Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

Are you struggling to see the results you want in your sales? The truth is, many business owners and salespeople fail because they simply don't track what they do every day. You have to understand that sales is a performance discipline, exactly like sports or music. If a musician stops practicing their scales or lines, their performance will eventually suffer. If a footballer skips the fundame...

Stop reaching for the Oga card too early in your sales deals. I see it all the time with Nigerian salespeople: you land a meeting for a big deal and your first instinct is to call Madame Sylvia or Alhaji Bashir to sit in so they can help you close the deal. While having an executive with more gravitas can help, doing it prematurely is a recipe for disaster. Your bosses hired you specifically to ta...

I’ve been speaking with several clients lately—especially those in the solar space, but should also apply to export, and import industries as well. This is about a common headache: customers getting angry when prices change. The problem often isn't the price itself; it’s the language you used to set the expectation. In our current economy, where FX rates and commodity prices can shift overnigh...

We Nigerian business people are obsessed with the "new." Every morning we wake up chasing new leads, new markets, and a new hustle. But I’m here to preach a gospel I’ll never get tired of: you are leaving massive amounts of money on the table because you aren't maximizing your "customer lifetime value". I learned this lesson recently from a "semi-literate" mechani...

Have you ever feel a bit mellow or sad because you spent your morning calling prospects/ potential customers and most of them didn't even pick up? If you called nine people today and only three answered, I want you to know that it is perfectly normal and not something to get depressed about.  In our line of work, we "kill what we eat," so we answer every strange number, but for most...

Are you tired of potential clients throwing out a figure/ price and feeling like you have to immediately bend over backward to match it? In our latest discussion, we dive deep into why you must stop treating a customer's budget as gospel truth. The reality is that many clients are operating on out-of-date market information, sometimes relying on quotes from years ago, or they are simply making...

Stop obsessing over your business name and start focusing on how your customers actually think. Today, I want to talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because it remains a major concern for Nigerian business owners. If the term SEO confuses you, just think of it as the answer to one simple question: How do people find me online? In Nigeria, many people make the mistake of focusing their SEO...

I just received a message this morning from one of my former mentees, Tej, and it reminded me why I do this. Tej is an everyday Nigerian business person just like me—no big connections, no special clubs—yet she just qualified for the Jerry Eze Foundation business grant. I’m writing this because many of you hear about grants, incubators, and accelerators and think, "Na dem dem! It’s for other...

Have you ever sat staring at your phone on a Monday morning, wondering if it’s too early to dial a potential client? Many Nigerian business owners and newbies struggle with this exact anxiety, worrying if a 7:30 a.m. call is intrusive or if waiting until 3:30 p.m. means they've missed the boat. In this episode, I’m clearing the air: in Nigeria, anytime after 9:00 a.m. is a perfectly appropriat...

Success in sales isn't about having a great memory; it's about having a great system. The speaker argues that the best pros don't wing it—they rely on organized processes and tools like a CRM to track every detail. By keeping "clean" records of past conversations, you can spot "hidden gems," like specific savings you mentioned months ago, to reignite interest in old...

In this episode, a sales consultant shares a better way to hire and interview sales talent. He moves away from "stress-test" interviews, arguing that a relaxed, competency-based conversation is the best way to see how someone actually works. The consultant focuses on three main things when evaluating a candidate: Real Experience: Do they have a solid, honest work history? A Clear Method:...

A lot of people in Nigeria believe a "secret cabal" or "the Matrix" is actively working to keep them poor. In this episode, a sales expert flips that script. He argues that these barriers aren't actually a conspiracy—they’re just closed social circles. Think of it like a private club: the people inside have spent years building trust and doing business together, so they don...

Many Nigerian business owners are being misled by the popular idea that sales has two sides: a desperate side driven by unbridled greed and a desired side where being too ethical might hold you back from wealth. Let’s be clear: there are no two sides to sales. When a doctor's greed leads to harm, we don't say there are two sides to medicine; we call that person a quack or a criminal. When...

In today’s episode, I’m diving deep into some real talk about business growth, triggered by a great WhatsApp conversation I had with one of our listeners, Sam from Vision World Hub. Sam is a student of architecture in Benin running an academic research business, and his questions touched on things so many of you are struggling with: how to scale, how to find the right customers, and how to pitch b...

Do you have to move to Lagos to "blow" as a startup founder? It’s a question I hear all the time. If you’re a Nigerian of a certain age, you remember when the entertainment industry was Lagos-or-nothing. If you didn't "enter Lagos," people thought you weren't serious. We saw artists like MI and Chocolate City move from Jos to Lagos and become powerhouses, while others who stayed back never quite h...

Hey everyone! I’m coming to you today from a slightly unusual spot—an airport parking lot. My flight pick-up was delayed, and I didn't want to let the time go to waste, so I pulled out the microphone to share some thoughts on prospecting and outreach. I have a bit of a confession to make. In the past, I’ve been critical of a tool called Apollo, even telling people it didn't really work. We...

In regions like Africa and Latin America, WhatsApp has become an indispensable tool for business, though its potential is often undermined by poor execution. Many of you are trying to use the platform to grow your businesses, but I see too many entrepreneurs making the mistake of equating work with the sheer volume of messages sent. If you forward a single message to 2,000 contacts and 1,998 of th...

Are you trying to build a community just because you’re afraid to sell? Recently, a writer reached out to me with a plan to create a community of 1,000 people to eventually sell his services, rather than just approaching clients directly. I see this all the time—people taking the "roundabout" route because they think direct selling is "icky" or "sleazy." Here is the t...

The harsh reality is that most Nigerian startups fail before they even launch. While the reasons are varied, there is one particular culprit I see over and over: analysis paralysis. Too many of you are stuck "planning to plan"—spending months worrying about branding, websites, and the back end without ever actually shipping anything. You are dreaming to build, but you are building nothin...

Too many Nigerian entrepreneurs are waiting for that "perfect" customer who slides into the DM, asks for a price, and pays immediately without a single question. We want things to come quick and easy, but unless you are at the scale of a giant like Netflix or Amazon, being impersonal is hurting your business. The truth is, while you are a small, micro, or nano-business, you must have a p...

Have you ever finished a presentation in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Jos,  or anywhere else and heard the dreaded words: "We'll consider it"? It’s a common hurdle, and if you aren't careful, it’s where your hard work goes to die in "ghost mode." The truth is, when a potential client says they’ll consider it, it’s a sign of a few things: they might not be interested, they might...

Many Nigerian businesses kill their sales chances by talking too much about themselves. They start pitches with "Our history" or "Meet our founder," which usually bores potential clients. The fix? Flip the script! Don't lead with who you are; lead with the problem your client is facing and how you can fix it. Once they see you understand their needs, they’ll care about your...

In this talk, a business consultant shares practical advice for Nigerian entrepreneurs and anyone struggling with low income—like a widow living on 50,000 naira a month. His main point? Don't start a business if you have zero savings. Instead, he suggests a different roadmap: 1. Stability First, Business Later Focus on income: If you are "broke," focus on learning new skills, working...

In this podcast, the speaker explains why salespeople need to care about customer service to make more money. Instead of just chasing new sales, the goal is to keep current customers coming back for repeat purchases. This is much cheaper and more profitable than constantly looking for new clients. To do this, businesses need to stop just waiting for complaints (reactive) and start checking in on c...

Selling is not about how well you "toast," pitch, or manufacture a presentation; it’s about the quality of the conversations you have and the questions you ask. Too many Nigerian business people think that being the loudest person in the room—the one who won't shut up in networking sessions about their first-class degree or their five job offers—is the way to advance an agenda. In re...