Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Search for Wonder Woman: Uncovering Nigeria’s Top 1% Talent

Transcript

The Search for Wonder Woman: Uncovering Nigeria’s Top 1% Talent · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the podcast.
0:03
Today's podcast episode is not going to be a particularly
0:07
structured one per SE, So I'm not going to be addressing one
0:11
single question. Rather, I'm going to be looking
0:16
at the CV, the curriculum, VTA of an interesting candidate.
0:24
OK, let me just put it that way. So, OK, so for those of you who
0:28
listen to the podcast, you already know that I am a
0:31
business consultant. And sometimes, since my focus is
0:35
on sales and business development, sometimes for my
0:37
clients, I look at potential candidates that they can hire
0:41
for sales roles. And I was having a chat with one
0:45
candidate who's supposed to be hired for a sales manager role
0:50
in a solar company. And the reason why she's the
0:55
focus of today's podcast is because, you know, whenever I
0:59
come across interesting individuals, I'd like to come
1:02
back over here and talk about it on the podcast.
1:05
Again, sometimes just to expose you other listeners to the
1:10
podcast to the breadth of the talents that we have available
1:15
in Nigeria because, you know, as Nigerians, it's all I put it,
1:19
it's difficult to wake up every day.
1:21
I feel as if, you know, Nigeria has a shit show and you know, no
1:24
way for progress. So whenever I come across
1:27
somebody who is working in some interesting fields that
1:31
Nigerians don't typically talk about, I mentioned it over here
1:34
on the podcast or when we talk, when I come across an
1:38
enterprising individual who seems to be making good strides
1:41
in business, I come over here and I talk about that as well.
1:44
And that's the same reason why I'm going to be talking about
1:47
this candidate, but I'm not going to share her real name.
1:50
Of course, we'll just call her Wonder Woman.
1:54
Of course, not the real Wonder Woman.
1:56
So we'll call her Wonder Woman. But I'm making today's recording
2:00
just to let you all know that there's progress for this
2:02
country. Sorry, there's hope for progress
2:05
for this country because we are breeding highly.
2:09
I don't know what to say. So highly driven and well
2:13
focused individuals in this country.
2:16
So there's, there's room, there's room for progress.
2:20
And I guess this is also a Clarion call to employers in
2:24
Nigeria because employers in Nigeria were very quick to say
2:27
that the hiring pool in Nigeria is rubbish, that we're
2:30
graduating people from school who cannot spell, people who
2:33
cannot write, people who can't compose themselves, you know,
2:36
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So yes, granted, a lot of people
2:39
who pass through the Nigerian educational system as in, you
2:43
know, they know to like we can't read them.
2:45
But in the midst of all this, we can separate the wheat from the
2:48
shaft because we do have good people, good people out there.
2:52
Let me just put it like that. And then while I'm running
2:55
through the ladies CV and then also the some of the
3:03
conversations that I had with her, we'll talk about some of
3:06
the reasons why I think sales and business development roles
3:10
are particularly good fields for men to get involved in.
3:14
I know some of you think you didn't hear me correctly, so let
3:16
me repeat it. Traditionally when you hear
3:19
sales and business development, you think about a young man, you
3:22
think about someone like me. But I'm saying that sales is a
3:27
good field for women to get involved in as well.
3:30
And Wonder Woman, again, not a real name, Wonder Woman agrees
3:34
with me. So yeah, like I said, I'm a
3:38
business consultant. Oh, my name is Tavishma Aide.
3:41
For those of you who are listening for the first for the
3:43
first time, I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant over
3:47
here. Usually I talk about business
3:49
problems. It's actually business problems
3:51
that can be solved by better sales strategies, sales tactics,
3:56
sales frameworks, sales principles.
4:00
But in my job as a consultant, once in a while people say,
4:02
look, I want to hire this person for a sales manager.
4:05
What do you think? So for those of you who've been
4:07
listening to this role for a while, you already know the last
4:09
time I had to do this. I think that was last year.
4:13
And that's my client in Benin who has the shop that deals in
4:19
mobile computers and mobile accessories and gaming
4:22
accessories and things like that.
4:23
So once in a while, it's not really part of my job per SE,
4:27
but you know, once I collect your money, as far as I'm
4:30
concerned, we're friends. So if a friend calls me to say,
4:33
oh boy, alpha about help me cite these candidates, what do you
4:36
think? Yeah, I'll do that.
4:37
It's not much of a big deal. So, yeah, so client reached out
4:43
and also I forgot. If you want to get in touch with
4:46
me, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on
4:50
08064662140. Well, please don't send any CVS
4:57
to me to review. This is not my job.
4:59
I'm not a human resource professional.
5:02
I only do this for my clients and my friends.
5:05
And of course, when I say my client, it means they've given
5:08
me money. Or when I say my friends, it
5:11
means they've given me money. So if you've not given me money,
5:13
you can't call me or you can't say we're friends.
5:15
No, we're not. We're just acquaintances.
5:18
When I hear ping him and I see a, when I say an alert from you,
5:22
then yeah, we can now call ourselves friends.
5:25
So. So Wonder Woman now, she studied
5:29
electrical engineering, by the way.
5:31
Always nice. I remember back when I was in
5:33
OAU, we used to tease all the girls who do computer
5:38
engineering, elect, elect, mech engine, mechanical engineering,
5:43
you know, stuff like that. Because back then anyway, when I
5:46
was in school, these were male dominated fields.
5:49
And of course the girl who is studying these courses typically
5:52
would be the only one in her class and she would then end up
5:55
being a tomboy anyway. So it's always like she's, you
5:58
know, she's one of us, she's one of the boys, that kind of thing.
6:01
So this lady Wonder Woman studied electrical engineering.
6:05
So obviously she's pretty smart. And then she leaves school and
6:09
then she starts a career in technical sales.
6:12
And that is really, really, really, really nice.
6:14
So technical sales, her emphasis is on things that require
6:20
automation. As you can hear already, this is
6:22
girly, sharp, sharp girl. And she has worked in different
6:26
sectors so far. Sold in different sectors.
6:28
Sorry, sold two different sectors so far, so to the oil
6:34
and gas base, ICT, construction sectors.
6:39
And of course, she has had an input in in deals that have
6:43
amounted to millions of dollars. Then let's see what else.
6:49
OK. She has tried to emphasize
6:50
client retention in her role, so that's always nice.
6:53
It's nice to see that there are some people who understand the
6:57
game because some people think that the game when it comes to
7:01
sale is about how much money did I collect?
7:04
It's not just how much money did I collect, but whether the
7:07
person remained our client. And so they renewed and so they
7:11
bought a game. Because if you bring in business
7:14
as a salesperson, let's say you bring in 10 M to the company,
7:19
you know, you're selling one of these solutions that people can
7:22
subscribe to, you know, for instance.
7:25
So the person comes in 10 M, but then after year 2, the person
7:29
now leaves. Is that a success?
7:32
The person brought in 10 M, the next year 10 M, then the person
7:36
now vanish is a failure means that something is going on.
7:39
There's some level of attrition that is going on.
7:41
There's some level of friction that is going on.
7:43
There is something that is happening that is causing our
7:45
customers to vamoose. So guys, to figure this out
7:51
because for sales and business development, the good money is
7:53
when we achieve nice client retention, client loyalty.
7:58
Somebody pays you money this year, they pay you next year,
8:01
they pay you next year, they stay your customer for like 15,
8:05
you know, years before they disappear.
8:07
Now we're talking now that's good money.
8:10
And then also they refer their friends, their family members,
8:13
their associates. That's good money.
8:16
So I like the fact that this was a bright girl.
8:20
Sorry, I said, girl, I don't want anybody to, you know, blast
8:23
me. Don't cancel me, please.
8:25
This is a bright young woman who is able to talk technical talk,
8:31
engineering talk, but she's able to talk about it in terms that
8:37
ordinary business people understand so that they can see
8:40
how this thing is going to help them improve their business,
8:43
particularly in the oil and gas rolls.
8:47
Then let's see what else. So a bunch of other good stuff
8:51
like that in ACV. So impressive, impressive,
8:54
Pretty, pretty impressive. But then again, my client said,
9:00
oh boy, I'm thinking of hiring this girl for sales manager.
9:03
Sorry, I had this woman for sales manager.
9:07
By the way, you know, when I fall into some manner of
9:10
speaking and I say, you know, young girl as a small boy, you
9:13
know, stuff like that, just understand that I'm not putting
9:15
down in particular sex. It's just that, you know, the
9:18
podcast like to keep it nice and casual.
9:21
So don't worry if you call me to do training for your company.
9:26
Oh yes, when I'm on stage, Oh, the way I will be so put
9:30
together and on point, you will be impressed.
9:33
So don't listen to the podcast. And I think that when I come for
9:36
company trainings that this is how I sound on stage.
9:38
So no, don't worry, I won't stand up there in front of your
9:41
MD. And maybe your MD is a
9:43
distinguished woman, you know, like like around that kind of
9:45
maybe 65 years of age. Then I will stand there and I'll
9:48
be saying boys and girls. No, no, no, I won't say that.
9:51
Don't worry. When you see me on stage
9:53
yourself, you trip, you know that I can't be serious.
9:55
All right, so where was I? So the guy said I'm talking to
10:00
this babe now. So let's, let's let's have a
10:02
chat with her. Like have a chat with her.
10:04
Let me know what what you think. So send the lady a message.
10:09
And I was like, Oh yeah, I got your number from so, so, so, so
10:13
I usually handle sales training and enablement for them.
10:17
He told me that he's thinking of having you on board as a sales
10:20
manager and he'd like me to have a chat with you.
10:23
So let me know when you're available to chat.
10:25
I sent the message. I just sent it one time then
10:30
before I could move on or start doing something else, I received
10:34
a message from her Piru. She respond, she's happy and she
10:40
asks that she's available that she would like to talk Now I
10:44
said this is more like it. This kind of thing.
10:47
I like see when it comes to sales, when it comes to moving
10:52
your agenda, when it comes to moving your ministry, you people
10:55
ought to be in the habit of striking while the iron is hot,
11:00
when there's momentum, just be rolling with the momentum.
11:04
Another person would have replied, I would have said,
11:06
Olga, thank you very much, nice to hear from you, blah, blah,
11:09
blah, blah, blah. Would you like us to talk next
11:11
week? Because when I sent out this
11:12
message, it was Saturday. Some people will say, you know,
11:16
weekends is for me and then weekdays is for, you know, but I
11:21
don't have, you know, have him. She respond one time and she's
11:26
like, how about now I say correct a baby with initiative.
11:30
I'm tired of running across salespeople that don't have
11:33
initiative. You strike while the iron is
11:38
hot. So that part was good.
11:41
So instantly now I knew that OK, she's a correct chap.
11:44
So that's what I call him now. And then we started talking and
11:48
then first thing is I wonder who, man, she has an interesting
11:50
name. I know it's not a Nigerian name
11:52
at all. It's not a Nigerian name.
11:54
So the first thing I said was, since that is your name, I beg
11:57
teach me how to pronounce it. I don't want to mispronounce it.
12:01
And then she laughed. I said, you know, your name is
12:03
unique. She said, yeah, I hear that all
12:04
the time. And then she said, Amber, what
12:06
about you? Your name, too?
12:08
And in my mind, I'm thinking, correct, A young woman who knows
12:12
how to handle a conversation. Very, very good.
12:15
Very, very good. No intimidation.
12:17
Also, she knows how to build rapport.
12:19
So we continue talking. She gave me the history of her
12:21
own name. You know, her name is German for
12:25
a couple of reasons, but she's not German.
12:27
And then my own name too, because she has never heard
12:29
Tavish Shimmer before. So like lots of other Nigerians
12:33
have to educate them that, look, I'm actually Nigerian.
12:36
I'm not from Kenya, I'm not from Ireland, I'm not from Japan, I'm
12:40
not from Germany. Yes, I've heard Germany before.
12:44
Some people just assume that, you know, maybe I'm half German.
12:47
Popsy is German or something, you know, so like that, like
12:51
that, like that. So I said, no, no, no, I'm thief
12:54
and thief people, this is where we're from and blah, blah, blah.
12:57
So anyway, so she, she now knows a new tribe in Niger.
13:01
And I won't be surprised if there's somebody listening to
13:04
this podcast right now, today in 2026, this is the first time
13:08
they have ever heard of the thief tribe.
13:11
Some of you think that the thief tribe is extinct.
13:14
And I'm here again to say, no, we are not extinct.
13:17
I still keep running into people who think so.
13:19
We are not extinct. In fact, the first person I ran
13:22
into who thought two people were extinct was back when I went for
13:25
my master's degree. And I saw one fine girl and I
13:27
started talking to her and everything that the fine girl is
13:30
not my wife. And I was like, yeah, two
13:32
people. I thought you were extinct.
13:34
I had a good laugh when I can't blame her much because to be
13:37
honest, there, there are some tribes that even myself I
13:40
thought were extinct. Like in social studies, we used
13:43
to study knock the knock culture, knock terraculture
13:47
sculptures and stuff like that. To be honest, I assumed that
13:51
knock people were extinct. I assumed that there must have
13:54
been some ancient Nigerian tribe, you know, in the Bronze
13:57
Age, you know, like during that Moses and the Red Sea, you know,
14:01
like that time, you know, long ago.
14:05
So I was shocked one time when I still know my popsy and I was
14:09
back when I was still in primary school, I was supposed to go and
14:11
visit one of his friends. I don't call their name now
14:15
Engineer, you know, so and so let's just say like that.
14:18
So we just passed through to the engineers village because I'm
14:21
not far from it's not far from Abuja and my father always had
14:24
runs in different places. So when I say runs, I mean like
14:28
official paros, I don't mean runs like runs.
14:33
So as you pass through now, and I was just wondering, Oh, that
14:35
dad, uncle so and so you know that what try by day.
14:40
He said knock. I said he said knock.
14:43
I said he said you didn't think knock people are still alive?
14:46
I'll be I said no, I had no idea.
14:48
So anyway, if you're in primary school now, OK, No, a primary
14:51
school person can be listening to this podcast.
14:53
If you're in secondary school or university now, you're listening
14:55
to this podcast and you're also thinking that knock people are
14:59
extinct. That's knock N, OK, Not I'll not
15:02
Irish knock people because in Ireland there's also a village
15:07
called N OK, Imagine the coincidence.
15:10
So I'm talking about the Nigerian and OK, now knock knock
15:14
people are not extinct. They are still among us.
15:18
They work in the same office as you, they're in the same church.
15:21
So we're all here. So two people, we're here, we're
15:23
not extinct. Anyway, so we started talking
15:27
now. And what did she study again?
15:33
OK, as I mentioned that she studied at electrical
15:35
engineering and she went to River State.
15:38
And of course, I did the thing that I always do because back
15:41
then when I was in OAUM, you know, when I go into OAU, like
15:46
Nigeria was, Nigeria was different at the time because
15:50
before I got into EF, there had been this incidence of people
15:54
used to jokingly call it the shooting stars, but was not, was
15:57
not a small something because cultists actually went into OAU
16:01
and the cultists, they went on the rampage.
16:04
They got the president of the students union and they match
16:08
it. Oh, sorry.
16:08
If you have kids listening, this is the time where you, you know,
16:13
put on your headphones so that kids don't hear this.
16:15
So they found the head of the students union, they matched the
16:18
guy and they went round finding other exco members and you know,
16:22
shooting them and inflicting wounds on them and stuff like
16:26
that. Basically what I'm trying to say
16:28
is that when I was in university, cultism was a big
16:32
thing in Nigerian universities. And of course all those people
16:36
who went to, you know, River State, you know, but I got those
16:40
were those schools are particularly hot.
16:43
So of course I jabbed her and I said, OK, so which court, which
16:46
court did you join? We had a good laugh about that.
16:48
She says she's the lover of Christ.
16:51
OK, so from there now, lover of Christ.
16:53
That's when I went straight down to business.
16:55
I thought, OK, good, you're a lover of Christ, but I hope you
16:57
like hard work. She laughed and she understood.
17:02
And it's unfortunate that I have to say this.
17:05
You know, boys, the truth when it comes to business and it
17:09
comes to sales and stuff like that, it's unfortunate.
17:11
But there are some people who give we Christians a bad name.
17:15
They carry Christ on their head. When it's time to work, they
17:18
won't do any work. Take responsibility for
17:21
something. Don't take responsibility for
17:23
anything. Show initiative, don't show
17:25
initiative. Don't is don't to clock in,
17:27
clock out. And they don't want to go for
17:29
weekday service. That's all.
17:33
So I'd have the conversation with her.
17:35
OK, you're a lover of Christ. No problem.
17:37
But in the past, my client has faced this problem and other of
17:41
my clients has faced these problems.
17:43
Are you one of those lovers of Christ?
17:45
So we had to have that conversation.
17:47
We'll have to reach his hand. No, no, no, no, no.
17:49
And then we started going into our responsibilities, what our
17:55
responsibilities will be in other responsibilities will be
18:02
issues, issues going to take over the role of a sales manager
18:06
in this company. Oh, by the way, now for those of
18:10
you who listen to the podcast and you hear me when I talk
18:13
about rapport and commonality, you see the reason why it's
18:16
important. I was able to quickly get
18:19
straight to the point, dive into the heart of the matter one time
18:25
because I had established rapport.
18:28
And This is why these skills are important.
18:30
So for those of you who you hear me or you hear another
18:39
salesperson talking all these random thing cultism, Rivers
18:43
State Polytechnic, you know, on and on cultism, you know, are
18:50
you from Germany? Are you from this?
18:52
You think it's just random talk that we're doing?
18:56
No, we know where we are heading.
18:59
We know where we're heading. We're trying to achieve rapport.
19:02
We're trying to get everybody to be cool, everybody to be calm
19:05
because it's when everybody's calm that you will hear the true
19:08
person. If we start off the interview
19:11
session by being all formal, formal, say, oh, hello, yes, I
19:15
see that you went to River State University, you graduated in
19:20
2021, and I see that you have a first class degree.
19:24
Oh, congratulations. Can you tell me some more about
19:26
that? You know, if we start off the
19:28
interview on that kind formal, formal level, I would inform,
19:32
Shimashi would inform, and I won't know the true person.
19:37
It's the same thing in sales. We're trying to sell something.
19:41
We're also trying to elicit the kind of expectations that the
19:44
person has. I want to know what's behind the
19:46
person's mind. If I come in on formal and touch
19:49
the person itself or formal and touch both of us with a package,
19:54
I won't be able to get up words on that person's mind.
19:57
I need to get to the root. I need to know who this who this
19:59
person is. So if you think sometimes our
20:02
old sales people are scattered and you know, or no, no, it's
20:05
not scattered. We know what we're doing, you
20:09
know, take the emotional temperature, calm everything
20:11
down, tap everything down. And then from there, we can move
20:14
straight into business. When everywhere calm, everywhere
20:17
cool people are talking freely, we will know what is on
20:20
somebody's mind. We'll know what it is they like.
20:22
We'll know what it is that they don't like.
20:24
We'll know how to start maneuvering this this deal.
20:32
And then for those of you who have heard me in the past say
20:34
that I'm kind of lazy in my approach because I always start
20:37
from name when it comes to rapport.
20:40
But you know, this is also an example of how we place out in
20:43
the flesh. And to be honest, it's not as if
20:47
name is the best way to achieve rapport.
20:49
Honestly speaking, it's just because my name is Tavish Shima.
20:53
Not too many people are named Tavishima.
20:55
So right from primary school until today, I get that a lot.
21:04
Your name, are you Nigerian? What does that mean?
21:06
So for me, that's my only lazy way of just starting rapport.
21:08
I always start with the name and I always start with school.
21:12
I've not had to sell in any other part of the world, so I
21:16
don't know how I would have had to adjust this.
21:19
My lazy approach of using name and uni butcher, I start with
21:24
name and I start with uni, hasn't failed me since then.
21:27
But what we're trying to do is we're trying to build some
21:29
rapport, some commonality, get people to relax.
21:33
When they relax, they speak their mind.
21:35
You know who it is that you are dealing with, especially in this
21:40
situation where I'm interviewing somebody for a job role.
21:44
If I come all formal and correct, Shimash is formal and
21:46
correct. Look, she has been in sales.
21:48
Now she has been in sales. She will know how to BS the
21:51
whole situation. If I leave it on a nice put
21:54
together, a formal level, she will say all the right things
21:57
but forget how to relax. I can catch her and say, OK,
22:02
who's the real person? Who am I dealing with?
22:06
So we're going to talk a lot about what her role is going to
22:09
be in the new company. We got to discuss our opinions
22:17
around using personal social media for business sense.
22:21
It's something I discussed with people who are about to be hired
22:25
into a sales role because I think Nigerian salespeople don't
22:29
quite understand how to use social media to establish
22:36
thought leadership and why it's good for them.
22:40
Because I think most Nigerian salespeople, the way they think
22:43
is like this. Orga has paid me to work from
22:47
9:00 to 5:00. I will only work from 9:00 to
22:51
5:00 and I will do nothing extra.
22:55
My time is my time. August time is August time.
22:58
I'm not going to do anything to further Orga's career or Madam's
23:03
business beyond what I am contractually bound to do.
23:07
Now those of you who are Nigerian salespeople, you've,
23:10
you've got it all wrong. Yes, the things that you do are
23:13
going to influence Madam's business or Orga's career.
23:17
Yes. But The thing is for those of us
23:21
who are in sales, anything that we do that expands Orga and
23:26
Madam's business also expands us as well.
23:30
If I come in as a salesperson and I'm working in one business,
23:35
before I came, the business was doing maybe 10 million every
23:39
year. By the time I'm leaving the
23:42
business in two years, the business is doing 12 million or
23:45
13 million. I know some of you say that is
23:47
small. It is still something I leave
23:50
with a certain air of confidence that I did, that.
23:53
I came in, I saw, I conquered, I was able to move them from this
23:59
level to this level, no matter how small.
24:01
There's a certain kind of confidence that comes with that
24:04
and there's a certain kind of reputation that comes with that
24:06
as well. So even though it's a small
24:07
something, anybody who will meet your guy, your guy will be able
24:12
to say nice things about you that this guy is a correct guy,
24:15
this babe is a correct babe. And so because of that, lots of
24:18
Nigerian salespeople, as far as they're concerned, my social
24:20
media is my social media. I don't have anything have
24:23
anything to do with orgas business.
24:28
So I'm trying to correct some impressions that let sales
24:31
people know that look, it's it's not like that.
24:32
Yes, so social media is a social media, but The thing is you're a
24:35
sales person. So you need to be able to get
24:38
into the habit of establishing, establishing thought leadership
24:42
and establishing notoriety around your discipline so that
24:46
when people think of that thing, they call you first.
24:49
So for my client who is in solar, the last set of sales
24:52
people is something I used to tell them that look, you don't
24:54
even have to call or gas company name, but you just want to set
24:58
up your social media in such a way that people understand that
25:02
when it comes to solar installations in Lagos, you are
25:05
the guy or you are the girl. So that anytime any of your
25:08
friends, any of your uncles, any of your church people, any of
25:12
your whatever, anybody who is following your Instagram on, on,
25:15
on WhatsApp, on LinkedIn or whatever, whenever they think
25:18
solar, they will think of you and then they will call you.
25:21
Yes, of course, if they call you, most of the profit will go
25:24
to your Olga, but you're building thought leadership for
25:29
yourself in this certain space. So no need to be calling your
25:33
gas company all the time, but establish some thought
25:35
leadership for yourself. By the time you are moving from
25:40
one solar company to another company or even if you're
25:43
changing industries altogether, the people that they're hiring,
25:48
that are hiring you, they're even if they don't know
25:53
yourself, you know that me, I'm a one man Royal Squad, me as a
26:00
babe, I'm a mover and I'm a shaker because I've I've seen
26:05
it, I've done it. So when it comes to using your
26:10
social media for these purposes, don't think what I'm doing is
26:13
I'm building another person's business.
26:14
I'm building another person's career.
26:16
No, you're establishing thought leadership for yourself.
26:20
You're becoming a very capable individual.
26:25
You're becoming a solid asset. You're becoming lethal when it
26:30
when it comes to business. So go ahead and do this.
26:34
Go ahead, please. I'm begging you, those of us who
26:37
are involved in sales, maybe don't call or gas company, don't
26:44
call Madam's company by name, but promote your subject matter
26:50
expertise. You don't want to promote your
26:52
or gas company, No problem. Don't promote or gas company,
26:55
but promote your subject matter expertise so that whenever
26:58
people call the subject, they thank you as what we're trying
27:03
to achieve. So we spoke about that.
27:06
Then we also want to talk about what she had in mind coming into
27:10
the company and she had really, really some really interesting
27:13
ideas about selling solar, but selling solar strictly to a
27:19
business, to business audience and corporate space basically.
27:22
And I was glad to hear that because my client, that is part
27:25
of the focus that they've been trying to achieve.
27:28
And now for those of you who listen to the podcast where I
27:31
talk about ICP, you can hear about, you can hear now how this
27:36
is not just this is not just a theory, this is practical talk.
27:42
The ICP means the ideal customer profile.
27:45
Now the ideal customer profile, the way I like to describe it,
27:48
because some people say ideal customer profile and it means
27:51
who do you want to work with? It's not just a matter of who do
27:54
you want to work with. Look at your trading history.
27:57
Who have you worked with in the past that was easy to work with,
28:00
that paid you well, that paid you on time, that, you know,
28:04
gave you good vibes and you know, yeah, it will be a nice
28:08
idea to work with some of these people.
28:10
And unfortunately, whether we like it or not, there are some
28:15
there's some industries that corporations are harder to break
28:17
into. Boy, you break into it is worth
28:20
is worth a hassle. So I remember back when I was in
28:23
the event space, one of my video guys was always telling me that
28:25
look, Tavishma, you're good at this, but you're wasting too
28:28
much time with all these all these all these private job,
28:33
what would they do? You're wasting time.
28:35
The less focused on corporate, I didn't quite get it, but after I
28:39
started doing documentaries for NGOs, I it kind of made sense.
28:45
It is hard to break in, but once you break in, the corporation
28:49
will pay you well. So every single time they call
28:53
you, you know that is good money.
28:54
You know, it's not just a schedule, it's not just a
28:57
change. So this whole thing of ICP is
29:01
real. Who's our ideal customer
29:04
profile? Who are we going to be chasing?
29:06
Are we going to be chasing individuals in Lagos, high net
29:09
worth individuals who can afford systems of between, you know, 20
29:14
or 30 million? Or are we going to be looking at
29:19
corporations? Are we going to be looking at
29:21
corporations in Nigeria involved in this industry or that
29:26
industry? And you know, every single time
29:30
they call us or they refer us to somebody else, you know, it's
29:32
going to be installations. That is not just 40 million or
29:37
50 million, but we're now talking hundreds of millions.
29:43
So this question of ICP, who's your ideal customer, your your
29:49
target audience, your ideal customer profile, your customer
29:52
avatar, it's not just theory. This is a real thing.
29:55
It's real and when you can decide, it has ramifications
29:59
for, you know, how much money you could potentially make.
30:01
So it was nice to hear that this girl, this young lady was coming
30:06
in with some ideas of her own. By the way, for those of you who
30:10
say they don't call you back after interview, can you hear
30:13
how you make an impression during interviews?
30:17
Can you hear the babe never enter?
30:21
She's already saying when I enter, this is what I plan to
30:25
do. And this is how.
30:32
Anyway, for those of you who steal the framework, I'm hoping
30:37
that her example is teaching people about how to handle the
30:40
whole process. So and so we weren't able to
30:46
talk for too long because we had this conversation for about 45
30:49
minutes, maybe one hour. But we decided we'll talk again
30:54
because I need to talk some more about this whole thing of being
30:58
a sales manager, because being a sales manager comes with some
31:01
particular stress. I need to know the size of the
31:04
teams that she has worked with before and how she handled when
31:08
the company missed their deadlines.
31:10
And I told her, look, you know what I would have to discuss if
31:13
she said yes, I said good, because you've been responsible
31:16
for other people's performance before.
31:17
She said yes, she'd be responsible for a team of four
31:20
at some point. So I said because of that, you
31:23
know that it's not a matter of if it happens, it's a matter of
31:29
when it happens. When you're a sales manager,
31:32
there are times when performance is good as you're going up, and
31:36
sometimes when performance is flat as you just this table and
31:40
sometimes when performance is going down.
31:44
So it's not a matter of if it will happen, it's a matter of
31:47
when things just go up. Things just go down.
31:50
Sometimes you are performing level.
31:54
Then the president will come in and announce that no more fuel
31:57
subsidy. Then the economy will now crash.
31:59
Yeah, But as the economy is crashing, your performance is
32:01
steel level if your level but the economy is crashing, what's
32:04
happening now is the same as if everything is going down.
32:08
So it's just one of those things, up, down, up, down, up,
32:10
down. So the next conversation I'm
32:12
going to have with her is next set of conversations we're going
32:16
to have is now that you know that things go up and down and
32:19
in your previous company things are going up and down.
32:21
How did you handle when things were going up and down?
32:24
What was the plan? And then when you move forward
32:27
to now start working with this my customer and the things are
32:30
going up and down. What is the plan for when things
32:33
are going down? Because when things are going
32:37
up, you know, it's easy, everybody's happy, everything
32:39
good, everything is sweet, everything is smooth.
32:42
When things are going down, what's the plan?
32:44
So that's going to be our next conversation.
32:47
But like I said, me sharing, talking about Wonder Woman and
32:50
her CV and her past experience, it's not as if there's anything
32:53
in particular that I just wanted to let you people know.
32:55
But I wanted to illustrate a couple of things.
32:58
So employers, don't worry. Yes, lots of the people who are
33:03
graduating from Nigerian universities are crap.
33:05
I agree. People that cannot even spell
33:07
their own name. But there are still people in
33:10
the Nigerian market, the way you see them, I interact with them,
33:13
you're like good choice candidate.
33:17
So no foreign degree, no Harvard degree, no Oxford degree, no
33:23
nothing, no fancy degrees. Well, by the time you handle
33:26
them in a conversation, you say you know that this is premium
33:30
product you're looking at. So employers, it's hard, but
33:35
don't be afraid. We still have premium product in
33:38
the market. Premium, premium, premium
33:40
product. Then I also wanted to say that
33:47
ladies, I think sales and business development is a good
33:50
field to enter inside because there's no lady that I know who
33:57
is in sales that has told me that my rationale is wrong.
34:01
But the best thing about being in sales and business
34:03
development is nobody can say your success is not your own.
34:10
If you work in a corporation, you're an employee.
34:12
People can say, hey, you're August daughter or you know
34:15
somebody, or maybe you're doing runs.
34:17
When it comes to sales, nobody can accuse you of being of doing
34:20
runs because realistically speaking, how much runs can you
34:23
do even if you close one deal because you do you.
34:28
Did you know how many deals can you close like that?
34:32
How many the only one human being?
34:34
How many times will you be doing nothing?
34:39
So when you see a saleswoman who is on the move and she's, you
34:45
know, she's prospering, the only thing we can do is just clap for
34:48
her. Those I don't like you do
34:49
squeeze face. But nobody can deny that your
34:51
progress is your progress, that your wins are your wins.
34:55
Nobody can take it away from you.
34:59
When I said it, there's one sales lady who's been in tech,
35:02
she's a sales executive, she's been in tech.
35:04
So I think like 5-6 years. She agreed that she said yeah,
35:07
that that's the thing she likes about her job.
35:09
Now. Nobody can come and tell her
35:11
nonsense. If she has done it, she has done
35:13
it. You can't, you can't tell her
35:16
rubbish. This is the deal is here.
35:19
The thing closed. Everything went like I said is
35:22
here, we've collected money, I performed, I performed, I
35:26
performed. You can't say nothing and I
35:30
think that's one of the best reasons why, even if you don't
35:34
remain in sales, it's a reason to try it out.
35:39
Just try it and taste it for a while.
35:43
You know, 8 months, one year, 1 1/2 year, 2 years.
35:47
Just try it and see. Another reason why I say young
35:51
ladies try it is because you get to learn lots of skills that are
35:54
going to transfer well into other spheres.
35:59
So like this lady now, Wonder Woman, she's still on the
36:05
youngish side. She hasn't even reached 27 yet,
36:12
but already she's learning how to put herself in certain kinds
36:15
of contexts, certain kinds of fields, talk to certain kinds of
36:20
people from different ages, young or old.
36:27
She has to learn presentation skills.
36:30
She has to learn confidence. She has to learn elocution.
36:34
She has to learn public speaking.
36:37
She has to learn sales. She has to learn negotiation.
36:40
She has to learn, you know, you understand what I'm saying?
36:45
All these soft, soft, soft skills that they don't teach us
36:47
in primary school or secondary school or university.
36:52
She has to learn it. Very good skills, very good
36:56
skills. Anyway, let me bring it to a
37:00
close here. So like I said, if you'd love to
37:05
connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or
37:07
WhatsApp message on 08064662140 when you get in touch.
37:14
Please do not send me any CVS. I do not do this.
37:19
I don't do this professionally. I do not have a background in
37:23
human resources. My professional background is in
37:28
sales, at least, you know, in an academic sense.
37:32
Then after that, my vocational background, sorry, my
37:36
professional background, Abby, how do I put it?
37:40
My academic background, sorry, is in law or my professional
37:43
background now is in sales. So I only do this for my friends
37:49
or for my clients. And remember, my client is
37:51
anybody who has given me money. My friend is anybody who has
37:54
given me money. If you haven't given me money
37:56
before, you are not my friend. You are my acquaintance.
37:59
I will not deny you, but I won't call you my friend.
38:03
But once you give me money, yes, we are friends.
38:05
So this is just something that I do for my friends.
38:07
So don't reach out to me saying I'm trying to hire somebody, you
38:10
know, blah, blah, blah. Want to talk to human resources
38:12
professional. If you give me money, oh, that's
38:14
a different thing, I guess. Then we can talk as friends.
38:18
So if you have questions, you have comments, you have queries,
38:21
reach out to me, I'd like to hear from you.
38:22
I've already given the WhatsApp number and then you can also
38:26
find me on LinkedIn. Also, I've noticed that lots of
38:30
business people suffer because they have 3456 ideas.
38:34
They're not making a single couple from each.
38:36
Because of that, they're not making progress in their
38:39
business. So I put together a coaching
38:41
package that is meant to solve that particular problem.
38:44
Especially since 2026. We are through with January.
38:49
And one of the complaints that I've gotten a lot was from
38:53
people who reach out to listen to the show.
38:55
They love the show, but then they have a problem.
38:57
They have lots of talents, they have lots of skills.
39:01
They have lots of this. They have lots of interest.
39:04
They don't know which business they want to start.
39:08
Excuse me. So if you're one of those
39:09
people, then reach out so that we can figure out how to start
39:12
your business in three easy steps.
39:14
Number one, we're going to select the right idea for you #2
39:19
we're going to make sure that we validate that idea to make sure
39:22
that there's market demand for the idea that people are willing
39:26
to pay for it, and enough people are willing to pay for it so
39:30
that it makes sense to continue. And then after that, we're going
39:33
to build a selling system. Because when I was talking about
39:37
Wonder Woman, and I said that Wonder Woman is good at client
39:40
retention. And we spoke about her
39:42
philosophy of client retention and how she was helping former
39:45
Olga achieved client retention. We spoke about how the real
39:48
money comes not because you collected millions from somebody
39:52
one time, but because you collect big money from somebody
39:56
today and then you get the person to come and buy from you
39:59
over and over again. That's where the good money
40:02
comes from. The over and the over again
40:04
part, especially if they send. Other people to you, their
40:08
friends, their colleagues, their family members, even if they
40:11
send their enemies, so long as they are sending people to us
40:14
and everybody who comes is buying again, that is where the
40:17
sweet money comes from. The reason why that money is
40:19
sweet is because it's not money that you work for per SE.
40:22
You just wake up and the money is there.
40:23
And believe me, it is sweet when you wake up in the morning and
40:26
you have plans to go this way and then somebody calls you and
40:29
the person says, oh boy, how far was that your account detail
40:31
again, I want us to do so, so and so.
40:33
That one is sweet money. I didn't chase it.
40:37
I just woke up and then, you know, the thing just came
40:40
straight to me. So that's going to be the focus.
40:44
Pick the right idea, ensure that this market demand and then
40:47
build a selling system around it.
40:50
So that's it. Thank you very much everyone for
40:53
listening. If this is your first time
40:54
listening to the podcast episode, Oh, sorry about the
40:57
nose, the noise, you know, coming in the boom, boom, boom.
41:00
That's because my neighbors are moving into the banking and
41:03
hammering and all of that. So where was I?
41:10
Okay, yeah, that's all. Well, hey, those of you who are
41:12
new, please subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any
41:16
player of your choice. So thank you very much for your
41:17
time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
41:20
time.