Stop Losing Deals: The Nigerian Biz CRM Quick Fix

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at horror stories in business. We're going to look at why having ACRM tool is important in business. CRM tool is a customer relationship management tool and I'm going to explain a little bit more about that in a few minutes. I'm also going to talk about advancements. Advancements are the dynamic that are behind complex business deals. The idea behind an advancement is every time you're having a conversation with a potential customer, with a potential client, what you're trying to do is you're trying to move the business deal forward 1 little step at a time.

Because when you're talking about big purchases, complex purchases where lots of interests are involved, lots of partners are involved, and it's important for business relationships to be upheld. You can't just come in and expect to collect millions in one swoop, so you have to take things one step at a time. So hopefully by the end of today's episode, it's going to be a bit of a rumble shot because I didn't really organize my ideas before starting to record.

Because this thing just happened fresh. This Horror Story happened. Fresh as in my heart was broken today. Fresh as in I won't cry when I heard the news. So anyway, those are the sorts of things that we're going to be looking at today. Now I'm making today's recording at home. This is one of those late night recordings and it's a cool rainy night in Abuja. So there's going to be some noise in the background. Now, if you're tired of listening to podcasts where they just keep talking Americana and you know, the ideas don't seem to relate to Nigeria, then you're in the right place.

This podcast is for you. This podcast is your jam. Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tavi Shima IED. Now for years I've been doing just that, dropping Nuggets almost on a daily basis. OK, well, let's just say on a weekly basis, while I keep on giving good advice, useful Nuggets on how to grow your business the Nigerian way. So if you're interested in these sorts of things, then stay locked in. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube,

Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So I said to do on the podcast now story story also upon a time. We're going to be talking about horror stories here. And look, this is the basic context. All those things I said in the beginning about CRM and advancements. You see how everything ties in. But shall let me give you the Horror Story.

Tina wanted to make me cry today. So now you've been listening to the podcast for a while. You know that I've been having some coaching clients, you know, back-to-back. So the people that are doing this startup thing in the content space, you know, then the the real estate startup, that one, they are there. But then you know, my longest running engagements, well, two engagements now because we did one last year and then we're doing another one this year.

That's the solar company that is based in Lagos and they had a fresh, newly mentored sales guy who was a member of the team and was my job to get him up to speed. So now with the team, if you've been listening, you know that it's been a constant struggle getting these people to adopt the CRM. But the problem is, you know, most Nigerian sales people, they just think CRM is technology for technology's sake. But that's because they don't understand how complex deals are put together and how this thing can help you.

So if you're listening for a while, you know that I've said this thing over and over again, that by the time you have two 345 clients, you need something that will help you stay on track. Who am I talking to? When did we talk last? What did we discuss? What am I supposed to do? What is this person supposed to do? Let me schedule the next appointment. Let me make sure that this deal is not where to fall because it's hard to do these things by your brain.

By the time you have 345 clients, if you only have one or two is fine, you can schedule from your head, but by the time you have 456, it becomes hard, becomes very, very hard. But The thing is, well, in a sense, maintaining the habit is hard. But The thing is, lots of you don't realise that we lose money in the process when we don't use these sorts of external tools to keep us on track. And that's today's Horror Story.

So the newest member of the team, now let me not call his name is his client that we're pursuing in Port Accord. He called the woman, you know, tried talking to the woman was for the sale of solar. Somehow the conversation just went quiet. And of course, apart from coaching, I'm also offering call support. So I said no problem, let me have the man's number. Let me see if I can resuscitate this deal. So that's how I called, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll do my answer.

You know, from there we start. And, you know, from the conversation we're having, she seemed like a decent prospect. She wanted solar panels and inverter systems for her house because she already had at the office done by another company. Well, by the way, this new person, he didn't ask, can he ask the woman like, oh, OK, you already have solar panels in the office. So how come we didn't use those guys? Because I told him the new salesperson, let's just call him Steven.

I told Steven. Now, look, we should. There are some questions that we know we ought to ask. And if somebody already has one or two suppliers that they are affiliated with, it's not the problem to ask them now. OK. You know, Madam, if you know there's other people, how come you're not going with them? I know it sounds kind of rude. What do you think is we're going to get valuable Intel from there. So since he didn't ask me, I

asked Madam. So you see already household line in the office to say yes. What do you have in the office to say? I have 10 KV who provide who provided it. She called her name. I think it's song king ahead song king. I said song king they do that kind of installation. He says I thought oh OK. I thought Song King was all these small, small system that I used to charge phone and, you know, watch TV, that kind of thing. He said no, no, they do big systems.

That's OK Madam, the system is OK. She says fine, there's no problem with the system. She said there's no problems. I said, so Madam, how come you're calling us now? How come you shouldn't just go with Song King? He said the reason why I'm, no I'm asking is because I had that there are some things that people attach to solar system. I said things like what she tried explaining. He was not really making sense, so I said to ask more questions,

OK. With our own company, what we do is we have remote monitoring so that from anywhere in the world you can monitor your system. We can also monitor your system. If there's going to be any problem with your solar and inverter system, we will know about it. Sometimes before even you can even send an engineer down to go and say we should check this component, that component that. Is that what you had in mind? She said, hey, I was hearing that some people do things like that.

I saw what are my systems do that. However, there are also other things as well. And then I told her about is it charge controller? So I can't remember the name because you know, I'm not technical. I mentioned charge controller, abuse surge controller, but basically the inbuilt protection that makes sure that every single time NEPA misbehaves and the current jumps up that if it would damage or deep freeze and stuff like that.

No. So I spoke about two or three other things that can be come in between your solar and inverter system and your house to protect your house. And she said she was interested. She said she was interested. I said, OK, Madam, you know what is what I'm going to do That guy that called you first, that's my engineer. So I'm going to discuss with my engineer. We're going to come up with different options. By the way, Ma, when you initially responded to us, you said your budget was 5 M But Madam, based on all the things you said about all the appliances in your house and this and this and that and that,

Madam, this will cost to if I come back with a budget of 10 to 15, is it too much? Roman said don't even reach 10, Madam, we should not even return. He said look, if you pass a cover beyond 10, you will cause a problem for me. I said OK Madam, no problem. Now that part of the conversation, this is where we're doing qualification and discovery, trying to figure out who's this person, what are they on about, do they have a problem?

What's the extent of the problem? We should be comfortable with asking money questions quick with people so that we know where we stand. You don't have to say it in the 2 formula way. You had the formula that I used. I just told him, OK Madam, initially you say 5 M, but based on all these things that were saying, Madam, if I come back between 10 and 15, you know, is it too much? I asked her like she said, don't go a cobo past 10.

In our words, if you go a cobo past 10 million, you will cause problem for me. That's what she said. Then I wrote it down in my book cause problem for me. See, you always have to be as many times as possible that you can refer to people's exact words. It helps. It shows that they are being listened to so that if I call the money. Next answer, Madam good news. Oh, we have an option that came in at 8.9 because I don't want to cause problem for you.

That's the kind of thing that will cause people to laugh. I don't want to cause problem for you. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha you know you laugh, you're building rapport. See this reason why I say pen and paper, sometimes the tech that you need to increase your grow your business doesn't have to be that high tech. Pen and paper be writing things down as they're saying important things. So that's the money part of the conversation.

So now I now knew the OK based on always spoken about so far between 5 M and 10 M we can be jumping up and down. So I told her, OK, no problem Madam, I've gotten all the information I need. The guy that called you first, Steven, that's my engineer. I'll call him back. We'll come up with some options. I'll call you back on Monday. How does that sound? She said Monday we have an event on Sunday. Monday, I'll be resting.

Call me Tuesday, don't call me later than 10. I said no problem, we'll call you. OK, That's how we ended our call and I'll quickly call Steven. I said, Steven, what's up now? So I'm good. Say that, Madam. Yeah, I called her. Did she answer? I said of course she answered, but she doesn't used to pick my call. I said, you know what, Steven? That's a separate matter. And yes, it is a separate matter mostly. The thing is this, whenever you're calling a potential customer, right, if on every single phone call you're not adding value to the person, you become a pest.

And yes, don't stop answering your phone call. So be confident that you are the sales professional here, that you're the professional. You're the one who knows your industry in and out. It's OK to call people up, to ask them questions, to give an honest point of view, you know, to give some advice. If every single time you call you're just sounding like a houseboy or an order taker, there's absolutely no reason for people to pick your call.

And then those that goes to you. But as a separate banter, we'll make another podcast episode about that. So that's the reason why, you know, they really pick Stevens call again. Steven is not his real name, trying to protect his identity. So I told him this is what we're going to do. You have been complaining, Stephen. Every single time you send people proposal, they ghost you. And I said this is the problem. You and your colleagues, you've gotten into the habit of sending only one proposal.

The problem is this, when you send a proposal with only one option, the answer is going to be either yes or no. And that is not a good place to be in. So what you do is this, every single time you talk with someone, come up with three options, option A, option B, option C, Either one should be able to solve the problem. They should have different advantage and disadvantage. And you know, they should all fall within the comfortable price point that you know, that we've spoken about.

And they will say, is it not too much? I say, no, it's not too much. But this is the benefit of the optional thing. When you give people options, you're still staying in the conversation because when you give them three options, you now have to get back in the loop. I have that conversation of saying option A that the advantage be this, option B that the disadvantage belief, option C that the advantage be this. You're continuing the conversation.

You're engaging with the customer, you're engaging with the client. They're talking some more about the problem. You're able to figure out what are their priorities and what real problems are they trying to solve. So this whole thing are giving somebody three options. Very good idea to stay in the conversation because this kind of thing, Madam say don't go over 10. If you now send a quote for one option only and it is 9.8, it will just register.

Madam said OK, 9.8 and I should put your own down. Should now continue talking to the other people. Somebody will say 9.4, another person will say 9 points, you know, 99. Another person would say 10.2. She'll now call that 9.4 person unless they're having a conversation with them. But if you gave three options, there's some bandwidth for the conversation to continue. There's opportunity for you to educate the customer, enlighten the customer that look, these are the different options.

This is what we'll cover. These are the different advantages. You know, mommy, I understand that money is important, but still mommy be thinking like this, be thinking like this, you're not standing out as a professional. So I told my guy, I said Steven, you know what Madam say do not call me later than 10:00 AM on Tuesday morning because he has event on Sunday. As I said it, they now clicked in my head. That was my unique mistake.

You suppose ask like war events, you know, just casual like yeah, you have event. Congratulations. My is it bad day to say no? It's charge something. You know what you know from there you're building rapport, getting some more details so that by the time I call her back on Tuesday, I start up the conversation, say, oh, hello Ma, is that child from Abuja that called you last week concerning solar, how far the church went.

Now everything went well. See like you're building rapport and see this is what I told you guys that everybody goofs. So me, I goofed the moment she said I have event on Sunday, I should have leaned in there to find out what the event is. But of course, if you come out and say what event are you having doing somehow? So be conversational when she said I'm having the event on Sunday, congratulations, my birthday party or house warming,

you know, conversational. That's how you tease out some small information. So I made a note that OK, when I call this room on Tuesday, I'll start the conversation I had how's the event? How's the party? I hope you I hope you chop remain. You know what I kind of conversation just build some small rapport, you know, be a human being because you called your son a robotic, you know, like it's not helping. It's not helping the situation at all.

So and I told him Steven is all you do based on all this information I've given you because you you're the engineer. You know what's up, give me 3 specifications for a solar system that's going to solve all these human problem. The price range should be anything between 5:00 and 10:00. Don't pass 10. So when I call her back, I can now feel her again. You see where she's feeling on price Then I'll now throw you back into the equation.

You would now start having that conversation with her again. That option A you know is alright. Option B is because like this, like this. Option C is like this. You will now start having all those technical conversations with the woman and then, you know, trying to figure things out like, OK, Madam, you know, if we want to power this, we'll do like this. If I want to power this, we'll do like that. You know, you stay in the conversation.

So he said, right, no problem. Stephen, give me a proposal. Stephen, give me a proposal problem. I didn't even want him to write out the proposal. I said just give me the range. Give me the range so I can have this conversation with the woman. When I have the conversation with rumor, you can drop the formal document. So that's how Thursday pass as our Friday pass, as our Saturday pass as our Sunday pass. And I also told him, take the CRM, put all these details in the CRM.

Set a reminder so that we do not forget. You guys say, yeah, I've done it, I've done it. Say yes, boss. Yes, boss. I've done it. So yeah, like all these yes, boss, yes. But it's not about yes, boss, yes boss. Do the damn thing anyway. So he said he accepted. But of course, you know, life goes on. Me, I have other clients. He hears other people that he's talking to. So that's how one day now when we're having sales meeting on a Tuesday, another member of the team mentioned how far that Lady in Port Accord.

Then if it was like it's true, I said, Steven, how far now I said, oh, I'm working on them working. I said, you suppose I've given me this figure since that is woman said no later than Tuesday, 10 AM and then I call her, she's in a meeting. That's how you know, we just missed that. We missed the opportunity. See this reason why CRM tools are important, if somebody says call me no later than Tuesday 10:00 AM, first of all you go to the CRM, you put down all this history that this is what me and deaconess Madam, you know whatever discussed and she said call me no later than 10:00 AM.

You now set reminder in the CRM for 8:30 so that 8:30 in the morning, you know when you have your breakfast, you know you have your bread and custard or carry on bread as you're eating it. You also bring him on your phone. When you look at it, you will see meeting with deaconess Madam. So, so, so, so 10 AM you say, ah, yes, it is true. You will now prepare so that no later than 10:00 AM, you boss Madam. And then the conversation continues.

See, this is what we call advancements, where you and the potential customer, you agree on what the next step is supposed to be. You secure an advancement ahead of time and you make sure you meet those advancements. That is how you keep and maintain momentum when it comes to complex sales. And when you're selling solar and inverter systems, you are in a complex sale. So that's how we mess up. That's how we missed Tuesday 10

AM. You can see the Horror Story. This is somebody that said don't pass 10 M. The first conversation was at 5. She now said don't pass 10. You can see that we're dealing with big, big money. You can see that we're dealing with nice, nice margins on top. We're not talking thousands of naira. We're not talking 10s of thousands. We're not talking hundreds of thousands. We're talking millions. So that's Horror Story #1 so of course, as coded Stephen, I say Stephen, look, this is how we are going to lose this deal from all these small, small, small mistakes.

This is how we are going to lose this deal. Because this woman for sure is talking to two other people. The first people that supplied her house is Song King. So definitely Song King. They're talking in her hair, in her ear. Song King is doing Cho Cho Cho. She's talking to another person, they're doing cha cha cha. This is how we lose this deal. He said yes boss, yes boss, no problem. I've said the reminder, I've said the reminder, the guidance said the reminder.

And you know, life gets busy. Like I say, me, I have other clients, he too, he has other people that is pursuing. So that's how today, now excuse me, another member of the team asked me the half hour down my import accord and I say hi Jesus and I went straight to the CRM and I checked it. You believe I was supposed to have spoken to that woman? We are supposed to have called her last September 11th. I repeat, was supposed to have called her September 11th.

Today's date as I'm making this podcast is October 6th. You heard me. Well, we were supposed to have called Deaconess Madame. September 11th. Today's date is October the 6th, 2025. How many weeks is that? How many days is that? As far as I'm concerned, it's as good as one month. Some of you say one more. No reach now. You still remain like 5 days. Well, in the mind of the customer, might as well be two months since you guys spoke.

Last I checked the notes that I told my guy to prepare, he prepared it. Well, there were three options there. I was going to call Madam Deaconess. I said oh Madam, Remember Me, I got a call from Abuja Solar company. So yes my son, how you are Madam, I'm OK. So Madam, I have good news because I don't have to cause problem for you. She will now laugh. I said now you say we should not go past 10, so that won't cause problem for you.

So I'll say, Madam, when I have three options, each of those three options will be able to work well in your house. Option A, we say we'll give you 8 kva solar and inverter. Option two, we say we'll give you 10 kva solar and inverter. Then option C, we say we'll give you 12 kva solar and inverter. And the price range, but I'm no virtual because I disappoint you small. The price ranges are from 6.9 to 10.9 million. So Madame how you see him and I'll keep quiet.

I hear what she has to say. Based on how reaction I'll now know whether I can dig in or not. If she says look young man I told you if you pass 10 you're causing problem for me also. OK Madam says I said we should look at option A&B then the eight KV and the 10KV. If you say, OK, I'll now talk small about the 8 KV which is 6.9. I'd have not talked small about the 10 KVA which is 8.9 million. Then remember my goal is I'm trying to bring Steven who is the real sales professional, me,

I'm just a consultant. I'm posed to bring him back into the picture. So that's OK Madam, that my engineer Steven, he will call you so we can talk about this thing in more details. So he will tell you the benefit of each and how we are going to share the load in your house if we do these things. So that was the scope. That part was recorded in this area. Steven did now not set reminder. Steven did not now schedule notification.

Are you people hearing me? This is where the Horror Story started from. He did not set reminder. He did not set notification. Life gets busy, Life gets busy. You're chasing other things and that is how you're supposed to talk to a customer. September 11th. You wake up one day. It is October 6th. One month has passed. You didn't call this person back one full month. If there's any of you that are saying one month never reached,

they shot by 5 days, I will knock you on the head. In fact, from the point of view of the customer, it will feel as if you haven't spoken in two or three months. So I said thank you for reminding me. I quickly check the CRM just to refresh my mind on the deal and I called woman back quickly. I called Deaconess back and then Deaconess she was in a meeting but still she answered the course. Oh young man, how are you Sir,

my mommy are vinyl that sorry I beg I lost track of our conversation. Sorry mommy was my fault. I hope you haven't gone ahead with somebody else. She said my dear I've gone ahead with somebody else. I said mommy why now? He said that song can give me a good offer. Really binary. The system is OK. She say your system is OK. How much did he go for? So, you know, I can't really talk right now. I'm in a meeting. OK, no problem, man.

No problem. No problem, Mommy. I'll call you back later. Say OK. So that's the Horror Story. That's how a promising customer jobs work. I like that Now when I was in the law, because my first degree is in law, we used to say that some cases, the reason why they fail is lack of diligent prosecution. Lack of diligent prosecution is another way of saying lawyer, Now you have up that the reason why this case fell apart is because lawyer, you lawyer, now you have up, this was a matter of the business was falling apart.

This case fell apart because of lack of diligent prosecution. We didn't prosecute this thing. Well, the advancements that we were supposed to hit Tuesday don't call me later than 10:00 AM. We missed that one. From there we started entering voicemail. The September 11th one, we missed it by nearly 4 full weeks, 4 full weeks. Now, some of you don't realize the importance, but see, this is where lots of you are losing your business.

Deals, advancements, moving things forward one step at a time, remembering staying on the ball, not missing calls, not missing meetings, not missing appointments. This is where the deal is falling apart. Our potential customers and clients are talking to other people. You're not the only person. If you don't call on Tuesday morning before 10 AM, trust me, another vendor will. You do not call on September 11th like you were supposed to.

Another vendor will. And this is how we lose money in business. We lose it small, small, small. If the problem is not tenable, the problem is not the economy, The problem is not the people in your father's village who do not like your branch or the family. Yes, they don't like you, and maybe they've been doing jazz for you. But The thing is, the jazz doesn't even have to work because you yourself, you're the one using your hand to spoil your business, to spoil your commissions.

These things are important schedule reminders. If you don't have a CRM like Steven, set the reminders on your phone. So that Tuesday be not later than 10:00 AM, you will boss Deaconess. That is how you stay in the conversation with Deaconess. So that September 11th, you will call Deaconess. This is how you stay in the conversation. So excuse me. So that's the Horror Story that I'm telling people today. Like I said, it was not 10,000

naira. It was not 100,000, Naira was not one. M was potentially 10.9, potentially best case, worst case 6.9. I'm not saying that this deal would have closed and would have won it. I'm not saying that. But The thing is, the way we pursued this case, we were not even a contender at all because we did not even stay on the starting block. We did not even take shot on goal. We started the conversation, but we left this, we left the net wide open for other people to take shot.

And of course, somebody else called the goal. So when you are hearing me on the podcast or when you're hearing other people who are sales professionals talking about advancements, talking about CRMS, it is not theory. You lose money live and in the real world when you do not follow these precautions. They are precautions. They are there to keep us on track. So my brother and my sisters, that's that's a horrible story for today.

And these things will continue to happen if you, the business owner or you, the sales professional who is in charge of following some things, if you do not heed this very simple advice. I told you guys that it can be bad. This is one of those cases. 4 weeks, 4 weeks, it's probably happening to you. The thing is just that since you don't have a system of record in the 1st place, since you don't have ACRM, since you're not using a Google Calendar, you just don't realize how bad The thing is.

Your mind you think, oh I should have called her two weeks ago. If you had something exposed to record and keep, you'll be surprised that you know your maybe that's even your own has like 6 weeks 7 weeks and it does it. That's a Horror Story that I heard today. Anyway, that's a problem of being an employee salesperson. At the end of the day, you still collect your salary, but for the business owner. Actually, it's a sad story because for all these leads,

these leads are paid for. You go and run advertisements on Google, you run advertisements on Facebook or on Instagram. That's how you get these leads only for you to slip through your fingers anyway. So that's a pretty much. So please let us avoid horror stories. Let us avoid stories that touch. Let us avoid all these small, small things that can be given us BP in our businesses. If you don't have ACRM, remember like two or three episodes ago I

spoke about overcomer of Weibo. What Mr. Hofweibu uses is he uses what I use again, Google Sheets. That's like Excel. That's where he keeps all the details. Then he now uses Google Calendar to schedule the reminder that calls also Tuesday 10 AM or call this person September 11th. That's why he uses Google Calendar for you can do that or you can just Google my use whatever calendar is available on your phone. So if you're using techno and this techno calendar, use techno calendar be managing it as your CRM for now, but shall use something to avoid stories of the heart to avoid matters that touch please.

Anyway, so that's my Horror Story. What is enough advice? Let's try and avoid horror stories in our in our businesses. Anyway, it's 30 minutes. Let me just bring it to a close. Besides, it's night time. I should be going to bed. I have to drop the kids in school tomorrow morning. So that's it. And that's all basically. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

And if you're having fun so far, you like all the things that we're talking about, you think is relevant to the Nigerian market, then cool, you're in luck. You're in the right place. Keep scrolling. We have over 1200 episodes here. Practical insights. I don't talk theory too much. So whether you're on YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, Encore, anywhere, Scroll down, listen. There are plenty archives. As you listen, write down one or two things.

As you write, apply one or two things to avoid stories that touch. Sometimes the reason why your business is suffering has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the economy, and has nothing to do with the witches and Wizards in your father's village. Sometimes the reason why your business is not moving actually is you. You had a problem. You're letting all these small, small advancements slip through your fingers.

Tuesday, 10 AM you let that one sleep. September 11, you let that one sleep. Eventually you call and your customer has moved on with someone else. You're now there, heartbroken, crying. Had I known? Anyway, I'll be in touch. Everyone have a good night.