Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Don't Hire a Sales Team (Yet): Why Founders Must Lead the Charge

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Don't Hire a Sales Team (Yet): Why Founders Must Lead the Charge · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today's podcast recording is
• 0:05
  going to be a very noisy one because the kids are home and
• 0:09
  I'm recording late in the evening.
• 0:11
  Also, NEPA has been misbehaving powerfully.
• 0:15
  So all my neighbors are running their generators.
• 0:18
  And no, these are just some of the benefits, some of the things
• 0:21
  we have to look forward to, you know, being a Nigerian anyway.
• 0:25
  So today what we're going to tackle is not my family issues
• 0:28
  or NEPA issues, or rather we're going to look at why start up
• 0:32
  founders should engage in sales, Why start up founders should do
• 0:37
  selling first hand. So that's what we're going to do
• 0:39
  today on the podcast. Now, this your first time
• 0:42
  listening to the podcast? My name is Tavi Shima Ayede.
• 0:45
  I am your host. I'm a former lawyer turned
• 0:47
  business consultant. And if you like these sorts of
• 0:50
  things, how do you sell? Who should be selling?
• 0:55
  What's the best way to go about selling?
• 0:58
  Then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, on Apple iTunes, on
• 1:03
  YouTube, on any player of your choice, because this is what we
• 1:07
  talk about over here on the podcast every single day.
• 1:09
  OK, well, every other day because I'm not here every day.
• 1:14
  Then if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a
• 1:18
  text message or send me a WhatsApp message on the
• 1:20
  08064662140. So if you have questions, you
• 1:27
  have comments, you have queries, or you'd like us to collaborate
• 1:31
  on one or two projects, then reach out.
• 1:34
  And Please remember when I say collaboration, collaboration
• 1:37
  means I eat and you eat. If you call me and everything is
• 1:41
  all stacked in your favour, then that's not a collaboration.
• 1:44
  And I'm going to politely tell you to get the, you know, out of
• 1:48
  here. All right?
• 1:50
  So why start up founders should engage in sales?
• 1:53
  Why start up founders should do more selling first hand.
• 1:57
  Now, for those of you who've listened to this podcast for a
• 1:59
  while, you know that this is an old idea that I've talked about
• 2:03
  on the podcast over and over and over again.
• 2:07
  And the reason why is because this is a very important topic
• 2:10
  because, you know, the startup craze has hit Niger and of
• 2:14
  course, lots of us want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.
• 2:18
  And because of that, people think that founders think that,
• 2:22
  you know, you can't come up with a brilliant idea.
• 2:24
  You have a tech founder and then you hire someone who can sell.
• 2:31
  So in the old podcast episodes, I have given some reasons why
• 2:34
  the founder is the best person who is qualified to sell, at
• 2:38
  least in the beginning. And that's because the founder
• 2:41
  is the person who has product knowledge.
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  You know, it is your baby, You're the one who has come up
• 2:46
  with the idea. You're the one who knows the
• 2:48
  problem that you're trying to solve.
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  You know you have intimacy with the problem.
• 2:53
  You know this thing inside, outside.
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  In fact, you spend more time with this app, with this
• 2:58
  business problem than you do with your spouse or with your
• 3:00
  girlfriend. So you're very intimate with
• 3:02
  this idea and because of this intimacy with the idea, you, the
• 3:07
  founder, you have lots of passion that you're going to use
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  when you're putting forward this idea into the market and when
• 3:14
  you're talking to a potential customer, a potential partner, a
• 3:17
  potential stakeholder, a potential whatever.
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  So in my older podcast episodes, I've said that these are the
• 3:24
  reasons why the founder is best qualified to sell, at least in
• 3:28
  the beginning, because you have product knowledge, because
• 3:31
  you're intimate with the problem, you have passion
• 3:34
  putting for these ideas. Now, some of you will say, OK,
• 3:38
  if I have said all this in the past, then why the hell am I
• 3:42
  making today's episode OK? The reason why I'm doing that is
• 3:46
  because I now have one new reason why the founder should
• 3:50
  sell. And the reason why is because it
• 3:55
  will put you, the founder, in this unique position.
• 4:00
  It will help you, it will give you the data, it will give you
• 4:04
  the perspective, and it will let you know and help you validate
• 4:08
  your business idea. Now, what does validation mean?
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  Validation just means that you're able to show that this is
• 4:17
  a good idea to bring to the market.
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  You want to show that your product, you want to be sure
• 4:22
  that your service is a good one to bring to the market.
• 4:26
  So that is what validation is about.
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  Now, how do you get validation or market validation as I like
• 4:32
  to call it? You do that if you're able to
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  show, number one, that there's some demand for this, your
• 4:38
  product. Some people like the damn thing.
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  If you can show that good, then we need to show some market
• 4:44
  validation. Then you also have to be able to
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  establish that you can sell this thing at a reasonable price per
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  head, per seat, per license, per user, per unit, per whatever it
• 4:57
  is that you want to sell it at. That is part of validating.
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  Then we also need to be able to establish that enough people are
• 5:04
  willing to pay for this thing because we're trying to make
• 5:07
  sure that the unit economics pans out.
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  Now let me repeat market validation.
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  How we establish it #1 show that there is some demand that people
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  like this thing. Then it's not enough just that
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  people like this thing. It has been enough that people
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  are willing to pay for it and that the price is reasonable.
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  And then we also need to make sure that enough of those people
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  are willing to pay for it and that the unit economics work.
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  It is only when we've done this that we can now show that, OK,
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  there's market validation. The market is saying that this
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  is a good idea that you should continue to put out.
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  Because if we show that there's demand what people are not
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  willing to pay for it, then what are we doing here?
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  We might as well pivot and move to something else.
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  If we show that there's some demand and people are willing to
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  pay for it, but they're not willing to pay enough, so the
• 6:01
  pay no makes sense, then what are we doing here?
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  We might as well pivot if we find out that people like it,
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  they're willing to pay and they're willing to pay, you
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  know, per head. And the thing kind of makes
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  sense. But let's say you need, you
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  know, 100,000 people or 5000 people or whatever you need to
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  make this thing work, but you can't find those 5000 people,
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  then what are we doing here? We might as well pivot.
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  So that is why all these elements are important.
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  Now, another word for validation or market validation as I like
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  to call it, is product market fit.
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  So for those of you who've been listening to those fancy tech
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  podcasts, you've been hearing product market fit, product
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  market fit. They are wondering what are
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  these people saying? Now you know what they're
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  saying. So the reason why it's a good
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  idea for you, the founder, to do the selling is because when
• 6:54
  you're doing the selling in this early days, you are in the
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  driver's seat. And of course when you're in the
• 6:59
  driver's seat, you can see the road with your own 2 coro Coro
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  eyes. If there's pothole, you can
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  swerve. If there's any danger, you can
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  dodge it. So selling puts you in the front
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  seat. And what that means is you're
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  going to get all the qualitative signals early.
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  Now for those of you who have a tech bent, you guys already know
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  about a quantitative signals. Quantitative just means you're
• 7:23
  looking at your dashboard, you're looking at your numbers,
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  you're looking at your whatever, and you're getting clear signs
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  about where to move and you know, stuff like that.
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  Now, there's other kinds of data that you guys are not so
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  familiar with, and that's the kind that I like, which is
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  qualitative data. Now qualitative data is
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  information that you can't reduce to to numbers.
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  You can't put it in a statistical model.
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  But when you're getting insights, when you're getting
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  opinions, when you're noticing certain trends, you know it is
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  only when you are selling one-on-one that you can be
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  seeing these things before it shows up in the data.
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  If you as a founder is selling you begin to see some trends
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  that OK, I thought this was a good idea, but as I have spoken
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  to the last 20253050 people, it is as if they are feeling that
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  ABC ideas or ABC problems are more important.
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  You are getting qualitative signals and this will is what
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  you can use to. You can take this knowledge
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  should now reiterate on your your product or your service
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  because you are thinking one thing as you've entered inside
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  the market now and you're talking to people based on body
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  language, based on what they're saying or based on how they're
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  using your products, based on what they're doing.
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  You can now see that you know what I thought was one thing,
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  but the market is giving me signs that is something else.
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  So when you are selling as a founder, you are in the driver's
• 9:03
  seat. You will be able to see quickly
• 9:06
  whether this is a good idea or not.
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  You'll be able to answer this question yourself whether you
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  should pivot or not. You won't have to wait on to
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  board meeting when you people are checking different different
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  statistical models or different this or different that.
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  You would have started getting a sense by yourself that this is a
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  good idea or this is not a good idea.
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  Now, funny enough, this is also an idea that I've come across
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  that I've also seen expressed in another podcast.
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  It was, I can't remember anyway, I think it was a podcast about
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  cybersecurity. So this idea is not something
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  that is unique to me or other people who are in the sales,
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  sales and selling field. You know, other people, other
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  professionals in other fields are also saying that there's a
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  benefit to you trying to sell and trying to bring your product
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  or service to the market yourself.
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  So you as a founder, what are the kinds of things that you
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  should do #1 prospecting. If you've been listening to the
• 10:16
  podcast for any length of time, you are aware of that.
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  Prospecting is the thought process, it is the activity,
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  it's the strategy, it's the tactics, it is the whatever
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  around trying to figure out who might be interested in your
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  product or who might be interested in your service.
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  So you should do that. You should sit down, you should
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  do the thinking. You should be trying to figure
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  out who might be interested in the product or service.
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  Another thing that founders should be doing is outreach or
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  channel strategy, as you guys like to put it.
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  So outreach or channel strategies just means now that
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  we know who might be interested with our product or service and
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  we know where these people are physically or where they hang
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  out online, which channel, which tool, which medium, which
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  platform are we going to use to try and reach out to these
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  people? So you as a founder should be
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  engaged in this sort of activity.
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  As a founder, you should also be starting conversations with
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  people. Now, what kind of conversation
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  should you be having in sales? We call them qualification and
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  discovery. That's just a fancy way of
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  saying we should be asking questions about the people
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  because we need to know them. We're trying to figure out a few
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  things. Demographics and psychographics.
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  Who are they? Name, age, height, location,
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  sex, occupation, blah, blah, blah.
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  We need to know because this will tell us the use case
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  scenarios of our product. Who are the people that use this
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  thing best? Who are the people that like
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  this thing best? So that's why qualification or
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  asking questions around the person is important.
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  Then discovery. Discovery is when we ask
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  questions around the problem. So OK, I just mentioned a couple
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  of minutes ago or seconds ago rather about use case scenarios.
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  So what are the problems that the product or service, what are
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  the problems that our app, our product or service solve?
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  Or how do people use them to solve this problem?
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  And of course, when we're asking questions around the problem or
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  the vision, the problems that the vision that the customer is
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  trying to achieve or the problems that they're trying to
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  solve, we're also trying to figure out if this is a serious
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  enough problem to solve. So we should be asking them
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  questions about. So I'm trying not to overload
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  you guys with technical terms, but in sales, you know, these
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  kinds of questions are called implication questions and need
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  payoff questions. That is when you're trying to
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  find out from people that, OK, look, this is a serious problem
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  or serious enough, but if you don't use this app, if you don't
• 13:02
  use this product, if you don't use this solution, like what's
• 13:05
  the worst that can happen or how do you cope?
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  So if you have this brilliant idea that you're putting out to
• 13:11
  the market and people think, yeah, it's nice, you know, we
• 13:14
  need it. But at the end of the day, like
• 13:17
  if this thing is not here, they can cope in some other way, then
• 13:20
  perhaps you don't have a serious enough problem that your
• 13:23
  product, that your service, that your app solves.
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  And maybe it is time for you to now start thinking or pivoting
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  or moving or refining the idea one way or another.
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  Then as a founder, you should also be involved in making
• 13:37
  proposals, making presentations. Now that is the part of the
• 13:41
  sales process where you're telling a potential customer
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  that this is how my product, my service, my app can help you.
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  As a founder, you should also be trying to gain a commitment,
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  which is getting people to drop a deposit, getting people to
• 13:58
  sign up for, you know, whatever it is that the next reasonable
• 14:02
  next step is. Well, bottom line, like I said,
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  if you're engaged in all these processes, that is prospecting,
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  talking to people who might be interested in your product or
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  service, trying to figure out what is the appropriate channel.
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  Starting the conversation with people, learning about them and
• 14:20
  their interests, figuring out how they interact with the your
• 14:23
  app, with your product, with your service.
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  Trying to figure out if this is a serious enough problem.
• 14:30
  And then you're making proposals and presentations and you're
• 14:32
  trying to close on some accounts.
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  If you do all this, you're going to be getting qualitative data.
• 14:40
  Remember, not quantitative, because I know that you tell
• 14:43
  guys you love quantitative data. You love things that can be
• 14:45
  reduced to ratios, to stats, to statistics, to this and to that.
• 14:51
  But you guys lose sight of the fact that qualitative data is
• 14:55
  important. As in you're talking to somebody
• 14:57
  and you are getting, you know, you're getting some kind
• 15:00
  feelings. That is qualitative data.
• 15:02
  You're getting some kind feelings, some kind insights,
• 15:05
  some kind, you know, what's that word anyway, forgive me, the
• 15:11
  English is escaping my head. But anyway, you understand what
• 15:13
  I'm talking about. So yeah, that.
• 15:19
  And these are reasons why the founders should be involved.
• 15:22
  And these are the kind of activities that you should be
• 15:25
  involved in or involved with. And of course, I'm sure that you
• 15:30
  guys have noticed that. I think you tech founders, you
• 15:33
  guys try to take your hands off too quickly.
• 15:36
  You guys try to automate everything too quickly.
• 15:39
  You know, relax, get your hands dirty, you know, for for a
• 15:42
  little bit, little bit longer. But for those of you who are
• 15:46
  thinking, look, I just want to be Mark Zuckerberg and I want to
• 15:49
  have, you know, a billion dollars in my account, you know,
• 15:52
  don't worry. Yeah, SETI selling is dirty.
• 15:55
  It's grimy. I understand.
• 15:57
  And you don't want to do this forever.
• 15:59
  But don't worry, you won't have to do this forever.
• 16:01
  All you have to do when you're going through all this is make
• 16:04
  sure you document all the processes.
• 16:07
  Put everything down in an SOP. That's something that you tech
• 16:11
  people like to say. SOP, standard operating
• 16:14
  procedure. Write everything down.
• 16:17
  Document this thing. Let it be on a sheet of paper,
• 16:20
  Let it be in a Google document, let it be, you know, wherever so
• 16:23
  that other people who are coming in to sell on your behalf, the
• 16:29
  people who you will recruit, they will be the people who
• 16:32
  you're going to delegate the selling function to.
• 16:34
  They're going to be able to refer to this document.
• 16:37
  They're going to be able to learn from it.
• 16:38
  They're going to be able to follow this thing.
• 16:41
  So don't worry, you won't have to sell forever.
• 16:43
  Just make sure you're documenting everything, writing
• 16:45
  it down, come up with an SOP, standard operating procedure.
• 16:49
  Use that to recruit people. Use that to train people, Use
• 16:53
  that to delegacy selling functions.
• 16:56
  You start off like that, you won't be too bad.
• 16:59
  But summary, let me say one more time, startup founders, it is a
• 17:03
  good idea to get your hands dirty in sales because a lot of
• 17:09
  you want to answer this question, should we pivot or
• 17:12
  not? Should I be here or not?
• 17:15
  If you're with the boys in the trenches and you're selling the
• 17:19
  field. So boys and girls because of
• 17:21
  course you know girls selling the text page too.
• 17:23
  So if you're in the trenches, you have all the information
• 17:27
  that you need. So instead of faffing around for
• 17:29
  two years, then you now issue press release, you say that you
• 17:33
  are now pivoting when you're on the trenches with the boys and
• 17:37
  girls, you have all the data that you need so that even if
• 17:41
  it's just, you know, four months, five months, six months,
• 17:43
  you know that OK, this in a makes sense or this thing no
• 17:46
  pure. And then you'll be able to
• 17:47
  bounce or you'll be able to remain, or you'll be able to
• 17:50
  double down and refocus. So that's it.
• 17:53
  And that is all for today. Thank you very much for
• 17:55
  listening to the podcast. Remember, if you would like to
• 17:58
  connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or send
• 18:01
  me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
• 18:08
  So if you have questions, you have comments, you have queries,
• 18:12
  or you want to suggest the collaboration, then reach out.
• 18:16
  So that's it for today. Thank you very much for your
• 18:18
  time and attention. I'll catch you all some other
• 18:21
  time.