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Networking 001 - Random Thoughts Part 1 · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayedi.
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  I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at
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  home, so expect to hear some noise in the background.
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  If you would love to connect, you can call, send me a text
• 0:12
  message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 0:19
  Now today on the podcast, I want us to look at myths about
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  networking. I repeat myths about networking,
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  false ideas about networking, mistakes or false ideas, bad
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  ideas that people have about networking.
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  Now, the reason why I want us to look at that today is because I
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  saw a post on LinkedIn where the person was talking about
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  networking. And of course, whenever people
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  talk about networking, they always come out from one kind.
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  I don't know, you know, that whole authenticity angle and
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  this thing is not really going to help people who are nervous
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  about networking because to be honest, people who are nervous
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  about networking already feel self-conscious enough.
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  So you putting up posts saying that to be networking, you know,
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  you have to be authentic, you have to be this, you have to be
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  that. You're just giving people more
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  stress. You're giving people more angst
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  because, you know, the bigger question now becomes, you know,
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  what does the authentic mean? What is the authentic?
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  This what I mean? Like there's just plenty of
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  headache. So I like to approach these
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  things from a very, excuse me, practical point of view,
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  especially from a sales and business development.
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  So excuse me, I have a bit of a cold.
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  So especially from a sales and business development
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  perspective. So myth number one that
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  networking involves lots of small talk or awkward talk and
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  of course small talk. How we define it now, you know,
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  pointless talk, like, oh, OK, in the UK for instance, small talk
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  was always the weather. Oh, nice day isn't it?
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  You know, because it rains there all the time.
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  So the day they have some small sunshine, he was, oh, nice
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  weather, isn't it? So weather point, let's talk
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  about the economy, about things trending on social media or
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  stuff like that. But a pointless conversation.
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  And that's what lots of people assume.
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  So yeah, that's the first myth. Networking, proper networking
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  has nothing to do with small talk.
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  Now, small talk has a way in society.
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  I mean, a use in society, you know, to pass the time, you
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  know, just a harmless banter whenever you're in social
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  situations. But then when we show up in
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  networking situations, really, we're not there to pass the
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  time. We're there because we're trying
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  to meet people, we're trying to know people, we're trying to
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  move our careers along. We're trying to move our
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  businesses along. So pointless conversation, you
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  know, in noble pay. So there's there's no point now.
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  So rather than going along with all this small talk or trying to
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  initiate small talk, what you have to do is try and engage in
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  pleasant other focused conversations.
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  Then we repeat, we want these conversations to be pleasant and
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  to be enjoyable and to be engaged.
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  I'll be engaged, I'll be engaging to be engaging as
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  everybody were all vibing along. And the only way that we're
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  going to get that to happen is if we focus on the other people,
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  not on us. Because the goal here is we're
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  trying to figure out who is in this room and who is worth
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  building relationships with later.
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  Who can we collaborate with later?
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  Whose setup do we want to inject ourselves into later?
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  Who could be a valuable resource?
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  Who could be a valuable team member?
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  Who could be a valuable this, not that, that, you know,
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  whatever or sure, when we're in the room and we're networking,
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  we're trying to figure out who is who.
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  And we can only figure that out when we engage in conversations
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  with other people. Let me use my mistake that I've
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  seen some people do, which is you walk into a room and you're
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  like, oh, I graduated first class and you know, started six
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  companies. So you're going around the whole
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  room telling everybody, I graduated first class from
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  university and I have started six companies and I have raised
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  1,000,000 in $1 million in seed funding.
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  Now that is some interesting bit of info.
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  But The thing is, it is just interesting bit of info from
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  your own point of view. And if you go around blabbing
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  and boasting about yourself, how are you going to be able to
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  figure out who is worth spending time with in the room?
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  You could be talking to the daughter of the vice president
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  and you don't know because all you've been doing is, you know,
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  I graduated first class. I did YCI raised £1,000,000.
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  I did me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
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  So you make it about the other person.
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  So if that's the thing that is shocking you, that, you know,
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  you raise £1,000,000 and you know, you, you started five
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  companies. Go around asking, hey, nice to
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  meet you, you know, hello, blah, blah, blah, nice to meet you.
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  I'm assuming you're here because you're a business founder as
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  well. Or really, how many companies
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  have you started? And then from there, be asking,
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  be asking, be asking, be asking, be asking questions about them,
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  about the companies that they started, about the investment
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  thesis, about the problems that they're trying to solve, you
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  know, and on and on. Yes, from there, they'll be able
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  to see that, you know what, this girl, she's sharp.
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  She'll be good on my team. Or this guy is a baller, he
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  could be the potential customer is from there that you will now
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  manoeuvre and get business card and get business phone number so
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  that after this networking session is over, you now know
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  that you're calling this babe because she's a correct asset
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  for my team. Then you're calling this guy
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  because he might be a good customer to buy your product or
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  your service or he'll be good to invest in whatever it is that
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  you're starting up. So don't go around at me
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  boasting, go around be asking people questions about
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  themselves. That will give you a sense of
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  who is in this room, who is who, who are the movers and the
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  Shakers. By the way, everybody's worthy
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  of respect, OK? So we respect everybody.
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  But I just know that you, you understand as in we define
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  something, we're looking for something.
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  So we have to sift through people, but it doesn't mean we
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  look down on some people because you know how you be now my aunt
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  used to say no condition is permanent.
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  And I used to think, what's this man going on about?
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  And truly, truly, now that we've grown, I've seen that my auntie
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  was correct because there's some people who are church rats of
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  yesteryears and now they're the ones that are, you know, they're
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  the ones that are full ground. They're the ones that are
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  running things. So respect everybody.
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  No situation is permanent. Respect everybody.
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  Basha, when we're in the room, we're trying to figure out who
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  is who, who is worth building relationships with later on.
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  OK, then let me give you an example.
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  So for instance, there was this event that I went for, OK, why I
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  didn't go for it was a British Council event, British Council
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  and Commonwealth. So that was organized with, in
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  conjunction with the British High Commission and they had
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  just given, OK, I haven't mentioned it in my, I think in
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  the partners I did like 2-3 days ago.
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  So it was, it was the departure session for those people who
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  have been awarded Commonwealth scholarship and chief evening
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  scholarships. So as we're wrapping up the set
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  now there's one girl, one lady, sorry, excuse me, one young
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  lady, she was very masterful. One guy was about walking out
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  and then she just walked up to the fellow and she said, hey,
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  excuse me, hi. The guy stopped and turned
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  around. The guy see fine beep.
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  So the guy stopped and the girl was fine shut, I won't lie.
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  And then she said, I noticed you're going to London School of
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  Economics as well. And then the guy said, Oh no,
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  it's Oxford actually. And the girl was like, oh,
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  sorry, I thought you, you're, you were for the PPE program.
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  PPE is politics, philosophy and economics.
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  I know that because when I was going to OAUI actually wanted to
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  study politics, philosophy and economics.
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  But Mum, she said, my son, if you study this course, you would
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  die broke and I need to make money.
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  So I said, OK, let me study law. And his lawyers are rich.
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  So that's why I decided. So she said, oh, sorry, I
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  thought you were for the PPE program.
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  And the guy was like, yeah, actually I'm going to be doing
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  PPE but a different school. And then the girl was like, oh,
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  I heard you a biology undergrad. How come you chose PPE?
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  And the guy was like, yeah, I can tell you all about it.
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  Are you leaving as well? Because remember, the guy was
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  working out and the girl was like, Oh, no, actually I'm not.
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  And the guy was like, no problem.
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  We can't chew here for a while. And my mind, I'm thinking as he
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  is idiot. You're on your way home because
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  you've seen fine girl, your shining teeth.
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  You want to stay now when is all good?
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  It's all good. That's that's networking.
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  You never know. She can be a business partner
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  tomorrow. She can't be a spouse tomorrow.
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  I mean, you never know. So you can see now that when she
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  walked up with that guy, all she was doing was asking questions
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  and exploring commonality. She our scholarship is PPE.
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  She heard this guy scholarship is PPE.
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  Of course, it makes sense that if I'm a PPE person, politics,
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  philosophy and economics, I suppose they network with people
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  in my cada, people in my set, people in my interest group, you
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  understand, we suppose stick together because that's how as
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  we go for this scholarship, come back and people are beginning to
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  slot themselves in different places in society.
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  You know, if all of us are sticking together, are we PPE
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  people? That's how you know we'll be
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  rising, you understand, you know, because the whole point of
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  these programs is not Japan, is that you go for scholarship, you
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  now come back and make yourself useful in Nigerian society.
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  So it makes sense that as these people are going out now,
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  they're beginning to network and place themselves in some place,
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  you know, arrange, you know, build some kind of alliances.
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  So that's it. She's a PPE person and the
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  mathematics is simple. Anybody where they do PPE, I
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  suppose connect with this person now before all of us go because
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  you never know who is who. If you can't jam nephew or
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  president or something like that, by the time you're coming
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  back and the guy is being slaughtered into one or two
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  places you self, you go online. So that's how networking works.
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  But for her, what she did was brilliant.
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  I'm going to explore commonality with people here.
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  So for us it's the same thing, areas of commonality, who's
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  worth building a business with, who's worth building a personal
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  relationship with. Very, very simple.
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  So just show up a very simple questions.
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  What brought you here today? What is the biggest take away
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  you've had so far on the session?
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  Do you have any exciting projects, interested projects
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  that you're working on? You know, as in simple things,
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  but The thing is it has to be focused on the other person, not
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  on you. Now, another myth is people
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  assume that people assume that networking can only be done when
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  you're in a crowded room and that is not always the case.
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  Well, look, you know what? OK, I'm running out of time
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  here, so I'll just make a separate episode about these
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  ones. So let's just pause.
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  Let's just say we finished and Part 1.
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  I'll come back and we'll continue from Part 2.
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  Remember, if you'd love to connect, call SMS or WhatsApp me
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  on 08064662140. I'll catch you guys at the next
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  episode.