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Is Your 'Perfect' Plan Sabotaging Your Sales Growth? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  Today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about
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  business development plans. Now a business development plan
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  is not the same thing as a business plan because I know you
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  guys are used to me mostly talking about business plans,
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  which are what's the business plan again?
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  OK. A business plan typically in
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  this part of the world is a document that you use to raise
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  finance. It is what you show to your
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  investors, to your stakeholders, to your whatever, that this is
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  the business, this is what you do, this is how much money you
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  need, this is how much money you hope you're going to make, and
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  this is how you're going to pay people back.
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  Then this is also OK. In the document, you also have a
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  plan for how you intend to market the business and to grow
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  sales. So that's a business plan.
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  But today we're going to be talking about a business
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  development plan. Now if you like these sorts of
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  things, business sales, growth, marketing, then subscribe to the
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  podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your
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  choice. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm
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  the host of the podcast. And if you'd love to connect
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  with me, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message
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  on 08064662140. Now, before we begin, apologies.
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  Making today's recording at home.
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  It's a weekend, so there'll be some noise and the kids are
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  playing Roblox in the background.
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  So just in case, you know, you hear some shouting and
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  hollering. OK, so like I said, business
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  development plans. Now, the reason why we're
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  talking about business development plans today is
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  because I was chilling on LinkedIn and then I saw one
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  LinkedIn influencer put up something about how to come up
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  with a business development plan.
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  And I thought the thing was too cerebral aspire.
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  The thing was too intellectual. It was too brain, brain, brain.
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  You know, it was too less sit down in the office.
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  Let's come up with some plans. Less strategize.
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  Let's you know, was too think, thinking, thinking, thinking.
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  Let me just put it that way too much of thinking involved.
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  And I don't think it's a it's not a bad way to think about the
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  business development plan, but I don't think it's, it's, it's the
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  best. I don't think it's going to
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  serve you the best, especially those of us who are in the SME
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  space, you know, small and medium scale.
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  So yes, international conglomerates, you know, like,
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  OK, like recently was on the news that Netflix just bought,
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  just bought over Warner Brothers or intends to buy over Warner
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  Brothers. So yeah, at that level, sit
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  inside the office under AC and you can be strategizing,
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  strategizing. But then before you get to that
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  level, I think there's a much more helpful and a much more
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  practical way to come up with your business development plan.
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  Now, First off, what is a business development plan?
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  Because I've already told you guys, I've already helped to
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  define what a business plan is. You know that one is separate.
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  So now business development plan.
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  So the way I like to look at it is a business development plan
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  basically, is that plan that you have for business growth?
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  Does it very simple. If you have a plan somewhere,
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  you have sketched out something somewhere on a sheet of paper,
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  on a Google Drive, on a wherever The thing is in your diary, a
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  plan for this current business that you have that says this is
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  how we're going to grow the business, that is a business
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  development plan now a business development plan in my own
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  opinion, also includes go to market plans now.
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  Go to market is just the fancy way that those of you in the
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  tech space like to say you're launching something new into the
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  market. So you guys, you guys like to
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  call that GTM. You know, you guys love your
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  acronyms, you know, another two years from now, do we invent
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  another word for it? But for now, tech people that
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  are saying GTM go to market. So your go to market plan,
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  you're launching something new into the market.
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  That also is a business development plan.
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  And then for me, a business development plan also includes
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  when you're at the stage of trying to get market validation
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  for your idea or you're trying to achieve product market feed.
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  Now market validation or product market feed just means you have
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  a new product. As in it's not as if you have
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  launch like that, but you're trying to see if there's any
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  market demand. Do people like this thing?
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  Will this thing move? Do people value this thing that
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  I have? And if they value it, will they
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  pay for this thing at a price that makes sense?
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  So even if you're at that stage, yeah, I still think you can say
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  you have a business development plan.
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  So business development plan is basically your plan for business
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  growth. Excuse me, So you have a
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  business that is on ground already standing.
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  How are we going to grow this business?
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  That's a business development plan or you're about to enter
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  into the market brand new, fresh, you have a go to market
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  plan or you're trying to achieve market validation.
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  You're trying to prove, you know, proof of concept.
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  You're trying to show that there's demand for this thing,
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  that people like this thing, in my own opinion, all joint all
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  those things are business development plans.
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  So summary business development plan just means that documents
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  that you create or that plan that you create that answers the
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  question, will this thing grow? Does it?
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  How will this thing grow? What is the best way for us to
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  grow this thing? If you have nothing, you have
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  the making of a business development plan.
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  So, OK, there's some things I want to talk about now when it
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  comes to the process of coming up with a business development
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  plan or business development planning.
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  Now, one thing we have to understand about this process is
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  it is difficult because when you're coming up with your
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  business development plan, you're going to be planning for
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  things that you don't do normally in your everyday life.
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  So just accept from the beginning that business
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  development planning is scary. You're going to be coming up
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  with a plan for how you would approach total strangers or for
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  how many phone calls you're going to make in a day, or who
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  you're going to call, or how many Flyers you're going to
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  drop, or how many people's offices that you're going to go
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  and visit. This is not what you do every
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  day. So because of that, this whole
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  process is scary. So just accept it.
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  It will be scary now, because it is scary, you will find yourself
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  putting things off. That is just normal.
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  The big thing that you're scared of, you will normally delay.
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  That's the reason why Brian Tracy and what's his name, the
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  English writer, so I know English.
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  I think it was American. The guy who wrote is it Tom
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  Sawyer? I can't remember, but basically
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  I think the Tom Sawyer guy, the one who wrote that book, I think
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  he said, and I think it's supposed to be like an American
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  proverb or something, that if you must eat a frog, eat the
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  frog first thing in the morning. You heard the proverb that if
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  you must eat a frog, eat the thing first thing in the morning
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  because the frog's not going to get any prettier.
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  It's not going to get any sweeter.
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  Sweeter. The thing will be there the more
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  you are delaying and you are delaying and you are delaying,
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  the more you feel, you know, one kind.
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  So if you have to eat this frog, just wake up first in the
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  morning, bro, swallow the thing and then begin your day.
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  Now my mother-in-law likes to say that if you must eat a frog,
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  eat a big frog. You know, either way, if there's
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  on, if there's something that you guys to tackle, just go
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  ahead, tackle that thing now. So because it's scary, you're
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  going to find yourself wanting to delay.
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  You say this frog who wants your frog self, and you delay and
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  say, you know what, OK, it's 9:00, I'll eat the frog at 1010
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  o'clock. Somebody will come and visit
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  you. You say, you know what, I'll eat
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  that thing at 1111 o'clock. You say I don't feel like eating
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  a frog. You go and make a bar and eat
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  it. At 12, 12:00.
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  You say, oh, I'm supposed to go out and visit Chief.
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  You will now go out and visit Chief.
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  You will come back. The frog is still there.
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  That's how you continue to delay and delay and delay.
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  Now, people call this all kinds of things in business.
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  Some people call it reluctance, some people call it sabotage, or
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  people call it whatever. But the point I'm just trying to
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  make is know that that dynamic is there.
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  Now. It is because of that reason
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  that some of us in the sales and business development space, what
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  we say is you don't need to have a perfect plan because sometimes
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  this whole thing of sitting down to make sure you have a perfect
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  plan is just, is just these dynamics of reluctance or
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  sabotage our play because it is hard.
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  You want to sit down, you want to come up with a perfect plan
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  before you begin. Don't wait for a perfect plan.
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  Especially for those of us in the SME space.
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  It's enough that you have a rough idea.
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  You have a rough idea, go ahead, just do it.
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  As you are doing it, as you are executing, you will get more
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  information. The more information that you
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  have, you reassess. That's market feedback.
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  You take that market feedback and then you do the whole thing
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  all over again. But Shah, don't wait until you
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  have a perfect plan. It's OK to have a rough sketch.
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  OK, we have a rough idea that maybe is Yoruba men between the
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  ages of 60 and 73 who would like this product is enough to say
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  that's our rough idea. You now go into the market and
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  then try it is there. You now get market data to show
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  that actually the biggest segment is IBO men between the
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  ages of you know 25 and you know 32.
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  But to sit down in the office, in the AC, in your bedroom, on
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  the dining table or wherever, I say that you would guess
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  accurately who your ideal customer profile is from the
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  beginning. My friend, stop giving yourself
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  an impossible job. Don't fall into this whole thing
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  of reluctance and sabotage. You're waiting for the perfect
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  plan. Get a rough idea, just do it.
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  Don't try and get too fancy. If you're aiming for a perfect
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  plan, you're only going to be delaying the time that you need
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  to start this journey. But remember, I'm only talking
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  about people in the SME space. So for those of you who are in
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  international companies, you know, international business
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  teams, you know, that's a different thing, you know, So go
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  ahead with whatever it is your sales manager says you should
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  do. Oh, and by the way, we do have
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  international companies amongst us.
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  I mean, there's some companies that I think isn't like Canva.
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  I think Canva, everyone has. Do they have a Nigerian office?
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  I'd be like a West Africa office or something.
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  I can't remember if it was Canva, but there's a listener of
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  the podcaster who reached out and were talking and it turns
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  out that's that's where she works.
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  And I was like, oh, OK, I didn't know that some companies, some
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  international companies, I didn't know the rate was like
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  that, that Nigeria is its own market or Nigeria is a region
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  within the market that they are trying to conquer.
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  So yes, some of you listening to this podcast who are members of
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  our international teams. So in that case, do what your
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  line manager says. But if you're not in that kind
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  of setup, I beg, stop giving yourself unnecessary headache.
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  Do you have a rough plan? Let's go ahead.
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  So like I said, the reason why we're discussing this today is
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  because the LinkedIn influencer put up some stuff on LinkedIn
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  discussing business development planning and processes that all
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  of us we should be using. Then she gave some details of
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  her business development plan. So one moment, let me get my
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  device. So let me read it out.
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  Read it out. I just want to read the whole
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  thing. Then we'll start making comments
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  on it. So for her the the process, we
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  can break it into 3 logical phases.
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  And yeah, she's correct. First of all, there's planning
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  and analysis. That's stage 1.
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  Then Step 2 is strategy and action.
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  Then the final one is implementation and review.
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  Sorry about that. Recovering from a gold.
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  As for those of you who've been listening for a while.
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  So phase one, now these are the details of what she says.
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  Planning analysis. So here she said that we should
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  focus on understanding the current situation and then we
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  should set clear goals. And the first thing she
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  recommends that we should do is we should assess our self.
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  That's the company, the business company.
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  We should assess it. We should do things like SWOT
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  analysis. We should look at strengths,
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  weakness, opportunities and threats.
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  We should also do market analysis.
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  What's going on in the market? What's going on in the market?
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  What are market trends? What are the competition, blah,
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  blah, blah. What are the dynamics going on?
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  She said we should try and get a deep understanding of our
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  customer needs, our competitors. Then we'll now set clear goals
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  and targets. We'll have to make sure that
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  they're SMART goals, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant
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  and time bound goals. Let's see what else she says.
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  We should identify the target market and audiences.
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  We should develop detailed buyer personas, develop our value
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  proposition, you know, blah, blah, blah.
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  And on paper, you can see that all of this thing makes sense,
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  but you are beginning to see the reason why I'm saying sometimes
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  we make this thing too cerebral. So what she's saying is that
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  before you start selling your product, excuse me, you have to
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  sit down. And these are all the things
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  that you have to start planning for before you go out into the
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  field. But anyway, let's move on into
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  Phase 2. And this is precisely the reason
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  why some of you you will say, oh, I'm beginning, you know, I'm
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  launching, I'm strategizing. I'm thinking this reason why
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  some of you takes you four months to start because you're
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  trying to plan all these things down on paper first.
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  Before you go and excuse me, before you go and talk to
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  somebody to say, buy my product, buy my service, you want to sit
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  down and do SWOT analysis in your, in your company, in your
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  business, What are my strengths, what are my weaknesses?
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  What are the opportunities, what are the threats?
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  You'll be doing SWOT analysis before you go and start chasing
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  customer Emily. So she said phase two strategy
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  and action. So she says here we need
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  analytical insights and we need concrete plans.
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  Then we'll now do resource allocation.
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  Resource allocation just means you know you're about to do
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  something. You need to check yourself to be
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  sure that you have what you need before you move out.
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  Because after all the good book says that which man who wants to
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  build a house will now sit down 1st and check his pocket and say
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  do I have what I need to finish his house lest he starts and
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  then he can't finish the house. Then people start laughing at
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  him. And yeah, this happens a lot in
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  Abuja. You buy land, you begin to build
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  after foundation. In our hook, your neighbors will
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  be laughing at you saying I see this guy was feeling like a big
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  boy, meanwhile you can't finish what he started.
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  So that's just what resource allocation means.
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  So she says that at this stage, strategy and action, we should
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  choose our business development strategy.
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  Let's see what else We need to create an action plan, break
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  down the action plan in two strategies.
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  We need to establish timelines, allocate resources, come up with
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  a budget, estimate the budget. And she also said we need to set
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  KPIs and performance metrics. Let's see, you know, on and on
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  and on and on, on theory, in theory, on paper, all of this,
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  it makes sense. But you can see the reason why
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  some of you have not started two months, three months, you're
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  still at home. You're doing SWOT analysis,
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  you're researching KPI, you're doing all these brain work.
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  You haven't gone outside to talk to one person to say buy my
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  product, buy my service. You see how some of all this is
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  holding you back? I didn't say this thing is bad.
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  Oh, this thing is good. It's good.
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  But anyway, let me continue. Then Phase 3, she said
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  implementation and review. So she said this is what we're
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  going to execute, monitor results and then work on
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  continuous improvement. Then let's see what else?
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  OK, so there's some stuff here about maintaining communication
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  channels and monitoring, evaluation and adjusting, you
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  know, things like that. But sharp summary, I don't want
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  to read it because actually her her guidelines were long as in
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  the aplenty. So technically speaking,
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  technically speaking, everything she said, there's nothing that
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  is wrong with her. She's absolutely correct.
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  But you can see that if you want to start your business, based on
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  what some of these influencers are saying, you can see that you
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  have your idea. January 1st.
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  By the time you finish all of these things, all the research
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  and all the brain work, all the strategizing that is required,
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  you probably won't enter a market until you know, like
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  Valentine's Day 2026, you already wasted like 6 weeks.
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  You didn't do anything. So is there any problem what she
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  said? No, there's no problem.
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  Technically speaking, she's correct.
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  We should think through these things.
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  Well, we should plan everything well.
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  But are all steps that she has mentioned, is every single thing
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  necessary? The answer is no.
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  It's not as if there's everything there that is
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  necessary, especially for somebody who is starting fresh.
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  You're an SME. This kind of planning, the
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  disadvantage with this kind of planning, it is it is too
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  brainy, it is too academic, it is too tidy.
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  It will keep you in the office, it will keep you in the house,
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  it will keep you in the wherever you are doing your planning.
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  It will keep you there for like 5 weeks before you even go
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  outside. When we are starting our
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  business brand new, it's not about sitting down under the AC
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  and be planning and be planning and be planning.
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  Instead of doing 5 weeks of planning, get outside into the
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  field. Go and be getting good feedback.
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  Go and get what statisticians like to call qualitative data.
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  Quantitative data means you have all your information in terms of
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  percentages and this and this and that.
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  But qualitative data is you go and you talk to somebody, you
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  get their impressions, you get their mood, you get their you
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  know. So it's not quantity, it's not
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  as if it's you can reduce it to percentages and numbers, but you
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  can get some feeling, get some feedback, get some mood about
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  what is going on in the market. Since I was sitting down and
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  planning for three weeks, 5 weeks, go outside, go and
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  experience the market, go and get real time rich data from the
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  market that you will now use to define your strategy.
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  Instead of sitting down in the office under AC and then
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  planning strategy for three weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks before
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  you move. Your sales strategy should be
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  organic. It's not just that you sit down
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  in a laboratory and then think of something.
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  Go outside, see the reality on ground.
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  So what she said then what's the my own simplified process taking
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  what she has worked on? I just deleted a few things.
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  So like I said, logical phase is planning and analysis.
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  Very correct. We must sit down and plan and
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  analyze before we go outside and #2 strategy and action.
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  Strategy, where are we heading to action?
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  Those means the tactics. What is the next step we're
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  going to do? So we have to plan that one too,
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  the implementation and review. Now that we've gone outside,
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  we've tried a few things. Let's come back at home or in
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  the office. Let's see what worked what, what
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  didn't work, what can we learn? How can we improve?
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  So she's absolutely correct. Those 3 phases, very important.
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  We must do planning, we must do strategy, we must do review.
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  Very important without planning and analysis stage.
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  All those extra things you are saying, please remove it.
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  SWOT and which? Which one is SWOT?
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  SWOT what? Ignore SWOT.
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  Ignore it. The only thing you need to pay
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  attention to here in phase one, planning and analysis, or rather
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  the main thing you need to pay attention to here is ICP and
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  Ideal Market. Who is the main customer?
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  Who are the people who might be interested in this product or
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  service? Where can we find them?
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  That's all you need to figure out now.
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  For now. Now we're launching this thing.
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  That's all we need. All those other things are
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  unnecessarily academic. The time will come to be doing
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  SWOT analysis. The time is not now.
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  Who is your ICP? Who's the ideal market?
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  That's the only thing we need to figure out now at this stage.
• 21:43
  That is all. Ignore SWOT analysis, ignore
• 21:47
  market analysis. In fact, the market analysis
• 21:49
  you're trying to do is when you go outside and you start trying
• 21:52
  to talk to people, Buy my product, buy my product.
• 21:54
  That is the real market analysis.
• 21:57
  It is there. People will be telling you
• 21:58
  you're too expensive. This person is cheaper, your
• 22:02
  product sucks or your product is too good or you're charging too
• 22:05
  low or this will work in Ghana, this will not work in Nigeria.
• 22:10
  That is the real market analysis.
• 22:12
  When you go outside and you are engaging one-on-one with people,
• 22:15
  one-on-one with stakeholders, that is the real market
• 22:19
  analysis. It's not sitting down in your
• 22:21
  office. Some of you wonder like why this
• 22:30
  get a vex? I have vexing because I'm on the
• 22:33
  ground and I'm seeing these things happening live.
• 22:35
  Somebody reached out to me was a listener of the podcast, you
• 22:38
  know, I said how far, what's up, how you been?
• 22:40
  So I'm good so far was what's with the progress?
• 22:43
  All with the progress. The guy is still planning.
• 22:45
  He says we're coming up with a brand.
• 22:48
  I said so since we spoke four months ago, like what's up?
• 22:51
  What's the progress we've made? Guys have me Twitter handle, you
• 22:57
  guys have me some mockups and everything.
• 22:59
  In my mind, I'm thinking we spoke four years ago, sorry,
• 23:03
  four months ago. You are planning your
• 23:06
  strategizing. Four months has passed, You're
• 23:09
  still planning your strategizing.
• 23:11
  We're in December and I know that if we talk in February,
• 23:15
  we'll still be planning, still be strategizing.
• 23:18
  You have a mock up, you have a minimum viable product.
• 23:21
  What are you afraid of? How much more planning do you
• 23:23
  need to do? Go outside and start talking to
• 23:25
  some people. This is my product, this is my
• 23:30
  service, this is my mock up. Will you buy this thing for 5K?
• 23:33
  It's that simple. Will you buy this thing for 2.5
• 23:35
  M? It's that simple.
• 23:38
  OK, if you're afraid, then you don't start calling money now.
• 23:40
  At least validate that you know people like the whole thing.
• 23:43
  Boss, I'm about to enter this market.
• 23:45
  This is my mock up. This is my sample.
• 23:46
  This is my thing. Boss, help me test this thing.
• 23:49
  I'm doing pilot. I'm doing pilot package or just
• 23:55
  rolling it out. So I've selected you and five
• 23:58
  other people. You will can use this thing for
• 23:59
  free for the next two weeks. At the end of the two weeks,
• 24:02
  just tell me, does this thing work?
• 24:03
  Does this thing make sense? How much more planning do you
• 24:06
  need to do? How much more planning do you
• 24:12
  guys really need to do planning and analysis?
• 24:16
  All we need right now is who might be interested in this
• 24:19
  product or service. Who do you think is the ideal
• 24:21
  market? OK, we know them.
• 24:22
  Where did they hang out? I have no problem.
• 24:24
  All right, let's be going. I will go to Ikeja.
• 24:29
  You, you go to Maryland, you, you go to this place.
• 24:32
  You, you go to that place. Let's try for this week.
• 24:36
  On Saturday, we'll come back here to the office and we'll now
• 24:38
  discuss. We now know how far ignore SWOT
• 24:43
  analysis. So she's correct.
• 24:47
  Identify your target audience, identify your target markets,
• 24:53
  try and figure out who are the specific segments that you have
• 24:55
  to go across. Try and figure out geographic
• 24:57
  areas. She's correct.
• 24:59
  Where do you think they are? Are they in Mehtama?
• 25:02
  Are they in Guzapi? Are they in Apple?
• 25:05
  Are they in Warimpa? Try and figure it out.
• 25:10
  Once you come up with a simple hypothesis, go and see if you
• 25:14
  are correct whether they're in Warimpa or not.
• 25:19
  So talking about developing detailed buyer persona, coming
• 25:23
  up with demographics, behaviors and psychographics and
• 25:25
  everything. Well, all of that is important,
• 25:28
  but in the beginning you don't know enough to guess correctly.
• 25:31
  You just don't know. So come up with a rough idea and
• 25:35
  then go. It is when you enter into the
• 25:37
  field that you will now know the, the, the demographics and
• 25:40
  psychographics. Because trust me, in the
• 25:44
  beginning you will think it is women age between so, so, so and
• 25:47
  so that will use this product. Then when you go, you will now
• 25:50
  find out that, oh, it's not even women that are this old.
• 25:53
  It is women that are older or women who are younger that are
• 25:56
  actually using the thing. Then she's saying develop your
• 26:04
  value proposition before you go out.
• 26:09
  Just have a vague idea of who you think might need it and why.
• 26:13
  Go out. We interact with people.
• 26:15
  It is there. You will now know your real
• 26:17
  market value proposition. I've told you guys about how for
• 26:20
  me, sitting down under the ACI assumed my value proposition as
• 26:24
  a wedding photographer was that people do not like Photoshop.
• 26:28
  And I went out into the market and I found out that people were
• 26:31
  actually using me. The unique value proposition of
• 26:35
  dealing with me was that I was the most professional kid on the
• 26:37
  block and had nothing to do with my Photoshop or my lack of
• 26:40
  Photoshop. It's hard to really correctly
• 26:44
  guess these things. So stop sitting down under your
• 26:48
  AC and trying to figure out all these things.
• 26:51
  You have a rough idea, go. You will now learn some things.
• 26:58
  So all those things, as you said in phase one, and it makes sense
• 27:02
  on paper, but the only thing you need to worry about is ICP
• 27:07
  market segments. Once you have a clear idea, talk
• 27:10
  to your business partners or yeah, then divide the work and
• 27:14
  begin. If it's an online thing, no
• 27:17
  problem. Divide the work and then begin.
• 27:19
  The person that is supposed to focus on LinkedIn, start
• 27:22
  focusing on LinkedIn. The person that should focus on
• 27:24
  TikTok, start focusing on TikTok.
• 27:26
  Run this thing for a while. Saturday, everybody show up in
• 27:29
  the office, you will discuss. So phase two, strategy and
• 27:36
  action. She's very correct.
• 27:39
  Very, very, very, very, very correct.
• 27:41
  We need to do that one. We need to do that one.
• 27:47
  Some people make a mistake of not doing this at all.
• 27:50
  In fact, you guys remember the clients that I had where they
• 27:54
  wanted to do a PLG product LED growth, they wanted to get 12
• 28:00
  paying clients and they were going to do that by offering a
• 28:02
  free plan. So in the beginning I told her,
• 28:06
  look, this thing will not work. Or they say why?
• 28:07
  I say look, because this is how it works.
• 28:09
  When you say free, you're assuming that people will rush
• 28:11
  you, but actually people won't rush you.
• 28:13
  Conversion is usually between zero to 3%.
• 28:16
  So if we're looking at 12 customers at a 3% conversion,
• 28:20
  that means you need to talk to about 300 or 400 people.
• 28:25
  We need to offer 304 hundred people free plans just so we can
• 28:28
  get 12 paying customers. Do you think you can handle it?
• 28:31
  They say, yeah, we can handle it.
• 28:34
  You guys are a team of 6, so Are you sure you can handle it?
• 28:36
  They say, yeah, we can handle it.
• 28:37
  I say, hey, these people who are confident gone, like feeling
• 28:42
  very, very confident. And of course at the end of one
• 28:47
  month, do you think we we hid it?
• 28:48
  Of course we didn't. We didn't.
• 28:54
  So yes, strategy and action, you sit down and try and reverse
• 28:58
  engineer. This is where we're trying to go
• 29:00
  to. Therefore, let's try and figure
• 29:02
  out how many people do we need to talk to in a day?
• 29:05
  How many people do you need to talk to you in a week?
• 29:06
  How many people do we need to talk to you in a month?
• 29:08
  How many meetings do we need to have?
• 29:10
  How many houses do we have to go and visit?
• 29:12
  You know, sit down, just come up with a rough guess.
• 29:14
  But of course, remember that in the beginning you can't guess
• 29:18
  all these things correctly, so you just come up with a rough
• 29:20
  draft. So you tell yourself, you know
• 29:22
  what, we need to be talking to 10 people every day.
• 29:24
  By the time you go out into the market, you might realise that
• 29:27
  actually you guys are capable of talking to 30 people every
• 29:30
  single day. So by the time you're done one
• 29:33
  week, you come back, all of you compare notes and you see that,
• 29:36
  oh, initially the goal was 10, but we've been doing 30.
• 29:41
  You had new information, you know, up your quota and then
• 29:43
  continue. Or is it 10 every day?
• 29:47
  But let's say you're based in Lagos.
• 29:49
  By the time you consider traffic and then this and this and that
• 29:51
  and that, honestly speaking, everybody has only been able to
• 29:54
  talk to two, two people per day. Now you have some new
• 29:58
  information, Buja, you can't come up with a perfect plan.
• 30:05
  Just come up with a rough plan and try and figure out how many
• 30:10
  people do we need to talk to? How many meetings do we need to
• 30:12
  set? How many Zoom meetings, how many
• 30:15
  online presentations do we need to do?
• 30:17
  We'll just come rough, rough, whatever and then go on and try
• 30:20
  and see if this thing works. Then implementation and review.
• 30:24
  Of course she's correct, but she was talking about, OK, she spoke
• 30:31
  about a KPIs and metrics. You have to monitor your KPIKPI
• 30:34
  metrics. Yes, that's important.
• 30:37
  That's the reason why as you go outside, I need to have ACRM, a
• 30:41
  customer relationship management tool.
• 30:42
  I need to pay attention to data hygiene.
• 30:45
  Data hygiene just means the information that you're putting
• 30:48
  into your CRM, you know, is it, is it valuable?
• 30:52
  Is it correct? Is it useful?
• 30:55
  The CRM tool is what you use to track how many people you're
• 31:01
  talking to, who you need to be talking to, what your next
• 31:04
  appointments are, when you should schedule appointments,
• 31:07
  what stage of the relationship you're in when you're talking to
• 31:11
  people. That's just what this the CRM
• 31:13
  is. So yeah, you will, you will need
• 31:15
  that so that you'll be able to do your review later on.
• 31:19
  Because when you're reviewing, you actually need to be looking
• 31:21
  at data, looking at information to review.
• 31:24
  So you need a place where you can go into and say, Chukudi,
• 31:26
  how many people did you talk to? China?
• 31:28
  Yeah. How many people did you talk to
• 31:32
  currently? How many people did you talk to?
• 31:34
  Kemi, how many people did you talk to?
• 31:36
  Of the people we spoke to, how many people bought the people
• 31:39
  that said no, What are the reasons that we got the ones
• 31:45
  that clicked? Why did they click?
• 31:48
  We'll sit down and we'll review. So you need your CRM.
• 31:51
  Then of course, data hygiene. Make sure you're putting
• 31:54
  relevant, useful data in there that everybody can understand.
• 32:00
  One thing I'll change though, she said for regular reviews,
• 32:04
  she said you should make your regular reviews monthly or
• 32:07
  quarterly. That's the reason why I told you
• 32:10
  at the beginning that she must be thinking of people who are in
• 32:13
  international business. International business, seeing
• 32:19
  as an SMB, you're new in this space.
• 32:22
  You're starting off as a wedding photographer, or you're starting
• 32:26
  your brand new startup, or you're an architect, or you sell
• 32:32
  musical instruments or you sell been at orphans or you sell
• 32:36
  mobile phones. You want to wait and be doing
• 32:38
  monthly review or be doing quarterly review.
• 32:43
  My friend, your business will die in these early stages.
• 32:49
  It is a problem. We need to know this problem
• 32:51
  now, now, now, now, now. So when you're new in the
• 32:55
  business space now you're just starting forget monthly review
• 33:01
  or quarterly review. Quarterly review is every three
• 33:04
  months. I'll be, I'll be every four
• 33:05
  months. Forget monthly or quarterly.
• 33:07
  Quarterly in the beginning, our review is weekly.
• 33:12
  In fact, our review might even be daily.
• 33:15
  So at the end of the day, you will talk to the whole team.
• 33:19
  China, how many people did you talk to?
• 33:21
  Chukudi, how many people did you talk to?
• 33:23
  Which ones looks like they're promising?
• 33:25
  Which one looks like it's not? You will be doing this thing on
• 33:28
  a daily basis. Worst case scenario scenario.
• 33:32
  Sorry, forgive me. I've done that tea thing again
• 33:34
  because tea people and a number of people, we have this R&L
• 33:39
  thing. My wife is always abusing me.
• 33:44
  So worst case scenario, your review should be weekly.
• 33:48
  Oyao, it's Monday morning, everybody before we go outside
• 33:51
  show in the office 1st let's discuss, use one hour, discuss,
• 33:55
  figure out what's going on. Everybody dispersed next week,
• 33:58
  Monday will now show again, worst case scenario.
• 34:03
  But you cannot say you are doing review monthly or quarterly.
• 34:06
  When you see LinkedIn influencers or Instagram
• 34:13
  influencers or whatever talking about these sorts of things,
• 34:15
  monthly or quarterly review, they're talking about Dangote
• 34:18
  them. Yeah, Dangote.
• 34:19
  They can't wait and do review at the end of every month.
• 34:22
  I say, how did we do? But those of us who are starting
• 34:25
  new, starting fresh, you wait until the end of the month
• 34:27
  before you review. Forget it.
• 34:30
  That's how Chukudi would have been collecting transport money
• 34:32
  and he has not been going for his meetings.
• 34:34
  You didn't know he has been taking T fair.
• 34:37
  But instead he stays at home, he watches Netflix and then he uses
• 34:40
  it to buy Shama. You don't know because you've
• 34:44
  not been tracking. You've been waiting for monthly
• 34:47
  or people are doing something. Excuse me?
• 34:51
  They think it is the right thing to do, the right strategy, But
• 34:54
  actually the strategy is not working, and you only discover
• 34:57
  that at the end of monthly review.
• 34:59
  Meanwhile, you have been wasting money.
• 35:01
  You've collected money from investors, you've been giving
• 35:04
  people tfare, you've been giving people money for data, you've
• 35:06
  been giving people money for whatever.
• 35:08
  But then it's at the end of the month, after eight months worth
• 35:11
  of expenses, you now realize that The thing is not working.
• 35:15
  Please, when we're starting fresh, our review is weekly.
• 35:21
  Worst case scenario, if you can be reviewing daily, where are
• 35:27
  we, what did we move, how did we move, where are we moving daily?
• 35:35
  So summary, what I'm trying to say is this sales is more of an
• 35:41
  execution thing, not really a plan, plan, plan thing per SE.
• 35:47
  Enough of a plan just to know where you're going, what target
• 35:51
  we're aiming for so you can shoot your shot.
• 35:54
  But it's mostly an execution thing.
• 35:57
  So you just need simple enough ideas to know what you're
• 35:59
  supposed to do next. Then now go out into the field,
• 36:02
  do that thing when you get real world data, that is what will
• 36:06
  help you to now fine tune that your strategy.
• 36:10
  It is after you go outside and you get real world data that you
• 36:13
  can now go back into the strategy room and start making
• 36:17
  sure that everything is perfect. So please, LinkedIn influencers,
• 36:24
  they mean well. They really mean well, and all
• 36:27
  these things that they've said are technically correct on
• 36:30
  paper, but don't join them and assume that you can stay in the
• 36:35
  office or stay in your house and correctly guess or correctly
• 36:41
  predict what it is that will work and what it is that won't
• 36:45
  work. But don't misunderstand me.
• 36:50
  Planning is absolutely essential and we all should plan.
• 36:53
  Just don't make it too academic. Don't make it too sterile.
• 36:56
  Don't make it too cerebral. Don't make it too brainy.
• 36:59
  Brainy. OK, 40 minutes.
• 37:03
  So let me bring it to a close. So thank you very much for
• 37:05
  listening. Remember, if you'd like to
• 37:07
  connect with me, call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp
• 37:10
  message on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 37:16
  time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
• 37:19
  time.