Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Hiding Behind Your Logo

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Stop Hiding Behind Your Logo · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking
• 0:03
  about the relationship between brand and sales.
• 0:07
  And the reason why, quite frankly, was because I've been
• 0:10
  having a chat with the listener of the podcast who's about to
• 0:12
  step into business for the very first time.
• 0:15
  So kudos to her. Oh, and if you're a person of
• 0:18
  faith and you're listening, you know, pray for her because she's
• 0:21
  stepping into a really, really interesting space.
• 0:24
  She's moving straight into jewelry and last time we
• 0:29
  chatted, I think for her first trial run, I think she's going
• 0:33
  to need about, I think about like 4 MI, can't remember if
• 0:37
  it's 4M or 40M, you know, something like that.
• 0:40
  Sure. Not a bad piece of change that
• 0:42
  she's going to need to start her business.
• 0:44
  And then as we're chatting now, she said that dreaded thing that
• 0:49
  I hate to hear whatever I'm talking to Nigerian
• 0:51
  entrepreneurs. She said that she is working on
• 0:55
  her brand. For those of you who've been
• 0:58
  listening to this podcast, it's something I've been saying it
• 1:01
  for years and years and years and years and years.
• 1:03
  Those of you who are brand professionals, I beg Novix.
• 1:07
  But deep down, I know what I'm saying is true because Nigerian
• 1:11
  professionals, sorry, Nigerian business people are obsessed
• 1:14
  with brand. We spend a lot of time doing
• 1:18
  brand, a lot of time designing brand, a lot of time thinking
• 1:22
  brand. Because of that, we never start.
• 1:27
  That is the reason why I'll be talking to somebody November,
• 1:30
  December, they've decided on the business.
• 1:33
  Then when we check in January, we don't enter February because
• 1:38
  it's January ending and they say what they are designing a brand.
• 1:44
  If it's like that, when will you start?
• 1:48
  So of course, I told her the thing that I tell most people,
• 1:51
  which is you know what this brand thing put it on pause.
• 1:55
  Right now you need 4M are busy 40 M go and start raising now 40
• 1:59
  M so that it can begin. If that 40 M had you then see
• 2:05
  the small change that you can raise so that you can enter into
• 2:08
  the market. Put get your feet wet.
• 2:11
  Just begin to explore start like that first.
• 2:15
  Just be going in. First of all, validate and be
• 2:17
  sure that this is even the business you want to be involved
• 2:19
  in. So total capital outlay now is
• 2:22
  like 40 M. Of course, you know how you just
• 2:25
  raise 40 M like that as a first timer.
• 2:27
  But then maybe from friends or family members, you know, popsy
• 2:31
  mumsy you're able to raise. I don't know, maybe I want him
• 2:35
  use that as hard trading or some small, small stones first.
• 2:40
  At least between now January ending and I don't know, March,
• 2:46
  April, you will know whether you know, this thing is for you.
• 2:51
  It's not for you. The thing is profitable.
• 2:53
  The profits are enough. Let me double down.
• 2:56
  Let me raise the rest of the money.
• 2:58
  Don't waste your time. You know this brand, brand,
• 3:00
  brand, brand, brand. So today what I want us to do,
• 3:04
  please. And again, those of you who are
• 3:06
  brand professionals listening to this, I'm not saying your brand
• 3:09
  is not important, your brand is. But I think it's about time that
• 3:11
  lots of us get the prop, the right perspective on the
• 3:15
  relationship between brand and sales.
• 3:18
  What is the relationship between band and sales?
• 3:19
  So that's what we're going to look at today.
• 3:22
  Apologies. Recording.
• 3:23
  I'm making this recording at home.
• 3:24
  The kids are home, you know, 'cause after school and all
• 3:27
  that. So there's going to be some
• 3:28
  noise in the background. Now, my name is Tava Shima, I'm
• 3:31
  a former lawyer turned business consultant and I love solving
• 3:35
  business problems. That's the reason why I have
• 3:37
  this podcast. I'm also a radio show host.
• 3:40
  Then if you would love to connect with me, you can call,
• 3:42
  send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 3:52
  Also subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any
• 3:56
  player of your choice. If this is your first time
• 3:58
  listening to the show. All right now.
• 4:01
  So what's the relationship between brand and sales?
• 4:03
  Since you already know why I'm talking about this thing today,
• 4:06
  now, very simple to understand that, let's back up quite a bit.
• 4:10
  What is the function of a business?
• 4:13
  That is a very important question that was has been posed
• 4:16
  by Peter Drucker and answered in one of his books.
• 4:20
  Forgive me, I cannot remember the title of the book.
• 4:22
  I know that I read the book and I know that the first time I
• 4:25
  read the book, I didn't agree with the old man.
• 4:28
  But as I moved into business, small, small, small, I saw that
• 4:31
  OK, his old man was actually correct.
• 4:34
  No, Peter Rucker says that the function of a business is to
• 4:38
  create a customer. Sorry, not the function of a
• 4:43
  business, the purpose. Rather, the purpose of a
• 4:44
  business is to create a customer.
• 4:47
  And you can create a customer by exercising 2 functions, which is
• 4:51
  marketing and then innovation. Sorry, let me step back a bit.
• 4:55
  The purpose of a business is to create a customer.
• 4:57
  Now some of you will say no, Peter Rucker is not correct.
• 5:00
  And I was one of those people because in my own mind, the
• 5:02
  purpose of a business is called hard cash.
• 5:04
  Make that money. If you had asked me back then
• 5:10
  reading that book, that is what I thought when I came across
• 5:13
  that paragraph. I said no, Mr. Drucker, you are
• 5:15
  wrong. The purpose of a business is to
• 5:18
  create cold hard cash. And I know some people at the
• 5:23
  time who would have said, no, the purpose of a business is not
• 5:25
  to create cold, cold, hard cash. That the purpose of a business
• 5:28
  is personal development, That in building a business, you grow
• 5:32
  yourself, you develop yourself. So that's the purpose of a
• 5:34
  business. Then there are people who say
• 5:36
  that no, the purpose of a business is societal impact.
• 5:39
  That I've been put on this earth to fulfill my mission and that
• 5:42
  my mission is to move generations and inspire this and
• 5:44
  change the environment and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:47
  So some people say that that is the purpose of a business.
• 5:51
  Either way, I found that Mister Drucker was wrong.
• 5:54
  But as I continue to grow in business, small, small, I
• 5:57
  started to reason it. I was like, OK, Mr. Drucker is
• 6:00
  actually correct, Sir, because all these other things that we
• 6:03
  want to do for those who also want money so we can flex for
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  those of you who want to change the world, you know, where you
• 6:09
  need the resources, or for those of you who want to develop
• 6:11
  yourself and so you're looking forward to the challenge.
• 6:14
  We cannot change the world or get the money or develop
• 6:18
  ourselves except if we have a customer.
• 6:21
  So for this, my friend, now my small friend wants to enter into
• 6:25
  the jewelry business. She can be loving jewelry from
• 6:28
  now to tomorrow, but until she gets until she creates a
• 6:31
  customer who will pay her money, she will not be able to flex.
• 6:34
  Until she creates a customer who pays her money, she won't go
• 6:38
  through the process of personal growth and development because
• 6:41
  chasing down customers, it's a it's a it'll make you grow.
• 6:47
  Let me just put it like that way.
• 6:48
  Business will make you grow. You can't be mature for a while,
• 6:51
  but business, you want to do it right to business will make you
• 6:53
  grow. And then if she wants to change
• 6:56
  the world and she wants to change the environment, she just
• 6:58
  creates the customer, get that money, then from that money and
• 7:01
  influence should be able to change the world.
• 7:04
  So that's how I sort out my man Drucker actually was correct.
• 7:07
  Peter Drucker, not a bad guy. And then his writing style is
• 7:10
  very accessible. So just go and read any of his
• 7:13
  books. So the role of a business is to
• 7:16
  create a customer. Now, Peter Trucker says that you
• 7:18
  create a customer by using two functions.
• 7:21
  Number one is marketing. Number 2 is innovation.
• 7:24
  I don't talk about innovation at all on this podcast because
• 7:27
  everybody talks about innovation.
• 7:30
  Now, innovation does mean you're making changes.
• 7:33
  I am making improvements over time.
• 7:36
  So Trucker says that you can either innovate on the product,
• 7:39
  that's the thing you're selling, or you can innovate on service
• 7:42
  delivery. So when you innovate on the
• 7:44
  product, you're just trying to say how can we build XYZ?
• 7:48
  How can we design XYZ? How can we design, You know, how
• 7:51
  can we, I don't know, produce better gems?
• 7:55
  That's back to my friend who wants to sell jewelry.
• 7:58
  How do you produce better gems? That's the question of
• 8:01
  innovation. Then I can also make changes in
• 8:04
  service delivery. So service delivery now, oh,
• 8:08
  that'd be now OK Changes in customer service, that will be
• 8:11
  an innovation. Changes in mode of delivery,
• 8:14
  that will be an innovation. Let's see, what else?
• 8:16
  When do you get the point? But Shah, there's more than
• 8:20
  enough podcasts about innovation.
• 8:22
  So just go and subscribe to anyone out there.
• 8:24
  You'll be fine. Now, there are not too many of
• 8:26
  us who talk about sales. That's the reason why I have
• 8:30
  this podcast. But anyway, remember, we're
• 8:32
  still at marketing and innovation.
• 8:35
  So the purpose of a business is to create a customer.
• 8:38
  You create a customer by exercising 2 main functions.
• 8:42
  Number one is marketing. In fact, Drucker says it is.
• 8:47
  He puts it as #1 for a reason. Then #2 is innovation.
• 8:52
  Now marketing is our business function that lets our potential
• 8:56
  customers know that we exist, know that we are here, know what
• 9:02
  we do, know how we can help, know how they can reach us.
• 9:06
  You know everything. That is what marketing is.
• 9:10
  It tells our potential customers we are here, Moti Debe have
• 9:15
  arrived on more ground. That is the function of
• 9:20
  marketing. Now marketing, marketing as a
• 9:25
  department or as a mother. Marketing has many children or
• 9:29
  many sub functions. So PR, public relations is a
• 9:33
  function of marketing. Branding is a function of
• 9:36
  marketing. Advertising is a function of
• 9:38
  marketing. Sales is a function of
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  marketing. Merchandising, exhibitions,
• 9:43
  promotions, you name it, they are all functions of marketing.
• 9:49
  Some of you want to argue and say in my opinion, look, that
• 9:51
  this is not a matter of my opinion.
• 9:55
  Whatever school you graduated from, go back to that school.
• 9:57
  Go to the business admin department, go and pick any book
• 10:02
  of marketing and read. You will see that what I'm
• 10:04
  telling you here is true. So stop paying attention to all
• 10:08
  these social media influencers who start creating all kinds of
• 10:11
  debates about marketing and PR. Which one is better?
• 10:15
  What do you mean marketing and PR?
• 10:17
  Which one is better? PR is a form of marketing.
• 10:20
  Although say branding and marketing, which one should you
• 10:22
  pay more attention to? What do you mean about that?
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  Branding is a form of marketing and then those say sales and
• 10:29
  marketing, which is better? What are you talking about?
• 10:31
  Sales is a form of marketing. So for those of you who've been
• 10:35
  following this city debates online and you don't quite
• 10:38
  understand where all detention is coming from, this is the
• 10:42
  reason why you're confused because you're working tandem.
• 10:46
  Marketing is the mother. All of them are the children.
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  So me as a sales professional, marketing is my mother.
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  You who are listening now as a brand professional marketing is
• 10:56
  your mother. So in one sense, you can see
• 11:00
  that this is the relationship between branding and sales.
• 11:06
  They're both forms of marketing. They're both children of the
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  same mother. So if you want to understand
• 11:13
  branding sales, how they work together to, to, to grow your
• 11:19
  business, this is the beginning of how you get that done.
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  Sorry, one moment. Sorry about that.
• 11:27
  Like I said, the kids are home so hard to attend to my son.
• 11:31
  All right, OK, yes, now I was trying to give you guys the all
• 11:36
  I put it now the theoretical foundation so that you
• 11:38
  understand the relationship between brand and sales.
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  And then we'll now figure out how it factors into how all
• 11:47
  these factors into, you know we Niger entrepreneurs how we
• 11:51
  should get our house alone. So branding and sales, now we
• 11:55
  have established that branding and sales, they are both
• 11:58
  marketing functions. In Niger.
• 12:02
  When people say branding, what they mean is the mean logo, the
• 12:06
  mean font, the mean color, the mean palettes, the mean design,
• 12:09
  the mean texture, the mean brochure, the mean, you know,
• 12:12
  all those things. So in Niger, every time you hear
• 12:15
  branding, that is what people mean.
• 12:17
  By the way, branding has a bigger meaning, but we'll talk
• 12:20
  about that later. But for the purposes of this
• 12:22
  podcast, this particular segment, when you hear brand,
• 12:27
  that is what people are talking about in Niger.
• 12:30
  They mean what is your logo? What is your font, what is your
• 12:33
  color? What is your design?
• 12:34
  What does your brochure look like?
• 12:35
  What does your website look like?
• 12:37
  Have you rented office space? What is your layout like?
• 12:40
  You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 12:41
  That's what people mean when they say branding.
• 12:44
  Now sales or selling, on the other hand, is what goes on in
• 12:50
  one to one interactions. You're face to face with a
• 12:53
  potential customer or you're ear to ear on the phone with a
• 12:57
  potential customer, or your keyboard to keyboard typing with
• 13:00
  a potential customer, DM ING with a potential customer, DM
• 13:03
  with a prospect, DM ING with a contact.
• 13:08
  If you're in that situation and you're trying to facilitate,
• 13:11
  facilitate a purchase or you're trying to build trust, then
• 13:14
  you're doing the function of sales and you're doing the
• 13:16
  function of selling. Now, with this in mind, seeing
• 13:23
  that they're both paying attention to two different
• 13:25
  things, why would people start pitting them against each other?
• 13:27
  There's no competition. These two things are important.
• 13:30
  Let's go back to the Niger idea of branding.
• 13:33
  Your logo is important. Your font is important.
• 13:35
  Your color, your palette, your design, your texture, your
• 13:37
  websites, all of that is important.
• 13:41
  And that has nothing to do with when I am face to face with a
• 13:44
  potential customer. Hope you guys hope you guys are
• 13:48
  like you get where I'm coming from.
• 13:51
  The website design doesn't have nothing to do with when I'm
• 13:54
  talking to a potential customer is a separate something, but
• 14:00
  they are both important. Now.
• 14:03
  This is the reason why they're important to understand why
• 14:05
  they're important and we need to explore the Oibo concept of the
• 14:12
  Oibo concept of branding and sales alignment because they
• 14:17
  also talk about sales and marketing alignment.
• 14:18
  But let's just talk about branding and sales alignment.
• 14:21
  Remember, we're going to use the Oyubo idea now because as far as
• 14:25
  I can tell, Nigerian practitioners, you know, like we
• 14:28
  haven't given much thought to it.
• 14:30
  Everybody keeps on going along with this whole thing of sales
• 14:33
  and marketing alignment, assuming that sales and
• 14:35
  marketing are separate things. So this is the idea behind the
• 14:40
  Oyubo concept of branding and sales alignment.
• 14:43
  Now, Oyubo people say brand is important because the brand
• 14:46
  breeds familiarity. People know you, they feel you.
• 14:51
  Familiarity will breed trusts, like OK, been seeing these
• 14:55
  people around, we trust them. You'll breed some recognition.
• 14:58
  And so because of that, it will be easier to close the sale.
• 15:01
  And yes, it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense, makes a
• 15:04
  lot of sense. If I'm coming to sell Coke to a
• 15:10
  wedding venue and I come with three brands, I call me Coke, I
• 15:16
  call me Biggie. Then I come with OKchuku and
• 15:19
  Sons. You know every single event
• 15:22
  hall. Well, I'm using event hall
• 15:24
  because after legal practice and after civil service, I started
• 15:28
  as a wedding photographer. So every single event hall in
• 15:31
  Nigeria, everybody, every event hall knows Coca-Cola.
• 15:35
  Now some event halls will know Biggie because Biggie is making
• 15:39
  some inroads. Like Biggie is in Lagos, Biggie
• 15:42
  is in Abuja. I noticed that when I'm in
• 15:46
  Makuti, I don't really see Biggie.
• 15:49
  And I have, I know one or two people in the east.
• 15:54
  And you know, it's not as if biggies like any, I don't know,
• 15:58
  let me, in fact, let me just stick to the one I know biggies
• 16:01
  in Lagos, biggies in Abuja. And then Bob Biggie is not
• 16:04
  really in Penal State. I've not, I've not seen it in
• 16:08
  any shop. I drank it in somebody's house,
• 16:10
  but seen it in the shop I didn't see.
• 16:13
  Then the last one is Okajuku and songs.
• 16:16
  Let's just assume that it exists.
• 16:18
  Nobody knows Okajuku and songs. So if me as a salesperson, I'm
• 16:23
  trying to sell my drink now to the wedding hall or to the food
• 16:30
  establishment or whatever so that they can be keeping drinks,
• 16:35
  Coke will be easier to sell than Biggie because Coke, everybody
• 16:38
  knows Coke. Biggie will be easier to sell
• 16:42
  than OK Chuko and Sons. If OK Chuko and Sons is a brand
• 16:44
  new cola drink that has just been recently launched.
• 16:48
  So the Ulibo concept of branding and sales alignment is on point.
• 16:51
  It's perfectly correct is correct.
• 16:55
  The brand will make you more familiar.
• 16:57
  The brand is going to make people trust you.
• 16:59
  The brand is going to give recognition.
• 17:01
  That recognition will make it easier to close the sale.
• 17:07
  So this is my warning to Nigerian entrepreneurs.
• 17:10
  This whole process that we've spoken about now, the UEBO
• 17:13
  conception of brand takes time to build.
• 17:17
  It takes a while before you become a familiar brand, before
• 17:21
  you become a trusted brand, before you become a recognized
• 17:24
  brand. That takes time because brand is
• 17:29
  not just your logo and brand is not just your font and your
• 17:33
  design. There's plenty of things going
• 17:36
  on on the ground and those things take time to build.
• 17:41
  The brand is a sum total of all the interactions that customers
• 17:45
  and members of the public have with your business and this
• 17:48
  fledgling brands that you are trying to build.
• 17:52
  So if building a brand is going to take time, why are you
• 17:57
  wasting your time with logo and with font and with this and with
• 18:00
  this? Now assuming that is the most
• 18:02
  important part of your business before you begin if you want to
• 18:06
  be a jewel, a jewelry person. So I'm not sure if people call
• 18:10
  yourself, those of you who buy and sell diamonds and gold and
• 18:13
  silver and everything if you want to be in that business.
• 18:18
  But now we've established that building a brand, a real brand,
• 18:21
  will take time to achieve familiarity, trust, recognition
• 18:24
  and all that. Why are you wasting time on logo
• 18:26
  and front and this and this and that and that?
• 18:28
  You are slowing yourself down unnecessarily, my friend.
• 18:31
  Get your capital, go out, then start selling.
• 18:36
  The brand will be crafted, the brand will be curated, the brand
• 18:38
  will be cultivated with time, as you interact with people, as you
• 18:43
  meet customer. In fact, this whole thing of
• 18:45
  logo and font and everything, is it not when you meet with your
• 18:48
  customers that you even know the kind of brand you should design?
• 18:52
  What if you step into the market and then it turns out that you
• 18:55
  have mostly a northern audience? Is that not?
• 18:57
  Is the fact that most of your clientele are northerners?
• 18:59
  Is that not something significant enough to determine
• 19:02
  the kind of font you use, the kind of color you use, the kind
• 19:05
  of name you have? The kind, is it not?
• 19:11
  Please, you should stop wasting your time.
• 19:14
  Brown people is not a quarrel. What you do is very, very
• 19:17
  important. All I'm just saying is that too
• 19:19
  many Nigerian business people are putting the cat before the
• 19:22
  horse. They're putting the brand first
• 19:24
  before they begin. Meanwhile, the brand is
• 19:26
  something that comes later on. The one that we need primarily
• 19:29
  now is selling because selling, excuse me, because selling is
• 19:34
  the one that puts you face to face or ear to ear over the
• 19:40
  phone or keyboard to keyboard with a potential customer so
• 19:43
  that you can facilitate the sale.
• 19:45
  So those of you who are trying to go into business now, it is
• 19:48
  not brand you need first, it is sales that you need first.
• 19:56
  Brand is important, but don't waste too much time over
• 19:59
  thinking this because let me tell you what will happen and I
• 20:03
  hope this my small friend will take my advice.
• 20:05
  But this is what happens. You come up with the idea in
• 20:08
  November, you meet somebody on the Internet and you talk about
• 20:12
  the idea in December and you talk it to a couple of other
• 20:17
  people in your family in December.
• 20:18
  Everybody thinks idea is a good idea then.
• 20:22
  In January, last week of January, you have a conversation
• 20:27
  with someone and then you realize that you spent November,
• 20:29
  December, January not quite doing anything.
• 20:34
  Instead, you've been thinking of brand name, you've been thinking
• 20:38
  of color, you've been thinking of design, you've been thinking
• 20:41
  of website URL, you've been thinking of registering
• 20:45
  business. You've been thinking of all
• 20:47
  these other things. Meanwhile, from November to
• 20:49
  January ending, let's just say February, you haven't spoken to
• 20:54
  a single person. You haven't bought a single
• 20:57
  stone, a single silver, a single diamond, a single zinc, a single
• 21:02
  earring, a single whatever. You haven't bought a single one
• 21:05
  and try to sell to a single person.
• 21:07
  So what happens is all of February now will be coming up
• 21:10
  with business name. Then all of March you finally
• 21:13
  register with CAC. Then all of April, you finally
• 21:16
  get your design down. Then all of May, June, July will
• 21:20
  be designing website. Of course we know that website
• 21:23
  boys never deliver on time. So in fact you finalize the
• 21:26
  website maybe like in July or August.
• 21:29
  That's when you now be launching the business.
• 21:31
  Something that you decided you are going to do.
• 21:34
  Yeah. In November of 2025 because
• 21:38
  you're chasing brand. You won't start until August of
• 21:40
  2026. If you don't believe me, stop
• 21:46
  paying attention. Look around your friends, your
• 21:48
  cousins, your classmates. You see that what I'm saying is
• 21:50
  perfectly true? True.
• 21:52
  The most important thing that you need is sales.
• 21:55
  Is it a good idea? Oh, cool.
• 21:57
  Your mentor agrees with you. Cool.
• 21:58
  Pops here and moms here agree with you.
• 22:00
  Cool. All right.
• 22:01
  Go and sell something. That's it.
• 22:05
  So thank you very much for listening.
• 22:07
  Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a
• 22:09
  text message via WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 22:15
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 22:16
  I'll catch you all some other time.