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Conversations with a Tech Bro: Hiring Your First Salesperson · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to continue with our
• 0:04
  conversations with the tech bro. And the scenario that we're
• 0:09
  going to be looking at is situations where there is
• 0:12
  Someone Like You, for instance, listening to the podcast, you
• 0:16
  consider yourself great at building a product or building a
• 0:20
  service. You're good at product
• 0:22
  development, but you don't think you are good at selling.
• 0:25
  And so the question now becomes, should I hire a salesperson?
• 0:30
  I repeat, today we're continuing with our conversations with the
• 0:33
  tech bro. And I'm giving my own comments
• 0:36
  on the video that was sent to me about the guy in the tech space,
• 0:40
  really legendary guy in Niger who at a conference where there
• 0:46
  was lots of tech Bros and tech sisters, discussed a number of
• 0:49
  things related to sales and marketing that people ought to
• 0:53
  know before you start your startup.
• 0:55
  And so I'm just running commentary to see what did he
• 0:58
  get right, what did he get wrong?
• 1:00
  What do you guys need to know more about or what do you ladies
• 1:03
  need to know more about? If you are considering starting
• 1:08
  a startup now, if you love these sorts of things, then subscribe
• 1:12
  to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any podcast
• 1:16
  player of your choice. My name is Tava Shima Ayede, I
• 1:19
  am the host of the podcast. And if you'd love to connect
• 1:22
  with me, maybe you have questions, comments, queries or
• 1:25
  collaborations, then the number to call, send me a text message
• 1:29
  or WhatsApp message is 08064662140.
• 1:36
  I'm recording today's recording at home.
• 1:38
  So there's going to be noise in the background.
• 1:40
  Also, it's a Tuesday. And of course, regular
• 1:43
  listeners, you know that the house gets cleaned on Tuesday,
• 1:45
  so you're going to hear some noise in the background from
• 1:48
  that as well. So yeah, conversations with the
• 1:53
  tech bro. I am great at building, but I am
• 1:57
  not good at selling. Should I hire a salesperson?
• 2:02
  That's the main question we're going to be looking at today.
• 2:05
  So excuse me, still trying to recover from small gold because
• 2:10
  the Hamilton is picking up over here.
• 2:13
  So if you're good at selling, you're good at sorry, if you're
• 2:16
  good at building the product, good at creating the app with a
• 2:19
  product development, good at all that technical jazz, but you
• 2:22
  don't think you are good at selling, should you hire a
• 2:24
  salesperson? It's one of those it depends
• 2:27
  answers. But for today, let's just assume
• 2:30
  that the answer is yes. And let's run with me.
• 2:34
  Let's unpack the implications of that.
• 2:37
  Now, if you've listened to yesterday's podcast episode,
• 2:39
  you're going to be already familiar with some of the stuff
• 2:42
  that I've heard. But if this is your first time
• 2:44
  listening to the podcast, no holla, just keep on listening
• 2:47
  when you're done listening to the prior episode so that you
• 2:49
  get the fuller context. So should you hire a salesperson
• 2:54
  even though you think you're not good at?
• 2:56
  Or rather, hire a salesperson because you think you're not
• 2:59
  good at selling? The answer is yes, you should.
• 3:04
  Even though yesterday I said that you should take
• 3:07
  responsibility for selling, for promoting your idea, for
• 3:13
  inspiring confidence in your product, in your service, and in
• 3:15
  your company. So yesterday I said it was your
• 3:18
  responsibility. Today we're going to look at
• 3:20
  things from the second angle where I say, OK, you don't want
• 3:24
  to do it, put the other responsibility on someone else.
• 3:27
  Now, before you put the responsibility for on selling to
• 3:31
  someone else, there has to be a certain foundation and there has
• 3:35
  to be some prerequisites before you hire a salesperson.
• 3:39
  I repeat, it is a mistake for you to say I am good at
• 3:43
  building, I am good at coding, I'm good at designing, I'm good
• 3:47
  at product development, I'm good at whatever.
• 3:50
  But I'm mad at selling. Therefore, from day one let me
• 3:53
  just hire a salesperson. BA error is wrong.
• 3:59
  Before you do that, you need some foundations in place.
• 4:01
  You need some prerequisites in place.
• 4:03
  Prerequisite as in some teams don't suppose they on ground
• 4:08
  before you call somebody else. That's just what prerequisite
• 4:10
  means. So what are these prerequisites?
• 4:15
  What are these things that you should have arranged before you
• 4:18
  call an outsider to come and say why our boss or babe?
• 4:21
  Why go and sell on my behalf? The first thing for those of you
• 4:26
  who listened to yesterday's podcast episode, you won't be
• 4:28
  surprised is you must have achieved some level of market
• 4:32
  validation or product market fit.
• 4:36
  For those of you who listened yesterday, no need to explain
• 4:39
  Abby, but of course we know that there's some people who this is
• 4:41
  their first time listening to the podcast.
• 4:43
  So market validation just means you have gotten some signals
• 4:46
  from the market that people like this, your app, they like this,
• 4:51
  your idea, they like this, your service, they like this your,
• 4:55
  whatever it is that you're doing, you must have achieved
• 4:58
  that. You shouldn't be calling a
• 5:00
  salesperson to come when you have achieved 0.
• 5:04
  Nobody has seen your product, nobody has seen your service,
• 5:07
  nobody has sampled anything, nobody has tried anything.
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  You're bringing in a sales guy fresh to come and sell.
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  What When even you, you don't know whether this thing can be
• 5:20
  sold, whether people like it, whether there is a demand for
• 5:24
  it. Even if they like it and there's
• 5:26
  a demand for it, you haven't even established whether people
• 5:30
  like it at the price that is enough for you to put something
• 5:34
  in your pocket and even to pay some other people.
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  You haven't done this kind of work and you're calling the
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  salesperson to come myself for you, my friend, you are
• 5:43
  committing an error. You must have achieved some
• 5:48
  level of market validation. Take this your product, take
• 5:52
  this your app, take this your whatever.
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  Try and push it small. Talk to a few people.
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  You're trying to answer a few basic questions.
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  Is there demand for this thing? Do people like this thing?
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  Does it solve a problem? Does it solve a problem at a
• 6:07
  price? That makes sense?
• 6:09
  Because there are sometimes when yes, there's a problem and
• 6:14
  people like the thing. But honestly speaking, people
• 6:17
  are not willing to pay beyond X amount.
• 6:19
  And The thing is, at X amount, it is not worth your while.
• 6:23
  You haven't done that work. You can't bring in a salesperson
• 6:26
  yet. Now, who's responsible for all
• 6:29
  this? In my own opinion, we should be
• 6:31
  you. If you want to know why you're
• 6:34
  responsible for figuring out market validation at this stage,
• 6:39
  then after you're done listening to this episode, go and listen
• 6:42
  to yesterday's episode just so that we don't rehash too many
• 6:44
  things so that this podcast episode isn't too long.
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  Then before you calling the salesperson, you ought to have
• 6:52
  figured out who the ICP is, the ideal customer profile, your
• 6:57
  ideal customer audience, the ideal target, the segment, the
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  people that you should be chasing after, the use case
• 7:03
  scenarios, under what situations, under what context
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  the people use this product or the service.
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  You need to have figured out these things out and mapped out
• 7:12
  some basic. All I put is now mapped out some
• 7:17
  basic answers to this question before you call in someone to
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  sell on your behalf. Some of you are wondering why
• 7:26
  should I be doing all this work? It's very simple.
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  You can't bring somebody to sell on your behalf without giving
• 7:32
  the person clear matching orders or not giving the person a clear
• 7:38
  scope of engagement or you don't give the person a clear target.
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  And I'm telling you, you will not have clear targets, you will
• 7:48
  not be able to issue a clear scope of engagement if you have
• 7:51
  not done these things. You don't know if there's demand
• 7:55
  for this thing. It's the salesperson that you
• 7:56
  want to go and figure out the demand.
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  How do you even know that the targets that you people are
• 8:00
  setting are realistic, are possible when you haven't done
• 8:07
  all these things? You just hire, get a salesperson
• 8:11
  and say go and sell on my behalf.
• 8:13
  You can't give the person guidance.
• 8:15
  Who is the ideal person that uses this app, that uses this
• 8:18
  product, that uses this website, that uses this service?
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  What are the use case scenarios? How do people use this product?
• 8:25
  How do they use this app? How do they use the service?
• 8:28
  You can't even give the guys on small guidance.
• 8:31
  You want to send them out into the wilderness to go and be
• 8:33
  selling and they're answering all these questions.
• 8:38
  Selling is hard. You want somebody to be able to
• 8:43
  sell effectively on your behalf. At least lay this groundwork
• 8:47
  before you bring the person into the picture.
• 8:50
  Then another thing you ought to have figured out some
• 8:53
  prerequisites is distribution channels.
• 8:55
  You suppose you should have mapped out some of these things?
• 8:58
  Distribution channels just means.
• 9:02
  How did I define it yesterday? Distribution channel, channel
• 9:07
  channel. Waze I'll be yesterday.
• 9:10
  Did I say Waze, I'll be avenues, OK, waves or avenues through
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  which people are exposed to your product, exposed to your
• 9:17
  service, They get to use your product, get to use your
• 9:19
  service. Yeah, I think that's the way I
• 9:21
  explained it yesterday. And the example that I gave was,
• 9:24
  you know, for an app you need to figure out are you going to be
• 9:27
  in Apple istore, I be you're going to be in Google Play Store
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  or, you know, how are you going to promote this app that you're
• 9:37
  creating on this website. So those are distribution
• 9:41
  channels. The market is over there.
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  We were over here, which pipeline, pretend it's a tap,
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  which tap are we putting this thing into so that when somebody
• 9:50
  just turns the tap on the other end, they get to experience your
• 9:53
  idea, they get to experience your product, they get to
• 9:55
  experience your service. So if you have figured out all
• 10:00
  these things, you figured out that there's demand for this
• 10:03
  product or service, that people actually like it.
• 10:07
  You figured out the different contexts under which people use
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  it ideally to get results. You figured out what the
• 10:15
  adequate price is as the thing makes sense for you to continue
• 10:19
  in this business. Because believe me, if you do
• 10:22
  market validation, by the end of the day, the money you collect
• 10:25
  no makes sense then like what's the point?
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  You're already starting at a loss, already starting with
• 10:30
  frustration then yeah, you figured out distribution
• 10:36
  channels. Now you can bring somebody in
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  and you can tell the person, OK, welcome to the team.
• 10:42
  What we are selling is X, what we sell to is YY.
• 10:48
  People who buy these products use it for Z&A and we have found
• 10:57
  that we can sell it for the amount of DEF and the
• 11:02
  distribution channels or the ways that we have been promoting
• 11:04
  these things so far is HIG. You can have the person now tell
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  the person go for our sell. The person is starting with a
• 11:17
  very clear road map about where he or she is heading and who
• 11:22
  they are pursuing. And the person most importantly,
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  will be starting with some structure, some traction.
• 11:29
  I mean traction as in like progress because you, you don't
• 11:32
  lay the groundwork, you've made some progress.
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  The person is coming here to amplify some progress now that
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  the person is coming to go and start answering all the
• 11:42
  questions from the get go. So yes, you're good at building,
• 11:47
  you're good at coding, you're good at product development,
• 11:50
  you're good at whatever it is you're good at, but you're bad
• 11:52
  at selling. Should you hire a salesperson?
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  By all means, hire a salesperson, but before you do
• 11:58
  that, lay the foundation first before you call the person.
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  Now, who should you call? Some things to note or some
• 12:05
  qualities to look out for #1 Even though we're going to lay
• 12:09
  some kind of foundations here like that I've mentioned, you
• 12:12
  know, market validation, product market feed, the ICP, ideal
• 12:16
  customer profile, distribution channels.
• 12:18
  Even though we lay that foundation, still the kind of
• 12:20
  person that we want to hire for this, your startup is somebody
• 12:23
  who's a systems builder or somebody who is capable of some
• 12:27
  strategic thinking person is strategic partner.
• 12:29
  You're not hiring a houseboy, you're not hiring just an
• 12:32
  executor, You're not hiring somebody that when you say go,
• 12:35
  they go drop. They ask you how high.
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  The person needs some kind initiative, some cognitive
• 12:41
  functions. The person needs to be able to
• 12:44
  be a self starter and do some things on their own.
• 12:47
  And the person should know that they're building systems because
• 12:50
  when you come in at this level as the first salesperson who's
• 12:53
  going to be selling the product, the service, the app, the
• 12:57
  fintech, the whatever it is that you're doing, the person is
• 13:01
  going to be an integral part, a very, very important part of
• 13:05
  setting out your standard operating procedures, coming up
• 13:08
  with your sales scripts, what else?
• 13:12
  Coming up with your playbooks for how you deal with
• 13:16
  objections. You know, when people object
• 13:18
  based on price or when people have all kinds of concerns,
• 13:22
  whether technical concerns or whatever.
• 13:24
  This person who you've called as the first salesperson is going
• 13:29
  to be an important part of building those systems for the
• 13:34
  salesman and women that will come after him, that will join
• 13:37
  the team and now be selling for this, your fintech.
• 13:40
  So when you're hiring people, don't just be looking at who you
• 13:43
  can get for cheap. You need to shine your eyes.
• 13:46
  You are looking for a systems builder.
• 13:48
  You're also looking for a strategic partner.
• 13:51
  This person is not just a first salesperson.
• 13:55
  It's not just anyway, let me overflow it.
• 13:58
  I think you guys get the point. Then you're also looking for
• 14:01
  somebody who has empathy and listening skills.
• 14:05
  Empathy just means being able to put yourself in the mind of
• 14:08
  another. Well, it's important because
• 14:10
  this person is going to have to be able to slot himself into
• 14:15
  your own mind to figure out what it is that you're thinking, what
• 14:20
  the vision is, where you guys are moving the company to you
• 14:23
  and your Co founders. But apart from that, it's also
• 14:26
  going to be an important skill because when he is talking to
• 14:31
  the next set of customers that are going to come from the
• 14:34
  business, he needs to be able to put himself in their own shoes
• 14:40
  and listen to them and figure out the problems that they have
• 14:46
  either personally or in their business.
• 14:49
  That your product, that your fintech idea, that your app,
• 14:52
  that your whatever can solve that is what will make this
• 14:54
  person effective in selling. So don't just look at somebody
• 14:59
  who has sweet mouth, somebody who is a sweet talker.
• 15:02
  You're looking at somebody who has listening skills, first and
• 15:06
  foremost, listening skills, empathy.
• 15:09
  Then unfortunately, you also should be looking for somebody
• 15:14
  who has some kind of interest in process documentation because
• 15:18
  there are lots of sales people who they love selling, but they
• 15:21
  hate paperwork. I won't like I'm leaning in that
• 15:26
  direction. So I mean, I'm accusing myself
• 15:29
  would just hate paperwork. But at this stage, it's
• 15:34
  important because remember, this first salesperson for your
• 15:37
  fintech is going to help create your standard operating
• 15:41
  procedures. That means they're going to be
• 15:42
  writing things down either on a sheet of paper or in the diary
• 15:46
  or in the Google note or whatever shadow be writing
• 15:50
  things down. Process documentation is also
• 15:53
  important because in the early days, in fact, whether early
• 15:56
  days, middle days or later days, CRM is really important.
• 15:59
  CRM is a customer relationship management tool.
• 16:02
  That is what helps you to keep track of who are you who, who
• 16:08
  are the people that you're talking to?
• 16:10
  Which prospects are you talking to?
• 16:12
  How many of them are you talking to?
• 16:16
  For the ones that you're talking to currently, what stage of the
• 16:19
  relationship are you in? For the people that are supposed
• 16:23
  to get back to next week, what are you supposed to talk to?
• 16:26
  What are you supposed to when you get back to them next week?
• 16:29
  What are the agendas? What are the stages?
• 16:32
  What are the things that you guys are supposed to talk about?
• 16:35
  The CRM is the tool that helps you keep all these conversations
• 16:40
  on track. Now, the reason why this is
• 16:42
  important is because in the early days when you're trying to
• 16:45
  validate your business idea to show that your app indeed works,
• 16:50
  that you know people like your idea, you'll be talking to a few
• 16:52
  people 3 or 4. Now, when you're talking to
• 16:55
  three or four people, it's OK to run things based on memory,
• 16:58
  because if you're talking to Chief here, Natural and Chief
• 17:01
  here Natural says call me back next week Tuesday, it's only
• 17:04
  three or four people you're talking to.
• 17:06
  Chances are you will remember to call him on Tuesday because
• 17:09
  after all, how many people are you talking to?
• 17:11
  But then you bring a sales person on board.
• 17:13
  Before you know it. Last week you were talking to
• 17:16
  four people. This week you're talking to 12.
• 17:18
  Next week you're talking to 18. The week after that you're
• 17:21
  talking to 32. You cannot remember off memory
• 17:26
  alone which of the 32 people are serious, what the next step is
• 17:34
  for each of the 32 people, the meeting times that you scheduled
• 17:40
  with each of them. What it is that you're supposed
• 17:42
  to do before the next meeting, or what the other person is
• 17:45
  supposed to do for you before the next meeting is just too
• 17:47
  much to handle. So whatever it is that you bring
• 17:51
  in to sell on your behalf, the person has to be comfortable
• 17:54
  with process documentation. The person has to be comfortable
• 17:57
  writing it down in the CRM. Not today, September 1st.
• 18:00
  We had the meeting with Chief Henna Draw with Chief Ian not
• 18:04
  sure this is what we discussed in the meeting.
• 18:05
  ABCD possible outcomes DEF next point of call, next action item
• 18:18
  on the agenda. Chief Ian not sure And I agreed
• 18:22
  to do a demo session next week Friday, 8:30 AM on Google Meet.
• 18:29
  You now put a small note there, send meeting link the day
• 18:34
  before. You know something like that.
• 18:37
  The person that you hire should be comfortable doing this
• 18:41
  creating. SO.
• 18:42
  PS Writing down all these things in CRM, setting notifications,
• 18:48
  setting reminders, scheduling alerts so that you do not miss
• 18:55
  track, You don't lose track of the conversation with Chief
• 18:59
  Henna Shaw and any other prospect that you guys are
• 19:01
  talking to. If you hire somebody and the
• 19:06
  person has a golden mouth, person has a sweet mouth, the
• 19:08
  person can't toast, you know, anybody to buy a product or
• 19:12
  service, but then you guys start slipping up when it comes to CRM
• 19:16
  and data hygiene. Serious wahala.
• 19:19
  Good day, serious wahala. There are some companies, well
• 19:24
  more established companies anyway, who just hire support
• 19:27
  for people like where are you? You only just to go and sell.
• 19:30
  OK, this person, this person is your secretary or this person is
• 19:33
  your BDR or this person is your whatever.
• 19:36
  But sure, this is the person who is responsible for putting in
• 19:38
  all the information into the ZRM.
• 19:41
  But sure, it has to be done. So when you are hiring someone
• 19:45
  to sell for your startup, this is also one of the things that
• 19:48
  you will consider. Does this person have small
• 19:52
  respect? He doesn't have to love process
• 19:54
  documentation, but at least does this person understand process
• 19:58
  documentation and do they know why it is important?
• 20:02
  And do you think they will go ahead and do it?
• 20:06
  Because it will be rough if you have somebody And in the last
• 20:09
  month, the person spoke to 86 contacts.
• 20:12
  But then for the 86 contacts, the person is just running from
• 20:16
  memory. Where are you at with this
• 20:19
  person? Or he can't remember.
• 20:21
  What is the next step? He's not sure.
• 20:23
  What meeting did you set? He doesn't know.
• 20:28
  Then you're also looking for someone with a bit of resilience
• 20:32
  because since you guys are new in the market, you know your
• 20:34
  household name, you will hear plenty of, no, you haven't built
• 20:38
  your Unicorn yet. You know, like Pay Stack and all
• 20:41
  these companies. So right now everybody knows who
• 20:43
  Pay Stack is. So the last time that I was
• 20:45
  trying to travel to Baker State and I wanted to chatter the bus
• 20:49
  online. So when I went on the website
• 20:52
  now and it was time for payment, one of the options there was pay
• 20:55
  stack. So right now everybody knows pay
• 20:57
  stack. So it's not a big deal.
• 20:58
  Pay stack no problem. You select, they will pay stack.
• 21:02
  In the beginning, nobody knows you you want to be a new payment
• 21:06
  processor unless you're calling your company a golden fish.
• 21:11
  It's a payment option. Golden fish say, which has
• 21:14
  golden fish say pay stack I know or pay by GTB virtual card.
• 21:20
  GTBI know pay stack. I know golden fish.
• 21:22
  Who are you? So in the beginning there's
• 21:25
  going to be lots of no. So whoever you hire needs to be
• 21:28
  able to have some resilience. So 1 moment.
• 21:32
  OK, sorry about that. A notification came from my
• 21:35
  phone. You know, I make all these
• 21:36
  recordings on my phone. I just wanted to be sure that
• 21:38
  there wasn't anything important or rather than time bound.
• 21:43
  So you're hiring someone who has small resilience.
• 21:47
  So we would put up with all the Nos because you guys are on a
• 21:50
  known quantity. Then you also want to hire
• 21:53
  someone to be your first sales person and you want the person
• 21:59
  to have a problem based philosophy or a problem based
• 22:04
  approach when it comes to selling versus features.
• 22:07
  Features are when people keep talking about what is the
• 22:12
  features of a feature is a part of something.
• 22:17
  I'll explain it. OK, let's just say a feature is
• 22:19
  a part of something. For those of you who are in the
• 22:21
  tech space, you guys come up with these wonderful ideas and
• 22:24
  then you fall in love with this thing.
• 22:26
  Like for instance, my clients who is in the real estate space
• 22:30
  and they have this app and the website that's supposed to help
• 22:34
  with buying and renting property and also validating, verifying
• 22:41
  property before you rent or before you buy.
• 22:44
  You want to be sure that the CEO is on point.
• 22:46
  You want to be sure that you know there are no problems here
• 22:48
  or there now, because all these people have a technical
• 22:53
  background, any small thing, they'll be talking about the
• 22:55
  algorithm, the algorithm, the algorithm that is just a feature
• 23:01
  of this service. You guys are proud of the
• 23:05
  algorithm because you guys are tech oriented and you know the
• 23:08
  work that went into creating this algorithm.
• 23:11
  But The thing is, ordinary people like me who are going to
• 23:14
  be using the app, we don't care about an algorithm.
• 23:17
  We care about an outcome. Is this house good enough to
• 23:22
  rent? Is this house good enough to
• 23:24
  buy? Is this plot of land safe enough
• 23:27
  to buy? Is the outcome that customers
• 23:29
  care about? So you should be hiring a
• 23:32
  salesperson who knows how to talk in terms of outcomes that
• 23:36
  people will receive or problems that will be solved and they
• 23:41
  won't be talking about features. If you're selling mobile phones
• 23:47
  before, yes, whether the mobile phone is black or is pink or is
• 23:50
  gold, yes, that's important. But before you get to that level
• 23:54
  of whether it's black or pink or gold, you need to be able to
• 23:58
  know who is buying these headphones.
• 24:02
  What is the person buying these kind of headphones for?
• 24:05
  What is this person kind of what is their lifestyle?
• 24:07
  What are their needs? People who want to listen to
• 24:10
  music while jogging need different kinds of headsets from
• 24:14
  people who need something so that they can make calls
• 24:18
  comfortably without touching the phone during the work day.
• 24:24
  Hope you guys are understanding where I'm going from.
• 24:28
  Somebody who is a feature seller will be able to see will be
• 24:31
  saying that this earphone has 10,000 blah blah blah decibel.
• 24:35
  It has so, so, so, so resistance.
• 24:38
  It is blue, it is pink, it is black.
• 24:40
  It is made in China, it is made in Taiwan.
• 24:42
  It is highly flexible resistance, something, something
• 24:45
  water resistant, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all kinds of
• 24:48
  things. But you need to be focused not
• 24:53
  on the features, but on the results and on the outcomes that
• 24:57
  they think helps people achieve. If this person is not going to
• 25:01
  be using these headphones for workouts, you know jogging and
• 25:05
  there may be small rain will baptize the person or maybe
• 25:08
  walking out in the gym and then small sweat is dripping on the
• 25:11
  headphones. If the person is not using the
• 25:13
  headphones for that, then what is the whole point of playing up
• 25:16
  the fact that this thing is water or moisture resistant?
• 25:21
  So you need to be able to get someone to sell for your
• 25:24
  startup, sell for your fintech and the person should have a
• 25:26
  problem based or solution based or outcome based approach of
• 25:34
  selling instead of features. Because somebody come in and
• 25:37
  saying that your app, your website, your whatever your
• 25:41
  fintech idea is the best because it is ISO, these are dot dot dot
• 25:46
  and it is web 3 compliance, something black, you know and
• 25:48
  all that jazz. It's not going to help you.
• 25:52
  Then you also need to make sure that the person that you're
• 25:54
  going to hire to sell for this, your startup, the person must
• 25:59
  have a qualification process or qualification philosophy.
• 26:02
  Qualification just is the stage of the business relationship
• 26:07
  where you're talking to a potential customer and you're
• 26:09
  asking them questions about the problems that they face or the
• 26:15
  vision that they have that this product or this service is going
• 26:18
  to is going to help them solve. The reason why qualification is
• 26:25
  important is because it is from asking questions like this.
• 26:28
  Let's go back to the headphones, to the earphone things is by
• 26:31
  asking them the sorts of questions now, OK, what do you
• 26:34
  need earphones for? OK, for workouts, What kind of
• 26:36
  workouts do you do? Are you a runner or you spend
• 26:40
  most of your time in the gym? OK, when you're in the gym, what
• 26:43
  kind of exercises do you do? You know, these are the kinds of
• 26:45
  things when you go through qualification it is then you're
• 26:48
  going to now be able to know whether you will recommend in
• 26:51
  ear headphones, earphones or the headphones that are big and go
• 26:55
  across somebody's head and covers the ears from the
• 26:57
  outside. It is from asking these sorts of
• 27:02
  questions and engaging in qualification that you will be
• 27:04
  able to make an adequate recommendation, an adequate
• 27:09
  proposal, a convincing sales speech.
• 27:14
  So the person that you're hiring, you need to be able to
• 27:16
  know what their qualifications philosophy is when they're
• 27:19
  having conversations with customers.
• 27:21
  What are the kind of conversations, what are the kind
• 27:24
  of questions, What are the kind of issues that they typically
• 27:27
  put customers through? For those of you who've been
• 27:31
  listening to the podcast for a while, you already know that
• 27:34
  I've spoken a lot about qualification frameworks like
• 27:36
  Band, which is a budget budget authority, budget authority
• 27:43
  need, and then timeline. It's like, it's the best, but
• 27:49
  it's only four things. So it's easy to remember so that
• 27:51
  when you're talking to a customer, you remember that, oh,
• 27:54
  I guess bring up these money issues that the problems that we
• 27:57
  solve typically fall within the X amount to social.
• 28:01
  And so amount, you know, where do you fall within that range or
• 28:06
  are you comfortable with that or which level of investment were
• 28:09
  you considering? You need to be able to have that
• 28:11
  budget conversation. Then E authority, you want to be
• 28:15
  sure that you're talking to someone.
• 28:16
  You know, as I say, nowadays they are talking to someone in
• 28:19
  power because you want to be sure that the person can
• 28:24
  authorize the purchase. Because if you're selling
• 28:29
  something that requires the MD and somebody in in a procurement
• 28:37
  to to buy, then it doesn't help you that you're talking to the
• 28:41
  head of department for security, for instance.
• 28:45
  That person has no a authority to get this purchase going or to
• 28:52
  move your agenda along. So you want to be sure they're
• 28:55
  asking questions about people's authority.
• 28:58
  And let me stop there. Let me not go into that in more
• 29:01
  detail, but if you're interested, I've made lots of
• 29:04
  podcast episodes around conversation frameworks,
• 29:07
  qualification frameworks. So just search within YouTube,
• 29:10
  just use my name, and you'll find all those podcasts episodes
• 29:13
  come up. Then of course, you also want to
• 29:18
  hire someone to sell for your startup who has good verbal and
• 29:22
  communication skills. You also want to hire someone
• 29:27
  who is willing to roll up their sleeves and get work done, not
• 29:33
  people who delegate all the time.
• 29:35
  And the reason why is because in the early days, first hand
• 29:38
  insights is required. And that's the reason why for my
• 29:42
  clients, I get my hands dirty. I make one or two phone calls
• 29:46
  because I want to be sure, are we the advertising campaign that
• 29:49
  we ran? Are we talking to the right kind
• 29:51
  of customers? I will talk to the right kind of
• 29:54
  prospects rather. And I want to verify a couple of
• 29:57
  things. The salespeople, they're
• 29:58
  complaining that these and these are the issues.
• 30:01
  Is this in fact the case? So hire somebody who's not
• 30:06
  afraid of picking up the phone and making calls or going to go
• 30:09
  and visit people in the office, not somebody who will delegate
• 30:13
  all the time. Then you also want to look into
• 30:16
  the experience of someone who you're hiring because some
• 30:20
  people have experience in big corporations, but not
• 30:22
  necessarily in startups. Somebody who has been successful
• 30:25
  selling for you know, stamping IBTC, for instance, might not
• 30:31
  might not. I'm just saying might might not
• 30:33
  be successful selling for your startup because stamping guys
• 30:36
  IBTC, you know those ones, they're big now they don't get a
• 30:39
  reputation. Everybody already knows them is
• 30:43
  easy. Let's just assume that your in
• 30:47
  the fintech space and you're trying to create a new way of
• 30:49
  processing payments and let's say Stambic Apple case.
• 30:53
  No, Stambic is not the right and let me just go ahead with
• 30:56
  Stambic given those Stambic is not the right example.
• 30:58
  So let's say Stambic is also coming up with its own form of
• 31:02
  payment processing. Of course, Stambic couldn't do
• 31:04
  that because it's the bank, but let's just pretend that, you
• 31:06
  know, they had, it'll be easier to sell for Stambic IBTC because
• 31:12
  when you go to some places and I say I'm from Stambic IBTC, there
• 31:16
  is name recognition, there is brand recognition.
• 31:19
  It will be easier to get some meetings.
• 31:22
  It would not be the same where you're selling the payment
• 31:25
  processor for a new startup and you know, they're called, what
• 31:28
  did I say again? Golden fish, Golden fish.
• 31:36
  So you need to look into the experience.
• 31:38
  Is it only big players that have sold for before?
• 31:41
  Are they comfortable selling in the startup also because people
• 31:45
  who have sold in, you know, the big space, you know, they have
• 31:47
  some kind support that you might not be ready to give, you know,
• 31:50
  for now. Like people who sell in bigger
• 31:53
  corporations have had a BDRA business development Rep or
• 31:57
  somebody who does some small grunt work, you know, who calls
• 32:00
  ahead of time to try and fix appointments and things like
• 32:02
  that. You know, some people who have
• 32:04
  been, who are big boys and big girls who have been selling for
• 32:07
  a long time, you know, they've, they've outgrown some things.
• 32:10
  All the amount of you know, I don't think you should ever
• 32:12
  outgrow menial tasks in quote when it comes to selling, we
• 32:18
  should be able to handle everything from the beginning
• 32:20
  all the way to the end. We should never outgrow it
• 32:24
  anyway. So these are some of the things
• 32:25
  that you should be looking at when you answer the question.
• 32:29
  You say that you are great at coding, you are great at
• 32:31
  building, you're great at product development, but you're
• 32:34
  not good at selling. Should you hire a salesperson?
• 32:36
  And the answer is yes. We've looked at the
• 32:38
  prerequisites and now we've also looked at some qualities, some
• 32:41
  things to consider before we hire a salesperson.
• 32:44
  Now the final thing is incentives.
• 32:47
  What does incentive mean? Incentive just means what am I
• 32:50
  dropping so that you can stay around the gas to be some
• 32:52
  incentive. Very, very important, especially
• 32:59
  when we're talking about sales people.
• 33:01
  People in the accounting department, so long as they
• 33:03
  receive their salary, they're fine.
• 33:05
  People in the marketing department, so long as they
• 33:07
  receive their salary, they're fine.
• 33:10
  Sales is a very difficult job. You drop lots of abuse, you drop
• 33:13
  lots of rejection. So sales people only stay if
• 33:17
  it's worth it. How you going to make it worth
• 33:21
  it? There are different kind of
• 33:23
  compensation structures. The traditional thing is a base
• 33:27
  plus a high, a base salary plus a variable for all I put it.
• 33:36
  Now you give them a flat amount, maybe like a flat salary, you
• 33:42
  know, maybe 200 K. Then they now have high rewards
• 33:48
  for performing. So your flat salary is 200 K.
• 33:52
  However, if you sell a deal of 700K, you will collect 10% of
• 33:57
  that. If you sell deals worth 1.5, you
• 34:02
  will collect 12% of that. If you sell deals worth, you
• 34:09
  know, 800 M, you will collect 8% or whatever.
• 34:17
  So that is 1 traditional way of keeping sales people encouraged
• 34:23
  then put it that way. That's how you sanitize them to
• 34:25
  stay and keep doing a good job. Give them a base.
• 34:28
  That base is just security. Security as in how I put it.
• 34:35
  The base is just for basic stuff, you know, transport fare,
• 34:41
  transport for what else, you know, just some basic stuff.
• 34:46
  People should be able to go from place to place.
• 34:48
  They should be able to make phone calls and they should be
• 34:49
  able to really eat about once in a while.
• 34:53
  That's what the that's what the the basis for security and the
• 34:59
  rest is performance. You perform well, we summer you
• 35:03
  bonus, you perform very well, we throw money at you.
• 35:08
  So that's the idea. So base plus a higher variable
• 35:13
  then another one that can be explored.
• 35:18
  But in my own opinion, if you must do this, make sure you talk
• 35:21
  to a lawyer with some startup expertise.
• 35:25
  Some of you say those lawyers do not exist in Niger, that's not
• 35:27
  true. They exist.
• 35:29
  Unfortunately, it's like all the ones I know happen to be based
• 35:32
  in Lagos. But you know, today with modern
• 35:34
  technology, with Zoom, with WhatsApp, with Microsoft Teams,
• 35:37
  with you know, whatever location is not a problem anymore.
• 35:40
  You can be based in Abuja and your accountant can be based in
• 35:43
  a Korea. It happens like now I'm fighting
• 35:47
  with the Inland Revenue Service and the accountants I'm talking
• 35:52
  to, one of them is in Ondo, another one is in Lagos.
• 36:00
  So you want to consider this option, make sure you're talking
• 36:04
  to a lawyer with expertise in startups and you can get
• 36:09
  salespeople to stay by equity and ownership.
• 36:13
  What we're trying to do there is we're trying to make something
• 36:15
  work long term. Equity just means the gag.
• 36:18
  We have a share in the company. That's what equity means.
• 36:23
  You've come in, you're new, you're doing all this kind of
• 36:25
  work, no problem. Your base is 200K whenever he
• 36:31
  said that so, so, so, so amount to correct extra, extra
• 36:34
  percentage, but made this in his sweet self.
• 36:38
  You may you become an owner of the company.
• 36:40
  Now if you talk to a lawyer with startup experience, they will
• 36:44
  tell you about what's it called vesting period.
• 36:47
  Yeah, I think it's called the vesting period.
• 36:49
  That's a period under which somebody gets to work for the
• 36:52
  company or gets to contribute in some way, whether contribute
• 36:55
  about effort or contribute money.
• 36:58
  But the ownership, the clock for ownership in the company doesn't
• 37:01
  begin to run until something else happens in the future.
• 37:06
  So the reason why they use all these vesting clauses is just to
• 37:09
  avoid the situation where somebody comes in and you
• 37:12
  promise the person, you're our first salesperson, we'll give
• 37:16
  you 10% of the company. The person, how come I work for
• 37:19
  three weeks and the person will say I beg and I'll do and then
• 37:21
  they'll go away. And then when you hammer The
• 37:24
  thing is big, the person will say, hey, he will promise me
• 37:26
  10%. You'll now be saying 10% of
• 37:28
  what? You only stayed here 3 weeks.
• 37:29
  The person will say and so and So what the hell, you told me
• 37:34
  10% when I don't hammer, give me my 10%.
• 37:39
  So it's to avoid all these kind of issues.
• 37:40
  That's why the harvesting clauses.
• 37:42
  And This is why when it comes to this level, you talk to lawyers
• 37:45
  with startup expertise. So yes, I have a previous
• 37:48
  background in law but this was not my area of specialty so I
• 37:50
  can't advise on this. So pay attention.
• 37:54
  Then there are also some other incentives that keep people
• 37:56
  around. Non money incentives #1 access
• 38:01
  salespeople. We don't like working for
• 38:05
  companies where we don't have access to the orga.
• 38:07
  If there's a problem or while satisfied about something, it
• 38:10
  helps if we can talk to one or two Orgas to just say what's on
• 38:16
  our mind because the salesperson is not like the accountant or
• 38:21
  it's not like with the human resources person.
• 38:23
  Accounting, so long as they're receiving their salary, they're
• 38:26
  fine. Marketing as long as they're
• 38:27
  receiving their salary, they're fine.
• 38:29
  If the salesperson has a lot on his chest, he's trying to send
• 38:32
  message to Orga, the message is not reaching Orga.
• 38:34
  The average Nigerian salesperson will just say what the hell is
• 38:37
  this? And then those also, they won't
• 38:39
  even submit letter of resignation.
• 38:41
  You just wake up one day and say I wish you could, you know, is
• 38:44
  that too good? The income you're not becoming
• 38:45
  too good. He won't answer his phone, does
• 38:47
  it too good, has resigned. Now, I'm not endorsing that kind
• 38:51
  of behavior. I'm just saying that's what
• 38:52
  happens in this part of the world.
• 38:54
  The salesperson has the thing that is on his mind.
• 38:57
  He has been trying to signal Orga.
• 38:59
  Those of you who have access to the Orga, you've not been
• 39:01
  sending the message, one that you could just say to help with
• 39:04
  this and then he will just leave.
• 39:07
  So that is also a non money incentive.
• 39:14
  Whoever it is you're hiring to be your first, your first
• 39:16
  salesperson, the person should be able to have reasonable
• 39:19
  access to you. I'm not saying give the person
• 39:21
  your personal phone number, but I mean like there's a problem.
• 39:23
  Person should be able to say, you know, we need to talk.
• 39:27
  I'm concerned about this disease.
• 39:29
  I have noticed this is this. It is my opinion that this that,
• 39:32
  that that kind of access. Therefore, some people it helps
• 39:36
  with the clear career path. OK, now you've come in, your
• 39:39
  first salesperson. This is what we're going to do
• 39:42
  when we hit this milestone will now make you sales manager.
• 39:45
  When we hit this milestone, you will now like this.
• 39:47
  This is how you know for some people career progression, they
• 39:49
  like that sort of thing. And then another way of, excuse
• 39:55
  me, incentivizing your first, your first salesperson for those
• 39:59
  of you who want to start, want to create your startup.
• 40:04
  So excuse me. I don't quite agree with it, but
• 40:07
  I see the wisdom in it. And that is where you give the
• 40:09
  sales person some budgetary control.
• 40:11
  You say, you know what, yes, you're starting now and now it's
• 40:13
  just you. But by the time we hit social
• 40:16
  and so milestone, we'll need to have more sales people.
• 40:18
  You know you'll be in charge of. We'll be in charge of recruiting
• 40:24
  your team or you'll be in charge of budgetary spend.
• 40:29
  When it comes to sales, you know, you'll be in charge of
• 40:32
  authorizing these kinds of expenditures, authorizing those
• 40:35
  kinds of expenditures. You know, I'm not a specialist
• 40:37
  when it comes to business management, so I can't advise
• 40:39
  you on, you know, which is good and which is not good.
• 40:42
  But there are people who incentivize salespeople to stay
• 40:45
  by offering these sorts of things.
• 40:48
  OK, so it's 40 minutes. Let me bring it straight to a
• 40:51
  close. So summary.
• 40:52
  What I've been trying to say is all these whole things of, you
• 40:55
  know, you're the person who is running the startup.
• 40:59
  So Oh well, light has come back where I stay, even though it's
• 41:05
  band A, the things that we're suffering, even though this this
• 41:09
  place I'm staying is band A this their feeder, their feeder packs
• 41:14
  up every two weeks. We go through this major drama.
• 41:17
  So if I my wife was laughing this morning just before, you
• 41:21
  know, I took out because I had to turn off the turn off the
• 41:24
  inverter. So why went to go and drop her
• 41:27
  the office. She was not laughing, said this
• 41:28
  feeder. That is as if they're not
• 41:30
  feeding this feeder enough so our 16 hours with our license
• 41:34
  wouldn't assure us shaky. So I've been telling Mumsy that
• 41:39
  now I know the way forward, that the way forward, the way to live
• 41:42
  in this country is you need to be paid off.
• 41:44
  Seriously. Solar panel.
• 41:47
  Solar panels, Hook yourself up. Correct installation that can
• 41:52
  last you 48 hours straight. Then you need to sink your own
• 42:00
  borehole because we can has been showing off Shaggy in Abuja
• 42:04
  small time you know this water shortage.
• 42:07
  So solar panel then borehole then what Again security.
• 42:15
  You need to have your own private mobile.
• 42:18
  That's where I'm heading I'll build my own palatial residence.
• 42:22
  Solar panel everywhere, Borehole AC tight.
• 42:27
  I park my my Tesla Cybertruck. Of course that's buy cars for my
• 42:33
  kids too, you know. Then also I need to have my
• 42:38
  mobile outside. All of them with their guns and
• 42:41
  with their jeeps protecting me and my millions.
• 42:45
  That's all we need to stay safe in this country.
• 42:48
  It's unfortunate, but they don't mind me.
• 42:51
  What was I I lost train of thought.
• 42:55
  That's all. Wrapping, wrapping things up
• 42:57
  since we've already been here for 40 minutes.
• 42:59
  So it's not that simple. Should you sell on behalf of the
• 43:03
  company, Should you not sell on behalf of the company?
• 43:05
  It's not that simple. But any which you will be
• 43:09
  responsible for some kind of sales motion because you need to
• 43:13
  be able to validate your idea before you bring some other
• 43:16
  person on board. So there's no how, no how that
• 43:21
  is the founder of the company, the person who is starting this
• 43:24
  idea, the person who is starting this fintech, the person who is
• 43:27
  starting this. Whatever it is that you're
• 43:28
  trying to do, whatever startup it is you're trying to do, in my
• 43:31
  opinion, there's no version where you get this thing off the
• 43:34
  ground, where you don't get your hands dirty.
• 43:37
  You do have to get your hands dirty.
• 43:38
  You do have to get involved in the beginning before you retire
• 43:42
  to see your quarters. Then if you're bringing the
• 43:46
  salesperson on board, you need to make sure that you hire the
• 43:49
  right kind of person. Make sure the person has the
• 43:52
  right kind of attitude, especially that process
• 43:56
  documentation, documentation or really important.
• 43:59
  Don't worry, hire a salesperson who the person is very good and
• 44:02
  the person can't toast the gods. But at the end of the day, the
• 44:05
  person doesn't write anything down.
• 44:07
  When you need information, the only way you get the information
• 44:09
  is if you want to ask him personally as a recipe for
• 44:13
  disaster. Then you also need to look for
• 44:16
  ways to make sure that the salesperson that you hire in the
• 44:19
  beginning or your initial sales team meeting, incentivize them
• 44:22
  to stay for a while or to stay for the long haul.
• 44:26
  So that's it. And that is all for today.
• 44:29
  Remember, if you'd love to connect with me, I'm your host,
• 44:33
  Tavi Shima IED, and you can call, send me a text message or
• 44:37
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So thank you very much for your
• 44:45
  time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
• 44:47
  time.