Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The MakNisy Effect: How Every Team Member Drives Success
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the show. Today I would like to share some
- 0:05of the stuff that I discussed with a team that I did some work
- 0:09with on the 1st of October. Now that was an A public holiday
- 0:15over here at Nigeria Independence Day, celebrating
- 0:18Nigeria's Independence Day. And it was a little bit of a
- 0:22team bonding like work retreat for a client of mine who is in
- 0:30the fashion space. My company makes bags, custom
- 0:37made leather bags. And so this is part of a session
- 0:41that we shared with our employees of the day.
- 0:46Now this was a full house kind of thing.
- 0:49So it was, I mean everyone, people from design and
- 0:51production, people from quality control, people from customer
- 0:54service, people from client relations.
- 0:56And it was really nice to have the whole family together
- 1:00because apart from discussing how everyone works together, you
- 1:05know, teamwork, how everybody's work affects the business as a
- 1:07whole, which is what I wanted to discuss, which was what I was
- 1:10brought in to discuss. Rather, I wanted to see how we
- 1:13could use that session as well, sort of like as a family meeting
- 1:16to tease out troublesome things that usually affect front of the
- 1:23front end people. That's customer facing people
- 1:25and then the back end facing people from a sales and business
- 1:30development perspective. Just to tease out these problems
- 1:33in like a family meeting atmosphere so that we can get
- 1:37the business chugging, chugging together as a whole.
- 1:41Because even though what I was brought in to do was a
- 1:44straightforward, you know, talk about how how everybody's work,
- 1:48how everybody's station affects the business as a whole, I'm
- 1:50still not comfortable. Maybe it's that part of me that
- 1:54is, is much more concerned about results.
- 1:57Because I think if I come in and I just give a speech and then I
- 1:59leave, then I mean, that's easy, you know, show up, collect your
- 2:03money, give a speech and then leave.
- 2:05But I don't think that's the most effective way to carry on
- 2:10with this business. So I always try to make sure
- 2:14that we make some demonstrable progress.
- 2:19I'm always striving for behaviour change.
- 2:21I want to be sure that by the time I'm done with the session
- 2:23that there are one or two, three or four things that you can
- 2:26point to for this person to do, that person to do immediately
- 2:29after. And that is going to have a
- 2:32demonstrable impact on the business going forward.
- 2:36So I was, I shared the stage with a, another speaker was a
- 2:42radiologist who was talking about health, yes, health,
- 2:47Occupational Safety, general health, you know, those sorts of
- 2:50things. And yeah, so it was also a good
- 2:52thing for me to be there because I got to learn a bit about
- 2:58human. What's it called?
- 3:01Endocrinology. You know how your, what are they
- 3:05called again, not enzymes, I can't remember these things.
- 3:10What are they called? There are these specialised
- 3:12chemicals in the body that helps you to trigger stress responses,
- 3:18trigger emotional connections and all kinds of things.
- 3:21So you know the thing responsible for creating
- 3:24cortisol, that's the stress response in your system.
- 3:27That is what makes you nervous and all that.
- 3:29Then adrenaline, which is the fight and flight response.
- 3:33So, you know, when you're quarreling with a client and the
- 3:36client is raising their voice and you're raising your own
- 3:39voice and you feel like slapping the client, you know, that's the
- 3:41adrenaline in you. Then what else?
- 3:45So just learning about all those different things, how they
- 3:47affect the body, how we can take care of ourselves to make sure
- 3:50that we lower our stress responses, live healthy, eat
- 3:53healthy and all those sorts of things.
- 3:56So if you have the opportunity to attend one of these sessions,
- 4:00please do It's good. It's eye opening.
- 4:03And for those of us who are married, especially for those
- 4:06who are kind of on the bigger end of things, you know, your
- 4:09spouse definitely wants you to be alive for a bit longer.
- 4:12So attend these things, learn and then put them in practice.
- 4:16And one more thing, something I've said in the past over here
- 4:19on the podcast that I'm going to say again, if you are an
- 4:23employee and you work for this kind of organization, please
- 4:26know that really the organization that you're working
- 4:29for is one in 1000. I'm speaking in the Nigerian
- 4:32context because in the Nigerian context, most business owners
- 4:35don't give a hoot about don't give a hoot about you.
- 4:40So the owners look at Pedro salary getting produced.
- 4:43This is the these are the KPIs, these are the milestones.
- 4:47These are the these are the things you have to hit.
- 4:49So hit it or leave. But then this business owner
- 4:54called me in and this other speaker for retreat for the
- 4:57whole team. And apart from talking about
- 4:59help and sorry about health and talking about production, this
- 5:02business owner also has registered under what are they
- 5:07called is the HMO and you know, stuff like that.
- 5:09Basically all this thing about insurance.
- 5:11So these people have health insurance, they can go treat
- 5:14themselves for free on the company's dime.
- 5:18And this business owner also has, let's see what else you can
- 5:24treat yourself for free. You can go for annual check up.
- 5:28What else? I can't remember well any I
- 5:32might might as well just come out and say the business owner's
- 5:35name. So or rather the business name
- 5:37because I noticed that the business is popular at least in
- 5:39Abuja, but the owner doesn't necessarily put herself out
- 5:44front. So the name of the company is
- 5:47Mac Niecy and they make exquisite leather bags so.
- 5:55Where was I? Now what I was trying to say is
- 5:57this, if you work for a company like Magnesi, just know that
- 5:59it's like one in 1000, maybe even one in a million.
- 6:02Most business owners in Nigeria don't give a hoot about you.
- 6:05So especially a business of this scale, I mean by the time a
- 6:08business becomes. Really big, maybe like Zenith
- 6:10Bank or something. It is statutory.
- 6:12Required that they have to, you know, do health insurance things
- 6:15for you and then stuff like that.
- 6:17But you don't have a lot of SMEs who are going through the
- 6:20trouble of making sure that people are trained on the job
- 6:22and that people have health insurance and that people do
- 6:25annual checkup and the business bears the cost for all these
- 6:27sorts of things. So if you work for this kind of
- 6:29organization that is calling me in once in a while to handle
- 6:33trainings for you guys, you better take these things
- 6:36seriously and make the most of your time while you are at this
- 6:39company. Because once you leave this
- 6:40company and you go out to another company, you will find
- 6:43that most Nigerian business owners don't give a hoot.
- 6:46So enjoy while you are where you are, while you are there,
- 6:51especially if the business owner, if it's a small and
- 6:56medium scale business, also goes the extra mile of making sure
- 7:00that your health benefits are on point.
- 7:03You know, whether it's you injure yourself or malaria, you
- 7:06do annual check all these sorts of things.
- 7:08In fact, the business owner, at the end of the day, she
- 7:11recommended that with all the things that we had spoken about
- 7:14so far, that people should go take advantage of these things,
- 7:17go talk to the doctors and actually go.
- 7:20Have these conversations and test for these sorts of things
- 7:22precisely to make sure that your stress response is not, you
- 7:26know, blowing off the charts and all these sorts of things.
- 7:29So anyway, let's head straight into it.
- 7:32I've already wasted too much time on the introduction.
- 7:36So OK, like I said, I was brought in to talk about how
- 7:39everybody's work affects the business, and we're looking at
- 7:42things from a sales and business development perspective now.
- 7:44Mark Nisi who produced leather bags and so on, like most
- 7:48businesses because like when I was a wedding photographer, you
- 7:51know, there's me, I outsource the, I used to outsource the
- 7:55back end stuff. I didn't, I didn't make the
- 7:57books myself, although I know some photographers back in
- 7:59Lagos. Anyway, we used to do that, you
- 8:01know, shoot the wedding, print the stuff, design the book,
- 8:06create the book so that some businesses that do everything in
- 8:09house, I prefer to outsource. Magnisi does everything in
- 8:12house. So design and production of the
- 8:14handbags done in house. So if you visit the store in
- 8:20Woosetu, OK, I can't remember the address but I know it's in,
- 8:25it's in Woosetuja. If you just check Macnisy on
- 8:30Instagram that is MAKNISY, then you will get all the details of
- 8:38them. That's for you ladies listening
- 8:39to the show and who happened to be in Abuja in Abuja and you're
- 8:42looking for looking for wonderful nice leather bags.
- 8:48So go check them out. So for Magnesia, everything is
- 8:50done in house. So they have design and
- 8:52production teams, then they have a quality control team, then
- 8:56they also have other functions that I just lumped together as
- 8:59customer service and client relations.
- 9:02So this is not how they break down their org chart, but for
- 9:05the purposes of the talk, that is how I that is how I decided
- 9:10to break it down. Oh, and by the way, they
- 9:12celebrated 13 years this year, 13 years of being in business.
- 9:16And that was part of what the whole thing was about.
- 9:18You know, we've done 13 years. Let's make sure everybody is
- 9:22working together. Realize you're important,
- 9:24realize you're a team. Let's take care of ourself and
- 9:26let's see how we can plan for another 13 years.
- 9:29So that was the whole point of the company retreat.
- 9:32So for design, production and quality control, basically my
- 9:36spiel to them was this. Oh, OK.
- 9:38Well, before I went into that, I tried to get them to understand
- 9:41one thing. Because those of you who are
- 9:43employees of a company, you guys haven't quite realized this.
- 9:48You guys show up, you take a paycheck, and then you leave.
- 9:51But then you guys don't quite realize that the only way the
- 9:54business is going to grow or the only way your salary is going to
- 9:57increase is if you're able to achieve a couple of things #1
- 10:03you guys have to be able to get somebody to come into the door
- 10:06and buy. That's the first thing somebody
- 10:09comes in and buys. If people are not coming in and
- 10:12buying, your salary is going to remain flat.
- 10:15In fact, over time you might lose your job.
- 10:18So it is important that from a company wise perspective,
- 10:22everybody, even those of you who work in accounting, you need to
- 10:25understand that if people are not coming in and buying, your
- 10:29salary will mean stagnant and your salary might disappear over
- 10:34time because there's no how the business owner is going to keep
- 10:37on funding the business from their savings or from their
- 10:40investments or whatever. So number one is everybody's
- 10:44responsibility, especially when you're an SME, to make sure that
- 10:46number one, people come in through the door #2 we also want
- 10:50to make sure that people come back to buy again.
- 10:54If somebody buys a bag in January, but then the person
- 10:56never comes back, and that's a problem.
- 10:59We want to make sure that somebody comes and buys a bag in
- 11:01January. Maybe the person comes again in
- 11:03November or December and hopefully next year, March,
- 11:07maybe the person will come and bring a best friend, a family
- 11:10member and associate or, you know, whatever.
- 11:13So that's number two. Number one, get somebody through
- 11:15through the door #2 get the person to come back #3 we also
- 11:20want to increase the amount of money that the person spends
- 11:23each time that they come. So if someone comes in January.
- 11:26And they buy a bag for. 60K or 70K, hopefully if the person
- 11:33comes back in November, they buy the same hopefully by next year.
- 11:36But want to see how we can increase the average order value
- 11:40because if people are buying bags from us, buying it
- 11:42repeatedly and increasing the amount.
- 11:44So let's say in 2023, on average they were spending maybe 60 KA
- 11:48bag, excuse me? And then maybe by 2025 or 2027,
- 11:53they're now spending 120 KA bag. I mean, you can now see how our
- 11:58salaries start going up. It's because we've done a good
- 12:01job of getting a client, getting the client to come back and then
- 12:05increasing the amount of money that the client spends over
- 12:08time. Then the third level that we can
- 12:11pull is for them to come, OK, I've already mentioned that.
- 12:13Come with their friends, their family members and associates.
- 12:16So that was something that I was keen on pressing to the young
- 12:19boys and girls over there because it was a young workforce
- 12:22to realize that everybody's important.
- 12:24And the reason why everybody's important is because everybody's
- 12:27work within the organization effects these dynamics.
- 12:31The way that you guys behave yourself in design and
- 12:34production or in quality control or in customer service and
- 12:37client relations, that is what determines whether somebody
- 12:40comes and buys in the 1st place or whether they come back or
- 12:45whether they increase the amount of money that they spend with
- 12:47you or whether they bring their friends and their family members
- 12:50to come and buy again. So that was the angle that I was
- 12:53looking at this thing during the company retreat, or let me just
- 12:56say the family retreat. So from a sales and business
- 12:59development perspective, that is the cap that we need to put on.
- 13:02We're trying to make sure that every single thing that we do,
- 13:05whether you're in design or in accounting or customer service
- 13:08or client relations, we're trying to see, can we get people
- 13:11coming to the door? Can we get them to come back?
- 13:14Can we get them to increase the amount of money that they spend?
- 13:17Can we make sure that they remain customers with us for a
- 13:19long length of time? Because it doesn't profit with
- 13:22you. If you get a customer and the
- 13:24person buys from you only once. The main profit is if the person
- 13:27comes and buys from you and maybe it's a 1015 year
- 13:29relationship. That's where the big money comes
- 13:31in Also because the longer a person spends with you and the
- 13:35more that they spend, the less time and money you have to spend
- 13:39chasing other people to come and buy with you.
- 13:41And this dynamic is the same even if you sell poultry, you
- 13:45sell eggs. It's not about somebody comes
- 13:47and then buys a batch of 200 chickens one time.
- 13:50The real profit is somebody comes, buys a batch of 200
- 13:53chickens. Now maybe the person comes back
- 13:56in December, buys another batch of 200 chickens, and then maybe
- 13:59next year they come again, but this time the order is not 200
- 14:03chickens, but maybe 600, maybe 200 chickens and then 1200 eggs
- 14:10or something. Then if you also maintain a
- 14:13relationship with this person that last two decades, then that
- 14:16is where the money is because this is steady, repeatable,
- 14:21bankable income that you can plan on.
- 14:23You know that, Madam. So, so, so or chief, so, so, so
- 14:27the person comes every two months, every three months.
- 14:29This is how much they spend. This is where business growth
- 14:32occurs. So that's the first thing I try
- 14:34to get the team to understand that we've done good the 1st 13
- 14:40years. The next 13 years is only going
- 14:42to rock and salaries are going to increase, benefits are going
- 14:45to increase. Only if we get people in, we get
- 14:49them to come back. They come back for a long time,
- 14:52they increase the average spend each time and then they bring
- 14:55their friends, Marbley and the friends, family members and
- 14:57associates. So for the design and the
- 15:00production and quality control people, this was the scope.
- 15:03I was giving them that look. This thing is handbag.
- 15:07Visual appeal is the main thing, visual appeal and then also
- 15:11integrity in the manufacturing process.
- 15:14Because if the thing looks good but anything falls apart later,
- 15:17forget it. People are not going to come.
- 15:19Back and buy. And then I also told the team
- 15:21that there's this thing that is universal.
- 15:23Some people think it's a Nigerian thing, but it's not.
- 15:26It is universal. I've seen it in the UK.
- 15:30Well anyway, let me just leave it at that.
- 15:32The only place apart from Nigeria that I've lived and
- 15:33worked in is in the UK. But this thing is universal.
- 15:36So I'm sure it's the same in Saudi Arabia or Australia or in
- 15:43the North Pole. If you do a correct job, if you
- 15:47do a bang up job, people will be happy.
- 15:49But The thing is they don't tell too many people.
- 15:51So someone is happy, they tell one or two people, but the day
- 15:54you mess up they would tell a shit load of people, excuse my
- 15:58French. So it's a very funny dynamic.
- 16:01It's worse in some places than the others.
- 16:02Like in the UK it's pretty bad. I think with the stats that came
- 16:05out in the UK is that, you know, for one good experience you tell
- 16:082, but therefore bad experience you tell 11 or something like
- 16:11that. I can't remember the stats, but
- 16:12the UK is really, really bad. So I don't know if Nigeria is
- 16:15that bad. Of course, you know, we don't
- 16:16have statistics on anything in this country, but it's a
- 16:19universal dynamic. So if you do a good job, yeah,
- 16:22you tell one or two, two people. But if you do a bad job, you
- 16:25tell a whole host of people. And the fact I remember seeing
- 16:29this thing in effect once where we went somewhere to eat.
- 16:31I can't remember where the place was, but it wasn't a good
- 16:34experience. And my wife is a member of this
- 16:38group, you know, having our work friends.
- 16:40I have a filthy Friday group. You know, back when the going
- 16:42was good, they used to go out and flex every Friday.
- 16:45But you know, now with how the economy is, you know, Filthy
- 16:47Friday is not necessarily an every Friday thing.
- 16:51So they were talking about going to this place and my wife was
- 16:53like, no, that the place is rubbish.
- 16:55Is this is this is that, that, that, that, that, that, that.
- 16:57And I was just watching, listening and then watching.
- 17:00I was like, oh, OK, so this is his dynamic in effect.
- 17:03We go, we have a terrible experience.
- 17:05And then she's now talking on the Filthy Friday group and
- 17:07there are a bunch of people here, you know, maybe like on
- 17:10that 20, I said, OK, so this is how this thing, this is how bad
- 17:13news spreads. And then we went to somebody
- 17:16else's house. We're just chilling.
- 17:17She was thinking about how she wants to take her children here.
- 17:19And my wife is like, no, no, no, no, don't do this, Don't do
- 17:21this. It was this, it was this, it was
- 17:23that. And in my head I'm making a note
- 17:25like, oh, OK, so this is how it actually works.
- 17:28So it's not a matter of malice. It's just that you go somewhere,
- 17:31you spend your hard earned money, you expect to have a good
- 17:33time. And so if your friend is going
- 17:35to that place and is also going to spend some cheddar there, you
- 17:38don't want her to waste her time.
- 17:39So you tell her that, look, don't bother.
- 17:41Don't take your children there. I went there with my children.
- 17:43It was rubbish. Try someplace else.
- 17:46So that's the dynamic, that's how it works.
- 17:48So for those of you working in Magneti or working in any form
- 17:53of, in any kind of design capacity, design, production,
- 17:56quality control, very important because of visual appeal, how
- 18:00does it look? And then integrity in the
- 18:02manufacturing process. If it doesn't look good or feel
- 18:04good, somebody will not buy. If it looks good or it feels
- 18:08good but then the thing breaks down quickly, somebody's not
- 18:10going to come back again. And the problem is.
- 18:14She. Might tell 5 or 6 people, I
- 18:17don't know by the time we have the statistics in Nigeria, I'll
- 18:20let you know that's if we start researching these sorts of
- 18:22things. But definitely she's not going
- 18:24to keep it to herself. So design, production, quality
- 18:29control, that is the reason why what you do is important.
- 18:32So it's not just for those of you who work in Magneti, this
- 18:36is, you know, whatever business you work in, whether it's shoes
- 18:39you guys design or it's, I don't know, OK, Like those notebooks,
- 18:46Ankara notebooks, you make the notebook and then with Ankara,
- 18:49excuse me, Ankara design on top for leather design or whatever
- 18:52it is. This is the reason why what it
- 18:54is that you do is important. So with that, I didn't go into
- 19:01user experience principles and customer experience principles
- 19:05for custom goods like leather handbags in their own case
- 19:11because it was a youngish crowd and we had already spent a lot
- 19:15of time, You know, there were two speakers.
- 19:16So I need to make sure that we kept everything under one hour.
- 19:19And then plus, I was trying to instigate some quarrel at the
- 19:22end of the session because there are some things I had discovered
- 19:25about the team, you know, some issues with handoff and things
- 19:28like that, that I thought was really important for this thing
- 19:31to be said in the open. So that as a family we would
- 19:35start discussing and saying, OK, look, for this particular
- 19:37problem, we solve it this way. For this one, we solve it that
- 19:39way. We need to put this policy in
- 19:41place. We need to put that policy in
- 19:42place because remember I said, for me, it's not important that
- 19:46I show up, take money and then leave.
- 19:48So there's some people who do that.
- 19:49They just do purely training, show up, take the money and
- 19:52leave. But I'm much more interested in
- 19:53behaviour change. So I didn't want to talk too
- 19:56much because I need to instigate quarrel at the end.
- 19:58So that some of the things I had discovered this person is
- 20:01quarreling with this person. I wanted the person to come and
- 20:03say it out. Well, two people in particular
- 20:05who had some issues. And I'm glad that I was able to
- 20:08ferment the quarrel and the thing was said in in public and
- 20:11were able to come up with, well, not come up with because.
- 20:16Apparently. Magneti already has those
- 20:18policies in place and standard operating procedures and things
- 20:21like that. So we're able to reiterate the
- 20:24company policy about making sure that these problems in
- 20:27communication and hand off don't happen again, so that the
- 20:31customer receives a wonderful user experience or customer
- 20:34experience. However it is that you call it.
- 20:37But the principles that are involved in user experience and
- 20:42customer experience for custom goods.
- 20:44For those of you who make custom handbags.
- 20:46In case any member of Magnusi staff is listening to this
- 20:48episode, First off, there's a thing of you need to understand
- 20:51your customer needs, understand their needs, understand their
- 20:53preferences, understand their pain points.
- 20:55Then because that informs how it is that we make bags, how we
- 21:00design bags, you know, things like that.
- 21:03So if because I noticed that Magnusi bags, some of them, the
- 21:08ones that I've seen have like these chain like chain, what's
- 21:13it called? Sorry, I don't know much about
- 21:17bags, but OK for handbags, ladies handbags, there's a way
- 21:22that you have a small should I call it a handle or something?
- 21:25That's one of them that have the golden chain handles.
- 21:28So if you happen to be in a part of the world, like I don't know,
- 21:33let me guess. OK, let me say Bangladesh, OK,
- 21:35Because in Bangladesh they have monsoon scenes and it rains a
- 21:37lot. So this is my guess.
- 21:39I do not know about these sorts of things.
- 21:41So this is me guessing. So please nobody take me to task
- 21:44on this. So in a place like Bangladesh
- 21:46for instance, where there's high moisture content, maybe there's
- 21:49lots of sweating and then things like that, maybe it might not
- 21:51make sense to have 100% leather or 100% chain as they handle
- 21:56because maybe the women that are carrying it will sweat and then
- 21:59the gold will corrode and maybe the leather will start to break
- 22:03down. So it is by understanding your
- 22:06customers needs, their preferences and their pin points
- 22:08that will now affect the kind of bags that you sell.
- 22:11So that things that you do on your handbags in Nigeria and
- 22:14it's OK. Perhaps if you enter into the
- 22:17Ghana market or the Bangladesh market or the Morocco market,
- 22:21you might have to do things different.
- 22:24So. These are sorts of things that
- 22:26we. Should be paying attention to.
- 22:27So this, These are ways of involving customers in the
- 22:29design process by getting feedback from people, asking
- 22:33them questions, call people up. Yes, surveys.
- 22:37I know Nigerians would like to send surveys because it's easy.
- 22:39Any small thing, you just send an e-mail.
- 22:41But I really prefer pick up the phone, go to somebody's office,
- 22:44see the person face to face, be on a WhatsApp call.
- 22:46I think that's the best way to get feedback.
- 22:48Then let's see what else. OK, attention to detail.
- 22:52We need to make sure that attention to craftsmanship is on
- 22:54point, finishing is on point, durability on point.
- 22:58It's only when we sort these things out that people will buy
- 23:01the first time that people will come back again and bring their
- 23:04friends and family members and associates.
- 23:06And then another thing I pointed out to the design, production
- 23:08and quality to control people is that sales is hard.
- 23:12So those people who have the job of actually standing in front of
- 23:14a woman and trying to get her to park with her hard end money,
- 23:19it's hard to do if deep down you know that the bags are crap.
- 23:23And in this case, it's not crap. The bags are real high quality.
- 23:26I don't know that because I'm a specialist in these sorts of
- 23:29things, but I know it because when I'm in the store, I see the
- 23:32kind of reactions that people have.
- 23:34I mean, I gave an example on the podcast about how last year
- 23:37while I was there discussing with the owner of Magneti for a
- 23:41training program. Well, that one didn't, that one
- 23:43didn't pull through how somebody came in and the person compared
- 23:46it to a one of these fancy Italian bags.
- 23:49I can't remember what was called.
- 23:51And the last time I was in the store talking to the store
- 23:53manager because I was trying to get a sense of, you know, how
- 23:55they flow with customers, when are there any problems with the
- 23:58team, things like that. And somebody came in with two
- 24:02friends and they were negotiating about picking up a
- 24:06couple of bags. There was a deal going on.
- 24:09They're trying to take advantage of the deal.
- 24:10And these people were pricing 11 bags or 12 bags or something.
- 24:15And in my head, I did the math, OK, one bag is worth this.
- 24:18And I'm like, ha, now, wow. So people actually spend, you
- 24:21know, 1M above like on bags like hours trip from the things that
- 24:27they were saying that look, I have this bag, this bag is this,
- 24:29this bag is that, but your own. The stitching is this, this is
- 24:32that. And so that's how I get, I get a
- 24:36sense of the quality of the magnesium bags, not because see,
- 24:39to be honest, I know nothing about leather.
- 24:41So if you bring leather that is made from chicken legs or
- 24:43leather that is made from pig bum bum or leather that is made
- 24:45from cow skin, you know, I don't know the difference.
- 24:48So it's just whenever I'm in the store, because before I come up
- 24:53with any training program, it has to be tailor made.
- 24:55We have to sit down, we have to talk.
- 24:57So while I'm in the store, I see the way people are interacting,
- 25:01the kind of things people are saying.
- 25:02And then that's how I know that Magneti bags are good quality.
- 25:06So I told the design and production people that look, if
- 25:09something is crap and me as a salesperson, I know that this
- 25:12thing is crap, it will be hard for me to sell it.
- 25:14That's just human nature. It is only fraudsters that can
- 25:17sell crap. So design production, quality
- 25:21control people. Your job is really important if
- 25:24you work for a business and that is your job, designing a bag,
- 25:27designing a car, designing a Biro, designing a computer,
- 25:31designing a bathroom, slippers, designing a whatever, what you
- 25:35do is important. Design people, production
- 25:37people, quality control, because if you mess up, nobody will buy,
- 25:42they won't come back, there'll be no relationship, they won't
- 25:45increase the amount of money that they spend.
- 25:47Then for the customer facing people, customer service and the
- 25:50client relations people, the main thing we have to pay
- 25:54attention to is we need to be sure people are happy with the
- 25:56product and the quality of service.
- 25:58That is what gives us repeat business and referrals.
- 26:01If people are happy and we tease it out that they're happy, that
- 26:04is how we can get them to come back again and ask for
- 26:07referrals. So we also spoke a bit about
- 26:11running a customer service process, especially when things
- 26:14are going bad, because to be honest, when things are going
- 26:17good, you know that one is not hard.
- 26:19Anybody who is nice and cheerful can handle things when things
- 26:21are going good. But when somebody calls up to
- 26:24say, look, I will not take this thing from you.
- 26:27I paid you people three weeks ago, where is my delivery?
- 26:30Why is this thing late? The pictures look like rubbish.
- 26:33The of the 5000 eggs that you sent me, 120 of them were
- 26:37rotten. You know, all these sorts of
- 26:39things. Then people call and they're
- 26:41angry and they're threatening police and they're threatening
- 26:43EFCC. That's for those of us who have
- 26:45been threatened before, because I have been a threatened fellow
- 26:49said who will call police? And at the time, look, guy, calm
- 26:51down. I studied law.
- 26:52How much do you pay the lawyer? How much do you pay the police?
- 26:55How much did you even pay me for wedding photography?
- 26:57Just calm down. Let's solve this thing out like
- 26:59men. So what's up?
- 27:00What's the problem? And then we're able to handle
- 27:02the conversation. So yeah, when somebody calls and
- 27:06everybody's angry and then they're shouting and name
- 27:08calling and everything, we need to know how to handle the
- 27:11customer service process when things go bad because then
- 27:14you're angry, you're not thinking straight.
- 27:16And some of you have been thinking, what the hell over how
- 27:18much if I just slap you and give you your money back like you're
- 27:21an idiot, get out of my shop. That kind of thing.
- 27:24So luckily Magnesia has done a good job.
- 27:28So the staff has already been trained, so they already knew.
- 27:31I asked them and they said it like it was the first of all,
- 27:34acknowledge empathy. Listen, so they've got that part
- 27:37locked down. The only thing I had to tweak
- 27:39was the factory manager said that they should admit when they
- 27:44are wrong. And you know when he said that,
- 27:47I noticed a couple of people squirming because let's face it,
- 27:50people don't like to admit when they're wrong.
- 27:52So the tweak that I put on it was this.
- 27:54You don't have to tell the customer like, oh Madam, I'm
- 27:57sorry I was wrong. But I told them what we have to
- 28:00do is to take responsibility for solving the problem.
- 28:03Taking responsibility for solving the problem does not
- 28:06mean you are wrong. So the person calls and Rakes.
- 28:10I paid last week. I expected the bag to be here by
- 28:13Monday. This is Tuesday morning.
- 28:15My bag is not here. So in that case, I told him that
- 28:18is what you do. I let the person vent.
- 28:21And then you now take responsibility for solving the
- 28:24problem. So, Oh, Madam, my name is Chair
- 28:27Maka. I'm terribly sorry that you've
- 28:28had this experience with Magnesie.
- 28:30This is not how we like to do business.
- 28:32I take full responsibility for making sure that we're going to
- 28:35solve this problem. So I need to ask you a couple of
- 28:38questions to try and figure out what's going wrong.
- 28:40If I can't solve this problem, I'm going to escalate it to my
- 28:43line manager, to my OGA, to my whatever.
- 28:45But I take responsibility for making sure we solve this thing.
- 28:48Is that OK? So that is the approach.
- 28:52So when handling customer service issues, you don't have
- 28:54to say it's my fault. Now you don't have to use that
- 28:57kind of language but it will be very nice especially in the
- 29:01Nigerian context to say I take full responsibility for solving
- 29:05this problem and I'll do my best to make sure that we solve it.
- 29:08The reason why is because in Nigeria, nobody takes
- 29:12responsibility for nothing. So the moment you say that,
- 29:16you've already set yourself apart from the competition
- 29:19because it doesn't matter what business you do, whether it's
- 29:21catfish leather, handbags or I don't know you're tailor or
- 29:29whatever. No Nigerian business person says
- 29:32I take responsibility for solving the problem and I'm
- 29:34going to continue on to make sure that this thing is solved.
- 29:38So say I take responsibility, it doesn't mean you're wrong.
- 29:41It doesn't mean you're taking responsibility because sometimes
- 29:43the problem actually comes from the client.
- 29:46The client says they're going to pay on Monday.
- 29:48They should have paid Monday or they forgot, or maybe they
- 29:50actually paid Friday, but in their mind, they paid Monday and
- 29:53so they call and they're raking because they think they paid 5
- 29:57days ago but actually was just yesterday that they paid.
- 29:59You know, these things happen, but you're not going to get
- 30:02anywhere by making the customer look like an idiot.
- 30:06So allow them to vent, calm down and take responsibility and take
- 30:10responsibility to make sure that we solve this problem.
- 30:12And he'll ask you a bunch of questions if I'm asking
- 30:14questions like that. OK, When did you pay?
- 30:16What is the order number that the thing will now come under?
- 30:19Oh, OK, sorry, man. Actually, yes, you did have that
- 30:22conversation with us on Monday. But actually the payment only
- 30:25came in on Friday, you know, blah, blah, blah.
- 30:28She has spoken. Things are now a little bit
- 30:30calmer. You know, you can tie things
- 30:34over a lot easier that way. So you don't have to say I'm I
- 30:37was at fault, but take responsibility to solve the
- 30:39problem. Then like I've mentioned, you
- 30:41also asked for permission because you can't solve the
- 30:44problem until you know what the whole thing is.
- 30:47So in this case, for someone like Magnisi, they're doing.
- 30:53Dozens of bags a week, you know, hundreds of bags in a month.
- 30:56Sorry, Excuse me. Sorry.
- 30:59Yeah, I'm recovering from my throat stuff, but still not 100%
- 31:03gone. OK, what was I?
- 31:06So you won't have to ask a bunch of questions.
- 31:08Order number, proof of payment. Who did you talk to at the front
- 31:12desk? What day was this?
- 31:15Was there any problem with the bag?
- 31:20You know you need to ask all the questions because it's when you
- 31:23get all the information that you now know how to solve the
- 31:25problem. What solutions to proffer or
- 31:27whether to escalate it to Auger or Madam MD, Then let's see what
- 31:34else. And that was just a pretty much
- 31:37what I wanted them to understand when they came to that.
- 31:41And then we also discussed, OK, we did not discuss how to get
- 31:44repeat business and referrals. No, we didn't discuss that.
- 31:47But for those of you listening now, basically you need to make
- 31:49sure that people are happy. If they're happy, they need to
- 31:52ask for the referral. So who else do you know that
- 31:54XYZ? So it depends on the customer.
- 31:57So if the person came to come and buy, in this case, let's say
- 32:00Magnisi, let's say it's a wedding and they're doing Usher
- 32:04IB, they're all dressing together.
- 32:07Also, in one moment, I have to attend to someone at the door.
- 32:09I'll be right back. OK, Sorry about that.
- 32:15Yeah, someone was at the door, so I had to attend to that then.
- 32:19OK, so repeat business and referrals.
- 32:21So like I said, how you ask for the referral, it depends
- 32:24according to the context. So the example that I was going
- 32:27to give now is if some girls came in or some ladies rather
- 32:31sorry, forgive me if I accidentally say, you know, lady
- 32:34girls, you know, I'm not trying to demean the status of women,
- 32:38so please don't take offense. So some ladies come into the
- 32:41store, let's say it's a wedding and they're going to do what you
- 32:45call these things, clutch, clutch bag as part of the
- 32:47asurabi, part of the common dressing, part of the style for
- 32:51the day. And let's say they come in and
- 32:52they order 15. Let's say it's a big Brattle
- 32:56train 1520. After the wedding, call up,
- 33:03everybody's happy, the bags are OK, no problems, nothing
- 33:07damaged. So in this case, it will be who
- 33:10else do you know that XYZ? So who else do you know that is
- 33:14on the Brattle train or is looking for OK, How will I
- 33:18phrase it now? When you get the scope of what
- 33:20I'm trying to say, it will be who else do you know that also
- 33:23needs handbags for a bridal train or something?
- 33:27In this particular case, that would kind of be the question.
- 33:30And you'd be asking for emails or phone.
- 33:32OK, no, Well, some people ask for e-mail, but to be honest,
- 33:35for Misha, I still prefer phone number.
- 33:37If you can get your phone number, like that's the main
- 33:39thing, especially if it's the person's WhatsApp number so that
- 33:42you call, they don't answer. You can send a WhatsApp message,
- 33:45but whatever organization you work for, figure out their
- 33:48preferred channels. So you might work for a business
- 33:50who for them maybe for referrals what they want is a e-mail.
- 33:55So just figure out what the preferred channel is.
- 33:57But First off, call the person after you be sure everything is
- 34:02cool, there's no problem. Then the formula, the basic
- 34:05formula, the simplest formula, excuse me because there are
- 34:09other ways of asking for referrals, but asking for
- 34:12referral one O 1 is who else do you know that XYZ?
- 34:15It's that simple. So if you sell birthday cakes
- 34:20and somebody bought for birthday cake, asking for the referral is
- 34:24not who else do you know that need cake that is too broad.
- 34:27You make a little bit more more particular, Who else do you know
- 34:31or which else of your colleagues is celebrating a birthday this
- 34:35month that we need a birthday cake?
- 34:37I mean, the more particular that you can make it, the better.
- 34:40In fact, for some industries where you can do some research
- 34:42ahead of time and you notice particular people to ask in
- 34:45departments, you can even, and you notice that maybe on
- 34:48LinkedIn, you notice, OK, let's say what you do is you sell,
- 34:54there's some sort of consultant and you do trainings or
- 34:56something like in my own case. And you notice that this person
- 35:00is in the same WhatsApp, sorry, professional group as another
- 35:05person in HR or something. You can go straight up and ask
- 35:08her. Oh, OK, I notice that you are
- 35:10connected with, excuse me, that you're connected with Kelechi.
- 35:14Who handles HR for Zenith Bank? Can you give me Kelechi's
- 35:18number? I would like to talk to her
- 35:19about XYZ. So excuse me.
- 35:22So in this case, you can see that asking for the referral is,
- 35:26let's just say the more particular you can ask the
- 35:27referral, the better. So if you're a trainer, don't go
- 35:30and say, who else do you know that needs corporate training?
- 35:32It's too broad. The more narrower you can make
- 35:35it, the better. And so that's the reason why in
- 35:37this case, you will be, are you happy?
- 35:39There's no problem. The bag is not damaged.
- 35:42So who else do you know that XYZ has a basic formula?
- 35:45But of course, we can do podcast episodes where we discuss these
- 35:48things in more details. Well, anyway, this is 35
- 35:51minutes, so let me just bring this thing to a close.
- 35:53So these are the sorts of issues that we handled during the
- 35:59family meeting. And I just wanted people to
- 36:02realize that because some people think me, I work in the factory
- 36:07was my own is the people who walk in the shop.
- 36:09That's the main thing. It's all connected.
- 36:12You mess up in the factory, people in the shop have an
- 36:15issue. If you mess up in the shop,
- 36:18people at the factory have an issue.
- 36:20If you go and collect an order for what people in the factory
- 36:25cannot produce, it's a problem. So everybody's role is
- 36:29important. And these are the things that we
- 36:31do to move the business forward. And remember, if any of you does
- 36:36magnesium employees, any of you listening to this episode, this
- 36:39is how we grow the company for another 13 years.
- 36:42And to make sure that our health benefits go up, to make sure
- 36:45that our commissions go up, make sure that our salaries go up,
- 36:49because you see how the economy is, you know, any small thing,
- 36:53the price of fuel just just going up.
- 36:55Now in Abuja, where buying fuel for 1001 spoke to Mumsy in
- 37:00Makudi, they're already buying it for 1002 three.
- 37:02That means in Boko, that's Popsy's hometown, they're
- 37:05already buying it for like 1/5. And I'm sure in the village,
- 37:10that's The funny thing about all these things in the villa,
- 37:12they're probably buying it like 1-7.
- 37:14Isn't it funny how you know these things happen and it's
- 37:17really the poor people that suffer?
- 37:20So people in Lagos buying fuel, 1000, in Abuja buying it, 11,
- 37:24you enter Makudi is 1/2, You enter into the provincial towns,
- 37:29you know, it's like 1/5. I mean, the farther you get
- 37:31away, I mean the people up north, the real poor communities
- 37:34up north, I, if I don't even know how they're surviving
- 37:39anyway, where was I anyway? So that's how we make sure that
- 37:42our commissions go up, our salaries go up and things like
- 37:44that. Everybody is important in the
- 37:46business. We need to make sure that we do
- 37:48our thing so that people come in and buy.
- 37:50It's not just that they buy today, let them come and buy
- 37:52tomorrow, next tomorrow, next month.
- 37:54It's not just that they buy next month as they're coming and
- 37:58they're buying, let the amount that they're buying increase as
- 38:02they're buying, as the amount that they're spending increases,
- 38:04let them be bringing more people.
- 38:06All these dynamics tied together, we end up having a
- 38:10real profitable business. So my style is really
- 38:13interactive. So I was, I wasn't given a
- 38:15presentation. There was no PowerPoint, there
- 38:17was no nothing. So I was going into the crowd
- 38:19and asking people questions. If I had made a game of it, I
- 38:24was trying to discover who else was from Ben Ray State because I
- 38:26was going based on. You know, the usual.
- 38:28Characteristics, you know, those words from Ben Ray state was
- 38:30supposed to be, you know, stocky, big attractive, of
- 38:35course, so, you know, told I can some that sort of thing and I
- 38:39was totally off. I didn't get a single person
- 38:41from Ben Ray state and then I even tried picking out some
- 38:44people from the eastern part of the country and I was also
- 38:46totally off. I called one lady who was slim
- 38:50and light skinned with a pointed nose.
- 38:51So I just assumed this girl is definitely IBO.
- 38:56So I guessed that number of state and I was wrong tells her
- 38:58that she's from Plateau state. She's even B wrong and I was
- 39:01shocked like you had the lightest, like all the B wrong
- 39:07people I know are, you know, like people.
- 39:10Yeah, we might be on the big side, but we're dark and we're
- 39:14you know, we full ground as in we occupy space.
- 39:16Let me put it that way. So anyway, it was an interesting
- 39:22fun experience. So now I know that you shouldn't
- 39:25judge a book by its cover. Don't assume that every single
- 39:27tall, slim, yellow pointed nosed lady is light skinned lady is
- 39:34from the eastern part of the country.
- 39:36So yes, I was going in pulling people out, engaging them in
- 39:41conversation and that is how I was able to tease out the
- 39:43quarrel in the different departments.
- 39:45So during what would have been the customer, the question and
- 39:48answer sessions, we're able to tease out a couple of things.
- 39:51We're able to tease out one problem about how customer
- 39:54expectations affect workflows. So we're able to reiterate.
- 40:00The policy for Magneti that you know, before you collect an
- 40:04order, you need to talk to people at the back of the house.
- 40:07Do you have this leather, This leather?
- 40:09Do you have this chain? Do you have this, this, Do you
- 40:11have this that? What is production time?
- 40:13What should I tell the customer? Because if you work in
- 40:16businesses like this where things are bifurcated, you know,
- 40:19there's front end, there's shop, and then there's back end,
- 40:22there's production. If you're collecting orders from
- 40:25people and saying, Oh, no problem, we can have your order
- 40:27ready in two weeks, but then people in the factory, it will
- 40:30actually take them four weeks. It creates a serious problem
- 40:33because you're better off telling somebody that, oh Madam,
- 40:36your bag will be ready in four weeks.
- 40:38And then in two weeks you call up and say, oh Madam, we
- 40:40finished ahead of time. When can we deliver?
- 40:42Should we send it to the house or should we send it to the
- 40:44office? That creates a very pleasant
- 40:49user experience or customer experience.
- 40:51And so it's better to do that than to tell somebody who'll be
- 40:54ready in two weeks and then you call the person 2 weeks.
- 40:57And four days later. So over promise, Abby, how do
- 41:01you say it? Is it over promise on under
- 41:02deliver? Yeah, I think that's it, Over
- 41:05promise. And then on the deliver.
- 41:08So we had those conversations about customer expectations.
- 41:11So, you know, people in the front end of the house, this is
- 41:13how you set expectations. This is the policy for making
- 41:16sure you react to to the factory.
- 41:20Customers are not to be told anything shorter than 20.
- 41:22Was it 21 working days? I can't remember what it was,
- 41:25but I think it was a very good time because that's what I used
- 41:28to do back as a wedding photographer.
- 41:30I just told everybody that your stuff was going to be ready in
- 41:32three weeks. But to be honest, if everything
- 41:35worked real nice, we could be done in a week.
- 41:38But still, I just told people three weeks because I prefer
- 41:41that. I tell them three weeks.
- 41:43We finish in five days. But then before I send it, I
- 41:46noticed that there's a problem. It goes back for the people to
- 41:48take the book apart and then make the whole thing again, and
- 41:51then they finish in two weeks. I called the person up and said,
- 41:54oh, he's ready. In their minds do think, wow,
- 41:56this person finished the week ahead of time.
- 41:58This guy's really professional. So that's how it works.
- 42:01So we had all those conversations.
- 42:03We had all those queries about who is supposed to call who
- 42:06when, how are you supposed to call?
- 42:07How many times are you supposed to call?
- 42:09What kind of messages are you supposed to receive?
- 42:11What should we tell customers? In the meantime?
- 42:14Then I was also able to instigate more queries about
- 42:17internal communications because I noticed that there were two
- 42:19people in particular that I spoke to one person.
- 42:21The person said, this person doesn't answer his phone.
- 42:24I spoke to the other person and this person said, oh, that that
- 42:26Lady, she doesn't even call when there's a problem.
- 42:28I was like, oh, OK, there's a problem here, but I wanted it to
- 42:30come out in the open. So that came out in the open and
- 42:32there was some hand pointing and as a family were able to quell
- 42:37the whole issue that OK, this is what the internal, this is what
- 42:42the standard operating procedure is.
- 42:43This is what the internal policies are.
- 42:45This is how we should follow this and things like that.
- 42:47And then also another reason why I was trying to instigate
- 42:49quarrel was because I've noticed that when we're having all these
- 42:52family meetings, if we can instigate quarrel and everybody
- 42:55sets their mind in the open, there's a way that as we have
- 43:00said it, we have left it here in the open.
- 43:02And then we can just free this thing and not become friends.
- 43:06Especially when there's item number seven afterwards, because
- 43:08they had some game schedule and they had some food.
- 43:10So by the time you quarrel like this, you will sit down, you
- 43:13have some good food, you know, you dance.
- 43:16If there's some alcohol, you know, you lubricate and you feel
- 43:18all right. There's a way that you just
- 43:19stand up and everything is good. We've left it on the floor.
- 43:23And then when everybody shows up to the office next week Monday,
- 43:26you know, everything is cool, people are all right, things are
- 43:28calm, and we can start moving forward.
- 43:31So yeah, all those internal things then letting people know
- 43:35about the Sops then. Let's see what else.
- 43:39OK, I need to speak about something because.
- 43:41In Nigeria, people are afraid of micromanaging.
- 43:43Nobody wants to be a micromanager.
- 43:44So you just train somebody on the job and then you leave.
- 43:47But then I have to emphasize that micromanaging in quote for
- 43:53certain kinds of businesses are actually very essential.
- 43:57So for these production businesses, micromanaging is not
- 43:59even micromanaging, it's just proper part of the training.
- 44:03But traditionally in these sorts of things, what happens as
- 44:06there's formal education, there's apprenticeship and then
- 44:09there's on the job training. And the example that I gave was
- 44:11a Ferrari and then all these high end automobiles because
- 44:13they also deal with leather. So there's usually formal
- 44:16education. People have gone to school for
- 44:17these sorts of things. But this is Niger, you know, it
- 44:20doesn't really happen that way. In fact, one of the guys who
- 44:24used to walk on my photo albums actually went to school to study
- 44:28engineering. So it's not, it doesn't work
- 44:33that way, let me just put it that way, But traditionally this
- 44:36formal education, apprenticeship and then on the job training.
- 44:38So the example that I gave was how with Ferrari, it lasts a
- 44:41certain number of years and a certain number of hand stitching
- 44:45applications before they let somebody handle one job.
- 44:49So I can't remember how many hundred it was.
- 44:51You know, even if it's just 100, imagine that that you start the
- 44:55job with Ferrari, you've done the formal education on
- 44:59stitching and everything, you've gone through your apprenticeship
- 45:01and you've gone through on the job training, but they still
- 45:04will not let you do. Leather.
- 45:05Upholstery until you have done supervised 100, you know, before
- 45:11they let you go free, like, OK, this one can work on the factory
- 45:13floor. So for some sorts of businesses,
- 45:16micromanaging, even though it's not micromanaging, is absolutely
- 45:19essential. So it's something that I spoke
- 45:21about to the supervisors. So the reason why this is
- 45:25necessary is because in these kinds of businesses, when you
- 45:28make one small error, everything just falls apart.
- 45:31So the way that Magnetia explained it is this, there's a
- 45:35function that she called, is it creasing or something?
- 45:37I think creasing is like folding the bags in a certain way or
- 45:40folding what is the foundation of the bag.
- 45:42So the way she explained it is if you get decreasing wrong,
- 45:45some edges will not line up. If some edges don't line up,
- 45:48then the formal bag is now going to look wonky.
- 45:51Everything looks wonky, and then there's a space, then there's
- 45:53room for deterioration, and then what else?
- 45:56Like people who handle glue, you don't take care of the glue
- 45:58properly. It gets infected, it gets
- 46:00infected, it gets destroyed. It will cause the bag to
- 46:04corrode. And you know, so just small,
- 46:06small, small, small things like this.
- 46:08There's a tiny thing that you do that will now totally mess up
- 46:12the final thing. At the end of the day, customers
- 46:14are unhappy. You've ended up wasting a bunch
- 46:17of money, especially for people like Magneti where these kinds
- 46:22of things where all the stuff that they're buying is from
- 46:25abroad. It's a pity.
- 46:27It's just that that's just the state of Nigeria at the moment.
- 46:31You want to get quality materials, you want to do stuff
- 46:33like this. You just have to buy everything
- 46:34from abroad. So the magnets from abroad, glue
- 46:39from abroad, leather from abroad, this from abroad
- 46:42everything just have to buy from abroad for now.
- 46:46But who knows hopefully in the future with renewed hope in
- 46:51quote, maybe we might improve Nigerian manufacturing capacity
- 46:54and maybe we might be able to start getting some of these
- 46:56things affordably and reliably at home.
- 46:59But for now, yeah, she has to pay in forex, buy a lot of the
- 47:04components that she needs, good quality stuff from abroad.
- 47:08So where was I? OK.
- 47:12So basically, that's why micromanaging is essential.
- 47:14So you don't just show somebody this is how to crease.
- 47:16And then you say why I go and crease.
- 47:18So you show the person this is how you crease.
- 47:20And then you tell the person why you're in my front, I want you
- 47:22to crease 50. I am watching you, and the
- 47:25person increases 50. And then, you know, you repeat
- 47:28the process again tomorrow. You come again tomorrow and say,
- 47:30this is how you crease. You crease it and then you say,
- 47:32OK, before I go in my front, I want you to crease yesterday.
- 47:36You crease the 50, I'll be today.
- 47:38You crease 60 or crease 60 in my front.
- 47:40Let me see. Then the person will crease.
- 47:43And it's the same thing with the glue.
- 47:44It looks like it's micromanaging, but you will
- 47:46come. You show the person today.
- 47:47Now look, this is how you glue today.
- 47:49The only thing you do is you will watch me glue and then
- 47:52tomorrow you will tell the person how, OK, we're going to
- 47:54glue, we're going to glue the bags in 2020 batch, I will
- 47:58batch, I will do the 1st 18. The remaining two you will do by
- 48:01yourself. You do it in my front and I'm
- 48:03watching you. And then you know, like that,
- 48:05like that, like that. So that's how it works.
- 48:08So for these kinds of industries, what people call
- 48:10micromanaging, absolutely essential.
- 48:12And that's just how it is world over.
- 48:14So if you go to Ferrari or go to Bentley or go to any of these
- 48:18places, that's just how it is. You're not going to enter day
- 48:21one and then somebody will say, oh, I'll go and start doing the
- 48:23leather upholstery. Like no, what qualification do
- 48:26you have? You will do the apprenticeship
- 48:28and you do the the thing hundreds and hundreds and
- 48:30hundreds of times before somebody says, Oh yeah, go to
- 48:34the factory floor. And then now you handle the
- 48:36leather and the upholstery. It doesn't work that way.
- 48:39So I also wanted to set that level of expectation for them,
- 48:42that for those of them who are supervisors, what they do
- 48:44actually is very, very, very important when it comes to the
- 48:47quality control. And so they should not be afraid
- 48:49of micromanaging. So this whole thing of OK,
- 48:53leather stitching, let me see you do leather stitching.
- 48:55It takes a lot of time for you to stand.
- 48:58And I'm sure it's very boring for you to stand and watch
- 49:00somebody crease 50 times. I know it's really boring, but
- 49:04in certain industries, it is absolutely essential.
- 49:06Stand there, watch the person and, and different stand.
- 49:11Different industries have different standards.
- 49:12So if you're in the handbag space and maybe the standard is
- 49:15that someone should have creased, I don't know, maybe 100
- 49:19handbags before they start doing it unsupervised.
- 49:23I mean, it takes time, but stay there.
- 49:25Your supervisor is what you're paid for.
- 49:26Sit there, look there, watch the person.
- 49:29You might feel like pulling your hair out, but watch the person
- 49:31crease 100 handbags. Even if it takes you three
- 49:34months, watch make sure certify the person before you can free
- 49:39the person on the factory floor. Because if you free somebody on
- 49:42the factory floor prematurely, remember what I said at the back
- 49:47end factory end, you guys mess up.
- 49:50You're making things really, really difficult on people on
- 49:52the front end because it's not easy to sell crap.
- 49:56Even if you sell crap, it's not easy to get person the the
- 49:59customer to come back and buy crap again.
- 50:01So it's a lot easier to make sure that the back end, factory
- 50:03end, we just do things 100% so that people on the front end who
- 50:07are dealing with the customer have an easier job.
- 50:10So that's pretty much what we discussed on Independence Day.
- 50:15And we had fun was was real nice.
- 50:19And these are sorts of things that we should all take on board
- 50:24regardless of whatever industry that we're in.
- 50:27If you're in one of these bifurcated industries, there's
- 50:29front end, there's back end, please.
- 50:31You will just realise like. It's all important.
- 50:34So it's not a matter of we, we're in front end, we're
- 50:36important. The people in the factory are
- 50:37useless. And it's not a matter of we in
- 50:40the factory, we're doing the main thing.
- 50:41The people in the front end, I mean, they're sitting on that
- 50:43AC, they're useless. What do they do?
- 50:46They don't do anything. Everybody's important.
- 50:49Then if you happen to work for an organization that happens to
- 50:52take these things seriously, because I'm really, really
- 50:55impressed by the quality of employers that I'm running into
- 51:00the longer that I do this. People who genuinely care for
- 51:02their people. Because back as a lawyer in
- 51:05Kano, I know the rubbish that we used to see.
- 51:07I mean, there was one storehand who got his fingers cut off in
- 51:10the factory and you know, they just bandaged the guy's fingers.
- 51:14You know, there was no work insurance, there was no work
- 51:16insurance, there was no injury compensation, there was no
- 51:19nothing. So I know that in Nigeria
- 51:21there's lots of rubbish that happens.
- 51:23So for businesses and business owners that take these things
- 51:25seriously, like OK, you are my staff.
- 51:28This is how much for training, this is how much for hospital,
- 51:30this is how much for health insurance, this is how much for
- 51:33annual checkup and things like that.
- 51:35Please take these things seriously.
- 51:37Enjoy the time while you're with this employer.
- 51:40Make sure that you guys part on good times because I've also
- 51:42noticed that employers like the Magnisi Lady and people have
- 51:48consulted with in the past, like they excuse me, they're not
- 51:51naive. They know you're going to leave
- 51:52one day. So make sure you're apart from
- 51:54good terms. Everybody's happy, you know,
- 51:56things like that. I've seen the way she even
- 51:57supports people who have left her brands to go start their own
- 52:01thing. So when you were nice employers
- 52:04just, you know, just blend, you know, it's all love.
- 52:07Let's be 1 happy family for now. Eventually we all move on, you
- 52:11know, doesn't mean we have to be enemies.
- 52:13In fact, that is how I'm going to build my own agency practice.
- 52:16So currently I'm not taking any consultants underneath under me.
- 52:22But in another 3-4 years, yes, I will start looking for people
- 52:25that should be associates with my consulting outfit.
- 52:30And well, anyway, as we start making those changes, I'll talk
- 52:35about those things over here on the podcast.
- 52:37So yeah, that's it. That's all I wanted to share
- 52:40with you guys today. And yeah, so thanks for your
- 52:42time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
- 52:44episode. Connect with me on WhatsApp,
- 52:46questions, queries, comments or maybe object to something that
- 52:50I've said. The phone number is 08064662140.
- 52:55The country code is +234 for those of you who are not
- 52:58Nigerian. So hit me up.
- 53:00Calls SMS, WhatsApp, Nuala then connect me on LinkedIn the name
- 53:05to look for establishment IED. If you check this link, we're
- 53:08listening to this episode. You just highlight my name, copy
- 53:11paste and LinkedIn. You see my handsome face, my
- 53:13cute babyface smile and then send me a connection request.
- 53:16So thanks for your time and attention.
- 53:17I'll catch you guys at the next episode.