Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Building Consensus: Strategies for Selling When Multiple Stakeholders Hold the Purse Strings

Transcript

Building Consensus: Strategies for Selling When Multiple Stakeholders Hold the Purse Strings · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, the usual
• 0:05
  apologies. I'm in a noisy environment as
• 0:07
  usual, but I just want to get this podcast episode out because
• 0:11
  if I wait for perfect conditions, then you know before
• 0:14
  you know it. Two or three days.
• 0:16
  Uh, back up before I can get ideal recording.
• 0:20
  Uh, conditions. So today we're going to continue
• 0:23
  with the previous discussions. We're looking at objections that
• 0:27
  we typically face in Niger. But of course, our brothers and
• 0:30
  sisters listening in from Russia, America, Uganda, Kenya,
• 0:36
  wherever. I'm sure you guys face these
• 0:38
  objections as well. And this is one set of
• 0:41
  objections that everyone should be used to.
• 0:44
  And that is when you talk to a potential customer and the
• 0:47
  person says, I need to speak to my orga at the top.
• 0:50
  That's my boss. I need to speak to my husband.
• 0:52
  I need to speak to my wife. I need to speak with my pastor,
• 0:55
  my lawyer, my accountant, my business partner, my kids, my
• 0:58
  mom, my XYZ. Just fill in the blank Whenever
• 1:02
  you think you're making progress, you think you're about
• 1:05
  to make, you're about to see the deal, and then the person brings
• 1:08
  in some other person whose input is required.
• 1:11
  Then this is the objection that you're that you're not faced
• 1:14
  with. So let's just say I need to
• 1:16
  speak with XYZ. Now, this arises in a number of
• 1:20
  situations. Oh, sorry, let me take a step
• 1:22
  back. If this is your first time
• 1:23
  listening to the podcast in order to get the wider context
• 1:26
  of what we're talking about over here, it would help if after you
• 1:29
  listen to this, skip back four or five episodes.
• 1:32
  We've dealt with all the objections that people typically
• 1:35
  face. Your product is too expensive.
• 1:37
  I don't really need this right now.
• 1:41
  What else? I can't remember.
• 1:42
  We've dealt with the couple, so skip back four or five episodes
• 1:45
  and you get caught up to speed. You will know what an objection
• 1:47
  is. You will know what a condition
• 1:50
  is. Let's see.
• 1:52
  And then a couple of other fine distinctions that we dealt with.
• 1:55
  So let me just continue with the meat of the matter.
• 1:58
  Just so you know, if this is your first time listening to the
• 2:00
  show, there's a wider discussion after this episode.
• 2:03
  Listen to the other ones. Sorry about that.
• 2:06
  Sore throat is still here. Although I am getting better or
• 2:09
  my my kids are getting better as well.
• 2:11
  For those of you who are concerned, it's just a yearly
• 2:14
  thing and a seasonal thing rather.
• 2:17
  And I'm hoping that as the kids grow older, you know we're going
• 2:19
  to get past this phase, this phase.
• 2:21
  Then eventually they'll be in secondary school and I'll be
• 2:23
  fine and I'll be healthy and I won't have sore throats anymore.
• 2:27
  OK, so now the situations where this thing arises is typically
• 2:30
  where people have a lack of a decision making authority.
• 2:34
  Now remember I told you that I've been saying over here on
• 2:36
  the podcast that Nigerians are really nice people.
• 2:39
  So sometimes you're talking to the wrong person and this guy or
• 2:42
  this girl just doesn't know how to tell you that you're wasting
• 2:44
  your time. She wants to be polite.
• 2:46
  She wants to be polite. So they'll just listen.
• 2:49
  But then eventually you get to the point where you need a
• 2:51
  signature, you need a decision. And they say, OK, let me, I need
• 2:55
  to talk with my Olga. I need to talk with my boss.
• 2:58
  I need to talk with MDI, need to talk to Deaconess Afubero.
• 3:04
  I need to talk to the head pastor.
• 3:05
  I need to talk to the chief imam.
• 3:07
  It's at that point you're not realizing like, oh, OK, I've
• 3:10
  been spending three months building a relationship with
• 3:13
  this person pursuing this project, but actually it should
• 3:17
  have been the chief imam I should have been talking to if I
• 3:19
  want to build the well for the mosque.
• 3:22
  So yeah, so it happens where there's a lack of a decision
• 3:26
  making authority. Now all that means is you've
• 3:28
  just been talking to the wrong person.
• 3:29
  So it sucks. But if you've been talking to
• 3:31
  this guy for three weeks, you've been talking to the wrong
• 3:33
  person. If you've been talking to this
• 3:35
  guy for one year, you've been talking to the wrong person.
• 3:38
  So it happens when you're talking to employees.
• 3:42
  How will I see it? I'm not trying to make people
• 3:44
  sound less than how will I say subordinates?
• 3:47
  Yeah, let me say subordinates. So let's say it's a church, a
• 3:50
  parish project, and you've been talking to the Deacon, but
• 3:53
  you've not been talking to the General Overseer.
• 3:56
  Yeah. So I guess subordinates would be
• 3:57
  the right word in this case. So you've been talking to the
• 3:59
  subordinates, but you've not been talking to the HNIC.
• 4:01
  You've not been talking to the head.
• 4:03
  OK. I'm not sure I can use language
• 4:04
  like that on the air. You've not been talking to the
• 4:06
  head person, basically. Sometimes it arouses, gosh,
• 4:11
  sorry, forgive me. Sometimes it arises when we're
• 4:15
  talking about spousal situations.
• 4:17
  I guess that's why I said arousal.
• 4:18
  I guess that was from Freudian slip, so sometimes it happens in
• 4:22
  spousal situations as well, depending on the culture or what
• 4:26
  it is you're talking about. You're talking to the husband
• 4:28
  only, but you need my time on board.
• 4:30
  So, you know, these sorts of things happens where an agent is
• 4:33
  with the husband only, and then the agent is pushing and pushing
• 4:36
  and pushing and pushing and pushing and, you know, the guy
• 4:39
  says, OK, you know, I like this house, but I need to speak with
• 4:42
  my wife first. You know, the guy is only being
• 4:44
  realistic because the guy knows that in the past he has bought a
• 4:47
  house or moved into a house and Wifey didn't like it because the
• 4:50
  kitchen was too small or maybe because it was close to a
• 4:53
  graveyard. And she's like, how can we live
• 4:55
  in this kind of place and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 4:57
  So my guy has learned from experience that even though he's
• 4:59
  paid up and he has all the money in the world, he knows that,
• 5:01
  look, I best talk to Madam before we buy this house or
• 5:05
  before I pay the rent money and things like that.
• 5:08
  So this is one of those spousal situations.
• 5:11
  And in fact, I was at a an online seminar where after I
• 5:18
  finished my bid, a lawyer piped on about how she was speaking to
• 5:22
  someone, the potential clients. She had invested weeks with this
• 5:25
  person. It was about a conveyancing
• 5:27
  situation. The land belonged to the wife
• 5:30
  and the wife was going to sell it and everything.
• 5:32
  The husband was on board. They finalized everything.
• 5:36
  Excuse me. The lawyer had even started
• 5:38
  doing some work on the project, only for the husband to come
• 5:40
  back from abroad and then just to appeal the whole project.
• 5:43
  So, you know, it's just one of those cultural things.
• 5:45
  Yes, the land belongs to the wife.
• 5:49
  Oh, and by the way, I'm not here making a case for patriarchy and
• 5:53
  all that. I'm just saying that these are
• 5:55
  some of the realities that we face in business, especially in
• 5:57
  this part of the world. So your own part is you're
• 6:01
  trying to close the deal, you're trying to make some money,
• 6:03
  you're not trying to dethrone patriarchy or whatever.
• 6:06
  So these are some stuff that you can't really descend into.
• 6:11
  Then sometimes it's concerning larger family arrangements
• 6:14
  because as a first born child, I can tell you guys for the fact
• 6:18
  that you know, there are some decisions that I can make on
• 6:20
  behalf of the family. And there are others that really
• 6:22
  I have to call everybody else to say, hey bro, what's up, what do
• 6:25
  you think? I have to now put out some
• 6:28
  feelers, you know what my sisters think, you know all
• 6:30
  those sorts of things, you know, uncles, aunties, that sort of
• 6:32
  thing before we finally decide. So it's just one of these
• 6:36
  things. Then there are also business
• 6:39
  scenarios, complex scenarios where multiple stakeholders are
• 6:42
  involved. And these are the many reasons
• 6:44
  why people can say things like I need to talk to my ogre, my
• 6:47
  uncle, my husband, my wife, my pastor, my kids, my accountant,
• 6:51
  my you know, my investors, my, whatever it is.
• 6:55
  These are lots of reasons why these things arise.
• 6:59
  Now, just like I advocated in previous podcast episodes, if
• 7:04
  you're going to be stubborn. And when the person says need to
• 7:07
  talk to my husband and you say, ah Madam, this is 21st century,
• 7:10
  talk to your husband, why, You know, blah blah blah.
• 7:12
  You keep pushing, you run the risk of coming across as a
• 7:16
  blockhead, and you actually might get the person to tense up
• 7:22
  and to lock up. So if somebody says I need to
• 7:24
  talk to my ogre, the solution is not keep pushing.
• 7:28
  If somebody says need to talk to my wife, the solution is not
• 7:31
  You're the head of the household now, come on, you know, just you
• 7:35
  can, it can actually backfire. You get people to lock up and
• 7:38
  get people to not want to talk to you anymore.
• 7:40
  So what you do is you agree because like I said, nobody
• 7:43
  wants to feel like they're done so that they're liar or that
• 7:45
  what they're saying doesn't make sense.
• 7:47
  So if the guy says I need to talk to my wife, you say, yeah,
• 7:51
  you know what, Actually, this is correct.
• 7:53
  Yeah. You actually should talk to your
• 7:55
  wife because after all, you know, this big money you're
• 7:57
  putting down here. So even myself, I won't spend
• 7:59
  this kind of money without talking to my wife.
• 8:01
  Then you ask some more questions because you're trying to figure
• 8:04
  out the bigger context. You're trying to figure out what
• 8:08
  he's concerned about, what his wife might be concerned about,
• 8:11
  all those sorts of issues. Because when you get all these
• 8:13
  extra data, then you'll be able to reframe the proposal.
• 8:17
  So back to the extreme example that I gave.
• 8:20
  If it's because the house is close to a graveyard or maybe
• 8:23
  the kitchen is too small, you know, you can ask those sorts of
• 8:26
  questions like, OK, yeah, I understand they have to talk to
• 8:28
  Madame, blah, blah, blah. But by the way, I'm curious if
• 8:30
  Madame was here, what do you think our main problem will be?
• 8:33
  And if the guy says, oh, the problem is the graveyard, OK,
• 8:36
  now you know that it is out looking for.
• 8:38
  You don't have it at the back of your mind that while you're
• 8:40
  pushing for a meeting with Madame, coming over to the
• 8:43
  office next time is out looking for other properties that are
• 8:47
  not close to the graveyard. But then, if the problem is that
• 8:49
  it is the kitchen, you now know at the back of your mind that if
• 8:52
  you're working on future proposals, you can come up with
• 8:55
  scenarios where you knock down this wall in the kitchen once
• 8:58
  they pay 50% of the deposit and then they extend the kitchen by,
• 9:03
  you know, by 50 meters or, sorry, no, 50 meters, No, that's
• 9:05
  too big. But you get my point.
• 9:07
  Extend the kitchen by 5 feet or 10 feet or whatever, so you
• 9:11
  agree. Let everybody feel calm and cool
• 9:14
  so the conversation can continue.
• 9:16
  You ask more questions. You're trying to get more data.
• 9:19
  You're trying to figure out their priorities.
• 9:20
  You're trying to figure out what their concerns are.
• 9:23
  And the goal in this case is you're trying to get a future
• 9:26
  engagement where you have this other decision maker on board.
• 9:29
  So if somebody says I need to talk to my wife, The thing is
• 9:32
  not to say our Bros, now you're the head of the family.
• 9:34
  Come on, I know a man. That's not the solution.
• 9:37
  Solution is, Yeah, it makes sense.
• 9:39
  I understand. But Wifey was here.
• 9:40
  What do you think she would feel?
• 9:42
  So man it makes sense. So he's he's even true that I
• 9:45
  brought it up self. Because even me, ma, I did this.
• 9:47
  I did this Man Wifey gave me stress.
• 9:49
  Yeah, understand. It makes sense.
• 9:51
  So how far now like is is is Madam around?
• 9:54
  OK, when is she going to be back?
• 9:55
  She traveled to a new go. OK, when is she coming back?
• 9:57
  She's coming back on Friday and no problem.
• 9:59
  Now I'm around on Friday. OK, Friday is too late.
• 10:01
  And OK, we can meet Monday 10:00.
• 10:04
  OK. You guys are busy at 10 and no
• 10:06
  problem. I'll be around the neighborhood.
• 10:08
  So like that kind 12:30 I'll come over to the house.
• 10:10
  Is that cool? No problem.
• 10:13
  You get down paper and you can see that there's still small
• 10:16
  room for this deal to move ahead.
• 10:18
  So that's the scope that you're using in these kinds of
• 10:21
  situations. It's also the same thing if the
• 10:24
  woman says I need to talk to my husband, the The thing is not to
• 10:27
  say, ah, come on, we just celebrated International Women's
• 10:30
  Day in this day of female emancipation, and you tell me
• 10:33
  that you're still chained to the yoke of patriarchy.
• 10:35
  Are you trying to say you're not capable of thinking for
• 10:37
  yourself, That is not the way to go?
• 10:40
  If I say, yeah, I understand my sister, I understand totally.
• 10:44
  Well, they have to speak with your husband.
• 10:46
  You know, you crack down who uses all joke about how husbands
• 10:49
  are the first born of the family and blah, blah, blah.
• 10:51
  And, you know, if you don't expect them to behave one kind
• 10:55
  or something, you know, you guys laugh about all of that and then
• 10:59
  you refocus with the questions. So if your husband were here,
• 11:01
  you know, what do you think we'll be concerned about now?
• 11:03
  OK, that's true, actually. You know, men might look at
• 11:05
  things from this and this and that perspective.
• 11:08
  OK. So like when do you think?
• 11:11
  I hope you'll be around so we can have a meeting and then you
• 11:14
  know the same scope, Try and figure out what the other
• 11:17
  stakeholders concerns are. You're now working in your
• 11:20
  brain, how you're going to amend your proposal for the future.
• 11:23
  You try and get future engagement where you bring this
• 11:26
  other stakeholder whether it's ogre or the children or the
• 11:30
  whatever, on board. And yes, there will be times
• 11:32
  when you have to consult with children too.
• 11:34
  That happens because my mom has reached a certain age and her
• 11:38
  kids are of a certain age. So there's some decisions that
• 11:41
  she wants to take that of course, she calls her kids and
• 11:43
  she says, Tavi, you know, what do you think?
• 11:45
  I spoke to your brother. Your brother is saying this, I
• 11:47
  spoke to your sister, this is what they're thinking, blah,
• 11:49
  blah, blah. And it's only after all this
• 11:51
  back and forth that she now calls the other provider.
• 11:53
  And then the deal is done. Like, for instance, you just got
• 11:56
  solar panels installed in a house, back in the villa, and
• 12:00
  you know, the same sort of thing back and forth.
• 12:02
  You know which which vendor, what specifications, what kind
• 12:08
  of technology, you know, those sorts of things.
• 12:09
  So those are things that we backed and forth a little bit
• 12:11
  on. Now The thing is, you don't say,
• 12:14
  ah, Madam, who is the parent? Who are the children?
• 12:17
  Are you not the one that is the parent?
• 12:19
  It's OK Yeah, Madam, it's true. I understand.
• 12:22
  You know, after all, children have to take care of their
• 12:23
  mother, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 12:24
  So anyway, what kind of questions are your children
• 12:27
  raising, by the way? And then, of course, my mom will
• 12:29
  talk. And then the other one on on the
• 12:33
  other side is a sharp guy. He's taking notes.
• 12:35
  And he now knows that these are things to address in his
• 12:38
  proposal, whether it's concerns over credibility or concerns
• 12:41
  over quality or concerns over which tech is the most recent or
• 12:46
  the most efficient or whatever. And then like I said, future
• 12:50
  engagement with this other stakeholder, You know, how can
• 12:53
  you help on the phone with one of the children or with the
• 12:56
  whatever just to make people much more comfortable with the
• 12:59
  whole thing. So yeah, so for these sets of
• 13:05
  situations where there's a lack of decision making authority,
• 13:08
  this is just how you approach it.
• 13:11
  Generally, when we're asking questions, we're trying to
• 13:14
  figure out what the priorities of the absent person is because
• 13:17
  we're trying to amend our proposal because there are
• 13:19
  sometimes that you actually can't amend your proposal on the
• 13:22
  spot. And it makes sense like, oh, OK,
• 13:26
  yeah, Typically, yes, wives will be concerned about 12345, but
• 13:29
  this is the reason why we have made provision for this and this
• 13:31
  and that and that. And the person will say, Oh
• 13:33
  yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true.
• 13:35
  I think it does take care of that.
• 13:36
  And then the person can move ahead.
• 13:37
  So those situations happen as well.
• 13:40
  Now, there are other situations where someone says I need to
• 13:43
  talk to my Olga, my pastor, my stakeholder, sorry, my investor,
• 13:47
  my children, my neighbor, my uncle, my whatever, because
• 13:51
  there's need for additional input, especially when we deal
• 13:55
  with complex sales scenarios. So if people need some sort of
• 13:58
  technical expertise or their financial considerations or risk
• 14:01
  management or legal compliance, you know, you really do need to
• 14:05
  talk to other people. So back to the example that I
• 14:07
  came up with yesterday, that's when I was shouting out the guy
• 14:11
  who we're chatting with on LinkedIn, the guy from Inter
• 14:14
  Switch. So you're an Inter Switch
• 14:17
  salesperson, you're trying to sell payment solutions or well,
• 14:21
  I'm assuming that that's what Inter Switch does.
• 14:23
  By the way, I'm not in the finance field, so I'm just free
• 14:26
  starting here. So if you work with Inter
• 14:28
  Switch, you know Novak's, I'm just coming up with scenarios,
• 14:33
  I'm trying to make it work here. So if that's what you guys do at
• 14:36
  Inter Switch, you know you sell connectivity, payment solutions,
• 14:41
  transactions, payment transactions, have to go through
• 14:43
  that sort of thing. Now you might be talking with
• 14:46
  the head honcho, you might be talking with Madam MD or Mr. CEO
• 14:51
  or Mr. Whoever. But The thing is at the end of
• 14:53
  the day, Madam MD might be great at business, but she knows
• 14:56
  nothing about payment protocols and redundancy in Internet and
• 15:05
  blah blah blah, no what not. So there are times that
• 15:07
  genuinely she actually does have to call in the accountant
• 15:11
  calling head of IT, calling this person or calling the lawyers to
• 15:16
  find out what their own opinions are or talk to the risk
• 15:19
  management people that if we switch from this payment
• 15:21
  protocol to that payment protocol, what are the risks,
• 15:24
  what are the problems it might cause.
• 15:26
  So in this complex sales scenarios, most things are
• 15:29
  actually genuine. The solution is the same as
• 15:32
  before. I agree.
• 15:34
  Like, oh Madam, Madam, MD Yeah, actually makes a lot of sense,
• 15:38
  It's true. Yeah.
• 15:39
  It would be nice for us to have technical, head of technical on
• 15:43
  board, you know, blah blah blah. If technical were here, like
• 15:46
  what kind of concerns do you think you would have?
• 15:47
  Madam will say one or two things, or maybe she just has a
• 15:50
  vague idea, but no problem. You make a note of these things
• 15:53
  so that you can amend your proposal in the future.
• 15:55
  And then of course, I'm trying to advance the deal.
• 15:59
  Try and see where OGA IT or OGA Technical, OGA Legal or Chairman
• 16:04
  of financial committee or whatever.
• 16:06
  Whoever it is, I need to talk to try and find out when to be
• 16:08
  available and fix a meeting or yeah, so that's it.
• 16:13
  And then you come back for the future meeting then.
• 16:18
  I'm sorry about that. Now, one solution.
• 16:22
  So I need to check how much time we've been on.
• 16:26
  OK, this is 15 minutes. Let me bring it to a close now.
• 16:29
  Let's see, Let's see, let's see. OK, so now once we're thinking
• 16:33
  about it in the sales and business development perspective
• 16:35
  is we try and prevent problems of happening in the 1st place.
• 16:38
  So you should always be trying to figure out the decision
• 16:40
  making unit of you know the family or the business that
• 16:45
  you're dealing with. Now the DMU, the decision making
• 16:47
  unit, this is something that I've stolen from.
• 16:51
  I think it's it's construction, I think it's construction in the
• 16:55
  in the USA, I think it's construction in America.
• 16:58
  Yeah, I think so. So they call it the decision
• 17:00
  making unit. And the idea behind it is this,
• 17:02
  that you're trying to build something.
• 17:04
  A number of decisions are going to have to be reached before any
• 17:07
  work gets done. So you need to figure out who
• 17:09
  are the key people that need to be involved before the decision
• 17:11
  is made. And from the beginning you start
• 17:14
  chasing those guys from the get. You don't just talk to only one
• 17:17
  person and assume that it's a done deal.
• 17:19
  So back to Madam MD thing, you've got Madam M DS phone
• 17:22
  number. It's good.
• 17:23
  It's a huge victory because Madam MD is the one who signed
• 17:26
  the check at the end of the day. But if you can try and wing it,
• 17:30
  try and talk to somebody else. See how you can get the chief of
• 17:33
  I TS phone number, the legal secretary's phone number, the
• 17:38
  procurement person's phone number, the you know all these
• 17:41
  other people. That's part of the decision
• 17:42
  making unit that before they switch payment from this thing
• 17:45
  to that thing, before they buy your your fintech, whatever it
• 17:51
  is, that's some people that you're going to have to talk to.
• 17:53
  One person pays the check, somebody is responsible for
• 17:56
  executing it, Another person is responsible for coming up with
• 17:59
  the legal documents, another person is responsible for
• 18:02
  actually facilitating the payment.
• 18:03
  Just try from the beginning. If this is the DMU, the decision
• 18:07
  making unit, just try. See how you can run it like that
• 18:09
  by talking to everybody right from the beginning.
• 18:12
  Now there are times where you can't get everybody.
• 18:14
  I mean the world is not perfect, but The thing is just do your
• 18:16
  best. You're trying to increase the
• 18:18
  odds, make the put the odds in your favour.
• 18:21
  Now there are different ways of trying to figure out the DMU
• 18:23
  when you're talking in the beginning.
• 18:24
  So yes, you might be talking to Madam MD, Managing Director.
• 18:28
  She's the one that signs the check.
• 18:30
  But at some point in the conversation you can say Madam
• 18:32
  MD, thank you very much, I really appreciate the support,
• 18:35
  blah blah blah. But before I go, usually when
• 18:37
  we're talking to these sorts of things like in our last project
• 18:41
  that we did for Axis Bank, XYZ were involved in the deal, you
• 18:47
  know, But how come I've, I've not been seeing your technical,
• 18:49
  your head of technical here for the conversations, you know, how
• 18:51
  come you know something like that or aren't they going to be
• 18:54
  involved in this decision. You know, like use your
• 18:57
  personality use your own words, you know, that kind of stylish
• 19:01
  question and is there that, you know she might say, Oh no, that
• 19:05
  that's how Access Bank does it. But in this bank and the Alpha
• 19:08
  and the Omega, once I've said it, I've said it once I signed,
• 19:10
  you know, it's done. OK, OK.
• 19:13
  So you now go ahead on those terms or you can ask now.
• 19:15
  OK, thank you very much Madam. MD, you know it's been fun blah,
• 19:18
  blah, blah. But typically who usually signs
• 19:20
  off on these sorts of decisions? I know that you OK, the final
• 19:24
  whatever, but what about head of procurement doesn't have a say
• 19:26
  in this, What about head of IT, head of technical, you know you
• 19:31
  ask. We have to ask these questions
• 19:33
  because they need to know what's going on.
• 19:35
  We need to figure out what the decision making unit is.
• 19:37
  Because The thing is this, if you're dealing with the Alpha on
• 19:40
  the Omega, then very good. But the only way you know
• 19:43
  whether you're dealing with alpha on the Omega is if you ask
• 19:45
  in the 1st place. Because if the other people
• 19:47
  involved in the decision making process, it is better off to
• 19:50
  figure that out now rather than wasting six months talking with
• 19:54
  Madam MD only to find out that Madam MD doesn't take this kind
• 19:58
  of decisions unless she talks to Head of procurement or Head of
• 20:01
  technical. So you're better off knowing at
• 20:04
  week 3. And you try and involve head of
• 20:07
  technical and head of Procurement rather than building
• 20:11
  a relationship for six months, only to now find out that head
• 20:15
  of procurement actually has his own person that he's trying to
• 20:17
  bring in for the deal. You know, the sooner we find out
• 20:19
  these things, the better. Then there's another situation I
• 20:25
  don't want to avoid. I've already hinted at it.
• 20:27
  That's where, you know, people want to build consensus and
• 20:30
  avoid blame. I'm adding this one because it
• 20:32
  typically is where people are trying to spread ownership
• 20:34
  because, you know, in case the hour gas, you know, in case
• 20:38
  something blows up, like in family and traditional matters.
• 20:43
  So some people try to spread the blame.
• 20:45
  So there's some kind of things that yes, as the first one, I
• 20:48
  know I can take decisions on. But myself, you know, I have to
• 20:51
  cover my behind. So, you know, I'll tell the
• 20:53
  person, you know what, just just chill, Let me talk to my uncles
• 20:55
  a little bit and then I'll get back to you.
• 20:57
  Or let me hold up my brother and then I'll get back to you, You
• 20:59
  know, those those kind of things.
• 21:01
  So yeah, those situations do exist.
• 21:06
  People are trying to build consensus because they know that
• 21:08
  if there's any hour. And I decided by myself, you
• 21:11
  know, I'm more like when the blame, when the blame happens,
• 21:16
  like you'll be hot on my head. So I need to spread the
• 21:18
  consensus. So it happens.
• 21:20
  It also happens in businesses. People are trying to gain wider
• 21:24
  support and want to get other stakeholders on board so that if
• 21:28
  the thing falls apart, everything will just fall on
• 21:32
  their head. So it happens in business and it
• 21:34
  happens in family matters. So I'm assuming they should be a
• 21:39
  universal thing. I guess it's not just a Niger
• 21:41
  thing, but it happens even in business.
• 21:44
  So when it happens, like I said, the solution is not a challenge.
• 21:48
  It's not to say are you not the head of the family, you are the
• 21:51
  first born. This is straightforward
• 21:52
  something. Just sign this paper.
• 21:54
  Let's get this thing over and done with.
• 21:55
  No, that's not how you go about it.
• 21:57
  You encourage and say, ah boss, I understand though.
• 21:59
  I know how Nigerian families are.
• 22:01
  I understand though. In fact I'll discuss with your
• 22:04
  brother. Let's make sure that once we do
• 22:06
  this thing and we sign like we're signing once, we're doing
• 22:08
  once, we're executing once, there's no back and forth.
• 22:11
  So we agree, you encourage, you lean in.
• 22:14
  And then you also have some questions like, oh OK, my own
• 22:16
  culture is like this, like this, like this.
• 22:18
  OK, so your own culture, you have to ask your uncle.
• 22:20
  You have to ask this. OK.
• 22:21
  And who else? OK.
• 22:22
  Your auntie too. OK.
• 22:24
  I'm just curious like, why? OK, OK, so if your uncle was
• 22:28
  here, if auntie was here, what would they be concerned about?
• 22:30
  If your brother was here, what would be concerned about?
• 22:33
  OK, your older sister, what kind of person is she?
• 22:35
  She's that kind of person. I'll be.
• 22:36
  Oh, OK, alright, no problem. So if we don't involve big Sis
• 22:40
  and if we don't involve big auntie in the village, like
• 22:42
  what's the worst that can happen?
• 22:44
  Like, oh, oh, OK, OK, OK, I understand.
• 22:46
  Yes, you know what? Let's let's just talk to all
• 22:48
  these people. So we'll just do this thing one
• 22:49
  time. Let's not make mistake.
• 22:51
  Then in your mind, with all these information that you've
• 22:53
  gotten, you're now thinking, OK, my proposal, my document, my
• 22:57
  whatever, how am I going to amend it to take all these
• 23:01
  possible concerns that this guy has voiced.
• 23:04
  And then of course, try and get an advancement.
• 23:06
  Try and get a future meeting where big sis, older brother,
• 23:10
  younger sister, big aunty, head of the family committee,
• 23:15
  chairman, whatever it is, you know where those people are
• 23:18
  involved. So that's you pretty much.
• 23:21
  OK, over 20 minutes. Let me just wrap it up.
• 23:24
  So remember to connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 23:26
  The name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show and I
• 23:30
  can confirm the spelling of my name from the link.
• 23:32
  We're listening to this episode. Then I'm also available on
• 23:35
  WhatsApp. Phone number is 08064662140.
• 23:41
  The country code is +234 if you're not Nigerian.
• 23:44
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 23:46
  I'll catch you guys at the next episode.