Why 3 Months Without a Deal Isn't Always a Failure

Hello and welcome. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, this is a Part 2. So this is not going to be and if this is your first time of listening, you're catching us midway in a set of discussions. We're having a three-part series on how to deal with general poor performance. That's if you are a salesperson, you sell on behalf of someone else. So if you are an employee and you have an auger and your guy is holding you to certain standards that you have to sell X amount every single month or X

number of customers and you're suffering with general poor performance, you know, these are the sorts of things that we are dealing with now. So if this is the first time listening to the podcast, after you're done listening to this, go and listen to the episode that came immediately before this so that you will get the fuller picture, the background. Now, the guy that we're talking about, we're going to call him Fresh Prince.

And of course, that's not his real name. Sorry. Excuse me. So Fresh Prince sells roofing sheets, Abhi. Yeah, sells roofing sheets for his employer in Lagos. He's been having general power performance and he's been dealing with one troublesome client in particular. So this set of three, this is episode Abhi. This is Part 2. After Part 2, there's going to be a Part 3. The reason why I broke it up into a three-part series is so that we don't take up too much time with any particular with anyone episode per SE.

So in the last episode, we looked at some of the things that we can use to diagnose why people are performing poorly in sales, why you're not selling well. And some of the things we looked through yesterday were perhaps you're not selling well because you're targeting the wrong people. You're not talking to the right, you're not talking to the right prospects, you're not talking to quality people. So if you're talking to people and those people are not quality, you understand what I'm saying.

In Nigeria context, you know when you say that this is a quality guy, this is a quality babe, you know, it means that the person is interested, the person has money, It's something that the the person wants right now. They're ready to take action and the person can indeed take action and transfer the money at the end of the day. So that's all mean when we're talking about quality people. So if you're not talking to quality people, you can't get the quality deal at the end of the day.

Then we also spoke about other skills that are necessary to move the deal forward like advancements. Advancements just means you're able to get the person to take the next step. Both of you agree on what the next step is going to be. And we also looked at different kinds of conversation frameworks that you will need to help sell or move the business relationship forward. Because at the end of the day, selling is relationship and selling is conversation.

So you have to be good at both and you can't be good at either if you don't have a framework that is guiding you through. So those are some of the things that we looked at yesterday, but yesterday's episode was a long one, I think close to 15 minutes. So after listening to this, go listen to that and yeah, you get caught up to speed. OK, so like we said yesterday in our Fresh Prince, the guy hasn't closed the deal, a deal in three months.

Now the question now becomes, is that bad in itself because you started work for someone else? You haven't closed the deal in three months. Does that mean it's a bad thing? The answer is it depends. It depends on the typical sales cycle. The sales cycle is just the length of time between, oh boy, how far, good morning, Sir, you know, blah, blah, blah. And the person now transfers you money, anything in between. Good morning, Sir.

Do you have this available? How much? And then the person transfers money. That is called the sales cycle. So I have a Bluetooth keyboard that I'm using with this phone right now. The sales cycle for the length of the Bluetooth keyboard is very short. You enter into the shop so boy how how far now I bet you get 1 keyboard where I define which kind of keyboard. I don't know shy because you know it look like this look like this I'm using you know my phone blah blah blah.

So you mean this kind of keyboard hand this kind of keyboard how much 20K20K on top keyboard blah blah blah blah blah back and forth back and forth. Well if you don't like this you don't like this one you get this chinko one. See this one here 7575 where I give me for 6K6K blah blah. You know I'll go back and forth. Shall you give the person 5K? In that case sales cycle is 5 minutes because the gap between oh boy how far and you transfer 5K was just 5 minutes.

That's the sales cycle for Bluetooth keyboard. Now, the sales cycle for a car is different. Good morning. I'm looking for Toyota Corolla. Something, something. So. OK, well, we don't have the. But we have this one. Or let me see, is it accidental? Is it Belgium? Is it America? Is it whatever? Yeah. OK. How much? Maybe like this, you know? OK. Are they come? Then the person will go. Then the person will come back again.

Maybe next week. This time he will come with maybe his brother or his wife. And then they'll look at the car again. Babe, this was the car I was showing you. Something, something, something we can do, test drive and show now. No problem, the entire ADO test drive will come back and the person will say, you know, I'm interested. This price that you called, you know, is too expensive. But you know what, let me come back with my mechanic.

They will go and the guy will come back again with the mechanic. But long and short is if you want to buy a Bluetooth keyboard, sales cycle, 5 minutes Max, OK, maybe 1020 minutes for people who like to price. If you want to buy a car, sales cycle could be two weeks, could be 3 weeks. So the length of time between good morning, Sir, somebody sliding into your DM, somebody walking into your shop, somebody sending you an e-mail, somebody responding to your advertising campaign, the gap between that and when they transfer the money, that is what we call sales cycle.

So whether you close a deal in three months, whether it's good or bad depends on your sales cycle. If you're selling something and the sales normal sales cycle is 2 years, the fact that you've not closed the deal in three months, it doesn't mean anything. Hope you guys are following me. If normally it takes 2 years to close this kind of deal and then it's three months, you haven't closed anything. OK, well, why are you worrying why you live here?

You're anxious. OK, let's see if there's any reason for for for your anxiety. It normally takes 2 years to close these kind deals. So in three months, maybe you're not supposed to be shaking like that. So not closing a deal in itself in three months is not necessarily a bad sign. But the reason why I'm bringing this up is because lots of Nigerian employers don't look at things this way. You bring somebody in, let's say it's a real estate firm, and let's say for that particular real estate firm, their sales cycle are typically maybe like 8

months before they sell a plot of land. But then, you know, two months in, you're shouting at the sales staff that he hasn't closed any deal. Realistically speaking, excuse me, realistically speaking, if your sales cycle is usually 8 to 9 months, you know, why are you shouting at the guy for not closing any deal in two months? You should be having the conversation. OK, young man. Yes, sales cycles are typically 8 months, But in months two, we expect to see certain signs of progress.

We expect to see certain kinds of meetings booked. We expect to see a certain number of side visits. We expect to see a number of this and above that. So you as the employer, you as the founder, you as the business owner, you should know your sales cycle. Then you should also know the key metrics, I'll be what they call the KPI's. I have the key performance indicators, the kind of things that you expect to see in people who close deals and then you hold the person to that.

So if a sales deal takes 8-9 months to close, but, and then for most people who close deals, you know, maybe like 8 or 9 months, you know, usually, let's say by months, do you expect that they would have done maybe like 10 site visits? And then there's somebody in the office who has only done one site visit in two months. OK, then there's room for quarrel because you can now see that, OK, this guy know they match up. He know they keep up by this stage would have expected that he would have done 10 site visits, but he has only done one.

OK, now there's a problem. But whether you close in three months, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, it depends on the typical sales cycle. So the sales cycle is going to depend on the number of factors. It's going to depend on the industry, it's going to depend on the skill set of the person, what else, you know, the different conventions that you have at the time and also on and on and on. So it depends really.

It depends because like in the West, for instance, let's say like in America and in the UK, there are people who enter a car shop today and they will buy a car today. But that's UK. In Nigeria that is not going to happen. Nobody is going to go to a car lot today and look at the car for the first time today and then transfer money in food today. You know, so things are different in America. It happens. Somebody walks in today, the person will walk out with a brand new car today.

In Nigeria, we're not there yet. So sales cycle for closing a car in America, different sales cycle for closing car sales in Nigeria, different. Maybe the sales cycle for closing a car sales a car, a car sale in Ethiopia or Australia, you know, maybe it might be different or so it depends. But three months doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. I need to have a conversation with you to try and figure out like what's going on, what's a difficult sales cycle.

So I did some fooling around online and it looks like in this part of the world, again, remember I did some fooling around online. So please go and verify these figures for yourself if you are in the roofing industry because I am not the professional when it comes to roofing. I'm just the professional when it comes to sales, closing deals, moving things forward. OK, so it looks like when it comes to residential buildings,

you know, one man, you want to put a roof on your house, It looks as if, looks as if a roofing deals can be closed, you know, in anything between two to six weeks. And when I saw it, I was like, yeah, I think that kind of makes sense because like for Mumsy's house, when they were building Mumsy's house, because we didn't trust the quality of materials in Makuti, where Mumsy lives, we bought the materials here in Abuja.

And you know, I'm here in Abuja. So I went to Builders Market myself and yeah, it was about, yeah, it was about two weeks. I went, I met a couple of people, you know, made a few phone calls, did small research, no blah, blah, blah. You know, 2-3 weeks later the roofing sheets were in Makuti so that we can use our mumsy's house. So I think that sounds about correct. So if you're selling roofing sheets and you're selling in the residential sector, you haven't sold anything in three months,

then yeah, there is a serious problem. Because on a normal, normal, the deal should be closing anything between two to six weeks. So if you're selling residential, which is normally two to six weeks, you haven't sold in three months or more days. Serious problem. So yesterday's episode now becomes more important. Let us start looking. Are you talking to the right people? Are you talking to quality people? OK, you're talking to quality people.

Do you know how to gain advancements? Do you know how to move the conversation forward? Do you know how to build rapport? Do you know how to build credibility? Do you have any conversation framework, Abby? Every time you go, your jaws chatting with them freestyle. Do you know how to close? We need to start looking at some fundamental issues. We now need to figure out that OK, isn't supposed to close six weeks Max, but meanwhile 3

months we've not seen anything. Why? Yeah, let us start figuring out what is going on then. From what I found online, it looks like when it comes to large scale commercial, is there anything between 3:00 to six months? And I think that kind of makes sense, like if somebody is building a small estate or something, you know, you shop around, you want to get some prices, you have to you make that on the a bid a a high down all I put it now like you make it like a high volume bid.

You try and play two or three contractors off of each other. So I think three to six months maybe sounds just about right. So in that case, if you're selling large scale commercial products, you haven't closed the deal in three months. Yeah, it may be a bad thing. It might not be a bad thing if you haven't closed in three months and let's say in that three months you haven't even done plenty site inspections or plenty visits.

People haven't even come into the office. OK, yeah, in that case then there's a problem because it's been 3 months, we've not even seen any activity, as if you're even doing something to try and sell. So in that case, there may be a problem. Then for government contracts, I wasn't able to find the time, but you know, we're in Nigeria. You know how things can be in Nigeria. In fact, I was talking to someone who is in the NGO space and he's trying to secure an Mou with a government department,

Mou memorandum of understanding. They're supposed to organize a festival of youth and something, something in Abuja. And then they started this process a while ago, but you know that now everybody is in election fever. So he's as if the the the project now just hang the team, just hook. Are we going forward? Well, we don't know. Are we going back for we don't know because, you know, the politics is in the air. So, you know, then they wait,

you know, OK, primary, this thing, this thing, you know, president will be here, party chairman, this, that that. So all these things have just slowed the thing down. So I'm surprised if, you know, if it's a government contract then for roofing sheets, you know, maybe a government building project or something. I'm surprised if you know, we can't take one year or two years or whatever because these things happen. First of all, you will do appreciation in quote, if you know what I mean.

You will see people you have to kiss us up and down. You have to show appreciation and then the all you know anyway. So if it's government contract, bottom line, what I'm just trying to say is it depends. Are you selling residential? Are you selling large scale commercial or are you selling roof sheets to government projects? That will determine whether closing in three months is good or closing in three months is bad.

But there's one thing that lots of Nigerian business people, business owners, sales people don't pay attention to when I say right, that the way you sell is the distinguishing factor because lots of people try to distinguish themselves first of all by price. You know, let me be the cheapest or whatever. And then some people try to distinguish themselves by packaging. You know, let my website be fine, let my dressing be good,

let me speak with one, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, all of that is important. Price and packaging is important. But people forget that the way you sell in itself also is a distinguishing factor. The way you sell will set you apart as a professional above other people. Let me explain. I keep on talking about and I mentioned in the last episode how you need to do need analysis or qualification or discovery. How you go about doing your need analysis can set you apart as a professional and can make people trust you.

So for someone who is in the roofing sheet space, you should be using your diagnostic process to build trust. The way you diagnose the whole thing, the way you try and figure out who is this person, what kind of roofing sheets do they need, what kind of problems do you have? The very way you go about diagnosing the problem should build trust. For instance, how do I do this, for instance, OK, since it's roofing sheets, now you need to know angle of elevation.

You need to know square meter, square meter, the square meter that you know, you know, you need to know all these sorts of things. Now there are some people like when I went were looking for roofing sheets, There's some people who just said that, oh, that mumsy can just send the is this survey plan or something? Then they will now use the survey plan and then engage and then rely on that to give a quote. Then there's some other people who will say, you know what survey plan, like, how do I put it?

You know, when you're trying to build, the architect will design something. But then when you start building, you know, things change. So sometimes, especially in Niger, what you have on the architect sheets on the survey plan or whatever does not fully match, define out something because like even Muncie's house was, you know, was the same thing beside the building. And after a while, you know what, these rooms are too small,

you know, dorm like this dorm like that, you know, and then things change. So there's some people who insist that let me go and see the building and let me do actual measurements for myself so that don't be any go calm that once we agree, we negotiate and I send over the roofing sheets. It is exactly what it is that you need. The guy we ended up going with eventually, of course, since the building is in Makuti, he asked for the layout.

He asked for all those paper, paper things as I send it so that he can look and then do his own calculation. But then he also said snap picture, let me see. When he saw the picture, he said no, no, no, this thing, it can't be correct. I don't know how. Maybe it's because, you know, after a while building people just get an eye for certain things. Once he saw the picture, I said, no, this is not correct. So using his eye, he was able to make an estimate of the, I don't know, square meter and all those fancy things that European people do.

And then he now told Mumsy that OK, Mumsy shabby, you have somebody on ground engineer. OK, when next engineer come tell engineer to please confirm if these my specifications are correct. An engineer confirmed and we saw that they were correct. But the guy still advised that, you know, sometimes accident can happen, you know, somebody who caught the roofing sheet the wrong way and so you might need extra. And so he said because of that,

we should build in a, a, what's it called all? I put it down like margin of error. So you get extra sheets. And then it turns out that that was good advice because just like the guy advised, you know, some accidents did happen, some things were caught wrongly. And so you needed new sheets to finish up the whole thing. But see, my point is this because of the way when I was talking with the guy, this roofing sheet person, because of the way he was handling himself,

we could tell me and my siblings and Mumsy, we could tell that we are dealing with a professional. This guy I know as in he's not just vendor like this one is a professional from the very way he was conducting himself during the process, from the very way he was doing the needs analysis. What's the measurement of the house? What is this? What is the elevation? OK, which can easy long span. Abby were doing step tire. Abby were doing stone coating.

What is the difference? The difference is this dot dot dot. What are you trying? Like from the way we were having the you could tell that this guy was a professional and that kind of thing instilled us, instilled the feeling of trusting us. OK, we're dealing with a knowledgeable somebody here. So it doesn't matter what you sell, Roofing sheets, architectural services, business consulting services, you run a startup or whatever.

Your process of diag well, why you try and diagnose whether your customer has a problem or what it is they're trying to achieve. Your very process should instill confidence in people. These are the things you do that instill trust in the customer. These are the things that make people want to continue talking to you. Sorry. One moment my attention is required making today's recording at home. Let me just answer the door and I'll be right back.

OK, sorry about that. I just needed to attend to something briefly. OK, so I think I was in the middle of talking about how your diagnostic process when you're trying to do need analysis, when you're trying to figure out what people want. Because if you remember, before we started talking about Fresh Prince, again, not his real name, before we started talking about Fresh Prince, we were talking about Cinderella, who is a salesperson who sells solar and inverter solutions.

The very way that you talk to people, you're trying to figure out what they want, trying to figure out what they need, trying to figure out what the problem is, something that can build trust with people. So if you're one of those people who sells roofing sheets and you want to go to site yourself to get accurate actual measurements before you deliver a quote or a proposal or whatever, by the time you climb up, you know, you look around, you check the, is it called carcass in all that wooden frame that you use before you put the roof.

You know, by the time you go up there, you check the carcass and you say, boss, you know, this is your carcass. Dinger key leg here. Get key leg. Yeah, get key leg. Yeah. As in before we put this kind of stone coated roof tile, because stone coated is heavy with this carcass. It can't support the weight. You know, you need to fix this. You need to fix that. By the time you point out one or two things like that, those say correct, we're dealing with a very knowledgeable somebody here.

If somebody wants to replace the roofs instead of just saying it is 2500 naira per square inch or whatever, but actually start asking questions. Oh, the see the the type, the one that you had before, was it long time? Was it stepped out? Was it stone quoted? And what happened? What was the problem? Oh, leak because of what? OK, let me see the carcass. OK, let me see the this. Let me see the that. OK, Look, based on this, I think this was the problem.

If you don't fix this problem, man, even if you buy from me now, the problem will occur again in another three years. So boss, you need to fix this. You need to fix this. You need to fix this before you have this sort of thing. So if you show up, you're trying to do your need analysis, you're looking out for structural issues and you know, things like that. You're asking questions, OK? You're replacing roofing sheets,

OK? Why are you replacing them? What went wrong with them in the first place? Or Oh, I put it, yeah, exactly. You're trying to figure out like what even went wrong in the 1st place that makes you need these roofing sheets. And then you're everyone giving them tips about, oh, this is how you extend the lifespan, the lifespan of your roof, whether you're doing maintenance schedule or you know, something like that. You know, those of you who sell roofing sheets, you know, you,

you will, you will understand. But for the rest of you, I hope you're getting the gist of what it is that I'm, I'm trying to say. There's a way that you carry yourself when you're on site, when you're talking to people, that will show that you are the subject matter expert, how people can see that you're the experts, that you know what's up. Then people will be calm and people will have a conversation with you. So yes, we can position ourselves, you know, by packaging.

So yes, dress well, yes, speak with one there. Yes, spray perfume and yes, borrow your father's Mercedes-Benz and drive on site so that when they see you, they say you're a big boy. Yes, do all that. But know that the very way that you're trying to diagnose the problem, the way you're trying to do need analysis, the way you're trying to make a recommendation, you should have a framework and a process for that that sets you apart from other people.

Because remember this guy that we bought roofing sheets from, other people just said they should snap architectural plan. I can't remember it was a snap. Was it that we should snap a bill should scan or something shall and just send. But one person took it a step beyond. The person said OK, well let me see. But you will are based in Makudi. Whether you buy from me or not, there's going to be expense that is involved in transporting this thing down from Abuja to Bengal estate.

So therefore we need to make sure that we get this thing right. So send me the architectural something, something. Then also go and snap the house, front elevation snap, side elevation snap, this elevation snap. And then the guy looked at it and say, ah, this thing is not correct. Me, I was impressed. I was impressed as hell that somebody can just look at picture on the phone and say this measurement is not correct from looking at picture alone.

You guys say how many bedroom? I told him he said and then this information you're giving me is not correct. Brought our calculator deep bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank me say I think they should be do whatever. Please tell mumsy that is there anybody that I can confirm saying yes, engineer is coming on Thursday. OK, Tell engineer to confirm whether this thing is correct. If it's correct, then on Thursday let's continue the conversation.

Engineer talks and then the thing was even correct. I mean, come on, given that situation, won't you feel like, OK, we are this person I'm talking to, you know, he knows what he's doing. Anyway, let me move on. There's also another thing that I want to point out that's for those of you who are in this kind of business selling roofing sheets and stuff like that. There's a couple of things that you guys don't do or you're not aware of, but if you try, it'll make your job a whole lot easier.

Now, one of those things is called referral looping. Looping in this sense now just means gather. Like we'll just gather everything together, gather it in one bunch. Now, the idea behind referral looping is this. Now for those of us who live in Abuja where you know people are building estates all the time, you will understand what I mean. Roofing usually happens in development clusters, so like the different parts of Abuja that are opening up right now,

like even in Lagos itself, you know, like is it Lekki? No, not Lekki. What's it called? Not Banana Island. Anyway, you get one. I'm sure you understand what I'm saying. Estates are being built all over the place now because those estates are being built all over the place and they are being built roughly at the same time. When one person wants to do roofing sheet, most likely there'll be three or four other people who are at the same stage in that estate who also need roofing sheet.

So there's a way that you can come to do roofing sheet for one house in the estate. But if you play your game well, you can do referral looping. Referral looping just means you gather, you ask this guy, oh, this is your neighbor that is building here that, oh that, do you know him? Oh, yes, members, I beg now, may I talk to the guy now as I'm here now on site, you know, at least I'll be able to do that. Let me do his own as well, you ask.

You never know, he might give you the person's number. And you know, from there, from there, referral looping, just they gather everything OK. I've entered the estate. I'm on one person's roof now and other houses that are around in the vicinity. Yeah. May I gather them? Let's see how we can just gather. So you look for development clusters, building estates, stuff like that. And you're trying to do referral looping. You enter based on one person.

You try and gather all the referrals. Oh, let me have this person's phone number. Let me have this person's phone number. Or you just stroll on site. You see that the foreman is there. It's Olga Foreman. Olga engineer. How now? So well done. This is your house. If I know. OK. Oh, I don't finish decking. OK, So now roofing. Now you remain. Now, Abby, so OK, you know, I'm working on that house over there now we're the ones that you see that one that's no coat in there.

Yes, I read 1. You see, I see fine, happy and I'm I work with that. And then that's how you do you start the conversation referral looping. You're trying to gather everything. Then in America, I think in the solar industry, I think I heard it in solar industry, people talking about T selling. Now this is the idea behind T selling. Just imagine a letter T, capital letter T. So this is scope that they do when they do T selling.

Let's say you're working on house number. How do I say it now? OK, let's say there's a street. Now on that street, the houses on the left and on the right and on the left you have houses from #1 to 5. On the right you have houses from #1 to 5. And let's say you're working at house 3. What you do is before you start work on house 3, you will go to house 2, which is on the left and then you will knock on the door and then you tell the person money.

So I am working in house 3. So no vex. I just wanted to let you know that we are going to start work tomorrow. So I'm very sorry. There's going to be some noise there's going to be some whatever, whatever, whatever. So I just wanted to let you know ahead of time, but you know, if there's anything that we can do to make this thing more pleasant, you know, just just let us know while we're here. Also, you know, just to be security conscious.

That's also the reason why I'm coming to let you know. So anyway, here's my business card, you know, just let lay hold of it, you know. So I'm here, I'm on site. If you need us for anything, just let me know. That is house 2. You now leave, leave house 2. Remember you're working on house 3. Then you now go to House 4. Sorry, Abby. Three. Yes, you now go to house 4, which is on the right hand side and you have the same conversation with the person who owns the house.

Hey, hello, we're just in the neighborhood. Your neighbor in house 3 has hired us to do the roofing. Sorry, just trying to let you know ahead of time. We're going to be here tomorrow. There's going to be a bunch of noise. We'll try our best to work as quietly as possible, but you know, just in case of anything, let me know. Anyway, here's my business card. Sorry, just wanted to be polite. Just to let you know. Also, you know, nowadays, now security consciousness, you know, so at least you know, you can see my face.

So, so if you see any of the boys there, you see my face. Don't worry, they're my people. So you've had that conversation. Now you're working on house three. They paid you to work on House 3. But you have that conversation with people in House 2. You have the conversation with people in House 4. Then you will now go opposite the roads, directly opposite the road to house. Let me see, there's 12345678, OK, opposite now.

So opposite House 3 will now be House 8. You will now have that conversation with the people in House 8 again. It will be the same thing. Hello. Good morning, Sir. Your neighbor just hired us. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, I was just trying to be polite. Also security conscious. I beg no vex, in case you make noise and this and that and that. You know, just in case one of my boys mistakenly pack and block your gate or something.

I beg organ. No vex. Here's my business card. You know, if there's anything, you know, just call me. If any of the boys I've been in Houston, just call me. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah conversation. Just leave. This is the scope you came to do working house 3, but you're doing T selling. So you moved one house to the left, you introduce yourself. You move one house to the right, you introduce yourself, you move one house down, you introduce yourself.

In that case, it's reasonable for you to do that, Abby, is it not? You're also trying to set yourself apart as a professional, is it not? But most importantly, by the time you finish the working house 3, now that they know your face, you can actually go back to house 2. I say, oh, I don't know, we're leaving. But just in case you don't mind our business, we have a policy. We give free roofing inspections. You know, let's let me just, if you don't mind, let's you know,

we're here with the ladder. Let me just hop up on the roof. Look, we can just do a brief assessment just to let you know the state of your roof, you know, whether it's healthy and everything. I know what not just, you know, and I hope you don't mind. Of course, some people who say no, no problem. They say no, no Allah. Then you go to house 4, that's the house to the right. And then you have that same conversation again.

OK, we're done. There's no problem. I'll be sorry for the stop here and everything. No. Oh, by the way, since we're already here, since the boys are here, since the ladder is here, how far Now let's just do free roofing inspection now. Abby, do you have any leaks? If you have any leak is not a problem. So we won't have, we have some material that's leftover. If it's just minor roofing leak, we'll just patch the leak for,

you know, that kind of thing. So from doing T selling, talking to somebody on the left, talking to somebody on the right, talking to the person opposite, by the time you climb their roof, you give them estimate if they have roofing, you fix it there. You know, you can say, oh, by the way, Sir, you remember I gave them my business card. You still have it. Oh, you lost it. OK, here's my business card again. You know, if you ever need repairs on your roof, this is your number, Just give me a call.

I'll attend to you myself personally. Or if you know somebody who needs or whatever or whatever, you know, needs a roofing sheet, you know, just give me a call. You see that is T selling, you enter the neighborhood you're working on one house, move to the left, move to the right and then move opposite, more people to talk to. Every single time you get to any neighborhood, you just be doing it like that. Any estate you work in, you do it like that.

If you're doing large scale commercial cause like in Abuja we have industrial estates not far from where we are. So if you enter into an industrial estate, maybe, let's say like maybe Thermo Cool is doing their warehouse and you're the one that is supplying the estate for Thermo Cool, it's not a problem. You start work on Thermo Cool. But then if you look to the left and you see that there's Elisa de Elisa de Plaza where they sell, where they manufacture,

sorry, not assemble and maintain Toyota Hilux and all those kind of things. It's not a problem for you to leave Thermo Cool. You just move to the left, you enter and that's all that you want to speak to the manager, you say why is there any problem? I say no, we are the ones that are doing roofing project over there over at Thermal Cool. We just want to introduce ourselves, you know, you know as Nigeria is nowadays, you know security reasons now everything.

So just so that you will know that you know is us and also, you know, security reasons, I say, may I just show face and then, you know, just in case of anything, that's why I said let me just see the manager. You know, if you put it like that, security guards. Oh, OK, no problem. Manager is not around now. Manager will be there by two, no problem. You'll come back by 2:00 and then you'll try again. Eventually, maybe you see the manager and then you see how these conversations happen so that later on in Eliza Day Plaza or Eliza Day, whatever, if they need roofing sheet later on, the manager remember, ah, OK, there was this time when blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, he can go and start checking his drawer. Where's this person's card? Where's this person's card with this person's card, Then they call you. So these are some things Now for those of you who are in the roofing industry in Nigeria, these are some things that they do in other parts of the world that you can copy referral looping. If you enter the estate, you look around, you'll see that this person that hired you, if they are decking stage and don't want to move to roofing, I bet you there are other people in the estate who are that level 2

when you're on the roof. Look around, OK, this house, this house, this house, this house. Tomorrow you call Mellie, you go around, you look for the engineer, you look for the foreman, you start talking. That's how you get some business. Then for residential, you do T selling, move to the left, move to the right. You know, there are lots of people that can do it, but who don't, like, take, for instance, DSTV installation is something that you can do.

You're installing. OK. No, no DST installation. That's not a good idea because everybody has the STV. What would I say now? OK, let's say solar. Yeah, let's say solar. You come, You're installing solar for this man here. It's not a bad idea. You move to the left. Hello. Good morning. Is Madame around? Oh, no problem. Where the contractors were installing solar over here. And of course, we're going to be making some noise.

There'll be some strange people, stuff like that, you know, just security reasons. I just say let me come. And I just want people with the estate just to, you know, know my face now, my round. And then plus just in case my boys are being a nuisance, you know, anything like that, you know, you get to speak to Madame and it's the same spiel. Madame, here's my card. But this time you're finishing. It's not a bad idea, I say.

OK, Madame, we finished. Oh, sorry. I hope the noise is not too much. We didn't to disturb you. None of my boys destroyed any of your property. OK, no problem. Madame. I was noticing you. You don't have solar. Your neighbor. Just this solar now. So Madame, how far you can start conversations that way? Then another thing, this whole thing of not closing a sale in three months, It also depends on the time of the year for some industries because some industries are seasonal.

Now I know this because my friend, one of my friends in Lagos, one of my very good friends, Michael Okuda, that's back when I was a teenager, his mumsy started off business. I think first, no, not his mom's, I think was his popsy. He started off business selling paint. That's the first time I realized that some industries are seasonal. Is it rainy season? Is it dry season? You know, these things depend are some of things that determine whether market to be good or not.

So if you're in the roofing space, you haven't sold anything in three months. Your, your, your, your business is seasonal. You also have to ask yourself, OK, at what part of this up and down cycle of seasonality, you know, at what part are we in right now? So from what I've found online, again, I'm not a roofing expert, but I think there's some truth. It is because I remember I was roofing Mumsy's house. If it is rainy season, you can't do work.

I repeat, if it is rainy season, you can't do work because if you create the carcass that is the wooden frame and everything in rainy season, the rain will touch the wood. When the sun comes out, the wood will start to bend. And you can't be putting roofing sheets on a carcass that is already bending, bending, bending. So for Mumsy, we had to wait. I think we had to wait until dry season to do the roofing. So now in that case, I suspect that OK, you've not sold in three months.

But if the three months we're talking about, we're inside the rainy season, then what are you talking? It stands to reason that since you're in rainy season where nobody's putting up roof, of course it will be hard for you to sell. If it is dry season on the other hand, then you've not sold in three months. OK, now we need to start looking. And this is the reason why I say we need to do a consultation. You're targeting is you're targeting, right?

Are you building the relationship well? Are you able to establish authority and credibility? Are you able to build advancements? Can you move people, move them along from one step to another? What kind of conversational frameworks are you using when you're talking to people? How do do your diagnostics? Does your diagnostic process help to instill trust with the people? What kind of closing techniques are you using? Have you heard of closing techniques at all?

We need to start breaking down exactly what it is that is going on. So you see why I said yesterday that for some of you who ask, you know, I'm not closing sales for the last three months, I'm not closing sales for the last four months, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's not just that I'm trying to collect money from you. Yes, I am trying to collect money from you. How the hell think I pay my bills? So yes, I'm trying to collect money from you.

But also honestly speaking for some kind business problems, we actually need to sit down and figure out. OK, pause. First let's try and figure out what's going on. And like any doctor is when you know what is going on that you now prescribe the remedy, I need to know what's going on 1st Is it malaria? OK, who prescribed this? Is it typhoid? Who prescribed this? It's the same approach. Need to figure out what it is that is going on.

So for those of you who are like Fresh Prince during roofing sails, you know, these are some of the things that are going on. And this is the reason why even though I like to answer one question for free for everybody else, this honestly is one of the reasons why, you know, for some of you, I can't just say, oh, do this, do that. Like it depends. I need to figure out what it is that is going on. So let me stop here another 41

minutes. So that is a Part 2. We're going to move on to a part three. I'll see if I can do that. I'll see if I can do it tonight or maybe tomorrow. But Part 3, essentially, we're going to deal with this guy. This guy has a proud troublesome client. And the reason why I wanted to address this one is because this kind of troublesome client is not just Fresh Prince. Again, remember, not his name. It's not just Fresh Prince who is dealing with troublesome client.

Half of you who are listening to the podcast now, I know that you have dealt with this kind of troublesome client before. If you haven't dealt with them before, maybe you're new in business, don't worry, you will come across this kind client in the next broadcast episode. Now we'll explore that when we meet this kind of troublesome person. What's the way forward? So with that podcast episode, we'll now bring this to an end.

That's using Fresh Prince, again, not his real name, using Fresh Prince as a case study, but I'm hoping that the other people who are in roofing sales who are listening right now and who are being blessed by what we're talking about. Even if you're not in roofing sales, you do something else house related. You're doing solar, you're doing DSTV installation, you're doing painting, you're doing, I don't know, scaffolding sales or, you know, you sell scaffolding equipment or whatever, or you do borehole drilling or whatever your business.

I'm hoping that you've heard some things that you can apply to your Business Today and that's going to make a difference in your Business Today. So Please remember, as you listen to this podcast, as you subscribe and as you continue to listen, even though the case study that we talk about will be involving another person's business, there are always principles that I can apply to your own business. So don't be listening to a podcast episode, whether it is my own or any other podcast episode.

So because today I'm talking about roofing sheet, don't say a roofing sheet doesn't apply to me. Even if you are an accountant. There are some things that I've said today concerning roofing sheet that an accountant will be able to apply. Let's say like this T selling, for instance. Nothing stops you an accountant. You've got to go and visit your client. You enter into this building. Nothing stops you from doing T selling.

You come out of your building, You come out of the building. Maybe your client is escorting. You say, oh, these people over here so, so, so and so. Oh, those are our neighbors. So. Oh, yes. Do you happen to know the owner? Oh, yeah, me. He's a good friend. I said, oh, I'd appreciate that introduction. There's nothing that stopped you from doing that. That is T selling. You go inside your client's office. You have the meeting.

On your way out, you look at another business. You're like, OK, these people make nice clients. You ask if the guy knows, he knows if he's willing to introduce, he's willing to introduce. And if he introduces, you never know. You move to the left, you move to the right, you move opposite, you never know. But of course, you do it in a classy way because you can't be an accountant. You dress in your nice suit and then you now behave as if you're, you know how I put it,

shy. You can't do it in a classy way. So no matter what it is you do, there are things that are spoken about today that can apply to your business. So that is the mind frame that you should be using when you listen to this podcast or listen to any other podcast. OK, this podcast is for people who are brain surgeons. OK, no problem. But it's a business podcast. Are there any principles that brain surgeons are using to improve their business?

OK, these are the principles. Can I apply those principles to my business? That's the mind, mind frame. I mean, the mindset that she used to listen to these sorts of things. So if you'd love to connect with me like Fresh Prince, again, not his real name. If you want to connect with me like Fresh Prince, just call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806466 2140. If you want me to audit any of your business processes, then you contact me on the same number 08064662140.

Or if you want to join my WhatsApp channel, then you send me a message on the same number. And I hope you're looking forward to the third and final episode where we will help The Fresh Prince deal with problematic clients, especially those problematic clients that especially the problematic clients who keep saying you're too expensive. So that's what we're going to do at the next episode. So thanks for your time and attention.

I'll catch you some other time.