5:17
  the office at the next Monday meeting, decided to blast the
• 5:19
  guy in front of all of us. So some of you are suffering
• 5:23
  from poor performance because you're not, your targeting is
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  off. In fact, some of you are not
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  even targeting at all anybody where they breathe, anybody
• 5:31
  where they move. You just say, OK, maybe this
• 5:33
  person might need it, maybe this person might need it, but no,
• 5:35
  that's not the case. So that give yourself roofing
• 5:39
  sheets, You know, you can't just be chasing every single Tom,
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  Dick and Harry or every Sarah, Celestina and Shirley or
• 5:51
  whatever the female equivalent is.
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  You have to be looking for people who match your ideal
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  customer profile. So is this really going to fall
• 6:02
  into people you know, within a certain demographic?
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  I remember in Nigeria, as they taught us in social studies,
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  when you say demographic, you mean general characteristics of
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  a population or a group of people or a set of people you
• 6:16
  know, their age, their occupation, their sex, their,
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  you know, whatever. So if you're selling roofing
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  sheets or whatever it is you're selling, you're selling
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  insurance, you're selling consulting services, you're
• 6:25
  selling architecture, there's, you know, a certain demographic.
• 6:28
  Like if you're an architect, for instance, you know, I doubt your
• 6:31
  ICP is anybody who is under 20 years old because people who are
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  under 20 years old, you know, do they hire an architect?
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  Do they have enough money to build a house or to build a
• 6:40
  factory or to build a whatever? So you will find no matter your
• 6:44
  industry, like if you're an architect, you will find that
• 6:48
  your ideal customer is somebody of a certain age who live in
• 6:53
  certain kinds of places, who earn a certain amount of money.
• 6:58
  All that is demographics. Then psychographics are, you
• 7:02
  know, stuff that people are interested in, you know, their
• 7:04
  hobbies, their passions, their interests, you know, stuff like
• 7:07
  that. So try and figure it out.
• 7:12
  If you sell roofing sheets, you sell architecture, you sell
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  consulting services. If you're a sport sporting
• 7:18
  agent, a sport coach or whatever, figure it out.
• 7:22
  Who's your ideal customer. Now, one way that I tell people
• 7:26
  to try and figure this out is first of all, talk to the people
• 7:29
  who are senior in your organization.
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  You'd be surprised the number of people who join an organization
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  and who do not consult with the senior people.
• 7:37
  So you come into an organization, excuse me, you're
• 7:40
  coming brand new. You've been selling for three
• 7:41
  months. There are people who are there
• 7:43
  who have been selling for three years, you suppose call them,
• 7:48
  say, Bros, senior Igbo, you know, whatever you call them.
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  I have a chat. I'm new.
• 7:58
  I've been seeing you around. I've heard good things about
• 8:00
  you. I admire you, Sir.
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  I want to be a capable salesperson just like you are.
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  I'm struggling. I beg.
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  I have one or two questions. And then you start asking the
• 8:11
  person that, look, come. So when we're selling these
• 8:14
  things, who are the kind of people that we should even be
• 8:16
  chasing? Now the thing about salespeople
• 8:18
  is salespeople always like to pay forward.
• 8:21
  I, I don't even understand the psychology.
• 8:23
  I don't know. But The thing is when you ask
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  most salespeople, they will give you time and they will talk.
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  I just don't know why salespeople would like to help
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  ourselves. They will tell you.
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  And when the seniors in the organization, when I say seniors
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  now, I just mean people have been selling longer than you.
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  By the time you talk to two or three people and then they break
• 8:45
  it down, OK, no, these are the people we go after.
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  These are the people we go after.
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  These are the people we go after.
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  This is how we go after them. I'm telling you, man, you'll
• 8:53
  make your job a whole lot easier because you coming in as a brand
• 8:58
  new person, you just their freestyle like you're just
• 9:00
  trying your luck. You will try try, try hustle,
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  hustle. But the people who've been doing
• 9:07
  it for a while, one year, 2 years, three years, they'll give
• 9:12
  you the right perspective that no be going after these people,
• 9:17
  these kind of people, they no get money.
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  Well, if you go after these kind of people, this is how you do
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  it. Once you see how I put it.
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  Now, once you make sure that your targeting is on point and
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  you're talking to the right people, you're trying to figure
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  out quality prospects. You know the job will will
• 9:33
  improve, you will get better. Then another thing we're going
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  to look at when we're trying to deal with this whole thing of
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  poor performance is advancements.
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  Advancements is the dynamic between a buyer and a seller,
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  where the seller, that is you, the salesperson, or you, the
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  business person is able to get the other person to agree on a
• 9:57
  mutually beneficial next step. Advancement just means if I'm
• 10:02
  talking to somebody, I want to sell roofing sheets, I want to
• 10:05
  sell architectural services, I want to sell solar.
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  If I'm able to get that a person to agree to a next step, that is
• 10:14
  an advancement. Lots of you are talking to the
• 10:18
  right people, quality prospects much you're bad at setting
• 10:21
  advancements. You don't know how to get the
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  person to commit to the next step, right.
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  The problem is a lot of you don't even you don't have you
• 10:31
  don't map the trajectory in your head.
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  You don't know how this thing is supposed to flow.
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  Excuse me now, let me give you the example of back when I was
• 10:39
  in the wedding space, I liked talking to people.
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  So I preferred to go for wedding shows.
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  Wedding shows, you know, bridal exhibition, you know, business
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  Expos. I like to go in for those sorts
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  of things. And this was how I mapped the
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  thing in my head. You get there, lots of people
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  are on the floor. So you go to mingle, you go to
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  schmooze. That's Step 1.
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  You talk to some interesting people.
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  You will now pull them back to your table.
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  From the people who get to your table, you will try and collect
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  phone number or e-mail address. From the phone number or the
• 11:21
  e-mail address that you collect after the event, you will call
• 11:26
  up a couple of people and you go try arrange meeting.
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  From the meetings that you arrange, you will try to do
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  what's it called people to look at samples.
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  You look at albums, you look at photo frames, you look at this,
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  you look at that. Then from there you will send
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  some people proposal for the people that you send proposal or
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  quotation. You will now try and close those
• 11:54
  people. So can you see that when I was
• 11:57
  approaching those things in my mind I have already mapped it
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  out in my head that this is how the thing will flow.
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  A lot of you are trying to sell. You don't even have that mental
• 12:10
  map in your head, the trajectory, you don't even know
• 12:13
  how the thing flows now. If you're brand new, you've
• 12:16
  never sold this thing before. You've never sold roofing sheets
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  before, No problem. The confusion is perfectly
• 12:21
  normal. That's the reason why I say a
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  lot of you talk to your senior. You come in, you've been there
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  two months. If somebody has been there one
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  year, talk to your senior. Your seniors don't want to talk
• 12:35
  to you. Talk to your line manager.
• 12:37
  These are legitimate questions. The organ line manager, I am
• 12:41
  struggling at the form anyhow. Who are the quality people we
• 12:45
  should be chasing? Oh, these are the people.
• 12:48
  OK, OK. But then like normally, how do
• 12:52
  this deal normally flow? How does the thing flow?
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  Like you ask the person, once you know that, OK, these are the
• 12:59
  kind of people we're chasing, and then in your mind, you now
• 13:02
  know that OK, this is how the team normally flow.
• 13:05
  You'll be able to package and I put it now you will to arrange
• 13:09
  yourself, well, when you're talking to somebody, you will
• 13:12
  know that, OK, this is the stage where I am.
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  This is the stage that I'm supposed to be moving them to.
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  So remember what I said, advancements, 2 people mutually
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  agree. This is the next step.
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  So if I jam somebody on the floor and I said, oh, I hope you
• 13:32
  don't mind, I have a couple of samples at the table.
• 13:34
  Let's just come have a look. You see, I know now that we are
• 13:38
  on the floor, the next stage is bring them to the table and the
• 13:42
  person says, Oh yeah, sure. I'd like to look at samples.
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  Know the advancement be that advancements we come to the
• 13:47
  table, we talk a little bit more or I really would love to be one
• 13:53
  of the vendors to you know sort you out for a wedding blah blah
• 13:56
  blah. Hope you don't mind dropping
• 13:58
  your contact details phone number preferably.
• 14:01
  Some people say no, I don't give phone number OK, no problem I'll
• 14:03
  collect their e-mail address so can you see advancements next
• 14:06
  step collect phone number then call them afterwards.
• 14:11
  Hey, how are you doing? Am I speaking with dial?
• 14:13
  He has this dial Who is this? Oh, this is the photographer
• 14:16
  that he spoke to. That's also I'm sorry.
• 14:17
  I spoke to lots of photographers that day.
• 14:19
  Now. Yeah, it's understandable.
• 14:21
  I understand. It's me, the Ben Ray boy.
• 14:23
  Oh, the Ben Ray boy. What is that your name again?
• 14:25
  What? Tava Shimas.
• 14:28
  This Your name is Hado. And no problem.
• 14:30
  Just call me Mr. T. It's fine.
• 14:31
  Yeah, Mr. TI, remember you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
• 14:34
  blah. Yeah.
• 14:38
  So the last time we spoke, it's like you like this sample.
• 14:41
  That sample, you know, it's your fiance available.
• 14:45
  Let's take this conversation further.
• 14:49
  Yeah, I can come by the office. I can come by the house.
• 14:51
  You want to come by my studio? Like, you see, like advancement,
• 14:54
  advancement, advancement. Excuse me, because I have the
• 14:58
  mind map. I know where I am now, and I
• 15:00
  know what the next step should be.
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  And so I could inch them forward.
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  Small, small, small. Just they inch them.
• 15:07
  Just they push them. Advancements, securing
• 15:14
  commitments. That's it.
• 15:18
  So some of you, your targeting is on point.
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  You're talking to quality people, but you have no idea
• 15:22
  about advancements. So you just talk to people and
• 15:25
  then you keep quiet and then smile.
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  And then of course the other person says, oh, thanks for your
• 15:29
  time. Let me think about it.
• 15:30
  You didn't suggest the next step, but that's the reason why
• 15:32
  they're saying let me think about it.
• 15:34
  And then they're ghosting you and then they're disappearing.
• 15:37
  So you're the subject matter expert.
• 15:39
  Take control of this of this situation, take control of this
• 15:44
  relationship. Always be saying the next step
• 15:47
  you finish, you summarize that oh, OK, oh, so this is you
• 15:50
  addressed it in that oh, no problem.
• 15:52
  Looks like some who can do OK, so the next step is or this is
• 15:57
  what I propose we do next, take charge and just say it.
• 16:00
  What's the worst that will happen?
• 16:02
  Those will happen is that somebody will snob you.
• 16:04
  OK, no problem. People are snobbing.
• 16:06
  You talk to your seniors, you learn how to secure commitments
• 16:11
  and to gain advancements. You learn how to do it better.
• 16:15
  Eventually they will be clicking and this is how we get better.
• 16:19
  Now some of you are good. You're talking to quality
• 16:21
  prospects. You know how to set
• 16:22
  advancements. But the problem is your
• 16:24
  conversational frameworks are whack.
• 16:27
  The conversational frameworks are zero.
• 16:30
  You don't know how to build rapport.
• 16:31
  You don't know how to build trust.
• 16:32
  You don't know how to build credibility.
• 16:34
  You don't know how to do need analysis.
• 16:37
  So let me go back to rapport. Rapport is just when, you know,
• 16:41
  una de flu, you get me like una de flu, una de vibe, you know,
• 16:45
  like, oh, OK, I'm a correct person.
• 16:47
  You, you're a correct person. I'm a reasonable human being.
• 16:49
  You're a reasonable human being. You know, that's just rapport.
• 16:53
  We're blending. Then trust you get to show that
• 16:59
  you truly are the subject matter expert so people can relax
• 17:02
  around you and they can talk for real because you're a
• 17:06
  professional. So no matter what it is, you can
• 17:09
  handle it. Have some good advice for them
• 17:11
  Then credibility credibly just means how do I put it now
• 17:15
  credibility means you appear credible.
• 17:19
  How will I say Now credibility just means like you look the
• 17:21
  part, you look the part. So if it is events, event
• 17:25
  photography, you look like you know photography.
• 17:32
  If it is architecture, credibility means like you look
• 17:35
  like you are architecture, you look like if you sit down with a
• 17:42
  pencil, like magic will come out by the time you draw your
• 17:45
  designs. So that's credibility.
• 17:48
  So some of you don't know how to channel the conversation so that
• 17:52
  you'll achieve rapport so that the person will look at you and
• 17:55
  say this guy is a reasonable somebody or this baby is a
• 17:58
  reasonable somebody. You won't be able to achieve
• 18:01
  trust, you won't be able to achieve credibility.
• 18:04
  You don't have conversation frameworks for that.
• 18:06
  Then some of you don't have conversational frameworks for
• 18:08
  doing need analysis, need analysis, just figuring out what
• 18:11
  do these people want? Do they have a problem?
• 18:14
  How big is the problem? It's something that all of us
• 18:18
  should be doing as sales professionals.
• 18:20
  If you're an architect, you need to figure out, you know, where
• 18:24
  are you talking to what exactly? What kind of building are they
• 18:26
  trying to build? OK, this kind of building
• 18:29
  itself, does this person resemble personally get money,
• 18:34
  You know, it's all part of a conversation.
• 18:36
  What do they want? What do they need?
• 18:39
  Is this a serious problem? Are they just curious?
• 18:42
  Are they just worker pass? You need to know some of you
• 18:44
  don't have conversations. Sorry, conversation frameworks
• 18:47
  for that. When I say framework, I just
• 18:49
  mean a yardstick, A guideline, just something that you have in
• 18:54
  a sheet of paper or some simple frameworks that you have in your
• 18:56
  head that will be guiding you. That's the reason why I keep
• 18:59
  talking about bands on the podcast.
• 19:00
  I've been talking about band recently.
• 19:02
  It's an acronym, Budget Authority, needs timelines.
• 19:06
  You need to be having bunch of conversations with people.
• 19:09
  You need to try and figure out, you know, what their money
• 19:11
  expectations are. You need to figure out whether
• 19:14
  you're talking to the person who can make the right decision.
• 19:16
  That's the authority. You need to figure out whether
• 19:19
  there is an actual need because some people come to you and they
• 19:22
  are just curious. There's some people who come and
• 19:24
  ask you about roofing sheets. It's not as if you want to buy
• 19:26
  roofing sheets now. They're just curious, that's
• 19:29
  all. Maybe their auntie is building a
• 19:32
  home in the village and you know, they're just curious like,
• 19:35
  oh, what do roofing sheets cost? By the way?
• 19:38
  Just curious. If you don't have frameworks for
• 19:42
  engaging these people in conversation, you won't know who
• 19:44
  am I dealing with? So do some need analysis, do
• 19:47
  some qualification? BANT is a simple framework
• 19:51
  because it just has four elements.
• 19:53
  Budget, authority, need timelines.
• 19:55
  Have we discussed money? Have we discussed the person who
• 19:58
  is building the house or who's going to authorize the payment?
• 20:01
  Have we discussed their needs? What kind of roofing sheets?
• 20:04
  What kind of roofing tile do they need?
• 20:05
  Have we discussed timelines? Have they actually started
• 20:09
  building the house? Where is the house?
• 20:12
  Is it a foundation stage? Somebody who is asking about
• 20:15
  roofing sheets and they only did groundbreaking ceremony ceremony
• 20:18
  this week, realistically. Sorry about the noise.
• 20:23
  You know all that honking, you know, I told you I'm recording
• 20:25
  at home and you know, OK, there's a problem in living
• 20:29
  estates with other people, you know, parking is always an
• 20:33
  issue. So the guy does the provoke and
• 20:35
  sorry, I hope the honking isn't coming in too much in the
• 20:38
  recording anyway. What was that?
• 20:41
  So timelines and urgency. So if you sell roofing sheets,
• 20:43
  but you're talking to somebody and they just did groundbreaking
• 20:46
  ceremony today, man, nothing for you, at least not now.
• 20:50
  Because the person that did groundbreaking ceremony today,
• 20:52
  the first thing that will need to do is to raise money for
• 20:55
  foundation. And of course foundation takes
• 20:57
  up a lot of the budget. Then after they do foundation do
• 21:01
  now raise. After they raise, they will now
• 21:03
  do decking. It is after they do decking and
• 21:06
  then they do wiring and trunking that they now start talking
• 21:08
  about roof. So we need to have conversations
• 21:11
  about timelines and urgency. OK?
• 21:13
  Do they need this thing? OK, What's their timeline?
• 21:16
  Somebody who just did groundbreaking ceremony, the
• 21:18
  journey is still far. Somebody who's at the decking
• 21:21
  stage and asking you about a roofing sheets.
• 21:23
  OK, good. Now I get here somewhere at
• 21:26
  least they don't do decking by the time they finish wiring and
• 21:29
  everything, I want to make sure that you know, I'm one of those
• 21:32
  people that they got my number on speed dial to say, OK, we're
• 21:36
  ready now. Then also other conversation
• 21:43
  frameworks that you need to guide you through proposals on
• 21:47
  presentations. How do you make a presentation
• 21:50
  when you're in front of someone? Now, presentations don't have to
• 21:53
  be formal with PDFs and PowerPoints.
• 21:57
  So yes, you remember the episode I spoke about Cinderella, again,
• 22:00
  not her real name, who sells solar, solar and inverter
• 22:08
  systems. Excuse me, solar inverter
• 22:11
  systems in Lagos. So for someone like her, yes,
• 22:14
  proposal or presentation means PDF and PowerPoint and stuff
• 22:18
  like that. But for people like Fresh Prince
• 22:20
  who sell roofing sheets, yeah, proposal or presentation
• 22:24
  sometimes just means you're actually on site and you're
• 22:27
  holding different shingles and you say, oh, God, this one are
• 22:29
  clay baking, this one, zinc, this one and this, this one and
• 22:32
  that, you know, now proposal be that.
• 22:34
  Now presentation be that. So not all presentations are,
• 22:37
  you know, under AC with PowerPoint, some of you don't
• 22:42
  have a framework for how to handle those sorts of
• 22:45
  conversations. That's the reason where you
• 22:47
  will. That's where you are suffering.
• 22:53
  And then of course, you guys don't have, some of you don't
• 22:56
  have a framework for closing. But I don't pay too much
• 23:01
  attention to closing because if you do this, if you do the
• 23:05
  foundation, well, the close just becomes the next logical step.
• 23:09
  If you're talking to the right people, they are the ideal
• 23:12
  customer. You have been securing
• 23:14
  advancements. You build rapport, trust and
• 23:17
  credibility. You made an effective proposal
• 23:21
  then the clothes will now just be a simple matter of OK, so
• 23:23
  Chief, it looks like you prefer this clay bake something from
• 23:28
  Switzerland Abbey, that's the one that you're looking at.
• 23:32
  OK, So Chief, so if this is the one that we're looking at, is
• 23:34
  there is there anything stopping us from moving ahead or Chief,
• 23:41
  you look at you like this clay, whatever.
• 23:44
  But OK, Chief, he's looking like you like this clay shingle.
• 23:48
  But I notice they've also been looking at this other one.
• 23:51
  So Chief just leveled me like what's going on?
• 23:54
  Is it that you really like this one, but you think this other
• 23:56
  one is more effective? And then you hear what Chief has
• 23:58
  to say. But from there, you're narrowing
• 24:01
  things down. You're making helping Chief to
• 24:04
  take the next logical step. Closing just becomes not a hard
• 24:10
  and fast technique. You're just simply walking
• 24:13
  people through the next logical step.
• 24:16
  So with the with my students, I try to make sure that we lay the
• 24:20
  foundation well. When you lay the foundation
• 24:22
  well, closing is easy. OK, not easy.
• 24:25
  Closing is easier then put it that way.
• 24:30
  So summary, if you are in this position like Fresh Prince,
• 24:36
  honestly speaking, honestly speaking, I don't like to
• 24:43
  promise people, Mike, there is no magic.
• 24:47
  I will tell you in one conversation that will solve
• 24:48
  your problem because we actually need to sit down and do a
• 24:51
  detailed consultation. We do.
• 24:56
  It's not just that I'm trying to collect money from you.
• 24:59
  Oh yes, I am. Believe me this, I pay my bills,
• 25:01
  I'm trying to collect money from you.
• 25:02
  But The thing is, with all these things that I've mentioned, now
• 25:05
  how do you want me to just listen to you for 5 minutes and
• 25:08
  just say, oh, here's your problem, problem solved.
• 25:11
  Or more, It is complicated, seriously complicated.
• 25:16
  OK, maybe it's not complicated, but it's not as simple as you
• 25:19
  think. We need to sit down.
• 25:21
  We need to have series of conversations.
• 25:24
  I'll try and get you to root of the thing.
• 25:28
  If your targeting is off, we need to work on that.
• 25:30
  If your targeting is correct, your conversational frameworks
• 25:35
  are OK, but you don't know how to set advancements, we're good.
• 25:38
  Need to work on that and that is not something that we're going
• 25:41
  to solve in a 5 minute conversation.
• 25:44
  So unfortunately we need a detailed consultation for that.
• 25:51
  Or you do what some people have done because someone reached out
• 25:55
  to me today, She sent me an e-mail so I can't remember her
• 25:57
  name or she told me that she has gone all the way back to 2020
• 26:02
  when the podcast started and she's listening from there.
• 26:06
  So yeah, if you have the time, OK, go back to 2020 and keep
• 26:10
  listening. Eventually you will get to the
• 26:12
  podcast episodes where I have discussed all these different
• 26:18
  stages, all these different things, but we need a detailed
• 26:24
  consultation to figure it out. What's the problem?
• 26:26
  You don't know your ideal customer profile.
• 26:29
  You don't know who the main people are, You don't know who
• 26:31
  the quality contacts are. Is it that you're not doing the
• 26:37
  right prospecting motions, you're not talking to people
• 26:39
  well, you're not advancing the conversations?
• 26:42
  Is that you don't know what selling frameworks are.
• 26:44
  You don't even know which one to use to do all these things we're
• 26:49
  going to have. We need to have a couple of
• 26:50
  conversations because I need some data.
• 26:54
  I need some information. I need to look at your closing
• 26:57
  ratios. On average, how many people do
• 26:59
  you talk to? How many deals do you close?
• 27:02
  I need to look at that the more some other data that I need is
• 27:08
  when we say data will just me information, nothing fancy.
• 27:12
  I need to look at your emails. OK, how many emails are you
• 27:14
  sending? What kinds of emails are you
• 27:16
  sending? Who did you send e-mail to last?
• 27:19
  Which e-mail pained you the most?
• 27:20
  OK, which e-mail worked as we need to look around.
• 27:23
  Let me have a look at your WhatsApp.
• 27:25
  Give me a phone. Don't worry all your love
• 27:29
  messages, I'll just ignore them. It's just the one that is just
• 27:32
  the one for the customers that I'm looking for.
• 27:34
  You know, if you're not in Abuja with me, that's not a problem.
• 27:37
  You know, send me screenshots, let's let's have a look or do a
• 27:41
  Zoom call and then you share your screen.
• 27:43
  Let me look at those WhatsApp messages, Let's see what's going
• 27:45
  on. I'm trying to look under the
• 27:46
  hood to figure out what's going on.
• 27:48
  Let me see your WhatsApp messages.
• 27:50
  If you have ACRM, a customer relationship management tool.
• 27:53
  Oh fantastic, give me access. Let me have a look.
• 27:56
  Let's see what's going on. Who have you been talking to?
• 27:59
  What are the conversations like? Where are you working if you're
• 28:05
  super sophisticated and you know you've been doing call recording
• 28:08
  and stuff like that? By the way, you can only record
• 28:11
  in Nigeria with people's permission.
• 28:13
  So if you've been recording phone calls without people's
• 28:15
  permission, you are doing something that is wrong.
• 28:18
  And if people find out, they will be severely pissed.
• 28:21
  So it's not something I would recommend.
• 28:27
  Let me just put it that way, because I was dealing with one
• 28:29
  salesperson and the guy was like, oh, I recorded the phone
• 28:32
  calls. I say what he said, yeah, I
• 28:34
  recorded the phone call. I said, did you tell them?
• 28:37
  He said, no, I didn't know. It's just simple.
• 28:38
  There's an app on my phone. I just record.
• 28:40
  I had to tell the guy. I had to tell the guy that look,
• 28:45
  in Nigeria is illegal. Before you record, like tell
• 28:48
  somebody. I hope you don't mind.
• 28:51
  I'm trying to keep up with the conversation, blah, blah, blah,
• 28:53
  blah, blah. And so hope you don't mind if I
• 28:56
  make a recording like it's that simple.
• 28:58
  Just just tell them. Just tell them and the person
• 29:02
  said no, don't record me. Don't record.
• 29:03
  Just say I Bros no vex and well, no problem.
• 29:06
  I'll just make some notes. Hope you don't mind.
• 29:08
  And then you just continue. But please tell them anyway.
• 29:13
  Even though I told the guy don't do it again.
• 29:15
  Still I was curious. I said OK, recorded conversation
• 29:17
  and say yes, OK, no problem. Give me the call recording and
• 29:19
  let me listen. Let's let's show we can achieve.
• 29:21
  Let's show we can do. But please don't be don't don't
• 29:25
  be recording any word without their without their permission.
• 29:30
  Everybody's, you know this Niger everybody's mind is hot.
• 29:34
  You find out that somebody has recording be recording your
• 29:36
  call, your conversation. They didn't tell you big.
• 29:39
  It's going to get nasty anyway. So these are the kinds of things
• 29:44
  that we need to look at before we can figure out that OK,
• 29:50
  general poor performance. How do we cure it?
• 29:56
  So like I said for breaking this into three parts, I'm going to
• 29:58
  stop here. When we pick up tomorrow, we're
• 30:03
  going to look at this whole matter of Fresh Prince has been
• 30:07
  with this roofing sheet company for three months and the guy has
• 30:10
  not been closing sales. We're going to look into this
• 30:14
  matter in small, in a small in depth way because I have some
• 30:21
  suspicions. So we'll discuss some of those,
• 30:24
  my suspicions tomorrow. So if you'd love to get in touch
• 30:28
  with me, just like Fresh Prince did, you can call me.
• 30:31
  You can send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on
• 30:34
  08064662140. So that's it.
• 30:40
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 30:41
  I'll catch you all some other time.