Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Empathy Advantage: How to Scale Sustainably by Loving Your Customers

Transcript

The Empathy Advantage: How to Scale Sustainably by Loving Your Customers · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome, my name is Tavi Shima, AED.
0:05
I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm making
0:08
today's podcast recording at home.
0:10
So expect the usual interruptions since it's a
0:12
public holiday and everybody's around.
0:15
Now, the goal of this podcast is not to talk about my family
0:17
life, but here we talk about business education.
0:20
So do me a favour, please spread the word so that your friends
0:24
and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the
0:27
questions that we tackle. They can subscribe on Spotify,
0:31
YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.
0:34
And if you in particular, dear listener, have any sales and
0:37
marketing questions, bring them to me.
0:39
You can call, you can SMS, you can send a WhatsApp message on
0:43
08064662140. Now today on the podcast, we are
0:50
going to look at how to scale a business with love and not just
0:54
data. The reason why I want to look at
0:57
scaling your business in more detail is because yesterday's
1:01
episode, I think was yesterday's episode, if I remember
1:04
correctly, that is where we tackled the question from I
1:07
think was Uje in Abuja, that's the Federal Capital Territory of
1:11
Abuja, who had some questions around how to scale his
1:16
aggregator business. You know, he's in the business
1:19
of doing logistics. So this is your first time of
1:21
listening to the podcast. After you're done listening to
1:23
this episode, skip one episode. Listen to that one.
1:26
You will get the larger context. So for those of you who are
1:30
newbies now, scaling a business, what does that mean?
1:33
Scaling a business just means growing a business or
1:36
multiplying your business beyond your personal effort.
1:42
So, OK, well, there's no need for me to give any more examples
1:45
because I gave an example in the previous episode.
1:48
But basically when you get to that level where you're ready to
1:50
grow the business and you want to expand it beyond what you can
1:54
personally do, that is scaling. So for those of us who are one
1:59
man team, A1 woman squad or a whatever, when you get to that
2:03
point where you now want to start achieving beyond what your
2:08
own personal efforts can guarantee, then we are ready to
2:12
scale or we are trying to scale. Now, if you listen to
2:15
yesterday's episode, you will remember that I said the things
2:19
that are required to scale people, processes and
2:23
technology. You need people because you need
2:26
a team, because you need people to delegate something to Abby.
2:32
You have to delegate something to exactly because if you want
2:34
to scale your business and it's just you, then your business is
2:39
limited to how much we can do. So for someone in my own
2:42
situation now, for instance, I don't have any stuff at the
2:44
moment, although I was discussing with my wife and, you
2:47
know, later on I probably need to get an administrative
2:50
assistant note for sending out invoices, you know, scheduling
2:54
coaching sessions, you know, that kind of thing.
2:56
So I probably need to get somebody like that sometime
2:59
soon. But please don't start sending
3:00
me your CV. I did not say I am hiring yet.
3:03
I just said I was crossing with my wife and I probably have to
3:07
hire somebody soon. But in the meantime, right now,
3:11
things are limited to what I can personally do myself.
3:14
In other words, if I don't do something, it does not get done.
3:18
If I can do something but I only push it 50%, it will stay at 50%
3:22
until I push it some more. But then when you don't have
3:25
people around you and you build up a team and you can delegate
3:27
stuff, then stuff can be done. You can take a holiday and
3:31
things are still moving, or you can say you don't want to deal
3:34
with something. You push it on to somebody
3:36
else's table and the person will take it the rest of the way.
3:39
So you need people and ultimately business is a team
3:44
sport. So one way or another,
3:48
eventually we're going to need a team.
3:50
Now for people who are trying to build what they call cottage
3:54
business or lifestyle business, then you know it's absolutely
3:57
it's not necessary. So if you're just you and your
4:00
wife and people are just fine, you know, you're making, you
4:03
know, 10M20M every year and people are just cool.
4:05
You don't want to grow to 4050, sixty, 8100, You know, it's all
4:09
right, it's not a big deal. But for people who want to
4:13
scale, eventually you have to start building teams of people
4:17
outside you so that you can delegate something so that
4:20
people have responsibility for moving other things beyond you.
4:23
So that's the people part. Then we need processes.
4:26
Processes or systems. The whole idea behind processes
4:29
and systems is this. The people that you have hired
4:32
to work for you, they need some sort of compass to tell them
4:35
this is where we are going, this is what we're going to do next,
4:39
and this is the right order for how we're going to do these
4:41
things. If we don't have processes and
4:44
systems, then what's going to happen is whenever there's Yawa,
4:47
whenever there's a problem, whenever you're trying to put
4:50
some new agenda, everybody's going to keep buzzing your phone
4:53
to say, oga, what's next, Madam, What's next?
4:57
I run into this problem. What am I supposed to do?
5:00
And then you will now look as if you are trying to reduce your
5:03
headache, but by hiring more people, you have multiplied your
5:06
headache. Well, in a certain sense, yes,
5:07
more people means more headache. But The thing is, if you do not
5:11
have systems and processes and frameworks in place, there's
5:15
nothing to tell people. This is where we're going and
5:18
there's nothing to tell people. This is the next order in which
5:21
things ought to be done. Then you will always be your
5:25
headache that we'll always have to call you back.
5:27
So we definitely need processes and systems.
5:29
Then technology. Technology, of course, just
5:32
means the tools that we use to leverage our effort and also to
5:37
make things more effective. So like in my own case now, for
5:41
instance, the podcast, the podcast is one way that I
5:44
achieve leverage. I create a bit of content, I put
5:47
it up on the podcast, and then hundreds and thousands of you
5:50
will get ahead. So I'm multiplying my effort,
5:55
multiplying my impact because I'm using technology to leverage
6:00
certain aspects of my business. And you will have to do it too
6:04
when you are ready to scale. I'm not saying you'll have to
6:06
start a podcast, but there will be ways that you can look at
6:09
certain technologies that will make you more effective and make
6:14
it easier for you to scale. So in yesterday's podcast
6:18
episode, we're looking at how Uche, if Uche was able to get a,
6:23
a dispatch, a digital dispatch board, it will make the business
6:27
a whole lot easier because there are lots of you in which is
6:30
situation and the only way that you're tracking dispatch is
6:34
because you know, you have your cousin who is helping you.
6:37
My cousin is using WhatsApp. In other words, if somebody
6:40
pings and says how far now I paid since 8:00, he will say you
6:44
deliver by 10. It's currently 11.
6:46
Where are you people? That is how somebody's managing
6:48
the thing using WhatsApp. And yeah, at the end of the day,
6:52
we'll get the job done. But The thing is it's not very
6:55
effective. And then because of lapses in
6:57
the process, they're going to be lots of customers who'll be
6:59
unhappy because somebody paid at 8:00.
7:01
You do the person, you deliver at 10, the person is now sending
7:04
you angry WhatsApp message at 11 saying how far?
7:06
I've not seen dispatch writer. But if you have a digital, a
7:12
dispatch board, I'll be whatever that thing is called, so I can't
7:15
remember. Then there's something that is
7:17
pinging that is showing in real time.
7:20
This person paid at 8 O clock. This is where the person's order
7:23
is now. It's on the showroom floor.
7:24
We are packaged. We have given to dispatch
7:27
writer. This is where dispatch writer
7:28
is, you know, so that kind of thing.
7:31
Be able to stay on top of things.
7:32
One person will be able to stay on top of multiple deliveries.
7:37
Instead of just being in a WhatsApp message inbox and then
7:41
responding to angry customer messages all the time, the
7:45
person will be able to be proactive.
7:47
So depending on your business, depending on the context, your
7:51
context, you will need people to scale, you will need a team, you
7:55
need people to delegate things to, you will need processes.
7:59
You need to come up with frameworks that tell people,
8:01
what are we doing today? What are we doing tomorrow as a
8:05
company? Where are we heading?
8:07
And then for this particular task, task, what are we going to
8:10
do? What is step A, What is step B,
8:11
What is step C? And then you will need
8:14
technology so that you can leverage everybody's efforts and
8:17
then make everybody effective. So if this is your first time
8:20
listening to the podcast, like I said, when you're done, just
8:23
listen to yesterday's episode, you will get a much more
8:27
concrete example about scaling a case study.
8:31
So now, OK, like I said, we're going to look at scaling a
8:36
business with love, not just with data.
8:39
So what is data now? Data is just information that
8:42
you need for decision making, full stop.
8:46
The reason why we need data is because you can't scale a
8:48
business in a vacuum. Well, you can.
8:50
You can just wake up one day and say I want to scale my business.
8:52
You can't do that. It works, but it will help if
8:55
you have small data, if you have small information because you
8:59
need something that's going to guide how you're making this
9:02
decision. Where am I starting from?
9:05
Where am I moving to? If I'm scaling, what kind of
9:08
level am I scaling to? Can we double production?
9:12
Can we triple? Can we quadruple?
9:14
You don't just make those decisions in a vacuum.
9:16
You need some kind of data to know where it is that you're
9:18
moving to. So one set of data that you need
9:22
obviously is financial data. You need to know, are you
9:25
growing? Are you stagnant or are you in
9:28
decline? Are you guys making profit?
9:30
How much, How much profit are you making?
9:32
Are you operating margins good or bad?
9:34
Do you guys have good cash flow? In fact, listening about
9:37
operating margins, if you listen to yesterday's episode, that's
9:40
exactly what I was talking about.
9:41
When I was talking about what was it called, again, I've
9:46
forgotten, I was talking about unique economics.
9:50
Unique economics? How much profit are you making
9:53
on one particular thing that you sell on each delivery?
9:56
How much money are you making? Or let's say you sell bathroom
9:59
slippers or I don't know, what can I think of standing fans?
10:05
OK, so let's say you're in the business of selling standing
10:07
fans, AC, things like that. Are the unique economics good?
10:10
Are you making enough money on one?
10:13
Now we need to know the answer of all these things because when
10:16
we're going to scale is money that we'll use to scale.
10:19
Now remember I said people, processes, technology,
10:23
technology, you will pay for it, OK, Processes, you define, you
10:27
design it yourself. But then people should be you
10:30
pay salary. So we need money.
10:34
So we definitely didn't know the finances, the figures, how is
10:38
the business doing? That's all.
10:39
Let us know whether we can scale this year or not.
10:41
Because you can wake up and say, guys, I beg, let's scale this
10:44
business, let's double production.
10:46
Whenever by the time you sit down and look at your figures,
10:48
you see that or more, you can't afford to double production,
10:50
then what you do now is to continue where you are until the
10:53
financial figures is adding up. They can also, OK, we're ready
10:56
to scale. Then you will also need customer
11:00
data. So that's all the good stuff
11:01
they taught us in primary school or junior secondary school.
11:04
Those of us who did their business studies, you know, back
11:07
then, they teach us about demographics.
11:09
So demographics of your customer, you know, who are
11:12
they, how old are they, what is the occupation, where do they
11:15
live, you know, blah, blah, blah.
11:16
So that's what they taught us back in the day, demographics.
11:19
But with the advent of social media technology, it's now
11:22
easier to track people's interests.
11:26
So those ones are called psychographics.
11:27
So what are they interested in? So we need to know all those
11:30
things. You need to know your customers,
11:33
who are they? Where do they live?
11:36
What do they like? What are they interested in?
11:37
What are their hobbies? All these things are important
11:41
because from a sales and business development
11:44
perspective, let us remember that if we do not know who we
11:47
are chasing, we will waste time and we will waste money running
11:51
after every Peter and Paul and Precious and you know, and at
11:56
the end of the day, you don't make anything because you are
11:57
chasing the wrong person. Sometimes we waste a lot of
12:01
resources chasing somebody who will never, ever, ever buy.
12:05
It's a conversation that I had with someone yesterday who is a
12:07
media buyer and she told me, I asked who is your ICP?
12:10
And she said what she say again, She said professional, What do
12:16
you say again, senior, mid to senior level professional
12:19
something, something. The moment she said it, I could
12:21
really see problem because I was thinking, look, some of these
12:24
people that you're calling like people who are trying to rise up
12:27
the ranks within the corporation, these are not
12:30
necessarily people who want to pay money.
12:31
So I asked her, OK, your first client, who's the, who's the 1st
12:34
client she ever had to say, oh, was a businesswoman based in
12:37
Lagos. She was manufacturing, this was
12:39
a product that she was manufacturing.
12:41
The factory was here, she has 200 employees, blah, blah, blah.
12:43
Said, hey, you see that has a different kind of person.
12:48
This kind of person now is willing to invest money to buy
12:51
media services because she's manufacturing, she's
12:55
manufacturing in Lagos, she has products that she wants to sell.
12:59
So for her, she's thinking even if it's 5050, but if I'm able to
13:02
get on the air, if I'm able to get on the radio, if I'm able to
13:05
get here, if I'm able to get there, it should be able, it
13:09
should be able to give me opportunities to be able to sell
13:11
my product. So aside you how show her that's
13:16
the media relations professional, how you know
13:20
you're not looking at this ICP thing correctly.
13:22
You're spending time talking to people who will never, ever,
13:25
ever pay you money. But if you look at this person
13:27
now, this woman, she's a businesswoman.
13:29
She's thinking in terms of narrow and Kobo.
13:31
So for her, it's a calculation of OK, whether I'm gambling or
13:35
not, but she's trying to see, you know, where will I spend
13:37
money that will give me access to different eyeballs so that
13:41
people will now buy my product or my service.
13:43
And then we started to refine our ICP.
13:48
So in the beginning, we need to know who are you chasing?
13:53
A lot of you. The reason why a business is
13:54
struggling is because you're wasting time talking to Peter
13:56
and Paul. Meanwhile, Peter and Paul will
13:58
never, ever drop money for you. But then Precious is over there.
14:03
For some reason. You don't know that Precious is
14:04
your ideal customer, so you're not spending time talking to
14:07
Precious. So customer data, we need all
14:10
that data. Demographics, psychographics, We
14:13
need to know what's up. We need to be talking with our
14:15
customers. We need to be getting feedback
14:18
from our customers. We need to be able to track the
14:21
sentiment of our customers, who is happy, who is not happy, and
14:24
that's the reason why I talk to people about CRM, customer
14:27
relationship management tool. Now it doesn't have to be
14:31
anything fancy, but even if you're this business that is
14:33
using Excel sheets and you're tracking things like you did
14:36
customer with Missus Ogadingbay, this is how much Missus
14:39
Ogadingbay paid. This is where she lives, this is
14:41
her business, blah, blah, blah. This is how the deal went.
14:45
Missus Ogadingbay was happy about this much, was
14:48
dissatisfied about this. Even if you're using Excel sheet
14:51
to track these sorts of things, you see that when you're now
14:54
ready to scale and you're getting ready to for your new
14:57
marketing campaign and everything to now attract more
14:59
people because you've doubled your capacity.
15:02
You can see that is when you have all these concrete data,
15:04
all the people you've been doing business with, Mr. Pius, Mrs.
15:07
Ogdenbe, Mr. Amado, you know, is that you'll now be able to say
15:11
that, oh, OK, This advertising campaign that we're doing, we're
15:14
supposed to be targeting this kind of somebody, this kind of
15:16
somebody, that kind of person. So we need a customer data, then
15:21
another set of data that you need before you scale.
15:25
Operational data. Very, very important.
15:28
Basically, when I saw operational data, I just mean
15:30
production and lead times. So like back in my wedding
15:33
photography days, the boys that I used to work with, to be
15:37
honest, they could produce a book in 3-4 days.
15:41
But me, I used to pad, I will now tell the customer that it
15:44
would take them two weeks for the book to be ready.
15:46
Because sometimes the boys will produce the book in three days.
15:49
By the time you carry it, you will now see some serious error.
15:52
You now have to take the book apart and then make it again.
15:56
And I prefer telling somebody your book will be ready in two
15:59
weeks and then I come back to them in five days and say, oh,
16:02
the book was done early. They'll be happy rather than me
16:05
telling them your book will be ready in four days.
16:07
I spot an error and I said, oh, you know what?
16:09
Unfortunately it will be right in actually Wednesday.
16:11
So me, I was used to pad, but that's what we mean basically by
16:15
production and lead times. How long does it take you to do
16:18
fulfillment? How long does it take you to
16:19
manufacture? How long does it take you to
16:21
deliver? You know, things like that.
16:23
How much inventory do you have in store?
16:25
We need all this information because if your production times
16:29
and lead times are bad because you want to scale, you now
16:33
double capacity. Yeah, last week you serviced 100
16:36
customers, but you want to scale.
16:38
So this week you pushed and you get 200 customers.
16:41
But if your production times and lead times are poor, man, that
16:45
will be a lot of angry people, a lot of angry people.
16:51
If your capacity right now is that you can only service 100
16:53
customers a week, I beg continue to service those 100 customers a
16:57
week until realistically speaking, you have the finances
17:01
and the infrastructure to be able to increase your capacity.
17:05
Because The thing is, if you service 100 people comfortably
17:08
every week, you want to scale, you push to 200, you're now
17:11
creating a bad experience for customers.
17:14
You now start causing attrition and you now start causing bad
17:16
reputation for yourself. Attrition just means anytime the
17:19
customer is interacting with you and they have an unpleasant
17:22
experience and that causes them to fall out.
17:25
And unfortunately, when things are good, people are happy, but
17:28
they don't really talk about it. But when things are bad, people
17:31
are angry and unfortunately they talk about it a lot.
17:36
Don't say it's not fair. It's just the human condition.
17:39
If you do well, people will be happy with you.
17:41
They will tell one or two people, but if you do bad,
17:43
they'll be angry and they will tell six or seven.
17:45
It's just, it is what it is. So you need your operational
17:48
data to make sure that everything lined up nice,
17:52
everything is lining up smooth before you try to scale.
17:57
So this is some of the data that you need.
17:59
And The thing is, you know, if you talk to people who are
18:01
specialists in this field, there are lots and lots and lots of
18:03
other things that you need. But I'm just trying to show you
18:05
how, if you want to scale, you don't just wake up one day and
18:08
say, whoa, bio, let's say Bio is your business partner, or
18:13
Benedicta, OK? You don't just wake up one day
18:15
and say Bio Benedicta. You know, we've been doing this
18:17
business for five years now and we're currently averaging 10
18:21
million in annual revenues. You know, I believe that, you
18:26
know, we've been in this business for a while.
18:27
We suppose scale we should be doing like that kind of 150 M.
18:30
You don't just wake up and decide like that.
18:32
You look inside your house and you calculate one or two things.
18:35
First, you now see if you have what is needed, what is on
18:38
ground that will allow you to now scale.
18:40
So there's a whole lot. Now some of you ask what has
18:44
love got to do with this thing? Because remember I said we're
18:47
going to see how we can scale the business with love and not
18:49
just data. Some of you say it is business,
18:52
ain't nothing about love here. When we talk about business, we
18:55
just need data. We just need money.
18:58
And in a sense, I would say you're correct.
19:00
But to be honest, if you've noticed, we've done over 1000
19:04
episodes and I've not made any episode around love,
19:07
authenticity, blah, blah, blah, all that soft fancy stuff.
19:11
The reason why I don't talk about these sorts of things on
19:12
the podcast is because, well, first of all, they're easy to
19:15
talk about and you can talk about in a sentimental way.
19:18
And so because of that, everybody's talking about how
19:21
you should love your customer. However, I'm going to bring a
19:25
different perspective to it because when most people say
19:28
love, they're talking about feelings.
19:31
However, if you don't look about, you don't talk about
19:34
love, especially from a rational point of view, love does doesn't
19:37
mean feelings. I'm Catholic, in case you don't
19:41
know. Well, for those of you
19:42
listening, you already know that I'm Catholic.
19:44
Now the Catholic tradition, especially from the writings of
19:47
Saint Thomas Aquinas, we know that love is willing the good of
19:51
the other for the benefit of the other.
19:54
So let me repeat, love means you want another person to do well.
19:59
You want another person to succeed.
20:02
That actually is what love is. It's not about the fancy
20:04
feelings. That's the reason why for those
20:07
of you who listen to have listened to the podcast for a
20:09
while, you remember that time that me and my son were
20:11
quarreling and he was saying that, you know, I don't love
20:14
them. I was like, look, I love you
20:15
boys. That the fact that I'm shouting
20:19
and the fact that once in a while.
20:21
I knock you on the head doesn't mean that I don't love you.
20:24
That love is not about fancy feelings.
20:26
Hollywood is deceiving us all. That love is fancy feelings and
20:29
that's rubbish. That love is when I will your
20:35
own good for the sake of your own good.
20:38
I want you to do well for your own sake.
20:41
That is what determines that I love you.
20:43
So I told my sons like, yes, that I'm shouting at you doesn't
20:47
mean I don't love you. It's a sign that I love you
20:50
because I want you to do well for your own sake, not for me,
20:54
because me, I'm trying to arrange my own self, whether I
20:57
succeed or not, you know, that's another whatever.
20:59
But for you, I want you to succeed on your own merit.
21:03
For you, that is love, Dave. I'm looking at you boys and
21:08
smiling at you people every single day.
21:10
But because of that, I'm not trying to set your people right.
21:14
That's not love. OK, maybe I shouldn't be
21:17
knocking people on the head all the time, I understand.
21:21
But I have to tell them now. Look, love is not about fancy
21:24
feelings. Excuse me?
21:27
And the time will come very soon when you boys will be fathers as
21:31
well. Don't be deceived by what
21:33
Hollywood says, that love is about fancy feelings.
21:37
Because you can be fancy feeling your children all the time and
21:39
because of that you, you forget or you're not willing to tell
21:45
them what is good for their own sake so that they can progress.
21:48
That's not love, that's just pandering anyway.
21:52
So that's the same thing in business.
21:55
Loving your customers is not just about fancy feelings and
21:58
wonderful designs. You know, that's what we do in
22:00
Niger all the time. Never wants to be more loving.
22:03
What do they do? They create better graphics.
22:06
What a board wants to be more loving, they create better
22:08
graphics. Government, power, State House,
22:11
you know, they create wonderful advertising campaigns, wonderful
22:15
mascots and things like that. They're trying to put a much
22:17
more loving face, you know, but we APP, you're just creating
22:22
nice optics. But me, the customer, I'm not
22:24
feeling the love. So when you start willing the
22:30
good for somebody else, you want the good of the other person.
22:35
That's when you're showing love. Now, what does all this name
22:38
mean in the business context? I'm talking about Catholic
22:40
Church, I'm talking about Thomas Aquinas, and I'm talking about
22:42
my children. So let's forget all that thing.
22:44
Let's come down to business now. So what does love mean in the
22:48
business context? When you want what is best for
22:50
the customer. Now we're talking love because
22:57
we're looking at the customer. We are being customer focused.
23:00
It's not about fancy feelings. When you start looking at what
23:05
is in the best interest of the customer, now we are talking
23:09
love, real love. Whether you actually like them
23:13
or not, whether you actually have fuzzy feelings or not, the
23:16
fact that you're putting down interests first.
23:18
Now we're talking love. So we should be scaling, not
23:22
just for profit, not just because Bio Benedicta, we've
23:27
been in this business for 10 years.
23:29
We've not broken the five million level.
23:31
You know what we need to scale? We need to be doing 150 million
23:34
per annum. Not just that.
23:36
So scale not just for profit, but scale because you want to
23:41
achieve wider customer impact or because you have the capacity to
23:45
achieve wider impact and to deliver more value.
23:50
When you look at things from that level now you are scaling
23:53
with love. It's not about fancy feelings.
23:57
It is because of the good of the market and the good you think
24:01
you can do in the market. Now the way this thing works is
24:06
all about the value exchange. You deliver value, you capture
24:09
value. That's how we all make money in
24:12
business, like take down with it with the refinery, deliver value
24:16
to the market, capture some value is the way it works.
24:19
Or like me as a, as a consultant, I deliver value to
24:23
you, your business grows, you make some progress, I capture
24:27
some value, you pay me good money.
24:30
So that's how it works. So if you're going to scale now
24:33
we love with the customers, the focus, the question that becomes
24:38
how do you scale while keeping the customer as the centre or
24:43
what the focus of it all? First off, you listen actively
24:49
at all times to your customers and this is where people make
24:51
mistakes. You'd be surprised.
24:54
A number of people that I talked to and I say, oh, like the lady
24:58
yesterday that I was talking to, the one who is in media
25:00
relations. Oh, OK, so the woman who you
25:03
able to your first client that you secured media coverage from,
25:06
how you got her on Channels TV, you know, blah, blah, blah.
25:08
What was she trying to do in her business?
25:10
I don't know. I'm like you didn't ask her said
25:12
no, I didn't ask. So we are not even listening to
25:15
your customers ask. OK, ma, we're going to get you
25:19
on this slot this and this that and that.
25:22
Where are you currently with your business?
25:24
What are you trying to achieve? What are you hoping that if we
25:27
get you on Channels TV that we'll be able to help you do
25:31
this, do this, do that. Lots of you don't even talk to
25:35
your customers. What is she trying to do?
25:38
I don't know. Were there other campaigns that
25:41
were running in the business that we could have tied back
25:43
into this media or something? Oh, I don't know.
25:45
I didn't ask her. Well, no, even talking to your
25:48
customers, talk to your customers.
25:52
What are they trying to do? What are they trying to achieve?
25:56
In fact, from a sales and business development
25:57
perspective, the reason why we ask them is because that is what
26:00
will allow us to now give a much more tailored and effective
26:06
proposal. Because think about it, somebody
26:08
come and says I want to be on Channels TV.
26:09
You say, OK, sure, no problem, I can put you on Channels TV, just
26:13
pay me 250,000 naira, I'll hook it up.
26:15
The person pays you 250,000 naira, you put them on Channels
26:18
TV, you go your way, they go their way.
26:23
But if you ask some questions, oh fine, no problem, I can get
26:26
you on Channels TV. But before I start hooking it
26:28
up, what exactly are you trying to achieve?
26:32
Oh, this is my business. This is what I'm doing.
26:35
I'm trying to grow like this, blah, blah, blah, blah.
26:37
OK, What campaigns are you currently running now, whether
26:41
offline or online? Is there any promo that you're
26:43
doing or something? Oh, OK, OK.
26:47
Based on what you're doing now, Ma, I know you want to be on
26:49
Channels TV, but to be honest, it might make more sense based
26:52
on this and this and this campaign that you're running.
26:55
Maybe we should put you on a radio slot instead for this
26:57
particular station so that we'll tie in this radio thing with a
27:01
call to action that will feedback into all these other
27:03
things they are working on. That is when we don't end up
27:09
with a situation where people are happy with our services.
27:12
Because I told her that these are the things that cause
27:14
misunderstanding in business. Somebody will say, give me 250,
27:20
put me on channels. They pay you 250K.
27:23
You put them on channels you, you know, you've done a good job
27:26
to the best of your ability. The other person, since you
27:29
didn't have the conversation, the other person gets on
27:31
channels TV. And the end of the day, the
27:33
channels TV doesn't give her any results.
27:36
Who do you think she'll be angry with?
27:37
You think she'll be angry with herself?
27:39
She will be angry at you, the business provider that you
27:42
didn't sort out. Well, the reason why she would
27:45
feel that way is because you didn't have the conversation
27:48
with her. So you are not able to make the
27:50
recommendation that actually was best for her to fit her needs.
27:55
Lots of business owners in Nigeria say that Nigerian
27:58
customers are ungrateful. The problem is not that we're
28:00
ungrateful. You don't know your customers,
28:02
you've not been asking any questions and so because of
28:04
that, you're delivering something of value in your mind
28:08
but it's not of value to them. You didn't ask them what was in
28:11
their mind. So you don't know what it is
28:12
that they're trying to achieve. Talk to your customers, listen
28:19
actively. There's also something that
28:23
people in America now talking about, they say social
28:25
listening. Basically that means when you
28:28
just look at social media and you see what kind of things that
28:30
people are saying. So that's social listening as
28:32
well. From looking at social media,
28:35
you'll be able to know what's up.
28:37
OK, Like I mentioned NEPA and water board.
28:39
To be honest, NEPA doesn't need to call me to ask me what's the
28:42
problem. All they have to do is all they
28:43
have to just go and check Twitter, see what people are
28:47
tweeting about. Whenever what they're tweeting.
28:50
That is public sentiment. Sorry, I say public.
28:54
That is your customer sentiment. That is what your customers are
28:57
thinking. So there are some industries
28:59
where all you have to do is just go and open social media.
29:02
You will see what is on the mind of people because they're
29:06
talking with their food chest. You now know that.
29:08
Oh, OK, we've been doing this. This is the progress we're
29:12
making. But honestly, our customers,
29:14
they feel like they feel like it is pinching them this way or
29:16
just pinching them that way. So listen to your customers at
29:22
all time. Engage in conversations.
29:25
If you don't like engaging in conversation and you're in the
29:27
kind of industry where you can get lots of feedback, do social
29:31
listening. So for those of you who are in
29:33
the media buying space, in the PR space, in the market
29:35
communication space, if you don't have leave out to be
29:37
asking people questions, just be paying attention to what people
29:42
are saying online. You will get a sense.
29:45
For instance, online, people like to complain that they paid
29:48
for advertising, but advertising is useless.
29:50
They're not getting any returns. So we've joined the marketing
29:54
communication space. Just by paying attention to
29:56
social media, you will get a sense that OK, people are paying
29:58
us for advertising but they think the advertising is
30:01
ineffective. Either we shall listen.
30:05
If you ask me, Listen by how? By having conversations.
30:08
In fact, be doing both, be having the conversations and be
30:11
doing social listening. Then also, as you're talking to
30:14
customers, you should try and identify friction points in
30:17
customer interaction because when you try to scale your
30:20
business, those points will be really, really tested.
30:24
Think about it, there was a time when Nigerian banks, if you call
30:28
the Nigerian bank, they'll put you on hold maybe like 2
30:31
minutes. I know some of you listening now
30:33
will be like what, 2 minutes? Yeah, There was a time actually
30:37
that if you call the bank, you'll be on hold maybe 2
30:40
minutes Max. But I was then now even 2
30:45
minutes. In my own opinion, I think it's
30:47
a long time for somebody to wait, somebody who is angry
30:49
about something. But then Nigerian banks want to
30:52
scale and they're not doing a good job of testing their
30:56
capacity and whether they have what it needs.
31:00
And so they go ahead and they scale anyway.
31:02
And then what happens? Now there are some banks that I
31:05
don't even bother calling. I don't even call the bank's
31:07
name. There's one bank that's put me
31:08
on hold 30 minutes. So now I don't even bother.
31:11
If there's a problem, my wife would say call customer care.
31:14
I'm like, no, I don't. I beg.
31:15
I'm not calling customer care. What I'll do is tomorrow morning
31:17
after I drop the kids at school, I'm just driving to the bank
31:21
because I don't have to wait on the phone in 30 minutes.
31:24
I just drop the kids in school. I'm going to the bank and I want
31:26
to talk to customer care what we say about you're wasting time
31:30
and I was like, look at back for me just feels better that way
31:34
instead of calling and waiting 30 minutes because sometimes
31:36
they put you on hold 30 minutes and then at a minute 35, the
31:40
line will just cut. I've wasted my time.
31:42
So may I prefer I drop the kids. I walk in and I see them.
31:48
So identify friction points. If your customer service, you're
31:53
keeping people to wait for two minutes when they call because
31:57
they want to report the problem, you now know that OK, you know
32:00
what? By the time we scale, this
32:01
friction point will be tested. We need to plug this thing.
32:05
We need to work on something here.
32:07
We also need to prioritize seamless service.
32:09
Try and make things smooth for your customers.
32:11
I beg you, try and make you smooth especially for Nigerian
32:13
businesses. Do you know why?
32:15
This is the reason why in Nigeria, nobody gives an F about
32:19
the customer. As long as people are counting
32:21
money, they're fine. When you show up on the scene
32:24
and looks as if you care for the customers, ha, Nigerian
32:31
customers are not used to being treated.
32:33
They're not used to receiving nice professional treatment.
32:36
So the moment anybody comes and is providing some kind of nice
32:39
professional treatment, people fall in love with you.
32:42
I remember the first time I told somebody, oh, I'm absolutely
32:48
sorry, it's my fault. I take full responsibility for
32:52
that. Please Ma, don't be annoyed, I
32:56
need to ask you a couple of questions so I can try and
32:58
figure out what is going on here and I'll do my best to make sure
33:01
that we resolve the problem. The way she calmed down, even
33:06
me, I was surprised. The reason why she calmed down
33:09
like that is because that woman has never, ever, ever heard
33:12
anybody in her 40 something years of life has never heard a
33:17
Nigerian businessperson tell her that.
33:19
Omar, I'm absolutely sorry. I take responsibility for this.
33:23
This is not what we intended. We will do our best to resolve
33:26
the situation. But before we do that, can I ask
33:29
a couple of questions? I just want to understand what
33:31
it is that went down so maybe we can copy the proposal that work
33:34
for both ways that you will be satisfied.
33:36
We to be satisfied. Nobody ever spoken to her like
33:38
that. So Duma was shocked and she
33:40
calmed down. I'm telling you, in Nigeria, the
33:45
standards are not too high. People are used to being abused
33:49
and harassed. So the moment you start showing
33:52
some of these things in your business set you apart a lot.
33:58
Try and make sure that your service is seamless.
34:04
This thing of that I said about somebody who deliver who pay for
34:07
meat at 8:00. I said the meat should be
34:10
delivered by 10 in the house and then by 11 you start calling the
34:14
cost the the company that how far I've not seen your delivery
34:17
people. Now think about it.
34:19
If you come into this space, you're selling meat on
34:23
Instagram. The fact that you deliver on
34:27
time sets you apart from every other business.
34:29
Trust me, the fact that you tell somebody who deliver by 1010
34:33
o'clock you show up even now, one will set you apart because
34:36
the average person, the average business, Nigeria will promise
34:39
you 1012 o'clock you've not seen them 1:00, you're still chasing
34:43
them. They will now deliver at 4:00 in
34:45
the afternoon even though they promised you they will deliver
34:47
at 10. So for you, in fact, you don't
34:50
even have to be on time, just be 30 minutes late, you're ready.
34:54
You're already better than all the other people anyway.
34:58
So your service, prioritize seamless service.
35:03
Then Omni channel support. People should be able to reach
35:05
you multiple ways, phone, e-mail, chat, social, any which
35:09
way. And then of course you have to
35:10
train your employees to be customer facing.
35:16
So that is how you keep the customer at the centre of it all
35:19
when you are ready to scale. All right, so we're almost at 40
35:23
minutes. Let me just bring this thing to
35:24
a close summary of what I'm trying to say is scale your
35:28
business. Yes, but don't just scale
35:30
because you need more money. Scale because there is more
35:34
value that you can deliver to the market and you actually have
35:37
the capacity to deliver on that value.
35:41
And then keep the customer as a focus while you're scaling your
35:44
business or else you will create some serious problems.
35:49
And remember, as our Uncle Peter Drucker said, if you don't have
35:54
customer, you don't have business.
35:57
I repeat, if you don't have customer, you do not have
35:59
business. So that's the reason why they're
36:01
important. So that's all for today, folks.
36:04
Remember, if you have any sales or marketing questions, bring
36:07
them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you
36:09
can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your
36:14
time and attention. I will catch you next time.
36:17
Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.