Presenting Your Best Self: Sales Attire, Trust Building, and Risk Mitigation

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's episode is definitely going to be a noisy 1 because I'm currently at the tire dealers. So just trying to get all the tires on. The car changed because the tires were in the real disreputable state. So I figured, you know, now that there's some spare cash, let me just put brand new tires on it. So even if you're driving the jalopy, at least you should, you know, look respectable somehow.

Anyway, so I expect to hear some interruptions in the background. Now for today's episode, I just realized that there's something I forgot to mention. That's for those of you who listen to the episode that I made about my conversation with Martins and Victor. So remember, Martins and Victor were the callers who called into my radio show. That is, you know, not the podcast. I mean, this is your first time listening. I have a radio show that is focused on business education and it's on Radio Maria, 91.3

FM. So there are two callers who called in on the 25th of March, right? Yes, on the 25th of March, OK. No, no, not the 25th. They called the week before that and their names are Martins and the Victor. Now one of them wanted to raise finance for his NIN and SIM registration business, you know SIM like mobile SIM for your phone and then NIN as in national identity number. Yeah, NIN registration that everyone in Nigeria has to do.

So, yeah, one individual trying to raise finance for same and lien registration and then the other individual who wanted to raise finance for the car fleet business, he wanted to run the car fleet business, you know, so they can use for Bolt and Uber and all that. And so they had come up with business plans. I wanted to look at their business plans. So they got in touch with me after the show was up and then we had a conference call to troubleshoot a couple of things.

So if you had listened to the prior episode, I had spoken about how they needed to change, or rather they need to make some additions to the business plan needed to include a funding request so that the people that they're trying to raise money from, whether it's institutional people like banks, Oregon microfinance, or whether it's private people who want to put some equity investment. You know, maybe like you want to talk to your rich uncle or something like that, or your rich auntie to invest money in the business.

You need to put the funding request so they can let the person know, this is exactly how much I'm trying to raise from you. This is what I'm going to use the money for. This is how much money we're going to make on top of it. And this is how I expect to pay you back. So those were the sections that I had. I had them working on basically to add to the business plan. So I already made a podcast episode maybe 3 or 4 days ago about all of that.

So no point in repeating it here. But the reason why I'm making today's episode is because I remember that there's something I forgot to mention because of my conversation with these shops, Martins and Victor, a couple of things came out. The usual things that people think about when it comes to sale sales. So a couple of miss. I'm sorry about that. Like I said, you know, I'm at the tire dealer, so that's going to happen a lot, you know,

people walking by and having conversations and all that. OK, so where was I now? So I'm saying so by talking to Martins and Victors now, Victor, I realized that they had a couple of misconceptions about sales. You know, there are some things that they thought about sales that were correct and some things that were not. And so I just want to address some of those things, reinforce the things that they got right, and then dispel the myths about the things that they got wrong.

Because I was trying to impress upon them that when you're trying to raise finance for a business, it is also a sale. So just like you're trying to sell. OK, Yeah. Like, so I'm at the car dealers now. If you sell tyres, that is a sale. You're always trying to convince somebody that this tyre is the best, you know, fit for your car, this tyre is the best quality, This tyre is the best value for money, you know, on and on.

So it's a sale. If you're an entire business, you know, you're selling. But then people don't also realize that if you're trying to raise finance and you're talking to a microfinance bank, you're trying to sell yourself. You're trying to sell the business idea, you're trying to sell the opportunity because the microfinance bank does not want to lose money. They want to give money out and they want to get good money back in return.

So you're trying to sell yourself and the opportunity that this is good business. And if you're going to talk to your rich uncle or your rich auntie or, you know, maybe Popsy has some money, you know, although to be honest, at the end of the day, Pops, you forgive you and just let the thing go like that. I mean, you know, it's nature. That's just the way it is. But if you're talking to anybody else and there's nothing like write off, you really have to sell yourself that look, I'm capable that I can pull this thing off.

This business idea is a solid idea. This is the amount of money that can be made. This is the time frame which you can make it. And this is how I want to be able to pay you back. So you actually are trying to sell yourself, sell the idea, sell the opportunity and sell the upside. So it's a sale. So we did have those conversations and then that's where some misconceptions around sales came up. So for Victor in particular, the fellow who wants to do the mean registration, his own opinion of selling began with looking presentable.

And in that sense, I will agree that yes, you have to look presentable before you can sell. And it's a, it's a traditional kernel of sales that we must always look appropriate when you are selling. Now the reason why I like that term appropriate is because lots of people believe in packaging when it comes to selling. But it's not just a matter of packaging for packaging sake or packaging for all times, but rather you should be focused on being dressed appropriately to the circumstance, to the situation, to the context and to the client.

Because there are some situations where, let's say if you're going to meet Dangote, the appropriate thing to do if you're trying to raise finance that from him would be maybe to dress in a suit or maybe to dress in in in trad. But then again, if maybe you're selling tractors and you're going to meet farmers in the village, maybe you're trying to sell tractors in natural state or something, it might be out of place for you to show up in a suit.

And maybe even if you show up in Triad, it might be out of place for you to show up in Flowing Abada if you guys are going to be talking in the rural community. So I hope you guys get the juice of what it is I'm trying to say here because some people just assume now, OK, because we're selling, we should always be dressed fly. We should always be packaging, you know, yes, package the best that you can, but remember it is always, it always has to be appropriate and relevant to the circumstance, to the context, to the person that you're talking to.

So it depends. So there are some situations where if you want to be effective at selling you gas package yourself well, suit and tie. But then there are some situations where if you want to sell well, the context might be jeans and T-shirt. I know some of you might be shocked to say, how can I be telling you to wear jeans and T-shirt? But like I said, it is contextual. It depends. So back in my event days, wedding and photography days, it is not unusual for a wedding planner who maybe is doing a follow up consultation with the client at the house on the weekend.

It's not unusual for you to show out in, you know, correct jeans, you know, good quality jeans. I don't know what good quality jeans are by the way, but there's some people that can just look at. So this is good quality jeans. Like my mom sees like that. My mom, you say I don't wear that again, this thing is cheap or my wife would say you're disgracing me. I're wearing cheap jeans, wear this one instead. So there are some circumstances where it's OK.

It's a follow up consultation. You can show up in jeans and T-shirt and that's still OK. So it depends. So I won't say you always have to wear a suit and tie. But yes, dressing properly, looking presentable, yes that is the beginning. But now how much gadging up should we do? How much packaging should we do traditionally in sales? The idea is you want to dress at the level of your prospect. I repeat, you want to dress at the level of your prospect.

So if you're going to see down with A to raise funds and let's say down with a normally wears suit and tie, then that's what you should do, suit and tie. Or if down with a normally wears trad, then that's what you do trad. So you have that dress at the same level as your prospect or you dress one level up. So in other words, if you're going to raise finance from down with it, unless a down with it normally wears a brother.

So I tried it might be somehow if the trade that he normally wears is what do you call this thing? Forgive me, I'm not stylish. So I don't know these terms. The normal trad, just basic, normal, simple trad. It will be somewhere. If you now show up to that meeting when full flowing, a brother will be somehow, you know the prospect is there and and you're trying to dress like two or three steps above. It's pass across the wrong message.

You're overdoing it. So either dress at the same level of the prospect. Remember, relative to the context, the context will determine, but dress at the same level or maybe just one level up. There are some people who try to dress one level down, but no more. So like let's say damp. It is a suit and tie kind of person, but maybe you're trying to appear casual and then you show up in the suit, but then you remove the tie because you're trying to appear casual.

Yeah, that one is a is a tricky thing to do. That's trying to be differential in your dressing. That one is kind of tricky. So in my own opinion, don't explore that yet. Just try and dress at the same level or try and dress one level up. Then let's see. OK then. Victor also spoke about being passionate as the fellow who wants to do the car fleet. And yes, passion is important, but a lot of people misunderstand what is going on here.

People think that it is the passion that is doing the selling, but no, it is not the passion that is doing the selling. For those of you who are listening to the podcast and who are flowing with what I'm saying is not because of the level of passion that I'm using that is making you to understand the main thing. The main dynamic is, well, first of all, there are two things that are involved when we're having sales conversations.

There is understanding value and then there is communicating value. Understanding value is knowing what is important to the other person, what the other person finds desirable, what the other person wants to achieve. Understanding value is all about the other person. Communicating value is when you now understand what the other person is about and you can make a convincing proposal, you know, by saying this product will help you like this.

This service will help you like that. It will help you solve this problem. It will this, it will this, it will that. So instead of focusing on things like passion and authenticity, it's one of the reasons why I hate authenticity because all of you are running around trying to be authentic. I wonder why you're not closing deals. It's because you're paying attention to the wrong thing. Passion and authenticity have absolutely nothing to do with it.

They're just byproducts. Focus on understanding value or communicating value. First of all. Go there and be sure that you understand. You understand the person's context, their needs, their problems, what they're trying to achieve, you know, their vision, whatever it is. It is when you understand that, that you can now make a compelling proposal. And then of course, when you're making a compelling proposal or presentation and you're talking about their needs and how you can help them solve their problems and things like that,

of course, your passion will now shine through. So that's how it works. So like I said, I'm here at the tire dealers. It's not about making a passionate plea, excuse me, about which tire is the best. It's about, first of all, understanding this guy. Who is this guy? Was this person was their budget about does he want second hand tires or does he want brand new tires? If he wants brand new tires, is he looking for the kind of thing that can last three years or five years?

So he's only when you have figured out all these sorts of things. Who is this person? How often does he drive? Does he drive to Benway a lot or is he going to be using the car within the city? Is it just for school runs or is the person the contractor, he's always driving to the Bush? You know, you ask all these questions, then you'll be able to tell the person that, look, Bros, I know you're looking at this tire because of the money.

But look, let me be honest with you. You say you've been driving to the Bush a lot and this and this and that and that. If you buy this particular one, I can't guarantee you that this thing is going to last one year. So in my professional opinion, use this, use this or consider this, or maybe you can start like this or you can do something else. So simple, simple. So those are the things that determine, those are the things that those are the things that are influential, that really are influential when it comes to closing the sale.

So it's not about your authenticity and it is not about your passion. It's not authenticity, it's not passion. It's not of all that fluffy stuff. It's about understanding value and it's about communicating value. So if you're one of these individuals like Victor and you think that passion is what it is that is making it easy for you to sell, then sorry, one moment I have to attend to the dealer. OK, I'm sorry about that.

I'm back. I need to attend to the the fellow who is working on the car. In fact, it's the perfect examples of because the reason why the guy needed my attention is he pointed out that the the Hobcaps, No, not the Hobcaps. The what are they called now, the Hobbs, that the Hobbs are rusty. And so we're discussing how it is that we can deal with that. So he was talking about how you can sandpaper the Hobbs and after you sign paper the hubs,

you can do anti rust spray and then after that treatment you can now fix the task back and then you're good to go so that the hubs will not now be rusty. Now if there are some of you listening to this podcast now who think that passion is the main thing, you think that the fellow who is talking about this thing has to be passionate and has to make a passionate plea. But no, it's not. What the young man did, first of all, was to point out that there is rust and he wanted to know if it's something that I want to do about it.

It is only after figuring out that I'm interested because there's some people who don't give a hoot as far as they're concerned, like, and The thing is rusty. So The thing is rusty. That was my own. As long as the car is moving, no problem. So it was only after figuring out that I'm interested in the sort of thing that we now started looking at options for how we can deal with this thing permanently. So you can see that it's about understanding value first and then the whole thing of passion,

authenticity and communicating value like all of that will flow. But don't enter into sales situations thinking that it is your passion and it is your enthusiasm and it is your authenticity. I know what not that is closing the deal. The dynamic there is understanding value and then communicating value. Then the final thing that I want to mention is in the conversation with the victim, he mentioned that when talking with car dealers because he's trying to raise finance by talking to car dealers who have idle inventory sitting around because you know, it happens in Abuja.

Now you have all these places, people have a car lot, maybe there's like 75 cars there and the cars are just sitting there doing nothing. And so that's his whole shtick. He goes around, he talks to these people and his plan is that, look, you have 75 cars just sitting around here doing nothing. But if we can enter into an agreement and I can take 20 of these cars, this is how we take care of them. This is how we're going to use them.

This is how much money we should be able to make. And this is how much money I'm going to be able to give you at the end of the day. So. So where was I? So I lost my train of thought. Yeah. So. So he's going to these car dealers now and then, but he doesn't. It's not everybody that is convinced. And he got the impression that, you know, some people have been, how do I put it, like somebody has done them strong thing before because these kind of things happen.

You're trying to do business with someone, you give them your cars and next thing you know, one or two, one or two of the cars get involved in an accident or maybe somebody steals a car or something like that. So these things happen. People do strong thing in business generally. So he was of the opinion that some people don't want to listen to him because because they're scared. And so I told him that, OK, now this is what we do.

People get scared to get involved in businesses all the time. So from a sales and business development perspective, there are these things that we call risk mitigation strategies or risk reversal strategies. The idea behind risk mitigation or risk reversal is this is to call it how that look, you know what, as we turn into this business, 12345 are the risks that are normally involved, but this is how we plan to take care of these sorts of things.

So what do you think? You call it out? You ask the person straight up. Because The thing is, it's already at the back of the person's mind. How will I know that this person will steal my car? How will I know that the person will damage my car? How will I know that the person will harvest my car for parts? You know, all kinds of things at the back of the person's mind. So, so we started exploring some risk mitigation strategies.

Well, and by the way, when we're having these conversations, if I'm having a coaching session with you, I'm not the one who's going to come up with the answers. It has to be you because you are the specialist in your business. I'm the specialist in the selling process and selling frameworks, but I don't know your business. So you're the one who's going to come up with the answers. So some of the things that we brainstorm together and some of the solutions that he came up with is this, he mentioned insurance and that is part of him doing business that he always insures the cars.

So whatever insurance it is that you you have on it, you know, that's your own business. But him when he collects a car and he adds it to his fleet, he's going to take out specific kinds of insurance that will cover him in the running of the business and cover the vehicle. So that last last, if anything happens that is any brigade is any quarter insurance is there to make sure that the original owner of the car gets their money back.

So that's one thing, insurance #2 whatever security feature you have on the car, that's up to you. But for him, when he collects your vehicle, he always ensures car tracking on it so that they can know anywhere where the car is in West Africa. If the car is in Nigeria and is in Abuja, they will know it was in Lagos, they will know. If it's in Benin Republic, they will know. That is something that he does for all the cars that he collects.

You see that's another way of making, making somebody feel comfortable like OK, this is what this guy is doing to prevent theft or misuse. Because if you give your car to somebody for both to be used only in Abuja and then from car tracking, you can see that the car is in Benin Republic. You know, it raises the question like what are you doing driving my car across international borders? So car tracking, that's something that he does.

Then he also has a system where the drivers of the cars collect deposits so that that is sort of as a security for the owner so that the owner gets paid. He tried explaining the driver deposit thing to me and to be honest, I think I understand because me, if I'm a bull driver, there's no how me, I'm dropping a deposit before I take the car because for me, the way I look at it, I'm supposed to be using the car to make money.

But this one that you're collecting money from me upfront. But anyway, maybe it's the tradition. And you see, that's the reason why I say you have to come up with the ideas because I don't know the car fleet industry. I don't know the traditions. And to me that one doesn't make sense. But if it's a practice, it's a practice. So the driver deposits are now securities to make sure that any which way the person who owns the original car is going to get paid.

And then finally, he also does sensitization programs with the VIO, that's the vehicle Inspection office. Then NURTW, that's the National Union of Rd. Transport Workers, then the police and the Federal Rd. Safety Corps. He does sensitization programs with them and all his drivers. Now that is also me. Quite frankly, from all the things you said so far, that's the one that even give me the most peace now, OK, this guy that I'm handing over the car to, you know, he, he's in good,

excuse me, he's in good standing with police and road safety. In fact, for me, that's the only one that would give me security. You know, I would like to show up for that kind of sensitization. I even collect the police officers number so that tomorrow if there's any problem I know a specific police officer. And I'm going to go and call and just say, look there, your guy, you know, you know, I don't guess so. Oh, yeah, police over to you.

So what? You can see now that sometimes you're trying to have sales conversations with people, and people are not entirely bought in. And sometimes it's because of significant fears that they have before going into business with you. And you're not going to achieve anything if you just keep quiet and pretend that these fears don't exist. Use risk mitigation strategies or risk reversal strategies. Call the thing out and have this conversation.

So in this case, having these conversations, because even though Martins knew about these things and does them, it wasn't an essential part of your selling process. And it should be if you're in this kind of business, you should have that kind of conversation. OK, look, bro, yes, there are risking this business. This can happen, this can happen. But these are the things that I've already that I do for my own business to make sure that there's no quarrel.

All the cars are insured. This is the class of insurance that I do. So even if tomorrow we take your car, there's accident with the car, don't worry, you will get the full 11,000,000, which is the cost that the amount you used to buy the car. We also put in car tracking so we know where the cars are at all the time while collecting driver deposit. So you'll be funded at least up to two weeks. Then we also have connections with Vio Rd.

Transport Police, Rd. Safety. You have that conversation. That's the kind of thing that makes somebody's mind just calm down, OK? You know what, this guy is legit or this guy has talked through, has thought through, you know, one or two things. So those are just some of the comments that I wanted to make. Yeah, those are just some of the comments that I wanted to make after my interaction with them. But I think the most important thing to carry away from here would be, I'll say the risk reversal, because lots of you are running into business and you do not, you do not address the fact that people are scared of doing business with you and that there are some risks that some people might have to undertake to do business with you.

So don't ignore the risk. Acknowledge, excuse me, acknowledge that these things can happen and then call it out and discuss the, discuss the plans, you know, the steps, the frameworks, the protocols, the procedures, the whatever that you already put in place to make sure that when those risks materialize, if they happen, that you have got them sorted. So that's all for today. Let me head back to my car and see what the work is going on like.

So thank you very much for your time and attention. If you want a, if you want to connect with me for a strategy session or for a business audit, the number to hit me up on is 0806466 2140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, then you can connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for establishing my IED. That's the name of my YouTube channel as well. Or just search the name of the podcast sales for the Nigerian business person.

You'll find all my material on YouTube. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.