Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Waiting: The 4 Universal Steps to Find Your Ideal Customer!
Transcript
- 0:00Today on the podcast, we're going to look at how do you sell
- 0:04or market your product or service when you have something
- 0:08that you think is unique? So in other words, you are brand
- 0:13new into the market. You have a product, you have a
- 0:15service, but this thing is brand spanking you.
- 0:18It's unique. It's not something that people
- 0:21in your context, people in your environment have ever heard of
- 0:24before and it's causing you some anxiety.
- 0:27How are you going to sell this thing?
- 0:30This is the type the question that we're going to tackle today
- 0:32on the podcast. Now, if you love these sorts of
- 0:34things, then subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any
- 0:37player of your choice because this is what we talk about over
- 0:40here on the podcast every other day.
- 0:42We try and solve business challenges, especially business
- 0:45challenges that can be solved by sales and marketing.
- 0:50My name is Tavishima Ayedi, I'm the host of the podcast, former
- 0:54lawyer turned photographer and turned business consultant.
- 0:57And yeah, that's what I do here every single day.
- 1:00And if you'd love to connect, maybe you have questions,
- 1:03comments or queries over anything that I've said over
- 1:05here on the podcast, then call, send me a text message or
- 1:09WhatsApp message on 08064662140. You can also reach out to me for
- 1:17collaborations. I don't mind because, you know,
- 1:20I'm looking for money. So if anything good comes up, I
- 1:23mean, I'm down. So holler at your boy.
- 1:25All right, now, yeah. How do you sell or market your
- 1:29unique products or services? Now, for those of you who have
- 1:32been listening to this podcast, you know, steady, you already
- 1:34know that I hinted at this thing maybe like two or three weeks
- 1:38back because it actually is a listener question from Paul in
- 1:41Abuja, who called in on my radio show, you know, not the podcast,
- 1:45you know, the radio show that I keep talking about, or did I
- 1:48mention I'm a radio show host as well.
- 1:51So Paul from Abuja, he called in and he gave me a challenge.
- 1:57He said, I have a unique product, I have a unique
- 2:00service. How do I market this thing?
- 2:02I'm like, OK, word, no problem. Let's yeah.
- 2:04Now what's the thing? And he said his software, his
- 2:08app, the business solution that he sells, because this is B to
- 2:11B, that is business to business. Now this is your first time of
- 2:14listening to the podcast, So excuse me.
- 2:17In the business environment, typically when we look at sales
- 2:20and marketing, we usually think in terms of B to B, which is
- 2:24business to business and and then BTC, which is business to
- 2:28consumer. So for people like let's say
- 2:31Indo me, yeah, people like Indo me now, I can't remember the
- 2:34prior company. So for Indo me now that is BTC.
- 2:37There's a business on one end, you know, that big company,
- 2:40whatever the name of the company is.
- 2:42And then they sell Indo me to people like me so that we can
- 2:45eat, you know, you flex buy Indo me, you buy some Suya, you buy
- 2:50Fanta, you know, just turn on the AC and relax and watch
- 2:54Netflix at home. So that is B to C, business to
- 2:57consumer. Then there are other people who
- 2:59do B to B, that is business to business.
- 3:04So let me see now what can I think of?
- 3:07OK, let's say you sell keyboards, external keyboards,
- 3:12and then you want to sell not just keyboards, but you sell
- 3:15digital accessories. So keyboards, computer monitors,
- 3:18you know, things like that. And you're trying to sell a
- 3:21batch of maybe like 2000 keyboards and maybe 1500
- 3:25monitors and you're trying to sell it to Ministry of Finance
- 3:28or you're trying to sell it to CBN or to Zenith Bank or
- 3:33whatever. In that case, it's business to
- 3:35business because you are a business and you're trying to
- 3:38sell your product, your service, your solution, your whatever to
- 3:41another business. Some people also classify that
- 3:45as enterprise sales or we can talk about all those divisions
- 3:48later. Let's stick to the main focus
- 3:51for today. I just wanted to give a
- 3:52background in case there's anybody who is new listening to
- 3:55the podcast or by the way, for those of you who are new, I'm
- 3:58making today's recording at home and the kids are home, so expect
- 4:02to hear some interruptions in the background.
- 4:07Let's see. All right, so Paul now based in
- 4:10Abuja, the software, the solution that he sells, he sells
- 4:14sales analytics, customer analysis and financial analysis.
- 4:20I repeat, he sells an app, a website, business solution that
- 4:26covers sales analytics, customer analysis and financial analysis.
- 4:34Now let's break it down. Now sales analytics is OK, sort
- 4:41of defining it. Let me run it this way.
- 4:43Now for those of you who have sales teams, let's say you have
- 4:46two, three salespeople. You don't just hire them and you
- 4:50know, let them free to just go and do whatever they like.
- 4:54Typically you try and track their performance in some way
- 4:57because in going out, trying to in going out to sell on your
- 5:01behalf, they're going to have to carry out certain activities.
- 5:04They're going to have to call people, they're going to have to
- 5:07set up meetings, they're going to have to make presentations,
- 5:11they're going to have to send out proposals, and then they
- 5:13will try to close. So if you want to figure out how
- 5:16effective, sorry, one moment. OK, sorry about that.
- 5:21Those are my kids knocking on the door.
- 5:23They needed my attention for something.
- 5:25OK, what was I? All right, So I was saying now
- 5:28for those of you who have sales teams, your people, your sales
- 5:33people are going out to go and selling on behalf.
- 5:35And because of that, they have to carry out certain activities.
- 5:38Now, if you want to be able to know who is effective, who is
- 5:42the most effective, who is the least effective, maybe because
- 5:45you want to decide who to train, who to fire, who to promote, or
- 5:50who to compensate, you need to be able to track all the
- 5:53activities that they're doing. So salesperson A, salesperson B,
- 5:57salesperson C, how many meetings, how many phone calls
- 6:02did person A make? How many phone calls did B make?
- 6:05How many phone calls did CMake? Of the phone calls, how many
- 6:10turned into meetings or appointments At the
- 6:14appointments, how many of them were able to deliver
- 6:18presentations? After the presentations, how
- 6:21many concrete proposals were sent out?
- 6:23After proposals, how many deals were closed and how much were
- 6:28the deals closed for? So at the end of the month, at
- 6:34the end of the quarter, you as the business owner or you as the
- 6:38sales team lead, you can take all these figures to be able to
- 6:43decide that you know what Person C actually performed the best.
- 6:52And then from there you can make other kinds of decisions.
- 6:55So that is what sales analytics is all about basically.
- 6:59So you sell a business solution, you sell a software that tracks
- 7:02all these activities and monitors all these activities.
- 7:06What are my sales people doing? Are they effective?
- 7:09So that is what Paul in Abuja sells.
- 7:12So if you have a sales team and you're wondering, I have
- 7:16Chukudi, I have Chideya, I have Cheneya, they are selling on my
- 7:20behalf, but I don't know what's going on.
- 7:24Who is making me money? Where am I losing money?
- 7:28Who is wasting my time? You know, you can't answer all
- 7:31these questions. Then sales analytics is the sort
- 7:34of thing that you need in your company.
- 7:39Oh, by the way, if you're wondering, you know, I don't
- 7:41provide sales analysis. You know, yes, I do sales
- 7:44training. If you have the figures, we can
- 7:46sit down and look at them so that we can decide together that
- 7:51yes, this is where you're losing money.
- 7:53This is the salesperson who is the most productive person and
- 7:56this is where we need to upskill them.
- 7:57This is where we need to train them.
- 7:59And sadly we can also decide together, this is the person you
- 8:02need to sack. It's unfortunate, but it happens
- 8:07last month in November, I've had to do not just November, I think
- 8:12like two or three times this year, we've really had to do
- 8:15that for some of my clients, unfortunately.
- 8:17Now look, we've been through the process and so and so person is
- 8:21not pulling their weight. So that is what sales analytics
- 8:24is. Now customer analysis on the
- 8:26other hand is when you are keeping track of data in your
- 8:30company, you know from the sales team and from the fulfillment
- 8:33people. Fulfillment just means the
- 8:35business function that how I put it, that carries out whatever it
- 8:39is you have promised that you will do to the customer.
- 8:42So let's say you sell plantain chips.
- 8:48Your sales people go out and they get the contract for
- 8:50plantain chips. After the money has been paid,
- 8:54they let you know. And then you now tell your
- 8:57fulfillment staff, the people who fry the chips, the people
- 9:00who package the chips, the people who ship out the chips
- 9:03and ensure that the chips have been delivered in good
- 9:05condition. Now that is called fulfillment.
- 9:10So the salespeople going out, that is 1 function.
- 9:13Fulfillment is the person carrying out the job.
- 9:16So like back when I was a wedding photographer, after I
- 9:19stopped my, I stopped legal practice, if I went out to shoot
- 9:25a wedding and then I came back, I worked on the photos and I
- 9:28handed it over to the people who would create the albums and who
- 9:32would create the frames, that is fulfillment.
- 9:34So fulfillment is another business function.
- 9:36So customer analysis is this, you are talking to the
- 9:42salespeople, you're talking to the fulfillment people.
- 9:44And then from there, you're going to be able to get some
- 9:46statistics. How many customers did we deal
- 9:50with in December? How many customers did we deal
- 9:52with in January? How many customers did we deal
- 9:55with all of 2025? How many customers did we deal
- 9:58with the year before? Of the customers that we've done
- 10:02business with, how much money did we make per head?
- 10:06What are the customer segments that we have?
- 10:09Which are the profitable customer segments?
- 10:12We need to know that kind of information so that in the new
- 10:15year we know who to chase. So if you look at your data and
- 10:19then you say we've been selling to everybody, but whenever we
- 10:23sell to Ebo men who are based in a number of between the ages of
- 10:2665 and 75, those are the guys who give us goodbye.
- 10:30They give us good money, they give us sweet dough.
- 10:32They pay on time, they know, they stress.
- 10:35Then you can start making some strategic decisions in the
- 10:39coming year to say, you know what, let us focus on this
- 10:43segment because they pay us on time, they pay us well, they
- 10:46give us good money. In fact, they will dash US money
- 10:49on top and then they introduce us to their friends and we do
- 10:52good money there. So that is customer analysis.
- 10:56You're looking at all the data and you're trying to figure out
- 10:59who are my customers? How much did they pay us?
- 11:02Who are the best? Who are the bad if I even not
- 11:05need to know who are the bad customers?
- 11:08Because if you know, for instance, that, OK, let me not
- 11:11use any tribe, of course, you know the tribe I have in mind,
- 11:13if you know, you listen to this podcast.
- 11:16So if you look at the data and you see that this particular
- 11:20tribe that we think are demos, that those demos don't pay us on
- 11:25time. They don't pay us well.
- 11:27They brag too much. They never keep their promises.
- 11:30They don't introduce us to anybody who is all right, You
- 11:32now know that, OK, let us ignore the certain category of people.
- 11:37So this is the reason why customer analysis is really,
- 11:39really important. Then of course, financial
- 11:41analysis is all the data, the facts, the figures, the
- 11:44everything so that you know the financial performance of your
- 11:47company. How much money did we raise last
- 11:49year? How much money did we use as
- 11:51working capital? What else, How much money did we
- 11:54borrow? How much money did we spend?
- 11:56How much money came in, How much money went out?
- 11:58What was the cash flow like? You know all those questions.
- 12:01So Paul in Abuja now, the app that he has, the solution that
- 12:05he has, it answers all these problems.
- 12:08Are your sales people performing well?
- 12:09Who's performing well? Who's performing poorly?
- 12:13Customers. What kind of customers do you
- 12:16have? Who are the customers that are
- 12:17very valuable and who are the customers that are useless?
- 12:21And then financial analysis, the money situation over the last
- 12:25month, over the last year, over the last quarter, over the last
- 12:28decade, over the last whatever, how has it been the money
- 12:32flowing? It has it been good the money
- 12:34flowing out, You know what's what's, what's going on there.
- 12:39Now we need to know all these things as business owners, we
- 12:43need to do sales, you need your sales analytics, you need to do
- 12:47customer analysis, you need to do financial analysis because it
- 12:50gives you an overall scope, a snapshot, a view about how your
- 12:56business is doing. And from the examples that I've
- 12:59given, it gives you ideas about strategies for the coming year.
- 13:04So this thing that Paul sells actually is very, very good.
- 13:11However, if you've been listening to the podcast for the
- 13:15last month, you will remember that I said it is wrong for you
- 13:19to think that you have a unique product or a unique service.
- 13:23Because sometimes when we think in that mind frame, it gives
- 13:26ourselves an excuse as to why we've not started.
- 13:29And I don't want Paul or anybody else who's selling these kinds
- 13:31of services in Nigeria to think that these kinds of services are
- 13:34new. So therefore it's kind of
- 13:38understandable why they have not started selling.
- 13:44So I need to disabuse Paul's mind and might have been rude,
- 13:48but I said on the show, and I'm saying it here, there is no such
- 13:53thing as a unique product or a unique service because no matter
- 13:56what it is that you sell, somebody else has already sold
- 13:59that thing and sold it. Well, you think you're the
- 14:03first. You are never the 1st.
- 14:04In fact, I was listening to a podcast recently with my kids on
- 14:08the way to school about the Wright Brothers and how the
- 14:11Wright Brothers invented flying. So yes, they are the ones who
- 14:15successfully built. OK, how long?
- 14:20I think their plane lasted how many minutes?
- 14:22And I can't remember Shah, but there were other people in
- 14:27different parts of the world who were also trying to solve that
- 14:29problem at the same time. You know, those of you who are
- 14:33into what's it called, you New age people, you talk about
- 14:38collective intelligence, collective consciousness and,
- 14:40you know, stuff like that. Bosha, you think you're the
- 14:45first? Yeah, not really.
- 14:47Somebody else has been working on it.
- 14:48Somebody else has already sold this thing.
- 14:50And so I had to tell my people on the radio show.
- 14:52And I'm telling you now, there's no unique product, no unique
- 14:57service. You are not the first.
- 14:59Somebody else has sold this thing and they've sold it well.
- 15:02So Facebook, Facebook was not the first social.
- 15:07What's it called? Was not the first social media.
- 15:11Excuse me? Was not the first.
- 15:13What do you call them again? Social network?
- 15:17Yeah, it was not the first social network.
- 15:19Because before Facebook, I know for sure that there was
- 15:21something called Myspace. My younger brother was on
- 15:23Myspace, and before Myspace there was something else.
- 15:26So Facebook was not the first. Google was not the first search
- 15:30engine. I've heard some people say they
- 15:31were number six. I've heard some people say it's
- 15:32#9 I've heard some people say number whatever.
- 15:35But I know for a fact that Google was not the first because
- 15:38before Google, even in Niger, back in those days, I already
- 15:43knew about Ask Jeeves and I can't remember which other one
- 15:47that we used to use. And of course, there was also
- 15:50Yahoo. Yahoo is a search engine or is a
- 15:53search. Well, are they still a search
- 15:55engine? OK, I'm not sure.
- 15:57So back in the day, when Internet, you know, does the
- 15:59Internet are fresh? Fresh.
- 16:01That's all we used to do. You would use your Yahoo search
- 16:04bar or you will go to Alta Vista, you will go to
- 16:09altavista.com or you go to askjeeves.com.
- 16:12So back in the day, that's how we used to find our way around
- 16:15the Internet before this magic thing, Google Now popped up
- 16:18there. We're going to be Google again.
- 16:20And now Google has taken over the globe.
- 16:23But show what I'm trying to say is there is no unique product or
- 16:27service. So don't deceive yourself that
- 16:28my thing is unique. So therefore this confusion that
- 16:31I'm facing and I'm not making progress, I'm justified.
- 16:34You are not justified. You are never justified.
- 16:37Somebody else has sold this thing.
- 16:39So the challenge now is to figure out how we're going to
- 16:41sell this thing. The people we don't, they move
- 16:45market already. How are they moving this market?
- 16:47That's your job. One research, one find out.
- 16:51And it's nothing that stops you from copying when it comes to
- 16:53sales and marketing, go and find out copy.
- 16:55It's all about execution. So Google was late in the game
- 17:00#9 or #6 or #12 depending on who you ask, by the end of day, the
- 17:05day Nadeem execute pass. That's the reason why Google
- 17:08dominates the globe. When I was in secondary school,
- 17:13it's something boys used to say. They should say it's not about
- 17:16who brought the babe to the club.
- 17:20Yeah, you understand what I'm saying.
- 17:23You can say you the one that brought her, but that doesn't
- 17:25mean it doesn't mean that at the end of the day she will follow
- 17:28you and go. So execution is key and I wanted
- 17:35Paul to know that. So there's no unique product,
- 17:38there's no unique service. Then another reason why I say
- 17:41there's no unique product or unique service is this because
- 17:44the process for selling anything, anything whether is
- 17:49Indomie, what are the examples I've given so far?
- 17:52OK, Indomie, sales analytics, computer accessories, you know,
- 17:57keyboards, monitor. What else?
- 18:01Car construction equipment. Look, doesn't matter what it is
- 18:05that you're selling, whatever it is that you're selling, all
- 18:08right? The process is universal.
- 18:12You hear me? The principles, Sorry, not the
- 18:15process. The principles are universal.
- 18:17The application of those principles are contextual, so
- 18:21you will apply it depending on your context, depending on who
- 18:24you are, depending on the culture, the time, the context,
- 18:28the kind of product, the kind of industry.
- 18:30But these principles are universal and they never change.
- 18:34So don't feel like you find yourself in a situation where
- 18:37you have a unique product, a unique service.
- 18:40I feel as if, man, I'm in a bind.
- 18:43Now. What are these universal
- 18:46principles? Now, remember, we're going to
- 18:48discuss these things at a very, very high level, but when it
- 18:51comes to your product or your service, we start breaking it
- 18:53down into particulars. But these are the basic steps.
- 18:57Number one, you ask yourself who is your ideal customer?
- 19:02Who is a person who needs your product or your service?
- 19:05That is the very first question. The next question is where are
- 19:08these people? Where can you find them online?
- 19:12Where can you find them offline? After you answer that question,
- 19:16the next stage is go and you know, go and situate yourself
- 19:20where those people are. Then after that, the next step
- 19:25is engage in a conversation with these people that those are the
- 19:32universal principles. Of course, with each of these
- 19:35heading, there's sub heading, sub heading, sub heading.
- 19:38So if you sell Indo me, you ask yourself, who is my ideal
- 19:41customer for Indo me? OK, young people with families
- 19:47who have children in primary school or secondary school or
- 19:50whatever, OK, Where are those people in the real world?
- 19:56Where are they online? Then go to where those people
- 20:00are online or go to where they are in the real world.
- 20:04Find a way to engage with those people.
- 20:09It's the same. If it's our computer
- 20:12accessories. So for Paul, the challenge now
- 20:14is who is the ideal customer for sales analytics?
- 20:19Who are the people who need customer analysis?
- 20:22Who are the people who are in dire need of financial analysis?
- 20:28That is the first question Paul has to ask himself.
- 20:31Who are the people that use these things?
- 20:33And that is the reason why I wanted to describe what these
- 20:35things were in the beginning. Because as I was describing, I'm
- 20:39sure that in your mind you already started seeing a picture
- 20:42of who it is that could use these things.
- 20:48Who are these people next? Where are they?
- 20:53Then go to where they are. Then engage them in a
- 20:57conversation. Now this was my own guess and
- 21:04correct me if I'm wrong, but my take somebody who needs sales
- 21:09analytics, customer analytics and financial analysis, first of
- 21:13all are business owners, but not people who are SMEs.
- 21:17Because like for me, I'm a one man gang, I'm a one man show.
- 21:21So yeah, I should be doing sales analytics, but not at that level
- 21:25of getting a software and tracking other people's
- 21:28performance because right now I'm the only person who sells
- 21:30for myself. Sorry about that.
- 21:38So it's definitely not SM ES. You're looking at businesses of
- 21:42a certain cater of a certain size.
- 21:46And because of that, the kind of people that I think Paul should
- 21:51be running after should be CF OS, that's chief financial
- 21:55officers, CE OS chief executive officers.
- 21:59He should also be running after VP, Vice Vice President of
- 22:02Sales, Sales lead. What else?
- 22:07Yes, sales lead, sales head, What else?
- 22:10Maybe people in customer experience, you know, the CXO,
- 22:16the customer experience officer or whatever.
- 22:18I mean, you understand, you're beginning to get a sense of who
- 22:21it is that might use this product or ServiceNow.
- 22:25The next thing is now that we know who these people are, the
- 22:27next thing is where are they? Where can we find them?
- 22:31Now? The first way I broke it down
- 22:32was to use online because not everybody likes my preferred
- 22:37method. My preferred method actually is
- 22:39physical. Let's go and see them like if we
- 22:42know where they are. Let's say they work in banks and
- 22:44financial institutions. But I really think we should try
- 22:47and see how quickly we can enter into the bank branch.
- 22:51That is my own take. But anyway, since online
- 22:56supposedly is easier supposedly, I don't agree, we started
- 23:01looking at some examples with online.
- 23:04So one way to find these people, I could be wrong but my advice
- 23:09to Paul was you can find these people on LinkedIn because
- 23:13LinkedIn is the social media network at least in Nigeria
- 23:17where everybody is in Co official capacity.
- 23:21We are all in official capacity and we are all career or money
- 23:25minded on LinkedIn. So the example I gave was if you
- 23:30catch Jim Ovia on Instagram, Jim Ovia is trying to relax when
- 23:34he's on Instagram, he's trying to watch Brain Jotter, He's
- 23:38trying to watch videos, no doubt.
- 23:39Just make him chill, you know, just make him laugh and make him
- 23:43forget the stress of running such a big conglomerate in
- 23:48Niger. So if you catch Jim Ovia on
- 23:52Instagram and you're trying to have business conversations with
- 23:55him, it's not the right place. If you catch him on Instagram or
- 24:00on Tiktok, it's not the right place.
- 24:02But however, on LinkedIn, everybody's in official
- 24:05capacity. So Jim Ovia is there on LinkedIn
- 24:09as the MDCEO, you know, blah, blah, blah, of Zenith, Zenith
- 24:13Group of companies, you know, and all that.
- 24:17So LinkedIn is the place where you want to catch all these
- 24:19people. Chief financial officer, chief
- 24:23executive officer, head VP, sales head, customer experience,
- 24:29blah, blah, blah, all of them. That is the place.
- 24:34So First off, if you're in Paul's situation, you have to be
- 24:38on LinkedIn. Now, one of the benefits of
- 24:41being on LinkedIn and one of the reasons why I strongly recommend
- 24:44LinkedIn for people who are in Paul's situation is because
- 24:48LinkedIn allows you to search in a very targeted way that you can
- 24:51do on social networks, on other social networks.
- 24:54If you're on Instagram now, and I say run through Instagram and
- 24:58try and find MD's as managing directors of banks in Abuja and
- 25:05Lagos who have over 50 employees, you can't find those
- 25:08people on on Instagram. You can't find them in the
- 25:15general search. But if you go to LinkedIn, Oh
- 25:18yes, with the general search, you can because it allows you to
- 25:22filter results. So in fact, if you have the paid
- 25:25options, because there's LinkedIn Navigator, there's
- 25:28LinkedIn Premium and there's LinkedIn sales something.
- 25:33So the paid levels to LinkedIn, it allows you to filter down.
- 25:36So if you know how to use LinkedIn, well, I can tell you
- 25:39go and find me the names of MD's managing directors of bank
- 25:46branches in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano where they
- 25:51have between 50 and 100 employees.
- 25:55Excuse me. So you can do that and generate
- 25:59a list. Now whether you use that list
- 26:02and start going to the offices 1 by 1 to start knocking on their
- 26:05door or whether you use that list to try and I don't know,
- 26:09start forming activity online is up to you.
- 26:12But at least on LinkedIn, you can generate that list if you
- 26:19have something that you think you can people in the podcasting
- 26:23community can use. You can also go to LinkedIn and
- 26:27run a search and find a list of podcasters based in Abuja, Enugu
- 26:32and Plateau who have been podcasting for OK.
- 26:39I don't know if you can search according to year, but you can
- 26:41search title, you can search geography, you can search
- 26:45employee, you can search industry.
- 26:48So if I say go on Find Me podcast that's now based in
- 26:51Abuja and Lagos, you can do that on LinkedIn, you can't do that
- 26:58on TikTok. You can't search with that level
- 27:01of granularity on what's the other one now, Instagram, you
- 27:07can't. So that's why I say now when it
- 27:12comes to money, the money you define like you're chasing
- 27:15people in a business to business context, you need to have a
- 27:21profile on LinkedIn even if you don't know how to use it.
- 27:24Go out and open the profile first.
- 27:26Then we can now start doing research about how to use
- 27:29LinkedIn, WhatsApp, go open your profile.
- 27:32Now. I know lots of Nigerians don't
- 27:33like LinkedIn because they say LinkedIn is boring, but
- 27:37unfortunately, it's not money we're looking for.
- 27:40Go and stay there. First, go open the profile and
- 27:43let's figure out how to make this money.
- 27:45Then when you're done, just like Jim Ovia, you can now go back to
- 27:49Instagram to be watching all those nice training video,
- 27:53Instagram reel, TikTok reel, YouTube Shorts, but at least
- 28:01make sure you have a presence on LinkedIn.
- 28:05Then I also mentioned that someone who is in Paul's
- 28:07position, you should be involved in content marketing because
- 28:11remember, now that we know who they are and now that we've gone
- 28:14to where they are, we need to find a way to engage them in
- 28:18conversation. One way is to put out layers, to
- 28:21put out attractive things so that they will now be engaging
- 28:25with us. And that's where content
- 28:29marketing comes into the mix. Now when we say content for
- 28:33those of you who are new to the podcast, we just mean anything
- 28:35that you put on the Internet. If you put a picture, it's
- 28:38content. If you put a video, it's
- 28:40content. If you put an infographic, it's
- 28:42content. If you put a chart, it is
- 28:44content. If you put a what else have I
- 28:47said everything and you get the point.
- 28:50Whatever it is you put on the Internet is content.
- 28:52Even if you just put text, even if you just type good morning.
- 28:57If I'm how is everybody question mark even that too is content
- 29:03now content marketing. So excuse me now.
- 29:06Content marketing just means you're putting out content that
- 29:10is meant to educate a certain customer base.
- 29:16And as people get educated, as they see you, as they interact
- 29:19with you, you start building a reputation as the expert in that
- 29:24field so that when people are ready, they think of you and
- 29:27only you. So if you are in that space,
- 29:30sales analytics, customer analysis, financial analysis,
- 29:33and you've been putting out good content, the goal is at the end
- 29:36of a year, 2 years, three years, whenever somebody thinks, oh,
- 29:41these my sales people, are they performing well?
- 29:44How do I know? You want them to think Paulo?
- 29:49Paulo is my guy. And then they give you a call
- 29:51because they've been seeing you steady on social media talking
- 29:55about these also these these are sorts of things.
- 29:58Do you have a sales team? How do you know if your sales
- 30:00team is performing? How do you measure your sales
- 30:03people? How do you know who is on track?
- 30:05How do you motivate your sales people?
- 30:08How do you improve sales performance?
- 30:10You know, the people have been seeing in seeing you seeing you.
- 30:12And after a while, they just know that Apollo, anytime it is
- 30:15sales, anytime is customer, you know, Shah Polo, they will call
- 30:21you first. If you can help them, good.
- 30:22If you can't help them, yeah, well, at least they thought of
- 30:25you first. So we need to build a
- 30:26reputation. Now that is content marketing.
- 30:29Now from doing content marketing, some people put out
- 30:32lead magnets. A lead magnet is just a piece of
- 30:34content that you put out. But before people consume that
- 30:37thing, the gas to give you some information, they have to let
- 30:40you. You give them a phone number,
- 30:43give them e-mail address, you know, give them whatever,
- 30:45whatever data it is that you want to capture.
- 30:47So that's a lead magnet, you know, in exchange.
- 30:53So excuse me, I'm recovering from a cold.
- 30:56Now, the idea I would lead magnets is this.
- 30:58If you put out a piece of content, let's say you put out a
- 31:00video, here are the top 50 reasons why your sales teams are
- 31:04not performing in 2025. And then you talk small in the
- 31:07video, you know, maybe like 5-7 minutes.
- 31:10And then at the end of the video, you say, are you a bank
- 31:13CEO? Are you an MD?
- 31:15You're having a problem. You don't know how to improve
- 31:17the performance of your sales teams.
- 31:19In the comments section of this my video in this post, you'll
- 31:24see a link there. Click on that link.
- 31:27When you click on that link, you will drop your e-mail address.
- 31:32I will now send you a PDF brochure or as we say the amount
- 31:37part of the world. A brochure will now send you a
- 31:40PDF brochure so that you can know how to analyze your sales
- 31:46team, how to train your sales team, how to motivate your sales
- 31:48team, you know, blah, blah, blah.
- 31:50That is the lead magnet. Now the idea is that when you
- 31:53collect those e-mail addresses or the phone numbers or the
- 31:56office address or whatever information you thought to
- 31:58capture, you will now engage in a productive conversation with
- 32:02these people. If you got their phone number,
- 32:04you could call them and start having high value conversations.
- 32:10And I gave an example of things that Paulo should be talking
- 32:12about when he calls his people. You should be talking to them
- 32:16about ROI and profitability. How much have they invested in
- 32:19sales? How much have they invested in
- 32:21customer service, in financial reporting?
- 32:24How much have they invested and what value are they getting out
- 32:27of it? He should also ask them about
- 32:29compliance. Are they having any issues when
- 32:32it comes to, you know, dealing with Inland Revenue, Inland
- 32:38Revenue Service? Have they been rendering their
- 32:40financial reports on time? Is it a problem creating the end
- 32:44of year annual? What's it called, you know,
- 32:47profit and loss statement and not what not?
- 32:49Polo should be asking them all these questions.
- 32:52How much are they being? What's the cost of capital, the
- 32:55money that they borrowed, you know, how much are they spending
- 32:57servicing those debts, working capital?
- 32:59How much money are they using every single month to be paying
- 33:03staff salaries or, you know, to be maintaining equipment, you
- 33:07know, stuff like that, like high, high level conversations.
- 33:10Because from that high level convo, you will now be able to
- 33:12figure out, do these people actually have a problem that my
- 33:15software can serve, can solve? And from there, you will now be
- 33:19able to make a compelling proposal to say, look, OK, MD,
- 33:25I've heard what you've said. And based on this and this and
- 33:28this and this and that, in fact, this is the kind of thing that
- 33:30my software can do very, very well.
- 33:32So boss, if you don't mind, I want to be in Abuja around that
- 33:36kind. December 13th.
- 33:38Can I just come by the office? If you're able to hook up a
- 33:40meeting with your CFO, excuse me, We can run a demo.
- 33:45We can run a yeah, we can run a demo to show how we can use this
- 33:50software to be able to help you achieve XYZ goals.
- 33:56So that's how it works. But anyway, you see how we can
- 34:01form some activity online that can lead to some engagement
- 34:04offline in the real world. So from there, let's just flow
- 34:08into offline. Whenever we say online, we mean
- 34:13computer online we mean e-mail online we mean Instagram, we
- 34:18mean WhatsApp, we mean what else sha Internet computer that's
- 34:23online. Then offline is real world face
- 34:26to face. For me, I classify phone call as
- 34:32real world. That's just me, Shaq.
- 34:34But some people, you know who disagree.
- 34:36But there's no point to argue over our academics here.
- 34:41The name is not important. Whether you're doing the thing,
- 34:43that's the important thing. So offline now, we think that
- 34:49the people who need Paul's products or service are CF OS,
- 34:53chief financial officers, vice president of sales, head of
- 34:56sales department, team lead sales, head of customer service,
- 35:01head of customer experience, chief executive officer, all
- 35:04these people good. Where do we find these people?
- 35:09One thing I recommended physically where we can find
- 35:11them is professional associations.
- 35:13So I told, I mentioned to Paulo that he should be hanging out
- 35:21around some kind professional circles, one that I came up
- 35:24with. I could be wrong, Go and if I'm
- 35:27wrong, you guys, you know, hit me up, send me a message and let
- 35:29me know because remember sales is also part trial and error.
- 35:34Come up with a good idea and try it, see how the thing works.
- 35:36If it works, well, good, do it again.
- 35:38If it didn't work, you throw it in the dustbin and you know that
- 35:41you never try that idea again. But for professional working, I
- 35:46racked my brain, I came up with a few.
- 35:48One is I can, I can is a Institute of Chartered
- 35:51Accountants of Nigeria. Remember, I said chief financial
- 35:54officer, Chief financial officer, people who are doing
- 36:00financial analysis does not make sense that we should try.
- 36:03I can because I can't always do their dinner.
- 36:06The host associations, the host programs that do things like
- 36:09that. Let's try.
- 36:10I can now, let's see. It might work, it might not
- 36:13work, but you never know. Sitting in your house or your
- 36:15office, you will know. Just try.
- 36:17Let's attend one or two I can chapter events, webinar.
- 36:23You know, I don't know. You see that they are doing I
- 36:26can dinner. You know somebody who is an
- 36:28accountant or boy, they go. How many IV do you have?
- 36:31Let me be your plus one. You never know, just go.
- 36:34Then there's also a CCAI think that's the association of
- 36:38chattered something something accountants.
- 36:40I know there's this argument in Nigeria where they say I can is
- 36:43the main I can is number 1 and they say ACCA is number 2.
- 36:47You know, I didn't say that to excuse me.
- 36:49If you're an ACCA holder, I'm not insulting you.
- 36:51I'm just saying the gist that I heard me what I studied was law.
- 36:55So I know nothing about these associations.
- 36:57All I know is I always hear some kind beef between the two
- 37:00associations. But anyway, our owners were
- 37:03looking for money. We're not concerned about the
- 37:05beef. So I can, we will go ACCA, we
- 37:08will go anywhere where you hear financial forum, all these
- 37:13events without the organizing. Hilton Hotel Association also
- 37:16so, so and so financial forum open to the public, something
- 37:19shall go. That's where you see those
- 37:21people, CEO, chief executive officer, CFO, chief financial
- 37:25officer, that's where you see them go.
- 37:29Then there are also other professional associations like
- 37:33sorry, let me check my list. OK, NIM Institute of Management,
- 37:37yes, Nigeria Institute of Management go there.
- 37:40That's why you see CEOCFO go there.
- 37:44Then there's also CNIMCNCNCN, chartered CCNIM, chartered
- 37:53Nigerian Institute of Management, go there, you will
- 37:56see those people then also mentioned Abuja Chamber of
- 37:58Commerce. I know that on the radio show,
- 38:01the first time I mentioned Abuja Chamber of Commerce, somebody
- 38:03tackled me that I was being too high level.
- 38:07Well, in this case, Chamber of Commerce supplies, yes, there's
- 38:11some expense involved, but you never know.
- 38:14You never know. We try.
- 38:20The reason why we're hanging out in all these places is because
- 38:22we're hoping to meet CEO, we're hoping to meet CFO, we're hoping
- 38:28to meet head of sales, we're hoping to meet customer service
- 38:33something, something, you know, on and on and on.
- 38:41But before I got off the air, I wanted to warn about two things
- 38:48because lots of us in Nigeria were making two mistakes. 2
- 38:51cardinal sins. Number one, we're supposed to do
- 38:56multi touch. Multi touch just means for those
- 39:01of you who remember Aaliyah, if at first you don't succeed, dust
- 39:08yourself off and try again. So is Aaliyah, is what Aaliyah
- 39:14said. If you try one time you think
- 39:15didn't work, dust yourself off and try again.
- 39:18Too many of us in Niger, we only do want something once.
- 39:21You try one time, you think it doesn't work and then you go and
- 39:24relax. So you like a tinuca, you try
- 39:26toasting her, she's shown you, You now go and relax.
- 39:28Like why? Tunica might be your wife
- 39:32destined for you, she might be the mother of your children.
- 39:34So she's shown you the first time, dust yourself off and try
- 39:37again. It's the same thing in business,
- 39:41you tried to see gym movie and one way the thing didn't work.
- 39:43You now just give up. If you try online the thing
- 39:47didn't work, you know try physical, try again multi touch.
- 39:53This is sales several touches. I try, I try and try.
- 40:00Maybe after I tried like 710 times and it's not working, I'll
- 40:03say, you know what, maybe it's not meant to be, let me resign.
- 40:06Maybe it's not my destiny. Borsha.
- 40:08Don't say you try only once. Too many people try something
- 40:11once and then they they give up. We tried several times, so it's
- 40:17the same. Don't say you did single touch
- 40:21anything. Sales and marketing we are doing
- 40:23multi touch several times, one time, one time, one time, one
- 40:26time again again again as the name of the game, then another
- 40:32cardinal scene. Multimodal.
- 40:33Multimodal just means you're trying different modes of doing
- 40:37something. So in Nigeria for some reason,
- 40:41some people decide that they will only do real life or me,
- 40:45I'm an I'm an office meeting kind of guy and then they will
- 40:48never try online. Try both be doing the physical
- 40:53office meeting be also be doing the online.
- 40:56Although the thing that actually happens that most people will be
- 40:58sleeping online Monday to Friday and I wonder why their business
- 41:02is not growing. Yes, do your online activities,
- 41:06Instagram, LinkedIn, everything, but then also be going for
- 41:10meeting, physical meeting, go and be seeing people multimodal
- 41:16different modes. Try online, try offline.
- 41:22Some of you will only be sending e-mail, e-mail, e-mail, e-mail,
- 41:25e-mail. Like why multimodal, different
- 41:28mode, send e-mail today, didn't answer, send text message,
- 41:31didn't answer. Try phone call, didn't answer,
- 41:33go to the office, multimodal, different modes.
- 41:40So I wanted them to understand on the radio station that they
- 41:42should not fall into this cardinal scenes.
- 41:44And I'm saying it over here, let us stop falling into this
- 41:46cardinal scenes, please. Multi touches.
- 41:49If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again.
- 41:53For those of us who are married, how do you think we ended up
- 41:55being married? I remember when I was chasing my
- 41:58wife in Aberdeen, we met in Aberdeen, Scotland.
- 42:03Everything was well, everything was fine.
- 42:05Then one day we entered into our quarrel and then in public, my
- 42:08wife looked at me. She opened her mouth and she
- 42:09shouted at me. If you don't like you can go.
- 42:11She begin the worker. That's how people are laughing
- 42:13at me in public. I say Chai, it's my life.
- 42:16I say me tavish, my public saleswoman is washing me down.
- 42:22I say, hey, see my life, People are laughing at me.
- 42:25She shouted, If you don't like, you can go.
- 42:27And then she walked away. That evening I thought about my
- 42:31life. I say me woman shouted on me.
- 42:38I say, you know what, it's my fault.
- 42:42After all, I have options. Then I started thinking about it
- 42:47like one man is the correct Bible.
- 42:50This thing is actually pure. And then after a while, I
- 42:53started thinking about it when she shouted if you don't like
- 42:57it, you can go. Did she really mean let us
- 42:59scatter this thing? Abby?
- 43:02She just said it in anger. I said OK, you know what?
- 43:04This chapter is not finished. Remember, if at first you don't
- 43:07succeed, dust yourself off and try again.
- 43:12So that's how I tried calling her.
- 43:13I picked up my phone, she no answer, no problem.
- 43:17I gave it a few minutes, try it again PO PO.
- 43:20She didn't answer, no problem. I gave it a few minutes, try it
- 43:24again PO PO. Our older sister Theresa
- 43:27answered. It was like, oh, Tavi, oh, how
- 43:31are you? And then I now heard my wife
- 43:33shouting in the background said tell him I'm sleeping.
- 43:37I said, oh, she's actually a sleeper.
- 43:39Say hey, see my life, see what they're doing to me.
- 43:41So what they're doing to the sort of man tell him that he's
- 43:45sleeping, I'm sleeping. We just chatted.
- 43:49Casual. No, OK, no problem.
- 43:52After work, I'll come by the house.
- 43:55And then I went to the house after work, knocked on the door.
- 43:58They left me inside. I saw my wife, then my
- 44:02girlfriend, now she's my wife. I was watching TV, she said, a
- 44:05strong face, very angry now. I sat down.
- 44:11Then her older sister Teresa, you know, after small juice
- 44:14there is a stylishly just disappeared then.
- 44:19And I asked my wife, my girlfriend then and I asked her
- 44:22out front. OK, you know what?
- 44:24It's been a rough 2-3 days. Yeah, that quite was a bit
- 44:27rough. But when you said this thing,
- 44:32when you said this thing, like if you don't like it, you can
- 44:34go. What did you mean?
- 44:36Did you mean we should scatter this thing now?
- 44:40Because if it's like that, no problem and respect your wishes.
- 44:43Our stand up, we'll go. You know, we don't scatter, we
- 44:45don't finish. And then my wife, you know her
- 44:50face, my girlfriend, then her face often small says, I know,
- 44:53but I didn't mean let's scatter the whole thing.
- 44:56Then we started talking and then glory be to God, you know, we're
- 45:01married now. We have a few children.
- 45:04That's because if I first I didn't succeed, I dust myself
- 45:08off and I try again. So when I'm in business or
- 45:13whether I'm in personal relationships, if at first you
- 45:17don't succeed, dust yourself over and try again.
- 45:21You never know. So don't fall into this card now
- 45:23saying whether in your personal life or in business, multi touch
- 45:31and then also multi modal. You see, with my wife, you see
- 45:34how I tried it? Phone call, post you, no answer,
- 45:37no problem. Text message she didn't respond
- 45:41and I went to the house multimodal after all those
- 45:46different modes. If what I had was young man, I
- 45:48am tired it's time to go. But I've now dusted myself off
- 45:51and I would have gone was a multi touch multimodal.
- 45:56So where was I? How did I end up in my private
- 45:59life now anyway? So if I'm a poor situation,
- 46:04don't say you have a unique product, you have a unique
- 46:07service. Somebody else has sold this
- 46:09thing before. Let's try and figure out how to
- 46:11sell it. Then.
- 46:13The universal principles are who is the person who needs this
- 46:16thing the most? Who is the ADO customer?
- 46:19Where is this person? I will go to where they are and
- 46:23I will engage them in the conversation.
- 46:27That is a high level way of looking at it.
- 46:31So the particular application will depend on your industry,
- 46:35your product, your service, your niche, your culture, your age,
- 46:41your whatever. But with this general framework
- 46:46in mind, know that there is always a way.
- 46:50It might be hard, but there is always a way.
- 46:56So that's it. And that's all for today.
- 46:58If you'd love to get in touch with me, you can call, send me a
- 47:02text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
- 47:10So if you have questions, you have comments, you have queries,
- 47:13you want to collaborate or you want me to clarify something I
- 47:16said today, perhaps you're facing similar problems.
- 47:19Reach out to me. I'd love to have a chat with
- 47:22you. So that's it for today and
- 47:24that's all. I will catch you all some other
- 47:26time.