Can You Really Close Every Deal? Facing Sales Disappointments & Knowing When to Walk Away

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm taking today's episode at my desk and today is it's a full house today. So definitely there's going to be one or two interruptions while we are recording. Now, the goal of this show is free business education. So this is your first time listening to the podcast. You are in the right place. Please share, promote and talk about the podcast so that friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle.

They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube or Apple or any player of your choice. And if you have any sales or marketing questions, then bring them to me. Call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140. Now today's episode is not going to be a structured one at all, at all at all. That's because it's a public holiday over here. Full house, you know, sister-in-law, uncle in law as in everybody Shah. So the house is full and it's been an activity filled day and I had something else to record.

But then I noticed that another listener of the podcast Blessing Chi name Mellum, some really interesting surnames. I've never come across this surname before. So Blessing, I hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. Blessing Chi name Mellum. I would have assumed that Blessing is female, but back when we lived in Lagos, once he had a mechanic and his name was Blessing, you know, a guy. So Blessing is unisex, so let me not assume.

So Blessing, she named Melum listens on Spotify, liked one of the episodes, but then she asked the question or he asked the question. And so I responded over there. But I figured, you know, I suppose come and make the podcast episode so that those of you who listened to that episode, if you guys had any unanswered questions, perhaps this might help. Now that was a podcast episode that I spoke about getting advancements in conversations with potential customers because lots of you enter into conversations with potential customers and you don't have a plan.

So, you know, you say something in your proposal, you just keep quiet. And then they say, let me get back to you, Let me think about it, Let me consult with my pastor or send me an e-mail, drop the proposal on my desk, you know, all those kinds of things. And then the interaction doesn't go anywhere. So the solution that I was trying to propose and I used and event example is to show how at every single step of the way you should be gaining advancements.

An advancement is just an agreement between you and the potential customer about what we are going to do next. What the next step is going to be, am I supposed to send you something? Are you going to send me something? Are we supposed to do something jointly together? Are we supposed to have another meeting to discuss ABC or XYZ? But bottom line, the philosophy is this, whenever you're having an engagement with a potential customer at the end of this current meeting, we should already be agreeing on what the next step is.

If you don't agree on the next step, that is when we now enter into that hole, the person is ghosting you or they say send me proposal, you send proposal, then they're not answering their phone, you know, and all that funny business. So so long as you guys agree on what the next clear step is, in principle, it should be easy to follow up on those sorts of conversations and people should answer your phone because you're not just being a pest, but because there actually was a clear agreed upon next step.

And the average person would actually like, oh, oh, bio, you know what? I beg. No, Vex, I totally forgot. Was supposed to have seen, was supposed to have this was supposed to have that. You know, there's a clear thing to the conversation, unlike when somebody says or send me a proposal, you send a proposal, you don't agree on what the next step is supposed to be. And then the person calls you. Since there's no clear agenda and the person is not ready yet to start talking about pricing,

of course the person will just ignore you. So these are some of the reasons why things quickly enter into ghost mode and we're trying to do business is because we haven't gotten advancements, we haven't gotten next clear steps. If you don't quite understand what it is that I'm saying, then, you know, just reach out. I give my phone number at the beginning, at the end of every episode. But I think I've made enough episodes on this to try and try explain the whole thing.

Or maybe what you can do is you can check YouTube, just Google Tavi Shima, Tavi Shima podcast advancement or Tavi Shima podcast Next step. And then any episode that I've made around these topics over the 1100 episodes that I've done so far should come out, you listen and hopefully you should get caught up to speed. So summary, if we're getting advancements with our potential customers and clients, then people ghosting should reduce.

The example that I gave was in the wedding space, in the invent space. I can't quite remember the details, but I know it was something on my wife's show. My wife likes to watch Real Housewives any Real Housewives show. My wife has watched it Real Housewives of Lagos. She has watched The Real Housewives of Lekki. She has watched the Real Housewives of VI. She has watched the Real Housewives of Poland. She has watched Real Housewives Washington DC Bottlomac blab.

She has watched all of them. There's no one she's watching now. It's Real Housewives of I think Salt Lake City. These people are Mormons. That's Church of the latter Day scenes. In fact, when I saw it, I was weak. I say, hey, even moments. They're now doing their own version. So my wife is watching Asia. And then there's another listener of the show who was surprised to find out that my wife watches these things and she said that it is premium entertainment.

That's what she said, premium entertainment. I don't see how this thing is premium. But anyway, Asia, that's beside the point. So was one of these Real Housewives things I think was Real Housewives of Potomac. I think when Porsche was supposed to have a birthday. Porsche has now find you like this correct babe as a very fine babe, but I don't know the person that she's person that she's following is a useless man. Like the guy is paid off shock,

but the guy you know you know people that like to donate anyhow, people that have girlfriend everywhere. You know 1004 they have girlfriend or Zumba and by the way, they have girlfriend Ekeja, they have girlfriend Yabba, they have girlfriend as in every part of town they have girlfriends who is one of those guys and that's the person she now decided she's going to marry and now have children. For some women, you don't pity yourself.

The person has been depositing all over town. That's the person you now decide that is the person I will marry. Anyway, these are the things about watching on Desperate Housewives. I'll be is it Desperate Housewives or something? So I can't remember the name. So portion has a they're pregnant now, they're about to have a baby and they're now planning baby shower. So a baby reveal. So that was the example that I gave another episode.

So basically what I was trying to say. So hold on, let me see. I think it's a call coming through. OK, I'll call the guy back. Doesn't want to be sure it was not an emergency. So basically what I was trying to say was that the way that the wedding planner, the event planner handled that episode was not pure because the way the person handled it, Portia and her husband could have said, you know what, let me think about it.

And then goes them. I wouldn't have heard back. So I was given examples about how the proper way to handle this thing and to guide it through, especially since Portia was feeling the guy. She liked all the ideas. But then baby daddy, I can't remember the guy's name, the father of her, her child, you know, the guy was all squeezing face up and down, you know, understandably, because Portia is saying, yes, I like this, yes, I like this.

And I'm sure baby daddy was thinking this is thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars. That is a very simple kind of scenario where people can enter into ghost mode because wifey is saying, yes, yes, yes, your husband is squeezing face. You're not asking the relevant questions. You are not trying to gain any advancement. And then, of course, the husband was saying, and Portia likes it. OK, no problem, send me the e-mail.

So excuse me from sending the e-mail. Now, that's how you enter into ghost mode. So I'm trying to give suggestions about how you can keep these kinds of things on track. Now, this is where Blessing Cheney Malone enters the story. So Blessing is like, no problem. Makes sense. Well, blessing happened. Blessing said what will not happen next if we secure advancements. We agree that the next step is this. But then the people now start ghosting you even though you've agreed.

So let's say in this case, you've agreed that the next step is maybe they're supposed to come over to your studio. OK, No, no studio. If you're an event planner, you will have OK, office, come over to the office. Come and look at samples. So you guys agree. Monday 10:30. Let's say Friday because I'm a fan of sending people reminders or so you know, Friday you send a message. Lovely meeting we had. Looking forward to working with you guys.

Looking forward to making this wonderful, this baby review spectacular. So looking forward to seeing you guys at my office. 10 AM here. The address details again, just in case you've forgotten. Send, send that kind of reminder Monday morning set another, another reminder all looking forward to our meeting today, blah, blah, blah. You know, in anticipation of this, I've already laid out a couple of samples where you come.

We'll look at fabrics, we'll look at guest seating. Something, something something send. Then maybe like around that kind nine since the meeting is 1030, you now boss just to confirm. But then they didn't answer. No problem. You sent 2 reminders. 10:00 Now you didn't hear anything. 10:30 you didn't see anybody. 1035 you pick up your phone, you boss, no answer. You now send text message. 11:00 You didn't see anybody because these sorts of things happen.

You guys have agreed on what the next step is. Wash our people just goes to you. So Blessing Chinamelum wants to know what do we do next? So first of all, I have to apologize about something. The way I talk about things on the podcast, I guess sometimes I give you guys the impression on that some of these things is magic, like it's mathematics. And if you do 1 + 2 + 3, then the result is Abby 1 + 2 is 3, 3 + 3 is six, 6 + 4 is 10.

So I've given some of you the impression that 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10. That doesn't always happen. But this is sales. Sometimes it doesn't happen like that. Sometimes you go from 1:00 to 10:00. There's some deals that are close like that. Sometimes you go from 1234 and then you end up starting back from one again. What do you think is we're supposed to be adopting best sales practice because we're trying to improve the odds in our favour, but there's no way that we can guarantee the result.

So when it comes to sales, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 is not always going to equal 10. The fact that you have followed all the steps correctly does not mean that you have clue you're going to close the deal, but it just means that over time with the more deals that you try to close, over time, if you follow said procedures, if you follow said principles, if you follow said steps, the chances of you closing certain kinds of deals increase.

And that's what we hope for. So basically what I'm trying to let you know is we don't win them all. There are some things that you've done the best you can do. You didn't know click. Like what will you do will kill yourself. You can't just follow the steps. The one that clicks, glory be to God, the one that didn't click. Oh well, I live to fight another day. However, in this kind of situation now we Porsche our baby daddy, you kind of sense that all was not well.

You guys have agreed on the next class step. Monday has come the new show for the meeting. This is all you do. You send a simple message. Some people say you should send a break up message. I'll explain what the break up message is. OK, let me just explain it now. Some people in the sales community say send a sales a break up message and then free your hand. Just leave it. The breakup message is the thing that says, look, I tried to reach out to you, I didn't hear from you.

Either way, me, I'm not contacting you again. If you ever work together again to go with the glory, but me, I'm not calling you again. Send that kind of thing. That's a breakup message. It just says, I tried to reach out to you. I didn't hear from you. I'm not going to bother you again. Bye, bye. Some people can get guilted into doing business with you. They see that thing, they feel guilty, and then they call you up and then you resume the deal.

That is the whole point about the breakup message. But however, before you get to the breakup message, this is what I recommend. Oh, sorry, guys, it's getting windy here. It's about to rain. So and then let me continue, John. So before you send the breakup message, breakup message is what you do. I prefer to say that whenever we hit a hiccup in the sales process that there is something that we have missed in the beginning.

Because remember, when we run into potential customers, the first point of call is we need to figure out is this person interested or just curious? If the person is just curious, this is not somebody needs to go deep with that, just curious, you know, give them some information and keep them hanging around a relationship building sequence, lead nurturing sequence. So you don't lose track of these people. But it doesn't mean as if, you know, you go hard, like there's a deal to close here.

So I always assume that is a problem. We need to start from the beginning again. Perhaps there's something that you miss. Maybe you didn't do need analysis, right? You know, there's some questions that you could have asked that will let you know what's going on. But we need to go back to the beginning. So for me, whenever there's a problem, we start from the beginning. We go back to interest. And that is why I recommend you send this message.

And the message that you will send to Portia and her husband in this case would be something like this. Hi Porsche. Well, of course will be two separate messages you sent to Porsche, you sent to husband. So what message will now be? Hi XYZI, haven't heard from you both since we agreed on ABC. Are you guys still interested or have circumstances changed? Question mark, send short and straight to the point. The goal of this message is very simple.

We're trying to confirm are they still interested? If they're interested, I will continue with the questions. I'll continue. We'd need analysis and eventually I will on earth the thing that I missed because if I'm interested, my next thing will be like, oh, OK, I'm glad to hear that. You know, I had assumed that you know, we're supposed to do this is that you know what my assumptions correct here and I'll start asking questions again.

Eventually I'll get to what the problem is and maybe that's the power Porsche. I will say that look, guy, I'm on board, but my husband is tight fisted. You saw as he was squeezing face, you know, blah, blah, blah, you know, all those kind of things. At least now I'm having a conversation with Portia, the wife. I now know that husband is not on board. I can now think of a game plan about how to rescue the thing. At least now I have a champion.

A champion is somebody who's going to advocate for you when the deal is on. I now know the situation now, OK, I have a champion that is wifey, but in the husband in a squeeze face. I can come up with a plan, but at least now I know what's up. So that's the whole point of this kind of message. Let me repeat. Hi XYZI, haven't heard from both of you since we agreed on ABC. Are you guys still interested or have circumstances changed?

Some people will reply and say I'm interested. Some people will reply and say man, something has changed, something has happened. But either way you might get people back in the conversation. But The thing is, if people don't reply at this case, I've already told you we can't win it all. You didn't reply as in Freed. What you now do is you load the person up into a lead nurturing sequence or relationship building sequence.

That is, you know, where you put, of course, assuming you got permission from them earlier, that is where you know, you put them into your calendar so that you know, every 3, three months or every X number of weeks, you're sending them messages. You say what's up or to tell them about new products or maybe discounts or, you know, whatever Porsche, some kind of sequence so that people still see that you're alive. And by the way, that's why I say in the event space, like somebody told me, I didn't realize it when I was starting off new.

This is the reason why you follow everybody on Instagram. And if I get everybody to follow you back, because the fact that Porsche I hobby didn't do business with you now doesn't mean they should still not be showing up on the Instagram feed. They should be seeing you. So that's the scope. They didn't answer. There should be some way to make sure that we're remaining top of mind every two, two weeks, every two, two months, every 7-7 days.

However it is you want to do it, Shah, They should be seeing your face. They should know that you're still alive. That's all mean by top of mind. So if they don't answer, that's our fall back. Lead nurturing sequences or relationship building sequences. We'll talk more about that in the future. That's for people who don't answer. But if the answer, then yes, we have the conversation going on. But either way, let's have realistic expectations.

We're not going to close every single deal and we shouldn't be heartbroken when we have a good conversation with someone and it looks like the thing like the ghost you because it happens. It was one of my friends a an event planner who really like this bride. They were talking, they were vibing, and then the bride started ghosting her. And, you know, for her, she took it real personal. You know, she called me so like,

oh, remember so, so and so I said, yeah, I remember her now. Say how far? I said, yeah, the wedding is going ahead now I've collected deposit. But me, I've not heard from her. Like look like we're going on well, and I haven't heard from her and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, we had a conversation about it and, you know, just I'd tell her that like, you know, it's not like that. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you're flying with a client.

You think like you guys are friends, you think like everything is going, You know everything is going all cool, but then sometimes things don't work out. Don't take it personal, it's just business. Nobody closes 100 / 100 anyway. Speaking of this thing, remember I said the messages? Hi XYZI, haven't heard from both of you since we agreed on ABC. Are you guys still interested or have circumstances changed? Let me give you one example.

There's somebody that I was doing something with, some project with, and then, you know, she went ghost. I sent that message. Guess the response, The response was, dude, yeah, I'm interested. Bono, Vex, Mum, She just died. My head has scattered. You know, I'm the first daughter, you know, we're trying to plan like this. My siblings, you know, blah, blah, blah. Village people, you know, so instantly I picked up the phone,

I called her and she answered and then we started talking, you know, on a human level because yes, money is good. We'll do business. We'll always get a chance to to do business. But you know, like I've lost Popsy before I've lost my my dad is late, he's no more, but that was a while ago, maybe like a decade. That's what else, like my brother-in-law and then our first child, we lost our first child as well. So, you know, I've had some experience with death.

So I just called out a normal human, human level. Ah, hello. Sorry you, you know, blah, blah, blah. Take heart. God grant you people the grace to bear the loss village people serve. Don't mind them. That shouldn't be my father's case. That's how I was, you know, just call general calls, you know, that kind of thing. See, but The thing is, sometimes when people ghost us, we always assume the worst. When people are busy, things are happening.

People are ghosting for different reasons. And in my own case, this lady was ghosting with a very, very valid reason. She was interested. But Mumsy has died. And so right now our whole mind is on burial and fighting with village people. So eventually the burial was over and then you know everything and you know, the business went on. But I'm just trying to let you know that ghosting, see, nobody closes any deal, all the deals 100% of the time.

And then ghosting is just a fact of life. Let's just take it and move on. People are ghosting for different reasons. You know, not everything is about us. So once you just send this message, are you still interested or have circumstances changed? Once you send it, free your mind. If you have a lead nurturing sequence or a relationship building sequence or whatever sequence you want to call it, so long as you got permission from the person beforehand.

You know, while you are talking, the person says he can be reaching out to me. Good, slot the person into the sequence and then free it. But people goes for a whole host of reasons. Don't take it personal. A lot of times it has nothing to do with you. Don't take it personal. Once you send this message that I've prescribed in the format that I've prescribed, free it. After that, if you still want to send a breakup message, no problem, you can send breakup message.

The following message after breakup message will now be something like oh hi, so so so so. After our field meeting, I tried reaching out again one more time. I still haven't gotten a response from you guys. Either way, I'm cool. I'm not going to be reaching out again. If you guys are thinking about doing XYZ kind of business in the future, I'll be more than welcome to continue the conversation with you. Hit send and then free it.

You've done your own and then you move on. I see. This is the reason why in sales we say that a healthy pipeline covers a multitude of sins. Let me repeat, a healthy pipeline covers a multitude of sins. If at any given point in time you're talking to like 5-6 people every week, one person goes to you will make you feel bad. You just one of those things, the person goes to you and you move on to the other five. But if you're only talking to one person per week, one of those people who goes to you, it will become an existential crisis.

Because in your mind you're thinking this person that I was talking to, if I close this deal, the person would have paid me 1.2 M from that 1.2. I would have used 500 to service it, to buy materials, to pay for the boys. The profit that would have entered my pocket will now be 700 K. So when somebody goes to you, in your mind is like, yeah, 700 K is disappearing, 700K is is on. The is on is now iffy. It's not sure again.

So this is the reason why we need a healthy pipeline. Because if you're talking to 5 or 6 people every week, each person is worth maybe 1.2. By the time you pay all the boys, 700K will enter into your pocket. If one person goes to you, Yeah, it's painful boys. Not that bad. You're still talking to four other people and any anyhow, sure from that remaining 4, you know that at least one will click. So it's not an existential crisis.

You will now be feeling sad, feeling afraid. OK, so let's try and have healthy pipelines cover the multi viewer problems. Then let's have the right expectations. Nobody closes 100% of the deals and then sometimes you do everything right, the deal doesn't close or people just ghosts. Send this message. Are they still interested or have circumstances changed? If they're interested, good, you'll revive the conversation. These circumstances have changed Noahala.

Become a human being, empathise with them. When things change, you guys will be able to continue like my friend who the circumstance was mumsy has passed. Then for those who ignore you, put them in relationship building sequence, lead nurturing sequence or whatever sequence that you have and then free it. For those of you who don't have those kinds of sequences, send break up message and then free it. But either way, just realise it's not about you.

You've done the best you can and it's actually about doing better in aggregate over time. Are you getting better January, February, March, April, May? Are you getting better at handling the conversations? Are you getting better at building the relationships? Are you getting better at following the steps? Are you getting better at relationship building? Are you getting better? You know, you understand. So in aggregate, we're getting better.

We good. The fact that we've lost one or two is just one of those things is life. Everybody fails. So it's just one of those things. So that's it. Blessing Cheney Meloom, if you're listening, that is the fuller answer. And I made this podcast episode because I couldn't type all of those things down. I'm sorry. That is not a very structured episode because I didn't take time to gather my thoughts. You know, I just came back.

I saw your response on the podcast. I just typed it back up. I was like, OK, no, the typing is not doing justice, namely not make this episode. So blessing Cheney Meloom, shout out to you. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Let people know that we have wonderful podcasts like this in Nigeria. Share with your friends, share with your family members, share with your colleagues, let people know what's up. And that's all for today folks.

So Chinemelum, blessing Chinemelum and other people listening to the podcast. Now, if you have sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. Call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys on the next episode. Unfortunately my older son has come in and anyway, at least I told you guys this would happen, so I'll catch you guys later.