How Broken Sales Processes Are Killing Your Bottom Line

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies because today I am not in my recording booth, so expect to hear some noise beading in from the background. Now today we're going to be looking at process related issues in your business and how those can lead to declining sales performance. If this is your first time of listening to the show, if you scroll back a couple of episodes, maybe three or four, you'll see that we've been looking at how to improve sales performance.

But coming at it from an another angle, we've been pretty much trying to figure out what are the things that causes your business sales performance to go down so that we can tweak all those individual stuff. So this your first time listening to the show. After listening to this episode, if you want a wider context, make sure that you scroll back, listen to the last three or four and you're going to get a richer understanding of what it is that we're discussing today and how all the elements from other kinds of problems, how it all works together.

So today we're going to be looking at process related issues and how that causes your sales team or your sales performance to decline. Yesterday we looked at people related issues when your sales people themselves are the problem. And I also hinted on when you the business owner is the problem or you the sales manager is the problem. Because let's be realistic, we're all humans. So it's not every single time that is going to be their fault that they're not doing a good job.

Sometimes it is your fault as business owner, your fault as Madam CEO, your fault as auger business owner. So today, process related issues. Now what are process related issues? Process related issues could be things like you guys have an ineffective sales process or an inefficient sales process. But actually what happens most of the time is that people have a non existent sales process to begin with. So you'll find that someone has a shop where you sell.

What was that example I gave Baby Gap? So you're selling imported clothes from the UK and from America. So Baby Gap from America and then Mamas and Papas from the UK. What you find is Madame sets up the shop and then she gets one of her younger cousins, doesn't give the younger cousin any training whatsoever. And you just tell your cousin, have your bath, dress up, makeup, sit in the store, attend to customers, but you have not given your junior cousin any kind of training whatsoever on what to do when people walk into the store, how to have conversations with them, are they the right person, how to upsell, how to cross sell, all these sorts of things.

You just make sure that she's smelling nice, she's fine, she has dressed well, and she knows how to use the cash register to scan the items and to troubleshoot if anything happens with the POS so that you can collect your money. Well, First off, you've done well trying to get the business to grow beyond you and of course trying to give your younger cousin some experience, some real world experience. So you've done well, but you need to take it a step further.

You also need to make sure that you have a sales process or a sales methodology in place and then train her up on that and that is how your business is going to be able to grow. Then process related issues also include situations where you have poor lead quality. A lead is just anybody who has raised their hand or who has done something to say I might be interested in your product or your service. So poor lead quality just means you are not getting enough people to raise their hands.

So of course you've enough. If you don't have enough people saying I might be interested, where are you going to get the sales from? So you can see how we have a poor process of generating leads, how that leads to business problems later and then unqualified leads. Now, a lead is someone who has raised their hand to say I might be interested. But The thing is this, it is not everybody who raises their hand to say I might be interested in your product or your service.

That might be a qualified lead. A qualified lead, it just means the person meets your own criteria for doing business. So back to the example of Mamas and Papas and the lady who sets up the shop. So you set up your shop in Wusetu in Abuja or in a Lausa in the Kedja, you know, whatever and then you have this, your shop but what you are selling is mid range. I don't know if Baby Gap is mid range or high range or you know,

I have no idea. But for those of you who know, just roll with me. So you're selling Mamas and Papas and you're selling Baby Gap. Mamas and Papas and Baby Gap is good quality stuff for kids, but it's not every single parent that is going to buy Mamas and Papas and Baby Gap and let me know like you when we were in the UK and we bought some of those stuff, it's just because I'm married to my wife as it left me alone. Why would I be buying Baby Gap or why would I even buy Mamas and Papas where we got one Mamas and Papas stroller.

And I admit I won't lie man, those things are good quality as in those strollers they've lasted. This is this is over a decade and the strollers are still there. In fact, the fold up bed from Mamas and Papas, not only is it still there, it's been used by four children now in our family, two of my kids and then for my cousin, three of his own kids. So that's five. So I, I won't lie like that stuff is good quality. But the point I'm just trying to make is you're selling all this high end stuff and some people say I might be interested, of course they'll be interested because they're about to have your babies and they want good quality.

So yeah, definitely. But then if you have an idiot like me walk into the shop, the person will say how much for shirt on top? Only one. And then the person will start trying to haggle and the person will bring down your morale and you feel as if this business cannot work. Actually, the business can work. It's just that I am not a qualified lead for you who is in that kind of business. So if you're getting leads, people who are raising their hands are saying I'm interested,

but they're not qualified leads. It's going to cause all kinds of problems. You start to think maybe this business can't work. And then meanwhile if you bought all your items at let's say 50,000 naira for one, and you want to sell it at 75, so you make 25K markup, you now feel as if limit discount. You start reducing your markup and you see that your business starts offering. So we also need to have a good process for bringing in not just any kind of lead, but the right kind of lead.

So somebody who raises their hand to say I might be interested, but not just that, someone who might be able to afford the kind of merchandise that you're selling. There are another process related problem is lack of sales enablement. And I've told you guys over here in the past that sales enablement just means you have a process, you have a methodology, but then you now train people up in the way that they should sell and they will not depart from it.

So train them up and you will get the results. Sales enablement not just means training, it also means provide them the adequate tools or resources. And that ties into the next one, which is inefficient CRM usage because CRM is one of those tools that people need. So for your niece who is selling in your shop in Wu, say two or in a Lausa, it's not just POS that if you train her on that, this is how you accept payment,

this is how payments decline. This is how you record, you reject payment and blah, blah, blah. And this is how you work the cash register. You also, if you train up, this is a CRM tool. When you talk to customers, excuse me, this is the kind of information that you get from them. This is how you store the information. This is how you schedule reminders so that if the woman came and she bought baby clothes and her baby is 6 months old,

there should be a reminder in the CRM so that six months from now, we'll call up to say, hey, Madam, how are you doing? Babies up to one year old. Abby, happy birthday. We thank God many more blessings, blah, blah, blah. Because that is how you're going to be able to build relationships and get Madam to come and now start buying things for one year old because remember, she came to the shop and bought for six months. The goal is to get Madam to buy not just for one year, but to buy for two years. 2 1/2 You want to keep Madame as a customer over the long haul because Madame comes and buys once and you make 25K on that purchase.

It's OK, it's not bad, but the real sweet profits is. If Madame buys now, you make 25K, and then she's happy with the purchase. When baby turns one, she comes and buys two or three more items, you make 75K, and then she's back next year a couple of times and then she talks to her friend. So that's where the real money, that's where the sweet money comes. So we also need to train people up on how to use the CRM efficiently.

And we also need to do other kinds of sales enablement. So a lack of sales enablement processes and a lack of CRM or train people how to use CRM, these are some of the things that cause your sales performance to keep going down and down and down. So all these things that we've listed, they can also be problematic for a number of reasons because First off, if you don't have a sales process, you know, when we're talking about inefficient sales process or non existent sales methodology, then what that means is that everybody's just freestyling and it's a problem.

It's a problem if when you are in the shop, you're trying to sell one way. When your junior cousin is in the shop, she she's selling one way. When your older son comes in on Wednesday, he he's selling another way. It's a problem because everybody's just freestyling and it's not possible to iterate and improve the selling process when everybody's just freestyling up and down. Everybody should be using the same script, using the same style, using the same scope,

using the same framework, using the same whatever it is that you want to call it. That way, you and your son and your junior cousin, you guys can be able to have discussions at the end of the week on Friday to say, ah, mommy, I know you say we should be talking like this, like this, like this, but this thing is not work, you know? So by the time your junior cousin says this, your son says this, your husband says this,

you will now know that, OK, this part of the sales process, this is how we need to change it so we can get this business to move. That is not possible if you guys don't have a sales process and if everybody just freestyling up and down. So this freestyling thing, please cut it out. You guys need to come up with a process and everybody has to be on board. If this is your first time listening to the show, no worries. Skip back a couple of episodes.

I've already done, OK, I can't remember the episode, but you will hear how I said everybody like we need to come up with the sales process, a selling framework, a sales script, a sales methodology, the scope or whatever it is you want to call it, and everybody needs to be trained upon it. So just after you're done listening to this, skip back, listen to previous episodes. Then another problem with no sales process or everybody freestyling is this the brand projection that you're trying to make for this business will not become incoherent because remember, you are the one who has set up this business.

So you think this is how my customers should feel. This how should treat them. So you're trying to project one kind brand, but you didn't train up your younger cousin. She comes tomorrow and she she's just doing thing anyhow, maybe for you, you think let's be nice, let's be professional, address everybody as Mr. so so, so and so. No chewing gum when you're in the store, your younger cousin comes in maybe different age bracket.

She thinks you can't be on first name with everybody and she's a stranger in gum. You know, you can see how the problems in brand projection, market positioning and what not start to happen because you didn't have a process that says this is how we start, this is how we address people, this is how we dress and this is the culture. This is what is acceptable. This is not this is what is not acceptable. So these are problems that they can cause.

Also, another problem for not having a sales process is if you don't have one, sales people are going to make promises you can't keep. One day your son is going to be in the store, he's going to try to be enterprising and then he's going to say, ah, no problem, we have warranty and we have guarantee on this baby Gap product. Meanwhile, you if you don't want to do guarantees or warranties, these problems will start arising.

Your people who are selling your behalf and start making promises that you can't keep. You're not running into a problem. The solution is just implement sales training. You don't have to bring someone in like me and pay me hundreds of thousands. If you do, I'll be happy and I want your business to succeed. So I'm going to give it my all. But I have over 900 episodes available over here on the podcast. They're here as free learning resources that you can take advantage of.

So take advantage of them, use them, come up with your own system. You can do some sales training. In fact, it can be better for you that way so that by the time you bring somebody on me on board, the person like me can say, OK, what have you guys tried so far? What worked, what didn't work? You're not going to be able to make progress because you have a certain sense of the fundamentals. So the solution, sales training,

pay attention to podcast like mine doesn't have to be me, the other podcast out there and other YouTube videos. Then for ineffective sales processes that happens when there's no clear structure for lead qualification, lead nurturing and closing deals. Now remember that the lead is anybody who has raised their hand to say, I might be interested. Qualification is the process of making sure that the people we're talking to, are they my kind of people?

Because the fact they sell Mamas and Papas, stroller, feeding bottle, blah, blah, blah, doesn't mean any kind Mama and Papa should enter your shop. And there are certain kinds of Mamas and Papas you're looking for. So you need to have a clear structure for that. When we're designing Flyers, we will only drop the flyer in these kinds of school or these kinds of churches because this is where we expect certain kinds of Mama mommies and daddies to come from.

You know, don't want to drop it in Whistle One primary school, that one is a public school. Those people who come here, they will even see the AC in our shop. They'll be intimidated, they'll go away. They won't even ask anything. We need to drop it at this private school or Luma or private school. What's that big one again? And you know all the big schools in your area. So you guys need to have a clear structure and the process for these sorts of things.

So how are we going to get leads? How are we going to qualify leads? How are we going to nurture leads? Lead nurturing is important because now everybody there is going to buy. There are some people that enter your shop who are genuinely big boys or big girls. But let's say the guy that entered the shop is just him. It's just a guy alone. He has been hearing his wife talk about Mamas and Papas. So he just entered just to see.

So it's not so if he can't afford anything, it's just that for him he doesn't know anything about babies clothes and feeding bottle and everything. So he has seen and is like OK, the place is OK. In his heart of hearts, he intend to return later with Madam. You now need to be able to be skilled at starting a conversation, getting his contact details, building a relationship with him, and making sure that he comes back later with Madam, who is the one who is particular about what kind of feeding bottle or which kind of stretcher.

Sorry, not stretcher. Hey, look at me. I say stretcher. Stretcher is for hospital. I mean, stroller. Yeah, stroller. That's one they put baby inside. So which kind of stroller or which kind of baby blanket or which kind of baby, excuse me, baby curtain and then stuff like that. So we need to have a clear structure, clear process for things like that. So we need to have very clear ideas. We need to agree you and your husband running the shop, your niece or your nephew who is selling for you during the holidays.

You guys need to have clear agreement. Who is your ideal customer when we're having conversations with them? What's the kind of data we're trying to capture? What's the system for follow up? All these sorts of things. In fact, delayed follow up and a lack of lead prioritization. Sorry, forgive me. That also is a problem already defined lead, lead, lead. So no need to define again. But prioritization, that's a new term, at least for this episode.

It just means you don't pay equal attention to everybody. There's somebody who will come into the shop who is clearly a worker pass. Don't waste time with the worker pass. You know, he's just curious. Then there's somebody who is an Odugu was coming, but who is not educated on these sorts of things and who wants to come back with Madam later. Then there are those cases where Odogo comes in with Madam and they are paid up and they're ready to buy something.

Now, if those three people are in the shop, you need to prioritize the worker pass. You need to be able to politely allow him to work up pass or let him look at inventory. The father who is just looking through and he has no idea, but everything looks all right. He wants to come back with Madam later. You need to find a way of quickly building some rapport, collecting his contact details and then following up with him afterwards.

But then the Odogo and his law law who are in the shop now I will have money, dollars to spend. Now you need to spend time with those people now. See, that's what we mean by price as a prioritization. Leads are passing through, but not all. Just like not all fingers are created equal, not all leads are created equal. So I'm not saying the worker pass is a rubbish human being that you should disrespect him. No, all human beings are created in the image of God and everybody deserves respect.

But you know, this is about business. I'm trying to capture some money here. I'm trying to capture some value here. So I'll prioritize who it is that I have to deal with at the moment and in what context. But of course, be respectful to everybody. Mine's one shop where we went into, my wife was looking at it and she picked it up and she looked at some stuff and everything. And the way the sales girl was just behaving, I just told my wife, look, let's leave.

Then my wife started, my wife started laughing. I said no, that let's leave, that this is absolute rubbish. I mean, like the attitude she's giving us, like if you guys are not buying, you should just leave. I said, let's leave. We'll never enter the shop again. And we left no long after the shop went out of business. And I'm told my wife that, look, I know that that's the reason why the shop went out of business, because this girl,

she's the one that killed the place, should just be giving everybody attitude and people are coming there. You kind of look at somebody and say this person doesn't have money, like you're not going to buy anything. They should go. So respect everyone. But yes, prayer resides. You need to figure out who it is they're going to pay attention to. And by the way, for those of you who tell your little cousins to come and sell in your shop is the reason why I should train them this.

Your cousin should be giving people attitude and then should ruin your business. And you think that people are chasing you from the village. It's not from the village. It's not that people are angry with you or people don't like your husband or whatever. The attack is not spiritual. The problem is your little cousin was not trained. She was giving everybody attitude and pissing everybody off. So people just left. And then the shop rent that you're paying inside the Plaza is high.

You're paying shop rent in millions. Your baby cousin is pissing everybody off, so you're not getting revenue. That's why the business folded. It's not because people were chasing you from the village. OK, so let's see. Let me look at my list of questions here because we have done 20 minutes so to make sure that we don't spend too much time here. Where was I? OK man, what carried away in personal issues, where was I? Anyway, I think you guys are getting the gist generally.

So processing can also show up in poor customer experience. You know, slow response times, lack of follow up, poor service. This is why sales training is important. I've already spoken about the CRM, that's the customer relationship management tool. It helps you to track customer interactions and what people's preferences are. Because back to that example, the mumsy that came and bought when baby was six months, you want to holler her when it is one year.

You need to know her preferences because there's some people who for them baby Gap is small because everybody wears Baby Gap. Some people think that Baby Gap is for commoners, maybe for them they prefer baby Balenciaga or baby Louis Vuitton or something. So you need to know when you're calling Madame up in one year to say how is baby oh, congratulations, happy birthday, blah, blah, blah. If Madame is a baby Louis Vuitton kind of person or baby Sean John kind of person, where you call her and you're talking Baby Gap, you're insulting her.

The CRM is what will help you track all these sorts of things. The CRM will say, now Madame came six months ago, this is what she bought. These are the conversations that she had. You think this is her kind of style, You know something like that. When you're calling up in one month say congratulations on sorry in six months say congratulations on baby's birth. They're trying to follow up to kind of get repeat business.

You'll be able to make the best kind of solutions because you have put all these things down our preferences in the CRM. So the solution on this whole CRM thing, if you don't want to spend money, you think CRM is expensive, there are free resources that you can use. You can teach your baby cousin how to use the phone in the office, in the store, as a note taking tool and as a scheduling tool. Take notes, schedule things, put reminders, blah, blah, blah.

So when you're calling Mumsy back in another six months when baby must have been one year old, you'll be able to have fruitful conversations because you're not running it from your head. It's not from memory. It's because you can actually look at the phone and you will see there Odoku Cynthia and then you see the details. She purchase blah, blah blah. She grew up US. She fancies this, this, this, this, this blah blah, blah, blah blah.

Possible recommendations for one month. Is this item, this item, this item? They can have the conversation. So the phone that you put in the shop has a free resource. Then there's also Excel. Some people use Microsoft Excel and put everything like that. It's kind of rough, especially for those of us who don't like Excel. But yeah, it's available. It's something you can do. Then there's also Evernote or Trello. These are phone apps.

They're actually are project management things and but The thing is, they're free. They're on your phone, you can just use them. Then also free CRM options like ODO, then there's paid options in the Nigerian market because like Zodo is not, sorry, not Zodo. Zoho is not available in Niger. So pricing is in Niger. So you don't have to do that whole dollar conversion thing anymore that you know, if your Tina Boo sneezes and the price of fuel goes up, then the monthly amount that you spend for your CRM goes up.

So Zoho is not available. Pricing is now in Niger, fixed for a certain number of people. So this pretty much sums up all the problems in this category, the process problems that people can come across. So tomorrow we're going to continue with the list of more reasons why your sales performance could be declining. And then of course, we're also going to talk about things you can do to remedy the situation because what's the whole point of talking about problems if nobody's going to talk about solution?

So that's all for today folks. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tava Shima Ayede. You can confirm the spelling of my name, so you can search for the right person on LinkedIn. You'll also have my e-mail address in case you want to hit me up on e-mail. You can get all this info from the link.

We're currently listening to this episode. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll get you guys at the next episode.