Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Master Founder-Led Sales and Build a Lasting Legacy

Transcript

How to Master Founder-Led Sales and Build a Lasting Legacy · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Today on the podcast, we're going to talk about your role as
• 0:04
  a business founder, as a company founder.
• 0:08
  And your role simply is to sell the idea, sell the vision, or
• 0:12
  sell the outcome. Now, I'm going to explain what
• 0:15
  those things mean in a couple of minutes.
• 0:18
  Now if you like this kind of material, then subscribe to the
• 0:21
  podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your
• 0:24
  choice. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm
• 0:27
  the host. And if you'd like to connect
• 0:29
  with me, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp
• 0:32
  message on 08064662140. So again, your role as a
• 0:41
  founder. Now, the reason why we're
• 0:42
  looking at this is because I came across my old notes where I
• 0:47
  was running commentary on the conversations with a tech
• 0:51
  founder. That's an old series in the
• 0:53
  podcast and that was where I was running commentary on a lecture
• 0:57
  that was given by a noted, I'll be notable member of the
• 1:03
  Nigerian tech space, Somebody who is a tech founder and who
• 1:06
  had exited his company. And he was giving a talk at a
• 1:14
  program in Lagos where there were other soon to be founders
• 1:20
  and people who want to enter into the entrepreneurial space.
• 1:24
  And he was doing the thing which good Big Brothers do, which is
• 1:28
  you step on stage and you tell the younger ones like this is
• 1:31
  what it's going to be, this is how it's going to be like.
• 1:34
  When I was doing it, this is how things were.
• 1:36
  This is what you should be prepared for.
• 1:39
  And he was talking to them about things to expect when it comes
• 1:41
  to sales and marketing. Now, I started off this
• 1:46
  conversation with the Tech Bro series because I was running
• 1:48
  commentary from a sales and business development
• 1:51
  perspective, trying to point out things that he got right, talk
• 1:55
  about things that he could have said better, shed some light on
• 1:59
  some things that he didn't make too clear, and, you know, call
• 2:03
  out a couple of things that he said wrong.
• 2:07
  Now, so far, since I started running the commentary, we can
• 2:09
  say that this tech founder, I refuse to give his name or the
• 2:13
  event he was speaking at. Let's say so far he's been doing
• 2:16
  a pretty good job. So today, what is your role as a
• 2:20
  founder? Now?
• 2:22
  This guy stood on stage and told people that if you're going to
• 2:25
  be a founder, then your job is to sell.
• 2:27
  The idea is to sell the vision and it's to sell the outcome.
• 2:30
  And yes, this is one thing that he said, correct?
• 2:33
  But of course, in typical fashion, which is one of these
• 2:35
  reasons why I say, yes, listen to all these wonderful founders.
• 2:38
  But then you should also pay attention to those of us who
• 2:41
  have speciality when it comes to things from a sales and business
• 2:44
  development perspective or a marketing perspective or
• 2:47
  whatever. Because we don't just say things
• 2:50
  and then run off. We also try to explain the why
• 2:56
  or the mechanics, you know about how these things actually work.
• 3:00
  So this is the reason why if you are a founder in Niger, your job
• 3:06
  is to sell. The idea is to sell division and
• 3:08
  to sell the outcome. And the reason why is because
• 3:12
  First off, if you're starting a business, you're going to be
• 3:16
  producing a product. We're going to be offering a
• 3:18
  service and the vision and the outcome are important.
• 3:22
  The vision is important because, well, first of all, OK, there
• 3:26
  are lots of fancy ways of saying what the vision is.
• 3:29
  But for the purpose of this podcast, let's just say the
• 3:31
  vision is where the company is headed.
• 3:34
  Oh, by the way, for those of you who noticed that, you know, I'm
• 3:36
  not really talking to my yourself, that's because I'm
• 3:39
  currently making this recording at home.
• 3:41
  I'm in the villa and everybody has gone to bed.
• 3:43
  And I don't want people to think like this guy is a madman.
• 3:47
  Why is he talking to himself in the dark?
• 3:49
  So you know, everybody has gone to bed and I said I'm just make
• 3:53
  this recording sharp, sharp. So that's why I'm not my usual
• 3:56
  boy yourself. I beg you guys should just
• 3:59
  manage. You know, eventually the
• 4:01
  Christmas holidays are going to be over, I'll be back in Abuja
• 4:04
  and I can't make my normal recordings without worrying
• 4:09
  about waking up the whole house. OK, so the vision just means, so
• 4:15
  excuse me, it just means where is the company headed?
• 4:18
  Where is the company headed? Now?
• 4:21
  You have to be able to give a compelling vision as the founder
• 4:24
  because it gives the enthusiasm that will help people buy in for
• 4:28
  the long haul. If you're just doing another
• 4:31
  company, like another, actually, when a company here today, gone
• 4:34
  tomorrow, people are not going to stay because of that.
• 4:38
  People want to hang around for something that is important, or
• 4:41
  there's some people who are completely mercenary or just
• 4:44
  hang around for a good paycheck, give them five paycheck to stay
• 4:48
  another paycheck, don't move. But for most people, you have to
• 4:52
  be able to present a compelling idea, a compelling vision, a
• 4:57
  compelling picture about where you are headed.
• 5:00
  That's the reason why all these guys, you know, Zuckerberg, who
• 5:04
  else? Bezos and the rest of them.
• 5:05
  That's why they say you know all the fancy things.
• 5:07
  You know that. They say you know one cake
• 5:10
  delivery, you know a world Without Borders.
• 5:13
  What else, Zuckerberg, that time when they were talking about
• 5:17
  giving free Internet access in Africa, I think what is it
• 5:20
  called, you know, the world connected to the Internet, you
• 5:23
  know, blah, blah, blah, and all these sorts of things.
• 5:27
  So that is the reason why they have to be able to come up with
• 5:32
  these one liners or you know, come up with these words, these
• 5:38
  phrases that paint a picture about where the company is
• 5:42
  headed. So for your own company, for
• 5:45
  your own fintech app or whatever the business idea is, you should
• 5:54
  be able to say very clearly, this is who we are, this is
• 5:58
  where we are heading because it's a compelling vision that we
• 6:02
  give people enthusiasm to chill and stay with you for the long
• 6:06
  haul. Then outcomes, OK, Now how come?
• 6:11
  These are really, really important.
• 6:13
  Outcome just means what is the result that your product or
• 6:16
  service does for your customer? Now, the reason why as the
• 6:19
  founder, you should be able to talk about the outcomes very
• 6:22
  clearly, what does this product, what does this service do for
• 6:26
  your customer is because outcomes make it easier to sell.
• 6:32
  I repeat, outcomes make it easier to sell.
• 6:37
  If you don't want your sales boys, your sales girls to be
• 6:39
  fumbling on the floor trying to impress someone, trying to sell
• 6:43
  something, try to communicate something and adjust the fumble
• 6:46
  up and down. You need to be talking a lot in
• 6:49
  terms of outcomes and outcome just means what is the result?
• 6:53
  What is it that your product or service does for a customer.
• 6:57
  Now the reason why this is important is because a lot of
• 6:59
  you are going to be talking about features when it comes to
• 7:02
  selling. You see my app is this this
• 7:05
  this, my website is that we run on web 3 where crypto something
• 7:10
  exchange where HTTP something something something compliant
• 7:14
  and all that fancy talk. Now features are impressive and
• 7:17
  features make you sound smart. It's just that features are hard
• 7:21
  to remember. If you talk about outcomes on
• 7:23
  the other hand, then those are a lot more easy to remember and
• 7:27
  makes it easy to sell. The reason why I can speak about
• 7:31
  this first hand, remember I said I'm in the villa right now
• 7:34
  because it's a Christmas horse. So, you know, we say we should
• 7:37
  just come and heal Mumsy and see all the cousins and their uncles
• 7:41
  and their aunties. And the moment I landed Mumsy
• 7:46
  was like, hey Tara, Shima, remember that washing machine
• 7:49
  that we bought and I was like, yeah, the last time you were in
• 7:51
  Abuja? She said yeah, that I set it up
• 7:53
  and then we haven't used it. I said Mommy, seriously.
• 7:55
  She said no, I was waiting for you to come.
• 7:58
  I said OK, no problem. So where's the washing machine?
• 8:01
  The thing has been set up. And so today we finally tested
• 8:05
  it. And as we used it now, because
• 8:09
  before we used it, there were a couple of questions that I
• 8:11
  wanted to ask the guy who came to repair the generator because
• 8:14
  light in Benoit State is terrible.
• 8:18
  Well, at least in some the part of marketing that we're staying
• 8:21
  is terrible, really terrible. So when the engineer came to
• 8:26
  look at the solar panels is one thing I asked him, this washing
• 8:30
  machine, can this thing run on the inverter?
• 8:33
  And the guy say yes, can you run on solar?
• 8:35
  The guy say yes. The guy who came to fix the
• 8:39
  generator is also something I asked him, OK, this solar, this
• 8:45
  washing machine, can it run on the generator?
• 8:48
  The guy looked at the guy said yes.
• 8:51
  And after having all those conversations and after those
• 8:55
  people left, that's the solar technician and then the
• 8:58
  generator and we tested the washing machine and it worked
• 9:01
  perfectly. I now thought back and I
• 9:04
  remembered how at the time when my mom and I went to go and buy
• 9:07
  this thing in Abuja, how the sales gear was just fumbling,
• 9:13
  seriously fumbling. When she was trying to sell us
• 9:15
  this thing. She was talking about its
• 9:17
  capacity that it's 7 kilograms. She was talking about its
• 9:22
  rotation, you know, number was spinning, how quickly the thing
• 9:25
  spins, how quickly do you think would dry something.
• 9:28
  She spoke about the antibacterial cleaning, you
• 9:32
  know, steam wash, antibacterial cleaning, you know, will kill
• 9:35
  microbes, spoke about the different modes of washing and
• 9:39
  you know, stuff like that. And you see all of that that is
• 9:42
  feature based selling, saying why something is the latest, the
• 9:47
  greatest, the brightest, the fastest, the newest, the dopest,
• 9:51
  the whatever features based selling.
• 9:56
  Now you can see that if you are a sales girl or a sales boy on
• 9:59
  the sales room floor and you're going to be selling washing
• 10:02
  machines for five different companies, each company has like
• 10:06
  12 different models. 5 * 12 is what that's that's like 60 happy
• 10:12
  60. How in the world are you
• 10:14
  supposed to remember groups of 60 features?
• 10:21
  How? Except if you're one of those
• 10:25
  smart kids in primary school who could memorize everything, how
• 10:29
  are you going to remember 60 sets of features?
• 10:32
  You can't. And that's the reason why that
• 10:34
  Lady on the sales floor, when we were there, she did fumble
• 10:37
  anyhow. And you too, you will fumble if
• 10:40
  you decide to sell based on features.
• 10:44
  But if you think in terms of outcomes, then it becomes
• 10:47
  easier. All this lady had to say is the
• 10:51
  difference between this washing machine and the other ones is
• 10:54
  this washing machine works on inverter or solar?
• 10:59
  Do you have inverter? Do you have solar?
• 11:01
  And then you should have leaned in and gone all in.
• 11:05
  This washing machine works on solar.
• 11:07
  This washing machine works on generator.
• 11:09
  Even if you're using a better pass, my neighbor.
• 11:12
  That's it. Now, when you speak in those
• 11:14
  terms, it is very easy to sell washing machines.
• 11:18
  Someone comes in, you ask a bunch of questions about them,
• 11:22
  about their lifestyle, about their power requirements.
• 11:24
  And then for people who are, you know, stuck on Napa and who can
• 11:29
  be bothered, maybe you can show them towards different models
• 11:33
  and start highlighting different things, like antibacterial, by
• 11:37
  the way, she's talking about antibacterial keying and stuff
• 11:41
  like that. My guess is that kind of thing
• 11:44
  probably is not important for people who are, you know, kind
• 11:48
  of advanced in age, you know, 'cause mumsy's of a certain age,
• 11:51
  I also am of a certain age. So except if you are selling the
• 11:56
  washing machine to people who have young families, young kids,
• 11:59
  I really don't think the average Nigerian is concerned about
• 12:02
  microbial counts and something something fibers and blah, blah,
• 12:06
  blah. So the reason why for a product
• 12:12
  or service, you should be talking to your people about
• 12:15
  outcomes, about results, about what it does for the customer is
• 12:18
  because it's easy to remember. So if you pack your showroom
• 12:23
  floor and you tell your sales boys or your sales girls who are
• 12:26
  selling washing machines that these ones over here, excuse me,
• 12:31
  are good because you can use them on inverter.
• 12:36
  Even if the person has 2.5 KVA, that is fantastic because how
• 12:42
  many Nigerians have inverter that is five kva and above and
• 12:47
  everybody has money like that. So for those of us who have
• 12:49
  systems, some of us quietly we arrange ourselves a 1.5 kva, 2.5
• 12:55
  kva, maybe 3 points something, you know 3.2 kva.
• 13:01
  You know, before you get to the big boys, people who have 10 KVA
• 13:04
  3040 fifty, you know, people who are basically powering the whole
• 13:11
  power local government. So talk to your people in terms
• 13:17
  of outcomes, what it does for the customer, the results that
• 13:20
  it gives the customer and it makes it easier for them to sell
• 13:25
  because the result is easier. It's easier to say mommy buy
• 13:30
  this washing machine because you said you have a 2.5 KVA.
• 13:35
  This one will definitely work on your inverter, especially if you
• 13:38
  wash in the afternoon. It will not destroy your
• 13:40
  batteries. Very, very easy sell.
• 13:43
  Instead of talking about 7 kilograms, it's a 7 kilogram
• 13:47
  washer. And so to the average person,
• 13:50
  what does a 7 kilogram washer mean?
• 13:52
  What does it mean? Do we think in those terms?
• 13:56
  Or you say it does 120,000 rotations per minute or you
• 14:00
  know, however it is that they say nothing to the average
• 14:03
  person, what does that mean? What does it mean?
• 14:07
  Do we think in those terms? But if you say you will use this
• 14:10
  thing to wash your clothes, you will not kill your battery, Aha.
• 14:13
  People understand you can use this thing even if you have a
• 14:17
  better pass my neighbor generator.
• 14:19
  Everybody can understand because even if people don't know the
• 14:22
  KVA of their generator, they know that I definitely don't
• 14:25
  have a better pass my neighbor. So therefore, this washing
• 14:28
  machine, it'll work. Now, why is all this important?
• 14:34
  Talking about the vision where the company is headed, getting
• 14:37
  people bought in for the long haul, or talking in terms of
• 14:42
  outcomes, results that your product or service has for the
• 14:47
  customer, making it easier for them to sell.
• 14:49
  Why is all this important? It's important because in this
• 14:52
  game of business, for those of us who are trying to build real
• 14:54
  businesses, you're actually trying to build system.
• 14:57
  So you're trying to build something with systems and with
• 15:00
  processes that exist beyond you, that go beyond you.
• 15:06
  So remember that I'm not saying everybody has to be a danglersy
• 15:11
  if you are to be a sole trader, that's fine.
• 15:14
  So for those of us who are one man gang, one woman, Ryan squad,
• 15:18
  it's OK. But most people who are engaged
• 15:21
  in building businesses are trying to build something that
• 15:24
  would exist beyond them. Because I was chilling on
• 15:27
  LinkedIn today and I saw a post from Cosmos.
• 15:31
  Cosmos, I think it's Maduka, Cosmas Maduka.
• 15:35
  I think it's the chairman of her Coscharis Coschar.
• 15:38
  Big boy inspiration to some. I mean, for those of us growing
• 15:41
  up in in Niger in the 80s, you know, people like this were
• 15:46
  inspiration because the gist I had at the time was the guy grew
• 15:50
  up selling spare parts and then eventually, you know, he'll
• 15:54
  become a big dealer when it comes to cars, especially, how
• 16:01
  do I put it now, high end cars. So it gives us an inspiration to
• 16:04
  some of us, you know, rags to riches, all those stories.
• 16:09
  So where was I now? OK, that's what I'm trying to
• 16:13
  say is that most people like Koscha, that's Koscharis,
• 16:18
  Cosmos, Maduka, they're actually trying to build something that
• 16:22
  will live beyond them because of the way that Koscharis has been
• 16:27
  set off. If Maduka, God forbid, dies now
• 16:30
  and moves, you know the thing will carry on.
• 16:33
  Same thing with Dangote. Same thing with this woman.
• 16:36
  Ebony Life. What's her name?
• 16:39
  I can't remember the Ebony Life woman.
• 16:41
  What's her name again? Forgive me.
• 16:46
  The name. Skip my mind.
• 16:48
  So what I'm just trying to say is that most people are trying
• 16:50
  to build things that will exist beyond them.
• 16:52
  And that's the reason why all this is important.
• 16:54
  Let people know this is who we are, this is the company.
• 16:58
  This is where we're headed. And then talk in terms of how
• 17:00
  come it'll make it easier for people to sell.
• 17:03
  And then with that, you'll be able to create a business that
• 17:06
  is going to exist beyond you. You're going to be able to
• 17:09
  create a legacy that will last for a while.
• 17:12
  So that's it. Thanks for listening to the
• 17:14
  podcast. Remember to subscribe on
• 17:17
  Spotify, YouTube or Apple. My name is Tavishima Aidi, you
• 17:22
  can connect with me by calling, sending a text message via
• 17:25
  WhatsApp message on the 08064662140.
• 17:32
  Then don't forget I'm still taking enquiries for people who
• 17:37
  want to be involved in the sales training that we have coming up
• 17:40
  on the 12th of January 2026, running all the way until the
• 17:45
  23rd of January 2026. And again, the focus is going to
• 17:49
  be on teaching people how to sell effectively over the phone
• 17:54
  because it's important. I was talking to someone today
• 17:57
  who is in the real estate space in Orca, and he said it's
• 18:03
  something that has been important for his career so far.
• 18:06
  And in fact, sometimes when he's lost his sale, it's something
• 18:10
  that has been responsible for him losing that sale, not being
• 18:13
  able to sell the next meeting, sell the next appointment, sell
• 18:19
  the next engagement. And because of that, he misses
• 18:21
  out on an important meeting that ends up costing him the sale.
• 18:26
  So this is really, really important.
• 18:28
  So connect with me 08064662140 if you want to connect just
• 18:42
  because you want to say what's up, it's good.
• 18:45
  But if you also want to learn about the training, why it's
• 18:49
  important for you, how you can take part, hit me up.
• 18:52
  Registrations are still ongoing and I'm looking forward to
• 18:56
  getting to know you guys. I'll catch you at some other
• 18:58
  time.