Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Level Up Your Career & Business with AI: Insights from NBC Youth Empowered

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Level Up Your Career & Business with AI: Insights from NBC Youth Empowered · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the show.
• 0:04
  Before we begin, apologies because today is going to be a
• 0:06
  very noisy episode, and that's because I'm out and about.
• 0:10
  Today's schedule for me is going to be very tight, and really
• 0:14
  this is the only time I have to make a podcast.
• 0:16
  So I figured, let me just get the phone out, get this thing
• 0:19
  done so that at least today's episode is delivered.
• 0:24
  I'm going to make a brief detour because for the last four or
• 0:28
  five days we've been talking about challenges of selling your
• 0:31
  fintech idea in Nigeria. But I want to make a detail to
• 0:35
  share with you some of the good stuff that I discussed with
• 0:39
  young folks courtesy of the NBC. That's the Nigerian Bottling
• 0:43
  Corporation. That is the what will I say?
• 0:47
  Should I say that the local distributor of Coca-Cola drinks,
• 0:51
  you know, drinks in the Coca-Cola family, So Fanta,
• 0:55
  Coke, Sprite, all that good stuff.
• 0:58
  So they were in my city, in Abuja on the 17th and the 18th
• 1:01
  of April. The 18th of April was yesterday
• 1:04
  and the event was titled the Youth Empowered Event.
• 1:07
  This was the 2024 edition and has been flagged off in several
• 1:13
  cities, several states. So yesterday was the Abuja
• 1:16
  edition and I was one of the speakers.
• 1:18
  Now, the things that that was spoken about at the event were
• 1:23
  financial literacy, career planning, personal development,
• 1:27
  and the use of artificial intelligence in Korea and in
• 1:30
  business. And that was why I was on the
• 1:33
  stage because even though my speciality is sales and business
• 1:37
  development, it's no secret for, well, those who know me anyway,
• 1:43
  that I use artificial intelligence every day for my
• 1:46
  work. Those of you who follow me on
• 1:49
  LinkedIn or on Instagram, I'm sure you've noticed that all the
• 1:52
  images that I used to promote the podcast are AI generated and
• 1:55
  that those sorts of stuff. And so the organizers thought I
• 1:59
  would be a good candidate to talk about artificial
• 2:02
  intelligence, how you can use that to promote your business
• 2:06
  and to promote your career since it's something that I use every
• 2:09
  single day now. My Co host was a chap who's a in
• 2:13
  the productivity space and also in the International Development
• 2:16
  consulting space. His name was, his name is rather
• 2:20
  in Kemjika. And so both of us handled the
• 2:23
  session. So I'm just going to share with
• 2:24
  you some of the good stuff that we shared with the 16 to 35 year
• 2:28
  olds. Although in my own opinion, I
• 2:30
  think the classification, the age range that Coca-Cola was
• 2:34
  using for the event I think was too broad because 18 to 35, yes,
• 2:38
  technically speaking, because speaking in a geopolitical
• 2:41
  sense, 16 to 35 is young folks. But let's face it, you know, 18
• 2:47
  to 20 year olds sometimes have very little in common to do with
• 2:50
  30 to 35 year olds. So, yeah, if I could give
• 2:56
  feedback to the organizers of the event, I guess that would
• 2:59
  just be it that, you know, next future edition should be more
• 3:03
  targeted. So, you know, you have a bunch
• 3:05
  of people where they have more in common.
• 3:06
  So maybe 30 to 35 or 20 to 30 or 16 to 20, but not 16 all the way
• 3:12
  to 35 because that is a rather wide stretch.
• 3:16
  So we started off our part of the discussion.
• 3:18
  Our session was the last on the different kinds of AI, families
• 3:24
  of AI, classes of AI. Now, the reason why in Kemjika
• 3:27
  and I took this approach was because when lots of people
• 3:29
  discuss artificial intelligence, typically they're talking about
• 3:32
  specific tools. And The thing is new tools come
• 3:35
  out every week, every month. And so you're sitting through a
• 3:39
  seminar representation where someone is talking about 30 or
• 3:42
  40 of maybe even 50 AI tools. And I think that that is
• 3:47
  overwhelming. So the approach we took was to
• 3:49
  talk about classes or families so we can get people thinking in
• 3:51
  terms of groups and to try and figure out which group it is
• 3:55
  that can solve the problem that you have on the hand.
• 3:59
  So First off, we designed artificial intelligence as using
• 4:01
  computers to solve problems and for decision making.
• 4:04
  We decided to take care of this whole thing of as artificial
• 4:07
  intelligence and existential threat, are they behaving like
• 4:10
  human beings, blah, blah, blah, and ethical concerns.
• 4:13
  So we can discuss all these things at the future at some
• 4:17
  other or let's say session, some other event.
• 4:21
  But I thought that we should focus squarely on how we can use
• 4:24
  artificial intelligence to be much more productive in our
• 4:27
  businesses and in our careers. So that's what we focused on, AI
• 4:31
  using computers for problem solving and decision making.
• 4:35
  So on the types of artificial intelligence, we just decided to
• 4:40
  focus on four different categories.
• 4:43
  That is large language models, Gemini, HR, GB, T, those sorts
• 4:48
  of things. Basically AIS that you talk
• 4:50
  through. So I talk to by typing.
• 4:54
  Then speech recognition, that is AI artificial intelligence that
• 4:59
  recognizes things that you say and either carries out the
• 5:03
  commands, sorry, no, recognise things that you say and then
• 5:06
  convert them into text. And there's pattern recognition,
• 5:10
  that's AI computers that recognise shapes and patterns
• 5:14
  and things like that. And then image processing and
• 5:16
  design, which is stuff that I use every day when I'm trying to
• 5:20
  come up with images, graphics, infographics, whatever, for my
• 5:24
  blog posts on the on the daily, whether on LinkedIn or on
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  Instagram. So those were the categories
• 5:30
  that we discussed. Now, of course the focus that
• 5:34
  we, the thing that we laid emphasis on during the session
• 5:38
  was on large language models, that's Gemini and ChatGPT,
• 5:41
  because that is readily available on everybody's phone.
• 5:44
  And it's pretty much the main thing that we're going to use to
• 5:47
  build our businesses and careers because we can use Gemini and
• 5:50
  ChatGPT for coming up with ideas, for looking for new
• 5:53
  perspectives and to help us write better or express certain
• 5:58
  ideas better. So that was the focus.
• 6:00
  More or less also was the focus because Gemini and ChatGPT are
• 6:03
  free. You can access them on the web
• 6:06
  browser of your phone and they are available to everyone
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  because everybody has a smartphone these days.
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  Well, almost everyone in this part of the world has a
• 6:16
  smartphone these days. So that was the focus.
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  Then, of course, we also went into how artificial intelligence
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  works. It's really important for people
• 6:24
  to get a sense of that because it gives you a sense of its, its
• 6:28
  potential and its limitations. Because some people speak about
• 6:31
  GPT as if it's as if it's God, as if it's a know all and a be
• 6:34
  all. And this is the pinnacle of
• 6:36
  human existence. So I wanted to bring people's
• 6:38
  expectation down. Let's realize that this is just
• 6:41
  a tool. Let's figure out how it works.
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  Let's know what his limitations are.
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  And then we have a realistic idea about how we can work in
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  our businesses and in our careers or not.
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  So we pointed out that it involves data aggregation.
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  So AI is all about all the data that has been fed onto the
• 6:56
  Internet and trained on these machines.
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  So like I pointed out to one of the panelists, I remember that
• 7:01
  I'm in Abuja. There's one problem that we're
• 7:05
  trying to OK, well, not trying to solve anyway, but I just
• 7:08
  pointed out how you can use AI to solve lots of problems.
• 7:10
  And those are baggy, baggy gentleman in the audience.
• 7:14
  Baggy is the, they are the Baghi is the language of the Gwari
• 7:20
  people in this part of the world in the Abuja, Zabuja, North
• 7:24
  Central. OK, well anyway, in Abuja
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  anyway, the people who are originally native to this land
• 7:29
  are the Baghi or the Gwari people.
• 7:32
  And so the fellow is on a dating site and Abuja pointed out that
• 7:37
  is AI and just to show how we can use AI to solve romantic
• 7:42
  problems for instance, not just problems in business or career.
• 7:46
  So anyway, so like I pointed out to the to the whole group and to
• 7:50
  the baggy fellow, that because it works by data aggregation,
• 7:53
  chances are that you're not going to have lots of
• 7:56
  information about baggy culture and baggy females on the
• 7:59
  Internet. Because artificial intelligence
• 8:03
  has been developed largely by, let me just say folks in a
• 8:07
  certain part of the world and have added certain kinds of
• 8:10
  data. So if you're looking for
• 8:12
  information about baggy culture, you know, stuff like that, it's
• 8:14
  not going to come up with much. So that is a limitation that has
• 8:17
  come up because of the data aggregation and the limited data
• 8:21
  that we have fed into this tool. Then also pointed out that it
• 8:26
  doesn't really understand the data per SE.
• 8:28
  It's mostly working on statistical analysis and
• 8:30
  probability. And because it's about
• 8:34
  probability and it has to give an answer, we have to verify at
• 8:38
  the end of the day. So it doesn't really understand
• 8:40
  what it's putting out. It's just coming up with
• 8:42
  statistically things that go together.
• 8:45
  So we do have to verify the output that we get at the end of
• 8:48
  the day. So we went into that.
• 8:52
  Then of course in Chemjika moved on to how to prompt using AI.
• 8:56
  Because the reason why lots of people are not getting benefits
• 8:59
  of using artificial intelligence, whether it's for
• 9:01
  image design or whether it is for writing or whatever, the
• 9:08
  reason why people are not getting the most out of it is
• 9:11
  because they are not prompting correctly.
• 9:13
  Now, a prompt is a directive, a prompt is a command.
• 9:16
  A prompt is an instruction that you give to your computer.
• 9:19
  But when it comes to artificial intelligence, there's a way that
• 9:22
  we have to go about it for best results.
• 9:24
  So First off, we have to, oh, sorry, alarm has gone off.
• 9:30
  OK, 10 minutes. So I have to bring it to a
• 9:32
  close. My alarm just went off.
• 9:34
  OK, So First off, we have to be specific.
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  The more specific you are, the better.
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  You have to provide some context so that it knows what to
• 9:43
  restrict its information, the results to because, you know,
• 9:47
  artificial intelligence, AI tools have been trained on the
• 9:49
  whole Internet. So we need to be able to
• 9:52
  restrict the context and then use questions instead of giving
• 9:57
  demands and then iteration of the feedback process.
• 10:00
  That is where it gives you a response and then you respond by
• 10:03
  saying that, OK, I like this, I like this and you know, get rid
• 10:05
  of that. So let me stick to the example
• 10:09
  that we've used so far, which is neither business nor career.
• 10:12
  And that is the baggy gentleman who is interested in looking for
• 10:15
  a wife using artificial intelligence.
• 10:17
  So if you are using an artificial intelligence to to
• 10:21
  look for suggestions on how to find a wife.
• 10:23
  I mean, in his own case, being specific would be specific about
• 10:27
  him, who he is, his goals, you know, things like that.
• 10:30
  Of course, I also warned them that since at AI tools also do
• 10:34
  data gathering, you know, don't put information about, you know,
• 10:37
  yourself, your children's name, your spouse names, things like
• 10:40
  that, your address, things that you wouldn't want readily
• 10:42
  available over the Internet. So yeah, so in this case, you
• 10:48
  know, the instructions would be something like, I'm a 35 year
• 10:51
  old male living in Abuja working in.
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  So, so, so and so Angbagi by tribe would like to be involved
• 10:57
  in the theme, be involved dramatically with the female who
• 11:00
  is also buggy and Christian and you know, blah, blah, blah,
• 11:03
  blah, blah. Give me suggestions for how I
• 11:06
  would go about finding this kind of a person.
• 11:08
  And then you enter the prompt so you can see that this is fairly
• 11:11
  specific and the responses that you're going to get at the end
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  of the day would be much more practical than if you just put
• 11:18
  up in an AI tool. How can I find a wife?
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  If you just put up how can I find a wife or how can I find a
• 11:24
  girlfriend? Then you're going to get lots of
• 11:27
  responses. Some things might work, some
• 11:28
  things might not work. There's going to be there's
• 11:30
  going to be a long essay of every conceivable way that you
• 11:33
  might find a wife. But then when you narrow it down
• 11:36
  this way, you're going to find suggestions that are much more
• 11:40
  helpful, much more culturally nuance.
• 11:45
  Also location nuance because you put there that you're in Abuja.
• 11:49
  So I know you get the point. OK, so where was I?
• 11:56
  OK, anyway, so that's an example about how to use, how to prompt
• 12:02
  using AI. Then we moved into, of course, I
• 12:05
  had to tie it back to sales and business development.
• 12:11
  OK guys, sorry about that. The noisy pickup truck was just
• 12:14
  driving by. OK, so now of course, I had to
• 12:16
  tie it back to business development at the end of the
• 12:18
  day. So I introduced them to stages
• 12:22
  of business development. I mean, the thought process that
• 12:24
  we go through, you know, prospecting, qualification,
• 12:26
  discovery, proposal, presentation and close, which is
• 12:30
  trying to look for people who might be interested in your
• 12:32
  product or service, where you can find them.
• 12:34
  How you start the conversation, how you make sure you're talking
• 12:37
  to the right person, how you discover if they have a problem
• 12:40
  that your product or service can solve, How you figure out if the
• 12:43
  problem is worth solving. Because remember, if somebody
• 12:46
  has a problem, but it's a small problem, they're not going to
• 12:48
  spend money to solve that problem.
• 12:50
  How do we go about making an effective presentation so that
• 12:53
  they take action? And so later examples were used,
• 12:59
  later prompting examples that we use on Gemini and Chat TBT was
• 13:03
  to figure out the kinds of questions or the kind of thought
• 13:06
  process that we should go through when it comes to
• 13:08
  prospecting. So in this case, a prompt that
• 13:10
  we used for a gentleman who was there who sells female, female
• 13:15
  shoes, I found that to be quite interesting because, well, First
• 13:18
  off, he was an elderly gentleman.
• 13:19
  I mean he looked old enough to be my father.
• 13:21
  So I'm surprised that he was in the business of selling female
• 13:23
  shoes. Now, for some reason, I just
• 13:26
  always assumed that it is only females who sell female shoes.
• 13:30
  Anyway, so of course he sells female shoes.
• 13:34
  He's based in Abuja. So of course he wants to sell to
• 13:36
  professional working class women in Abuja and that was the nature
• 13:38
  of his prompt. But I told him that he had to be
• 13:40
  a little bit more specific because professional working
• 13:44
  class woman in Abuja, I mean that is broad.
• 13:47
  So you can say professional working class woman in Abuja
• 13:49
  between the ages of 20 and 25 who are involved in the banking
• 13:54
  industry or oil and gas industry or this or that.
• 13:57
  And I told him that he even have to be specific about styles
• 14:01
  because women wear high heels, women wear flats, women wear
• 14:06
  those comfortable looking ones. I mean all within the work
• 14:09
  context. So if you want AI to come up
• 14:12
  with e-mail copy for you to send to your clients, I mean, it
• 14:14
  really has to be that specific. So it's not an e-mail or sales
• 14:20
  copy that is generated by AI that is general and speaks to
• 14:23
  the whole world. But it's going to be targeted
• 14:25
  very specific so that when your ideal customer opens that e-mail
• 14:29
  or opens the WhatsApp message or opens the SMS message, it'll be
• 14:33
  like that thing is talking to them.
• 14:36
  So that was one example that we gave in a business context about
• 14:39
  how you ought to be specific and provide context using them
• 14:42
  artificial intelligence. So of course people had lots of
• 14:46
  questions. We tried to get people on
• 14:49
  LinkedIn because LinkedIn is a useful tool for growing your
• 14:52
  business and also for professional networking and
• 14:57
  career development and career advancement.
• 14:59
  So we tried to get people on LinkedIn try to show how you can
• 15:01
  use AI tools to optimise your profile.
• 15:05
  What else? Optimise your summary, use AI
• 15:09
  for content production, all that jazz, all that sorts of stuff.
• 15:12
  So this is too much doubt to to put into one podcast anyway, but
• 15:17
  I just wanted to share the good stuff that we spoke about with
• 15:19
  the young UNS. And then also to let you guys
• 15:22
  know that AI is nothing fancy, nothing new, nothing magic,
• 15:28
  magical. These are practical tools that
• 15:30
  we can use every day to improve our businesses.
• 15:32
  So we shouldn't think that, you know, it's a God, it's the end
• 15:35
  all and the be all, and it's the pinnacle of human evolution.
• 15:38
  Or rather, it is just a simple practical tool that we can use
• 15:42
  to solve problems. If you want a wife, you can use
• 15:45
  that to brainstorm, get ideas, find a wife.
• 15:48
  If you want a boyfriend, you can use that, brainstorm, get some
• 15:51
  tools, find a boyfriend. Although in my own opinion, the
• 15:55
  best way to use it would be to try and use AI, artificial
• 15:58
  intelligence tools to try and figure out how we can make more
• 16:00
  money because life gets easier or simpler rather, you know, the
• 16:04
  more money that we have. OK, scratch that.
• 16:07
  Let's forget the whole thing about simpler but bottom line is
• 16:10
  money is an exchange of value and it provides options and the
• 16:12
  more options that we have the better.
• 16:14
  So instead of living life being worried about can we pay school
• 16:17
  fees or not, can I pay my tithe or not, can I fill my car tank
• 16:21
  or not? Mum is ill, can we pay for the
• 16:26
  pay for the hospital bills or not?
• 16:28
  And this is a very real life example because I lost one of my
• 16:30
  uncles recently. So uncle has passed.
• 16:32
  Can we bury him with dignity or not?
• 16:35
  I mean, so these are real things.
• 16:36
  So really I think the more money we have, the better because the
• 16:39
  more options that we have to solve problems and to make our
• 16:43
  lives much more comfortable. So I really think with AI tools
• 16:47
  that are already in your pocket anyway, because as you're
• 16:50
  listening to me on this podcast right now, you already have AI
• 16:54
  plugged into your ears or or rather in your pocket.
• 16:57
  You know, the tools are already in your hands, in your pocket.
• 17:00
  We might as well use it to see how we can improve the quality
• 17:03
  of our life. So let's see how we can use AI
• 17:05
  to make more money, to get our businesses to improve, to
• 17:08
  advance in our careers. And yeah, anyway, you guys get
• 17:12
  the point. So let me just wrap it up here.
• 17:14
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 17:17
  Always remember, you guys can connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 17:20
  The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234.
• 17:27
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me
• 17:30
  on LinkedIn. You can confirm the spelling of
• 17:34
  my name. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 17:36
  I'm the host of the show. Yeah, so confirm the spelling of
• 17:40
  my name from the link while listening to this episode.
• 17:43
  My e-mail address is there as well in case you want to connect
• 17:45
  with me over emails. So yeah, just get my name,
• 17:48
  connect with me on socials. But LinkedIn, I'm there every
• 17:51
  day. Instagram, I'm there maybe every
• 17:54
  two days. Any other social media, you
• 17:55
  might catch me maybe once a month.
• 17:57
  But I'll do my best to respond for those of you who reach out
• 18:00
  to me. So thanks for your time and
• 18:01
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 18:03
  episode.