Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Pick a Lane: Why You Can’t Scale Five Lives at Once

Transcript

Pick a Lane: Why You Can’t Scale Five Lives at Once · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:06
  Today we're going to look at the sales perspective on OK, how
• 0:11
  will I put it? OK, there are a bunch of you who
• 0:13
  are trying to juggle 3456 lives at the same time.
• 0:17
  And so we are going to look at things from a sales perspective
• 0:20
  today to figure out why this is a bad idea.
• 0:24
  You know, for those of you who are trying to juggle 23456
• 0:27
  things, you know, you want to be a painter and you want to be a
• 0:30
  musician and you want to be a bricklayer and you want to be a
• 0:33
  consultant and you want to be this and that and that and that.
• 0:37
  So we're going to look at things from a sales perspective, why
• 0:41
  you should stop trying to do that and whether this is even
• 0:44
  possible. Now, the good thing about sales
• 0:47
  when you're trying to focus on growing your business, growing
• 0:50
  your sales is sales is very is very practical.
• 0:56
  So sales keeps us focused on revenue.
• 0:59
  And so because of that, we don't have time to fool about.
• 1:02
  We don't have time to fuss about.
• 1:04
  So we have to focus on activities and we have to focus
• 1:07
  on things that will actually move the needle, things that are
• 1:10
  actually going to get us revenue.
• 1:12
  Oh, by the way, apologies for the noise in the background.
• 1:15
  I'm making today's recording out and about and as usual, I'm in
• 1:18
  the parking lot. So I figured, let me just make
• 1:20
  this podcast recording real quick and then I'll head off to
• 1:24
  my next engagement. Oh, by the way, my name is
• 1:27
  Tavishma Aidi. I'm a former lawyer turned
• 1:30
  business consultant, and I tried to solve business problems by
• 1:34
  looking at things from a sales and business development
• 1:37
  perspective. So if you reach out and you have
• 1:40
  a problem, but it looks like your problem is an accounting
• 1:42
  problem, I will have to send you off to someone else because I'm
• 1:46
  not an accountant, I'm not a finance expert, I'm not a human
• 1:49
  resource expert. I only know sales, especially
• 1:52
  personal selling, so sales, business development, that's
• 1:56
  kind of like my thing. So if you like these sorts of
• 2:00
  issues, if you have these sorts of issues in your business or
• 2:04
  you know, intellectually you're just curious about these sorts
• 2:06
  of things, then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, on YouTube,
• 2:10
  Apple, any player of your choice.
• 2:14
  Also, if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a
• 2:17
  text message or send me a WhatsApp message on 08064 662140
• 2:25
  So you can reach out if you have any questions, you have any
• 2:27
  comments, you have any queries or you want us to collaborate on
• 2:30
  a project or two. So back to what we're trying to
• 2:34
  do today. So we're looking at things from
• 2:35
  a sales perspective on why you should stop trying to juggle
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  3456 things, 6 lives at the same time.
• 2:43
  So a lot of you who are thinking about these things, sometimes
• 2:46
  you guys are looking at this thing from, you know, your true
• 2:48
  self, your authentic self, your best self, you know, all these
• 2:52
  fancy, really fuzzy, funny ideas.
• 2:55
  So you want to live your best self.
• 2:57
  You have 456 talents, you don't know which one to focus on, you
• 3:00
  know those sorts of things. But when we start looking at
• 3:03
  things from a sales perspective, sales and business development,
• 3:07
  at the end of the day we're only concerned about revenue.
• 3:10
  So when you start looking at things from the angle of sales,
• 3:14
  you know, selling these ideas, building businesses around these
• 3:17
  ideas, you really have to start focusing down on which one is
• 3:22
  going to bring in revenue. Where can you get the most level
• 3:25
  of traction, the quickest level of traction, the greatest level
• 3:28
  of returns, you know, things like that.
• 3:31
  So that's the benefit of looking at things from a sales
• 3:33
  perspective because it helps to get you focused.
• 3:36
  So all of the people who reach out and you know, you say I
• 3:41
  like, I love idea AI, am talented at idea B, and I feel
• 3:47
  like my true calling is idea C, You know, what should I do or
• 3:51
  how can I do all of them? So from a sales and business
• 3:55
  development perspective, the answer is always simple.
• 3:57
  The answer is always pick one. Now, the reason why you have to
• 4:02
  pick one is because you can't do it all yet.
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  Let me repeat, if you love idea A, you're talented at idea B,
• 4:11
  you feel like your true calling is you should be doing C with
• 4:14
  your life, what you should do is pick one because you can't do it
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  all yet. Eventually you'll be able to.
• 4:23
  Do you know how many business ideas you want to do, especially
• 4:26
  those of you who are inspired by people like Dan Gote and you
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  know others who have 3456 businesses.
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  But the truth is you can't do it all yet.
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  And this is the reason why number one is diluted effort,
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  because when you're looking at things from a sales perspective,
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  when you're looking at things from a revenue perspective, when
• 4:45
  you're looking at things from a money perspective, there are a
• 4:48
  couple of things you have to do. You have to go out and prospect.
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  Prospect is looking for people who might be interested in your
• 4:54
  product or service, talking to those people, trying to build
• 4:57
  relationships with those people. Ultimately, we're trying to get
• 5:00
  them to buy. Then you also have to be
• 5:03
  pitching people, making proposals, making presentations,
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  and then you also have to try and close one or two deals.
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  Now The thing is, if your energy is split between 345 things, you
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  cannot prospect effectively every single day.
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  Let's be practical. I'm recording to this podcast on
• 5:22
  a Tuesday. So let's say you have 4 ideas
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  that you're trying to pursue. OK, it's Tuesday morning, it's 9
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  O clock. Now, what are you going to do?
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  Are you going to prospect for one business idea from 8 to 10,
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  Prospect another one from 11:50? Prospect another 1 from 12 to
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  two? Another 1 from 2 to 4?
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  Is that how you're going to organize your day?
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  Let's be realistic. Are you that disciplined and can
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  you live like that every single day?
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  Look, it's hard, so it's best to just pick one thing and you know
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  that. You know what?
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  Today I'm going to go out all this week or you know, for the
• 6:01
  next quarter and what you try and validate this baking idea or
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  what you try and validate this dancing idea or what you try and
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  validate this content production idea or whatever it is that
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  you're trying to do. It's just you.
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  You're just one person. You have diluted effort so you
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  can prospect, you can pitch, and you can't close effectively.
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  If you're trying to split yourself across three different
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  industries, 3 different business ideas.
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  Now another thing, your branding is going to be confused,
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  especially things nowadays, you know, everybody's worried about
• 6:31
  branding. So if you're using LinkedIn for
• 6:33
  marketing or Instagram for marketing or Twitter for
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  marketing, how are you going to anchor yourself in somebody's
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  mind if you're posting all over the place?
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  Today you post about this, tomorrow you post about that,
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  next tomorrow you post about that.
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  How is somebody supposed to know that you are this guy and you
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  are this girl so that if there's any problem, they reach out to
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  you? So for me, the only thing I do
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  is I talk about sales. That's all.
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  Once in a while during the podcast, I might talk about
• 7:01
  relationship issues or some politics or something.
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  But every single person who comes across my stuff, they know
• 7:07
  that all I do is talk about sales.
• 7:11
  And so I get those questions where somebody's like, that was
• 7:15
  an idea. I beg you, do marketing and be I
• 7:19
  say, yeah, I do. And then we discuss maybe
• 7:23
  something I can help and I send them off to some to someone
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  else. But The thing is, everybody who
• 7:28
  knows me knows that if it's kind of a sales and kind of a
• 7:32
  businessy, kind of a marketing thing, they know to call me
• 7:36
  first and to get my opinion. Now that would not be possible
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  if on LinkedIn, on Monday I write about sales and then on
• 7:44
  Tuesday I write about relationships and then on
• 7:47
  Thursday I write about religion and then on Friday I write about
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  sex. And then on Saturday I write
• 7:54
  about astrology and then on Sunday, you know, I write about,
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  I don't know, whatever. So don't confuse your branding.
• 8:03
  Don't confuse your positioning. Don't confuse how people store
• 8:07
  you in their minds. You should be able to put out
• 8:11
  your stuff, organize yourself and your activities such that
• 8:14
  people have a very convenient envelope that they can slot you
• 8:17
  into in their minds. So that if somebody thinks
• 8:19
  architecture, they think of you. If somebody thinks of tailoring
• 8:24
  of fashion, they think of you. If somebody thinks of small
• 8:28
  shops, they think of you. So we need to be able to anchor
• 8:33
  ourselves in people's minds. And this is one of the reasons
• 8:35
  why you can't do 3456 things at the same time.
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  Now, another reason why we can't do it all yet is because of a
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  bandwidth problem. Bandwidth just means, you know,
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  the amount of time, the amount of tension, the amount of focus
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  that you have. And the truth of matter is this.
• 8:51
  We don't have all the focus in the world and we don't have all
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  the hours in the day to be able to scale 3456 different business
• 9:00
  ideas or different interests at the same time.
• 9:05
  Now, the reason why I'm talking about this today is because I
• 9:09
  spoke with a podcast listener recently.
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  I mean, we already have this conversation, but I'm not going
• 9:13
  to share her identity. I just want to share the
• 9:16
  benefits of this conversation over here with you guys so that
• 9:19
  some of you can benefit from it because I still get these sorts
• 9:23
  of questions. So this podcast listener is a
• 9:26
  caterer. That is her business.
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  She does catering, but then in school she studied performing
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  arts. But then it turns out that her
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  lifelong goal is to be an aspiring screenwriter.
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  I repeat, this lady is a caterer.
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  She studied performing arts, but she's an aspiring screenwriter.
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  So you can see that I'm not just talking theory here.
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  This, this, this is practical. This is live.
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  This is someone in Niger. And I get it all the time.
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  I get it all the time. So now let's use as an example
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  catering, cooking, whatever it is you want to call it because
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  after legal I was in events for a while, I was a wedding
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  photographer. So I know this world and I can
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  tell you that catering is one of the most time consuming jobs on
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  earth. Catering takes time.
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  In the beginning you're the one who's cooking everything
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  yourself. After a while you hire some
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  people, some people to buy for you, some people to cook for
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  you. Then you spend all your time
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  supervising these people who are cooking because if you don't
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  shook your idea, things will happen.
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  Rice will start to disappear, meat will start to disappear,
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  palm oil will start to disappear.
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  So this is the kind of thing that you have to be on ground,
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  you have to be on site. If you try yourself and you stay
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  there for one hour, go and sleep for three hours and then come
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  back, it will shock you. You think that you will meet, it
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  will shock you. So catering is time consuming.
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  She has to be there. Now if you're going to be doing
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  catering all the time, that is involved because you're doing it
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  yourself or because you're supervising people and you're
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  trying to make sure the quality is high and you're trying to
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  minimize theft. Because unfortunately, when it
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  comes to catering, there is plenty of theft.
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  Plenty. I'm saying it again, plenty of
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  theft involved. So please don't try yourself.
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  You want to be in the catering business.
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  You go and buy 70 kilos of meat because they're catering for a
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  wedding and then because you trust those people, you give
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  them the 70 kilos of meat. You tell them that they should
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  power boil it. After that they should roast it,
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  then they should grill it and then you say you want to go and
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  have your bath quick. Then you will come back, try
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  yourself 1 bath and come back. What you see it will surprise
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  you and of course nobody will know where the meat has
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  disappeared to and where was I? OK, so catering is really,
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  really time consuming. So you can't be doing all this
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  catering, whatever. And then on the side you're
• 11:55
  trying to break into the film industry.
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  How will you do that? If a wedding is Saturday, then
• 12:05
  cooking basically will be like Friday into Saturday morning.
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  Now if cooking is Friday, that means like, you know,
• 12:14
  preparations and buying things that will be like Thursday,
• 12:17
  Wednesday. So I mean, like, can you do
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  anything realistic trying to break into the film industry
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  with just Monday and Tuesday? How will you do it?
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  I understand that you guys are trying to live your best lives.
• 12:32
  Well, by the time you sit and look at things from a very
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  practical point of view, especially sales point of view,
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  because sales now is all about that value, is all about that
• 12:40
  money. So you're trying to get revenue
• 12:44
  from this catering thing. You're also trying to see how
• 12:46
  you can, you know, cash some cheques from breaking into the
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  film industry at the end of the day, how you push it.
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  You can't sell all these things right now.
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  You can't. And that is why, unfortunately,
• 13:02
  you have to pick one. Now.
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  What I've been telling lots of people who I come across and
• 13:08
  I've been talking about on the podcast is how the people who
• 13:11
  you love and respect, who are serially entrepreneurs, they
• 13:13
  didn't start everything at the same time.
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  They did one first, validated the idea, achieved significant
• 13:21
  cash flows, scaled the business, and then they moved on to
• 13:24
  something else. So Dangote, according to some
• 13:28
  Gist started off as a started off in haulage.
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  So he had a bunch of we got some money from his rich uncle and he
• 13:36
  bought a bunch of trucks and started the haulage business.
• 13:39
  When haulage business was settled, then they started doing
• 13:44
  trading, trading cement from the Gist ahead.
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  If any of you have read his autobiography, I beg let me know
• 13:51
  because I'm giving people fake gist.
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  Let me know, you know, because it's nice if I've read the
• 13:54
  Danguted book. It's just that I served in Kano
• 13:56
  and you know, Dangut is a bit of a legend in Kano.
• 13:58
  So people talk about him and his starting and stuff like that.
• 14:02
  And boy, you know, sometimes gist cannot be 100% correct.
• 14:08
  So from trading in cement later on open cement factories and you
• 14:13
  know, on and on and on and then spaghetti and then sugar.
• 14:16
  And then, you know, he tried the juice company.
• 14:18
  The juice company didn't work. Now he has the refinery.
• 14:21
  The refinery seems to be doing OK and he's going to open a
• 14:23
  business port, a shipping port, zinc, Calabar also.
• 14:28
  But he didn't start off saying I'm going to do transport, then
• 14:32
  I'm going to do trading, then I'm going to do manufacturing,
• 14:35
  then I'm going to do petrol refining and I'm going to have a
• 14:38
  port. He did not decide to do all of
• 14:40
  those things at the same time who are step by step by step.
• 14:46
  Look at any of your favorite serial entrepreneurs.
• 14:48
  That's how they did it. You cannot be a caterer and an
• 14:54
  actress and a screenwriter at the same time.
• 14:59
  Pick one. So because sales training,
• 15:09
  looking at things from a revenue, revenue perspective
• 15:11
  forces you to start thinking in these terms, which one can I
• 15:15
  build a business around? How quickly can I build a
• 15:17
  business around this? How quickly can I scale this?
• 15:20
  How quickly can I get traction around this idea?
• 15:24
  Because sales forces you to think in this kind of way.
• 15:27
  This is the reason why I believe that sales training is for
• 15:29
  everyone. Everybody needs training in
• 15:32
  sales because at the end of the day, sales is not just about
• 15:35
  closing deals. It focuses you on what's really
• 15:38
  important and then it helps you It it also forces you to learn
• 15:44
  people skills because whether you're a caterer, whether you're
• 15:48
  an actress or whether you are a screenwriter, you're going to
• 15:51
  have to learn how to pursue your agenda while working well with
• 15:55
  other people. Sales is also going to help you,
• 16:00
  is also going to force you to focus because when it comes to
• 16:03
  sales, we're always about that next step.
• 16:06
  Whether you're trying to build your business as a caterer or
• 16:08
  you're trying to blow as an actress, or you're trying to get
• 16:12
  into the screen writing game, we always have to be focused on the
• 16:14
  next step. Who is the next person I need to
• 16:18
  talk to? Who is the next meet?
• 16:19
  What is the next meeting that I need to secure?
• 16:22
  Now that I've secured the meeting?
• 16:23
  What is the next step to move this relationship forward?
• 16:29
  So summary, we've already been here 15 minutes, then not take
• 16:32
  up too much of your time. What I'm just trying to say
• 16:34
  basically is if you want to be effective, stop juggling.
• 16:38
  And some of you are juggling too many things.
• 16:42
  Even this lady that she's not juggling too many thing.
• 16:44
  She picked the hardest things to come and juggle because trust
• 16:49
  me, you can't build a screen writing career or an acting
• 16:52
  career. You can't do that overnight.
• 16:54
  It's not something you do in two weeks.
• 16:58
  So pick Elaine, build a momentum and get the results.
• 17:03
  So that's all for today. Sorry about the noise in the
• 17:05
  background. Some tractor is just driving
• 17:07
  through. In fact, it's a good idea.
• 17:09
  Maybe I should just wrap it up now.
• 17:10
  So thanks for listening. I'll catch you all some other
• 17:13
  time.