Unlock High-Value Sales: The Ultimate Guide to Following Up with Wealthy Prospects

Hello and welcome to the show today. I'm not in an audio booth, so apologies for any interruptions that bleeds in through the microphones. Today I'm going to be looking at a question from Matthew McConaughey. Now this is not Matthew McConaughey the actor. I am just using the name of the actor as a code name to protect the identity of the fellow who called in on my radio show. And this is a call I received last week. So let's call him Matthew McConaughey.

Now, Matthew McConaughey is a real estate marketer who is based in Abuja and he has a problem. The problem is he approaches people who look wealthy, look like they're paid up. Skin is smooth, you know, Potbelly driving Jeep, you know, shoes is tight as in you know, people who look like they gather, like they have money and people take the flyer, but then the people never respond in follow up. So Matthew McConaughey, the real estate marketer in Abuja, wanted to know what are you supposed to do in these sorts of situations?

Now, it was a very brief call, so I couldn't do any back and forth. So I couldn't get more details because you know, there's lots of details. I wanted to know, by the way, if you're one of those people who's going to reach out not just on the radio show, but maybe reach out to me over on WhatsApp or reach out to me on LinkedIn. It'll be nice for us to exchange banter back and forth and answer a couple of my questions.

I'm not trying to be nosy, I'm just trying to get some more details because the more details I can get, you know, the better. Then I want to know how best to advise you guys on what to do next, You know, because I need to know a little bit about you, a little bit about your approach, a little bit about the prospect, the client that you are trying to address. Yeah, You know, things like that. I need to get a sense of what your sales processes, your sales framework.

These are the sort of things that are going to determine the kind of advice that I give you, But with limited information. We'll just go ahead and see how much help we can give to people who are in Matthew Mcconaughey's situation. So you real estate marketers in Abuja, listen up. Real estate marketers in Port Harcourt, listen up. Real estate marketers in Lagos, listen up. There might be one or two things that you can learn from here.

Now, before we proceed, let's see. Yeah, shout outs. So today, today shout out is going to go to the fellow. The individual just identified himself or herself as meaningful. That's the name on Spotify. And the person left a comment on the 7th of February 2025 and meaningful said that he or she loves the show. Thank you very much for liking the show. The meaningful also said that there's room for improvement And yes, I agree, there's always room for improvement because nobody is is perfect.

Although I'm not sure if meaningful meant, you know, aspire in general, all of us have room for improvement or whether there was room for improvement in the podcast. So meaningful. That's the reason why I give my contact details at the end of every single episode. So if you think that there are some shortcomings of the podcast or some advice that you want to give or some questions you want to ask, you reach me on 08064662140.

The country code is +234. That's for those of you who are not Nigerian. And then what's up? What else? You can connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishima IED. So I give my contact details all the time. So if you're like one of these folks, you know, who like Meaningful, think that there's stuff we can do to improve the podcast, then yeah, sure. Let me know. I'd love to hear from you guys. That's the whole point of leaving my contact details out there, leaving room to connect,

not just for people who want strategy sessions, business audits or to answer questions, but also, yeah, room for improvement. Then Meaningful is currently OK. Meaningful used to be a bank, a banker for over 2 decades and is currently into financial advisory and he or she leverages real estate. So because of that Meaningful, I think you might find some of my older episodes interesting, especially the episodes where I talk about consultative selling or selling like a doctor,

because those of us who sell professional services, that's the only way that we can sell really and build credibility in the build credibility along the way. So meaningful. Thank you very much for reaching out. Well, by the way, this is the reason why I say, you know, when you guys reach out, you know, drop something now, you know, like your LinkedIn handle, your Instagram handle, your business website, you know something because I'm also looking for ways to give back to the community.

So for those of you who reach out and who show me love, at the very least, you know, when I shout you guys out, at the very least I should be able to say, you know, follow the guys Instagram handle or check the baby website, you know, stuff like that. So when you reach out, you know, share the details apart from the shout out, let me know where you'd like me to send people to. And like I say, I always make shout outs every once in a while.

That's just because the podcast is growing in popularity now. I think on average like 40-50 people subscribing every week. That's on Spotify alone. That's the only way that I can get the status, the stats. And, you know, it's looking like every 90 days I'm adding about 1000 subscribers on Spotify alone. So, you know, with a few of you reaching out to say what's up and stuff like that, some of these things will fall through the cracks.

So if I haven't given you a shout out, it's not because I don't reach you. It's just, you know, things happen. So just send me a message. Sorry. Let me adjust the car seat. Sorry about that. So just send me a message. And yeah, shout you out and hopefully send people to your stuff so they can check out what it is that you do. All right, so the question for today from Matthew McConaughey, again, not his real name. I'm not using Matthew McConaughey because Matthew McConaughey is a very cool and very chill guy.

You like watching his movies. And Matthew, the real estate, the real estate marketer in Abuja is also a very chilled guy as well. So there's the problem now, like I said, Matthew, he approaches people that look wealthy, they take the flyer and they never respond when it comes to follow up. Now with limited information, this is the best that I can see. When people don't respond in follow up, it could be a sign of a couple of problems #1 it could be a sign that there's no want or there's no need.

So they don't want what it is that you sell. They don't need what it is that you sell. That's why people are not responding in follow up. Then another problem could be that they can't afford what it is that you have because the average Nigerian, either for modesty reasons or polite politeness reasons is not going to come out and say, look, I can't afford to buy this house or whatever. So the average Nigerian is being modest or being polite or being whatever it is, but don't come out and tell you that look, I

can't afford this thing. So we have to learn how to read in between the lines. Then sometimes there might be a want and a need and people can't afford it. But then there's no sense of urgency. I take down with you, for instance, who has all the money in Niger or the good chunk of the money in Niger. I doubt that right now he wants to buy another house because his business is expanding all across Africa and I'm sure he has a couple of cribs anyway, you know, one or two houses in Abuja, one or two in Kano, maybe one in, you know, pH, you know,

you know, houses around you. So I'm sure for him buying another house or buying another plot of land just is not on the table. So sometimes it's that. So if you're only into down with an downloaded in by your house, he's he's, he's ghosting you. He's not responding to the follow up. That could be one of the reasons he wants it. Then he thinks he needs it. He can afford it. But man, there's no sense of urgency right now because he's working on one or two things and maybe the money is better off spent somewhere.

But the bottom line is this, you're not going to be able to know what the problem is. Want, need, afford urgency. You won't know unless you engage people in conversation and you try to get to the root of what it is that is going on here. So some of the conversation points or some of the way that you can tackle this is when you roll up on people, I am trying to draw more business from them. The typical mistake at least in Abuja Shah for the real estate marketers that I've run into,

the typical mistake that you make is for some reason you guys, you roll up on someone and you just assume that the person can buy the property and that the person is going to take action today. And that's a very weird assumption because there are different kinds of business scenarios. There are simple business scenarios and they're complex business scenarios. For a simple business scenario, a person can take action right now.

And the example that I give on the podcast, I've been giving from day one self over the last five years is a Gucci. Somebody can decide whether they're going to buy a Gucci right here, right now. But then some situations are complex. Complex situations have high price. Of course, the product itself is complex. A certain measure of human relationship is needed to close the deal, and some of these deals take a long time.

For complex scenarios like that, don't expect somebody to just make the decision just like that. Now, let me give an example. Let me see, OK, I've used the Gucci. OK, let's say buying a car. Some people say no, buying a car is not a complex sale, but relatively speaking, a car is more complex than a Gucci. So let me just use that now. So a Gucci you can roll up on somebody and say Bros buy my Gucci and the person can buy now or not.

When it comes to buying a car, cars are expensive. That is several million. So who's just going to drop several million just like that? Then? Cars are complex, lots of moving parts. So the person even wants to figure out, OK, this car looks OK. Is it brand new? Is it accidental? OK, second hand, which kind of second hand? Is it fairly used Niger or is it fairly used Switzerland or is it fairly used America? What is the mileage on this thing?

OK, the car is accidented. Where was the accident? War was affected. Do you have proper title? Did you bring it in through Lagos or bring it in through Kotanu? And have the import duties been paid? You know, all these sorts of questions now become important. You can see the complexity of the thing that is involved Now. Then, of course, like I said, some of these things now by necessity involve a certain measure of relationship.

Because you're going to drop some serious bar, drop some millions on a car. At the very least, if there's a problem, you ought to be able to know where you can go and Jack the person you want to, you know, feel the person out. Is this person? Is this person trustworthy? Is this person a con man? Is this person a con woman? You know, can I trust this person? You know this personal dynamics coming relationship comes in because of course it's big money and this is some nice complex,

you know to avoid situations that touch so they don't drop maybe 50 M or what do you think is a correct Mercedes-Benz? And then in week 1 within breaks down 6 times and he now can find the guy who sold you the car and then you know there's fire on the mountain and because of the complexity that is involved and the money and the need for the relationship, there are just some things complex hill scenarios that will take time to close.

So for a go see the guy come by now like OK, Oh yeah, sure, no problem. How much your Gucci. OK, it's 4000 naira cop give me 3 cops. Maybe wife has been harassing him at home. Now look, we need to make sure. So OK, give me 3 cops then. But for the car, it's going to take a long time. The person is going to want to come and look at the car, maybe do test drive. Maybe next time come back with wifey or come back with girlfriend.

So you know they can have a look at the car. Maybe come back with their brother and have a look at the car. Maybe even come back again with a friend who works in customs so that they can look at the import papers that you have for the car. Really, it's not something that's just going to happen in two or three days. So for a Gucci, yeah, buy on the spot. But for a car, maybe two weeks, 3 weeks to buy the car, I don't know.

It's been a while since I bought a car, so I don't know. But I hope you're beginning to get Matthew McConaughey and those of you who are real estate marketers in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kano, wherever it is you are. And sometimes your expectations are not, not, not pure, they're not realistic. The fact that I think you roll up on somebody now and the person will make a decision today, it's, it's a little too naive.

So you guys need to scale back your expectations because you're not in a simple sales scenario, you are in a complex sales scenario. So you need to be calming things down. You need to calm down, calm down your expectations. So instead of rolling up on people and trying to get them to buy your property, because there's some people that have just approached me like that in traffic or maybe I'm just waiting to pick up wifey or the kids.

And then, you know, they just approach when they assume that I'm just going to make a decision then and there to come to the office or to go and see the plot or something. We need to have softer conversations to try and figure out if people want or need or are interested in the 1st place. So if this is your first time listening to the podcast, well, I mean, for those of you who've been listening before, you're not surprised by this.

But this is your first time listening to the podcast, you know, Then poker up. Well, no, not poker. Perk. Yeah, perk your ears up and listen. So the conversation here should not, should not be trying to get the person to make a decision. The conversation should be, are you in the market for or have you considered those sorts of things, you know, opening up the conversation. So boss, I hear you, blah, blah, blah. Are you in the are you in the market for real estate right now?

Are you in the market for a house right now? Boss, have you considered buying land as an investment? OK, yeah, let's let's let's start like that. Hey, boss, are you there? I agree to you, boss, have you considered land as an investment before? That's not a bad way to start the conversation. If somebody says, Oh no, I'm not interested, this is not the person to follow up with. Because you've started you, you, you've tried to open up the conversation with a simple question that can probe whether they want, they need or they're interested.

And the person I said they're not interested, this is not the person to follow up with. If they take your fire, fine. But trust me, this is not the best thing to follow up with. Sales is hard. Make it easier on yourself by looking for people who at least have claimed that they're interested. In those cases, you know that you stand the short. Some people might say I'm interested, but now is not the right time. OK, no problem.

Drop your flower. You can get their contact details. You put them into relationship nurturing sequences once in a while, you send them messages about promos, discounts on pieces of land that you guys have, maybe educating articles from CNN or maybe Channels News or something on how property prices in Abuja make it an ideal investment, you know, vehicle or something like that. But anyway, you get my point. So you should be starting off the interaction with these people, trying to figure out what they want, what they need,

or are they interested and you're going to do it by having simple conversational openers. So like in this case, have you considered buying property in Abuja as an investment? That's not a bad way to start. If you go to somebody's office and you're meeting them for the first time, maybe you enter GTB because your guy currently works in GTB. So you enter inside, you pretend that you're going to talk to Kule. You sit at Kule's desk for a while and then you talk later locally.

I'm actually here to market my whatever. Also like who do you think I can talk to here? Then Coolie says, well, and these people don't cashiers over there. They don't have money, but Madam bases are maybe you go and talk to Madam Busy when you're going to Madam BC's office. You don't start doing a hard close to try and get her to decide on something today because she's the branch manager and because she's branch manager, I mean she has money.

You go in there, pleasantry, small talk, introduce yourself. And so by the way, not to take up much of your time, Madam BC, have you considered buying landed property in Abuja as a form of diversified, diversifying your investments? You know, something just, you know, general conversation open. Have you thought of buying land? I can't remember how I crouched it, how I couched it. Have you thought of buying land as a as an investment before?

You know, so I just started the conversation on, on that kind of, on that kind of note. Then eventually all those who are real estate marketers like Matthew McConaughey, eventually you have to move to the afford part. And so you have to have conversations where you give a price range and then get some feedback. So you're talking to Madam BC. Eventually you have to get to the point where you say, oh, Madam BC by the way, most of the properties that we have, if you come through XYZ real estate marketers cost within the prices of 12 million to 8 million as a deposit.

Is that the kind of investment that right now you would be willing to make? And then you keep quiet and then you hear if she says 8 million, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't have that level of disposable income. Something, something, something, blah, blah, blah. You're beginning to get a feeler of, of, of, of where she's at right now. Well, she says, OK, eight million, 12,000,012 is on the high side.

But, and it depends, it depends on what you people have and it depends on where it is. You now know that, OK, there is room. It doesn't mean that the deal will close, but it shows that there is room. So we also have to get to this afford conversation pretty early. And you do that not by giving a price, but by giving a range and then getting some feedback. Is this something that you can afford? This is what you're willing to invest in?

How does that sound with you? Are we in the same ballpark? What do you think about that? Hell, you can do this thing that one able guy did to me recently. The guy gave the price and I said it's cheap happy. That's also another way of getting feedback. He said the thing and then he said it's cheap happy. And then I laughed. And then of course, the conversation continued. But you see the point? He gave the price and then he now tried to elicit feedback.

Some of you will give the price and then keep quiet. The other person will say, OK, OK, OK, thank you very much. Just e-mail it to me or send me the invoice on WhatsApp and I'll get back to you. I'll get back to you later or let me think about it. But the EBO guy did not wait for me to think about it or whatever. He asked for feedback on the spot. He said the price and he said, boss, it's cheap at me. So you give the range, you ask for feedback if somebody is not sure or rather so excuse me,

still have a cold and all that. So if it looks like expectations around money budget, if it's like you're not sure, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe this is not something that you follow up with aggressively. So the person who says yes, that's reasonable or well, we can make it work depending on what you have. Those people in here you can follow up on. If you're not getting good signals, then you're not following up aggressively on this person.

Then we also have to move into the urgency thing because if someone has the money, I think it's a good idea, but there's no sense of urgency, then there's no point in following up. So, so excuse me. Anyway, don't worry, I took my meds today. So hopefully for tomorrow's episode, my airwaves and sinuses should be clear. Let's see. So this is the part of the conversation now where for you real estate people you start asking more specific and narrow questions.

That is what gives you an idea of whether this person has a sense of urgency or not. Like you say. Oh, OK, Madam Busy, which parts of town do you have in mind? If Madam Missy says, well, well, Abuja and maybe not Guaguada, maybe not Maraba, well, well, well, you know, does that sound like someone who has a sense of urgency? No, think about it. But if you ask the person which part of town you're considering and the person says, I've looked at Guaguada and I've gone to carry more.

I've also looked at areas in municipal, but I think the property prices in Maitama are too high. That kind of person, that sounds like someone who's ready to take action. The person has even done small research stuff from the answer that they have given you. Now, doesn't this sound like a good candidate to follow up on? This is precisely the kind of person that you follow up on, 'cause this person means business. They have gone around.

They even tell you the places that they've gone. They've gone to war or ladder, they've gone to Caramel, they've gone to Central Area and they've gone into Metama and they think Metama is too high. In your mind, you should be taking note and maybe even making a note on your daughter because that will determine the kind of things that you show the person. The person has said I think Metama too high and the person says I think Metama is too high.

In the future, do you think it makes sense to start showing that person Metama properties? So things to be in mind. So these are ways that you tease out urgency. And you can see that we're doing this through conversation. Now, let's say Madam BC says she's interested, but she wants to build. It only makes sense that you can also ask like, oh, OK, so what's your time frame or how soon would you like to build? It's a reasonable question to ask.

No, you're not being too forward now. Madam BC answers by saying well, well, by the grace of God, you know, nobody's in control of anything but well, you know, if this and this and well anyway, God will you sure if like by 5 years I can be able to buy land or do groundbreaking ceremony. I think it's OK. Now if somebody's talking like that, does that person sound like there's a sense of urgency and that we're good to go?

Well, if the person answers, but I'm busy answers correctly. My last born is in university for a four year course abroad and that is currently taking up all my money. I would not be looking at any of these things until my last born graduates in 2029. I mean that's different now. You have a clear sense of a time frame. You have a sense of what this potential buyer, you have a sense of what their motivations are. It's also giving you a time frame, you know, on which you can follow up with this person because currently we're in 2025.

If she says her last born is in school as not finishing until 2029, obviously this is not somebody they're going to be following up with aggressively, you know, So these are the kinds of questions that you can be asking that get people to open up and then you get a sense of whether they have any sense of urgency. OK, It's simple oneself, you spoken, it looks like you're mad, I'm busy. You guys are being well and stuff like that.

It looks like when the expectations are on point, you can ask a simple question. So excuse me, you can ask mad I'm busy. When you want to start looking at properties and then you keep quiet. That's also not a bad way of gauging, gauging how you know the sense of urgency. If it says, oh, I'm swamped right now, we're having AGM something, something for the next three weeks, for the next three months, I'm busy. But like from April first, I

wouldn't mind seeing what it is that you people have, you know, now you've gotten a sense of whether it's a sense of urgency or not. You've gotten a sense of high availability or lack of availability, a time frame. You even now know how to start scheduling up because she's branch manager and it's supposed to be AGM. She's going to be very busy. AGM is going to finish. So, so, so she's going to be available for the next three months.

Now you know how to start scheduling follow, follow up with this person. But I guess the main thing that I'm trying to pass across is this, for those of you who are real estate marketers like Matthew McConaughey, realise that they're simple sales situations and complex sales situations. And real estate is one of those complex ones because real estate land is pricey, it's complex, there's going to need relationships to move things along, and it's going to take a long time to close.

So calm down while you are calm, especially the first time you meet the person, try and engage in some sorts of conversations to figure out whether they want or they need or they're interested. The next set of conversations you have will be over whether they can afford. Then you'll also try and get a sense of their urgency or timelines. That is what it is. That is going to determine who, most importantly to follow up with and then how you're going to follow up with them.

Don't follow up with everybody equally because some people are not interested. Some people don't have the money, some people have no sense of urgency. If you're trying to follow up with everybody equally, you're going to be very, very frustrated with people ghosting you. But if you try and have conversations with people early and try and make sure that you're only spending time with people who are worth spending time with, look, the the rate of rejection will always be higher.

There's no way you're going to close 100%. But life is life feels better, let me put it that way. It feels better when you're talking to 20 people and five of them it looks like, OK, you're making progress. Then when you're talking to 20 people and maybe one person, it feels like you're making progress. Six of them you're not even sure, and then ten of them barely respond to your messages. And then the remaining OK, how many is left now?

Six. The remaining 6, You suspect that maybe they have blocked you. That's what we're trying to aim for, to make sure that we're spending time and resources with people who looks like they are good candidates to be spending time with. So stop rolling up to people, real estate marketers, whether in Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt or Mogadishu, stop rolling up on people thinking they're going to make this decision today. Engage in conversations.

Are they interested? Can they afford? What are their goals? Is there any sense of urgency? If you do that, the journey will seem a whole lot easier. Now. Matthew McConaughey, Unfortunately, that's the best I can do for now because I didn't have any more context. So for those of you who are going to reach out, please, because when everybody reaches out, I send you guys the same set of questions on WhatsApp. The reason why I send those questions is because I'm not being nosy.

I need to know some context so that that will determine what it is that we're going to do next and the level of advice that we're going to give and the nature of engagement that you and I are going to have going forward. So, yeah. So that's it for today. If you'd love to connect strategy session, business audit or you have questions, then hit me up on WhatsApp. The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Then also connect with me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establish my IED.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.