Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Systemize Success: Your Guide to a Productive Year-End Review

Transcript

Systemize Success: Your Guide to a Productive Year-End Review · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be my first
• 0:04
  noisy episode for 2025. And that's because I am at the
• 0:08
  filling station, just parked off to the side close to the
• 0:11
  mechanics. And it's a very long story, so
• 0:12
  I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but just to let
• 0:15
  you know that this is going to be a long episode.
• 0:17
  So expect to hear fuel attendance, quarreling in the
• 0:19
  background, cars driving by and, you know, people selling
• 0:22
  groundnuts and things like that just moving about in the
• 0:25
  background. So today's the 3rd of January
• 0:29
  2025, and it's this time of the year that people are talking
• 0:33
  about new year, new strategies, new tactics.
• 0:36
  Knew you knew this, knew that, you know, so new year, everybody
• 0:40
  just assumes that because it's a new year, everything has to be
• 0:43
  new. So today's episode is going to
• 0:45
  be focused on how we should be looking at our business in a
• 0:48
  systemic in a much more wholesome way, because business
• 0:52
  is actually our systems. And so because it's a new year,
• 0:55
  because we've gone from December 31st to January 1st doesn't
• 0:58
  necessarily mean that something has to change because the
• 1:02
  calendar has changed, but the business fundamentals have not
• 1:05
  changed. So if the business fundamentals
• 1:07
  have not changed, then perhaps there's no reason to just start
• 1:10
  doing new year, new this, new this new that.
• 1:14
  So yeah, business is a system. Nothing fundamental has changed.
• 1:19
  So you have no reason to change your tactics, no reason to
• 1:23
  change your strategies just because we have gone from
• 1:25
  December 31st and now we're in January 1st or rather 3rd of
• 1:30
  January as the case may be. So, so long as the fundamentals
• 1:33
  of the business remain the same, the underlying elements are the
• 1:37
  same, you know, the market is still the same, your product is
• 1:40
  still the same, consumer trends are still the same, legislation
• 1:44
  is still the same, the macroeconomics are still the
• 1:47
  same. I mean, if everything is the
• 1:48
  same, then why are you just changing for changing sake?
• 1:51
  It's not like you have left Nigeria to go and set up the
• 1:54
  business again in Ghana and then, OK, so it's a new country,
• 1:57
  it's a new target audience, you know, so you have to change
• 2:00
  stuff up. It's not as if there's been a
• 2:02
  change in consumer trends, you know, overnight, you know, in
• 2:05
  December, people like things one way and then in general people
• 2:07
  like things another way. It's not as if the government
• 2:10
  passed a law overnight and how made it illegal to do things one
• 2:14
  way or made it much more expedient to do things another
• 2:17
  way. And it's not as if the economy,
• 2:19
  you know, change all of a sudden.
• 2:20
  I mean, last I know, the president didn't wake up again
• 2:23
  and then go on the airwave and then just make another
• 2:25
  pronouncement about an IRA notes or fuel or something that would
• 2:29
  destabilize the economy. So if none of these things have
• 2:32
  happened, you have absolutely no reason to change your start,
• 2:35
  change your strategy and change your tactics.
• 2:37
  And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
• 2:39
  So if you'd love to connect, the phone number is 08064662140.
• 2:45
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 2:47
  Nigerian, you can also connect with me on socials, I'm on
• 2:51
  LinkedIn. I'll shut down the other
• 2:53
  channels. So LinkedIn is the only place
• 2:55
  where you're going to be able to find me by the time you get to
• 2:58
  the end of January. So summary, the reason why I'm
• 3:00
  making today's podcast episode is just to tell you guys that
• 3:03
  look, continue with what is working.
• 3:05
  Nothing has changed. So this whole new year, new
• 3:08
  strategy, new tactic, new this new that, it's all BS.
• 3:12
  So if everything is still the same, continue now this is what
• 3:15
  you should be doing though on the 3rd of January 2025 is in
• 3:21
  fact, I think you should have done this in December.
• 3:23
  You should have a meeting with your team.
• 3:25
  If you don't have a team, sit down and talk to your wife, talk
• 3:28
  to your brother, talk to your boyfriend.
• 3:29
  Well, by the way, I keep saying you should not be in business
• 3:31
  with your boyfriend. And you know I'll make a podcast
• 3:33
  episode about that. But whoever it is that you're
• 3:35
  doing business with, if you're a solar person, you can sit down
• 3:39
  on mumsy and popsy or sit down with a mentor or a mentee.
• 3:42
  Sorry, a mentor. You know, someone whose opinions
• 3:44
  that you respect. And you guys should be asking
• 3:47
  some hard questions and you should be troubling
• 3:49
  troubleshooting a bunch of things.
• 3:51
  So we are in January of 2025. I think this should have
• 3:55
  happened in December. If you didn't do it in November,
• 3:58
  December, then no problem. You can't do it right now.
• 4:00
  Now is the time to do it. OK, today's a Friday.
• 4:03
  OK, No, you should be flexing because today is Friday.
• 4:06
  So Monday the 8th, Abhi, No, if it is third, Monday will be
• 4:10
  fifth. OK, yes, so Monday the 5th.
• 4:12
  Sit down with your team and then you guys ask yourself some
• 4:15
  questions, start trying to figure out what did we do in
• 4:18
  2024 that worked. The reason why we want to find
• 4:23
  out what worked in 2024 is so that we can double down on that
• 4:27
  in 2025. So if you tried some new
• 4:29
  Instagram advertising thing and it seemed to bring in lots of
• 4:33
  revenue in 2024, there's no point in waking up in 2025
• 4:37
  because the calendar has changed.
• 4:38
  And so I was the new tactic. It's not a matter of where I was
• 4:41
  the new tactic. What worked well in 2025, we are
• 4:44
  going to sorry, in 2024. We're going to continue that in
• 4:47
  this new year. You, you also need to try and
• 4:50
  figure out what it is that didn't work last year.
• 4:54
  The reason why you need to know what didn't work last year and
• 4:57
  write those things down is so that nobody in the business,
• 5:00
  none of your teammates, none of your partners, none of your
• 5:03
  selling partners, nobody you work with will make the mistake
• 5:06
  of trying to do that thing again.
• 5:07
  If it didn't work last year and the fundamentals are still the
• 5:10
  same, there's absolutely no reason why the same thing should
• 5:13
  work this year. Except of course, you know, we
• 5:15
  try and take feedback. Why did it fail and then make
• 5:18
  some adjustments. But bottom line, you should be
• 5:20
  sitting down with your team in January.
• 5:23
  If you didn't do it in December, try and figure out what didn't
• 5:26
  work last year. Let's not repeat it.
• 5:29
  What worked last year? Let us double down on it, but
• 5:33
  summary, what I'm trying to say here is do not feel the pressure
• 5:36
  to change anything because this is a new year.
• 5:40
  I'm already seeing it on LinkedIn and all the other
• 5:42
  places, you know, new year, new you, new tactics to consider,
• 5:46
  blah blah blah. Look, please, all of that is
• 5:48
  absolute rubbish. Now let's look at some things in
• 5:51
  more detail, you know, because like I said, the only thing that
• 5:53
  you should do is have a meeting with your team, figure out what
• 5:56
  worked last year, what didn't work.
• 5:58
  Let's see what we should ignore. Let's see what we should double
• 6:00
  down on. So in some more detail, the
• 6:02
  things that you should be considering when you talk to
• 6:05
  your team or talk to Mumsy and Popsy or to your business
• 6:08
  partner or to your mentor or whoever, you should be
• 6:12
  considering some things. Try and review your financial
• 6:14
  performance. How much profit did you guys
• 6:16
  make last year? So how much revenue did you guys
• 6:19
  make last year? And then how much profit did you
• 6:21
  guys make? Now in the simple, everyday
• 6:25
  simple common man definition, revenue just means how much
• 6:29
  business did the how much money did the business make?
• 6:32
  Then profit. My own definition of profit is
• 6:35
  how much money entered your pocket.
• 6:36
  Now, of course, if you've studied accounting, you have to,
• 6:40
  you know, the definitions are much more nuanced.
• 6:42
  But for now, let's just keep it simple revenue.
• 6:44
  How much money did the business make and then profit.
• 6:48
  How much money is one that entered your pocket?
• 6:50
  So if your business did 5 million last year, and that
• 6:56
  looks like it's a good number, that's not the only thing you
• 6:59
  should be looking at. Because if your business did 5
• 7:01
  million last year, but let's say the one that entered your
• 7:04
  pocket, the one that you enjoyed was only 500 K, then how will I
• 7:09
  put it? Well, it's a better way to look
• 7:11
  at the whole picture because it's not just how much did the
• 7:12
  business make, but how much money do they actually keep.
• 7:15
  Then you can also look at the customer lifetime value.
• 7:19
  So the customers that you have, on average, how long have they
• 7:24
  spent with you guys? How many times did they
• 7:25
  purchase? You know, how much money did you
• 7:27
  make on each particular customer?
• 7:28
  It's just a nice number to know because remember that when it
• 7:32
  comes to increasing your sales, there are some levers that we
• 7:35
  can tweak. One of them is we're trying to
• 7:37
  get new people to come and do business with us.
• 7:41
  Then of the people that do business with us, we're trying
• 7:43
  to make sure that a high number of them stay.
• 7:47
  Because if we had 100 customers in 2024, but then now that we've
• 7:52
  moved into 2025, let's say half the customers leave.
• 7:56
  It's a sign that there's a problem.
• 7:58
  You know if half your customers are disappearing because it's a
• 8:00
  sign that there's a huge problem.
• 8:02
  So we're trying to trying to figure out how we get new people
• 8:04
  to buy with us or the people that buy with us.
• 8:06
  We're trying to see how many of them remain.
• 8:09
  Then of those that remain, we're trying to see how we can
• 8:12
  increase the average order size. So let's say you run a shop, you
• 8:16
  know, people come and buy bread, they come and buy eggs, you
• 8:18
  know, things like that. One of the way that you can get
• 8:20
  your business to grow is if you make sure that every time people
• 8:24
  come and buy from you, they spend an average of maybe 7K.
• 8:27
  If you are to, if you're able to increase the average spend.
• 8:30
  So instead of when people come in, they spend 7 K, they're now
• 8:33
  spending maybe 96. The difference between 7K and
• 8:36
  96, it's just two six. It doesn't look like it's much
• 8:38
  when you consider that people are coming to your shop every
• 8:41
  week for 52 weeks of the year. If you just do the math, you'll
• 8:44
  see that even that small increase that somebody spent
• 8:47
  2006 more can lead to significantly more revenues and
• 8:51
  profits at the end of the year. So we should be looking at those
• 8:54
  sorts of things. We should be asking ourselves
• 8:56
  these questions. How many people came throughout
• 8:58
  the year? How many people disappeared?
• 9:00
  What was the average amount of money that people spent?
• 9:02
  How can we get them to spend more money when they do business
• 9:06
  with us? Then of course, also talk to
• 9:08
  your mentor, especially don't talk to me about this one
• 9:12
  because I don't know how to do cash flow.
• 9:14
  But yeah, you should be looking at cash flows.
• 9:15
  What was the monthly income like?
• 9:17
  What was the monthly outflows like?
• 9:18
  Because these things are really, really important.
• 9:21
  Because there are some businesses that are profitable,
• 9:23
  but the reason why they suffer is because the cash flow thing
• 9:26
  doesn't quite work out and so they suffer.
• 9:28
  But financial performance, sit down with your husband, with
• 9:31
  your wife, with your business partner, with your mentor, with
• 9:34
  Mumsy and Popsy, with your pastor, with your whoever, with
• 9:36
  your a mum. Sit down and have this
• 9:38
  conversation. Look at financial performance
• 9:39
  for 2025 and then take dressing on what you can improve in 20,
• 9:44
  sorry, 2024 and then take dressing for the new year.
• 9:47
  Also look at your sales and marketing channels.
• 9:49
  So what was activity like offline?
• 9:51
  What about activity online? How much money did you make in
• 9:55
  direct sales? Was it mostly through Instagram?
• 9:57
  People are finding you or was it from the Flyers that you sent
• 10:00
  out? You know, what were the channels
• 10:01
  that generated the highest amount of ROI?
• 10:05
  ROI is just returned on investment.
• 10:07
  So what is it that you did the most, that got the best yield?
• 10:12
  So is it the Flyers like that young man who went to my son's
• 10:14
  school who handed out Flyers? I mean, you need to know these
• 10:16
  things. So was it the Flyers that
• 10:18
  brought in the most money, brought in the most customers,
• 10:20
  or was it the Instagram advertisements?
• 10:23
  So you need to know these sorts of things because like I said,
• 10:26
  it's the things that worked last year that you determine what it
• 10:29
  is that we do this year. Don't just wake up and start
• 10:31
  trying to do new things. Then also look at the marketing
• 10:36
  campaigns. All the money we spent on social
• 10:38
  media, how did that pan out? What was our best performing
• 10:41
  post? What was the worst performing
• 10:42
  post? The money that we spent on
• 10:44
  e-mail marketing, how did that work?
• 10:47
  What lessons can we learn from the things that work or the
• 10:50
  things that didn't work? Advertising, which advertise
• 10:53
  advertisement paid off the most? And they also have to look at
• 10:56
  conversions and engagements. Of all these things that we did
• 10:58
  online, which one generated the highest level of engagement and
• 11:03
  which one generated the highest level of conversion?
• 11:06
  Now engagement just means the number of people that interact
• 11:08
  with the post. They see it, they like it, they
• 11:10
  share it, they bookmark it, they, you know, whatever.
• 11:14
  But the key thing I should be looking for is conversion.
• 11:16
  And conversion just means the person that takes the next step.
• 11:19
  Because when you put up your photos of pyjamas on, on, on
• 11:26
  Instagram, if you sell Christmas pyjamas, and yes, my wife did
• 11:29
  buy Christmas pyjamas again, you know, because it's a thing.
• 11:32
  And I must admit, the longer we do these things, the cuter it
• 11:35
  becomes this whole Christmas pajama thing.
• 11:37
  So if you sell pajamas and you put up stuff on Instagram, it's
• 11:42
  not just about how many 1000 people liked the image.
• 11:45
  If you put up the image and then a million people liked it, but
• 11:49
  only 20 people bought. OK, let me put it this way.
• 11:55
  If you put up the image 1,000,000 people like it, only
• 11:59
  20 people bought. And then you put about another
• 12:01
  one, only 500 people like it, but then 300 people bought.
• 12:08
  I mean, which one is better? Obviously it's not the one that
• 12:12
  1,000,000 people liked and only 20 people bought.
• 12:15
  It actually is the one that 500 people liked but 40 people
• 12:20
  bought. That's the one that is better
• 12:21
  performing. So it's not just about the
• 12:23
  engagement and reach, but it's about conversion.
• 12:25
  And conversion is when people take that next step.
• 12:27
  And then of course, the the kind of conversion I like is when
• 12:30
  people pay me money when they transfer money to the account.
• 12:33
  But conversion doesn't always mean transferring money to the
• 12:35
  account. Sometimes conversion can also
• 12:38
  mean the people come to the office or they drop their e-mail
• 12:41
  address or they drop their phone number or, you know, whatever.
• 12:49
  So let's look at conversions and engagements, then also sit down
• 12:53
  with Mumsy Popsy, pastor, imam, mentor, business consultant and
• 12:57
  then look at operations and efficiency.
• 13:00
  How much money did you guys spend on rents?
• 13:02
  How much money did you guys spend on salary?
• 13:04
  What about inventory? Have you guys been managing your
• 13:06
  inventory? OK, let's see how much money did
• 13:09
  you spend on NEPA, AMAK, Local Government Council, you know,
• 13:14
  blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things.
• 13:16
  Take stock because you're going to be able to figure out like,
• 13:20
  OK, maybe wasted too much money on Napa or you now get a sense
• 13:24
  of, OK, this is how much we spend in 2024.
• 13:26
  This is a new year. So we should expect to spend
• 13:29
  this exact amount this year. A rough roughly we should expect
• 13:34
  to spend this amount of money. So now we now know what to plan
• 13:37
  for. Then also look at how, look at
• 13:40
  your process efficiency, look at fulfilment.
• 13:43
  How long did it take for you guys to fulfil orders?
• 13:46
  So back when I was a wedding photographer, this was a big
• 13:48
  thing because you know, brides when they don't see their photos
• 13:51
  or they don't see their albums, they start getting angry.
• 13:53
  And the longer it takes, the angrier they get.
• 13:55
  So if you can't fulfill in two weeks, it's good.
• 13:58
  If you fulfill in two months, it might be a problem.
• 14:00
  So these are things you have to look at also in your business.
• 14:03
  On average, in the last year, how long did it take us to
• 14:05
  fulfil? Every time that somebody agreed
• 14:08
  to do business with us and then they sent us the money, how long
• 14:10
  did it take for us to live up to our own end of the bargain and
• 14:14
  to deliver? Did it take us three days or did
• 14:16
  it take us 3 weeks or did it take us three months?
• 14:18
  You know, these things are really, really important.
• 14:20
  So look at your process efficiency there.
• 14:22
  Let's see what else. OK, Look at your customer
• 14:25
  service as well. Look at your production
• 14:27
  timelines. The reason why I said we should
• 14:29
  look at all these things is we're trying to look for areas
• 14:32
  of improvement. We're also trying to look for
• 14:34
  what it is that worked for the things that worked.
• 14:36
  We know that that is what we're going to continue doing.
• 14:38
  Then of course, let's see what else?
• 14:43
  OK, this is almost 15 minutes. Let me just wrap it up to a
• 14:45
  close. But I think you guys get the
• 14:47
  picture of what it is that I'm trying to say.
• 14:49
  Summary. What I'm trying to say with
• 14:50
  today's episode is stop this whole thing of new year, new
• 14:54
  you, new tactics, new strategy, new vitality, new it's, it's
• 14:58
  absolute rubbish. There is no difference
• 15:00
  fundamentally between December 31st and January 1st.
• 15:04
  It's all the same thing. So if the market is still the
• 15:06
  same, the customers are still the same, the consumer trends
• 15:09
  are still the same, the laws are still the same, the economy is
• 15:12
  still the same, there's absolutely no reason to do
• 15:14
  anything new. The only thing that I should do
• 15:16
  different is sit down with your team and discuss a couple of
• 15:18
  things. For our financial performance,
• 15:21
  how did we do and what made us the most money, Let's continue
• 15:24
  doing those things. For the sales and marketing,
• 15:26
  which sales things worked? Let's continue doing it.
• 15:28
  The ones that flopped, let us stop doing it for operations and
• 15:32
  efficiency. You know, where did we spend
• 15:35
  money? How quickly were we getting back
• 15:37
  to customers? You know, things like that, the
• 15:39
  things that OK, so let's say last year, on average, it took
• 15:42
  us 3 weeks to to satisfy our customers.
• 15:48
  OK, let's let me go back to the wedding photography example.
• 15:50
  So as a wedding photographer, let's say on average took you 3
• 15:52
  weeks, but maybe you heard that your competition now is doing
• 15:57
  one week on average to get back to brides, you know, to have the
• 16:00
  album ready. So maybe that might be something
• 16:02
  you have to look at this year to try and see how you can cut that
• 16:05
  down because looking at changes in the market, you know, other
• 16:09
  people are no longer spending three weeks.
• 16:11
  They're now spending one week. So now maybe it's something that
• 16:13
  you have to consider. So something that's what it is.
• 16:16
  I'm just trying to say with today's episode, so December
• 16:22
  31st, January 1st, it's still the same for the metals are
• 16:25
  still the same. So don't be looking for new for
• 16:28
  new sake. Sit down with your team, figure
• 16:31
  out what work last year, continue doing it this year and
• 16:34
  you know, don't do any drastic changes.
• 16:36
  The time for drastic changes will come when the big changes
• 16:39
  come. So like I said, today is January
• 16:43
  the 3rd, 2025. So if one week from now
• 16:46
  President Hinubo gets on the air again and then he says something
• 16:49
  regarding fuel or regarding cashless economy and something,
• 16:53
  something, and then money is now scarce to get and then the cost
• 16:56
  of fuel double S and no blah, blah, blah.
• 16:58
  Yes, if something drastic like that happens, yeah, of course,
• 17:01
  then we need to sit down and start looking at, OK, what new
• 17:03
  thing, what new thing, what new thing.
• 17:05
  But until that happens, just keep on doing good business.
• 17:07
  The same good business you did in 2024 will be sufficient to
• 17:11
  carry you through in 2025. But of course, you should always
• 17:15
  be having routine meetings with members of your team and looking
• 17:18
  at these things, financial performance, sales and marketing
• 17:20
  performance, operational efficiency, looking at customer
• 17:23
  feedback so you can double down on what's working.
• 17:26
  Ignore what it is that doesn't work.
• 17:28
  And you know, these are the places where you're going to get
• 17:30
  your cues about when to do something new.
• 17:33
  Because truth of matter is, you really have to wait for January
• 17:36
  1st to do something new. So if you go through all these
• 17:38
  reviews that we're talking about, you do this review in
• 17:41
  December in in January of 2025. And then by March, because
• 17:47
  you've been doing all these reviews, you figure out that
• 17:49
  there are some things that have to change, then yeah, go ahead
• 17:51
  and make that change. But there's no magic thing that
• 17:53
  says between December 31st and then January 1st, we just need
• 17:56
  to need to start doing all these new, new, new stuff.
• 17:59
  And then let me not be over the points.
• 18:00
  Let me let you guys go on about your day and let me pay
• 18:03
  attention to my own issues over here.
• 18:08
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 18:09
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.
• 18:11
  Remember, if you'd love to connect, the phone number is
• 18:13
  08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 18:18
  If you are not Nigerian and then connect with me on socials, I'm
• 18:22
  on LinkedIn, the name to look for establish my IED.
• 18:24
  So I'll catch you guys at the next episode.