Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Why Cutting Sales and Marketing is the Worst Thing You Can Do

Transcript

Why Cutting Sales and Marketing is the Worst Thing You Can Do · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, the usual
• 0:04
  apologies, I am not recording in my audio booth today and it's a
• 0:08
  full house. And at the time of this
• 0:10
  recording, the Olympics still on.
• 0:13
  And so everybody's just having a blast.
• 0:15
  So wifey watching Olympics, the kids watching Olympics, even
• 0:20
  though there's the protest, the end bad governance protest going
• 0:25
  on in Nigeria now, some people are still getting carried away
• 0:28
  with Olympic fever. So yeah, if you hear noise in
• 0:31
  the background, people shouting, people clapping, that's just
• 0:34
  wifey and the kids enjoying themselves watching the
• 0:38
  Olympics. Yeah.
• 0:40
  So OK, yeah. So we did two detours yesterday.
• 0:46
  The day before we did 2 detours. So now we're going to be back on
• 0:52
  things that cause your sales performance to slump.
• 0:55
  And so today we're going to be looking at market related issues
• 0:58
  that cause your sales to slump and what you can do about it.
• 1:01
  And I think must have been last week we looked at people related
• 1:07
  issues. That's when the sales people had
• 1:09
  the problem for why sales isn't moving and then why you have the
• 1:12
  problem, why sales isn't moving. In case you are the sales
• 1:15
  manager or you're the business owner, because it isn't always
• 1:18
  the problem of the sales team. Sometimes the problem is with
• 1:21
  you, dear business owner. Then after people related
• 1:27
  problems, we looked at process related problems.
• 1:31
  Whether you know you have a sales process, whether you guys
• 1:34
  use your CRM properly, that's a customer relationship management
• 1:37
  tool. What else, I can't remember, but
• 1:41
  we've, we've, we've done a bunch so far.
• 1:42
  I remember for sure that we've done people and we've done
• 1:45
  process. So today we're going to look at
• 1:47
  market related issues. Now, this is one thing that I am
• 1:52
  going to say for those of you who are tired of me saying
• 1:55
  everything is your fault, you'll be happy to note that this is
• 1:58
  one thing you really can't do anything about market related
• 2:02
  issues. Actually, this is one thing that
• 2:04
  is not your fault. Macroeconomic issues, it's not
• 2:09
  your fault. I mean, who the president is,
• 2:11
  what the president's policies are, whether there's a war,
• 2:14
  whether there's inflation, you can't do Jack about it.
• 2:18
  Political issues, it's not your fault, except if you didn't vote
• 2:21
  in the last election like I did. But you can't really say it's
• 2:25
  your fault. So for those of you who are
• 2:27
  tired of me saying that you should take responsibility for
• 2:30
  everything in your business, then you'll be happy to note
• 2:32
  that on this one, I give ground. I concede.
• 2:36
  When it comes to market related issues, it's not your fault.
• 2:40
  It's the macroeconomic environment, it's political
• 2:44
  issues, it's fiscal issues, it's all kinds of things.
• 2:48
  It's not your fault. So when it comes to these sorts
• 2:51
  of things, market related issues, it's mostly about
• 2:54
  waiting out economic cycles because you speak to anybody who
• 2:58
  is knowledgeable about these sorts of things, whether it's
• 3:01
  your uncle who's been in business since 1968 or whether
• 3:06
  it's your professor, if you're still in school, they tell you
• 3:09
  that these things come and go, you know, cycles, they come and
• 3:12
  go and it's normal. So at the time I was born, there
• 3:16
  was the, at the time I was born, there was the depression, the
• 3:22
  depression of the OK, well, not depression, but what's it
• 3:25
  called? Global financial crisis, you
• 3:26
  know, like around the 80s. And then by the time I was in
• 3:32
  like secondary school ish, there was the issue with structural
• 3:37
  adjustment programme in Nigeria. And then military era came and
• 3:42
  went and what basically it's, you know, it's just it comes and
• 3:45
  goes, depression and then boom and then depression and then
• 3:50
  boom and then depression and then boom.
• 3:52
  So if you talk to your uncle who's been in business since
• 3:55
  1968, he would say, look, young man is Nigeria.
• 3:58
  This is how things have always been.
• 4:00
  Things will go up and things will go down.
• 4:03
  What we do is we wait and we plan, so there's nothing you can
• 4:08
  do. There's more thing about waiting
• 4:10
  out, excuse me, trying to recognise the economic cycles
• 4:15
  and to try and wait them out. Also to engage in business
• 4:19
  habits that are going to give you momentum when the business
• 4:22
  cycle changes or when the political cycle changes or when
• 4:26
  the economic cycle changes. Now, why should you bother with
• 4:30
  this optimistic attitude? Because after all, what's the
• 4:35
  reason for being optimistic? The reason why we should engage
• 4:38
  in this optimistic attitude is because if you're pessimistic,
• 4:42
  sorry, pessimistic, how is that going to help you?
• 4:44
  Being pessimistic is not going to help.
• 4:47
  And what we're trying to do is to give ourselves a chance to
• 4:50
  survive and a chance for the business to survive.
• 4:52
  So why not just assume that things will turn around and then
• 4:57
  start making business decisions based on that hope and engaging
• 5:01
  in habits that will help you eventually when things start
• 5:04
  turning around. The only time when it helps to
• 5:07
  be pessimistic is if you're already a millionaire or you're
• 5:12
  a billionaire or you're a hard net worth individual who likes
• 5:15
  doing technical analysis and you make your money by shorting
• 5:17
  stock. So you know, our own George
• 5:20
  Soros and all those type of people, you know.
• 5:23
  So that's how they make a living.
• 5:24
  That's how they make a killing. They wait, they see that things
• 5:27
  are going bad and they make it better that things will go even
• 5:31
  worse. And then they take the short,
• 5:35
  that's what it's called you shorter position in stocks and
• 5:39
  you wait for things to go to shite.
• 5:41
  And when they go to shite, you make even more money.
• 5:43
  So there are people who are, we can't call them professional
• 5:47
  gamblers, but there are people who that's how they make their
• 5:50
  money. Look for when things are going
• 5:51
  bad, make market bets that will optimize, that will take account
• 5:56
  of the fact that things are bad and that things are going to get
• 5:58
  worse. So if you're not one of those
• 6:00
  people, you might as well just assume that these things come in
• 6:04
  cycles. Let us get the best habits and
• 6:07
  let's kind of plan and set ourselves up so that when things
• 6:12
  start improving, we are going to be on the good side of the
• 6:16
  trend. So examples of market related
• 6:19
  issues of course is economic downturn, which always leads to
• 6:23
  reduced customer spending. And yeah, people say it's a
• 6:28
  global thing, perhaps it is. But in Nigeria right now, people
• 6:32
  are feeling the pinch because from Buhari's government up
• 6:36
  until now, there was the whole thing of the cash crunch,
• 6:40
  whether they're trying to limit the, the amount of money in
• 6:46
  circulation, not just the amount of money in circulation, but
• 6:48
  also the physical cash in circulation.
• 6:50
  So there was that cash crunch thing.
• 6:53
  Then of course, there was how that impacted inflation.
• 6:57
  And then Chenobu comes and then there's reduction in fuel
• 6:59
  subsidy. So it's, you know, Asia has been
• 7:01
  a lot. So it'd be like back-to-back to
• 7:03
  back. And of course these things
• 7:04
  happen and then people stop, people stop spending.
• 7:09
  You have to people reprioritize that spending.
• 7:14
  Let me put it that way. You know, so even if it's
• 7:16
  something as simple as DSTV, before DSTV had premium bouquet
• 7:21
  because you know, 50K to spend on DSTV, yeah, not a problem
• 7:24
  whenever things change. And then all of a sudden one
• 7:27
  piece of yam cost, you know, 4000 naira, 5000 naira.
• 7:30
  And then you think, why should I spend 50K on DSTV?
• 7:34
  Let me just pay the 9000 package that frees me up with 40 grand
• 7:38
  and I can use that 40K to at least buy one or two yams and
• 7:41
  maybe buy some meat or something like that.
• 7:44
  So people start, excuse me, people start making all those
• 7:48
  kinds of decisions during economic downturns.
• 7:53
  So people spend less. And then of course that affects
• 7:55
  your business. So if you're DSTV, you know
• 7:58
  there's nothing you can do. Economic downturn has happened.
• 8:00
  It has happened. And it just means some people
• 8:02
  are going to, instead of doing premium bouquet, they will now
• 8:06
  do the 9K1. And then some people who before
• 8:09
  were doing 9 K and they'll say what?
• 8:10
  ME9K and then do that grade from 9 K to the one five.
• 8:14
  And who knows, maybe the people who own the 15 bouquet will now
• 8:17
  say wow, things are really bad and then they just cancel their
• 8:20
  subscription altogether. So these things happen.
• 8:23
  Then another example of market related issues is increased
• 8:27
  competition. Basically what happens with
• 8:32
  increased competition is you have people that are getting
• 8:35
  more aggressive than you are. And it happens in situations
• 8:38
  where you've exposed the valuable niche in the market and
• 8:40
  then other people are trying to get in.
• 8:42
  So for instance, back in Niger during the whole COVID thing,
• 8:47
  you know, overnight it became clear that the market for hand
• 8:50
  sanitizers was, was a viable one.
• 8:55
  Now it's not as if hand sanitizers were not there.
• 8:57
  Hand sanitizers have always been there because like, you know,
• 9:01
  mumsy, like my own mum, she has this hand thing, you know, like
• 9:04
  you go use the toilet or you wash plate.
• 9:07
  After that you use Vaseline and then you come out from the
• 9:09
  market and then, you know, you do your hand sanitizer or
• 9:12
  something. So mums and our aunties have
• 9:16
  always had hand hygiene routines for the longest of time.
• 9:23
  So it has always been there. But then with COVID, you have
• 9:27
  children using hand sanitizers, men using hand sanitizers.
• 9:30
  There's no longer a woman thing. And yeah, there's a market for
• 9:33
  it. And so yeah, the whole thing
• 9:36
  explodes. So you have people who were
• 9:38
  there before like Detour, but then you now have new entrants
• 9:41
  into the space. Like sure, that's SURE, but not
• 9:46
  the the one that not the people who make deodorants.
• 9:48
  The Nigerian company, sure. So sure, comes in and they start
• 9:52
  making hand sanitizers and soaps and all those sorts of things,
• 9:56
  but you know, that's because, you know, a valuable market
• 10:00
  niche has been exposed and then other people will just, you
• 10:02
  know, rise up and try and take advantage of that.
• 10:06
  So these sorts of things happen. In fact, this is one thing that
• 10:10
  is inevitable in business. If you find a new way to make
• 10:15
  money or if you find a profitable way to make money,
• 10:19
  rest assured other people will follow.
• 10:21
  There's no rule against copying, so other people will follow.
• 10:24
  So it doesn't matter if it's a new technology, a new design, a
• 10:27
  new product, a new market, a new whatever.
• 10:30
  Once you enter and people see that there's money to be made,
• 10:33
  people will enter. So count on it.
• 10:36
  Then there's also market related issues.
• 10:40
  There's also changing customer needs.
• 10:43
  That is when you know there's a shift in market demand or
• 10:46
  shifting trends. This one is more of a market
• 10:51
  analysis issue, sort of, so I'm not going to address it here,
• 10:54
  but this is one thing that I've been saying on the podcast.
• 10:58
  If you have been doing good sales practice, and of course
• 11:01
  good sales practice means that you're in constant
• 11:03
  communications with your customers, you should have been
• 11:06
  getting some signs, some signals from your customers that there's
• 11:10
  changes in the market, there's changes in trends and there's
• 11:13
  changes in customer needs. Because if you're talking with
• 11:15
  your people and you have a good relationship with your people,
• 11:18
  one or two people don't renew because there's this thing that
• 11:21
  has come up or they don't need this anymore, they don't need
• 11:23
  that anymore. So if you're handling sales
• 11:27
  functions yourself, you know, you're talking to customers,
• 11:29
  you're handling sales calls, you're doing customer service
• 11:32
  calls, and then you're also liaising with people who sell on
• 11:35
  your behalf, You'll already start getting some signals that
• 11:38
  almost there's this new product, there's this new thing, there's
• 11:40
  this new that perhaps you should join the fray.
• 11:43
  So I'm not going to say anything about customer, customer needs,
• 11:47
  changes in trends and things like that.
• 11:49
  But just know that if you're doing sales right, you will
• 11:52
  definitely get some signals because I mean, worst case
• 11:59
  scenario, your best customer will tell you like, look, oh
• 12:01
  boy, I appreciate you been doing business with you and
• 12:03
  everything, but this is how my situation has changed.
• 12:06
  It looks like this one pays me more.
• 12:08
  So you know, we're going with that.
• 12:11
  And then you now get a sense of what is new on the horizon,
• 12:14
  whether it's a new technology, a new competitor or a new market
• 12:17
  or whatever. So what is the overall framework
• 12:21
  for dealing with all these kinds of issues?
• 12:23
  That is not your fault. You just wake up and you know
• 12:25
  the economy has done a thing on you, so it's not your fault.
• 12:28
  Although my wife says that for those of us who refuse to vote
• 12:31
  in the election that brought in a book in, that actually is our
• 12:34
  fault. So we can't wake up and say
• 12:35
  that. But anyway, that's an argument
• 12:37
  for another day. So you wake up, the economy has
• 12:41
  done its thing, what are you supposed to do?
• 12:45
  What happens for average people is that people contract when the
• 12:49
  economic winds are harsh. The person that was paying the
• 12:52
  STV 50K when things get harsh and yam is now 5K or bread is
• 12:59
  now 2K. When that happens, the person
• 13:01
  will go from 50K bouquet and the person will now start buying 10K
• 13:05
  bouquet or maybe the 25K bouquet.
• 13:07
  That's just no matter how it happens now.
• 13:09
  There's also a corollary to that in business, which is that if
• 13:13
  people were doing times when times are good, people are
• 13:17
  spending, OK, let me not come with a figure, but basically
• 13:22
  there's fixed expenditure like your rent, that one is fixed.
• 13:25
  You can't do anything about it. And then there's variable
• 13:27
  expenses, maybe like how you guys use AC in the office or
• 13:32
  something. But bottom line is when things
• 13:34
  get harsh for the variable expenses, people do their best
• 13:38
  and they try and cut down on that.
• 13:41
  Unfortunately, there are some variable expenses that people
• 13:45
  think are unnecessary, but they're not.
• 13:47
  And that includes sales and marketing because the amount
• 13:50
  that is devoted to sales and marketing can go up and down.
• 13:53
  And it's a variable expense. Some people think all variable
• 13:56
  expenses are necessary. So when things get hard, when
• 13:59
  the cost of diesel rises, when the cost of fuel rises, you
• 14:04
  know, some people just start spending less on sales, less on
• 14:07
  marketing. You say, OK, we have a team of
• 14:09
  sales people. This is 1 the naive 1 selling
• 14:12
  well self. Instead of keeping 10 sales
• 14:14
  people, let's only keep five and then you sack 5 or we were
• 14:18
  spending 1005 on Google advertising every week.
• 14:24
  Things are off now instead of spending 1005, let's only spend
• 14:28
  500 or dama. Let's just cancel the whole
• 14:31
  thing. You know, so those are the kind
• 14:33
  of cuts that people make now. This is the problem with this
• 14:37
  kind of attitude. Well, by the way, unnecessary
• 14:40
  expenses, yes, by all means, you know, cut and cut and cut.
• 14:44
  But sales and marketing, you can't.
• 14:48
  Even though it's a variable expense, you can't lump it with
• 14:51
  all those unnecessary spending because sales and marketing are
• 14:55
  responsible for people to know who you are, what you do, how
• 15:01
  your product or service can help make people's lives better.
• 15:04
  If you cut this now that you think, OK, we're in a
• 15:08
  depression, where will the momentum come from for your
• 15:12
  business when things start to turn around?
• 15:15
  If you stop engaging in activities that are telling
• 15:17
  people, this is me, this is what I can do, this is where my
• 15:21
  protocol service is the best. This is how we can help you when
• 15:25
  things start to change and people no longer know you or
• 15:31
  have a sense of what it is you do because these things happen,
• 15:36
  you know, things turn around, people start seeing your face
• 15:38
  again. People like, oh boy, you're
• 15:40
  still here. I thought you Jack back, you
• 15:42
  know, or Jack back. That's the immigration
• 15:45
  phenomenon that is going on in Nigeria right now.
• 15:47
  You know, it happens in cycles. Things get rough, people leave
• 15:51
  the shores, people go to the UK, Canada, you know, wherever.
• 15:57
  So yeah, you can say you're cutting on sales and marketing.
• 16:01
  It's not a necessary expenditure.
• 16:03
  You actually need it. You need to be out there.
• 16:05
  You need to be top of mind. You need to keep trying to bring
• 16:08
  in more deals. So the solution actually is to
• 16:12
  keep on doing promotional activity, keep on doing your
• 16:17
  promo activities during the bad times because that is what is
• 16:20
  going to provide the lift that you need when people things are
• 16:24
  coming out of the depression. So for for example, let me use 2
• 16:29
  common examples that everybody should be able to relate with.
• 16:33
  Since all this rubbish started, I'm sure you guys have noticed
• 16:35
  that your usual toilet paper, like you can't find your normal
• 16:38
  toilet paper, not like there's a crisis in toilet paper.
• 16:41
  It's just that some people have slowed down production, some
• 16:44
  people have stopped distribution because, you know, increase in
• 16:47
  production costs. There are other companies on the
• 16:50
  other hand, that have actually raised their prices and then
• 16:53
  they still remain in the market. They're still doing promotion,
• 16:55
  they're still doing distribution.
• 16:58
  So your favorite toilet paper company probably can't find them
• 17:01
  anymore. But you've noticed that there
• 17:02
  are one or two bad boys, bad girls in the market.
• 17:05
  They're still there. They've raised their price, yes,
• 17:08
  two tissue paper now going for, you know, 800 or 1K or something
• 17:14
  like that. But The thing is, they're still
• 17:18
  there and it's the same thing with bread.
• 17:20
  So in Abuja, bread prices gone up, you know, 17 for a loaf of
• 17:24
  bread, 1/6/2000 on average. I've even seen 2/5.
• 17:29
  So of course there's some people who have disappeared, like the
• 17:32
  price of yeast, the price of fuel, the price of this, the
• 17:35
  price of that. Let me just wind down activity
• 17:38
  and wait. But then the other people who
• 17:41
  are continuing, even though it's 2000 for a loaf of bread, are
• 17:44
  still doing their thing, still advertising, still sending out
• 17:48
  Flyers, still doing distribution, you know,
• 17:50
  whatever. Now The thing is this.
• 17:52
  When the economy now turns around, however, it is going to
• 17:56
  turn around, whether the inflation goes down or whether
• 17:58
  Nigerians earning capacity increases and then there's more
• 18:02
  money for tissue paper and for bread.
• 18:04
  Who are you going to remember to buy?
• 18:08
  Is it the person who disappeared when things were rough or the
• 18:11
  people who kept on? So when things improve, that
• 18:17
  tissue paper that you are now thinking was expensive was blah,
• 18:19
  blah, blah. You know, you can now afford it.
• 18:24
  I mean, there's no going to be any other option apart from
• 18:27
  people who are still playing in the market, who are still
• 18:30
  playing the game. So you can't afford to disappear
• 18:34
  and you can't afford to cut costs for marketing and selling
• 18:39
  activities when things, when things get bad, because
• 18:44
  eventually things change. And it's only people who
• 18:46
  remained in the market and who are still visible and who are
• 18:49
  still top of mind. They're the ones who are going
• 18:51
  to capture everything. So the summary, especially since
• 18:55
  I'm talking to people who are in the SME space for big, big
• 18:59
  companies like, you know, empty and you know, they've been going
• 19:02
  through some troubles because the increase in fuel costs have
• 19:06
  meant that them because, you know, they have to they have to
• 19:13
  fuel generator sets and, or what not are there, what do you call
• 19:17
  these things? Those big, big towers, those
• 19:19
  huge metal things with antennas on top, the service stations or
• 19:22
  whatever they have to man them. And then with the rising cost of
• 19:24
  fuel, you know, they've been put in pretty bad shape.
• 19:27
  So for MTN and all these big companies, you know, I can
• 19:31
  advise you guys yet I haven't reached that level yet.
• 19:33
  I will someday. But for the rest of us who are
• 19:37
  SMEs, small and medium scaled enterprises, if when the times
• 19:41
  were good, you are producing Flyers and you are dropping
• 19:44
  Flyers during the good time, now that things are bad, continue to
• 19:49
  be dropping those Flyers, it looks as if people are not
• 19:52
  buying. And yet there's some truth to
• 19:54
  that, because, like I said, when The Economic Times are bad,
• 19:57
  there's less discretionary income and people spend less.
• 20:01
  But The thing is, like for those people, the podcast episode I
• 20:04
  spoke about, about the guy who was going around dropping Flyers
• 20:08
  at my son's school and other schools in the area.
• 20:12
  You should be dropping Flyers when things are good, continue
• 20:15
  to drop Flyers when things are bad.
• 20:17
  When pepper rest and people now have more money and they're
• 20:19
  ready to now buy school bags, school shoes and all those
• 20:24
  things. When things turn around, who
• 20:26
  will they know to purchase from? They will know the purchase from
• 20:31
  you because you've been dropping Flyers when things are good.
• 20:33
  You've been dropping Flyers when things are bad.
• 20:35
  When things turn around, the only Flyers that will be around
• 20:38
  will be your own. The other woman who decided to
• 20:41
  lock her shop that OK, things are rough or she decides to Jack
• 20:44
  back, she's not going to be around to take advantage when
• 20:48
  things turn around. Or the person who says that, OK,
• 20:52
  we used to produce 1500 Flyers when things were good.
• 20:56
  Now things are rough. Let's only be producing 200
• 20:59
  Flyers. And by the way, the Flyers game
• 21:01
  is a game of scale. Don't kid yourself, be producing
• 21:04
  205 hundred Flyers. And you said that that thing is
• 21:06
  going to work. This flyer thing is about scale.
• 21:10
  The more you drop the better. So don't kill yourself.
• 21:14
  Yes, there's a package for 500 Flyers, but please don't go and
• 21:17
  pay the don't go and buy that package of 500 Flyers Flyers.
• 21:22
  It's not going to help you. 500 Flyers, you distribute it in two
• 21:25
  days or three days, then what? So you've been doing Flyers
• 21:30
  during the good times, continue doing Flyers during the bad
• 21:34
  time. Eventually things will turn
• 21:36
  around and you'll be the only one because you're the only one
• 21:39
  who was going around dropping Flyers.
• 21:42
  Now, there's a downside to this strategy, and I admit this
• 21:46
  strategy is inherently optimistic.
• 21:50
  But The thing is, we're human beings.
• 21:52
  We're not God, we don't, we can't tell the future.
• 21:55
  There's no crystal ball. So we have absolutely no idea
• 21:59
  when things will turn around and we have no idea whether things
• 22:03
  will even turn around because let's go back to the days of our
• 22:07
  youth. As for those of us who are a
• 22:08
  similar age, you know, Ireland went through this thing of near
• 22:12
  economic collapse when they had their debt crisis.
• 22:14
  You know, that's when it was small.
• 22:16
  Then there was this old dude, the one that looked like Hitler
• 22:19
  in Zimbabwe with that mustache Mugabe, Robert Mugabe and so
• 22:24
  Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. And then there was Nigeria under
• 22:27
  the structural adjustment program because that Nigeria
• 22:30
  NASAP that must have been, I don't know, felt like 1012 years
• 22:35
  of of bell tightening. So how long will these things
• 22:40
  last? We don't know.
• 22:42
  We things even turn around. We have no idea.
• 22:46
  But The thing is the options are very simple, especially in
• 22:49
  Nigeria of 2024 at the time of making this recording.
• 22:54
  Keep hoping and you plan for that and keep making strategic
• 22:57
  choices based on that. Or Jabba, leave the country
• 23:03
  because you think that this is a sinking ship.
• 23:05
  So those are the options. So for those of you who are not
• 23:09
  jumping the ship because you don't think that things are
• 23:13
  terrible and going to blazes now, these are the options that
• 23:17
  are available. Continue with your promotional
• 23:19
  activity because you are expecting that cycles come and
• 23:23
  cycles will go. Now, for those of us who are
• 23:25
  young, it's hard to keep it in perspective because we're young.
• 23:28
  What have we seen? We haven't seen much but maybe
• 23:31
  times like this, that's when it'll be good to talk to that
• 23:34
  uncle of yours who has been in business since you know, 1958 or
• 23:39
  whatever. So, I mean, look at it from a
• 23:43
  Nigerian point of view from 1958 till now, people who have been
• 23:46
  in business from then up to now, I mean, think about what they've
• 23:48
  seen. They've seen, they've seen
• 23:52
  independence, they've seen boom, they've seen civil war, they've
• 23:55
  seen depression, they've seen military era, they've seen
• 23:59
  civil, they've seen they've seen it all.
• 24:01
  So, yeah, I guess if you're younger like me, you don't have
• 24:06
  the benefit or perspective. I guess now will be that time to
• 24:09
  get real close to your uncle or your auntie who's been in
• 24:12
  business for, you know, 50 years.
• 24:13
  You know, so might give you some perspective.
• 24:17
  If nothing else, you learn one or two things about how to carry
• 24:20
  on business when things are tight.
• 24:22
  So that's all for today. Connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 24:26
  The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 24:33
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, then what else?
• 24:37
  Yeah, LinkedIn. So connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 24:39
  The correct spelling of my name. My name is Tavishma Ayede.
• 24:43
  You can get the correct spelling of my name from the link where
• 24:45
  you're currently listening to this episode.
• 24:47
  My e-mail address will be there as well for those of you who dig
• 24:51
  e-mail. So thank you very much for your
• 24:53
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 24:55
  episode.