Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Small Mistakes That Kill Businesses in a Big Way

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Small Mistakes That Kill Businesses in a Big Way · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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Hello and welcome to the podcast.
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Today I want us to look at simple decisions that can kill
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small businesses. Yes, this is not directly sales
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or marketing related, but I want us to look at this today because
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I got invited yesterday to be a guest on the radio show.
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And the the show is called Chook Your Mouth.
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Yeah, yeah, I think. Yeah, Chook Your Mouth.
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Yeah, I think that's what it's called.
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So anyway, the host of the show reached out to me, a very senior
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colleague, and I was like, hey, my Co host is not available, can
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you come on Thursday and this is what we're going to talk about,
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simple decisions that kill small businesses.
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I was like, yeah, cool, I can do that because actually it's
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something I can talk about. And of course, I always keep
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things limited to I'm a sales and business development
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perspective because you know, that's my background.
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So from a sales perspective, yeah, sure, I can go and sit
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down and have a chat for one hour about simple decisions,
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simple mistakes that kill Nigerian businesses.
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So I told the guy, sure, no problem.
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I agree. No, Allah then that's how I was
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just going on. And then on Thursday morning,
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well, about getting ready, the guy sends me a message.
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I checked my phone, Pimpim. I checked.
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I saw it. And then the guy was like, oh,
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by the way, the program is in pigeon.
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Can you cope or more? I was scared because, you know,
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I didn't grow up speaking pigeon English because my father was a
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journalist, Mom. She also started off as a
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journalist. Later on, mom, she would be a
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public relations officer for the Hilton Hotel.
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Then from there she would become a marketing and advertising exec
1:50
in Lagos. So basically my household was
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not the kind of household that used to speak pitch in English.
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And the little that would even speak, you know, my parents
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would try and stamp it out. And then back then as as a
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matter of educational policy itself, because I think it still
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exists even in the school system, you know, teachers
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wouldn't encourage you to speak pitch in English.
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So apart from, you know, a few phrases now, you know, like when
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you're talking to your guys or something like that, I've never
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ever, ever, ever been in a situation where I had to
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maintain a conversation in pitching English for one hour
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straight. But anyway, you know, I'm guys
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represent now. So I sent a message back to the
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guys. I don't normally speak English,
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but anyhow, we go run up. The guys say correct, I like
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that. I said no problem.
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So Thursday evening now, now I was yesterday drove down to the
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studio. I got there and inside the
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studio the guy was running late. Then when was time I didn't see
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the guy like 5 minutes to. So I begin to prepare now
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because after all I'm a professional so I can anchor the
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whole show by myself. I was saying it's even good now
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we won't anchor it by myself because then I can now control
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the tempo, the pacing of the pigeon.
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But then the guy showed up. I said, hey, wahala, it's time
3:16
for us to go live. And then the, you know, the
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usual background check you do before you go live now.
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OK, so this is how we run it. You know, this is all we talk
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about. This is this that, that, that.
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What did you prepare? I said, OK, no problem, let's go
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live. Let's go.
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I was ready, you know, and this is me thinking, OK, pigeon
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English, no problem. I was going to come out with the
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flavor, you know, the normal of flavor now, you know, like
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secondary school, university, you know, that kind, that flavor
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of pigeon English. So the show begins and then he's
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like, ah, shook your mouth, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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And then this guy starts using a broadcast pigeon.
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You know, the kind of pigeon that they do on Wasobia FM and
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BBC. You know, BBC also has a, a
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pigeon radio station, like broadcast quality pigeon.
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As the guy was talking, in my mind I was thinking I am
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screwed. I am majorly screwed as I go
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from in front of million of people.
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When the guy was a champ, he was a good pro.
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At some point, you know, he turned to me alive one day, his
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bras, I say they sweat and I started laughing.
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It was good. You know, he brought the mood
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down and then he had to tell the people basically that the reason
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why, even though we're inside studio and Studio Gacy, the
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reason why they sweat is because I don't speak virgin English
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and, you know, was supposed to talk about things that kill
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small businesses in Niger. You're teaching English anyway,
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I made it happen by the time I was leaving.
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I mean, of course, yes. The studio engineer laughed at
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me. Who else?
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Again, the mixer laughed at me. Some other people who are there,
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you know, like they they applauded me.
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They say I tried. They say I tried If I'm one of
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the staff of the radio station. When she saw me coming out of
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the boot, she's like, what are you doing here?
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And I told her, she said, Are you sure?
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Is it for this show? Then she started laughing
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because she knows me and she knows that I can't carry on the
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conversation for one whole hour in pigeon English.
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So anyway, that's the adventure that I was up to yesterday.
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So your boy has achieved another milestone.
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Yesterday I was on the radio and I spoke about simple decisions
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that kill small businesses. And I had to do that for one
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whole hour using broadcast Pigeon.
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And honestly speaking, I don't think I'm going to do that again
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because man was tough. It was tough.
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Now I know what some of you go through when I say, look, it's
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very easy. Just prepare the script, blah,
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blah, blah. You know, set up the microphone,
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you know, just go, you know, is I guess it's because I'm making
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content for a while. I've forgotten what it's like
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that in the midst of creating your content, in the midst of
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doing your delivery, you are now paying attention to the words
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that you use and things like that.
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So yeah, now the experience gave me a little bit more sympathy
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for you guys. So now when I'm advising you
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guys and I say, look, go ahead, blah, blah, blah, I'll try and
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be more gentle because having experienced it, you know, it
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brought back, you know, lots of memories.
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You know, like when you are, you know, that whole thing of you're
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trying to give a presentation, but then you're also conscious
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of every single word that you're using.
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So yeah, that was fun. That was fun.
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Anyway, so today we're going to look at simple decisions that
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kill small businesses because some of the things that we spoke
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about on the on the radio show, I think they're really
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important. So let me just come over here
6:34
and make this podcast recording. Now some of you might say, why
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don't I just get the audio and put over here?
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Well, it's it's complicated for my own radio station.
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The that's really the engineer has already overworked.
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So I don't want to give him my work by saying guy beg, RIP that
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audio file and then give me. Then there's also intellectual
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property concerns, you know, who owns the property, who owns the
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copyright with these sorts of things.
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So yes, you know, I'm the talent and I'm the one on the show, but
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you know, I I haven't practiced law in a while, but you know,
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that's some legitimate issues there.
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Like who owns the copyrights to to the broadcast recording?
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You know, is it the radio station?
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Is it the producer? If it's the radio station, what
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are the limitations? You know, where can you use it?
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Where can't you use it? All those sorts of things.
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So that's the reason why I come here and I make these summary
7:24
recordings. Oh, by the way, for those of you
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listening to the broadcast for the first time, my name is
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Tavishima Ayede. I'm a former lawyer turned
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business consultant. And yes, I also host a radio
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show. And now I have guested on
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somebody else's radio show. So that's the background in case
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you're hearing me say all these things.
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They are wondering who is this guy and what's this whole thing
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about? Now this particular stream that
7:49
you're listening to, here's my podcast.
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And over here what we do is business goodness, I come here
7:55
almost every day trying to solve business problems.
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So we explore problems that people face in business, excuse
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me, still recovering from a cold, especially problems that
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can be solved by using good sales technique, good sales,
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good marketing practices. So that's what we do over here
8:16
on the podcast. And just in case you're curious
8:19
because you've never heard the name Tavishima before.
8:21
Nope, I am not German. No, I am not.
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OK, Well, the name is not German.
8:27
The name is not Irish. The name is not Indian.
8:30
The name is not, you know, wherever else you know people
8:34
say comes from. The name is Steve.
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I'm Steve. I'm from Benway State.
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So yes, I am that one Benway boy that you know who is on the
8:42
podcasting airwaves, if you can't put it that way.
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All right, So yeah, then if you'd love to connect with me,
8:49
you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on
8:52
08064662140 in case you hear anything during this podcast
9:01
recording. And so excuse me, we discussed
9:07
some simple decisions here that kill businesses, and then you
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recognize that you're facing one of those issues.
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If you like my opinion on something like that, then yeah,
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sure, reach out. 08064662140. When you're reaching out, don't
9:21
be shy. No, they're here.
9:22
I'm OK with giving people free business advice.
9:25
Just let me know in the very first message that that is what
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you want and that's the reason why you're reaching out to me.
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Then we'll schedule a call and I'll answer one question only
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for those of you who are shy and don't want to talk because I
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actually did meet. Well, not meet per SE, because
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she sent me a message on WhatsApp.
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And in the six years I've been doing this, I finally met one
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podcast listener who actually did not want to talk.
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Most people, when I say let's go on the call, you know, they look
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forward to it. And then some people are
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surprised that I actually do call because they don't expect
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me to call. But yeah, I've actually met one
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person who didn't want to talk over the phone.
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So in case you're like that, sure, no problem, let me know
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and I'll answer that one question by text.
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But then if you want us to go in depth to explore some of these
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errors, how it relates to your business and to create a plan
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for coming out of it, we'll have to set up a consult consulting
10:23
session. And don't worry, we have, I have
10:26
packages available all the way from big boys, big boys and
10:32
girls, middle class boys and girls all the way down to our no
10:35
get money. We have packages for you.
10:37
So except if you have 0 naira, then you're just limited to one
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question only. All right, so let's go straight
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into it now because I've already wasted like 10 minutes on
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preamble. OK, so simple decisions that
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kill small businesses. By the way, I'm not going to do
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this in pigeon English. So if you are waiting to hear me
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go off in Broadcast Pigeon for the next 20 minutes, I'm sorry
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to disappoint you, but I'm never doing that again.
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That was just too tough. OK, so First off, you know, I'd
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like to define things so that we're all on the same page now.
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Simple just means it doesn't have too many parts.
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You're not considering too many things.
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Another way for another, or let's say now alternative, a
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different word for saying that would be small.
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So small errors. But unfortunately, these errors
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have big implications for your businesses.
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In fact, at this point in the show, I had to the the host of
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the show, Father Sly, I had to argue Father Sly because Father
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Sly was saying that lots of people, you know, some people
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say no weapon fashion against me shall prosper.
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OK, Now Father Sly was saying that some people, it's not even
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a matter of enemies, are fashioning something against you
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like you are the one who is bringing your business down by
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yourself. And I was happy to hear him say
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that because it's something I've been saying steady on this
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podcast and I say a lot that look, there are lots of things
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that are mitigating against the business.
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You know, the economy is harsh and yes, maybe pop sequel to
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somebody in a village. So some people are putting eye
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on your family and they don't like you and they don't like
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your progress. Definitely now on day and maybe
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your employees, you know, they're all thieves and you know
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all of that. So all these issues are there
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standard, but then there are things that you yourself, the
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business owner or the professional sales person,
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there's some things that you you're using your hand to do and
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it's bringing you down. So my focus has always been on
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let us fix these errors, at least the one with their hand,
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you know, the one that we can address.
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Sharp, sharp, deal with those ones and don't worry about the
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enemies later. All right?
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As if we can do anything about the enemies.
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Because honestly speaking, you know, if people are giving you a
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bad eye from the village, I also don't know the solution, you
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know, just sit down and pray, I guess.
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Alright, so we looked at it in a couple of buckets.
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We looked at financial decisions that bring your business down,
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personal decisions that bring your business down, operational
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decisions that bring your business down and then strategic
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decisions that bring your business down.
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Now, of course, financial decisions are decisions that are
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related to naira and Kobo, related to money.
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And some of the things that we spoke about over on the show
13:15
yesterday were Co mingling, poor record keeping, taxes and then
13:19
salary. So Co mingling is something that
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we've spoken about a lot on the podcast because people calling
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and they have the, so I'm not calling, excuse me, people send
13:29
me messages and they're having these sorts of issues in their
13:32
business. And unfortunately, because I am
13:35
a sales specialist, not a financial or personal wealth or
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you know, that is not my strong suit.
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So this is not something I can help people on at all, at all.
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But at least I know enough to tell people that you shouldn't
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be doing this. So the first financial decision
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that brings people's business down is Co mingling.
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Now, Co mingling just means you're running joint accounts
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have been mixed accounts, you know, so you want to pay school
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fees and then you take money from the business account and
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then you pay school fees. You know, you're in the market,
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you want to buy food and then you take money from the business
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account and then you use it to buy food or somebody wants to
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place an order. You tell the person to send it
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into your personal account. Later on you intend to remit it
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back into the corporate account. But you know how these things
14:28
are now. Once it enter your personal
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account, you spend one or two things here and then later on
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you're trying to track how much did Caviarzi transfer?
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Did he transfer 2.8 million or did he transfer 2.765?
14:43
You know, so that is where things start getting a little
14:47
hazy. Now, the reason why this is a
14:50
problem is because when you're doing joint business, remember
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that when you get into business, the whole point is you're trying
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to make a profit. When you're, you know, mixing
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account like this, you just join everything like that.
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You actually cannot figure out what is your profit and what is
15:04
your loss. You cannot sit down and you
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can't decide whether this business is moving forward in a
15:09
healthy manner or whether this business has quite a shocker.
15:15
And so if you can't decide if the business is healthy, if it
15:18
has problems and where the problems might be, how you go
15:20
about rescuing the business. But then again, if you're just
15:27
commingling funds like this, you end up eating your capital, as
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you like to say, in this part of the world.
15:33
So the way someone explained it to me when I was much younger
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was this because I'm from Benoit State, I'm from farming
15:40
community, you know, Benoit State, Natural State, Plateau
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State, you know, all those areas or from traditional farming
15:47
communities. So the way someone explained it
15:49
to me was this, Let's say you're a farmer and you have 100 heads
15:54
of yam. No, I don't know how to describe
15:58
it. Like, you know, the the top of
15:59
yam, the one that sprouts that green thing, you know, you cut
16:02
it, you can use that to plant other yams.
16:05
So let's say you have 100 of those and then you go and you
16:07
plant 100 and then the harvest is good and maybe you harvest.
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So excuse me, you, you harvest, I don't know, 120 or 150.
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So the guy explained it to me is this.
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If you harvest 150 yams and then you eat all 150, you eat
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everything clean mouth as in eat it nice.
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By the time the next planting season comes round, you do not
16:36
have anything to plant again because you ate it all.
16:40
So those of you who farm cause me to be honest, I never did any
16:45
farming. The most farming I did was in
16:48
Agrik when we studied at Agrik in GSS 1, GSS 123.
16:52
That's the last farming I did because we farmed watermelon, we
16:56
farmed corn, we farmed yam, and I can't remember what else you
17:01
know, It was part of the practical.
17:03
You have your plot, you, you farm your crop.
17:07
And yeah, it was an exciting, it was an exciting time.
17:10
I had this bright idea that I would urinate on my corn to give
17:14
it, to give it fertilizer. And I found out, I found out the
17:20
hardwood that unfortunately urine isn't, let's just say if
17:26
you want to, if you're looking for fertilizer, go and get
17:28
fertilizer. Don't, don't urinate on your on
17:30
your plants. It's not a good idea.
17:33
It kills them. So where was I now?
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So if you harvest 150 heads of yam, you don't eat all 150, you
17:45
keep some. So that's how the person who
17:48
explained it to me, that's how the person explained the seed
17:50
capital. So the rationale is the same.
17:52
In business, you don't eat oil money.
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So money comes in, you know, if if, if, if 2026 turns out to be
18:00
a good year and you make 140 million in profits, you don't go
18:06
and spend all 140 million. You flex with some.
18:08
Some is meant to be reinvested back into the business.
18:11
And that's all to guarantee future returns.
18:14
You know, for 2027. Yeah.
18:16
I'm making this podcast recording as at 2026.
18:21
Right. Sorry.
18:22
Excuse me. Yeah, I know it's unprofessional
18:24
to be sniffling. I'm just recovering from a cold.
18:27
So. Yeah.
18:28
So you'll be eroding your capital.
18:29
So that's why commingling not good at all.
18:32
You can't figure out if the company is healthy or not.
18:35
And in the case that the company is healthy, you might be
18:36
shopping your capital and you have absolutely no idea.
18:40
Then of course you spoke about the dangers of not doing good
18:44
record keeping, not tracking your expenses and inputs.
18:47
And so because of that, you can't even figure out profit or
18:49
loss. If you don't know whether your
18:51
company is healthy or not, you know it affects the, you know,
18:58
all the, the planning and the activities that you do to try
19:01
and get things back on track. All I put it, you need to know
19:04
that your business is off track first of all before you can
19:06
rescue it. And if you're not been keeping
19:08
good records, you're not going to be able to do that.
19:10
Then of course, taxes, lots of us don't pay our taxes and we
19:15
are lucky that the civil service in Nigeria is poorly manned and
19:21
funded. So because of that, it takes a
19:24
while, but eventually you will hear from them.
19:27
I've heard from tax people twice.
19:31
My brother, before he left for our Agri business, he heard from
19:34
tax people once. I've met some people who have
19:37
never heard from tax people at all.
19:38
That is, they never track you down, they never send you a
19:40
letter. But chances are eventually
19:42
they'll find you and they will calculate everything for you
19:46
because you didn't give them figure.
19:47
They will manufacture figures and calculate for you.
19:49
They'll say, look, you started this business in the year 2020,
19:52
it's currently 2026. We've never seen you file any
19:55
single thing. So for value added tax, this is
19:58
what you owe for corporate income tax, this is what you owe
20:01
for this disease, this is and then come and slam you 10s of
20:05
millions or hundreds of millions.
20:06
And then quarrel will start. And if you're able to settle the
20:13
bill, and let's just say it's, it's not, it's not, it's not a
20:18
nice process and you can end up spending quite a bit of money
20:21
from paying the penalties. To pay for lawyers, to pay for
20:24
accountants or whatever. Then another mistake that we
20:30
looked at was salary. Father Sly was shocked.
20:34
OK, not shocked. Maybe he did it for dramatic
20:36
effect. But at this point, when I
20:37
mentioned the salary thing, the studio engineer, the guy put his
20:40
hand on his head because he had never heard that before.
20:43
So lots of us who run businesses, we don't know
20:45
actually, but we're supposed to pay ourselves salary the same
20:48
way you pay a cleaner the salary, you pay your marketer
20:51
salary, you pay your store clerk salary, you pay everybody's
20:55
salary, even you all guys supposed to get a salary fixed
20:58
and you pay your and it comes up with an accountant because you
21:02
know this number specialty. So your salary fixed, you pay
21:06
taxes on top your own salaries off.
21:09
So the way my first accountant explained it to me is that lots
21:13
of we business owners in Nigeria, we have this cultural
21:15
drawdown. Drawdown just means, you know,
21:19
you need to do something. You just took an inside the
21:21
company expense and then you just draw down, collect money.
21:25
You want to sort yourself at the end of the month, you don't have
21:27
a fixed salary. So you just took an inside
21:29
company account and then you draw down.
21:32
So we have this cultural drawdown, drawdown for my
21:37
accountant at the time, the one that was the first accountant.
21:40
The way he advised me was, look, continue to draw down, but shall
21:44
I write the drawdown? Let me see the drawdown, then
21:47
we'll discuss all the drawing down.
21:49
The one that was necessary. The one that was not necessary
21:51
will now know how to approach on everything.
21:53
But shall he warned me, Stanley, I suppose they pay myself
21:57
salary. So yeah, you should be paying
21:59
yourself a salary. So these are some small errors
22:02
that will make that make it difficult for us to grow our
22:05
businesses. And you can see that for the
22:07
financial decisions that we've discussed here, you know, they,
22:11
they impinge on our ability to determine whether the company is
22:14
running at profits or running at a loss.
22:16
And in some cases, we're going to end up eroding the capital
22:19
that we should be using to invest in, you know, the next
22:24
round of business growth. Then we looked at personal
22:27
decisions. I brought up the issue of work
22:30
ethic. And that's because, OK, at this
22:35
point now, I've spend most of my time in Abuja instead of Lagos.
22:39
I don't know how negotiates, I don't know how old are they run?
22:42
You know, I don't know how you guys run your things.
22:44
But in Abuja, there's this whole idea of, you know, my own boss.
22:47
And so some people just, you know, whatever, you know, I only
22:52
be at the office at 10:00. They'll go in at 10:00 tomorrow.
22:56
Let me go in at 2:00 next tomorrow.
22:58
Oh, OK, let me come in at 7:00 AM.
23:00
So they just do it anyhow. Anyhow, up, down, up, down.
23:03
Sometimes you wake up and say I don't feel like it so you won't
23:05
come into the office again. SO1 error that we're all lots of
23:11
us are making is we're not treating it like our brothers
23:12
and sisters. We're in 9 to 5 S Our brothers
23:16
and sisters would answer, Olga would answer, yes, Sir.
23:19
You know, they have fixed times clocking at 8:30, clocking at 9.
23:23
Do not clock out at 4-5. We should have a similar
23:25
attitude. I respect that.
23:27
So, but you know, decide you know, if it is 12 to 6 and then
23:31
do your 12 to 6. If it is 9:00 to 8:00 in the
23:34
evening, do your 9 to 8, whatever a teacher just decide
23:38
and then stick to it. Then we also looked at a case
23:41
study. Well, not a case study per SE.
23:43
Yeah, a case study because the host for the slide wanted to
23:48
know about one of his neighbors who runs apos business and the
23:52
guy does to do anyhow anyhow and we we looked at it and know that
23:56
this guy is losing lots of money because he likes to stroll into
24:00
the market like around 12 one but then fathers lines reasoning
24:05
and he's very correct is that at least in Abuja anyway, there are
24:08
lots of people who say like, oh, the market is terrible.
24:11
There's no parking it is hot and then I have to go to work.
24:14
So what lots of people do is that they try and target early
24:17
morning you know go to the office signing then rush to the
24:22
market you know buy one or two things and then come back you
24:25
know sharp sharp. So there's an early morning
24:29
rush, people trying to get in from the market.
24:31
So he was advising his friend, Look, you're losing revenue.
24:35
And that's one thing some of you don't understand.
24:37
Some of you say, oh, I'm my own boss.
24:40
But then you're not paying attention.
24:41
In fact, you're not your own boss.
24:42
The customer is the boss. That's the bad news I'm bringing
24:45
for you guys today. You're not your own boss.
24:47
The customer is the boss. So it's customers that determine
24:50
like what's up if you want to be sleeping and waking up every day
24:54
by let's say 11:00 in the morning, then you now stroll
24:58
into the office or stroll into your studio by 12 one.
25:02
But by then 12/1, there's really like maybe 30 messages in your
25:08
Instagram DM because people are asking for people are making
25:12
inquiries. Then I'm, I'm sorry, it's not up
25:15
to your preference anymore. By the time you show up at
25:17
11:12, there's already 20 messages.
25:19
You guys should be coming earlier.
25:22
If people start sending messages from around 7:00 in the morning,
25:24
then hey, I guess that should be your start time.
25:29
But you're not your home boss and we need to have a work ethic
25:32
like our brothers and sisters who are doing 9:00 to 5:00.
25:35
So decide show up. The reason why this is a problem
25:39
is if you don't put in the hours, you're not going to do
25:42
enough work to gain traction on your business idea.
25:45
It's that simple. Other people who are doing the
25:48
work, they will come and overtake you sharply.
25:55
So you know, this is one of the reasons why I say it's not the
26:00
idea that is the main thing. It's the, the execution.
26:03
This business idea you have, you are not the only person who has
26:06
this idea. If you like, don't execute it
26:09
well, another person who is sharp, who is not sleeping, who
26:12
is not slacking, will go on overtake you.
26:16
You'll be shouting. But I thought about it first.
26:18
I was the originator, like who does not want to help?
26:20
You're the originator, but the other person is not making all
26:23
the money. And So what?
26:27
So that was one then. OK.
26:31
We also looked at energy management because
26:33
entrepreneurs, business people, self-employed people, yes, it's
26:37
a pandemic. We don't we don't sleep.
26:40
We're very lousy with our sleep because we think we're our own
26:43
boss. And so because we don't sleep,
26:46
we're stressed, we're overweight, what else?
26:50
And then we have cognitive impairment.
26:52
That means you're not sleeping. So because of that, you are not
26:54
thinking well. You are not thinking fresh.
26:58
You won't realize how bad it is until, you know, maybe one day
27:01
you have a very good night. And then you realize that, oh,
27:04
OK, So this thing I've been doing since, you know, for the
27:09
last decade, I've just been suffering myself.
27:11
So poor judgment because you're not sleeping well, you're not
27:16
exercising. Good, good judgment at all, at
27:19
all at all in your business. So make sure you get some rest.
27:23
And we spoke about some operational issues in managing a
27:26
business. Some of them you guys are
27:27
already familiar with because I keep talking about it over and
27:29
over again. And I spoke about how people
27:32
have no, SO PS no standard operating procedures in their
27:36
business. And I defined an SOP as an
27:39
instruction that you give to your employees because remember
27:42
this show was impeaching. So whenever I was dropping any
27:45
of these big terms like standard operating procedure, I had to
27:48
now define them. And for you to understand my
27:51
plight, can you now think about how you would define the
27:56
standard operating procedure in Broadcast Pigeon?
28:00
Man, that was an experience and I am glad, I'm very glad that
28:04
none of you were there to hear it because you guys did have
28:07
spent more time laughing than paying attention to what it is
28:10
that I, that I was saying. It was dreadful.
28:13
I'm glad none of you heard it, and I am glad that none of you
28:17
ever will. And I'm not doing that again.
28:20
So no Sops because we need to leave some form of instructions
28:26
so that we know before we can delegate things to people.
28:28
So from a sales perspective, now, that's one that vex me the
28:31
most. I'm currently talking to someone
28:33
who wants to scale his business and he wants to hire a head of
28:37
sales and things like that. And in fact, there's more than
28:41
one guy and I'm trying to get them to understand that.
28:43
Look, relax, relax. Let's pause this thing for like
28:45
2 months first. Let's pause for two months
28:48
because you're bringing in somebody to head business, to
28:51
head sales. But The thing is, you're not
28:54
giving this person a playbook. You're not giving him a script,
28:56
You're not telling him this is who we're chasing.
28:58
This is how we sell. This is how we do this.
29:01
This is how we do that. The guy will call me and begin
29:03
to use idea to run your own business.
29:07
He'll be using his own idea to run his own.
29:11
His own idea to run your own business.
29:13
Can you see the tension thereof? Of course.
29:17
We'll end up doing things that will piss you off.
29:20
But don't blame him. You didn't give him instruction
29:22
now. You didn't give the guy outline.
29:24
You brought the guy in. The guy talks good.
29:26
He looks good. Or, you know, the baby's fine.
29:29
She's yellow. She get connection.
29:30
You know it's OK. Yeah, sure.
29:31
Begin. Start on Monday.
29:33
Next you begin the quarrel. You say I thought you were a
29:35
salesperson. It's massive.
29:37
She's a bad salesperson. She just brought her in and left
29:40
her on her own. You didn't give her guideline.
29:43
So what is she doing now? Of course she's manufacturing.
29:46
You know, she's making stuff up as she goes or she's running it
29:51
how she will run it if it was her own business.
29:54
Meanwhile, her own idea. No blend with your own idea so
29:59
you can have these conversations.
30:02
So that's why I tell people, look, before we bring in
30:04
somebody to be head of sales, head of this head of that like
30:07
relax your current selling process.
30:09
How well do you understand it? Let's put it down in writing.
30:11
What can we put on paper so that by the time we're bringing
30:14
somebody in the nature of the conversation will be now look,
30:17
welcome to this organization. This is what we're about.
30:20
This is what we do. These are the customers you run
30:23
after. This is how we go after them.
30:24
This is our playbook. This is how we go and grow
30:29
sales. Look at this framework.
30:31
Can you apply this framework or can you improve upon this
30:35
framework? That will be the conversation.
30:39
When you have that kind of thing, it makes your job a lot
30:41
easier because there's some people who come in and say, oh,
30:43
really now, Sona, they do. I'm, I'm sorry, I can't do this.
30:48
So for one of my customers and one of my clients, you know,
30:52
that's, that's how I was wanted to bring in the sales manager
30:55
and they thought the person was a good candidate.
30:57
And so they handed her over to me to have a conversation with
31:01
her. Oh, by the way, I don't offer
31:03
this as a service, only do it for people who are my friends.
31:06
And you're only my friend if you have given me money.
31:10
So obviously there's somebody who has given me money before.
31:12
So for me to look at somebody as a sales manager, you know, sure
31:14
it's not a problem. But if you want to have a chat
31:18
about candidates that you want to employ, call me, send me a
31:23
text message or a WhatsApp message. 0806466 2140.
31:29
Remember, if you want free advice, one question only, you
31:32
want us to do something in depth and you want us to become
31:35
friends. You guys to pay me money, Then
31:39
where was I? So she was like, Oh yeah, sure,
31:43
I can do this, I can do this. And then I all said, OK, good.
31:46
I noticed that where you are coming from, where you are
31:51
coming from, the organizations you have worked with before,
31:55
those ones were outbound organizations.
31:58
The strategy there was outbound. You wake up, you go out, you
32:01
begin to pursue people. This one that you're coming into
32:04
is mostly an inbound LED organization.
32:07
That is, they're putting things out on social media, they're
32:09
running advertisements, they're trying to entice customers to
32:12
come in. So I asked her, will that be a
32:14
problem for you? She was like, well, I can still
32:18
be doing outbound. Should I say?
32:19
Of course, no, of course you can.
32:21
You can still be doing all those things.
32:22
Traditionally, what you do before, it's not a problem, but
32:25
you just know that the bulk of the work is you're in the office
32:29
and you and your team are making phone calls and receiving phone
32:32
calls. Say no problem, she can do it.
32:35
Then when we started now discussing particular outbound
32:38
strategies that she wants to employ, that doesn't quite gel
32:42
with the company that she's being interviewed for.
32:44
You can see all these kind of conversation now.
32:47
This is the reason why we need to have some of these things in
32:49
writing. This is who we are.
32:51
These are our customers. This is how we chase them.
32:54
This is how we close the deal. This is how we toss them.
32:57
This is how negotiate this, how you know everything.
33:01
By the time you start talking to somebody, some people can say,
33:03
oh, is it like this? Oh, I'm sorry, I can't do that.
33:06
And then they will leave and you know, there's no quarrel.
33:10
It's better to do things like that that for you to do by
33:13
force. By force.
33:14
You want to hire somebody and then you hire the person and
33:18
then later you will start quarreling.
33:20
You see, it's not as if these, these people, these are sales
33:23
managers that you hire and, and sales people, it's not as if
33:27
they're bad people. It's just that you did not come
33:29
up with a standard operating procedure.
33:32
You didn't tell them what is what.
33:33
You didn't tell them what's up. You didn't tell them that, look,
33:36
this is my house. That's all with their own
33:37
things. So they have come in and they're
33:39
using their own idea. Their own idea is not blending
33:42
with your own idea. So therefore there will be
33:44
quarrel just one of those things.
33:48
So we all need to have standard operating procedures in our
33:51
businesses. Even if you don't have anywhere
33:53
else a beg for sales, there needs to be very, very clear
33:56
guidelines. You don't just bring in boys and
33:58
girls and say, Oh yeah, go and sell.
34:00
Nah, it's not like that. You guys give them some guidance
34:03
if you don't have Sops, standard operating procedures to be any
34:08
quality control in your business.
34:10
So salespeople, they will just be anyhow.
34:12
Anyhow, some will be up, some will be down.
34:14
No quality control when it comes to producing your your product.
34:18
Let's say you know, you run the fashion outfit.
34:20
There's no standard operating procedure.
34:22
This is how we stitch. This is how we cross stitch.
34:25
This is how we bid. This is how we sold that.
34:29
This is how we do this is how we do that.
34:31
There's no template your customers club to just be up and
34:35
down just be. Anyhow, no quality control.
34:37
So standard operating procedure, quality control, nice customer
34:42
experience. Yeah.
34:46
So as I would need all these operational issues buttoned up.
34:49
Then on strategic, OK, we didn't get to discuss strategic
34:52
planning and all that because we ran out of time.
34:54
But on the strategic thing, I'd say the biggest mistake we make
34:57
is we don't take time to, we don't take time to breathe and
35:01
reflect, which is normal because you know, Nigeria is, you know
35:05
how Nigeria is now a lot of us are just getting by, you know,
35:11
just the raw farm, you know, week to week, day-to-day, month
35:14
to month. So you get to the end of the
35:16
year, you breathe a sigh of relief, you do some more dirty
35:19
December and then January you're back on the horse, begin the
35:22
horse again. But we actually need to do
35:24
periodic review. We need to take time, we need to
35:26
take stock. You know, every single quarter
35:28
we relax and say, OK, how do we do what happened?
35:31
Well, every single month we relax, OK, how do we do what
35:34
happened? Did we keep the goal?
35:36
Did we go higher? Did we go lower, lower?
35:39
Like what's going on? So quarterly or monthly or
35:41
yearly or whatever sharp guys be doing periodic review, we hit
35:46
our goals, you know, all these kind of things.
35:48
So I'm having all these conversations on a on a periodic
35:53
basis that you now know is the company growing?
35:57
I'll be, is he dying? I'll be are we stagnating?
36:00
Then you now know, you now be able to brainstorm and figure
36:04
out the things you need to do to move the business forward.
36:09
Now, if you don't do this, as far as strategy and growth are
36:13
concerned, you don't know these periodic reviews.
36:15
What happens is after a while, you stagnate.
36:19
You become irrelevant because you're still doing the same
36:21
thing in 2026 that you are doing in 2021.
36:26
But your competition, you know, they're more agile, they're more
36:30
sharp, you know, and because of that, they'll be able to plot
36:34
one or two things. And before you know it, they
36:37
overtake you. Someone they used to look at
36:39
before as a small boy, you wake up one day and the guy is yoga.
36:43
So me and my former business partner, Shagun used to handle
36:46
video was that sort of thing. You know, there was a time when
36:49
if you came to Abuja and you called any name, anybody knew.
36:54
The guys I used to work with video, everybody knew them.
36:56
But then there were these upstarts who came in and before
37:02
you know it, I won't call the company name.
37:04
But now they're everywhere, everywhere.
37:06
This is the last British Council gig that they were doing I think
37:11
for inclusive schools that I tried bidding on it like I
37:15
didn't even stand a chance because those people don't like
37:17
they have cornered the market, they collect everything.
37:20
So any big event that is going on now, international corporate
37:23
center, things like that, you see there are trucks everywhere,
37:25
there are trucks everywhere, there are logos everywhere,
37:27
there are cameramen like they Jaws, you know.
37:31
So the people that I outsource my video to, you know, they had
37:33
a head start because they have been in Abuja for quite a long
37:37
time. But you get comfortable, you're
37:40
not taking time, you're not doing periodic reviews, you
37:43
don't sit down, you don't think, you're not strategizing.
37:46
Another person will come either with better strategy or better
37:49
capital or better execution. They will just leap for you.
37:53
And before you know it, the only thing you will say is, you know,
37:56
I was a pioneer, but of course, I was a pioneer does not pay the
37:59
bills. And then of course, nobody will
38:01
believe you anyway. So it's like with me and this
38:04
consulting thing and this podcasting thing, but I don't
38:07
play my cards right. In other 10 years, if some other
38:12
young buck has come and overtaken me, the best I can say
38:15
is that I started before him. But who will believe me?
38:17
Because people will look around and say, uncle, yeah, we see
38:19
you, but we also see this guy or we see this girl shining bright,
38:24
shining star. Don't even believe me anyway.
38:27
So forget about bragging rights. Let's take time.
38:30
Let's review, let's strategize. And overall, sharp, let's stop
38:34
doing all this much more mistake that kill our businesses.
38:38
So if you'd love to get in touch, if you want to connect,
38:43
you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
38:46
08064662140. If you've heard anything that
38:55
you clearly identify with and you think it might be an issue,
38:58
you want to have a quick conversation to see how we can
39:01
help resolve some of those issues.
39:03
No wahala, just reach out 08064662140 if you want free
39:11
advice. It's not a problem.
39:13
I'm open to that. Just make sure you tell me in
39:16
the first conversation. Make sure you tell me in the
39:18
first message. Make sure you tell me in the
39:21
first DM. That is free advice that you're
39:23
looking for. We'll set up a time, we'll have
39:25
a conversation. You don't want to talk over the
39:27
phone. You're shy, that is not a
39:29
problem as well because having spoken page in English for one
39:36
hour yesterday, I can understand when you're doing something and
39:38
it's not comfortable, you know it's not fun.
39:40
So you're not comfortable with that.
39:41
Cool. We'll continue chatting, but I
39:43
will answer one question only if for your advice is what you're
39:47
looking for. If you want us to go in depth,
39:50
some of these operational issues, some of these financial
39:55
issues, in fact, for the financial issues, to be honest,
39:58
I suppose refer you to somebody else because that's not my area
40:01
of Forte. But at least I'll be able to
40:03
tell you what the problem is and then tell you which other kind
40:06
of professional you should be looking for next.
40:08
Because fixing it will not be my own area of specialty.
40:13
But you want us to go in depth, figure out whether these
40:16
problems exist, how bad the problems are, come up with a
40:20
plan, then we'll have to set up a proper consulting session.
40:23
So if you're a big boy or girl, you're like Khashoggi, I got
40:26
you. If you're a middle class person,
40:27
no problem, I got you. You don't get money, No problem,
40:30
I got you. If you're totally broke, like
40:33
zip 099, no problem, I got you. I'll answer one question.
40:36
Either way, you reach out to me. I promise you, you definitely
40:40
will get some value. I promise you there's nobody who
40:43
hasn't come across my path, who has not said that was a valuable
40:48
experience. There has been nobody that said,
40:51
OK, well, there's one, one of my one of my ex girlfriends.
40:55
It's not as if I have many. Yeah, but for her, yeah, she she
40:58
says that meeting me was an absolute waste of time.
41:00
So apart from my ex, everybody else has come across my path.
41:05
They say they got value for me. So thank you very much for your
41:08
time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
41:11
time.