The Power of Why: Discovering Serious Customers in Nigeria with Implication & Need-Payoff

Hello and welcome, my name is Tavi Shima Ayedi. I'm focused on solving sales and marketing challenges through business education. And I'm making today's recording outside because the kids are playing with the neighborhood kids. And anyway, I'm just hanging around. I want to make sure that they're not up to any shenanigans. So expect to hear some noise in the background. And if you're impressed with the podcast, please talk about it.

Let your friends and family members know in Nigeria and abroad so they can join us and benefit from the questions that we tackle over here. They can subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, you can SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, this is going to be a Part 3. This is something that I started 2 episodes ago where we've been talking about qualification and discovery frameworks.

Qualification and discovery just means how do we have conversations with our potential customers, our potential buyers, our potential clients? How do we try and figure out who is serious? How do you try and figure out who is the time waster? How do we try and figure out what it is that they need? You know, all of this is interesting, so I don't interesting. All of this is important because it helps us to give an accurate quote.

You know, let's not go and give an invoice and by the time you start the work, you realize that you underpriced yourself. And then it's also going to help you determine who to spend time with and how much time to spend time with. Because people who are just curious, really you don't need to spend 2-3 weeks with them. Like, OK, this person is just curious. Give them the information that they need and put them in a relationship nurturing sequence.

You send them emails once in a while and you send them text messages or send them WhatsApp messages once in a while just to remain top of mind so that by the time they have a serious need, they can now reach out to you again. And then you guys can start talking proper, proper. But then if you're talking to someone who looks like they have an urgent need, it looks like they have pepper, they have money, you know they're ready and is a serious customer, then you follow that person and be talking on a serious level and then try and close that deal.

So this is the reason why qualification and discovery frameworks are really important if this is your first time of listening to the show. I already introduced the rest of the community to spin selling and also to band selling. So listen to those two episodes, you get caught up to speed, you figure out what this whole qualification and discovery thing is about. And hopefully you'll you, you know, give it some hard thought and then maybe you can even use ChatGPT, Google Gemini or whatever it is that you have AI

tools and then come up with simple questions that you can incorporate into your own selling process. But you know, more on that in future episodes because the conversation that I've been having around conversation around qualification and discovery, I've been having them with shown LC and Rudolph, who are sales team, they sell solar solutions, inverter batteries, you know, all those sorts of stuff. So we actually did have a session where we used AI to try and generate some questions that we can use as part of conversation.

How do I put it now conversation starters, I'll be conversation fillers, you know, Sharad, the kind of question you can been asking people when you are having business conversations with them. So in the future episode, yes, we'll have that talk about IT. How I say ITAI, how we can incorporate AI, artificial intelligence into our sales process. So if I remember correctly, I think after I introduced you guys to Spin Selling, I said I

was going to talk about how we used it in particular with Rudolph. Now, Rudolph is the oldest member of the team and the reason why I introduced the team to Spin Selling was because it seems to be something that Rudolph and Elsie already seem to be doing natively. It's like that's their their default setting because there are lots of times that people are doing things and you don't realize that what you're doing is considered good sales practice.

But the reason why it's not as effective is because First off, you don't have the expertise to realize what you're even doing yourself. So you don't even know when you're doing it wrong and how you can do it right or how you can improve upon what you're doing. So I used, if this is your first time listening to the podcast and you think it's not making sense, don't worry. Just listen to the previous episode. I think that the example that I

used to illustrate spin selling in the last episode, it was either for weddings and events or weather for fashion. But you know, those be much more simpler examples to follow. So if you listen to this episode, you're not getting it. Just rewind. Listen to the episode that came before now when we were talking to when I was talking to the team, not talking to Rudolph, Shell and Elsie. I decided to use one example from Rudolph because we it's something we had just discussed during the class.

So I wanted the people to see, I wanted them to see live how some of them already doing spin. They just don't know that they're doing spin. So I said, Rudolph, that case that we're talking about now, refresh our memory. Just tell us what's up. And of course, I'm not going to go into any details because, you know, you know, Rudolph Show and they all go like they're my clients. So that is no problem. But their own clients, you know,

have not consented for their own matter to be discussed over the year. So I'm not going to say give any particular details. Basha, they're talking to a guy who interacted with one of their Facebook advertisements, the person who wants to have solar installed in the guy's country home in the eastern part of Nigeria. I won't say which part. The guy has a minimum budget of 10 million naira. Oh, I would love to have 10 million naira as a budget to do solar because Napa has been showing us Shaggy in this estate over here in Abuja.

So if I had a cool 10 million at least I use like between like 3 and five and put one small solar just to be managing my the three bedroom that I have here. Let me and my small family be managing. Do you mean 5 million? I'll just pocket it using and do other things. So anyway, I hope you guys can see why money is good. That's why I say we will chase this money and we will get this money and we must hammer. So the client has 10 million.

And after Rudolph had a conversation with the fellow, Rudolph's opinion was like, look, boss, based on what you want to hook up because it's two buildings, block of flats, Abby, 2 buildings, block of flats in the villa. Rudolph thinks a minimum of 15 mil is needed to do the job. The in that community in the east, they've been having serious Nepal problems and now it's just normal because at least in our community they get lives once in a while.

You know, in my father's village, there's no such thing as well, there is such a thing as Nepal because you, as you see the, the cable, sorry, one of the kids was just misbehaving outside. That's a problem with these neighborhood kids. They're just rough years, all of them. Anyway, where was I? So I said at least that guy now in his own village, the whole village is, is OK because at least they see like once in a while.

In my father's village, I've only seen NEPA there once, just once. And they think flash for like 5 minutes and then disappeared. So anytime we have to do anything in the villa, you have to budget for generator generator. So in our community, they had installed 2 Transformers and the Transformers were stolen. I mean that was normal, you know. Welcome to Niger. I'm in chocolates or village. Even when I was in Lagos and we used to live in Oba, those one community that was not far from us in Oba.

And I don't know how in the community of you know, you know, Lagos now as in everybody's always open about their people that are always there. Somehow people manage to steal a whole transformer. You just wake up one day, your transformer is not there again. When did it happen? Nobody knows. How did it happen? Nobody knows. Did you see anybody carrying trailer to come and live this thing? Nobody knows. Transformer just means.

So yeah, it happens. Transformer gets stolen. Where was I? So they had done Transformers 2 and they were stolen. And the guy has a generator for each of the buildings, but it's a country home. He's only there once in a year. So just the country estate, you know, you just come into the country, you know, go to the village and that whole Christmas New York festival, every, every, every, you know, just spend, spend a couple of, a couple of weeks there, maybe one month maximum.

So once Rudolph just told everybody and I said, OK, now you guys pay attention. This is how you guys have been using SPIN and this is the reason why I introduce you guys to SPIN. Now. The first part in the acronym S stands for situation questions. You always have to be asking situation questions. So definitely Rudolph started off the conversation by asking questions like, oh, what's up? Thank you very much for reaching out.

So you want to buy, you want to do so that what are you trying to achieve? You know, where is it? Where's the community, blah, blah, blah. So all of that, the situation questions, any of those what's up? I said, no, what's up? Like what's up? Like, oh, so what's up now? So like, what do you need? Or like how far any what's up conversation? Any how far, any how far conversation, any conversation around how can I help you?

You know, those are situational questions. We're just trying to figure out exactly what it is that is going on. So if you are talking to a client like this and you have all these kinds of details and you're in solar sales, it means you have already handled situation because we already know what the situation is. We know who this guy is, we know what he's trying to achieve. Now, problem questions are where you now start asking particulars.

Now, the reason why I was saying that Rudolph and LC already do problem questions is because they already asked the kind of questions that give us this kind of detail. They get one solar for two buildings, how many rooms? What is he trying to carry generator? What is generator capacity? You know, what are the problems that they've tried, what are the things that they've tried to solve the power situation in that community before?

So those very, very narrow and particular questions, those are the problem questions. They give you a scope of what the problem is. And we should all be asking these questions. Whether you're an architect, whether you're a wedding photographer or whether you're an artist or whether you design websites, you have to be asking problem. But in fact, for those of you who design websites, you will say full, full and front stack,

back stack. This is where you guys mess up. You guys don't ask problem questions. Somebody will come and say I want a website. You will say, OK, my child is 550K per website. And then you start pricing Like what? You haven't asked the person any question. You need to ask the personal question. So what's up? Thank you very much for reaching out. OK, you want a website? Oh, that's cool. What line of business are you in?

Oh, OK, you're into retail. So that means that this website should have capabilities like this, like this for placing order for this and this and that. Oh, yes. OK, So what else do you need? What else do you need? Retail websites usually have these kinds of features. These kinds of features are you interested in this? Ain't no interested in that be having these conversations. It just amazes me how many of you full full stack front stack front and back end web developer, you know how you would like to call yourselves.

You collect money from somebody. You didn't ask all these questions there. At the end of the day, you start complaining that the client was unappreciative. Unappreciative how? The fault is your own. You didn't ask them what they need. You use your own idea to go and create a correct website and maybe objectively it's a correct website. It's just not the kind of website that they need. So you people in this digital space be asking problem questions before you collect money.

That's the reason why you will quarrel with a lot of your clients. You say that Nigerians are uneducated, They don't know about web three, they don't know about this, they don't know about that. No, the problem is not with the customer, the problem is with you. You didn't ask, you just assumed that Web 3 is raining in America, is raining in Australia is raining in whatever. So whatever you build should be Web 3 compliant crypto something, something you know top of.

Like just ask the person what they want and then give your professional recommendation. Yes, but at the end of the day, give the person what they want. So those are problem questions and you can see that the team already asking problem questions. Now the problem was that the team now especially Rudolph and Elsie, they're asking situation questions and they're asking problem questions, but they are not asking implication or need payoff questions.

Also, one moment the call's coming. I need to answer this. OK, sorry about that. I had to answer a call and then also had to settle quarrel amongst the kids. So yeah, so the problem for Rudolph and Elsie in particular also, I just wound up because their noise has been getting too much. I was going to get to me. Yeah. They're not asking implication and need pay off questions. And that's a problem because if you don't ask implication or need pay off questions, you have no idea whether you're talking to a serious customer or not.

So implication questions, those are the questions where you explore how bad is this problem and what would happen if a solution isn't implemented. So Rudolph in particular didn't have those conversations with these chief now. OK, chief, you know, nice idea. You know, blah, blah, blah. You already have two generators running. You know, you're only going to be here for one month of the year. Do you really need to hook up a 10 million naira solar solution?

Or is this something that you can just, was it something that you can just manage with these generators and then, you know, problem solved, especially since you have security guards on ground who can protect the generators. See, when you're selling complex solutions, that is a level that is the detail of question that you should be getting into because when you have these conversations, you now know whether this is a serious thing for the person or not.

And you'd also be able to understand what their motivations are because I told Rudolph and the rest of the team, if you asked Chief these kinds of questions, you now know whether for Chief this is a vanity project. And if it's a vanity project, then OK, just do whatever Chief says. Because some people are trying to get solar solutions because they're looking at you from a practical angle or from an economic angle. So for me, I'm just tired of never harassing me and my family.

So even though we have a better, I think it will make sense. Let's just add solar join. So I now know that I have Peace of Mind and you know me and NEPA, our quarrel is minimized. So I'm looking at it from a practical point of view. I'm looking at comfort. There's some other people who are making a financial decision about these sorts of things. Remember the episode where we talk about the value Trinity, physical, psychological,

financial. Those are what people are trying to get out of any single purchase that they make with you, your product or your service. They're trying to get a physical benefit, like for me, some comfort, you know, Peace of Mind, security. Or they're trying to get a financial benefit, like people who try to buy solar systems, like people who do data centres, betting companies, things like that. For them, it's financial. They don't want their systems to crash.

They don't want their systems to go offline because every single time Nepal misbehaves, they don't receive power for like 8 or 12 hours at a stretch. You know, computer shut down, you know, you lose data, it impinges on the customer experience, you know, those those sorts of things. So for those people it's a financial decision. So, you know, on and on. So but we need to be asking these sorts of questions. So he's then we'll know whether Chief is making a financial calculation.

And if Chief is, then we'll now know the OK at the end of the day we'll just stick to his generators because it's cheaper to just fuel 2 generators for one month in a year than to invest in the system or solar or 10 million that is going to be in villa all the time. And believe me, if you install a solar solution worth 10-15 million in the villa, you definitely need security on guard 247 because remember they have already stolen 2

Transformers so you don't want to drop 15 M only to now come during Christmas. I hear that armed robbers came and paid you people a visit and just lifted the whole thing. So we need to be asking implication questions then need payoff questions. They focus on the benefits of going ahead, you know, so those are, you know, where you ask chief, like, OK, so Chief, OK, we've been going back and forth on price and this and this and that and that.

So Chief, if you don't sort this thing out by Christmas this year, you know, like was like was, was that what happened? You know, not everybody can be as direct as me. So look for your own way because we are chief like that chief says. And if I don't do it this year, there's no problem now we'll just run generator in that case. You now know that the possibility of this deal closing this year is a 5050 something. It's not as if this thing will close by force by force because already we are in at the time of this recording.

Already we are in. Why are we yourself? We're in July, yes, July at the time of this recording. So you now know that what that is in my close this year or not might be a 5050 something. But you can see how by asking these kinds of questions, you're getting a sense of how serious is this problem? How serious is this person? Is there a painful need? Like do they need to go ahead now, now, now or is this something they can just relax and do later?

So that is the importance for asking implication and E payoff questions. So that's why I introduced the team to spin because Rudolph and Elsie, they already asked situation questions. What's up? How you doing? OK, You want to do solar by Sure, no problem. What's the situation with your house? OK, How many fridge do you have? How many AC? How many TV? OK. Do you want something that will power for 24 hours? Are we looking for 8 hours?

Are we looking for 12 hour coverage? OK, no problem. What do you have on ground? Do you already have battery on ground? Do you have solar before? Abby, you're trying to upgrade? See, all those are situation questions, problem questions. The problem now was that Rudolf and LC, they were not going deeper to not ask the implication questions and the need pair of questions. And quite frankly is when you ask implication and need pair of questions that you now get people into the frame of mind where they're ready to move action or you get the ammunition that you need to be able to ask people questions.

So that I'll put it, you'll be able to ask people questions so you get all the information that you need to put together a compelling sales pitch. Anyway, this is 20 minutes and I promise I was not going to do any more long episodes. I managed to do 15 minutes on the other one. This one has overshot, so let me just call this very close. So that's it. And that's all for this episode. Yeah, let me just leave it like that.

So remember, if you'd love to connect with me, then please call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.