How to Sell by Showing the Profit

Hello and welcome to the High Table. This is the Oracle's Chamber, the inner sanctuary, the conclave of the elders, where we talk about sales, marketing, money tactics, strategy, business growth, and solving business problems. Today I want us to talk about how to sell by using ROIROI just means return on investment. You're trying to convince somebody to buy your product or to buy your service because you're making an argument that if you spend XYZ amount of money, the money is going to yield you a certain amount of return now or in the future.

So that is return on investment. The money that I am investing, what am I getting back? When am I going to get it back? This is one of those situations when you're trying to sell a product or you're trying to sell the service and the benefits are quantifiable. Let me put it that way. You can put the benefits in NAIRA and COBOL. You can put the benefits in dollars and cents. You can put the benefits in pounds and EUR. So, yeah, those are the kind of situations that we're going to be talking about.

Now, one very good framework or one very good tool for selling this way is spin selling. Now, Spin Selling is something I've spoken about on the podcast before, and it's a tool that was created by Neil Rackham. The fellow is a consultant. He's been in this game for a long time. The guy, Dante, he's been doing this since before I was born. Now he has a book, I think from 1976. I think if he's 76, then asked before I was born, if it's 86,

then that was after I was born. So I can't remember if he was 76 or 86. But like I said, this guy has been in the game for quite a while. And that game was titled Spin Selling. SPIN is an acronym SP IN. Again, I've already talking spoken about different frameworks in the podcast earlier, and you will notice that I have a thing for these frameworks that have only four letters. It is not as if the frameworks that have 4 letters are the best.

It's just that 4 is easy to remember, and it's easy to do so once you understand what these things mean. Even if you don't write it down, so long as you internalize it, you should be able to do SPIN roughly in your head because you'll be asking yourself S situation questions or situation statements. Have I made a situation statement? Do I understand the situation correctly? Excuse me P problem questions, problem statements.

Have I made a problem statement or have I asked enough questions from the potential customer to show that I understand the problem? Now this is where spin becomes brilliant. I and NI is implication. Implication just means have I asked enough questions to uncover the implication because you want to tell the potential customer that look, we have already uncovered a problem. So whether you go with me or you don't do anything like if you don't take action now, this not the implication.

This is what you will be suffering then N is need payoff. Need payoff just means, Sir, Madam, dearest committee, if we go ahead, this is not the team where you will enjoy when we go front. Need payoff. All right, the payoff, the benefit that you will get at the end. 9 BDS. So you can see that spin selling is a way to sell on ROI, return on investment. Now, the reason why we're looking at this today is because I had a conversation with one of my students earlier, and it's precisely this sort of thing.

She sells solar. Let's just say her name is Cinderella. That's not her real name, of course, but her real name starts with AC. So in case Cinderella, you're listening, yes, this is you. So we'll say Cinderella and the company she sells for, let's say the company's Linkin Park Solar. Of course, that's not the real name of the company. The company's real name actually is also the name of her rock group. But I think it's a progressive rock group, you know, a very old one.

I've mentioned them before, but The thing is, I don't want to mention their name right now. So that's the scenario. And this is based on the real life session that I just had with my students, a few my students a few hours ago was just her in the session. So Cinderella sells for Linkin Park Solar. She has a meeting that she's planning for, which is going to make a presentation and she's going to make the presentation to let's just call it a, let's say it's Banana Estate.

It's an estate based in Lagos, an upscale estate. You know, one of those estates that has, what do you call it? You know, you pay for everything. And so the estate is responsible for power, responsible for water, responsible for everything. So one of those type of estates. So let's just call it Banana Estate. And that's not the real name of the estate, by the way, so. Cinderella, again not her real name, has done a good job of talking to our guys and also talking to the facility manager of the estate.

So because of that, she has gotten some information. Now the information that she's gotten is going to come in very handy for us to make a case for ROI, return on investment and also to make a case for I and N implication. I need payoff. Remember, we want to go into these kinds of presentations. Being able to say this is my current understanding of my situation. Is this correct? That is S If my understanding is correct, these and these and these are the key problems which people are facing, that is P If these are the problems you will are facing, then if we delay this, not the implication, this is what you'll be suffering.

That is implication. I then need pay off. Dear committee, the reason why we must take action is because if we move now this now, the benefit, we will go enjoy in front. And remember, this is a situation where return on investment, we're talking about things where you can quantify the value. You can put it in figures. So Cinderella, she's working on the presentation deck because salespeople have different styles. I don't use any presentation.

Nothing, nothing. I know what it is that I want to say. I know the structure of what it is I'm trying to say. I'm trying to engage people in a conversation and pull people into a conversation. So I just show up like that with a few notes. I have my diary and I've made a few notes and I'm good. However, do look sell like yourself. Don't try and sell like anybody else. If you try and do it like me, but you're a different personality type, you will fumble.

If I try to sell like Cinderella, I'm going with the PowerPoint and we fumble because you have been listening to my podcast, you know, my style is easy, it's freewheeling and I'm quick. I'm able to make connections between, you know who is here and you know, stuff like that. If I have something like PowerPoint presentation or more, the thing will slow me down. The thing will shackle me. So it's not in my favor. So I'm not saying PowerPoint is good or is bad.

I'm just saying know thyself. If you're like Cinderella, good, make sure you prepare your PowerPoint well and go for this meeting. If you're like me, you know, prepare yourself, gather your thoughts, get your diary, scribble down a few things that you need to talk to specific. You need to talk about specific questions you want to ask specific people, and then you'll be fine. So she's prepared. Now going in for this meeting, I

wanted us to do a few things. I asked Cinderella a few questions. See success right when it comes to the presentation, when it comes to making the proposal, success begins before we enter the room. So first of all, I will clap for Cinderella because because of the kind questions where she don't ask, we have some solid figures, facts and figures going into this thing. Remember banana estates, they want to do solar. All right, she did a good job.

She was able to ascertain how much they are spending every single month in fuel and she was able to get exact figures for how much they spent in the last 10 months. How she did that, I have no idea because I wasn't with her in the meeting. But should I clap for her? Because if we're going into this meeting and we're already armed with facts and figures, you know, things are ready in our favor. We can make a rational argument for ROI, meaning the money that you drop now that you invest,

you will get returns, ROI, return on investment. So she did a good job. We have some facts and figures now. The only thing we remain now stakeholders. I asked her who else would be in the meeting and she said she is not sure. So I said OK, who are your contact people? The auger of the solar company that's Linkin Park Solar. Again, not a real company. He is one that knows one or two people. She she has only been in touch with the facilities person.

She says she will call or got to find out. I say call or got to find out is OK. It's not a bad idea but is what we'll do you. And since you are a facilities manager for Banana Estates, since you people are in touch one-on-one. The guy that answered your call, Abby, yes you go call him one-on-one then you will ask him. This is the scope you will tell him the manager. I haven't forgot to know this meeting. We will suppose, you know, I'm making the proposal now, now,

now as we talk, but I just wanted to know this meeting itself when we get there, like who are the people that are going to be? Who are the people that are going to be there? That is one scope who will be there at the meeting? Facilities manager will talk, although the angle that she says she will come from me, she's going to ask that hand this project self or the facilities manager. Now, who do you pay? Is it the estate association,

RB? Is it, you know, estate, how will I put it? Now, like in Abuja, estates have their own association, all the tenants who come together, everybody has their own association. So Cinderella said it's the same in Lagos. So as the facilities manager now, like Google Pay, is it the estate association, RB, is it the business that manages banana estates that will pay for this project? So she said that's the angle that she's going to come from.

Now, whether you call from the angle of who'll be there at this meeting or whether you call from the angle of now who they pay for this project, We're trying to figure out a few things. We're trying to figure out authority making structure, because we want to make sure that the people who are responsible for deciding on that meeting are in the room. Because if you go and give a beautiful, a solid presentation, but the people who are supposed to, I agree, the people are supposed to sign the check, the people who have the power to say yes, if they are not there, the best that will happen is facilities manager will say, no problem, let me get back to you.

I'm supposed to talk to so, so, so, and so now we want to preempt, we want to forestall that this thing happens. So because of that will come in prepared. So remember, I say for some of these things, success is from the preparation, you know, from the hard work. What we don't do before part of this hard work is stakeholder identification. We go identify the stakeholders ahead of time so that we can do what is within our own power to make sure that they show for this meeting.

Because we don't want to go and then come back because go and come back is this long story. We want to go make sure we talk to the right people and then we take a step forward in the right direction. No, go, come, go, come. Let me get back to you. Oh, supposed to talk to the board or is looking as if Chairman Chukudi should have been in on this meeting within getting all those things can cause complication. So ahead of time.

Stakeholder identification. Now who supposed the for this meeting? That's the main thing. Now she could have asked Olga. Yeah, but you know, when we're selling and we have contacts in the other person's company, it's not a problem. You know, call them up now. Let them be getting used to you, make them hear your voice, you know, make them see your face. You know, you guys get familiar, you understand it's good for business.

So once you have somebody inside there directly, what you can do is in fact you can do both. Call facilities manager last with the facilities manager. Then after that you will now call your organ and say, Olga, I spoke to Facilities Manager concerning this meeting that is happening on Monday. This is what Facilities Manager said. Olga, I'll be how you see him then, Your Honor guy, you can also brainstorm as well ahead of the meeting.

Yeah. So in this case, do both. But if you're going to listen to me, I'll say call facilities manager first because it has benefits. So we're trying to make sure that we have the decision makers on that meeting. Is it the residents of the estate, the estate ECO? I'll be. Is it the management company of Banana Estate? Now I said that Cinderella did a good job because she got me some facts and figures because remember when we're talking about spin selling, remember, do I understand the situation correctly?

Is this the problem people are facing? If it's like this and you don't do anything, this is the implication. Now you will stay here. So therefore this is my proposal. I will do. I'm like this. If you do it like this, this is what will be, this is what you benefit that's been selling. Now all these kind games, all these ROI game return on investment, if you can quantify it, Naira and Kobo is good to be saying we will achieve around achieve around the moment you can attach figures to small distance is good.

Now, of course, this is not going to apply to a whole lot of you listening to this podcast because not everybody is in this kind of situation where you can say buy my product, buy my service. Because if you do this, you are going to be able to save So so, so and so or you will make profit of so, so so and so. So excuse me, so Cinderella got some, some figures #1 the figure she got was she figured out the goal that they were trying to do.

What they're trying to do is they're trying to save 30% in their energy costs. Because if I had no idea, is this expensive to manage estate because the estate, banana estate, how much they spent in the last 10 months? Are you guys ready? They spent 135 million naira on diesel. Just rounding up. There's an exact figure. But you know, for me, I like to just round up figures. You know, people are different. You might want to call the exact figure, but I just like to round up because that will be easy to remember.

I don't remember. That was 139.46 something, something, something. Because remember, I don't look at slides. I'm just talking. Normally if I round it up, it's a figure I can't remember. So the last 10 months you've already spent 135 million. We also did small research the cost of diesel now. And of course, you also know that Donald Trump is currently bombing Iran anyhow. So the cost of diesel, cost of petrol, cost of every every steady rise.

So that's something we can even say that Loco should be between these last 10 months already spent 135 million, year never finished. You already spent 135 million. You can see that we can start making a case for implication, the I in spin SPIN implication if we don't do anything now. So you could have born money, money just they born just they born just they born diesel, diesel, diesel, that's the implication 135 million.

Now they're aiming to save 30% reduction. So they're looking for, sorry, let me just rely on the figures that I got from Cinderella. Assuming her figures are correct, they're aiming for roughly 8.9 billion naira savings and I'm going to be able to save above 100 million naira annually. Whether the cost of diesel go up, you go down any which, which are best case, worst case scenario, you know, over 100 million naira annually.

So you can see we're getting the figures to make a return on investments now by the time we ran all the figures, by the time I did the calculation, if I was correct and I'm not a numbers person. Luckily Cinderella is a numbers person, so she will clarify. It looks as if our plan will even help them save 40% reduction in diesel costs 40%. So you can see how you can make a good impression on going into a meeting saying, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why we're here is because this is the problem you will are facing and we're currently trying to achieve 30% reduction.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here and I'm can proudly tell you can beat my chest firmly that we have 3 proposals on ground. Each of them will help you achieve at least 40% reduction in your energy costs. We've done the math, I'm here, I guaranteed 40%. You can see that that's a different way to start a presentation. So I told her not to make the mistake that most people do. If I have predecessor, the person who used to sell before high is a mistake the guys to make.

The guys would like to show up to presentations and say that we are Lincoln Park Solar. We are something something sustainable energy, blah blah blah. Quality great, But you know you're wasting time. People have things that they're supposed to do and you know everything. Let's cut straight to the chase. You can boast about your company later. You start the meeting off powerfully. Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why we're gathered here, I think this is the problem, am I

correct? Oh, good, Fantastic. And then you said that this is what you want to achieve. OK, good. If that is the case, I have 3 proposals now. Each one, we're going to do 10% more than what you wanted to to achieve. And ladies and gentlemen, this is how we're going to do it. For those of you who are PowerPoint people, you now open PowerPoint. Begin the guide and begin the guide. Begin the guide you now show working how you arrived at your figures.

So boasting about your company. All that one is later, later, later, not now. You can round up the presentation by boasting about your company, but don't start. Slide 1 is not this is our company. This is our board of directors and this is the reason why we like alternative energy. No, you can't all of that at the end. Start this meeting strong, ladies and gentlemen, we're gathered here to achieve this. By the time we're done, I hope to confuse you without any measure of doubt that you know our proposals can achieve this and this and that and that.

Simple. So from the conversation that Cinderella and I had when she chairs this meeting. Now, by the way, you see the reason why I say that sales is a beautiful profession, especially for women. Let me repeat, this is the reason why I say sales is a beautiful profession, especially for women. Whether you remain in it or not, these are the kinds of conversations you'll be having you because she, you know, she's not too old.

You know, she never, she never restarted. Young girl, you will stand in front of the room, you'll be commanding people, your, your elders will sit down. They'll be listening to you. Whether you succeed or you flop. But The thing is, these are wonderful, beautiful experiences to have. You start like this, small, small, small, young, in sales as a woman. Later on, let's say you give up the sales carrier. But then later on, you now become senator.

You now become minister. You now become pastor. You now become whatever. Come on. There is no room you cannot handle. None. Because when you are small, you've been doing it. Excuse me, when you are 2530 you've been doing it. Now that you're a 50 year old woman, should it be a problem? No, because you don't get the experience. So please young ladies, I'm begging you, all of you should try and taste sales. Even if it's just small.

Just taste it and see. If it's too hard for you, run away. No problem. But you will not regret at least testing. You will taste and you will see there. OK, now, so maybe even that testing, you will learn one or two things. So it pains me that most of the listeners of this podcast are men, 70 something percent. I wish you had more women listening. But anyway, so females, any lady who is listening right now, I'm talking about a female seller.

Please share this podcast with other ladies in your group, other ladies in your network, other ladies in your, you know, share it. I beg because it's a gospel that women need to hear. So based on the figures now that Cinderella has what we're going to do when we go there. So we're going to argue this, look, this project that we're doing is 200 and something million. Well, we check these numbers now you will see that, look, these are my figures.

Now, of course, you will show working by the time we reach 3 1/2 years, you will achieve payback. So yes, you're spending 200 and something million on this, on all these solar, on all these machine. But by the time we reach 3 1/2 years, you don't achieve parity, you don't achieve payback. You has the system, the system has paid for itself. So going forward, all those extra money they used to pay before, it is now money that can be applied to the company's top line, to the company's profits,

or it is money that can be used for infrastructure within the estate. I told her that, you know, I have to pay attention because the way we're seeing this meeting is as if company ownership don't be there, then estate, estate association, they'll be there. So you know, we'll have to show the benefit for the 2. The company people when they hear that excess profits, 135 million, 135,000,000 at the end of the year, we can be adding it back.

They'll be happy. These other people, they'll be hearing that. Oh, OK, all the pothole in the estate, there's money now to be fixing pothole. So that's the scope. But remember, quantifying everything, these are the figures we show working. Payback period is 3 1/2 years. Then Sherry created, Cinderella already created the document outlining how she was going to do the proposal. But I told her that, well, the proposal was fine as it is, But I told her that there's no need to change the proposal per SE,

but mentally, as you are guiding, people need to just be using spin selling, Spin selling. That's the framework you should be doing. If you must change the proposal, just, you know, move it around so that it will blend with sin. Say sin. Sorry, forgive me. Spin, please. OK, I was about to say I'm a holy man anyway, nobody's holy, but I didn't mean to say sin. So spin, spin selling. So I told her, when you get there, when you step on stage,

the first thing you do is you will confirm the situation. S spin, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for showing up here. This is my understanding. This is the situation we're currently dealing with. We're spending so, so, so in monthly spending, so, so, so in yearly spending, blah, blah, blah. These are the current costs. Facilities manager, am I correct that this is the situation? Oh, oh, yes, you're correct.

OK. Am I also correct that we're trying to save 30% savings? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's what we're trying to achieve. Good. Facilities manager has used his own mouth in the presence of everybody to say we're trying to achieve 30% saves. Remember the numbers that we have crunched, if my own calculation was correct and anyway the numbers we have crunched shows that we're going to be saving them 40 percent, 40%. So as facilities manager now has opened his mouth to say 30 later on when we start talking about 40%, can you not see that we have good, good grounds to be emphasizing that?

Look, we were aiming for 30 in the beginning, but our proposal 123, any which one we go achieve 40%. This is our ROI. Selling is you see it's quantifiable. You said 30, we have done 10 more. This is how it works. Return on investments quantifiable, put it in number. Then problem questions or problem statements. So from the high table or from the high chair should also be emphasizing, you know, Donald Trump. Then they bomb Iran and so the cost of diesel just they go just they go the team, they volatile Today diesel like this tomorrow diesel like that.

Say facilities manager. It's hard to even plan like this, Abby, you can't even be planning facilities manager. Of course, Will will admit now that it's not easy. Even for myself, for my own small jalopy, it's not easy. The last time I bought fuel, I bought it for 1200 and something. So I pulled into an MPC now to buy fuel and also 1390. I say, I say kilo day. Like from where to where now was known last week about 1002 they say.

And now this morning we change up. Now this morning, No, no, no, no, no, we change up. So like that from 1/2 to 1/4. I think it's so frustrating. You go there, you pay, you know, 6070 thousand. You can't even fool your car one more. Anyway, I see why people Jack behind, leave this country any not to be a downer. Where are we? Where are we? Sorry, I lost my train of thought. So the problem statement now this does go up.

Those go down, you know, volatility. Then from there we'll now move into implication. Then this is where we're going to stress the cost of inaction. Now look, this is the situation. So whether people take action or not, this is a situation that you're going to that you're living with. Then we did some small number crunching and we realized that if also above that a set an alarm so that I know we're reaching 30 minutes.

That's what that noise is. OK, 26 minutes. OK, let me round up quickly. So that's where we even came with a figure on that. Look, if they delay this project by 6 months, additional 50 million, like OK, we're having this conversation, you're talking to us and we know you're talking to other people. Good. If you delay six months, you don't do anything. 50 million, you've had a 50 million like that, Easy. You just wasted 50M, then need payoff.

Yes, this is a pricey project. This is over 200 million, blah, blah, blah, but there are long term benefits with the figures that I've shown you. Again, you point to your PowerPoint presentation. For those of you who do PowerPoint with these figures that I've shown you, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, we can see that payback is 3 1/2 years. This project will pay for itself. And then these figures that we're looking at in the last case in the last 10 months now 135 million or assuming fuel diesel costs drop down to so before Donald Trump started bombing Iran.

So we are looking at saving on average 100 million at the very least for each 12 month period. You see, that's how it works. ROI, return on investment, quantifiable facts and figures. We're making this enormous thing. You quantify it like this so that the other people that are coming after you to make presentation, if they say, Oh yes, we've been able to achieve a 30% reduction, they can say 30% reduction. The people that came before you,

they said that they have achieved 40% reduction for for us. So how far now you see the conversation that will happen afterwards will be very interesting because you have quantify everything. Also, this is also another reason why I talk about multi threading, having multiple contacts within the organization and it's something I mentioned to her facilities manager, the guy they pick your call good. Do you know no one or two people, no small networking by the time you finish this meeting, collect one or two business card, connect one or two phone number.

You know, it would be nice to have 3 or 4 phone numbers that you can call. That is how you can be following up well, and that's how you can gauge when there's a problem because for sure these people are talking to two or two or three other people. So it's nice to call some of later. I'll say ah, that chief identity. I thank you very much for showing up for that meeting or I hope I was on point when I said this, when I said that they can just ask.

So, Chief, how does this one compare to the other people that you're talking to? Chief will laugh and say, who told you that? We're talking to other people's Chief. Now, we've been in this game for a long time. I know that we're not the only we're not the only people. So, Chief, where do we stand? You know, you can be having those kind of conversations with people. Then let's see what else. OK, So we're talking about how to structure the presentation according to Spin.

Let's see what else? What else, What else? I'm just looking through my notes. I think that was just like the major thing that I wanted to discuss with you all because of course, during that meeting that I had with her, we discussed a couple of other things relating to the company, relating to Linkin Park Solar, but as internal affairs that we don't have to bring up here today. But I guess the main thing that I just wanted to let you all know is this, for those of you who are in situations where you can quantify your value, all right, you can go into the sales pitch trying to argue ROI, which is return on investment.

If you want to do that return on investment, a simple framework to use is spin selling. You just go in there, you confirm this is the situation, Abby. They will say yes. OK, so now, so the problem, be happy you say yes, it's OK. If my understanding is correct, then the implication is if we don't do anything now, this is where this is where we'll stay. This is how you'd be suffering. You're trying to get them to be conscious of it that inaction has a cost because some people,

some customers think oh, if we don't do anything, it's not a problem, but it is a problem. Inaction has a cost. We're trying to let them know we're not doing anything. That's what we go today, we'll be in this situation then need pay off. So therefore with this my three proposal anyone is fine, but any which one that you do 3 1/2 years pay back after that all these million million that we're talking 135,000,000 whether is 135,000,000, whether is hundred 100 million, all of this money back into the balance sheet back into the balance sheet.

It is good for the company, the company with smile, it is good for the estate residents to smile because estate residents will now know that there's money that they can use to be fixing pothole or to be fixing water pump. So that's the approach. And then my final call. I know some of you who say why do you always talk about these sorts of things? I talk about these sorts of things because I was raised by a single mom from the age of 13.

Now everybody wants to be a baby girl. But to be honest, when life gets tough, baby girl, baby girl no the help at all at all at all at all at all. Sometimes life can get rough. So if you don't stand from small, you don't learn one or two things relating to sales and all these kind of things. And as a young girl, 2530, you don't practice, you don't. They learn how to control rooms. You know, you're in front of the room, all eyes on you.

Are you there in charge is a good thing. So please, female listeners, share this particular episode with other people. All right, so that's it. Thank you very much for listening. You would love to connect with me. You can call me, send me a text message on WhatsApp, message on 08064662140 if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel or I just want to say hello, that's not a problem. 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you all at the next episode.