The Secret to Winning Clients by Actually Listening

Hello and welcome to the High Table, the Oracle's Chamber, the Inner Sanctuary, the Conclave of the Elders, where we talk about sales, money, tactics, strategy, business growth, and solving business problems. Today I would like us to talk about how to make your proposals more effective and to stop being torn deaf. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for the last maybe four or five days, you know figured out that I'm on this kick right now where I talk about proposals because too many people are ineffective when it comes to their proposal process.

In fact, if you listen to the last 2-3 episodes, you remember the time I went on a rant about how some people who've been trying to sell me podcasts, editing services and things like that have not been paying attention to anything that I say at all. Instead, they insist on trying to sell me whatever it is that they have, whether I have expressed a need for it or not. Now, today, we're going to do a case study. Some of you wonder, like,

haven't you overdone it? No, I've not overdone it because there are too many of you who are caught in the same trap, but you don't realize it. So I figured today I'll come over here and share a case study. This one is fictional. It's completely made-up, but I think it's kind of realistic enough for one or two of you to cite yourself and to see yourself within this problem that I'm trying to describe. So since all the other case studies I've done so far have been based in Lagos, let me show some my Abuja people some love.

So today our case study is going to be based in Abuja, Nigeria, FCT Federal Capital Territory. That's for those of you who are not Nigerians. Abuja is like our Washington, DC. It's like our, our, yeah, our Washington, DC, our where does the Prime Minister stay in London, OK #10 Downing Street. Are we anyway? So Abuja. All right, so now let's say our prospect today, the person who is being chased today, the person who is the potential client today, the person who has the big bucks that people are chasing.

Let's say her name is Amara Chidima. Again, this is fictional, completely made-up. So if your name is Amara Chidima, it's just a coincidence. So let's say she's the founder and she's the CEO of Sentinel Wealth Partners. Of course, they're in into, you know, investments, wealth advisory, you know, those sorts of things. So let's say Amara has been at this for a while. Currently she has about 35 employees. You know, she has some advisors.

Advisors is what, you know, people like to call. It's kind of like what they like to call. How will I put it now? OK, Some people in the financial services space, they don't call their sales people, sales people. They call them advisors. Because of course, you know, you have to engage with customers. You have to engage with potential customers, potential clients figure out what it is that they want. So the sales people need to have a certain level of subject matter expertise.

They need to know the investment products, they need to know how to be able to assess what it is that people need and which kind of investments is going to match their current state in life or their risk profile or things like that. So in financial services, you know, you have a bunch of people that you call advisors, whether they are advisors in the proper sense of the word or whether they are advisors because they have to go out and interact with potential customers that sell something.

So Amaya Chidima, her company Sentinel Wealth Partners, she has sort of have employees, she has advisors, she has analysts and she has, you know, other people in operations. Now let's say this is the situation with Amira. So let's say Amira now she has to have employees. She's been doing some business for a while. So let's say she's done a good job so she don't garner some reputation. You know, you ask anybody about Amira who's oh, that chick I

beat Sentinel with Partners. I know that Madam. Now. So let's say that's a level that Amira is in her business. But right now they're facing a bottleneck. You know, teens don't, They choke, They're trying to get high net worth individuals as clients. But you know, it's like they've hit a bottleneck and it's normal. It happens in every business you start. You know, you do also, you do also. And then sometimes, yeah, things will pick up, you know, you're moving.

And then it gets to 1 stage where things just kind of hook, things just kind of slow down. So it's normal. It happens. So Amira is trying to solve the problem. This is the problem that Amira has. She's trying to get high net worth individuals, but she don't hook. They've gotten a few, she wants more, but things are kind of stalling. So let's say Mara now decides to book a meeting with two different people right now let's say during that meeting with the first person, what would I call the first person itself?

I didn't even come up with a name for the first person. Anyway, let's just say now she has a, a meeting with the first person. She tells the the person that look Madam, our problem is not visibility. Everybody in Abuja knows us. Go anywhere, ask for. So what's that name again? So hold on, uh huh, Sentinel, go anywhere and ask for Sentinel Wealth Partners. People know us in Abuja. Visibility is not our problem. Everybody knows us.

Our problem is conversion because from all the moves that we've been doing on LinkedIn, from all the moves we've been doing on social media, we have monthly, we have our monthly newsletter, excuse me, is fully subscribed, you know, by people who are high net worth individuals. But we want to get people to move from these news, this newsletter and we want to get some high ticket consultations from that. Sorry, today's been a busy day.

You know, podcast recordings, coaching sessions, you know, things like that. Plus shouting at the children. By the way, the children are home in case you hear any noise in the background. Yeah, so my voice is a little tired. Where was I? So that's what Amara tells this vendor. Now, look, my problem is not visibility. Everybody knows us. My problem is we have a monthly newsletter. On this newsletter, I know that we have some correct guys.

We have some more do goos. We have some big girls in this reading this, our monthly newsletter. We want people to leave this monthly newsletter. I want them to come to us so that we can do some high ticket consultations. That's what I'm looking for. Some of you are wondering, why did I come up with this example? Well, obviously because you know, I'm facing a similar problem. I have over 4000 something subscribers on Spotify alone.

And of course, definitely I know that there are one or two, not even one or two. They're probably like at least 500 old girls that are listening to this podcast right now. But for some reason, all these old girls, the big boys and the big girls, they're not coming forward to come and give me money. So I'm in a similar situation to this admirer chick. Again, this admirer is fictional, completely made-up. So now this first vendor that she has told, remember, she has told the vendor that look,

visibility is not our problem, but she's talking to a marketing consultant and that is why I'm using this one because all you marketing consultants listening, if you are honest with yourself, you will admit that you've done this thing before. You will admit. And let me continue. So Amara has told this marketing consultant, my problem is not visibility. People know us. This is my problem. I have a monthly newsletter. I suspect there are big boys and big girls there.

How do we get people to come out from this monthly newsletter and start giving us good money? That's the problem. So the marketing consultant, now we go back to the office and go and consult with their team and say guys, I spoke to the CEO, this Amira baby be like say she get money. They know we need to come up with something that will just wow them. Now by the time we just make this speech, they'll just give us money, money, money.

So the marketing consultant, that's what they will do. Then they now come back in 2 days. Well, because they're a marketing creative agency. What they'll do is they're going to create APDF 15 page PDF, stunning PDF graphics or points. You know, if as in anything will just be bam, will be solid. And of course, you know that you're marketing people, you're marketing consultants. That's what you like to do. So in that page now, they'll now offer a matter, a 50% Ramadan special discount.

They offer high social media management package. The proposal, the proposal is going to focus on, you know, revitalizing their Instagram feed, getting viral reads, you know, gaining 10,000 followers. Maybe they looked at Amara's Sentinel wealth partners. They looked at Instagram handle and they saw that oh this, we only have 5000 followers. They don't even have much. So they now start promising how they will gain them 10,000

followers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Those of you who are marketing specialists, you know, you've done this before. You know, and this is the mistake that a lot of you make. You go and you talk to someone. The person tells you, I have this particular problem. But then you go back to your team, you come up with this beautiful proposal, throwing every single person, every single thing at this person. These are the things that we can do and all, if you do this now,

we'll give it to you at 50% off. We'll give it to you at 75% off. Now, in this fictional scenario, now, Amira, did Amira say anything about likes? Did Amira say anything about going viral? Did Amara say anything about new followers and all this stuff? So you see why I'm using this example because you marketing people do it all the time. Somebody talks to me, they have a problem. Listen, my client and then I say, OK, you know what?

I'm not a marketing specialist. Let me refer you to somebody I refer you to. I refer them to a marketing specialist. And then all of a sudden, the marketing specialist starts talking about all kinds of things that we did not even discuss. Like where did this come from? Where did this come from? Where did this come from? The last one that happened that really, really vexed my spirit. Somebody came to me, She was in construction industry.

Listen carefully. She's a young woman in the construction industry. She got her in to the construction industry here in Abuja because her popsy was also in the construction industry, an engineer. She started off business as a young woman, of course, wanting to deal with the big boys she wanted to be doing business with and supplying people like brains and hammers and you know all these other big, big construction outfits here in Abuja.

That was her goal. But she now realized that her bread and butter, the people that were here giving her money, the people that were enable her to pay house rent, the people that were enabling her to pay medical bills, the people that were enabling her to pay school fees and everything. She realized that it was mostly older women who are nearing retirement. And they just think like I'm about to retire. Meanwhile, nothing.

A house to my name, I don't have a house for my children. If anything should happen to me, I don't have those who are the people that are giving her money. Then there was also young women who have money. But I went into one or two trouble. You know, these things happen now. You know it happens. You know, you're a wealthy young woman and then a behind your husband quarrel. Before you know it, the husband on the carry side cheek.

You know, there's a woman who say, look, I've had enough and then they caught and there's all these young women say, you know what, yes, things are good now, but I suppose get some kind land investments so that if anything happens to me, I have something to bequeath to my children to give to my children. See, this one is not fictional at all. This part is real. I'm telling you, it's real. Remember the lady was in the construction space, She came into the construction space in Abuja wanting to deal with the big boys.

But then she now realized that most of her money was not coming from the big boys. It was coming from mature women who are close to retirement and who want to build house or want to acquire land or young women that have serious bar. But then they have marriage issue here and there and they say over my dead body, my children will not go and be fighting for inheritance. Let me do something for my own children. Those are the majority of people that are giving her money.

Now, I'm not a marketing specialist. And so I told her that, OK, you know what, from what we've discussed, honestly speaking, you don't need me right now because I'm a sales coach. I'm a business development consultant. You don't really need me right now. The person I really need for this idea is a marketing specialist. I hooked up somebody who is a marketing specialist because I had a chat with her. And then next thing he sent me the proposal that I was going to send to her.

Page one of the proposal, Page 1 of the proposal was saying that oh, in Nigeria's fast-paced moving market, something something was now trying to give examples of people who buy real estate. The number one example that he gave was Kunle in Lagos, Tech professional something, age between blah blah blah. I was like where is all this coming from? I just had a conversation with you. I told you about this woman. I told you who her clients are.

You spoke to her, I'm assuming she told you the same thing. How in the hell did you come up with a proposal that on page one, the client that you're looking at is cool age, that is something to whatever living in Lagos and the type of like, where did that come from? In all the talking that we did up and down, Did you hear any mention of anybody that even resembles this, this, this kind of ideal customer profile, this kind of customer avatar where but I see that we're marketing professionals all the time.

It blows my mind. It drives me nuts. That's the reason why I'm ranting right now. For some reason, you marketing professionals, and it's one of the reasons why you're struggling. Attend a meeting with someone, the person tells you, this is my problem. Go back home, talk to your team, come up with a plan for that problem. Only you will start coming up with all this extra stuff. And then forgive me. Let me calm down South.

I'm just trying to say that this is the kind of thing that can happen, that somebody can talk to Amira, who is in the wealth and financial advisory space. And the person says that we're trying to work on our conversions for a newsletter. And then the marketing agency will come back with a proposal that says 50% off if you sign now, if you sign before. Sorry about that. That was the alarm that I set. You know, it's been 15 minutes.

I want to make sure that this podcast episode is not too long so they'll come up with this kind of proposal and start talking about Instagram going viral, new followers, everything. Now that is a big mistake because in this case, the customer, Amira, did not say anything about likes. What she spoke about was private consultations from their newsletter that their social media feeds their newsletter. And she suspects that there are people with money in the newsletter.

So she says come up with a plan so that people in that newsletter, we jump out and start talking to us or coming to the office so that from there, we will close deals so that from there, we'll get high net worth individuals as clientele. Now, because Amira is a very polite Nigerian, like most Nigerians are polite. Amira will read this proposal and guess what Amira will say. Amira will say, oh, thanks, it's a wonderful proposal.

Let me get back to you. That is what Amira will say. And then she won't answer the phone. She will start ghosting. Then the marketing consultant will be saying that Nigerians don't appreciate good marketing. Nigerians are confused. It's not that Nigerians are confused. You went and had a conversation with someone. You didn't listen to what the person said. The problem was you came back with a proposal that did not match what they were looking for and that is the reason why they are ghosting you.

Yes, this is made-up but this is the kind of thing that can happen. Now back to this example that I'm talking about, this Nigerian young lady in the construction space, she read the proposal. Guess what she said? She told the person, let me get back to you. And then she now called me and she said, oh, Tavi Sharma is like this guy didn't really understand what was about blah, blah, blah. I've seen the proposal and I told her, look, I'm terribly sorry, I apologize.

Yes, I looked at it. The moment I saw it, I knew that this was off base. You know what, let me help you look for somebody else. I was now feeling like you're fool. I made a recommendation and the guy completely goofed up Anyway, so let's say now I'm gonna decide to take a meeting with the second person. I said this person's name is Tunde. Tunde shows up and Tunde does good discovery and qualification. That is the part of the meeting or the part of the business relationship where you try and figure out who is this person.

You try and figure out the problem. You try and figure out, you know, the vision they're trying to build. You try and source out whether they have a significant problem, whether they're ready to take action, you know, all those sorts of things. If this your first time listening to the podcast, right? What you do is after you're done listening to this, skip back and listen to the one that came before and the one that came before.

Just scroll back and listen to like four or five. You will get the scope. You get the gist of where I'm coming from because I've been on this proposal thing for at least, let's say the last, let's say the last 510 episodes. So after listening to this, just listen back. You get caught up to speed. So let's say she talks to today. Today does good discovery and qualification and discovery. Then instead of today coming up with a 15 page wonderful pitch deck for proposal document,

let's say he comes up with a three page document and then on the heading of the document he writes a three-step breach from newsletters to consultations. Do you think Amara will open that thing or not? Do you think she will read that thing or not? Do you think she will engage with that thing or not? Do you think she will have questions or not because she spoke about my problem is our social media is good, our website is good, everything good.

The problem is we have this newsletter, thousands and thousands of people on the newsletter born on getting customers from this newsletter. How can we dig into this newsletter? And you know, from the header alone, she will see that this guy was listening to me. This guy knows us up. This guy, like from the heading alone, she will know that this person was paying attention. If this guy today calls back later on, so have a look over.

She'll say, Oh yes, I've had a look at it. And she will have questions because there's some part she will agree with and there's some part she will disagree with. And then the conversation will continue because the guy paid attention. Antundi, because he's not talking anything about virality, about social media, about followers, about like about wanting, wanting. His proposal is speaking straight to what it is that she said.

He stands a chance of continuing with the conversation. It's not a guarantee that the deal is going to close and it's going to be his. I'm not saying that he stands a reasonable chance because he's focusing strictly on the problem, which is Amara has a newsletter. She wants to squeeze money from that newsletter and that's what he's talking about. Now remember in the first example I said the marketing professional is going to do what most of you marketing professionals do, which is you talk to somebody like Amara and then you say, oh, you know what,

if you move now 50% off, 25% off. Now if our today hotel today, today do not discount nothing. Focus on the core issue. So even when Amir starts asking for discount because I'm a neighbor babe now, so she will ask for discounts. It is expected. It is expected. It is only. Is only. I was going to say it's only Yoruba babes that pay full price, but I realized that even Yoruba babes like to price. So it is only northern babes that pay full price.

If it's Amina and she'll pay you full price. If it's Amira, she'll price you down. If it's coming, she'll price you down. Don't mind me, I'm just, I'm just misbehaving anyway. So eventually Amira might ask for a discount. But if you focus on the problem, that is why you're going to say, oh, look, Madam Amira, you currently have 20 million assets, 20 million in assets under management. And you have this newsletter. We're hoping to extract another XYZ amount in value.

And look, Amir, Madam Amir, see, and this is the truth. This thing that I'm trying to do for you, if I give you any discount, in effect, I'm telling you that my strategy is not worth this money that you're about to pay. So Madam, let's leave it like this if you want going forward, we can see how if this thing turns out good and we want to make this a long term something, no problem going forward. Let me see what I can do for you.

But Madam Mamira, just leave arm like this. The money where I don't quote, just leave arm or do I'm like this. If you focus exclusively on the problem, you can have that kind of conversation because you're focusing on the problem. So for those who are listening for the first time, in case you don't go back and listen to the other episodes, I believe that discounts are a virus. And I'm just saying that just in case you don't listen to the to the other episode, I want to say it now so that you hear it.

Discounts are a virus. Discounting can make you look desperate. It doesn't make you look kind. Then you're training your clients to always wait for you to give discount, give discount, give discount, give discount. The only way to use discounting is if you have excess inventory and you're trying to move excess inventory. I'm not going to explain what that is now. Just go and listen to the older episodes and you'll get the full explanation.

So if you are in this situation, you are a marketing consultant or whatever, you're dealing with somebody like Amira, you want Amira to reply your e-mail, you want Amira to answer your phone call, You want Amira to get back to you. You want, you know, just all you have to do, really all you have to do is show for these meetings. Pay attention to what Amira said. The problem is then when you're coming back with the proposal,

please make sure that from page one of the proposal you are trying to answer that major question that Amira said was our issue. If we start off like that, you will find that the the the odds will increase. The chances will increase that people will take our proposals and people will read our proposals. People will engage with our proposals and they will get back to us after they read it, even if they forget. And then we call it will be a matter of, oh, OK, that's today.

Yeah, that's that nice guy. That's true. I forgot to get back to him. And then the conversation will continue. For a lot of you, the reason why your proposals are going nowhere is because your proposals are tone deaf. Tone dev just means you know they hear word. People are saying this is my problem. You are ignoring the problem. I'm going to preach about curing every other single problem under the sun and then oh, if you act now, we give you 50% discount anyway.

So let me stop ranting. If you'd love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. If you want to join my WhatsApp channel, it's the same number 08064 662140. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.