Stop Interrupting, Start Engaging: Problem-Based Sales Strategies

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's episode is an out and about episode, so we expect to hear some noise in the background, especially since there's some guy not far from me who is playing gospel music. So as you're listening to this podcast episode, if you can hear the gospel music, I hope that the music is going to minister to you and it's going to console you and open you up to God's blessings so that your business will flow much more smoothly.

And actually, this is a good way to start of the day by listening to, you know, say your prayers, listening to some gospel music, and then try and get that money so that God will bless the work of your hands. So today's episode is not about gospel music and it's not about God, but it's about how to use problem based openers to market your business. Now, the reason why I'm talking about problem based openers is this. Now, for those of you who think that that sounds like big grammar, just hang in there.

You'll see that this is quite simple is because, well, First off, I've mentioned it in the in a couple of episodes, maybe like the last four or five episodes in the last week. And I don't think I have defined what a problem based opener is so far. Now a problem based opener is this that when you're having conversations with people, OK, let me take a step back. There are lots of people who in fact, too many people are trying to start business conversations,

trying to start sales conversations, trying to start marketing conversations and are doing it the wrong way because recently a real estate marketer worked up to me and this is not her real name. Anyway. So a real estate marketer walked up to you and she said, hello, my name is Funko here by me. I work for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I just looked at the flyer and I told her, oh, sorry, I'm not interested. And she said OK Sir.

And then she left. Now, there are a lot of you who are trying to start business conversations, trying to start sales conversations, trying to start marketing conversations. And this is how you guys are going about it. You walk up to someone and you say, hello, my name is Abubakar Oyetunji, and I work for this. And, you know, people just glaze over. Now, the problem with this approach is, number 1, you have an interruption.

The person is doing something else. You're interrupting for me. I was trying to get some work done in the car because what I do is I take my keyboard with me all the time. I do all my work from my phone. So sometimes I'm in between one or two things. And I'm like, OK, I have maybe like 10 minutes. Let me just park here. And then Sharp. Sharp, you know, respond to this e-mail, maybe write this proposal. I'll call this person.

That kind of thing. So I was in the middle of one of those prints when she walked up to me. Hello. My name is Funko. Yeah. About me. I work for diseases. I So sorry. I'm not interested. Now, the downside is you are not an interruption and nobody cares about you or your company name. So what we should do is we need to own that fact that yes, you're an interruption and nobody cares about you. Acknowledge those facts and then learn to cut to the chase because at least if you cut to the chase and if you get straight to the point and you find somebody who is interested in your UVP, that's your unique value proposition.

Unique value proposition just means the reason why people do business with you. You're happiest customers, why do they work with you? If somebody's interested in your UVP, then just book a meeting so that you guys can talk later. Then you'll have a greater chance of closing the sale because like for real estate now that is a complex sale. There's no how you're going to close a real estate deal because you came into a car park, you saw somebody sitting in his car and you really think you're going to close a 10 million naira, 50 million naira, 100

million naira, 200 million naira deal just like that? No, no, it doesn't happen that way. So when some of you are trying to have these business conversations, these marketing conversations, go first with a problem based opener that says what your UVP is, your unique value proposition, the main reason why people do business with you. If the person is interested, don't take up too much of their time. Book a meeting so that you talk later.

You go to their office, they will come to your office, you do a phone call, you do a Zoom call, you do a WhatsApp call, you do a whatever. There are lots of options that we have nowadays, but either ways show up, stay to your UVP in the form of a question, your unique value proposition, the main reason why people do business with you. Then try and book a meeting to talk later. That is the only way you're going to close a complex sale.

If somebody's interested, good. That is the way you go about it. If someone is not interested, then you know, apologize and thank them for their time and offer them a flyer. Give them the flyer and then move on. By the way, this will be the most all, I put it the least anyway, let me just leave a chat. But that's just the main thing. So that's how problem based openers work. You're showing up to someone with a simple question around your unique value proposition.

The reason why people do business with you. If the person is interested, book a meeting so that you can talk later, because you can't close the complex hill on the spot. If somebody is not interested in fact, therefore that time, apologise, drop your flyer and then you move on. So now let's let's flesh it out with an example for Funky or Yebami so you don't walk up and say hello, my name is Funky or Yebami and I work for Toyota Incorporations Limited XYZ and then you're not here, sorry, I'm not interested.

Or the person just glazes over like they're not listening to you. Instead walk up to the person. I say good morning Sir. Have you thought of wanting your own home before and then you keep quiet and hear what the person has to say. Now, most people who buy real estate in my own opinion, shark, I'm not a real estate professional, but I think most people who buy real estate will either buy it for two reasons. Number one, they want to have their own house.

You know, this is the whole, you know, this is Nigeria thing. Like I have my house. So don't either own their own house or don't want to use the land or use the building to make money. So if you're a real estate professional please let me know in the comments or you know, hook up with me later. In my own opinion, those are the main reason why people buy real estate, either to own their own house or to use the land or the house to make money.

So your problem based opener should be around those two. Woke up to someone. Good morning Sir. Have you thought of owning your own home before? Keep quiet and hear what the person has to say. That will determine the way the conversation will go. Some people will still say sorry I'm not interested and the thing will end there. Some people might give you some kind of yes, like, well, you now know that OK, maybe there's room for small conversation and OK,

let me not go into too many possibilities what might happen, But sure, the main thing is walk up with someone. Good morning, Sir. Have you thought of running your own home? If the person sounds like there's some room there for conversation, that is where you go into your unique value proposition even more. That is the benefits, the main reason why people do business with you. So good morning Sir. Have you thought of running your own home?

Personal response. It looks like there's room. OK, so with XYZ mortgage and payment plan, it's possible to own your own home outright and you can get a duplex in central business area in three years. Is that something you'd like to learn more about, Sir? Then you had a response. If it's sounding possible. If it's sounding doable, then this is the kind of person that you now schedule a meeting with because you actually need to have a deeper conversation with this person.

You actually need to know about them, their family situation, you know, how many kids where, where is the children's school? Where do they want to build the house? Is it the outskirts of town? Is it the central business area? Get a sense of the person's, how I put it, you want to feel the person out. You want to know whether this is somebody who is a high net worth individual or not. You know, there are lots of conversations that you need to have that you can't figure out,

you know, on the spot. So this is the way that you should go about it. Good morning, Sir. Have you thought about owning your own home? Oh, OK. Actually, with my company, we have payment plans that make it possible so that you can own outright in three to five years. Is this something you'd like to learn more about, Sir? Because I can see that you're in the middle of something. OK. No problem, Sir. You say your office is in Maytama.

OK, no problem. I can come and see you, Sir. Wednesday, 10:00. Would that be OK, Sir? OK, please. All right. No problem, Sir. So can I get your phone number? OK. Is this your WhatsApp number as well? OK, No problem, Sir. I will send you a WhatsApp message on Monday to remind you about our meeting on Tuesday. Would that be OK? OK. No problem, Sir. Thank you very much, Sir. My name is Funke Oyebami. I will send you a text message after this and then you leave.

So that's a much more fruitful way to do the whole thing. So don't worry about stating your name. Your name will come up. Don't worry about the comp. You know you, you will discuss your company well and all the things your company offer. But showing up. Hello, my name is Sunka. Hereby me I work for. So you're just wasting time. You're an interruption. Cut straight to the point. I figured if they're interested. If they're interested, give them a brief scope of what your unique value proposition is.

The main reason why people do business with you. It looks like they like it. Then the goal is schedule a meeting so it can start digging deep, finding out what they need, and you can start the toasting and the presentation and then the everything. That is how we give the greatest chance for closing a complex sale. Now if you're, if it's a simple sale like a simple commodity like pure water, then of course there's no problem.

You show up pure water, you're an interruption, but no problem. It's a simple thing. It costs 50 now for one such that the person is either 30 or thirsty or not and the person will either buy or not and it's that simple. So you sell Piota, you sell cola, not you sell screen guard, you sell slippers, you sell ties cause in Abuja there are some people who walk around and they sell socks and ties. I think it's really interesting because I never saw it until I

came to Abuja and some of the ties actually look quite good. That's for those of you who work in banks and in the civil service. So those kind of things, no problem, but for something complex, you're selling real estate, you know, show up problem based opener. What is your UVP? What are the main reason why people do business with you? Use that to start the conversation and see if they're interested. So now that example, we used ownership, home ownership.

Have you thought of owning your own home? So another way it could be. Good morning, Sir. OK, I've read you, Sir. OK, good morning, ma'am. Have you thought of using land to make money before? And then question mark here what it is that they have to say. And then you wait, depending on what they say, one of the scopes you can follow up with later. I'll be like, oh, ma, with XYZ plans, you can buy rental property or acquire land to resell with only this percent down.

Would you like to learn some more? And then here what it is that Madame has to say. And then the rest of the scope is still the same. So OK, Ma, no problem. But actually, before I can get into specifics of how my company will be able to help you, we need to have another conversation so I can need to learn some more about you. I need to learn like what's your investment horizon is? I want to need to know some more about the kind of properties you would like to acquire, you know,

blah, blah, blah. So my, it would work best if we can have a meeting later on so we can talk some more. Would you are available for so, so, so, so, so, so, so you pick a date, you set a time, we agree if you coming to yours or are you going over to hers? In my own opinion, though, we should try and reduce the amount of friction. So I always recommend going over to their own place. If you're telling them that you should come to your own office,

you're giving them homework and the more homework that you put in the process, the more obstacles that you're putting in your ability to close the sale. That is what I would recommend. So in my own opinion, you go to them, especially since we're one of these things click, your Commission is going to be big. Even if it is, I mean, think about it, if it's a 10 millionaire or something and in your real estate firm, they give, they pay you guys another 5% or 10% on 5% or 10 million.

Is that big? So I'm not good at math, so I can't figure that out now, but I'm just saying that when two or three of these things click, it's worth it. So going over to the office is not going to be a problem. But summary, Sha, this is how lots of you should be starting your sales conversations, your business conversations and your marketing conversations. You can walk it up and say, hello, my name is Funke or here by me and I work for Horizon Insurance.

Just figure out the UPV unique value proposition. Sorry. Yeah, UVP, the main reason why people do business with you. So insurance, insurance, insurance. OK, Now people are selling selling insurance products that have a benefit of paying children's school fees. So you can walk up to that person and say, hello, Ma, let me see. OK, I need to give this one some more thought. Let's see. OK, You walk up to the high in the car.

Maybe you see the baby seat in the background. OK, Yes, yes, yes. So you see the baby seat at the back of the car. So you now know, OK, there's room. I have some young children or something like that. Now with insurance, we sell lots of products. So you can walk up to her and say, oh, hello, mine is your car insured? That's not a bad way to start the conversation. Of course, she says her car is insured. You can now say, oh, Madam, do you know that we now have insurance products that make it easier for people to pay school fees right from primary school all the way to university and then keep quiet.

I hear what it is she has to say. Some people say, no, I'm not interested. But that's some people who say insurance products paying school fees. What's the correlation? How does that work? You see that now give you some room to now talk to someone, say Oh yes, ma'am with Horizon Insurance, you know, this is his plan, that that plan, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I can see you in the middle of something. This is something we'd actually have to talk to some more.

I can actually come over to your office next week, Friday, 10:00 AM with some material so that we can talk through a couple of things. Would you be interested with that man? And then you fix the meeting and that's it. The goal is to go over to Madame's office to now start getting into in depth conversations. You know, who is she? What kind of plan would she be interested in? What age is the baby? If she's considering these kinds of plans, you know, how long is it going to be?

Is it a notary school into secondary school? Is it primary school into university? Get a sense of the vision that she has for her children. You know, for those people who want the children to school abroad, you know, you determine the kind of plans that you can show. So anyway, hope you guys are getting a gist about how we can use problem based openers to start the conversation. Basically a problem based opener just means what are the problems that you solve?

Use that to open the conversation. All that stuff of your name and who you work for. Don't worry it will come out later on. But hello, my name is Fuku here by me. I work for too long. You're wasting valuable time. You're an interruption. Acknowledge it. Get straight to the point. What are the main reasons why people do business with you? State that first. Most of our happy customers do business well because da, da, da, da, da.

Is this something you're interested in? I hear what they have to say. If they say no, not interested, move on. Look for somebody else. If they're interested, then book an appointment so that you can go over to their home or to their office. OK, Let me say to the office to be on the safe space because nowadays, now that people are chopping up people in their houses and putting them in the freezer, it's better to go to the office.

So go to the office, you know, public place so that you know you, you're safe. Go over to the office and then start having detailed qualification and discovery conversations to know who they are, what they're about, what's the vision, where they're heading to, what's the plan, what are their likes, what are their dislikes and then do it like that. So the goal basically show up. Is this person interested or not? OK, they're interested.

From there, book a meeting. At the meeting qualify after qualification, you'll be able to now make your proposal or your presentation and hopefully that should include your chances of closing the deal. So that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening. If you'd love to connect for a strategy session, a business audit, or you have questions you want me to answer, the number to reach out to me on is 08064662140.

The country code is +234. That's my WhatsApp number as well. Then connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishima Ayede. I also have a YouTube channel of the same name. Over 1070 videos there right now. Most of them are not are faceless videos as per. It's just the podcast that I put the audio there. So if you look there, you're not going to see my face except if you scroll to the beginning back when I was still on YouTube and on TikTok.

So then I used to do TikTok. I'll be what they call it again. Is it Facebook, Facebook real or be Instagram, Instagram real and then TikTok something. So yeah, those videos are there so you can go have a look at them. Then you get to see my face. All right, So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.