Part 1 Crafting Winning Proposals: The Secret Lies in Client Questions

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be a noisy episode because the kids are still home, school hasn't resumed yet. And then my neighbour is having some work done, some construction in his compound, so there's some cutting and welding and hammering and all of that. So I expect to hear some of that bleeding in through the background. Now today, what we're going to do is one of those things I promised you guys would get to when I was in Makudi with my family over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

And we're going to look at how qualification and discovery can help you close more deals. Now this your first time listening to the show, you're wondering what the heck is qualification? What does discovery mean? OK, everybody knows what discovery means, but trying to know what discovery means in the sales context, in the business context. And don't worry, this is some of the stuff that we're going to get to in the in the when we get to the meat of the show.

Now, the reason why I thought of this was because while I was over in Makodi in Benue state with the family, you know, staying with grandma for the holidays, I happened to overhear a conversation between an industrial cleaner, someone who does post post construction cleaning with one of our clients. So I had taken the well actually was wifey's idea. She was like, you know, we've been at home. We can't just come, come home,

sit down, drink alcohol, eat pounded yam, eat roast beef. So I know roast beef, roast pork and then say we come for holiday that we have to go out. So so was our idea. So we look for a nice place to take the kids so they can go swimming. And then there's this place called Ropajo Apartments. It's really nice. Ropajo Apartments, nice resort in Makudi in Benue State, an eliminal run an advertisement for that boy. It's a nice place anyway.

And the thing I liked about their pool was that the pool was secluded. So not like Sheraton hotels or not like Benway hotels and the other places where the hotels are public and you know, every everyone just overruns the pools. So this was a nice place. So while me and wifey were chilling that now and the children were swimming, I was on my phone playing chess and then of course overhearing conversations that was going on in the background.

So one of the moms who was there brought her kids, 4 kids, all of them teenagers. I can't wait until you know, my kids get to teenage because as far as I'm concerned, once your children become teenagers, you're absolutely free. So excuse me. So one of the moms was there with with her kids or teenagers. I just assumed she was an equity parent. But then she had to step out to receive a phone call and it turns out that the mumsy actually is based in Abuja just like I am and she was also home for the holidays just like I am.

But of course, you know, for those of us who are self-employed, you know, we never turn our phone off because you never know which way business might come, which is one of the reasons why those of you who keep saying I want to run a business, I want to be free. That's why I keep telling people that you don't know what you are saying because when you are an employee, you can tell you Olga, look Olga, I'm going to the village for Xmas and service is terrible and then you switch off your phone and that's it,

problem solved. You still come back and hit your salary. But for those of us who are self-employed or who run businesses and we haven't built systems around those businesses, if you switch off your phone when you go to marketing for the holidays and somebody wants a job done, you don't. You don't get the job. Somebody else gets the job. And these are some of the hard decisions that you have to make. So in the early days, for those of you who are trying to look for a business because you want more freedom, just know that the freedom is not going to start from day one.

The freedom is not going to start from the early days. The freedom is going to start when you build a solid reputable business around you with standard operating procedures, with systems and structures. That's when the freedom is going to come. But in the early days we pretty much have to keep our phone off our phone on all the time. So as I had the pool, I'm self-employed, my phone was on. The other mum said she was at the pool fiddling with her phone and of course the phone was on.

So she received a call then anyway. So there was somebody in Abuja who had just finished doing a construction job and the person wanted to do some cleanup. And so that's the person, That's the reason why the person was calling her. And so she took the call and that is where I got this idea about qualification and discovery because that is part of what the lady was doing during the phone call. She was doing qualification, she was doing discovery, and we should all be doing that in our businesses.

But lots of us have never heard of the term before and lots of us don't even know that there's a certain way that we have to structure business conversations. So let me just try and define qualification and discovery now. Qualification and discovery are the business conversations, all the conversations that you have when you're in a certain business context or in a certain business relationship and you're trying to figure out a couple of things.

You're trying to figure out the problem that the person has, the vision that the problem has, the person has, the pain that the problem, the pain that the person has, or the aspirations that the person has. Sorry, I jumbled it up, so let me just go over it again. So you're having a conversation and then the conversation is business related. So of course, you know if you're having a conversation because you're toasting a babe, that's not qualification or discovery.

Or if you're trying to toast a guy, that's not qualification or discovery. So it's strictly business and then you're trying to figure out something, you're talking to someone, you're trying to figure out what's the problem, what's the vision, what's the pain, what's the aspiration? Because no matter what it is that you do, your customer either has a problem, a vision, a pain, or some aspirations. In this case, the person called the woman because they want to do post industrial cleanup,

sorry, post construction cleanup. The problem is the guy has built a brand new house or a brand new office and it's dirty. You know, when the construction finishes, you know, just like my neighbor who is doing some building now in his own house, when the welder finishes, the welder will stand up and go and the weather will leave nail filings, metal, what else? Shavings, chippings, all kinds of things. So that's the problem that this guy has.

They have finished building the house. Carpenters have left rubbish, brick layers have left rubbish, welders have left rubbish, cement mixers have left rubbish, Packers have left rubbish. The person that did the POP and the ceiling has has left rubbish. Everybody has left rubbish on the construction site. So that's the problem. The guy also has a vision. Now this house that I have built or this office that I have built, I want it to be clean in a certain way and I want it to be stylized in a certain way.

I want it to be decorated in a certain way. So part of the problem, or rather part of pursuing the vision means you have to pay someone to come and clean up the whole construction site so that the people who are now going to come and buy the office desk and do the office decor and then everything without moving and do their job. So you can see that there's a problem and you can see that in this case, there's a vision.

The reason why I'm stressing this thing on problem and vision is because there's some people who say, look, I don't like talking about problems. It's negative. Why should we assume our customers have problems? And my point is, look, you are just being semantic. Everybody has either has a problem or efficient depending on how you want to look at it. So you know, just pick your poison, pick the term you like and then run with it.

So our customers are calling us because there's a problem or there's a vision, there's pain that they're facing or their aspirations that they're moving towards. This guys pain is I've finished building this building. It is now time for me to sell it or to rent it or to lease it or to use it and I need to clean it up before I can do all that. So that's the reason why he's calling this lady in Marcudy to say how far I've finished doing the building.

Can you guys come and clean up the place? So qualification and discovery is that part of the phone call where this woman is standing outside the pool with a phone in our hand and trying to figure out, OK, this guy that has called me from Abuja, what is the problem? What kind of building is it? What does he want to use it for? How many square feet? What kind of construction did they do? How is he trying to touch it up?

Why do they want it to look like that was the whole point of the conversation? That is qualification and discovery. A whole bunch of you have not yet realized that when somebody calls you, the first thing to do is qualification and discovery, trying to figure out what is going on before you now start giving proposal presentation or giving a price quote. Some of you, somebody will just call and say hello and say yes Sir, do you do cleaning?

Yes, I do. How much we do 10,000 hour per square meter. The person is OK, thank you very much. And then you will cut the call and then that's it. How do you think you're going to close the deal if that is all that you do? Somebody calls you just say, Oh yes, we do it. And the price is this per square meter. In this case, the lady didn't make that mistake of oh, it is 10,000 per square meter or 100,000 per square meter or something.

She engaged the guy in a conversation to try and figure out who is this person, what is the problem? What vision do they have? What is the pain? What is the aspiration? What is the quality of work that they want done? All these sorts of things. Now, qualification and discovery is pivotal. It's absolutely important. It's absolutely necessary because that is what allows us to submit a relevant proposal and that is what helps us to give an appealing presentation or a seductive sales pitch.

So we have to do qualification and discovery. If somebody just calls you, you're a cleaner like this one I was, and you just say, OK, it's 10,000 per square feet. The person will say, OK, thank you very much. And he will call the phone and then he'll write down over the XYZ Cleaners and associates 10,000 naira per square feet. Now he'll call the next person and go through the same thing. Hello. How much the other person will say is 15,000 per square feet.

We say OK, thank you, he will cut it. And you now write on a sheet of paper 123 cleaners and associates, 15,000 per square feet. Then you call the next person and then you say how much and the person will say, OK, it's 8000 naira per square meter. And then he will write it down, OK, OK Chuku and Sons Cleaners limited 8000 naira per square meters and then he will cut it. Then tomorrow he will now call OK Chuku and Sons because OK

Chuku and Sons quoted 8 while you quoted 10. The next person quoted 15. And then you'll be in office saying this guy that called me, he's not serious. It's not like he's not serious. It's just that you guys do not have a sales process. You do not run through qualification and discovery. You left the person with the only information they asked for, which was price. And then at the end of the day, the person decided exclusively on price to go with local Chico and Sons.

So what you have to do actually, it's to engage in qualification and discovery. Every single time somebody calls you, just like Wendy Zuma was Imakudi chilling with her children, somebody called. She didn't just give a quote, she went into qualification and discovery. So if you don't do qualification or if you don't do qualification discovery, your proposal, your presentation, your price quote, your whatever it is, is going to be hit and miss.

Business is really hard enough. We need to improve the odds in our favor. So anything that is hit and miss, let us ignore these sorts of things. So let me go into some more details. When she stepped up to take a call, these are the parts that I overheard, overheard that she's involved in cleaning, industrial cleaning, post construction cleaning, residential cleaning, all that kind of cleaning. So that's what she does.

Then she also took the details of the person over the phone. Oh, OK, thank you very much. How did you get my information? Blah, blah, blah. Oh, so also give my phone number. Oh, OK, so how is she doing? Blah, blah, blah. You know, all that kind of small talk. She took that over the phone and then she now started asking questions about the building. The usual questions, you know, how many square meters or where is the project?

OK, what kind of construction did you people do you know, blah, blah, blah, what are you trying to achieve this and this and that and that. There were some questions the guy could answer. There were some questions that the guy could not answer. And then Oman did something that I thought was really smart. She was like, OK, just take a video now just should be all there. Just do a WhatsApp video and then send the thing to me now.

Now let me look at it. If I have any more questions, I will ask you. And then that will now we can now start talking about pricing and then timelines. And then the girl was like, Oh yeah, sure, sure. No problem. I mean, this is me just over here from her own part of the conversation. That's how they ended the conversation. So let me repeat. She stepped out. I'm only talking about the stuff that I could hear from her own end of the conversation.

So she's into cleaning, industrial cleaning, residential cleaning, post construction cleaning. Then she took details over the phone. There was some small talk. How'd you get my phone number? Oh, how is so so so and so or blah blah blah. Complaints of the season, Happy new year, blah, blah, blah. OK, all the cleaning. What kind of construction is it? Office or residential? What? I would what are you using this for? OK, what are the timelines?

Did you guys do this? Did you guys do that? OK, if you don't have all the information, just should be you're in the building. OK, just stand there now just do WhatsApp video. Just pan from left to right. Send it to me if there's any more questions. Excuse me if there's any more questions, I'll call you back now, now and then we'll start talking some more concerning timelines and price. And then that's how the conversation ended.

Then as soon as that conversation was done, she did what most of us do. You know, those of us who are self-employed, she called up the team and she started talking to them like, hey, she could be somebody just called blah, blah, blah. A poor district. This dot dot dot dot dot dot it's looking like it's this kind of job site. So I need you to come up with some costing now. Now the guys want to send me a video. I'll forward it to you.

Look at it. Let me know what else it is that we need to consider. Then where is Bio? Is Bio still here? OK, what often Ketchi. Ketchi has travelled. OK, assuming that it's this timeline, that timeline, how soon can we get back to him? This and this, blah, blah, blah, you know, that sort of conversation. Then she ended the call and then from there she went back to meet her kids by the pool. And then by that point, me and my wife, you know, and the kids,

we had to go because things are winding down was really close to 6:00 PM. And, you know, the young people are beginning to come out. You know, guys are coming with shisha, people with tattoos, they're coming with bikinis and everything. I say, OK, it's time to it's time to leave now. You know, maybe if I was a single man, I would have stayed behind, you know, for the good times. But so it's time to move. So we had to leave, but I'm sure that the conversation ended pretty well between her and the other person.

Even if it didn't end pretty well, she definitely handled it the right way. She did qualification, she did discovery, she called her team. She now had a baseline of information that they could talk about, you know, things like that. Anyway, so where was I? I lost my train of thought. OK, yes, I have. So qualification and discovery in this context, remember qualification and discovery is we're trying to figure out who is this person that is calling,

what is the problem that they have? What is the vision that they have? What is the pain that they have? What are the aspirations that they have? What are they trying to solve? And then from the second conversation that they had with our people, do I have the inventory? Do I have the skill set? Do I have the team to try and fulfill? Because it's possible that she could have called Shagun and then maybe Shagun is in the village in case she's in the village.

Everybody's in the village. Unfortunately, no, you can't handle this deal. But Shagun could be around in case she could be around, you know, all those members of her staff. But then maybe it is post construction cleaning where they use them, asbestos, for instance. And maybe they don't have the safety equipment to handle asbestos because asbestos is a carcinogen, is known to cause cancer. So maybe it's not that kind of thing that they can do, but bottom line is we should be asking all these questions.

So for someone who is involved in cleaning, residential cleaning, industrial cleaning, post conduct, construction cleaning, you know, any kind of cleaning, what you should be doing is exactly what this woman did. After you figure out who is this person, how did you get my phone number or who referred you and all that small talk, you now go straight into the kind of project. You ask the person whether it is residential cleaning, whether it's commercial cleaning or whether it's industrial cleaning.

The reason why I need to know these sorts of things is because it depends on the, it's a factor for how you're going to price the project and it's also going to determine what it is that you're going to use. So for residential cleaning, because I have a cleaner coming once a week. So residential cleaning, you're going to use different kinds of materials and there's also going to be different kind of stress that compared to if you're cleaning, commercial cleaning,

maybe a hospital. So obviously my guess is it will be much more expensive to clean a hospital than a residential house, even if the residential house and the hospital are the same size, because the cleaning standard is different, the cleaning chemicals you need is different, the level of cleaning scrutiny you have to go through is different. So you have to ask these sorts of questions when somebody calls you on the phone, you don't just tell the person it is 10,000

naira per square meter. And then the person will say, OK, thank you, let me think about it. I will call you back. Then the person will call the phone. No, you asked the person. OK, thanks for calling. How do you get the phone number or from the Instagram? OK, I know what? Hello. Or do you follow us? OK, no problem. After we're done with this conversation, I'll follow you right back. But I have, before I can give you a quote, I need to ask a couple of questions because it depends, you know, is this a house we're cleaning or is it office or is this an industrial thing that you want us to clean?

And then you hear what the person has to say, just like the woman, what the woman said. Then you also need to ask about that particular areas of concern like so excuse me, sorry, Hammer time in Abuja. So my voice is beginning to crack up. I was like, so you also need to ask about the areas of concern. So in Abuja, most of the houses that we have here are completely crap. They're completely useless. Sorry one moment, the houses in Abuja are completely crap because they were built with, I

don't know what they were built with, but everywhere I go, everybody's house has mold in it except for those people who live in the sorry one moment. Let me just go take care of my throat.