When you engage social media managers for your business, what are you buying exactly? Likes and shares? Or Naira, dollars, and revenue?

When a potential customer calls us up, should we leave it up to them to move the conversation forward?

Why do we assume we have to cough up a price immediately on the first call?

Why drop your starting price before you’ve gotten a sense of what the person can afford? Is it a good idea to “anchor” the price low at the beginning of the conversation?

Can you conjure up convincing words to make clients pay your asking price? Or are you better off making sure you’re speaking to the “right customer” from the outset?

If they aren’t, they why did I hire one in the first place?

Why bother with NFTs, blockchain, and all this new age stuff... could this be the future infrastructure on which business runs?

Is it a lack of profits that’s holding you back from taking time off? Or is it not paying attention to sustainable business processes and frameworks?

Are case studies from other disciplines a bad way to learn selling principles? And what do we have to learn from talking to people from other business segments?

Is it okay to “nickle and dime” clients? Should we be more concerned about what to hack off to make ourselves profitable, or should we try to throw more on the table to make ourselves appear more valuable?

Can we expect our clients to meet expectations if we never clearly tell them what to do next?

Is self esteem purely a product or self talk and affirmations?

What does a sales consultant do for you anyway?

What are the wrong kinds of conversations to have with peers in the industry?

Is there anything magical about the new year? And is all this joy and optimism warranted?

What do you do when you get that call with an offer that is beneath you?

Whether you agree or not that Christmas themed events and other seasonal pop ups are a good idea to grow sales... the next best question is, how do we go about doing that in the best manner for the business?

The 2021 wrap up episode.

Are sales activity around annual holiday themes a good idea to boost profits?

It’s the time of the year when the whole world is about giving, sharing and being selfless. One of the best ways of doing that would be to sign up to be a mentor at your Uni if they offer those opportunities. It’s a good way to ensure that all the good stuff you’ve learned about life and the pursuit of money are distilled and handed down to the younger generations.

Reciprocal online business communities exist on social media where people can beef up their audiences by following each other and trying to give mutual referrals. Are they a good use of your time? Does this promise business growth? And what is the role of “organic”in growing your audience and your business? These and many more are valuable questions to ask in the search for more followers.

How do you close the deal at what you do? Make sure you have a deal in the first place! Determine whether you have to be consultative or “product” based on your sales approach! And then move the deal forward one step at a time with scheduling tools so you don’t miss a step.

If you agree that it is essential to push the relationship forward by using micro commitments and securing one advancement after the other, it is essential to have some sort of platform weather digital or hard copy that allows you to manage the customer relationship. This will be anything which tells you who you are talking to, and what stage of the relationship you are at... as well as the commitments that are outstanding.

Because we have to close the deal incrementally in little steps, it would help if we have tools to keep track of who we’re talking with, what stage we are in the process, and what the next commitments that we have agreed to are. This is a primer on the importance of the role of a CRM in growing your business.

Qualification frameworks are essential when we are having conversations with our potential customers. Without a rough and ready conversation framework, we will be left ambling all over the place.

Before you close the deal be sure to ask questions to confirm that you are speaking to qualified clients in the first place. Properly qualified clients are those who have a need or a want of your product or service, they are also people who have similar expectations when it comes to money. These are also people who are ready to pull the trigger soon!

To close the deal you have to be sure that you had a deal in the first place! How do we do that? That is the subject of “qualification” which old school sales professionals use to figure out if there’s a problem here worth solving, and if there’s a chance that we’re talking with all the relevant parties concerned.

Closing can mean anything between the “big ask” when you ask for the money, or all the small incremental steps in between where you try to move the deal forward. Which is better or more realistic? You decide!

Once we’re done with figuring out whether we’re in a simple or complex sales scenario, the next step is figuring out the implications on how to carry out conversations from there. If you’re in a simple sales scenario, it’s okay to go on plugging features and benefits. If you’re in a complex sales scenario, then you have to be more consultative in your approach with potential clients.

How to close the deal will be determined by whether you’re in a simple or a complex sales scenario. How do you determine that? The deal size, subject complexity, number of parties involved and the prospects for future relationships will determine that.

Is closing the deal in real estate different from closing the deal in weddings? Or other consumer purchases? That depends on the context that you’re in!

A lot of potential business deals are lost because we make assertions without seeking for feedback. It’s not enough to say something without asking to be sure what is a minor provision from what is a “deal breaker”. Always ask questions.

It’s unfortunate that “ghosting” has become a feature of modern business communication. The solution isn’t to gripe and complain, but use questioning techniques to get the conversation back on track. With questions you can find out if they’re interested, or if they went silent because they found your proposition frightening!

When trying move the agenda forward with clients and business partners, it’s a good idea to agree to the follow up item or plan at this present meeting. It saves you the time and emotional pressure of coming up with follow up actions and timing on your own.

Customer service and permission marketing are dandy ideas until you can’t figure out what to talk about... now that you’ve gotten permission to be in touch. Have no fear! It doesn’t always have to be about product and service updates... your client’s personal and professional milestones are fine as well.

Social capital includes the learned skills, attitudes and dispositions that kids acquire just from being around a certain environment. As business people we ought to be VERY conscious about the kind of atmosphere the kids pick up from being around us. There’s no reason why the growth we achieve has to be limited to one generation.

Good customer service can get you the implied permission to be in touch with past clients. What’s to talk about? All the cool new features and services that you’ll be rolling out in the future that could be of help to them.

Getting paid isn’t the last step of the sales process because after we’re done with payment and execution, we still have to worry about securing testimonials and referrals. Testimonials and online reviews beef up our credibility while referrals are the ultimate catalyst for dependable income for the future.

Meetings take a lot of time so it’s not a good idea to agree to one without a simple phone call to agree on the agenda and ask questions to see if this meeting is worth having in the first place! Phone calls might be scary, but getting good at them will save you time over the long run.

The proper paradigm to have around customer service is not just problem solving, but customer satisfaction. The key benefit to doing this? You’ll find out over time what it is that your customers love about you and you’ll be able to highlight that in your sales, marketing and branding activities.

Sales skills are handy in other aspects of the business because a good sales person won’t make any assumptions. When dealing with thorny customer service issues, ask questions to get to the root of the problem and what’s most important to the customer. Then you’ll have all the information you need to make amends.

Personalizing messages work because they show some regard to the recipient! You’ll get double marks if the messaging also turns out to be relevant to the receiver. Use this to increase your responses to your follow up and get more effective at business messaging.

Even though sales and personal selling should be the primary business skill we need to advance our businesses, eventually we’ll have to tackle knowledge management as well. This is a key tool in transferring “know how” to our employees and can help establish thought leadership for ourselves.

Finding mentors is also a sale of sorts because you’re trying to sell the other individual on the benefits of having a mentee hanging around. Don’t go straight for the jugular with your ask. Take some time out to overcome “know, like, and trust” and keep things informal.

Being talented at too many things isn’t a good excuse for not starting anything in particular. What’s the central thesis of yours? Money? Artistic fulfillment? Start with each idea within a given time frame and then see what meets the goal. Being multi talented is good. Being crippled by inaction isn’t.

This is a partner spotlight for individuals and business who have an aim of raising the level of professionalism in the Wedding Industry. Today we celebrate Seyi of Love Weddings NG and wedding vendor 101.

Getting into business by raising finances is a viable option and not everyone has to bootstrap to be in business. Sales skills will be essential to raising finance because you need “qualification” and “discovery” skills when speaking with potential financiers. These will help in drilling down to what their expectations are regarding the money. After that you need to have a “heart to heart” with yourself to see if you can meet those expectations. Needless to say, you’ll also need sales skills to meet your obligations because you’ll have to find the clients to pay that money back.

Market validation is essential to figure out if you have a workable and marketable idea. You won’t find that out until you engage in a deliberate process of trying to sell and to bring your unique ideas to the wider market.