Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / From Blueprint to Market: Tech Product Success Strategies

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From Blueprint to Market: Tech Product Success Strategies · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm not in the audio
• 0:04
  booth, so I expect to hear some interruptions in the background.
• 0:08
  And today is going to be a random episode, so probably
• 0:13
  going to be a lot to talk about. So let's just head straight into
• 0:16
  it this. OK?
• 0:20
  Well, I'm looking at a couple of notes that I made during one of
• 0:23
  the family meetings that I had that I orchestrated.
• 0:29
  But this was a long time ago. I think this was maybe 2-2 weeks
• 0:33
  ago. Because on a previous podcast
• 0:37
  episode, I spoke about how sometimes in my engagements with
• 0:41
  clients, I like to structure it as a family meeting where we're
• 0:43
  going to have a meeting with the whole house.
• 0:46
  You know, MDCEO, Entrepreneur, whoever it is, is going to be
• 0:50
  there. Several members of the team are
• 0:52
  going to be there. Employees are going to be there
• 0:55
  because sometimes I'm called in to do a very simple thing like
• 0:59
  give a talk. That's why excuse me, but I
• 1:01
  don't think just coming in, collecting your money and then
• 1:04
  giving a talk for one hour is going to be the best use of
• 1:07
  time. So when I come into some
• 1:09
  organizations, especially organizations that can be
• 1:13
  categorized as SM ES, you know, the sort of thing that all of us
• 1:16
  can fit inside one boardroom, you know, we don't need a
• 1:20
  massive space because you're not at that level of 100 employees
• 1:23
  yet. I've tried to structure some of
• 1:25
  these engagements, has family meetings so that yes, I come and
• 1:29
  deliver the talk that members of the executive, members of people
• 1:34
  who own the business want me to preach.
• 1:37
  So I come and preach the gospel that they want me to preach.
• 1:40
  But then I also like to make it a family meeting kind of
• 1:43
  atmosphere, ferment some trouble and tease out some of the
• 1:48
  underlying problems that we have in the organization from a sales
• 1:51
  and business development perspective.
• 1:53
  So that by the time I leave that engagement, we should be able to
• 1:55
  say that I not only came here and I spoke about XYZ, but at
• 1:59
  the end of the meeting we're able to unearth, you know, 2-3
• 2:02
  problems related to these sorts of things.
• 2:04
  And then these are the action points for trying to get this
• 2:07
  thing resolved. So that's how I try to structure
• 2:11
  some of these things. So it's not just that I show up
• 2:13
  and collect your money and leave, but I show up and I say
• 2:17
  exactly what it is our guy wants me to say.
• 2:19
  But then again, I also tease out a couple of problems that you
• 2:22
  guys as a business need to work through from a skills and
• 2:24
  business development perspective so that the business grows
• 2:27
  ultimately at the end of the day.
• 2:28
  Because you know, I'm not good at that whole motivational
• 2:31
  stuff. So I can't come in and get
• 2:32
  everybody pumped up and then just leave.
• 2:34
  I want to be sure that we have 2-3 problems on the table.
• 2:38
  We've assigned responsibility for who is going to tackle these
• 2:41
  sorts of problems. And then if we end the day that
• 2:43
  way, I think that that is the, I think that that is time well
• 2:49
  spent also so that I can call back in a couple of weeks and
• 2:53
  say, hey, how far post family meeting, how are things going?
• 2:56
  What about this initiative, that agenda, this particular issue?
• 2:59
  How far with this, how far are we going with this?
• 3:01
  How far are we going with that? And I take this approach because
• 3:05
  I'm trying to get businesses to grow here.
• 3:07
  I'm not trying to just show up and motivate people and then
• 3:10
  collect money and then leave. So today I'm going to go over
• 3:15
  some of my notes. That's why this is going to be a
• 3:17
  random episode, because it's not like I took the time to gather
• 3:20
  my thoughts after this engagement.
• 3:22
  So yeah, it would just be a random exploring of some of the
• 3:27
  issues that we had at said family meeting.
• 3:32
  Well, before we begin, I'd like to give a listener shout out to,
• 3:34
  excuse me, Charles Odutwala, listener of the podcast, who
• 3:39
  reached out to me on LinkedIn. He's a sales and business
• 3:41
  development professional and he's got some, he's put in some
• 3:45
  some work with Global. To be honest, I'm not sure what
• 3:49
  Global does. I know, sure.
• 3:50
  I just see the delivery. What do you call this thing
• 3:53
  delivery or CUDA? You know, delivery bikes.
• 3:55
  I see delivery bikes all over Abuja and then you know, I see
• 4:00
  their banner online, LinkedIn, you know, stuff like that.
• 4:03
  So he's done some work with Global and then he has also done
• 4:06
  some work with a much more traditional business.
• 4:10
  When I say traditional, I mean old school non tech with PZ
• 4:13
  Carsons. PZ Carsons, some of you might
• 4:16
  not be familiar with them, but they make how I say, like
• 4:22
  consumer stuff. Like for those of us who grew up
• 4:25
  in the 80s, we should be familiar with imperial leather.
• 4:29
  Imperial leather soap. So that was made by pizza
• 4:32
  cousins. And yeah, that was a good old
• 4:35
  days, you know, nice friendly soap the whole family can use.
• 4:39
  No bleaching, no perfume, no nothing.
• 4:41
  Just correct soap. So Charles O Dusola has done
• 4:46
  some work there. If you're curious and you want
• 4:49
  to reach out to him on LinkedIn, be sure to let him know that you
• 4:52
  heard about him over here on the podcast.
• 4:55
  I tried to find out if you had any side hustle or anything in
• 4:57
  particular he would like me to shout out, but he said no, I
• 5:01
  should just keep it that simple. So Charles Udutola, thank you
• 5:04
  very much for listening to the show.
• 5:06
  For those of you who listen to the show and who would like an
• 5:10
  opportunity to have a chat with me, I give my contact details at
• 5:13
  the end of every show. Matter of fact, I might as well
• 5:16
  just do it right now. So you're listening to the show.
• 5:19
  You want to hit me up. You want us to have a chat.
• 5:21
  There are a couple of questions that you would like us to
• 5:23
  explore. The phone number is 08064662140
• 5:30
  and the country code is +234. So you call and I don't answer,
• 5:34
  send an SMS or send a WhatsApp message.
• 5:36
  I'll definitely hit you back as soon as possible.
• 5:39
  Now I'm on LinkedIn as well. That's where I spend most of my
• 5:42
  time. So if you, if you check me on
• 5:44
  the other social media, I probably will get back to you in
• 5:46
  a month or two. But you hook up with me on
• 5:50
  LinkedIn, definitely you get a response from me in a few hours.
• 5:53
  Worst case scenario, maybe 24 hours.
• 5:55
  So the name to look for is Tavish Shima Agede.
• 5:59
  I'm the host of the show. You just look at the link.
• 6:01
  We're currently listening to this episode.
• 6:03
  You'll see my name there highlighted copy and paste and
• 6:06
  you see my handsome face on LinkedIn and then send me a
• 6:08
  connection request and then we can get acquainted that way.
• 6:11
  So Charles O Duter O Duterla, sorry, thank you very much for
• 6:15
  listening to the show and thank you for the rest of you who also
• 6:19
  lend me your ears every other day to listen to the good stuff
• 6:22
  that we talk about over here on the podcast.
• 6:25
  Now the company in question where I had this family meeting
• 6:31
  with what I'd referenced earlier there in the education space,
• 6:38
  they have education products for children between the ages of 13
• 6:42
  to, I can't remember, but you know, like that kind secondary
• 6:47
  school into early university. And the focus is on they have
• 6:55
  coaching cards and some software products that are supposed to
• 6:57
  teach computer fundamentals, introduction to IT, teach online
• 7:02
  safety. Online safety is really, really
• 7:04
  important. I didn't know how much it was a
• 7:06
  big deal until I had kids. Because, you know, these days
• 7:10
  kids want to do everything. And if you just release them,
• 7:13
  you know, onto the Internet, you know, in the beginning children
• 7:16
  are very naive, very trusting. They don't realise the level of
• 7:22
  threats that might be out there on the Internet.
• 7:25
  Because like my son, I let my son loose on when he was younger
• 7:30
  on Minecraft. I think Minecraft or roadblocks
• 7:33
  or one of these things, maybe Minecraft and you know, he was
• 7:37
  happy meeting people over on the Internet.
• 7:40
  But though these questionable characters who were trying to
• 7:44
  jump him in the online space, you know, my son just thought it
• 7:47
  was good fun. But I told him, look like exit
• 7:51
  this room, like these people actually trying to hurt you like
• 7:54
  they think it's. Anyway, let me not go into
• 7:58
  details. Let me just say that there are
• 7:59
  all kinds of random characters that are out there online.
• 8:01
  So online safety is a thing. So people who come up with these
• 8:03
  kind of products to make sure that our children, whether very
• 8:08
  young or early teens are protected, the stuff that is
• 8:11
  greatly needed. Then let's see what else, OK.
• 8:14
  They also have educational products around what else?
• 8:19
  Internet fundamentals and then mobile computing, all those
• 8:22
  sorts of things. So those are the products that
• 8:26
  the company has and that was what they're trying to roll out
• 8:29
  into the market. Then in the meeting, like I
• 8:33
  said, I try and make these things like family meetings.
• 8:35
  So August CEO was at the meeting, the director for
• 8:39
  digital marketing was at the meeting.
• 8:41
  Let's see, the head of social media was at the meeting.
• 8:45
  The person responsible for sales was at the meeting.
• 8:48
  And then I think two people responsible for developing their
• 8:50
  IT infrastructure at the meeting and I can't remember who else,
• 8:56
  but this is the kind of level of buying that I try to get within
• 8:59
  the organization because when it comes to engagements, when we're
• 9:04
  trying to solve problems with your business, even though I'm a
• 9:08
  sales and business development perspective and I'm being called
• 9:10
  in to solve sales challenges, you will find that I'm going to
• 9:15
  be making recommendations that will impact different aspects of
• 9:17
  the business. So it's really, really important
• 9:20
  that we have buying from these people and people are there from
• 9:22
  the jump so that it's not as if I came in and I spoke to one
• 9:26
  person and then I leave. And then you're having problems
• 9:28
  with implementing because, you know, the head of digital
• 9:32
  marketing was not there at the meeting.
• 9:34
  The person doesn't understand the recommendations, doesn't
• 9:36
  understand the initiative, and then we don't get a sense of how
• 9:39
  these recommendations are going to tie in with all the marketing
• 9:42
  that you guys are already doing as a whole.
• 9:45
  So that's also another reason why I try and get as many
• 9:50
  relevant players involved as possible.
• 9:53
  If you notice, I didn't, I didn't insist for the head of
• 9:56
  accounting to be here at this meeting.
• 9:58
  So if you get in touch in the future, we're having these
• 10:01
  conversations. And yes, I'm here to cure sales
• 10:04
  problems or revenue problems that you're having.
• 10:07
  I will be asking for other people.
• 10:08
  And This is why. So it's not just me wasting your
• 10:12
  time, or it's not because I don't have anything better to do
• 10:16
  or it's because I'm just pulling in your staff, you know, for
• 10:19
  staff's sake. But Orgas, CEO, if you can be
• 10:23
  there for a couple of meetings, this is the reason why you need
• 10:26
  to know what's up. You need to get a sense of what
• 10:28
  we're discussing. You need to get a sense of what
• 10:30
  the recommendations are. If it doesn't align with the
• 10:33
  overall strategy and vision that you have for the business, this
• 10:36
  is the point where you're going to say, OK, yes, this makes
• 10:38
  sense. But because of this is where
• 10:40
  we're trying to grow the business, we're going to do
• 10:42
  this, we're going to do this, we're going to do that.
• 10:44
  So let it not be that. I will come in, make
• 10:46
  recommendations and then leave and then you will now say, you
• 10:49
  know, toss out everything because it doesn't align with
• 10:52
  the overall business trajectory. So Orga CEO, most likely I will
• 10:58
  have you come in at a couple of engagements just to be sure that
• 11:01
  everything is aligned strategically.
• 11:05
  If you guys have a digital marketing person, director for
• 11:08
  marketing, whatever it is that you call it, I'd like to make
• 11:11
  sure that marketing person, you have to be there as well.
• 11:14
  You know, whether it is whether we're making changes, you know,
• 11:17
  recommendations to copy or to strategy.
• 11:20
  It's nice to have you on board. Let's see what else.
• 11:23
  OK, sales, definitely whoever is running sales person Gansby
• 11:26
  there. Then social media, you know, for
• 11:29
  the same reason. And that's why we had all these
• 11:31
  people on board. And then we discussed a number
• 11:34
  of things because the government has a national digital literacy
• 11:42
  framework that has 8 competencies, 8 things that
• 11:45
  people are supposed to know, that our children are supposed
• 11:47
  to know for those of us who have kids.
• 11:51
  And then the products were built along that.
• 11:54
  So we had some conversations around government timelines, you
• 11:59
  know, for rolling out of this national framework because when
• 12:03
  you're trying to bring out a new product into the market, every
• 12:07
  bit of traction that you can get would help.
• 12:12
  So in this case, if there's a national initiative and the
• 12:15
  government is already spending time and money to publicize this
• 12:20
  thing, promote this thing, roll out this aspect, roll out that
• 12:23
  aspect. These are things that you can
• 12:25
  use Jack on if you are a business in this space.
• 12:28
  So what is the government doing? What are their timelines?
• 12:31
  When are they rolling out as a government roll out?
• 12:33
  You might roll out because The thing is in the news you can
• 12:39
  link to different aspects of the government publications or
• 12:43
  government websites to show that what you're talking about is
• 12:47
  relevant and timely and things like that.
• 12:49
  So we discussed the government timelines are on the roll out
• 12:52
  and let's see what else. Then I tried to get a sense of
• 12:56
  the what the problems are with their sales that they were
• 12:59
  trying to solve. Then let's see.
• 13:04
  OK, I also wondered if they had a contact list for tech training
• 13:08
  hubs, because those can be what do you call these things?
• 13:13
  There's some talk nowadays online about channel partners.
• 13:16
  Yes, channel partners. Now that's a good way to explore
• 13:21
  your market and get new customers.
• 13:24
  Now the idea behind partners is, is is very old.
• 13:27
  It's nothing new. It's just that now, you know,
• 13:30
  now our tech brothers and tech sisters, they always like to
• 13:32
  give fancy names to things that already exist.
• 13:34
  So now you call the channel partners.
• 13:36
  But back in the day, my wedding photography day, I mentioned how
• 13:40
  those of us who are trying to enter the game at that time, we
• 13:43
  were trying to hook up with wedding planners that have
• 13:45
  already T in the game, like they already have customers.
• 13:48
  And the scope was that we hook up with these wedding planners
• 13:51
  and we do a good job. We should be able to get new
• 13:53
  customers from there. So essentially this practice
• 13:59
  that people already do in businesses is what people now
• 14:03
  call a partner channel strategy, a busy partner channel strategy,
• 14:09
  AB channel partner strategy, whatever it is that is called
• 14:11
  this partnership and this channel that is also there in
• 14:14
  the name. So it's a fancy name, but people
• 14:17
  have been doing this thing from T.
• 14:20
  You're getting into a space, you look for who already has access
• 14:23
  to the customers that you're trying to reach.
• 14:25
  You partner up with that person. Hopefully you're going to be
• 14:28
  able to get new customers from there.
• 14:29
  So that's why I asked about whether they had tech training
• 14:34
  hubs on the contact list because that'll be a good channel,
• 14:38
  partner channel strategy. I'll be channel.
• 14:42
  Whichever way it is, it'll be a nice way to gain access to the
• 14:45
  market. Then let's see, OK.
• 14:49
  They also did some interesting work because they had been
• 14:51
  consulting with government stakeholders like the UBEC.
• 14:55
  I can't remember what UBEC stands for.
• 14:56
  I should have written all this thing down.
• 14:58
  Sorry. Forgive me.
• 14:59
  Well, you know, one day I'm going to have a production
• 15:01
  assistant who's going to do all the research to make sure that
• 15:03
  the definitions, the acronyms, the everything pans out.
• 15:07
  But if you just check Google, I'm sure you'll find it.
• 15:09
  I think UBEC has to do with universal basic education
• 15:12
  something. And so, excuse me, the gold as
• 15:19
  usual. So I think you back, those are
• 15:22
  the people who are responsible for making sure that all our
• 15:24
  children receive an education, at least the basic level of
• 15:28
  education. I can't remember what the
• 15:29
  mandate is, whether everybody's supposed to go to primary
• 15:32
  school, abusive primary school or secondary school.
• 15:34
  I can't remember what it is supposed to be.
• 15:39
  And so I spoke to a talking to government regulators and that
• 15:42
  was really, really good because when you're trying to roll out
• 15:46
  into a new space, if it's your new product, you need to come up
• 15:49
  with as many stakeholders as possible.
• 15:51
  Because remember that in the early days when you're coming
• 15:54
  out with a new product, what you're trying to figure out
• 15:56
  basically is, is there a problem?
• 15:58
  First and foremost? Because you might look at
• 16:00
  something and you think that, look, this thing makes sense,
• 16:03
  This thing is tight, this thing is this, this thing is that this
• 16:06
  thing is important. But The thing is, if nobody else
• 16:09
  in the market thinks that there's a problem, then you're
• 16:10
  just wasting your time. If customers don't think that
• 16:13
  there's a problem, other stakeholders in the market don't
• 16:16
  think that is a problem. They're just wasting your time.
• 16:18
  So if you come up with this kind of product and you think it's
• 16:21
  the best thing since sliced bread, but government regulators
• 16:24
  say there's no problem, parents say there's no problem, Schools
• 16:28
  say there's no problem, teenage asthma, they know everyone
• 16:31
  buying the thing, then you're just wasting your time.
• 16:34
  So these are really important moves that we should be doing in
• 16:37
  the beginning when we're trying to roll out something new to the
• 16:42
  market. Then let's see what else.
• 16:48
  OK, Then we explored the different models that they have
• 16:50
  for going to to market, what channels that they want to
• 16:54
  explore, whether they're going to do retail.
• 16:56
  OK, well the plan that they have was for retail, for bulk
• 17:01
  purchases. Then they're also hoping to do
• 17:04
  sponsored distribution. That's for NGOs, non
• 17:09
  governmental organisations who try to serve, who try to take
• 17:13
  care of groups of people that are underserved, you know,
• 17:17
  people who should be going to school, who should be going to
• 17:20
  school, but otherwise are not going to school.
• 17:22
  And I think this is also another part of the channel partner
• 17:26
  strategy of the partner channel strategy that we can explore
• 17:30
  when you're rolling out stuff in business, then let's see what
• 17:35
  else. So we discussed all these sorts
• 17:39
  of things as well. And so if you guys, if you reach
• 17:45
  out to me, you have me on board to try and solve your go to
• 17:49
  market problems. You know, you're trying to get
• 17:51
  access, you're trying to roll out something into roll out
• 17:55
  something into the market. These are the sorts of things
• 17:58
  that we're going to be talking about because it's from
• 18:01
  exploring all these ideas that I will get a better understanding
• 18:04
  of what it is that is going on. Sometimes that is how you will
• 18:07
  get a better understanding of what it is that is going on.
• 18:10
  You the business owner, because a lot of times that as the
• 18:12
  business owner, you're running things from memory, you're
• 18:15
  running things from your head, but you haven't quite thought
• 18:17
  out everything. And so that's the benefit of
• 18:19
  having a consultant sometimes because we ask you a couple of
• 18:22
  questions and you're like, OK, I never thought of that before,
• 18:26
  but now that you've asked, we should probably should be
• 18:27
  looking at this. You should be looking at that.
• 18:30
  So for me, the 1st order of the day after all these prelim, all
• 18:35
  these background chitchat and getting to know the idea, the
• 18:39
  1st order of the day was to try and take the business owners
• 18:45
  sales process, to pull it out of his head and then to throw it
• 18:49
  back to the rest of the family. Because one problem that
• 18:53
  businesses have, sorry, excuse me, is that in the beginning
• 18:58
  entrepreneur orga MDC or mompreneur or whoever starts the
• 19:04
  business and then they discover a way, a way of selling the
• 19:08
  product or the service. And after a while, they now hire
• 19:12
  two or three people. Well, the problem is you hire
• 19:16
  the two or three people and you just assume that these people
• 19:19
  will bring the magic source of selling.
• 19:20
  And then you just release them. You say go forth and sell.
• 19:23
  And that's a problem. So I've been trying to educate
• 19:29
  the founders, people running SM ES.
• 19:32
  I've been trying to get them to understand that those early
• 19:35
  years, in the beginning, those first 5678, ten years, whatever.
• 19:40
  When you are the only person who was selling the business, you
• 19:43
  got to get really, really valuable information, excuse me,
• 19:48
  about who the ideal customers are, who the target market is,
• 19:52
  about how you pitch a product, about how you get referrals,
• 19:55
  about how you initiate conversations, about how you
• 19:59
  give a proposal, all these sorts of things.
• 20:01
  So you actually have a rich reservoir of knowledge sitting
• 20:04
  in your head as the business owner and you haven't bothered
• 20:07
  to teach all these people. You just get 5-6 people you say
• 20:10
  go for off and sell. And then you're not angry that
• 20:13
  they're not selling. Of course they're not going to
• 20:16
  sell because you have a rich reservoir of knowledge in your
• 20:18
  head. You didn't offload it and then
• 20:21
  give it to them. And if you're sending people out
• 20:23
  into the field without saying, this is who you should be
• 20:26
  chasing after, in my own opinion, I've been selling this
• 20:28
  thing for 10 years. This is who I think we should be
• 20:30
  chasing. Go and chase only these people.
• 20:34
  When you chase them, this is how you start conversations with
• 20:37
  them. When you have conversations with
• 20:39
  them, this is how you hook up the meeting from meeting stage.
• 20:42
  This is how you make the proposal from proposal.
• 20:44
  This is how you get a close from close.
• 20:47
  This is how you make sure they're happy.
• 20:48
  If they're happy, this is how you make sure you get a
• 20:50
  referral. If they give you a referral,
• 20:53
  this is how you handle the referral.
• 20:55
  If you don't teach them all these things, they're trying to
• 20:57
  discover all these things from scratch.
• 21:00
  So theoretically speaking, if it took you 10 years to figure this
• 21:04
  thing out and you just take these high people and throw them
• 21:07
  into the field, I mean, who's not to say that it's going to
• 21:09
  take them another 10 years to figure this thing out?
• 21:12
  But if you bring these people in, this 456 people and you say
• 21:15
  sell my product on my service, on my behalf, and then you now
• 21:18
  start to offload this thing on them.
• 21:20
  Now, look, this is how I started.
• 21:21
  This is who I used to sell to. These are the only people that I
• 21:24
  talked to. I ignore these kind of people
• 21:26
  because these people are time wasters.
• 21:28
  This is how you figure out somebody who is serious.
• 21:30
  This is how you figure out a time waster.
• 21:32
  This is how you make your presentation.
• 21:37
  This is how you close the deal. If you're negotiating, this is
• 21:40
  how you price, if you will, haggling back and forth and it's
• 21:44
  like you're pricing groundnut. This is when you should escalate
• 21:46
  it to me. These are the discounts that you
• 21:49
  can legitimately give. No need to talk to me if there's
• 21:52
  a discount of this level, this level, but if they're asking for
• 21:56
  a discount of this level, then come and meet me.
• 21:58
  You know, we need to have these sorts of conversations.
• 22:00
  So when I'm sitting at the table with you guys and I'm trying to
• 22:04
  orchestrate family meeting here, we're trying to figure out how
• 22:07
  we can move your business forward.
• 22:10
  Whoever it is that brings me in at this meeting, you know,
• 22:12
  whether I see you or founder or whoever, even if it's somebody
• 22:16
  else, director for sales or you know, whoever is in charge of
• 22:19
  sales that brings me in. But I guess you are at the
• 22:21
  meeting. You know, I'm letting you know
• 22:23
  now, August CEO, org founder. I'll be asking you some pretty
• 22:27
  directors, some pretty hard questions because there's no
• 22:30
  point in US sitting down here to try and reinvent the wheel.
• 22:33
  If you have already spent 56710 years figuring out who the ideal
• 22:37
  customer is, we might as well start the conversation from
• 22:39
  there. So I found out, who do you think
• 22:43
  is the best person to go after and why?
• 22:47
  Where have you gotten the most profit from?
• 22:49
  Which groups of people have you gotten the most profit from over
• 22:51
  the last five years you've been selling?
• 22:56
  You know, stuff like that. So I had a conversation for the
• 23:00
  head of the business about the ideal customer, the ideal
• 23:07
  customer profile, the target market, and we've got to figure
• 23:10
  out some really, really interesting things that based on
• 23:14
  the sales that founder had already made so far.
• 23:17
  It was mostly mom sees that he was talking to.
• 23:21
  Funny enough, I thought actually would be fathers that would be
• 23:23
  pop sees that will be. I see.
• 23:25
  This is the reason why I should ask because we are called me in
• 23:28
  my own guess would be let's start calling on pop sees.
• 23:31
  But actually most of the sales was coming from from mumsy,
• 23:34
  coming from mothers and usually mothers who are working
• 23:38
  professionals, you know, like legal space, procurement space,
• 23:42
  admin space, a few development professionals there, you know,
• 23:46
  things like that. But yeah, mostly Mumsy's.
• 23:50
  But if you don't tell your people this sort of thing from
• 23:53
  the beginning, they might come in like me and just assume that,
• 23:55
  oh, OK, shabby is about education and it's about tech
• 24:01
  and it's about this and that. Well, let's start chasing
• 24:03
  popsies. That's how we're going to get
• 24:04
  this thing to sell. Meanwhile, you, you've done five
• 24:07
  years of work or 10 years of work and you've realized that
• 24:09
  no, actually you go after women, you go after the mumsy and
• 24:13
  that's how you're going to be able to move this thing into the
• 24:16
  market. Then we also discussed age
• 24:19
  range. We also discussed location,
• 24:24
  average number of children, things like that.
• 24:26
  Because all these things are really, really important.
• 24:28
  You don't just send salespeople out into the field without
• 24:30
  giving them a basic sketch of who you're trying to chase.
• 24:34
  Because if you gather your salespeople 5-6, you saw go and
• 24:37
  sell, go ye and sell then you somehow.
• 24:42
  But if you gather all of them, I tell them, OK, now go here and
• 24:48
  sell. But as you're selling, make sure
• 24:50
  that you're talking to mothers who are between 30 and 40 and
• 24:54
  who work in these kinds of professions and who have, on
• 24:57
  average, you know, 6 to 9 children.
• 25:01
  Once you say it like that, in their minds, a certain picture
• 25:04
  will come to their head. That is how the salesperson in
• 25:08
  your office, once you give that description, the person will
• 25:12
  know that, oh, OK, Auntie Monica in church.
• 25:15
  Let me go and talk to Auntie Monica because you have given
• 25:18
  them a you've given some demographics, you've given some
• 25:22
  psychographics and from this specific pictures, specific
• 25:26
  people will come to their mind and then they will go forth and
• 25:30
  start selling. So, yeah, so that was the first
• 25:34
  port of call trying to tease out who the ideal customer profile
• 25:37
  was. But then of course, I also said
• 25:39
  the expectation that the meeting that, look, because we have
• 25:42
  teased out this information from Olga does not mean that this is
• 25:47
  where we're going to spend our time.
• 25:49
  But it means that this is definitely where we're going to
• 25:51
  start. And then we'll take feedback
• 25:53
  from there because it's possible that there might be other
• 25:56
  profitable segments that Oga has not explored.
• 25:59
  But we will hit the ground running based on the picture of
• 26:03
  this ICP that we have caught up for now.
• 26:07
  Then let's see what else. We also tried to get a sense of
• 26:13
  how he structured the interactions.
• 26:16
  It turns out that it was kind of 5050 physical meeting or phone
• 26:20
  5050. And yes, that tied into what
• 26:23
  I've been recommending for a very long time on the podcast.
• 26:26
  And kind of what I suspect in the beginning, we are trying to
• 26:29
  get this thing off the ground. I mean, lots of people go
• 26:31
  straight to, OK, let's do Instagram, let's do advertising,
• 26:34
  let's do this and that, that, that, yeah, it's good.
• 26:37
  But in the beginning, physical meeting, you're seeing them face
• 26:40
  to face. Phone call, very, very helpful
• 26:43
  because as you're having interactions with people, you're
• 26:48
  going to be getting feedback. What's it called?
• 26:56
  Body cues, body language, facial expressions, tonality.
• 27:02
  These are the things that let you know whether somebody's
• 27:04
  interested, whether somebody's upset, where there's a potential
• 27:08
  problem, things like that. It helps you to get a better
• 27:10
  sense of who your ideal customer is and the problems that they
• 27:14
  face. When you do all this work, the
• 27:19
  physical meeting and the phone call, you talk to a bunch of
• 27:21
  people, maybe 20-30. You sell a few products.
• 27:26
  Now you have all the data that you need to now start digital
• 27:32
  campaigns. Because if you get a digital
• 27:34
  person and you tell the digital person that, look, this is the
• 27:36
  budget, we're going to be doing Instagram advertising, 50K every
• 27:40
  month, go ye forth and sell. That's not very helpful because
• 27:43
  the person will now start using an idea to try and solve the
• 27:46
  problem. But if you come in and say
• 27:48
  digital person, the budget is 50K every month for Instagram
• 27:52
  advertisements go E for and sell.
• 27:55
  But as you are selling, these are the people that were
• 27:57
  supposed to be targeting. This is the age, this is the
• 27:59
  location, this is the whatever based on the phone conversations
• 28:04
  that I had with the people. These are the needs that were
• 28:06
  uncovered based on physical meetings.
• 28:08
  These are the kind of interests that I think they have and this
• 28:12
  and this and that and that and these are the problems that this
• 28:15
  thing solves. Now your digital marketing
• 28:18
  person has all the ammunition that they need to come up with a
• 28:21
  good campaign to come up with good copy.
• 28:24
  Now copy is the words that you use in your advertising.
• 28:29
  Then they have all the information that they need to
• 28:34
  come up with a good copy. And then they also will now know
• 28:38
  how to structure the rest of the campaign, the different
• 28:41
  parameters that they have to tweak in Google or in in what's
• 28:46
  the other one, Instagram or Facebook, because you know, you
• 28:51
  have to select it there. Are we targeting mostly men or
• 28:53
  women? So excuse me.
• 28:59
  So you have to put it there. Are we targeting mostly men or
• 29:02
  women? What age, What city, what
• 29:05
  interest? So at 1 moment, let me go have a
• 29:06
  glass of water. Let me quench my.
• 29:13
  OK. Sorry about that.
• 29:14
  I'm back. I'm sure you guys have noticed
• 29:17
  that I haven't tried out that remedy yet.
• 29:19
  The remedy that the other ladies told me, You know, to say warm
• 29:22
  water plus ginger plus honey plus lime.
• 29:27
  I haven't tried it out yet. So yeah, I think I've, yeah, I
• 29:31
  think maybe after I pick up the kids from school, I'll try that.
• 29:34
  Let's see. So basically I was just trying
• 29:38
  to say that don't just call your sales people.
• 29:40
  Don't just call your digital person.
• 29:42
  I say go and sell. There are some things you need
• 29:44
  to upload from your brain and you need to teach them.
• 29:46
  And so if I'm working with the organization, I will be talking
• 29:50
  to whoever it is that has been responsible for selling the
• 29:52
  most. So if you are the founder, but
• 29:56
  your wife is the one that has has all the sales experience,
• 29:58
  then I'll have all these. So excuse me, I have all these
• 30:04
  questions for her about how she's been telling, who she's
• 30:10
  been talking to, all these sorts of things.
• 30:13
  Then we also had also had to tease out of the founder, Mao.
• 30:17
  He was talking about the problem because we need to know how to
• 30:20
  start a conversation. It's not a good idea that people
• 30:24
  are trying to sell on your behalf and then every single
• 30:30
  time they're talking to someone, they're trying to use the idea
• 30:32
  about how do we start this conversation because the founder
• 30:35
  had was able to pre sell. What that means is pre selling
• 30:43
  is when you collect money, but you don't have the thing on
• 30:45
  ground yet. So you collect the money, you
• 30:47
  use that money to go and manufacture the thing and then
• 30:49
  you send you now give to the people.
• 30:51
  So he was successful at pre selling and the reason why he
• 30:55
  was doing that was because his conversation points with the
• 30:58
  Mumsy's because remember his mother's name was talking to
• 31:01
  mostly. So conversations with Mumsy was
• 31:05
  around why it is important. He was only talking to Mumsy's
• 31:11
  who already believe that it is important.
• 31:14
  And then his conversation was our own teacher capacity
• 31:17
  basically like look, it is important.
• 31:19
  We all know it's important. We want the children to do well.
• 31:22
  We're heading into a future where it is going to be
• 31:24
  important, but teaching capacity in schools is not up to snuff.
• 31:29
  So we need to use these sorts of things to beef the children's
• 31:32
  competencies in this, this, this and this to make sure that
• 31:35
  they're ready for this new world that we're approaching.
• 31:38
  So if you call your salespeople and say go ye fall and sell, you
• 31:41
  don't tell them this kind of background.
• 31:44
  They'll be trying to use idea and they'll be trying to come up
• 31:46
  with different conversation outlines with different people
• 31:49
  at different times. But if you have already been
• 31:51
  selling this thing three years, five years, 10 years and you
• 31:54
  have found that it is best when you approach the mum see you
• 31:59
  start talking about why it is important and then from there
• 32:02
  you slide into teacher capacity that it is easy to introduce the
• 32:06
  product. Then you just want to make
• 32:09
  things a whole lot easier. Send the salespeople out with
• 32:11
  the proper script that they can start with.
• 32:15
  Now, this script does not mean, like I said, that because he's
• 32:18
  how Olga did it, that there's no other way to do it.
• 32:22
  But The thing is, because Olga has done it for so many years
• 32:24
  and the thing has worked, it is a nice and easy place to start
• 32:29
  and we can refine as we go along.
• 32:32
  So I was able to tease that out, how he would start the
• 32:36
  conversation and elements of his pitch.
• 32:39
  Then let's see what else. OK, well, one thing which he
• 32:45
  hadn't done was to get referrals.
• 32:47
  So we also had to come up with a plan for getting referrals.
• 32:50
  But I put it on his own plate. That's for the old people to go
• 32:54
  and get referrals from there because there's also there's
• 32:57
  that level of trust and rapport that he built to those people.
• 33:03
  So especially given the Nigerian context, it will be somehow like
• 33:07
  me or guy, I'm the one that closed all these sales then now
• 33:10
  it's time to get a referral and I'll be sending the on Mauritia,
• 33:14
  the what on Mauritia in English junior people and I'll be
• 33:20
  sending the junior people to come and chase the referral.
• 33:23
  So it will be, it will be somehow.
• 33:25
  So I'll put that on his plate. You're the one that closed all
• 33:29
  these people. So you're the one who has to be
• 33:31
  responsible for calling up and getting the referral.
• 33:33
  Chasing the referral now can be the responsibility of the
• 33:36
  younger salespeople, but you have to be the one to get the
• 33:40
  referral since you're the one that closed the deal because the
• 33:42
  relationship is with you, rapport is with you, commonality
• 33:48
  with you, all those soft, soft personal, personal stuff with
• 33:52
  you. Then let's see, what else did we
• 33:58
  discuss, OK. And then we had some, we tried
• 34:02
  to troubleshoot a couple of scenarios where some sales
• 34:05
  people are trying to sell through.
• 34:07
  So excuse me, I'm trying to sell through lesson teachers.
• 34:10
  Another person was trying to sell through school principals,
• 34:14
  another person was trying to sell through teachers in
• 34:17
  schools. So we tried to troubleshoot
• 34:20
  those approaches and then come up with, come up with, well, I
• 34:29
  say frameworks or guidelines for how they could be more efficient
• 34:36
  at that approach. So remember what I said in the
• 34:38
  beginning about how the way that Olga does it is not sorry one
• 34:42
  moment. OK, sorry about that, I'm back.
• 34:46
  Just need to go drink something and ease out the throat.
• 34:51
  So I was saying that at the beginning.
• 34:54
  You know how I was saying that the way that Olga has done it or
• 34:57
  the founder has done it doesn't necessarily mean that's the only
• 34:59
  way that we're going to do. What is a safe place to start
• 35:02
  because in this situation now you can see how the way Orga
• 35:05
  started and the way that Orga did it for you know XYZ number
• 35:08
  of months or years was to approach mum sees of a certain
• 35:13
  age of a certain profession who live in a certain part of
• 35:16
  Nigeria and blah blah blah and get to sell.
• 35:19
  But now that we have sent out a sales team, you can see that the
• 35:23
  sales teams are trying out different things.
• 35:25
  Somebody's going through lesson teacher, somebody's going
• 35:28
  through principal, somebody's going through classroom teacher.
• 35:31
  So you can see that, you know, there are different ways to go
• 35:35
  about this. So yeah, the way Olga has done
• 35:39
  it doesn't necessarily mean it's the only way.
• 35:42
  But if we start off the way the Olga has done it and take the
• 35:47
  key insights about how Olga has been running it, we can now use
• 35:51
  that to enrich how we're going to go about talking to lesson
• 35:54
  teachers, talking to classroom teachers, talking to principals,
• 35:58
  talking to other people to try and sell these products.
• 36:04
  So let's see what else? Well, like I said, it was a
• 36:14
  whole lot. And if I want to go through
• 36:17
  every single item, you know, all the notes that I made that day,
• 36:21
  we're going to be here for a long time.
• 36:24
  But summary, what it is I'm trying to say is you have a
• 36:27
  problem, You think you can do sales better, You want to call
• 36:31
  me in? Just know shy that this is going
• 36:33
  to be the general approach that we're going to take.
• 36:35
  I'm not just going to be talking to whoever it is that brought me
• 36:37
  into the organization. I'm going to be talking to a
• 36:40
  bunch of other people because other people's insights, other
• 36:43
  people's opinions, other people's expertise are important
• 36:46
  to move the business forward. And apart from that, there are
• 36:50
  going to be recommendations that I will be making about how you
• 36:52
  run your business that other people are going to have to
• 36:55
  execute. We might as well have those
• 36:57
  people as part of the process from day one.
• 37:00
  Because if you bring me into the organization and I'm talking to
• 37:03
  only you, I give only you my recommendations.
• 37:05
  I collect the money and then I leave.
• 37:08
  All happened is you will now say OK, or got marketing person,
• 37:11
  let's do this. Or got sales, let's do this.
• 37:13
  OK, admin, let's do this. Or got social media, let's do
• 37:16
  this. And if they don't listen to you,
• 37:20
  then it would not look as if you spend a bunch of money, hundreds
• 37:25
  of thousands of naira you brought me in, came up with
• 37:29
  plans. The plans didn't work.
• 37:31
  The thing will now look bad on you, reflect real bad on you,
• 37:33
  like you wasted company money. Now, to be honest, it's going to
• 37:36
  reflect badly on me as well because you'll be seeing me on
• 37:38
  social media and they'll be like, look at this guy, just
• 37:40
  talk you up and down. Meanwhile, he's a dorse.
• 37:42
  My head is empty. He's not saying anything that
• 37:44
  makes sense. So that's the reason why I bring
• 37:47
  all these people in early as possible, make them a part of
• 37:50
  the process, get buying from everybody, get people's opinions
• 37:54
  about work and work, work and work so that we come up with a
• 37:56
  concrete plan so that by the time I collect my money and I go
• 38:00
  and you guys are there and you're implementing, of course,
• 38:02
  I'll be checking up for you guys from time to time to make sure
• 38:05
  that implementation is successful.
• 38:09
  Implementation will be a whole lot smoother because we all
• 38:11
  discussed as a family from the beginning.
• 38:14
  And that is why I will always call these things family
• 38:16
  meetings and I'll try our ferment problems because I need
• 38:20
  to know what auger, social media or organ marketing, the head of
• 38:25
  marketing, I need to know what the guy thinks.
• 38:27
  Now that I'm here, now that I finish, I leave.
• 38:31
  And then the governor starts speaking his mind when I'm not
• 38:33
  there. So I try if I'm in trouble so
• 38:35
  that whatever is at the back of his mind, mind, let him spit it
• 38:38
  now, let her say it now and let us deal with it now so that when
• 38:42
  we table proposals on the table and we'll come up with a plan of
• 38:45
  action. You know, everybody has spoken
• 38:47
  in their mind and we'll now come up with a simple, honest
• 38:52
  strategy that everybody can be on board with and can execute.
• 38:56
  So that's my process pretty much.
• 39:00
  And for those of you who are thinking of bringing a new
• 39:02
  product to the market, I hope you've been able to learn a
• 39:05
  couple of things from this finers approach about how to go
• 39:08
  about talking with to other stakeholders and other things
• 39:13
  that you might consider in rolling out your product or your
• 39:16
  service. Because this whole thing, even
• 39:19
  though, so excuse me, even though they had not considered
• 39:24
  trying to align their own roll out with the government.
• 39:28
  So what's it called again? So let me look at my notes
• 39:33
  because my notes were scattered. Even though he hadn't thought
• 39:36
  about the natural digital literacy framework, what was I
• 39:44
  trying to say? And even though they had not
• 39:46
  considered it, there definitely is merit.
• 39:48
  You're trying to find out, OK, what's the government doing?
• 39:50
  How's the government rolling out?
• 39:52
  How can we piggyback off of all these moves that the government
• 39:56
  is going to be making to introduce our product or service
• 39:59
  into the market? So you're introducing a new
• 40:03
  product, introducing a new service.
• 40:05
  Especially those of you in the tech space.
• 40:07
  I hope you're learning a couple of things from this founder's
• 40:10
  approach. So that's it pretty much for
• 40:12
  today's episode, like I said, was a rambling episode.
• 40:15
  So we're talking about a whole bunch of stuff, but I hope it's
• 40:17
  been able to expose you guys to my thought process so that when
• 40:21
  we do get to work together eventually we already know
• 40:24
  ourself. You know, we already know where
• 40:26
  I'm coming from. The owners will now be on me to
• 40:30
  learn. You guys figure you guys out.
• 40:32
  And yes, I will try and ferment some trouble, not because I like
• 40:36
  Quarrel, but because I need to know what everybody's, I need to
• 40:39
  know what they're thinking right now.
• 40:41
  Let them speak their mind or you know, so we can make progress.
• 40:44
  I was going to say forever hold peace, but you know, this one is
• 40:47
  business. There's no hold peace.
• 40:49
  We'll be sabotaged up and down if we don't get what people are
• 40:52
  really thinking about. So that's it for today.
• 40:57
  I'll try and make sure that tomorrow's episode is going to
• 41:00
  be much more structured so we can just head straight to the
• 41:03
  point. So once again, contact details
• 41:06
  for people who have questions and please submit questions so
• 41:10
  that you can shape the trajectory of this podcast so
• 41:14
  that he speaks to things that are relevant to you.
• 41:16
  Trying to improve your own sales career or trying to improve the
• 41:19
  finances of your business. So reach out to me.
• 41:22
  The phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234.
• 41:34
  Then on LinkedIn, you will find me Tavishima Ayede.
• 41:38
  Check the link where you're currently listening to this
• 41:40
  episode. Highlight my name, copy paste in
• 41:44
  LinkedIn, and then you will see my profile.
• 41:47
  Send me a connection request and we can continue the conversation
• 41:50
  there. So thank you very much for your
• 41:51
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 41:53
  episode.