When is the Best Time to Call a Client in Nigeria?

Lots of Nigerian business people, lots of Nigerian self-employed people, especially people who are newbies. You're just coming new into the space, have lots of anxiety over when is the right time, when is the most appropriate time to make business calls. So you have a conversation with a potential customer, a potential client and both of you agree that you are going to talk on a Monday. And of course, you guys didn't narrow down the time then lots of people just wake up on the Monday and start wondering, OK,

when should I call? Should I call at 7:30? Can I call at 8:30? Can I call at 9:30? If I call at 10:30, would that be too late? Or should I wait until when things start quieting down in the afternoon? Maybe 23330. So today's podcast episode is meant to address all these sorts of things. So excuse me now. The reason why this is what we're talking about today is because I'm currently one of the sales people for my client is currently in that whole conundrum myself.

So she's new on the job and I had a chat with her at 9:59. So let's just say that's 10 AM. And basically I was like, hey, what's up? How's the weekend? You know, Are you ready? Have you started cranking out those calls? And what she told me was that she's waiting for the appropriate time to call some clients and other people that she has unfinished business with. So we had to have that conversation. And I had to tell her that,

look, you know, in Niger, anytime from 9:00 AM for business calls is an appropriate time to call. So 730, yeah, that definitely would be too early except if you and the customer or the potential client agreed to it ahead of time. SO73830 now too early. But 9:00, it's a business call. That's not going to be any problem. So for most people, what I would recommend is that if it's a business call, anytime after 9:00 AM is good for business calls.

I repeat, as at the time of this recording in Nigeria, anytime after 9:00 AM is good for business calls because except if you're dealing with someone who is, who is in an MDA, you know, like Ministry of Finance and you know, all those places where you know, I don't want to bad mouth our civil servants. But you know that some of them, you know, 930 is just when they're getting into the office. So except if you're dealing with those sorts of people, you know,

like even 9:30 AM, they are already expected to be in the office. They are already expected to be at their desks. So for rest of us who are private and in corporate, 9 AMI think it's fine? I think it's fine. Me personally, I'm not asking you to try that, but me personally, 8:30 I'm OK with calling people 83845 I'm OK with doing that, but I'm not going to recommend that for you. But nine AMI mean this is Nigeria. Come on, 9 AM 930, everybody's expected to be alert at their desk, diligent and working.

So it was a business call. Feel confident and call anytime after 9:00 AM. My own recommendation is, you know, go drop the kids at school, watch Netflix, do whatever it is you need to do. But 9:00 AM sharp, you are at your desk, your phone is out, your pen and your paper are there so that you can make notes. As you are discussing with your potential customers and clients, start banging out those calls 9:00 AM sharp. Now, one way that we can get rid of this anxiety is when we learn how to secure advancements when we're having conversations with people.

Now, an advancement is just a mutually agreed next course of action. It just means if I'm having a conversation with someone, we agree on what it is that we are going to do next. So let's say me and Uncle Tony, that's Tony Illumelu. Let's say me and him. Eventually we'll become friends, as we will be. And so we're working on one or two deals together. If I'm talking about Uncle Tony today, because today is a Monday as at the date of this recording.

And we agree that we're going to talk by the end of the week now, because Uncle Tony to Estonia Lumelu, by the way, he's not my uncle. So because Uncle Tony now is a billionaire and you know, a very busy guy, I know that he means well when he says end of the week. But The thing is, end of the week is too vague. End of the week can be Thursday, end of the week can be Friday, end of the week can be Saturday or Sunday. So when I'm having the conversation with Uncle Tony, I

want to narrow it down. Say end of the week. It's OK, no problem Uncle Tony. So you say end of the week. That means like I don't like I'm Friday morning, Abby. So if Friday morning doesn't work with him, Uncle Tony will say no. Now Friday, I'm going to be having a meeting with the president. How about we talk Saturday morning instead? Now it's OK, no problem. Saturday morning you normally gym around that time might be.

And then, you know, we'll probably laugh about it or something because I think I saw one of his Instagram post a while ago, you know, him working out on a Saturday. So they're working out on, you know, gym time Saturday morning, Abby, you know, small talk, blah, blah, blah. Okay, in that case, how about we talk maybe around noon? And then he says, okay, no noon, my grandchildren are coming over, let's talk. 2:00 PM Okay,

no problem. 2:00 PM Uncle Tony. So I will call you at the end of the week, 2:00 PM Saturday. Sure, That's OK. We'll say yeah, OK. So in that case, Uncle Tony, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to send you a text message the day before just to confirm that you're done with the president and you're back in Lagos so that we can talk. And then he will say, yeah, Tavish Amanda school. And then we'll end the call. Now in this case, because I have secured an advancement and because the advancement is fairly, in fact not fairly, it is very specific for Saturday at 2:00 PM.

Now I know that confidently Saturday 2 PMI can call knowing that I am not a bother. Even if I catch him at an inopportune time, he is the one who gave me the time. So it wouldn't be out of place for him to take the call. And then we try to reschedule. So another way of removing this anxieties just for you to secure advancements ahead of time and be as specific as possible. So don't agree on end of the week and don't just say oh Monday morning because Monday morning can be 839101030111130.

All of those times are Monday morning. So when somebody says oh call me Monday morning, you're so fantastic. No problem. Monday morning I'm usually at my desk by 9. Is that cool for you? You ask the person, the person was 9 K9, I'll be in traffic. Let's talk 1130. Now you will know that. OK. For this person, Monday morning means 1130. So summary, what I'm trying to say is anytime after 9:00 AM is good for business calls in Nigeria from Monday until Friday.

Now for me, I make business calls on a Saturday. I'm not going to recommend that you should do the same, but I'm comfortable doing that. So for me, I think in terms of Monday to Saturday, but if that's little too much for you, Monday to Friday, anytime from 9:00 AM. So secure advancements so that you know exactly when to call people. Then also there are some people who after you talk with them for a certain while, you just get to know their habits.

And so you will now know when it is a good time to call for this particular person. So for instance, let's say because Uncle Tony, Tony Olumelu, again, he's not my uncle, let's say because he's a billionaire and me and him are friends, By the way, we're not friends. I'm just, you know, I'm manifesting. So let's say I call him a few times and I just realized that, oh, it's like for Uncle Tony, Saturday at 2:00 PM seems to be his thing.

So even on days when I've not secured an advancement, I can have a reasonable hope to call at Saturday at 2:00 because based on our previous interactions, it looks as if Uncle Tony, it's kind of like a Saturday, 2:00 PM person for business calls. So yeah, call anytime after 9:00 AM, secure advancements. So you don't have to do too much of A guessing game. But then there are some people that you have call them from time to time, you know their habits.

And so you kind of know when is a good time to call. Well, by the way, before I hop off today's recording, there are some exceptions to this 9:00 AM rule and these exceptions are industry specific. Now for those of you who are trying to sell into the construction space now when you're trying to call architect, engineer, blah, blah, blah, those kinds of people who are on site. Oh, by the way, I heard this first on a, on an American podcast, one of those American contracting podcasts.

I can't remember anyway, but there's someone who objected to the 9:00 AM thing because he, he found out that because he sells to people engineers who are on site because for health and safety reasons, I think you're not supposed to have mobile phones on site, you know, saying it's not causing distractions. So he was able to call people 4-5. That's why he was able to catch people 4-5 at night or very, very, very in the morning before, you know, sites work supposed to start at around 839,

but he preferred the evenings. And I've heard from a couple of people that in Nigeria, the same thing, that same thing applies. Now, I don't know this for sure. It is just gist that I have heard. So industry specific, if you're selling into construction, if you're trying to reach an architect, if you're trying to reach a site engineer, you're trying to reach a foreman, and the person is on site from Monday all the way through to Saturdays, then it might make sense that if you want to call this person for business calls,

you call the person after four or five in the evening when things have wound down at the site. So if you're sorry, excuse me. So you're settling into construction then weekends or late in the evenings. Now there are some of my past clients that's back when I was in the event space, some of my past clients who are pharmaceutical reps, Those are people who sell medicines, treatments, you know, all kinds of things to to doctors and hospitals and things like that.

So I have two of them in part in particular. Now for those people in Nigeria, I'm not sure how it operates in, you know, different parts of the world to try and get doctors. If you're trying to sell to a doctor, trying to sell to a hospital and you're trying to call them during regular working hours, it is almost impossible to reach them because they are #1 talking with clients #2 they're in surgery #3 they're doing hospital rounds, you know,

different kinds of stuff. So it's hard to reach doctors during regular working hours. So if you sell to doctors and you're trying to call doctor, so, so, so, So who is the head of Pediatrics and you're calling at 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM or 11:00 or 12:00, you might be wasting their time. So if you know how to target their launch hours, which is really, really hard, then you know, call during launch, launch hours. But I have found at least from the two clients of mine who are in the pharmaceutical space is that they either target what's it called, surgeries, ward visits, or they target end of the day.

So there's one of my clients who sells, what are they called? Forgive me, I don't know the technical terms, but some things that you use in in surgeries, you know, like some tools in surgeries or disinfectants and you know, things like that. So the time to catch the doctor is if you are at the hospital as they are prepping for surgery and you have one or two of these things that the doctor can test while they are in, you know, can actually use for the surgical procedure.

So basically you will accompany Dr. into surgery or you catch doctor after surgery. Then there was one of my clients that when I went to see a cardiologist, in fact, that's how I knew that she was a pharmaceutical Rep because you know, we didn't we just didn't talk about work. So I was there to see the cardiologist and lo and behold, as the cardiologist was doing his consulting, she was there as a pharmaceutical Rep so that as the doctor was making prescriptions and diagnosis and stuff like that, she'll be able to, you know, call the doctor outside for a small Tetra Tetra,

Oh, doctor, in this particular case, our medicine can help our, this can help our, that can help. So these are some industry specific timelines. If you're trying to sell to doctors and head of medical practices, trying to call them at 9:00 AM, maybe that thing is not going to work. Trying to accompany them on their surgeries or their consultations. You know, if you build that level of trust, that's a good deal. If not, just try and target them after working hours when they're done with the surgeries, with the consultations, with the every every.

Then if you're trying to sell into schools, you're trying to talk to teachers, you're trying to talk to head of admin, trying to call them from 9:00 AM. Anything between 9:00 and 2:00 is not a good idea because they're busy with students, they're busy grading papers, they're busy with disciplinary work, you know, discipline students and you know, stuff like that. So for teachers, it's pretty much the same criteria. You want to catch a teacher,

make sure you're in school and make sure that you're going to be able to target the lunch time. OK, lunch time for teachers is a whole lot easier. So if you can be in the lobby, for instance, at lunch time at the receptionist, you put through a call and they're able to see the teacher. You know that works. Or you wait until after school hours when the teachers have access to their phones, then you call them. Some of you might wonder, why would I be calling teachers?

Well, because there's some things that you want to sell that you might need the help of a teacher. For instance, there's somebody that I do some work with from time to time. I won't exactly call her a client, but what she has is she has sort of this like tech incubation thing, but it's for children in primary school, especially children. So especially females age between I think 88 and 18 or something like that. So primary school into secondary school, like late secondary school.

So in order to sell that her program, to sell registration to her different services and things like that, she has to be talking directly with teachers who teach ICT information, ICT information communications technology, yes. So she has to be in touch with ICT teachers, she has to be in touch with teachers who are, or administrators who are in charge of the the IT department. Let's see who else. Again, I think she has found it useful to also talk to what are they called?

CS OS, That's chief security officer, chief security officers of the primary schools. Because sometimes she's not able to get any, you know, leg work inside. That's to talk to a teacher or principal. But if she's able to talk to the chief security officer and if she's able to get her profile, she now has permission to share her Flyers on the school campuses. So you can see that for some of you, that's some of the things that you sell that you might have to get in touch with teachers.

So this whole thing of 9:00 AM, anytime from 9:00 AM might not work for teachers. But summary, what I'm trying to say is you sell in Nigeria, when is the best time to call? The best time to call is anytime after 9:00 AM or whenever you and your potential contact agreed that you're going to talk to them. So you should be seeking advancements every single time that you are talking to people. Then there are some things you need to pay attention to the industry specific.

So for construction, 9:00 AM might not work. For doctors, 9:00 AM might not work. For teachers, 9:00 AM might not work. But when in doubt, ask your colleagues who are in a similar trade, who are in a similar business, and they will tell you that, oh, OK, to call our customers, to call our clients. This is the best time to call. That is the best time to call. But either way, you shouldn't be anxious about calling. Just make sure that you have a clear agenda, a care reason for why you're calling.

Because you want to make sure that when you call, your phone call is going to be valuable for the person who receives it. Because if your phone call is not a valuable call and people source out that look, every single time this guy calls me, every single time this lady calls me, it's not a valuable call. This person is a pest. Then they'll stop picking your calls. So just call anytime after 9:00 AM, Make sure it's a valuable call.

Have your agenda prepared. Just come up with a small outline. I always talk about the conversation outline on the podcast. Greeting, intention, question, proposal, close. So greeting, use the appropriate greeting that is customary in your industry and that is customary to your relationship or whatever. Now, the reason why I say appropriate and customary is because sometimes the appropriate greeting is good morning, Sir.

Sometimes the appropriate greeting is boss, how you do. Sometimes the appropriate greeting is Madame, your boys are loyal. So it doesn't always have to be good morning. It is appropriate to who the person is, what your relationship is, what industry is, what prior relationship that both of you have. So honestly, it's OK for you to call and say, ah, Madam, your boys are loyal. Even that is a good greeting. Then intention, you have to go straight into the reason why you're calling.

Don't waste people's time with happy new year, happy new month, happy Valentine, happy this, happy that. Going to the reason, Madam, your boys are loyal. Remember the one we spoke last week, we said this dot dot dot dot, that's your intention. So that's the reason why I'm calling. Then you ask Madam one or two questions based on her answer. That is how you'll be able to move to the next day, which is proposal. You'll put a proposal on the table for what both of you are about to do next.

Move the relationship of the deal forward. Then after that you will try to close. close just means getting the person to commit to taking that next step. So in this case, just like with the Uncle Tony example, if it's going to be another meeting, for instance, unless you're an architect, and so you and Madam are going to meet on the site, you narrow it down. So Madam says end of the week. You say, fine, no problem, End of the week is perfect.

But Madam Thursday, I'm busy. So end of the week, That means it has to be Friday. Saturday. Which one works for you? Yeah, Madam, I say, oh, I'll be on the road Friday. How about Saturday? OK, fine. No problem. Perfect, ma'am. So Saturday, what works for you? Morning or afternoon and I would say afternoon. And then you say oh, OK, so you're looking around that kind 2:00 PM and I would say no, now at 2:00 PM is still hot.

Now let's see like 5 and it's OK, no problem. We see at 5:00 on Saturday. Bye bye Ma. Now you see the reason why we have to be specific like this is because when Madam said afternoon, in your mind you're probably thinking anything between 12:00 and 3:00. But for Madam, she thinks 4-5 is still afternoon. So this is the reason we have to seek advancements. Sorry, this is the reason why we have to be very clear when we're trying to seek advancements and try to schedule appointments and things of that nature.

So that's it. And that is all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you're interested in the 15 minutes they'll audit, you can WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140. And if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, send me a WhatsApp message on the same message, the same message on the same number, and yeah, I'll hook you guys up.

So that's it. And that's all for today. I'll catch you all at the next episode.