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Today on the podcast, I want to talk about how to hire sales people. Now the reason why is because recently, just this month alone, I've already helped 2 clients of mine to put together their sales team. And I think there's a couple of things that those of you who are employers of labour. So you are a business person or you're a self-employed person and you work with people that you contract your selling function out to.
I think there's a couple of things that you all need to know. So First off, I'm not going to say that there's any universal or any preferred way for hiring your sales candidates because I work with different clients and, and they hire their sales team differently. But I think I'm just going to use my last experience for my client who is in tech, the cell tech and training services. And so I help them interview their sales team.
And so we'll just tease out some best learnings or what I think are best learnings that the rest of you who are podcast listeners can take and use in hiring your own sales people. So the first thing that I want to say is that interviews have to be competency based. And I'll explain what that means. OK. Now in this part of the world, you know, it's been a while since I've been in the job market, but back when I was in university and you know, you apply for different clubs, you apply for different associations, you apply for internships, then of course, you come out, you apply for jobs.
I noticed that there were two kinds of interviews and I've spoken to some people in human resources and yes, they have admitted that, yes, there are different interview styles. Now, there is one interview style where they just try to rattle you as far you sit down. People just they fire questions at you. Anyhow, anyhow, because you're trying to rattle the person, you're trying to test the person, you're trying to shake them up, you're trying to get get on their nerves because the people assume that when you do that, that's when you see the quality of the person.
So there's that. Honestly, I don't think that that's a good way to interview for sales people because we sales people, we're performers. Yes, you try and rattle loss in the initial one or two minutes, we go confused, but eventually we'll find our footing. And trust me, sales people are good performers. They'll perform well to get the job. So if you're dealing with experienced sales people, I think this tactic is not going to work.
You confuse them the first minutes, but after a while they're going to figure out who is who. In fact, let me give you one particular technique that I used personally to deal with this sort of thing. By the time I was coming out of university and I realized that, oh, now the scope be this, you know, don't want to throw you off. I started coming into interviews being on the offensive. So, for instance, I would enter into the interview and I would,
you know, I'd take my jacket off and I would come in and I'd pull my, what do you call it? My this thing where you put your, your, your cuffs and I take my cuffs off and then I'll fold the thing twice, 1-2. Then I'd come in, sit on the chair, and then I won't relax. I would lean forward and then look the person in the center straight in the face. So that's my own thing. OK, will now unwrap to me. No problem. Me, I would be on the offensive,
bad boy, offensive. So that was my own thing. And because of that, you might be a little shy, but at least he gave me a control over the interview process. Because the first thing was that somebody would try and wash me down over the interview process. And then what? Again, But I would adjust, put my coughs back on and then sit again, lean forward and look straight at the person was at the head of the panel. So I am the one who was determining the agenda, how things are going to flow.
Then people would always keep on blasting questions, but I decided ahead of time that I would only answer the question that was posed by the last person and I would answer that question. Any other person I wanted to get a response that them would they beg me, You understand, as in they're playing psychological games with me and no Hala myself, I would play psychological games with you, But the point I'm just trying to make is those of us we, you know, like we are performers.
We have our ways. You want to rattle us, We will cope. We had one or rattle you and that strategy never failed me. I always get got call back for Step 2, although people would on the side say, you know, oh boy, you rude go, you know, as they will tell me that like you're a rude guy, but that was my own way or just stepping things down. So and it doesn't work. It's a performance game is the person who can act well, that's going to win at the end of the day.
So excuse me to hire salespeople. Don't try and rattle anybody. In fact, my fear is that in trying to rattle people, you might actually scare away somebody who might be the best performer. Don't try and rattle. So there are different kinds of interview styles or selection processes. Another one is competency based. Competency based just means you invite the person. The person has this person sits down in front of you and looking at their CV and their work history, you're actually trying to ask them questions to tease out how competent is this person.
Competency just means I said be work. I know the work, I'm the professional. So that's what you're trying to figure out when you invite the person for a company based interview. So my own advice is you're trying to interview sales professionals. All your interviews ought to be competency based. Young woman, young woman, how you do young man, When I sit down OK, your CV and you said I work for so. So before then begin to ask them question, dialogue, try and figure them out.
I would say that's the best way to run a competency based interview. Now in different parts of the world, in America and in the UK, they are now trying out different forms of interviews where first of all, you give them a, a test to run before you pull them in for a competency based interview. Now, as far as I know, that works very well in tech circles. So you're trying to hire a developer. You tell all of them that OK,
all over. Now first, first, when I will sit down, when I go code this assignment. Now based on those of you who are cool and well, and then you come for appointment, you come for an interview. Now in a Niger setting, I don't know how you're going to use that kind of interview process to interview salespeople. I don't know whether you say they should go and make sales call in front of you or something. I have no idea. I haven't seen it at work.
And by the way, if that's how you hire sales people in your own organization, just let me know so that you know, I can let's talk so I can see different things, you know, see how you apply it in your own context. But I would say the interview process so far, I think that will give us the best way to figure out who the candidate candidates are in front of us are competency based interviews. So remember the whole point of a competency based interview is you want the person to come and sit down and then you're trying to figure out who is this person?
What is their work history? How good are they? Are they truly the professional that they say they are? So that's it. Oh, and then note of caution, there is no interview process that is 100% success rate. And from the little studies that have been seen out there available like Harvard Business Review and a couple of other publications, it looks as if interview processes usually turn up like a 5050% rate as per you do the interview and the chances that you get the best candidates are 5050, you know, so nothing quick.
So people are always trying to, what's the word, innovate on the interview, interview and hiring processes all the time. So while we are waiting for people in human resources and you know, people management and all that, to work on those sorts of things because, you know, it's not a, you know, hiring people is not a sales skill. But because I'm a sales consultant, a sales coach and business development consultant, I have an inner look and inner working on what we should be looking at when it comes to evaluate sales candidates.
So that's why some organizations invite me to sit on their panel for hiring people. But this all hiring people, conducting interviews, it actually is a human resources thing, human resources, personnel, stuff like that. So we'll be waiting for the personal people to come up with the perfect process. But just know that nowadays I know which process you take, you know now 5050, but please let your interviews be competency based.
Now, if it's a company based, competency based interview and I am sitting in with your organization to hire people, I personally, I'm looking at three things in particular when I ask them questions. Now, some of you who like this whole Niger thing of you sit down and rattle people, you might, you might look as if I'm making friends with these people and or not and I'm being soft. No, nobody say I'm doing soft, soft, soft.
I'm actually trying to get them to relax. I want the real person to come out and I'm trying to figure out three things. No more on their history because nowadays people deform all kind things on their CV and the number of people that are using AI to write their CV now, Oh boy. As in anyway, you'll see it yourself when you start trying to hire you see it yourself. So I'm actually trying to figure out from the history which one is authentic, which one is Jermaine, which one is the real thing.
That's why I want them to relax. So OK, when you are with this, that that that be ask that question. But it's time they begin to fumble. You'll see that. Oh, OK, this one that the person is putting as a job. Actually, the person maybe was like an intern or maybe the person was doing NYSE that time, but the person no get full responsibility inside the organization. You get So for those of you who engaged me to sit on your panels when you're hiring your your sales team, you might be frustrated that look, this guy's too nice.
Relax, you get waiting how they do. I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to catch them the place when they lie, I'm trying to catch them the place where they're telling you the truth. I'm trying to catch them. So history, that's one thing I'm looking at. Then another thing that I'm looking at when I sit on these panels is process of philosophy. Because in Niger, too many people believe that sales now friendship or sales now packaging and it's a problem because sales is not friendship.
You can be doing friendship and bring lots of business from the company, but The thing is friendship is not replicatable because friendship now you like pass and all of us make friends differently. So if sales no matter of friendship and then you hire 5 people, all of them come in and then they begin to make friends up and down. Like how are you going to be able to if there's a problem, how you diagnose it? If you want to increase revenue,
how are you going to increase revenue? Will you tell them go out and make more friends? Sales will be friendship. Another problem is, you know, friendship in the real sense is when you and me like with the flow, you know, we're on the same level you get, but friendships are kind of mutually reinforcing. You know, it's not as if I they take, I, they take, I they take. But then when you try and do sales as friendship and then anytime your friends see you,
you know, you're trying to squeeze something from them. You're trying to squeeze or trying to squeeze yourself. This is going to mess up your friendships. So for those of you who feel that you know, selling a friendship, stop that rubbish sales. No be friendship at all. Selling is process oriented. There's a process for selling. So I'm trying to figure out during the interview, what is this guy or what is this girl's process for selling?
Is he or she a selling a friendship person or are they a selling a packaging person? Because there's some people that sells their packaging. So if you have any selfie or company, you know, you suppose package me well, you know, I suppose dress wear, suppose give me allowance, you know, company car, buy me laptop, blah, blah, blah. So I'm, I'm not against all that because there's some companies that pay well. That's one of my clients who was paying the senior sales, senior sales engineer that pay him closely like 700.
That's if you Add all the entitlements. So I'm, I'm not against that. In fact, I think that people should be paid, paid well, but somebody who believes that sales, that packaging, it's the same thing when you want to increase sales, what you tell the person, why are packaged more? How do you define packaging then how are you going to, how are you going to be packaging for the rest of the the, for the rest of the organization?
Now for those of you who are not Nigerians listening to this particular episode in Nigeria where we say packaging will just be in your perception, your appearance, in your positioning. So you look good, you sound good, you smell good, you talk good. That's just what packaging means. But looking good, smelling good, sounding good, composure good, everything on point. It's important in selling, but it's not it's not the main thing.
So when I try to get people to relax and to calm down, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Do they have a process? Do they have a philosophy? Do they have a framework when it comes to selling? Now, I'm not even going to say that any particular process, philosophy or framework is better than the other. I just want the person to have some sort of process because then, OK, we now have something that we can start to work on.
We can hire the person. I say, oh boy, oh girl, this part of your philosophy is not going to work in this business, this part of your framework now. So we do I'm here or this part of your selling, this part of your framework, this your selling habits here. You know, we suppose tune I'm like this or suppose delete them entirely, but there's something, excuse me, there's something that we can look at. Excuse me, there's something we can look at and we can start interrogating and start making changes When we hire the person because we've been able to establish that they have a process, they have a philosophy,
they have a framework. Then another thing I'm looking at when I'm sitting on your panels, I'm trying to hire salespeople for your company's challenges because when it comes to sales challenges go every day. Sales is not like accounts. Accounting is very sorry. Accounting can be difficult. Yes. What I mean is 1 From managerial perspective, accounting is easy. Here's the book of accounts. Can you get it done, done, done and send it back to me in the next three weeks?
Yes, I can. OK, no problem. After that, it's just a matter of staying on the ball. Where are my accounts? Where are my accounts? Three weeks don't reach. OK, thank you very much. Then the auditor will look at it. The accounts are either correct or they're not. If they're not correct, disciplinary action or you sack the person, you know, bring a new accountant. But either way, excuse me, accounting, auditing, all those kinds of things is, you know,
it's a lot easier. We say this is different. We're dealing with personalities and people here. We're dealing with people as a resource. So quarrel whoever leading. Excuse me. So the sales people, first of all, don't quarrel with you, Olga, that you're hiring them. Don't quarrel with you because them they're coming from somewhere where they were selling before and they feel like no, me, not me. Be the authority, not you.
So #1 don't quarrel with you, Olga. Then salespeople definitely go with quarrel among themselves. You have a team of five. Know how know how to go be quarrel. If you have a team of two, forget they'll be quarrel. The only way that you won't have quarrel among sales team is if you have a sales team of 1. Once you have two or more will be quarrier, then they'll also sales people also quarrel with their line manager. Normal, normal.
They must require then sales people also once in a while they also quarrel with a customer. It's not ideal, but these things happen. So when I'm sitting on these panels and I'm trying to interview someone to sell for your company, I'm trying to figure out how well they had these challenges the last place that they work or the issues. How are they quarreling with people? How did they queer with talker when they had challenges with customer?
How did they resolve it? Some of you say, how do you get people to talk about those things? Really hard to don't worry. Now my speciality now and my job, I know how to calm people down. I know how to calm people down. But eventually I will get them talking. I will be able to know before we hire them, is this person a good fit for this company? I'll be this person is not a good fit. So when I sit on your interview panels, that is what I'm helping people to try and figure out.
If you want my recommendations, I will give a recommendation. I say OK candidate, OK candidate B, OK candidate C, maybe this one, this one, I will give you my own interpretation. Sorry. I say recommendation. But The thing is, by virtue of me being on that panel, I want all of us by the time we stand up and leave, do not be under any doubt that number one, we've not discovered who the real person is. We've not tested their work history.
We've not tried to figure out whether they have a, a process or philosophy for selling. And we've not been able to test that they have an, A, a disposition or a process for dealing with challenges in the workplace, dealing with challenges with authority and dealing with challenges with customers. So it is because of all this that I strongly recommend that any interviews that any of my clients are conducting, I strongly recommend that they should be competent, competency based.
Then also strongly recommend that the interview atmosphere should be relaxed. Relaxed doesn't mean, you know, we wouldn't love the seed palm wine. No, it just means, you know, this whole Niger harassing thing that people like to do. Yes. How can we know you? Come on. Come on. Speak up. Speak up. Are you not in sales? Speak up. Are you not applying for this job? Speak up now. Sell me now. See, when you're beginning to harass people like that, I
really don't think you're putting people under the best frame of mind. Also, remember, I'm trying to get them to relax so that the ones with the like, the ones with the bubble, we can figure out the bubble. Yeah, so don't tune people up. No, they wind them. Don't be raising the atmosphere high. Keep things nice and relaxed. Professional points. Oh, good morning, young lady. Young man. Tell us a bit about yourself. OK.
Impressive. Now, let me tell you a little bit about the company. OK, now that we're done, these are the members of the panel. We have Mr. A, Madam B and Olga C We're going to ask you a couple of questions around this. Are you OK? Shall we continue? Then launch into it. Then if I'm there, give me time, let me work my magic. Let's separate the wheat from the chaff, the people where they lie. Well, let's separate the liars from the honest people, but competency based and then relaxed.
And remember, the goal is to get the people talking. Because if you didn't know it before, let me tell you now, some of you have not figured it out. So let me just say it again. It doesn't matter. The country, Afghanistan, Australia, Nigeria, Ghana, America, wherever. Salespeople are good performers. If you didn't catch it the first time, let me say it again. Salespeople are good performers. They will say anything to get the job, you hear me?
They will say anything to get the job and they will convince you they'll perform well. So your entry process should be aimed at discovering these people's true colors before you hire them. If you hire them first and then you quarrel after two months, you have wasted your own time and you have wasted your own money for salary and all that. So discover their true colors before you hire them. Oh, by the way, 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're interested in the 15 minute sale audit, WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140. So back to what we're talking about then. Timing. Put time in between the interviews because some of you are trying to save time because interviews can be a hassle. I understand. So because of that, some of you try and interview back-to-back to back. The last people that I worked on, they put 3030 minutes and they did it back-to-back and I
said OK, 3030 minutes. The guy said yes. Now I don't want to be efficient. You know, it's a tech company like I said. And you know how tech tech Bros and Texas does like to be everything efficient, everything on point. You know, they forget that human being will be machine. We're not machines. So accident, they happen, delay, they happen all kinds of things. Funny thing is, for this particular client, the delay was now on their own part, not even on the candidates path.
And the candidates show up on time 5 minutes before ready. The guy wears suits, everything guy they read. We now have to start making excuses. Oh, sorry, we're waiting for this. We're putting house in order. I mean, come on. So yes, we expect these people to show up on time, but then don't do things back-to-back back because then you do back-to-back with no breathing room in between. By the time you fumble the first interview you go over, then every other thing too will now just scatter.
And that's exactly what happened. The first one didn't start on time, went over by 10 minutes. And then guess what happened? Every other person back-to-back to back-to-back to back. Everything just got thrown off. So put time. How many minutes is ideal? I have no idea, you know, because, you know, I'm not a human resources expert. I'm not a hiring expert so I don't know if you should be put in 1515 minutes so that maybe if you interview the first person from 10:30 till 11:30 then maybe you give 15 minute gap.
So the next interview will now start at 10:45 and continue till 11:15 and you give around 15 minute gap then the next hour now start at 11:30 and run on till 12. You understand what a back-to-back to back-to-back thing that that thing never works, doesn't work. So don't do it. Any small mistake from their part, from your own part, you just do everything off delays, they normally happen. Emergency they normally happen.
Putting a house in order, they normally have these things happen. So it happens back-to-back doesn't work. Then let's see what else. By the way, I really think 30 minutes is too short because remember trying to get these people to talk, Do they have what's their history? Let's interrogate that. Do they have a process? Do they have a philosophy? Let's interrogate that. How do they deal with workplace challenges, challenges with colleagues, challenges with authority and difficulties with customers?
How do they handle that? Let's interrogate all these things well. So quite frankly, for me, I think 30 minutes is not enough if we're talking sales people. So the person that I just help them out with this 2 days ago I told them I'll look for the next round. Me alone, I don't know about other interview panel members. Me alone just give me 20 minutes with these people, I need to figure them out. But anyway, since you know,
they're tech Bros and I always try to well, at least in the beginning, work on to the clients specifications a little more. They had in mind. They said that every each panel member is only going to ask three questions, so I should write my questions ahead of time. I say, haha, write my question ahead of time. They say, yes, OK, no, no problem. Because I wanted everything to be objective and they had the scoring metric and everything.
That's OK, no problem. I submit my question. So name I begin to think, I begin to think, I begin to think, what kind of questions am I going to ask? Because remember when I'm trying to tease out, I'm trying to tease out their history. Which part is true? Which part is fake? I'm trying to tease out their process or their philosophy. Do they actually believe that selling is a process? Do they have a process? Do they have a system?
Do they have philosophy? Do they have a framework? Or do they believe that sales now friendship sales now packaging? Then I'm also trying to tease out how they deal with challenges in the workplace. So I said Google Now couches kind of question that would help me tease out all this information. So I came up with three questions. Now, I'm not putting them here to recommend to any of you that these are the best questions to ask.
I'm just trying to tell you that look for the constraints that I had that they say 3030 minutes and we should only ask three questions each. OK, no problem. I had to come up with something. So my first question was, my first question was this. Tell us about the recent complex deal you won from the first time you spoke to them until the time the contract was signed. What steps or systems did you use to figure out their problems and when did you know for sure that the deal was going to happen?
So summary, that's my first question to all of them. What complex deal have you worked on Just us from the first time you spoke to that guy until you close the deal, what system did you use to close this deal and how did you know was in I gave you confidence that this deal go close? So that was my first question. So of course, obviously you guys can see that I'm trying to tease out a couple of things. Like I said, history, process,
philosophy, challenges. So that's my first question. The second question I asked all the candidates is, was you are going to be selling software and training services here. How do you change your approach when you're selling a technical tool versus when you're selling a training program? And how do you convince the budget conscious boss that soft skill training is worth the money? So I repeat, by the way, so it is also this problem with you will only answer 3 questions.
So the questions now have to be comprehensive, you know, volume boku and tease out lots of strands. So I was now asking the people that look, these people that you're, you're, you're interviewing for, they sell software and they sell training. I wanted to figure out whether they can appreciate or whether they think there's a difference between selling software versus selling training. I also wanted to figure out their approach.
Would the approach change? And then also wanted to see how they're going to deal with people who say Nobi training, training. No, we talk no, no, this your bill is too expensive. Wanted to see how they would deal with people who customers like that. Then the final question that I asked them was tell us about a time that a big prospect stopped responding to you or told you your price was too high. What specific moves did you make to get them back to the table without looking desperate?
And what did that experience teach you about handling high pressure sales? So question #3 summary. I was just trying to tell them, now look, what was the last time when you were talking to an ogre or a Madam and then Madam goes to you, she knew the peak call. And so because you know, the peak call, how what did you do to make Madam start, you know, talking again, start having a conversation again, What did you do? That was a summary of what I was trying to test them with those questions.
So I'm not saying that these are the best interview questions to to ask, but I'm just sharing my experience that OK, since they say 3 questions, OK, well, I have to send something. So that's what I sent. Then also, I also couldn't ask, ask follow up questions. So based on whatever response they gave me, that's not hard to try and judge them. OK History. Do they actually have a history of selling process? OK. Did they actually have a philosophy or I'll be there just doing anyhow.
Anyhow, when it comes to sales and then challenges, OK, how do they work with difficult situations? Those are the questions. OK, sorry, I was scrolling through my phone. Yeah, so this is how the candidates performed. I'm not going to use their real names, of course, and I'm not going to say a summary of what they've said, but there was one guy, let's call him what we call him now. Let's just say Mr. A. OK, so the first guy, Mr. A, the all men, by the way.
So the first guy, Mr. AI. Guess he was all right. But my impressions about him and I told the my clients was that the guy doesn't have a formal system. He doesn't have a formal framework for selling. He's just one of these people who they do was that thing now, you know, like attitude, you know, like by force, by force, like anyhow, anyhow, I'll close this deal, you know, effort, strength, brute strength, that kind of thing.
So I just had time. Now look, this guy, no get process. He's only just by force, by fire will make this thing happen. Now those people are good because those kind of people, they don't get tired, you know, they don't get. Doesn't matter what happens. Is it raining down the move? Is the sun shining down the move? Is the customer rude? They're on the move. Is the customer pleasant? Down the move. You know, those people are good 'cause any which way, you know,
then they go, then they move, then they move steady, just like trailer, always on the move. So I told him, look, if you walk with this guy, no problem. He's just that he's going to need lots of leads at the end of the day because he's wanting to eat high volume because he's just going to keep playing through leads. So if you hire him, yeah, just know that the kind of person that you're dealing with and the second person Mr. B, Mr. B, who is a typical relationship selling, you know, typical relationship guy.
So the guy just drop names anyhow, if I after we're done, my client said that the guy was talking like you like an Abuja contractor and that's Abuja contractors are oh, the last time when I was with the president, last time when I was with the Wicked, last time when I was a minister, last time when I was a senator. So and so and that, that, that, that so the guy just drop names was a drop name anyhow. Anyhow, anyhow, that's what they do millions we do millions here can do million Kaduna this project, that project, you know,
you know that kind of talk. So tell him that look, this guy also doesn't have a process. He's a relationship seller. So if you work with somebody like this, yeah, no problem. Just know that you need to give this person time because for him sales now friendship, so you need to give him time to be doing his friendship relationship up and down before one or two teams go close. Or that's also another thing with friendship sales because that friendship you can't really selling cannot be unpredictable time timeline.
Let me just put it that way because my friendship. So I thought, OK, yeah. And that's the guy. And then last person, Mr. C, Mr. CI was from my own opinion. I was able to give a recommendation that OK, look, I love the three people. He's the one that I like or he's the one that I will endorse because he understands that selling is a process. He has a process and I told my client that if you remember when answering the questions, he kept repeating a certain kind of formula.
If I let me look for my notes, where is that note? So one moment I'm looking for my physical note. When we had the conversation with the people, there's something he kept on repeating. So this was the formula that a candidacy kept on repeating. Candidate C kept on talking about target, talking about champion, and talking about follow up. He kept on saying the target champion, follow up, target champion follow up in not in a particular order, but you know,
this is me summarizing target champion follow up. Now the idea behind targeting is this. I've been saying on the podcast for a very long time that sales begins with your ICP, your ideal customer profile, your target audience, your target avatar, your target, whatever the people who you do the best amount of business with. That is where sales starts. You need to know who it is they are chasing after before you start any sales process.
It's like trying to find a spouse. For instance, you can't say, oh, I want to find husband, how to find husband. Because of that, you start talking to all kind of men. Don't be so oh, I want to find wife. I want to find wife. Because of that, you're talking to all kind of women. Don't be. So you need to have a target audience. There's some people who want Mary and Maka. If you want Mary and Maka, good. You now know the places to go to to find the Mary and Maka so that you can marry.
There's some people who are looking for a sophisticated young lady. OK, sophisticated young lady, no problem. Now you know where you're supposed to go and start looking at those. They're looking for those kinds of people. Or there's some young women who say, I'm looking for a provider. I'm looking for an ADO go. Now that you have ADO go in mind, you now know the kinds of places that you have to go to to start looking for those people.
And some people say, look, I don't want stress. I'm looking for a homebody, stay at home dad. Something, something, something. With that in mind, it will now inform the places that you go to go and start looking for that kind of husband or that kind of wife. So it's the same thing in business as a salesperson #1 is who is the target audience is when we know who they are that will now know that OK, we'll be going to the market, or we'll be going to networking session, or we'll be running advertisements on Google or who is spending time on LinkedIn, or we will be sending proposals to federal Ministry of Finance or whatever.
But it's from figuring out who the target audience is that will start this journey. So I appreciated that this young man, candidate C knew that anyhow, anyhow, targeting that key part of the formula. Now somebody likes now that has a process targeting championship champion and then follow up. You can see that if you had a gas and performance no day, you can sit down with him and you can start asking a question. OK, target audience, are we really correct?
Are we looking at the right people? The guy will say his owner, yes, I think these are the right people because then the guy will give reason, The guy will give justification. Everything makes sense. OK, no problem. We'll move on to the next step. But the justification make no make sense. You now say, OK bro, you know what? Yes, I can see why you thought that this was the ideal customer audience, but you're fishing in the wrong pond.
We actually should be looking at this kind of individual, this kind of individual. You see boys, because candidacy in gear process, no be friendship, no be packaging and the process now targeting champion follow up. Now champion is a it's like a like a slang in sales. They're there behind the champion is whenever you're trying to sell into an organization. If you have somebody who is your guy, somebody who's your inside man, somebody who's your supporter, you go make the job a lot easier.
So I'm not saying all of you should go around having champions or looking for champions, but I'm just trying to say that this young man in candidacy, he had a process. Step one was identify the company. Which company are we going after? Step 2 was let me enter the company. Let me see if I can find a a champion, find an ally, find a partner, find a supporter, find an inside man, find an inside woman, find a, you know, whatever it is you want to call it.
You see where I'm heading, But he had a process target. Are we in the right company? Step 2 Champion. Can I find me a champion? Now, this kind of person now if there's problem, you can see that we can start breaking things down. OK, no problem. Who's your champion? And you only have one champion. Why? Now you're supposed to get two or three. OK, The people that say you're a champion, what level of authority do they have in the organization?
This person no get access now. So even though this person likes you, the person no get access and the person will no get access is not going to be able to help you close the deal. You have a champion, but the champion is not in the corridors of power. That champion is useless. You know, you know, we help you in any way that kind of champion, we help nobody. So you can start breaking it down. You have a champion, but indeed,
is your champion the correct champion? Does the guy have access is a useful somebody which kind of connects. We can connect introductions the person can make for us. You can start breaking it down. OK, target, we did a good job. OK, champion. All right, let's look at this champion thing here. There you can now have the question about single threading versus multi threading. Now, when you're trying to sell it into an account, single threading is when you only know one person inside the company.
Simple single threading is a recipe for failure. I know you can. OK, let me say it's a recipe for failure. But you know, Brian Tracy says that it's about increasing your statistical odds. You don't increase that the odds being your favor. If you're trying to sell into an organization and you only know one person there. I have given regular listeners who remember the story of a time when I was trying to sell into one organization and the moment I entered there so that the CEO
was a tea boy just like me. So I started doing my brother, my brother as per, you know, tea boys now, because it's not it's not all the time that we're out in the field that we would a jam ourselves and we jam ourselves as always as an event like your team get to correct. Are you even from my finance village? Oh boy, how now blah, blah, blah, you know, just flow. So I turned it up. I really turned it up. My brother, my brother.
Then I knew the programs officer. That's how I entered into the organization. Programs officer, then CEO and my brother, my brother. Then they were going to bring in another member of the team who was going to start running things for the company in Makodi. They were trying to expand into Makodi, into the North Central part of the the country, using Makodi as a starting point. And of course, you know, me and the lady were already connected on LinkedIn.
So I said I go run relationship again like that. Then I also knew somebody who was in the programs department. Yeah, programs, Apart from the programs officer, another person was actually working in, sorry, in communications, the communications department. So as I did try and enter that company, now you can see that I knew three people. Well, then I knew one person, you know Internet, not as if I know her, know her like that.
So some of you think that's OK. Now you did try selling to your organization three people, you know them well, one person CEO, my brother, my brother, the next person programs officer. He's the one that introduced me to the company. So not my guy. I know I'm then the next person communications department, you know, as per I use networking moves to make that one my friend. And that's why I like physical, physical and that's why I say,
you know, physical is the is the highest when it comes to communications, communications hierarchy. It is because I used to go to the office to say how far yummy, yummy they're around you don't sit. That was the programs guy. Because I used to go in there physical to see yummy that one day I happened to catch CEO was around. So I enter CEO office and then next thing you have my brother self, my brother and my brother see physical physical and then it's from there yummy day seats.
No Oh, OK, right, no Allah. I'll sit and wait. And then next thing lady from communications department crossed by you said, oh, you're the famous establishment and I maybe do so. And then from there we start yarning. You see physical physical where it is worth it because probably physical physical is you know, you go waste money small, you enter boss, you go do bolts or you'll buy fuel and right now fuel is 1300 per liter and that is crazy.
You go to filling station, you pump 50,000. You didn't even reach half of your car. That thing is mad honestly mad that 50,000 won't even put you in half half tank anyway. What was that? So in that case, now you say that those people now know my champions. What happened to my champions? The CEO that was saying my brother my brother the guy Jackpa on short notice. So he looks like he was really planning on this jackpot thing.
So they didn't click overnight. The guy just evaporates. So the company was in disarray, was now looking for a new CEO because my brother George Jackpa, the guy said Niger too hash. So the guy moved one time with his whole family. Yeah, carry everybody then. Yeah, me, my friend now programs officer. What happened? The guy went for postgraduate study straight Japan. He was now doing postgraduate in sorry, not PhD Abby PhD now postgraduate and he was doing PhD in Japan.
I can't remember on International Development or something like that. That's how yummy move the next month. OK, so my brother, my brother, the guy Jaguar then my guy Yummy in go school go and in the pursuit PhD then the person in communications department. Now what happened? She left the company. I went to go and work for a rival company like that. So that's how a company that I thought my hand was strong because I know CEO, I know programs officer, I know the person in the communications department.
I thought my hand was strong. In two months, I lost my folding my my, my holding. Two months, I lost my footing in the organization, could not run anywhere again now, so everything just paralyzed grind to a halt. So now you see why multithreading is important. You want to have a champion, you want to have internal contacts, No problem. You can say you know one person and you're good. You can say you know two people and you're good.
In fact, like that, my example showed, in fact, that's my worst nightmare. You can't say because I know three people, all is well, but I see that in Nigeria all the time. So ah, the MD of that company, him and my father are best friends. Therefore it's a done deal. Who said, who said it's a done deal? Even though in Apopsy's friend like 5 and six. Who said it's a done deal? You only know one person but we see that all the time anyway.
Sorry, forgive me. So what I'm trying to say is that this person had the process target. Do we have the right company champion? Can I get us a champion then relentless follow up. So it's a rudimentary process, but at least now some it's a process. We can interrogate it. If there's a problem, we can figure it out, we can fix it. We can we can make something happen. So that's the reason why I said, look, candidate C is the person that I put my money behind.
And if you're going to work with him, you should bring somebody in to train them. Well, Oh, by the way, when I make those recommendations, if I work for you, so excuse me if I make those recommendations, I, you know, will be nice if that person is me, but it doesn't have to be me. Anyway, The thing is, you brought me in, you paid me for my work. I've done my work, I've asked the questions, I'll make my recommendations and then the the rest is up to you.
But in this case, honestly, especially the way Niger is, you can work with any of these people. But for me, I put my money behind Mr. C because he has a process. If he's trained up, we can, we can make it work. So this is just a summary of my different ideas when it comes to hiring. I've made other kinds of podcast episodes about how if you're going to hire a salesperson, you need to hire a salesperson with an internal local locus of control.
Person is self motivated. What else? Person takes personal responsibility for actions and failures and different kinds of things I've spoken about. So if you just look for the older episodes, if you just like, if you're listening to this on YouTube, by the time you're done, if you use the podcast name my own name and then search with a few key terms like hiring salespeople or something, you're able to come up with those other episodes.
But excuse me, this is summary of some of my ideas around hiring salespeople. So applying these principles can be tricky, but if you need me to look at your own particular company, that's not a problem. You call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. You want me to talk about any part of your business process or hiring process, then call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the same number 08064662140.
So that's it. And that is all for today. So thank you very much for your time and attention. And if you are like these two clients of mine that I helped in this last, this current month of April, you're hiring a sales team, you're on boarding a sales team. You know, I wish you best of luck and everything will turn out well so long as you remember that this sales team that you're going to hire, just remember you have to train them.
You don't bring in sales people and say, Oh yeah, go and sell. Now, you don't have to look for expensive consultants like me, but if you are the founder of the company, whatever you have setting experience, you need to have that conversation with them. What you tell them. Now look, these are our ideal customers. This is how we target them. This is how we start conversations with them. This is how we build relationships with them.
This is how we move the deal forward. This is how we build a proposal. This is how we make an effective presentation. When we make the presentation, these are the closing techniques that we use when we are done closing. This is how we try, try to secure referrals, have that conversation with them. I might, we shouldn't be one conversation. So my client in the solar space just did his own onboarding and for them it was an internal five step process.
OK. So actually they came in I think a few days before the day was supposed to start. They just set them up. Here's your company phone, here's your company laptop, you know, here's this, here's that. And then Monday resumption day one. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was trading covering all these sorts of things. So just make sure you hire people and you should do OK one then keep looking for resources like my own podcast, other podcasts to listen to also give you other ideas about how you can trade up your sales team.
So that's it for today. I'll catch you some other time.