Stop Blowing Up Their Phone: Why Complex Sales Need Follow-Through and Not Follow-Up

Today's podcast is going to be a very noisy one because I'm out and about but I'm not going to say exactly where I am in Abuja. So I expect to hear lots of noise in the background. Now the question that we're going to tackle today is how to do your follow-ups or follow through. I know everybody says follow up, but for some of us conservative sales trainers, we say follow through and I'm going to explain why in a couple of moments.

So today, how do you space your follow-ups, your follow through? Should I be calling somebody every day? Should I be calling every two, two days? Can I call five times in a day? Can I call 50 times in a month? How do I space it? These are the sorts of things that we're going to tackle today. Now, if you like dwelling on these sorts of business issues or you have these sorts of concerns in running your own business, then this podcast is for you.

So subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. I'm your host, Tava Shima aide, and if you would love to connect with me and also get a chance to ask a question as well, then do so call send a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So let's get straight into it. How do you space your follow-ups? How do you space your follow throughs? Now the reason why is because, why we're tackling this today is because it's a listening question from Lucia who is with Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone Realty in Abuja.

So she's a real estate professional. And it looks like, looks like this is your week because apart from Lucia on Radio Maria, my radio show, the business booster Show, I'm also currently tackling 2 questions from real estate professionals as well. So real estate people, this week is your week. So this was the actual question, Lucia said I enjoy making calls, but sometimes people don't pick. That means people don't answer.

How long do I wait before calling again? Can I call twice in one day? I repeat her question was I enjoy making calls, but sometimes they don't pick. How long do I wait before calling again? Can I call twice in a day? Spoiler alert, my answer to her was no. And you're going to see why shortly. But before we get to the answer and why it's not a good idea to be calling somebody twice a day to be blowing up somebody's phone, let's just go through some definitions.

So like I said, Lucia said follow, follow through. Sorry. Yeah, Lucia said follow up. And all the real estate professionals who have reached out to me so far always say follow up. In fact, it's a Niger thing to say follow up. However, like I said, conservative sales trainers like myself, we say follow through. And this is the difference. There was a book written in 19 things like 86198687 I think, I'm not sure, maybe 76.

Anyway, the book is called Spin Selling by Neil Rackham, SPIN, Spin Selling by Neil Rackham. Now in Neil Rackham's book, he explored some really interesting, all I say, dynamics that occur in sales and that help people to close sales. And two of these ideas were called continuations and the other idea is called advancements. Let me repeat. One of them is called continuations. Another one is called advancements. Doris, what if you are wondering where am I heading?

Door. You, you, we'll see. We'll get there. So continuations is a dynamic that Neil Rackham observed when researching professional salespeople. And continuations is the situation where you're having a conversation with someone. You guys might be friendly or maybe you're not, but either way, you are not entirely making progress in this conversations. You're reaching out to people only to find yourself reaching out again and again and again.

And he's our safe, you know, ringer, ringer, Rosie, as in his job, round, round, round, round, round. But you're not going forward. You've called somebody 20 times in the last month or 100 times in the last year, but shy, you're not making progress. That is called a continuation. You're calling somebody, but this deal, no, they move. Where is this deal? You don't know. If your wife asks you how far, you don't know. Your sales manager asked you how far you don't know.

You just know that we are talking. That is called a continuation. Now, Neil Rackham noted that high performing salespeople and high performing, yeah, salespeople. No entrepreneurs, because his research was around salespeople. High performing salespeople always have advancements. Now advancement means you spoke to somebody last week, last year, you know, whatever. But The thing is at that conversation, you and the person on the phone or you and the person in the meeting, you guys agreed clearly this is what we are going to do next.

So that when it is time for you to call that person to go to his office to go and visit the person, you know, whatever there is something specific that you are chasing that both of you need to do. Let me repeat, I hope you guys understand the two dynamics. 1 is shy you just the call, but is this deal moving forward or moving back? You don't know. So let's say you borrowed like 600K from your wife because you're working on something,

you're hoping that the deal will pull through. And you know, this thing could be you could net in maybe like, you know, 4.3. So of course your wife's eyes on it, she wants her 400K back and she's hoping that you'll be a good husband. And you know, actually we turn her like 100K or maybe one M, you know, that kind of thing. So reasonably your wife is asking you how far now, how far would that deal? And the honest answer you can give her is, I don't know.

We spoke last week. So what did he say? Well, you know, we chatted, Bob, babe, to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm getting this deal or not. And then her heart will now sink. The reason why her heart is sinking is because she knows that that 400K is gone because you are trapped in continuation. You're calling somebody for the sake of calling somebody. Whether you're moving forward, you don't know. Moving backward, you don't know the status of the deal, you have no idea.

But then advancements on the other hand is your wife asks you how far you say, oh, babe. Yeah, I did have that meeting with engineer who know her last week and we agreed that based on the samples and the sediments and the everything, we agreed that yes, it might be a good place to start drilling for nickel. So we agreed that the next step is we are going to go to Umua here in two weeks time. He's the one that is going to fund the trip.

So I will take some boys to go there, will now do greater Geological Survey to see whether we have this thing in mining quantity. If we have it in mining quantity, then we'll be going ahead based on something, something, something. Now when you give your wife that kind of good news, you know she won't exactly start shouting for joy. What she will nod ahead because she can't see that there is progress. Because when you, an engineer has spoke, you agreed on one or two things.

So she now knows that in two weeks time you an engineer, you will be on the road to UMUA here to go and do Geological Survey to see whether there is nickel there in mining quantity. So you can see that that deal now you can see that even though it is not closed, you can see that there is there is room forward. You're taking one small step. That is what is called advancements. That is what is called advancements. So the difference between a follow up and follow through basically is continuations versus advancements.

I repeat, the difference between continuation, sorry, between follow up and follow through is just the continuation. Sorry, forgive me, sorry, forgive me. I got, I got distracted over here. I mean a public place and somebody's trying to catch my attention or something. Anyway, so the difference now between follow up and follow through is just continuations versus advancements. When you're following up, you're calling somebody for the sake of calling somebody.

Why you're calling that person, you have no idea now because you don't have any idea why you're calling the person. The other person too has no idea why you're calling them. And that's the reason why they're not answering your phone. So you're stuck in this game or follow up calling for the sake of calling or the person answers the phone and you say, bro, so far I just say I agree to you and they say I have my brother,

how are you? How's the family? You talk nice, you talk polite, you say OK, now you know, we'll catch up. We'll catch up. And then the guy calls the phone call. Have you made progress? You don't know if you're making those kinds of calls. You are following up. And that is the reason why lots of you real estate professionals in Abuja or Lagos or a Kitty or wherever, I just say Abuja, Lagos security because you know, the real estate pros I've spoken to so far happened to be from those three states.

So the reason why you're exasperated is because you're in a game of follow up, you're actually not making progress. You don't have advancements, You're not making any advancements. At the last meeting that you had with the prospect, you guys did not agree on what the next step was. If you agreed on what the next step was, you could call the guy. If he didn't answer, you could send a text message saying Bros, you know how far was supposed to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

That's the reason why I was calling. And then the person cannot respond and say, oh, my sister, I'm sorry. We agreed on that. But I had to travel to the village sharply because Mumsy was not feeling well. I beg, can we reschedule? You can see that the turn off the conversation is different. If you're not getting advancements, you will be stuck in this game of follow up forever until the guy blocks you or until you give up or until,

well, maybe you're lucky and he decides that, OK, let me just reward this person for persistence. So that is the real problem that you're facing anytime you're listening to a podcast or you're talking to a business consultant or you're at a business seminar and you're asking somebody what's the problem with my follow up any before I continue, she made some comments that she enjoys calling and by the way that is good. I just want you guys to catch that.

That is very, very good because real estate is a high value transaction. It is a complex sale and when you're in complex sales, you're better off, you know, calling, visiting, you know, face to face because those kinds of communications are high on the communications hierarchy. Those that's, those are the things that you do that give you results. It's a complex sale. So if you're in her situation, you had better enjoy calling.

You had better. If you don't like calling, start training yourself on how to make phone calls because that's what we need to move the deal forward. Now, what is a complex sale? A complex sale is just any situation where you have a high price, you have a complex subject matter, you have multiple parties that are involved and then it has a long sales cycle. So let me repeat, if it's a complex sale cycle, if you have a high price, real estate is not cheap, at least in Abuja is not cheap.

We're talking 10s of millions, hundreds of millions. It's expensive. Then the subject matter is complex. When we say complex, it just means that there are lots of moving parts, lots of things to consider. And so for real estate is not just plot of land. The person is thinking location, which location is ideal Or the person is thinking, you know, house. Does my wife like this house? Is it suitable for children? Is it close to the school?

Is it close to the church? How close is it to the airport? How close is it to the nearest hospital? You know, is this the kind of building that matches my status? You know, on and on and on. So you can see that there are lots of parts to consider and these are the things people are juggling in real estate. Then there are multiple parties that are involved when it comes to real estate. You might be talking to Olga, but The thing is Olga has to talk with Madame or you might be talking with Madame.

Madame definitely has to liaise with Olga. So whether you like it or not, you know, two parties are involved most of the times in real estate. Well, that's if you're dealing with a family situation basically. Then let's see what else ahead. Long sales cycles. What that means basically is there are some situations, there's some sales situations where people take a long time to make up their minds. If you want to buy a mobile phone, it doesn't take you a long time to make up your mind.

That's not a complex sale scenario. It's very simple. You either like Samsung V Fold or you don't. Oh, by the way, it's a triple V Fold. So if any of you want to bless me with the triple V Fold, you know, just hit your boy up on the phone and you know, let me know, You know, I'll be glad. I would like to accept your gift. So you aren't like it or you don't. You either have the money or you don't. You've either saved it or you or you haven't.

Somebody has either dashed you the money or you or they have not dashed you the money. You can decide to buy a phone. You know, quick, quick. You can decide today. Let me get some something, fold and then in the next three weeks you buy it. That is not how it works in real estate. You don't decide today, January 1st, I want to buy a piece of land and then January 21st we have bought a piece of land. It doesn't work that way.

People need a long time to make up their mind. So if you are in any kind of sales situation where all these factors are present, you are in a complex sales scenario and you had better start enjoying making phone calls and visiting people and talking to people. This is not the kind of deal that you can close by sending text messages yes, you can close real estate deals by text message from beginning to end or e-mail. I'm just saying that to be the most effective and to improve the to give you the best chances, you better enjoy and start liking visiting people,

calling people, going to somebody's office, doing WhatsApp video call, you know, all those sorts of things. So the implications now for complex sales scenario is this, some of you are wondering why am I talking complex sales scenario? Don't worry, I'll tie it back. Why you need to understand complex sales scenario before you now understand how you should be chasing somebody. The implications of a complex sales scenario is this, the person you're talking to is not making a decision anytime soon.

Standard, just take it. If you're selling real estate and you spoke to the person today, this week, the person is not going to decide next week. It does not work like that. Those are not the dynamics. It's not happening. Well, except in case of urgency. But ordinarily, all things being equal, the person is not making any decision anytime soon. It's a complex sales scenario. So real estate, solar, or you're selling airplanes or you know,

whatever or you're selling, let's say you're an architect. You know the person is not deciding today. So when you're in a context complex hill scenario, what you have to do is you have to be a consultant. Pretend like you're a consultant form as if you're a medical doctor. Don't be making sales speeches. Don't be begging for a sale. Don't be chasing people up and down. Do doctors beg people? No, the doctor does not beg you.

The doctor will ask you questions, figure out what needs to be done, and the doctor will tell you, OK based on my recommendations is what we're supposed to do next. You're supposed to do miss surgery, blah blah blah. He gives you the options and the rest is up to you. You either do the surgery or you don't. So pretend you're a doctor. For those of you in complex health scenarios. We cannot be chasing people. We can't.

Doesn't work that way. Every time you hear me say consultative or consultant on this podcast, pretend that you're a doctor. Pretend you're a medical doctor. Pretend you're a brain surgeon, you're a cardiothoracic surgeon. They don't chase people. So since we know that it's a complex hill scenario and this person is not making any decision anytime soon, why will you be calling the guy twice a day? Why it's not going to work.

Calling somebody twice a day on the complex hill scenario is not realistic because there is no emergency and because they're not going to buy today. Look, it depends. If the person said, let's say you're supposed to chase CFO at government's office and you know they're about to sign the document today, you need one or two information. Oh, yes, in that case, blow up the guy's phone, you know, six times in one hour so that he knows it's an emergency and let him call you back.

But in the beginning, when people are not making progress, don't be blowing up anybody's phone twice a day in a complex sale scenario. So if you sell expensive digging, construction tractor equipment, you should not be blowing up somebody's phone twice a day. If you are selling real estate, don't be blowing up somebody's phone twice a day. If you sell cars, do not blow up somebody's phone twice a day. If you're selling mining services, you know to go and mine nickel and gold and you know whatever, do not be blowing up somebody's phone twice a day.

But for simple sales scenarios, if you're selling Ankara, yes, call somebody's phone twice a day. Please do. I'll collect your 75412 yards. In simple sales scenarios, it is fine. For complex sales scenarios, it is not play cool. When it comes to complex sales scenarios, play it cool.