Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Nigerian Business Etiquette: Building Relationships, Communication Styles, and Dress Code

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The Nigerian Business Etiquette: Building Relationships, Communication Styles, and Dress Code · 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 going to be tackling a
• 0:04
  question that I've already looked at before in another form
• 0:08
  and that's how to navigate cultural nuances in Nigeria.
• 0:12
  Now, since I've already tackled the question before in another
• 0:16
  way today, let me try and look at it through a different lens
• 0:19
  and I'm going to try and tackle 3 sub questions primarily.
• 0:24
  Number one will be if there's any difference when it comes to
• 0:27
  relationship building in Nigeria.
• 0:31
  You know, is it any different than building relationships in
• 0:34
  another country, Ghana, Australia, whatever.
• 0:37
  Then we're going to see if there are any differences when it
• 0:40
  comes to communication style and then if there's any difference
• 0:44
  when it comes to dress code. So for relationship building in
• 0:49
  Nigeria, when it comes to navigating cultural nuances, how
• 0:53
  do we do business? Of course, I keep saying time
• 0:56
  and time again on the podcast that relationship building or
• 1:03
  building rapport or whatever it is you want to call it is a
• 1:06
  universal tenant. So whether you're going to do
• 1:10
  business in Australia, in the UK, in Ghana or Nigeria, you're
• 1:14
  going to have to engage in some form of relationship building.
• 1:21
  Now the kind of relationship building that you're going to do
• 1:24
  or the extent of the relationship building that
• 1:26
  you're going to do, how light, how heavy, how deep, how
• 1:30
  whatever is going to depend on the culture in question and
• 1:36
  whether you're faced with a simple sale or a complex sale.
• 1:40
  So when it comes to culture, and I'm not an anthropologist or
• 1:45
  sociologist or whatever, so I'm speaking in just in layman's
• 1:49
  term, it will depend on whether you have more of a formal
• 1:53
  business type culture or very dairy cultural or if you're
• 1:59
  dealing with cultures that are more social, traditional, family
• 2:04
  oriented, old world, you know, whatever.
• 2:09
  So these are the sorts of things that will determine how much
• 2:12
  relationship building you're going to do or how little of
• 2:16
  relationship building or rapport building that you're supposed to
• 2:18
  do. Now, another thing that we have
• 2:21
  to bear in mind is this when we are dealing with simple sales
• 2:25
  scenarios, by the way, this is your first time of listening to
• 2:28
  the show, then I would recommend that you do this strongly after
• 2:33
  you're done listening to this podcast, I'd recommend that you
• 2:36
  check listen notes. I think they have an app.
• 2:40
  If they don't have an app, no worries.
• 2:42
  You can do this over the web. So listen notes as in listen,
• 2:46
  LISTEN and then notes, NOT ES2 separate words.
• 2:52
  So Listen Notes is a site that curates, curates all kinds of
• 2:58
  podcasts. So you can find my podcast over
• 3:00
  there. Now the beauty about Listen
• 3:02
  Notes is you find the podcast that you want to listen to, like
• 3:05
  they say you want to listen to mine, which is sales for the
• 3:08
  Nigerian business person. So they have a search function
• 3:12
  in Listen Notes. It allows you to search not just
• 3:16
  podcasts in general, but within the particular podcast that
• 3:19
  you're listening to. So if you're listening to this
• 3:21
  podcast right now in Listen Notes, then if you want to
• 3:26
  search simple sales scenario, simple sales context, complex
• 3:31
  sales, rapport building, relationship building, Every
• 3:35
  single podcast that I've spoken about so far over the 800 and
• 3:39
  7677 episodes that we've done so far, all the episodes that I've
• 3:44
  done on these particular topics will be there.
• 3:47
  And you'll be able to take advantage of not just this
• 3:52
  current episode that you're listening to, but episodes that
• 3:54
  I've record recorded in the past.
• 3:57
  So once you're not listening to this episode, check out listen
• 4:00
  Notes or any kind of podcasts, curator, podcast player, podcast
• 4:05
  catcher, whatever it is that they're called that allows you
• 4:08
  to search within the podcast. So you can find all the other
• 4:13
  stuff that I've said concerning these topics.
• 4:16
  So for those of you who've been listening for a very long time,
• 4:20
  remember that if we're dealing with the simple sales, then
• 4:22
  relationship building is not really a concern.
• 4:26
  It's a simple sale. If you're dealing with one
• 4:28
  person, one or two people Max, if you're dealing with something
• 4:35
  that is a simple product or simple service in itself.
• 4:38
  So like if you sell commodities and the example that I've been
• 4:41
  given over here on the podcast right from day one is buying a
• 4:44
  Gucci. If you're going to go and buy,
• 4:46
  excuse me, a Gucci in the market, then that is a simple
• 4:49
  sales scenario, relationship building, not really important.
• 4:53
  But if it's a complex sale, a complex sale, many factors.
• 4:58
  It depends how complex, the subject matter or the service
• 5:02
  you're dealing with, how many people that you are doing
• 5:05
  business with, the amount of money in question.
• 5:08
  You know, those are the sorts of things that determine whether
• 5:10
  it's a simple sale or a complex sale.
• 5:11
  So back to the a good a Gucci example, if you go to the market
• 5:15
  to buy a Gucci or pepper or beans and it's a one off sale,
• 5:18
  then that's a simple sale. So relationship building not
• 5:21
  really important. Although if the market vendor or
• 5:26
  the market trader is important, they will try to build a
• 5:28
  relationship with you so that you keep coming back to them
• 5:31
  again and again and again. But relationship building not
• 5:34
  really important. However, if it's a complex sale,
• 5:39
  back to the Agusi example, let's say I deal in a Gucci and I
• 5:44
  supply a Gucci to markets all over Abuja.
• 5:48
  And so because of that, I'm not thinking of buying one Moodle
• 5:51
  for maybe 3000 or whatever, but I'm selling in maybe tonnes or
• 6:00
  or you know, I'm selling in tonnes, tonnes is 1000 kilos.
• 6:04
  So maybe I'm supplying thousands of kilos of Igusi to markets in
• 6:10
  Abuja or several 100 bags or several 1000 bags to markets in
• 6:15
  Abuja. Now, in this case, the amount of
• 6:17
  money involved is huge. I'm dealing with multiple
• 6:21
  traders. I'm trying to gain access to
• 6:25
  different local governments, you know, things like that,
• 6:27
  different municipalities. And so now, even though the
• 6:31
  subject of the sale is still a goosey, you can see that in one
• 6:35
  context, it's a simple sale. That's me and the market woman
• 6:39
  were haggling in another one, supplying to markets within
• 6:43
  certain municipalities in Abuja. It's a complex sale.
• 6:46
  So when you're dealing with complex sales, then building
• 6:49
  relationships become even more important.
• 6:52
  So it's not just the culture, but it also depends on whether
• 6:56
  you are dealing with a simple sale or a complex sale.
• 6:59
  So if you're selling commodities in the North, do you have to
• 7:03
  build relationships? It depends.
• 7:06
  If you're selling payment infrastructure to financial
• 7:10
  institutions in Lagos and Abuja, do you have to build
• 7:13
  relationships? You can see that the need for
• 7:15
  that becomes more and more important.
• 7:18
  But rest assured, relationship building is a universal tenant.
• 7:23
  So you will have to do relationship building.
• 7:26
  Even in Nigeria, the extent of the relationship building is
• 7:29
  going to depend on the culture, Folks in the West, you guys in
• 7:35
  the UK, you guys in America, you guys are much more, you know,
• 7:42
  direct assertive, go straight to the point, you know, blah, blah,
• 7:46
  blah, blah, blah. So the kind of relationship
• 7:48
  building that you have to do there will be different than the
• 7:52
  kind of relationship building that you have to do in Nigeria
• 7:54
  where yes, we get to business, we get down to business.
• 7:58
  But typically we like to know, who are you, where's this guy
• 8:01
  coming from, what's his back story, what's the angle, blah,
• 8:05
  blah, blah. All these sorts of things are
• 8:08
  much more important in these sorts of communities.
• 8:11
  Then communication style, which is also kind of tied to this
• 8:15
  whole thing about culture. So in Nigeria, I would say
• 8:19
  communication style is more warm and it's kind of indirect.
• 8:24
  So it's something that we're going to notice when we're
• 8:27
  talking to people and we've we're faced with objections.
• 8:31
  Now an objection is any reason or reasons that people give or
• 8:37
  any form of hesitation or stalling that people give for
• 8:41
  not wanting to go ahead with the business relationship or
• 8:44
  continue with the conversation. So because we are more of a warm
• 8:47
  and indirect kind of culture, most people are not going to
• 8:51
  tell you to F off. They will just say let me think
• 8:54
  about it or let me talk to my husband or let me talk to my
• 8:58
  wife or send me that e-mail or blah, blah, blah.
• 9:00
  So we get a whole lot of those sorts of things here in this
• 9:04
  part of the world. Now Scotland on the other hand,
• 9:07
  where I did my postgraduate studies, the culture, they're
• 9:11
  slightly different. If somebody thinks you're a
• 9:14
  twat, even if it's in a business context, the person has no
• 9:19
  problems saying you're a twat. Maybe not that abrasive, but in
• 9:23
  Scotland, you know, people just say like it is in London, at
• 9:29
  least the little time that I spent in London, I think they
• 9:31
  pick up this should I say? I don't know if I should call it
• 9:34
  passive aggressive or indirect because people are trying to be
• 9:37
  polite or stuff like that. So in London, you're not likely
• 9:42
  to be called a twat even if you are because anyway, different
• 9:48
  culture. Then in America on the other
• 9:51
  hand, you know, more business focus, more result oriented,
• 9:56
  more whatever. So you can use assertive
• 10:00
  language, you can use direct language, but maybe nobody's
• 10:03
  going to call you off and accuse you of being a twat.
• 10:06
  But you can see that whether you're in Scotland or in London
• 10:09
  or in America, the level of warmth, the level of directness,
• 10:15
  the level of assertiveness changes.
• 10:17
  And so you have to take that into account when you're in
• 10:20
  Nigeria. Here it's more warm and it's
• 10:22
  more indirect. So if you think somebody's an
• 10:25
  idiot or you think the person is a twat, you think the person is
• 10:29
  a 4 niner or whatever, the typical thing to do in Nigeria
• 10:32
  is not to say, but to politely excuse yourself from the context
• 10:40
  and avoid having to directly say certain kinds of things.
• 10:45
  So you have to take that on board.
• 10:47
  So if you are one of the folks, you know, Nigerians in diaspora,
• 10:54
  you know, born in America, bred in America, schooled in America,
• 10:58
  you want to come back to Niger because you want to open a gym
• 11:01
  or you want to sell vegetarian cuisine or whatever.
• 11:07
  These are some some of the things that you have to take on
• 11:09
  board. So because we are warm and
• 11:13
  indirect in this part of the world, we have to pay lots of
• 11:17
  attention to non verbal cues. Is the person smiling?
• 11:21
  Is the person yawning or the person look drowsy?
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  Is the person cut using short sentences?
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  Is the person expressive? You know, you have to be paying
• 11:33
  attention to all these sorts of things to realize how effective
• 11:36
  your communication is, to try and figure out the level of
• 11:41
  rapport that you guys have built, you know, those sorts of
• 11:44
  things. And then of course, we have to
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  know when to use assertive language in context like
• 11:51
  Nigeria, where we're kind of warm and indirect.
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  So you show up to the person's office, you don't just get down
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  to business or Alihaji, thank you very much for taking this
• 12:00
  meeting. And the reason why I took this
• 12:01
  meeting today is because we're interested in blah, blah, blah,
• 12:03
  blah, blah. We can do this for you.
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  This is how we're going to, you know, we can do this for you at
• 12:09
  this price. This is what we can deliver.
• 12:11
  This is what we blah, blah, blah that is in in some context,
• 12:16
  depending on who it is you're talking to, that might be too
• 12:18
  direct. So wouldn't be out of place to
• 12:20
  show up and say, oh, Al Haji, how are you doing?
• 12:23
  How's Madam? How is she doing?
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  Oh, that's your daughter. Oh, wow, That's that's good.
• 12:28
  What? How, how, how is she doing?
• 12:30
  She's in Regina. Patrice.
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  OK. What?
• 12:32
  Yeah. OK.
• 12:32
  My daughter is also in blah, blah blah.
• 12:34
  And then you guys talk and talk and talk and the state of the
• 12:37
  economy and this and then that and some common things here and
• 12:41
  there. So expect to have plenty of
• 12:44
  preamble before you get down to business.
• 12:46
  And I've also heard on several other podcasts where some of
• 12:52
  these things are also an issue, you know, in different parts of
• 12:55
  the world. Like I was listening to this
• 12:56
  podcast where an Australian fellow was talking about how
• 12:59
  when you're in Sydney, you know, it's straight to business.
• 13:01
  But when you're in this part of Australia where people are more
• 13:03
  laid back and blah, blah, blah. You know, you go, you sit down,
• 13:07
  they give you coffee, you know, you drink, you guys chat you
• 13:11
  this and this and this and that and that, you know, and then 45
• 13:13
  minutes passes before you head straight down to business.
• 13:16
  So communication style, these are small things that we have to
• 13:20
  pay attention to. And that is one of the reasons
• 13:23
  why I proposed in one of my older podcast that if you're new
• 13:26
  to Nigeria, trying to sell in Nigeria for the first time, it
• 13:29
  might not be a bad idea if you're out of touch with the
• 13:31
  culture to have, should I say a, a, a handler or you know,
• 13:37
  someone local who's going to take you here and there,
• 13:39
  introduce you to a couple of people and then for you to take
• 13:42
  your cues from that other person.
• 13:46
  So if you're in a situation where the other person seems to
• 13:49
  be slowing things down, it's kind of chill.
• 13:52
  You know, you take dressing accordingly.
• 13:54
  And when you notice that the other person is getting more
• 13:58
  direct or opens up the door, then you know that OK, that's
• 14:01
  your cue. You can be more assertive, much
• 14:06
  more direct. So OK, 15 minutes.
• 14:09
  So let me wrap this up quickly. Dress code.
• 14:12
  So for Nigeria, dress code is for business is conservative or
• 14:17
  professional or appropriate to the context?
• 14:20
  Yeah, let me put it that way. So to be on the safe side, dress
• 14:23
  conservatively, trying to figure out what is professional
• 14:28
  depending on where you are. I always try to dress
• 14:30
  appropriately for the context. The reason why I have to point
• 14:34
  it out is because in certain parts of the world, in some
• 14:37
  parts of the UK, because if I remember in Scotland there was,
• 14:41
  you know, Scotland, they have this kind of business dress
• 14:44
  thing. So it's time for business, be
• 14:46
  dressed for business. But then in London, there's some
• 14:49
  of this smart casual thing going on.
• 14:51
  And I get the impression that in America, in some circles, smart
• 14:55
  casual is kind of cool. But in Nigeria, I'd say to be on
• 15:00
  the safe side, dress professional to be on the safe
• 15:04
  side. But in a certain sense, you have
• 15:06
  to be appropriate to the context.
• 15:08
  So artists seem to get away with a whole lot.
• 15:11
  So wedding photographers can show up in torn jeans and faded
• 15:15
  shirt and dyed hair with dreadlocks because given that
• 15:22
  context, that is what people expect.
• 15:24
  So yes, wedding photographers and get away with a lot of that.
• 15:27
  And I was one of those wedding photographers who was more on
• 15:30
  the boring side. I've always been bald.
• 15:33
  OK when when my son, my first son was born.
• 15:36
  I agree on Mohawk. But apart from that, my hair has
• 15:39
  been very boring, not adventurous, but, and I'm just
• 15:44
  trying to say be appropriate to the context.
• 15:46
  So artisans get away with dressing a certain way.
• 15:52
  People, excuse me, people in the trades, they get away with
• 15:55
  dressing in a certain way. And then artists also get away
• 15:58
  with dressing in a certain way, but try and being conservative
• 16:01
  or professional, but always dressed appropriate to the
• 16:05
  context. So those are the three main
• 16:08
  headers that I wanted to tackle today.
• 16:09
  But just in case there's someone here who hasn't listened to the
• 16:12
  Order podcast, there's something that I want to stress for those
• 16:16
  of you who are newbies. Nigeria has hierarchical
• 16:20
  organizations and deference is a part of our culture.
• 16:26
  And difference depends according to age, according to sex, and
• 16:31
  according to status. So it's not something that we
• 16:34
  can run away from. So if you are Nigerian in
• 16:38
  diaspora, you spend all your time in America, you come back
• 16:42
  here and you want to sell this whole thing of call me Bob.
• 16:46
  It doesn't work here. You can't come here and say, oh,
• 16:49
  Bob, nice to meet you. You're the one who is chasing
• 16:52
  after something. You're trying to get something.
• 16:55
  You don't walk into Roberts office and say, Bob, nice to
• 16:59
  meet you. You will say Mr. Roberts.
• 17:03
  Depending on the context, you might have to say Chief Roberts.
• 17:09
  Let's see what else I mean. You get the point.
• 17:13
  Hierarchical organizations, we have a culture of deference.
• 17:18
  And so come in and assume that that is how you're going to
• 17:23
  start the relationship. Let the other person be the
• 17:26
  person, the be the one to tell you that oh, no, no, no, no,
• 17:29
  don't call me Mr. Roberts. Just call me Bob.
• 17:32
  So if person says no, call Mr. Roberts, call me Bob.
• 17:34
  OK, no problem. Maybe you've opened up the the
• 17:38
  person has opened up the what would I say person has given you
• 17:43
  permission to be that informal. But I would say for those of you
• 17:46
  Nigerians in diaspora, you're coming back here, you're trying
• 17:49
  to do business, just take dressing accordingly.
• 17:56
  You know, he might say, you know, modern times modern this
• 18:00
  more than that, but we are not quite there yet.
• 18:03
  So hierarchical organizations, culture of difference depending
• 18:07
  on age, sex and status. So if you go into an
• 18:11
  organization, don't call anybody Cooley.
• 18:15
  It's the first time you're meeting, you're going to say Mr.
• 18:18
  Cooley, we're going to say Mr. Abdul Rahman or Madam Chijuki or
• 18:25
  Misses. I mean, you get the whole point.
• 18:29
  The other person will give you the cue about when to step down.
• 18:34
  If you're selling within an organization, it's not just
• 18:36
  enough to talk to the case officer that you're talking to
• 18:39
  right now. The case officer has an orga.
• 18:42
  You'll be expected to build a certain rapport or relationship
• 18:46
  with the orga as well. And orga meaning boss or
• 18:53
  superior. And OK, well, close to 20
• 18:57
  minutes. So let me not overflow the
• 18:58
  issue. But like I said, listen notes,
• 19:01
  check the app. If there's no app, there
• 19:03
  definitely is a website. Check it.
• 19:05
  You can search within that podcast player and your way to
• 19:09
  find every single episode over the 870 whatever episodes that
• 19:13
  I've done so far where I've spoken about things related to
• 19:16
  culture, selling in Nigeria, simple sales context, complex
• 19:21
  sales context, relationship building, rapport building,
• 19:25
  cultural differences, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of
• 19:28
  things. So connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 19:30
  The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 19:37
  For those of you who are not Nigerian and also connect with
• 19:40
  me on LinkedIn, my name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 19:43
  I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of
• 19:46
  my name and my e-mail address from the link.
• 19:49
  We're currently listening to this episode.
• 19:50
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 19:52
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.