Get Seen, Get Liked, Get the Deal: The Ultimate Sales Roadmap

Hello and welcome to the show. Taking today's episode from my living room. So expect to hear some noise in the background because my neighbor seems to be pounding yam. Either that or he's smashing somebody's head against the wall. So either way, you're going to hear some noise. Now, the goal of this show is free business education. I'm not here to tell you about my neighbors. So if you want to learn about sales and marketing and all things business, then you're in the right place.

Just do me a favour. When you're done, please share, promote and talk about the show so that your 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, Apple, any player of their choice and you in particular. If you have any sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp on 08064662140.

Now today on the show, I would like us to look at the sales success formula. Now for those of you who've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I would never come up with any name that is not grandiose, but I was invited to speak at an online event and you know, that was a topic. So, you know, since they already decided on everything, you know, printed flyer design, banner design, every, every I say, man,

there's no need. Let me just go ahead and use their topic, the sales success formula. But just so you know, you know, I would never call any. I'll never come up with such a name, you know, that grandiose, you know, because I don't believe in any universal what's that thing called? You know, there's no universal silver bullet, you know, the principle to end all principles, the tactic to end all tactics, the this to do this.

You know, that's that's too big. But anyway, so I was wanted to speak at that event and I just want to share some of the stuff that I discussed with the convener and with the other people over here on the show. So that's what we're going to tackle Now before we do that, the usual shout outs. So shout out to Elizabeth David who reached out to me on LinkedIn so you guys can see that when I say reach out, send me messages, actually do respond, even if it takes me a few hours, you know, eventually I get to everyone.

So Elizabeth David reached out on LinkedIn, you know, we're chatting back and forth on a few things. She's a visual. What did she say again? Visual brand identity consultant or something like that anyway. And also Timothy, Caleb Obioma, Jimothy Caleb Obioma, he's one of those boys that are making millions and millions of naira in in pH because I hear that business is doing well in pH. So I've been thinking of relocating.

Let me leave Abuja and let me go to Port Arqua where all the money is. You know, that's what I've been hearing. So those of you who are pH boys and girls, if it's true that the money is flowing there, please let me know so I can relocate. Then Jim is a Calla Bobioma, he is with Trend Quest Media and that's his own company. And then he reached out to me on WhatsApp, you know, so correct guy, you know, we're just exchanging a few messages.

So that's shout out to you guys now, just in case there's someone who's reached out and you haven't heard me shouting you out, you know, apologies, these things happen. You know, some messages fall through the cracks. All you have to do is just, you know, from our chat, just send another message, you know, remind me because I'd love to shout out every single person who reaches out to say hello to offer me support. If nothing else, I want people to know that you've reached out and this is what you do.

And if there's anything you want me to share about your business, let me know so I can put it up here so that people can also find about you and your business as well. So those are the shout outs. Now let's get straight to the sales success formula. And like I said, I will never name anything that grandiose because there is no formula that you know. Once you take that formula and apply, it will solve all your problems.

But anyway, let's head straight into it. So there was some prelim discussion and you know, set sales success formula and of course the event is attended by people in different realms of business. So I mean, you have me who is in sales and business development. I started off as a wedding photographer. I've done some small export and then my academic background and my first professional stint was in law and then in civil service.

So that's me, the person who's convening this thing is in real estate. So I mean, you can see that sharp people from different walks of life. But I wanted everybody to know one thing that no matter where you're coming from, whether it's real estate or law or export or whatever, all of us were in sales should be the event is called sales success Formula. So everybody is in sales because the purpose of a business, the main, the main, the main thing of a business is to create a customer.

That's according to Professor Peter Drucker, American business consultant and academic. Yeah. So Peter Drucker says that basically businesses have two functions, marketing and sorry, business has one function that is to create a customer. And the reason why he says so and the reason why I agree is because if a business does not create a customer, all those other benefits that you're looking for in a business will not accrue to you.

So there are some of you like me who want to be in business so we can make some cream money like creamy Muller, like correct money. That's why people like me are involved in business because I want nice things. Like I was telling my mum, see earlier on today I told her, look, mum, see, I'm tired. I want to have a house manager. She said house manager. What is that? And I say house manager now, like, you know, somebody that makes sure that the house is clean, that, you know, food has been cooked, everything is done,

my schedule is properly managed. What else? That somebody kind of just maintains everything. And, you know, my mom can't ask me questions, asking me questions, ask me questions. And then she said, young man, you're not serious. I'm like, I'm not serious. How like I just want to wake up and I want somebody to do everything for me. The only thing I want to do is I just want to wake up, have a bath, the food is ready and then straight I roll into whatever it is that I have to do for the day.

So for me, that's the kind of life I want to live. I want to have a house manager. My mom thinks that's ridiculous because as far as my mom is concerned, like you're healthy, you know, so what's the problem? You can take care of your own crap if you want, get APA. But sharp, you're alive, so what's the problem anyway? So that's some of us who has reason why we're in business. Want correct money, creamy money like good money like I want to travel whenever I want to travel money like I'm tired of Napa and how to say Napa if you buy solar panels everywhere, that kind of money.

So if you do not create a customer, you will not get that kind of bastard money that you're looking for. So the sole purpose of a business is to create a customer. Some of you are in business for social impact. You want to improve the community, you want to improve the environment, you want to leave a legacy, you want to do this, you want to do that. Peter Rocker is saying that if you don't create a customer, there will be no legacy, no environmental impact, no social impact, no nothing.

So even though when we went to primary school, they told us that the main reasons why people go into business is to either make money, societal impact, personal fulfilment, blah blah, blah. The truth of the matter is if you do not create a customer first for that business, you will not get money. You will not get social, sorry, social impact, personal influence, whatever it is that you're looking for. So every single business person,

you listening to this podcast right now, I don't care what you call yourself, you are in sales. You are a sales person because your first purpose, your primary purpose is to create a customer. You will not create a customer without realizing and without accepting that. OK, yes, I call myself visual brand Identity specialist, but actually I'm in sales. If you don't like sales, then just substitute sales and say you're in marketing, but I'm in marketing.

So Peter Docker says that the primary, primary purpose of a business is to create a customer. And you create customers by doing 2 business functions. Number one, marketing and then #2 innovation. Marketing is the business function that tells the whole world, I am here, I exist, this is me, this is what my product or service can do. This is why you need me. All that is marketing. The second business function is innovation.

Innovation is the process where you innovate on the product or the service. So for those of us who started off as wedding photographers, innovation is my photograph, my style is correct, but sure, I want to make sure that my editing is on point. I'm constantly evolving, you know, things like that. So that is innovation on the product. Then you also innovate on service delivery. You know, I'm answering my phone calls on time.

What is turn around time? What do the deliverables look like? You know, things like that. So those are the business functions. You innovate either on product or innovate on service delivery. Now, I know that the whole world already likes to talk about innovating on the product, how can you make your product better or innovating on product and sorry, innovating on service delivery, you know, how can we improve customer service, you know, all those sorts of things.

So that's why I typically don't talk about these sorts of things. So but you can see now that no matter the business you're involved in, what you're supposed to be doing is becoming very clear. Marketing number one. Number two, sorry, 1 moment. OK, sorry about that. Someone was at my door. To be honest, I can't remember where I was, but I think I've exhausted our whole sales thing because remember sales success formula.

So #1 everybody realize, wake up, be honest with yourself. Stop being afraid you're in sales if you don't like the term sales and say you're in marketing. But we can't keep running away from this thing. You know, we're not kids anymore or I don't want to be in sales. I don't want to be sales. I don't want to be this, I don't want to be that. Look, it's not about you. You're in business now. You don't have a choice. Just wake up.

You're already here. So you're in sales or in marketing. The next is success. So how do you define success? Well, you know, it's one of those terms, but anyway, your own opinion, let me try. And I believe that there's an objective definition of success, but let me know go into that here because some of you were with me. But so long as you have some sort of fulfillment, some sort of purpose, some sort of well-being, then lots of people would like to say you're successful.

But unfortunately, if you are not able to achieve revenue or if you're not able to successfully execute on the initiatives and the drives that you're putting through in your personal life and your business life, you won't feel like a success. So either way, the skills that we're talking about when it comes to sales and marketing are really important because that's precisely what we do when we own up that we're in sales and we're in marketing.

We have revenue goals, we have initiatives, we have agendas, we have drives. We are trying to fulfill them. And that is the whole point of being in sales. This is the goal. Who do I have to talk to to advance this thing to the next step and get it to the ultimate goal? So that's it. So in other words, you want to be successful, you better make sure that you're achieving the goals of your business or else you are not going to be, you're not going to feel successful because our emotional well-being is tied into the progress that we make personally and the progress that we make professionally.

So that's the success bit. Now the formula angle. Can we say indeed that there is a formula? Yes, there is a formula. It's just that there's no silver bullet. There's no one formula that will fix everything. But yes, there is a formula. And yes, selling, marketing, whatever it is you want to call it, is formulaic. Whenever you're dealing with businesses, whenever you're dealing with people, whenever you're dealing with markets, you are dealing with systems.

Let me repeat. When you're dealing with business businesses, when you're dealing with people, when you're dealing with markets, you are dealing with systems. A system is when you have different elements, all of them are interconnected, but they work together as a whole because they have one single purpose. So as a business person, you know, you're the CEO or the founder or the whoever. You have a secretary in the office.

You have two or three sales people. I mean, what all of you doing there? You're different parts, you're interconnected, working together as a whole to achieve a singular purpose whenever you're dealing with people, whether you like it or not. Let's say you're trying to sell something into my own household. Me and my wife, who are we? We're interconnected, working together as a whole because we have a singular purpose for the family.

So whether you're trying to sell us fridge or gas cooker or car or TV or diapers, OK, no, we don't need diapers anymore. But you catch my drift. You're dealing with interconnected people working together as a whole to try and achieve A singular purpose. It's the same thing with markets. Buyers and sellers and different stakeholders converge, whether in a physical location like your neighborhood market or whether online.

It is different people interconnected, working together as a whole, all of them trying to achieve a singular purpose. Now when you have systems like this, definitely things are going to be formed Lake, because things work together in a predictable pattern, in predictable ratios. And that's the reason why I can go to the doctor and say, look, doctor, my left leg is hurting, my right ear is hurting and my back teeth are falling out.

And he can say, oh, OK, this is the problem. You have cancer of the thyroid. The reason why he can do that is because it's a system working together as a whole. So if this is not working, that is not working. And they're supposed to be working in this, in this ratio, in this way and in that way, OK, these are the possible problems. So it's also the same, the same thing when it comes to sales and when it comes to marketing.

Now people have come up with different formulas over time, but the most popular one, at least in this part of the world. So the reason why I keep referring to it, not because it's the best, but because I think lots of people in Nigeria know it. So I keep referring to it. So one popular system that everybody knows is KLT, that is know, like and trust. I repeat, the formula that everybody talks about is KLT, no, like and trust.

There's another one, Aida, Attention, interest, decision, and sorry, attention, interest, desire and then action. Yeah. So I think that's the one that I learned in business studies back when I was in GSS like Naka and GSS 2, GSS 3IN CKC in Wapala. But since then, it looks like most people know KLT, know like and trust. Now, the idea behind KLT is this, people have to know you first, first before they can do business with you.

They have to like you second of all, because who does business with people that they hate? I mean, there are times you can do business with someone that you hate. Like one time, one of my relatives, we need to see one cardiologist and they say this cardiologist is the best in town, the best in hija, graduated first class. You know this. I went there and to be honest, the man was an absolute idiot. Guy has no bedside manner.

The guy's rude, he doesn't answer questions. But how for do now they say he's the best cardiologist in the country. So, you know, we want our family member to survive. So we just stood down. We still acted, but now we give thanks to God and my family member is alive. We have looked for another cardiologist like we are, We have gone past the, the, the stage of, you know, we're afraid and we have no hope. We're now alive.

And so for maintenance work, we've gone to another cardiologist. So there are situations where you will deal with somebody even though you think the person is a bastard because you have no hope or you have no, you know, because you're afraid or whatever. But if you remove those emergency systems, nobody is doing business with another person unless you like the person or at least you're comfortable with the person. Then finally, people have to trust you to do business with you.

Either they trust you even if they don't trust you, they need to trust your product, they need to trust your proposal, they need to trust your value proposition, they need to trust something Sha before buying. So in Nigeria, in this part of the world, this is what we have commonly accepted as business wisdom. KLT people have to know you, they have to like you. They have to trust you or trust your product or trust your unique value proposition, trust the proposal that you have on the table before they do business with you, before they buy.

So that's how I broke down the wholesale success thing. Sales, all of us were in sales whether you like it or not. If you don't like sales, say you're in marketing, then we need still need to master the sales and the marketing game so that we can be successful. We can run away from that. And yes, there's a formula. The reason why I like to stress this whole formula thing is too many people are freestyling. Will you stop trying to freestyle when you go and see the doctor?

Does the doctor say let me freestyle and figure out what's the problem? The doctor knows that he's dealing with the system, so he will follow his training, he will follow his professional judgement and he will go through the system and diagnose what is going on. That is the reason why the doctor will say give us blood sample, give us stool sample, give us urine sample. You know, when last did you, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Because he's looking at the system, he's doing these analysis, he's asking question. Oh, sorry. She because you know, lots of women are doctors too. You know, she's trying to figure out what it is that is going on. She's running through the system trying to see what's broken before she makes a proposal to say that OK, you know what, we need to amputate your left leg and then the problem will stop. So now what is the sales success formula?

If we're going to look at this poll, if we're going to look at it from this angle of know, like and trust, Oh, by the way, let me 3 and one element which is close because lots of Nigerians as well, we mess up. We don't know how to close. Closing is just getting somebody to take action on this particular thing that we are talking about. Lots of us are good at the know, like and trust part. They know us, they like us, correct relationship, we're flowing, we're all good,

everybody's happy. And then you just slide over the proposal and then the person is like, oh, thank you very much. It was a pleasure talking to you. I'll be in touch. And then you shake their hand. So look forward to hearing from you. And then the person stands up and then goes and then you call them next week and they don't answer. And then in two weeks you're like, this person is ghost to me. I thought we had a good relationship.

Yeah, you had a good relationship, but you didn't know how to close, how to make the person take action on the proposal, on the initiative, on the agenda, on the whatever it is that you are working on. And so because of that, the person stood up and said, oh, thank you very much. It's been fun. You know, let's hang out. Let me get back to you. Let me think about it, Let me get back to you. So that's where a lot of us fall short.

Nigerians are very good at the no part, the like part and the trust part. We have problems with the close part. Now let's go back to the sales success formula. So First off, you guys remembered that I started off by saying all of us were in sales. If you don't like sales, call it marketing. So let's just call it the marketing function. Now for people to know us, that is precisely where the marketing function comes in.

Because remember how I define marketing? Marketing is letting the whole world know I am here, I exist. If you guys do not know that I exist, there is no way that you will know that there is somebody called Tavishma that you should be looking at, looking for on LinkedIn, on YouTube or this is his phone number. Let me call him. Let me see if he can solve some of my problems. You guys need to know that I exist first of all.

So that's the marketing problem. You have to be doing something as well to cure the marketing problem. People have to know you first, right? So from marketing, now there are different ways of breaking it down, but let me just use the way that most modern people talk about it nowadays. People talk about inbound marketing and they talk about outbound marketing, outbound motions, outbound, whatever. But this is just what it means.

Inbound means you're doing things to get people to chase you. You want to sit down at the comfort of your house in the chill AC, in your office, in your wherever, and then people are sending you messages, knocking on your office door or whatever. But people are chasing you. That is inbound when you do things to get people to chase you. Outbound is when you do things and start running after people. Some people ask me which one is best and I'm like, look, this one is no matter of best or or not because it depends on the context.

But for most people, you should be doing both. You should be doing something that will get people to chase you, to pursue you. And then you also should be doing things where you do pursue people, you know. So any situation you even out, you're trying to attract people, you're trying to chase them. That's how it works for most businesses. So traditionally now when you're doing inbound things for people to chase you, the traditional offline stuff is you're trying to do word of mouth.

The idea is if you do a good job and people are happy and you're able to get referrals. In fact, what is the referral? What people calling you up, sending you a message, coming to see you because somebody said you did a good job in hooking up. So can you do the same thing for me? You can see that that is inbound. You're chilling in the office under the cool AC. Then somebody knocks on the door. Bam, bam, bam. You tell your secretary, go and open the door.

The secretary opens the door and oh, it's Alhaji. So, so, so that last project that you did for senator, this and this and this and this and that and that, and then the conversation starts that is inbound. You are sitting in your office, somebody came in, that is why The thing is called inbound. Or you're holding your phone and then you hear ping, you open your SMS, you open your WhatsApp, you open your Instagram app, somebody's sending you a message.

Are you available for social? And so did how much do you cost? Can you solve this problem that is inbound? You're minding your business, things are coming in to you, Then let's see what else. OK, giving out things like brochures, pamphlets, yes, you're doing something, but it's also a way of generating inbound traffic or generating leads because if people see your brochures, your pamphlets, they like what they see. You know they're going to call out to you.

Then there's also workshop and seminars. This is also traditional old school stuff, like people in the financial space, they do that a lot. So you have a seminar on retirement and you talk about retirement benefits, planning for your retirement, blah, blah, blah. And then before you wrap up the seminar and say, oh, by the way, I'm going to work with social insurance. And you see all these problems that we talked about.

We have financial products that actually solve for all of these sorts of things. So if you're interested, by the time we're done, come to the back of the hall. You see me there and you will see my colleagues, The handsome gentleman over there, his name is Chukudi. The other lady there, her name is Chinasa. So you speak to me, to Chukudi or to Chinasa and we should be able to show you how our bank, our advisory firm, whatever,

whatever can help you solve all your retirement needs. So you can see that that is inbound. Yes, you've gone on stage, but The thing is, hopefully if you did a good job, you should just be standing at the back of the stage and people should come to meet you to say, OK, Chinasa, Nothing like sorry, Madam Chinasa, nothing that you said about this and this and this and this. If we do this, how much will my children get? How much will I get as living benefits, you know, blah, blah,

blah, all those sorts of things. Then let's see what else. OK, I said workshop or six seminar. I had then location storefront design like that. My former client, the one who has a shop in Benin for his gadget store. I mean, the the design is on point. The first time you sent me pictures, I'm like, is it been a city? I mean, the thing looked like was made in the UK, correct? Like real nice design that's also a part of inbound because if your thing looks the bomb, if it looks like off the shelf, if it looks like, I mean like it's solid that people just have to,

if nothing else, like which business is this? Let me go and see what they're doing inside here, if nothing else. So that's also a way that people traditionally do inbound. Now, of course, you already know about what people do, how people try and get her inbound in a modern sense, you know, by doing content marketing like this podcast. This is content marketing. People try and do proactive social media engagement. You know, you're commenting on people's posts.

People see that, OK, you're correct, guy, you know what you're saying, you're correct, babe. And maybe they click on your profile, they say, OK, this is what she does. Then they send you Adm. How much are you free? Are you available for this date? Can you also cover this then SEO on the website that is a search engine optimization. Search engine optimization just means are people finding me online and for now that means are people finding me on Google.

But please do not forget, I have been saying it on the podcast that because of the changing nature of the world, SEO is also going to mean are people finding me on AI? Because if somebody searches on ChatGPT or searches on Google Gemini, it's not going to be like Google where a web page will come up and then on page one, there are you know 12 or 15 alternatives. When somebody searches on Gemini and they say give me the best photographer in Abuja, Char GPT

is going to give one answer. We want to make sure that the answer Char GPT gives is us. If you go and type in best Amala joint in Abuja, Gemini is going to give one answer, OK, well a bunch of answers, maybe 3 or 4. We want to be sure that we are the ones that Gemini that copilot, that char GBT is going to recommend. So SEO, since SEO means how people finding me online, SEO has to now evolve beyond Google. Now some of you has asked me before, you know, what's the way forward?

You know, I don't know, I'm not an SEO specialist. So I don't know how we're going to tackle the AI game has been found on AI engines. However, since my own personal business philosophy is that I'm going to overwhelm the market with value, I think I'll be all right because eventually I'll get to a stage where you know, enough people know my podcast, think it's a valuable resource, you know, stuff like that. And based on all those other signals, Gemini and JGBT and you know, all those people, you know, they'll begin to see, I

say people, all those AI tools, they'll begin to see that in Abuja is actually there's one guy we guess is, yeah, that guy's a valuable person. So the next time somebody has problems with sales, the next time somebody has problems with business development, let us give that as a solution to the person's problem. So that's how me I'm tackling it. But then of course, if you're in this field, please SEO and you have some ideas about how the average Nigerian business person is supposed to bridge this gap.

How do we go from SEO on Google to now SEO on the ChatGPT? Please reach out to me. Let's have a chat. So let me share your perspective over here on the podcast so people can learn and grow. So anyway, when it comes to marketing, the truth of matter is we can talk from now until December and we still would not have finished it. So let me just stop here. But I just, I hope that you guys are, are seeing that regardless of your product, regardless of your situation, the first thing you should try and sort is marketing.

People have to know that you exist. They have to know you before like and trust even enters the picture. They have to know you. Unfortunately, lots of people are not doing well in this no function. I know someone who was frustrated that Nigerians, they don't buy, Nigerians don't know value. I'm fed up. I'm waiting for the international market. I haven't told her yet, but I'm going to tell her because I'm following her to talk small,

small, small, small. I'm going to tell her that look, it's not really that Nigerians are no value. The truth or matter is you haven't done enough on this no front. Like people don't know you because she has done a few things. She has signed a few DMS. But honestly, if you DMS is not going to get you anywhere, like who's going to know you after a few DMS? If Dming is part of your strategy, you have to go out and have a strategy.

You need to be deliberate about how you can be sending multiple DMS every single day, and you better do that for a couple of weeks, maybe 12-15 weeks before you decide that OK, this thing is not working. So for those of you who you say you've been in business, by the time I ask you a couple of questions, you've told your girlfriend, yes, you've told your parents, yes, you've told a few of your cousins, yes. And then you've told people at the office, yes, and then complain that business is not moving.

Like how will the business move? You only told the people around you, how would the business move? So yes, you've done well in telling Mumsy and Popsy and telling them to tell their friends and telling your girlfriend or your boyfriend that was good and telling people that work. But then what's the plan? How about people in your neighborhood? How about people in church? How about joining some, you know, Lagos Chamber of Commerce or something?

Like there has to be a plan. You need to tell people. People need to know that you exist. So it's not that business is hard, it's that nobody even knows you exist. Trust me. I'm speaking from experience because even with the podcast, even with 30,000 downloads, even with me being on the radio, and I mean, I run into people like this person is my guy, Surely you should know what I do. And that person's asking me, what do you do?

I'm like, seriously, on top all this activity that I'm doing, there are still people in my circle who don't know what I do. So trust me, it's a problem. Welfare people need to know that we exist. Now let's move on to like and trust since we are at 30 minutes. So like and trust, how do we define that? Like and trust just means people are comfortable with you. They're comfortable, they're casual, they're cool. You know, nobody's uptight because just like relationships,

if the guy is uptight and forget, you're not closing that deal, you won't get a boyfriend. If the baby's uptight, forget it. You're not going anywhere. So we need to get them cool, get them comfy, get them casual. It's the same thing in business when people are coffee and casual with you and cool everybody you know, step down and then you can now start getting into conversations because remember, I keep talking about need analysis on the podcast.

You can't do need analysis on to people like calm. The people are uptight. They won't tell you anything. When did the problem start? They won't tell you what is the effect of the problem. They won't tell you what are you trying to achieve? They won't tell you. So for those of you who are fashion designers, you know that's how you get some of those troublesome clients. They say they want to do peplum, but they're not giving you any more information.

Now you as a fashion designer, you need to know that OK, this peplum, is it for, is it for 50th wedding anniversary or is it for end of year office, whatever, or is it because you're mother of the day at the wedding? You know, you as a fashion designer, you know that you need to ask all these things because it will influence the way you design. But if the person is uptight and guarded, maybe they don't want to let you know because they think if they mentioned that is,

you know, corporate event or something, you will now start charging high and they keep quiet and they're guarded. You design something, then they don't like it and then they squirrel back and forth is because why not? You? You aren't able to do a good job when it comes to the like and trust. Get somebody to be comfy, get somebody to be casual so the person will start talking freely. Oh yes, I want a peplum design. And yeah, my husband was celebrating 50 years being married.

You know, something, something, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, you know, just talk freely and then you'll be able to design the kind of thing that they need. So like and trust, get people to be comfortable, get people to be cool, get people to be casual, get everybody to relax so you can have a conversation. By the way, please, for those of you who think selling is toasting is not toasting. Selling is having a conversation with someone because it's from the conversation, you'll be able to understand where are they coming from?

Where are they going to this my product or my service? Can it help them? By the way, it's implicit there that if your product or your service can help refer them to somebody else. I do that those Alzheimer's severely broke, really, really broke, broke as help. And then somebody reached out. She's in a construction space. You know, we spoke, we spoke, we spoke. I was like, well, you know, I figured I could do it. And I think it was back was I

mean like 4 years ago. And so it was going to be 600 K and I was looking forward to the money. But deep down, deep down, deep down, I knew she needed something else. So I was oh, you know, what's up? Are you in the office? OK, I'm coming, I'll be around. Let me just pass through. So I started down, I had a conversation. I look this your money to be honest, you know, I don't mind. It will come in handy now. But to be honest, based on all the things that you've been talking about so far, yes, I

have some knowledge in it. But we need a dedicated marketing specialist who's going to be able to help in this and this and this and that. And she was happy like, oh, OK, thank you very much for being frank with me. Is there anybody you can recommend? And I recommended her to somebody else, even though it was painful because I really need a 600K. At that time, A600K would have helped me because, you know, back then we didn't have a fuel prices like we do right now.

You know, back then I used to fill my car with 5K. That's what I used to fill my car. Think about it. I fill my whole car with 5K and then I go for a job and I get 600 grand. Oh man, that would have been good money anyway. So yeah, be honest with people if you can help them. Yeah, help. If you can't, just tell them that. Look, yeah, we had the convo. Honest. All you're trying to do. To be honest, I don't think I can get you those results.

This person might so startling as a conversation. You're having conversations about the person, about the problem, about your product or your service. Keep the conversation open-ended, be professional, try and build rapport. Don't be a robot here. Relax. So that's the whole like and the trust. Now, of course, there are too many things that we can talk about when it comes to liking and trusting. So I'm not going to bother trying to achieve that in today's episode, especially since we're over 35 minutes.

Then the final part of the sales success formula, which is closed because in Nigeria, we're bad at closing In Nigeria, we make sure that people know us. You know, we can be. What's that word? What did my friend call it? And my friend, one of my friends, a podcaster as well, he called, He said he's a nuisance, like he's a professional nuisance. So yeah, Nigerians, we can't be nuisance. We'll get on LinkedIn and we will broadcast to the whole world.

We'll get on WhatsApp, we'll broadcast to the whole world. Then we'll go to church, we'll share fly everywhere. We'll go to Moscow, put fly everywhere. We will, you know, pay for it. As in yeah, we can be a nuisance. Yeah, we do the no part very well. We do the like and trust part very well as well. Nice conversation. Oh, you're from Malaria. Me, I'm also from Malaria as well. My grandfather is from here. You know all that conversation.

I went to the school that and you like to know, how can you not like to know? In all those conversations we do very well, but then close. That's the problem. We need to know how to get people to take action. Now, the very first scene, the very first Cardinal scene, the very first thing that people do wrong when it comes to closing is people think closing is the other person's responsibility. The average Nigerian just assumes that if they're interested, they will buy.

Like what the hell is that? What do you mean? If they're interested, they will buy. If they knew exactly what it is that they wanted and how to solve their own problem, they won't come and meet you. They'll go and sort themselves out. You are the professional here. You are the one that should take the initiative. What do you mean? If they like it, they'll buy. No, take the initiative and move this conversation forward.

If they're not interested, then, you know, free it. Or if they're interested and like I said, you figure out at the end of the day, you can't help them, you know, still be a helpful resource. Send them somewhere else so you are the one to take the initiative. Stop waiting for the person to say I'm interested. That is the reason why a lot of you who complain about ghosting and complain about let me call you back, send me a proposal.

So you're the one that caused the problem. You didn't ask for anything, you didn't try to close. So of course they'll say let me think about it. Let me call you later. It's a very logical response if I'm there and I'm unsure and I know that if I mess up, you know my wife is going to abuse the hell out of me by the time I get home. Of course, I'll say, let me think about it. I want to talk to my wife. So it's your fault.

You're the one not taking the initiative. Take the initiative. What you're trying to do is just to gain advancements. Advancements mean you get somebody to take the next logical, smallest step in the relationship. Some of you try too hard. The package you're putting on the table is worth 2.5 S from the first meeting. You're trying to collect 2.5 million from them. No, that's too big. Break it down into small, small commitments.

Those are called advancements. So back to my wedding photography days. Somebody showed up at the bridal fair. The bridal fair is like a business Expo. It's just that it's brides and grooms who are there and their parents and then wedding vendors. So some of you are trying to collect your, let's say, a wedding planner. Some of you are trying to collect your 10 million, you know, down on the spot. No, no, no, that's too big.

It's too much. 10 million is a huge amount. Not too many people can go and drop 10 M like that. So you break this thing down into small steps. Congratulations, blah, blah, blah. How did you guys meet? When are you getting married? Oh, mommy, congratulations. My are you looking forward to being a grand grandmother's? And ha, ha, ha, ha. You laughed. Oh, sorry, Mommy, sit down. You tell your sister to go and bring some some small stout, you know, so that mommy can be sleeping.

And then people are talking. What are your wedding plans? What is this? What is that? You get enough information trying to see if they're interested because the goal is if they're interested, they should drop their number and e-mail address. So that's the first close. That's the first advancement. Let me get their contact details. Next advancement is you call them a buffet, the event next day, two days later, I'm sure that they remember you catch up,

get familiar, and then we book a meeting. When will you come to my studio? When will I go to your house? Can I come and see you in the office? You know that kind of thing. Next step, book a meeting from the meeting, OK, if I understood correctly, this is what you're aiming for, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it'll be nice for us to look at samples. Where can we look at samples? That's the next thing. That's the next advancement.

We're looking at samples now. Can you see how you're moving things forward? One step, one step, one step, one step. At each stage you're confirming. Is this person interested? If they're interested, does it look as if I have ideas that can solve this problem? If it looks as if we have some ideas and they're willing to explore some more than book the next step. So advancements small, small, small. In fact, in the sales community,

excuse me, they have a saying. The saying is book a meeting from a meeting. What that means is at this current meeting that we're having now, I should use, I should not end this meeting unless I have booked the next meeting or booked the next appointment or booked the next thing that me I'm going to do for them or that they will do for me or that we will do together. Advancements. That's the first step in closing. So have that mind frame.

You should never give somebody a proposal no matter how wonderful the conversation is. And then they say, oh, thank you very much, Cami was wonderful having a conversation with you. I'll look over this proposal and then I'll get back to you. No, that is 0. You can hand over the proposal and say, oh Sir, in my typical experience, whenever we hand over proposals to clients, they usually take about 3 or 4 days to think things over.

Do you think that's OK with you? Oh, oh, of course. Yes. I would have finished looking at this proposal. Yeah. Two days is is more than enough. OK, Sir. So if that is OK, would it be OK for me to call you next week Wednesday to see what you and Madam have decided? Oh, yes. Wednesday is fine. Oh, OK, Sir. All right, Sir, can I go in the morning or in the afternoon or morning is fine. OK. All right. No problem. So, Sir, I'll call you Wednesday morning at 10 AM to tell you and Madam have decided about the proposal.

Oh, yes, that's fine. And then you leave the meeting. You can see now that in this case at least you got an advancement. You have agreed, excuse me, that the next thing is you're going to call Olga on Wednesday morning to find out how far. Because you have determined this in advance. And because organ now knows and our guy is now expecting he is most likely the chances of him ghosting or fading have gone down because at least you guys have agreed to a game plan.

Lots of people ghost because there's no game plan and it's a hassle and they don't really know why you're calling and you know something else important is happening and I'd rather not deal with this right now. So advancements, we need that. In closing, that is part of your sales success formula Advancements. Book a meeting from a meeting at this current meeting, at this current phone call. Let us decide. This is the next step.

This is what I'm doing next. This is what you will do next or this is what we will do together. Then also you need to learn how to use trial closes. Your trial close is just anything that you do that checks the emotional temperature of the people. Are they feeling me because you know, like and trust you? They're not feeling you then. Well, I did this problem. So are they feeling me? Are they feeling my service? Are they feeling my solution?

Are they interested in this thing? We need to ask questions about it. If I had the last podcast I told you about one of the sales associates for my former client who sells gadgets and for her her benefit clothes was oak this this what'd she say again was the power bank. So this power bank is something something 1000 AMH. Because of that, if you're charging this phone, this thing will last you 16 hours straight and then see, look at this thing.

You don't even have to buy extra cable because the thing has three cables heads that are inbuilt. You pull it out like this, if you will just roll back so you can charge any kind of phone and if he even has torch light so you can even use it to, you know, you something falls in the car, you can use it to check something like that. So how you see him, you see, that's a trial close. How you see him is a trial close. Remember, these things don't have to be fancy.

They just have to be simple, conversational, the kind of thing that you would normally say given the context and given the relationship, so that some of you who say I would never say how you see him, it's unprofessional. OK, Yeah. If you would never say how you see him, you can ask in a different way. Does this look like this will work for you? Are you interested in this? Is this feature something that you admire? Is this the kind of feature you would use?

You know, come up with your own way, But it was something as simple as how you see them. Is your trial close? You will say how you see them. And person says, ah, correct, correct. You see, you now know the emotional temperature. This person is feeling me or this person is feeling the product or this person is feeling the service. It means I can now go ahead and I'll do closing techniques. Closing techniques is where you ask the person to buy.

Now you just like to use urgency closes. OK. I already made a podcast yesterday about that, so I'm not going to repeat myself because we're already at chat for the four minutes. OK, let me wrap up. So yeah, urgency. OK, Yeah, Nigerians do urgency. So let me use urgency. That is not the point where I now say, OK, so boss, since you're feeling this thing, to be honest, we only have three of these charges left and I'm chatting with Instagram now, 5

people and all five of them, it looks like they want to buy this kind of charger since you only have 3 left. You know, Bros, if you really want this thing, you have to buy this thing. Now that is urgency clothes. That's the typical thing that Nigerians would like to do. You know, the promo is ending soon. I only have one copy left, you know, so that's the whole urgency thing. Act now to take advantage of this thing. So different kind of clothes.

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, listen to yesterday's episode. I already talked about assumptive closes. That's why you assume that the sale is going to close and then you do that evil boy thing of how many? Because one thing I noticed when I was living in Lagos, well, I don't know if these trends change, but something I lose among evil boys at the time. When you're having a conversation with them, it's not a matter of you know you're doing or you're not doing.

They just assume you're doing. And then they just ask you how many. So are you buying 3 or 4? They are assuming. That is the disclosing. They're not assuming the they're not assuming that you're not interested. They're only just, you know, how many are you taking alternative choice clothes? You know, do you want it in black or white? Do you want it in this specs or that spec? We have China made or we have juice made, You know which one do you want?

And then benefits closed, different kinds of closing. So I went in details about that yesterday. So if it's your first time listening to the podcast, you have small homework, just hit rewind. Listen to the one that I did before and you get caught up to speed on some closing techniques. But Please remember that the episode I did on closing techniques is contextual to that particular business. It doesn't mean it's going to work for you or for your context or for your situation.

But anyway, there's more explaining that later on. I'm sorry, there's more explaining in that earlier episode. So summary, this is just some of the stuff that we spoke about when I was invited to talk about the sales success formula. But remember, there's no universal formula that will solve all your problems. Anytime you hear somebody talking about this perfect clothes, this perfect e-book, this perfect formula, this person perfect whatever, like please, like just ignore everything is free.

Go ahead and read it. You will learn some valuable things from it, but ignore the person, the person can solve solve your your problems. There's no universal formula, but just know that all of us are in sales and marketing. So no matter what you think about sales and marketing need to become a big boy. You need to become a big girl. You know, we're grown-ups now. We're trying to make money now. And you know, this thing is not guaranteed.

People are not just going to dash us money. They're going to dash us money. I'll be a billionaire already, right? So all in sales, all in marketing. So just own it then. Yes, there is a formula. What you have to do now is you try and figure out that formula. When you figure out the formula or when you find someone who gives you a formula that you think the formula can work, apply the hell out of that formula. Too many of you find something or this thing looks OK.

You try one or two times. This thing did not work. Like what the hell, no, two or two or three times is not enough. There's one of my guys. I remember back when we're doing wedding photography, The guy was good, like really, really, really, really good shooting style, on point, editing everything. That was a correct Baba. And I told him that look, go hard on this Facebook thing because I was before Instagram, go hard on this Facebook thing.

So I know I tried the Facebook doesn't work. And I asked him and honestly, you know, he posted a few times for two weeks and then say Facebook doesn't work. Like, what are you expecting? That you post things on Facebook in two weeks and then people will rush and start dashing your money? It was like that all of us will be billionaires. Now. There's no tactic that exists that if you do it for only one week or two weeks, you know,

then the thing will you think we'll start bringing in millions of naira or millions of dollars? So please wake up, once you find the formula, apply the hell out of this thing. Give yourself some brain, give yourself some time. I'll try this thing two months, three months, you know, don't try something two or three times and say this thing doesn't work. So anyway, that's just a challenge for you. So basically, no matter what it is that you do, medicine,

accounting, wedding photography, architecture, selling chicken, selling catfish, you're a chef, you're a content creator, you know, whatever. This is the sales success formula. Recognise that you're in sales. Get people to know that you exist first of all. When they know that you exist, get them to like and trust you. The like and trusting is only going to happen when you're in conversation with people. And then when you have conversations with people,

please learn how to close. Learn how to get people to take the next step, one more step at a time. If we learn how to do this well, over time, the results should start adding up in our favour anyway. So 15 minutes, let me just bring it to a close here. So that's all for today folks. If you have any sales or marketing questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you there, listener, at the next episode.