From "We Go Yan" to Advancement: Mastering the Sales Conversation Flow

Today on the podcast, we're going to do the final part, the third part of how to follow up with a contact or how to handle conversations with a contact, basically. And for those of you who have been listening for a while, you know that the case study we're using is that of Abdul, who is based out of China and he sells trucks and tractor heads and tractor beds and you know, all truck related things to people who are based in Nigeria.

So if this is your first time of listening to the podcast after you're done listening to this, just know that there was a Part 1 and there was a Part 2. And so the earlier the things that we spoke about earlier were number one, we spoke about the difference between follow up and follow through and how what we should try to do actually is follow through. Follow through just means when you're having a conversation with someone, you agree on what the next steps are.

Excuse me, so that when you have to call the person back again, you are trying to follow through on something specific because you guys agreed on what the next steps are supposed to be. So excuse me. So let's say with Abdul, for instance, you have a conversation with someone and then the person says, OK, yeah, like the models that you have. Well, OK, well, it looks pretty good. Please send me the price list. Sorry, excuse me.

It was a long day yesterday. And then I also recorded the radio show. So somebody says, oh, send me the price list. And Abdul is like, sure, no, wallah, I'll send you the price list. And then you send the price list. And then it's like, OK, we go young, I'll be. And the guy says, yeah, yeah, we go young, I'll be in touch. Then you end the phone call. Now in that scenario, you're stuck with a follow up because you guys didn't agree on what the next step is supposed to be.

You're giving the guy the price list. In this kind of situation, if Abdul calls, it will be normal for the guy to #1 busy to call. You will now send a message. I'm in a meeting. You try calling again, the thing will ring out, no response. You now send message. The guy now will respond. You now send e-mail the guy who ghost you. You see that is follow up. Pointless, just pointless continuations on and on and on. But then if you have a mind through of sorry, the mindset of following through, this is how that kind of conversation can end.

So a person is like, yeah, yeah, I like the models, blah, blah, blah. You will send me prices that be and I was like, sure, no problem, I'll send it to you now, now, now, just stay on the call. Don't send them. You don't see him. So yeah, I don't see him. Correct. Thanks. Now with a follow through mindset, Abdul can now say something like, OK, so if we're cool with all the models here and you've seen that these prices that I'm sending you,

everything is between 35 to 42 M IB. How you see him or what do you think? Or is that more than what you're willing to invest if you have that kind of conversation now? And the guy is saying that, well, you know, you go give me this cash, you know, we go price, you know, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things. And so he's looking as if there might be room. An advancement in this stage would be, you know what, even though I'm over here in China,

my business partner actually is in Lagos. They're in Abapa, not too far from you should be your first tack. And so how about Thursday? Just come and see the different models that we have now. They're there, you know, in our in our car park, in our lorry park, they're there. Just go and see the different models, Abiha, you see them, you know, you're trying to get the guy to commit to something. Both of you are agreeing on what the next step is.

And the guy's like, OK, sure, no problem, I can do that. And then you try and narrow it down. So my partner is going to be in the warehouse between Wednesday and Friday. Like which day works for you? Oh, OK, Would that be morning or afternoon? OK, I know all that. No problem. So Friday 12 by guy, I'll be waiting for you. So you can look at the MDZ 5000, MDZ 55 and the MDZ 6.2. OK. Then you end the call. You can see now that you guys have agreed on what the next step is supposed to be.

You have a date, you have a location, and you have an agenda for what the person is supposed to do. So now if you try calling that person again, you're trying to follow through on something. Oh, boy, how far how you been? OK, let's say you call, the person doesn't answer. You don't send a text message. Hey, what's up? Mr. Boy Abdul, the guy in China that you're talking to about tractor heads and our last convo, we agreed that we're going to do inspection so that you can see these three models in the price list.

So how far are you still cool for Friday? Question mark, send a message. You can see now that you are following through on something, the text message that you have sent begs the response because it is trying to follow through on something very, very particular, very specific. These increase the chance. This will increase the chance that somebody is going to respond to something. Unlike in the first scenario where the guy says semi price list, you just send it and then the guy's like you to you saying we'll go, yeah, we'll be and no Allah later, later, they now caught the call.

You didn't agree to anything. So by the time you're not buzzing this guy in like one week's time, the guy will be like, you want this guy to call me now, like when I'm ready, I'll call him. When I'm ready, I'll call him and the guy will busy your call. The reason why the guy is busy in your call, the reason why the guy is ghosting is because you guys did not agree on anything. You didn't agree on what the next step is.

OK, that summary of the episode went on for too long, but I'm just trying to stress and really stress and really stress because lots of people don't get it. Now, one of the main reasons why we're stuck in this full up game is because we are not securing advancements. So that is one of the things that we discussed in the earlier episodes in the Part 1, the difference between follow up and follow through. So this is your first time listening to the podcast.

When you're done with this episode, skip back. Listen to that one again so that you can ingest and you can digest and get it. Believe me, this thing makes a difference. It makes a difference. I'm not promising you that will triple your revenues. I'm just saying it makes a difference in the number of meetings you book, the number of phone calls that are that people respond to. And then, you know, after a while giving your sales cycle,

you see how it affects your profits. But over here, you know, I don't talk about 10X in your profits or 3X in your profits or you know, whatever. I just focus on making sure we have a proper sales process that was system oriented. We follow the process, we follow the system, the results, they come at the end of the day. Then in the first part, we also spoke about speed lead as one of the best practices for following up or following through.

And that is the idea that when people's body, they hurt, when they're making that inquiry, when they have peak interest, when they still remember you or remember the actions that they took, that is the time to be buzzing them. You don't wait for somebody to slide into your DM on January 1st and then January 28th, you're now replying to the person and you now say you're following up. And then the one they're not responding, How would they respond?

Their body was hot, they were interested, they were curious. On January 1st, you, you chilled until January 28th and you're now trying to follow up on them. Follow up, follow up, what? As if you don't know the other people already taking over this barrel from you. So speed to lead. Sharp, sharp, sharp. Then when you're having these conversations with people, the goal is also to confirm interest. That is part of what we spoke about on Day 2.

So that whole conversation. Thank you very much for coming. How can I help you? Oh, OK. Are you actually doing research or you have a problem here? You have a problem there? You know, we're trying to figure out who is a serious person, who has a serious problem, who is a workout pass so that we'll know how we deal with people so that the people that are serious people who follow up with them follow through. Sharp, sharp, sharp 123, quick,

quick. The people that are workout pass are just curious, you know, engage them in small conversation and then put them off to the side. Once in a while. You'll be sending them something on WhatsApp just so that you're staying top of mind. They see you, they remember you. Once in a while, you could send them something on e-mail, but those are not the people that you wake up every day and you're wondering, oh, OK, how good do I

am now? You know, Shabi, I should call the guy or WhatsApp. Abhi, I should go to the guy's office, you know? So that's what we did on Day 2. OK. I think also on Day 2, we also looked at how you should have. Yeah. Qualification and discovery questions, basically asking questions about the person, asking questions about the problem so you can make an accurate recommendation. You can make an accurate quote. Let's see what else it also gives you the information that you need to be able to pace yourself when it comes to follow up and follow through.

So that's why we spoke about questions like the working driving routes, working routes, driving conditions, problem with the guys fleet, whether they want outright purchase or not. Discussing a budget range very important because that will also help us know whether this person is a worker pass or not. Because some people talk very nice and talk very sweet and things like that. But then when you hit them with the price, you don't know who you're talking to.

Like take for instance, your boy. When I say your boy, I'm talking about me. OK? So my people say that because somebody's bored does not mean you can't look. And so because of that, I like to look. I enter into a showroom. I look at the GS 8, correct car, very fine car, GAC Guangzhou automobile, the GS8 suite, very very sweet car hanging around there, you know, talking, talking, you know, because I have a pot belly and my skin is smooth and I'm a fine boy.

People think I have money, but then when they call the price, I say OK. When they call the price, from the way I react, the sales girl will now know that this guy is just one of those Abuja boys, you know, empty drone making a loud noise, should now know that OK, this one, there's no need to collect his phone number. That's why he asks those questions. Or I go and look at the Tesla cyber truck looking at the card thing is looking nice it's looking sweet By the time they call 200 M for your boys 200

Watt 200 M from the way that I reacted 200 M the castle. I would know that OK, this one. There is no need to collect this person's phone number. Whenever you tell somebody oh Sir, Tesla cyber truck 200 M and the person no shakes 200 Mr. price negotiable. You now know that, OK, there might be room here. I call 200, the guy no to shake, you just say is it negotiable? There's room. So all these budget conversations, we have to have them from way people respond,

from what they say, from the way they shake or the way they don't shake. We now know, OK, we have a serious person or we don't have a serious person. Then of course questions are on timelines. When do you want this truck on the road? Very simple question. When do you want this truck on site? These things also let you know, is this a serious person? Is this a workout pass? Can I be doing follow up or follow through sharp sharp on this person?

Or is this the kind of person that you know what I call him in January, I send him text message in February and maybe I call him again in March. Like no need to be on the case. So yeah, that's some of what we did. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. This is your first time listening to the podcast. This is some of the stuff you've missed. So go back and then you listen. For those of you who actually listen, sorry that I did an extended 10 minute summary.

So let me go into the final part now, the part three. I told you guys we're going to talk some more about discovery questions and remember that qualification questions about where you ask questions about the person you know, where are you, where are you from, what do you do, blah, blah, blah. We need to know all that stuff. And then also something that people don't realise all these kinds of questions, they also go for building rapport.

Very, very good for building rapport. Now, for those of you who've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I'm kind of lazy when it comes to this. So I have some default questions that I some default tactics that I use. And number one, I use a name because Nigerians have very interesting names. Oh, your name is Samsung Ogdembe. Yeah. Ogdembe. Where where are you from? Oh, OK. Yeah. What? What else Ogdembe mean?

Oh, OK, Cool, cool, cool, cool. And then, you know, from there you'll just be talking, talking, talking. So I always use name and I always use school. I'm lazy like that because in my own generation we have the school rivalry going on. So you have found out that the person from unit like say, oh, you need like by the time I do personally say, Hey, which school do you go to? I say, oh, you, you know, it starts that friendly beef going.

So where you get out, use less people. You think that you're smart. I say, no, we're smart. Now you need like people. What do you know? Not only social, not only social, I find babes when I get nothing, you know, and then friendly banter back and forth. So for me in my own lazy style of rapport, those are some simple things that I, I use. So all these simple qualification questions, that's who you know, who you are, you from, what do you do?

This is ways that we build rapport, very, very simple ways that we build rapport from all these conversations. So this is not an academic something. These are very, very practical things that we can use to inch business deals forward. Small, small, small. So qualification questions around the person really, really important. By the way, in case you're listening to this thing and this is your first time, we'll hear some of these concepts and your mind is blown and you're wondering, wow, what is the way forward?

Very simple. You have AI tools on your phone, ChatGPT. What else? Google, what's it called? Google Gemini. And you know, Claude and you know, perplexity and the rest of them, use your favorite tool and then come up with a simple prompt. I am a Nigerian who does business in the so, so, so and so sector. My ideal customer audience is blah, blah, blah. I'm trying to get contracts or get business from people who work in this, who do this, who do that.

Give me an example of good qualification questions and issues that I can engage people with in conversation when I'm having conversations with a potential customer. Something like that. Bram, send it. I can assure you he will give you some, you know, 10 to 15 suggestions. Some of them you think are useless. Remote ones are useless. The ones that you think are good, take them and apply them today. As you start using the conversation, you will start getting a sense of, OK, when I'm talking to people, you know, I

should handle the conversation like this. I should handle the conversation like that. So, yeah, if you're a business owner or you're a salesperson, let's stop being lazy, I beg. There was a time when you needed a sales trainer like me to sit down and then brainstorm and come up with questions like, OK, say it like this. Say it like this. You don't need that anymore. Sorry. I'm not saying you guys should not give me your money.

If you give me money, you know, I'd love it. I'm just saying that we're at a time now with this AI tools where you actually can start brainstorming some solutions on your own. Excuse me trying some solutions on your own before you now give me a call. Some people think I'm putting myself out of business. I'm not. It actually makes my job a lot easier because trying to quote somebody who is a total virgin from the beginning or more is hard.

But if the person has tried one or two techniques, this work does not work. By the time we're having the conversation, we're heading straight to the .0. OK. What kinds of outreach have you done? What kind of sorry about that? I almost dropped my phone. Yeah, I used my phone to record. So what kind of outreach have you done? What kind of sales tactics did you use? How many conversations did you have? How many deals did you close?

01 customer shouted at you. OK, wait, let's look at that. What did you say exactly? OK, No, you should have done it like this. You should have like that kind of conversation is going to be focused, is going to be targeted. She actually does pay me that before you guys give me a call, you actually have used these AI tools and tried to do one or two things so that when we hop on the phone, we can go back straight to the point.

If it's one of, if it's one of these conversations where I'm talking to you for free, then it's good. It means that within 5 minutes we can get straight to the heart of the matter. If it's a paid conversation, we'd be even good because it means that you're getting your money's worth. So that before what would have taken us one month to do, we actually can sit down and do it in like 2 weeks. So please, these things are there, they are already on your phone.

Especially for those of you who use Google. Gemini is already on your phone. No need to download it again. Just open up your phone. If you're an Android phone user, then you go to the Google, what's it called? There's a folder called Google on your Android phone. It's there on every Android phone, whether Techno or Xiaomi or whatever or Nokia. Click on that folder. Then we begin to scroll 123. You will see one white icon that has a blue star in the middle.

It start with only four points. That's it, that's Google Gemini. Move that icon to your homepage so that you can always see it. That is going to be your new best friend every day. Use that thing. You will see coming up with ideas a whole lot easier, troubleshooting a whole lot easier. Anyway, move on. So actually supposed to be talking about discovery today. So discovery is when you're asking questions about the problem or about the need and I

already hinted at some of that yesterday. So if you're someone in Abdul situation now you're selling trucks, you're selling tractor head, you're selling tractor bed. Eventually after I ask the person what are you trying to pull? The person who is trying to pull timber in the Niger Delta or the person who is trying to pull firewood from NASARA and the person who is trying to pull petrol from Dangote's refinery is different kind of heads that they need for the trucks.

So it's an important question. If somebody just shows up and says do you have MDZ 5000? Yes, I do. How much is the MDZ 5050 million? You Boo Boo price 48. You know, I give it to them and I'll call back in two weeks and start complaining. Say, oh boy, you showed me the wrong tractor ahead. I sold you the wrong tractor head. How You say, look, you showed me this thing, but this is not strong enough to be moving timber from Nassar.

You will not start quarreling. But you didn't tell me what's for timber and Nassar. Now you told me this one and I gave it to you. I can't come and say that I sold you the wrong head. It's just normal human behavior. That person is not going to say Nami air fob. I bought the wrong thing. The person will say Abdul showed me the wrong ish. So that's why you ask you somebody says you have the MDZ 5. Oh yeah, sure, no problem.

It's also so and so range, you know, you cool with that and it's kind of on the high side. But sure, we can negotiate and negotiate to now Everly and it's not a problem now Nigeria we negotiate everything. But right now I'm just curious, what are you trying to pull? We say, oh, you want to do oil and gas, Bros, let me not allow you this thing that you're looking at, you know, too pure when it comes to oil and gas. If you use this one for oil and gas, these are the problems you have.

This one is better for timber. So ask what they're trying to pull you sell truck and equipment. Ask that question. Then there's also the question of automatic and manual transmission. Ask. It's important. I think manual transmission is really important for, you know, all these rocky terrains you're climbing here, up, down, up, down, up, down, you know, like in NASA, our state, you know, but ask. So you can make the right recommendation.

Let someone not come and buy something and start saying that you showed them rubbish. Then the gross weight or combined weight ask because there's some tractor bed that are only good for certain kinds of tonnage. If somebody's buying a tractor bed, but the gross tonnage is, I don't know, 100 tons or something, but in the course of their business they want to be carrying something that is 120 tons every week. Of course, definitely that that that bed will break down now because you're overloading nothing by 20 tonnes every single week.

So ask, excuse me. So these are what discovery questions are all about. So you can make an accurate recommendation. You have to give the right price. And by the way, these details are some of the things that you're going to be able to use to build advancements. Remember we said advancements, If you ask the person what are you trying to pull and persons are pulling this and say it won't be suitable and the person 'cause you know Nigeria would like to argue, say look, does it really make a difference?

Say look it also that oh, are you new in this business? OK, that's the reason why. Now, do you know anybody who is doing this business or do you know anybody who is a trucking mechanic? Go and speak to your trucking mechanic first. Let's talk again next week. Let's hear what the guy says. You see, that's an advancement. You're saying that this will not be adequate. The guy is saying, look, to hell with that, I think will be adequate.

And you say, look, you know what, let's involve a third party. Go and talk to your mechanic. How about we talk again next week to see how far? OK, sure, no problem. So you can call the guy tomorrow. I'll be. Yeah, sure I can. OK, so that means like Wednesday morning, I can call you back and no Valhalla. No problem. OK, so Wednesday morning now we'll continue. We'll see whether this tractor head is suitable for you or not.

Now, that's not a big advancement, but you know, it is some kind of advancement. It's better than nothing. It's better than hey, we go young, we go young, I'll be in touch, I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch is not good. If you're one of these guys or girls who used to think that oh was a lovely conversation, you know, blah, blah, blah. She said she'll be in touch. I'll be in touch is not good. Forget it doesn't matter anybody has told you before, I'll be in touch.

It's not good. Then sometimes, like in this case, somebody comes in a specific model. Do you have the MDZ 5000? That's the people who just go straight into price. My own opinion, yeah, give a budget range, but you still have to ask questions. You are the pro in this. You're the one who has all the knowledge. You are the trucking expert. Whenever somebody comes with a fairly specific quote, ask why on MDC 5000. Well, that's that's quite specific, you know, why are you looking for that model?

Ask. Oh, OK. Is it because it's similar to the fish that you're already using? You ask because for Abdul, we did a test run. I called one of his customers and I asked the question and the answer was rather interesting. The reason why the person wanted that particular model, I can't remember what the name of the model was, was just because the guy is based in the North and that is the model that all the mechanics in his locale know how to repair.

That simple. I thought, you know, it was going to be a different kind of answer, but anyway. But you never know, so ask. In his own case, maintenance was the issue. He doesn't want to buy something that he cannot maintain, so he wants to buy the model that when he buys it, he can pick any mechanic in the city that's truck mechanic and they'll be able to repair it. So ask also ask. Oh, OK, the MDZ some some something. OK, yeah, that's, that's a good,

it's a good recommendation. It's a it's a good, it's a good truck, very good truck. In fact, it's one of our top sellers in Nigeria and China. But I'm curious though, like why are you looking for the one in particular? Is there an exact feature that you're looking for? Is there an exact something that you're looking for? And then of course you ask the person why and the person can say, Oh yes, I want it because of anti lock breaking and something something anti lock breaking.

Like why? Those are the problem. Like what's the problem? What kind of things do you pull? Have you guys been in close encounters before? Abby, you've had accident with your feet before. As in ask, ask is this a replacement truck? That's a good one. Also, it gives you a sense of who has been in the business for how long. Oh yeah, yeah, it's a replacement. Replacement truck. Oh, your first replacement? Oh no, no, no, no.

I've been in the business for like 5 years. I've already bought like 3 models of this particular 1. You now know that you're talking to a seasoned person who's not a jam bite. Anyway, OK, this is 30 minutes. I guess I've stressed the point, so let me just bring you to a close here. We've spoken about speed to lead. We've spoken about confirming interest as best practices when you're trying to do your follow-ups. Remember, we're professionals here, so we only see a follow through and we only do follow through.

And we've spoken about how we need to qualify and the questions that we need to ask. Some of you might be wondering, you know, why so many questions? I've said it before and I'm saying it again #1 so you can make the right recommendation and #2 so you can give an accurate price. But the side effect that people don't realise is the more that our customers talk, our potential customers talk, the more they like us. For most people, I repeat, some of you didn't get it.

If I can get the other guy talking more and more and more, the more he will like me and the more he will build a sense of rapport with me because he has been talking to me. It's the same in business as in relationships. Somebody wants to buy a car. He's been talking to five people, but he has been having serious conversations with two of them. Person A, person B. Chances are he's buying from other person A or person B.

That is where he has been having the longest conversations and where he has been most engaged and he has been talking the most. So I was going to give an example with relationships, but let me stop here before I say something incredibly sexist because I don't want to get cancelled. I'm still as I have a young podcast. So let me stay away from those sorts of issues for now. But just remember, the whole point of asking all these questions is not just that, but it gives us all the information that we need so that we can propose advancements or propose the next steps.

You cannot propose the next step if you don't know anything. If somebody says do you have MDC 5000? Yes, we do. Can you send me a price list? I have sent it and I say OK, thank you. Like what kind of next step could I possibly propose? So engage in these conversations, get some information, you will now know the next step to propose. Then another thing to be mindful of. Lucia, the real estate professional asked me if it's OK

to call twice daily. You can only call twice daily if you're in a simple sales scenario. Selling trucks is a complex sales scenario. Selling real estate is a complex sales scenario. Do not blow up anybody's phone twice a day. Don't. You'll become an irritant. Do not. If it's an emergency, then yeah, no problem. Like, oh Madam, we're about to ship and I need to confirm your address details. Now, now, now, hey, that's an emergency.

Blow up somebody's phone because you need it. In fact, if the person sees 2 missed calls from you and then the text message is saying, Madam, we're about to ship your order, please confirm your address details for so, so, so and so. That's the reason why I was calling. And when will somebody be in your factory floor to receive a delivery? She'll pick up the phone and call you immediately. That's an emergency. So people in this situation, in Abdul situation, in Lucia's situation, you're selling expensive stuff, high end items.

Do not call anybody twice a day. Please don't. Then another thing to note, be careful. This is not an interrogation. You don't have to ask all these questions in one sitting and you don't have to ask all these questions in the order that you've written them. So because you sat down with our GPT and you've come up with 15 questions, it doesn't mean that when you have somebody on the phone, you got to ask all 16 questions.

Right now. You can ask a couple, two or three, get you a reasonable point, schedule an advancement. When you're talking again, you can't continue. So somebody says, do you have MDZ 5000? Yes, I have MDZ 5000. We have the different models from 1998 to 2025. Which one would you be interested in? So, well, I'm not quite sure, but what are the prices? Sure, No problem. I can send you a price list. Is this your WhatsApp number?

Yeah, this is OK. Just hang on. Let me just send it to you now. Abec, just give me one moment. Just stay there. Kim, while you don't see him, let me check WhatsApp. Oh, yeah, I can see. Yeah. So you can see that from 1998 to so, So, So the prices are from between this and this and this and that and that and that. So what do you think about that? It's kind of on the expensive side. My brother, you know, now Tinobu economy, you know, that's,

that's, that's how things are nowadays. But you know, now that if you want something that is quality, it's just how it is. You know, you have to, you have to pay for it, say Kai, my brother is expensive. We negotiate, it's Nigeria now, you know, we negotiate everything now. That's, that's how it is. But by the way, self listening, what, what do you even need it for? And then you start talking about the guys business a little bit.

I said OK, oh, you know what? OK, based on what it is that you have said, it's looking like this model, this model, this model might be suitable for your business, your foreman. What does your foreman think? So I don't know. I've not been discussing with my foreman. OK, how about we do it this way Now, is it possible that maybe you can put your foreman on call? Let's three of us. Let's talk later on in the evening, like around like at 8:00.

What do you think? OK, sure, no problem, no problem. Because I had cause it would be nice if four man is there. Let's get 4 man's input. OK, I know Allah. So I'll send you a reminder like around that kind. 7:00 PM. Sure, that's OK. Yeah, that's OK. That's cool. See that's advancement and then well later and then you end the call. You asked a couple of questions. The remainder of the questions you don't have to ask all the 16

now at our future conversation. Now you and him and his foreman or his production manager or his whatever, his factory manager, his floor manager, you will are now on call again 8 O clock later at night. The remaining 16 questions you cannot ask them. So it's not an interrogation. You don't have to finish all the questions today. So that's it. Well, one more thing please. I forgot to mention another reason why we lose track of why we drop the ball is too many of us are running business.

We don't have CRM. CRM just means customer relationship management tool. This is a tool that helps us keep track. Who are we talking to? What are we discussing? What stage of the business relationship are we at? What are they supposed to do for me? What am I supposed to do for them? You know, things like that. So lots of us don't have proper CRM tools. I've made plenty of episodes around CRM, so no point in going into that.

Now you can just use the search function in YouTube if you're listening in YouTube and you'll be able to find another of my episodes where I talk about the CRMS. So if you don't know what CRM is, you don't have one. You can start now using Google Calendar. So when you call somebody chief your hand or drop, you know somebody who's based maybe Maiduguri and he wants to use it to haul. I don't know. What do they make you Maiduguri?

So OK, I don't know what they make you Maiduguri. Let me just say yams, they want to move yams from Maiduguri all the way to Lagos. By the way, Maiduguri people, I'm sorry, I don't know much about your place. It's just one of those things. This is a really big country, you know, we can't know everything about the country. So the Honda Hall yams from Maiduguri to Lagos. So you have the conversation, you discuss budget, range,

everything. You have agreed that the next conversation is going to be Wednesday at 8:00 AM. By the time you're done going to Google Calendar, open it. You now see a plus sign at the bottom left hand side of your screen. Click on that plus it will show you the title or subject. So title or subject just put chief ahead natural. Then underneath it you will Showtime. You click on time and push the time for next week Wednesday at 9:00.

Remember the meeting is for 10. Then underneath that you show details. You will now write it there. IBO trader Chief Ahenetra based in Maiduguri Yam supplies looking for tractor head wants to buy three models discussed MDZ 5000, MDZ 5005 and MDZ 6.2 Next call agenda discussed with Foreman. Once you do all of that, I now click on the tick sign or you now click on save. That's it. The reminder has now been set on your phone.

You can go about your business. So it doesn't matter what you do, problems with the children at school or you're quarreling with your wife or whatever it is, on Wednesday your phone will do zip, zip at 9:00. You check in and say, oh, I'm supposed to call Chief here and I'll try back today. For a lot of us, that is how we drop the ball. We're not using CRM. So right now, if you say I beg CRM, I don't have money, I don't want to bother myself with new pieces of technology.

No problem. Like I said when I was talking about AI, these tools are already on your phone. Google Phone is already on your phone, Apple Calendar. I say Google Phone, Google Calendar is already on your phone. Apple Calendar is already on your phone. Just use the thing. This way we can stay on top of it. For those of you who've been listening for a while, you remember the episode that I talk about. I spoke about where for the people in solar sales were talking to someone.

It looked like this was a good thing. And I told one of the guys that look set this reminder. This is how we lose money. Of course, the guiding set reminder. And then one day casually, one of the sales people in the meeting said how far will that Lady in Port Arcot and I say, hey, is a lie. It's true. I said, I asked the guy, why didn't you set the reminder? Of course, all kinds of useless excuses. And then we pull up the file.

Lo and behold, it was 3 weeks. The last time was supposed to have spoken. That was three weeks. We called and what the expert happened, She has bought from somebody else. Now it doesn't mean it would have she would have bought from us. But sometimes the challenges that we're facing in doing our follow through or our follow up is our own fault. And this is also one of the ways that we cause the problem. You're not using CRM.

You're not setting reminders how you remember to call everybody back during the week. You're talking to about one or two strangers every day. By the end of the week, you've spoken to about 1415 people. How you remember who you're supposed to call back and when or what you're supposed to talk about. Get a CRM tool or just use whatever calendar you have on your phone to set reminders, to schedule appointments and to take notes about the customer details.

And let me leave you here because this is already a 40 minute episode. So that's it. And that's all for today. Oh, look at me, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Tavishma Aide. I'm the host of the podcast. If you've been having fun so far, then subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple so that you can take part in all these conversations. We have over 1200 episodes so far in whatever feed that you are currently listening to.

If you'd love to connect with me, you can call send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys some other time.