Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Networking 002 - Random Thoughts Part 2

Transcript

Networking 002 - Random Thoughts Part 2 · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishma Aide, the
• 0:04
  host of the podcast making today's recording at home.
• 0:07
  So there will be noise in the background.
• 0:10
  Now this is going to be the second part, what I started
• 0:13
  earlier about networking. I came across a write up on
• 0:18
  LinkedIn about myths about networking.
• 0:20
  And in the previous episode I had started dispelling some of
• 0:24
  those myths from a sales and business development
• 0:27
  perspective. So if this is the first episode
• 0:29
  you're listening, you actually have to skip back because you
• 0:32
  missed one more. All right.
• 0:35
  Now, the second myth that was contained in the article that
• 0:38
  we're going to look at is that networking occurs in crowded
• 0:43
  rooms. And well, not always because
• 0:48
  it's not really the size of the room that counts.
• 0:51
  But The thing is, whenever you're networking, you always
• 0:54
  eventually you need to have a sidebar so they can go deep in
• 0:56
  the conversation. Sidebar is when you know, you,
• 0:59
  you pull somebody aside for a chat, you know, you guys are
• 1:02
  gisting, you slide and you know, you sit down and it's not
• 1:05
  one-on-one. You guys are having someone on
• 1:06
  one time, like the example that I gave in the last episode, the
• 1:09
  lady walks up to the guy and you know, she's like, oh, I hear
• 1:15
  you're going to London School of Economics, you know, sidebar
• 1:18
  side chat. And then from there, the
• 1:20
  networking begins. So does it have to be a crowded
• 1:24
  room? Yeah, maybe, maybe not.
• 1:26
  But The thing is, at some point you're going to need a sidebar.
• 1:29
  You put somebody aside for a chat, you guys can go deeper
• 1:32
  into the conversation, you can get to learn some more about
• 1:35
  that person. Sometimes there's no, I mean,
• 1:40
  there's no room or no point. Like the sidebar doesn't just
• 1:43
  happen. Maybe it's like, is 4 of you
• 1:44
  guys just tonight who are just just doing that naturally and
• 1:47
  you are just feeling everybody's vibes.
• 1:49
  So in that kind of thing, where is your group convo?
• 1:51
  Definitely exchange digits, exchange business cards.
• 1:55
  So you can call the person later on to continue the gist.
• 1:58
  So the phone call will now be, hey, what's up?
• 2:01
  This is the guy that you met at XYZ dinner, XYZ networking
• 2:05
  session, you know, so, so, so you know, do you remember the
• 2:08
  guy that we're talking about? Yeah, I remember.
• 2:10
  So, so party dinner, oh, I'm good, blah, blah, blah.
• 2:13
  And then, you know, the gist just continues like that.
• 2:15
  So yeah, crowded room or not, yeah, it doesn't really matter.
• 2:22
  At some point you will do sidebar.
• 2:23
  If there's no rule for sidebar, it's a group convo.
• 2:25
  No problem. Exchange digits after the party,
• 2:30
  after the event, give the person a call, send a WhatsApp message,
• 2:34
  send a, let's just say WhatsApp message.
• 2:39
  Don't send e-mail. e-mail is too. e-mail is on, e-mail is on
• 2:43
  now formal level. So I don't think you can network
• 2:47
  through e-mail. Let's keep it simple and casual
• 2:50
  phone call, SMS still casual small WhatsApp is
• 2:53
  conversational. So that one is definitely good.
• 2:57
  Then I'm another myth is not about bigger events, that you
• 3:00
  have a bigger events like big, big, big events that will lead
• 3:03
  to big better networking. Now like most things in life,
• 3:08
  they are diminishing returns when it comes to this.
• 3:11
  So of course, if it's a networking event, only two of
• 3:15
  you show, you know, there's a limit to how much networking you
• 3:17
  can do. You know, if there's four of you
• 3:19
  that show, OK, now we can't be networking.
• 3:21
  You know, if he's 8, if he's 10, OK, making sense.
• 3:24
  But then there's a certain point where the law of diminishing
• 3:27
  returns set in, sets in, you know, if there's 100 people, you
• 3:30
  know, is that too much? If it's 200 people, is that too
• 3:33
  much? If it's 400 people, is that too
• 3:36
  much? Can you even say you can network
• 3:39
  in a room of 400 people? Like, realistically speaking,
• 3:41
  how many people will you talk to in that evening?
• 3:43
  How many? So at some point, the law of
• 3:47
  diminishing returns, it just sets in.
• 3:49
  That's the reason why you can't network at the concert or you
• 3:53
  can't network in the market, really.
• 3:57
  So, yeah, don't be drawn. Don't be deceived by all those,
• 4:03
  you know, big, big, big, big, big, you know, like, OK, there's
• 4:07
  supposed to be a 200 person event.
• 4:08
  So therefore it's going to be much more valuable to go to than
• 4:11
  something that is a a, you know, 20 person event doesn't
• 4:15
  necessarily follow. Then I'm another myth around
• 4:21
  business cards. So the goal is not to go and be
• 4:24
  collecting business cards because there's some people who
• 4:27
  show up for these things and you can see that man, they're just
• 4:29
  collecting, collecting this card as if as if it's Suea.
• 4:33
  You know, you see one person, you're collecting like 50
• 4:36
  business cards. You know, in my mind, I'm
• 4:38
  thinking, OK, cool, you've collected 50 business cards.
• 4:41
  Like do you have a plan for actually calling, sending text
• 4:46
  messages, keeping in touch, relationship building, like with
• 4:49
  50 people from this event? You know, if you have a plan
• 4:52
  that's that's good, fantastic. You know, more on you do more of
• 4:56
  that. But if you don't, you're just
• 4:58
  collecting business cards that you will go home.
• 5:01
  You have to ask you, you know, how far did you have fun?
• 5:03
  Oh, yeah. It was a wonderful evening.
• 5:04
  I met some nice guys. And you put the card on your on
• 5:07
  your desk. You know, you go and watch
• 5:09
  something wifey. And then, you know, from there,
• 5:13
  maybe you and your kids, you know, you play some games or
• 5:15
  something. Then you wake up the next day,
• 5:18
  you have some things to do. The next day, you have some
• 5:21
  things to do. After two weeks, you just raise
• 5:23
  your Bible. You now see all the cards there.
• 5:26
  You see like 50 of them say, oh, OK, that networking thing I did,
• 5:31
  this is where all the cards are. And then you now think, but like
• 5:36
  2 weeks don't pass. Like doesn't make sense.
• 5:38
  Anyway, let me keep it. I'll call them.
• 5:41
  That's how they'll be there. Then on December when you're
• 5:43
  doing spring cleaning, you find those cards again.
• 5:46
  I never called these people and it's like 8 months.
• 5:49
  What's the point? You now throw the cards away.
• 5:52
  So it's not about collecting business cards.
• 5:55
  Remember, networking is about reading the room.
• 5:58
  Who is here. You're trying to figure out who
• 6:01
  is worth keeping up with later, Who is worth building a
• 6:05
  relationship with later? Who is worth calling, text
• 6:08
  messaging, emailing, visiting, whatever later.
• 6:12
  So don't go around collecting as many as possible.
• 6:16
  Be engaging in conversations with people and try and figure
• 6:19
  out who is worth having a conversation with.
• 6:22
  Oh, sorry about that. My neighbor has plenty, plenty
• 6:25
  cats, Plenty cats. So, you know, they get involved
• 6:29
  in fights and stuff like that. Just in case you heard that
• 6:32
  noise outside my window. You know, funny thing is when
• 6:36
  we're moving here, they said no pets and my wife was very happy
• 6:39
  because my wife does not like animals.
• 6:42
  Only for us to move in and then lo and behold, it's like a zoo.
• 6:45
  So the neighbor behind us, they have cats, must be like 9 or
• 6:49
  maybe even 10. Then the guys in the court in
• 6:53
  front of our homecourt, that one has Peacocks, it has like 4.
• 6:57
  Then there's somebody on one of the main streets, The guy has,
• 7:03
  you know, these dogs that, you know, are very muscular,
• 7:06
  muscular dogs, those big ones, like kind of dogs.
• 7:09
  He has, you know, bottom line is animals everywhere.
• 7:13
  And that's the job living in Nigerian society, you know, we
• 7:15
  don't follow laws. You're entering an estate.
• 7:17
  They say in this estate, no pets, no animals.
• 7:20
  Everybody would say yes, I agree.
• 7:22
  And then you move in with your cats and with your dogs and with
• 7:26
  your chickens and with your Peacocks, and supposedly I hear
• 7:30
  somebody has a snake around here anyway, So where was I?
• 7:38
  So I was talking about collecting business cards.
• 7:40
  So the goal is not to collect as many business cards as possible.
• 7:43
  The goal is to try and read the room, go around the room, figure
• 7:46
  out who is here, who's worth keeping in touch with.
• 7:49
  And of course, the goal is also not to go around throwing around
• 7:52
  your cards because some people go for networking sessions and
• 7:55
  you think, OK, I have business cards lying around at home.
• 7:58
  I've not done anything with them.
• 7:59
  I have 500 cards. Let me just carry 100 cards for
• 8:02
  this networking event. Let me see how many I can share.
• 8:05
  The goal is not to share 101 hundred cards.
• 8:07
  No, have conversations with people.
• 8:10
  You figure out who is worth talking to afterwards, collect
• 8:15
  that person's number, collect that person's card.
• 8:18
  Then you call the person and continue the excuse me, continue
• 8:23
  the conversation. Sorry about that.
• 8:29
  I really need to go and get my throat fixed.
• 8:31
  So continue the the conversation with the person later, then
• 8:37
  let's see what else. So I think that's just not just
• 8:39
  my my random ideas about networking.
• 8:42
  Oh, by the way, for the younger folks, because there's somebody
• 8:45
  that I've been coaching and the guy says he doesn't go out much.
• 8:48
  And I told him that, you know, look, it's a very simple
• 8:53
  something. You can't say that you're a
• 8:55
  salesperson and, you know, you just work Monday to Friday,
• 8:58
  maybe sleep all on Saturday and Sunday.
• 9:01
  Like trust me. Yeah, I'm a homeboy.
• 9:02
  I don't even go anywhere at all. But at least, you know, once in
• 9:05
  a while, at least twice a year or something, you know?
• 9:08
  So that's all these events that cost absolutely nothing,
• 9:11
  especially for those of you in Lagos.
• 9:14
  The previous episode I mentioned that that Lady that I thought
• 9:16
  she was being masterful was at a British Council event.
• 9:20
  Now The thing is the British Council, they have lots of teams
• 9:24
  across different areas, academics, arts and culture,
• 9:29
  finance, music, you know, drama like you name.
• 9:33
  So all you have to do is just go and follow British Council and
• 9:38
  then just be looking at the Instagram once in a while you'd
• 9:40
  be saying, OK, they're doing this event, they're doing that
• 9:42
  event. A lot of the events are free.
• 9:46
  Some of them have finger food, some of them have correct food.
• 9:48
  But you know, either way, you put something in your belly.
• 9:51
  So it's a win win situation. You go there, you meet cool
• 9:54
  people who are like minded. You get to have a good time, you
• 9:58
  know, go outside and flex your social muscles because sales is
• 10:02
  all about having conversations. We actually need to learn how to
• 10:06
  be adept, right? Skillful, having conversations
• 10:10
  with people. Now we don't know, it's just the
• 10:13
  nature of the job. So we have to get good at it.
• 10:15
  So attending these small, small, small things, not a problem.
• 10:19
  So like on your Instagram now there's some of these handles,
• 10:22
  like there's one of them that is meant to curate, you know, good
• 10:26
  places to hang out in Abuja. There's another one that is
• 10:30
  based on Lagos, Another one is based on Ibadan.
• 10:33
  You know, places like that follow some of these handles
• 10:36
  because once in a while, you know, they do some things like
• 10:39
  games in the park or something. You just go, you know, these
• 10:43
  things are not all these things are free.
• 10:46
  So they have to pay for your sweet or your drink.
• 10:48
  You know, Bob, just go out, flex your, flex your, or let's say no
• 10:56
  social muscle, networking muscle, you know, don't be too
• 11:00
  insular, especially since if you've been hitting the phones
• 11:03
  Monday to Friday, then you're now hitting the phone Monday to
• 11:07
  Friday. And that's your life generally,
• 11:09
  February, March, April, like I know it's a bit much for some of
• 11:13
  us who are homeboys, that's not a problem.
• 11:15
  But for you regular people, you need to find ways, you know, get
• 11:19
  out and about. OK, So other tips for
• 11:22
  networking, just simple things I've spoken about before.
• 11:25
  Brush, brush your teeth, you know, brush your teeth before
• 11:30
  you step out. You never know about a goosey
• 11:33
  that you eat. The goosey might still be on
• 11:35
  your breath. So just brush, bath, freshen up,
• 11:38
  rub perfume, then alcohol. That some people who by the time
• 11:43
  they take one or two, they start to misbehave.
• 11:45
  They start to museum. I see it all the time.
• 11:48
  So if you're not sure, just take it easy.
• 11:51
  In fact, there's one lady, I saw one event who had one glass of
• 11:56
  wine. That's just the sip, just the
• 11:59
  sip. Then after a while, you know,
• 12:02
  it's like, oh, you're really into this wine.
• 12:04
  I just like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
• 12:06
  Actually, is is the only glass I've been sipping on all
• 12:09
  evening. I say, really?
• 12:10
  She say, yeah, So she says she can't handle her alcohol.
• 12:13
  So what she does is once she enters, she will pour one glass.
• 12:16
  That glass is what she will sip the whole night until the thing
• 12:20
  finishes. So be careful with the alcohol
• 12:23
  thing because of some of these events like the British Council
• 12:25
  events now for instance, the ones where they serve alcohol,
• 12:28
  the alcohol does, they flow freely.
• 12:30
  The waiter will come with alcohol.
• 12:31
  You know, you take one beer and then you now take one wine and
• 12:36
  then you know, again, you now take coke and rum, you know,
• 12:40
  stuff like that. So just take it easy before this
• 12:43
  time is Yanny don't want to show yourself in the outside then,
• 12:48
  OK. Another thing that is drinks are
• 12:49
  related, especially in some of these events where the place is
• 12:52
  chilled, like chilled AC. So like Nikon, that's the Hilton
• 12:56
  Hotel and Sheraton are those networking events, you know,
• 13:00
  where the AC is really, really working.
• 13:02
  So if you get carried away, you know, you take orange juice, you
• 13:05
  now take Coke and they take Fanta, they take this and they
• 13:09
  take that. You'll be taking too many pee
• 13:11
  breaks like on go piece on go piece.
• 13:13
  And you know somehow that you're in a conversation with someone,
• 13:17
  you know, how do you stylistically tell the person
• 13:18
  they want to go and pee? You understand, so I take it
• 13:22
  easy with the drinks then what else?
• 13:23
  So when you show up for these things, if you show up with
• 13:26
  load, managing the load is too much of a problem.
• 13:29
  So don't come with portfolio and laptop bag and then this and
• 13:32
  then that calm light just show up you a mobile phone simple or
• 13:37
  you and your handbag simple so that you can move free.
• 13:41
  You can mingle. You don't have to worry.
• 13:43
  Where should I put my bag? Where should I put my this?
• 13:45
  Where should I put my that? Of course, females, you don't
• 13:49
  have mathematics, you will need to do should I wear 6 inch
• 13:51
  shoes? Should I wear 4 inch shoes?
• 13:53
  Should I wear block heels? You know that mathematics is
• 13:55
  really, really important because some of these things, some of
• 13:59
  these are networking events. Like I've noticed the more like
• 14:03
  the British Council, British High Commission ones.
• 14:05
  You know those people that you know, UK style now, so you will
• 14:09
  get there and the standing room only, no chair.
• 14:12
  Like I still don't understand that culture.
• 14:14
  Like you know, it's a networking event.
• 14:16
  Like we're not here to torture ourselves.
• 14:18
  Why is this thing standing room only?
• 14:20
  So they'll just put table everywhere.
• 14:21
  Don't put chair. So if I'm going to be there for
• 14:24
  two hours, that means you'll be standing for two hours.
• 14:31
  So let's see what else. Finally, the most important
• 14:38
  thing is relax. Just relax.
• 14:40
  Don't be nervous. You're cool as you are.
• 14:44
  You are cool already. If you're listening to this
• 14:47
  podcast, it means you're already thinking about business,
• 14:51
  thinking about careers, thinking about, you know, different kinds
• 14:56
  of things. Like, you know, a dull person,
• 14:59
  you're cool. So don't be too anxious when you
• 15:01
  show up. All these things as you are, you
• 15:04
  are a cool person. You are worthy of interest.
• 15:08
  You're worthy that somebody should show up to you and want
• 15:10
  to talk to you. So don't worry.
• 15:12
  Relax, relax. Don't be forming too much.
• 15:15
  You're cool as you are, so just enter into the room, relax
• 15:20
  knowing that you're OK, you're cool, you're OK, you're OK.
• 15:27
  Nothing is like it, nothing is deficient.
• 15:29
  So just go in and relax and be asking people questions about
• 15:33
  themselves. Then that natural steals that
• 15:37
  you have in you, the thing will not have room to shine through.
• 15:40
  And this one of reasons why I tell people to stop all these
• 15:43
  authentic this, authentic this, because you'll be thinking
• 15:46
  authentic this authentic this and all these other things like
• 15:48
  people who talk about power poles.
• 15:50
  So you want to enter the room, you want to do power poles, you
• 15:52
  want to enter with grandeur, you want to make statement, but
• 15:57
  you're thinking you, you, you, you, you.
• 15:59
  That's where you know you have room to fumble the ball.
• 16:03
  But just relax. You're good, you're OK.
• 16:06
  Nothing lacking, nothing shaky. You're right.
• 16:09
  Buffer, freshen up. You're good, you're OK.
• 16:13
  Just enter the room. Casual.
• 16:15
  Cool. Let's look around you see
• 16:19
  somebody who you think is interesting starting up a
• 16:21
  conversation with a stranger. It seems daunting.
• 16:25
  That is if you are thinking of what to say, but rather think of
• 16:31
  the questions to ask. Once you have one or two
• 16:34
  questions that you can start conversations.
• 16:36
  Very, very simple. Very, very simple.
• 16:40
  OK, I shouldn't be saying very simple.
• 16:42
  It takes some practice. It gets easier with time, which
• 16:47
  is why if you can't look for ways to practice easy or some of
• 16:51
  these free events. Now I'm talking about you just
• 16:54
  see on Instagram, The thing is happening is not too far, you
• 16:58
  calculate it, transport is not too much.
• 17:00
  You just go for this thing and you, you try with time, you get
• 17:05
  better. So yeah, that's a pretty much.
• 17:10
  So that's my own level of myth busting around networking.
• 17:15
  So let me bring it to a close here.
• 17:16
  No need to stretch it anymore. So that's a pretty much.
• 17:20
  If you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message
• 17:23
  or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 17:28
  Thank you for your time and attention.
• 17:30
  I'll catch you at the next episode.