No Budget? No Problem! Strategies to Turn Stalls into Sales

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies, because there's going to be some noise all around me, but as usual, that shouldn't stop us from having an impactful episode today. Also, the sore throat is it's hanging in there. So I might sound a little nasal and maybe there might be some coughing and hacking, but I'll try to be mindful of your eardrums. All right. So let's see. OK, So before I take a break, I

think on the previous episode, that's when we made The Detour and I spoke about how ladies in leadership positions feel the, what would I say, the pressure or the demands to show up as less than authentic in business environments and in work environments. Now the time that I made the episode, after I put it off, I figured, what was that detour all about? You know, was there a need for me to address those kinds of stuff over here on the podcast?

But then this morning on the drive out, I was having a conversation with my wife. And unrelated, you know, she brought out a couple of these things about how when she started work as a younger girl a couple of years ago, back when she got involved in a Regulatory agency, how there were some of these pressures, not her. And some of the young ones felt that the younger ladies felt to appear professional but at the same time yet be chill.

Now of course I remember those days because we used to talk about it and you know, for her there was no pressure per SE. I mean like she felt what the, you know, she felt what the expectations seem to be. But it was something that she totally balked at. And there was also another friend of hers who was there, so navigating the whole thing for her didn't see much of a problem. But other women seem to face those sorts of things, so I

guess me making that topic was topical or good enough. So I guess it's not just the random post that I saw on LinkedIn. And the bottom line what I'm saying is that your young lady listening to this podcast, well, even an older lady too, because like I said, I've had some of these conversations with my aunties. So whatever stage of business you are at or your career, you're feeling some of these things, some of these pressures.

Then listen to the previous episode and hopefully there's going to be some Nuggets of wisdom over there. Now you guys will be glad to hear that we are going to be back on topic from this episode and before I made the two Detours, we have been talking about objections that people face in business. And objections are any reason that your potential customer, potential clients, the person that you're talking to, your teammate, your departmental office colleague, whatever the reasons that they give for not wanting to go ahead with the sale, with the project, with the agenda, with the whatever it is you guys and people working on.

So if you say, I think we should do A and the person says no, not a. Whatever that noise, that is the objection. And this current set of episodes that we're going to be working on, hopefully we're not going to make any more details until we're done, is to look at scenarios where these things come up and then to come up with a way for how to go around them. Now remember, for those of you who've been listening for a while, I pointed out that there's a difference between objections and conditions.

If something is an objection, it means that, you know, you might have missed something. There might be room for some progress. If you can understand what is going on, get some more information, and then reframe the proposal or reframe the discussion, you might be able to move ahead. But sometimes something is and is a condition, and that means that there's some prerequisites that have to be met and so you can go ahead.

The examples that I gave, for instance, was sale of alcohol to minors, for instance. So you're trying to sell the latest drink, whatever it is. Let's say you you have this, what I just seen called bitas. Yeah, like Odogo Bitas and what else There's Odogo Bitas. There's anyway, you you get my point. For those of you that love alcohol, the those Bitas drinks, so you're trying to sell the bitas. The person looks at you and person says, hey, I'm 15 years old.

In that case, that is a condition because the prerequisite is, at least according to law, that you have to be 18 to drink. So in that situation, just stop. This is not, this is not an objection. It's a condition. It's a prerequisite. So stop. Don't go ahead. Another example that I gave, Yeah, I know it was dramatic, but I did it to prove a point. If you sell female shoes and you happen to be talking to a man, some of you might say it doesn't matter.

He's a man, but he has a woman in his life. So let me push on. I'm sure I can make the sale. But if you're talking to a man, and the man has no wife, he's a widower and the man has no daughters. He only has boys. And let's say he has no sisters, and let's say he doesn't have any close friends in the office. Now that's an extreme example, because what are the odds that you're going to run into a man who has no female relatives,

dependents, loved ones? But I'm just doing it to prove a point. In that kind of situation, there's no sale to be made there because you sell female shoes. This man is not going to use it himself, except if he's a cross dresser. There are no woman in his life that he can buy it as a gift for. So in that situation, just weave and move on. Now, by the way, for those of you thinking about some of these unlikely scenarios, today I was at an event and I heard about one really, really, really unlikely scenario that has occurred, at least for Nigerians, it sounds to be unlikely.

And that is when you run to somebody who claims that they have no uncles and they have no aunties. Now in the Nigerian setting, that doesn't make sense because a whole bunch of us are from fairly large families. Now, my mom only had two kids, but we had a bunch of cousins growing up with us, so my parents raised 777 kids collectively. And then my father was #4 in 11, I think, or 10, and my mom was #5 of five of 12 or something like that.

So for those of you who are not Nigerian, especially those of you listening from America, because for now, half of my listeners are still Americans and I'm surprised. So you're Americans. It'd be nice if you reach out, hit me up in the DMS, let me know what's up. Let me know why you guys listen to the show. And perhaps maybe there's some things that I'm out to clarify for you guys. So for those of you listening from that part of the world, it might sound strange, like, what the hell, 10 kids, 12 kids, you know, it's just the.

That's just the reality. We are talking to Nigerians of a certain generation. So for people in my own generation, if you hear that someone doesn't have any uncles or aunties, like what? How can that happen? Well, today I found out it can't happen. There was someone who was the child of only children. So let me repeat. There was someone in the event. A lady. Her father is an only child, her mom is an only child, therefore she has no uncles and she has no aunties.

So sometimes I come up with all these ridiculous scenarios, but I guess sometimes it happens. So you might run into Nigerians out there who have no uncles and aunties. Sounds strange, but it does happen. Now let's get back on topic. Today's objection since we've already looked at, we've looked at one, we've looked at it's too expensive, I can't afford it, you know, blah blah, blah, those sorts of things. So this your first time listening to the show and you want to figure out the framework, the process, the mindset for dealing with when someone says I can't afford it,

you're too expensive, then skip back two episodes. There's going to be the episode of any, don't worry, just skip back two episodes. You get the point and you find out what we discussed about how to handle those sorts of situations. So today, well, we're to look at another money based objections. That's when people give money as a reason for not going ahead and that is when people say no budget is allocated for now. Now I know for most of you listening to the show Nigerians,

I'm sure it's something you haven't come across because you guys are either used to, OK, no problem, give me your account details or you're too expensive. Bring down the price. I'm sure a lot of you haven't come across no budget allocated for now. It does happen and it happens when the prospect hasn't considered your product or your service before. Now there are a whole bunch of you running around claiming to be AI specialist, AI, prompt engineers and blah blah blah and things like that.

You guys are most likely going to come across this sort of objection because it's not something that most organizations have considered before. So you go to talk to the Minister of Finance, you're saying that you want to run the training on AI, prompt engineering And because as the apex regulator in Nigeria, the people should be aware of global trends and how you can help make that job more efficient, you know, data crunching, reporting,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, you can do all that whole spiel. But by the time you're done, the secretary to the Pam SAC or the whoever you're talking to can say, well, no budget allocated because the, you know, budgets are approved on an annual basis and you know, they approved all the training for this coming year. And Shah, there's no budget. So you, yeah, guys, you're going to hear that sort of thing. Then it also happens where your product requires significant investments, you know, capital investment, those sorts of things.

So those of you in the alternative energy space, you might hear that sort of thing. You're talking to folks at Zenith Bank or Axis Bank, you're hoping that they can buy your latest solar part system, you know, put a bunch of panels on the roof and you know, so you can soup up the whole bank branch. And yeah, they can't say that sort of thing because it's not like something that I'm going to pay 250K and get it over with if it's going to be the whole building, you know, we're talking millions and millions and millions because right now,

what the last time I checked anyway, simple tubular batteries like the one that I have for my own inverter, it goes up and down depending on what the dollar, the dollar rate is. And at the time, I think my own batteries were going to cost about 600 grand if I had it to replace them because 300 grand for each I need to. So that's 600. You can see they're already close to close to a meal on that alone or talk about solar panels and things like that.

And then of course there's no how that the whole bank branch is going to run on only two batteries. You're going to need loads of batteries, loads of panels. So for you boys who are playing in boys and girls who are playing in that big space, yeah, you can hear no budget is allocated for. Now then of course economic downturns mean some people's priorities change. So maybe before the election you are talking to a couple of people and it looked like you might close this solar panel deal and then the president came in, then there was that thing about that, his speech about a fuel subsidy and the energy cost triple and blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. I know some of you might say, well actually it's the reason to go ahead and buy the solar panels, but then people can say like look, you know what? We are struggling right now. Our priorities have changed, no budget allocated. So you can hear that then. There are also times when no budget allocated for now just means that the person that you're talking to needs to talk to somebody higher up. He needs to talk to his Orga at the top.

He needs to talk to Madam CEO, he needs to talk to Orga below. He needs to talk to whoever to approve the budget because you know, budget has been approved for this year up to the tune of maybe 500 K and maybe they've already spent 460. Your solution is going to cost 200 K So he needs to talk to somebody higher up. Sometimes people are not that eloquent. They just say budget hasn't no budget allocated for now. But if you press, you ask a couple of questions, you might figure out that what it actually means is I might need to talk to someone higher up to see how we can sort this thing out.

Now if you listen to the prior episodes, then you already know philosophically how we're supposed to handle this. And the framework is always acknowledged Empathize. You want people to feel like they're being heard and nobody likes to made you feel like they're a liar or so excuse me, like they're a liar or their exclusive is not reasonable. So whatever ideas you need to do in this situation, yeah, say something to acknowledge or to empathize like yeah, I

understand. You know three months ago when we started this conversation, things are one way, you know now the dollar is this. And with what President Tinubu said, you know, the cost of this is this like you know, I get. So you you always have to do that acknowledging and empathizing bit. Then the next stage like I recommended two podcast episodes ago was we need to ask clarifying questions. We need to go back to qualification and discovery.

That's where we ask questions about the person that needs the problem that needs to be solved, the vision that they're trying to achieve, things like that. Because we're trying to get some more information. We're trying to understand what's going on because you can only come up with a new proposal or try and refocus the conversation. If you have more data, if you don't get more data, if you don't get more information.

Keep trying to close. Based on the old set of information that you have, you're going to come across as a blockhead because you said ABCXYZ, would you like to buy now and the person says no budget allocated and then you just repeat the whole process ABCXYZ therefore buy now you come across as a blockhead and they don't want to have anything to do with you. But if you pause, you acknowledge yeah, I understand times of change, the economic climate, blah blah blah, cost of fuel.

He asked a couple of questions and you figure out this is one of those situations that maybe the guy needs to talk to a higher up, Then the problem is a whole lot easier. If he wants to talk to a high up, there's room for for for some flexibility here, you can give him time to talk to his boss, come back at a later date, negotiate payment terms, try and phase out the application. No, no application. What's that word? Is it execution?

Yeah, let's, let's go with execution for now. So there are lots of options that can be done, but The thing is you can only do that after you ask some clarifying questions. And when you ask clarifying questions, you're trying to figure out if there is a need or people are even interested in the 1st place. So back to the whole AI thing. You're trying to talk to somebody in the Ministry of Finance. Maybe your uncle or your auntie works in Ministry of Finance.

She's been able to hook hook you up with a meeting. So you want to try and sell them on this AI thing. After all, everybody's talking AI. So you figure me too, I use AI. Now let me just do this in a sharp, sharp, let me say I can make a quick 500K maybe one M out of this whole thing. You know, go on stand and give them training session, you know talk for two hours and then collect one M you know that kind of thing because there are people who think in that, in that sense, think in those terms.

So I think, you know, just having a quick one and you need to find out is it that the Minister of Finance person that you're talking to thinks that there is a need, that people in the Minister of Finance need to be trained up in AI so they can do data crunching better and blah blah, blah. Or is it that the person has, doesn't even know what AI means and as far as the person is concerned, you're just here wasting that time.

They only took this meeting out of a a, a favour to your uncle or to your auntie who hooked it up, you know, because they respect your auntie. So they just decided to take this meeting. So you need to ask this question and try and figure out where you stand because that depends on how you're going to go ahead. If this person. I think that there's absolutely no need, no point in continue talking to this person. Hopefully you have not been doing this deal single threaded.

Single threaded is when you're only talking to one person within the organization. If you've been single threaded then or your is your own as in there's no nothing else to do so. But if you've been multi threaded, you know, no problem, you can ease off on this guy and see how you can start talking to other people to see how you can move your agenda. Then if there is interest, the person thinks that AI is the future and Nigeria can't be caught behind, we need to know about AI, you know and those sorts of things in our public service.

If there's interest then there's room for options and we will address more those options in the future. Then like I said, sometimes there's no budget means it's just a temporary hurdle. As per we budgeted 500K for training, we've already used 480 what you're proposing cost 200. Then in that case, you can see that the options like, OK, no problem. You guys spend 480 times that 20 K remain and I'm saying that this thing is going to cost 200

grand. So no problem. Why don't you just drop the 20 K now and then we'll sign all the paperwork and then for the next budgeting cycle, you guys will drop, you know, half the money in the first one month and then the remaining in the next two months or something. But you get my gist. So if it's a temporary hurdle, these are the kind of moves that you can now start doing. But you need to ask the question is that there's no need, there's no interest.

I believe it's a temporary problem or is it that you guys are having cash flow constraints, you know, so you guys can start talking about payment plans, you know, all these sorts of things. Or well, after having all these sorts of conversations, you can also try and refocus on the long term value to show that this product is actually going to give you cost savings. So back to the solar power example, you know, Zenith Bank might say, look, cost of energy,

we can't go ahead. You know, I guess your argument would now be like, hey Bros actually or Madam, but I'm bank MD now is the time to go ahead because of the whole cost because based on unique economics, what we've calculated with these new prices, this is what you're going to spend in six months. But if you buy this solar even though the cost you only, you're going to put the cost in this first year's budget, you see that over the next three or four years you're actually going to be saving hundreds or millions amounts of naira, you know, in savings, you know monthly or annually or whatever if you just buy the system now.

So that can be the argument. So just trying to focus on long term value when people say that we don't have budget, you're trying to focus on cost savings or efficiency or all that all that kind of stuff. Let's see. OK, 20 minutes. Let me try and wrap up real quick. So remember if you ask questions and it looks like this is a temporary hurdle or it's just cash flow issues that are going on or they're interested, but it looks like they're in a tight condition, then the things I

spoke about earlier, you know they now come into play. They can offer flexible options or they can offer payment plans. When I say flexible options, I don't mean, I don't mean reduce the price though. I mean, you guys have been listening to the podcast for a while, know that I really think this whole reducing the price thing, it's, you know, it's when your hand is tied. But don't just start off with reducing the price, the price.

So when I say flexible options, that's why you try and dig down, figure out exactly what they need and then adjust the quote accordingly. So back to the solar panel, the alternative energy solutions thing. That'll be the stage where you say that. OK, you know what, Madam Bank MDI understand, But how about we do it this way? We'll leave only leave the AC in the general banking area and then in the offices. But then we'll disconnect the AC

in this place. Disconnect the AC in that place. We'll remove the freezers and the fridges. OK. No, bank branch should not have freezer. OK. The shaft, fridge and water dispenser. OK, yes. So remove the fridges, remove the water dispenser. If you do that, the number of batteries will drop down, Number of solar panels will drop down instead of spending eight M We will not be able to do this project at 6.2, you know, something like that.

So flexible options then payment plans, just like I said, they say. Budgets, the only budgets have 500 K they have spent 480, you know, that's why you now start doing that much like, oh OK, that means you guys have 20 K drop 20K. After we do like this, we drop 50K. After we do like this, we drop the remaining 150K. You know, that sort of thing. Or a phased implementation like, OK, we can execute this part in this part of your budgetary cycle, especially for those of you who are dealing with corporations or maybe government agencies where you know you have to catch them before budget is approved or else Viola.

So you can do a phase implementation that, OK, we'll do this phase now we're targeting next phase when you get the next tranche of funding or budgeting or whatever or you know, you're offered trial periods anyway. I'm just saying that get your creativity cap on, you know the options, then put it that way. Then if you are in that situation where you are kind of not sure like is there a need, are they interested? Maybe they are, maybe they're not.

You're in one of those situations you don't quite know what to do. Just throw the people back into your relationship nurturing or your relationship building sequence. Those are your protocols, your processes, your frameworks, you know in your CRM. Remember CRM is customer relationship management tool. Over here on the podcast I've been advocating for a very long time that your CRM doesn't have to be anything fancy. Even if you're using Excel sheet or you're using Google Calendar or using your diary, still the same all joint for now that is CRM.

When you have money you can buy something much more fancy. So just put the person's number back in your diary and move the date for two weeks, a month or whatever, whatever cadence feels more comfortable to you. That's one thing about relationship notching and relationship building. The aim here is to remain top of mind. People should have a reason to see you and to hear you, whether in real life or in social media. So even if it's just you're branching their office in another two months or you say I

know hello. Got no problem. Who are you on LinkedIn. OK, I'm on LinkedIn to let me let me send you connection request follow me the personal leads to be seeing you you know you pop up on their social media that's the whole thing remain top of mind then the goal is you're trying to provide valuable contents you're trying to provide insights for them you know things like that. So when you pass through the office in two months, don't pass through to say oh God how now Madam, how now I just may I

agree to you you know that that I just came to greet that that is a lousy way to follow up. There should be something insightful behind your visit if you're passing three or three years time to say oh Madam CEO, Madam MDI was in the neighborhood blah blah blah. You know on the news what they've been talking about recently about how federal government is battling Bitcoin exchanges and no what not the cost of forex is expected to drop by so so soon and so percent.

You know, Madam MD, it looks like if we're serious, this might be the time to move ahead because of the price drops. If Forex goes from, how do they say this thing again? If the price of naira to dollar goes from, you know, $1000 to 750, this project that we build for you at 7:00 AM, you know you might experience a reduction of so, so, so and so something So you can see that this one is a valuable visit. As far as Madam MD knows, you just happen to be in the neighborhood you say you should come and greet and you just happen to mention that oh this and this and this is what in the booze government is doing.

If this thing pans out right, the cost of dollar will fall from 1000 to 750. If it falls to 750, this is how we'll approach, sorry. It will affect the cost of the solar panels and the battery and I know what not so Madam MD, you know, if you guys are really keen about it, you know, now is the time. Oh, so let's just let's just say as we can revive this conversation again. So try and make top of mind, give them good content, give them insights.

The whole approach is you're just trying to build credibility and trust so that when they have budget in the future or maybe when they're convinced or whatever, they might be ready to move ahead. So remember, this is for those people where you're not so sure you know, Are they interested? Are they not interested? You don't just throw somebody away like that. In my own opinion, the only time when you throw somebody away,

like don't contact them again is when somebody tells you upfront. If the person says, look young man, you're a nuisance, don't call me again, then by all means, don't call them again. Because the next time they hear your voice, it's not going to be a pleasant experience. So if somebody says you're a nuisance, don't call me again. Don't call that person again. If the person doesn't say you're a nuisance, but you think that you know I've been hanging around this or God, I've been hanging around this, Madam, but there's no value I'm bringing to this relationship me ma, I'm not deriving any value.

Then what's the point? So this kind of people, if you forget their number, it's not a bad idea. But for other people, just put them in relationship, nurturing, relationship building. Keep top of mind, keep giving them content. You know, insights just appear to be the trusted person in your field, so that when they're ready will make no sense. It'll be you because you're the only one that they've been seeing the last couple of months or years.

Bottom line, these options are only available if you have done discovery properly. So make sure you're talking to the right person. Make sure that they have a need to make sure that there's a problem. Make sure that these people are facing some negative impacts that your product or your service can solve. If you don't do this stage of your sales conversations properly, then all these flexible plan and the staggering implementation and everything is not going to work.

So we have to be able to do discovery properly and that's the reason why I keep hopping on and on on this podcast that sales is a conversation like you guys should be all I put it like you guys should be yarning. You know, you say A, they say B and you say D and you guys are you're flowing, you're vibing. If every single time you come into Orgas office or Madam's office and it's you talk talk, talk talk talk, presentation,

presentation, proposal, proposal, proposal, you try to wire them over. They didn't say anything. You leave, you come back again as you doing your monologue. You come back in two months as you doing your monologue, your that that's, that's not, that's not selling this thing should be a conversation. That is the spirit that you guys should be adopting when you're trying to move your merchandise, sell your product or sell your service.

Now, in case you haven't figured it out, the whole goal of all these activities that we're trying to do is when somebody says there's no budget, we're just trying to see, first of all, what do they mean by no budget. Because we're trying to figure out if no budget means. We're trying to see if we can turn no budget into, OK, maybe we can do that next quarter, maybe we can do that next year, maybe we can do that sometime.

Sure, we can do that later. That is what we're trying to aim for when we are faced with this objection. No budget allocated for now. All right, 30 minutes. So let me bring it to a full stop here. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And then connect with me on LinkedIn. I love hearing from you guys.

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 currently listening to this episode. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.