Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Stop Blaming Your Tools: The Real Reason Your Sales Are Stalling

Transcript

Stop Blaming Your Tools: The Real Reason Your Sales Are Stalling · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:03
  Today I'd like us to talk about why your CRM tool is not the
• 0:08
  savior that you think it is. And the reason why we're talking
• 0:12
  about that today is because I'm currently having conversations
• 0:15
  with people who are supposed to be the first cohort of the sales
• 0:20
  training program that my partners and I have come up with
• 0:22
  for the year for 2026 this January.
• 0:26
  Now the focus of the course is to teach people how to sell
• 0:28
  effectively over the phone and in the course of interviewing
• 0:31
  the candidates. Because before I take your
• 0:34
  money, I want to be sure that this training that we do, or any
• 0:38
  other kind of training or coaching engagement, I want to
• 0:40
  be sure that I can solve your problem because I love money.
• 0:43
  But I'm not charlatan. I don't want to collect your
• 0:45
  money unless I think I have a reasonable shot of solving the
• 0:49
  problem that you have. So we've been talking to people
• 0:54
  who want to know if the course covers CRM, if it's focused on
• 0:59
  CRM. CRM is a customer relationship
• 1:01
  management tool. And no, the course is not
• 1:04
  covering, but we will talk about using CRM.
• 1:07
  We'll be talking in the sense of general principles like how to
• 1:11
  schedule meetings, how to gain advancements in sales, and then
• 1:16
  data hygiene. Data hygiene just means you're
• 1:18
  using the right kind of information in your CRM tools,
• 1:22
  the relevant information that you need so that you can close
• 1:25
  the sale. But of course, there's some
• 1:27
  people who want to just learn CRM and then that's it.
• 1:31
  And of course, that's the whole point of having conversations
• 1:33
  with people because in that case, there's no point in me
• 1:35
  collecting your money if you're looking for a detailed CRM
• 1:38
  course. I cannot.
• 1:40
  I mean, that's not what this course is designed for, so I'm
• 1:43
  not going to take your money. But I had this really
• 1:47
  interesting conversation with this individual.
• 1:49
  Oh, by the way, sorry, forgive me.
• 1:50
  My name is Tavish Maia, the legal professional, former
• 1:53
  lawyer turned business consultant.
• 1:57
  And over here on the podcast, what we talk about is how to
• 2:00
  solve business problems, especially problems that can be
• 2:03
  solved from a sales and business development perspective.
• 2:06
  So that's what we do over here. So if you love these sorts of
• 2:08
  things, how do you grow your business?
• 2:10
  How do you increase revenues? How do you gain more effective
• 2:13
  at sales and selling? Then subscribe on Spotify,
• 2:16
  YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice.
• 2:20
  Also, if you'd love to connect with me because you have
• 2:23
  questions, comments, queries, or you want us to collaborate on
• 2:25
  one or two things, then you can call, send me a text message or
• 2:29
  a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 and then apologies.
• 2:36
  I'm making today's recording at home and you know, kids are
• 2:38
  back. So there's going to be noise in
• 2:40
  the background and then the neighborhood kids are running
• 2:42
  around, you know, all over the place.
• 2:44
  So there'll be some noise here and there.
• 2:47
  So back to this interesting conversation that I had with
• 2:50
  this guy. Now this guy is he considers
• 2:53
  himself a veteran in sales because he has an 11 year career
• 2:57
  in telecommunications and banking in sales.
• 3:02
  And yes, that I mean that that's is not something sneeze at
• 3:05
  because to be honest, most sales people come in last for about,
• 3:08
  you know, two or three years and then they disappear and then do
• 3:11
  something else because selling is hard anyway.
• 3:15
  So this guy keeps going on and on about CRM and in particular
• 3:19
  he's talking about Zendesk. Now, first of all, when the guy
• 3:22
  says Zendesk, the thing kind of confuses me because I know, I
• 3:26
  mean Zendex, you know, isn't that more like a customer
• 3:29
  service kind of thing? Not necessarily a CRM tool per
• 3:32
  SE. But yes, whenever you have a CRM
• 3:37
  tool, you know you can use it for customer service.
• 3:41
  And if you have customer service tools, you can use them as CRM.
• 3:44
  And of course, I have been advocating over here on the
• 3:46
  podcast that for those of you who want to get new into CRMS,
• 3:51
  you know you can and you don't know which one to pick.
• 3:53
  You can start just by using Google Calendar and use that to
• 3:56
  schedule your meetings, schedule your appointments, get
• 3:59
  information about your clients, you know, things like that.
• 4:04
  So I just noticed that this guy's fascinated with Zendesk.
• 4:08
  So I decided to see what he's already using.
• 4:12
  So that, you know, even though I'm not taking his money, even
• 4:15
  though the course is not fit for him, at least let me be able to
• 4:17
  give him one or two tips that was send the guy on his on his
• 4:23
  way. Because my focus is I like to
• 4:26
  make sure that every single person who comes across my path,
• 4:29
  I make sure that you, you get value from me, whether you drop
• 4:34
  money or you don't drop money. I don't want people to go away
• 4:36
  empty handed, collect something or value from me.
• 4:39
  So as the guy now what he's been using and I'm shocked to find
• 4:44
  out that in Nigeria in 2025, sorry, we're currently in 2026,
• 4:49
  in 2026, we have professionals in the field who've been doing
• 4:54
  this 10-11 years and they don't even use pen and paper to move
• 5:02
  their deals forward. I was shocked.
• 5:07
  So this fellow thinks that currently he's not using
• 5:11
  anything to track his sales. He does not even use pen and
• 5:14
  paper. People who use Excel sheets,
• 5:17
  those people confuse me. I won't like because I don't see
• 5:19
  how you can use XLS a CRM tool. But in talking to this, in
• 5:24
  interviewing people for this program, and that's the beauty
• 5:27
  of these sorts of things. I spoke to somebody who is an
• 5:33
  investment and operations manager for Oak Tree Wealth
• 5:36
  Management. And you know, when I mentioned
• 5:39
  the Excel thing, you know, she laughed and she was trying to
• 5:40
  show me how, you know, she uses Excel and you know, I'm shocked
• 5:44
  for people use Excel. But what I'm just trying to say
• 5:48
  is it blew my mind. Now we have somebody who's been
• 5:50
  selling for 11 years and the person does not even use pencil
• 5:54
  and paper. He does not even use a diary.
• 5:58
  And somehow the person thinks that his solution or the thing
• 6:01
  that will save him is if he starts using Zendesk.
• 6:04
  Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you boldly for free.
• 6:09
  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, if you have not even been using
• 6:15
  pencil and paper to track your deals, it doesn't matter which
• 6:18
  software you buy or which software you download, it will
• 6:21
  not save you. You have not even gotten into
• 6:23
  the habit of using something to track your deals.
• 6:27
  You have not even been using pencil and paper.
• 6:29
  You've not even been using post it notes.
• 6:32
  You've not even been using anything to try and track.
• 6:35
  Who did I talk to today? How many people did I talk to
• 6:38
  today? Who am I supposed to talk to for
• 6:40
  the week? What stage of the relationship
• 6:43
  are we at? What stage of the conversation
• 6:45
  are we at? What is this deal size worth?
• 6:48
  What is the next step that I need to do?
• 6:50
  What are the things that are lacking from my own point of
• 6:52
  view? What are the things that this
• 6:54
  person has to do for me? If you have not even been using
• 6:58
  pencil and paper to track these sorts of things, it does not
• 7:02
  matter which tool you buy, you download.
• 7:05
  It doesn't matter. Even if they dash you for free,
• 7:08
  it will not save you. You have not gotten into the
• 7:12
  habit. You haven't gotten into the
• 7:15
  habit of tracking your deals. If you are like this individual
• 7:20
  and that is how you've been selling, you've been selling
• 7:22
  from selling from your brain for a decade.
• 7:26
  Well, first of all, those of you who have been successful doing
• 7:29
  that, you know I carry bom Bom for you because it shows that
• 7:32
  you guys have wonderful brains and you guys actually are quite
• 7:35
  good at selling. But honestly, if that is what
• 7:41
  you've been doing, the CRM tool is not going to save you.
• 7:46
  You have not even gotten into the habit of tracking your
• 7:50
  deals. Sorry, 1 moment.
• 7:53
  OK, I'm back. Sorry about that.
• 7:55
  I had to attend to the kids. There was a bit of a Crawford
• 8:00
  fool going on here. That's what people will say.
• 8:03
  All right, so basically what I'm trying to say is this.
• 8:06
  If you happen to be like this individual and you haven't even
• 8:09
  gotten into the habit yet of trying to track your deals,
• 8:13
  trying to talk, trying to track the number of people that you're
• 8:16
  talking to in a day, in a week, in a month, not even talk of in
• 8:20
  a year. Trying to track your deal size,
• 8:24
  trying to track where you are in the conversation, trying to
• 8:30
  figure out what you need to do to move the deal forward.
• 8:32
  If you haven't even been doing that with something as simple as
• 8:35
  a pen and paper, the CRM tool is not going to save you.
• 8:39
  It is not Zendesk that will save you and make you more effective.
• 8:43
  It is not begin, it is not auto, it is not Zoho, it is not
• 8:49
  Salesforce, it is not was the only one hotspots.
• 8:55
  It is not any of these tools that are going to save, save you
• 8:58
  and make you the superstar salesperson.
• 9:00
  So this is my honest advice and the most practical advice.
• 9:06
  If you're like this individual, you have never used anything to
• 9:09
  start tracking your sales process.
• 9:11
  Start with the diary. Start with pen and paper.
• 9:15
  Start there. Get into the habit first,
• 9:19
  because if you have not even built a habit, it does not
• 9:21
  matter what it is that you're going to use.
• 9:23
  The guy was already complaining about how he's in the field.
• 9:26
  What he does is practical, that he's not one of those boys who
• 9:29
  sits down behind the computer every day just to be typing
• 9:32
  keyboard. He already has a disdain for the
• 9:36
  computer. Somehow he thinks Zeandesk is
• 9:41
  what is going to save him anyway, gave him some advice
• 9:45
  about how you can use physical Diaries and we spoke a bit about
• 9:48
  my own legal career. You see, that's why it's also
• 9:52
  good to have experience of your own so that if somebody says me,
• 9:55
  I have 10 years, you you can say me too, I have 25 years.
• 9:58
  You said you can raise shoulder. So oh, by the way, I don't have
• 10:01
  25 years. I'm not that old.
• 10:04
  So we spoke a little bit about my legal career and how back
• 10:08
  then, because when I started off, because I got into O
• 10:14
  Buffalo University, gosh, I can't remember what's my metric
• 10:18
  numbers of is it 96? And I can't remember.
• 10:20
  But back when we got into OAU, computers in Niger, but not a
• 10:25
  thing. So of course graduating, no
• 10:28
  computers were gaining some currency.
• 10:30
  So, yeah, there was some big high tech law firms, but for
• 10:33
  most of us, a lot of the postings that we got your, your
• 10:38
  principal, principal is like your guy in the law firm.
• 10:41
  The principal, the, what's it called, the practice manager.
• 10:46
  I mean, of course, individually everybody will have their own
• 10:48
  laptops. Busha, there was a diary.
• 10:51
  Individual lawyers would have a diary.
• 10:53
  The firm itself would have a diary.
• 10:55
  All the partners will have a diary.
• 10:56
  And all of us were keeping track of these sorts of things.
• 11:00
  The customers that we had conversations with, when did we
• 11:03
  have the conversation or what did we discuss?
• 11:05
  What is the next step? If you went to court, you will
• 11:08
  put it in your diary. You went to court today.
• 11:10
  Which court did you go to? OK, some people might even put
• 11:13
  the judge that sat. You know what it was that was
• 11:16
  deliberated. What the next thing that you're
• 11:19
  supposed to do or shall we got into the habit of using the
• 11:22
  diary to be tracking things Small, small, small, small,
• 11:24
  small. Now somebody who has gotten into
• 11:27
  the habit will now be able to migrate from.
• 11:30
  Oh, I'm tired of carrying diary. Let me use my phone.
• 11:33
  And for me that was the migration.
• 11:35
  So from law to wedding photography I carried to that
• 11:39
  same habit of using diary. But then I started running
• 11:44
  through some problems. Sometimes I will leave the
• 11:47
  house, I've left my diary at home and then I have one or two
• 11:50
  meetings. I'm trying to carry things in my
• 11:52
  head before I get back home to update diary.
• 11:55
  Then by the time you get home, you know, you meet your wife or
• 11:58
  you know I meet wifey and then maybe we quarrel or maybe was a
• 12:01
  nice evening or you know, something.
• 12:03
  Whatever I show you, don't put it in the diary.
• 12:05
  And then you wake up tomorrow and then you're now wondering
• 12:09
  after I wake up the next day. Oh, OK.
• 12:11
  The meeting that we had, what did we discuss?
• 12:13
  What was the next step as I found out that my diary was
• 12:17
  never up to date? That, ladies and gentlemen, was
• 12:22
  how I now got into the habit of using my phone as ACRM tool.
• 12:28
  Using the simple calendar on my phone, using the simple note
• 12:31
  taking functions on my phone, starting off with things like
• 12:35
  Evernote and all these other things.
• 12:37
  That was how I got into CRM territory.
• 12:43
  So please, if you're like this individual, I know I've said it,
• 12:47
  but let me say it again because I'm surprised at the number of
• 12:50
  people that I've been talking to from December of 2025 into
• 12:55
  January of 2026 who happened to think that if they can find the
• 12:59
  right CRM tool that they won't have any more problems.
• 13:03
  I'm sorry, I'm not trying to shake way for them.
• 13:06
  I'm not trying to swear for them.
• 13:08
  It's not like I don't mean them well.
• 13:09
  I'm just telling the truth. If you haven't gotten into the
• 13:12
  habit of tracking your deals with something, it doesn't
• 13:18
  matter what we use. Even if the angels come down and
• 13:21
  give you the perfect tool, it still will not work for you.
• 13:24
  You haven't gotten into the habit.
• 13:26
  So if you're listening to this podcast, you've never heard of
• 13:33
  CRM tool, but at least when you talk to somebody, there's
• 13:38
  somewhere on your phone or a piece of paper that you have
• 13:41
  been writing things down so that you can remember, so that you
• 13:43
  know when the next meeting is. No things like that.
• 13:46
  Good. You're already establishing the
• 13:48
  habit. Small, small.
• 13:50
  Look for previous episodes of mine where I talk about the CRM
• 13:53
  or go to YouTube. Because the video that I sent
• 13:56
  this guy about Zendesk, I got it from YouTube because, you know,
• 14:00
  I don't go into details on any particular system.
• 14:02
  So to help this guy, I found some videos from Zendesk from
• 14:07
  some other business commentators and then I sent it to him.
• 14:13
  So go to YouTube and you will find videos that will put you
• 14:19
  through on how to start using whatever CRM tool of your
• 14:24
  choice. But honestly speaking, first of
• 14:27
  all, establish the habit. If you establish the habit,
• 14:30
  where should you start? Honestly speaking, right now you
• 14:34
  don't know enough to decide on the perfect CRM tool for you.
• 14:38
  But there are some CRM tools that are for heavy enterprise
• 14:42
  use. Enterprise use means big
• 14:44
  business, big business. So Zendesk and Zendesk and
• 14:49
  what's the other one? Salesforce.
• 14:52
  And what's the other one again? Zendesk, Salesforce guy, what is
• 15:00
  it called? Again, these people that that
• 15:03
  started this whole thing of talking about attraction
• 15:07
  marketing or inbound marketing, HubSpot, all those things are
• 15:10
  heavy enterprise enterprise. Enterprise just means big
• 15:13
  business. If you're a one man gang or it's
• 15:15
  just two or three or four of you that are selling in your
• 15:17
  business, you don't need any of those big, big, big, big things.
• 15:20
  You don't so many things that are you're not familiar with so
• 15:26
  many things that are beyond your level of sophistication.
• 15:30
  So like some of these things, the the e-mail automation and
• 15:34
  blah, blah. I mean, like what I worried
• 15:35
  about e-mail automation when right now it's just you and your
• 15:38
  boys are selling these things. You are not automating anything.
• 15:40
  So like was your eye choking on e-mail automation for?
• 15:46
  So right now, since you can't pick the best CRM tool for you,
• 15:50
  just pick the one that is free or that is around or they've
• 15:57
  been here, your homeboys or your home girls talk about.
• 16:00
  There are lots of free options. Zoho is free, although is free.
• 16:05
  I think that one is an is an African company.
• 16:07
  I know that for sure. I just can't remember which
• 16:08
  company that there is now out of Or you can just check CRM tool
• 16:12
  in your App Store. There are a bunch of them that
• 16:14
  are free. Start with that one first.
• 16:18
  Get into the habit. Eventually you will see that OK,
• 16:22
  this one is good, but it doesn't perform this and this and this.
• 16:25
  You will now start asking around that I have a CRM tool, this is
• 16:29
  how I've been using it, but I want to be able to do more.
• 16:32
  I want to be able to do e-mail automation.
• 16:34
  I beg which kind of CRM handles e-mail automation?
• 16:38
  Well then people will now be recommending other ones for you.
• 16:41
  That's how you now be stepping up in the game.
• 16:45
  Sorry, forgive me for the rant, but bottom line, what I just
• 16:48
  wanted to say was that too many of you running around who think
• 16:50
  that the reason why you didn't do well in 2025 is that you
• 16:54
  didn't have CRM. So in 2026, once you start using
• 16:56
  CRM, your business will blow the habing.
• 17:00
  The is it Habinger be habinger, the Habinger of bad news for you
• 17:03
  guys. Unfortunately, I know that's not
• 17:05
  the case. The reason why the business was
• 17:07
  not moving was because you didn't even have the habit of
• 17:10
  tracking your deals in the 1st place.
• 17:12
  You need to instill the habit first before you go and get a
• 17:15
  fancy tool because the tool is not going to help you if you do
• 17:18
  not have the habit. So let us instill the habit
• 17:23
  every single time you're face to face to the potential customer
• 17:27
  and you guys have a conversation, go and write it
• 17:29
  down somewhere. If it's in your diary, if it's
• 17:32
  in a note on your phone, even if it is, you open your phone and
• 17:35
  then in your address book, on the address book, if you are an
• 17:38
  Android user, if you scroll to the bottom, you see one box
• 17:41
  there that says details. Click inside details.
• 17:44
  You can write and write and write.
• 17:45
  I don't know how much you can write, but so far I've not been
• 17:47
  able to exhaust it. Put everything there.
• 17:51
  Put it there. 1st of January. So, so, so and so met with
• 17:54
  Missus Ogadenbay. Missus Ogadingbey is interested
• 17:58
  in designing a building for tomato processing factory.
• 18:04
  Let's say you're an architect tomato processing factory in
• 18:10
  Ogun State. Dimensions are this dot dot dot
• 18:14
  dot dot dot agreed. Next meeting for January 23rd to
• 18:20
  do site visits before we start discussing at the price for
• 18:25
  plans. You know something like that.
• 18:27
  You put it down there in your phone, you put it on that
• 18:30
  details, then you now want to schedule a reminder in your
• 18:32
  Google Calendar or write it in your diary or your whatever.
• 18:36
  Good. You are now getting into the
• 18:38
  habit of tracking your deals. That was all.
• 18:42
  That's all. Make your business blue.
• 18:46
  Get into the habit. First of all, after a while you
• 18:51
  will get tired of using your phone and using diary.
• 18:54
  You now ask around what is better or what is more efficient
• 18:57
  or what is more sophisticated or what is more XYZ.
• 19:01
  You continue to move up and up and up and then eventually we'll
• 19:04
  get there. We listen to all these foreign
• 19:06
  podcasts and we hear people talking about Zendesk, about
• 19:15
  Salesforce. You know, we all these big, big,
• 19:17
  big, big names and you know they're attractive to us and you
• 19:19
  know it's good. Eventually your business will go
• 19:21
  to that level where you'll be using Salesforce.
• 19:24
  But right now, don't fall in love with the tool.
• 19:26
  Anyways, 20 minutes. Let me bring it to a close.
• 19:28
  Let me just wrap up this rant. In fact, I think this is my
• 19:31
  first rant for 2026. So yeah, that's it.
• 19:37
  This is your first time listening to the podcast.
• 19:38
  I'm terribly sorry, and I must have been talking too fast and
• 19:41
  I've said some things that might confuse you, but sharp, No, no
• 19:45
  problem. Just send me a message on
• 19:47
  WhatsApp or SMS. No, don't call me.
• 19:53
  Not now, not now because I'm currently I'm still interviewing
• 19:56
  people for the program. Basha, reach out.
• 19:59
  Send me a message 08064662140. Ask your questions if you're
• 20:07
  confused. I was talking too fast.
• 20:09
  You don't know what the CRM tool is.
• 20:11
  You don't know what this means. You don't know what that means.
• 20:13
  You know, ask. We can have a conversation.
• 20:15
  You'll also give me ideas for a follow up episode after this.
• 20:19
  Also saw that people were discovering it for the first
• 20:22
  time and who didn't catch some of the things that we I was
• 20:26
  talking about, you know, so that I can explain it for them.
• 20:29
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 20:31
  I'll catch you all some other time.