Stop "Toasting" Clients: How to Sell Without Charisma

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at unhelpful sales training exercises. And the reason why is because people get together at events. Or maybe you're a business owner and you're trying to train your sales team and you have seen on YouTube or in a movie or something, some sales training exercises that you think will help people improve their sales. And to be honest, a lot of people misunderstand what these simple things, what these simple sales training exercises are like.

For instance, the famous one Sell Me this pencil or one that I saw a speaker do at a tech event recently in Lagos. And yes, this is a continuation of the conversations with the Tech Bro series, just in case you've been listening to the podcast for the last week or so. So this guy got on stage and did a different version of Sell Me This Laptop. So that was the sales training exercise or the sales exercise that they went through.

So excuse me Now, a lot of these exercises are very, very, very unhelpful and they perpetrate lots of stereotypes about sales, which quite frankly, don't help anyone. And yeah, so that's what we're looking at today. We're going to look at unhelpful sales training exercises, why you should not be doing them with your teams. And we're also going to realize the true value behind those exercises because actually the exercise of sell me this pencil or you tell somebody on the spot, sell me this laptop or you grab a salesperson and you tell them, sell me this phone, sell me this mug.

There is something good behind those exercises that is not quite captured by the movies, by the TV dramas, and by the speakers on stage who do not have a background in professional sales and business development. So if you like these sorts of things, how do we sell? What is the right way to sell? How can we be much more effective in selling? How can we increase our business revenue by selling? Then subscribe to the podcast,

subscribe on Spotify, on YouTube, on Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, my name is Tavishima Ayedi. I'm the host of the podcast. And you can call me, send me a text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So excuse me. And yes, just in case some of you are wondering, yes, I am Nigerian in case you haven't figured out from the title of the podcast episode. So let's get straight into it today on helpful sales training exercises.

Now, the reason why I'm looking at that today is because I have been reviewing a video that I received from a listener of the podcast a few weeks ago. And this was an event in Lagos where a famous tech bro was talking about things that start up founders in Nigeria should expect to learn or expect to execute when it comes to sales and marketing if they want to grow that their fintech, their start up, their whatever it is.

So I've been running commentary for the past couple of days about things that he got right in the video, things he could have said better. And yeah, I've just been running a commentary. So at some point during the conversation, he said, you know, he wanted people to go through an exercise. And so he had the crowd basically this whole, you know, say good morning to your neighbor, turn and face your neighbor. Now sell your neighbor your laptop, that kind of exercise.

Now, like I've said, these kinds of exercises are very unhelpful when they are performed by laypeople. Now, when I say laypeople, I'm putting it in context. There are some of us who have devoted our lives to advancing the cause or advancing the discipline of selling effectively and selling properly. If you run into one of those people like me, we are not lay people because we are versed in the science of sales. Now, unfortunately, there are other people who have made a successful go at business and because of that, they think they know a lot about sales, but they haven't educated themselves when it comes to sales and they haven't devoted a significant amount of time to studying sales or marketing.

So when these individuals take the stage and now do things like sell me this pencil, sell me this laptop, they are putting forward very, very wrong ideas about sales. And I'm making today's podcast recording because I'm worried that too many people are being affected by this kind of approach. Now, when you tell somebody, sell me this pencil or like this guy did, turn to your neighbor, you say neighbor, neighbor, greet yourself, you're looking good, blah, blah, blah.

And then you now say, Oh yeah, sell me this laptop. What you have people thinking at the end of the day is this. Now to be good in sales, you need to have the gift of gab aspire. You need to have sweet mouths. You need to be able to toast. You need to be able to think on the fly. You need to be extroverted. You need to have a bubbling personality, you need to have charisma, you need to have courage. When people do these exercises on the spot, or assembly this pencil or assembly this laptop or assembly this phone or assembly this mug, Those are the ideas that are put now in the market.

Now, is it true that you need to have sweet mouth, you need to be extroverted, you need to have a bubbling personality, you need charisma, you need courage, need you to think on your feet to sell. Is that true? Well, it depends. All these things are nice, but they are not absolutely necessary for selling. I repeat, if you're listening to this podcast for the first time, I'm sure you are shocked by what I've said so far.

All of these things will be nice. If you have sweet mouth is good. If you're extroverted, it's good. Bobbing personality and you go help. Charisma, No problem. Courage, very good. But these things are not absolutely necessary for selling. If you have them, they will help you. If you don't have them, it's not a problem. The things that are required and absolutely necessary for selling are two things. Number one, understanding value and then #2 communicating value.

Let me repeat. Number one, understanding value. You need to be able to understand why is this thing important to this particular person that I am talking to at this moment. If you think it's about golden mouth and personality and charisma, when you say sell me this pencil, you begin the vomit, you start to unleash, buy this pencil. The pencil is the best. It is triple HB. It is made in Canada. It is authentic LED. It is its writing period is is five years.

It is this, this, this. It is the pencil that Michael Jackson used. You'll just go. They vomit, they vomit, they vomit all these things. You're vomiting on the person. How do you know that the person believes you, that the person finds all these things convincing and that all these things you're saying are indeed effective? How do you know? You don't know, you just did of vomit because you think that selling is about your charisma,

it's about your personality. The same thing with sell me this laptop. If you think it's about your extroversion or your courage, and they say send me this laptop, what will you do? You begin day of vomit. Buy this one Intel so so so and so 300 terabyte storage, HD screen something something backlit keyboard, blah blah blah. It can convert into tablet, you can use stylus, you can connect directly to the satellite in space, on and on and on.

You just go there, vomit all the things you're vomiting. Are they effective? You don't know. Is the person interested about these sorts of things? You don't know. Is this thing helping your cause to sell the computer? You don't know, but you are vomiting on the person confidently because you got you have sweet mouth, because you're extroverted, because you have the personality, because you have the charisma, because you have the courage.

What you are lacking is a skill that is called understanding value. Understanding value means are you able to chill, listen to someone, figure them out, source them out so that you can know what is important to them. Why is it important to them? Why do they find this thing valuable? What are the real things that they actually desire? If you can't get into this understanding value stage, you will be terrible at selling.

Even if you have sweet mouth, even if you're extroverted, even if you get the personality, even if you gas the charisma, even if you have the courage. If you're poor at understanding value 0, your sales will be tough. It'll be hard. Understanding value is key. The next thing is communicating value. Communicating value is being able to say what is great about your product and why, but you'll be poor at communicating value if you didn't do the work of understanding value in the 1st place.

You need to be able to understand what the person likes, what the person deems important before you can now start vomiting on them that this is the best, this is the brightest, this is the fastest, this is the latest. Buy this, buy this, buy that. Take for instance, me and my wife. You come at me, sell me this laptop. You are wasting your time if you don't do understanding value because I don't use laptops for different reasons.

For a very long time, over the last maybe decade or so, I have decided that I'm going to work exclusively from phones or tablets and that is all I do. So this sell me, this laptop challenge, you will fail if you're with somebody like me who does not use laptops, who does not desire laptops, as in when it's a matter of laptop, my eye is not there. But my wife, on the other hand, she works in the government regulatory department.

They consider lots of documents. My wife has some eye issues. So of course, she's always looking for computers that are, you know, lightweight, modern, quick, you know, on and on. So it is only when you do understanding value. Who am I talking to? What does this person do? What is their normal work day like? What do they need a computer for? How much word processing do they do? How much information crunching do they do?

How much data gathering do they do? Then of course, ergonomics. Do they walk from the bed? Do they sit at the desk? You know, all these sorts of things. It is then you'll be able to sell this laptop convincingly because you have taken the time to understand value. Who are you talking to? What do they want? What do they find valuable? Why do they find it valuable? How does it improve their life? How does it improve their business?

How does it improve their XYZ? Whatever it is, understanding value and communicating value, those are the two things that you need to succeed in sales. Not all these other thing of sweet mouth, smooth tongue, extroverted, good personality, charisma, and then courage and packaging and everything. So you see, like I said, if you have all these things, it'll be nice, but if you don't have it, it's not a problem so long as you know how to understand value and you know how to communicate value.

That is precisely the reason why there are fine people who can sell. There are ugly people who can sell. There are tall people who can sell. There are short people who can sell. There are men who can sell. There are women who can sell. There are extroverted people who can sell. There are introverted people who can sell. There are people who have wonderful personalities who can sell. There are people who have flat personalities who can sell.

There are charismatic people who can sell, and there are people who lack charisma who can sell. There are courageous people who can sell and they are timid people who can sell. It is because it is not because of any of these things. So please, those of you who get on stage, you've been successful in business and because of that, I clapped for you. I applaud you. Or please stop doing these sorts of exercises. You are giving people the wrong impression about sales.

So please, any tech brother, any tech sister listening to this right now, stop doing these exercises. Send me this pencil, send me this laptop. Sell me this mug, sell me this this, sell me this headphone. Stop it, please. Now, some of you will say, if these exercises are useless, some of these pencils, some of these laptop, then why do sales professionals do these exercises? Because actually they do. I think there's this movie.

I remember what it's called. Was it Wolf of Wall Street or something? And one of the characters in the movie, this was sort of the guy's thing. If you wanted to test you, you say I asked him with this pencil. So yes, those of us who are responsible for training salespeople and for hiring salespeople, we use these exercises, but we don't use it in the way that you think. You think the ability to sell the pencil on the spot is important or the ability to sell the laptop on the spot is important?

But actually, I had the guy's name, Jordan Belfort. But actually Jordan Belfort, right? And all of us who tried these exercises, when we ask, it's not because there's a correct answer. We're not even concerned whether the person is successful at selling the thing or not. What we're trying to do is we're trying to gauge the person's process and the person's way of thinking. We're trying to gauge the person's sales philosophy.

We're trying to see if this person is process oriented, if the person has a system for selling. That is all we're trying to check. So whether the person stammers through it or talks confidently through it is not important. So if Jordan Belfort asks you that question, he's just trying to see that this person I'm talking to, does the guy have a system for thinking through these things? So remember when somebody says send me this pencil, somebody's laptop, there is no right answer.

They're just trying to test you. Do you have a system? You have a process of thinking about these sorts of things? So somebody who starts to vomit by this pencil, because it is 2 HP, it is imported from Canada, it is reinforced laterite, it is this is this. It is not done that you now know that you're dealing with an average person, an average person who believes that all these other things I spoke about are important.

But then if the person starts asking the other person questions, we now know that we're dealing with a consummate sales professional because the consummate sales professional. And if you want to get good at selling, you will not try to sell anything unless you have asked somebody some questions first or else you are just shooting in the dark. It's 5050. You might hit the target, you might not. So in this case, sell me this pencil or sell me this computer,

you start asking the person questions around their use case scenarios as it deals with the product. Sell me this parcel. OK, no problem. Hello, Mr. So, so and so. What kind of job do you do? Oh, you're an architect. OK, that means you use pencils every day. Oh, what do you use pencils for? What kind of pencils do you use on and on and on and on and on? Oh, you're a Carpenter? Oh, do you use pencils at work? And you continue.

Oh, you're a journalist. Do you use pencils? If the business say, know that they prefer to use a big, big buy row, then why are you continuing to sell? I've said it lots of times on the podcast and it's not original, it's from Brian Tracy once need afford. You can only get somebody to buy if they want what you have, if they need what you have, if they can't afford what you have. And then of course, other thinkers add urgency.

That means people must be willing to take a decision, excuse me, must be willing to take a decision anytime soon. You know, because of circumstances, either in personal life or in business, there is something that is prompting them to make a decision soon. So if the person does not want this thing, if they do not need this thing, if they cannot afford this thing, and there is no personal circumstance, there is no business circumstance that is going to force them to take any decision soon.

Why are you selling? So if you ask the person questions, you're talking to a teacher, you're talking to an architect, or you're talking to a Carpenter and they happen to use pencils. Good. Continue asking questions. You stand a chance. If the person is a teacher or a politician or a Doctor Who only prefers to use biros, then why are you selling? You can't sell them this pencil. So when a Jordan Belfort or when someone like me asks you sell me this pencil, these are the things we are trying to assess on.

We're trying to assess you on the spot. We're not looking for the person with the quickest mouth and with the most creative demeanor who can actually, you know, bulldoze A sail through on a total stranger. That is not what we are trying to assess. So ask questions about them. Ask questions about the use case scenarios as it relates to the product or the service. Try and figure out if they're currently in market. Also ask them questions about solutions that they have tried before.

So for the architect, you need to know what kind of brand of pencil have they used before. If what brands of pencil they've used before is 2 HB and two HB continues to break but the pencil that they gave you is 2 HB, then why are you continuing to sell? Because the option that you have to sell to this person is precisely the thing that the guy has said does not work for him in the past. So why are you continuing to sell?

So you can see that when you say sell me this pencil or sell me this laptop, there is no right answer. But the reason why a Jordan Belfort would ask or the reason why I would ask or a Grant Cardone would ask or a Brian Tracy would ask or Tom Hopkins would ask or any other person would ask who is involved in sales Is this is what we're trying to test you? This guy that I'm facing now, this babe, we are the face she get process.

I be she just a freestyle. That's what we're trying to figure out. Who is this person? So all these things around toasting, selling on the spot to a stranger, sweet mouth, smooth tongue, extroverted, bubbly guy, fine boy, fine girl, correct personality, charisma, you get courage. All those things are not bad at all. Not bad, not bad. If you get them, it's OK. Well, if you try and toss your way through sales, you will fail more than you need to.

You will find yourself talking to a guy like me. You're trying to sell laptop. Meanwhile you don't stand a chance in hell of selling me laptop because I don't use laptops. Get good at understanding value and communicating value. So you will make sure that you're talking to the right person from the beginning. So you can now start trying to sell your pencil. You can now start trying to sell your laptop. The reason why I'm making this podcast today is please, tech Bros, those of you who take the stage and take the stage and tech sisters and you continue to do this Sami pencil, Sami laptop exercises, I beg stop it now.

Leave the selling for sales professional. You can go up there and give your own personal perspective on what worked for you. When you are doing your own startup or you are doing your own fintech, when you are doing your own whatever, go and give your own personal perspective. Leave the starting professionals like us to now take the stage and say, correct, this is what worked and This is why. And this was the dynamics and these were the principles behind what made it work.

And these are the contexts or these are the situations, these are the scenarios under which you can apply this principle, this principle, this tactic, this tactic, this strategy or this strategy. So please stop it. If you're not a sales professional, you haven't devoted your life to sales. You haven't studied sales. You don't learn sales every single day. You're not always trying to improve yourselves on the art of selling.

I beg, leave these sales training exercises. Leave it through professionals. You see one of us do it on stage and you say, ah, that's masterful, that's masterful you now try it and just relax. There's a reason why we are doing it. We know why you don't, so please stop. So that's it, and that's all for today. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to get in touch, 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 some other time.