Listen, Adapt, Win: Mastering Multiple Approaches to the "Busy" Objection"

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, the usual apologies out and about. It's a rainy day. Well, of course I'm in the car, wound up the windows, but I still I'm in a noisy environment so expect to hear some interruptions, you know, some people talking and stuff like that. Then the sore throat is getting better. I'm sure you guys can tell, but I still have the cold to deal with, so there might be some sniffles and hacking during this episode, but I'll do my best to keep it professional if this is your first time of listening to the show.

We are currently having a series of discussions on how to deal with business objections. Sales objections and objections are reasons that people give for not wanting to do business with you. Now, for not wanting to go ahead with whatever agenda you have on the table. And if you are a church worker or you work in the Civil Service or you work in Access Bank or Zenith Bank, and you have some department or meetings, any reason that people give or not wanted to go ahead with a specific agenda?

Those are the things that we call objections. Now, when you're done listening to this episode, I want you to skip back a couple of episodes. Right now, maybe five to seven episodes, you're going to listen to other objections that we have discussed over here on the show, the reasons why they occur and possible ways for handling it. Now, I've been discussing them primarily in the business context, but like I keep mentioning, in in every single episode you'll find that you can take these business principles and apply the same thing to your church departmental work, to your Access Bank departmental meeting, or if you work in Ministry of Finance, you know,

same thing. You can apply these principles to dealing with your boss or whichever stakeholders that you're trying to interact with to get something done. Now, the objection that we're going to deal with today is I'm too busy right now, So it comes in different flavours. I'm too busy right now, come back later. Can't you see the things on my desk? You know, blah, blah, blah. Whatever the variant is, we're now examining those situations.

I'm too busy right now. Oh, by the way, if this I'm too busy right now doesn't sound sexy enough for you and this is your first time of listening to the show, then if you skip back five to seven episodes, like I said, you will definitely start off with the most sexiest or the well, OK, maybe not the most sexiest. The the usual objection that we get the most, which is you're too expensive. Do you want to build house? Are you mad?

How can you be charging that in this economy? You know, blah blah blah, all those money objections. The first two are the money objections. So if you don't think if you haven't come across this one, I'm too busy right now, then when you're done, skip back to the beginning of the series and then you find the much more sexier objections or the most common objections that we receive now. I'm too busy right now. It does happen.

We do run into it, although money objections typically come up first and it can come up in a number of scenarios. Well, First off, it can happen because people actually have some genuine time constraints. If you're in the business to business, you're selling B to B, business to business. Let's say you sell. What can I think of? OK. Let's say you sell stationary and you're trying to sell stationary to the Access Bank in your neighbourhood.

And then maybe you're trying to sell toilet paper to the hotels that are based off of your street. Yeah. Yeah. So for those of you who live in Lagos, because in Lagos, it's not unusual for you to live in a place like the last place where I lived on the Mina Crescent, there were, I think, 3 or 4 hotels on my street. And it's kind of typical in Lagos. That doesn't happen as much in Abuja because hotels are concentrated in certain parts of the city.

But so, but for those of you in Lagos, you know, you get my gist. So that is a business to business. Those are business to business scenarios. So you sell stationary, you sell paper, you sell tissue paper, you sell. What else? What else do they need? Staplers, staple pins, you know, those sorts of things. And you're trying to approach the Zenith Bank, which is not far from your street because you live in Lagos where we have banks everywhere.

And then sorry about that. And then you're also trying to sell to, what did I say, banks? Yeah, hotels. Sorry, forgive me. My brain is a little slow this morning. You know, whenever I have colds and things like that, my brain just slows down. So now you're looking at banks and then you're looking at hotels. So you're trying to sell your stationary, your tissue paper, your staple pens, your printing paper and all of that jazz.

Now, since this is a business to business scenario, the person that you're going to go and see might actually have genuine time constraints. So the chief procurement officer or whoever it is that buys tissue paper for all the Access Bank branches, you know, in your city, the guy might be in lots of meetings and deadlines and urgent talks and things like that. And right now the person just generally doesn't have any time for sales conversations.

So right now you're being a bother. So sometimes it's genuine or back to the hotel thing you're trying to talk to. OK, well, for Niger hotels, especially small time hotels, not big hotels like Hilton Hotel and things like that, you probably will be dealing with Madam Managing Director or something like that. So managing director right now, she might be in the middle of some stuff, you know, maybe kitchen stuff broke like 50

plates this morning. Cleaners didn't show up on time. So they have 20 toilets, maybe 12 of them are dirty. Let's see what else 50 people booked room yesterday and then all of a sudden this morning out of the 5048 of them cancelled the bookings. So you know, there's cash flow issues and maybe there might be customer service issues involved. So The thing is, Madam MD genuinely right now has genuine time, time constraints as far.

She's trying to do lots of stuff. And right now you and your tissue paper is just the least of her problems. So really, sometimes it's just not the right time. People have busy circumstances and because of that, they're not receptive to your products, not receptive to your service. Sometimes people just say I'm too busy right now because it's a it's just shorthand because really what they mean is, you know, there's no urgency here.

They don't have any immediate pain, pain and they don't have any immediate need. Now when we're talking about urgency here, we're talking about short term needs or short term pains because there are some things, OK, let me switch medical so that you guys can understand what I'm talking about. Now, some people who live with chronic back pain, now, chronic back pain, that's when you have pain in your back, whether upper back or lower back.

And you go through this pain every day. But it doesn't stop you from driving, It doesn't stop you from walking around. It doesn't stop you from playing with your children. It doesn't stop you from being with your spouse. And so there are lots of people, particularly Nigerians, who have chronic back pain because of poor posture. Let's see what else poor posture, poor health and Safety at Work practices, you know, slouching at your computer,

things like that. So they have this problem, but they just go on living their lives and it's not unusual to find someone in Nigerian and there's no reason to believe, You know, perhaps this is not just a Nigerian problem, but it's not a out of place to a new medical doctors. You can attest to this, that you're talking to someone, the person has chronic back pain. But Shah, the person has just been managing for the last, you know, three or five years and they're just going on because it can go on.

Now clearly there's a pain here and clearly there's a need here, but this is a long term thing and you can still manage. It's not the same as if you fall from the stairs and then you break your leg. Now that's a different thing. This one is short term and it's immediate, as in it's now, now, now, now, now. It's not something you can't ignore. So in personal issues, health issues, there's some things that are long term and can be ignored.

There's some things that are immediate right now and sharp and that you can't ignore. And it's also the same in business. Sometimes your product or service is really, really important. But yeah, there's no short term need. So back to the wedding photography thing. That's my primary constituency because I started off in the wedding photography and the event space about a decade and a half ago. So wedding photography, Well,

anyway, let me not go into that debate. Some people say wedding photography is a vanity, there is no necessity. And some people say it's absolutely important, you know, for different reasons. So I'm not going to go into the debate of whether wedding photography and wedding videography is a useful service or not. Because on some level you can make arguments about things one way or another. Like chewing gum, for instance.

Is that a useful service or not? But who cares? People who make chewing gum, they make lots of money or else they wouldn't be doing it. So you're trying to sell your wedding photography services or wedding videography services. If the baby is not getting married until nine months from now, it's not really an urgent thing right now. But let's say the babe's wedding is coming up in like 2 1/2 months, maybe 1 1/2. You can see that it's kind of more urgent right now.

So sometimes it's all. It's also a matter of timing, depending on when we catch people. You know, is the pain immediate? Is the need immediate, you know? So questions of urgency come up and that's the reason why on the podcast I've always advocated that whenever we're talking to people, we should always try and get a sense of urgency because there's no point. And I repeat, there's no point talking to somebody who has low urgency because you're just wasting your time.

So back to the wedding photography, you think your wedding photographer confirmed this girl is engaged, but wedding is 2 years from now. I mean, like what are you trying to do? High pressure, whatever, whatever. And collect deposit. It's two years. I know that in the West, you know, in America and in the UK, yes, you pay your wedding photographer sometimes a year in advance. But some of these things are culturally determined.

In Nigeria, the wedding is in two years. No bride is going to drop money for wedding photography or videography or for a caterer for a wedding that is 2 years out. Sometimes, depending on which part of the city you live in, wedding halls might be in high demand. So maybe they might book the hall, you know, six months, one year in advance or something like that. But maybe not photography. Anyway, let me not get caught with a detergent.

What you're seeing that these are a couple of reasons why people say I'm too busy right now. There's a genuine time constraint. This is not the right time. There's low urgency, and sometimes the fault is yours because you haven't done a good job at qualification. Now qualification. Those are those conversations. And remember, I keep stressing conversations because you should always think of yourself in most selling situations as being in a conversation with someone.

Because if you're talking at someone, you are a pest. I don't want to get rid of you. But if you're in conversation with someone that is somewhere poor, you guys are vibing, then you know that's good. You know there's there's room. It doesn't mean the deal will close, but it means that you're setting up the environment and setting up the context now so that you can be successful at closing the deal tomorrow. So sometimes somebody says I'm too busy right now because you've done a poor job with qualification.

You're probably talking to the wrong person. Maybe the person doesn't have decision making authority over the whole thing. And like I said, Nigerians are nice. So rather than the person saying no, actually you should be talking to Ogar Kohli. He's the one who does this. You, you know the person. Just so I'm too busy, I'm too busy. I don't have time. I don't have time tomorrow, next week. I don't have time. I don't have time.

If you find out later on that actually you're talking to the wrong person, that it actually is Olga Kunley or Madam BC who you should have been talking to. Don't be like all these people who go on social media, on LinkedIn and on Instagram and start complaining about how customers are confused. They don't know what they want to blah blah blah. The fault is yours. You should have done a better job of qualifying, having qualification conversations in the first place.

So sometimes the person doesn't have decision making authority. They're trying to delay, they're trying to brush you off. Sometimes you're speaking to the someone who is not your ideal customer. So you know there are lots of issues around timing. Sometimes there are also issues around timing, because there's some industries where seasonality is also a part of it. Like people used to say, wedding photo weddings and events are seasonal.

I well, I don't quite agree because I've short weddings in the dry season. I've short weddings in Hammertown. I've short weddings in the rainy season. I know that weddings in the rainy season are kind of tricky, so I don't know, maybe weddings are season. Nothing. But OK, let me look for something else. Paint. Paint. Yes. So I think for people who sell paint, you know, like Dulux and all these people I hear, I haven't confirmed because I've never been in the paint business.

I've heard that it's a seasonal thing that people that the paint market doesn't really move in the rainy season. And well, I guess it makes sense because who paints the houses in the rainy season? But I hear that there are modern paints now that you can use even during the rainy season, and it's not going to run off and it's going to dry properly and things like that. But for now, let's just stick to old school paints, Dulux and all those sorts of things,

seasonality. So yeah, so I'm too busy right now. You could have come at the wrong time. You meet a property developer, You're trying to have conversations surrounding paint. But it's rainy season now, so maybe the developer is worried about all other things, you know, delivery of cement, the building schedule, you know, blah, blah, blah. These are things that are much more on his mind right now. So having your conversations around buying paint is not really it's problem right now because, you know, poor timing,

you've come out of season and then sometimes the problem is that you haven't built commonality or rapport with the person. And if you haven't built rapport with the person, you're just the pest. And of course, who likes having pests around? So people say anything to get rid of a pest. We'll just try and brush you off, OK? So we spent too much time dealing on how these things arise. So let's come up with some suggestions about how we can deal.

We can handle situations where people say I'm too busy right now. So First off, like I've been saying for the past couple of episodes, five, maybe 10-7, I don't know, I've been counting. First off, we have to acknowledge and to empathize because nobody likes to be being, nobody wants to be thought of as a liar or things like that. So if somebody says I'm too busy right now, even though in your heart of heart you think, like,

how can you say you're busy, your desk is empty. You have nothing to do. When I came in here, you're watching DSTV. You're going to be thinking all of that in your mind. And you think maybe the person is trying to brush you off, but, you know, don't point out all those things that look, dude, you can't say you're busy because I came here. You're eating rice and chicken and you're watching DSTV. How can you say that? You don't have time.

So rather what you do is you acknowledge, you empathize and you validate their time constraints or their feelings of overwhelm. So it's like, yeah, Bros, I understand. Yeah, you know, busy time of the day, blah blah blah. So many things to do, you know, use your own verbiage. So, but The thing is you have to acknowledge whatever it is that they saying. Now there are different approaches for what you do next. There are some aggressive folks who say that what you should do is propose a short call to show some value.

So you can say, yeah bro, I understand that you know, it's busy and my culture at the bad time, but you know what? Just give me 5 minutes. I can show you sharply the reason why I'm here and how this thing is important to your hotel or to your bank or to your whatever. So can you just give me like 5 minutes? Now that's a very aggressive approach. It has its merits. It has its demerits. You know, everything works. There's nothing in sales that doesn't work in quote.

So it's all about contextual. So yes, there are times when you might have to take the aggressive approach to say, Oh yeah, I know I've got you at a bad time. But you know what? I just need 5 minutes. I'll be sharp. I'll be able to tell you who I am, what this thing is about, how this thing can help you make more money, or how this thing can help you solve this problem, how this thing can help you do this, I can help you do that.

So there are times that you can be aggressive. So Madam MDI understand I had perfectly well wonder talking about the broken toilets, but you know I'm an MDI. Just need 5 minutes to show you how if you use this as superior cleaning products, you're going to be able to save 25% on all your cleaning expenditure in the hotel. So Madam, can you give me like 5 minutes? That's the aggressive approach. Then there's a much more passive approach.

Some people also recommend, which is where you try and establish alternative communication channels. Just Madam MDI, understand, I understand that this is really busy time for you and this and this and that and that. So would it be OK if I just send you an e-mail and then send the information there? And when you say, OK, yeah, sure, no problem, collect it from my secretary and then she leaves. So that's an alternative communication method there.

Some people might try an alternative WhatsApp, like, oh Madam, it's OK if I WhatsApp you instead, you know. So like I said, you know, it's all contextual. Some things work, some things don't work. Start with whatever you find much more comfortable. But this passive approach of getting an alternative communication method is is also a viable strategy. It's also something that works. Now what I recommend is kind of in the middle, but some of you might, it might, some of you might be too uncomfortable trying this out.

But this is what I recommend anyway, because some people say it's closer to the aggressive end of the spectrum. Now, for me, I say that we acknowledge, we empathize, and then we show some respect for the time. So Madam Mdi, understand, it looks like you're dealing with a lot here. And then you ask for permission because you want to ask a few questions around her priorities and around her deadlines. And you're trying to get an advancement, You're trying to get another meeting agreed to right now.

You get it on the calendar. So the reason why some of you are scared is because listening to you is because person has already told you I'm too busy right now and then you're not feeling like somebody. Madam MD has told you she's busy, but you you now have delivered to be asking her questions. So I understand, yes, it might be a bit scary, but so long as you're respectful, this is also something that can work. So Madam MDI understand this is a busy problem, Busy time for you right now.

But is it OK if I just ask you a couple of questions? I'm just trying to figure out what you guys are doing now around, you know, this, this, this and that, that, that. And maybe we can get a better time for us to talk later on. And she might say, Oh yeah, sure, I have 5 minutes. So what is it you ask one or two questions, you get a sense of what is important to them regarding your products, you know, your stationary, your cleaning supplies, your whatever it is that you're trying to sell.

And then you get a sense of her schedule. Maybe her. Low work days are Wednesday afternoons. Maybe every morning is is busy, but Wednesday afternoon, those are low work days for her. And then you just get it on the calendar. You know, both of you agreed that OK, next week Wednesday you come back again by the hotel or something like that. So be respectful of the person's time, ask some questions, try and figure out their priorities,

the deadlines, things like that. And then you try and get a meeting on the calendar. You try. And when I say on the calendar, what I mean is that you will agree. So whether she writes it in her diary or she doesn't write it in the diary, But The thing is, you propose this time, she says yes, it's OK, no problem. And then you agree to it. You also agree to the follow up actions. It's OK Oh man. We agreed for Wednesday 1:00.

So would it be OK if I call you Tuesday afternoon to remind you? She says yeah, sure, sure, sure, no problem. Collect my phone number from the secretary, You know, that kind of thing. So that's what I mean when I say have it on the calendar or have it on the books. I mean, just make it very clear. Now, both of you have agreed this is the next step, and this is what we're going to do to facilitate that next, that next step.

Now, there's also another technique that you can use around these issues, but it is also something that some of you will find very scary. And for good reason, because this is only something that can be done competently by people who have by experienced sales people or experienced business people. The questions it involves funneling involves asking direct questions and very direct questions because you're trying to arrive at the truth.

Now, this only works only when you have experience, because when you have experience behind you, you know you know what's real, you know when people are bullshitting you, and you know the typical excuses that people can get. So let's say back to the stationary thing, you've been selling stationary for seven years. Yeah, you've been selling stationary for seven years. I mean, you've heard it all. You've heard it all from the the procurement person at Access Bank or the different banks or the different hotel managers.

You've heard all the BS that they can say. So, you know, and of course, when you have some business experience or some sales experience, you're not the kid. So it's not like you're 18 years old. So if you're 18 years old and you want to try this sort of thing, it's going to backfire because people will their country. Look at this boy. I mean, I have like, when was this guy born and he's yanning me all this, all bats. So this works.

You have age and experience on your side. You just ask direct questions, 'cause you're trying to arrive at the truth. So. And it involves multiple questions. So of course you acknowledge so. Oh, Madame. Empty. Yeah, I understand. Yeah. A really busy period in time and blah blah blah blah, but matter ending, you know, I've been doing this for a while, so to be frank, when people tell me I don't have time, it's usually one of two things.

It's usually they're not interested or they already have something that is working for them. So Madam, which is it? Because if you're not interested, no problem, I'll just leave and I won't come back again. You know, I won't stress you. So if you're not interested, just say it and then you keep quiet and then you listen and you're going to find out something really interesting. Sometimes you find out that the person is not interested and maybe then you just keep your promise and you leave and never come back.

The thing is, at least you have saved yourself some time. Instead of trying to book meeting, trying to follow up and trying to everything, you spend three weeks on something only to discover that Madam was never really interested in the 1st place. If she's not interested, it's best to find out now then. So if they're not interested, there's also another approach that's called the challenger method of sales. It's not something I've spoken about a lot on the podcast,

'cause there's something much more advanced and I'm focused on making sure that people know the basics first. But the whole thing with the challenger approach is where you lead with insights, where you're trying to close a sale. So in this case, let's say we're dealing with a carpet cleaning business. You know these sorts of things. This is where you lead with insight. You say and the Madam of hotel says she's not interested.

Let's say, Madam, you're not interested. You are aware that the Nigerian medical Society or the American Society or whatever, whatever, whatever, says that in 80% of hotels carpets are not cleaned up to whatever times per month. And so because of that it has carcinogens, leads to allergens in in in hotel guests, you know, blah blah, blah, blah. You know, you put out those that research that studies that insight. So Madam, I'm sure you're not facing any of these problems.

You know, staff complaining about allergen issues or guests complaining about musty rooms, or, you know, any. You get my you get my gesture, you lead with some strong insights, and then you ask a very direct question. So you know Madam, so clearly you're not facing any of these problems. And then you listen to what it is that she has to say. Of course, if the person says, no, I'm not facing on these problems, I'm fine.

Get out of my office. Then. I guess, you know, that's all you do. Just get out of our office and look for somebody else to talk to. And then remember that for the funneling here, we're trying to get them to pick between two options that Look, Madam, is it that you're not interested or is it that you have a solution that is already working for you? If they say they already have a solution that is working, then what you do is you listen to an older episode that I made, but you don't have to skip back too far, 'cause I made it a couple of days ago.

I just can't remember the episode title. And that's the episode where you deal with the objection when people say we're happy with our current vendor, we're happy with our current supplier, we're happy with our current XYZ. So you know, you'll be able to learn in detail what next steps you can do then. So we've spoken about a lot. OK, maybe was not a good idea because I I went into too many options on what you should do because I OK, let me just summarize anyway, 'cause we're close to 30 minutes, I'll bring this into a close.

So bottom line, what I'm trying to say is I'm someone says I'm too busy right now. Sometimes It could be that they're really busy for a number of reasons. But whatever. The objection is, first of all you empathize, you acknowledge you validate their feelings, you know, things like that. And then there are number of approaches that you can do. In this case, some aggressive, some passive, and some that require some business experience.

So pick whatever you're comfortable with and just make sure that you're applying it to the most respectful and ethical way that you can. But I would recommend that the more aggressive approaches, especially if you're new in business, don't try them out yet. So maybe the more passive things. I wish you tried if you're new in business. So, oh, Madam. Oh, I understand that you're busy. Is it OK if I collect your e-mail from Secretary?

I'll. I'll. I'll send you an e-mail later. OK, Madam, I understand you're busy now. Can I WhatsApp you later? You know, so maybe those passive approaches work, but respect their time. Eventually you still have to ask questions around priorities and deadlines and things like that so you can see where you can slouch yourself into their calendar. But remember that for this objection, especially these sorts of objections, the non money ones, we really should try and figure out.

Are they trying to brush ourselves, Are they interested or not? Or eventually we have to get back. We have to get down to trying to figure out those sorts of issues. So let me bring it to a close on this one. If this is an episode that you guys don't find convincing or clear enough then let me know. So connect with me on WhatsApp. My phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me on LinkedIn.

My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link. We're listening to this episode and my e-mail address is there. If you guys have any questions. It's always nice to run into and have chats with podcast listeners, so thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next recording.