Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / NYSC to Entrepreneur: How Cynthia Found Her Voice and Clients

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NYSC to Entrepreneur: How Cynthia Found Her Voice and Clients · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:00
Hello and welcome to the show. I'm out and about, so there's
0:05
going to be some interruptions in the background, so apologies
0:07
for that. Now today, I want to share a
0:09
conversation that I had with a listener of the show.
0:12
I want to call her Cynthia Rothrock, but of course that is
0:15
not her real name. And I'm going to share you some
0:19
stuff that we spoke about. Let me see basically all the
0:24
good stuff that has come away with her listening to the
0:27
podcast because you know, from episode to episode, I mentioned
0:30
to you guys about how the whole point of this thing is supposed
0:34
to be a free resource. So every not everyone needs to
0:37
come to me for a paid consultation.
0:39
You can just listen to the podcast episodes and then make a
0:42
note of one or two specific things that you can try out,
0:45
take action the next day and see the difference that is going to
0:48
make in your business. And so it was nice to come
0:52
across someone who is actually doing that and who reached out
0:56
to say I've been listening and these are the benefits.
0:59
So that's what we're going to be exploring today.
1:01
Now, the reason why I'm calling her Cynthia Rothrock is because
1:05
I want to prove what's that word protect, Yes, protect her
1:09
identity because I don't have permission to talk about her,
1:13
you know, with her real name and then all of that.
1:16
And also because this young lady reminds me of a very old female
1:23
action style. Yeah, let me.
1:26
It's a female action star from the 80s.
1:28
And her name was Cynthia Rothrock.
1:30
Now, for those of you who are a similar age like I am, and then
1:34
you remember her, Cynthia Rothrock as a female martial
1:38
artist was a champion from 1981 to, I think, 1985.
1:42
And she acted in this movie, No Retreat, No Surrender.
1:44
And man, that movie really reigned when I was in primary
1:47
school. Everybody was talking about no
1:49
retreat, no surrender. And yeah.
1:51
So the reason why I'm calling her Cynthia Rothrock is because
1:54
the lady that I had this conversation with has the same
1:57
fighting spirit. You know, she refused to be
1:59
deterred and she refused. She refused to be deterred in
2:03
her business. Let's just put it that way.
2:05
Anyway, for those of you who would like to connect with me
2:07
for a strategy session, for a business audit or you have
2:11
questions that you want me to answer, the phone number is
2:13
08064662140. The country code is +234.
2:19
For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me
2:22
on LinkedIn. The name to look for is
2:25
Tavishimaidi. I have a YouTube channel and
2:28
it's under the same name as well.
2:30
Now this listener of the show has been listening on Spotify.
2:34
She reached out to me on WhatsApp and her business is she
2:40
registers business name, she registers business entities.
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So she's a sort of service professional that if you want to
2:46
register your business, you go to her.
2:48
If you have an NGO, you want to register your NGO, you go to
2:50
her, you're trying to figure out a business name, you know, stuff
2:54
like that. You want to know what names are
2:55
available so that you can register.
2:57
You go to her, she's going to liaise with the CAC.
3:00
That's the Corporate Affairs Commission.
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They have the body that is responsible for registering all
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businesses in Nigeria, all businesses, all charities.
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So that's the business that this young lady is involved in.
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She just, she's an interface between you and the CAC for when
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you want to register your business name, register your
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business entities. So like I said, this lady
3:23
Cynthia, not her real name, of course.
3:26
So Cynthia said when she reached out to me, she said that
3:29
listening to the podcast has caused improvements in her
3:32
business. And of course, I wanted some
3:33
more details. Now this is the 411.
3:36
Now Cynthia and I have a couple of things in common because she
3:40
read law. And of course, you've been
3:42
listening to the podcast for a while.
3:43
You know that. Yeah, my first background was in
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law. So she read law.
3:47
She's currently doing her NYC. I'm waiting for the call to bar
3:51
now. Call to buy is a ceremony where
3:53
we get enrolled in the Supreme Court and that is what gives us
3:57
the license so that we can practice as baby lawyers.
4:01
Well, when I finished law school back then, a baby lawyer was
4:06
just anybody who is, you know, fresh, fresh mint.
4:08
You know, you've just finished your law degree and you can now
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practice law. So, you know, people would call
4:13
us baby lawyers. So I'm call to buy is a ceremony
4:16
that we go through that makes us baby lawyers.
4:19
And for those of you who have heard the rumors in Nigeria, I
4:22
want to tell you that the rumors are not correct.
4:25
The call to bar ceremony is not a secret cult ceremony.
4:30
They are not enrolling us in a Bony cult.
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Yes, we all wear black and we all wear white and we all, so we
4:37
wear the white shirts and we wear the black gowns and we wear
4:41
the funny wigs. But they are not inducting us
4:44
into a Bony cult. The food that we eat in the call
4:47
to bar ceremony is the normal food that everybody eats.
4:50
So this is not a secret cult. No, I'm not a member of Oboni.
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Cynthia is also not a member of Oboni secret cult or any other
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secret cult. When we're entering into the
5:01
call to bar thing, we don't walk backwards.
5:03
We don't take any spiritual pledges, you know, none of that.
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And I don't know where people get all these funny stories
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from. So just to let you know that if
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your younger brother, your son, your mom, your auntie, your
5:16
sister, your dad, whoever wants to study Lord, don't worry, they
5:19
are not going to get initiated into a secret cult.
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There's no secret cult. Yes, there's plenty of fanfare
5:24
and some of it looks ridiculous, especially from a Nigerian
5:27
perspective. You're going to wonder why are
5:29
we wearing this huge gowns, you know, in the, in the heat and
5:33
then the funny wigs and all of that.
5:35
So yes, it looks ridiculous, but don't worry, there's nothing
5:38
sinister going on, nothing devilish.
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So Cynthia and I were basically were basically one and the same.
5:46
You know, we are professional colleagues.
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Then initially when she started her business, she was trying to
5:51
grow her business by publicizing it from the WhatsApp status.
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Now, this is something that I've said on the show, especially for
5:58
those of you who are afraid of selling, that this is a
6:00
problematic way of trying to grow your business by relying on
6:03
posting. Now, there's no problem when it
6:06
comes to certain kinds of business to grow it by posting.
6:09
But The thing is, if you are a service provider, let's say you
6:12
sell insurance or you're selling legal services or you're selling
6:16
consulting services or something like that, trying to post your
6:19
way to success is it's, it's possible.
6:23
It's just that it will take a very long time.
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The reason why is because there's a limit to how much
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people can get to know you as a service provider or like you as
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a service provider or trust you as a service provider when it
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comes to posting. So for those of you who insist
6:40
that you don't want to talk to anybody and you want to grow
6:42
your business from just public publicizing it, posting it on
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WhatsApp status, I mean, yeah, by all means, go ahead.
6:48
Just know that it will take forever.
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You cannot post your way to success as a lawyer or as a
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consultant or as a let me see what else?
6:58
As a medical doctor, as an accountant, you know, services,
7:02
services, services. As an architect, you cannot post
7:05
your way to success. You can't just can't happen.
7:09
Now for things that are goods, that is a different matter
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altogether. So if I enter into the business
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of selling baby diapers now, because I don't know how much
7:18
diapers are now, my guess is it's probably expensive.
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Because when I, when my wife and I, when we had our first born
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and even back then, people used to, you know, tell us that we
7:29
were being fancy, that we only buy foreign products.
7:31
You know, back then, a packet of Huggies, Huggies diapers that
7:35
will last for the whole month. And back then, my boy used to
7:38
poop like crazy. Like my boy used to poop like
7:41
3-4 times every day. And, you know, as the doctor,
7:43
like doctor, is this normal? Like this boy poops anyhow.
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And the doctor was like, yeah, it's normal.
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And that's how babies poop now. Some babies even poop more now.
7:51
Some babies poop and soil themselves up to like 6-8 times
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a day, you know. But me, I was a new father at
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the time. For me, I was worried.
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I was like, what kind of rubbish is this?
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Now this guy is just pooping anyhow.
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So even with all the pooping that my son used to do, a pack
8:03
of hockey then was 7K7000 naira. And back then people used to
8:07
laugh at me like, ah, you're feeling as if your baby is
8:09
special. I'd be, you can't buy local
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diapers. I'd be, you know, blah, blah,
8:12
blah, blah. So back then was 7000 naira.
8:16
So I can imagine right now it must cost a whole lot more.
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I won't be surprised. Anyway, let me not guess here
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and give you guys wrong information.
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But let me just say diapers are expensive.
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So if let me just say right now, let me just guess that maybe not
8:29
a packet of Huggies, the expensive ones is maybe 50K now
8:34
to buy the whole pack for the month.
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Now let's say I start that kind of business now I am importing
8:39
the Huggies diapers. But because I have some good
8:41
connects, maybe I'm getting the diapers at 40K per pack and then
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maybe I'll sell it at maybe like 45.
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You know, the average person on the street door feel as if or
8:52
OK, if they're buying from me from 45, they're saving like
8:54
5K5K. Doesn't look like much.
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But The thing is when you have a brand new baby and you're saving
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5K, you know, 5K this month, 5K enough amongst 55555, you know,
9:03
eventually that's much more 5K, you know, adds up.
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Now for that kind of business, you can post your way to success
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because it's relatively straightforward.
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Somebody will see that oh, this person has Huggies diapers in
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the market. It costs 60K but this guy saying
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it's 45 K, that kind of thing can move fast.
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People who just, you know, send your phone number here, somebody
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will call you. I saw the post blah blah blah.
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Is this correct? Is it genuine?
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Okay, how can we see? I want to see and be sure that
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is the authentic something, you know, so when it comes to
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selling products, you can post your way to success.
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But for those of you who are service professionals, you just
9:39
finished call to bar, you just finished your medical, maybe you
9:44
went to School of Medicine and dentistry and things like that.
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You know, you just passed your qualification exam for
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accounting for everything. When it comes to those sorts of
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professions, you can't post your way to success.
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Sorry. One moment I need to wind down
9:58
the car window. So it's going to get loud here
10:01
all of a sudden. OK, sorry about that.
10:05
As you leave the radio on when I'm driving, I'm one of those
10:09
people who can't drive with silence.
10:12
If not, I fall asleep. And of course, that'll be
10:15
terrible because if I fall asleep and I die, then you guys
10:18
don't have this podcast anymore. And what was I?
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So I was just trying to tell you how those of you who are trying
10:23
to grow your businesses by WhatsApp posting, it depends on
10:26
what you do. For some things is not possible.
10:28
So for babies, so for commodities, for goods, yes, If
10:32
I'm in the yam business and I'm saying that I'm getting yam from
10:34
Benway State and I'm getting 5 tubers for 10K because yam in
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Abuja is expensive. One tuber will cost you
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anything, you know, maybe like maybe 4K.
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There's one point I bought 1 tuber for 55.
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So you know, it's expensive. So first I'm selling Benwi 5
10:54
tuber for 10K, you know that kind of thing.
10:56
Yeah, you can you can use WhatsApp status and you can get
10:59
your business to grow the same thing.
11:02
Let's see, OK, maybe like human hair.
11:04
And so if I said how authentic human hair, 56 inches, you know,
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blah, blah, blah. From Singapore, from UK, from
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Hungary, from Bangladesh, from this dot dot dot.
11:13
And it's only, you know, 465 K. You know, somebody might say
11:19
O465K Oh, that's a deal. Because if you go to so so you
11:22
actually buy for maybe 610,000 or something.
11:26
So for those kinds of businesses, when it comes to
11:29
products, yes, you can post your way to success.
11:31
But if you're a service provider like Cynthia Rothrock, you're
11:35
selling registration for business entities.
11:39
Stop deceiving yourself. You cannot grow your business by
11:42
WhatsApp posting. If it works, prepare to post for
11:46
maybe like a year before you start getting business.
11:48
Anyway, eventually she marshy figured it out by herself.
11:52
So she started looking for avenues.
11:54
Then she started an Instagram handle.
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And I say that it's very, very good because even if we're going
11:59
the posting routes, you know, of course, the more avenues we
12:01
have, the better. So, but eventually you run into
12:05
the same problem. For those of us who are service
12:08
providers, remember, if you sell goods, it is different.
12:12
So if I'm selling human hair and I open up an Instagram page, it
12:17
is different. I actually can succeed selling
12:20
human hair on Instagram and Instagram alone because it is a
12:24
product. It's a different thing.
12:25
Somebody can call me up to say, oh, I saw that you're selling
12:29
your Bangladesh 54 inches for 300K.
12:32
Is that through? Is it authentic also?
12:34
Yes, it is authentic. My supplier, I know them blah.
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I go to Lagos. I cleared myself.
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My shop is at B. So so so and so Fr Plaza, if you
12:43
want to come in and look at samples, come in.
12:45
We're open Monday to Friday this time to that time.
12:48
So you know nothing. You can make it work, but you're
12:50
an architect and you're trying to post your way to success on
12:53
Instagram. Don't think you're going to grow
12:58
your business like that in the short term.
13:01
So let's see what else any then let me see.
13:07
OK, open the Instagram. So I made some notes.
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Then eventually she started getting some customers, but then
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she ran into her first business problem.
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Although in my own opinion, I didn't tell her that I think
13:19
it's a business problem because it actually is a good thing.
13:22
So excuse me. So sometimes some of these
13:24
things are matter of perspective.
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So her first problem was this. After a while, she realized that
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it was the same people coming back over and over again that
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she was doing business with, so she needed some new customers.
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So in a way, yes, it's a business problem because you
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always need new people in the pipeline.
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The reason why I need new people in the pipeline is because of
13:42
this thing called attrition. Attrition just means the number
13:46
of people who stopped doing business with you.
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And attrition or fallout or fall away or whatever it is it's
13:52
called, happens for different reasons.
13:54
The main reasons are #1 people die.
13:57
It's unfortunate, but yes, some of our customers will die.
14:00
I don't mean to sound more of it, but you know, even for me,
14:04
unfortunately, and it's very, very sad.
14:08
I've already started hearing all some of those things, you know,
14:10
couples that are covered their weddings.
14:11
I know one of them. I called the bride and you know,
14:14
she didn't answer. So I sent a message.
14:16
I was like, oh, how you doing now?
14:17
How so? So, so, and then she just
14:19
responded, you know, he's dead and you know, it's shocking, but
14:23
honestly just a fact of life. So that's, you know, attrition
14:26
#1 people die. Number two people move.
14:30
And that has also happened to me plenty.
14:33
There are people that you don't business with.
14:35
You call them up. You want to say what's up?
14:37
And I say, oh, sorry, I was, I was working.
14:39
I'd work how he said, oh, I'm no longer in Nigeria.
14:42
I'm now in Canada. We are 7 hours ahead.
14:44
I'd be about 7 hours behind, you know, that kind of thing.
14:46
So some of your customers will move and then sometimes it's
14:50
just because people's preferences or people's
14:53
situations, people's circumstances change.
14:56
So back to the human hair thing. Maybe you're selling human hair.
14:59
You have one very good client. She's buying 46 inches, 56
15:03
inches, 102 inches this week, this, whatever.
15:06
She's buying every single thing from you.
15:09
But then one day she wakes up and she becomes born again and
15:11
then she's only doing Maria Maka hairstyle.
15:13
And because of that, she's no longer buying human hair.
15:15
You know, that is attrition as well.
15:17
She was your best customer. But now she has seen the Lord.
15:20
Her eyes are open and she has seen the Lord.
15:21
And she's no longer a part of this world.
15:23
She's no longer in the material universe.
15:25
And so, you know, she'd rather take her money now and help
15:29
motherless babies instead of buying human hair.
15:31
So those sorts of things happen. Your best customer needs can
15:34
change, circumstances can change, preferences can change.
15:37
So those are what we call attrition now.
15:40
Because of attrition, we always need new people in the pipeline
15:43
because if you're relying on the same old people over and over
15:45
again, one of them dies, ten of them move to Canada, three of
15:49
them become born again and the remaining change their
15:52
preferences. Now what are you going to do?
15:54
You're screwed. The outside running, I'm trying
15:57
to look for new customers all over again.
15:58
So in a sense she was thinking very well by saying that Kai,
16:02
there's a problem. The same set of people are
16:04
coming over and over and over again, so I need to change.
16:06
And so yes, with that she was correct.
16:09
But The thing is this, if you have a high rate of returning
16:12
customers, my brother, my sister, let me tell you, it
16:16
actually is a good thing. Because when people keep coming
16:18
back and back and back, it means that you have super UIUXCX, you
16:23
know, customer experience. That's what CX means.
16:26
So it means that user experience is very, very good if you're one
16:30
of those people who produces an app or some software or
16:32
something. So it means the user experience
16:34
is very good. It means your customer
16:37
experience is very, very good. It means your customer service
16:42
is very, very good. It means your product is of high
16:44
quality. So it actually is a good thing.
16:47
If in 2024 you did business with maybe 105 people and then now in
16:54
2025, you know 100 or 3 or 100 and three of them show up again,
16:58
it is a very good thing. And clap for yourself.
17:01
So yes, if you're having repeat people come over and over and
17:05
over again, first of all, clap for yourself.
17:06
It means that you are doing a lot right.
17:10
Then with the knowledge that you're doing a lot right, you
17:12
can now start looking for how to get new customers into the
17:14
business. So I didn't tell her that
17:16
actually the sense is a business problem in the sense it's not
17:19
really a business problem. But either way, Cynthia
17:21
Rothrock, you know, clap for yourself.
17:23
So the next thing now she said, OK, she wants to go and look for
17:27
somebody who is doing this business, the exact same
17:30
business, but better than her, and so that she can pay for
17:33
mentorship. And with that, you can see the
17:35
reason why I'm I'm calling this young lady Cynthia Rothrock,
17:38
because she has a fighting spirit.
17:40
She realizes that this is the problem.
17:41
And then she figures out, OK, what can I do next?
17:43
And then she will try, what can I do next?
17:45
And then she will try, what can I do next?
17:46
And then she will try. Unlike most people who they
17:50
start something and then you call them six months later, I
17:53
say, oh boy, how far now is your business?
17:55
I'm back in that business. I'm no longer in in wedding
17:58
photography again. Now I'm doing crypto.
18:00
I say, hey, crypto, OK, no problem.
18:02
And then you call them in six months and I say, oh boy, how
18:03
far and half hour the crypto market saying that crypto, I beg
18:06
forget. I've started doing government
18:08
contracting. It's OK, no problem.
18:10
And then you call them six months later and they say, well,
18:13
fine. Oh no, I'm no longer doing
18:14
government contracting. I want to run for Senate.
18:16
You know, you know, there are people like that show you start
18:19
one thing and then any reason you just want to fail and then
18:21
you want to look for something else.
18:23
But she she's hanging in there. This is a problem.
18:25
How can I overcome it? So next thing she tried to look
18:28
for paid mentorship. She found this senior colleague.
18:31
That's what we call our seniors, you know, in law.
18:34
So if I graduate in 20, let's say I graduated in, I graduate
18:38
itself. OK, Let me not say when I
18:41
graduated. So you can get you guys don't
18:42
think I'm old. Or basically, if somebody
18:44
graduates in the year 2020 and you meet somebody who graduates
18:48
in the year 2026, you call that person my Leonard colleague.
18:51
You know, because that person is your senior.
18:54
Sorry, Leonard senior. Yes, you guys are Leonard
18:56
colleagues and then the person is your Leonard senior.
18:58
So she found Leonard senior and I approached her and said my
19:03
senior, like, I see what you're doing.
19:05
I really admire what you do. I want to grow my business to
19:09
your level. So please, senior, will you
19:12
mentor me and I will pay you for this mentorship.
19:14
And then the woman said no and she didn't give any reason.
19:19
So I expect to see the rough rock that well, sometimes people
19:22
say no because they don't want to build the competition, you
19:25
know, and in my own opinion, Sha, the world is the world is
19:31
abundant then put it that way. So me, I fear no competition
19:36
because some people ask me that all these things you're talking
19:38
about on the podcast, winter competition here and blah, blah,
19:40
blah, blah. Yes, they will.
19:41
But the truth of matter is this information is freely available
19:44
anyway. If they don't hear from you,
19:46
they will just hear from someplace else.
19:47
The world is abundant. You know, nobody can snatch my
19:50
market. You know, my market is my
19:52
market. Now, to be honest, if somebody
19:54
snatches my market, shame on me. It means I was not on point.
19:57
It means I didn't handle the sales conversation well.
20:01
It means I didn't do needs analysis well.
20:02
It means my relationship building is poor.
20:04
It means I'm not delivering my clients the results.
20:07
So nobody can steal my market. And if anybody steals my market,
20:11
shame on me. It means that I have stuff to do
20:13
to improve myself. But anyway, there's not
20:15
everybody that believes that. And please, I beg you people,
20:18
don't be afraid of competition, competition, competition.
20:21
Because The thing is, when you're trying to avoid
20:23
competition, you end up making yourself smaller.
20:25
You're shrinking the size of the available market.
20:28
And over the long term, it's really not good for you.
20:31
So take the mind set that prosperity is abundant, you
20:37
know, expand, expand into your prosperity, learn and grow into
20:40
your space. And don't worry about the
20:42
competition, You know, do the best you can.
20:44
You wake up every day, say the prayers, your prayers, God bless
20:47
the work of my hands. You enter the market, you know,
20:48
do your thing, you'll be fine. The competition, they'll be all
20:51
right yourself. You'll be all right, you'll be
20:54
all good. So maybe the lady refused to met
20:57
her because she's afraid of competition.
20:59
It's just one of those things. But I also told her that, you
21:01
know, some people say no to mentorship because they actually
21:04
don't know how to mentor because for some people it gives them a
21:08
headache trying to teach somebody something the person is
21:10
not learning or the person is talking back.
21:12
For me, if somebody talks back, I understand it means the person
21:14
has questions. We engage in dialogue.
21:16
But there's some people the only, look, I'm not who is
21:18
mentoring you, you don't know anything.
21:20
I'm the one who knows. So just shut up and listen and
21:22
do what I say. So those kind of people, they
21:24
don't enjoy mentorship scenarios.
21:26
So if you come and say, oh, big sis mentor me, they'll say,
21:29
Nope, I'm not mentoring. Then sometimes some people don't
21:32
mentor because they're swamped. They're busy.
21:35
They're busy with doing client work.
21:38
So like me, you know, I try to have conversations with as many
21:41
people as possible. But right now I've gotten to the
21:43
point where I'm not chasing anyone.
21:45
So you reach out to me. We have a good chat on WhatsApp.
21:48
And I say, yeah, sure, no problem.
21:49
I'll see if I can help you out. Let's have a conversation
21:51
tomorrow. You know, 8:30 in the morning.
21:55
If 830 comes and goes and you didn't call, I'm not going to,
21:57
I'm not going to chase you. I have a lot of things to do
21:59
with my time. So if you don't call at 8:30,
22:02
you know, that's that's your loss.
22:04
I gave you time, I gave you an appointment.
22:06
We even did the pre call thing where you send in your audio.
22:10
I listen to it. I have a fair idea of maybe a
22:12
couple of suggestions. But if you don't call on 830 by
22:14
830, you know, that's up to you because may also have other
22:17
things to do with my time. So some people don't like
22:20
chasing other people when it comes to mentorship and things
22:22
like that. Then some more people also don't
22:25
do mentorship because they lack interests or because they lack
22:29
the skill. So it's not always, if you run
22:31
into somebody and you say big sis, big bro, I better comment
22:34
on me and the person says no. It's not always that the person
22:37
is doing the art of wickedness. Sometimes they're too busy,
22:43
sometimes they don't have the skill, and sometimes for
22:46
whatever reason, they don't have the interest.
22:48
Now this is where Cynthia Rothrock discovered me.
22:52
She started looking for learning materials.
22:55
Let me check YouTube, let me check podcast, let me see what
22:58
learning resources are out there.
22:59
Unfortunately, she went into a problem that a whole bunch of
23:02
you run into. And that's the reason why I took
23:04
a gamble in starting this podcast, because it's possible
23:06
that nobody would have been interested in this kind of
23:08
content that I put out there, especially since all the other
23:11
broadcasts like the Honest Bunch, I said what I said
23:14
medicines, you know, they're talking about much more
23:16
interesting things, you know, like the millennial experience,
23:20
Nollywood gist, dating, supernatural stuff, what else,
23:25
You know, all kinds of juicy, juicy topics.
23:28
But my guess was that there was going to be someone like Cynthia
23:31
Rothrook who will be looking for business content and would only
23:33
find things from the American experience, you know, the
23:39
American culture. It's it's a nice way to learn
23:44
business principle. But The thing is, they have a
23:46
they're a different kind of economy.
23:49
They have a different kind of business experience and they're
23:51
fascinated with different kinds of things.
23:53
So if you're listening to American podcast, it's going to
23:56
be all about tech and IT and startups and stuff like that.
23:59
And you know, that's not bad. But The thing is in Nigeria, the
24:04
tech IT startup ecosystem, you know, is on the come up.
24:08
But most of us are not in that headspace.
24:11
And it's really hard listening to, if you're a beginner,
24:14
listening to someone who's talking about selling principles
24:18
and selling frameworks, but from the whole angle of let's become
24:21
Mark Zuckerberg and let's become Jack Bezos.
24:23
Sometimes it's hard to take some of that knowledge and then
24:25
distill it into the Nigerian experience, into Nigerian
24:29
culture and into the kinds of industries that we are involved
24:33
in. So those of you who have been
24:35
listening for the pod to the podcast for the last like 2
24:37
years, you remember the time when during Christmas I made the
24:40
catfish episodes about how you know what to do if you're going
24:43
to start a catfish business in Makudi.
24:46
There is no American podcast that is going to talk about
24:48
starting catfish business. You know, none because currently
24:52
they're all fascinated by all these big ideas.
24:55
You know, Bezos, Zuckerberg, this guy that bought Twitter,
25:00
what's his name? This guy that bought Twitter or
25:03
you now change the name to X, what is his name?
25:07
And I can't remember what the guy that sends spaceships up to
25:10
Mars. So, yeah, so that's the problem
25:13
now that Cynthia Rothrock came about.
25:17
And then one day she was just tired.
25:19
She said she's not looking for any more podcast.
25:21
So she just let me think to just play on Spotify and, you know,
25:24
Spotify does this randomizing thing.
25:25
So she was lucky that the next episode I picked happened to be
25:29
my own episode. And it was like this guy says is
25:32
you said hi, Oman. I, Joshua is a Nigerian.
25:36
And then that was it. That's how she discovered my
25:38
podcast. Now, the episode that she
25:40
happened to listen to, or rather the pivotal one for her, the
25:42
important one for her was not why I tried to distinguish
25:46
between advertising and promoting your businesses
25:49
aggressively or assertively. Because I run into, sorry, I'm
25:55
not picking on women, but I run into lots of women who are
25:59
worried about this thing. Am I too aggressive?
26:01
Am I too aggressive? Am I too aggressive?
26:04
My own opinion, You know, sisters, calm down.
26:06
You're worrying about too much stuff.
26:09
You're not being aggressive. And this is the key difference.
26:13
Aggressive people care only about themselves.
26:15
They don't care about the other person.
26:17
For you to have the frame of mind to ask my ask yourself now,
26:19
oh self, am I being too aggressive?
26:21
It shows that you have concern for the other party.
26:24
So clearly you are not aggressive.
26:28
Yes, it is a problem to enter into the sales process thinking
26:31
only about yourself and not worrying about what the other
26:33
person needs. That is a problem.
26:34
You turn lots of people off. You be too pushy.
26:38
Don't think you're AB word. I don't want to hang around you,
26:42
but for you to be asking these kinds of questions, clearly
26:44
you're not aggressive. Rather you are assertive.
26:48
You have something that you're trying to bring to the
26:49
marketplace. You know that other people
26:51
derive value from it, and you're just trying to talk to some
26:54
people about it. It's that simple.
26:57
People want to start businesses or charities, they don't know
27:00
how to start these businesses or charities.
27:02
You have gone to school for four years, you have the
27:05
undergraduate degree, law school for two years and you know some
27:09
of you have done masters one year.
27:10
You know that is 9 years of education.
27:13
You have the specialty, you have the, the, the skills, you have
27:17
the expertise. You're just trying to bring that
27:19
to the market. There's nothing being aggressive
27:21
there. That's just assertive business
27:23
behaviour. So when she listened to that
27:25
podcast episode, it gave her the confidence to not be shy and to
27:30
start talking to other people. The first thing she did was to
27:34
start talking about her business in WhatsApp groups.
27:38
Now, by the way, for those of you who are listening to the
27:40
show who are catching me for the first time, this is the reason
27:42
why I say that it's when you want to start networking or
27:49
whatever. Start with where you're
27:50
comfortable. Don't try and reach too high.
27:53
Start with where you're comfortable.
27:54
You get you, you get some confidence, then you move out.
27:57
So for her, remember how she had been posting on WhatsApp status
28:00
and everything. So if WhatsApp status is where
28:02
you're comfortable and WhatsApp groups start from there,
28:06
eventually you know your leg will be strong.
28:08
And maybe from there you enter Facebook groups.
28:10
Eventually your leg will be strong.
28:12
And who knows, one day you might think, let me try Chamber of
28:15
Commerce. You now go and go to over the
28:17
Chamber of Commerce or Lagos Chamber of Commerce or Abuja
28:20
Chamber of Commerce, whichever city that you're involved in or
28:23
maybe in, you might see in a way networking association or you
28:28
know something, just start with where you are, you'll be fine.
28:31
So she started talking about the WhatsApp groups and remember I
28:34
said that she's Cynthia Rothwell is currently doing her NYC.
28:39
So one day she said I should be talking to my NYC group and in
28:43
fact, I applaud her. There are some of you who are
28:46
currently doing NYC right now you're doing a business.
28:49
I don't know why you're not telling your core members that
28:51
this is what you do. When I was serving in Rano local
28:55
governments was a sharp Yoruba girl.
28:56
When she entered, of course none of us were happy to be there
28:59
because Rano is a local government that is like I think
29:04
it's like 4 hours away from Kano City is like in the middle of
29:07
nowhere, remain small. The place would become desert,
29:11
remaining small. But she she entered there and
29:15
she saw abundance, she saw prosperity.
29:17
She said, I can be taking tomatoes from here and I can be
29:20
taking. So was it onions?
29:22
I can't remember it was onions or tomatoes.
29:24
But basically she was taking stuff from Rando from there and
29:27
then sending to Lagos because that's where she was based.
29:31
And of course, she told all of us that that was the business
29:33
that she's involved in so that we can hook up, you know, back
29:38
in Lagos for those of us who are coming from Lagos.
29:41
So those of you who are serving now, can you please be having
29:44
small, small conversations? Let your NYC people know what
29:47
you're up to. People need to know who you are.
29:49
People need to know what you do. Get a sense of who you're
29:54
hanging around, what problems that they have.
29:56
You might be able to help them solve their personal problems,
29:58
their business problems with your product or your service.
30:02
Now this is where the the beautiful thing comes in for
30:04
Cynthia Rothrock. You know how I keep telling you
30:06
guys that when you go out there to protect yourself and also to
30:11
give yourself a go, decide that OK, I'll go and talk to five
30:14
people every day. You know, stuff like that is to
30:15
protect yourself. Because if you say I'm going to
30:17
talk to people today, you go out, you're enthusiastic, you
30:20
talk to 20 people tomorrow, you'll be tired.
30:22
You say, OK, let me rest Wednesday.
30:25
You say, OK, let me rest Thursday.
30:27
You remember how stressful it was?
30:29
You say, yeah, let me rest again.
30:30
Then maybe on Friday you go out and you talk to only 5 people.
30:33
That's not good. But if you say I'm going to go
30:35
and talk to 10 people every day you go out, you speak to 10
30:37
people, You, you hit your ten people, go back home Tuesday, 10
30:41
people go back home Wednesday, go back home.
30:44
So if you do it steady like that, you'll find that in the
30:47
first week you'd have spoken to what did I say?
30:49
I said 10, I'll be 10 times size 50.
30:52
You have spoken to 50 people in a week and you'd have spoken to,
30:56
I was like, is that 202 hundred people in a month?
31:00
So you see how you can make progress by just doing small,
31:02
small, small, small, small. Instead of waking up one day
31:05
motivated, you go, you feel like you're going to move the whole
31:08
world and then you feel tired and then you collapse.
31:12
So she gave herself a target and eventually she was able to talk
31:14
to 50 people. Out of the 50 people, she was
31:17
able to get 2 referrals. That's not direct business, but
31:20
people who say, oh, OK, my cousin, my sister, my mother, my
31:23
auntie, my brother, my boyfriend, my, this person, my
31:26
that person is interested, let me hand over your phone number.
31:28
And then that's how she got two bits of business from that.
31:31
So she spoke to 50 people and then she got 2 referrals and got
31:34
two business. Some of you might say, yeah, 50
31:39
people. I only got 2 business.
31:40
That is poor. Actually, no, that is not poor.
31:44
That is good because wherever it is that you're starting, that is
31:49
your baseline. The goal is always to improve
31:52
your baseline. So if she spoke to 50 people and
31:54
got two business, the goal is now see how she can get better
31:59
at converting. Converting is when you get
32:04
someone to take the next step. So if you get better at
32:07
converting, you might now find that next month you talk to 50
32:11
people, you do 4 business, you talk to 50 people.
32:14
In March, you do 8. Then in after March is what
32:19
Jennifer, every March you're premier June, in June you talk
32:21
to three people, you do 6. You know, small, small, small,
32:24
you're increasing. So the goal is just start,
32:27
whatever number you get, that's your baseline.
32:29
So you spoke to 50 people, you got to, it's neither good nor
32:32
bad. It's just your baseline.
32:34
That's just the starting of point.
32:35
The goal is to get better. Number one, we get better at
32:39
trying to convert. That means having conversations,
32:42
figuring out people's problems, making effective presentations,
32:46
and then learning how to close the deal.
32:49
Then we also get better at targeting.
32:50
Targeting is making sure you're talking to the right people,
32:52
because sometimes when you talk to 50 people, you only do
32:55
business with too. The problem is you are
32:56
approaching the wrong people. If you're a young man and you
33:00
want to have you're looking for girlfriends that you can sleep
33:03
around with, but you spend all your time talking to Mary and
33:06
Maka and Reverend sisters, you know your conversion is going to
33:09
be low because you're talking to women who have a different
33:11
mindset and viewset and you know, stuff like that.
33:14
Same thing if you're a young girl looking for a sugar daddy
33:17
and you're talking to young men like me who don't have money, of
33:19
course your conversions are going to be poor.
33:21
So we have to get better at targeting.
33:22
So it's the same thing in the business context.
33:25
So Cynthia Rothrock, she decides that she wants to her business
33:29
is registering businesses and stuff like that.
33:32
If she's spending most of her time talking to people who are
33:35
not starting businesses, then of course our conversions are going
33:38
to be poor. So bottom line, what I'm trying
33:42
to say is don't hear that She spoke to 50 people and she only
33:44
got 2 clients. Don't listen to that and say
33:47
it's bad. It is neither good nor bad.
33:50
It is just the baseline. It is just the starting point.
33:54
Learn to get better at converting so that next month
33:58
instead of doing 2, you do 4, after that you do 6, after that
34:02
you do 20. After that, you know, on and on.
34:05
But remember, there's no 100 / 100.
34:08
There's no, there's not going to be any point where you talk to
34:10
50 people and you end up doing business with 50 people.
34:13
I've already explained that in the past.
34:14
So there's no point in me explaining the reason why that
34:16
is not possible. So get better conversions, get
34:20
better at targeting, approaching the right people, and you'll be
34:24
fine. So that's what she did.
34:27
Now, true to have fighting spirit, Cynthia got encouraged.
34:33
I decided, you know what, I should talk to even more
34:35
coppers. I should design more Flyers
34:38
because I don't know about now, but back in my NYC days, I don't
34:43
know how they do it now in your village.
34:45
So I ran all local governments in Kano.
34:47
You know, we used to have, what was it called, this thing where
34:51
everybody in your chapter will get together and have a meeting.
34:55
Then there are some of these things where you now have
34:59
everybody in the zone will get together, and there's the one
35:03
that everybody in the state gets together.
35:05
So those are avenues for meeting more youth corpers.
35:08
So for her, it makes a lot of sense, especially since she also
35:11
has design skills. This is the reason why I keep
35:14
telling you people that it's good to have a multidisciplinary
35:17
background. So yes, her background is in
35:19
law, but she also has design skills.
35:21
You can see how everything is helping themselves now.
35:24
So the fact that you're an accountant and you know how to
35:27
sew dresses, right now you don't know how it's going to work, but
35:31
I promise you there's either some transferable knowledge or
35:35
some other benefit. We just can't see it now.
35:37
But one day you'll be like, oh OK, I see.
35:39
This is how it has come in handy.
35:41
So don't worry that you're a medical doctor but you like to
35:44
perm hair. I can't tell you what the
35:47
benefit is now, but one day you will see the benefit, even if
35:50
it's just that there are some skills that you learned while
35:53
perming hair. Maybe it's small talk,
35:55
commonality, building relationships that will help you
35:58
in your medical practice. So interdisciplinary ways of
36:02
growing your businesses. You know it works.
36:03
So there's no skill that is wasted.
36:05
So she said she's going to design some Flyers and
36:09
distribute them at this at different events and that she's
36:12
even going to give a 10K reward to NYC members for referrals.
36:17
And for that I applaud her. Go ahead, give it a shot.
36:20
When it comes to sales and marketing, there is no good idea
36:25
or bad idea. You know, some ideas are more
36:27
workable than others. But The thing is, if you sit at
36:29
home and keep thinking, thinking, strategizing, you will
36:31
never know. Come up with the idea, however
36:33
good or bad, go outside and try it.
36:35
I tried it, the thing didn't work.
36:37
Take dressing, learn, improve, go out again.
36:40
That's the only way that we're going to make progress.
36:42
So I applaud her. Cynthia, go ahead.
36:45
Again, not her real name. So Cynthia, please go ahead with
36:49
the plan and I know you're going to do very well.
36:52
She also said she's going to look for customer reviews to
36:54
promote her business. So there's only what I'm trying
36:58
to say for today since we're 40 minutes.
37:00
Let me bring this to a close is when listening to my podcast or
37:03
any of the resource that you're looking at, just take one thing
37:08
and apply. The thing has knock on effects.
37:10
So for her, she learned the difference between promoting
37:13
yourself aggressively and promoting yourself assertively.
37:16
She took just one thing and went and you can see how it made a
37:19
difference in her business. She shared with me the
37:22
screenshots so you can see the growth in users on Instagram and
37:27
things like that. Like she's she's making
37:29
progress, so it's good. So that's the summary.
37:31
Basically as you're listening to today's show or any other show
37:34
or any other person's resources, take one thing and apply.
37:37
There's knock on effects. You're going to help your
37:40
business grow no matter how small.
37:42
Then for those of you who are baby lawyers just like Cynthia
37:45
Ruff Rock, listen to the show, share the show because there are
37:50
going to be skills here that are necessary to boost your legal
37:52
practice. Because when she leaves Lagos,
37:55
which is where she's serving right now and she has to open up
37:58
her business in wherever it is that she's from, even in OE or
38:01
whatever, do you think all these activities that she's doing now
38:05
will not come in handy in promoting her business?
38:08
When she opens her law office by herself, she won't be able to
38:12
create Flyers because that's unethical.
38:14
Lawyers cannot promote their business businesses that way.
38:18
It's frowned upon. But the skills that she's
38:21
learning now, networking, talking to other people,
38:26
learning how to target people, have targeted conversations,
38:30
learning how to do need analysis, learning how to make
38:34
proposals, effective proposals, learning how to close the deal,
38:37
You don't think that will come in handy when she opens her
38:39
legal practice. So baby lawyers, you guys listen
38:42
up and share and acquire these skills because it will help you
38:47
in your legal practice. And then my final message to
38:51
baby lawyers, sales is the game. So whether you're into law or
39:00
photography or export or comics or whatever, please baby lawyers
39:04
and baby doctors and baby accountants, please learn sales.
39:09
That is the key difference. If nothing else, you will learn
39:14
some transferable skills that will help you in growing your
39:19
other business. But please, sales is the game.
39:23
Anyhow. You want to learn each other.
39:25
It doesn't have to be through me.
39:27
Pick whoever you like, Nigerian, Zimbabwean, American, English,
39:34
Shah, pick and Start learning. But just like Cynthia, Rough
39:38
Rock, OK, let me use her real name so that you know I'm
39:41
talking to her. So Roof, Yeah, the message is
39:44
about you, but I didn't use your surname so that people know that
39:47
is you. So Roof.
39:49
Yeah, it's about you. So just like she noted down one
39:55
thing and they let all the opportunities note down one
39:58
thing. Try it and you'll be good.
40:01
So if you'd love an opportunity to connect, you have a question?
40:04
You want me to do a business audit with you?
40:06
You want a strategy session? The phone number is 08064662140.
40:12
The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
40:15
Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number.
40:17
Then connect with me on LinkedIn.
40:21
The name is Tavishma Ayede. I also have a YouTube channel by
40:25
the same name. Thank you very much for your
40:26
time and attention. I'll catch you guys up in the
40:28
next episode.