Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Reading, Start Earning: The Nigerian Business Application Cycle

Transcript

Stop Reading, Start Earning: The Nigerian Business Application Cycle · 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 look at the proper way
0:04
to learn a skill. And the reason why we're going
0:07
to look at the proper way to learn a skill is because even
0:11
though it's not the kind of question I would normally
0:12
answer, it's the question that I was asked by a podcast listener.
0:17
His name is King, or rather introduce himself to me as a
0:21
King. So King, this is me answering
0:24
your question again on the proper way to learn a skill.
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And even though it's not the kind of question I would
0:30
normally answer, I guess it's OK to tackle these sorts of things
0:33
because sales is a learnable skills, IB skill.
0:38
Sorry, forgive me. And then marketing and sales and
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business and you know, every, every, all the things you talk
0:46
about over here are a combination of different
0:50
learnable skills. So I guess eventually we would
0:53
have to come to this so that we can learn how to learn a skill.
0:58
OK, All right, I know that didn't sound too elegant.
1:01
Anyway, I'm making today's recording.
1:03
I'm out and about. I'm in the parking lot.
1:04
But don't worry, the windows are wound up.
1:06
So we shouldn't have too much noise bleeding in from the
1:09
background. Now, these are the sorts of
1:11
things that you like learning about business, learning skills,
1:13
things like that. Then this podcast is your jam.
1:16
Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tara Shima Aidi,
1:20
and for years this is all I've been doing, bringing you guys
1:22
good advice, relevant practical things that work in the Nigerian
1:26
market. So let's learn how to grow our
1:29
business the Nigerian way. Stay strapped in.
1:31
Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your
1:34
choice. And if you'd love to connect,
1:36
you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
1:39
08064662140. Now back to the question, what
1:48
is the proper way to learn a skill?
1:50
So like I said, this is a listener question from King.
1:53
By the way, Mr. King, I didn't tell you this, but I'm saying it
1:56
now. It's kind of impolite when
1:59
you're having a conversation with someone face to face or
2:01
text or phone conversation, and the person asks you what's your
2:06
name? And then you say, oh, call me
2:08
King. You know, maybe that works in
2:10
the USA and in the UK, maybe in Australia, but in Nigeria things
2:15
are different, especially when you're talking to someone who's
2:18
little older than you are. And OK, let me just leave it
2:22
that way, especially when you're talking to someone who is little
2:24
older than you are. And when the social dynamics are
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all I put it, when the social dynamics aren't equal.
2:31
Let me put it that way. So when someone asks you what is
2:36
your name, the proper thing for a gentleman or for a young man
2:41
in this part of the world is to actually say your name first.
2:46
Give your full government name first, then you can add any
2:51
qualifier. So King, in the future, someone
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other than you ask you what is your name?
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The answer is, by the way, I'm just making this up because I
2:59
don't know his real name. The answer is my name is Oluwa
3:02
Shogun, Oluwa Logbone. But my friends call me King or
3:08
my name is Adetunji Adekombi, but my mom calls me King or my
3:18
name is Francis Ihenatra. But you know, my classmates
3:25
called me king, you know, whatever.
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So in this part of the world, as a gentleman, that is how we do
3:30
it, especially in the business context.
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So for instance, for me wife, he calls me Lord Sugar.
3:40
Because of that, some of my wife's colleagues have started
3:44
calling me Lord Sugar. There's one of my wife's senior
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colleagues who keeps calling me the Sugar Man, and I want to
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tell her that Auntie is not the Sugar Man.
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And you know, if you say the sugar man now, that means
3:57
something else that I can't explain on the show.
4:01
But if somebody asks me what is my name, I will not say call me
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Lord Sugar. I'll give them my full
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government name first. I can say my name is Tavishima
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George Aidi, but my friends call me Lord Sugar.
4:16
Alright, so sorry if I was over stressing it.
4:22
It's just that now that the podcast is growing in
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popularity, I've noticed that I'm beginning to get the
4:27
attention of listeners, mostly men, you know, between the ages
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of, you know, 18 to 20 something.
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So there's some stuff that I thought was just common sense
4:36
that I find myself having to stress over and over and over
4:39
again. Like yesterday I was in the
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coaching session in a meeting, of course, young people who are
4:44
in the tech space and the kind of names that they picked.
4:48
Like you're showing up for a business meeting and you're
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coming up with all kinds of, you know, fancy names, you know,
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Lord Dragon Slayer 69722 And then your profile picture is an
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anime, you know, photo of a, a, you know, North Korean dude.
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And you do like anyway, let me let me just say you young ones,
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you have a lot to learn of, you know, as in business is business
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and you know, other things business is business trips is
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trips. So anyway, let me move on.
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So some of you will be asking how do I know that I'm older
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than this guy? We are not.
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I'm not just making an assumption because, you know,
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we're just in the guy is a recent graduate of Lao Tech.
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And for me, have you been listening?
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I don't want to betray my age, but, you know, I graduated more
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than a decade ago. And even though I'm not saying
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how long ago it was, so clearly I know that I'm older than this
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guy. And yeah, So, yeah, yeah, he
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could have introduced himself better.
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Now, back to the question how to learn a skill.
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Now, that question is too broad. And that's a problem.
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Some of you who reach out to me, you're asking me questions in a
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manner that is just too broad. So.
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And the reason why it's too broad is this how to learn a
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skill? It depends.
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What are your innate abilities already?
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What is your aptitude, your learning aptitude?
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What are your interests? What are your deficiencies?
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What are the things you struggle with?
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What is your vision? What are you aiming towards?
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What are you trying to do? You know, all of these things
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determine how you're going to answer the question, how do you
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learn a skill? So that is too broad.
6:23
So this kind of question, how do you learn a skill is not a very
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helpful question to approach a coach or a consultant with,
6:32
especially if you're going to have limited time with the
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person. Because for me, especially for
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those of you who reach out to me for free, I'm trying to 'cause
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there are lots of people that I'm trying to attend to and then
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also have paid clients. So you understand, I'm not
6:45
trying to be rude, but I have to deal with you guys, you know,
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you know, sharp, sharp, sharp. So the more specific you have
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the question is the better. So if you come to me and you say
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I'm a crypto bro trying to build a business in a so, so, so space
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and I feel as if I need to attract XYZ kind of clients and
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I've been trying to pick up skills in this particular field
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that I'm having a problem doing that.
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What is the proper way to learn that skill?
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Uh huh, that is different. It's very specific.
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We can talk sharp, sharp, sharp. You know, I pick up the phone, I
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call you 5-7 minutes, you know, we wrap it up and then, you
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know, we're both done. You get the value that you need.
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And I also fulfill my promise of making sure that every single
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person who comes my way get some value, whether they give me
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money or not. But if you're going to insist on
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these kind of broad questions, then my suggestion is pay me
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money. And let's talk for two hours.
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And, you know, sure, pay me money if you want this thing to
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be very broad. But the more specific your
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questions are, the better so that we can cut straight to the
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chase. Now, eventually I was able to
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tease out a few things from him, and we got to the thing of his
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reading books. A good idea.
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And the answer is YES. The answer is yes, but when you
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read books, right? Reading books is not just the
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main thing. There are some simple rules you
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have to follow when you read books.
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Now, for those of you who went to boarding school in Nigeria,
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you already know these rules because there's always that one
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teacher who keeps trying to jam these rules into your head.
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I refused to listen when I was in CKC Gwalata, That's Christ
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the King College in Gwalata. I was a school that is run by
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the Marius Brothers and it's a very liberal Catholic education,
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very traditional focused. And there was one brother there,
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Brother Pius and her and that was his name, Brother Pius.
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Brother Pius, if you're still alive and you happen to listen
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to this podcast, you know I'm healing you.
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Much respect, much love. I didn't listen to you back
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then, but honestly, Brother Pius, you know, I've lived life
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small now and I can see that actually you, you are correct.
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Your rules about how to read books, you are correct.
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You are correct. I was just being stubborn at the
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time because my father was also telling me the same things.
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And you know, in primary school, there's another teacher who was
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telling me the same things. So I was resisting.
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But Brother Pious, you are correct.
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And my father, you know, I hate to admit it, but you are
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correct. So these are the rules #1 don't
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read too many books. That's one problem that those of
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us who like to read and gather information, that's one problem
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we we make. We go from one podcast to
9:19
another podcast to another podcast to another podcast
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before you don't, you know it, You don't subscribe to like 120
9:25
podcasts. And let's be real here, you
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subscribe to 120 podcasts and you're listening to the 120
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podcasts. You feel like you're making
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progress, but are you applying anything?
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Is anything registering? So let's be real here.
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Reading books is good, but don't focus on too many books.
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It's not about the number of books you read, all right?
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It's about the focus of your reading habits.
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So you don't want to read 500 books.
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You want to read maybe two or three books and then read them
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500 times. Or do you squeeze the milk out
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of those books? So in the liberal Catholic
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education system, the focus is usually on the classics, and
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that is what you should be doing when it comes to business as
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well. Look for the classics, focus on
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the classics. The reason why is classic
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literature is condensed wisdom and condensed best practices.
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So some books become popular in some fields precisely because it
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is considered to have the best information, the best knowledge,
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the best wisdom, the best everything distilled.
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So if you're a medical student in Nigeria, the reason why
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certain books are on your reading list is because, OK,
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Nigeria is 65 years. I mean, over the last 65 years
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that Nigerian medical faculties have been conducting medical
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exams, they have come to find that XYZ books are the classic
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and they're the best. So as a medical student, it's
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not about reading 500 books, it's about looking at that list.
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And if that list is 17 books, read those 17 books 500 times.
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So yes, read books, but it's not how many you read.
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Focus on the classic, the classics in your field that is
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considered the best, a condensed version of the best.
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All, I put it now, anyway, whatever it is that you need to
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know in your field, if you read the classics, it is considered
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that you know, that's where you get all the meat, you get all
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the good stuff. Because the danger is for those
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of us who like to gather information, we end up gathering
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information, we end up reading books, we end up listening to
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podcasts, and we end up doing it just for doing sake.
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You would read book for reading sake.
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I read one book a week. Oh, really?
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Last week I read 52 books. Oh really?
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What did you learn from the book?
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Well, you know, I enjoyed that one by Robert Greene.
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I enjoyed this one by this by this.
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I enjoyed this one by that other.
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OK, really. What did you apply from the
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book? Well, you know, reading itself
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is a pleasure. You know, reading itself is a
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joy and you know, it makes 1 sophisticated.
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And you know, you're just reading book for reading sake.
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You're feeling yourself. You're feeling popped up.
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I'm listening to 120 podcast. Meanwhile, what are you
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applying? You're applying nothing.
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You're not applying. You're not playing gang.
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So, Brother Pius, you are correct.
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I was reading too many books. Don't be reading too many books.
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Focus on the classics and #2 Brother Pius, you are correct.
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I confess you are correct. Write down the things that seem
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reasonable. Write down the things that seem
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doable. Brother Pius used to tell us
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back then that the bluntest pencil is sharper than the
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sharpest memory. I repeat, it took me a while to
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understand this one. What Brother Pyos used to say,
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the bluntest pencil as your pencil no sharp is sharper than
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your than the sharpest Mind, he said was a Chinese proverb.
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I don't know your brother Pyos made that.
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Your brother Pyos made that saying of then.
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Well, anyway, he told us was a Chinese proverb.
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So right now, what seems reasonable, right now what seems
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doable, because the truth of matter is you will forget.
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All these books are really, really interesting stuff.
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And then apart from that, you know, life, life just happens.
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You know, this is an interesting idea.
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You want to apply the idea. But then you know, something
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happens. You know, your girlfriend comes
13:45
over, you guys start chatting, you forget or mumsy calls, you
13:49
start at home, mumsy you forget. Or you know, life just happens.
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You forget, write things down. When you write things down, you
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end up applying more stuff only to argue with brother Pios.
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And I did that look is not necessary, but I'm telling you
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honestly, Brother Pios was correct.
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Just write these things down. Write it.
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Don't be too proud, especially for those of us who think we are
14:17
smart, that we have good memory. Just write it down.
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The chance that you would do this thing increases when you
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actually write things down. Don't ask me the psychology why
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I do not understand it. If I understood it, I wouldn't
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have argued with my father. I wouldn't have argued with
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Brother Pius. So of course, we've already gone
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to Step 3, because you're right. Then you apply the things that
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you noted down. After a while, you know when you
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write things down because writing helps you to sort
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through your thoughts. One day you wake up and realize,
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why did I write this thing down? This thing doesn't really make
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any sense. No problem, delete that one.
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Just cancel it. The ones that make sense, apply.
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Then the next step, the things that work.
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Repeat. The things that work.
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If it works, keep doing it again and again.
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For the things that don't work, the things that you fail at, you
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either ignore them or you continue to refine until you get
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it right. Then these steps, step four and
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five, repeating the things that work and then ignoring or
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refining on the things that you fail at.
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If you keep doing that over and over again, this is the best
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part. You will now know the next steps
15:29
that you need to research. And that's the conversation I
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used to have with my dad. I was always wanted to know, OK,
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like what next? OK, I read this book.
15:39
So what next? You know, so it is by applying
15:43
the one that worked, refining the things that failed, you now
15:46
know what the next step is. Back to the medical student
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example, recommended reading 17 textbooks.
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You read 17 of them. You start applying.
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After a while, you realize that hormone pharmacology, that's
15:59
where they hang. So for you, the next things you
16:03
need to research, where you need to double down on next skill you
16:07
need to learn is pharmacology. Because in repeating the things
16:11
that work, you have seen that anatomy, you have mastered it,
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circulatory system, you have done mastered it.
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This one, this one, this one, you have mastered it.
16:21
But pharmacology, pharmacology get ACB.
16:25
So you now know that that's where you should research next.
16:27
By the way, if you're a medical student and you know some of the
16:29
things I'm saying don't make sense, you know don't mind me.
16:33
It's been a while since I left uni and I'm not even sure if
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pharmacology was a course in pharmacy or a course in
16:39
medicine. But anyway, forgive me Sharp,
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but you get the point. Then step 7.
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Repeat the whole process, which is don't read too many books,
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don't listen to too many podcasts.
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Look for the things that are considered the classics because
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that is where the best wisdom and best practice are.
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Then write down what seems reasonable or doable.
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Apply the things that you have written down.
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Repeat the things that work. Ignore or refine the things that
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failed. When you repeat things that work
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and you try and refine all the things that failed, you will now
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know where your deficiencies are and you know where you need to
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research next. And then you repeat the whole
17:23
process. The summary of what I'm trying
17:25
to say is when it comes to learning a skill, don't
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overthink it. It's a reasonable question to
17:31
ask. Well, you know King, you are
17:33
kind of overthinking it. And it's not just you.
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As a young myself, you know, me too.
17:39
I was, I was overthinking it as a teenager.
17:41
You know, sometimes it's, it's that simple.
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So it's very, very simple. So Mr. King, since you are a Lao
17:47
tech guy based in Obama, sure, if you want to marry an Obama,
17:51
sure babe, it's very simple. Go and talk to another Lao tech
17:54
boy that you respect and ask for his advice.
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Note down the reasonable advice that he gives you.
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Apply it. When it comes to toasting Lao
18:04
Tech babes. The thing that work, repeat it.
18:08
The things that don't work? Ignore from the things that work
18:13
or from the things that fail. It will determine where you need
18:16
to research to learn more so that you can improve your
18:18
toasting skills so that you can marry and go on short babe.
18:22
Then you repeat the whole process until you find a wife.
18:25
When you find a wife, exit the market, you have no need to
18:29
learn how to toast babes anymore.
18:31
So you can see in business as is the same in relationships.
18:36
If you want to start a gadget business for instance, because
18:39
King wants to start a gadget business, try and look for what
18:42
is considered a classic in the industry.
18:45
Unfortunately, I don't know of any classics in the industry
18:48
when it comes to these sorts of things.
18:50
Although I try to sell the course on seller and and seller
18:54
that's SELAR and there's another content creator who is there on
19:00
seller. His name is Tunji Ajibade of and
19:03
he wrote a book How to start a profitable Phone accessories
19:06
business in Nigeria. It's an e-book.
19:08
The thing has no reviews. So you know, buy a beware.
19:11
Go and check it out for yourself.
19:13
Although in the conversation I had with King, I told King, you
19:15
know what, follow this guy Tunji Ajibade on his social media.
19:18
Check him out. If some of the things he says
19:20
makes sense, then you know you can go ahead and follow him.
19:23
But you can see how you know. In this case, try and look for
19:27
some good literature in the field and then follow it.
19:30
The guy is going to talk about some specific strategies in the
19:32
books. Note it down.
19:35
The one that you think you can apply, note it down.
19:37
Apply those ones. Some things work, some things
19:40
you don't work. The ones that work, reiterate,
19:43
you know, repeat it. The ones that don't work,
19:45
reiterate, refine it, or delete the things that don't work from
19:52
that whole process of applying. This one worked, I will keep it.
19:57
This one didn't work, I'll delete it.
19:59
This one didn't work, I'll refine it.
20:01
You will now know where your knowledge gaps are and then you
20:05
now know how to start this process again.
20:10
So for you guys who do phone accessories, merchandising is
20:14
serious for you guys. I mean, I know nothing about
20:16
merchandising. Merchandising is about how.
20:20
You take your inventory and then you have to apply your you have
20:24
to set up your inventory well so that everything you know, looks
20:28
good. So in a mobile accessory shop,
20:31
you know, there's there's a way that they arranged things, you
20:33
know, mobile phones in front, you know, computer accessories,
20:37
you put it here, you put this kind of lighting on this kind of
20:41
items. If the Samsung Fold is the one
20:43
that is raining and that's the one that you want to highlight,
20:46
there's a way that you place it. There's a way that you position
20:48
it. The kind of music that you play
20:50
in the shop, you know, whether you have AC or whether you have
20:54
fluorescent lighting or not. You know, merchandising is
20:57
complicated and to be honest, you know all these complicated
21:01
things, I stay away from them. But for those of you who are
21:04
doing mobile phone accessories and all that, you know your ex,
21:09
your merchandising gas to be on point.
21:11
There's a reason why when you walk into slot slot by the way,
21:15
slot SLOT sorry for those who are non Nigerian listeners.
21:19
Slot is a is a chain of mobile phone, computer and mobile
21:23
phones now mostly shops in Nigeria, northern Nigeria,
21:28
eastern Nigeria, South. So that's what they do.
21:33
And if you notice that shops are arranged a certain way, it
21:36
doesn't matter which slot to enter.
21:38
The outlay is always the same, the staff dresses the same, the
21:42
lighting is the same, the way that the spotlight phones is the
21:46
same. You know, that is merchandising.
21:49
The same thing with Apple Store. You enter inside, you know, cool
21:52
AC, the way everything is arranged, the way the iPads are
21:55
arranged and all that is merchandising.
21:57
Take your inventory, put it down, lay it out, you know, make
22:01
everything nice and sweet in a way that we'll just be calling
22:04
people, calling people so that when you enter into the iPhone
22:07
store, you know, the iPad will just be calling your name.
22:11
The iPad will be calling you. The iPad will be saying share
22:12
gonna come here, share gonna come here, buy me, buy me, touch
22:16
me, touch me. So that's merchandising.
22:19
So from reading all the books and, you know, getting the
22:25
knowledge, applying, you now know whether, OK, I'm good at
22:29
merchandising. The next skill I need to learn
22:31
is this, or I'm good at all these other ones.
22:35
And then the skill I need to learn is this.
22:37
So for me, it was going to start a mobile phone and accessories
22:42
business. Yeah, the skills that I would
22:44
have to learn probably would be merchandising because when it
22:46
comes to having the conversation to figure out what people want
22:49
so I can make the right recommendations and and order
22:52
part. But merchandising, I have no
22:55
idea about that. So in summary, that is it.
23:01
That is how you learn a skill or please, when you reach out to
23:05
me, the more direct your question is, the better because
23:10
I'm receiving lots of questions now the podcast is beginning to
23:12
grow in popularity. I want to answer everybody.
23:15
So the more back, back, back, the more to the points we can
23:18
be, the better. So all these general questions
23:23
like how do I prove improve my motivation?
23:25
Like when that's that's broad. What did you say?
23:28
I'm a real estate professional and based in Abuja.
23:31
I've been in this game for three months.
23:32
I've not been able to drum up my sales.
23:35
My line manager shouting at me every day or more.
23:38
My mood just the flat big was the way out.
23:42
OK, that's a very specific question.
23:44
We can, you know, I can pick up the phone and you know, like 5
23:48
minutes, 10 minutes. We actually can make some
23:50
headway on that. Oh, by the way, in case I
23:53
haven't figured out, those of you who are reaching out, most
23:55
likely I'm going to make a podcast episode about you.
23:58
So if you don't want your name to appear in the podcast
24:00
episode, the first thing you do when you reach out to me and
24:04
say, bro, I beg, don't talk about me on the podcast, right?
24:09
If you don't put that notice, I'm going to assume that you're
24:11
going to be cool that I might talk about our conversations on
24:13
the podcast. So if you reach out to me, I
24:15
will be talking about you on the podcast.
24:18
But already I leave our personal issues, you know, relationship
24:20
issues, mommy daddy issues, girlfriend issues, academic
24:25
issues, financial issues, don't I leave out all those issues and
24:28
I stick to the business lessons that we can learn.
24:32
So that's it and that's all. Remember, if you'd love to
24:35
connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message
24:38
on 08064662140. And if you love all the things
24:44
we're talking about here, then we got you covered.
24:47
There's plenty more in your in your, what's it called?
24:53
Is it timeline? Anyway, whatever it is that
24:55
you're listening to right now, whether you're listening on
24:58
Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or anything, we have over 1000
25:02
episodes. So Scroll down, keep listening,
25:04
but remember, it's not about listening.
25:05
Go and apply, I beg. Go and apply.
25:08
When things work, reach out to me.
25:11
That's why I give you my phone number.
25:13
Tell me what work. When things don't work, reach
25:16
out to me. I tried this thing.
25:17
This thing didn't work. Let's brainstorm and then if you
25:20
disagree with something, reach out to me.
25:21
You said this. I disagree.
25:23
You're misleading people. You're lying to people.
25:24
I love those kind of conversations.
25:26
Let's have that conversation as well.
25:28
So I'll see you soon.