Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Exposing the Root Causes of Underperformance

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Exposing the Root Causes of Underperformance · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show today, expect to hear some noise
• 0:04
  in the background. What we're going to tackle today
• 0:07
  is how to know if your poor performance at work is your
• 0:10
  fault or if it's your orga's fault, if it's the company's
• 0:13
  fault. Now, the reason why I'm tackling
• 0:15
  this today is because I spent some time in a conversation with
• 0:17
  the salesperson yesterday and he said a couple of things that
• 0:21
  made me quite worried, but actually stuff that I hear about
• 0:25
  in Nigeria, you know, you know, we Nigerians can be I mean the
• 0:28
  Nigerian work environment. So it's not unusual to hear
• 0:33
  these sorts of things. But it made me worried because
• 0:36
  the fellow in our conversation said things like they make me
• 0:39
  feel like I'm useless. That's talking about his auger,
• 0:42
  you know, the managers them he would say things like I don't
• 0:46
  even know what I'm doing self. He would also say things like,
• 0:50
  look, I just want to be successful.
• 0:52
  And he also said that's when he was talking to the managers them
• 0:56
  when they were going over his here's a PowerPoint presentation
• 1:00
  that he was supposed to deliver with a client.
• 1:02
  This is what he said. He said they said I was, I
• 1:06
  wasn't prepared and I was unfocused.
• 1:09
  So for those of you who have been working in the Niger work
• 1:14
  environment, these sorts of things are typical.
• 1:15
  So nothing out of the ordinary. Now I know that for those of you
• 1:19
  who are listening from the UK are listening from America
• 1:23
  because you American people, I think are like 30 something
• 1:26
  percent now UK people, you're very small shop not up to 1%.
• 1:30
  So for you, you can American folks, I know that this sounds
• 1:33
  like sacrilege and sounds like verbal abuse.
• 1:38
  My guess is that those of you calling in, sorry, listening
• 1:41
  from Ghana or maybe China maybe for you guys, you know, that's
• 1:44
  just the way it is as well. So it's just Niger.
• 1:47
  It's just the way it is. In the future, I hope to explore
• 1:51
  some assertive ways that we can deal with these sorts of
• 1:53
  situations. You know, when we're interacting
• 1:56
  with our line manager, our manager, the CEO, the whoever is
• 2:02
  responsible for tracking your performance, you know, some
• 2:06
  assertive ways of standing up yourself and then dealing with
• 2:08
  whatever legitimate criticisms that these people have for your
• 2:12
  performance. But today, that's what we're
• 2:13
  going to be tackling basically. So if you're in this sort of
• 2:16
  situation and you're worried about your performance, how do
• 2:18
  you know if it's your fault? How do you know if it's the
• 2:20
  office's fault? Now if you'd love to connect
• 2:23
  with me and explore opportunities, just connect me
• 2:27
  and explore opportunities, then call me.
• 2:29
  The number is 08064662140. Also, you can connect with me on
• 2:35
  socials. I spend most of my time on
• 2:36
  LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED.
• 2:40
  So like I said, we're trying to figure out whose fault the
• 2:44
  performance is bad, It's poor. Whose fault?
• 2:51
  OK, yes. So this fellow started off by
• 2:54
  assuming that this thing was his problem, but then I asked him a
• 2:56
  couple of questions. Like I always say, most of you
• 2:59
  should do when you're in front of a potential customer,
• 3:01
  potential client, because you can before you can solve your
• 3:04
  clients problems, your customers problems, you actually need to
• 3:07
  have ask some questions and figure out exactly what is is
• 3:09
  going on. So when I asked the guys some
• 3:11
  questions, we're able to figure out a couple of things and I
• 3:14
  hope I was able to highlight a couple of things for the young
• 3:16
  chap. And this is what we arrived at.
• 3:20
  So I wanted to know how much training that he had received on
• 3:22
  the job and he said he has received none.
• 3:26
  The training he has received is 0.
• 3:29
  Even though his immediate hogger is an experienced salesperson, a
• 3:34
  lady actually. And you know, they say she's
• 3:36
  legit, like she's the real deal. So she knows her stuff.
• 3:40
  You know, everybody says she's a pro.
• 3:42
  But OK, you have a stellar performance performer like this
• 3:45
  on your team, but you don't have this sort of person train the
• 3:51
  younger people, train the people who are on the come up.
• 3:54
  So how much training had the guy received?
• 3:56
  Zero. I tried to figure out what his
• 3:58
  job description was and it turns out that the guy was actually
• 4:01
  had for marketing. But then they did some
• 4:04
  restructuring and it's OK. You know what?
• 4:06
  You you will now start selling. And of course, some people don't
• 4:11
  appreciate this, but actually is a difference between marketing
• 4:15
  and sales. The kind of skills that you need
• 4:18
  to be successful at sales don't necessarily mean you're going to
• 4:22
  be successful at marketing and vice versa.
• 4:24
  Because we're a good marketing communications professional
• 4:28
  doesn't mean you're going to be able to be a very good sales
• 4:32
  person. Because for sales, we're usually
• 4:34
  talking to customers one-on-one. We own the relationship.
• 4:38
  We're on the phone, we're going to people's offices, we're
• 4:41
  sitting in people's cars, people are coming over to our office.
• 4:45
  It's a different thing that people who are in the marketing
• 4:47
  department who sit down, brainstorm, come up with some
• 4:50
  text, come up with some graphics, come up with some
• 4:53
  strategy, run some ads, you know, it's a totally different
• 4:56
  thing. So really is not fair to hire
• 5:00
  somebody for marketing. That's what we hired you for.
• 5:02
  And then all of a sudden you say, OK, you know what, because
• 5:05
  of this and this and that and that, or I'll come and do sales
• 5:07
  and you expect that that person is going to succeed.
• 5:11
  So training 0. Job description here was had for
• 5:15
  marketing. Now they want him to come and be
• 5:18
  selling company resources. What have they given him to do
• 5:22
  the job 0. Phone Zero is his own phone.
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  CRM 0. If he doesn't even know what CRM
• 5:30
  is, Computer Encore 0. So you take someone, you hire
• 5:37
  them for one job, you now switch them to another job.
• 5:42
  You don't give them training, you don't give them resources.
• 5:47
  Can we really say in this circumstances that really is the
• 5:52
  young man's fault, that he's not performing?
• 5:55
  These are the real problems. It was hard for a role.
• 5:58
  The job description changed. He received no training in who
• 6:02
  the ideal customer is. He received no training on what
• 6:06
  the selling framework is. He received no training on what
• 6:09
  to expect when you are selling and hitting the road.
• 6:12
  He received no training in how to manage prospects or client
• 6:15
  relations or how to set expectation.
• 6:18
  He received none of that training.
• 6:20
  In fact, they told him that selling is easy, but he can
• 6:24
  learn how to sell through ChatGPT.
• 6:27
  Is selling easy? Yeah, in the sense selling is
• 6:30
  very, very easy. After all this would talk, Abby.
• 6:33
  But The thing is, selling is easy.
• 6:36
  Or it gets easier if you have the knowledge and if you have
• 6:41
  the framework, if you have the skill set, then it's easy.
• 6:45
  It's the same thing now. If I go and meet LeBron James or
• 6:48
  Michael Jordan, they will say how basketball is easy now.
• 6:51
  It's not hard. Of course it's not hard for them
• 6:54
  because they have been practicing since primary one and
• 6:58
  they've been playing for 20-30 years, 40 years.
• 7:02
  So of course for them it will be easy for me that the last time I
• 7:06
  touched the basketball was 20 years ago.
• 7:09
  Would you say that basketball is easy?
• 7:13
  So it's the same thing. So because selling involves
• 7:16
  talking phone call, everybody thinks it's easy.
• 7:19
  It can be done so well in the sense it, it can be easy if you
• 7:23
  have the knowledge, if you have the framework, if you have the
• 7:26
  skill set, then it can be easy. Then this whole thing of selling
• 7:30
  with ChatGPT, because now ChatGPT is in the world and
• 7:34
  Google Gemini and everything. Some employers just assume that
• 7:38
  the work is done. And unfortunately that's not the
• 7:41
  case because there's ChatGPT now, it doesn't mean your
• 7:46
  employees. Everybody will just become
• 7:48
  superstar salesperson overnight because yes, you can sell with
• 7:54
  ChatGPT, but only if you have sales expertise.
• 8:00
  Because like Americans say, the Americans say a fool with a tool
• 8:05
  is still a fool. Let me repeat, a fool with a
• 8:09
  tool is still a fool. If your employee was a dance
• 8:13
  before ChatGPT was invented. Now that ChatGPT hasn't been
• 8:17
  invented, your employee is still going to be a dance.
• 8:20
  ChatGPT is not going to flip the script overnight.
• 8:24
  If your employee, your sales people were not properly trained
• 8:27
  and educated before ChatGPT was unleashed into the world, it's
• 8:32
  not going to make much of a difference now.
• 8:36
  Because if people don't have the knowledge or the expertise, they
• 8:41
  are not going to know which advice.
• 8:44
  They're not going to know how to prompt char GBT to give them
• 8:46
  advice. And they're not even going to
• 8:48
  know which of the advice that char GBT gives them.
• 8:51
  Which advice is going to be workable, which advice is going
• 8:55
  to be realistic, which advice is going to be suitable or
• 8:59
  unsuitable to the particular context.
• 9:02
  So if any of you have employees listening now and you think, OK,
• 9:04
  char GPT is out there, so therefore people just know how
• 9:08
  to sell. It's not like that.
• 9:10
  It doesn't work that way. In fact, this is an example that
• 9:13
  I gave to someone. We're talking medicine and we're
• 9:16
  talking about GPT and how it applies to medicine.
• 9:18
  We're talking radiology. And then from there we started
• 9:20
  talking, talking in surgery. And this is the example that I
• 9:23
  gave for me, I'm a layman. I know nothing about surgery, so
• 9:30
  of course I can take char GBT and say give me instructions for
• 9:33
  how to perform a subdural hematoma, blah, blah, blah,
• 9:37
  blah, blah. Let's say how to operate on
• 9:38
  somebody's brain. Char GBT will give all the
• 9:40
  instructions that this is how you operate on somebody's brain.
• 9:43
  First of all, use a cranial whatever.
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  Cut open the skull. Next identify this nerve.
• 9:50
  Next clamp this thing. Next, clamp that thing.
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  Next, make an decision here 3 inches above.
• 9:56
  So you know, whatever it is, you will give all the instructions.
• 10:01
  But The thing is I have no training.
• 10:04
  So if I take charge EPT and I say let me go and perform
• 10:06
  surgery on somebody's somebody's heart or somebody's brain, I
• 10:10
  will kill somebody, somebody will die.
• 10:15
  But for the Doctor Who has received the training, who has
• 10:20
  done residency, who has done specialty, who has worked on
• 10:23
  cadaver and everything, If the guy goes to char GBT and says
• 10:27
  how do you perform subdural hematoma?
• 10:30
  Something something something something.
• 10:31
  And he gives some ideas because the guy has the know how, he
• 10:34
  will now know that oh char GBT has given me 12 steps from 1274
• 10:39
  Steps 7:00 to 12:00 is rubbish. Disregard then from steps one to
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  six, no one makes sense. We can apply.
• 10:47
  So that's how it works. Because char GBT is here does
• 10:51
  not mean that your people that you didn't train to be
• 10:54
  salespeople should become salespeople, correct salespeople
• 10:58
  overnight or that people who you didn't train on marketing should
• 11:01
  not become good marketers overnight.
• 11:04
  So employers, please listen to this.
• 11:07
  Also employees listening if you didn't know what was up when it
• 11:12
  comes to sales and marketing before, don't assume that
• 11:15
  because ChatGPT is here, that is going to solve all your
• 11:17
  problems. It's not.
• 11:19
  You still need to get a certain level of subject matter
• 11:24
  expertise to be able to use these tools wisely.
• 11:28
  And that's the reason why on this show I keep talking time
• 11:32
  and time again and giving you guys realistic examples about
• 11:36
  when you can use ChatGPT or Google Gemini and how.
• 11:42
  So please, let's stop assuming that ChatGPT is here.
• 11:45
  And so we have reached the promised land.
• 11:48
  We still have not reached the promised land yet.
• 11:52
  So if you're an employee in this situation, are you the problem?
• 11:59
  Yes, you are the problem. If let me answer it the other
• 12:06
  way around. For an employee in this
• 12:08
  situation, are you the problem? You are only the problem if your
• 12:14
  job description is accurate, they told you they're hiring you
• 12:18
  for marketing and then you are doing marketing, but it turns
• 12:23
  out that you're not hitting your goals, then yes, the problem is
• 12:26
  you. You are also the problem.
• 12:30
  If they have trained you, and despite the training you have
• 12:34
  not been doing your job, then you are the problem.
• 12:37
  You're also the problem if they have given you enough ramp time.
• 12:42
  The idea behind ramp time is this, that nobody just starts
• 12:44
  performing immediately. You need to give somebody time
• 12:47
  to do their job. You know, like medical students,
• 12:49
  for instance. Now, you know, in university,
• 12:51
  you give them some time. Is it like two or three years
• 12:53
  where they go and cut dead bodies, They cut cadavers and
• 12:55
  practice everything. You don't just carry a fresh
• 13:00
  medical student and say, Oh yeah, go and cut open somebody's
• 13:02
  heart or cut open somebody's head.
• 13:04
  They have ram time. You practice on dummies after
• 13:08
  you practice on dummies, you practice on cadaver and you
• 13:11
  know, blah, blah, blah. And then you stay with your
• 13:13
  senior surgeon, your senior doctor and what, watch the
• 13:15
  person work before then I'll give you the scissors.
• 13:20
  I say scissors. What's it called?
• 13:21
  Give you that thing, Shah, that you used to cut up on somebody's
• 13:24
  chest and then start doing operation.
• 13:27
  So it's the same thing in business.
• 13:28
  People have to be given round time as well.
• 13:31
  How long? It depends.
• 13:33
  Back in the old days for those people who worked for IBM and I
• 13:38
  think Xerox like Tony, I think Tony Olumelu is the one who
• 13:41
  worked at Xerox. So back in those days they used
• 13:44
  to give them nine months ramp time as in we hired you today to
• 13:49
  start work January, but we're going to put you through sales
• 13:52
  training and then you're going to follow a senior person.
• 13:55
  You follow them on site, you follow them, you shadow them,
• 13:57
  you see as they're selling. But then we expect that by
• 14:02
  September you will hit quarter. It's not that they hired them in
• 14:06
  January and then they say in February, guy, why are you not
• 14:09
  hitting quota? But of course, you know,
• 14:11
  nowadays people are not. This whole thing of ramp time is
• 14:14
  not really in fashion anymore. But still when it comes to
• 14:19
  sales, let's be realistic, you need to give people some ramp
• 14:21
  time. You don't just have somebody
• 14:23
  1st, January 1st and then January 31st.
• 14:25
  You're not asking why are you not hitting quota.
• 14:26
  It's for most people, it's unrealistic.
• 14:29
  So these are the conditions, you are the problem.
• 14:33
  If your job description is on point, if your guy has trained
• 14:37
  you, if you've been given ram time and you're still not
• 14:40
  achieving, then the problem is you.
• 14:43
  But in most cases, actually it is the Nigerian employer's
• 14:46
  problem because he has not trained you, he or she has not
• 14:49
  trained you, They've not given you resources, they've not given
• 14:54
  you ram time, they've not given you a mentorship as in they have
• 14:56
  given you zero. They just hired you and they
• 14:59
  said I'll go and do this job. So let me just wrap up this way.
• 15:06
  If you work in a company and your employer provides training
• 15:10
  and resources, then sit up because now you have no excuses.
• 15:15
  But for those of you who have gotten jobs, no training, no
• 15:20
  resources, and there's a problem, that doesn't mean that
• 15:24
  you can't go and look for help on your own because like this
• 15:27
  guy was looking for podcasts and looking for professionals that
• 15:32
  can train him up. That's how he's trying to solve
• 15:35
  the problem. If you're going to sit down
• 15:37
  there and raise your hand and say woe, it's me, this is
• 15:41
  unfair, you know, blah, blah, blah, then there's a problem.
• 15:45
  Excuse me. Now, part of the advantage of
• 15:49
  dealing with a professional or a consultant on these sorts of
• 15:52
  things is apart from trying to beef up your performance, we can
• 15:55
  also give you the right perspective, like in this young
• 15:58
  man's case, how he is not the problem and then also give him
• 16:02
  tips about how to handle the solution going forward with his
• 16:05
  employees. So, like, what I told him to do
• 16:07
  was to bite the bullet. So you go back, you say, OK,
• 16:11
  Madam. Yeah.
• 16:12
  You said I wasn't prepared and I wasn't.
• 16:15
  I wasn't focused. Yeah, granted, I accept.
• 16:19
  And during the meeting that we had, you said that my proposal
• 16:24
  was deficient because of 123 and 456.
• 16:28
  In my opinion, Olga, respectfully, I think these are
• 16:32
  the areas where I need to be trained up in.
• 16:36
  So when will you and Madam, my manager be available to walk me
• 16:43
  through 123 and 456 so that I can be more effective with
• 16:47
  future clients and then keep aware and hear what it is that
• 16:50
  they have to say. Now this is not a
• 16:54
  confrontational way. It is not an abusive way.
• 17:00
  How will I put it is an assertive way of dealing with
• 17:02
  the situation. You shouldn't just be there and
• 17:04
  then shop abuse. You know, if there are
• 17:08
  legitimate criticisms, yeah sure, own it.
• 17:11
  If the errors for improvement, you can throw the ball back to
• 17:15
  your employer to say alright, no problem.
• 17:17
  I accept these are the shortcomings.
• 17:21
  So now what are you guys going to do as my leaders, my
• 17:26
  employers, to make sure that I'm much more effective at my job?
• 17:30
  These are the areas where I'm lacking.
• 17:32
  When will you guys or how will you guys be available to train
• 17:36
  me up on this and this and this and then and that so that I can
• 17:38
  be much more effective? Also, would it be OK for me in
• 17:42
  the future if I run into these kinds of problems and these kind
• 17:45
  of problems to hit you up so that you and me can discuss this
• 17:48
  thing? Just to make sure that we
• 17:49
  avoided this scenario and that scenario that you're angry
• 17:53
  about. And then you keep quiet and
• 17:54
  listen, the ball is now in their court.
• 17:57
  So you've been assertive about the whole thing and you've kind
• 18:01
  of passed across the message that there's some stuff that
• 18:03
  needs to be done. Anyway.
• 18:06
  I'll make a separate podcast episode on all these other
• 18:08
  issues later. But bottom line is what I'm just
• 18:10
  trying to say is that if you're listening to this podcast and
• 18:14
  the reason why you found this podcast is because you've been
• 18:17
  thinking to yourself like, oh more, these people are making me
• 18:19
  feel as if I'm useless. I don't even know what I'm doing
• 18:22
  self. I just want to be successful.
• 18:24
  How high can this thing be? They say I'm more focused, they
• 18:27
  say I'm more prepared. They say I'm this desire of
• 18:29
  that. If you're currently feeling like
• 18:31
  that, just know that a lot of times in the Nigerian context,
• 18:35
  it's not your fault. But there are resources like
• 18:38
  this that you can take advantage of, free resources, by the way,
• 18:42
  because I think now on this podcast, we're almost at, I
• 18:45
  think we're now at 990 episodes. So free resources, plenty all
• 18:50
  over the Internet that you can take advantage of.
• 18:53
  Listen to these things, listen to them with a pen and a paper.
• 18:56
  Be making notes about things that you can do tomorrow, next
• 19:00
  tomorrow to make sure that you're much more effective at
• 19:03
  your job role. So whether they train you,
• 19:05
  whether they don't train you, just look for these things, take
• 19:07
  advantage of them and see how you can make your life better.
• 19:12
  Because after all, really, really speaking, any
• 19:16
  developments that you get on the job that you're responsible for,
• 19:22
  you're going to carry those skills with you and it's going
• 19:24
  to make you much more profitable and valuable in your future job
• 19:28
  endeavours and also in whatever business it is that you decide
• 19:31
  to start. So take control.
• 19:35
  Don't just stay there and chop abuse or feel like a victim
• 19:41
  again. If you'd love to connect with me
• 19:43
  and explore opportunities, the number again is 08064662140.
• 19:48
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 19:51
  Nigerian and then to connect with me on socials, you can find
• 19:54
  me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my IED.
• 19:57
  Thanks for your time and attention.
• 19:59
  I'll catch you guys in the next episode.