How to Increase Your Closing Rate Without Being Pushy

Hello and welcome to the show. Unfortunately, today's episode is going to be a very long one, but I'll try and breeze through as quick as possible. Now, for the benefit of those of you who are joining us today for the first time, I'm going to go over a little recap about what we did yesterday because it, of course, it ties into what it is that we're discussing today. So we are currently looking at how to increase your closing rate.

OK, you know what, I'm not going to do a summary of the episode that we did yesterday because we have a lot of things to talk about today. So this is your first time of listening to the podcast, and you want to get the background to the ideas I'm going to express here on how to increase your closing rate. Then after you're done listening to this episode, just listen to yesterday's episode and you'll be able to stitch both things together and have a fuller perspective about how everything works.

But I capped off yesterday's episode by saying that if you wanted to increase your closing rate, which is the amount of business that you do, you know, per 10 or per 100 customers, you know, so you talk to 10 customers, how many people do you end up doing business with? You talk to 100. How many people do you end up doing business with on average? So that's the closing rate. So I capped off by saying that if you want to increase your closing rate, the answer is not to learn how to close the deal better.

Because most people when they notice that they have a low closing rate, they start looking on YouTube and looking at podcasts and things like that and they're trying to find the magic close. You're trying to find that magic phrase or that magic thing that you will say or that you will type that will cause people to close better. You don't believe me? Check your Instagram. Just go to Instagram explore page and start searching there.

You're going to see things like use this magic close to this magic phrase to close 50% more deals or say these three things in exactly this way to get people to buy from you 70% of the time and blah, blah, blah. And all these magic tricks, by the way, all those magic tricks, those tactics, they work. Yes, they do, but they work within the system. You have to learn the system to make sure that you optimize everything. And sometimes those things work within the system that you might not feel very happy applying the whole thing.

Like for instance, all those ideas around getting people to say 3 consecutive yeses. So if a person you can get a person to say yes three consecutive times, then they'll say yes to to closing the deal. Yeah, those sorts of gimmicks, they can work. But as you can see, those are high pressure tactics. And if you're listening to this podcast, my guess is that you're not the kind of person who's looking for those sorts of things.

So let's look for something that's a little bit much more ethical. Yes, it involves more hard work, but this is a way of closing more deals over time in an ethical manner that you will be satisfied with and that everybody can do. And plus, you don't have to remember any three magic phrases or whatever, and you don't have to change your personality. So the answer to increase your closing rate is not to learn how to close.

Your focus should be on learning how to open deals better. And the rationale is this the reason why we should focus on opening deals better? I want to give you a couple of reasons why. Because closing the deal is a natural end result of something that something is. You must have had fruitful conversations in the 1st place with the right people. If it was a fruitful conversation and if the conversation was with the right person, you don't have to force to close.

You only have to guide to the close and the close would take care of itself. Excuse me then another thing to bear in mind is this. The more of the right people that you talk to, the more deals you're going to close. That one is just standard. I don't think I have to confuse you about that. The more of the right people you talk to, the more deals you're going to close. If you aren't closing most of your deals, typically it's because there's a misalignment somewhere and not because you're not being forceful enough.

So remember, fruitful conversations, the right people. If the deal is not closing, there's a misalignment. Your conversations are not fruitful, your conversations are not relevant. Or maybe you're talking to the wrong people. You'd have to sit down and diagnose on a case by case basis. But if you're not closing most of your deals, so excuse me recovering from a sore throat. So if you're not closing most of your deals, it's because there's a misalignment somewhere.

And then finally, something that lots of people find surprising when they hear a, when they hear a sales coach talk about these sorts of things. But you really can't force someone to buy from you or make a business decision. You can't force it. The best you can do is to discover people's motivations and then align your own motivation, your own motivations with it. And then of course, make it easier for them to do what they already intend to do.

So if you want to learn how to force people to do something to buy against their their concerns or their best wishes, you're not going to learn about it on this podcast, not this episode and not this podcast. So all these things that we're talking about now, how does this all work out in practice? This is how it works out in practice. If you want to close more deals, you have to open right? To open right, you should only be talking to people who are one interested.

You should only be talking to people who too can afford what you have. And then #3 you should only be talking to people who are ready to make a decision anytime soon. And I hope you guys are beginning to see how the matrix ties in together. You might be talking to someone who can afford and who might be ready to make a decision sometime soon, but the person is not interested. In this case, you repeating magic phrases and getting them to say yes three times consecutively.

It's not going to be a good outcome because if you do that three years thing, you get the person to buy because he can afford and but he wasn't ready to make a decision or sorry, he can afford. He's ready to make a decision, but he's not interested. Then that's where you get bad's remorse and bad's regret, and then the person ends up thinking that look, you're a scammer, you're unethical and this and this. Maybe you jazzed me or something.

You're slick, you're smooth, you know, all kinds of things that end up spoiling your reputation. So just stick to only talking to people who are interested, people who can afford, and people who are ready to make a decision anytime soon. You stick to those three. You will find that you're able to just guide things to a close. You don't have to force a close. So now this whole thing of people who are interested, how do you find interested people?

That is by either doing two things #1 prospecting. Prospecting is old school. I'll explain. And then #2 you do inbound, inbound. Inbound has always existed, yes. But nowadays, because of social media networks, inbound has now come to mean something in particular. But let me just explain what these things are. So how do you find interested people #1 prospecting. Prospecting is when you go physically out into the world where you think these people might be those people who are interested in your product or service.

Then you try and initiate conversations with them for the sole purpose of seeing if they are interested. If someone is not interested, walk on by. If someone is interested, see if you can take them to make, if you can get them to take the next step or you try and figure out the nature of their problem and if your product or service can solve that problem. So for online food vendors and beauty vendors, the reason why I'm sticking to online food vendors and beauty vendors is because just like with the last episode or maybe two episodes back, I know that when I'm speaking in public, a bunch of you say that, yeah, you've listened to the show.

But I spend most of my time talking about people who do things face to face and I don't pay attention to people who have online businesses. And yes, so excuse me. And yes, you guys are correct. I hardly pay attention to you guys. But it's not deliberate. It's just that I have, you know, when I got involved in the business space, I was a photographer. And then after that there was the commodities business with me and my brother.

And so all the stuff I've always done has been real world. So when I'm thinking about business examples, I'm always thinking real world. Not necessarily online folks. But today I'm going to pay attention to you guys. Beauty vendors, online skin people, online food delivery people, those of you who sell pyjamas on Instagram or whatever it is. So I'll be talking about you guys today. So finding interesting people, prospecting, if you're an online food or beauty vendor on Instagram, then that involves going to wedding fairs or going to makeup fairs.

If you're not ahead of these sorts of things, they exist, especially the makeup fair things. I don't think there's one in Abuja, but I know there's a makeup fair in Lagos. There's a makeup fair in the East and I've seen one happen in Beniu as well. And I'm not sure which other part of the country. So that's where makeup artist, glam artist, gilet people, you know, all of you get together and people who are interested in those sorts of things come have a look, you know, buy some stuff, get their makeup done and buy a few things.

So prospecting, since it's all world old school, would mean that you guys have to go to these sorts of places to look for potential customers. So go and buy a booth or if you're broke, you can do that thing that some people do, which is go to the venue. You don't go inside, but then you hold your Flyers and then when people are walking in, you hand over you hand, you hand them your Flyers. This kind of behaviour is strongly frowned upon by the people who organize these sorts of things.

So just know that if they find you, they're going to throw you out. But anyway, there's some people who try nevertheless. So go there, attend these fairs, start talking to potential customers. You also need to do some work, get better at telling people what you do, telling people the kind of clients that you're looking for. So working on your elevator page and blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things. So the philosophy behind prospecting or the spirit behind prospecting is that you will go and chase after people to get your business.

So inbound, now that is a rival business philosophy or a different kind of business philosophy. So inbound or lead generation or demand capture or whatever it is that you call it slightly different. But for the bodies of the show, let's speak about three of them, almost as if they are the same. So inbound is where you make yourself attractive so that the right customer chases after you. So inbound strategies, old school.

That's for those of us who are late 70s, early 80s children that would have been advertising, you know, Honeywell noodles, bam bam, bam, bam, bam, La La. The goal is if children keep singing, oh, no, no, no, no, Honeywell. That was that was a different generation. My generation was Indom, so indom indomi, indomi indo me doodles. So you play that, children sing it enough, parents get interested, parents go and buy. That's the whole idea with inbound.

Make yourself attractive so that the right customer chases after you. So now with social networks, there's a strategy for doing all of this online by content marketing, putting out useful content, educational content, entertaining content, working on your SEO, anything that you can do to make it easier for people to find you and to get interested. So the goal is make yourself attractive. Let people chase you, you know,

not them, they rush us. That's the whole idea. Let people be rushing you. Then lead generation is also tied into inbound. But that just means that when you're doing all these activities online content marketing, videos, audio, YouTube, Facebook, everything, SEO, the spirit behind lead generation is this, that you now do some activities that cause people to give you their phone numbers and to give you their e-mail addresses.

That is how you're going to chase after people who find you online. So Instagram vendors, food vendors, beauty influencers, lead generation would be you guys offering free consultations on Instagram. For instance, you might do a, what's that thing called? Instagram Live. Yeah. So you do an Instagram Live. Maybe it's you and your best friend. Maybe you, you do lipstick, your best friend does eyeshadow and maybe a third person who does skin or something.

And you guys have a panel. And at the end of it, it'll be that. If you're interested, click here, drop your phone number and be eligible for free consultation so that we can advise you on skin routines and blah, blah, blah. And you organize contests and raffles. And to enter, people have to drop the e-mail address or phone number or you can drop different kind of lead magnets, you know, click here to get my free five page, five page e-book on how to analyze skin and come up with your perfect beauty routine,

something like that. So people click and then they drop their e-mail address and their phone number. So you're trying to generate leads so you see how it all works together. Make yourself attractive so that people chase after you. Then start engaging in lead generation. Do something so that people can give you their, excuse me, their e-mail address and phone number and then demand capture. That is the part where you try and make these people who have been interested and who have given you their e-mail address and phone number, you do something that will help, excuse me, something that will help nurture the relationship, build trust and rapport, and then you also try to convert leads.

What that means is you're offering, you make very clear calls to action. You tell them exactly what it is that you want them to do next, and you provide good experiences, stay top of mind and to get people to take a next step. The next step in this case would be something like come for a tasting if you're a food vendor and you are at a wedding show, because I've seen some caterers do that. I think that's a very expensive way to promote your business, by the way, because essentially you're telling people come and eat free food.

I've never been a fan of that, but people do it. So come for the tasting, enter a raffle draw, come to the studio for consultations about your skin type, call me for free consultations, blah, blah, blah, blah. Call me for consultations on how to make your perfect wedding menu or the perfect food for the baby dedication and you know, things like that. So people who respond to all these call to actions, that is you doing demand capture because somebody's interested, you get them to take the next step.

That is what the demand capture is about. Now, we've said a lot over the last 15 minutes, so let me just make a recap. Remember the philosophy that we're trying to do here that if we only spend time talking to people who are interested and who can afford and are ready to make a decision, they're closing. The deal is almost automatic. We've talked about a few ideas about how to catch people who are interested. So for the sake of time, let's just run quickly to how do we spend time only with people who can afford what it is that we have?

This is something that I stress and this is something that lots of people avoid, but please, we cannot avoid it. Some people put it on to the end. You're only hurting yourself. The person is anxious about the price because they don't know anything else about your product or your service. So they're using price as a proxy for quality. Let me repeat it again. Most people don't know Jack about your product or your service, so they only have price to go on.

So you talk about how nice your food is or how nice your paw paw skin care routine is or something something something. Yes, they know it's nice, but they don't know anything else. They're not in the field. The only thing they can think about is the price. You should be the one who brings up the pricing thing and bring it up early. Don't wait until the end and you're nervous and then you're scared and you guys have the awkward conversation.

Bring it up early. So how can you make sure you're talking to people who can afford what it is you have? Ask them politely and ask them early so that you stop wasting time with people who are never going to buy and you get to that awkward phase where you're trying to get them to close the deal and there's a money mismatch. Let me repeat, Ask them politely and then ask them early. In this case, for all the people we've been talking about here,

you know, our Instagram people, it's just a simple thing. You can say something like, well, this is how I say it because I'm more formal, but you don't have to say it the way that I am, but just get the philosophy of what I'm trying to say. So after you do some small Guzman, you've gone through this whole process, you made a small presentation. You just say something simple. The solutions, the items, the whatever, whatever we have, this we have discussed here can cost anything between XYZ and 123.

Is this something you can afford now and then Keep quiet and hear what they have to say. Ask this question politely and ask it early. If the person thinks 200K for beauty routine is armed robbery, let us say it now that you're a thief, you're an armed robber. And you now know that OK, this is somebody that you have to weave that this person doesn't understand is not a skin connoisseur. And this person is not your ideal person.

And leave the person if you ask it early and you say that your skin care routine is 200,000 for people who know what's up the black 200,000 for 20 purple. I beg sign me up. When can I pay you? So The thing is, your market already exists. So you should be spending most of your time looking for who your market in quote is instead of trying to force people to buy when clearly there's no you know the relationship is matched mismatched.

You think it's not going to work. So ask them politely and then ask them early, is this something you can afford now? Is this something you'd like to take action soon? Is this in line with your budget? You know, simple, simple, small, small questions like that. When you ask the question, you wait for feedback. The response is going to tell you, excuse me? The response will tell you if these people can't afford or they can.

It will tell you if money is a problem. So like I said of all this, you've been listening to the show for a long time. You know about my first wedding I was coming out fresh. I need to do high end so I said let me charge 400 K. The first bride I got on the phone, she said how much I told her 400K. She's like thank you, thank you, you want to build house? Thank you. And it was a really awkward conversation because I was trying to keep her on the phone.

What she kept saying was thank you, thank you. You want to build house. It's not on top of my head. God bless your business. It it was a weird conversation. In fact, I wish I had recorded the conversation so that now with what I know, I can listen back on it and then not only share the conversation with you guys, but then try and break it down and learn some more about how to handle money objections. So when somebody responds like that, the person is not for you.

Either that or your product or service is not as good as you think it is. But that's a subject for another episode. But for now, let's assume that you're the bomb. You're the best. If somebody responds like that, that person is not for you. Just free the matter, let it go. You take that person, you put the person back into lead nurturing sequences. Remember when we're talking about how you remain top of mind with social media and then WhatsApp and everything?

So that's just the thing. Put the person back into that, the relationship nurturing sequences. Because tomorrow is another day. Eventually people's money problems pan out or people get promoted or you know, whatever things change, tomorrow is another day. If money is a problem, we've the person. If the person is interested, on the other hand, then you now say something like, oh, the next step is we need a payment for XYZ or we need a deposit for XYZ

so we can move forward. Do you want to pay cash or do you want to pay transfer? Do you prefer POS or do you prefer OP? Which banks do you prefer making transfers to? You know, blah, blah, blah, those sorts of questions. Again, the response that you get, the feedback that you get will tell you whether the person is ready or not. Because there's some people who will say, yeah, 200K for purpose skin care. Yeah, I can do that.

But then when you say, OK, my is it transfer all cash, she will now say, let me talk to my husband. So it happens. So you need to ask. So that would give you a sign. Anyway, you get the gist. You ask if the person says let me talk to my husband or whatever, give some other objection that you can't handle, don't worry tomorrow's another day. Put the person back in lead nurturing. OK man no problem, I understand, follow my Instagram handle blah blah blah, you know best.

Maybe person needs to build more trust with you or more rapport as you guys engage over the phone or over on WhatsApp. But bottom line, what I'm saying is when somebody says no, you don't have to feel crushed. Tomorrow is another day and there are plenty of fish in the ocean. That's the right attitude. Tomorrow is another day, there's plenty of fish in the ocean. So you feel bad when I wake up tomorrow and then go fishing again.

So when you get into these sorts of situations where you ask the money questions and you have a hiccup, apart from the fact that tomorrow is another day and there's plenty of fish in the ocean, the problem also might be that you may have misunderstood the person's situation or the person's need. And because of that, your proposal is wrong or not interesting enough or not relevant enough. So it's possible that person wants a purple skin care routine, but maybe the person thinks that all purple skin care routines dry out the skin and so she's worried about how to recapture lost moisture or something like that.

Now, of course, not everybody's going to be elegant enough of sophisticated enough to put it like that. You're the professional. You're the one that has to be able to ask her more questions and be able to now figure out what the problem is and then give her the the right proposal. Would you be pop off skin remedy plus aloe Vera or whatever to trap in moisture? By the way, this is not my space. I'm just making stuff up.

So for those of you who are beauty influencers and stuff like that, this is the point where you guys can stop frowning. I'm not mis educating the public. I'm just making stuff up because you have to fill in the example somehow. So whether you follow these processes or not that I've spoken about, it's not a good idea to ask people for money when you have not discussed money expectations. It's a bad idea. Discuss money expectations first with people before you start asking them for money.

Whether you follow my process or not, stop this whole thing off. You discuss everything under the sun and you kind of hope that at the end when you say my price is 2.5 M, that they have 2.5 M to pay. Have the conversation early about whether 2.5 is realistic for them. If you don't, you get to that stage at the end of the conversation where you now feel uncomfortable, like you're being pushy or being rude and then things like that.

So have gentle conversations with people to see where they are in the money scheme of things. So if you sell Balenciaga bags or is Balenciaga, is that a shoe? Sorry, I'm not knowledgeable on these things, but whatever it is, have these conversations in the chat and everything beforehand before you now tell her, OK, it's it's 60K for a bag. Because if you're talking to my wife, for instance, my wife will never pay 60K for for a handbag.

She just won't. It doesn't mean she doesn't know what's up or it doesn't mean she's illiterate or it doesn't mean she's not sophisticated. It's just that she's not your target. She's not your target base. And there are some people that if they hear 60K for a handbag dosia that is cheap, that's 60K is cheap. So look for your market, don't waste time with somebody who's not going to buy. How do you know? Make sure they're interested and after that, have the money conversations.

So let me repeat the thought process we're going through in this particular episode. In order to close the deal. We're trying to only talk to people who are interested. We figured that out. We're only trying to talk to people who can afford. We have gone over some ideas that you can use to make sure that people can afford. Now we also have to make sure that we're talking to someone who is ready to make a decision anytime soon because there are people who are interested and who have the money, but they're not ready to.

They're not ready to move. Now we're ready. Photographers, we see this a lot. You meet the perfect babe. Sorry, bride, you meet the perfect bride. You guys chat, you're friendly and everything. And clearly Pepa rest, you know, her father is our next chairman or whatever, so they clearly can't afford. But The thing is her boyfriend just proposed last week and the families haven't really met, but maybe they're thinking about getting married in two years time or something like that.

You know, there's some wedding photographers who hang in there. You think that you have a deal, but please, my brothers, you don't. Or sisters for female photographers. There is no deal there yet because this bride is interested. This bride calls from a paid off family. She loves your photography, but if she just got proposed to last week, the family has not met, the boy has not finished his master's. He's going to finish his master's next year.

Realistically speaking, the parents who at least want him to graduate 1st and maybe, I don't know, get a job or something before you start talking about wedding dates. I mean, I don't know, could be any number of factors, but there's no deal. You take this bride, you put her in relationship, nurturing, that's it. When these other things start to materialize, when the boy takes his uncles and they go to Popsy's house and then they start the conversations, Now there's a deal that is beginning to align because bride is interested.

Clearly she can afford and they've started taking some small, small steps. The uncles and the daddies have met and they have said, OK, the wedding is going to be December 2025. There's a date. Now there's something you can look towards. Now you have a deal. So this whole thing of are people ready to make a decision anytime soon? Really, really important. But lots of people overlook it. It's really important. I know that's a wedding example,

but it applies to whatever it is that you do. Is the person ready to make a decision anytime soon? If somebody's talking to you catering, you want to know how much baby dedication, you know, baby's already born, but you know, to be honest, they haven't fixed the date or they haven't spoken to the pastor or anything. It's sketchy whether there's a deal there or not. But if somebody calls you to say how much jollof rice, finger food, something something,

something baby get education and then they give you a specific date that is 3 three weeks ahead. There's a deal. There's something here. So we need to make sure that people are ready to make a decision anytime soon. Now, how do you know when somebody's ready to make a decision anytime soon? The answer is simple. If you've been following, ask them politely and ask them early. I have been in that situation where, excuse me, I'll be doing relationship building with your bride and chasing and pursuing.

I get my video guy involved and then it now comes out that the wedding is going to be a year and a half. Trust me, that makes you look like an absolute idiot because you mobilize the boys. You think that is a big one, that there's money here and, and everything. And then, you know, the weddings a year and a half away. You, you look like an idiot, like you just motivated your whole crew for no reason. So ask politely, ask Kelly.

And that's something that wedding planners do very well. Oh, congratulations, you're getting married, blah, blah, blah. How did you guys meet? Talk about that whole thing, blah, blah, blah. You know, rapport building. I say, oh, so when is the wedding date? Wedding planners don't waste waste time. They ask immediately. So when is the wedding date? You need to know if they have a date. OK, then urgency and readiness to make a decision anytime soon.

The thing begins to click. So you guys, whatever business it is that you have, you need to Start learning how to do that. So for the Instagram skin care food vendor, you know, people, it's very simple. You just ask early in the process. Oh, Madam, so far we discussed or we, we also discussed share about carrot soap and point bar to see the one that will bring out your natural skin colour. When you say that part, you're just trying to recap, summarize,

you know, because you always have to recap first of all, so that the person knows what the options are. Then this is where you ask the question, which of which of these options are you willing to try out? And then you wait and hear. When you ask, you're just trying to get them to decide on something and trying to get some feedback. If the person says that purpose sounds interesting, but let's try carrot soap, that is good.

You've taken another step forward. Then you now say, OK, if we're going to do carrot facial treatment, it can cost anything between XYZ and 123 depending upon the regime. Is this something that's within your budget? Is this something you're ready to go ahead with? Remember when we spoke about money, Money and expectations? So you ask that thing and then you keep quiet. Let's assume for the purpose of this exercise that yes, they're ready to go ahead.

Now whatever price you called XYZ 123 is within that budget. Then this is where you get to the timeline thing. So you now say, oh is everything is in order. I can get the 1st order to you by Tuesday next week. Is that date OK for you? You have now asked something very specific with the timeline. The person either has to say yes, or the person has to say no, or any number of responses. That makes you realize that you might have missed something in the beginning and maybe the person is not just just that interested just yet, but you ask something timeline related.

Can I ship it to you Tuesday next week? You might be surprised with myself. Tuesday next week, Tuesday next week is fine. Now what about today? It happens last time. You know that you have a good one on your hands. So you see why this whole thing of urgency, timelines, decisions, all of these things are important. We have to be able to ask questions with timelines in there. So we know. Is this person ready to take action?

Is this person ready to make a decision anytime soon? And the best one says Oh yeah sure Tuesday next week blah blah. Then this is the part where you ask for the deposit or whatever it is you need to do to confirm the order. So OK ma, no problem. So is it going to be transfer or POS? Just ask it, come ask it. Cool. If you have done everything before this, correct this pay, this last process, this last stage, collecting the money,

this whole transfer or POS or deposit or whatever, it will just flow. In fact, you'll be surprised that for some people by the time you ask the whole timeline thing, you know, blah blah blah, Tuesday next, Oh yes, that Tuesday is fine. You're surprised that is here where the person now ask that oh, OK, I don't have cash on me. Can I do transfer? And he said, Oh yes man, no problem. This is my OPI account. So hope you guys are beginning to see how if you follow these things step by step, this final stage of collecting the money is going to be, I was going to say effortless, but let me not lie you, it's not as if it's effortless, but it's going to be a whole lot easier than the whole thing of your nervous.

Should I tell her is 250 K? Can they afford 250K or OK she's looking like this maybe she doesn't have money. Instead of telling her 250K should I just say 180 K so that we don't haggle too much and then blah blah blah. If you just follow the process, everything is going to go fine If you follow this process or if you follow processes like these because you don't have to follow what it is that I'm preaching over here on the podcast.

But you'll find that any business consultant or sales coach who is worth his or her salt has a framework and has a process that should be followed to make it easy to close the deal. So excuse me. So following this process or processes like these, it doesn't mean you're going to close every single order. Remember I told you guys in yesterday's episode, 100% close rate does not exist, so banish it from your head. Does not exist.

So you're not going to close every order, but your closing rate is going to go up because you are only talking to people who are interested. You're only talking to people who can afford this. People are OK with the timeline. You have proposed those people who are not OK with the timeline or who are not interested or who who can't afford you, just put them back in lead nurturing. Continue to be following them, you know, on social media,

WhatsApp, e-mail, whatever. One day they'll be ready to buy. If they never buy, it's not a problem because like I said, there's always more fish in the water. So go and keep fishing. Don't stress. It's just business. Then for those people who buy now, make sure that you do good customer service so you can ask these people for referrals and repeat business. A lot of you are doing business assuming that someone who buys from you today will only buy once.

What's the point of somebody buying your your pawpaw facial skin care treatment? You make a margin of 10K on the person. What's the whole point of doing going through all these stress that I've spoken about? Now the person only buys once you make your 10K match and then that's it. Then tomorrow you're now looking for a fresh person. Doesn't it make sense that if the person buys now for 10K doesn't it does It's not just common sense that you're trying to see how the person should buy again next month and the other month and the other month so that at the end of the year, OK,

yes, 12 months profit margin is 10K for each. So instead of making just 10K on person, make 120 grand on the person. It's common sense but lots of people don't do it. So do your good customer care after service. All that so you can ask people for repeat business and referrals. When people come for repeat business, closing the deal is a lot easier. All these drama and song and dance that I just described to you. If the lady comes back next month, you don't have to do all these song and dance again when she comes back next month.

How long will be in case you have an IVD? That purple thing, it's beautiful. Do you have that purple? Good to go and say I have no problem. We have 5 in stock, so OK, no problem, send me two. That deal will be easier because there's trust, there's rapport, and we've done all the work ahead of time. You did all that work last month. So this current month when lady calls you again, the work you have to go through is smaller.

So repeat business, a whole lot easier to close. It's the same thing with referrals. When people give you referrals, closing the deal is easier because their person in quote has referred you. So it's easier. You still have to do some song and dance, but not as hard as before. And think about it. Somebody bought from you. Paw Paw skin care facials this month, profit margin 10K. She comes back next month. So you've made 20K off this person.

The next month she comes again, that's 30K, but let's say this time shall send two of our friends to you. That is a potential another 20 K so you can see how it gets better and better if you do everything right. So finally, one last thing, after you're done perfecting all these processes in your business, because it takes a while for you to figure all these things out. So as you're doing your online skin care, online food delivery,

online, whatever, whatever, I think you're taking notes, you're trying to iron out all these processes. You're writing everything down, making a note of everything. Because after you make a note of all these things and after you perfect your processes, you now have to teach your younger brother who is shadowing you because your younger brother is going to start selling on your behalf eventually. Or teach your younger sister who helps you take care of the kids now, but school has not resumed,

so she might as well help you sell some of your product too. You can teach your sales girl. She's an employee sitting down in the warehouse doing nothing. You might as well bring her up to speed so that when people enter the warehouse, she's top notch. Or when you're busy or sick, she can pick up your phone and she can be able to handle all the conversations in Instagram. Teach your husband. Your husband wants to be supportive, so once in a while he's like, oh, what can I do?

You don't want to set him loose on customers when he has not been properly trained. Don't do all this hard work. And then you say, oh, darling, help me do this, help me do this. And then he goes and spoils your business. So the whole point of perfecting all these things and noting it down is so that you can teach all these people to sell on your behalf. Teach your children because this is also a good way for children to get into the world.

Learn about accountability, responsibility, being an adult, things like that. By the time your daughter closes one or two deals, your son closes one or two deals. They feel good, they feel confident, and then all the ideas that they have at the back of their mind that they don't think is realistic or whatever, they start trying to do some small, small, small things. Train your employees so they can sell well on your behalf.

People who are volunteering within your organization. If you're people, if you're someone who takes NYSE staff, I'm sorry, not NYSE staff, people from NYSE, train them up. People who come for internship, train them up. So all these things that we're talking about here, don't just keep it in your head. Write it out on a sheet of paper, perfect the process. Teach all these people around you so that they can sell on your behalf.

If you can do all this, you're on the path to creating a business that can run without you. So Instagram vendors, I hope you guys are listening and I'll try to remember you guys in more content in the future. I will try. But like I said, I started off wedding photography, charcoal, sesame seed, You know, all these things are really face to face. You know you go and see somebody, you go and visit somebody, show somebody something.

So I'll try and remember you online guys more. And for those of you who think I like fish, you can see today I did not say a single thing about catfish in today's episode, so I'm proud. All right, so that's all for today. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn, my name is Tavishima Ayede. You can get the correct spelling of my name.

So you can search for me on LinkedIn if you just use the link where you're currently listening to this episode. You get the right spelling of my name and then my e-mail address is also there while you're listening to this episode. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next recording. Sorry, it's a 40 minute episode. I just wanted to make sure we just squeeze everything into one episode instead of me just breaking it up into three or four.

So yeah, that's it. I'll catch you guys tomorrow.