Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Selling in Nigeria: Universal Principles, Local Application

Transcript

Selling in Nigeria: Universal Principles, Local Application · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Aidi.
• 0:04
  I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
• 0:07
  today's recording very late into the night and everyone is at
• 0:10
  home, so I expect to hear some noise in the background.
• 0:14
  Now the goal of this podcast is business education.
• 0:16
  So please spread the word so that your friends and family
• 0:19
  members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions
• 0:22
  that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
• 0:25
  on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice.
• 0:30
  And if you'd love to connect with me, then you can call SMS
• 0:33
  or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want
• 0:42
  to look at navigating unique Nigerian market realities.
• 0:47
  Yep, that's a tongue twister right there.
• 0:50
  So how do we navigate the unique realities that we have in the
• 0:56
  Nigerian market? Is there anything that makes
• 0:59
  selling in Nigeria different from selling in other parts of
• 1:03
  the world? That's the question that we're
• 1:04
  going to tackle today. Now, the answer is no capital
• 1:10
  and no, because selling involves systems, sorry, systems, and
• 1:16
  selling involves processes and they apply universally across
• 1:22
  all cultures. So in a certain sense, selling
• 1:24
  in Niger or selling in Taiwan or selling in Mogadishu or selling
• 1:28
  in Antarctica are all the same because the same principles will
• 1:32
  apply. You won't go to Australia and
• 1:34
  hear a new principle, a new selling principle that you've
• 1:37
  never heard before. You're not going to go to
• 1:39
  America and hear a new selling tactic that you've never heard
• 1:42
  before. And if human beings existed on
• 1:45
  the moon, you will not go to the moon and hear a new sales
• 1:50
  principle that or marketing principle that you haven't heard
• 1:52
  before because the principles apply universally.
• 1:58
  Now this is where things get different because obviously you
• 2:01
  will say, well, even though the principles are the same, kind of
• 2:06
  seems different trying to sell in America than trying to sell
• 2:09
  from the UK. And yes, in a sense that's true.
• 2:12
  So what changes is the extent of the principles, the extent of
• 2:17
  the principles. How hard do we go on one
• 2:19
  principle here or there and then the order of the application is
• 2:24
  what make things different. So let me repeat, excuse me, So
• 2:29
  let me repeat. All the principles are the same.
• 2:33
  They don't change in Niger, in Mogadishu, in Australia and in
• 2:39
  Antarctica, the same principles apply.
• 2:42
  The only thing that is different is the order of the application.
• 2:45
  In some places you apply one thing before you apply the
• 2:48
  other. In other places you apply
• 2:50
  another thing before you apply another.
• 2:53
  In other words, what I'm trying to say is in Nigeria you might
• 2:55
  go ABC and maybe in Mogadishu you go CBA and then maybe in
• 3:00
  Afghanistan you go, you know, CAB.
• 3:04
  Then also the extent how hard you go on some things, like for
• 3:08
  instance, people say in Asia and in the Middle East, a lot of
• 3:14
  time is spent in building rapport.
• 3:18
  So you know, we Nigerians, you know like when you those of us
• 3:22
  who are city children because I was, I was born in Makudi, from
• 3:25
  there to Abuja, from there to Lagos, from there to Eva, from
• 3:28
  there to Aberdeen and then back. So I'm pretty much a Township
• 3:32
  boy my whole life. When you go to the village, it's
• 3:35
  one of the things we find frustrating, the pace of life
• 3:38
  and the pace of conversation there.
• 3:40
  How are you now? How's the wife?
• 3:43
  How's the children? How was your father, who I
• 3:46
  remember your father that time in 1963, blah, blah, as and on
• 3:50
  and on and on and on and on. And I'm like, you know, just get
• 3:54
  to the point. You know, there are places to
• 3:57
  be. If there's something you want to
• 3:58
  tell me, tell me. So it's also a dynamic that we
• 4:02
  experience in Nigeria in the modern setting.
• 4:05
  You know, everything is back, back, back, straight to the
• 4:07
  point and then you move on. But then trying to conduct
• 4:11
  business in the locales is different.
• 4:12
  Lots of rapport building. So that's also stuff that goes
• 4:15
  on in Asia and in the Middle East.
• 4:18
  In fact, I've heard, I've not been there when I've heard that,
• 4:22
  you know, in Mexico you say you want to go and have business
• 4:25
  meeting that is not out of place for somebody to say, oh, come
• 4:28
  and meet me. And so and so and the place is a
• 4:30
  restaurant and it's business meeting.
• 4:32
  But you guys are sitting and you guys are chowing.
• 4:33
  You guys are lemon. Now it's not because these
• 4:37
  people like food or they don't know what to do with their life.
• 4:40
  It's just that everybody or different cultures have
• 4:42
  different ways of sourcing people out and a much more
• 4:45
  modern direct cultures, you know, you just get into straight
• 4:49
  direct conversation. But then in certain kinds of
• 4:52
  cultures or in certain kinds of rural contexts, people are
• 4:56
  trying to tap things down, slow things down so they can figure
• 4:58
  you out. What kind of guy is this guy?
• 5:01
  Is this guy shifty? Is this being trustworthy?
• 5:05
  So there's some cultures where they invest a lot of time in
• 5:10
  rubber building. In fact, there's one guy I heard
• 5:14
  who is on a different, excuse me, on a different podcast.
• 5:19
  The guy was talking about how he was going to was it Japan?
• 5:22
  I think he was going to Japan and then he booked overnight
• 5:26
  because he just thought coming sharp, sharp in the morning,
• 5:29
  next day, enter plane and then come back and then his host, the
• 5:33
  person I was going to host him told him like, get no, no, no,
• 5:35
  it's not like that. That just just book three days.
• 5:39
  If you are quick, book three days, maybe book one week.
• 5:41
  You guys say how he said no, no, no, in this place, this is not
• 5:44
  how we do business. It's not back, back, back.
• 5:46
  There's not, it's not America. They just come in, you know, we
• 5:50
  fly all over the place in one day.
• 5:52
  You do like 6 meetings tomorrow. You now go back.
• 5:54
  It says not like that. I said just calm down.
• 5:56
  Things are slow here. Don't worry, I'm on ground.
• 5:58
  I'll put you through just book like 3 days.
• 6:01
  If we are fast, we shall prepare that.
• 6:04
  Maybe you spend like one week. So those are the differences,
• 6:10
  just the extent or the magnitude or the strength of how you apply
• 6:14
  the principles and then the orders.
• 6:16
  So in some places like in Asia and in the Middle East and in
• 6:20
  Japan, you spend time in building rapport.
• 6:24
  In Nigeria, if it's a modern business context, OK, yeah.
• 6:27
  Then you can't just move forward, shop, shop.
• 6:29
  So like now if you're coming to Niger and maybe you're supposed
• 6:31
  to do some big deal that involves NNPC and a bunch of law
• 6:35
  firms and stuff like that, and now you waste time in rapport
• 6:38
  building, you can just land down, you know, sharp, sharp,
• 6:42
  you know, 1020 minutes and then get straight down the business
• 6:47
  and then be on your way. All right, So what are these
• 6:52
  universal principles or what are these universal maxims or what
• 6:56
  are these universal guidelines, one of these universal dynamics
• 7:02
  or universal whatever that apply all over the world and that also
• 7:06
  apply in Nigeria. Remember I told you it applies
• 7:10
  everywhere. The difference is just the order
• 7:13
  you're going to do it and what it is that you're going to
• 7:16
  stress in the sales process. So #1 nobody wants to be sold.
• 7:21
  Tom Hopkins would call that sales resistance.
• 7:24
  Tom Hopkins is a guy former trainer, so a current trainer,
• 7:29
  still self have to go and check. You know, some of us get into
• 7:32
  this bad habit that if anybody writes a book from 1976 or 1986,
• 7:36
  you're just assuming that the guy's dead.
• 7:38
  So I heard him on a podcast I think maybe like 3-4 years ago.
• 7:42
  So I have to check. I think he's still alive.
• 7:44
  Anyway, he's a trainer in the real estate space in America.
• 7:50
  Now, the reason why I quote him a lot is not because he's the
• 7:52
  truth or that he's the gospel truth when it comes to sales.
• 7:56
  It's just because his ways of thinking about sales and his own
• 7:59
  frameworks are easy to remember and he talks about sales
• 8:04
  resistance and sales acceptance. I'll get to some of that later.
• 8:09
  But the first part is nobody wants to be sold.
• 8:11
  That is called sales resistance. Nobody wants to be sold.
• 8:16
  Nobody wants to be hassled, nobody wants to be harassed.
• 8:19
  That's the reason why in Abuja right now, currently, people are
• 8:22
  going around handing Flyers for real estate investment
• 8:25
  opportunities. It's become a thing at every
• 8:27
  single traffic light. Now, some of you are in your car
• 8:31
  and honestly, honestly, honestly, you have been
• 8:34
  thinking, where am I going to buy land?
• 8:36
  Where am I going to buy land? Where am I going to buy land?
• 8:38
  You pull up the traffic light, you see that person coming as
• 8:42
  they stretch out the flyer, you just say, oh, no, thank you, I'm
• 8:45
  not interested. Meanwhile, in your mind, as you
• 8:47
  left the house in the morning, you've been thinking, where will
• 8:50
  I buy land? Where will I buy land?
• 8:51
  Where will I buy land? What is going on There is sales
• 8:56
  resistance. You do not want to be hassled
• 8:58
  even though you need land and even though you know that those
• 9:01
  people, those Flyers is land, that they're talking about you
• 9:05
  just if I even wind up, not to even say no thank you, you wind
• 9:08
  up and then you're on AC so that I don't harass you, That is
• 9:11
  called sales resistance. Now that's a universal.
• 9:13
  It applies everywhere in the UK. Back when I was there, you'd be
• 9:17
  in the shop, somebody would come and say, oh, good morning, can I
• 9:19
  help you today? So no, thank you.
• 9:21
  I'm just looking. That was normal.
• 9:27
  You're there. Clearly you need something where
• 9:29
  anybody that approach you say no thank you, I'm just looking, no
• 9:32
  thank you, I'm just looking. I don't know why it happens.
• 9:34
  Psychologists will be able to tell us the reason why people do
• 9:37
  that. But The thing is nobody wants to
• 9:39
  be harassed and that one is universal.
• 9:41
  So don't think Nigerians are rude or Nigerians are liars or
• 9:46
  Nigerians or whatever. I can assure you, if you haven't
• 9:49
  travelled out, if you travel out of here and you go abroad, you
• 9:52
  will meet it abroad. So don't say selling in Niger is
• 9:55
  hard. By the time I get to America,
• 9:57
  selling in America will be easier.
• 9:59
  Maybe, maybe not, but you will still meet that dynamic of
• 10:03
  people not wanting to be sold or harassed.
• 10:07
  That is called sales resistance. Not only is universal, then
• 10:11
  sales acceptance, again from Tom Hopkins.
• 10:15
  Let's pretend that sales is like a mountain going up.
• 10:18
  The hard part that is sales resistance coming down, that is
• 10:21
  sales acceptance after you've gotten people warmed up.
• 10:25
  So excuse me, sorry, long day coaching calls.
• 10:34
  And you know, the throat is a muscle, so after a while it gets
• 10:38
  tired. Where was I?
• 10:40
  So sales resistance, that's the hard part, climbing up Now,
• 10:44
  sales acceptance, that's the easy part, coming down after you
• 10:46
  warm people up and they're OK to talk to you.
• 10:50
  When people have been warmed up to having a conversation with
• 10:52
  you, that is called sales acceptance.
• 10:56
  And that one, of course, that one is involved in every
• 10:59
  culture. In the beginning, people will be
• 11:01
  standoffish. Who is this guy?
• 11:04
  Who is this girl? Why are they harassing me?
• 11:07
  Where's this person coming from? Is this a scam?
• 11:11
  You know, all kinds of things. But by the time people relax and
• 11:14
  then they start talking, that is sales acceptance.
• 11:17
  They have been warmed up and they will have a conversation
• 11:20
  with you. Now, lots of dynamics are
• 11:21
  involved in this process. So, so Tom Hopkins will talk
• 11:25
  about trust, he'll talk about competence, he'll talk about
• 11:29
  credibility, he'll talk about commonality, he'll talk about
• 11:32
  all sorts of things. And people will talk about all
• 11:35
  these sorts of things. All that the everything, all
• 11:38
  that is sales acceptance. And this dynamic is universal.
• 11:42
  In the beginning, everybody lock up.
• 11:46
  Nobody wants to be harassed, but eventually if you do a good job
• 11:50
  with trust, building trust, demonstrating confidence and
• 11:54
  credibility and showing some commonality, people will relax
• 11:58
  and calm down. You will be able to have a
• 12:00
  conversation and be able to move things forward small, one step
• 12:04
  at a time, so you can see that that's a universal dynamic.
• 12:10
  If you get to Australia, it's the same in the beginning.
• 12:14
  Everybody lock up your job there is to try and see how you can
• 12:19
  overcome that lock upness, that sales resistance, and then he
• 12:23
  can build up on sales acceptance, how you can get
• 12:25
  people to see that. Look, me, I'm trustworthy, I'm
• 12:28
  all right. I'm a human being.
• 12:30
  I'm not a scammer. I'm not a four one liner.
• 12:32
  I'm competent. I know how to carry out this
• 12:35
  job. I'm credible.
• 12:37
  I've been certified. I went to school for this thing.
• 12:42
  I've done the job, I have the skills, I can do it.
• 12:46
  So it's the same Asia, Nigeria, Africa, North and South America,
• 12:53
  Antarctica, Europe, finally Australia.
• 12:56
  It's a song that my children sing.
• 12:58
  You know, when they that's, that's when they were the
• 13:00
  earlier schools like primary one, Asia, Africa, North and
• 13:04
  South America, Antarctica, Europe, finally Australia.
• 13:11
  So if you want to remember the continents of the world, that's
• 13:14
  how you do it. Where was I?
• 13:18
  I lost my train of thought. And so nobody wants to be
• 13:21
  harassed and then sales resistance and then sales
• 13:24
  acceptance. So those ones are universal.
• 13:26
  Then another one, selling involves conversations.
• 13:30
  This is one that people don't get.
• 13:32
  In fact, in Nigeria, it is one that people don't get.
• 13:35
  I feel like sometimes going around and knocking people on
• 13:37
  the head like what the hell are you doing?
• 13:39
  Selling involves conversation is a two way exchange.
• 13:45
  You say something, the other person says something back, and
• 13:48
  then you move the conversation forward.
• 13:50
  You move the relationship forward.
• 13:52
  Lots of people think that selling is all about pitching or
• 13:55
  toasting. You know that you show up and
• 13:58
  then you bamboozle somebody. No, that's not how it works.
• 14:02
  Now when you are in a simple sales scenario, you can
• 14:05
  bamboozle somebody. Simple sales scenarios, you
• 14:08
  know, affordable products, simple products, simple
• 14:12
  commodities, you know, things like that.
• 14:13
  You can bamboozle somebody. I've given an example about how
• 14:17
  if it is a simple thing like OK, I bought yoyos for my for my
• 14:20
  kids recently. We were at Urbano in Urbano in
• 14:27
  Zone 5, Zone 5, Zone 4IN Abuja and we walked in there and I saw
• 14:33
  from yoyos and then my children as usual, daddy came by coming
• 14:37
  by. I said no, but I just went and I
• 14:39
  checked the yoyos. It was on that three Ki said OK,
• 14:43
  no problem I can just carry 2 it's not a problem.
• 14:47
  So in that kind of situation now it's a low cost item and it's a
• 14:52
  toy for kids. So let's say I picked it up, I
• 14:55
  checked the price and then I saw that it was maybe 55K each.
• 15:01
  That's like 10K and I put it down.
• 15:04
  You can bumble to somebody in that situation.
• 15:06
  You can say daddy now she now only 5K just carry it now.
• 15:11
  The children like this thing now big daddy, big Bros, you know
• 15:16
  they can schmooze you. They can't toast you.
• 15:18
  No need for conversation. You can bamboozle somebody into
• 15:22
  buying that kind of thing. If you look and see that the guy
• 15:25
  has four children, you can say, oh Daddy, I understand 5K.
• 15:28
  If you carry one for each house, 20 Daddy, you know what?
• 15:31
  Carry 133 K that is now 12K instead of 20 and daddy just buy
• 15:37
  for the children just by you see you can bamboozle something on a
• 15:43
  simple something like that, but then by the time we start
• 15:46
  getting to much more complex scenarios, selling always
• 15:49
  involves a conversation. So don't be like those idiots
• 15:54
  who just feel like you can't roll up on somebody and there's
• 15:56
  a magic something you will put in your mouth that by the time
• 15:59
  you just talk, people just fall for you.
• 16:02
  It doesn't work like that. Well, I hear that people make
• 16:06
  jazz for those sorts of things, usually for romantic situations.
• 16:10
  If they, if they haven't created that kind of thing for business,
• 16:13
  please let me know so much. I'll put it in my mouth.
• 16:15
  And then when I just roll up on somebody, I just open my mouth
• 16:18
  and I just talk. The person will fall for me and
• 16:21
  start giving me millions and millions of naira.
• 16:23
  So they've invented it. Please let me have it.
• 16:26
  But until we find that jazz selling will always involve a
• 16:30
  conversation no matter where you are.
• 16:33
  If you're in Asia, be ready to have a conversation.
• 16:36
  If you're in Germany, be ready to have a conversation.
• 16:39
  If you're in America, be ready to have a conversation.
• 16:41
  If you're in my father's village, be ready to have a
• 16:44
  conversation. If you're in your mother's
• 16:45
  village, be ready to have a conversation.
• 16:47
  No matter where you are, be ready to have a conversation.
• 16:51
  If Elon Musk pulls it off and we have a human colony on Mars when
• 16:54
  we get to Mars. If you are sailing, be ready to
• 16:57
  have a conversation. It is universal.
• 17:00
  Stop trying to skip that step. The only time that you can skip
• 17:05
  it is if you're dealing with low, sorry, with a simple sale
• 17:10
  scenario or if your uncle in the village gave you that jazz that
• 17:16
  once you put it in your mouth and you talk, people will just
• 17:19
  be following you up and down and you can achieve what you want.
• 17:22
  And by the way, like I said, if your uncle has given you that
• 17:25
  jazz, please, I give my phone number at the beginning and at
• 17:28
  the end, let me know. So me too, I can be opening my
• 17:33
  mouth and just be collecting millions and millions.
• 17:36
  Then let's see what else. There are plenty.
• 17:40
  That's the problem. OK?
• 17:42
  Now this is one that Nigerians in particular need to know.
• 17:45
  You can't force anybody to do something that they didn't
• 17:48
  already want to do. For some reason, people who are
• 17:50
  involved in sales in Nigeria believe that you can open your
• 17:54
  mouth and even though somebody wanted to go to the left, you
• 17:57
  actually get the person to go right or that you open your
• 18:01
  mouth and even though somebody wanted to buy silk, you open
• 18:05
  your mouth and you get the person to buy saltine.
• 18:09
  Sorry, I don't even know if silk and satin have the same.
• 18:12
  So because you know, I'm not a fashionista, but truth of matter
• 18:15
  is it doesn't matter where you are, you cannot get somebody to
• 18:17
  do something that they already they didn't already want to do.
• 18:20
  So if you open your mouth and you're able to convince the
• 18:24
  person convincing quote, they're sort of buying silk, they buy
• 18:27
  satin. Actually, it is because already
• 18:30
  they were open to buying satin in the 1st place.
• 18:32
  You did not magically insert anything in their mind.
• 18:34
  You did not. However, there are some people
• 18:39
  who have those skills and that's the reason why we call those
• 18:43
  people charlatans. And that is why we call them
• 18:47
  hustlers. That is why we call them
• 18:49
  manipulators. That is why we call them any
• 18:53
  manner of names, but we do not call them salespeople, we do not
• 18:57
  call them business people, because those skills are being
• 19:01
  used unethically and usually they are not used in very good
• 19:07
  scenarios at all, at all, at all.
• 19:11
  So if you want to learn those kind of skills, there are people
• 19:13
  like that in the criminal world. Go and meet them.
• 19:16
  You will learn very well. But in business, we do not force
• 19:22
  anybody to do something that they did not want to do in the
• 19:25
  beginning. So some people say, oh, come and
• 19:27
  help me convince people in sales.
• 19:29
  And I tell them straight of that, look, I cannot teach you
• 19:32
  how to convince somebody. I can't.
• 19:35
  In fact, no salesperson, no business coach can teach you how
• 19:40
  to convince another person. It can't be done.
• 19:44
  The people who have those skills to teach you how to open your
• 19:49
  mouth and bamboozle somebody and before they wanted to go left,
• 19:52
  you make them go right. You know those ones are
• 19:55
  charlatans, mentalists, hustlers, manipulators.
• 20:00
  You know, they call them different things, fraudsters.
• 20:03
  You can go and learn from them, but I can't teach you that.
• 20:06
  We can't convince anybody. Sales or selling is about trying
• 20:12
  to figure out people's motivations and their interests
• 20:17
  and their needs. And they're trying to see how
• 20:20
  their own needs or their own motivations align with yours.
• 20:23
  When there's an alignment, you can now make a proposal.
• 20:27
  OK, boss, I see what you're trying to do here.
• 20:30
  I see what you're trying to do here.
• 20:31
  Understand that this is where you're heading.
• 20:34
  My product on my service can help you achieve these aims.
• 20:38
  So if we're able to agree on this, this and this, I think we
• 20:41
  can work. We can go ahead.
• 20:43
  So what do you think? You see, that's just trying to
• 20:45
  figure out the alignment that is already there and just make sure
• 20:49
  that everything blends. So if you want those people who
• 20:53
  came to this podcast because you're thinking about how to
• 20:56
  convince people to buy a product to our service, I can't teach
• 20:59
  you that this is not the place. Go and look for somebody else.
• 21:02
  I can't teach you to convince anybody.
• 21:05
  I can teach you how to figure out what is already in this
• 21:08
  person's mind. Is he blending with my own mind
• 21:12
  because it's blended with my own mind?
• 21:13
  Let me make a proposal or let me make a sales pitch or let me
• 21:16
  make a presentation and who knows who might be able to get
• 21:19
  things to move forward or not. Then let's see also one more
• 21:27
  thing. All these people, they shallow
• 21:30
  hands and they might manipulators.
• 21:33
  If you know, if it's those people, they make good money,
• 21:35
  but they usually make big money in one big queue.
• 21:41
  You know, like our brothers, we do for one night you'll catch
• 21:45
  one Mugu Bam, and then you make plenty of money.
• 21:50
  But those people, they can't generate money or generate sales
• 21:55
  sustainably over time. You will not find any hustler,
• 21:59
  you will not find any manipulator who's steady every
• 22:03
  single month is catching Mugu doesn't happen.
• 22:07
  Just so that you are aware that when you play those games, it's
• 22:12
  a very long game. You go for a long time before
• 22:16
  you catch our mogul. But The thing is, by the time
• 22:18
  you catch the movie, you'll be a big one, will be a big fish.
• 22:21
  That one one is 1. So decide which game are you
• 22:25
  going to play? Do you want to be on our own
• 22:28
  end? FFV do business, try and get
• 22:31
  repeat business, try and get happy customers.
• 22:34
  I'll be doing good business day after day, week after week,
• 22:37
  month after month, watching the money and the relationships
• 22:42
  compound on each other so that over time we become a big boy
• 22:47
  rather than, you know, you're trying to look for the one that
• 22:50
  will strike you big one time. Anyway, it's been 22 minutes.
• 22:55
  Let me not stress it. Another thing that is universal,
• 23:00
  that applies in every single country.
• 23:03
  It is cheaper to keep a customer than to attract new ones.
• 23:08
  That is because whether in Nigeria or America or in the UK,
• 23:12
  it will cost you time and it will cost you resources, money,
• 23:18
  attention spent in marketing or spent in relationship building.
• 23:22
  We can't run away from that. So because of that, those of us
• 23:26
  who are traditional sales professionals, we worry about
• 23:30
  customer retention. It is one of our goals because
• 23:33
  we do not want to do all the hard work, acquire a customer
• 23:37
  now in general, 2025 and then, you know, February, they're
• 23:44
  angry and then they've gone somewhere.
• 23:47
  That's just hard work for all for nothing.
• 23:51
  So in Nigeria, no matter where you are in the world, remember
• 23:59
  that it is it's cheaper to keep a customer than to attract a new
• 24:10
  one. Then what else?
• 24:16
  OK, yes, going from that, this is also true in Nigeria, America
• 24:24
  or any other part of the world. You're going to make more money
• 24:27
  the longer you have people transacting with you.
• 24:30
  That is what our tech brothers and sisters like to call
• 24:32
  maximizing CLV. That is customer lifetime value.
• 24:37
  Now the way my father explained it to me when I was a little boy
• 24:39
  was this. My father said if somebody walks
• 24:42
  up to your shop and the person buys TomTom one time and the
• 24:45
  person goes and never comes back, all you have made is the
• 24:48
  cost of that TomTom. It's good but it's not perfect.
• 24:53
  The ideal thing is that the person will come and buy TomTom
• 24:55
  from you today. Oh, by the way, for those of you
• 24:57
  who are not Nigerian, TomTom is a sweet that is made by Cadbury.
• 25:04
  Yeah, you know that same Cadbury, the international
• 25:06
  Cadbury that makes chocolates and confectioneries and stuff.
• 25:13
  So TomTom is very high in, excuse me, is is mint is high in
• 25:19
  mint? Is it mint?
• 25:20
  I'll be ethanol, I'll be methanol or something.
• 25:23
  I can't remember. We're very cold tasting
• 25:26
  something. That reason my father mentioned
• 25:28
  that was because I grew up in a smoking household.
• 25:31
  So my father's was a Rothmansman.
• 25:33
  And you know, of course, back in those days when everybody used
• 25:36
  to smoke because it has a certain kind of smell.
• 25:39
  When you smoke now you have to do something that will take away
• 25:42
  the, I'll take away the smell of a cigar as we call it here.
• 25:48
  Cigarettes, otherwise known as cigar.
• 25:51
  So I saw my father's, the one he used to go for was TomTom.
• 25:55
  So you smoke his Rothmans and then you now take TomTom to wash
• 26:01
  away the cigar. So that's where that example
• 26:05
  came up because he had just bought, you know, he had
• 26:08
  finished, he had finished basing, he had finished taking
• 26:11
  one or two and then he bought TomTom.
• 26:13
  And so that was the lesson for the day on customer lifetime
• 26:16
  value using TomTom. So if you have a shop, somebody
• 26:20
  comes and buys one TomTom, it's good, the person never comes
• 26:23
  back. It's OK, but it will be best for
• 26:26
  you as a business if the person buys one TomTom today, the
• 26:30
  person comes back and buy 2 TomTom tomorrow.
• 26:33
  Maybe the person comes again on Friday, buy one again, maybe the
• 26:37
  person comes on Monday by three, you know the person is coming
• 26:41
  over and over and over again. That's where the sweet money
• 26:44
  comes from. So whether you sell bread or you
• 26:49
  sell consulting services or you sell financial products or you
• 26:54
  sell exercise equipment and let's use exercise equipment.
• 26:57
  If somebody comes one time and buys what's this name called
• 27:03
  treadmill from you at 1.5 M, maybe a profit margin on it is
• 27:06
  750. That's good, you still got
• 27:10
  something, but it would be nice. If the person comes and buys
• 27:14
  treadmill from you 1.5, your profit margin is 750.
• 27:19
  Maybe in two years time the person comes and this time
• 27:22
  person buys exercise bike. Exercise bike.
• 27:26
  How much is exercise bike now? OK, Let's say 400K, the profit
• 27:29
  margin there maybe is 350. I mean, you see what I'm talking
• 27:33
  about. It's good for the person to come
• 27:35
  back over and over and over and over again.
• 27:40
  So that's also another goal in business, in sales the world
• 27:44
  over. So in Nigeria, in America, in
• 27:48
  Vietnam, the good salesperson is trying to make sure that people
• 27:55
  will stay with us long so that they will spend more with us.
• 28:00
  Then this is also another thing that is true in every single
• 28:03
  part of the world. Sheep customers, customers would
• 28:07
  like to prize you as if you are groundnut.
• 28:10
  Those ones, they cost more to satisfy and they cost more to
• 28:17
  keep because to satisfy cheap people you have to spend a lot
• 28:23
  of time and a lot of money. They say I didn't like this, I
• 28:26
  didn't like this, I didn't like this.
• 28:27
  You send another person to their house to amend this, to amend
• 28:31
  this, to amend that. Every single time you send
• 28:34
  somebody to site you are spending money or every single
• 28:38
  time you're answering the phone call or you're trying to appease
• 28:41
  them, that is time that you are not spending talking to happy
• 28:45
  customers or looking for other customers who will be happy
• 28:48
  customers. So cheap customers, honestly,
• 28:52
  they are expensive and I don't think they're worth the effort.
• 28:56
  Another disadvantage of cheap customers is those people that
• 28:59
  come and price you as if you're groundnut.
• 29:02
  Those people, they give poor word of mouth so it's not even
• 29:07
  worth it. So my own opinion, stay away
• 29:10
  from cheap clients. Once people start pricing you
• 29:12
  like groundnuts and you find yourself being frustrated, those
• 29:16
  are the people that need to weave.
• 29:20
  Look for a way to get out of it. Turn the tables on them.
• 29:25
  Instead of them saying, let me think about it.
• 29:27
  You, you're the one that will say, OK, you know what?
• 29:29
  Well, let me think about it. I'm coming, I'm late for a
• 29:32
  meeting. Let me think about it.
• 29:33
  I'll call you back. We've those people, they are not
• 29:37
  worth it. There's only one good reason why
• 29:44
  you should stick with cheap customers, and that is in the
• 29:47
  beginning when you're learning your business.
• 29:49
  Because like I tell people, dealing with cheap customers is
• 29:52
  good for learning how to set expectations.
• 29:55
  Because by the time you deal with one or two cheap customers,
• 29:57
  you realize that these people expect the whole world.
• 29:59
  And so you get better at having very frank conversations with
• 30:02
  them about what you're promising and what you're not promising,
• 30:06
  what you're offering and what you're not offering.
• 30:08
  So I'm glad for the cheap customers that I met early in my
• 30:10
  business journey because they taught me the importance of
• 30:13
  setting expectations clearly from the beginning.
• 30:17
  And OK, bro, Madam Olga, Sir, yes, you're paying 450,000, but
• 30:24
  it is only for these items that are listed on the invoice and
• 30:27
  nothing more. And it's going to be for this
• 30:30
  amount or this hours or this, this or that, that.
• 30:34
  When you're dealing with these cheap people, it's a skill that
• 30:38
  you have to learn. So that's the only advantage of
• 30:39
  having to deal with them. And we all deal with them.
• 30:42
  Everyone, everybody passes through that baptism.
• 30:44
  So you can't avoid it. All right, then, let's see.
• 30:51
  OK, 30 minutes. OK, Let me see if I can do two
• 30:55
  more. OK.
• 30:57
  Yeah. Another principle.
• 30:58
  It's not about you. Customers and clients only hang
• 31:01
  around to the extent that you can meet their needs.
• 31:07
  Sometimes things get to our head, you know, like, like, take
• 31:14
  me, for instance, on this podcast, people reach out, I
• 31:17
  love the show, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, to be honest, sometimes it
• 31:21
  gets to my head. But the moment I start saying
• 31:24
  some stuff on the podcast that does not blend with why you guys
• 31:27
  are here putting on your headphones, you guys will leave
• 31:30
  and you go to someplace else. So I know it's not about me.
• 31:35
  You guys are only here to the extent that I'm providing
• 31:38
  something valuable for you and I'm meeting some needs.
• 31:41
  That's the reason why you're here.
• 31:43
  The day that I lose sight of that and I start feeling as if
• 31:46
  I'm a God and I start misianning, you guys will leave
• 31:51
  and you will go someplace else. Same thing in business, no
• 31:54
  matter the part of the world that you're in is not about you.
• 31:59
  So don't misian, keep your eye on the ball.
• 32:03
  Make sure that you're meeting your customers needs.
• 32:05
  The moment you stop providing the real reason why they were
• 32:08
  there, they will leave. Also because of that.
• 32:13
  Don't take it personal. People's needs and circumstances
• 32:16
  change all the time because of that.
• 32:18
  Some clients, they outgrow us and sometimes clients move on.
• 32:21
  It's nothing personal. They're not being bad people.
• 32:24
  They're not being ungrateful. You now say that, Chief.
• 32:27
  So, so, so and so after all we've been through together, the
• 32:32
  way that I served him and his family and blah, blah, blah,
• 32:34
  he's now moved on to this, this and this and this and that
• 32:36
  person. It's nothing personal.
• 32:39
  It's just business Chief So, so and so.
• 32:42
  His circumstances have changed, his priorities have changed.
• 32:46
  Or maybe you stop meeting his needs the way you used to
• 32:50
  before, so he has moved on with his business elsewhere.
• 32:54
  It's nothing personal. It's not about you.
• 33:01
  Then let's see. So this one I want to stress
• 33:05
  now, and this one is true everywhere.
• 33:08
  Customers have a million things to do.
• 33:11
  They have busy lives, they have businesses, they have offices,
• 33:15
  they have kids. They all have, you know,
• 33:17
  different kinds of priorities. Even if you don't have
• 33:19
  priorities, you know, they're watching social media and
• 33:21
  they're getting distracted by all kinds of things.
• 33:23
  Like the video that I saw today with Mimi made a video with Bro
• 33:29
  Shaggy and this lawyer, the one that is like 7 feet tall.
• 33:33
  And lo and behold, I was watching the video.
• 33:35
  Next thing Bill Gates entered the frame.
• 33:39
  I said Bill Gates in Nigeria with MI.
• 33:42
  I said correct. I mean, I don't know what the
• 33:45
  whole thing is about, but I'm impressed the MI Ambrose Shaggy,
• 33:48
  you guys are hanging with Bill Gates.
• 33:50
  Nice one big UPS. If I'll try and do some more.
• 33:54
  Let me see what Bill Gates is doing in Nigeria that he's not
• 33:56
  hanging where am I? But I was a good one was was
• 33:59
  really, really interesting to see who Bill Gates come down
• 34:02
  from Okada. I had to look at that video
• 34:04
  again, the Okada scene. I said, was that really Bill
• 34:08
  Gates or Okada? Because I know that Bill Gates
• 34:10
  of course can enter into office, but for him to climb Bokata in
• 34:13
  Lagos, no, they had to have used this stump double for that, for
• 34:17
  that, excuse me for that scene. Anyway, 1 fan says, our
• 34:22
  customers, our potential clients, they have a million
• 34:24
  things to do. They get distracted by all kinds
• 34:26
  of things. So if I want to be successful in
• 34:28
  sales, we are the ones that have to take the agenda and guide the
• 34:31
  conversation. We can't leave it to them.
• 34:33
  And that's the same thing that operates in America, in UK, in
• 34:36
  Australia or in the Sahara Desert.
• 34:39
  We have to take the initiative and set the agenda.
• 34:43
  So is it the person who is most proactive that is likely going
• 34:46
  to win the sale? So make sure that you are the
• 34:49
  proactive 1. Now, since we're almost at 40
• 34:51
  minutes, let me just bring this to a close because we're going
• 34:54
  to keep on coming up with, you know, many other things you talk
• 34:56
  about. But on the question of whether
• 35:01
  selling in America or selling in Nigeria or selling in Britain,
• 35:05
  whether they're different, no, it's all the same.
• 35:08
  Selling in townships, selling in village, no, is all the same
• 35:11
  because the principles are the same.
• 35:13
  The principles will not change. The only thing that will change
• 35:16
  is the order in which we do things and what it is that we
• 35:19
  stress. So if you're selling in the
• 35:21
  village, you will have to stress building rapport more.
• 35:24
  If you're selling in Asian countries, you have to spend a
• 35:27
  lot of time, invest a lot of time in building rapport.
• 35:31
  If you're selling in America, in Britain, you spend less time in
• 35:34
  building rapport. If you're selling in a much more
• 35:36
  modern, sharp, sharp business context in Nigeria, you have to
• 35:39
  spend less time in building rapport.
• 35:41
  But you see that building rapport is important when it
• 35:46
  comes to reducing sales resistance and increasing sales
• 35:52
  acceptance. It's important to getting people
• 35:54
  to calm down, to pipe down, to pipe low, to trust you.
• 35:59
  You see that you're a real human being, that you're OK, that
• 36:03
  you're not a criminal, that you know, and anyhow anyhow kind of
• 36:07
  guy 1 anyhow anyhow kind of girl.
• 36:12
  So you can see the dynamics is the same, the emphasis or the
• 36:14
  order is different. So please stop falling through
• 36:19
  the hands of all these people who say you know the top 20 ways
• 36:23
  to sell in Niger. The top 50 ways to sell.
• 36:25
  Like don't, don't take these people seriously.
• 36:27
  Just go ahead and learn the principles as they are, then do
• 36:32
  your best to adapt them to your circumstances.
• 36:34
  You will be fine. You will be fine.
• 36:40
  There is no need for top 50 whatever to sell in Niger.
• 36:43
  Top three selling hacks to whatever.
• 36:45
  Like all of that is absolute crap.
• 36:48
  Even if it were true, what does it profit you to learn top 50
• 36:51
  ways of selling in Niger only for you to maybe God to bless
• 36:56
  you now Jack by next year and then you get into Canada.
• 36:59
  What are you going to do? Start figuring out the top 50
• 37:02
  hacks for how to sell in Canada? Please just learn the
• 37:05
  principles. I know that you are set no
• 37:06
  matter which country you and your family migrate to.
• 37:09
  So that's it and that's all. Remember if you'd love to
• 37:12
  connect with me then you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on
• 37:15
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 37:20
  time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 37:23
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.