In the last post we considered whether it's a good idea to start a buying or business conversation with your aunty by saying, "good morning Aunty, I am now selling good quality bags and shoes from Lagos, Malaysia and some from the UK. My prices are really good. Aunty please come and help me and buy from me".

In this made up scenario, we are a female university undergraduate named Alice in a school in the North Central part of Nigeria. If you want more details about this case study, check the previous posts.

In the previous post we also examined why this kind of approach is a bad idea. We also made another key assumption that since Alice and "Aunty" are family members, "Aunty" should have figured out by now that Alice is doing something fashion related because she is constantly posting about bags and shoes on her WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

Once again this is a reminder that you should be doing the same thing too... because obviously it leads to avenues for organic conversations with your friends, family, and loved ones about your business. So if you haven’t started posting about it, begin so today!

So how should we start a selling or business conversation?

There are lots of sales and selling frameworks to consider, but before we get into the heavy theoretical stuff, let's take some simple common sense approaches.

We should begin by asking lots of questions because no one likes to be pushed into a buying conversation.

If you start with a sales pitch or presentation then you are intruding on someone’s time and attention. If you ask a few questions, then you guys are just having some open conversations.

The first approach at the beginning of the post will make Alice seem "pushy" and inconsiderate, and it will back "Aunty" into a corner because she might now feel obliged even though she has no need or desire to patronize Alice.

What kind of questions should we be asking? Since Alice is a beginner, it would be okay to ask questions and begin a conversation around her UVP or USP and see how the conversation goes from there.

At least if you take this approach, you'll be able to figure out quickly if someone is interested in what it is you sell, and whether they might be a good potential customer for you.

That should be the focus of our early selling and business conversations; trying to see if they are interested, and trying to see if they are a good fit for us to do business together.

But before we continue, what is a UVP, USP, and other fancy terms that we hear similar to this when we start talking about our products or services?

We will answer that in the next post!

In the meantime, ask me anything in the comment section below!