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Hello and welcome to the show. Today's episode is also going to be a noisy 1 because I'm out and about. And today we're going to be focused on how to handle a client consultation or in this case it was called a pre inspection call. And that's because I'm currently training someone to work as a virtual inspection officer, kind of like a customer service role for a real estate firm that is trying to use lots of tech in its offerings.
Basically, they're trying to use tech to show, trying to use tech to make it easier for people to inspect houses, to pay for houses, things like that. In Nigeria, of course, starting off with Lagos, which is the typical play for these sorts of things. You know, if you can make some of these ideas work in Lagos, then you can scale them to other parts of Nigeria. So yeah, today we're going to be looking at how to handle the client consultation process.
Now, back when I started off in the law donkey years ago at the first one that I worked at, that is what we called it, Clank client consultation process. Now everybody needs to have a client consultation. Lots of people don't know what it is. They don't think it's important. Most business people just head straight up into a business scenario and start pitching, you know, buy this, this is the latest, this is the greatest,
this is the best. But back from my Lord is my principal and that's what we call our OGA back in the day. So my principal said, look, young blood that doesn't know how you do it. You don't just come in and you try and sell this, transfer this, try and do that, try and recommend this like this is the law we're doing here. We're trying to solve problems here. Why you come and recommend this and recommend that without actually knowing what the problem is.
So what you do is you head into the situation, you say good morning, Sir, blah, blah, blah. You engage in some small talk, you let the person talk. The person will now tell you their life story and everything, how the quarrel started, how this person cheated this person, they don't like this, this happened, that happened, blah, blah, blah. And from all that story, you now as the lawyer, you can now decide that OK, based on all this grammar and all this story I've heard so far, this is the best course of action.
It is at this stage that you can now lead the customer and say, oh, Olga, based on what you said so far, this and this and this I think is the best way. So excuse me. So excuse me, how much time here and Abuja saw my nose and throat, Everything is actually up. Yeah. So back to all my principal told me. So it's based on all this grammar that the person has spoken, you know, be able to tell them. Sir, Madam, based on what you said, I think this is how we need to handle this, handle this.
We handle it like this, we'll be able to achieve this. We'll be able to stop this. And based on our professional opinion, it will also require this and this and this. So based on that, what we're going to charge you is 5.6 million. How soon can we get started? So in, you see, in this case, before you're able to make a proposal that we should go to court or that we should write a letter or that we should engage this service or engage that service or do this or do that,
you actually have to listen to the customer repeat the whole story from the beginning to the end. Now, some parts of it are going to be boring because they will tell you some things that are relevant that actually are not relevant. Like for those of us who studied law, who did some years practicing law, the person might go into some detail about how when we were young, their moms used to treat my mom like this. Their mom used to treat me like that uncle, this person is this auntie, that person, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because for the client, they think all of that is relevant. But for you that the lawyer, you know that yeah, some things is just annoying stuff, but you know how your stepmother treated you is not really important to the matter at hand when it comes to settling estate or settling whatever it is that you need to settle. So it's the same thing no matter the business that you have. So in this case, they are a real estate firm that is using tech in their business.
They have a proprietary algorithm and they're trying to use that to help their clients to select the right house, especially the clients who are based abroad and who don't have time to come and see every single house that they want to buy. So you just stay where you are in Miami or be in Lagos or be in Canada, Toronto, wherever. And they stay over here in Nigeria, they go and do the inspection on your behalf. And if you like it, then you pay, you know, you contact your lawyer, you pay your rent, you whatever it is that you want to do.
So that's what they do in this space. So of course this firm, they wanted their staff to be trained to be able to handle these sorts of things. And they came up with a, an SOP, standard operating procedure about how the inspection process was supposed to work. And of course, they handed the SOP to me and they were like, what do you think? Good or no good? And I looked at it and I thought was pretty tight. I thought was pretty good.
I said, so, yeah, your SOP is cool. Noah Allah, when am I going to start training your staff? And it's OK. You stand on so, so, so and so and so we started the training. And the first thing I had to tell them was like, look, SOP that you've been giving very good, correct? And you must follow it. But we cannot start talking to customers unless we hear their story. We know who they are, we know what they like, we know what it is that they don't like because that is what will determine the kind of houses we show them, the kind of features that we're going to emphasize or the things that we're going to de emphasize.
That is how it was going to determine how we handle the inspection call. So I told them that look, SOP is good, but it's something that is missing and we do not have a pre inspection protocol. We don't have a pre inspection call and so I have been working with the lady who's going to be responsible for drumming up sales and handling the inspection. And we're coming up with the frameworks that she's going to use and that they will also use to train subsequent team members on how to handle this thing.
So if you I made a previous episode, I just can't remember the title, I'm assuming is within the last two weeks where we came up with the pre inspection protocol. We we came with the list of things that people should be paying attention to or that we think our potential customers, if we're in the real estate space, we pay attention to. And in bullet point, we came up with location, we came up with amenities. So location, you know, is it lucky?
Is it Bagada? Is it Auba amenities? You know, is it 5 bedroom? Is it 2? Is it one toilet? Is it 6 toilets? What else also came up with, I can't remember the time, you know, how close is it to work, to school or to church or to mosque? What else? Are they single or married? How many children do they have? You know, that also determines the kind of property that they will be interested in. Then the purpose of the, of the purchase or sorry, whether they're buying or they're renting and then the purpose are they buying it to live in or they're buying it because it's going to be, is going to be for what's the word investment or speculation.
You know, buy it now at 7 million, give it two years, wait for the value to increase and then you sell it for, you know, 18 or whatever. So in bullet form, we agree that those are the software things you'd be paying attention to. Now for those of you who are not in real estate, no matter what business you're involved in, even if you're like, who is involved in perfumes and baby oils and sorry, not baby oil. Forgive me, puff Daddy's still on my mind.
Perfumes and body oils. Yes, you will find that there's a list of criteria or a list of things that your typical customers are concerned about. South for body oils. Now, for instance, your customers might be concerned about price. OK, yes, price. That's an easy one. They might also be concerned about the the nature of the fragrance. You know, some people like water based sprays, some people prefer oil based sprays. Don't ask me what the difference is.
I have absolutely no idea. I have no expertise in this thing. I just don't ask. Some people like one over the other. Some people say I used the perfume, it was nice, but the thing was too oily and I'm looking I'm like, you know, it's perfume. What do you mean it's oily? Because, you know, I can't tell the difference. And then some people say, Oh no, it's not real perfume. That is water based. Life is water based is you do twile.
That is not perfume. And I'm looking, I'm like, which one is you do twile again? Like does the thing smell nice or it doesn't smell nice? So you know, there's a difference. Is it a perfume? Is it a UD trolley? Is it 2 millimetres? Is it 5 millimetres? Is it water based? Is it oil based? For the other products? Is it, does it have sunblock? Does it not have sunblock? You know, all these sorts of things. So on all these key criteria,
when we're having a client consultation, these are the sorts of things that we're asking their opinions about. We're trying to figure out what it is that they like, because it's when we know all these things, we now know what to recommend. So for somebody like me who doesn't know the difference between perfume and between Uditwale and between water based and oil based or whatever, is by asking all these questions that you now know that, OK, this guy is a total novice, This guy is a total virgin when it comes to perfumes.
So therefore part of the sales process means I have to educate this novice before I can close the deal. Whether for somebody else who is more sophisticated, who knows everything and who knows that she prefers water based 300 meals with SBV four and only has citrus based sense, you now know that OK, I'm going to go and pick this product, this product, this product because it already meets the criteria. And then I can now start trying to get the sale closed.
So client consultation process really, really important. If you're a lawyer, very important. If you're a real estate, very important. If you sell perfume, very important. Even if you sell children's pyjamas, very important. So we all need to have it. So after you're done with this episode, if you don't have one of those things, sit down, get a sheet of paper, and then ask yourself, people that usually buy this thing, what are the results that they're looking for?
What are the kind of things that they're concerned about? And then write it out in bullet points, Price this, that, that that. And then the client consultation is just you being engaged in conversation with them, allowing them to talk so that they speak their mind about these things. You will now know, OK, based on what this person has said, it looks like they have paper. It looks like they're broke. It looks like they like this.
It looks like they like that. I now know I can try and sell this and this and that and go for the clothes. So yeah, in this case, real estate, we've already come up with the bulletin list of what people ought to be paying attention to. So my training with the next training with the young lady, let's call her, what should we call her? Let's call her Sasha Fierce. Yes, because she's a former. She's a former model, by the way.
I like working with models, and not because they're pretty, but because models know how to deal with rejection. Now, some of you don't like dealing with rejection in business, and you think it's hard that somebody told you no. But the life of a model, especially in Nigeria, is brutal. Your model in Nigeria, you try to be a professional model. You go to 5 or 6 casting calls, they say you go to six in five of them. Half the board is made of men.
And so they're trying to toast, you know, to get your phone number and then you do the scouting and then you're rejected in a very brutal way. At least for me, if somebody rejects me in business, I know that they reject my value proposition. They don't think that the idea that I'm putting forward can solve that their business problem. So it's not really me that's being rejected. But for a model, they tell you straight to your face, you're too fat, you're too black,
you're too skinny, you're too tall, you're too round, you're too, it's the rejection is always personal. And I've only really had a chat with two or three models in the business context. But I like them because man, models can take a hit because they've been rejected on all kinds of fronts before. So if you're a model listening to this thing and you don't know, trust me, the amount of resilience that you have, mental resilience that you have is off the scale.
If you're a model, you've done some modelling. Believe me, you're stronger than half the population mentally, you're stronger than half of us because the kind of abuse that you you you've chopped so mouse, I've never chopped it. I mean, I've not had anybody told me that my nose is too big and that I'm too black and I'm too tall and I'm too fat and I'm too whatever. But for the while that you guys try and get involved in this business, you guys get told these things constantly, you know, weekly.
So you guys have mental resilience. It's a brutal profession, which is why personally speaking, I don't like it. If I had a daughter and she wanted to go into modeling, I would just make sure that she's aware. Like it's it can be tough. But anyway, for those of you who are already in the industry, just know you guys are tough. You guys have mental resilience. No matter what it is that you put your mind to, you will do it.
So if you're a former model trying a sales roller customer service role, you're going to be fine because the way people have rejected you in the past, when people reject you in the sales context, it doesn't even feel like rejection. You know, a model just takes it and then just moves on because she's been through worse. So let's call her, what name did I come up with again? Sasha Fierce. Yes, so let's call her Sasha Fierce.
So I told Sasha that. OK, cool. Now we've decided on what it is that we're going to do. So today what we're going to do, we're going to do a role play. I'm going to pretend to be a customer. You pretend to be calling me up so that we can have this pre inspection call. And the whole point of this pre inspection call or the client consultation is you're trying to figure out what kind of houses do I like? What kind of houses am I
interested in? What am I looking for in the property? So that when you get to the property and you're doing the inspection on my behalf, you will know what to emphasize. You will know what to point out, you know what to de emphasize, You know what kind of conversation to have and the kinds of questions to ask. So those of you who are not in real estate, you sell pajamas or you sell perfumes, I hope you see how the whole thing works.
Now, that's the whole point. We're trying to get inside the customer's mind to know exactly what is it. Do they need self before we know which one are we going to propose? Which one are we going to present? So, yeah, we started it and the role play went OK. But first of all, she started off by saying, hello, my name is Sasha Fierce. I'm so, so company, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I had to tell her like I had to tell her, hold up, hold up,
hold up. When you call somebody, I say, oh, my name is Sasha fears I'm from this company that that that that that you already started off the conversation on the wrong footing. And the reason why is because this is supposed to be a conversation, a client consultation or a pre inspection call or whatever it is that you call. It has to be two way. You spend a lot of your time doing the talking. You will tire, you will get tired.
So you don't just start off and launch into a conversation. I told her think of it as tennis, you hit the ball to the other person and then you wait for them to hit the ball back. So it's going to be long tennis or table tennis, you know, welcome, welcome, welcome. That's how it works. You serve the ball, they serve it back, you serve the ball, serve it back. It's a conversation. And then I told her that apart from that, First off, I prefer that we get the several going by even confirming that you're talking to the right person in the 1st place because it's possible that you pick the person picked up the phone and you think you're talking to Kuli Ajana.
And by the time you do your whole blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it turns out that wife is the person that is on the phone. Well, of course, that's not a problem, but it's nice to know whoever who it is that we're talking, confirm the identity of the person on the phone before we continue. So we introduce that. So hello, my name is Sasha Fierce. Am I speaking to Kunle Adigo? So that's all. That's how you started. And so we ran the role play again and we got that confirm identity part correct.
By the way, in sales, we talk about the importance of role-playing. And I hope you guys see why role-playing is important. Sometimes the reason why your sales operatives, the your customer service people, the reason why they're fumble and the reason why they suck at their job is because they have not done enough role-playing. So each time they're talking to a live customer, it's scary and they don't know what to say. So we need to work out some of these things, as many things as humanly possible before we have these covers.
They have these conversations with people on the phone. Now, it doesn't mean that if you do role play that they will fumble, you know. But The thing is, let's get all this fumbling out of the way with this stress less. I'll be a stress free environment because role-playing with me is stress free. role-playing with yoga is stress free because you can always stop and start again. You guys can laugh over something and start again.
When you're talking to a customer live and direct on the phone, you can't stop and laugh things over and then start again. So role play really, really important. Do some sort of role-playing. So you sell perfumes, you sell body oils, you sell baby oil, you sell whatever. Once in a while just beg somebody like, hey Cami, you know my best friend, I beg, please, I need you for something. I'm trying out this new line that I want to sell.
Please pretend to be a customer. Let me call you and let me see how I can sell this sort of thing, you know, blah, blah, blah. So try and do some small role-playing. It helps. Let me give you a live example that happened to me back when I started off in wedding photography conversations around how to handle price. I was talking to Mumsy and mumsy was like, just give me the price. And I told my mom, look, nobody will ever be that rude.
I'm almost like, look, just just play with me here. What if somebody picks up my person says just give me the price and I can remember bluffing about how I would handle it something. So I didn't answer her, but I should have because one day eventually I was talking to somebody that's a young man. I don't have time, Just give me the price. And of course I fumble that conversation. But while I was talking with Mumsy, if we had done some role-playing back then, just give me the price and we had strategized like, OK, you can say this, you can say this, you can say this because Mumsy is in retirement now, but she was a marketing communications professional, so she could have one or two tips for me.
So if I had done some other role play, then when I was now faced with the guy who now say young man, I'm busy, just give me the price and I've been able to handle myself. So role play very, very important. It's best if you role play with someone like me who has knowledge of the frameworks and where you should be paying attention to. But if you don't have someone like me in your life now and you can't talk with Mumsy, you can't talk to your husband, you can't talk to your friend, you can,
you know, talk to whoever. So role play always helps. Some people say role-playing is not 100%. The goal of role-playing is not to 100% figure everything out. The goal is just to get you comfortable, get you relaxed, get you in the frame of mind, and to give you some ideas about how you can move the conversation forward. OK, so back to the role play. So we now did the confirm identity thing. And then she continued and I
said, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Slow down. You don't just confirm my identity and then just start talking about the product or the service. What you need to do is you need to give a previous context or a reason for why you are getting in touch. So in this case, I told her it's a matter of hey, hello, this is Sasha Fierce. Am I speaking to Kunle Adigun? So yes, this is Kunle Adigun. Why are you calling me? Or the reason why I'm reaching out is because you responded to our advert on Instagram for a three bedroom house in Leckey.
Something, something, something, something. Do you recall? Do you remember? So it's over to the person. You let the person also talk quite a bit. So give previous context. It's a way of warming up the call. Confirm, am I talking to the person? Give previous context. Previous context is also not a bad way of setting the agenda. And then you also need to confirm in this case, if the person is still interested because remember, this is real estate and we're talking online and online people click on a whole bunch of stuff.
So I told her, look, the person might have clicked on your service, but you're not the only service in the market. The other businesses who are doing these sorts of things. So my guy on a good day could have clicked on five or six links because of course he's looking for a house to rent or looking for a property to move into. So he clicked on five or six links. So you calling and saying I'm Sasha affairs from so does not mean that he is going to remember.
So give a previous context. He might not remember. OK, well I might have clicked on something. And then you confirm if you're still interested. Oh, OK. Well, are you still in the market for properties around Lakey? So yes, actually I am. And then the conversation continues. Now, as the conversation went forward and the reason why I'm making today's podcast is when we got to that part. Now remember I told you that we came up with some criteria that potential customers might be interested in typical things that people were asked, price,
location, amenities, no, blah, blah, blah. When it came to that part, she was now handling it as a like an interrogation. Are you single or married? And of course I asked, I answered married, how many children? I have two boys. This is not that you go to a stage where she started laughing. I said, what's wrong? Why are you laughing? She said I have hook. I said, of course you have hook. And this is the reason why you have hook because in handling this conversation, what you are doing is you were just doing an interrogation and you're asking questions that can be answered by either yes or no or one word.
We call those close questions. close questions are not very good at all for moving the deal forward. If you're asking close questions, you will hang. It's only a matter of time before the person you know single or married single, this is yes, this is this, this is this. After a while, the conversation will seem stayed. You'll be bored out of your mind and the conversation will hang. So I told her, what we do is we open up the conversation, we keep the conversational.
This is not an interrogation. And then we use the questions that they taught all of us in primary school back in the day, the W questions, The Who, why, what, where, when, how. Of course, how is not AW question, but for some reason they always add it to the group. So let's say that it's also AW question as well. So who, why, what, where, when and how. So I told her it's not a matter of asking what location are you looking at?
Lucky. Then you keep quiet. How much is your budget? Then you keep quiet. Are you single or married? And then you know it's not the matter of degradation but look for ways of doing The Who, why, what, when and how. But I wanted it to be her own words. So I told her, based on the question you've asked me so far, let's go and start from the beginning. Now this is no more role play, but you on your own just redo some of these questions.
Let's let's hear the flow. Let's see how it goes. And so she came up with a long sentence. I noticed you looked at social property and likely something, something, something, but still was a close question. So I told her, OK, you know what, no problem. We can just take the half, the first half of what you said with comma and then we can just put Y at the end and you can see that we have an open question. In this case, it will be I
noticed you look looked at the property in Lucky. Hope you don't mind me asking why and then keep quiet. Now you see in that case it's open. The guy is supposed to talk. The guy can't answer the question by saying lucky. He can't answer by saying yes. He can't answer by saying no. He can't answer by saying he can't answer by saying he has to answer by actually giving you a sentence. It will have to be story that follows.
So those of you who are lawyers, you see how you open up the conversation. You don't just say so, young man, you're fighting with your landlord. The person who said as a lawyer would make more sense to say, oh, so. So thank you very much for coming to the office. I hope we're going to be able to help you resolve this issue with your landlord, Your landlord. How did this quarrel start? And keep quiet. You can see how did this quarrel start W Ward, the person has to answer with your story.
Seven years ago I moved into the property blah blah, blah blah. His wife said this, the children said this blah blah blah. My house girl slapped the house girl has in plenty story. But now you have all the information you need as a lawyer to determine whether you're going to go to rents tribunal to try and resolve this matter or whether you're going to go to High Court to say you can get the landlord thrown in jail. Right.
So this is how it works. So same thing over here. Same thing if you sell baby oil or pajamas or you sell catfish. Who, why, what, when, how are trying to get the person to talk if it's catfish and you say how many catfish do you want to buy and they say 14, that doesn't help. What if you ask, Oh, welcome to the shop man blah, blah, blah. Hope we can able to take good care of you. Something, something, something. So why are you even buying this for yourself?
Oh, my daughter is getting married. You see, it's a different thing. It gives you options to be able to say, oh, your daughter is getting married and instead of this kind of catfish, she's be looking at this or this or this or have you even thought of OPA Roku? OPA Roku might be much more cost effective. So I forgive you. I'm not sure what OPA Roku is, but my mother-in-law is Eboo. My wife likes fish mom, she likes fish.
So and my my cousins, they like fish, especially the ones that grew up with us as like my sisters. So I know I hear OPA Roku, OPA Roku, but what the OPA Roku is I have no idea. So you can see that it gives you options. So that is why who, what, why where when, how is important. So back to Sasha affairs. Now I noticed you looked at the property in Leckie. Hope you don't mind me asking why the person has to answer with a story.
Now the whole thing on single and married and blah blah blah. I told her that look, it's OK to make a couple of assumptions because of a young man is looking at properties and he's all looking at one bedroom or two-bedroom. It is safe to assume that he's married or that he wants to be married soon. But I told that, don't worry, you don't have to do that. You're new at this. So for you, you might feel somehow, but for me, I've been talking to enough people across different contexts, law, wedding photography, agro exports, and then plus the clients that I'm talking to.
So it's safe for me to assume a couple of things. So for me, I'll be able to say, oh, how long have you been married? And that's not a problem. It's not an open question because the answer will be, oh, about 10 years or something like that. So it's not an open question, but it is much more conversational than saying are you single or married? So are you single or married person can say single person can say married. If you say how long have you been married?
It's more conversational, but it's still closed. So I told her, look, you know what, let's pause here with this role play. So this is what we're going to do next week. You will sit down. You look at all these things, price, location, married, children, amenities and you will come up with who, why, what, when, how, ways of asking these questions and or rather or you'll come up with much more conversational ways of handling these things so it doesn't turn into interrogation.
And so we ended our training session there and she now had assignment for next week. And this is precisely the reason why some of you don't like doing business with me, because I always give an assignment. I need to make sure that you understand what I'm telling you because I want to be sure that by the time we're done and I've spent the money that you paid me, I want to be sure that you're actually going to do something with this information that I give you.
That's the reason why in my trainings and my coaching sessions, I don't just bring PowerPoint and then run you through PowerPoint from beginning to end and then you guys clap for me was a wonderful session and my head feels big and then I move. I want to be sure that you are going to do something with what we have discussed. So there will always be assignment. So all those of you who are considering engaging me for coaching or consulting services,
just know there will always be an assignment because I'm not just trying to get paid here. I'm trying to make sure that we get results here. I'm trying to make sure that we get behaviour change because behaviour change comes first before night round Cobo change. If you start doing things differently or if your staff starts doing things differently first, it is then two weeks later, 3 weeks later, one month later that the naira and Cobo will start to reflect in your bank account.
So as I, we ended that session and that's the main reason why I'm sharing this with you now. You guys, when you're having this pre inspection call, when you're having client consultation for law or to sell baby products or to sell catfish, remember the key things that your people typically are interested in this industry. Write it down the bullet point. Make sure those are conversation status, conversation point. When you're introducing those things in the conversation, you make sure that you keep it conversational.
It's not an interrogation. So it's not a matter of single or married or how long have you been married or what does Madam think about this? You see, you are assuming that Madam is married in a conversational way that begs him to continue with the conversation. So keep the conversational, if you can, who, why, what, where, when, how. You don't know how to come up with who, why, what, when, where, how questions. Use ChatGPT and come up with a couple of couple of ideas.
But remember that if you're in this kind of situation, in this case where you're talking to somebody over the phone because they might have done something on your website, remember that first thing is confirm identity. After that, give a previous context of the reason why you're calling. After that confirming the person is still interested. Then you can launch into the whole thing of my company this, my company this, my company that.
But I'll prefer that you confirm my identity. Give the previous context, confirm if they're interested, then get permission, ask a couple of questions, open it up, get the person yawning, get the person talking. It is only after the person does that that you now know as a professional. Because you are the professional, you now know the range of opportunities that are available are open to you. Then one more thing that I
pointed out, one more thing that I want you guys to know. Sometimes people drop things in conversation and you don't pick up on it and use it to build rapport. So I went while role-playing, when it came to the part about her children, I said, Oh yeah, I have two boys. So she just let it go. She continued asking other questions. These are situations where you build rapport and you show some humanity, you show some commonality with the person.
Because this particular model in case I know that her sister just gave birth to a second boy. So this is the stage where I say, oh, congratulations, you have two boys, how old are they? This and this. My older sister just gave birth to a boy as well. Congratulations or blah, blah, blah. How do you cope? Or you know, just small talk. So when people drop stuff like this, it is an opportunity to build rapport. So me personally, I went to the greatest university in on the African continent or buffering at all over university.
So whenever I come across a uni like person, I don't waste time, I dig in and I harass them because they went to UNILAC and I went to OAU. It's a way of building commonality. My wife says look, I'm not tired, doesn't he get old? I don't know, maybe he gets old. But The thing is, the person is probably just hearing it for the first time. And either way it's a nice way of building rapport, building commonality and it's a nice way of me becoming ingrained in that person's mind because if nothing else, the person will remember.
Oh, that you fair boy. You see, these are ways that we're building commonality, building rapport, being more likeable and things like that. So when people drop things like this, now they have two boys. You have two boys in your family is ah, congratulations. How old are your boys? Oh, mine are so, so, so and so and this and this. Yeah, you people are still at the terrible two stage. How are you coping? And you have a small conversation about it.
But, you know, just small. Don't waste 45 minutes talking about your children. It's just, you know, chitchat, small, small, 2-3 minutes and then you move on so that this person comes away from the conversation. The idea is commonality. Commonality is you're a reasonable person and you're just like me. So if this person comes away from the conversation feeling like he was interrogated by a lady on the phone, it's not, it's not a memorable conversation.
But if he leaves the conversation like, oh, I'm such a nice young lady, good family values, you know, blah, blah, blah, articulate. That's what we're aiming for. So even if the guy doesn't store your phone number, but you call the next time the voice tells me and say, oh, oh, oh, OK. You're the one that your sister just gave birth. Abby. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. I did store your number. Oh, yes, yes, yes. How are you?
OK, yes, that's true. I was supposed to have done this. I was supposed to have done this. Oh, my dear, sorry, I forgot. Call me back in two days time, you know, blah, blah, blah. So that's how we get that going. That's how we achieve that. So 30 minutes. So let me just wrap this up to a close. I hope this has given you guys ideas around you're supposed to handle the customer or client consultation. Are you supposed to handle the pre inspection call?
Are you supposed to handle the qualification? Are you supposed to handle discovery? Are you supposed to handle? It's called different things according to different industries and different practices. But whatever you call it, these are some ideas about how you handle it. Now, if you would love a business audit where you and I sit down and chat, we run through your business, try and see a couple of problems, come up with ways that we can solve these problems, then call me.
The number is 08064662140. The country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, it's my WhatsApp number as well. Or connect with me on socials on LinkedIn. I'm shutting down all other places, so you will only be able to find me on LinkedIn in another month's time. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.