Mastering the Art of Sales: From Fundamentals to Complex Conversions

Hello and welcome to the show. Some of you will be glad to know that we are done with the philosophy and that we're also done with all the content marketing stuff that we've been talking about over the last week or week and a half. So now we are back to the regular questions and the question for today is how to increase your sales conversion rate. Now before I go into answering the question definitions, just so that we're clear on what it is that we're talking about S

1st off, let me define the obvious thing there in the question, which is sales. How do you define sales for the purpose of today's episode and the next couple of episodes that are going to follow every single time that we say sales? Because after all we're trying to see how we can increase sales how by getting greater conversion rates. So every time you hear sales, what we mean is you have collected a deposit, that means sales or you have collected payment in full, that means sales or you have gotten a firm agreement to pay.

That can also mean sales because there are some industries where how you seal the deal is you get APO number. APO number is a purchase order number. So if you're doing lots of stuff with you know, like these multinationals, you know, DFID, British Council, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of people. If you get APO number and they say proceed and go ahead with your deliverables, then that is a sale. Although from an accounting point of view, I think what you would have that kind of thing on your books as revenue.

Yeah, I think you'll have it on your books as revenue. So revenue is accruals. Revenue is money that you expect to get in. Somebody is already owing you that money, so you've done what you need to do. The person is now supposed to pay. So that is revenue. How much is supposed to come in? So it's not exactly cash because it's not money that you have in your account that you can spend now. But for some industries, we are going to regard that also as a sale.

If all you have is APO number, it's the same thing with an order number. And then depending on the industry, for some people to perform an invoice. Once you guys do the haggling back and forth, you agree on everything they say why I send, perform my invoice. You send perform my invoice and then the MD says, OK, I've seen perform my invoice, we're good to go. Or I bring deliverables. Then you do your deliverables and then they pay you 3 weeks later or 30 days later or whenever it is that you guys agreed for payment terms.

So if you get any of these things and you're having a conversation with a potential customer, then we will regard that as a sale. So if your money IS1M but you collected 300K, that's the deposit. Let's just call that a sale. Yes, they owe you 700 K, but let's just call that a sale. If your money is one M and you collected the one M in full, let's call that a sale. If what you guys agreed on was one M and then the issued purchase number, and then DFID

says, Oh yeah, go ahead, deliver the computers you're supposed to deliver. Then once they issue you the PO number and you start arranging your computers to deliver to DFID, what you have is a sale. If it's another kind of industry or whatever and they don't do PO numbers, but they do order number, Once the person issues you order number and says, Oh yeah, come and deliver, that is a sale. If it's one of those things where the person says perform my invoice and then you know the whole everything, everything,

that is also going to be a sale. So for the purposes of this episode, that is what we're going to regard as a sale. Now, I know some of you will be like me who prefer cash in hand, who prefer to do all the things that let the money enter my hand first. Yeah, for some of us, that's a personal preference. But for the purposes of this episode, we're going to regard whether cash in hand, all these other things, we'll call those things a sale.

So the reason why I'm making trying to flog the point about all these things is because depending on what industry you are in, just like I said, different industries handle billing, payments, things like that differently. So back in my wedding photography days, it was either cash in hand, as in give me my money 100% now, or you try and take a deposit. People would try and capture like that kind 70, maybe 80% of the money.

So even if by the time you finish the buried runs away and she doesn't give you your money, you say, well at least I collected 80%. So my wedding photography days sale meant give me cash in my hand now or give me deposit in my hand now for the Carpenter a sale would be give me my money in full. Now I don't know. So excuse me, I don't know of any Carpenter who says, you know, or got the money for your job is 20 K, but give me 18K now when I finish, give me the balance, you know, for carpenters, welders to collect that money in full.

If you're doing media work, documentary work, you know, for an NGO and the stuff we've done in the past, large scale production, unfortunately, if you're dealing with those sorts of institutions, you know, where the level of PO, that's one that really used to pay me, but my wife would say no, let's think of it as savings. But me, I'd rather, if what we agreed was 800 K, I'd rather take the 800 K now then we deliver now and they are giving me 800 K at the end of three weeks or four weeks.

But yeah, so it's just one of those things. I remember a session was that where somebody asked me a question about one of these things. The person was in retail, in fact. Yeah, let's look at retail now. The person was in retail and she had issues with these sorts of things and I had to tell her that, you know, it's unfortunate. Some industries are just like that. If you don't like the payment terms and you can't collect in full, then perhaps you shouldn't be involved in that business.

You should move on to some other business because that's just how it is. So like in her own case, she was in retail, Nigeria retail, I can't remember what her product was, but she was putting it in shops in Abuja and she didn't like the fact that she's delivering now. But everybody say that they're going to pay in 30 days or in 60 days. So you raise performa invoice, you guys agree, you deliver the goods and then they say, OK,

thank you very much, you dropped off the goods January 1st, they say, OK, no problem, come, come and collect your money February 2nd or or March 3rd or whatever. So yeah, it's like that which for some of those industries, you either you like it, you put up with it, or you don't. And I hear it's even brutal for those of you who are in the West. So you deliver to Walmart or you deliver to Asda, you deliver to whoever like their payment terms is their payment terms.

You can't rush them. So yeah, that's the reason why I'm stressing it because different industries. But any of these scenarios, whether you're selling your groundnuts to a shop in Abuja through retail or you're a wedding photographer or you're a Carpenter or you are a documentary video crew, either of these scenarios that we've talked about, it counts as a sale. Now the second question or the key question, what is a conversion?

OK, let's see. It's one of those times also that has a technical definition, also a relative definition, depend on what it is that you're trying to do. But for the purposes of this episode, in fact, for the purposes of any single episode you hear on this podcast, every time you hear conversion, it just means that you are talking to someone else, whether you're talking or typing or Zoom call or whatever it is. But The thing is, you have to be in some sort, some sort of a conversation or transaction with someone else, a potential customer.

So of course, if I'm talking to my mum, then conversions don't apply. But if I'm talking to you or you want to book my services so I can quote your team on how to increase sales, then you're a potential customer. If you get the person to take the next reasonable step in the relationship or in closing the deal, if they take the next reasonable step, no matter how small it is, what you have experienced is a conversion. So let me repeat that conversion just means you are facing somebody who is a potential customer and that person has taken the next reasonable step.

Step. So that step that they take, that is a conversion. Why is that important or why should we look at things this way? It's because for complex sales, complex sales are closed in small, small, small steps. Complex sales are not closed once like that. Some people think the Holy Grail of business is every time you're talking to somebody, whether it is 50 naira or 5K or five M, they want to be able to go in and then come out with five M

just like that. No, for complex sales, you usually close it in small, small, small steps. A small step today, small step tomorrow, a small step next tomorrow. At the end of the week, two weeks, you collect your money in full, or you collect a deposit, or you collect APO, or you collect, or you send performer invoice or whatever. It is also about the noise in the background, that is, the rain was still in the rainy season.

That's also why my invoice is messed up because you know, almost sore throat, almost cold, and then the call for prayer because I live close to a mosque. So those are the sounds coming in from the recording. What was I AHA conventions and complex sales. Now a complex sale for those of you who are new to the podcast is any sales situation where you guys are negotiating about something. The money that you guys are calling is big.

So if you were talking 15 error or 5K, that's a complex sale. If you guys are talking big money, you know, 2.5 M, 5 M, OK, You can see that the relative complexity is going up because we're now talking big numbers. And usually you will find that in complex sales, it's not just the number that is big, you'll find that the subject matter of the sale itself is also big. When I say big, it just means it has many moving parts.

So if you go to the market and you're trying to buy a Gucci and you people are pricing a Gucci, how much more 3000 for One Cup, blah, blah, blah, you can see that that is not a complex sale. This a goosey. A goosey is simple. It's in the cup. You take it, you grind it, you go home, you cook your soup. It's that simple. The money involved is not big. OK, well, well, 3K is big in a in a sense because it's not how you can cook soup for a regular family and just use One Cup of a goosey.

So you're thinking, you know, maybe you have to buy 3 cups, 4 cups. And if One Cup is 3K, then that means you're spending. How much is that? Is that 12 grand on a Gucci? And yeah, that seems like a lot, you know, like, how much are you earning anyway that you'll be spending just 12K on a Gucci? You haven't bought meat, you haven't bought vegetables, you haven't bought palm oil, you haven't bought yam. But I heard yam now is 5K Crazy.

I was like, OK, so a Gucci money is not big. The subject matter is simple, but then if you now start talking about car, you want to buy a car and you are now talking 7M10M, you can see that this is fairly complex. The Gucci is simple, it's there in the cup, give me the Gucci, grind it, then go and cook my soup for the car. On the other hand, is this car new or not? Is it fairly used Belgium or not? Is it fairly used Niger or not?

What happened to the car? Is it accidental? Well, sorry, I'm not sure of the proper word, but you know, when you're buying a car, that's some of the lingo that they use. Is it accidental? Where's the accident? How old is it? Which model? Is this one 2010 model, or is it this model, that model? What about clearance papers from customs? Do you have your clearance papers complete? You can see that for the car, we're looking at lots of stuff about the car, around the car and other things associated with the car because title is important.

The history of the car. You can see that as the money is going up and as we're considering different kinds of goods, the complexity is increasing. Then another thing about complex sales is the number of parties that you have to talk to. So for the Agusi, the number of parties you have to talk to is just one. My wife says go to the market, get me two cups of Agusi. I say, all right, no problem. I go to the market, the saleswoman is dealing, the market woman is dealing with just me.

We all go for the agusi. I pay for the agusi and then I leave. On the other hand, with the car, it's it's different. It's more complex. So I might be the one that is buying the car, but if I'm buying the car for wifey, I need to be feeling wifey to figure out what it is that she likes. You know, this colour this make this, this, this is that. If both of us show up to the place to look at the car and the person who sells the car assumes that I'm the only person that needs talking to.

The guy who miss Rd. If he's able to do a good job, ask a couple of questions, figure out that we're buying for wifey and he's able to get on wifey's good end and then maybe even get wifey's phone number. That's a smart move because he has figured out that there are two decision makers in the process and he now knows that he has to get those two decision makers on board to close the sale. So you can see that the more complex sales become the number,

the number of decision makers also goes up. Sorry, excuse me. So number of decision makers also increase. So Igusi, one person to buy a car, two people. If he's selling a fleet of cars and maybe he wants to sell it to a government agency, maybe NTA for instance, that's Nigerian Television Authority. Maybe they've inaugurated a new board and they want to buy cars for the new board of directors and a new management and whatnot.

Now that is truly a complex sale because the number of cars is up. If each car is 7 M or 10 M and they want to buy 20 cars while looking at 20 something M, then for this kind of thing, you would have to not just be talking to the guy on the board, you also need to know somebody in financing department. You know this is Niger. So trust me, if you know somebody in finance, it would help. If you know somebody in procurement department, you know that would help.

If you have an inside person on the board, that would help. What else? What you get? You get what it is I'm trying to say. So if it is one car that you're trying to sell to one man or one woman, at most you're thinking two decision makers. But if you go up a level of complexity, we're trying to sell a fleet of cars to the hospital in your neighbourhood or to NTA or to Ministry of Finance or to whatever, the complexity goes up.

And you can see now that in this case of trying to sell, so excuse me, so excuse me. So in this case, now trying to sell cars to NTA, you can see now that the number of decision makers has gone up. Don't be surprised if by the time you sit down, you look at your deal properly, you see that maybe the decision makers that you're talking to now is probably seven or eight people. It's not just as simple as the director general and my father,

best friends that went to the same school. It's not that simple. That the DG is friends with your POPSY doesn't mean you're going to close that deal. So it's good that you and DG, you guys have some connects, still do your leg work, do your assignment, know somebody in the finance, know somebody in procurement, find an inside person in the organization as well. Don't just rely on the fact that you, you and DG, you and DG and POPSY like you guys are cool.

Don't just rely on that. So these are the things that determine how whether a sale is simple or whether a sale is complex. OK, the amount, the amount has to be small. The subject matter, The subject matter has to be simple. Not too many moving parts, not too many things to juggle. And then the number of decision makers for simple sales, number of decision makers is small. The other things that determine whether a sale is simple or complex.

But let's just stop there for now. So with what it is that I have described, you can see that when we're talking about complex sales, the only way to win it is in small, small, small, small steps. You call today, you move your one step forward. Go to the office tomorrow, move your one step forward. Yeah, on Saturday you're passing through. Maybe the head of procurement, his house is close to your estate. You pass through, you go and say what's up to him and his wife,

You move things one step forward. So it's small, small, small, small. If it's a complex sale, you're moving things forward one step at a time. So this thing about conversions is really, really important when we're talking about big things because for the woman who sells a Gucci, the conversion step really is just one. I went there, we speak, I give her six Ki, collect 2 cups of a Gucci. It's that simple. So you close the deal.

One time conversion step equals one for the wedding photographer. You can see now that there's some complexity. We're not just talking 3K now as a wedding photographer. OK, OK, times are harsh now. So I'm assuming maybe you want to collect like 500K by the time you pay the boys, you do the book, everything, maybe you'll be able to keep like, you know, 250K or something as your profit. So as a wedding photographer, you go to the business Expo, the bride comes to your table.

That is one step. You're able to get her to drop her account, her phone number with you. So she's now a lead. She drops her phone number. That is convention step #2 then you guys agree on a meeting or appointment. Let's say she's supposed to come to your studio. She shows up at the studio. That's conversion point #3 then she agrees to a consultation. You guys talk about the whole thing. That is consultation. Sorry, that is conversion step where we know four.

Then you send the proposal and she says I need time to think about it. You know that whole dance. She goes with the proposal and you guys have that conversation. She says she's cool with it and that is conversion step five or six. And then you say, OK, if we're all in agreement, these are my account details, Access Bank number and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You send it off to her and then she pays and that is conversion step.

I don't know, seven, I've lost count. So you can see now that for a Gucci conversion step equals one wedding photography convention step equals seven or eight for the Carpenter. Conventional step is going to be I think it's just going to be one because the company that will just show up and say, OK, we need to do this, we need to do this, we need to do this Madam is what we need to do. And she'll say how much plank of wood now is this that that that that my label is 5K.

You guys would negotiate. You say I will give you label 3K. And then she transferred the 10K done. So conventional step here is 1 Abby. And then let me let me just say, let's just leave it at 1:00. But you get the point that carpentry egusi not the same as wedding photography. Then for the documentary video person, this is also another one where it's a complex sale. So you reach out to the people, you say this is who we are,

blah, blah, blah. These are the services that we offer. They say, oh, OK, we're interested. Here's our RFP reply to the RFP. That is step one. You've got them to send your RFP, so it kind of means that they're interested. That's step one. Then you send in the RFP, but you're able to do some backroom, some background moves. Because remember, I advise you guys don't just submit an RFP and then go to sleep. If you submit an RFP and go to sleep, you're trying to ghost mode.

You'll now call back in the month and you find out that they gave the job to somebody else. Excuse me? So, yeah. So RFP. Yeah, that one is done. Then that's stage 1. Then you now find a way to do some phone calls. You know, you get your inside person, you do some small consultation, you figure out the best response. You know what? No, let's throw out this RFP thing. Let's forget the RFP. So let's say you've gone, you've spoken to them, they said that they're interested and everything.

So that is step one. You'll get some contact details. That's step one. Then you're able to hook up a consultation. You discuss the scope of the whole thing. So let's say that's Step 2. Then you now issue a treatment to say, OK, this is interesting. If we're going to handle this project, this is how we would record it. This is how we shoot it. It would take so many days, would require this number of crew and something, something,

something, something. You submit this, the treatment. So that's step three or Step 4, if I'm counting correctly. Then they look at the treatment and then they like it. And then they say, Oh yeah, I'll drop a proposal. That's step five. You drop the proposal. Excuse me then let's say they like the proposal and then the next thing is, OK, we agree we're going to pay you 6 M for the documentary payment terms is 30 days. And you say OK, sure, no problem.

And they say OK, here's your PO number, start shooting. When are you delivering? Then that's the final step. So you can see that in excuse me, that in this stage, in this example, we've gone through multiple stages to be able to collect our money. So any let me stop here because we're close to 30 minutes and my voice is really acting up now. So I think I should really stop and go and take a Los Angeles something. Bernie, I hope that I've been able to explain what a conversion is and for you to figure out why it is that is important.

Now, for most of you, when you hear of conversions, you typically we hear about it in an online state, in online e-mail marketing, all these sorts of things, because there they have reduced it down to a mathematical science, because in that case it has to be. So number one, you send out the e-mail, you send out 100 emails. How many people opened? That is one conversion of the people that opened. How many people replied?

That is one conversion of the people that replied. How many people clicked on the link that you wanted? That's another conversion for the people who clicked on the link. How many people booked a meeting? That's another conversion for the people who booked on the meeting. How many people you know like that, like that, like that until you collect your money. So this essentially is what a conversion is, especially for the purposes of this podcast.

Every single time we're talking about conversions, that is what that is what we mean. So you will find that on the podcast. I'll be using different terms, but essentially it's the same thing. And in summary, what I'm just trying to say basically is if you are not in a simple sales context, if you're not selling egusi, and if you're not doing carpentry, if you're doing something a little bit more complex, the best way to think about sales is don't try and collect your money one time.

Don't try and collect your 2.5 M at once. Start thinking in small steps, small steps, conversions, advancements, whatever it is you want to call it. Pick a word you like. If advancement and conversions is too big English for you, then just say small, small steps. So just start thinking about sales as small, small steps. As you get better at these small, small steps, the more money you're going to make over the long term.

So the people who do this thing online, that is what they've realized, that if you get better at writing the e-mail, the more responses you get. Let's see what else? Yeah, the more responses you get, the better you get at crafting the order. Sorry, the offer online, the more people will click on it. So you can see that for the people who are an online business they're thinking of, let me get good at this step. If I optimize and get really good at this step, the next step will now be pure will take care of itself because we've done a good job here.

That is how we should be thinking about business offline as well. Just think of it as small, small, small steps. So if you're the wedding photographer and you do business expose, you do bridal shows and things like that, step one is your table, Is your table fine enough? Your books, do they look good? Do you guys look presentable? You know, stuff like that. If you lock that down, people will come to the booth. Step one.

Then Step 2, pleasant, nice conversation, rapport, blah, blah, blah. You handle that well, the bride will drop her phone number. So Step 2, taking care of Abby. Step three. And then let me just ignore the numbers. Then if you dos our contact details and you're very good at appointment setting, then the number of appointments you set will go up. That is good. If the number of appointments goes up and you know how to conduct meetings very well,

figure out what people want and then show proposals. The number of people who say, well, let's start talking, money will go up. The better you get at handling money objections and handling negotiations and things like that, the greater, the more deals you should be able to close that also will go up. And then the better you get at chasing people for money or structuring payment terms or things like that, the amount of money that will hit your bank account will also go up.

So instead of as a wedding photographer or as a wedding planner thinking I want to go in now to this one meeting and then collect MY5M in full now just think about it in terms of small, small steps. We're taking small steps, advancements, conversions, just get good at this step. If you're good at this step, it will lead to the next. If you're good at the next, it will lead to the next. If you're good at the next, it will lead to the next.

Overtime, all those small, small steps means we end up making much more money. So let me wrap up today's episode. Please connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me on WhatsApp. So now what's up? What's the other one? LinkedIn. Yeah, LinkedIn. My name is Tamashima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name.

So you can find me by using the link where you're listening to this episode. And my e-mail address is also on the link where you're listening to this episode. So thank you very much for your time and attention. And tomorrow we'll start going into the Coco of the question because today I just introduced you guys to remember that the question is how do you increase your sales conversion rate? So today we just defined sales and different contexts.

And then we also defined what a conversion is. So tomorrow we'll now start looking at specific case studies, as in how do you get your conversion rate to go up? So for the wedding photographer, we start looking at the small, small steps. Or if you sell cars, we're looking at the small, small steps. So that's what we'll start doing from tomorrow onwards. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.