Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Daydreaming About the "Magic Product": Here's How to Actually Sell It

Transcript

Stop Daydreaming About the "Magic Product": Here's How to Actually Sell It · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. The usual apologies.
0:06
Tonight is a late night recording.
0:07
So the noises that you hear in the background, Yeah, those are
0:11
cars and termites. Termites, crickets, you know,
0:15
whatever it is that they're called.
0:16
So now let's head straight to the question for today.
0:22
Yeah, good news for those of you who are tired of me telling you
0:25
what is not important in your business and what you should not
0:29
be paying attention to. We are coming to the end of the
0:35
the questions where were where. I am addressing people who have
0:38
limited business experience and trying to give them practical
0:42
guidance for first time entrepreneurs.
0:44
Now I started off this whole series by saying a couple of
0:47
things about five or six things that I think first time
0:50
entrepreneurs need to pay attention to.
0:52
And the first one was your business name is not as
0:54
important as you think. So don't waste too much time on
0:57
your business name. If this is your first time of
0:59
listening to the show and that sounds counterintuitive to you,
1:03
then skip back. That should be like 4 episodes
1:06
and you will get the details on that.
1:08
You'll get the scoop. From there, we moved into
1:11
tackling why branding is not as important as you think and why
1:14
you shouldn't waste much time on branding.
1:17
So for those of you brand and PR aficionados who are offended,
1:21
then skip back. That will be three episodes and
1:25
you will get caught up to speed on the nuanced idea that I was
1:28
trying to express there. Then I also had advice for the
1:32
newbies that your business idea is not as important as you
1:36
think, so you shouldn't spend so much time trying to hide your
1:39
idea or trying to protect it. For those of you who have legal
1:43
sensibilities, you know you went to law school, you're a lawyer,
1:47
or you're an IP professional, intellectual property protection
1:50
professional. Then skip back one episode to
1:54
yesterday's episode and you will get caught up to date on the
2:00
tips, tricks, advice, or the business philosophy that I had
2:03
for newbies in this space who are wondering, I have the
2:07
greatest idea in the world. I don't want anybody to steal
2:09
the idea. How do I protect it?
2:11
So I went into the whole thing about how the idea itself is not
2:14
the important thing, it's the execution of the idea.
2:17
And what you should even be trying to do, first of all, is
2:20
to validate the idea to show that there is some market
2:22
demand. People do find it useful.
2:24
People actually are willing to spend money behind this thing
2:29
before you start investing money behind IP protection.
2:32
So for those of you who like looking at stuff from legal and
2:36
you'll find yesterday's episode interesting.
2:39
So today. Oh yeah.
2:42
So today what we're looking at is the the idea that there's no
2:45
business idea that is so great that it is going to sell itself.
2:49
That's what we're tackling today.
2:50
And then tomorrow what we're going to look at how business is
2:54
a team sport, because I want the newbies to know that no matter
2:58
the kind of business that you want to build, well, that's a
3:02
cottage kind of business. You know, selling a carrier at
3:05
the back of your house with your kids or you being a supplier of
3:08
catfish to market women, or you starting a fintech firm or you
3:14
trying to start a cement factory or whatever, or whatever level
3:18
it is that you want to play at. We have to realize that business
3:21
is a team sport. And then we have to anticipate
3:23
for that. We have to plan for that.
3:24
So the whole thing of the solo, self-made businessman, self-made
3:29
tycoon, woman, self-made this solo that, excuse me, nothing is
3:34
just a myth. It doesn't exist.
3:36
It makes for very good PR and it makes for very good
3:40
autobiographies and stuff like that, but it's not real.
3:44
There's no solo anybody. There's no self-made anybody.
3:49
Business is always, I'm a team sport.
3:51
You might be the captain. That's the reason why you're
3:53
getting all the press. Still doesn't change the fact
3:55
that you have a team behind you. So let's head straight into the
4:03
matter for today. And that is there is no business
4:05
idea that is so great that it's going to sell itself.
4:08
Now, the reason why I'm tackling this is because there's this
4:10
fallacy that is out there that there's some business ideas and
4:13
some businesses that are so great that they sell themselves.
4:17
So all you have to do is very little work.
4:19
All you have to do is just slot yourself into position and start
4:22
collecting the profits. And there are people who believe
4:25
that this sort of thing exists, and there are people who want to
4:28
work smart and not want to work hard and are constantly looking
4:32
for these sorts of things that this thing will practically sell
4:37
itself. All I have to do is wake up and
4:39
be in position, and then I'll start counting my money.
4:42
So for some people, that is the Holy Grail of business.
4:46
Like, if I can find this thing, I'd be set for life.
4:49
But is it a pipe dream? That's the kind of question that
4:53
I want us to look at today. Now, one popular example that
4:56
people give about this whole thing of products that
4:58
practically sell themselves is this whole thing of the iPhone.
5:02
So currently we're at iPhone. OK, let me not betray my lack of
5:08
pop culture awareness. I was going to say currently
5:10
what iPhone 13 or 14, but I don't know what to say
5:17
categorically that we're 13 or 14.
5:19
And then somebody there is thinking, Oh my God, this guy is
5:21
stuck in the stone ages. We're currently at 18 or 19.
5:24
So anyway, I don't know what the current iteration is of the
5:27
iPhone, but one reason why people speak of the iPhone as
5:33
this sort of product is obviously the iPhone and the Mac
5:38
products are behind the huge success that has been Apple.
5:42
And then whenever they release a new edition, so let's say we're
5:45
currently at 16 or 17, when they release 18 or 19 or 20 or 20,
5:50
whatever, the, it's going to be the same.
5:53
There's going to be an announcement, there's going to
5:56
be the anticipation, there's going to be the hype.
5:58
And then people are going to line outside stores in America
6:01
so that they can be one of the first to get them.
6:04
And in Nigeria, the phones are going to come in at much more
6:10
than market value. You know, it's going to be all
6:14
that crazy. And so people look at it as that
6:16
is one example of this is a product that sells itself.
6:21
So yes, Steve Jobs, iPhone, Mac products, they're so beautiful.
6:30
They're so intuitive that they sell themselves.
6:33
But is that really the truth? For those of you who have
6:36
already read the Fellow's autobiography?
6:39
Well, I haven't read it. Or did he write an
6:41
autobiography? Well, anyway, there are books
6:43
dedicated to him anyway. So for those of you who have
6:45
read the book, the books, you'll be able to testify to this.
6:48
I've seen some snippets of the movie.
6:50
I haven't even watched the movie from beginning to the end.
6:53
That's the one with what's this dude, this guy that married
6:56
Madonna, I think, and then later on married Mia Kunis.
7:00
What's his name? Ashton Kutcher.
7:04
Ashton Kutcher, I think, yes. OK.
7:05
No, he wasn't married to Madonna.
7:07
He was married to Bruce Willis's wife.
7:09
What's her name? So GI Jane, she acted GI Jane,
7:12
Bruce Willis, wife. And I can't remember, but yes,
7:15
I'm the one that. So Ashton Kutcher played Jobs,
7:19
although I heard that there's another Jobs movie out there, so
7:22
maybe I'll watch that one. So for those of you who have
7:24
watched the movies or read the books, you see that.
7:27
Yeah, they started off humble beginnings.
7:29
You had founders that were fiddling with an idea and they
7:32
started selling motherboards first.
7:34
So motherboards are, How do I explain it?
7:38
OK, so computer, that's the hardware.
7:40
That's the thing that you see on the outside.
7:42
If you crack it open and you look on the inside, you're going
7:45
to find motherboards. That is that green little thing
7:49
that is soldered and welded and the microprocessors are attached
7:52
to it. And all the Gisburn, everything
7:55
that all the secretary that is needed to to make it work is
7:58
attached to it. So that's the motherboard.
8:00
So they started off selling motherboards or something like
8:02
motherboards. Now eventually they were able to
8:05
cobble together a computer and then they had to engage in
8:08
fundraising rounds to start a company.
8:10
And then since Jobs was all about this whole thing of
8:15
products looking nice and sleek and everything, they had to hire
8:18
great design and product development teams, and they also
8:22
had to hire great public relations and advertising firms.
8:26
That's the reason why that advertisement, the Super Bowl
8:29
one, I can't remember what year anyway, Was it 1983 or
8:34
something? But only the the the ad, the
8:38
1984 ad, some, as people like to call it, was based on was based
8:46
on what's this guy's name? George Orwell.
8:47
Have you Animal Farm. Yeah.
8:50
George Orwell. Yeah.
8:51
So he wrote a book, 1984. It's supposed to be some
8:54
dystopian science fiction. And so the Apple had this great
8:59
idea for an advertisement. You can check on YouTube, you
9:02
know, be there, just type in Apple 1984.
9:05
You see the, the advert. I mean, now the advert doesn't
9:07
look like it's great, but back then it, it was, was a brilliant
9:12
idea. When, when did it run 1983?
9:17
OK, well, I was a baby then anyway.
9:18
I didn't see it myself. But The thing is, mom seen later
9:22
on, that's my own mom later on would become a public relations
9:26
professional and a marketing exec.
9:29
So these are some of the things that I would hear about as a
9:33
little child, you know, Mumsy Popsy talking about some things
9:37
like that. So yeah, apparently this was a
9:42
really cool advertisement at the time.
9:46
Anyway, I digress. So they had to high grade public
9:48
relations people, they had to hire advertising firms.
9:51
And for those of you who have been watching all the releases
9:55
of the product, you see that there's great showmanship that
9:57
is involved in the product launches.
9:59
So there's that whole thing of, you know, the whole the
10:01
convention, Steve Job comes out, he's looking casual, but clearly
10:04
he's polished. It's a solid presentation, you
10:07
know, blah, blah, blah, and all these things.
10:09
Now, for those of you who have read the books and for those of
10:13
you who have watched the movies, I want you guys to think about
10:16
it and tell me which part of this story looks like or which
10:20
part of this story sounds like. The product sold itself.
10:24
It did not. They started selling
10:27
motherboards. They raised some valley.
10:29
They raised some money. Then eventually they were able
10:32
to set up a computer, but then they had to go and start
10:36
toasting people to raise funds to start a company.
10:40
Then they use that money to hire great design people and product
10:44
development people to design what they thought was the
10:47
perfect product. Then they had to hire great
10:49
public relations and advertising firms.
10:52
Why did they do that? They did that because they were
10:54
trying to sell the thing and they did that expensive
10:58
advertising campaign on the Super Bowl.
11:01
And then they go through all this trouble of all this
11:03
showmanship whenever they're about to launch.
11:05
Steve Job comes up, guys looking casual, looking relaxed.
11:09
There's the lights, there's the music, you know, there's the
11:12
everything, the whole Polish presentation and, you know,
11:16
there's press packets and everything like that.
11:18
So where in all this thing does it sound like the product is
11:22
selling itself? So it really makes me like, it
11:25
blows my mind every time I hear somebody say this whole thing or
11:28
oh, the iPhone sells itself. Like which selling itself.
11:31
It's not selling itself never has sold itself.
11:35
You know, Steve Jobs is obviously selling the damn
11:37
thing. And if he's not selling it, he's
11:39
getting people who know how to help him sell the damn thing.
11:43
So the iPhone does not sell itself.
11:47
So if your idea is that there's going to be a product that is
11:50
going to be the Holy Grail, I'll make you money and the iPhone is
11:54
your model, then get ready for two decades of product
11:58
development, two decades of fundraising, 2 decades of
12:01
stakeholder management because the stakeholder management
12:04
involved, because you know, once you collect investors money and
12:07
they're sitting on your board, investors now feel like they can
12:09
tell you don't do this, don't do this, let's do this.
12:12
So stakeholder management doing that for two decades.
12:15
Then there's inventory management because you're
12:17
producing a physical product. You have to anticipate demand,
12:24
Make enough, but don't make too many.
12:26
Also, don't make too small because if you make too small
12:28
and there's too much demand, you know there's a problem.
12:30
Then there's also supply chain management because you're
12:32
manufacturing some of these things overseas right now.
12:35
I've been hearing, I don't know how true that is that iPhones
12:38
are actually manufactured in China, But you know, I don't pay
12:42
attention to that kind of tech news, so I don't know for sure.
12:44
So the supply chain management, how, how quickly are the Chinese
12:48
people making this thing? How quickly can they get them
12:50
over to the US? And by the time we launch, are
12:52
we going to be able to supply enough of them to those guys in
12:55
Nigeria, you know, who love our iPhones?
12:57
So I'm going to buy the iPhones and then all these things.
12:59
So really if you think there's a product that sells itself and
13:03
you think all the iPhone is the ideal thing that sells itself,
13:07
I'm going to model myself after iPhone.
13:09
Then this is the amount of work that you have to put up with for
13:13
two decades or more to get this thing.
13:16
So look, The thing is, if you all these Holy Grail businesses,
13:22
these products that sell themselves, blah, blah, blah,
13:24
blah, blah, just go and check. You don't even have to read the
13:27
whole book or watch the whole film.
13:28
You will find a similar back story.
13:30
So there's nothing that sells themselves.
13:32
Some people talk about how drugs are easy to sell themselves
13:34
because they're addictive. And no, even drugs don't sell
13:37
themselves because first of all, when somebody comes out with a
13:40
new drug, it doesn't matter whether it's cocaine or whether
13:42
it's all these synthetic drugs that are coming out now in the
13:45
UK. Oh, by the way, I hear that in
13:48
Abuja and Nigeria, the synthetics are already here,
13:52
synthetic drugs. So there's product development
13:56
and trials, product development and trials.
13:58
It costs money. You have to pay science boys and
14:01
science girls, you know, to do their stuff and come up with the
14:05
correct mixture of, you know, I'm not in that world, so I have
14:08
no idea. But you have to pay people to
14:10
mix this kind of stuff. It's going to require an initial
14:12
investment. So you have to raise money by
14:14
yourself or raise money from other people.
14:16
And of course, these are illegal activities.
14:18
So you have to keep things kind of thing.
14:20
You have to keep things secret. You have to keep it on the
14:22
download. While you're keeping things on
14:24
the download. You have to figure out
14:25
distribution channels because because if you come out with the
14:28
perfect magic drug today, it doesn't mean you're going to
14:30
blow and make a lot of money. So excuse me, you just have to
14:34
figure out the right distribution channel like any
14:36
drug, sorry, like any product or service.
14:38
So that's the reason why these drug peoples are always have
14:43
connects with party promoters and venue promoters and things
14:45
like that. And I hear that in Abuja for
14:48
instance, Abuja is where I live, capital of Nigeria.
14:50
I hear that, you know, that's how these things make the
14:52
rounds. So parties, people are trying
14:56
out new pills, people are trying out new concoctions, things like
15:00
that. So these people that are
15:02
involved in making these things, you know, they are, like I said,
15:08
they're trying to hook up distribution, distribution
15:11
channels as well. So just like any other business
15:15
person, legit or otherwise, he's trying to see what are the
15:20
avenues that I can put my product or service in that
15:22
people will see and people will try out.
15:24
It's the same thing. So that's where this unholy
15:26
alliance between drug dealers and party promoters and venue
15:29
promoters, that's where the whole thing comes up.
15:32
Then they have to do lots of networking because they have to
15:37
get into the right circles to find the right ideal customer
15:40
profile. That's the person that is going
15:42
to the ideal group of people that are going to buy these
15:46
things. That's the reason why, for
15:48
instance, you don't see drug dealers outside your local
15:51
church because you know folks that go to church, you know
15:57
student union people. No, not student union, what's
15:59
called SU scripture union. So scripture union people,
16:03
arguably that is not the right target audience.
16:06
And so that's why do not come and flirt your churches.
16:09
And so you find the right ICP. Then you don't have to give them
16:12
free samples, the puppy dog clothes or the trial clothes,
16:15
you know, you give some, give somebody something small, let
16:18
them taste, let them sample. If they like it, they will come
16:21
back. And then you make your profit by
16:23
maximizing lifetime customer value.
16:25
So that's the scope, that's how this thing works.
16:27
So we give them a small sample, they like it, they come back and
16:30
they pay. And over the course of, I don't
16:34
know, however, months before the person becomes clean and sober
16:37
or whatever it is, that's where you make your money.
16:39
You make your money on the back end.
16:41
Then there's also manufacturing and packaging hassles because
16:45
you have to figure out market penetration problems because
16:49
even for people that do illicit drugs or illegal drugs or
16:52
whatever, by the time you're coming up with your own mixture,
16:55
there's already someone who occupies market share.
16:57
There's someone that is there. I mean, the market is never
17:00
vacant. So even when it comes to drugs
17:04
that are addictive and in theory should sell themselves, Hope you
17:08
guys can see that the drug, all the new fancy stuff, the
17:13
designer drugs so excuse me, that are coming in from Europe
17:18
and America, they don't sell themselves.
17:21
They make their way to the Nigerian market.
17:23
And then there are people who have to take this figure out
17:26
distribution channels, network, get into the party scene, the
17:30
club scene, hook up with promoters, hook up with venues,
17:33
figure out who are the people that we should be selling this
17:36
thing to. Is it middle class people?
17:37
Is it upper class people? Is it children or politicians?
17:39
Is it whatever? They have to figure it out and
17:42
then they have to lose some money by giving out free samples
17:44
just to get people hooked on this thing and on and on and on
17:47
and on and on. So even something like this that
17:50
is highly addictive, The thing is not selling itself.
17:53
So anyway, don't mind me, I've gone on this 20 minute rant.
17:57
But what I'm trying to say is if you have very little experience
18:02
in business, you're about to jump in.
18:05
Stop looking for that business idea that will allow you to sit
18:09
back and relax. It doesn't exist.
18:13
Now let me tell you something in theory, if you do find one that
18:17
exists, like if you enter this business, all you have to do is
18:20
kick back, relax, maybe can start counting your money.
18:24
Everybody and their uncle and their auntie and their younger
18:27
brother and their children will copy you because it is such a
18:31
great product or great service or a great idea.
18:34
When everybody starts copying you, market pressure is going to
18:38
force you to try and distinguish yourself from the competition.
18:42
Because if everybody is doing it, then really why should I
18:45
come and buy the stuff from you? So eventually you will have to
18:48
engage in marketing, you have to engage in selling, you have to
18:52
engage in branding, you have to engage in promotional
18:55
activities. You'll have to engage in
18:57
something to set yourself apart from the crowd.
19:00
So in theory, even if you are that lucky SOB that finds that
19:05
kind of thing, that once you enter, you just sit back, your
19:09
advantage will not last for long because your boys are watching
19:13
you, your girls are watching you.
19:15
And is it anything is a cash cow.
19:16
Of course they will enter market pressure.
19:19
Eventually you will have to sell.
19:21
So it's no such thing. However, for the sake of
19:27
argument, what is the closest thing that you can get to to
19:30
having a product that sells itself?
19:35
In my own opinion, First off, you have to come with a good
19:37
idea. We've done episodes on that in
19:42
the past. Look at your hobbies or your
19:43
interests, try and look for gaps in the market, problems in the
19:47
ecosystem, you know, those sorts of things.
19:50
Get a good idea, Then you have to create an MVP.
19:54
An MVP is a minimum viable product is the smallest version
19:58
of your idea that can work, that somebody can see, can taste, can
20:02
touch, can smell, can criticize, can say yes, can buy, can
20:06
reject, can abuse, can criticize, but something shy
20:10
that people can have an opinion on.
20:14
Then you validate the idea. Once you have created that
20:16
thing, you try and sell it, or you shall customer service or
20:21
give free samples and hear what people have to say.
20:24
The thing is, do anything to get this MVP into people's hands so
20:28
you can see if there's demand. They look for feedback.
20:30
Whatever feedback they use, take it and use it to make your bro,
20:34
your product, or your service better.
20:38
If there's a demand, then continue to sell to people that
20:40
you think are your ideal audience.
20:42
See how much traction you can get.
20:45
When you get traction, make sure you're trying to bring in repeat
20:47
business. Make sure you're trying to bring
20:49
in referrals because that's the goal of traditional sales
20:51
theory. And that is how businesses are
20:55
propagated. That's how businesses are
20:56
continued. It's from people coming back to
20:59
buy again or telling their friends, their family members,
21:02
their associates, maybe even their enemies, telling them to
21:05
come and buy from you. That's how your business is
21:07
going going to grow. Then once you get that traction,
21:11
see how you can scale. If you're not getting any
21:15
traction, if you can't validate the idea, that's a topic for
21:18
another episode. But really this, that is the,
21:25
you know what? There's no such thing as a
21:26
product that sells itself. This is level of work that that
21:29
goes into it. So you don't have to sell, you
21:32
have to push, you have to promote this thing or whatever
21:34
it is. If you feel like you don't have
21:37
a stomach for that kind of thing, then partner with someone
21:39
else who can, which is the reason why back to this job
21:42
thing, it is actually Wozniak and Jobs.
21:46
Wozniak idea guy, technical guy, the real creator of the Mac and
21:51
the iPhone and the everything. And then Jobs, who is the sales
21:56
guy, the promotional guy, the one who knows how to talk to
21:59
distributors, talk to investors and blah, blah, blah.
22:02
So this is one of the many templates that exist when it
22:04
comes for growing a business. But there are some other
22:08
perspectives, some other products and services that for
22:11
the sake of argument, let's say they come close to selling
22:13
themselves because of a combination of different
22:16
factors. So let's look at some of them.
22:18
Now, there's some things that have high demand and low
22:20
barriers to entry. These are necessities.
22:22
So water, high demand, low barriers to entry, electricity,
22:27
high demand. Well, actually for electricity,
22:29
the barriers to entry are quite high, at least in Nigeria
22:31
because this huge capital outlay that is required.
22:35
And then also household items, you know, these are things that
22:37
people need. And the buying process is
22:39
simple. So in theory, yeah, you can get
22:43
into the water business. It's something that sells
22:45
itself, you know, in theory, but it's not that simple.
22:49
Then you should be trying to get viral marketing on the Internet
22:53
or word of mouth that is also you trying to strive for the
22:57
product or the service selling itself if you're going to
23:01
achieve some virality. Sorry about that.
23:05
Then what else? Yeah, freemium.
23:08
Freemium apps. The idea behind freemium is
23:11
this. You have your service typically
23:14
delivered over an app. You release the first thing for
23:17
free. You guys more that they enjoy,
23:19
as in just be enjoying it. But if you want to get more than
23:21
you don't have to pay us. That is exactly what Spotify is
23:24
doing right now. So Spotify you can enjoy, be
23:27
enjoying, be flexing, be playing all the music.
23:30
But if you want to play dedicated playlists, then you
23:34
have to pay us 900 naira every month.
23:36
I think at the time of this recording, I think it's 900
23:38
naira every month, and some of you say 900, not expensive, you
23:42
will pay. So that's the whole thing behind
23:46
freemium. So in this case, you can see
23:48
that I guess Spotify is kind of selling itself because the
23:52
freemium thing is there. You'll be using it, you'll be
23:55
enjoying the music, you enjoy the bedroom, you're having a
23:57
good time, but you want to be able to play your exact playlist
24:01
as you have decided. It's not Spotify telling you
24:04
which kind of music you should listen to.
24:06
And you say there's only 900 Nair per month.
24:08
Let me pay the 900. So that freemium, freemium apps,
24:13
freemium services, that is kind of a product or service selling
24:18
itself. There's also the spirit behind
24:20
what people like to call product LED growth.
24:22
PLG. That's a topic for a future
24:24
episode. If I know someone who reached
24:26
out to me, she listens to the podcast.
24:28
We haven't chatted in like 3, three, four months, but she's
24:32
been doing some experiments in PLG with her own company.
24:35
And I told her I look, I don't believe in PLG, but you're a
24:39
practitioner. So I'd love to hear what you
24:41
guys are working on. Let's see if this whole thing
24:42
works and I'll make a podcast episode about it, but that's in
24:49
the future. I'll get to it eventually.
24:51
Then another class of things that kind of sell themselves,
24:54
subscription services, things that have recurring value.
24:59
So for, for for convenience, people just want to
25:01
automatically renew. So like DSTV, in fact, there's
25:04
some people that just paid DSTV for what do I don't know about
25:07
now? Because now I think the cheapest
25:09
DSTV package at the date of this recording in Nigeria is I think
25:14
it's like 9 K or so. I think it's nine.
25:17
OK, nine K is not the cheapest, but the second to the last is 9
25:22
grand. So back in the day where I still
25:26
live with mom, see when we're in Lagos, mom, she just thought,
25:30
look, it's too much of A hassle. So she, she's like to just pay
25:33
upfront pay the whole year. But like I said, that was like a
25:36
decade ago, not now that the cheapest second to the last
25:40
package is 9 K. So, but there are some people
25:43
who say, you know what, instead of me paying for this thing
25:45
every month, let me just, let me just pay the whole year.
25:49
After all the children are around most of the time, let me
25:51
just pay. So you can see that this is
25:53
almost the product or the service selling itself.
25:56
So it's a subscription service. There's recurring revenue every
26:00
month. Sha, people will pay and pay and
26:02
pay and you do they will do promos around the UEFA World Cup
26:08
and all these things to get more people to subscribe.
26:10
So DSTV, cable TV, what else Internet purchase for those of
26:15
you who are on Spectra net on all those things.
26:18
So subscription you have to pay every month.
26:21
So this is almost the product or service selling itself because
26:25
you don't have to chase people every day.
26:28
But beyond these kind of things, you know, products that are high
26:32
demand, household items, low priority entry, freemium apps
26:36
and then subscription services. Beyond these things to say that
26:39
there's a self selling product, you are not going to find it.
26:43
But Please remember, take everything I'm saying with a
26:46
pinch of wisdom. I am not saying that you should
26:49
go out and look for the hardest product or service to start
26:51
with. No, Although sometimes looking
26:55
for the hardest thing to start with might not be a bad way to
26:58
go into business. Because think about it, if it's
27:01
hard, not many people will do it.
27:04
And if not many people will do it, you have a greater chance to
27:07
stand out. And that is how I started my own
27:11
public speaking and consulting journey.
27:15
I'm waiting. Photographer people know me for
27:17
wedding photography. I have certain ideas about
27:19
business. People say I'm good about sales
27:22
and so excuse me and how to make the transition to start speaking
27:27
and teaching. And so I had been blogging about
27:31
it for a while, but I realized that podcasting is a good way to
27:34
pass across information. And podcasting is hard and I
27:39
know that most people are lazy. So I knew that if I started and
27:44
I didn't give up, in a matter of time, I would be a lone voice
27:48
when it comes to business education.
27:50
So today I have over 860 episodes by competition,
27:55
including other sales trainers who are much more established.
27:58
Some people even have 15 years experience in the business.
28:02
I mean, people who have been doing this kind of training and
28:04
consulting back when I was still doing wedding photography.
28:08
A whole lot of those people have given up and have moved on to
28:11
other things. But anyway, that's a topic for
28:13
another day. But bottom line is sometimes
28:16
picking the hardest thing might also be a good strategy.
28:19
And that's why I've stopped this whole podcasting thing because
28:22
to be honest, I just need that look, podcasting is hard.
28:25
People will start by the time they do this thing, 8-9 months,
28:27
they'll say, whoa, man, this thing is too much stress after
28:30
I'm not getting clients. And then they will stop.
28:32
And after a couple of years, I would be the only man standing
28:36
if I give it another five years. OK, well anyway, let me not let
28:42
me not boast too much. Well, let me not talk too much.
28:45
Any who knows the future, but give it another, give it another
28:47
couple of years, another five years.
28:49
I probably will be a, a a lone voice when it comes to business
28:53
education. Anyway, let me stop taking my
28:55
own horn. So that's all for today pretty
28:58
much. Connect with me on WhatsApp.
29:00
The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
29:06
Then connect with me on LinkedIn.
29:08
My name is Tavish Mahadi, I'm the host of the show.
29:10
You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from
29:13
the link. We're currently listening to
29:15
this episode, so thank you very much for your time and
29:17
attention. Sorry I went real lengthy.
29:20
I just was trying to stress this whole thing that there's no
29:22
product or service that sells itself.
29:24
So for those of you who are newbies, you have limited
29:28
business experience, you're looking for practical guidance
29:31
for first time entrepreneurs. My advice to you for today is
29:34
stop looking for that. Stop looking for that golden
29:40
goose. It doesn't exist.
29:42
You won't come in and kick back and then collect your profits on
29:45
anything. You have to learn how to sell it
29:47
yourself or partner with someone who will sell it for you because
29:51
there's no product or service that sells itself.
29:54
So see you guys at the next recording.