Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Customer-First Marketing: The Key to Unlocking Growth
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
- 0:04I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
- 0:07today's podcast from my living room.
- 0:09So expect to hear some interruptions in the background
- 0:11because even though it's a weekday, the kids are not
- 0:13feeling well. So they're at home and, you
- 0:15know, watching Dragon Balls and stuff.
- 0:17Now, the goal of this podcast is not to tell you about my family
- 0:20life. It's about business education.
- 0:22So please spread the word so that your friends and family
- 0:25members both here in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the
- 0:28questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
- 0:31on spotifying YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.
- 0:37And if you'd love to connect with me, then call SMS or
- 0:39WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Today on the podcast, I want us
- 0:47to look at why marketing needs to be customer focused or needs
- 0:52to be client focused. I repeat, today we're going to
- 0:56look at why marketing needs to be customer focused or why
- 0:59marketing needs to be client focused.
- 1:02Now, the reason why is because you know, with modern marketing,
- 1:09you know, with digital and all the tools that we have
- 1:11available, we as business people, we as business owners,
- 1:14we're always looking for avenues for self promotion or to promote
- 1:17the business. So always, you know, doing
- 1:19promote, promote, promote. You know, your LinkedIn, you do
- 1:21post, post, post. You're on Instagram, post, post,
- 1:24post. So lots of writing, lots of
- 1:28posting. In fact, with the AI renaissance
- 1:32that we're in right now, as in it's content overload, as in
- 1:35people just posting anyhow, but then we business people as a
- 1:42default, we always end up talking about why we are the
- 1:45best, why we have the best features.
- 1:48These are the benefits of doing business with us, you know,
- 1:50blah, blah, blah. So it always ends up being a, a
- 1:52whole sea of buy from me. I'm the greatest, I'm the best,
- 1:56I'm the greatest, I'm the smartest, I'm the cheapest, I'm
- 1:59the fastest. I'm the this, I'm the that.
- 2:01I only import from America. I only import from Dubai.
- 2:03I only, you know, just me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
- 2:07And that's all modern marketing has become, people, business
- 2:12owners, entrepreneurs, everybody talking about themselves.
- 2:18But our communication would be better, our advertising, our
- 2:21everything would be better if we were to focus on the other
- 2:25people. That is focused on the audience,
- 2:28focus on the customer, focus on the clients and talk about
- 2:33things from their own point of view, not from ours.
- 2:39Think about it. Everybody else in your space,
- 2:43all the competition, pick a line of business.
- 2:46Everybody's talking me, me, me, me, me.
- 2:49I'm the best. I'm the cheapest.
- 2:51I'm the this me. Even if you don't do a good job
- 2:54of looking at things from their own point of view, if you're the
- 2:57only person in your space who at least has a different kind of
- 3:00messaging, if nothing else, you will stand out in from the sea
- 3:05of sameness. But I'll, I put it, I guess it
- 3:11makes sense that people just keep talking about me, me, me
- 3:14when it comes to business. And that's because you don't
- 3:17have information and you don't know anything.
- 3:21You don't have the experiences of your customer.
- 3:26So you're just saying what it is that you know.
- 3:30So to the best of your knowledge, you produce the best
- 3:32or you produce the cheapest, or you produce the fastest or you
- 3:35produce the, you know, whatever. And so you talk about that.
- 3:40So what we should do trying to move forward is that we should
- 3:43always be in constant touch with our customers, always getting
- 3:48information from them, always talking about their own
- 3:51experiences. We should always try to get
- 3:55feedback about the customer experience from them or the user
- 3:58experience. That's for those of you who sell
- 4:00software or those of you who sell physical products.
- 4:02You know, you need to know what's the customer experience
- 4:04like when you are using our product or service.
- 4:07How did you guys feel? What did you experience, what
- 4:09was good, what was bad, you know, blah, blah, blah.
- 4:11What benefit did you get from the product or from the service?
- 4:15These are the things that are going to give you the kind of
- 4:17information and experiences that you need to be able to craft
- 4:22messaging from their own point of view.
- 4:25So because of that, marketing should always be in touch with
- 4:28the sales team or with the account officer.
- 4:30You know, people arrange their businesses differently.
- 4:33Some people just have a marketing team and then somebody
- 4:37you call account officer. So marketer, marketing team,
- 4:40those are the people that put up all the fancy stuff on Instagram
- 4:42and then, you know, go out and talk to customers.
- 4:46And then there's account officer, account of size, the
- 4:48person who ends up kind of like doing the customer service
- 4:52functions. Yeah, let's say the customer
- 4:55service functions. So those of you, if you're one
- 5:00of those organizations where these marketing team and his
- 5:02account officer marketing team should always be in touch with
- 5:05account officer, you will need to be reconciling notes.
- 5:08This is what we were hearing in the field.
- 5:10This is how we're interacting with people.
- 5:11This was coming up. Account officer, what do you
- 5:13think? What have you been hearing all
- 5:17these problematic customer marketing, Madam Will getting
- 5:20basically to the parachute to the shout.
- 5:21You know, this is the problem. This is the problem.
- 5:23Talk to account officer too. You guys talk, compare notes,
- 5:28that's how you get good insight, good Intel as per what's going
- 5:32on with your customers. It will help you to get an
- 5:34accurate read on what customers actually think and the customers
- 5:39experience with you guys. Now the reason why I'm saying
- 5:42this is because whenever people hear about talking to your
- 5:45customers, well at least in Nigeria over here, for those of
- 5:49you who are tech savvy, the first thing that you guys think
- 5:51about is Google survey. Sorry, Google Docs was something
- 5:55survey. What's it called again?
- 5:58Something monkey. I can't remember.
- 6:00I opened an account on it once, but I totally forgot about it,
- 6:03and so I haven't gone back to it again.
- 6:05Is it SurveyMonkey? Yeah.
- 6:06So Google Docs, SurveyMonkey, something, something, all those
- 6:09sorts of things. Now, all those things are good,
- 6:13but that is not where we should begin the process of interacting
- 6:16with our customers. Because when we create these
- 6:19survey documents, we run the risk of teleguiding the customer
- 6:23to the response that we already think are correct.
- 6:26Like those people who say how did you enjoy working with us?
- 6:30Good, average or wonderful? In that case, you are
- 6:35teleguiding the conversation. You have assumed that people's
- 6:38interactions with you were good, average or awesome.
- 6:44What if somebody wants to take downright idiotic or absolutely
- 6:56rubbish but he didn't put it on the survey so the person can
- 7:00only click what in his own opinion is the worst option
- 7:05there which is average. But The thing is average and
- 7:09absolutely awful and not the same thing.
- 7:13When you are having a conversation with someone, it is
- 7:17there that you are going to hear really what's going on where
- 7:20somebody can tell you that, look, I called, I spoke to Cami
- 7:24and Cami was an absolute idiot and this is what she said.
- 7:27And I don't appreciate being spoken to that way, you know,
- 7:30when you get that kind of information from a Google doc or
- 7:33survey document. On the other hand, if somebody
- 7:36wants to say I called in and I spoke to Alicia, Alicia was
- 7:41wonderful. This is how she handled my
- 7:43problem. I didn't know that the software
- 7:47could do this. She helped me do this, organizes
- 7:49workflow. And because of that, you know,
- 7:51my business has been going along smooth way even able to
- 7:54accomplish this and this and that.
- 7:55What Alicia did was absolutely wonderful.
- 7:59You won't get that kind of response from a Google doc or a
- 8:01survey doc. So that's the reason why I say
- 8:04fest Fest. It should be all these simple
- 8:08conversational tools that we have.
- 8:11I'm sitting in somebody's office, I'm asking a question, I
- 8:14pick up a phone, I make a phone call, maybe worst case scenario,
- 8:19chatting on WhatsApp. But we have to be able to be in
- 8:22a conversational setting with our customers and our clients
- 8:28for us to know what's really going on.
- 8:31So in my opinion, it is only after you have had all these
- 8:35kinds of conversations that you can now create your Google Doc,
- 8:37your survey doc, because we have a realistic set of options.
- 8:42Because you've spoken to a couple of people, maybe like I
- 8:45kind 10:15 you already know now that OK, when people interact
- 8:49with our product, these are the possible range of options that
- 8:51could happen from the good end to the bad end.
- 8:54And then the options would adequately reflect that.
- 8:58So interact with customers first.
- 8:59After that, you can create your own Google doc or your survey
- 9:01document or whatever. Now, what do you do with all
- 9:04this information? The information that you get
- 9:06from this process is what you will use to inform your sales,
- 9:10your marketing, your social media, your business
- 9:12communications and all that. So this is where you get
- 9:17information to do innovation on your business, on your product
- 9:21or service as well. Because if your product is crap
- 9:23in certain areas, you will find out how you will now improve it.
- 9:27But from the sales and marketing, and we'll now be
- 9:29speaking to people using terms that they understand, talking
- 9:32about issues that actually chokes them.
- 9:37And anyway, that's what you're going to use this information
- 9:42from. Just use it to refine your sales
- 9:44and your marketing or your business communications.
- 9:46Now let me use a case study and I'm going to use a business that
- 9:49a lot of you haven't heard about.
- 9:50Now we're going to talk about credit bureaus in Nigeria.
- 9:53I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing this word correctly.
- 9:55I need to go and learn credit Bureau.
- 9:58I'll be Bureau or Bureau. So credit bureaus in Nigeria.
- 10:02I'll explain the reason why I'm using credit bureaus by the time
- 10:05I'm done with this. Let's just say usually when I'm
- 10:08making examples here, I'm talking about more relatable
- 10:11businesses, you know, wedding photography that I started off
- 10:13with, farming, agric, catfish, what else?
- 10:17Retail, simple examples that everybody knows.
- 10:20But I said today, let me just try another example.
- 10:23So now we'll talk about credit bureaus in Nigeria.
- 10:25Now credit Bureau is, I'll explain it now, OK, there as a
- 10:31business, what they do is they collect data on people's
- 10:33borrowing and repayment. Then when they carried this
- 10:37data, now they will now sell the data to lenders, to banks, to
- 10:41landlords, to employers, you know, other people who need this
- 10:44kind of information so that they can decide who they're going to
- 10:48give assets to. So let me rephrase, like how
- 10:55many years ago, OK, Remember, I think my first bond was like
- 10:58maybe 3 or 4. Back then I was in the pinch.
- 11:01So I decided to borrow 50K from Zenith Bank and Depot bank
- 11:08because that time I was not liquid.
- 11:09Now it took me like 4 or five months to pay that money as in
- 11:14Access Bank, well back then to a called Diamond Bank.
- 11:17As in Diamond bank Mandy harassed me die on top that 50K.
- 11:20They really harass my life to collect that money.
- 11:24So now credit bureaus are the companies that collect data on
- 11:28people's borrowing and repayment.
- 11:30They're the ones that are supposed to have the information
- 11:32on the establishment. Is he a correct guy?
- 11:34Does he pay on point, pay money on time?
- 11:37When he borrows money, does he pay?
- 11:39Is he a salary and how much does he?
- 11:41And is he a good guy that if you give him money, he will give you
- 11:44back quick? That is what credit bureaus are
- 11:47supposed to do. They're not carry this data.
- 11:49They'll now sell this data to banks so that by the time
- 11:53Diamond Bank as was called back then, when they see the data,
- 11:55they say establishment, he doesn't pay on time.
- 11:59By the time I apply for a loan, they'll say no, we're not giving
- 12:01you loan. That's because they have gotten
- 12:03the info from credit Bureau. So that's what credit bureaus
- 12:06do. They collect data on people's
- 12:09borrowing and repayment. Does this person borrow money?
- 12:12How much does he borrow? When does he pay back?
- 12:14Does he pay back on time? Does he pay back the interest?
- 12:17Is he owning people? You know all these sorts of
- 12:19things. That's the kind of information
- 12:20that credit bureaus have. Now, some of you will say, Are
- 12:23you sure there's business like this in Nigeria?
- 12:25And the answer is yes. In fact, I did a small search
- 12:28before we started the podcast. You see, I'm becoming
- 12:30sophisticated now. I'm actually doing research
- 12:33before I come on the show. I found three of them.
- 12:37So one is CRC, that is credit Bureau Limited.
- 12:40Then there's CR Registry, The full name is CR Services Credit
- 12:46Bureau Limited. Then there's also First Central
- 12:49Credit Bureau Limited. So I found 30 by the way, I
- 12:53thought of credit bureaus because I was thinking to myself
- 12:57which kind example case study where I used to do on the
- 12:59podcast. And so I say, you know what, I
- 13:02will flip on LinkedIn, the first business I see.
- 13:05That's one I use as an example. So I flipped and there was a
- 13:07credit Bureau and I said, OK, fantastic.
- 13:09So I'll use a credit Bureau now as an example to show how your
- 13:14market messaging, your market, your sales messaging, your
- 13:18marketing messaging, how it should come not from the angle
- 13:22of the business, but from the angle of the customers.
- 13:26Now, this is how credit bureaus market themselves.
- 13:30If you don't believe me, I've given the name of three
- 13:32companies now. So just go on like go and check
- 13:33them on Google, check their LinkedIn, check their whatever.
- 13:36You'll see that when these businesses are marketing
- 13:38themselves, they talk about things like risk management,
- 13:42they talk about things like risk reduction, they talk about
- 13:44things like efficiency, automation, business growth,
- 13:48profitability, compliance, regulatory adherence.
- 13:54Now, this marketing copy actually is not bad.
- 13:58It's it's quite good. The problem with this marketing
- 14:02copy is that it is not immediately relatable to the
- 14:05audience. Now, the people that they're
- 14:07selling to, you know, bank managers, GM and all these sorts
- 14:10of things, you know, people in the banking sector, employers,
- 14:12landlord, yeah, yeah. They are educated enough or
- 14:15sophisticated enough to know what these things mean.
- 14:17It's just that these are the words that when you hear them,
- 14:19you have to think small before you understand.
- 14:22And that's your problem. Because remember, we are trying
- 14:25to make marketing relatable and intuitive.
- 14:29I want somebody to see my marketing copy, see my
- 14:32advertising, see my whatever. And the person should just the
- 14:37person should just then how will I explain it?
- 14:39Person just understand one time the deal will just flow.
- 14:42The person doesn't have to slow down and think.
- 14:45And trust me, if your marketing messaging has words like risk
- 14:49management, reduction, efficiency and automation,
- 14:54business growth, profitability, compliance, regulatory
- 14:57adherence, that kind of thing requires somebody to stop and
- 15:00think small, even if it's half a second.
- 15:04So in my own opinion now, if you run a credit Bureau in Niger and
- 15:10you want to market yourselves, you should be talking about
- 15:13things from the customer's point of view.
- 15:17So you should be saying things like we help you avoid bad debt.
- 15:22Remember the example that I, oh, when I say that, you know, I
- 15:24mean DEBT, not DEATH. I've now been able to pronounce
- 15:30this word correctly because there's something my mom's used
- 15:32to query when I was small. You know, she would say, I would
- 15:35say debtor and she would say, no, it's not debtor.
- 15:37And I'll be quarreling back and forth.
- 15:38I'm saying that's exactly what I said.
- 15:40She would say no, that's not what you said that you said
- 15:42DEATH and I'll say no, I'm saying DEBT.
- 15:47So avoid bad debt. I'll be debt depth.
- 15:50However it is you pronounce it avoid bad debt.
- 15:53So now if they say avoid bad debt, everybody knows what that
- 15:56means. It means I give somebody money
- 15:58and the person does not pay me back or the the person you know,
- 16:04the thing has entered the voicemail.
- 16:06Everybody understands that situation avoid bad debt.
- 16:10So that's what how they should be marketing themselves, do
- 16:13business with us, avoid bad debt.
- 16:15You won't give people like Tavishma money who will take you
- 16:185-6 months to pay back 50,000 naira.
- 16:22But that was back then. You know, my situation has
- 16:24changed now. So if you loan me money now,
- 16:27don't worry, I'll pay you back on time.
- 16:29So don't worry about that. By the way, if we're friends,
- 16:33you shouldn't be loaning money. You should actually call me up
- 16:35and say Tavishma, I like what you do.
- 16:37Let me have your account number. I'll just send you like 5 M.
- 16:40Just just carry on Flex, just to say thank you for what you do.
- 16:45Yeah, so I give my phone number at the beginning of the podcast
- 16:47and at the end. So if you want to be a nice guy
- 16:49like that or a nice girl, a nice lady, yeah.
- 16:54So call me up and just say I like what you do.
- 16:57Send me your account number. And where was I?
- 17:00So did you talk about avoid bad debt or they can talk about
- 17:06process your loans faster? Because it actually takes time
- 17:12for the bank to decide who am I going to give loans, stuff like
- 17:15that because they actually need to get lots of data on someone.
- 17:18And I know this one for a fact because back then, not now, not
- 17:22now, but back then when my first born was like I'm like 3-4
- 17:26years, I also approached the Sterling Bank.
- 17:27I want to go and look for a loan and man, was a process as I feel
- 17:31for me, I feel for seriously because they needed lots of
- 17:35information on me. Then after they got the
- 17:37information about my cash flow situation, my business, you
- 17:42know, stuff like that, somebody needed to sit down and assess
- 17:47the whole thing. And in assessing the thing,
- 17:50Shah, it took a while. So if you run a credit Bureau,
- 17:53especially now that you know, we have AI and all these fancy
- 17:56tools, I'm sure that things, the information you can run through
- 18:00the information a lot more quicker.
- 18:02Just gather the info, give it to AIAI will print out
- 18:05recommendations, carry recommendation, give it to case
- 18:08officer, case officer or now sample it, check one or two
- 18:11things, make sure everything aligned.
- 18:12Then you now decide, OK, yes, I'm giving the loan.
- 18:14No, I'm not giving you a loan. But you see that can be a
- 18:17benefit process loans faster or credit bureaus can talk in terms
- 18:23of identifying risky customers early.
- 18:25So that's telling back now if they're able to get access to
- 18:28the information that I gave access, sorry, the access man
- 18:33gave me 50K. It took me 5-6 months to pay the
- 18:36money back and the money I paid themselves money.
- 18:38No complete Sterling Bank will now know, OK, this guy is a
- 18:41risky guy. Let's not give this guy any
- 18:43money. Maybe I'm not owning Access Bank
- 18:46any money. I'm just, you know, give an
- 18:48example. So those are terms that credit
- 18:52bureaus can talk about. Avoid bad debt, process loans
- 18:57faster, identify risky customers, or we will assist you
- 19:03in recovering loans if they talk in those terms.
- 19:08Those of you who are listening to this podcast right now, who
- 19:10when I say credit bureaus was saying, what is that you people
- 19:13will never have to say because you won't understand from the
- 19:18small, small message you've been seeing out there that this is
- 19:20what that kind of business does. And it is because there will now
- 19:24be marketing by looking at things from the customer's
- 19:30perspective, trying to talk about things from the customer's
- 19:33point of view, the kind of benefits that the customer is
- 19:36going to enjoy instead of talking about things from their
- 19:40own point of view. So let me answer that second
- 19:43question now. Why I use the example of credit
- 19:44Bureau? Well, because I already told
- 19:46you, because I just wanted to use the first business that I
- 19:48saw on on LinkedIn, but also because there's one thing I'm
- 19:53trying to do with this podcast because in my own generation,
- 19:56I'm a late 70s, early 80s kid. And in our own generation
- 20:00growing up, everything was lawyer, doctor, engineer,
- 20:02architect. Basically that was it.
- 20:05Lawyer, doctor, engineer, architect.
- 20:06You know, back then politicians not true.
- 20:10You understand, it was military or back then.
- 20:12So politician was not a viable career choice or like now that
- 20:18politician is the main thing. Who cares about lawyer, doctor,
- 20:21engineer or architect if you can start with lawyer, but then the
- 20:24goal is entire governor enter house, enter House of reps,
- 20:28enter Senate. That's the main thing now.
- 20:30So politician that's viable career.
- 20:34So back then now, yeah, lawyer, doctor, engineer, architect,
- 20:37that was all. But with the podcast, I'm trying
- 20:40to show something now. The face of Nigeria is changing.
- 20:43We now have more career and business opportunities, not just
- 20:46the usual things because everybody knows about sports and
- 20:49music and art, but finance, the different areas of, you know,
- 20:52finance that some people have never ever heard about, do not
- 20:57know that it exists and they don't know that it can be a
- 21:00reality for them, you know, so if you're looking for a job, for
- 21:04instance, you don't want to do the business thing just yet.
- 21:09You can look up credit bureaus that are spoken about and go and
- 21:13apply. It's a career opportunity right
- 21:15there. And if you're a big boy or
- 21:18you're a big girl and, and you have plenty of investor money,
- 21:21you could also think of opening your own credit Bureau, maybe
- 21:24with AI and other kind of automation tools, you think you
- 21:26can do the business better than other people are doing.
- 21:29But I'm just trying to show that the face of Nigeria is changing.
- 21:33So let's pay attention. And by the way, another reason
- 21:35why I say we should all be on LinkedIn, because some of you
- 21:38will never hear about these kind of businesses or hear about
- 21:40these kind of opportunities. If you're not in a place where
- 21:43people are having these sorts of conversations, you will not see
- 21:46this kind of conversation on Facebook, You won't on TikTok,
- 21:51you won't on Instagram, you won't Instagram be talking to
- 21:55you about Big Brother Niger. But I understand though, because
- 21:58last night I was watching Abuka and they were doing Big Brother
- 22:05also called again Big Brother reunion something, something I
- 22:09can't remember. And all the housemates were
- 22:12there or more like man, see babes, see babes.
- 22:18I read in their full, you understand, different colors,
- 22:21different sizes. I say, OK, so these are people
- 22:25watch Big Brother. And before you know it, 45
- 22:27minutes I was watching it and were arguing about this person
- 22:31and this person are they dating? Are they single?
- 22:35Who broke up with who? Who came to whose house?
- 22:37Who is only who? 300,000 naira, Who is this?
- 22:40Who is this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
- 22:42blah. I'm telling you, I'm ashamed to
- 22:44admit, but last night I wasted 45 minutes of my life.
- 22:49I was watching Big Brother, Big Brother Nigel reunion.
- 22:53And so I understand. But you know, it's a nice way to
- 22:56step down. You know, you've had a rough
- 22:58day, things like that. If you just put on the TV or you
- 23:00open Instagram and then this is the kind of thing that is there.
- 23:03You just used to step down, you know, I understand, but still
- 23:07try and make yourself available. I try to hang out in much more
- 23:10serious places online. So please, for those of you who
- 23:13haven't opened your account on LinkedIn, go and open an account
- 23:16on LinkedIn. They're not paying me.
- 23:18You know, there's no response or something.
- 23:19They're not paying me. I'm not getting any money from
- 23:21it. I'm just telling you that it
- 23:22will help you. There's more to life than Big
- 23:25Brother Niger. Although Big Brother Niger is,
- 23:27is fine. It's correct is you know, it's
- 23:30fun. Now to be honest, if I can get
- 23:32the phone number of one or two of those babes that I saw their
- 23:34own mind ball, go and open that account on LinkedIn as well.
- 23:40Serious content too. Nigeria is changing.
- 23:43We need to roll with the times. We need to upgrade.
- 23:48All right, I think I've said enough.
- 23:50So that's all for today folks. Remember, if you'd love to
- 23:53connect with me, call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140.
- 23:59So thank you for your time and attention.
- 24:01I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
- 24:03in your speakers. And and just in case you forgot,
- 24:07today's episode was not a rant against Big Brother.
- 24:10I'm actually trying to say that in your business, always try to
- 24:13communicate things from the customer or the client's point
- 24:17of view, not from your own point of view all the time.
- 24:20So I'll catch you guys later.