Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Unlocking Business Opportunities with Free & Accessible Information
Transcript
- 0:01Hello, and welcome to the show. Today is one of those car park
- 0:05episodes. So I expect to hear noise in the
- 0:07background, you know, people driving by.
- 0:09And in fact, if I had started this maybe like two or three
- 0:12minutes earlier, you would have heard one of my village people
- 0:15just walking back speaking to you.
- 0:18As for those of you who haven't heard the TV language before,
- 0:21you know, you wonder, OK, these tea people, this guy is saying
- 0:24he's tea, blah, blah, blah. You know, what tribe is that
- 0:27anyway? Because there are some of you
- 0:29listening to the podcast who you know, this thing in Nigeria
- 0:33where they say three major languages, Hausa, Ibu, Yoruba.
- 0:36And so because of that, you have a huge swath of the population
- 0:40who know nothing about other tribes in the Middle Belt in the
- 0:43Niger Delta, in the Midwest, you know, stuff like that.
- 0:47So anyway, I'm just saying that if I started as a couple of
- 0:51minutes ago, you would have had one of my village people just
- 0:54walking by. All right, So yesterday what we
- 0:58did was so 1 moment. Yeah.
- 1:02So yesterday what we looked at was how to approach and
- 1:04understand your customers. And we were looking at themes
- 1:10from the book How to Sell Like a Spy by Jeremy Hurwitz.
- 1:16And let me see what else. Sorry.
- 1:19Just in case, you know, I'm seeming a little slow today.
- 1:22It's because I left the house and I forgot my glasses.
- 1:24And so trying to, you know, like for this episode, you know, I'm
- 1:32just running through things that have scribbled down, you know,
- 1:34when I'm reading books and you know, stuff like that.
- 1:38So that's and I look at my list of questions.
- 1:41That's how I get ideas for the podcast.
- 1:44That's my running content list. Anyway.
- 1:46So today is just one of those days.
- 1:49My eyes are acting up really, really badly and it's the wrong
- 1:52data. I forgot my glasses.
- 1:54So if there any of you on the listening to the podcast right
- 1:58now, you know, you happen to be youngish, you know, maybe like
- 2:01you're 1520 ish, you're supposed to wear your glasses.
- 2:06Your parents tell you to wear your glasses.
- 2:07You refuse to wear your glasses. Please listen to mom and dad
- 2:11because there are real world consequences.
- 2:14If you don't take good care of your eyes when you're 15 and 20,
- 2:16then your eyes are seriously going to help you when you're 14
- 2:19and 50 and beyond. Because, you know, some of my
- 2:22older relatives are practically blind at this point.
- 2:25You know, one of my uncles had to do surgery to remove a whole
- 2:29bunch of stuff for his eyes. And it don't mind me.
- 2:33Bottom line, if you're supposed to wear glasses, put on your
- 2:36glasses and keep them with you at all times.
- 2:38Because if you leave the house and you forget them, it's, it's
- 2:41Wahala. So yeah, the book was How to
- 2:46Sell Like a Spy, written by Jeremy Hurwitz.
- 2:49And then yesterday we looked at how to approach and understand
- 2:51your customers. So today I promise that we're
- 2:54going to look into Chapter 2, which is titled the Power of
- 2:58Information. And why should we be looking at
- 3:02that? Well, obviously, because it's
- 3:03information that determines what the next stage is, whether
- 3:06you're a diplomat or whether you're a business person.
- 3:09So back to last year, I think it was last year, the team will
- 3:14just won in last year, May 29th, 2024.
- 3:19OK, I can't remember, but I think last year was the Nigerian
- 3:22election. So before the Nigerian election,
- 3:24you know, the year prior, OK, the president was sworn in in
- 3:28May. So before then and earlier in
- 3:312024, there were a spate of coups on the African continent.
- 3:35And I honestly think one of the reasons why people in the
- 3:39African Union and, you know, other countries, one of the
- 3:42reasons why everybody was just quiet, you know, it looked like
- 3:45everybody was doing she don't look.
- 3:47I think the reason why everybody was just doing see, don't look
- 3:49really is because people didn't know any information.
- 3:51It's like a coup has happened in Algeria and really a coup by
- 3:56who? Major journal.
- 3:57So who is he? Who are those guys?
- 4:00Who are those boys? Where did they come from?
- 4:02Which tribe? You know, people didn't know
- 4:05anything. And I think that's why people
- 4:06just doing see, don't look. So that's how it is in
- 4:10diplomacy. If something happens and you
- 4:12have no information, it's just to see don't look.
- 4:14Now you just sit down and look. I'll be waiting.
- 4:16It is until you know, the information that will now
- 4:19determine your next steps. So things become a little more
- 4:22clearer. You know, America knows also.
- 4:24They can now start saying one or two things.
- 4:26Things become clearer in Nigeria.
- 4:28Well, at the time, you know, Nigeria were our focus.
- 4:31It was elections anyway. So you can't really expect
- 4:35people in the Nigerian state to say much about that.
- 4:37But then for other countries, the same thing.
- 4:39You sit down and you try and look against us.
- 4:41More info. It's only way you know where is
- 4:43where and who is who. They can now start coming and
- 4:45saying I denounce this and this or this is good or this is bad
- 4:49or this is whatever. So in diplomacy, you need
- 4:52information before you can take the next step.
- 4:54And it's also the same thing in business.
- 4:56You need information before you can take the next step.
- 5:00So that's the reason why questions like this, the power
- 5:02of information, how do we get information?
- 5:04What kind of information do we need as the reason why these
- 5:07kinds of things are absolutely critical and pivotal in
- 5:10business. Now the oh sorry for those of
- 5:13you who are new to the podcast, if you'd love to connect with
- 5:15me, the phone number is 08064662140.
- 5:20The country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not
- 5:23Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number and that's how you can
- 5:26reach me. Also connect with me on
- 5:30LinkedIn. The name to look for is
- 5:31Tavishima Aidi. I'm not on any other socials.
- 5:35I'm deleting everything. So don't connect with me
- 5:39anywhere else. Yes.
- 5:41What was I? Yeah.
- 5:43So the author, in the book Information Gathering, he
- 5:46decided to break things down into 4:00-ish chapters.
- 5:51Sorry, Not chapters 4 headings. Yeah.
- 5:54So the headings that I took note of was this.
- 5:56So he decided to look at information gathering through
- 5:59this lens #1 open source intelligence #2 social
- 6:05engineering #3 direct observation #4 he looked at
- 6:10ethical, OK, no, that's not a method ethical and legal
- 6:13considerations when it comes to gathering intelligence.
- 6:16So you can say basically he looked at it through a
- 6:19three-part lens. So the main concern, the main
- 6:24question that he was trying to look at in the chapter is how do
- 6:27we gather intelligence? And we can do that by using open
- 6:30source intelligence, by doing social engineering, by doing
- 6:34direct observation. And then of course, he wanted to
- 6:36make sure that we're gathering information ethically and fairly
- 6:40and legally and morally and above board, because there are
- 6:45different ways that you can get information.
- 6:47You know, you can also get information by gossip.
- 6:50You can get information by spying, you can get information
- 6:52by stealing. The author just wants to make
- 6:54sure that we get information the right way.
- 6:56But traditionally in those sorts of circles in diplomacy and
- 6:59espionage, you know, if you're a James Bond or if you are the
- 7:01ambassador to Yugoslavia or wherever, this is how you gain
- 7:05information. If they post you to Yugoslavia,
- 7:07first of all, go to church, go and do Thanksgiving that God has
- 7:10elevated you. Yes, Yugoslavia is not a sexy
- 7:13country. And you know people will laugh
- 7:14at you that they gave you Yugoslavia, Why didn't they give
- 7:17you Washington DC or whatever. But still, like I say, if you
- 7:22are a diplomat and if major ambassador, you're going to be
- 7:25paid in dollars. It's going to be creamy, juicy,
- 7:29lush, wonderful money. Better than your counterparts
- 7:33who work in NTA, which is where my father used to work or who
- 7:36work in anyway. My father also works in anyway.
- 7:38And better than, definitely better than people who work in
- 7:42the Ministry of Education. So if they declare you
- 7:44ambassador to Yugoslavia, even if they declare you you
- 7:48ambassador to Latvia, go and do Thanksgiving.
- 7:51It's a step up, you know. Yeah, we'll be nice.
- 7:54But we can all get America. Somebody has to get Latvia.
- 7:58And OK, Budapest is a is a correct country and then move
- 8:03on. So the president announces on TV
- 8:08you've been declared ambassador, you go and you do Thanksgiving
- 8:11immediately you land in Latvia or Afghanistan or it is that
- 8:16you've been posted to the first opportunities available to you
- 8:20are open source intelligence. Those are things that are freely
- 8:25and publicly available because you can go around, you can be
- 8:29talking to people, you can be reading newspapers, you can be
- 8:32checking websites, and you're going to be able to learn a
- 8:33couple of things now. OK, Latvia, What is the history
- 8:36of Latvia? What are the major tribes in
- 8:39Latvia? What are the major religious
- 8:42groups in Latvia? What are the big social,
- 8:46cultural, political problems that Latvia is facing?
- 8:50Let's see, what else? As a diplomat, what would you
- 8:52need to know? OK, let me just stop there.
- 8:56I did not study diplomacy and international relations.
- 8:58So all these things I'm saying, I'm just freestyling.
- 9:00So those of you who studied international relations, you
- 9:03will know whether what I'm saying is correct, you know, or
- 9:05not. But I'm guessing, or at least
- 9:07Misha, have they posted me as diplomats to as ambassador to
- 9:11Latvia? And yes, if you do have the
- 9:13number of the president, you know, put my name there.
- 9:15If the guy sends me to Latvia, I'll go so long as I pay me in
- 9:19dollars. Lord knows I need the dollars
- 9:22now, especially now that I'm trying to move house and every
- 9:24single agent in Abuja is calling 1,000,000 millions, 1,000,000
- 9:27millions millions. Places are dirty, rooms are
- 9:29small, the kitchen is non existent, no space for washing
- 9:33machine, the toilet and the bathroom is next to each other
- 9:36as in if somebody is bathroom another person is pooping the
- 9:39water. You will just be staining each
- 9:41other. I mean it's terrible.
- 9:43Houses in Abuja are terrible. What was I?
- 9:47So if the president is your friend and they're looking for
- 9:50ambassador to Latvia, please give give President Tilbu my
- 9:53phone number. I will go.
- 9:54So if I've been made ambassador to Latvia, these are the sorts
- 9:57of things that I'll be trying, information I'll try and get.
- 10:00But this is not the information that I need to become a spy or
- 10:03need to do anything dangerous to get, because this is information
- 10:06that is open source. It's there and it's freely
- 10:08available and it's there for the taking.
- 10:11So as a diplomat, you need to make sure that you get all this
- 10:13information so you can do your job effectively so that you can
- 10:16brief people back at home. OK, That this is the country,
- 10:19this is how the country is. These are the priorities.
- 10:23These are the things that they're working on.
- 10:25And this is how it aligns with Nigerian interests.
- 10:27And this and this and this are the opportunities that we have
- 10:30for mutual growth together as a country, you know, so that
- 10:34Latvia and and Latvia and Nigeria can grow together as a
- 10:41country. By the way, for those of you who
- 10:43study international relations and geography, just in case what
- 10:46I'm saying is out of date, in case Latvia is not a country
- 10:49anymore because you know, that whole Eastern bloc, you know,
- 10:52now you know, the Eastern Bloc and the demise of the Soviet
- 10:56Union, you know, countries changing names and everything.
- 10:59So if Latvia is no longer a country, please don't laugh at
- 11:01me. It's been a while since I've
- 11:03been in school, so I'm not up to date on some stuff.
- 11:06Now, how does this relate to business and what kind of open
- 11:09source intelligence avenues are available to those of us in
- 11:12business? And it's very, very simple.
- 11:14Like I said, open source intelligence just means what?
- 11:17Which information is freely available, Excuse me, which
- 11:20information is publicly available.
- 11:22And we have some very simple ones without thinking right now
- 11:28on your phone, this phone that you're using to listen to my
- 11:31voice right now, your website, website is there, social media
- 11:35is there, news is there, industry publications are there.
- 11:39So whenever we're thinking about having a meeting with someone
- 11:41because we're trying to sell something to them or about to go
- 11:44into negotiations with someone else, these are sources of
- 11:47information that are readily and freely and publicly available
- 11:51that you don't have to pay for and you don't have to ask
- 11:54anybody. You can check your website, you
- 11:56can check social media, you can check news, you can check
- 11:59industry publications. And whenever I'm doing training
- 12:03is in organizations. One thing that really, really
- 12:06nags at my craw, the thing really makes me angry.
- 12:09But those of us who have sales rules and were responsible for
- 12:12calling up customers, I don't understand why people don't use
- 12:16true colour. I mean, should it not be basic?
- 12:20No, really. If your job depends on you using
- 12:23the phone to call people up, it should be common sense that when
- 12:26you open your computer, the first time you should open,
- 12:28should be true colour and then leave it open.
- 12:31Because you get numbers from the Internet or somebody pings you a
- 12:34number. At the very least you put the
- 12:35number on Truecaller and check 1st and see whether the thing
- 12:38aligns. At least you want to be able to
- 12:41know the person you're calling, whether the person is a man or a
- 12:43woman, if nothing else, so that when you speak, make the phone
- 12:47call, you know whether you're saying good morning Sir or good
- 12:50morning Ma, if nothing else. So please, those of us, those of
- 12:56you who are involved in calling up people every single day to
- 13:00confirm something, you're a customer service or you're a
- 13:03front desk officer or you're responsible for sales.
- 13:06Truecaller is a tab that should be open on your lap, your your
- 13:11laptop at all times so they can put in there and check the
- 13:14information to be sure that the name and the number are correct.
- 13:20Now, what I typically do is especially when I'm calling
- 13:23people out of the blue. So hold on, let me think, OK, I
- 13:28think the last time I had to do this for someone just to show
- 13:32the process was late last year. No, more like middle of last
- 13:38year when I did consulting for Crimson energy, Crimson Solar,
- 13:42So I can't remember their name, but it's Crimson for sure.
- 13:46They are an alternative energy group.
- 13:49So they do solar panels, energy as a service, inverters,
- 13:53replacing batteries, all those sorts of things.
- 13:55Yeah, I promise I'm going to make a podcast episode about
- 13:57them in the future to talk about the consulting activities that I
- 14:02did with them, the issues that we explored while working with
- 14:06their sales team. So the last time that I had to
- 14:08do this sort of thing to try and get somebody to understand the
- 14:12true, the value of these sorts of things.
- 14:14And you know how you get how you can do some research on your
- 14:20customers, but sharp, sharp research because you know, it
- 14:24doesn't profit you to say that you're doing research.
- 14:26And then because of that, you spend 4 hours researching
- 14:28somebody, 4 hours is too much. When I say research before you
- 14:32call the customer, before you go for a meeting, I'm talking
- 14:35about, you know, sharp, sharp like 2 minutes research, that
- 14:38kind of thing. So this is how I worked one of
- 14:41the members of the sales team through it.
- 14:44So I said, look, OK, no true color.
- 14:46Take this person's number, cut it, paste it in true color and
- 14:49then hit search. True color will do its thing in
- 14:53five seconds. The thing will now come up and
- 14:55then you see there sometimes when you do that thing in true
- 14:58colour, you see a message that says 269 people have reported
- 15:03this message as spam. If you see that kind of message
- 15:06in true colour, then you have saved yourself the stress.
- 15:10You don't know that this number is spam.
- 15:12There's no point calling this person because 247 other people
- 15:16have said that this number is spam.
- 15:18So just ignore that number. But then if you do it there and
- 15:22then the name comes up and the name says Adeji Adeami.
- 15:27Well, unfortunately for you Adeji Adeami, you know it's a
- 15:29popular name. There are too many of them.
- 15:31OK, well let's assume for instance that the name you're
- 15:34trying to research is not popular.
- 15:36OK, let me use my own name, Tavashimayidi.
- 15:37So you put paste the number in there, Truecola says
- 15:40Tavashimayidi. You now take copy Tavashimayidi,
- 15:43copy it from Truecola, paste it in Google, and then see what
- 15:47comes up from the search results that come up in Google.
- 15:50It will give you a sense. Now, OK, this Tava Shimaya, the
- 15:53guy, who is he? What's he about, what does he
- 15:56do, blah, blah, blah. There'll be a couple of links
- 15:58there that will give you a sense of who this fellow might be.
- 16:02You can now copy and paste the name again in Facebook and then
- 16:05see what comes up. Right now, because I'm deleting
- 16:07my Facebook profile, nothing will come up.
- 16:10But chances are other people still have their Facebook
- 16:12profile up. And then maybe you can put it in
- 16:14LinkedIn. Well, for me, I'd say that's as
- 16:16far as it goes because you can't really use real names to search
- 16:19in Instagram and Tiktok and all of that, except if the person
- 16:23happened to use their real name. And apart from me, because I use
- 16:27my real name on all these platforms, I don't know anybody
- 16:30else who's using the real name. But what was I?
- 16:35What I'm trying to say is that you can see that doing research,
- 16:39researching someone before you go for the business meeting,
- 16:42before you go for negotiations, before you go for networking.
- 16:48Researching does not have to be a hard thing to do.
- 16:51So you've been talking to someone you will about to go for
- 16:54negotiations. You just want to make sure
- 16:55you're better prepared, feel the person out, feel their
- 16:58personality or something. Or maybe they mentioned that,
- 17:00OK, they're, when they come for the negotiations, they're going
- 17:03to come with Mrs. Banquier de Banjo.
- 17:06That's the legal director and Mr. you know, Abdul Kadir
- 17:13Alfalaya or whatever, you know, So after you finish that phone
- 17:17call, you just take those names and do exactly what it is that I
- 17:21said. Copy and paste in Google, see
- 17:23what comes up. Copy and paste in Facebook, see
- 17:26what comes up. Copy and paste in LinkedIn, see
- 17:28what comes up. Look at the company website, see
- 17:30what comes up, you know, new, OK, well news would be more for
- 17:35like high profile people, industry publications, OK for
- 17:39those of us who have a legal background, cause OK, in this
- 17:42example I gave, I said now what name did I say and whatever name
- 17:47I said for the legal secretary or something.
- 17:49Now for those of us in the legal profession, we do have industry
- 17:54publications, you know, lawyers, associations and things like
- 17:57that. I mean, they have them in Lagos.
- 17:59There's also the MBA, the MBA Nigerian Bar Association that
- 18:02produces a journal. I think the last journal I saw I
- 18:06think was on business. No, don't mind me, but I'm just
- 18:13trying to say that industry publication, you know, depending
- 18:15on your industry. So I know that law has industry
- 18:18associations and publications. Korean, Korean, I think that's
- 18:22Council of Korean. Is that Korean is engineering
- 18:28the regulation of engineers in Nigeria or something?
- 18:32So in law we have industry publications, engineering, we
- 18:36have industry publications, accounting industry, we have
- 18:38industry publications. OK.
- 18:41I guess if you're in the event space, there's no industry
- 18:43publication that you can check. But bottom line is what I'm
- 18:46trying to say is before you go for the negotiations, before you
- 18:51go for networking, before you go for the business meetings, you
- 18:54can spend one or two minutes and reset somebody before you make
- 18:58the call because it gives you a background so that the call, the
- 19:03phone call is not uncomfortable for you because it's always
- 19:06uncomfortable to make the phone call when you know nothing about
- 19:11the person on the other end of the line.
- 19:12Well, hi, yes, because in Crimson that's also one thing I
- 19:14had to tell people of the the sales team because they had to
- 19:19call numbers of people who have responded to Instagram
- 19:23advertisements. And I told them, now look, one
- 19:24of the reasons why you guys are hesitant is because it really is
- 19:27hard to just look at the block of 50 numbers and then all you
- 19:31have is a name Kolia for Lion and then a phone number.
- 19:34You're supposed to call the person and start a conversation.
- 19:37I mean like how you know nothing, you know no context.
- 19:40So sometimes it helps to just do that simple, whatever, there's a
- 19:44name, there's a phone number, copy, paste in Truecaller.
- 19:47OK, the name is correct, it checks out.
- 19:49Copy in Google, you know, say something.
- 19:54Anyway, let me not stretch it unnecessarily.
- 19:57The point I'm just trying to make is that for diplomats,
- 20:00there's a way to get information freely about the country that
- 20:05you're in and about the people that you're going to meet.
- 20:07And then for business people, there's also a way to get
- 20:10information freely. About the context that you're
- 20:13in, the company you're going to work for, the people that you're
- 20:16going to do business with, the company that you're going to do
- 20:18business with. If you're chasing prospects, the
- 20:20people that you're trying to get to be as customers, the people
- 20:23you're about to walk into negotiations meeting with.
- 20:26If you're going for networking, some networking associations
- 20:29give you a list ahead of time of people who might be there.
- 20:32You can now get a sense of who might be there and decide who it
- 20:35is that you want to talk to. So for there are ways they can
- 20:39get that information freely. So use the websites of your your
- 20:45friends, your competitors, your potential clients, your
- 20:48stakeholders. Use their websites, check the
- 20:50social media, pay attention to the news.
- 20:52You can set Google alerts so that when certain things drop,
- 20:55it shows in your e-mail and then keep abreast of industry
- 21:00publications and you shall be fine.
- 21:03But remember, for those of you who every single day your job
- 21:06demands you being on the phone when you enter into the office
- 21:11and the first thing you do is you eat your rice and beans for
- 21:14breakfast. Oh, by the way, after you do
- 21:17that, you know, go and put TomTom in your mouth.
- 21:18You know, nobody needs to know that you just finished eating
- 21:20them rice and beans with fish Stew.
- 21:23So after you do that, you eat your TomTom, you wash your
- 21:26plate, open up your computer, the first tab you should open.
- 21:30It is only practical. Please is true colour.
- 21:33After Truecaller, the next tab you should open should be
- 21:37Google. As you Truecaller the number and
- 21:39you see the name, take the name, paste it into Google, see what
- 21:43comes up. If nothing else, at least you
- 21:45know that the person you're calling is a man or a woman so
- 21:49that when you call, you can confidently say oh, good morning
- 21:52Sir, or good morning Ma, if nothing else.
- 21:56So that's it pretty much. And remember, if you would like
- 22:00to connect with me, those of you who are listening to the show
- 22:02for the first time, the number to use is 08064662140.
- 22:08The country code is +234 For those of you who are not
- 22:11Nigerian and then connect with me on LinkedIn, that's my only
- 22:15socials for now. We'll continue with.
- 22:18Let me see, what did we do? OK, the author said that there
- 22:24are three things, open source intelligence, social
- 22:27engineering, direct observation. OK, we only did one, which is
- 22:29open source intelligence. So tomorrow we're going to look
- 22:32at social engineering and then direct observation depending on
- 22:36how much time it is that we have.
- 22:37So no tomorrow, that's what we're going to do.
- 22:40And remember, the name of the book is How to Sell Like a Spy.
- 22:46And the author is Jeremy Horowitz.
- 22:50I should have given you the full title, but I can't remember
- 22:55where my anyway, I can't remember where my old scrap of
- 23:02paper is the one where I wrote the title down.
- 23:04And all of that was a book that was published last year, 2024
- 23:08August 27th. So I'm sure if you just check
- 23:11Amazon, for instance, how to how to sell like a spike, just the
- 23:15Amazon or check those Jumia sell books.
- 23:18If Jumia sells book, try Jumia as well.
- 23:20How to sell like a spy. The one you should be looking
- 23:23for is one that was published in August 2024.
- 23:26Jeremy hero. It's Jeremy is Jeremy hero.
- 23:32It's I can't remember how to spell it if and anyway, I'll
- 23:36catch you guys in the next episode.
- 23:37Bye.