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Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at home, so expect to hear some noise in the background. Now the goal of this podcast is solving business problems. So issues with customers, issues with marketing, sales, side hustles or career. If you're a career salesperson or if you feel like something is holding your business back, then this is the show for you.
So subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect, call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I would like us to look at how to do follow up or follow through, as some of us like to say, in ways that add value to the customer. Let me repeat. What we're going to look at today is how to do follow up. You know, at least that's how we're calling this part of the world.
You said, how far would that go? So I don't know. Have you followed up? No, Sir. Or you're going to follow up. So now we're going to be discussing that or you're going to follow up. Now have you noticed I said follow up or follow through? And that's because there are some of us in the professional sales training community who say that follow through is the most appropriate way to look at it. And it's because when you're following through on something,
it means that you have previously decided with whoever it is you are talking with that you guys are supposed to achieve one or two things or take one or two actions. So following through on that means you're taking some specific actions, whether visiting the person, calling the person, sending a text message or doing whatever, just to make sure that those activities are being carried upon. Like let's say normal village meeting, you will go for Christmas, there's village meeting, people discuss one or two things.
The secretary draws up the minutes, you know, and duties are shared amongst people and then you then that's the end of the village meeting during Christmas. The next time people will meet again is Easter. Follow through means you will now call the head of the family or whoever it was that you know. Assign one or two things. You say, OK, this thing will be discussed. How far has this person started work? The work that they've started,
where has it gone? How far has it reached? What else needs to be done? When is this person going to come in? When is this person going to hand over that is follow through. Now we have to take that same mindset when it comes to business as well because lots of times people are having conversations with potential customers or clients and are not agreeing to anything during the call. And so after that you're just left with hello, good morning,
Sir. I just say may I agree to you? Good morning, Ma, We haven't heard from you in a while. Good morning, Sir. I just called to see how far. Now that kind of follow up is very annoying. First of all, to the person who is receiving it, and it's very useless and it achieves nothing. But if you take an attitude of following through on something because you agreed on something, then you can have much more productive phone calls because you can now call to say hello,
Sir, The reason why I'm calling is the last week. Last week I sent you over a proposal and you remember we agree that you need like one week to consider. So that's why I'm calling. Sir. Have you considered the proposal and do you have any questions for me? You see, that's a different kind of conversation that saying hello Sir, just say may I greet you? Happy new month, Sir. Madam, it's been a long time. Remember your boys boss, I'm loyal.
You know, all that kind of follow up. So what we should be striving to do actually is to follow through every time we're having engagements with a potential customer or client. We should be agreeing on something now that needs to be done to move the agenda forward so that the next time we call, we are following through on something. So some of you who say semantics now, you know, follow up, follow through, what does it matter?
Well, anyway, I'll leave it up to you. So what do you want to say, follow up or follow through? I'll leave that up to you. But the principle still stands. We should be agreeing to something now that needs to be done next week, next year, next month, next quarter that will move this agenda forward so that the next time I have to call or that you have to call, we are trying to make progress on something specific. So that's the difference between follow up and excuse me, follow through.
Now, I have described this whole dynamic in previous podcast episodes before and it's called advancements. Advancements just means that business deals move forward, especially complex sales. Business deals move forward one step at a time. And at each step, we are green. We will do this, we will do this, we will do this. So the example that I always give, not because it's the best, but because it's the most simplest 1 is back in the day, I
would go for bridal shows. That's how I like to build my business because I like seeing people, I like talking to people. So I will go to a bridal show, I will have my register book, my attendance sheet on my desk. People will come by my stand. I will try and chat them up. The goal is I'm trying to get somebody to drop their phone number. For the people that dropped their phone number, I'll let them know, OK, today is Friday.
I'm still going to be here until Sunday. So I'll call you next week, like around our kind, Tuesday, Wednesday, is that cool? And they will say yes or they will say no. Either way, I'll set an expectation. Let's say I collect 100 phone numbers the next time I call. Now my call is not hello, I just want to greet you or hello. I just you know how far or it's very specific. Hello. This is the chapter you spoke to at the Brides and Babies Bridal Fair last week Friday.
Of course the person will not remember. So it's the teeth chap. So. Oh, I remember. How are you? Well, I'm OK, I'm good. I'm sure you were really tired talking to all those vendors. My dear, this planning wedding thing is not easy. And so don't worry. That's that's how it can be. It's like that, but alright, that's the reason why some of us are here. You know, we're here to be helpful resources in the way that we can.
So don't worry, we got you covered. Yes, thank you very much. OK, so the reason I'm calling, remember when we spoke, I said I was going to call you on Tuesday so that we can discuss blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you can see that that is how advancements are built. At the last conversation, we agreed on this next step. So when I'm calling, I'm referring back to that next step. This is the intention for my call and they were moving the business forward, small, small,
small. So hello is the memory guy that he spoke to at the wedding fair. Small talk, small talk, small talk. So you remember I said I was going to call on Tuesday so that we can book a meeting, have a look at some samples, have a look at some albums, you know, trying to figure out what it is that you and your husband like. Exactly. So. Oh, yes, I remember. OK, cool. So you're a hobby. When are you guys free? What does your Friday look like?
And then, you know, we agree. I was. OK. Cool. No problem. Hope you don't mind. And when they text you a reminder or I'll buzz your reminder on Wednesday. Is that cool? Sure. No problem. We caught the phone. Now the next time I call, you can see it's not just random follow up. It's not a what's up? Have you been? I just thought about you guys, blah, blah, blah, you know, and all that fancy whatever. You'll be a matter of you know,
straight. I'm trying to gain an advancement. Hello. How have you been? Remember the last time that we spoke? We agreed we're going to have a meeting on Friday. Wednesday. Don't reach you. She was still on track. OK, cool. No problem. I'll text you guys. Another reminder Friday, 7:00 AM as I'm heading for the venue. So look forward to seeing you guys. Hail mom, say I'm popsy for me. I'll see you guys soon. End the call.
Excuse me. So you can see now everything is moving forward small, small, small. And this is how complex deals are one, one step at a time, 1 advancement at a time. So that is the mind frame that we need to have follow through. Follow through. Did we agree on something? The reason why I'm calling now is to follow through on this. So all those calls of I'm your boy, I'm loyal, I just seem I agree to you. Happy new Monday, happy new Sunday, happy new month.
Sending gospel passages and all of that. That is a very useless way of doing a follow up. And you're just annoying the other person because the person sees your number and quite frankly, they're like, OK, this guy again. And then next week they see your phone number, OK, this guy again. And you know, they don't know why you're bugging them. Like why are you sending me gospel passages? And why are you telling me happy new month?
You know, like, why are you sending me all these messages? That's what they're thinking. Like if I need your services, I'll call you. It's because you are just doing endless follow up. So today we're going to look at ways that we can follow up in quote. Remember, I prefer to say follow through. How we can follow up or follow through in ways that add value to the customer so that when they see you, when they hear your phone call or they see your ping game because you send message, it is something that they look forward to.
Or even if they don't look forward to, at the very least it's something that was valuable to them so that it increases the chances that they pick up your next call or that they respond to your next message. Now the example that I'm going to give, of course, is from my 3 Musketeers. And this was a call that Elsie made. Now Elsie called the guy who is moving into a who called for solar services and yeah, solar, solar installation, solar and inverter.
And you know, the conversation started because you have to ask people, you know, the house, number of bedroom, things like that. And then the guy said oh OK, I haven't moved in yet to I'm moving into a new four bedroom house and one room is going to be my office. We're going to do this thing at the end of the month and blah blah and so else. He said OK, no problem. End of the month and it's still far small say we can't talk again like 2 weeks.
I'll be The guy said sure, sure, sure, sure no problem. I really would like to know what you guys offer. I said OK, no problem, we'll be in touch. And then she also said that should be sending the guy WhatsApp message from time to time. And the guy said no problem, no problem. That's how they ended the call. So we assessed, we said OK, the call was OK. The the flow, the flow was cool. Rapport was, was all right. It seems like like an OK call.
Now. Of course, you, if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you know that for me, I prefer really specific, specific advancements. So I'm not really a fan of and let's talk again in two weeks. Me, I'm a fan of OK, you're not available to talk right now, OK, you say it's going to be two weeks. OK, so let me check my calendar. So that's looking like October 25th, 27th. Does that sound does that sound just about right?
OK, yeah, sure it does. All right. No, Ala no problem. And when I call you around that time, I'm hoping we should be able to discuss this and this or look at this and this. Do you think that's OK? You know, yes. And then we end it. So for me, I'm in favour of much more specific things like that. But of course, given the circumstance, you know, there's a limit to how specific can be. So I told her, no, it's all right, you try, you try.
Now The thing is this, when you spoken to somebody like this, the next point of call that was supposed to talk is 2 weeks. You cannot wait until two weeks before you boss that person again because people are busy, life goes on. That is the mistake that lots of Nigerian business people make. You called the person October 1st, you had a sweet conversation, the person said let's talk in two weeks time. Next thing you call him October 24th and you expect that the rapport will just be smooth.
You just pick up like life has moved on, the guy has forgotten you. So you need to look for ways to remain top of mind and that is what follow up or follow through as I prefer to put it. That is what this whole thing is about. So now the plan was, how are we going to bridge this gap for these two weeks? Because you'll be unrealistic that you spoke to this guy January 1st, you won't call him again until January 21st. Because if that's all you do,
very, very similar to the that two weeks, 3 weeks time, you're starting afresh again, basically because you say, oh, it's me now, who is me? My name is Chukudi. Now, sorry, which you could eat that guy now from the solar company. Oh, I'm sorry, I've been talking to three or four solar companies. You see, you're starting afresh. Excuse me. So let's make sure we're not starting afresh. Let's make sure we remain top of mind.
So I told her that all we're going to do now to keep in touch is we can't be doing regular standards. You know, the typical WhatsApp messaging that people send. You know, This is why solar is important for you. You know, standard messages, happy new month, you know, happy new week, all those sorts of things. Now I really add value. Like it's not you're not really staying on top of my top of my day and not really standing out.
So we have to look for ways that are value added. So as the most senior member of the team, I said, Rudy, I say, yes, Sir, it's OK. Now we need to come up with a plan. So I asked him now when people are in this situation, when they're about to move house from a solar perspective, like what is the main thing that somebody should be paying attention to? And I Rudolph said, that's easy. I said, OK, no problem. So what is it?
He said the first thing is that the person needs to be discussing with the electrical person in the new house to know whether they have trunking for electrical cables and pathways where you lay the system and then access to the house as OK, very good. I wrote that one down, trunking and cabling. Then number two, person also needs to check before they enter into the new house whether the distribution board that is that panel that has all those funny buttons on it so that if something is parking in the house, it will just trip off to prevent the house from Catching Fire.
So you have to check whether the distribution board has allowance for inverter or whether they will install new distribution board. I said correct, no problem. I wrote down on down check distribution board. Then the next thing he said also the person needs to think about proper ventilation where you're going to put the solar so that air can flow because if air is not flowing it will be a problem. He tried to explain it, but to be honest, I'm not technical so I still don't understand why an inverter needs a breeze to flow.
For those of you who understand why, you know, you can explain it to me again, but please in a very simple way because I'm non-technical. So anyway, you need to make sure that there's ventilation. So I wrote that one down ventilation. Then he said some people like to keep the system outside. I've been told that before, but me, I think it's a rubbish idea. I'm not going to pay all those millions of naira and then we'll now keep the system outside because of why I'll come back one day and see that neighborhood boys have just lifted all my batteries.
So you know when there's some people here, they put it outside. In fact one of my cousins, he puts his own outside, I don't even know why. So he said if it's going to be outside, you should not put it near the generator to prevent vibrations. So it's OK, no problem, I wrote it down. So now if you're counting, you can see that we have 4 ideas, electrical trunking and cabling, then distribution board, proper ventilation and then the outside conversation.
So, and I told the team that, OK, we have been able to come up with these four things now. So for somebody in this situation that is moving into a new house, value add means every single time you're in touch with this person, you're giving this person a valuable bit of information, some valuable Nuggets that they did not consider before moving, that kind of thing. That when you're calling the person, they'll pick your call because they know that every single time this guy calls or this babe calls, they're telling me something I didn't know before and something that is even me helping, helping me to set up this new house.
So I told them that's the scope. So next week when you call is like, what's up? I'm not babe called you last week. Yeah, I know I'm still not supposed to talk for another two weeks. But you know what I thought about a couple of things that you should consider whether you go with my own company or not as your packing house, there are some things you need to pay attention to just to make sure that when you're moving, moving is smooth and when you install your system installation is smooth.
So that's the reason why I'm calling you. Have a moment to talk. Oh yes, I do, right? No problem. So one thing you need to find out, talk to your landlord or talk to your electrical person over there. Did that person have solar before? Oh, I don't know. But you need to ask because we need to know whether they have laid trunking for solar before and what they have done for access to the roof. Because whether you go with my company or you go with another company, it is one thing you're going to have to do.
So it makes sense if you arrange these things before, before we get to that stage. The original job, like, oh, really? OK, thanks. Honestly, I did not know and I had not considered that. You see, you have given the person value and then you end that phone call, you say no problem, we're still talking about two weeks. Again, no problem, I'll be in touch. Then you kill it there. The next time you call again, one agenda again, that's when you now bring out the distribution panel thing.
And then what I even told the team is in that kind of thing. Now that you've called the second time and you've spoken to them about distribution panel, because every house has distribution panel, but not all houses have distribution panel that are suitable for solar. That is where you will now say you know what, these things are getting kind of technical. So like do you have an electrician, an electrical guy and say Oh yes, and just give me the guys phone number.
Let me be relating with the person so that we will sort out all these technical issues before we even get to that stage. Now not only are you becoming a valuable resource, you're now even assuming the sale. This is how people do assumptive closes small, small. You're doing something that assumes as if, and we're going to work together at the end of the day. So you can see you're adding value. You're now being assumptive as if the deal is your own.
So these things, they help, but you can see how you're calling this person to follow up. I don't like saying follow up or to follow through, but in a way that adds value so that even if the guys chilling and doing something else and the phone rings and say, oh, is that babe, don't pick the call because every single time they pick the call, you have something useful to say that is helping them to achieve their goal. That is to move into the house successfully and to set up the solar system successfully.
So this is how you add value to someone when you're considering follow up or follow through. The thing is just that it requires small creativity and it requires small knowledge. So like in this case, I could not have thought of all these ideas on my own. How can I? I'm not a solar expert and is the reason why subject matter expertise is very, very important. Brian Tracy says is the cornerstone of successful sales subject matter expertise.
You have to be the expert. You have to know what it is that you're doing. So I didn't know how to come up with these ideas, but I asked Rudolph. Rudolph gave the suggestions. We brainstorm with the team. We came up with four ideas and that is valuable follow up there. So need to think use your professional cap based on my knowledge. What this person is trying to achieve, the stage that they're at, what they're trying to do,
you know, what is the thing of value, you know, that they might need to know as they're walking down this step, walking down that step. When you follow up that way, instead of sending the guy message happy new week, you send him happy new week three times in a row. I mean like, I mean like, what of what value is that? Happy new week, happy new month? Or you send him generic message solar is important for you. I mean, of course the guy knows solar is important for him.
That's the reason why he reached out to your company in the 1st place. But if you do it like this, people look forward to your phone calls. Now a note of warning, I am not promising you that if you follow all this that you will close the deal. Remember, Brian Tracy also says that sales is also a matter of probabilities. We're trying to increase the probabilities in our favour, increase the odds in our favour. If you keep doing best practices like this, over time you increase the odds that you close more deal deals.
But it's not a guarantee that if you do this, that this particular deal will close. But still, it is a good thing that you should do. So First off, excuse me, realize that deals are closed, especially complex deals are closed one step at a time. Every single time you have an interaction with somebody, you should agree on what the next step should be. If you're in this case where it's not practical that you can't say what the next step will be.
But sure, you said we'll talk in like 2 weeks time after you get off the phone. You cannot let that two weeks to pass. If you let that two weeks pass, when you call the person, you'll be starting afresh because you say, oh, hi, is Elsie. I say El who? It says Elsie. We spoke two weeks ago. Yeah. I'm sorry, I can't remember. No, it's me now. I'm from Lagos, from the solar company or I'm sorry, but I've, I've been speaking to like, you know, 3 or 4 solar companies,
you know, I can't remember. So you can't wait for that two weeks to lap you now go and sit down and say lap lapse. You're not going to sit down and then you brainstorm using your professional cap. What are ways that I can keep in touch that will add value to this person until we have that final conversation. Then when you follow through all these things, like in this case we came up with four talking points, 4 talking points in two weeks.
Actually, it's not bad. That means you'll be calling the person like twice a week. You called again on Friday, Wednesday, you call him Friday, next week, Wednesday, you buzz him again next week, Friday. OK, no, that's too. It's too close. I mean, OK, let's say, let's say Tuesday and Friday, I call the guy Tuesday, call the guy Friday, next week, call the guy Tuesday, call the guy Friday. Then you now call him in the two weeks, you know, to have that big proposal conversation or the big money conversation that you've been having.
But in the time in between, you've been showing your expertise and you've been adding value so it increases the odds in our favor. So that's just it for today. Whether you've understood what I've said or I don't understand, decide today in your heart that you will never do. Follow up by saying happy new week, happy new month. It's been a while I've been thinking about you. Your boys are loyal, caught soap for me. What else?
You know all those useless follow up that you've been doing decide today that you never do that kind of follow up again again again because it adds no value to your customers. And I'm telling you they won't tell you, but I'm telling you some people are irritated by all these your follow up. Stop sending them gospel passages. Stop it. Yes, we want to convert everybody and we want to bring everybody over to Christ, but these, these know how, you know,
focus on the business. When you become friends with them, after you've been doing business for a while, you can now start talking spiritual things. I cannot ask them what's your work like with God? Or for now, stop all these sending people gospel passages every Sunday. You think you're moving the Kingdom of God forward? Yeah, you're not. You're annoying people. You're chasing them away from God and you're even chasing them away from your company, chasing them away from business.
So you, you're even making things worse for yourself, you're sending them away from God and you're make you're not allowing them to, to, to send send money to you. So please stop by that rubbish. That's not how you follow up. So that's it. And that is all for today. Remember if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.