Why You Aren't Closing: Diagnosing Poor Sales Performance

Hello and welcome. Today's broadcast episode is going to be a three-part series and we're going to be looking at how to deal with poor performance in sales. So this is going to be targeted at people who are employees. So you have an auger, you have a Madam, you have a sales manager, you work under a founder and entrepreneur. So today's episode is for folks like you. So you're dealing with general poor performance in your career as a salesperson.

So excuse me then. Also, what to do when you have troublesome clients in particular? Now, before we continue, I'd like to crave your indulgence. Today's episode is going to be a noisy one because I'm making today's recording in the evening. And so, you know, the kids are home, wifey is home, everybody's home. So expect to hear some noise in the background because today I had a rough day. Real rough, you know, my jalopy started misbehaving and and it had to replace 2 tires and, you know, anyway, it was a long story, but we're not here to talk about my walls with my car and all that.

You guys are joining me in prayer so that, you know, before the end of the year I should be driving my brand new Jeep because I can't keep living this this gay whole lifestyle. OK, where was I? So yeah. So for sales people, now you work under somebody, you answer yes, Sir, you answer yes, Madam. And you're dealing with, you have general poor performance. You know, you've been selling for a while, two months, three months, four months.

You're trying, you're not hitting your quota. What's the problem? How do we diagnose what it is that is going on? And if you have some troublesome clients, especially troublesome clients who are trying to put the squeeze on you, you give them a quote. I it's too expensive. You give them discount, it's too expensive. You give another discount, it's too expensive. You give them another discount, they say it's too expensive.

So what do you do now? I'm sure you've been able to figure out that the issues that I involve man is multitude. As in it is lesion as in it is poor. It is plenty. That is the reason why I'm breaking down this episode into three because if I say want to tackle everything in one episode, this episode is going to last, I don't know, maybe 2 hours or so. So let's begin. The reason why we're doing this is because there's a listener of the podcast who has reached out to me.

We're going to call him Fresh Prince. Of course, Fresh Prince is not his real name, but I'm trying to preserve his identity. But of course, if you are listening to this podcast episode and you suspect that it is about you, then yes, it's about you, Fresh Prince. All right. So Fresh Prince is someone who is based in Lagos. He's been selling for a while with a new employer. They sell roofing sheets and he's been suffering from general poor performance for the last three months.

And he has one troublesome client in particular. Now, when it comes to diagnosing what's going on when you have poor performance, unfortunately it can't be any number of things. Now, remember, I regard myself as a doctor of sorts. I'm a doctor of businesses. And just like other doctors, when you go to see the doctor, the doctor has to ask you a couple of questions. And the reason why the doctor asks you a couple of questions is because the body is a system.

You know, there's the circulatory system, there's the muscular system, there's the lymphatic system, there's the what else, You know, all the different systems, the respiratory system, digestive system, you know, so all these systems working together. So when the doctor asks you questions, he's trying to tease apart which, you know, like where is the problem exactly? Where is it coming from? So we can now come up with a plan of attack and how to heal the person.

So it's the same thing. If you're going to approach me just like Fresh Prince did, and we're trying to figure out why is your performance poor? You know, unfortunately there are too many things that we can be that we have to look at now one way, one area that I like to look at is the area of targeting. Targeting just means, you know, who am I running after, Who am I chasing? Because we want to be sure that we're talking to quality prospects, quality people who might be interested in the product or the service or who need the product or service.

We want to be talking to people who are the ideal customer because there's no amount of talking to the wrong person that will make you end up getting a good deal out of it. Now, for those of you who listened to the podcast last week, you remember the episode where I spoke about one of my colleagues. That was back when I sold insurance and he and the line manager walked into the building and and they were accosted by the security guard.

And anyway, sure, the guy ended up getting into a conversation with the security guard over insurance products. And so the line manager when they go back to the office, well, not when they go back to the office at the next Monday meeting, decided to blast the guy in front of all of us. So some of you are suffering from poor performance because you're not, your targeting is off. In fact, some of you are not even targeting at all anybody where they breathe, anybody where they move.

You just say, OK, maybe this person might need it, maybe this person might need it, but no, that's not the case. So that give yourself roofing sheets, You know, you can't just be chasing every single Tom, Dick and Harry or every Sarah, Celestina and Shirley or whatever the female equivalent is. You have to be looking for people who match your ideal customer profile. So is this really going to fall into people you know, within a certain demographic?

I remember in Nigeria, as they taught us in social studies, when you say demographic, you mean general characteristics of a population or a group of people or a set of people you know, their age, their occupation, their sex, their, you know, whatever. So if you're selling roofing sheets or whatever it is you're selling, you're selling insurance, you're selling consulting services, you're selling architecture, there's,

you know, a certain demographic. Like if you're an architect, for instance, you know, I doubt your ICP is anybody who is under 20 years old because people who are under 20 years old, you know, do they hire an architect? Do they have enough money to build a house or to build a factory or to build a whatever? So you will find no matter your industry, like if you're an architect, you will find that your ideal customer is somebody of a certain age who live in certain kinds of places, who earn a certain amount of money.

All that is demographics. Then psychographics are, you know, stuff that people are interested in, you know, their hobbies, their passions, their interests, you know, stuff like that. So try and figure it out. If you sell roofing sheets, you sell architecture, you sell consulting services. If you're a sport sporting agent, a sport coach or whatever, figure it out. Who's your ideal customer. Now, one way that I tell people to try and figure this out is first of all, talk to the people who are senior in your organization.

You'd be surprised the number of people who join an organization and who do not consult with the senior people. So you come into an organization, excuse me, you're coming brand new. You've been selling for three months. There are people who are there who have been selling for three years, you suppose call them, say, Bros, senior Igbo, you know, whatever you call them. I have a chat. I'm new. I've been seeing you around.

I've heard good things about you. I admire you, Sir. I want to be a capable salesperson just like you are. I'm struggling. I beg. I have one or two questions. And then you start asking the person that, look, come. So when we're selling these things, who are the kind of people that we should even be chasing? Now the thing about salespeople is salespeople always like to pay forward. I, I don't even understand the psychology.

I don't know. But The thing is when you ask most salespeople, they will give you time and they will talk. I just don't know why salespeople would like to help ourselves. They will tell you. And when the seniors in the organization, when I say seniors now, I just mean people have been selling longer than you. By the time you talk to two or three people and then they break it down, OK, no, these are the people we go after.

These are the people we go after. These are the people we go after. This is how we go after them. I'm telling you, man, you'll make your job a whole lot easier because you coming in as a brand new person, you just their freestyle like you're just trying your luck. You will try try, try hustle, hustle. But the people who've been doing it for a while, one year, 2 years, three years, they'll give you the right perspective that no be going after these people,

these kind of people, they no get money. Well, if you go after these kind of people, this is how you do it. Once you see how I put it. Now, once you make sure that your targeting is on point and you're talking to the right people, you're trying to figure out quality prospects. You know the job will will improve, you will get better. Then another thing we're going to look at when we're trying to deal with this whole thing of poor performance is advancements.

Advancements is the dynamic between a buyer and a seller, where the seller, that is you, the salesperson, or you, the business person is able to get the other person to agree on a mutually beneficial next step. Advancement just means if I'm talking to somebody, I want to sell roofing sheets, I want to sell architectural services, I want to sell solar. If I'm able to get that a person to agree to a next step, that is an advancement.

Lots of you are talking to the right people, quality prospects much you're bad at setting advancements. You don't know how to get the person to commit to the next step, right. The problem is a lot of you don't even you don't have you don't map the trajectory in your head. You don't know how this thing is supposed to flow. Excuse me now, let me give you the example of back when I was in the wedding space, I liked talking to people.

So I preferred to go for wedding shows. Wedding shows, you know, bridal exhibition, you know, business Expos. I like to go in for those sorts of things. And this was how I mapped the thing in my head. You get there, lots of people are on the floor. So you go to mingle, you go to schmooze. That's Step 1. You talk to some interesting people. You will now pull them back to your table. From the people who get to your table, you will try and collect phone number or e-mail address.

From the phone number or the e-mail address that you collect after the event, you will call up a couple of people and you go try arrange meeting. From the meetings that you arrange, you will try to do what's it called people to look at samples. You look at albums, you look at photo frames, you look at this, you look at that. Then from there you will send some people proposal for the people that you send proposal or quotation.

You will now try and close those people. So can you see that when I was approaching those things in my mind I have already mapped it out in my head that this is how the thing will flow. A lot of you are trying to sell. You don't even have that mental map in your head, the trajectory, you don't even know how the thing flows now. If you're brand new, you've never sold this thing before. You've never sold roofing sheets before, No problem.

The confusion is perfectly normal. That's the reason why I say a lot of you talk to your senior. You come in, you've been there two months. If somebody has been there one year, talk to your senior. Your seniors don't want to talk to you. Talk to your line manager. These are legitimate questions. The organ line manager, I am struggling at the form anyhow. Who are the quality people we should be chasing? Oh, these are the people.

OK, OK. But then like normally, how do this deal normally flow? How does the thing flow? Like you ask the person, once you know that, OK, these are the kind of people we're chasing, and then in your mind, you now know that OK, this is how the team normally flow. You'll be able to package and I put it now you will to arrange yourself, well, when you're talking to somebody, you will know that, OK, this is the stage where I am.

This is the stage that I'm supposed to be moving them to. So remember what I said, advancements, 2 people mutually agree. This is the next step. So if I jam somebody on the floor and I said, oh, I hope you don't mind, I have a couple of samples at the table. Let's just come have a look. You see, I know now that we are on the floor, the next stage is bring them to the table and the person says, Oh yeah, sure. I'd like to look at samples.

Know the advancement be that advancements we come to the table, we talk a little bit more or I really would love to be one of the vendors to you know sort you out for a wedding blah blah blah. Hope you don't mind dropping your contact details phone number preferably. Some people say no, I don't give phone number OK, no problem I'll collect their e-mail address so can you see advancements next step collect phone number then call them afterwards.

Hey, how are you doing? Am I speaking with dial? He has this dial Who is this? Oh, this is the photographer that he spoke to. That's also I'm sorry. I spoke to lots of photographers that day. Now. Yeah, it's understandable. I understand. It's me, the Ben Ray boy. Oh, the Ben Ray boy. What is that your name again? What? Tava Shimas. This Your name is Hado. And no problem. Just call me Mr. T. It's fine. Yeah, Mr. TI, remember you,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So the last time we spoke, it's like you like this sample. That sample, you know, it's your fiance available. Let's take this conversation further. Yeah, I can come by the office. I can come by the house. You want to come by my studio? Like, you see, like advancement, advancement, advancement. Excuse me, because I have the mind map. I know where I am now, and I know what the next step should be.

And so I could inch them forward. Small, small, small. Just they inch them. Just they push them. Advancements, securing commitments. That's it. So some of you, your targeting is on point. You're talking to quality people, but you have no idea about advancements. So you just talk to people and then you keep quiet and then smile. And then of course the other person says, oh, thanks for your time. Let me think about it. You didn't suggest the next step, but that's the reason why they're saying let me think about it.

And then they're ghosting you and then they're disappearing. So you're the subject matter expert. Take control of this of this situation, take control of this relationship. Always be saying the next step you finish, you summarize that oh, OK, oh, so this is you addressed it in that oh, no problem. Looks like some who can do OK, so the next step is or this is what I propose we do next, take charge and just say it. What's the worst that will happen?

Those will happen is that somebody will snob you. OK, no problem. People are snobbing. You talk to your seniors, you learn how to secure commitments and to gain advancements. You learn how to do it better. Eventually they will be clicking and this is how we get better. Now some of you are good. You're talking to quality prospects. You know how to set advancements. But the problem is your conversational frameworks are whack.

The conversational frameworks are zero. You don't know how to build rapport. You don't know how to build trust. You don't know how to build credibility. You don't know how to do need analysis. So let me go back to rapport. Rapport is just when, you know, una de flu, you get me like una de flu, una de vibe, you know, like, oh, OK, I'm a correct person. You, you're a correct person. I'm a reasonable human being. You're a reasonable human being.

You know, that's just rapport. We're blending. Then trust you get to show that you truly are the subject matter expert so people can relax around you and they can talk for real because you're a professional. So no matter what it is, you can handle it. Have some good advice for them Then credibility credibly just means how do I put it now credibility means you appear credible. How will I say Now credibility just means like you look the part, you look the part.

So if it is events, event photography, you look like you know photography. If it is architecture, credibility means like you look like you are architecture, you look like if you sit down with a pencil, like magic will come out by the time you draw your designs. So that's credibility. So some of you don't know how to channel the conversation so that you'll achieve rapport so that the person will look at you and say this guy is a reasonable somebody or this baby is a reasonable somebody.

You won't be able to achieve trust, you won't be able to achieve credibility. You don't have conversation frameworks for that. Then some of you don't have conversational frameworks for doing need analysis, need analysis, just figuring out what do these people want? Do they have a problem? How big is the problem? It's something that all of us should be doing as sales professionals. If you're an architect, you need to figure out, you know, where are you talking to what exactly?

What kind of building are they trying to build? OK, this kind of building itself, does this person resemble personally get money, You know, it's all part of a conversation. What do they want? What do they need? Is this a serious problem? Are they just curious? Are they just worker pass? You need to know some of you don't have conversations. Sorry, conversation frameworks for that. When I say framework, I just mean a yardstick, A guideline,

just something that you have in a sheet of paper or some simple frameworks that you have in your head that will be guiding you. That's the reason why I keep talking about bands on the podcast. I've been talking about band recently. It's an acronym, Budget Authority, needs timelines. You need to be having bunch of conversations with people. You need to try and figure out, you know, what their money expectations are. You need to figure out whether you're talking to the person who can make the right decision.

That's the authority. You need to figure out whether there is an actual need because some people come to you and they are just curious. There's some people who come and ask you about roofing sheets. It's not as if you want to buy roofing sheets now. They're just curious, that's all. Maybe their auntie is building a home in the village and you know, they're just curious like, oh, what do roofing sheets cost? By the way?

Just curious. If you don't have frameworks for engaging these people in conversation, you won't know who am I dealing with? So do some need analysis, do some qualification? BANT is a simple framework because it just has four elements. Budget, authority, need timelines. Have we discussed money? Have we discussed the person who is building the house or who's going to authorize the payment? Have we discussed their needs?

What kind of roofing sheets? What kind of roofing tile do they need? Have we discussed timelines? Have they actually started building the house? Where is the house? Is it a foundation stage? Somebody who is asking about roofing sheets and they only did groundbreaking ceremony ceremony this week, realistically. Sorry about the noise. You know all that honking, you know, I told you I'm recording at home and you know, OK,

there's a problem in living estates with other people, you know, parking is always an issue. So the guy does the provoke and sorry, I hope the honking isn't coming in too much in the recording anyway. What was that? So timelines and urgency. So if you sell roofing sheets, but you're talking to somebody and they just did groundbreaking ceremony today, man, nothing for you, at least not now. Because the person that did groundbreaking ceremony today,

the first thing that will need to do is to raise money for foundation. And of course foundation takes up a lot of the budget. Then after they do foundation do now raise. After they raise, they will now do decking. It is after they do decking and then they do wiring and trunking that they now start talking about roof. So we need to have conversations about timelines and urgency. OK? Do they need this thing? OK, What's their timeline?

Somebody who just did groundbreaking ceremony, the journey is still far. Somebody who's at the decking stage and asking you about a roofing sheets. OK, good. Now I get here somewhere at least they don't do decking by the time they finish wiring and everything, I want to make sure that you know, I'm one of those people that they got my number on speed dial to say, OK, we're ready now. Then also other conversation frameworks that you need to guide you through proposals on presentations.

How do you make a presentation when you're in front of someone? Now, presentations don't have to be formal with PDFs and PowerPoints. So yes, you remember the episode I spoke about Cinderella, again, not her real name, who sells solar, solar and inverter systems. Excuse me, solar inverter systems in Lagos. So for someone like her, yes, proposal or presentation means PDF and PowerPoint and stuff like that. But for people like Fresh Prince who sell roofing sheets, yeah,

proposal or presentation sometimes just means you're actually on site and you're holding different shingles and you say, oh, God, this one are clay baking, this one, zinc, this one and this, this one and that, you know, now proposal be that. Now presentation be that. So not all presentations are, you know, under AC with PowerPoint, some of you don't have a framework for how to handle those sorts of conversations. That's the reason where you will.

That's where you are suffering. And then of course, you guys don't have, some of you don't have a framework for closing. But I don't pay too much attention to closing because if you do this, if you do the foundation, well, the close just becomes the next logical step. If you're talking to the right people, they are the ideal customer. You have been securing advancements. You build rapport, trust and credibility. You made an effective proposal then the clothes will now just be a simple matter of OK, so Chief, it looks like you prefer this clay bake something from Switzerland Abbey, that's the one that you're looking at.

OK, So Chief, so if this is the one that we're looking at, is there is there anything stopping us from moving ahead or Chief, you look at you like this clay, whatever. But OK, Chief, he's looking like you like this clay shingle. But I notice they've also been looking at this other one. So Chief just leveled me like what's going on? Is it that you really like this one, but you think this other one is more effective? And then you hear what Chief has to say.

But from there, you're narrowing things down. You're making helping Chief to take the next logical step. Closing just becomes not a hard and fast technique. You're just simply walking people through the next logical step. So with the with my students, I try to make sure that we lay the foundation well. When you lay the foundation well, closing is easy. OK, not easy. Closing is easier then put it that way. So summary, if you are in this position like Fresh Prince,

honestly speaking, honestly speaking, I don't like to promise people, Mike, there is no magic. I will tell you in one conversation that will solve your problem because we actually need to sit down and do a detailed consultation. We do. It's not just that I'm trying to collect money from you. Oh yes, I am. Believe me this, I pay my bills, I'm trying to collect money from you. But The thing is, with all these things that I've mentioned, now how do you want me to just listen to you for 5 minutes and just say, oh, here's your problem, problem solved.

Or more, It is complicated, seriously complicated. OK, maybe it's not complicated, but it's not as simple as you think. We need to sit down. We need to have series of conversations. I'll try and get you to root of the thing. If your targeting is off, we need to work on that. If your targeting is correct, your conversational frameworks are OK, but you don't know how to set advancements, we're good. Need to work on that and that is not something that we're going to solve in a 5 minute conversation.

So unfortunately we need a detailed consultation for that. Or you do what some people have done because someone reached out to me today, She sent me an e-mail so I can't remember her name or she told me that she has gone all the way back to 2020 when the podcast started and she's listening from there. So yeah, if you have the time, OK, go back to 2020 and keep listening. Eventually you will get to the podcast episodes where I have discussed all these different stages, all these different things, but we need a detailed consultation to figure it out.

What's the problem? You don't know your ideal customer profile. You don't know who the main people are, You don't know who the quality contacts are. Is it that you're not doing the right prospecting motions, you're not talking to people well, you're not advancing the conversations? Is that you don't know what selling frameworks are. You don't even know which one to use to do all these things we're going to have. We need to have a couple of conversations because I need some data.

I need some information. I need to look at your closing ratios. On average, how many people do you talk to? How many deals do you close? I need to look at that the more some other data that I need is when we say data will just me information, nothing fancy. I need to look at your emails. OK, how many emails are you sending? What kinds of emails are you sending? Who did you send e-mail to last? Which e-mail pained you the most?

OK, which e-mail worked as we need to look around. Let me have a look at your WhatsApp. Give me a phone. Don't worry all your love messages, I'll just ignore them. It's just the one that is just the one for the customers that I'm looking for. You know, if you're not in Abuja with me, that's not a problem. You know, send me screenshots, let's let's have a look or do a Zoom call and then you share your screen. Let me look at those WhatsApp messages, Let's see what's going on.

I'm trying to look under the hood to figure out what's going on. Let me see your WhatsApp messages. If you have ACRM, a customer relationship management tool. Oh fantastic, give me access. Let me have a look. Let's see what's going on. Who have you been talking to? What are the conversations like? Where are you working if you're super sophisticated and you know you've been doing call recording and stuff like that? By the way, you can only record in Nigeria with people's permission.

So if you've been recording phone calls without people's permission, you are doing something that is wrong. And if people find out, they will be severely pissed. So it's not something I would recommend. Let me just put it that way, because I was dealing with one salesperson and the guy was like, oh, I recorded the phone calls. I say what he said, yeah, I recorded the phone call. I said, did you tell them? He said, no, I didn't know.

It's just simple. There's an app on my phone. I just record. I had to tell the guy. I had to tell the guy that look, in Nigeria is illegal. Before you record, like tell somebody. I hope you don't mind. I'm trying to keep up with the conversation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so hope you don't mind if I make a recording like it's that simple. Just just tell them. Just tell them and the person said no, don't record me.

Don't record. Just say I Bros no vex and well, no problem. I'll just make some notes. Hope you don't mind. And then you just continue. But please tell them anyway. Even though I told the guy don't do it again. Still I was curious. I said OK, recorded conversation and say yes, OK, no problem. Give me the call recording and let me listen. Let's let's show we can achieve. Let's show we can do. But please don't be don't don't be recording any word without their without their permission.

Everybody's, you know this Niger everybody's mind is hot. You find out that somebody has recording be recording your call, your conversation. They didn't tell you big. It's going to get nasty anyway. So these are the kinds of things that we need to look at before we can figure out that OK, general poor performance. How do we cure it? So like I said for breaking this into three parts, I'm going to stop here. When we pick up tomorrow, we're going to look at this whole matter of Fresh Prince has been with this roofing sheet company for three months and the guy has not been closing sales.

We're going to look into this matter in small, in a small in depth way because I have some suspicions. So we'll discuss some of those, my suspicions tomorrow. So if you'd love to get in touch with me, just like Fresh Prince did, you can call me. You can send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.