Mastering the Sales Conversation: From Open to Close

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is one of those art and about episodes where I expect the usual interruptions. So let's get straight down to business. And today the question that I'm going to tackle is a it's an old one, but it's a good one. And that is how you can get your sales people to be good closers. Remember I told you guys that in the past on the podcast that had been paying attention to those of us who are self-employed and,

you know, people who take financial responsibility for the growth of their businesses. But then I have been paying attention recently to those of you who do not own the business, but who work for someone else who owns the business. And so, yeah, that's the way that we're going to tackle the subject today. We're going to look at how to get your sales people, that's if you are the business owner and you have other people selling on your behalf, how to get them to be good closers, how to close more deals.

Now, before we do that, I'd like to go into listener shout outs. And today I'm going to shout out a saucer at Tem Guaye. Sorry for not pronouncing your name correctly. Interesting spelling of your name, Esosa, by the way, because my goddaughter is Esiosa. But people keep telling me that, yes, even though it's spelled Esiosa, I shouldn't say Esiosa. I should say Esiosa. So yeah, I'm going to assume that you that it's the same name for you, but that you're spelling yours phonetically.

So shout out to Esosa at Tem Guaye, who reached out to me on LinkedIn. Well, we've been having a chat on LinkedIn because she shared one of the really old posts that I put up with some comments on it. And so we got chatting in the comment section. So Esosa is a business and sales manager for Land Republic, and she also describes herself as a financial literacy advocate. So if you're interested in those sorts of things, hit up Esosa at Tem Weyer on LinkedIn.

Her Esosa is spelt ESOSA. That's for those of us who are familiar with the essay of SAR spelling, but hers is Esosa. So you can reach out to her on LinkedIn. And yeah, I'm sure she'll be, you know, we business and sales development professionals always happy to meet other people in the field. So I'm sure she's not going to mind. Then let me see. Oh, yeah. So she's a financial literacy advocate. Excuse me. I was really happy to hear that or to see that rather, because when I was little, when I was a little boy, how old was I?

Secondary school ish. Just before secondary school, her father gave me a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And I know it sounds was our cliche, like everybody comes across Rich Dad, Poor Dad. But actually it is a very important book for young men and women to come across. So for those of us who have kids, I recommend that. It's something that we expose our young ones too, not because the book is the Bible or anything, but because it's simply written.

It's kind of like a parable. It's easy to understand and at the beginning of exposing young people to some very important concepts. Number one, financial literacy. So it's also a time where here it's a financial literacy advocate. The first time I heard about financial literacy was from Rich Dad, poor dad and financial literacy just, it's just the idea that we should be able to read the health of a company and read the health of your pocketbook.

You need to be able to understand on a very basic level how much money is coming in, how much money is going out. And that seems to make a world of a difference to how you progress through your careers and through your business. So keep up the good work that you're doing, especially on the financial literacy front. And for those of us who are parents or soon to be parents, let's remember to continue the gospel. Rich dad, poor dad, very easy to read.

It's not going to be one of those books. And my father gave it to me before I started secondary school. And I read it and I, I called the Drift. I took different things from it. So it's not a book written by Harvard professor or something like that. So yeah, financial literacy. And let's get our children started on these things early. So the comments that is also a term where I made on my post were around money qualification.

She liked the idea that you have to qualify people quickly. And it's part of the comments that she built her own post around, which is say that if you're selling a 7 million, excuse me, if you're selling a 7 million naira property, then you know, it beholds of you to get these conversations out of the way rather than you start the conversation. It's a 7 million naira property. You invest time in building the relationship, you're trying to move the conversation forward only to find out now that this person, if you turn him upside down and shake him, he only has 1M in his pocket, You've just wasted your time.

So that's, I know for some of you, it might sound aggressive, but keep listening to the podcast and you hear lots of useful ideas about how we can approach money conversations. Because I talk about using ranges and brackets to get people into the conversation, You know, like, OK, oh, hello, Sir, thank you very much, blah, blah, blah. Ask some questions about the person's housing need. I'm glad you're considering these properties, blah, blah,

blah. But with our firm, the typical investment that is required for these kinds of properties is anything between 7 and 14,000,000. Is that something? Is that an investment that you're willing to make anytime soon? And then you keep quiet and then you hear so that the man who only has one and will say 7 million. OK, thank you very much. Or like one of the people that I was coaching recently when she used that kind of language on somebody, the person said, OK,

thank you very much, go and sell your XYZI won't say what it was. So go and sell your XYZ to people on the island who have money. Thank you very much. One day God will do it for me. And then the person caught the phone call. So it's an interesting experience. Not all of us meet customers who react that way. But The thing is, it is perfectly fine to have that conversation now at the beginning and let the person insult you and call the phone now for you to invest 3456 weeks building a relationship with someone and then the person insults you after six weeks and then cuts the phone.

So let the person insult you now and cut the phone rather than insult you two months from now and then cut the phone. So yeah, money acquisition. OK. And then she said that she listened to the podcast on advancements. I think that was maybe two or three days ago, so excuse me. So for those of you who are just listening to the show after you listen to this episode, those are two things to look out for. The podcast is available on YouTube.

Use the search function in YouTube. Just search my name and then search qualification. And every single episode that I've made around qualification and how to have money conversations will show up. Then type my name and then type hit advancement. And then you will also learn about how to advance make how to advance the sales conversation one step at a time. And in fact, advancements for those of you who listened to the previous episode, you're going to see how advancements ties into getting your sales people to be good closers.

So the answer to the question, how can I get my sales people to be good closers? The answer is very simple. There are several things that you can do to get people to be good closers. But for today, I just want to talk about 3, maybe 4. I'd say 4, but two of them are more or less one thing. So First off, to get people to be good closers, you have to get people to open the conversation well. Sometimes if IA lot of the, a lot of the time the reason why a conversation the businesses are not closing is because we started off the conversation on the wrong foot.

Those of you who start the conversation in a in an adverse adversarial way is not going to end well. If you start off the conversation in a closed manner, it's not going to end well. If you start off the conversation, I mean, we can keep going on and on and on, but lots of times the business is not closing because you didn't open well. Opening the conversation well determines the rest of the relationship, the rest of the dynamic.

And so that is really, really important. So we have to open well. However, I'm not one of those people who would say open the conversation well by being nice and personal and authentic and friendly and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All those things are important. However, I think when we start off with this whole let me be authentic, let me be personal, let me be nice, let me build rapport. So excuse me, we might run into some problems.

Now, rapport, being authentic, all those things are essential. But my own take is that these are things that flow necessarily anyway during the course of the conversation. So if I'm a likable guy or I'm an idiot, you're going to be able to quickly determine that as the conversation goes along. So I don't need to start off this sales conversation trying to be your friend or trying to make myself seem likeable from the beginning.

If I'm unlikeable or if I'm likeable, it's going to flow from the rest of the conversation. So I like to get people to go straight into needs analysis when open opening the conversation. And you do that just by first of all, being casual and conversational and excuse me, using open-ended conversations. Sorry, forgive me. I'm recovering from another cold. In fact, right now I'm high on purity. Well, I'm not really high, but I'm drowsy because these things make me feel sleepy.

But anyway, you catch your drift. I'm recovering from stuff. Where was I? So I prefer that people just head straight into needs analysis. Let the conversation be nice and open and frank and you'll be well. So somebody that was coaching recently, she said, OK, that the way she understands the whole gist is that when she's going to start the conversation, she will just say, well, how can I help you today? Now I know for some people, how can I help you today?

Sounds like a daft conversation. Because if somebody is in the clothing store, let's use the example where Madam opens a shop and then she puts a sales girl there or a sales boy there. And it's for children between the ages of, let's say, I don't know, 13 to 20. Yeah, 13 to 20. And everything is important from UK brands or USA brands or whatever. So I know that for the average person, you feel like it is stupid to walk up to somebody who is in a clothing shop and then asking the person, how can I help you today?

Because I'm sure you're thinking obviously Madam and Ogai here because they want to buy clothes for their kids, right? But it's just to let you know it is not a stupid question. And it's a very easy way to start off a conversation. You sell cars, somebody comes to your car lot, you walk up to the person and say, how can I help you today? And you keep quiet and then you listen. It's not, it sounds stupid, but trust me, it's an easy way to start a conversation.

It is not a good way to start a conversation in the retail setting because in most retail settings, people don't want to be disturbed. So if you come and say, how can I help you today, they will say no thank you, I'm just looking. And then, you know, you're really tied off. You're really blocked the conversation. So that is not good for retail, but for other kinds of service. Let's say you sell a car or your fashion design or something and someone walks into your your your shop.

You bring the person into your consultation room. It is perfectly fine to say how can I help you today? The person will now start telling you the story now, oh I like your shop real nice blah blah blah. Anyway, my sister is getting married November 3rd. I want to make peplum dress. Sorry, I keep saying peplum because I know nothing about fashion and there was a time when peplum was raining when I was a wedding photographer.

So that's the only start I know. So I want to do peplum jumpsuit for my sister's wedding and I wanted to be in Ankara. Something, something, something. So you can see how, how can I help you today gets the conversation to start flowing naturally. And because the conversation has been opened has, has we've started the conversation on a very conversational, open, warm note, the chances of it closing are higher. This is not the only thing.

Remember I said that there are several factors, but this is one way open the conversation. Well, by opening the conversation. Well, for me it's let's go straight to need analysis. We're trying to figure out what this person is all about and who they are. We're using open-ended questions. open-ended questions are just questions that will get the other person to talk. Who, what, why, when, how, whom, you know, all those sorts of questions.

So how can I help you today? Yeah, OK, well, how can I help you today? Let's see what else can we think of What question? What can I do for you today? Oh gosh, sorry, forgive me. Like I said, I'm Puritan has dulled my brain today, but you get the whole point. Who, how, why, when, whom? All those questions. So back to the car example, for instance, let's see. OK, an easy way to open the conversation back to the car example.

And that's because where I am right now, like, you know, I'm out and about to unpack and I'm sitting next to somebody's car. It's a reddish Toyota Camry, not bad looking, older model. So let's just go with that. So somebody walks into your car place and he's standing next to a red Toyota Camry. So I know for you, it sounds kind of stupid that you're walking to somebody who is standing next to a red Toyota Camry and you're asking him, how can I help you today?

I know it sounds tough, but trust me, it works. So you're going to say, well, how can I help you today? And then the person will start talking like, Oh yes, I have my brother-in-law got this car something, something I've been loving this car. I want to get one. How much does it cost? You know, and the whole conversation, everything will just flow. But going into needs analysis, you can also try and head straight to the issue.

Like for those of you who sell cars, I'm sure you've realized that most of the people who jam you at your your car lot or your what would I call it? Let's just say car lot are people who are usually buying for business, maybe don't want to do both or it's for family. And in fact, the last time I went to a car loss, that's precisely how the guy started with the conversation. So Bros, how knows idea idea. I'm good so so far.

Now for both. Or is he family And that's how the conversation started. And I think even that is brilliant. The guy went straight to the points. Is this for both or is this for family? So because in your mind now you're beginning to now formulate what's the word options and scenarios and things like that about how you can be helpful because if the person says it's for both. I asked a couple of more questions and it's not an executive boat service.

So I'm not sure how it works. Maybe there's an executive boat service where you only drive Mercedes Benzes and Jeeps or something. But you're going to be able to now it will help shape the proposal that you give at the end of the day, you know, like, OK, if it's for these purposes, you need to be buying this brand of car because it's sturdy, it has resale value, it's easy to maintain, the fuel consumption is low, blah, blah, blah.

So by starting off our conversation. So bro, how you doing now? So not for both. Why is it family? You can see that conversation flows well. So start off the conversation well and it's OK to go straight into needs analysis for most people. You think it's rude, but don't worry, it's not rude. The whole thing about building rapport, the rapport, it will come if the guys are, you know, there are times when you start off the conversation, the person tries to be nice, but after 2-3

minutes you can tell that this guy is an idiot and I want nothing to do with this person. And then you weave and then you leave. So don't worry too much about you should consciously try to build rapport and to make a pleasant impression and things like that. But you don't have to start off the conversation that way. So don't worry about how you sound, how you look. Brush your teeth, make sure your teeth are brushed. You know, this is live and direct because you walk up to someone and say, how can I help you?

You know the how you know your breath will now carry. You know, that's that's not good. So I'm saying use some common sense. Make sure you're dressed right, make sure you brush your teeth. Let's see what else. Comb your hair, make sure your beard is nice. What else? For females, you know, usual things use roll on, but you know, you'll be fine. You can go and get straight into needs analysis and all will be well. Now the next thing I want us to look at, the second thing that you need to tell your sales people so they become good at closing is you need to teach your sales people something.

They need to realize all the dynamics that go into closing. First of all, you even need to define what closing is for them because most people think closing means give me the money or is it going to be transfer or is it going to be card. Most people when they hear closing, that is what they think. But you need to teach your sales people, get them to realize that closing actually means, well, first of all, OK, let's put it this way.

Closing just means whatever it is you say or do that gets the person to take the next step. But get your sales people to realize that closing, the closing doesn't always mean collect the money. So collect the money. Is this going to be cash or transfer? That is the ultimate close, the end of the whole Turinchi, the end of the whole story that we're talking about. But closing is in two stages. There's something that is called the one time close.

That is what all of us know because we have seen it in Hollywood film that somebody is a correct salesperson. So he walks up to the person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, they talk, then they'll now do montage. They're laughing and then the person walks out of the car lot and the person has bought the brand new Mercedes-Benz. Or maybe like in A Pretty Woman with Richard Gere and was Richard Gere and Julia Roberts how they entered the store in Julia Robert Park, Plenty of clothes, backpack Park park.

And then at the end she pays with her boyfriend's card and everything. So that's what we know. We know the one time clothes because we've seen it in film. We've seen that in movies. But that is a really, really high bar and we should not be aiming for that because it takes people of exceptional skills and confidence. And it's hard and it's brutal because if every single time you see someone you're trying to collect the money, now, now,

now, now, now trying to collect the order, now, now, now, the level of rejection that you go through is higher than other people who take a much more piece meal approach. Now let's come away from Richard Gere on Weibo Films and let's come back to Nigeria. Things are harsh right now. Let me go back to wedding photography because that's where I started. Your wedding photographer right now you want to be charging 500K. Let's be real, somebody's meeting you for the first time.

You really, really, really think you're going to enter this conversation now, day one, first time you guys are meeting them and you'll collect your 500K upfront. Let's get real. A better way to look at it is to see that is to now think about what Tom Coppins calls A1 call close. A1 call close just means that every single time you meet somebody, there is one small objective you should be trying to achieve. Close on that objective and you'll be fine so long as you close on the small small objectives.

Over time everything will add up. So instead of coming in and saying you must collect your 500K now bam in one sitting. That is really hard. I didn't say it's impossible please because some of you will say my I saw this boy currently currently did it. I saw this girl Cami. Cami did it. Scale is different, context is different. Maybe Cami has been building a brand for the last 20 years as a high end wedding photographer.

Social media game on point. What else? Marketing collateral, everything, you know so in our own context, yeah, that might be possible that somebody would meet up to them and say oh you're that chemical blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, so so so sure, no problem. Can I have your account? In fact, let me book you now that you're free. Yes, that can happen. It can happen. I'm just saying that for most of us, let's get real eventually we'll get there.

One of the beginning, the idea that we should have about closing is A1 call close. I meet the person now and I'm trying to close on one small step that will move the thing forward. So I'm closing small, small, small, small, small. And if all my small clothes line up, I will now collect the 500 K at the end. So for the wedding photographer guy or girl, you meet somebody today. One clothes might be. Let me see, let me see how will I do it now?

OK, so you meet the person today. Once more close might be get the person to agree for a meeting so that you guys can look at samples. So of course when you meet the person you have all the money pre qualifying conversations like oh OK yes I would love to take care of you and your family at your wedding. Based on the ideas we've discussed now it could cost anything between 500K and 800K for a three day wedding celebration in orca blah blah blah blah blah.

Is that something that you'd be willing to spend? The person says, my sister, where's your 800K? Well anyway, anyway, no problem. Let's let's be seen. Let's be seen that kind of thing. OK, There might be room there. The person who says 800K500K for what you want to build house on top of my head. And yes, remember for me, my first sales call, that's that's actually what happened. The girl said you want to build house on top of my head.

Thank you very much. And I was now begging her to stay on the phone. So someone who responds the other way, you know, OK, there's no room here. But so if somebody responds in a way that it looks as if there's room, you can still talk, you know, blah, blah, blah. So the next close would be you're trying to get an appointment, and you just say it as it is. OK. So the next step at this stage is usually, I want people to have a look at samples because I

want them to be perfectly sure that they're happy with my photography style and my deliverables. So how soon can we have a meeting? Are you free for Wednesday next week? So yes, I'm free. OK, So what time? Wednesday about 10:00 AM or 10:00 AM is good. So where do you live? OK, you live here. OK. Can you swing by the studio or should I come to your place? You know, you start trying to narrow it down where you can see that we're moving it.

Small. Small, Small. Small, small. We're making the small close off. Let them agree to have a meeting, then we'll agree on a day and then we'll agree on the venue. And then we have the meeting at that meeting, the small clothes is to try and get them to identify which style of book do they like or which style of photography do they like or which style of frames do they like and to agree on on what's it called on the deliverables.

Oh, you love this kind of album. How many albums will you be taking? One or you'll be taking 3? Is it one for you, one for your in law, one for Mumsy and Popsy or you just let Mumsy and Popsy sort themselves? You write it down, then how many frames you know, you write it down, then after that, the next small close might be you now send them a concrete proposal. Because remember before now you guys have been talking in vagaries.

You said anything between 800K and 500K. But based on this, now you'll be able to give them a specific proposal and maybe it all comes up to 653 K or something or OK, well, in this case, I'd recommend you give them, you know, three options based on what we've discussed, we can do Option A, this is how much it will cost. Option B, this is how much it will cost. Option C, how much this will cost. And then you send it over.

So you can see that what we're trying to do is we're moving everything forward, small, small, small, small. The goal is not the first time you see them collect the 500 K on the spot. The goal is each time you see them or you talk to them, we're trying to do one small thing that mostly deal forward. So that's the difference between a one call close and a one time close. Let your sales people know that there's a difference.

One time close is possible. That's what we've seen in the movies. But let's relax first. When you become a pro pro pro, you know you'll be able to be doing 1111 time closes with your eyes closed. You walk up to someone, you collect your 1.2 M or you collect your how much it is. But for the rest of us, small and medium scales nano enterprises realize that we're trying to do it one call close. We're trying to do it incremental.

Small step, small step, small step. If you get your sales people to realize that that is how the deal is won, by taking small, small steps, they'll be fine. Then qualify more. Get your sales people to qualify more. Qualification is just the part of the sales relationship, the part of the sales dynamic where we're trying to figure out what does this person need? What does this person want? And then in your head, you're doing the mathematics.

What this person needs. Will my product or my service be able to fulfill? Will he be able to deliver on the promise? So that's the qualification thing. So the whole point with qualification is this. We're having conversation with the people who are flowing. You know, outside you look like you guys are just just in and like your friends. But you, the salesperson, you know, they are trying to figure out what does this person want?

What does this person need? What can this person afford? That's the whole point of qualification. Because if you are dealing with someone who wants what you have, who needs what you have, and the person can afford what you have. And also there's a sense of urgency. Please remember, urgency, something people forget as a wedding photographer is something I had to learn very quickly. If you're talking to the bride who is getting married in 1 1/2

years, or if you're talking to the bride that they proposed to her yesterday and she said yes, but the family has not met, there's not really a deal there because there's no urgency. Family has not met. They have not seen where the wedding date is going to be. But if you're talking to a bride that was proposed to yesterday, but OK, proposed to last week, but the families have met. And for now, the families are thinking, yeah, maybe December.

We just need to see whether Auntie can travel in December or not, or whether grandpa and grandma can make it. No, that's a different thing. We now have a sense of urgency here because it's looking as if this wedding might hold in December. So want, need, afford urgency. If you're speaking to people and all that lines up, then the chances of the deal closing go up. So that's why we should qualify more because when you're dealing with qualified people, the close becomes obvious.

When should you qualify? We should always be qualifying. There's some people who do a good job of qualifying in the beginning stage, but then after that, they just assume that all is well. So you should always be qualifying and should also always be asking for feedback and things like that. So me, I'm always constantly bringing stuff up like, oh, by the way, in our last conversation you said this, that, that, that, that, that did I understand correctly.

Oh yes, you did. So we're still, we're still good. Like all is good. Oh yes, we are. And I'm not OK, green light, I can continue. So we should always be qualifying. Then the final thing is this. If you do a good job of qualifying, so excuse me, if you do a good job of qualifying, you qualify often, you're going to now start seeing a certain kind of picture. You will now realize that most of my happiest customers are usually men or women between jobs.

So the age of so, so, so and so they live typically in this part of Lagos or in this part of Anambra. They usually are involved in this kind of business or not or they are this kind of people that that kind of people. You will now start getting a mental picture of who your ICP is. The ICP is the ideal customer profile. So if you do a good job of qualifying, you now start getting a good idea of who this person is, who your ideal customer is.

Once you qualify plenty and you get an idea of the ICP, the trick is now this. Only chase people who meet that ICP. If your trading history in the past has shown that women who are 65 years old, who live on Lagos mainland and who are from a number of states are your happiest customers would regardless of whatever it is yourself, then please by all means spend most of your time chasing those kinds of women because history has shown that that is your ICP.

If you're doing Instagram advertisement and in the past you have seen that 25 year old men who live in Obama Shaw and who are civil engineers are your ICP, then by all means when you're doing your Instagram advertising, your Facebook advertising, your Google advertising, sign it up to target those sorts of people. So if there are lots of other things that we can discuss, but we can keep talking about this thing ad nauseam, but you know,

we were pressed for time. So let me just bring it to a close here. If you do these three things or these four things, depending on how you split it, you should be fine or getting your people to now start closing more deals. By the way, please, it's not magic. All those people who say do these five things today and triple your sales next week. It's it's not realistic. It's not realistic. You can do one or two things now and and get immediate tweaks.

But when I put it, trying to 10X your business in one week is not realistic. Let me just put it that way, trying to 3X or 10X your business in one week is not realistic. Realize that these things take time and they compound. So get your sales people to open the conversation well and go straight to needs analysis. Then get them to realize the different closing dynamics. There's the one time close. Tell them to chill on the one time close for now, because trying to close one time and to collect your money now for the average person, you come across as desperate.

So instead try and go for one call close where you're trying to close the deal incrementally. So depending on your business, depending on your industry, depending on your industry, you know, the the stages should be obvious. Like I said back in wedding photography. So first as you meet people, you source them out, then you guys have a meeting and you look at samples, then you send a proposal, then they're OK with the proposal.

You know, I agree on payment terms and payment schedule, and then once they pay, you now mobilize and you know, on and on until you deliver the album and then you come back to be sure that they were happy with the deal. But you see how like for wedding photography where I started, there are different stages that you're walking people through. So build your sales process around that and do things incrementally. Then get your people to qualify more.

We want to make sure we're dealing with people who want, what it is we have, who need, and who can afford. As we do that, over time, it becomes clear who the ICP is, the ideal customer is. Once we know the ideal customer, let us spend most of our time chasing after the ideal customer. So you do that. Over time, your sales people will close. Well, the close will increase. So that's it for today. Again, thank you very much,

Asosa Atem Guaya for coming across the podcast, commenting on my stuff online, and also sharing some of my material. It's always a pleasure running into those of you who are podcast listeners. This is how I get feedback on what I need to do to make the show better and also to get questions to ask on the show. Because when I meet you guys and we're chatting back and forth or we have phone calls or whatever, this is where I get extra questions as well.

And that's the reason why the show is growing in listenership. Also in the subscriber base, whether on Spotify or on YouTube. It's because I'm answering questions that you guys have. So let's keep that bit up. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. You can connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Then connect with me on LinkedIn and the name to look for is Tavishima Ayede.

I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link where you're listening to this episode. So if you're on YouTube, look at bottom left. You see my name right there above the podcast title. Then let's see what else. Depending on the podcast player that you're listening to, you might have to click on more or click on details or click on notes. And then you know, you'll, you'll see all the extra information there.

So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next recording.