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

More rants about the possible value of wedding fairs and how wedding social/ business network enthusiasts can get their apps up and running!

In order to make sure we are not wasting any time or momentum, we should ask questions of our prospects to be sure that we are speaking to a serious contender! The questions that we ought to ask should include, questions on money, finance, and the budget, as well as questions regarding any urgency and to give us a sense of timelines.

Before we get to the root of finding customers who can afford you, there is the question of how do we even find customers at all! Lots of new and traditional methods abound, and those might include; online and offline advertising, trade professional and networking shows, as well as asking for referrals from previous customers. These and a whole lot more options are available to you and will only b...

The Transcorp Hilton hotel in Abuja has opened the first salvo in getting wedding expos back on the market since the Corona virus lockdown early in March this year! Whether you respond with excitement or trepidation, one thing is for sure! Where there's a will there's a way! and the wedding industry in Nigeria is already looking for ways to get back into the hang of things. More updates to come on...

All businesses no matter the product or service that were involved with, whether with wedding planning or the engineering space, we all have to run through a process which provides a ready mind map for how to guide the customer in our interactions together.

Sales shouldn't be a freestyle, but rather a process and framework driven activity taking us through how to find our ideal customers, getting to the bottom of their needs, and once there is a meeting of the minds, getting them to commit and to take action.

This is an introduction to the sales clinic sessions that I hold regularly with the Seed Builders tech Hub in Abuja. The next questions that will be treated in the series include, how to find customers who can afford you? and whether you should outsource your sales and marketing functions? Our first candidate and case study, is a provider of alternative energy solutions in Lagos.

Making assumptions in the sales and negotiation process could be a critical flaw. it is better to ask questions of the customer about what is pivotal to the deal rather than assuming and making unsolicited concessions. Ask questions, don't assume!

Whatever the medium you use to gain attention, provoke interest, and build some engagement, the tactic should be focused not on talking about you! The focus should always be on the chief benefits that your clients will get, knockout features that are relevant to them, and a focus on your understanding of the situation and how you can help.

whether you want to be a hustler or a business owner is important to your potential for growth and how much scale you can get in your business. We have to be open and honest about what our current trajectory is, and what our future business ambitions are.

Once we get past the public appreciation for certain goods and services, the key determinant for how viable a business industry is, isn't the market per se! The key determinant becomes how good you are at sales, marketing, and distinguishing yourself from the competition.

As a general rule, the more personalized and relevant our messaging is, the better. the same principles apply for our use of WhatsApp messaging for business!

The "know, like and trust" framework is essential for enhanced credibility and achieving a "trusted advisor" status. However it still leaves something to be desired because even though it lessens the apprehension involved in sales conversations, it doesn't give the business practitioner any tips for how to move to customer over the goal post.

Have all terms and conditions up front and centre when having the money conversation with potential clients! No one likes being baited with low prices in the beginning, only to find out that much larger sums are required at the back end of the transaction! It also doesn't help that this practice ruins the personal Goodwill we have struggled hard to cultivate during the negotiation phase.

Mistakes in networking often arise because we have a poor understanding of, or a poor framework for how to network in the first place! Networking should be "other" focused, shouldn't be "tit for tat" and excessively focused on reciprocity. With a few of these changes in paradigm, networking should be a fun and effective exercise which will lead to business growth.

It pays to switch routines up regularly. I've learned this recently learning to explore and relearning how to play guitar in open D tuning. This can serve as a metaphor for how we approach life and business in general.

Customer service, communication, money management, collaboration, and delegation are essential skills that every business owner should have. However, all these skills won't matter very much if you don't have a business with a healthy bottom line. Getting and improving sales is the primary skill of all! Without the vital bloodline of sales in an organisation, there won't be anything to manage!

How you feel about the prospective client sitting in front of you isn't the best gauge to determine if she or he is your ideal client or not. Even when it seems as if both of you might be butting heads together, it still is a good idea to ask questions to get to the root of why you are having that conversation in the first place! You might confirm that the deal is indeed dead. You might also confi...

Business auto response prompts are ineffective and can be jarring if they are used with every single message that your prospective customer sends you. The better way to use this would be; thank the enquirer for reaching out, provide alternative contact details if they need an immediate response, and also provide a reasonable promise of how soon they can expect to hear back from you.

It's not a bad idea to build your business using tips, tricks, and hacks to maximize profits on individual transactions. However it could be a more profitable way over the long term to use sales and business frameworks that you can scale profitably overtime. Apart from the benefit of being more sustainable, it is also going to be easier mentally because you don't have to tax yourself everyday abou...

There are many lessons that can be learnt following the breakdown of law and order in certain parts of Nigeria during the recent protests. One of them is about how the use of empathy and affirmation could be powerful tools to build commonality and rapport between authorities and protesters in times of crisis. These and many more are the contribution that the discipline of sales and personal sellin...

Some business people move straight to asking for a referral or recommendation after the deal is over. We would improve our chances of actually getting one if we were to find out how satisfactory the experience was in the first place! That would also give us a chance to resolve any outstanding problems, assuming any did in fact arise. Don't assume that everyone was happy at the end of the transacti...

In times of chaos and social upheaval, it is the responsible thing to do as a corporate citizen to reach out to your customers and stakeholders to be sure that everyone is doing okay. A blanket messaging approach is not the best way to go about this however! Using templates that can be personalized with a personal touch, sprinkled with hints of personal concern would be the more ideal way to go. E...

This is a departure from our regular scheduled programming. this is in honour of those who lost their lives on the 20th of October 2020 in Lagos Nigeria. The protest was against police brutality, the rule of law, and fundamental human rights issues. May the souls of the dearly departed rest in peace, and may those of us who are still living not fall into the sin of despair! May God grant us all th...

This episode explores a slightly different framework for answering the question; should you do what you love as a business? Or should you try to fill a market need? It's a recap of some of the opinions expressed on KISS FM Business show... Useful ideas on peer related issues in business, industry and market gaps, as well as market research as a means of validating your business idea.