Stop Taking Orders: How a Simple Sales Process Fixes Everything

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Aide. I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at home is a late night recording. So even though everybody's asleep, you're still going to hear some noise in the background. If you would love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Sorry about that. Now today on the podcast, oh boy, how am I going to call this now? OK, so today on the podcast,

we're going to review a LinkedIn article that might show you how most of your problems in business come about because you don't have a sales process, not because of some other business issues, or like in this case, not because of branding. So let me repeat today. What we're going to be looking at on the podcast is to show how a lot of your business problems come up precisely because you don't have a sales process. So if you don't even know what the sales process is, and that goes to prove my point because some of you are going to go through stuff in business, you will sit down, you try and troubleshoot, you try and brainstorm, you try to figure out what's going on and you will diagnose the problem to be something else.

Because you know, you have an Inquirium brand, you have this, you have that, but you won't realize that the route problem, the root cause is because you don't have a sales process. So let's get straight to the LinkedIn article. So this is the scenario for the LinkedIn article that I saw earlier today. So there was a design and branding professional. That's the person who wrote the article. So let's call her Caroline. So Caroline is the design professional.

She's one that wrote the article. Then there's Kemi, who is a client and the client is a business person. She's in the beauty and the skin care space. By the way, this is not their, these are not the real names. I just made these names up to protect their identity. So now we have remember we have two people. There's Caroline, she's a design and branding professional, and there's Kemi. Kemi is Carol's client and she's in the business of beauty and skin care.

So basically Cami said Caroline how far now And Caroline said I'm good this is it, I beg I'm doing some kind promo. Sure you designed something for me. And Caroline was like sure no problem, no holla what do you need? So that's how the conversation continued. So the client now Cami, when she saw the design, she was not to, you understand, she was not retrieved. And so she complained to Caroline that look, this thing is no good and that's why Caroline wrote the article.

Caroline basically said I did something for this my client and this babe corrected me sharply. At first I was angry, but excuse me. And I realized that what she did was actually was good and I was grateful. And that was the whole point of the article, that I did some work for my client. My client didn't like it. She corrected me and I am grateful that she corrected me. So that was the whole thrust of the article. And in that sense, it was very,

very good, very good for Caroline because most Nigerian business owners, most Nigerian service providers, most Nigerian entrepreneurs, we can be very defensive and open to feedback. You know, somebody says your pictures are OK, but you know, this particular photo or here I saw a pimple, you know, because I've been in this space, you know, begin the vex. Like, what the hell? Like what do they know about photography? I'm the photographer.

They don't know anything about it. You know, I start getting defensive. So excuse me. So they now start getting defensive and it happens. Or like you're a caterer, you gave it your all. And then the client said we saw her in the food, you know, you know, so I get an angle. How can you see here? All my people wear hairnet, I cook according to international specifications, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What to hell with these clients?

What do they know? So all of us, you know, we have that defensive streaking us. So it's always good when, excuse me, there's a Nigerian professional who you do something for a client, your client to correct you. And then you say, you know what, I'm glad that this person corrected me is good. So we should be open to feedback no matter the line of business that you're in. Also because this open posture, it leads to business growth.

If you're a customer, well, first of all, know this that most Nigerian customers won't even complain. So the person that complaints actually is doing you a favour. Let me repeat, you do business with 20 people in Nigeria and let's say 15 of them are angry with you. Most of them will keep quiet. They won't tell you anything. They'll tell other people that this babe doesn't no work but they won't tell you. So the fact that one or two people come forward to say something, tell them thank you.

Be grateful because I can assure you there are other people that did not say anything to your face but have been going around and telling all kinds of crap to people in your back, spoiling your business. So actually we should be grateful when somebody comes forward. So this is how this open posture is going to lead to business growth because when they tell you what's up, you now know how to correct, how to take dressing and how to grow your business.

It also is another good opportunity because especially for those of you who study CX, you know, customer experience, it's an opportunity to convert a negative experience into a +1. And figures have shown at least in the West, you know, North America and in the UK. So, and there's no reason to believe that it won't also apply in Nigeria. I'm sure that when somebody has a negative experience, was able to convert it into a positive experience, a lot of times that client now becomes a loyal customer for you.

And now would he wrap you around like, no, this girl, like she's a correct babe, she's a professional. So open posture when it comes to these kinds of things, taking correction from clients, taking criticisms from client, very, very good, very, very good. It's hard though, because me, I've been there when somebody who criticized my photos and in my mind I'm like, what do you know? Which kind of skill do you have? If you had the skill, will you be calling me?

So I know I've been there. We've all been there. So the humility and the growth, excuse me, you'll take time. So now some of you've been wondering that was this beef. Now why can't we call the brief Carol? Like what's going on? So this was the problem. Cami the client is in the beauty and skin care space. She needed Flyers for sales promo. Caroline designed the Flyers. But the problem was this as far as Cami the client was concerned.

And what this thing that you do? No too pure. No, too pure. Your designs are flawed. I didn't like it. So that was the quarrel. Now the design professional, Caroline, according to her article, she thinks that the problem was that the client or that chemi, the client, the client herself did not have brand strategy and the client herself did not have brand strategy. So in other words, she took dress, you know that year is good that the client spoke out,

but she was now saying that the problem was with the client, the problem was not with her. She now continued to talk. So Carol or Carol said is this client came in, she went to go and do photo shoot ahead of this campaign and for the photo shoot she did everything read. I ever saw the picture herself. You know, it was a deep set plunge. Everything red suit was red lipstick red, everything red, red, red deep plunge bra,

everything red. Save me to when I saw it, I was wondering is true self this client, you know, try because like I think you know, when you're working with a design person and you are walking towards the campaign, you know, you suppose let your guy know ahead of time or let your girl know ahead of time. OK, this is what we're doing, you know, blah, blah, blah, like you're supposed to last. So they declined when I took that kind of picture without consulting her.

Yes, it was it was bad, you know, I admit, but the problem is not that the client took the picture. I didn't consult her or that the client does not have brand strategy or that the client does not have brand identity. The problem is Caro, the design professional does not have a sales process and that is where things started to fall apart. Now what is a sales process? So excuse me, I've been talking a lot, had a couple of meetings today and then coaching sessions.

Then of course it's late at night. So I'm like, I'm tired. You just like I don't record this thing. Now I'll sleep, I wake up and I'll remember. So as I was a sales process, now the sales process is just a simple plan by the business owner has or a business has or a salesperson has for talking to any individual who comes across them. And the plan is we're trying to figure out what is it that this person needs. Also trying to figure out this problem that the person has.

How bad is this problem? Do you know how bad the problem is? So you can do some internal source searching, you know, to try and figure out OK, this problem that the person has. Do I have the skills to be able to hook this person up or do I have the assets to to help the client so that we can help them achieve, you know, what it is that they're looking for. The sales plan also helps you to come up with a proposal or a course of action.

So excuse me one moment. OK, sorry about that. I'm back. So yeah, I was in the middle of talking about what the sales process is. So just any plan to try and figure out who is this person that I'm talking to? What is it that they need? Can I come up with a proposal or a course of action on how we're going to deal with these clients needs, how we're going to remedy this situation. Then the sales plan also includes trying to make sure that the customer is happy or trying to make sure that the customer is happy because if they're happy, they will come back and do business with us again.

And then the plan also includes trying to figure out how to get referrals from them in the future. So you can see that lots of elements go into this thing that we call a sales plan. But you see that most Nigerian business owners, most sales people that was using idea, you just wake up and be freestanding. It's not as if they have a particular plan. If you sit down, if you see them downtown, where was the plan? They'll be looking at you somehow.

And that is one of the reactions that I get when I'm coaching people. I was OK, you know what this call that you want to call this customer now, where was the plan? There also people who look back at me and say what do you mean? What's the plan? I'm going to make a call like no, there has to be a plan. You can't just be, you just pick up your phone and say I'm going to call this customer. Like why? Like why are you calling the customer?

What's the overall sales plan? Now that we know the overall sales plan, what stage of the relationship are we at? What is the most appropriate call you should be making at this moment? What do you think the goal, the goal for this call should be? What kind of information do you need to elicit during this call and how's it going to factor into the overall proposal that you're going to give? At the end of the day, supposed to be a plan.

Unfortunately, lots of Nigerian business owners, service professionals, you ask them what's the plan? Like, trust me, this year I've asked, this year at least four people have said to me this year when I said like what's the plan? They'll say what do you mean? And I'm quoting them, They'll ask me what do you mean? So you need a plan. So if you have a process that answers all these questions, then you have a sales process.

If you have a sales process and you follow it as the framework for whatever you do in business, you will uncover a lot of problems or you will preempt. Is it preempt or you prevent? You will prevent a lot of problems in business. For example, the client can be because of course, Karu as a professional as she is advised camera that you say, you know what, we suppose investors on brand work first before we do this campaign.

But then the client came. We say, you know, I know we should, but I'm not ready to invest in branding yet. So shall make me anyhow. Shall let's just let's just do this thing. So, yeah, I admit it's not ideal if the client tells you this kind of thing. But and is where the big mistake happened. Caroline, our design professional designer, brand new professional, she assumed that she knew what the customer wanted. She just went based on the fact that this babe shot everything in red.

Blouse was red, plunging neckline was revealing red, red lipstick, everything red. So Carol now went to design everything in red. The design was all red on the design looked even we saw I saw the red design was like oh nice, very nice was very, very good. And then gave it to the client. But then guess what? The client saw the design and the client said I don't like it. Carol said why now say see this thing red, red, red, red.

This thing is reminding me of love. This is reminding me of Valentine's. This is reminding me of Christmas and that is not what I'm trying to evoke Now. Service professionals, are you listening? Can you see how quarrel starts? Because I say it time and time again. You have limited information. You go and make a design according to your best professional opinion. And of course your work is not bad because even we just saw the red design.

The red design was sweet, but whether we like it or not, what we have produced is not what the customer, what the client had in their mind. But because you don't have a sales process to even discover what the client is, is only thinking to try and figure out what's on the client's chest. This is how these quarrels begin and we can't keep blaming the clients to say it is the client that does not know what she wants. The problem is with you, the business owner, you, the sales professionals.

You don't have a process for figuring out what does this person want. So whenever you're making your professional recommendation, whenever you're making your design, you are just using idea. You the freestyle. When you freestyle, it is hit and miss. Sometimes you'll be on point, sometimes you won't. So the red design is sweet, but for the client, when she sees red, she thinks love, she thinks Valentine, and she thinks Christmas.

If you want to be going around saying that the problem is your clients, well, no problem. It's just that it won't help you when it needs to make money when one of them needs to be right. So what should have Carol Caroline, our design professional, what should she have done? I've been saying these things so many times on the podcast. Well, some of you, this is your first time listening, but for those of you who've been listening for a while, I'm sure you're tired of hearing me saying it.

But I will never be tired of saying it because it's fundamental to sales. It's fundamental to business. Cairo should have done qualification and discovery. That is a part of the sales process. When we're in conversation with someone where we're asking questions about them, the person and questions about the problem. When we do good qualification and discovery, when we ask questions about the person, questions about the problem,

we're going to get all the information that we need to design a good job, to do good work, to make a correct proposal, to make an appealing sales pitch. Also, most importantly, we'll get all the information that we need so we can price them accordingly. Because this thing also happens where somebody will come and say this is what I want. You say OK no problem, give me 250 K, the person was OK done, they'll transfer you 250K.

But by the time Queryl starts everything back and forth, you now realize that I collected 250K but level of work that I've given actually 750K. You would have known to charge the person 750K straight from the beginning if you asked the right questions that you needed to ask. So in this case, now let's stop talking too much grammar. Let's look for some concrete examples. What are the kind of questions that Carol Caroline, our design professional, should have asked?

By the way, remember, that's not her real name. I'm just, you know, making up names. First of all, she's have asked questions to try to understand the why. Why is this person coming to meet me? That's why for some of you, I say, look, sometimes the question is as simple as how can I help you today? Some of you say that's a stupid question. I'm a photographer, if somebody comes to meet me, obviously the person wants photography.

I know it sounds stupid, but please trust me on this one. For some of you, just simple, how can I help you? Today is not a bad way of opening up the conversation. I know it sounds stupid, but just give it a try. Trust me, if you're not that brief, no problem. The other things that Caro could have said, remember Cami, the client, she came because she's planning sales drive. Just use open-ended question. So Cami, tell me about this upcoming sales drive.

What is the main reason why you're launching it? And then keep quiet. Some of you say it's a stupid question that somebody who's planning sales drive, are they not looking for money? Yes, they're looking for money. But we need to know a couple of things about this campaign. We need to get Cami the clients to open up and to start talking the more she talks about the campaign. About the customer, about her goals, about her desires, about her wants, about was on her mind, the greater the chance they'll be able to design something sweet for her.

Not sweet for us. Because service professionals are the one that is sweet for us or appropriate for us is not always the thing that the client at the end of the day wants. So it's a simple question. Tell me about this upcoming sales drive. What's the main reason? What's the one thing you want a potential customer to think? What do you want your customers to feel when they see this new design? Ask questions, learn about the target audience because if you understand who this who the design is supposed to speak to,

you guess on kind ideas because there's some things that your client will tell you that you say. You know what? Based on who her audience is. I should not be using red in this design at all because these people will look at red and they'll think something. I mean think about it. For Chinese people, red is, is what's it called? Red is colour of progress and good luck. Well, in some contexts, red might mean danger. So you know, it depends.

What are you designing for? Are you designing for a Chinese person? Why are you designing for Nigerian people? You know all these Nollywood films here, the DBR's shrine is always red that is there now. OK, well, sometimes white. But you see it depends on who you're designing for. So ask me the client who is the primary audience for this campaign, who are you targeting? Can you describe him in a few words? I need to know who they are.

So I know how to design this thing because somebody who is designing campaign and they're trying to target Nigerian men between the ages of 60 and 75 is not the same kind of design you do if somebody's doing a campaign, but they're targeting the primary audience of Nigerian young women between the ages of 18 to 23. The colors will be different, the font will be different. Somebody can't just show up and say design this in show, no problem, I got you.

Then you now start designing like you got who you don't know what's up. Ask question first. Who's primary audience? How do your customers see you now? Or how do you want your customers to see you after this campaign? What do you think is the biggest problem or challenges that your customers, your target audience are facing? How do you want us to address it in this campaign? Ask, even though she says she doesn't want to do brand work,

still you can ask some questions you're trying to figure out, you know, like the kind brand identity that she has in mind or her vision. It's OK. Even though you don't want us to do brand work still. What would you say are the core values of your brand or your own personal core values? How does this factor into your business or how does all this fit into your long term strategy? This one is my favorite one. I've been asking since I was a photographer.

Can you share any example that I can see about brands you admire or about particular ideas or about particular aesthetics? I've always been asking that one since I was a photographer. The reason why I ask is because the client will show you some kind images and you, you know that this image, this is not my style, I'm not doing. And you know that you have to evade like around that time in, in Niger, there was this time when, so it was almost like, it was very brief.

But you know, there was a time when Nigerian brides were using dark lipstick looking almost like not, not noodle. I'm saying dark like almost blackish brown kind of colour. If it was traditional. I understand because I know that like from like some Fulani brides, I think like they use that kind of native kind of lipstick. But I trained didn't last for too long. And there's a friend of mine, Alexa was a makeup artist. So I asked Alexa on there say if somebody comes, I meet you and say this is the kind of lipstick that she wants to do that, will you do it?

Alexa said no. I said why? She said no, because I don't want my business to represent this kind of thing. See, but it's the reason why I ask somebody questions first. You don't ask this kind of question. You show up on that day, you bring red lipstick, you bring nude, you bring cream, you bring everything. You better say no. What we're going to do is we're going to do blackish brown. It is there that you will not be quarrelling with the client.

So that's why for me, I like asking that question. Any example that I can see, any visual collateral, I can see any screenshots, any whatever that you admiring, Let me see you see some kind of things, you know that you know what? This job is not for me. And then there's some things that you see, you say, based on what you show me. I have some fantastic ideas. We can try like this. We can try like this. So someone in Cairo's situation,

our designer Caroline should have been asking any visual example, any collateral, any something you've seen before, anything you designed before? Let's see, let me see what the theme looks like now by asking all these kinds of questions. In fact, this one reasons why I say we should do qualification and discovery. We will stop being order takers. Lots of you in your business, you're just order takers. Hello, how can I serve you?

What do you want? OK, no problem. Your cost is 450,000 naira and they deliver. That is just what they're taking. You're not adding value to that, to that situation at all, at all, at all at all. For those of us who are service providers, we should try to be strategic partners. This is the thing that makes people to recommend us to somebody else because we seem like we're a valuable resource. We're strategic partner. You will not come across as a strategic partner if all you do is just order taking.

If it is fast food restaurant, then sure, no problem. You can be an order taker. Yes, hello. Welcome to Auntie Andrew of you. What do you need we have on the menu here? There's Marmoid, there's a Gucci, there's, you know, there's how many rappers of a Gucci do you want? How many diseases? Your money is 8K5. Thank you very much. Please come back later. Supposed to be strategic partners here. By asking these kinds of questions, you're positioning yourself as an expert.

If you're a design specialist asking these kinds of questions, you're positioning yourself as a design professional. All the other people who are order takers who just say, who are you available? This is what I want to do. You now give them price sheets to select the package that they want. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're being an order taker. Ask some questions, engaging conversation first, like this, you get all the information that you need that will help you in your design process, your recommendation process.

So you can see that even though the client has not done any conscious brand work, it doesn't mean we still couldn't have gone ahead with this, this job as it was. So Carol, now Caroline, our design professional, was her solution. She now changed the design and she now made it a soft shade of brown and I won't lie, even the brown one too. I think the brown 1 sweet, the red one was sweet, the brown one was sweet. She made a soft shade of brown and she even did this thing that I marvel at you people who are Wizards when it comes to Photoshop.

She now changed the color of the suit of the lady during the shoot and I made the theme, you know, brown so that everything will now blend with the with the design. You Photoshop people, you are wonderful. And the result was now the client was happy. However, there's a bigger question because the client is happy. Now, remember, this design is for sales. What sales drive? Does it mean that the flyer is going to deliver results for the sales campaign?

Anyway, let's wait and see. But The thing is, if you don't engage in qualification and discovery, trust me, you don't have all the information that you need to execute an effective campaign. That you design something that you like and add a client like that is good, does not mean that the thing will be effective. If you didn't ask all the questions, you don't have all the ammunition that you need. And it's been 30 minutes.

So let me just wrap it up here. And then besides, I'm tired with late night recording. So this is not just for design people though there are other Nigerian service professionals who need this kind of thinking. If you are a lawyer, you need this kind of thinking. Somebody will come and meet you. And especially in Niger, you think, yes, we need to go to court. But if you sat down and you ask the person some correct questions, you might realize that oh, in this case, what we actually need is.

So excuse me, you now realize that look, in this case, what this person actually needs is maybe they need you to first of all write a letter, cease and deceased. Then maybe from there you now swing into settlement, you know, mediation or something like that. But you know, unless you try to understand what the customer is going after, what their ultimate goal is. And it's one problem that I had when I was in legal practice and it's more thing caught, caught,

caught, caught. Yes, based on our training when we were in university, that's the first thing we will always think of. Somebody comes, the first thing we'll think of is let's go to God. Well, ask the person questions first. I'm trying to figure out where they're coming from, where they're heading to what they're trying to achieve. So lawyers, you will need this kind of thinking. Consultants, you need this kind of thinking too, but they're in the management field, in human resources, in IT.

Like I remember very early when in undergraduate studies, we had a consultant coming to talk to us on a couple of things in the law student body. And then next in the consultant started doing SWOT analysis. I say from where to where? Sort analysis, just a tool, but for some reason, management consultant, anytime you enter in the organization, you will just bring out SWOT analysis like you like. What are you sorting? Come and talk to people 1st and figure out what's going on in the organization.

But the default Nigerian thing is any management consultant that enters your office, the first thing they will do is they'll bring chat. NASA doing SWOTT analysis, strengths, weakness, opportunities, threat. Yes, that is what they taught you people when you were studying business management university. It does not mean that every single person that you have to come and talk to, you must be doing SWOT analysis. Those of you in HR, those of you in IT, all of you consultants sit down with somebody 1st and have a conversation with the person before you come up with a plan.

As a consultant, my say coma implement software. But by the time you do discovery, you ask them questions, you realize that is not really software implementation as the problem, that maybe it is the team's structure. Maybe the team structure is dysfunctional. There are some rules that they don't have. That is why implementation, implementation is a problem. Ask questions. Those of you who are coaches ask questions. Some may come and approach you.

Your fitness court, don't coach, don't want to lose weight, and you're just helping them lose weight. But if you ask questions, you might figure out that, you know, the guy just wants to feel as if, like he just wants more energy when he's playing with his children. Yeah. Password. That's why I know. Or maybe they're coming for school reunion. They just want to look in shape or the baby is getting married in six months time.

In fact, for those of you who have fitness coaches, you know the wedding oneself. That's the one that is even even the best. If you ask and you realize that oh, for her weight loss is not really the go per SE, but she just wants to stay on her wedding day. You will even know how to design a good program for the bride that will help her snatch, you know, Tommy flat, the one that needs to protrude the protrude, the one that needs to retreat.

We retreat you jaws, you understand. But when you ask the question that you'll be able to deliver the appropriate program because if you don't say, oh, your goal is you want to lose weight. OK, how many KG do you want to use? 20 KG And then you help the bride be help the lady and she loses 25 KG with even 5 KG more but still she's not happy. She doesn't recommend you. You now be saying Nigerian customers, they don't know what they want.

The problem is not with the customer. You didn't ask questions, you didn't know what she was trying to achieve and because of that you didn't come up with a plan that helped her achieve what she wanted to achieve. So on paper, yes you achieved your goal. She told you 20 KG by next month you got her down to you got her to remove 25. But he didn't ask. And because he asked, even though on paper you achieved the right goal, still she was not happy because you didn't hit the spot.

You didn't know what what it was that she needs photographers and videographers. I am your brother, so I can speak directly to you people. I came from you, you should be asking questions like somebody that was angry that the person has for corporate shoot. They went and they give corporate shoot. Abby, by the end of the day, what the client had in mind was do I try to do some kind marketing campaigns? You know, The thing is the clients, they don't speak photography language.

So of course they came and say give us corporate shoot because, you know, how else are they going to describe it? But if you ask questions, I say, oh, you know what what you're talking about. Yeah, I know you called the corporate shoot. But to be honest, in the light of this campaign will planning, this is not the kind of photography that we should be doing. Because when we say corporate shoot, this is what we mean. You show them sample.

Those say, oh, no, no, no, no, this is not what I mean. Say hey, based on what you said, I think these are the kind of photos you mean you show them samples. Oh, yes, exactly. This is what we mean that is all will avoid those situations where somebody calls you for photo shoot on paper you deliver a good job, but in the client is still not happy. You didn't ask questions ask questions about the purpose of the shoot. What are we going to shoot this thing for?

If somebody just says come and shoot a picture of my of my father. You don't just show up an issue picture ask questions. Oh photo of your dad. All right, sure. No problem. Miss Popsy. So I've seen in town already. He's staying with you. OK, cool. Oh, by the way, what do you need the photo for? Oh, really? Popsy is 2075. Ah, you are blessed, my sister. You are blessed. How we thank God. Many more, many more years ahead.

Daddy will live to see the grandchildren and the great grandchildren. And what do you people have planned? Wood is going to be a party. You see, as they're talking, you're getting idea, idea, idea, idea for this photo shoot. You can be able to make some helpful recommendations. So by the time you come and you take picture, you deliver, they'll be over the moon. But as somebody who say come and take a picture of my father, you just show up with your roller banner, you roll it down, you just take picture like passport style.

You know, you do a good job with the best of your ability. Then they're angry and saying that junk customers don't know what they want. The problem is not the customer. You didn't you don't have a sales process. You didn't ask question architects, material designers, it's the same thing. See The thing is I can go on and on and on and on and on about how our service professionals, Nigerian service professionals, we need to have a sales process and a well thought out qualification and discovery process where we ask people questions to try and figure out who they are, what they want,

what they're trying to achieve, where they're running from, where they're running to. We need to ask is this process is important? I know I said, but let me repeat it again. One reason again why sales process is important is because if you don't have one, you come across as an order taker. What we're trying to do is we're trying to become a strategic partner. That is when people refer us. So if you implement the sales process, especially as a service professional, you prevent misunderstanding.

Lots of times misunderstanding, it's not because Nigerian clients are confused, it's because you, you didn't ask, you didn't know what they wanted. I asked questions upfront. You reduce the risk of quarrel in the future. It will also increase your value. When you understand the true problem, you can offer much more valuable solutions or suggestions. And when you get in the habit of doing that is the kind of thing that give you confidence to start attracting higher fees because you know yourself, you know the kind of results that you give people, the clients will now be happy.

So trust me, I know some of you will not agree. The problem is not with the client. The problem is not that the client is confused. OK, well, yes, there's some problem. Well, nobody's perfect. So yes, there's some problem with the client because after all, not all our clients in Nigeria and all of them have sense. But the big responsibility lies with us, your business owner, the service professional. We need to come up with the sales process.

We need to think about the quality of conversations that we're having and we need to think about the kind of information that we tease out from people before we put pen to paper to say, OK, I can do this job. I'm going to charge you 850K. All right, it's been 45 minutes, so let me bring today's episode to a close. So that's it. And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.