Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Building Your Sales Machine: The People Factor

Transcript

Building Your Sales Machine: The People Factor · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Before
0:04
we begin, the usual apologies because this is
0:06
an out and about recording so expect the usual
0:09
interruptions, people talking in the background, cars
0:12
driving by and yes I am close to a few chickens so
0:16
for those of you who had the chickens growing in the
0:19
distance yesterday, I'm back in the same place and so
0:21
maybe the chickens might decide to holler. And
0:25
let's see, so before we get into the question for
0:29
today, I'd like to shout out another podcast listener
0:33
and her name is Kristiana or Laumi. I
0:37
hope I'm pronouncing your surname correctly. Now
0:40
for the Kristiana, I hope I'm also pronouncing that
0:43
correctly because my little sis is a Kristiana and she
0:48
doesn't like it when people call her Kristina. So
0:52
I know that that's a thing. So
0:56
yeah so that's it, Kristiana or Laumi. She's
1:00
a podcast listener who discovered the show in
1:03
February. She's a content specialist, a
1:06
project manager and also a published author. She
1:10
connected with me on LinkedIn recently. I'm
1:12
still getting to know her in the LinkedIn DMs but
1:16
yeah that's it. So that's a podcast listener
1:19
shout out for today. So thank you very much for
1:21
those of you who take me up on the offer I make at
1:25
the end of the show for folks to get in touch and
1:27
have a chat. And I'm looking forward to
1:31
meeting more of you podcast listeners. So
1:34
today what I'm going to look at, what we are going
1:37
to look at is how to build a successful sales
1:39
machine for your business and yes that is taking a
1:42
step back for those of you who have been listening to
1:43
the show. You'll remember that before we
1:46
went on that whole thing about promoting your fintech
1:49
ideas in Nigeria, we had started the conversation on
1:53
how to build a sales machine for your business
1:55
but well it's no secret. I tell you guys that I just
2:00
have a bunch of questions. Some
2:02
are organized on my phone, some are organized on my
2:06
notebooks, scraps of paper here and there and so I
2:08
just wake up and respond to the question for the
2:11
day. And so in the midst of the
2:13
mess I just lost this one on building a sales machine
2:18
for your business so I didn't realize that we
2:20
hadn't finished it. That was before I moved on to
2:22
the fintech one. Maybe it's because recently the
2:27
fintech folks were out in the news again. There
2:31
were some boys, some guys rather. Okay
2:34
let me say gentlemen because these are not
2:35
youngish. Okay well younger than me but
2:37
you get the gist. Another one of these startups that
2:41
had recently failed. I can't remember what it was
2:44
called so the one in the news because they failed,
2:49
the one able to raise funds but apart from that
2:51
they were going to return $350 ,000 to their
2:55
investors. So maybe because of topical
2:58
things like this that's the reason why I got
3:00
sidetracked and just hopped on that fintech episode
3:04
real quick. So back to how to build a
3:08
sales machine for your business. Now
3:10
in the previous episode if you go back, if you're
3:14
interested, scroll, you have to scroll down a bit
3:18
because you have over 820 episodes of the podcast so
3:22
far but you won't have to go past more than maybe
3:26
two or three weeks. That's where we had done how you
3:29
build a sales machine for your business and I had
3:33
laid out in that podcast episode that you need three
3:36
elements or rather we're going to look at it from
3:37
three elements which is people, technology and
3:42
processes and yes those of you who remember the old
3:46
Zenith Bank advertisement. Yeah
3:47
exactly that was it Zenith Bank, people, processes,
3:51
technology and those are the three elements that you
3:55
need to build your sales machine. So
3:58
we have already done the episode on frameworks and
4:03
processes because you cannot build your sales machine
4:08
and by the way I'm speaking exclusively about
4:11
sales now so because there are lots of business
4:15
functions, there's a marketing function in the
4:17
business, there's a personal sales function in the
4:19
business, accounting functions in the business,
4:21
management functions in the business so I'm not saying
4:24
that this is the framework through which you have to
4:27
look to address all of business problems. I'm
4:30
talking uniquely about sales and let's bear that in
4:34
mind. So where was I? Okay
4:37
so we've done the episode about framework and
4:40
processes because when it comes to improving your
4:42
sales you cannot freestyle your way to sales success
4:45
because you wake up on some days, you feel fly,
4:48
you feel confident and you be on point and then you
4:51
wake up on some other days and you feel foggy and
4:54
tired and lazy and then you're going to be less
4:59
than par. So we need to come up with a
5:01
framework or a process that we can wake up and follow
5:03
every single day that helps us maintain a consistent
5:07
level of production and most importantly when we
5:11
have this kind of framework in place we can now teach
5:13
other people who want to sell on our behalf whether
5:16
it's your husband, your wife, your kids, for those
5:19
of you who have children who are old enough or
5:20
maybe your best friend just wants to come and help you
5:24
for a few weeks, see how you can drum up some
5:25
sales. There'll be something that you can
5:28
show them or that you can tell them that this is how
5:32
we look for customers, this is how we start the
5:34
conversation, this is how we figure out needs, this
5:37
is how we try and close, this is how we get them
5:39
to come and do business with us again in the
5:41
future, this is how we get referrals. So
5:43
process or framework is just essentially that part
5:47
where there's something that you can refer to so that
5:51
you can sell consistently over time and help people
5:54
sell consistently over time, sorry and people can help
5:57
you sell consistently over time themselves on your
6:00
behalf. So remember I said if it's
6:04
written down that is good it doesn't have to be
6:06
written down especially for those of you who are
6:08
starting off your business right now, it just has to
6:10
be something that is very clear if it's written down
6:13
that you can show someone, if it is something that
6:15
you've memorized that you can explain to people
6:18
clearly and succinctly. So yeah that's it, so that
6:23
was about the framework and processes part of the
6:26
conversation. So what we left out at that
6:28
previous episode was people and technology, so today
6:31
we're going to go into people briefly. So
6:36
now why are people a key element of building your
6:39
sales machine? Why are people necessary? The
6:42
reason why people are necessary is because in the
6:44
beginning in the early days when we start off the
6:46
hustle whether you're a wedding photographer, you
6:48
sell chickens, you sell catfish or even if you
6:51
want to start up a cashew manufacturing facility, in
6:55
the early days it's going to be you running around,
6:58
it'll be you running to NAFDAQ, you talking to
7:00
investors and you trying to sell your cashew nuts in
7:04
bottles or in cans, it'll be you. The
7:07
same thing as a wedding photographer, it'll be you
7:09
in the beginning doing the wedding shows, talking to
7:12
the brides, delivering the books, shooting the weddings
7:14
and that's just how things start. But
7:16
eventually over time some of us want to scale our
7:19
efforts and some of us want to grow our
7:20
businesses. It is not compulsory, there
7:25
are some people who say look I just want to build
7:27
a lifestyle business, I don't want to be dangoty,
7:31
I'm doing this hustle, this hustle is giving me like
7:33
10M every year, I'm good with this 10M, I can pay
7:36
school fees, me and my wife are happy, so let's
7:39
leave it like that. So you want to do that, it's
7:44
totally fine, not everybody has to build a business
7:48
behemoth. But for those of us who choose
7:52
to scale or to grow our efforts eventually, we
7:54
cannot do that without people. Introducing
7:58
people into the mix, making business a team sport,
8:01
building your team, that is one way that we start
8:04
scaling our efforts and grow our sales, and that
8:06
is the reason why people are necessary, because we
8:09
cannot achieve our business goals and visions alone, so
8:14
we need people. Another reason why people are a
8:17
very important part of the mix and we should pay
8:19
attention to this is because when we start
8:21
bringing people on board, especially for those of you
8:24
who listen to the episode where we spoke about
8:25
frameworks and processes, when we start bringing
8:28
people on board, it has some very very important
8:31
and interesting after effects. One
8:34
of them is in brand reinforcement or brand
8:36
tarnishing or you know, well you get the point.
8:39
When you start bringing people
8:40
on board, if you get the wrong people on board, it's
8:42
going to do very damaging things to your brand. If
8:47
you get the right people on board, then it is going
8:49
to help to reinforce your brand, so it's really
8:52
important you know, not just how many people do
8:55
you get on board, but the quality of people that you
8:57
get on board. Then of course it also has
9:00
interesting implications for the user experience, the
9:04
customer experience, because you bring someone who is
9:06
an absolute goat and you bring the person onto your
9:08
team, and when I say goat in this case, I don't mean
9:11
the greatest of all time, I mean goat as in like
9:13
the guy is a goat, like he's useless, so if you
9:15
bring a goat onto your team right now, it's going
9:18
to give a poor user experience for your
9:25
customers. I think user experience would
9:27
be more of like if you have apps and products and
9:31
things like that, so give you a poor customer
9:34
experience, so that's also another reason why people
9:36
are absolutely necessary. And
9:38
I gave the example about some businesses that are
9:40
husband and wife businesses. I've
9:42
interacted with some of those people and I know
9:44
that you have to, you know where yes it is one
9:46
business, but then when you call, you're praying that
9:49
look I hope it's the wife that answers the phone,
9:50
because the wife is a human being, the husband is
9:52
a total idiot, or it could be the other way around.
9:55
You call them, I'm hoping,
9:57
please I hope it's the husband that picks up the
9:58
phone, because the husband is on point and the wife
10:01
is does some things that are less to be desired,
10:04
can put it that way. So these are the reasons why
10:09
people are necessary. Number one, they help to scale
10:12
our efforts, and then number two, they have
10:14
really solid implications about how we reinforce our
10:18
brand, they could damage our brand, and they can
10:20
either improve or hinder the customer experience. So
10:24
now let us look at how we get the right people on
10:27
board for the team. And I'm going to stress again
10:30
that when I'm talking about this, I'm limiting it to a
10:33
purely sales and business development perspective.
10:37
There is a business, sorry, there
10:39
is a discipline around human resources, around
10:43
hiring, around employee management, around personnel
10:47
management, you know, there is a discipline for that.
10:51
So I'll be telling you guys
10:53
at the end of the episode, and I'm mentioning it now,
10:56
that when you're done listening to this episode,
10:57
you should also be listening to podcasts on
10:59
human resources, hiring, employee management,
11:02
personnel management, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, in
11:04
anticipation for the time when your business grows
11:06
that big, and then you now have, you know, one or two
11:10
salespeople, maybe a bookkeeper, maybe a
11:14
receptionist. So when we start learning
11:16
about those sorts of things as well, because they're
11:20
absolutely important. The reason why I stress the
11:22
whole thing about sales is because sales is the
11:24
lifeblood of the business. If
11:26
there's no lifeblood, if there's no money, if
11:28
there's no customer deal flow, then why are you
11:30
hiring a receptionist? The receptionist will just sit
11:33
down there and have nothing to do. You
11:35
know, why are you hiring an accountant or a
11:37
bookkeeper? The bookkeeper will be sitting
11:38
down, but there's no numbers to crunch. So
11:41
sales, most important, because it's the lifeblood,
11:43
it's the life flow, but we have to learn about other
11:45
things. So all the things I'm going
11:47
to talk about now about getting the right people on
11:49
board for your sales team is just limited to a sales
11:54
and business development perspective. So
11:56
please, nobody should reach out to me and say that,
11:58
you know, the things I spoke about were necessarily
11:59
limiting because I've said it here, that it's limited
12:02
to a particular perspective. So
12:05
for salespeople, number one, traditionally, we don't hire
12:08
for skills because skills are easy to teach. It
12:12
is easy to teach someone to fill out a form. It
12:14
is easy to teach someone to fill a machine, operate
12:17
machinery. It is easy to teach someone
12:20
how to learn about project features, you know, things
12:23
like that. But I'm just trying to say
12:25
that there are some things that are easy to teach.
12:27
One thing that is very hard to
12:29
teach is attitude. For we salespeople, attitude has
12:34
to be on point because sales is hard. It's
12:40
not easy to wake up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
12:42
Thursday, Friday. Okay, let's leave it at Friday.
12:45
You shouldn't be working
12:45
Saturday and Sunday. You should rest. Not
12:48
just for religious reasons, but because if you do that
12:50
whole Monday to Sunday thing, you burn out. You
12:53
burn out. You're not effective. You're
12:54
not effective. Sales windows. Sales
12:57
windows, you have less money, you know, less
12:59
money. You're going to be harassed when
13:02
it comes to school fees or how you are going to take
13:06
the family out on Easter or whatever. So
13:07
Monday to Friday, rest Saturday and Sunday. At
13:11
least ideally anyway. So it's hard to maintain that
13:15
kind of steady workflow if you have a poor attitude.
13:20
So you wake up high on
13:20
Monday, depressed on Tuesday, lackluster on
13:23
Wednesday. It doesn't make for easy
13:27
sales. So attitude is the hard part
13:30
to teach. And so because of that
13:32
traditionally from a sales and business perspective,
13:34
the focus is on trying to hire people who have the
13:37
right attitude in the first place. Because
13:40
you can hire somebody who has the right attitude, but
13:42
the person has poor skills and you can train up that
13:45
person in the skill. For those of you who have
13:50
little kids and have to take the children to the
13:51
hospital, you know exactly what it is that I mean.
13:54
The idea is that you go to
13:55
the hospital and you meet the wrong doctor. So
13:58
this doctor knows your stuff, but this guy is
14:01
rude or she's always on her phone or they don't
14:05
answer questions or, you know, those of you who
14:08
have little kids, you understand what this I'm
14:09
talking about. Whenever kids are not feeling well,
14:13
we're trying to get this thing done. And,
14:15
you know, we're in front of a doctor who is
14:16
competent, but he or she, um, absolute idiot. And
14:19
so, you know, you know, poor attitude or poor, poor
14:22
bedside skills as bedside manners, they used to
14:27
talking about. And then on the other hand,
14:29
sometimes you meet the doctor and the doctor has
14:32
the right attitude, but he might not know all the all
14:34
the answers, but at least he's answering. He's
14:36
polite. She is listening. She's
14:39
engaging. And even if she doesn't know
14:42
everything, she's able to say, okay, well, you know
14:44
what, let me speak to this colleague and blah, blah,
14:45
blah. And we prefer dealing with
14:48
those sorts of doctors because they have the right
14:50
attitude. So it's the same for sales as
14:53
well, not just for medicine. You
14:56
can teach anybody the skills. So
14:57
make sure you're hiring people who have the right
14:59
attitude to begin with, because if you hire someone
15:02
who is rude, someone who is ungrateful, someone who
15:06
is pessimistic, then you're giving yourself a long
15:10
jump. There was somebody who asked me
15:12
a question in one of, um, NASBAC when I said the
15:15
WhatsApp group asked me, how about you get your
15:17
staff to be more honest? And
15:19
the answer is you can get your staff to be more
15:20
honest. You hire honest people from the
15:22
beginning. So, um, because somebody who
15:26
wants to steal will find a way within whatever the
15:29
parameters are to steal because, you know, why in
15:33
a journal, we see it on the news, um, you know,
15:36
small businesses, people who steal, big businesses,
15:39
people who steal. So the woman who sells egg on
15:43
the corner, she has to worry about theft, dangling,
15:45
he has to worry about theft and misappropriation
15:47
in the businesses. So the solution is to make
15:50
sure that you hire honest people in the first place.
15:52
Of course, all the other
15:54
business and company safeguards have to be
15:56
there. But, um, anyway, 15 minutes, let
15:59
me move on. I think I've belabored the
16:00
point. So hire for the right attitude
16:02
in the first place, teach the skills later. That's
16:04
how we do it in sales. Then,
16:07
um, also hire people that are teachable and people
16:11
that are adaptable. It is necessary for the sales
16:14
profession because sales is not a profession like other
16:17
professions. So let's go back to the
16:18
doctor thing. For the doctor thing, it's,
16:21
it's kind of stable. You're a doctor, you treat
16:23
children. Desire that going to be malaria
16:26
or typhoid or decentry or throat infection or ear
16:32
infection or skin abrasions, you know, so it's going to
16:36
be the same thing in and out, in and out, in and
16:39
out. For sales, on the other hand,
16:41
people are different personalities are different
16:44
context are different so even though there are, um,
16:49
groupings or certain themes around when you're
16:52
interacting with people, you'll find that you can,
16:55
you can be involved in, um, all kinds of, um,
16:58
situations. So sales people need to be
17:00
creative. They need to be adaptable. They
17:02
also need to be teachable because, you know, remember
17:04
back to the framework and processes thing. It's
17:08
not just about selling. It's
17:09
also about selling how you want your customers to be
17:13
sold to. So there's a way that I
17:16
expect my clients to be, um, handled. And
17:21
so when I start expanding and bring other people on
17:23
board, it'll not just be a matter of I can sell. I
17:26
have sold before I sold for dangling in the past.
17:29
So maybe for dangling or for
17:31
Hilton hotel or for, let's say you work at the
17:34
filling station. So your boss at the filling
17:37
station or your boss at Hilton hotel or your boss
17:39
or your line manager in dangloty would have expected
17:41
you to do things one way. But
17:44
now that you work for me, I expect you to do things
17:47
another way that reflects my own values, that
17:51
reflects the brand that we're trying to, the brand
17:54
position that we're trying to put out there, things
17:56
like that. So you need people who are
17:58
flexible, you need people who are teachable, you need
18:00
people who are adaptable. It's
18:01
necessary for the sales profession. So
18:03
you hire people who have that, um, that orientation,
18:10
let me put it that way. So
18:12
summary what we said so far, hire for attitude. You
18:16
can always teach the skills. Then
18:18
hire people who are teachable and adaptable.
18:20
It's going to be necessary for
18:22
sales. Then one thing I want to stress
18:26
because people worry too much about this. People
18:29
are worried about the people on my team. Do
18:31
I have too many extroverts? Do
18:32
I have too many introverts? Do
18:34
I have too many Enneagram 5, Enneagram 4? Do
18:37
I have too many cholery? Do
18:39
I have too many phlegmatics? Do
18:41
I have too many high D, low influence, um, you
18:45
know, all the different, um, personality matrixes and
18:48
grids and things that people come up with these
18:50
days. So in my own opinion, do not
18:53
worry too much about all these things. It's
18:55
not about whether the person is choleric or
18:57
sanguine or extroverted or in or introverted. Focus
19:00
on whether the person has two core skills. Number
19:04
one is understanding value. Number
19:05
two is communicating value. Understanding
19:08
value is being able to listen to a customer that
19:12
you're talking to or potential client to try and
19:15
figure out what it is that they find value. The
19:19
reason why this is important is because a lot
19:21
of people come into sales thinking it's all about
19:23
presentation and how, um, how well I can talk. So
19:28
you come and say, bro, you need to buy these jeans
19:30
because these jeans is the best. This
19:32
was raining in the market right now. Did
19:34
you see Kanye's fashion show for 2023? This
19:38
is what Kanye West was wearing right now. All
19:40
the Abuja big boys are wearing these jeans. Buy
19:42
these jeans. Buy this wristwatch. Buy
19:44
this car. Buy this whatever. That
19:47
is communicating value. But now communicating value
19:50
assumes that you know what the other person finds
19:53
valuable in the first place. So
19:55
you need to understand value first because that's
19:57
what gives you all the ammunition, all the data
19:59
that you need to now communicate value. So
20:03
those are the terms in which you should be
20:04
thinking. Does this person know how to
20:07
understand value and does the person know how to
20:09
communicate value? So if you find an introverted
20:12
person who knows how to understand value and
20:14
communicate value, you'll be fine. An
20:16
extroverted person who knows how to understand value and
20:18
who knows how to communicate value, you'll be
20:20
fine. So it's not about extroversion
20:22
or introversion. Can the person understand value?
20:25
Do they know how to slow down
20:26
and to listen, to read the room, to read body
20:29
gestures, to talk to people, to handle a
20:31
conversation, to try and figure out what's going on
20:33
and what people value and what they want? And
20:36
then do they know how to make a case? Your
20:39
personality is not tied into it. Your
20:41
personality affects how you do this. Like
20:47
my wife is much more animated than I am. When
20:50
she talks, she uses her whole body, she uses her
20:53
hands, like she's really animated. You
20:55
know, for me, I sit down there, I'm like a stone,
20:58
I'm like a tree, like I'm listening, but yeah, I'm
21:02
like a stone. My wife really, really
21:04
animated. So there was a time when one
21:07
of my friends was having man issues and she came
21:09
talk to me and my wife and of course I listened,
21:12
I was there like a stone and then I gave my
21:14
pronouncement, the guy's an idiot, you should leave
21:17
him. This is why XYZ, ABC, he's an
21:20
idiot, dumped this guy. My wife on the other hand,
21:24
her approach was different, like what? You
21:26
don't mean it. He did what? Come
21:29
on, who does this? No, no, no, are you serious?
21:32
No, no, no, he couldn't have
21:33
done that. So you see that my wife is
21:36
listening. I was also listening. We
21:38
were just listening in different ways. I
21:40
was sitting down like a stone and listening. My
21:43
wife was listening in a much more active way, using
21:47
probing questions, like what? He
21:50
did that. Are you serious? No,
21:52
no, no, this thing could not have happened. Who
21:55
does that? You know, so she's listening
21:57
and the way that she's talking and asking questions
22:01
and being proactive, it prompts more, more, what's
22:07
the word? The other person feels much
22:09
more listened to, empathized with and my friend, you
22:13
know, started talking more and more about her man
22:15
issues. Now, the longer short of the
22:17
story is this, my wife's recommendation and my
22:20
recommendation were absolutely the same. This
22:22
guy's an idiot, he's a goat, leave him, he's a
22:25
bastard. So the recommendation was the
22:27
same. But because I didn't seem to
22:31
be understanding value in a good way, my advice was
22:36
not listened to. My wife on the other hand
22:38
took her time, had all these conversations over the
22:41
course of like two months. Quite
22:43
frankly, I thought it was a waste of time. Like
22:44
I've already told her, this guy's a bastard, he's an
22:47
idiot, just leave the guy, but she's still there. But
22:50
at the end of the day, my wife's recommendations were
22:52
followed because my friend felt like she was
22:57
understood. So you can see how in
23:00
personal relationships, in business relationships, this
23:02
is how the whole thing works, understanding value,
23:04
communicating value. So if people can understand
23:08
value and can communicate value, then regardless of
23:12
their personality, they'll be fine. If
23:14
you're dealing with someone who is animated, like my
23:16
wife, she'll be fine. If you're dealing with someone
23:19
like me, who is like a stone, you know, you'll be
23:22
fine. So in personal issues, yes, I
23:24
know, I probably don't listen well. When
23:27
it comes to business, on the other hand, I listen,
23:30
I ask questions, I'm able to try and figure out what
23:32
it is that is going on. So
23:34
I can give firm recommendations about what
23:36
it is that we do next. So don't worry about who is
23:38
extroverted or introverted. Don't
23:41
say that, oh, this young lady came here, but the
23:43
way she was talking, she was all over the place,
23:45
she was throwing her hands here and there, she looks
23:48
too scattered. I don't think she can sell.
23:51
No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't
23:54
be paying attention to how scattered she looks. You
23:57
can always train her and rein her in, if at all,
24:01
the scatteredness in quote is a problem. So
24:04
long as she knows how to listen and to understand
24:05
value and then turn around and then communicate value,
24:09
then you're fine. And also don't say this guy
24:11
sat down in front of us, but he sat down like a
24:14
brick. He has no personality. He
24:17
can't sell for us. No, it's not about that. You
24:20
can always, hmm, I'll let put it, so forgive me.
24:28
Anyway, let me just, okay, let me
24:30
go back to that. So yes, the guy sits down
24:32
like a brick and you think, no, I don't want
24:34
him selling for me. If he sits down like a brick
24:36
and he doesn't talk much, maybe he only uses 20
24:40
words, 20 words in a minute or something. But
24:44
if those words are well placed, able to drive the
24:48
conversation, he's able to pull out what it is that
24:51
the customer wants and he's able to succinctly, sorry,
24:56
forgive me, express himself to communicate value, then
24:58
it's going to be fine. So don't do that thing that
25:03
Zenith Bank did when they started off in the
25:05
beginning, because we're back then, I was in Lagos.
25:07
So I don't know if it was a
25:08
national thing, it was just a Lagos thing. But
25:11
in Zenith Bank, back in the early days, when they
25:13
started, all their branches were full of beautiful,
25:18
likable, personable, light -skinned young women. So
25:22
don't fall into all those traps, that this is the
25:25
kind of category of person that can sell very well.
25:29
And these are the kinds of
25:31
people who cannot sell. So yes, your sales team should
25:34
be a mixture of light -skinned, tall, attractive,
25:36
personable women, but it's also okay to have short,
25:41
fat, dark -skinned guys as your sales team as well.
25:47
So it's a mix that you should
25:50
be looking for. So it's not about extroversion,
25:52
introversion, and all those other personality quebs. Can
25:55
the person understand value? Can
25:56
the person communicate value? That's
25:58
why you should be paying attention to. So
26:00
any personality type will do. The
26:02
only personality type will not do, and this one
26:05
actually is a problem, a psychological problem, is
26:08
when you're dealing with, what are they called? Kai,
26:13
I can't remember what they're called. These
26:16
people that don't have any concept of self -esteem from
26:23
themselves. Like their self -esteem is
26:24
derived from other people. Hi.
26:29
Sorry, I can't remember what they're called anyway.
26:30
But there's a class of people
26:31
who have no concept of self -esteem. Their
26:33
self -esteem is derived from other people. So
26:36
they're constantly being obnoxious and or not,
26:39
because if they are triggering everybody and
26:41
everybody's angry with them and they can always affect
26:44
the environment, then what are they called again?
26:50
Anyway, you get the picture. All
26:51
those self -absorbed people. So
26:53
if you're dealing with someone who is self
26:55
-absorbed, if you're dealing with someone who is a
26:57
sociopath, I think sociopaths are people who
26:59
lack empathy. So sociopaths, psychopaths,
27:03
people who are self -obsessed, self -absorbed, all
27:07
those na, they're not going to be good for sales. So
27:11
those personality types definitely avoid them. And
27:14
then, like I said, since we're talking about people,
27:18
there is a discipline around these sorts of
27:21
things. Human resource management, hiring,
27:24
personal management, employee management, pay attention to
27:28
those sorts of things as well. Those
27:30
are the people you should listen to. This
27:31
is not my area of focus or my area of specialty.
27:35
But I'm just telling you what
27:36
traditionally we look out for when it comes to the
27:39
sales side. Does this person have the right
27:41
skills? If he or she, sorry, does
27:43
this person have the right attitude? If
27:46
he or she has the right attitude, get them on
27:48
board. We can teach them about the
27:49
product later. In this person, teachable and
27:53
adaptable, get them on board. We
27:56
can teach them about the product and everything
27:59
later. Now, nowhere about extroversion
28:02
or introverted is the guy short, fat, black, and ugly
28:07
and he has no personality. If
28:10
he looks like he can understand value and he can
28:11
communicate value, get him on board. You
28:14
can teach him to smile better or maybe dress nicer
28:16
or whatever later. So, is she tall, light -skinned,
28:21
pretty, and sociable? It doesn't mean you have to
28:26
get her on board because of all that. But
28:27
try and figure out can she understand value and can
28:29
she communicate value? If she is tall, light -skinned,
28:33
pretty, and personable but she can't understand value
28:35
or she can't communicate value, then what is she
28:38
there for? She's not going to do your
28:40
business any good. In fact, I made a podcast
28:42
episode about this many years ago when my wife, I
28:45
was looking for a driving school for my wife and
28:47
when I entered one place, the place looked legit as
28:50
in the AC was tight, the office was fresh, the
28:53
furniture was on point, the cars were clean. But
28:58
then the person that they had in the office was a,
29:02
you know now, tall, attractive, curvy, light
29:05
-skinned, fornair, everything. But
29:07
she couldn't answer any of the questions. How
29:10
much does it cost? How long is the training
29:12
program? Do you guys help us to get
29:15
driver's licenses when we're done at the end of the
29:17
whole thing? She couldn't answer a single
29:20
question. All she could do was to, let
29:24
me take your name and your number, I'll speak to my
29:26
boss and I'll get back to you. I'll
29:28
speak to my boss and I'll get back to you. So
29:30
having those kind of people in your establishment
29:32
because they look the part but they can't, they're not
29:35
helpful, it's not going to do anything for your
29:37
business. You'll have a better of having
29:39
someone who was the opposite of everything on
29:42
that spectrum but the person could answer the
29:44
question saying, oh welcome, welcome to ABC, auto,
29:47
something, something, something. How
29:49
can I help you? Okay, who's the one that's
29:51
learning how to drive? Is it you or is it madame?
29:53
Oh okay madame, have you done
29:54
some driving before? Okay, how many weeks? Why
29:58
did you stop by the way? How
29:59
come you don't drive in Abuja? Okay,
30:01
no problem. What cars do you have? What's
30:05
the usual routine like? Are you the one that is going
30:07
to be handling dropping children off at school?
30:09
Okay, no problem. So
30:11
there are different packages. This
30:13
is the package that I'll recommend for you. An
30:18
instructor is Kunle. Kunle is outside. You
30:21
can have a chat with him. These
30:22
are the cars that we have available. Package
30:24
A will be so, so, so, so. If
30:26
you want to learn with trailer, it will be X
30:28
amount. If you want to learn with the
30:30
Lexus, it will be this amount. If
30:31
you want to learn with the Honda Civic, it will be
30:33
this amount. You know, someone who can have
30:35
that kind of conversation is much more helpful than
30:38
having someone who looks the part or sounds the
30:40
part but then is not helpful. Okay,
30:42
30 minutes. So let me wrap it up. So
30:44
thanks for your time and attention. Connect
30:45
with me on LinkedIn. The name is Tavashima Ayedeh.
30:48
I'm the host of the show. You
30:49
can confirm the spelling of my name from the link
30:51
where I'm listening to this episode in case you want
30:53
to search me out on other socials. And
30:55
then my phone number is 080 -64662140. Contrary
31:02
code is plus 234. For those of you who are not
31:04
Nigerian, you can connect with me on WhatsApp,
31:06
Telegram, SMS, phone call. You
31:09
send a WhatsApp. I'll respond tomorrow, latest. If
31:13
you send a Telegram, I might get to you maybe
31:15
next week. So thanks for your time and
31:17
attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
31:19
episode.