How to Spot Serious Customers (and Stop Wasting Your Time)

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today I'm going to keep talking about how to figure out if you're dealing with a serious prospect, if you're dealing with a serious potential customer, excuse me. Now, this is a really important topic in sales because when you're trying to grow a business, when you are a founder, when you are a salesperson and in the early days, you have limited time. It's not as if you have a massive team behind you.

It's really, really important and it's really, really critical who you're going to be investing time with, who you're going to be spending time with. You don't want to spend time chasing after 20 people in a week. And it turns out that out of that, 2015 of them were just curious. Therefore, out of the remaining 5, three of them are broke out. Of the remaining two who had money, one of them was just doing research. So if you find that that's how you've been spending your time,

then excuse me, it's going to be demoralizing for you, obviously. And at the end of the day, you're not going to get much revenue because you wasted two weeks talking to 20 people and out of the 2019 of them were never, ever going to buy at all. As in like there was no hope. There was no hope that they were never going to buy. The thing is just that you did not know that they were going to buy. So if we can come up with a way for figuring out quickly who is likely to buy, who is not likely to buy, we can't quickly shift the 19 people that we know for sure are not likely to buy and then look for 19 other people to talk to.

So when we start doing these things, who is likely to buy my product, who is likely to buy my service? Then over time, the outlook, the trajectory for our businesses improve. So this is the reason why I say if you listen to the podcast and you implement some of the things that we talk about over here, it's not as if you become a millionaire overnight, but you start implementing a bunch of stuff today and then next month or in two months, you notice that my bank account is kind of heavy.

My bank account is getting heavier. Before, my bank account was anorexic. Now my bank account is putting on some muscle. So how OK. Now if you've been listening to the podcast for the last 2-3 weeks, you've already heard me talk a lot about conversation frameworks. In particular, you've heard me talk about bank. Bank is budget, authority, need and timeline. That is the framework that guides you through conversations with people to make sure that you're talking about money.

That is budget. Do these people have money? Do they have a realistic price expectation? Then a authority. Are we talking to someone who is capable of making a decision? Because there's no point in talking to the houseboy if houseboy cannot authorize the contract. You're better off trying to see how you can talk to Auger direct, talk to the person who is in charge, who can make sure that this thing will happen. Then need do these people even have a serious problem?

Because if they're talking to you and they're asking all the right questions, but at the end of the day, they don't really have a need. You know, they're just doing research. They're just curious. They're just whatever it is, but they're not going to buy then timeline. Timeline is when are they getting ready to take action, Is there going to be, when are they going to take action and is there any genuine urgency? Can we figure out if there's something that is going to happen today, tomorrow, next,

tomorrow, next year, whenever that will cause this, that will increase the odds that these people are going to take action. So if you're talking to people who have the right money expectations, the person has the authority to say yes, let's go ahead and do this thing. Let me make the deposit. The person has a genuine need. They're not just doing research. And then there's a sense of urgency. They're getting ready to take action, you know, next week,

next year, whatever. OK, then good. The chances of close of us closing the deal go up. So if you've been listening to this podcast for the last month, I'm sure you're tired of me talking about bands. So don't worry, I'm not going to talk about bands today. I will only talk about just one small aspect of bands and that is T that is timeline. The reason why is I'm interacting with a bunch of you and it looks like, OK, you guys are understanding where I'm coming from.

You understand why these things are important. You started asking a couple of questions, but you guys are failing to take it one step further. You're forgetting to ask why. You ask about people's money, expectations and their budget, but you don't ask them why. You ask about people's needs. They tell you that, oh, OK, I need this thing. I need this thing. You don't ask why. You ask about timelines, but you're not asking why.

And the problem is this, if he has timeline, the person gives you timeline. You didn't ask why when it comes to follow up, you will not have the full confidence that you need to follow this person. Like if it's close marking that is required, you won't have the full confidence to give this person close marking and be calling them every two, two days. Or if you're going to follow them, like play and relax, you'd be calling them one one month.

You won't have the full confidence, the full backing, the full you understand to be able to pursue. Let me give you one concrete example. I'm talking to someone who OK, well if you've been listening for last month, you already know I was talking to Cinderella, not her real name, who sells solar in Lagos. I saw Cinderella. I was talking with someone and she said the person's timeline is 3 weeks. I said OK, cool, no problem.

And I asked her why. She said I don't know. I repeat, I asked her what is the person's timeline, when is he getting ready to take action? She said three weeks. I say why? She said she doesn't know. In this situation, if somebody said they're getting ready to take action in three weeks, but you don't know why, can you see how even though three weeks is close, you will be hesitant to call? You won't know, like, am I being an irritant or not?

Am I being reasonable in chasing this guy or not or chasing this baby? So it's not just enough to ask the questions, but we need to take things a step further and ask why. So if you're like Cinderella and you're in the solar space and you ask the person, oh, when are you think I'll have? When are you thinking of having this solar and investor system installed? And the person says, oh, in three weeks. You say, oh, OK, you note it down in three weeks, but you don't ask why.

You have the full lever to follow up on this person. You won't because they didn't ask why. Now there is another person who used to sell solar. She's no longer in the solar space. And she took this my advice. And she asked the person, oh, how soon are you thinking of having this installed? And the person said September. And she said, oh, you don't mind my asking why? Excuse me? And the person said, oh, my family is relocating.

Now. She had done a good job of building rapport with the person because I always advised that we should build rapport and we should be conversational. So when she said, when he said my family is relocating back, of course she said, ah, you people are coming back when some of us are trying to run away and they leftover. I said, my sister, that it's not that everything is not pure like you're seeing it that sure, I'm bringing my family back and you know, the children they were born outside, so they're not used to some kind things.

So if wifey and the kids come back and they meet this kind NEPA Valhalla that was seeing now, it won't be easy, it won't be sweet. So this other person, let's call her, what name should we call her? Cynthia. So this other person, Cynthia, she asked how soon are you looking at having your solar anniversary system installed? The person said September. She said, hope you don't mind me asking why? And the person said, my wife and my kids, they are coming back.

I came first to smoothen the weight, make everything comfortable, make everything smooth. And I want my children who are born outside and who have never heard of NEPA to come and start facing some kind of things. So for Cynthia, when we were chasing that guy, can you see that we could chase him with our full chest? Because Olga, you said you want this thing to be done by September. Auger, if we are to meet this September date, we need this and this and this to be on ground before then.

So therefore, you should have transferred the money by this particular date. In that case, we knew very well. We know the timeline and we know that there's a sense of urgency. We know what it is tied to. It gives us the full confidence, the full authority to be chasing after this guy. And when we are the scope will be bronze September donor Como routine says September day 5 August see September is just in two months. So that kind of person we can stay on the ball because we know why.

If somebody just says, excuse me, If somebody just says September, well, the person just says 2 weeks. We say, OK, no problem. Just note it down. When the time comes to call, you'll be lacking in confidence. Am I doing this right? I don't know. Am I justified in following up with this person like this? I don't know. What kind of emotional strings should I pull out? You know, I don't know. I have nothing because I didn't ask why.

So yes, I'm glad that you are listening to the podcast and I'm glad that you are learning and you're improving and you're asking some things. But if you ask somebody, how soon are you looking at having XYZ installed? What possible start date did you have in mind? When did you plan to have this sorted? By when would you like for us to start? Do you have any start dates in mind? Is this something that you want to begin in the next quarter of the year?

Is this something you want to wrap up by the end of the year? You know any different way that we can be asking questions that will help us to tease out a timeline from this person so that we know their own calendar? Because you are chasing somebody who are doing follow up. Follow up is not according to our calendar. Follow up is according to the other person's calendar. That's all. Tell us for sure or relax is the other person's calendar.

It is not our own. That is the difference between being a professional and being a pest. If you're looking at your own calendar or more month end in Hong Kong and need money. I need money, I need money. You'll be calling everybody, you'll be buzzing everybody's. You will be a pest. But if you're following their own calendar, you're following their own priorities, following their own agenda, following their own timeline, you're a professional and you're keeping everybody in step, keeping everybody in queue, keeping everybody in lock.

So it's not just enough to say, when would you like us to start? How soon would you like this to be installed? It's not just enough to say that you can say, OK, sorry. I hope you don't mind me asking. I'm curious why and they hear what they have to say. Sometimes there's some things that you can use and guess so for like for Cinderella, again, not her real name. When the person said three weeks, my own guess is maybe the person is tiny to the rainy season.

That's my own guess. So in that situation, instead of saying also, I hope you don't mind me asking why, you know, I would just say that, Oh, so is it because of the rainy season and, you know, hear what the person has to say. But if somebody just says September, 3 weeks, how soon would you like us to start Seven weeks time? You didn't ask why. Honestly speaking, when it comes to the follow up, how often should you pursue this person?

You won't know. I'm not pursuing with too much force. You won't know. OK, I'm stuck. I've run out of ideas. What kind of possible ideas can I use to revive this conversation? You won't know. So it's not just enough to take all these frameworks that we talk about and then ask on a surface level. Learn to start asking why to get the real reason behind it. It will help us. Selling is a creative endeavor, so we need to use our creative juices.

The only way you can exercise your creative juices is if you have something that you can use to create a pond in the first place. So if you ask the average Nigerian what's your budget, let's say you're using bands, you say what's your budget? Every Nigerian is not going to tell you anything. They'll say tell me how much you can do it for. So we look for more creative ways of doing this. One way that I've been talking about the last month is to use a range, which is to say, OK Sir,

based on all the things we've spoken about so far, it looks like we can sort this at the top range of about let's say 450,000 naira and on the lower end maybe about 380,000 naira. Does that match with the other quotes that you're looking at at the moment? So me asking now does that match with the other quotes you're looking at at the moment? You know, it's a much, it's a much more stylistic way of asking the person that was your budget or how much is in your hand or what are you looking at?

If I'm able to ask questions like that, I'm able to pull out a range of figures and it looks like we are comfortable talking. It still would be nice to know the why. Oh, OK. Oh, cool. OK. I'm glad we're in the same ballpark. But Sir, those figures that you got, you know, I'm just curious, you know, how did you come across the other firm or which other company are you talking to or you know, asking the why behind it? You never know what kind of information you're going to on Earth.

So trying to figure out the why, trying to figure out the deeper reason, trying to figure out the deeper motivation behind all these issues, that's the way to go. Usha, if you're like Cinderella and you've been practicing timeline, timeline, timeline and you have started asking people when, when would you like us to start? When are you looking at installing XYZ? When did you plan to have this installed? If you started asking those sorts of questions, Very good.

I'm glad that you have. Please don't forget to try and ask the why and figure out the reason behind it. Because when we find out a time frame, when we find out a timeline, the real urgency is going to come from the why. And that is what will give us the confidence that we are following up, that we are following through, that we are chasing, that we are pursuing, that we are close marking that we are, you know, whatever it is you want to call it, that we're doing it the right way.

So always find out why. So that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening. Thanks for your time and attention. If you'd love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you want me to audit any of your business processes or your frameworks, then call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Then yeah, if you want to be, if you want to join my WhatsApp channel, send me a message on the same number and I'll hook you up.

So that's it, I'll catch you all some other time.