Selling can be an uphill task, especially when you’re trying to do it in a new space or with limited background information. At Connect Nigeria, we recognise the challenges that SMEs face here. On Friday, June 20, we hosted a webinar to address the most pressing sales question: What Makes People Buy? Nigerian entrepreneurs participated in this event. Our guest was Paul Foh, CEO of Sales Factory, and a member of the globally renowned Forbes Coaches Council.
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Foh, who Queen Edokpa interviewed, shared interesting insights about succeeding at the sales end of an emerging business. In this article, we curate some of the best answers he provided at the webinar about what makes people buy.
How Can I Find Leads?
Paul Foh says that lead generation is a game of numbers. The more potential leads a seller connects with, the better the seller’s chances are of achieving a conversion.
In light of this fact, Foh advises that entrepreneurs and businesses hunt for leads every day. In practice, this would mean reaching out to multiple eligible people or organisations daily. It could be done through cold email, phone calls, LinkedIn DMs, or physical networking events.
For Foh, the best approach to take depends on the specific audience that’s being targeted. He advises that sellers define and understand their target audience, and then learn how or where they can be found. Doing this preliminary work saves costs, increases lead generation, and drives up return on ad or marketing spend.
But, as far as Foh is concerned, none of these things will matter unless salespeople fully embrace the process of selling. His mantra here is “immerse yourself in the process; detach yourself from the outcome.” In his view, a fixation on the intricacies of selling over and above outcomes enables businesses to improve the very thing that brings in customers and generates revenues. And that makes for better outcomes anyway.
How Do I Start Selling with Little or No Money?
You need money to sell successfully. That’s what many people think.
They’re probably right. But it doesn’t have to be your money. According to Paul Foh, there are a number of ways to begin selling with little or no money. One of them would be to partner with established brands or better-known persons.
Foh recognises that a lot of business owners shy away from partnerships with larger entities or popular figures because they fear that their proposals will be rejected. However, he insists that business owners accept such rejections as part of the journey.
“The worst answer you can get is a ‘no’”, Foh says. On this, he quotes the poet Rumi: “When you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
Furthermore, he suggests that SMEs explore low-cost ways to promote products and services. Examples would include user-generated content, email marketing, and micro-influencers (who charge less than large social media accounts).
There’s the option of raising money via a side hustle, too. Depending on the costs to be covered, a small time endeavour that brings in extra cash could be a good idea.
How Likely am I to Succeed at Selling?
A mistake that businesses often make is assuming that their efforts are totally independent of the market realities. This is clear in the frequent failure to set a realistic benchmark for sales.
Foh notes that, for the sales industry in Nigeria, the average conversion rate is 10%. He also clarifies that “conversion” here actually means “securing a meeting” with a prospect. Simply put, if you reached out to 100 people with a decent proposition, perhaps about 10 of them will want to explore it further.
This is why his admonition to reach as many potential leads as possible makes sense. If you only have a 1 out of 10 chance of hitting a target with a dart, you’ll want that target to be as large as possible.
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To improve your chances of raking in more sales, Foh suggests doing the following:
- Focus on what you can control: This implies taking control of selling by reaching out, rather than waiting for clients to come to you. It also requires leaning into your strengths, concerning both technical and soft skills (Foh identifies his scientific approach to sales and his energetic nature as his assets)
- Attract with valuable information: Give your targets value upfront. It’s an attractor because value is what they seek. Usually, this comes down to sharing content that engages their pain point. If you give a bit of value to them for free at the start, they’ll be hooked. Then you can offer them more, for a price.
- Provide context-based value: In the end, your offering is only valuable if it’s presented in the right context. It has to align with your ideal clients’ financial, emotional, cultural, and demographic realities, and speak to their hopes and aspirations.
Why am I Failing to Make Sales?
This question is specific, and a truly helpful answer will have to address the unique challenges faced by the people who ask it.
Nevertheless, Paul Foh notes that the most frequent reason for businesses and salespeople failing to sell is that their target audience doesn’t know them. In his words, “you’re not selling because nobody knows you.”
Solving the problem of limited sales is, therefore, often a matter of building recognition and gaining trust. You do the first by reaching as many suitable prospects as possible with actual value. And you achieve the second by doing the first with honesty and integrity.
This may take time. Sales successes scored “overnight” are the exception, not the rule. Foh encourages businesses to put in the work as a prerequisite for enjoying a sales boom.
How Can I Stand Out in a Competitive Niche?
One good thing about the internet is that it levels the playing field for many businesses. But this comes with a downside: competitive advantages are now tougher to create or maintain.
Standing out in an increasingly crowded digital space can be difficult. It’s made even more challenging by the competing signals coming out of this crowd. Consumers are bombarded with content at every moment, so getting through to them is a hard task.
But even in this climate, excelling at selling is still possible—and we’ve seen numerous examples of this.
Paul Foh’s recommended course of action for standing out in today’s sales space begins with defining your unique value proposition. This would be what differentiates your offering from its competitors. The differentiating factor needs to matter to potential leads.
Another step would be to tell your own story. If you have a rough background or have braved the odds to get where you are, you can make it a part of your messaging. Your brand storytelling could appeal to people in ways that regular marketing or sales content won’t. That’s because everyone loves a good story.
In addition to the tips above, Foh says that businesses should share insights liberally. They can do this on their social media pages, in their newsletters, on blogs, and in any other medium where their prospects may be found. What this does is establish them as an authority in their domain, while also drawing in and keeping the people to whom they’ll be selling.
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How Do I Get Better at Selling?
Paul Foh’s answers to this question are pretty straightforward:
- Read Books: He credits the books he’s read (and continues to read) with supplying ideas and ways of thinking that have enabled him to thrive at selling.
- Watch YouTube Videos: YouTube has a lot of useful information about selling, from professionals who have proven themselves. Quite often, those professionals run channels on which they share insights themselves. You can find Paul Foh’s channel HERE.
- Take Courses: Take sales courses on Coursera or LinkedIn. But if you’re not sure where to start, you can get Paul Foh’s sales webinars (along with his books) HERE.
- Learn by Doing: Certain things can only be learned by experience. This is as true for sales as it is for many other aspects of business, and of life in general.
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