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Lots of Nigerian business people and sales people have problems with their cash flow, have problems with their revenues, have problems with their profits because their follow up game is weak. They have some problems with following up. And of course because of that, it's messing up with their money at the end of the month, at the end of the quarter or at the end of the year. So this is one of the things that we're going to be tackling today.
Now, one of those sins or one of those mistakes that people make when they try to follow up is they send multi pronged messages. In other words, a multi pronged messages. Sorry, forgive me. A multi pronged message, Abby. OK, very cool. So a multi pronged message is a message that has 23456 different things that are embedded in the message. And it's not a good idea either in physical conversation with someone or in an e-mail exchange or in a phone exchange or in a WhatsApp exchange to send multi pronged messages.
Because if you send a message to someone and the message contains item ABCDEF at the end of the day, which one is somebody going to respond to specifically? So I know it seems kind of counterintuitive, but if we're going to be good at this follow up game, what we need to do is we have to become really good at sending a message. And each message has just one key point that the person is supposed to respond to. And then that way we can get a conversation going.
So I send one message and the key theme or the keying point of the message is A and then I end the message trying to get some feedback on that and the person responds and then we continue and that is how the conversation goes. And then it becomes a salvo. So instead of sending one message that is multi pronged and we throw absolutely everything into it, we need to learn how to send shorter, smaller messages that have just one key element.
And then plus when we try to send multi pronged messages, the problem is the messages look unwieldy. They look very big. And to be honest, most people don't read the whole thing. So you're trying to stuff the message with all the value that you can get, but the person is just going to skim or scam. I'm sorry, scam scan. Yeah, scan person is going to skim or scan through the message and pick a couple of things. And so some things are going to get lost in the details anyway.
So instead of sending multi pronged messages, just send one message that has one key theme and that is what we are going to discuss today. But before we get into the meet of today's episode, if you would love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the 080. 6466. 2140 Also, if you're interested in the 15 minute sale audit for your business then you can WhatsApp me on the same number 0806. 466. 2140 If you would like to join my WhatsApp channel, that's not a problem.
Send me a WhatsApp message on, you guessed it, 0806. 466. 2140 OK, now back to the topic for today, how to make sure that our follow up game is strong. Now for the benefit of those that are discovering the show for the first time, I have to make a distinction. Now in traditional sales and business development, we don't say follow up, we say follow through. And this is the reason why typically whenever you're following up with someone, you are calling someone to stay top of mind, you're trying to advance the conversation.
But usually when you're trying to follow up, you don't have any specific item, any specific agenda that you are trying to push. So in Nigeria, if you've dealt with vendors and vendors are in the habit of calling you to say, bro, so far happy new month or as a family, I just say I won't greet you, happy Salah, all those sorts of things. That is what we call follow up because people are reaching out to you. It's kind of pointless.
There's no agenda really. You're wondering why is this guy just buzzing my phone? This guy already called me last month. Why is he calling me again this month? That is follow up. Now in sales and business development, we prefer this. We prefer to say follow through. Now, follow through is what happens when you have a specific item on the agenda that you want to get some feedback on. And usually it is something that both of you mutually agreed upon before this current call.
So in other words, let's say I'm dealing with someone this I'm in the business of running house cleaning, that's why I do house cleaning and office cleaning. And then I have a conversation with someone and I send over a proposal to someone. We talk on the phone briefly about some of the highlights of the proposal, and then I tell the person. Most of my happiest customers usually take about four to five days to consider the proposal.
Madam, do you think that I'll be OK four to five days so that we can talk again and see which package you're interested in? Now, if Madame says yes, the next thing I'm going to push for is now say OK, Madame. So in that case, what I'm going to do is today is the 1st of March. I'm going to call you again on the 5th of March so that we can have this conversation. How does that sound, Ma? And my dad might say, oh I'm not going to be in town then because I'm travelling because my uncle's brother's son's sister's wife is getting married.
So OK, no problem. So when I'm going to be back Ma? OK, I'll be back the following Monday. OK, perfect. No Allah, let's say you rest one day. So can I call you on Wednesday Ma? OK, no problem. Wednesday is fine. OK, Thank you very much Ma. I'll talk to you then. And then you end the call. Now in this case you have secured and advancement. Both of you have mutually agreed that you're going to do something in the next, you know XYZ coming number of days.
Now when you decide to call Madam again on that date that has been agreed, there is a purpose for the call. And the chances are that since Madam mutually agreed, because remember you guys discussed this explicitly, it is not going to be a pointless call. You are following through on something that both of you decided together the last time that you spoke. In fact, when you're done with the conversation, you can send a message reinforcing that.
Thank you very much Madam. Glad to have the conversation with you. I'm looking forward to having you on board as one of my clients because I'm looking forward to serving you when you're travelling for your uncles, husbands, wives, nephews, sisters, nieces wedding. Have a safe trip. Have a safe trip for the wedding. Have fun. Have a safe trip. Coming back to Abuja. I'll call you on the 7th of March, just as we agreed. So simple message like that.
So this is the difference between following up and following through. So if you have been following up, you are wrong. You should learn how to follow through. You should be securing advancements when you're having conversations with people so that you can follow through with them after the conversation is done. Now I know some of you might find this a little bit difficult, but no holla. That's the reason why I give my contact details during the episode.
So you need me to explain a couple of stuff much more clearly then just call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message. Again, the number is 0806. 466. 2140 So the fault that we're looking at today is people sending multi pronged WhatsApp messages. And the way that I defined it, you're trying to follow up and then you send a message and the message contains too many elements. Now let me give a practical example that I was trying to work with someone on, but this was a very long time ago.
So I just saw the screenshot in my message. So this was a very, very, very long time ago. Sorry. The screenshot was in my notes. So the person signed a message to try and follow up on someone. By the way, remember we don't see a follow up follow through. And in this case, yes, it was a matter of following through because the person spoke to a prospect, the prospect was supposed to have a meeting with the CFO that is the chief financial officer.
And after that they agreed that they were going to talk again. But the mistake was they did not agree on a specific date. So you see some of the mistakes that we make when we're trying to do a follow up in quote, didn't agree on a specific date now because they didn't agree on a specific date when this guy was now trying to reach out back to the prospect. A couple of things are unclear. OK, you're reaching out now. Are you reaching out too soon or are you reaching out too late?
You don't know. And the reason why you do not know is because you did not gain an advancement. You people did not mutually discuss it very clearly about what the expectations were. So you don't know if you're calling too soon. You don't know if you're calling too late, you don't know if you're being a pest, you don't know if you're being a bother. You don't know if you're being lackadaisical, you don't know if you're being lazy.
You have absolutely no idea. You're just restyling because you people did not discuss this ahead of time. So if you're having a meeting with someone, if you're having a conversation with someone and the person says the next step is he needs to discuss with the CFO, the chief financial officer, what you do is you say fantastic, that makes a lot of sense. I would have expected that that would be the case anyway. So when next are you going to be having this meeting with the CFO?
If the person responds that, Oh yes, we meet regularly, the board meets regularly every month. The next thing we say was oh, every month. This is currently 31st of so I'm just checking my watch. So this is currently 31st of March. So does that mean you guys are meeting early next week in April or you're going to be meeting in another 3-4 weeks at the end of April? And then you hear what the person has to say. If the person says the board meeting is going to be at the end of April, the final week,
it's usually a Wednesday or a Thursday. You say, oh, OK, all right, no worries. How about we do things this way? I'll send you a reminder in the third week just to be sure that what we discussed is still on the item for discussion. Would that be OK? And of course, the person will say, sure, it's OK that you can send the reminder and it's OK. Fantastic. Cool. And then after that, would it be OK if I now call you the first week following, which is the first week in May, just to find out how the meeting went with the CFO and so we can discuss next steps.
So excuse me. And of course, the person is going to say, sure, no problem. Now, in this case, you have discussed this thing explicitly. The person said I need to have a meeting with the CFO. You didn't say, oh, OK, no, Allah. So we go, Yanabi, we'll be in touch. No, you took it further. You said, when are you likely to have a meeting with the CFO? And then the person said, oh, we usually meet during the board meeting.
And then, so excuse me, I'm recovering from a, a sore throat. So you took it another step further and he asked the person, OK, the board meetings, is that typically at the beginning of the month or at the end of the month? And then the person said at the end of the month, And then you quickly check your watch and you realize that oh, you're already at the end of the month. So when this guy says at the end of the month, that means the meeting is going to be in another 4 weeks.
And you asked and the guy confirmed and then you asked for permission to send a reminder the week before the board meeting just to make sure that your matter is on the agenda. And the guy said he's OK. And then you now asked him if you can call the week afterwards to see how the meeting went and to discuss next steps. And then the person said OK. Now in this case, if and when you do try and follow up in quote. But remember, I prefer to say follow through.
When you do decide to call and follow through on the person, can you see now that you're going to have the confidence that you are not being a pest because you discussed all of this ahead of time. You took permission from the person about the reminder of the notification that you are going to send before the meeting. And you also agreed mutually on when and how you're going to reach out after the meeting. So when you call or when you send a WhatsApp message, you are not going to be a pest.
You are just following through on what has already been agreed upon between both of you. So this is the difference between follow up and follow through. So in this case, that was the mistake that this guy made. He the guy just, you know, I suppose. Yeah, we CFO and I was like CFO and no problem. So you will be now we'll be in touch. And the guys say sure, no problem. I will boss you. I go boss you. And even though that sounds nice, I will boss you.
I'll be in touch. We will. Yeah. And my guy now don't worry, Shabina. You know nothing, sport, nothing. Apple. Don't worry, Don't worry. You know, I got you, my brother, I got you. Even though all of these things sound sweet, even all of them sounds nice, that is not an advancement. We still don't have anything on the table. It is very unclear. If somebody says I you're my guy now. I got you. I got you and I got you. Doesn't mean nothing.
It doesn't tell me when am I supposed to call you or when next are we going to talk? I'll be. Am I supposed to come to your office? I'll be the one that will call to my office. Abby maker send you e-mail as in all those sweet sounding stuff amounts to zero amount to nothing. When the time comes now to follow up or to follow through, you now be feeling like a pest. The reason why you're feeling like a pest is because you guys are not very very clear about what needs to happen next.
So now back to the message. Because remember the focus today is on having multi pronged messages. So this guy's now sent a message saying summary of the messages was like, bro, I hope all is well. I'm just reaching out to circle back concerning the meeting with the CFO. Is there any additional assistance that was needed? Now this is a multi pronged message because you know, you've thrown in too many things, all is well, that's one thing.
Circle back, that's another thing. Meeting with CFO, that's another thing. Additional assistance needed, that's another thing. Some of you say and take it easy, that it all makes sense to put all of them in one message. And maybe, but for the purposes of sales, The thing is, when we are sending messages, WhatsApp messages or e-mail messages, we're trying to get the person into a conversation. And when you throw 345 things into the message, think of it now, which one is the person going to respond to?
And if you're in the habit of having conversations with people this way on WhatsApp, I'm sure you will notice that you put four or five things in a WhatsApp message you send, but then the person replies and responds to only one thing. And you're the one who now has to let the person know that, oh, you didn't respond to this. You didn't respond to that. So actually, what you should have done was to break this messaging sequence into several messages.
This could have been broken into two, three, let me see, 1234, probably even 4 messages. But before we continue, one thing I need to point out the use of language and idiomatic expressions. Idiomatic expressions just means slangs and expressions that are commonly used by some folks. Now, because a lot of us have schooled abroad or a lot of us are listening to foreign business podcasts, we have started using words like circle back.
You know, you hear it in America, you hear it in the UK. You see, I just want to circle back. See, in Nigeria, circle back doesn't mean anything. It's not part of the, it's not part of the idiomatic, I'm sorry. I say idiomatic, idiomatic expressions that we have over here in this country. So stop using all these fancy words that we hear abroad or that we hear in podcasts. Circle back does not mean anything to most people who see it.
So use whatever local equivalent that you can find. Don't say, you know, I'm just reaching out to circle back. So the way that I would have broken up these messages would have been something like even if I was going to slam everything into one message, it would have been something like this. First of all, you greet the person, so you say hi, hello, what's up, whatever. And then you say regarding XYZ agenda, you stated clearly there are there any developments with the CFO question mark send?
You see, that's a short message. And at the end of the day, there's only one call to action and I've highlighted on what the main item is that we're trying to, we're trying to resolve. So hey bro, how are you doing now regarding our agenda from last week? Any any updates with CFO question mark send? Now that is the kind of message that somebody can reply to and say, ah, Bros Novicks. I didn't see CFO or I see CFO, but the guys say blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or guy, I'm busy, I can't talk now, you know, let's let's talk later or something. But shy is the kind of message that prompts a response. Now, one thing on pleasantries because I like to use pleasantries in in messages. I hope all is well. Happy new week. How's the family? How's the wife? How's this? How's that? Yeah, I get it. You know, it's part of our culture somewhat. But sometimes when we use some of these pleasantries in business, you know, it's kind of fake, you know, asking about family, kids, spouse, blah,
blah, blah, when actually it's very clear that you probably don't care about these sorts of things because, you know, when you met the guy, did you even ask him about family, wife, children? Did you guys build rapport, talk about any of those things? So those things are just fluff. They're just taking up what necessary space in your messages. So if you're not the kind of person who when people actually spoke, you actually spoke about family, about children, about things like that, just pressure all those pleasantries.
It is OK to greet and then state the prior context. The prior context is you're just trying to refresh or to re roll as in our refresh rehash. I'll be just remind the person about what these are you guys spoke about last and then go straight into your intention, which is what I would have done if I was going to reward this message. So bro, are you there now regarding that team where we are, any developments with the CFO?
It's a very simple straight what's up message, very clear call to action. The person can respond to it and then you're on your way. But assuming we're going to take the person's initial breakdown, which was is all well, ought to circle back meeting with the CFO, any assistance needed. If you must stick to that format that the guy did, then you're best trying to, you're best breaking this off into multiple messages, stagger them into different messages so we can get a conversation going.
So the first message was, bro, how you doing? I hope all is well. Question mark sent. That is all so that you respond. I said, ah, guy, I do long time, long time you say, yeah, so yeah, it's been a long time. So I mean the response to him will be yeah, so it's been a long time. That thing where we discussed last week now concerning CFO, how far you see that's another servo one message the girl respond then you can now go with that whole any additional assistance needed part.
So don't stop one message with 456 things. That's not an effective way to do things. If you're going to follow up again, remember we prefer to say follow through. If you're going to follow through and follow through effectively, one message and that message should have one key point. That one key point or that one item of the agenda should have a strong call to action at the end. Call to action just means what you want the person to do next.
In fact, this is the way I explained it to my clients because some of my clients struggle to understand this concept of a call to action. So basically what I tell my clients is this, so long as we're trying to close the sale, never you send any message that does not end in question mark. Every single message you send was ending question mark because we're trying to get the person to respond to something, to engage in a conversation.
So if you understand the concept of ACTA, a call to action Pro calls to actions in all your messages. If you don't understand the concept of a CTA, just take it that as a general rule, every single message you send should end in a question mark because you want the person to respond to something in particular and that is how you're going to move this business conversation forward. So applying these principles can be very tricky.
So if you need me to look at your own particular circumstances, that's not a problem. You can connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 080. 6466. 2140 Remember if you're interested in my 15 minute sale audit, you can WhatsApp me on 080. 6466. 2140 and if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, of course send me a WhatsApp message on the same channel. Sorry, I said on the same number and I will send you the link so that you can join the channel.
So that's it for today. If you got value from today's episode, please subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Apple or whoever it is that you listen to your podcast and then of course share with other people who are going to get value from the show as well. And yeah, that's it pretty much. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you all the next episode.