Fast Sales: How to Use Deadlines to Close Deals Faster

Today we're going to talk about timelines and urgency in business. Now, the reason why this is important is because there are lots of you Nigerian self-employed people, Nigerian business business people, Nigerian founders, Nigerian entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, you know, whatever it is that you call yourself. There are lots of you who are in Business Today. And you don't realize that when you're having conversations with people, you should be trying to figure out what their timelines are and you should only be talking to people who have a sense of urgency.

So let's see how do we break this down now? OK, timeline. Now when you're having a conversation with someone who is a potential customer, you want them to buy your product, you want them to buy your service, you want them to sign up for a trial or you know, whatever. It's not as if the first time you talk to them, they're going to just go ahead and you know, transfer deposits, sign up by or whatever it is that you want them to do.

So you're going to have to make a couple of phone calls, you know, call them today, call them next week, send text message, you know, send e-mail, you know, that kind of thing. But if you don't have a sense of what their timelines are, you won't know whether you are doing a reasonable amount of follow up or follow through or you won't know if you're being a pest. In other words, if you're trying to get somebody to buy today,

the person has the problem, but the person needs this problem solved in two weeks. But because you know, you deform, you don't have to follow up too much. You don't have a sense of that timeline. You now call the person in one month and person like, oh, sorry, I already went with this or so. And so two weeks ago, I already bought from someone else. I'm sure there are lots of us who are listening to this podcast right now who have gone through that experience.

You talk to somebody, you say, let me give them space. By the time you call back and say, oh, I went to somebody else and your mind, you're thinking, I didn't know what sharp, sharp like that. Like I didn't know you needed this thing like quick, quick like that. So you made an assumption. You didn't ask any questions regarding the timelines. And because of that, you didn't know what was a reasonable amount of follow up or a reasonable amount of follow through to do so.

We should be asking questions around people's timelines. It will determine whether we should be on their case like every single day or whether we should be on their case like every 3-3 days or whether we can just chill and call them maybe once a month. You won't know. So there are some selling situations where the length of the sales cycle will kind of give you a rough idea. Like if you're in the business of selling, let's say, let's say airplanes for instance, to airlines.

There's know how somebody wants to buy an airplane. They'll talk to you today and then they'll buy the airplane next week. So of course, you know, obviously, you know that you can't be giving somebody close marking, you know, in that kind of situation. But for the rest of us, we need to know the sense of timelines. The people that we're talking to, what are their timelines? How soon do they want to move by? How soon do they want to get going?

When would they like the installation done? How soon would they need delivery? We need to know. It will help us figure out how to plan and how to build the sales process. Now urgency, something that is related. Urgency just means, of course, urgency now like urgent. You think the urgent urgency just means that there is something objective. When we say objective, we mean, you know, nobody say with a guess. It's not nobody guess work like there's something that I have seen or there is something that I have heard or there's something that I can use to deduce that is not in my mind that would tell me that OK, this person looks like they're getting ready to take action soon.

So back in my wedding photography examples, this one is obvious. You're talking to a bride and you ask her, oh, when is the wedding date? And she says, Oh no, he just proposed to me like 2 weeks ago. And I said yes, so but the families have not met. No, our families have not met yet. Oh, so there's no wedding date. Oh, there's no wedding date In that case now urgency no day you get they just proposed to her brand new.

So she's excited. So now she bores you. But it's not as if there's a wedding dating view. It's not as if, you know, we're working towards something. So right now, now Josh inquiry, she didn't inquire, so don't get too excited. So urgency is also important. Can we figure out something when we're talking to a customer, when we're talking to a potential client, when we're talking to a stakeholder, when we're talking to whoever, is there something that we can see that based on our thing, you know, that we have seen, we can now reason.

I'm like, OK, there's a sense of urgency here. So people that have a sense of urgency, nice one. Now prospect be that premium prospect. They have a want, they have a need they can afford and oh, it looks as if they're ready to take action soon. OK, good. Now that kind of person, that's the kind of person that you'll not be close marking because you don't want to drop it because that kind, you know, that kind of situation, you relax small,

your competition will just come and carry them. So urgency, timelines, urgency. We need to figure this out. Now, how do we figure this out? Are we mind readers? But obviously the way they're going to figure it out, if you've been listening to this podcast, it should come as no surprise. You'll figure it out by asking questions. If you got it, please clap for yourself is by asking somebody questions and engaging them in conversation.

Now asking people how soon Are you ready to transfer the money? You know, might not be the best way to go about it. So sometimes we have to stylishly, stylishly ask some kind questions. But from the questions we're asking, we're trying to arrive at is there a timeline? Is there any sense of urgency? Once we figure out, OK, urgency day, OK, now know that it's a serious person. When we figure out timelines, no problem. We'll know how we will stagger this follow up, how we're going to pursue them.

Now, the example that I'm going to use is this one is not a fictional case study today. This one is a real life something. I'm talking to someone, she's a salesperson. She works for my client. My client is in the solar industry and she's supposed to sell solar systems, solar and investor installations. I'm sorry, but every single time I say solar system, what comes to my mind is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Neptune,

Pluto, Saturn, blah blah blah. Oh, by the way, my son told me, and this was years ago, years ago, maybe like 10 years ago, the guy came home from school one day and I said, oh dad, they told us about the solar system. I was like, OK, cool, cool. And then he says he started talking recycles. I said, what about Pluto? He said Pluto is not a planet. I said, what do you mean? My son said, Dad, Pluto is not a planet. I said that is not possible that Pluto is a planet.

And then my son started to educate me. He said, yeah, Dad, when you were in primary school, Pluto was regarded as a planet. But right now Pluto is not a planet. Pluto is an object within the Kuiper Belt. I say what the what? I said the Kuiper belt. Yes. I said, what's the Kuiper belt? He said it is a something, something, something, you know, asteroid wants. He wants to. I say, hey, anyway, I'm going to go and check. And he was right that Pluto is no longer a planet.

So for those of you who, you know, you went to primary school, you know, 70s and 80s, Pluto is not the planet anymore. So when they say solar system, don't be adding Pluto. Pluto is not part of it anymore. And they don't mind me. That's just side talk. So, yeah. So she's responsible for selling solar and inverter systems installations. And we've been talking about how she should be filling out timelines and figuring out urgency because it's really,

really important because you can't drop somebody a proposal today and then you go to close, mark them every day, every day, every day. Meanwhile, the project that they want to execute is next year in March. And then the converse, you can't drop proposal with somebody today, the project is next week. But you're just thinking, you know, most people on average like around that kind 2-3 weeks before they call me back. So let me just free it.

Meanwhile, the person is ready to move next week. So you ask and we come up with a couple of yeah, anyway, so we had that conversation, but then she was having some difficulties. And so it's OK, no problem. Let's let's revisit this whole thing again. Let's say we can come up with some, some alternatives. And so I'm going to run through some alternatives that we used to try and figure out timeline and to try and figure out urgency.

Now obviously all the questions that we're going to do here today are related to solar and inverter. So I don't want you to think that because it's solar and inverter related that it doesn't apply to your business. Just try and distill, try and understand the principle. Where would you push if you can understand the principle, if you can get the scope all right, if you can get the angle that we're trying to come from, you see how you can do something similar in your business, no matter what it is that you do, whether startup,

you know or whatever. All right, so just track with me. All right, Now before we jump back in, I'd like to tell you guys something about what me and my guys are working on and that is Ekenga Software Factory. That is IKSF dot Ng. That's the website. Now this is a service that is targeted at Nigerian founders. If you're Ghanaian listening and you're interested now I don't know, send me a message. Let's see, we can accommodate you.

So targeted at Nigerian founders who want to build a product, but you are facing software bottlenecks. Maybe you've spoken to one or two software developers and then they cost too much. You know, you describe your small idea and then they say, Oh yeah, I'll go and bring 5 M. Or maybe you want to do it yourself where you don't know know how you don't know software, you don't know computer code, you don't know all these kind of things or you want to start this production,

but you're now looking for tech founder. You know somebody way they technically inclined will go run out for you. So that kind those kind of situations. So you can go software factory IKSF dot Ng with the service. We take your product ID live 7 days. If you don't believe me, try it. The trial will convince you. It will not confuse you. Today's episode, I'm making it on the 29th yes, so try it go there today you see that before 6th of May bam, you don't live.

Your idea is live. Then on Ikenga Software Factory again, IKS f.ngwerealsoofferingfree.com domains and then free hosting for one year, even bringing the cost of running business for you, bringing it down. And then we don't hang on to the code, the product that we designed the code and the everything. Now your own should be you don't pay now your own now you know you don't marry your wife. That's the attitude. So if tomorrow you say, I know they do again, no problem, we'll help you migrate the code.

In fact, my boys with the Kanga software factory iksf dot Ng, they're currently working on the protocol where you can't even migrate the teen yourself. You don't even have to tell us. We just woke up one day and say I wait, you could decide, you could, you don't go. So if you want, you can just if I'm most like that. So if you want to try this out, because we're trying to support 10 Nigerian entrepreneurs to get moving before the end of August in 2026, there's a 20% discount if you just go to IKSF dot Ng,

use the discount code TAV. That is TAV. Yeah, that's part of my name. Or use the discount code Ayede. AYEDE also part of my name. So do that and you'll be entitled to 20% off your first project. And if you do, please get in touch with me. You call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Because these are my guys. I want to make sure that they take good care of you. All right, so now let's get back to this whole timelines and urgency matter.

So this is what I told the sales lady. Let's call her. What should we call her now? Let's call her Snow White. Yeah, Snow White. Yeah. So I told her, look, Snow White, this is what you can tell them is another way you can tell the person. Look, based on these challenges, when would you like to install your system? Based on these challenges, when would you like to install your system? Now this kind of question assumes that we did a good job in qualification and discovery and we have figured out what their main problem is.

So if you do a good job of building rapport with somebody and they talk about how NEPA, they show them Shaggy as in like you're in band A, but Napa is only given like one hour of flight a week. And you know, on top of that, you're paying, you know, 350,000 naira a month in electricity bills. And you know, there's an absolute Horror Story. A way of sliding into this thing is not to ask them. Oh, like, Are you ready to pay,

you know, 20 million now just OK. Also based on these challenges now with this kind load shedding, when did they do? Now, why would you like to install your system? So you see that that kind of question, you give a sense of timeline, we give you a sense of urgency. If somebody says, look, I don't tire. In fact, your engineer can come tomorrow, tomorrow, let's come and do inspection itself. Let's, let's see how quick we're going to get started.

You see, like that's the way of just figuring out people's timelines, figuring out people's urgencies. So sense of urgency based on these challenges, when would you like to install your system? So Please remember I'm talking about solar, but take the principle and apply it to your own business. Just try and decode the spirit, you know, the scope that we're using in the question, decode it and then you can do something similar in your business.

Then another way of trying to get timeline and urgencies. I told Snow White that you can also tell customers we usually do a comprehensive audit, a comprehensive inspection before all I put it now we usually do a comprehensive inspection just to make sure that we design the system well for you. How soon can we call for what come for a technical audit? Somebody who is saying technical audit, can you come like next month?

You can see that that thing is not urgent. Somebody who says, oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm aware. Technical audit, yeah. Come around. My site manager will be around tomorrow. You see, there might be a sense of urgency there. Of course, you don't assume, you know, we press some more like I would even say if I was to say something like we usually do a comprehensive inspection before we usually do a comprehensive inspection, you know, to make sure we design a system that is best for you.

How soon can we come from a technical for a technical visit? And then the person says like, oh, that kind next month, I will now say, oh, next month. So this is not something you're thinking about doing in the next quarter. I will ask like that person will say, ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm thinking, you know, maybe like around that kind six months. I'm still saving now because the person has said that I now have timeline, OK, we're talking in March.

The person says six months, OK, that means like around that kind of September if all is well and the person saying he's still trying to save and make a mental note of that. We'll still talk money later on, you see. So from asking like that and asking follow up questions to these kinds of questions, you're getting a sense of timeline, you're getting a sense of urgency. You now know how quickly to follow up with somebody.

Excuse me, You know, we sales professionals, we don't say follow up, we say follow through also, we can follow through with someone. Then another question that she can that I told, you know what she can ask, especially when talking to businesses. And this one is even tricky when it's business because if it's a residential person, like let's say you're talking to me trying to sell me solar, you know that at the end of the day, decision is my own.

You know, the worst case scenario, I'll talk to Madam Basha. If you're talking to me, we good. Or if you're talking to the Madam, you're good. She'll talk to a guy, you know, and you know, to get things going. But if it's a business, now there are going to be multiple stakeholders that are involved. You know, CEO might need to sign off accounting might need to sign off people in the in the maintenance team will have to be on ground.

You know, things like that. You know, different, different, different things. Because you remember the other sales associate no longer with this firm who was talking to one of these Canadian schools in Lagos. And you know, I was telling him about asking questions, you know, about the decision making process and things like that. And he assumed that all was well because he was talking to the principal, only to find out when the proposal landed on her table, she said, I have to talk to the board.

So I told him, see, this is the reason why I was telling you to ask these questions. Now, the thing has come as a surprise. You've been blowing off her phone because you thought there was hope. Meanwhile, Principal Guy Olga and your guy is the board. She has to present it to the board. So you now know that OK, we step this thing down, try and figure out when the next board meeting is and then, you know, we'll continue from there.

So one question that you can ask, I told, you know, why they can ask is do you need any approval processes for projects like this? And they ask, you never know is what I'm talking, that you might now discover that, oh, the person you're talking to is not the only CEO. You assume the CEO, the person is actually facilities manager and say, yes, I have to talk to organ Mike, I have to talk to this, but I have to talk. You know, you're now getting an idea of who else might be needed to approve this thing and stuff like that.

And in this case, now you're getting a clear sense of their timelines. You now know that, OK, this is not something that this guy can approve today or can approve solo, that to approve you need to liaise with one or two people. So we haven't really gotten a sense of timeline here, but you can see that we're now getting ideas about how long this might take because there are a couple of other people involved. Then another question I told Snow, what you can ask is, is there anything special you're planning towards for this installation?

Ask because you never know. One salesperson who tried this also for solar sales found out that the guy was was the situation of a reverse Japan. You know that there's some people that when things are getting hot, they just pack up and you know, they evacuate, they leave the country. But now as they go outside now they realize that all more things are hot outside. So it's as if Niger is even better. So the guy was now doing reverse Jabba.

So he was bringing the family back. So before he sent everybody else say wifey children, all of you go and the plan was you go and join them. But then when they try their lifestyle and they say, hey, that's not abroad be that's not that easy. So they now do reverse Jabba. So from asking so yeah, sure. My wife and kids, yeah, they're going to be back in September while relocating finally. So as you asked like that, see,

by the way, all these things don't work all the time. You know, sometimes you get lucky. So yes, in that case, we're lucky that the person answered, answered honestly and was very specific. Wifey and kids are coming back in September. I'd like to get this thing sorted before then. So we don't have the sense of timelines. We now know when these people are ready to go and they also get a sense of some. Urgency because of course you didn't want Madame and the kids to come and land and then they will now be dealing with Nepal.

Because the disadvantage of living abroad is by the time you live abroad for a few years, you don't get used to that, you know, used to that 247 power lifestyle. So for the children to now adapt, you come back and then, you know, heat and mosquito and then all that. So. So we now, yeah, we now have the information that we needed. Or Please remember, not everything works 100% of the time. Don't go and try these questions one time.

The thing doesn't work. And then you see this thing doesn't work. It's not like that. That's not how it works. You try again and again and again. Am I even doing it right? You try and make it your own. You know, you practice and eventually you start seeing some progress. I remember Brian Tracy keeps talking about Brian Tracy. Well, old Brian Tracy, old material, you just talk about doing things to put the odds in your, the probabilities in your favour.

So you get good at asking these kinds of questions. You figure out timelines, you figure out urgency and you now know how you package yourself, how you plan the rest of the sales process. So is there anything special you're planning towards, you know, for this installation then? OK, now at the time that Snow White and I, again, not the real person, Snow White and I, we're having this conversation, our fuel was close to 1300 per liter in Nigeria.

So if you're selling solar and inverter solutions, it actually is not a place to ask someone that. Are you thinking of moving soon because of the fuel prices? You'd be surprised. Some people may ask and say, ha or Diego, this one way fuel be 1300, my sister ha. You'd be surprised. The conversations that you have. I see. This is the reason why I say that selling and sales should be conversational because if you're reading this thing like interrogation, nobody likes to be quizzed, nobody likes to be interrogated.

The guy will lock up. But if it's a conversation, you're a friendly somebody, you're a nice somebody, you're a casual somebody. You know, one at a yarn, you're just talking. Then that is where you get to hear things like this. So are you thinking of moving soon because of the fuel prices? You ask is OK Honestly, it's OK. Remember that you're the product matter specialist here, so you have permission to ask some kind of questions.

And always remember if you ask questions and then people rake for you, they provoke because they think you. They say you have stepped your bounds. It's very easy. This is Niger. It's very, very simple. You apologize, you empathize, then you refocus, and then you try and get an engagement. So advancement, let me repeat, you apologize, empathize, then you refocus and then try and get refocus on them and then try and get an advancement.

So if you say, are you thinking of moving right now because of your prices and the person you rake? Like what? What the hell do you mean? Like what? What is your like young lady? Like what is your own? What is your own concern? So you apologize, empathize. Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Sir. I wasn't trying to, I wasn't saying anything about your financial situation. I beg Sir. No Vex, I didn't mean any insult. The reason why I was just asking is because there's some information that we need just so that we can serve you better.

And if this was something you are thinking of moving on soon. I just wanted to be able to tell our technical crew. My technical guy, Johnny. I just wanted to tell Johnny them that you know, they should keep 2 battery for Mr. Okoro. That was all Sir. So Sir, No Vex, I didn't mean to offend you. That's it. That's just a simple scope. Then. Now that you've explained, you now try and get an advancement. So Sir, these ones that we've been discussing, so the storekeeper or my technical crew.

So should I tell them? Should we keep Abby? We should not keep. Is this something that you want to do now, Abby? You're not going to do now, see? So you just apologize. You empathize with the person, Say I beg no Vex. Then you refocus on them and it must always be on them that the reason why I was asking is because this information will help me to serve you the better. They now try and get an advancement. You try and move things forward for the next step.

Then let's see what else, what else, what else, what else? OK now another question you can ask. This one is just in casual gist. So what happens to your business when power fails during the peak season? You can ask, you can ask there's a another solar, sorry, yeah, another solar person who had delivered to ask the question. And it turns out that I think the was it a betting, I can't remember what it was a betting company or something.

But anyway, because the persons, the person was using UPS UPS. So because the person UPS failed, I think they lost some data. It's not a bad question to ask. So when you ask now that kind of question, you're getting a sense of oh, OK, this is actually the serious something like every single time this person's power something just crash, as in data will just miss. OK, that kind of person. OK, yeah, they, they, they have a serious problem.

So, you know, we're going to give him maybe not close marking, but you know, we could have followed them. You know, we stay on it, just not the kind of person that you talk to and they say, you know what, let me call him back in four weeks. Another question that I wish more people would ask, but I don't know Nigerian business people. You're afraid of asking. Is there any reason you started researching now? Ask for me.

I asked the question. I will talk. We'll learn about yourself. Oh, is there any reason why you're reaching out to me now? Ask. You never know. You never know. You don't know what kind of information you're going to cover. Some somebody might say, look, I'm so frustrated, I'm tired of this Nepal situation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. OK, good, good, good, good. We now know that this is a serious problem. We now know that this is a sense of urgency.

Some other person will say nothing, nothing in particular. I was just some of the people who at the office were just talking and I was just wondering how much would the solar system cost? Sorry, solar and investor system. Forgive me. Every time I say solar system, I remember the planets. How much will the solar system cost by the time the person answer like that? You know that. Oh, OK, nothing deep, nothing serious. They're just reaching out to you now just because somebody in the office like you know how people just just that, oh, Abdul Rahman bought solar system or he bought his own for six million.

Really. 6,000,000 yes. And The thing is powering the system, powering his house for three days, three days, 6,000,000 Oh, OK. And then because they now reach out to you. So they're just curious. So ask more of you should ask is there any reason why you started researching now for those of you who are web developers, somebody call you, they say you are website after you talk to them about the website idea what they want to just ask them or is there any reason why he reached out to me?

Now ask if the person says, yeah, because we are trying to expand social and so in the business we want this feature to go live before 1 feature to go live in the next six weeks. Good. You now have information now, OK, Be like, say this is a serious something. The one that seemed to go live in six weeks. OK, no problem. More follow, you know, more follow up. Stay on it. You never know. Ask is there any reason why I'm researching now?

Oh, no, no, no. I was just curious. Oh, I just saw your ad and I just got curious. At least you know the temperature of these people. Now, another question I told Snow White that you can ask is, is your current setup ready for solar? Yeah, some people say that's where you now find out that, oh, OK, they had solar before the thing packed up, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, the trunking is still there would just be a matter of you coming in and, you know, swapping out the cables or swapping out this or swapping out that.

So is your current setup already ready for design? You know, it might give you a sense. Did they have solar before from asking that kind of question? That's why you might be able to figure out if somebody else came for a visit before, because there's some people who answer and say, Oh yeah, yeah, sure. We had another company over. They already looked at the roof. Unless everything is OK, at least now you know that. Oh, so they have been talking to other people.

I am not the first company that they're calling, you know, so things like that. Now, usually I try to give a very structured and principled framework for how to run through these things. So I'm terribly sorry that today I didn't give you an accurate framework for how to ask questions like this. When it comes to timelines, when it comes to urgency, To be honest, I'm not even sure if somebody can come up with a friend. Anyway, I'll look, maybe someone has come up with a framework.

But The thing is, you know, we try. We just keep on trying, trying, trying. The thing is, just as you've heard from me now, you kind of get the scope that I'm trying to use. You try and apply to your business or you hear other people selling and then you try and mimic what it is that they do. But from listening from some creativity and from trial and error, we can figure out how to get better at our question asking process.

Like when I was talking to running office, my own solar guy when I wanted to buy batteries over here in Abuja and we had spoken and then he just said casually so OK now, so when you go send the bar and I was impressed. I was like OK, cool, I've never heard that before. That was the first time I heard it and I tried it on someone and the thing was OK, the conversation don't flow smooth. So OK, so when you go send bar now as a just casual two guys,

you know, you know, two young men under the yard. So you just say that's how the guy said it. So when you go send bar, that was it. I was like, OK, interesting. Direct, not informal as in it's very direct. Washa is not too forceful. He didn't come out and say when are you paying me? He didn't come out and say when will you transfer? Just say when you go send bar. I said, OK, correct. I've now found something that I can use in my own tool chest.

So like that, just keep on, just keep on common ways to try and ask, ask timeline questions, urgency questions, then listen to what other people do as well and then try it out. And over time, as Brian Tracy says, you know the the odds will be in our favour. So remember, for those of you who are Nigerian founders who are trying to build your product, what you're facing some software issue, the money to cost, you don't know code, you don't have a tech founder,

that's not a problem. You just go to Ikanga software factory that is IKSF dot Ng, go there, I will get your product idea live in seven days. You have a free domain and a free hosting for one year. If at any single point you want to bail, that's not a problem. You can migrate the code by yourself. So to start, because we're trying to get 10 people up and going before August is over, you get a 20% discount. So you just type in tav TAV when you get to the website IKSF dot Ng or you type in IUD AYEDE.

And when you do that, send me a text message or WhatsApp message. Just reach out to me 08064662140. I'm asking because I want to be sure that you've been taken care of and I want to be sure that there are no issue because before I put my name to a project, I want to be sure that everybody is, you understand, everybody's kosher and everything is good. I want to be sure that I don't put my name somewhere and then people will rubbish me.

So yeah, let me know. So that's it. I'll catch you all some other time.