₦airaland Forum

People underestimate the amount of repetition that needs to be done in every day communications.

This is Moroso especially when we are in a business context.

People lead busy, and often distracted lives.

Because of that we can’t assume that our potential customers, or our stakeholders heard absolutely everything and understood it the first time we said it.

This is the reason why we need to find simple conversational ways of saying, restating, and reframing important issues during the sales conversation and the negotiations.

So if delivery times are a big deal in your particular context or industry, then you need to find ways of restating it over and over again.

One simple way of doing that could be asking the question “what kind of delivery timelines are you looking for?”

You could also ask, “if we cannot deliver before 2nd October will that be a problem for you?”

You could also make a VERY deliberate statement, “most people in the industry take three weeks to deliver, but because of our unique sourcing and quality control measures, it takes us eight weeks to deliver on XYZ. Would that be a problem for you?”

With this example above, we have explored three different ways that the issue regarding timelines for delivery can be explored.

One of these scenarios can be explored in a face-to-face conversation.

The other scenario can be explored over an email.

And another instance can be used in an SMS exchange.Rinse and repeat for effective communications!

If you can find creative ways of restating and emphasizing the issue, then we reduce the chances that Important terms, expectations, or obligations get lost in the conversation with potential clients and our other stakeholders.

Because people lead busy and distracted lives nowadays, we can’t be effective communication if we only say things once.

We have to find ways in the modern business landscape to say the same thing over and over again until we’re absolutely sure that the potential customer has understood it and gets the implications.

The customer experience is a necessary component of your brand sentiment.

What the customer feels is very important and goes a long way to determine what your actual brand is, and NOT what you hope your brand should be.

There’s no point in aiming for sophistication and “belle of the ball” if the customer experience is “Mary Amaka”.

If you want to carefully curate your brand perception, then pay special attention to the actual experience of the customer.

The sales process can also strongly inform the experience and the brand.

That’s why the sales processes and frameworks should be well thought out and planned for.

The sales conversation is the beginning of the relationship with potential customers.

Start the relationship well and hopefully everything else should go well.

If you sell like “Mary Amaka” you’ll never be considered high end, sophisticated and chic.

Sometimes a lot of the disgreements between us and our customers is because of a gap in expectations or understanding.

Issues arise around who was going to get what, and when, as well as the timing of roles, expectations and obligations.

In other words a disagreement could arise because the client thought it was customary for her to receives all her wedding photos on a USB drive, while you mentioned it in an email 4 months ago that the couple would only receive 250 images and no more!

Understandably the bride in this case will scream foul, and the photographer will insist that she SHOULD have read all the terms and conditions.

Why is this even an issue we should broach?

Because unmet expectations lead to poor customer service experiences, and poor user experiences.

Poor customer service and poor user experiences means people are less likely to come back for more, or refer your product or services to their friends, family, and associates.

In other words, these disagreements are costing you money... but you don’t realize it YET.

Unfortunately for us, it’s not the client’s fault if THEY don’t have proper expectations about the delivery of OUR product or service.

This is something you should have laid out in conversations MULTIPLE TIMES.

We can’t just put it in a contract or proviso document, or email and HOPE or TRUST that they’ll read it.

We have to be proactive about this and take full responsibility for setting expectations upfront about what the experience of working with us will be.

This is the traditional sales perspective when it comes to having conversations with potential customers.

This is the reason why the “qualifications” and “discovery” processes are the most important part of carrying on sales conversations.

QUALIFICATION is making sure we are talking to the right person.

We want to be sure that they have a need or a want that we can fulfill. We also want to be sure we have the same expectations around money, and that there’s a reasonable expectation of them taking action soon.

We also should have reasonable expectations around our ability to fulfill or execute on things we agree on.

DISCOVERY is about getting to the “deep down roots” of what the problem is, or the aim they have for engaging our services, or using our products.

Discovery questions in this case don’t have to be complicated...

“We usually deliver 250 edited images to our happiest clients.... is that in the ballpark of what you are expecting?”

“Other photographers deliver wedding albums within 3 weeks, but ours are custom crafted in Italy and take 6 weeks to get back into the country. Is 6 weeks too long for you?”

“So we have discussed XYZ around the wedding ceremony, is there anything you think we haven’t covered?”

“That time when you said you expect ABC... can you please explain what you meant?”

Questions like these bring a lot of troublesome land mines up to the surface NOW so that you don’t have any nasty explosions LATER after you have collected the deposit.

Don’t expect the potential customer to keep on top of everything.

You have to take the initiative as the service professional to make sure that they understand all the key points of what to expect.

YES you will be 100% correct if you insist that everything was written in the contract and so it was their fault that they didn’t read or understand... but at the end of the day who is going to be left with the bigger headache?

We should be enthusiastic when talking to potential customers about our products and services.

But we also should be careful not to cross the line and go from enthusiasm to something else!

When you pounce on customers and immediately bombard them with pitches and presentations, you might get the opposite effect and send them running away from you.

That’s what happens when poor unsuspecting brides turn up to a wedding fair and get mugged by 40 vendors.

She goes from being a giddy lady, and all of a sudden she starts saying “no thanks I’m just looking”.

Even when most people have a genuine need, they don’t like being hassled or hustled.

That’s the feelings we conjure when we come out too strong at the start of the conversation.

This dynamic is the same whether you sell insurance, inverter batteries, legal services, or shoes over the internet.

Don’t start off the conversation with the sales pitch and the immediate “calls to buy”.

What should you do?

If you follow sound sales and marketing communications principles, you should be just fine.

For instance old school Nigerian advertising and marketing professionals used to talk about creating attention and interest under the AIDA framework.

So how about that? How about trying to create attention and desire before going into the sales pitch?

There are also old school universal sales practices that require you to engage in a conversation with a customer before making a sales pitch.

The goal of the conversation is to find out what the customer needs or wants, or possible things they could use your product or service for.

If you are able to do this, then you will have all the information you need to make a relevant and targeted sales pitch.

Whatever it is that you choose to do, it’s obvious that the sales pitch or the presentation shouldn’t be your first tool of choice when talking with a potential customer.

We should be talking to as many people as we can, but we should also be aiming to turn down less of them than we actually do.

Some folks have the wrong expectations when it comes to “networking” and “connections” and the role they play in business.

I don’t think most people realistically anticipate the level of self promotion that comes along with being self employed or starting your own venture.

These people still have an entitled air of “magic” around these topics and that’s possibly the main reason why things aren’t “taking off” for them.

I was once with a beauty entrepreneur who insisted the main reason why she hadn’t taken action yet was because she didn’t have “the connection” to start.

It makes sense that for some endeavors you need a certain network of individuals or maybe some benefactors or mentors before you can gain traction... but people overestimate how important your “connections” are at the beginning of the enterprise.

The connections are not responsible for you “taking off” or launching the business.

The “connections” are what arise when you start gaining some traction on your own.

Progress attracts a lot of friends and benefactors. Progress also attracts some hangers-on as well.

Another thing is, if the network and “connections” are a vital part of the project, then why sit and wait for connections?

Why not be proactive and come up with a plan for biulding those alliances as step one of your execution?

We should be careful the excuses we tell ourselves!

She never started the endeavor.

The “connections” never came.

It’s been almost three years.

Don’t wait for connections before you begin.

Start where you can with what you have.

Connections will follow once you start marking progress. Benefactors will show up because everyone loves to support young men and women who are in the hustle.

If the network is an absolute necessity, then come up with a plan today for who you need to talk to and how.

Start having those conversations today so that you can launch your ideas tomorrow.

Yes “connections” might be the magic ingredient in the Nigerian business and political environment, but connections aren’t going to come and meet you in your living room.

What is the difference between sales and marketing and why does it even matter?

This might sound like a purely academic question until you start running a business and then you begin to wonder who to hire!

Do I hire a salesperson? Do I hire a marketer? And regardless of what I call the person, what would be their actual day to day responsibilities?

This is actually a VERY practical question for the business owner who thinks it’s now time to hire someone to take on the revenue functions of a business.

So what is the difference between the two?

Marketing is “bringing people into the door”.

Sales is “collecting the money from them” and securing the commitment.

They both work within the same continuum because sales and marketing are concerned with how to get money from potential customers.

However they require a different skill set and a different mindset because creating awareness and brining people into the business requires a different set of skills than getting them to part with their hard earned money.

Not everyone who comes into the business is ready to buy today. They may also have one or two questions or impediments before they’re ready to take the next step. These are situations where sales skills come in handy.

So that’s the answer to the question!

If you think you are very good at “collecting money” when people come into the store, then you need to hire a marketer to make sure that more people visit your store or your website.

If you think internally you’re doing a good job at attracting the crowds, but you do a bad job of “collecting money” or “retaining clients”, then you need to hire a sales professional and also work on customer service processes.

Some people say customer service is a subset of sales because the chief concern of customer service is to make sure that nobody leaves angry.

If people are happy enough, we can get them back to buy from us in the future. If you look at things this way, customer service also fulfill a revenue function in the business.

All these are essential to growing your business, but these main strands aren’t the same thing.

Some would say that sales and marketing are siblings.

Others would say that marketing is the mother while sales, customer service and all the other things that come after are the children.

Regardless we know that we’re dealing with the same family, but different skill sets.

Is storytelling something you should do in a business context? Or is that something we should leave to the children at playtime and bedtime?

That depends on the point of the story!

If the aim of the story is to build commonality with a potential client, business partner, investor, or other stakeholder, then using stories is a good way to do that.

If the point of the story is to demonstrate features or benefits, and to show how useful, powerful, or practical your product or service is, then it’s a good idea to use a story to do that.

How about if we want to use stories to illustrate the use case scenarios of our product or service? Then off course that’s a good idea!

Using stories to show you guys are alike humanizes you and makes it easier for others to do business with you. That’s because you come across as a regular human instead of a leech looking for money.

That is how you use stories to show commonality between you and the potential customer.

It’s also easier to pass across the message when you can say “Ogbuefi Mark also bought XYZ from us last year and ... he used it in his factory to increase his production... it was from those profits that he was able to build his mansion in Awka...”

The story in this case passes across a strong message that the benefit of using your product or service is, it leads to much greater profits! So much profits that you’ll be able to afford a brand new house!

This is a much more convincing way of passing across the message than by saying, “if you buy this machine from us, you’ll be able to increase productions and profits by 400%”.

This latter way is too dry and un-relatable.

The first way with the story makes it more vivid and enticing, and is a good example of using stories to show how useful your product or service is.

All generator manuals say that you shouldn’t refuel the generator set while it is on and working.

The manuals clearly spell out that there’s a risk of fire if you try to do that. But does that spell out the magnitude of the risks involved?

Maybe not!

I once heard my aunt tell a story about her neighbor’s son who tried doing this during a UEFA match.

They didn’t want the power to run out and risk the DSTV decoder having to reboot. They could’ve missed something important during the football match.

He tried refueling while the generator as it was still on and he ended up engulfed in a flame from his armpits through to his back and the rest of his body.

He had to be admitted for several months of expensive therapy for severe burns to his body.

After that other boys in the neighborhood stopped refueling generators that were still in use.

I also stopped doing that as well! I was a teenager at the time.

If you are a generator retail agent, this kind of story will help your clients understand the optimal use cases for your products.

This passes across the message much stronger than the generic messages in the pamphlets and stickers on the generator paneling.

So yes! These and many many more are the reasons why we should be using stories in a business context.

Stories aren’t just for children to learn and bond, but they can help adults learn and bond as well when we are in the game of business, buying and selling.

There are lots of bros over the internet pontificating about the magic of speed in execution.

The idea is simple, if you have a habit of moving fast when it comes to execution, then your probability for business success goes up!

If you dawdle and second guess yourself most of the time, your chances for scoring a goal reduce dramatically.

So YES it’s a good idea to move fast and act on your ideas and business intuitions.

However the motivational bros fail to preach another side of the equation... and that is velocity.

Velocity is SPEED and DIRECTION.

It's not just enough to move fast, but to be sure you're in the right direction in the first place.

There's no point in going fast if you're all over the place and have NO CLEAR FOCUS. You can tire yourself out and get demotivated by zipping around in all directions all the time.

That's why a definite sales and marketing plan should precede your actions.

Not everyone is a fan of a written out action plans, but in theory you should at least have a clear mental map or framework.

It should determine who your ideal target customer is, how you will proactive them, how to start the conversation and build the relationship, how to ask for the commitment, and how we are going to get them back for repeat business and referrals.

Your plan doesn’t have to be rock solid. It just needs enough to give a clear sense of direction and action FOR NOW.

As you implement things and get market feedback, you can course correct for the future.

So come up with a plan and direction today so you can build velocity, or be content with flashing around in the wilderness for 40 years.

Lots of similarities can be drawn between the world of sports and business.

One of them being that both disciplines are high stakes. The “winner” takes an outsized portion of the glory and the financial reward.

The results might be 1 - 0 but that’s enough to clinch the EUFA or the World Cup and the glory and merchandizing opportunities that flow from that.

It’s the same in sales and business. If you are better at handling the sales, marketing, and branding processes over your “rivals”, then the market returns are going to be significant compared to the rest of the pack.

You don’t have to be obviously better than the rest of them, small marginal differences applied consistently over time will compound and make the difference.

The difference between Coke and Pepsi isn’t that great.

The difference between Dangote, Honeywell and the rest of the industry aren’t huge, but the returns on their efforts clearly are.

The difference between the number one fashion stylist in Lagos and the number two probably isn’t that great, but there will be a difference in the premium for which “number one” can charge over “number two”.

So if there are similarities in effort and return for both sports and business, there must be some more anecdotal wisdom that we can carry over to improve our sales and marketing efforts.

Sure there is!

In sports there’s this idea that feedback is the breakfast of champions.

The team that can take feedback from it’s own internal analytics, feedback from the fans, feedback from internal and external stakeholders, etc is the team that is going to reap the oversized rewards.

That’s why team sports spend a lot of money on coaches, nutritionists, mental health and personal performance specialists, community outreach, public relations, and now it’s common for teams to use video and game review technology and sports psychologists to go over their performance during the game.

We should be doing the same in business.

We should be looking for internal feedback from our sales and marketing teams, external feedback from investors, other stakeholders, market participants, user surveys, customer satisfaction conversations, client debriefs when they choose to leave us, government officials, and maybe even our spouses and close friends!

We should be open to feedback from a variety of sources.

This is because just like in sports, feedback will provide all the data we need to improve our performance, improve our product or service, and refine not only WHO we think our ideal customer is, but HOW we go about engaging them and biulding relationships.

Feedback is indeed the breakfast of champions!

Take this as good, friendly, neighborly advice from your brothers and sisters in the sports and entertainment industry.

If the stakes are high enough, we ought to take feedback and improve our performance no matter how marginal.

That might be the difference between being “number one” and “number two” in the market.

There are a couple of options open to you if you want to be a successful business with a lot of repeat customers and repeat business.

In other words, we’ll be exploring options if the goal is to keep people coming back again and again and again.

First you should aim to be “the only game in town” like DSTV.

Yes DSTV has “competition” but we can think of them as poor rip offs because DSTV has exclusive rights to the stuff that most people want to watch like UEFA and select kiddies channels from the Disney and Nickelodeon family, etc.

So the competition has to get some generic stuff and offer really bouquets to appeal to a lower market tier.

Off course DSTV eventually came out with GOTv targeting the same market segment with the same exclusive content.

Is DSTV a monopoly? Some people argue the case either way! But wherever you fall on the argument, you’ll agree that for most of us, having exclusive content or some exclusive offering isn’t an option.

If you’re a wedding photographer, or you import goods from overseas, you can’t have an exclusive offering for long.

Eventually everyone in the market is going to copy you if you’re successful and your advantage will be gone.

So if exclusive offerings are out of the question, what can we do that our competition can’t copy?

The only option that remains is to become a responsive business!

Being a responsive business is a lot of hard work. Your competition most likely prefers to go after low hanging fruit. They won’t put in the level of work required to copy you. The average business owner isn’t responsive.

Respond timely to enquiries and seek feedback often to grow your business offering. This will be a good way to differentiate yourself from other players in your market.

Being responsive also means we should pay attention to “customer success”. This is something we should borrow from our brothers and sisters in the software industry.

In the software space, it is now common to ask questions like...

“Now that they have purchased from us, have they been successful with using the service?

“Did the product or service help them solve the problem or achieve their goals?”

“Are they happy?”

The reasons for these questions are obvious. If the were not successful with the transaction, there is little incentive for them to come back and do business with us again, or to refer us to their friends, family, and associates.

Off course we can’t be responsive until we call them after the sale to find out.

Part of the responsiveness matrix is being able to reach out to the customer regularly and be in constant communication with them.

It is only then that we’ll get the feedback we need to see if they’re happy, figure out how we can improve the business, and get the opportunity to keep “toasting” them for new business.

Decide to be responsive today!

The work of growing your profits is hard and so people are constantly on the lookout for that magic “silver bullet” that will guarantee returns.

Unfortunately these magic tricks come and go with the seasons as one fad takes the place of another fad.

These fads aren’t wrong!

They just take one element which is important to the whole picture, and then the proponents inflate this element and make it the most important thing.

One of such fads or elements these days is “authenticity”.

The idea is that if you are authentically you, then your potential customers will be able to relate and this will grow your profits.

There is an element of truth to this because most people don’t want to do business with anyone who is off-putting or fake.

People want to do business with people who are relatable and likable. So to achieve this, just be authentically you, and your tribe will automatically opt in.

The rationale is true and it works!

But that’s not the only part of the picture. The person who is authentic, but not the subject matter expert might not get the sale.

So it’s authenticity plus competency.

If I’m “authentically me” but I’m a newbie wedding photographer who is still “learning work”, then I might not get the sale.

Also the most competent and authentic business person might be bad when it comes to follow up and so they don’t effectively remain “top of mind”.

In circumstances like this, the business ends up going to someone else.

So in this case it’s authenticity, plus competency, plus diligence in executing a sales process.

If I’m authentically me and I’m the best sesame trader and sesame expert in Abuja, but I don’t call customers back on time or deliver quotes on time, most of the business will go to someone else.

Authenticity is important in driving the sales conversation forward, but it is not the most essential ingredient.

It only helps to bring personal dynamics in your favour. From the examples I have given here, we can see that there are other dynamics to worry about.

But by all means please let’s all be authentic!

Life is already hard enough trying to juggle many roles. Let’s not add a “fake script” that we have to play in our business lives.

If you keep trying to live that social media influencer lifestyle online, but people are constantly catching you jump keke marwa, it’ll hurt your credibility and your brand positioning.

If you are bourgeois, be authentic about it. Don’t pretend to be the common man. If you dey “rough am”, be authentic about it. You can be aspirational in your messaging, but don’t form like you “have arrived”.

Be authentic. If it is your market, it will come to you.

There’s a lot of talk over the airwaves about how important empathy is to running a successful business.

Is this just buzz-talk or is there something substantial here?

Is empathy important during a sales conversation with a potential client?

And what is empathy anyway?

It’s the ability to understand and share in the feeling of another.

What does this have to do with business and selling?

If you understand the feelings of another, you come across as more relatable and like-able.

This is one of those paradoxes where paying attention to other people’s needs makes it easier for you to achieve your own goals. If people find you more relatable then it’s easier for them to get into a business relationship with you.

Empathy also makes you more effective. This is because if you’re able to suss out what’s really on the other person’s mind and what their REAL interests, values and goals are, then you’ll be able to tailor your pitch or business solution to meet their most acutely felt needs.

If your product or service “hits the spot” with them, then the chances of having an enhanced “customer service” or “user experience” goes up.

When this is high, it increases the chances of people coming back for repeat business, and referring you to other people for the same super experience with you and your service.

So being empathetic can bring more revenue through the front door, as well as keep those revenue streams flowing around your coffers.

So given that this can be a useful skill to have, do we have to employ empathy in every single business situation?

Do we have to be Little Miss Congeniality all the time?

It depends on what kind of sales or business context that you’re in!

If you’re involved in a SIMPLE SALES SITUATION where you sell commodities like egusi, then empathy isn’t important.

You can “turn on” the empathy in the commodity businesses if you want to make someone your repeat customer, but ultimately the main question for the sale of egusi or sesame seed is “do you want to buy or not?”

Is the price right or not?

Is the quality right or not?

Commodity traders have no problem buying from you today and someone else tomorrow if the price and the quality is right. It’s nothing personal here, it’s just business.

In fact the commodity buyer knows that this kind of behavior will force you all in the market to play your prices off each other which is exactly what they want! The lowest possible price.

If you’re selling a complex product or service like accounting services, wedding planning, inverter batteries and alternative power solutions, then empathy is important to drive the conversation forward.

Most people won’t spend #800,000 to buy inverter batteries if they think the engineer is a jerk. The assumption is that the business owner/ engineer jerk will try to screw you over in the future.

In fact that might not be the case. The jerk might actually be the most honest and ethical person you’ve spoken to so far, but the lack of empathy leaves some nagging questions at the back of your mind.

The stakes are also important to consider!

If you want the best brain surgeon to save your spouses life, you’ll be willing to tolerate the fact that the doctor isn’t relatable and empathetic.

You probably won’t go to the nicer doctor who is less qualified when your life is on the line.

So in general empathy is a useful skill to have, but if you’re grumpy and you just want to be left alone to count your money, don’t worry, there are business scenarios in which your grumpy, stuffy outlook will work just fine.

For everybody else however, bringing empathy to the boardroom or the marketplace should work better for you over time.

Listening is a handy skill not just in our personal lives but in business as well.

Listening is what ensures that we have the feedback needed to guide conversations, interactions, and initiatives with others in the business or with our external stakeholders.

Listening should be a priority for the salesperson and the business professional of today.

When most people hear “listening” they think of it as a PASSIVE activity.

They think of listening not as something you do, but being on the receiving end of what others do to you.

Listening should not just be passive, but it should also be an ACTIVE process.

To be an active process, you have to engage and it has to be question led.

Yes you heard it correctly!

To listen properly you have to open your mouth once in a while and ask a few questions.

You have to ask questions to be sure that you heard correctly, that you understood properly, and also to be sure that you understand the clear implications and the next steps that follow.

When you ask questions in this vein, it is then that you are truly listening.

More importantly, it is then that the other person will appreciate that you are TRULY listening because of the effort you’ve put in to be sure you’re tracking with the message.

The feedback you give the speaker from your questions show that you’re listening and curious about the details of what your client is talking about... Things are not just going in one end and then going out the other side of your head.

However if all you do is ask questions during the conversation, things could quickly feel like an interrogation.

So apart from asking questions, make comments and gestures from time to time to show you’re tracking with the conversation.

Comments and expressions like “what?”, “okay”, “you don’t mean it!”, “are you serious!”, “wait can you repeat that again?”, “how could she say such a thing?”, “my sister na so we see am!” ...etc show that you are listening and engaging with the emotional subtext as well.

Apart from questions and comments, you should also share your own experiences and stories as well to show your understanding of the situation.

This will also drive the conversation forward.

So when the person says “XYZ is so good that it gave us 50% returns last year”, you can in turn say, “I agree with you wholeheartedly! For us it was a 62% return!”.

This passes across the message that you are in agreement that XYZ is a viable option for you guys to explore in the business together.

You will also pass across the same message if you nod your head and say “yes”, but doing it this way will make your agreement come across stronger.

Apart from that, your stories and contributions will be a good way of biulding rapport between both of you... Not only will they see that you are listening to them and you “get the gist”, they’ll see that you guys also have a lot in common and might make good business partners.

If this is how you listen, you should be more effective at “closing deals” and getting “buy in” from other people you have to work on projects with.

Listening doesn’t have to be you standing there with a blank face.

Effective listening is a whole lot of work. You can do a whole lot of listening with your mouth open as well.

Most of us are engaged in some sort of persuasion on a daily basis.

The politician is trying to secure allegiances and votes, the teacher is trying to impart knowledge, partners try to convince their spouses, we try to bring people over to our side during office and committee work, and the rest of us business people and self employed folks are always trying to make a sales pitch to our potential customers and clients.

Everyone is trying to make a sale!

The best way to make a sale or convince anyone to do something is not to make a sales pitch or to start arguing the merits of your case!

The best way to convince someone is to listen to their position first, figure out what their motivations are, and then align your own interests with theirs.

This way they will take action for THEIR own benefit, and you will get something out this as well.

Everyone accepts that this is the best way to handle things... except the politician.

So let’s leave the “sales pitches” to the politicians.

The rest of us whether in a personal or business context have to become very good at listening to the other party because this is the first step in the journey of persuasion.

We have to learn to pay attention effectively to other people.

To do this you have to listen out not just for the OBJECTIVE INFORMATION that they provide, but the EMOTIONAL CONTEXT and reaction tied to that information.

In other words, it’s not just about WHAT people say, but HOW they say it.

So if you are web design professional, it’s not just enough that the potential client says “I think I need a new website”.

Don’t hear this and immediately go for the “sales pitch” and start making a presentation why you’re the best thing on the African continent to solve that problem.

Ask more questions and listen to the emotional context. This will give a sense of where the real client’s problems lies and the real problem you should be biulding your discussions around.

Let’s say she admits they need a website but during the conversation she’s effusive about how “packaging” and “branding” are important.

Let’s say she’s also really proud about how her business is positioned as a modern, sophisticated company.

Then perhaps she isn’t concerned whether what particular aspects of code or technical features goes into the website.

Maybe she’s more concerned about how sleek, polished, and modern the site will look at the end of the day.

Perhaps for her and the business, what they’re keen on is an intuitive and sophisticated responsive customer experience on the site?

If this is the case, no amount of talking about Python code and SEO will be enough to seal the deal.

All the backend stuff is important and should be incorporated into the process because you are the professional and you know what’s important from a technical standpoint.

If the client wants a pretty and modern looking site, then your conversations should be around how pretty the site should be? What pretty means to the client? And what functions the pretty site supposed to solve?

That should be the focus of what your next conversations should be.

If you learn how to handle conversations things way, then you’ll be more effective all round.

I once heard someone say we shouldn’t chase customers and clients down.

It sounded like good business advice back when I was a newbie, but I didn’t get any context as to what that meant... even though I know it sounded right.

I have since come to see that when we are “chasing” clients in most cases, it looks like we’re the ones driving the agenda with very little interest from the other party.

In a sense that will always be the case because we are the professionals who have to take the initiative, and also because we are the ones who are courting their business.

But taking the initiative and courting the business doesn’t mean we have to be more interested in the opportunity than they are.

If I’m a web design specialist and I’m constantly chasing down Madam Cecelia about her site design, maintenance (or whatever it is that you tech people do), and it seems that I’m more interested in the project than her, then it seems a few things are likely.

She might not be interested in the project because she doesn’t think there’s a need to redesign the website.

She might knows that websites are useful, but she doesn’t think she’s suffering any business loss by not engaging a professional like you.

Business seems to be going on okay just as things are!

Because of this, the first stage of us courting our potential customers always has to begin at the level of WANT and NEED.

We have to figure out if there’s a need for our service and how badly they want it.

Madam Cecelia might not take action until she realizes that her inefficient website is causing 80% of visitors to bounce off within 2 seconds because the site loads poorly.

If she is currently making #5,000 a week from the remaining 20% who stay on the site, then that’s enough for her to wonder what will happen if a young chap like you could get 60% people to remain on the site... or maybe even more?

But you’ll never get to this level of discussions with her unless you learn the right approach and the right kinds of questions to ask.

If the approach is to constantly call her to pitch why website design and maintenance is the best thing for SMEs to grow their business, she might think of you as a pest.

If you call up and ask any possible number of questions around whether her business has a site? The problems with the site? Whether they would be interested in a site audit? Or whether they think their website could be a revenue generator? Then you might have a shot at moving the conversation at least one step forward.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll eventually close the sale, but at least you’ll be having meaningful conversations with potential clients every week.

The more meaningful conversations you have, the greater probabilities you have for closing business and opening new business relationships.

Don’t chase down clients because you think you have the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Have meaningful conversations to see if there’s a WANT or NEED in the first place, and the extent of the need.

You can’t sell fancy Italian belts to Oga Haruna if he believes that any belt from Ikeja market is fine. If you call on him every month for a year, your chances aren’t going to increase. There is no perceived need or want here.

But if you get into a conversation around his personal style needs, you might find out that he is a “shoe person” instead. Now you know on what terms you guys can do business, or maybe you have to refer him to one of your colleagues.

In either scenario, you would have become a useful resource person to him.

Don’t chase down the customer.

Drill down to see if there’s a need or any use case where your product or service can provide value to them.

Do this early in the relationship.

If there’s a match, then shoot your shot.

If there’s NO match, then move on.

Everyone agrees that networking is a good idea, but somehow we also agree that we will start networking tomorrow, or at some future date or event.

When is the best time to start networking?

Unfortunately there’s no empirical answer for this one, and we’ll have to approach it with a dose of wisdom and good old fashioned common sense.

The best time to build your network is when you don't need it!

So if you think that a good professional, personal, or business network is important to you today, then the best time to have started biulding your network is YESTERDAY.

The reasons for this are obvious.

Trying to call on favours while building a network is s bad idea.

Trying to squeeze value out of a network when you have had little time to “sow” into it isn’t going to yield good fruit. In fact it might yield resentment pretty quickly.

If you try to do any of these, you'll come across as a “taker” and a “user”. Some might consider you to be an opportunist and a pushy pest.

The reason why the best time to have built your network was yesterday is because it takes time and effort before you can start taking value out from networks, associations, and relationships.

Biuld your network by “delivering value” without talking too much about yourself, or making yourself the sole focus of the networking activities you are engaged in.

Over time AFTER you have built some friendships and business alliances, you'll have a need and you'll have to draw on your network. It is at this point that you can start reaching out for favours.

You can start calling in favours only after you've proven yourself to be a valuable resource in the first place.

In this circumstance, people will be happy to help out because you will have gained a reputation for being a “resourceful” and “well connected” person.

If you are a resourceful and well connected person who has been very useful to members of the community IN THE PAST, don’t you think folks might be more willing to help you if you make an ask NOW?

Biulding networks take time and a lot of “value giving” to build. If you have a need or want that you want to fulfill NOW, then networking isn’t a good tool to get your needs met today.

You will get a reputation for being sleazy, phony, and two faced.

If you think that a strong viable network will be a good asset for tomorrow, then the time to start investing in the network is TODAY.

Don’t wait till tomorrow to start biulding the network. Tomorrow might be too late.

Also trying to build a network TODAY for a need that you have TODAY will make you look like a scam artist. Don’t do it.

All sales and marketing conversations are negotiations of trust!

That sounds pretty basic doesn’t it?

Probably trite and a truism right?

But it does underscore something very real and true about that way that everyone INCLUDING YOU comes to a buying decision.

You don’t act on any marketing material if you don’t trust the messenger.

You don’t act on anything a sales professional tells you unless you trust the person.

Off course there are other factors that are important in coming to a decision.

Because of this we cannot say that the most trustworthy person or the most trustworthy product is going to win the day all the time.

We can talk about all those other ingredients another time.

For now, take it as gospel truth that everything in the conversation should be geared towards gaining and shoring up trust with a potential customer or client.

This is especially important early in the relationship.

How do you enhance trust?

Build your credibility!

And how do you do that? Pretty much anything that will make you out to be competent will be a good starting place. Also anything that will help you establish some commonality with the potential client can help enhance trust.

That’s the reason why the medical specialist has their certificates hung on the wall behind them.

It’s not because they have forgotten which schools they went to, but rather so that YOU can see it clearly that they graduated from John Hopkins Medical School or OAU Med.

That way you can feel confident that your hypertension or other cardiac issues are being diagnosed by a well trained physician and specialist in the field.

It’s also the reason why your wedding photographer has cameras and high end computers placed strategically all round the office or studio.

They do this so that potential brides and grooms can see all the production value that will go into making their special day a magical one.

Competency is also what you are trying to achieve when you as the young architect mention that you worked on Ogbuefi Okoro’s village mansion... that’s one reason why you should be taken seriously.

Commonality on the other hand are those instances where it comes up that you and the potential customer have a few shared interests, hobbies or a common history.

That’s when you explore how you and Ogbuefi Okoro are both from Mbise.

It’s when the cardiologist mentions that his mother also had hypertension and managed it well into ripe old age and so you shouldn’t be scared.

It’s also when the wedding photographer starts chatting about her time in Coventry University because it is the same school that the couple went to.

There’s more to the picture than this, but it’s not a bad way to start the conversation.

Use credibility and commonality to “up” the trust factor in your business equation today.

It’s a good idea to meet customer’s expectations right? Some would even say exceed them!

This is good advice except that most business people and self employed persons ASSUME that they know WHAT the customers and clients want and WHY.

Don’t guess, but rather engage in open and frank conversations with them around what their needs are, the vision your client is trying to achieve with your help, and which of your products, features, or packages are most useful along the journey.

If you’re constantly engaging in these sorts of conversations with them, you’ll have most of the information you need to meet their expectations.

How about meeting ALL of our customer’s needs?

Because of changes in technology and modern business climes, it's doubtful if we can meet ALL our customer's expectations.

Our potential customers are constantly trying to do more and achieve more.

With the changes in tech, it means they have more tools at their disposal to do that. And with the advent of the internet, they also have more knowledgeable service professionals at their disposal to talk them through solutions.

If you look at things this way, it’s doubtful if we can meet ALL their expectations.

The best thing we can do is at least aim to meet those cornerstone needs that move the needle the most for a customer.

That’s what I do when I try to create sales processes and frameworks for folks I’m advising. They might also need a culture overhaul, and maybe someone to tweak their operations and management, but for now I know I can get them the best bang for their buck by focusing on the sales challenges.

The best we can do is to try hard enough so that our product or service can be configured to THIS PARTICULAR PERSON WE’RE TALKING TO, so that it can help them meet their expectations.

Are we going to be good for every single customer all the time across multiple scenarios? No! But that shouldn’t stop us from doing a damn good job with this one.

We’ve spoken in the past about how we can learn good sales tactics from practices applied in other disciplines.

We’ve spoken about how you can take practices intended for another business context, and apply them directly to sales with tremendous results.

Today I’d like us to look at and borrow another one of such principles not native to sales and marketing theory.

That idea today is Kaizen.

Kaizen means continuous improvement.

It's s principle that's part of Japanese management theory which was initially applied in automotive manufacturing.

Just to be clear, this idea is related to biulding cars and production management when it comes to making cars.

This has nothing to do with sales.

Kaizen involves a process of small incremental steps and continuous experimentation to see what works with the task at hand.

The idea is this... if we find some small incremental gains and make them a part of our overall production and management process, these gains will compound in greater efficiencies in managing our people and production processes.

In other words, Kaizen results in technically superior cars produced efficiently.

Small continuous improvements over time lead to much greater results and efficiencies.

Off course, if the business overall gets more efficient, then shouldn’t that apply to it’s profits at some point?

We should take this idea and apply to it sales, marketing, and business development.

If we take small continuous improvements in how we identify our ideal customer, start the conversation with them, and manage the relationship with them BEFORE and AFTER the sale, then we should see our earnings and EASE OF SALE improve.

So take this idea and apply not only to sales practice in particular, but overall to whatever business you're involved in.

Remember! If you want to Google this for more information, it’s an idea closely associated with with Toyota and initially designed for the manufacturing of cars and people involved in the process of vehicle production.

So Google away! Learn and apply where applicable.

Some folks get into the entrepreneurial game to find happiness.

Are you feeling sad at your 9 to 5? Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. Happiness will be yours forever!

At least the promise goes something similar to that.

Do the things you love and you will be happy!

But is that really the case?

How do most of us achieve happiness anyway?

For most folks happiness is achieved in growing through the gaps of where you are NOW and where you'd like to be at some point in the future.

For regular folks like us, if we’re growing, making progress and developing, we’ll be happy!

If we are stale in the major areas of our lives, then we’ll be sad.

Remember this is an oversimplification!

We’re not accounting for people with psychological challenges here, and this isn’t medical advice to suit everyone’s temperament or current state in life.

Happiness comes from growth and development.

Happiness is not a destination.

It's an “after effect” that comes from the process of growing.

That’s the reason why some folks can do jobs not particularly fun or rewarding, but they can achieve mastery, growth, and happiness.

Join the entrepreneurial game for OTHER reasons apart from the search for happiness.

Once you become an entrepreneur, if you don’t achieve growth, you’ll get back to feeling sad and unfulfilled again.

Building a business and raising a small family has its challenges.

This is more-so in today’s environment when we can be online and available to our stakeholders, associates, and customers round the clock 365 days of the year.

With this reality, how do we balance the demands of the hustle and the demands of the home?

And how do we find some ME TIME in the midst of all this? Is it always going to be living for the paycheck, living for the spouse, or living for the kids?

How can we achieve balance in this chaotic mix?

Is there such a thing as work life balance?

Or should we finally ignore the “scale” metaphor and aim for something else more wholesome?

How about work life integration?

We don't have separate, compartmentalized personal and business lives, and so the goal shouldn’t be to even things out 50/50, but rather to integrate all our roles.

We shouldn’t be worried about balancing things out, but harmonizing things.

You don’t stop being a parent when you’re at the office or out in the field. And it’s not the case that profits don’t all of a sudden matter when you’re at home.

It’s not about switching one role OFF and the other role ON.

It’s about prioritizing in the moment.

How do we achieve this?

That’s beyond my zone of genius.

I only know sales. I don’t know management, organizational theory, and the science of human development and achievement.

You should be looking to other folks for that.

But rest assured that there’s than this schizophrenic existence.

You’re not running around dropping parts of you.

You’re running around with different roles from time to time that need to be harmonized into an integrated whole person that is YOU.

How does this relate to sales and business development?

When you accept that this myth of balance need not be the case, then you’ll be a little easier on yourself.

It’s easier to accept that you’re doing your best to integrate rather than falling short of some ideal arbitrary standard of 50/50.

Whenever we want to improve our sales, it’s a good idea to look at other business sectors and industries.

The goal here is to see how they sell and handle customer interactions, and then examine how we can apply those same practices in our businesses.

You’d be surprised how many ideas can effectively cross over when you switch from one discipline to another.

What is one of these ideas? ...and which “far out” industry can we learn from?

A good example of this is the “decision making unit” idea which is one used by sales people in engineering and other technical businesses.

What is the decision making unit? These are the stakeholders or anyone who usually “has a say” before any important decisions are made regarding your product or service.

Salespeople working in technical spaces know that if you don’t incorporate as many people in the “decision making unit” into the process, you’re not going to make much progress with your proposal or sales pitch.

For instance let’s say you want to sell a new state of the art employee management software to the Ministry of Finance.

The function of the software program is to make sure that workers come in and start work on time.

In this scenario you’re not going to make much progress if you’re ONLY talking to the head of Human Resources or the Head of Personnel.

In this case you should be asking who else could be part of the decision making unit? It could be technical people like HR who has to IMPLEMENT the solution.

It could also include management who has to PAY for the solution.

Maybe it should include Property Management and Maintenance Dept who have to INSTALL the hardware on multiple floors?

You definitely need to have an “insider” from the Minister’s office to cure for the “Nigerian factor”. You’ll need someone with some political clout within the organization.

While it’s not easy to say exactly who you should include in this category, you can see that asking the right questions gives you a greater chance of closing the deal.

How does this apply to the rest of us who are “non technical” and are selling things to “regular” folks?

Ask yourself who could be important to saying YES to this purchasing decision!

If you sell real estate and you’re talking to a man who wants to buy a house for the family, don’t you think it might be a good idea to be introduced to madam at some point?

If you’re a wedding photographer and you’ve been talking to the bride mostly, don’t you think it might be a good idea to have a chat with the groom at some point?

If you sell Catfish from your neighborhood pond and you’ve mentioned it to “madam” at the next compound, don’t you think it’d be a good idea to mention it to “Oga” and “grandma” as well?

In all these cases it seems like a sensible thing to talk to one party because they are the main user of the product or service.

However if you start asking yourself these questions then it becomes clear that there are other people who are important to the decision.

“Madam” might forget the conversation you guys had about catfish. “Oga” might then remind her, and maybe “grandma” is really insistent that the children should be eating more natural proteins instead of the modern fancy stuff they’re buying for her grandchildren.

These multiple conversations might be what makes you “close the deal” to sell catfish to your neighbors. And if you do a good job, it could be repeat and regular business for a while to come.

The “decision making unit” is a concept that is big in technical business sales.

But we small guys ought to borrow such ideas when having sales conversations with our potential customers in our industries.

If you sell to households you should be figuring out the decision making unit of the house.

If you sell to schools you should be figuring out the decision making matrix in the school.

If you sell to hospitals and hotels, you have to figure out, “who are involved in making these kinds of decisions? And what’s the process of implementation?”

This will help you determine who else you should be talking to.

So it’s a good idea to be responsive when either selling, communicating, or dealing with any other needs of the customer... but what does responsiveness mean?

Responsiveness in a business context isn't just about being fast, timely, or instant; but providing a valuable answer to the question as quickly as possible.

Responsiveness is about taking relevant, helpful and valuable action quickly when the customer or potential client reaches out.

So are you being responsive when a customer sends you an Instagram DM or WhatsApp message and they receive an instant auto prompt message?

What if the message reads something like, “Thank for contacting XYZ premium services, your business is important to us, how can we help you today?”

What if this is the automated response that the person receives RIGHT AFTER they have sent you the message WITH THE ENQUIRY already?

Does this count as being responsive?

The auto prompt message might be instant or timely, but it has provided no value and it hasn’t been helpful in any way.

This is not a good way to be responsive in your business... especially if you take 6 hours to respond to them after the automated message.

To be truly responsive when it comes to messaging, you have to make it someone’s dedicated and scheduled responsibility to run through the inbox regularly and deal with the requests.

It’s wrong to think that because tech allows us to do things faster, that we are being responsive when we apply tech to the process.

Being responsive is not just about “how fast”, but also “how well” and “how diligently”.

I think most potential customers would prefer a HELPFUL message that comes in 1 hour later, rather than the instant, robotic, automated message that adds no value at all.

There are a myriad of ways that you can use to distinguish yourself from other players in the market.

Why is distinguishing yourself important? This is because in an age of commoditization of products and services, the only way to make a case for yourself APART FROM PRICE is to show why you’re different.

Are we truly in an age of commoditization? Most likely! And it probably isn’t going to get better with time.

The internet has lead to a democratization of information and resources, and so because of that people of today have access to most of what THEY need to enter into YOUR line of business.

Are you a masseuse? People have access to the free education online, or the paid professional courses. After they get certified, they can buy all the equipment they need from Amazon, Konga, Alibaba, and any other online markets.

That’s all that is required! A couple of clicks and another massage parlor opens up in your city.

Are you a wedding photographer? The process is the same. WIth access to the internet anyone can get all the education (free or paid) and buy all the equipment they need to open up a studio.

While this is good news on an individual level and it opens up a world of potential for what can be achieved, it posses a problem of oversupply.

In a world of too many wedding photographers and masseuses, how do you tell them apart?

Unfortunately the average customer falls back to price!

Price is the ultimate proxy for VALUE that the average consumer uses.

How much am I paying? And what am I getting in return?

This leads the average business person into the game of juggling PRICE, FEATURES, and BENEFITS of the product or service.

The photographer offers more prints and more locations, while the masseuse offers more hours per session, and maybe the latest trendy Moroccan message.

All these tricks work for a while until everyone is offering a Moroccan massage and then you have to look for the next trick to distinguish yourself with.

There’s another ways to solve the problem! One of these ways looks to the very process of how you run your business.

The idea is that HOW you run your business could be a distinguishing factor in themselves.

In this case, the reason why the customer should choose Celestina over Chukwudi is because Celestina herself is the distinguishing factor.

How do you achieve this level of distinction?

One of the ways is through “responsive selling”.

Responsive selling isn’t something you do TO a customer, but rather it’s a method of interacting WITH a customer.

The idea behind this is that you should be attuned to a buyer's needs and respond quickly when they communicate.

The reason why this works is simple... everyone one else seems the same to the customer because they offer the same products, prices and services.

Fortunately for you, most people are REALLY BAD at communicating with the customer in a timely and professional manner.

Most people are atrocious when it comes to paying attention to client, and figuring out their needs and the best way to serve them.

Because the potential customer is in contact with really crappy services all day, the moment they come in contact with Celestina who is professional, attentive, and seems empathetic... it’s an obvious no brained answer that they should come back for more business and also refer their friends as well.

There’s a lot to be said about responsive selling frameworks, but the crux of it is simple.

Distinguish yourself not by the prices and packages that you offer, but by the very processes and the manner with which you go about doing business and interacting with the market.

Most of your competition isn’t going to respond to the customer's timeline. They'd rather respond when they're comfortable or whenever it’s convenient for them (the business).

There’s room to set yourself apart from the crowd.

It’s easy to copy prices, packages and features. It’s also easy to buy whatever the best equipment in the market is. It’s a lot harder to copy a business philosophy, processes, and frameworks.

Take a bet on those things today to make a difference in your business tomorrow.

More power to your hustle bro!

It looks like you need some help with your sales copy �

What’s a data entry specialist? And how does one know we need one in our business?

Most people think of selling as product and feature based.

They think you have to talk about all the special stuff that sets your product or service apart.

That’s what people in electronics do when they emphasize that their product is the latest and greatest, with the most megabytes and megapixels, with the most wattage and with inbuilt capacitors and regulators from Guanjing China.

People in fashion do this too when they talk about the latest fall or summer trends and which thing is made with Egyptian cotton or chameleon leather.

People in all walks of business do this when they get ready to meet the customer thinking of which products, features, or product benefits to boast about.

While this seems to be the most natural and intuitive way to sell, is this the only way? Or the best way to sell?l anything?

There are other ways and other perspectives around how you make people aware of you and your business.

One of those “other types” is service based selling.

Service based selling isn’t a method so much as another way of thinking.

The idea behind this is that the very process of selling should be a distinguishing factor between you and other players in the market.

What should be different from you and other players in the market shouldn’t just be that you offer 100 megawatts while others offer 60 megawatts.

The key differentiator shouldn’t just be that you offer a 3 year warranty while your competitors offer only 6 months.

The megawatts and warranties are important, but your level of service and professionalism should be the main distinguishing factor.

Service based selling compels the customer to buy from you because the very process of interacting with you is different.

You reach out differently, you handle the phone and enquiries differently, you manage relationships, projects and timelines differently, and you do a whole host of services differently from your competitors.

The reason why this kind of attitude towards selling is best, should be very simple and obvious.

Any competitors can copy your megawatts, your megapixels, your faux leather, or your chameleon chic fabric.

Not everyone can copy your service delivery. It requires a certain level of dedication and professionalism. It’s hard work.

If you can make a service based approach of selling your key differentiator, you’re starting to create a competitive moat and protection around your business that can’t be copied.

Products and features and good! Service processes are better.

Copying someone’s product is easy. Copying someone else’s sales process and company culture requires too much time, effort and dedication.

Rather than copy you, they’ll run off and look for some other business features and products to peddle.

Protect yourself and your business. Rely on the processes and not the features.

There’s a lot to be said about improving the customer experience, but can anything be done when the proverbial s#%&! has already hit the fan?

Is there anything that can be done when we’re already drowning in mishaps, mistakes and delays beyond our control? What can we do when we have missed multiple deadlines through no fault of our own?

Can we sweeten a situation that has already turned sour?

Most time you cannot!

But bad situations, mishaps and f*&%ups can be used to show your level of professionalism and capability if you handle them right.

You might still deliver late, or deliver less than what you promised, but you can come out of it with a stellar reputation as a professional.

How can this be?

Through the magic of honest and proactive communication.

What does this mean? Simply being honest and letting the customer know as soon as there’s a problem, as well as the plans you have to redress it.

Sometimes this is the only option you have because going ghost, ignoring calls and emails, or switching off your phone sends the wrong vibe. You’re only making a bad situation worse.

Even when things have gone bad or delayed, proactive communications will improve the customer experience.

What really irks the customer is the feeling of being in limbo and not knowing what’s happening, what to expect next, whether they’ve been scammed, or whether they’re getting a refund or not.

These are the things that create the angst in the customers and the verbal assault that you receive when you do reach out eventually.

If you don’t like the verbal assault, then be proactive about communicating with the customer as soon as you can...

“Hi Sade. Sorry we won’t be able to deliver your Gucci bag this Sunday because Customs in LAG airport have gone on strike again. I’m working on a few options so that we can loan you something to use for the wedding instead. Let me know when you can talk. I want us to go over all the options for getting this sorted out. No vex abeg. I’m sorry.”

If the client receives this message off course she’ll be upset, but she won’t assume you’re a fraud, or that you’re incompetent.

Communicating proactively, taking responsibility for some kind of redress, and being cool and professional is what will give Sade the confidence to keep buying from you in the future.

This order might be a sour experience, but you will have demonstrated how competent and credible you are.

In a strange way, this bad experience can help reinforce your trustworthiness and credibility.

So when the chips are down, don’t run and hide.

It used to be an old adage in the marketing and advertising circles to say that “know”, “like”, and “trust” are important in the buying process and are the main criteria for why potential customers will choose to do business with us.

In other words if there’s no knowledge of us out there in the market, then few are likely to do business with us.

This should be fairly obvious because without market awareness, folks won’t even know to look for us in the first place.

This criteria has carried over well into the digital era and so the focus of a lot of content and advertising and promotions is exactly that... to get people to know who we are and expose people to our brand, products and services, and the values we hold dear as a business.

The second factor “likability” is also important and still relevant in the digital age because no one sets out to do business with an entity that is inherently repulsive.

That’s why all our marketing and sales copy, advertising collateral, and content marketing efforts always puts our best foot forward.

What about trust? Is it still a necessary part of the mix in today’s business climes?

Sure! Because being trustworthy essentially boils down to whether customers think we are credible and competent at our craft.

They have to think we’re good at the job, and that we’re capable professionals.

If they don’t, why would they call us?

Who likes handing over their garments to an incompetent tailor?

Who hires a wedding photographer that is still “learning work” and who goes to a doctor that graduated from “Toronto” University?

There will be a lot of talk over the airwaves to say that we are now in the age of “so and so” and because of that, sales, marketing and advertising will need to change it’s ways.

So long as humans remain fundamentally the same, the principles we use in the art of persuasion and business will always be relevant and applicable.

The only things that will change is the physical contexts in which we apply them.

So even when the meta verse comes along and we’re all living through avatars (or whatever form that might come our way), these ideals will still hold true.

How will “know”, “like”, and “trust” be applied in the meta verse and for all ages to come?

We’ll see! But don’t expect these three musketeers to go away anytime soon!

Sometimes it makes no difference what you call yourself so long as you have the right processes and actions to do what needs to be done effectively.

There are other times however where what we call ourselves is important, and can sometimes be precisely the reason why we are limited in our mindset and perspective.

In the personal and family space for those of us who see ourselves primarily as a fathers and parents, sometimes it impedes on our ability to be good husbands and spouses.

If we spend all the time being “daddy”, we might not be putting soo much into being “hubby”. The same goes for “mummy” and “wifey”.

And the same goes for business as in personal roles.

Sometimes what we call ourselves reflects how we see ourselves... and how we see ourselves matters.

What are some of those limiting identities we hold for ourselves and how do they limit our sales and profits?

One of those limited identities is the word “vendor”... especially for those of us in the wedding and event space.

Unfortunately if you see yourself and talk about yourself as being a vendor, you are positioning yourself on the low end of the value scale.

Vendors are replaceable and they are perceived as operators who fill a slot. Vendors are commodities.

Don't think of yourself as a vendor.

If you think like a vendor, you’ll act like one.

If you act like one, you'll be perceived as a commodity.

Think of yourself as an advisor instead.

Be an advisor instead!

Advisors don’t peddle information and make pitches based on product and service features or price alone.

Advisors have clients. They ask question of their clients. They do so because they need more information before they can make a professional recommendation.

If you sell inverter batteries and you think of yourself as a vendor, you’ll be constantly pushing out different products and features “trying your luck” with what you think customers can afford.

If you think of yourself as an advisor, you’ll ask questions around their current energy needs in the house or office, you won’t make any assumptions around money, instead you’ll ask clear questions about budget and money expectations.

If you come across as an advisor and a service professional, then your chances of closing the deal go up!

When it comes to expensive technical equipment like solar panels and inverter batteries, it’s a good guess that they’ll prefer a true professional than an amateur to give the business to.

It’s also the same in the wedding and event space where hundreds of thousands of Naira are on the line.

If the wedding planner is a vendor, then any one will do.

For the planner who conducts herself as an advisor, she’ll be seen as a useful resource and the decision won’t boil down to price alone.

You can try the same in your business today.

Should you have your prices up on your website and your instagram handles? Will NOT putting up the prices increase the number of enquiries that you’ll get?

Some people have contemplated putting up the price on the website, but then get worried that their best customers might get scared away.

Whether the prices should go up or not depend on a variety of factors.

Either approach is valid and goes along with a particular strategy.

Putting the prices up on the website and social media is a means of “pre qualifying” potential customers.

What this means is that you’re trying to make sure that ONLY people who can afford the product or service reach out to you.

Either that, or to make sure that when people call or email, they have realistic expectations around finances.

The goal here is to make sure that only “serious buyers” call you.

If you look at things this way, then the question isn’t about pricing per se, but rather about how you can “qualify” people to make sure no “time wasters” come through the channel.

There are some products and services on the other hand where you CANNOT put up pricing because a quote requires a lot of particular information that varies from persons to contexts.

That’s the reason why a carpenter, plumber, and an engineer can’t give you a quote “just like that”. They need more information about what you’re trying to build, what you’re trying to repair, and the purpose you’re using the thing for.

So if you’re an architect, should you put prices on your site or Instagram handle? How could you put a price not knowing for sure if you’re under selling yourself and running at a loss?

The strategy for these kinds of people, services, and products is to get as many people to call in as possible so that you can “qualify” over the phone, email, WhatsApp, or when they come into the office.

In this case when the people call, you have a chance to figure out if this is a person worth doing business with by having conversations with them.

If you look at things this way, the main question isn’t “price or no price?” ...but “what is the best way we should be sorting through our potential clients?”

Is there a middle ground strategy one can use that takes the best of these two approaches?

Maybe!

Some people put a price range on the site initially to ward off “price shoppers”.

After that there’s a little note about circumstances needed to narrow the price down to a final number.

An example of this would be a wedding photographer posting...

“Packages range between 400K and 850K depending on the number of days, and the size of the albums and frames being ordered. Call 080XXXABC for a quote today”

Or an architect could post...

“Our happiest customers should expect to spend anything between 3M and 9.5M for custom residential plans not exceeding ABC sqm in size. Email XYZ for a consultation today”

These price ranges should ensure that only “certain kinds of people” reach out to you that you’d be happy working with.

But remember that at the end of the day it’s not about price.

It’s about how best you think to “qualify” and “sort through” potential clients to separate the “serious” from the “time wasters”.

It’s a Herculean task trying to sell your product to the whole world.

It would be nice to have your customer base be as wide as possible, but you have to accept that you won't be the right fit for everyone.

It's okay to turn a few people off.

People who like coke don’t like Pepsi. I’m indifferent because any soda pop drink is fine. But for the true fans like my mother and my sisters, it’s coke or nothing.

Not everyone needs your product or service and not every potential client is going to be a profitable use of your time.

You have to learn to seek out the right kind of people and the narrow sphere where you’ll dedicate your time and attention.

You stand a better chance of finding your ideal client there than trying to market to the whole world.

Besides even if you tried, you can't help the whole world.

If you sell inverter batteries, it would be nice for every Nigerian to get one. However some people are fine with generator sets. Some people are comfortable staying in the dark so long as they don’t have to spend any extra money.

Some people don’t like generators and have the money but won’t bother because they think, “all my children have grown and left the house so why bother?”

Your sales and marketing journey should begin with asking “who are my customers and who should we be talking to?”

Selling to the whole world is impossible and ineffective.

We have all seen that movie where there’s a sharp negotiator who walks into the room for the first time and closes the deal for a million dollars.

Maybe it wasn’t in a movie, but we’ve all heard the tales of the super smooth guys and girls that can sell anything to anyone the first time meeting them.

Is this realistic? is it something we should strive for? And is it possible for people to achieve such feats?

Yes some people are capable of doing that with great personal flair, but for most of us that’s not even a remote possibility.

And personally I wouldn’t even recommend that... even if I could teach you to do that.

Just to put the record straight... I don’t know how to teach you to sell that way.

It's very daunting and emotionally overwhelming to try and sell the “big thing” in one sitting.

It’s also very troubling to the client because, who likes taking big dramatic decisions the first time they meet a total stranger?

If customers have this level of resistance and tension at the beginning of the sale, isn’t it likely that they’ll suffer from buyer’s remorse or buyer’s regret later?

In either scenario, they will associate all these negative emotions with you. This doesn’t bode well for you being a credible and comfortable business partner for the future.

Instead of going for the big kill at the beginning, why not start by making “little sales” and “little commitments” that move the client closer to the final sale?

What could the “first sale” be? The very first commitment could be to get the potential customer to agree to a meeting to talk.

“Madam customer from all we’ve explored so far, it looks like it makes sense for us to have a meeting and go over proposals in more detail... are you open to that?”

The second sale or the second commitment could be to get feedback over different options in the proposal.

“If I understand you correctly sir, options A, B, or C would be adequate for us to achieve XYZ.... which one jumps out at you the most?”

After you take the potential customer through processes like these, then it’d make sense for you to make the move for the final commitment or the final sale.

At this stage, it should be clear if most people are ready to buy...

“So if we’re in agreement Mr and Mrs Ogendengbe, the next step is the payment of a deposit for the amount of XYZ to confirm your date.”

This is the process that we “mere mortals” ought to take when we’re involved in complex sales scenarios involving products or services that cost a lot of money.

We can keep entertaining ourselves with the superstar negotiators and sales people in movies while trying to learn from the “smooth operators” who go the “big kill” every time.

This is a much more easier and emotionally calm way to go about making the sale which doesn’t freak out the potential buyer.