Coaching, Training, or Consulting? Which Do You Need?

Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to be looking at the best practices for sales coaching and development. And by that I don't mean what sales coaches or business development consultants should be doing to improve their businesses. I mean, for those of you who are currently listening to this podcast, you know, you have a problem with your business, you want to improve your performance in your business or performance,

you know, personally how you run your sales, you know, things like that. What are the best practices that you should be considering? And yeah, so that's it. Today's not for the sales coach. Today is for the person who is the recipient of sales coaching or some sort of personal development, personal improvement plan or whatever it is that you have going on in your business or you have going on at work. That's for those of you who are employees where you sell on behalf of someone else's business.

By the way, this whole thing of you're an employee, so you're selling on behalf of someone else's business. I know it sounds somehow, but I think the right way to look at it is even though you're selling on behalf of somebody else's Business Today, you should be doing your best to improve yourself and get as many learnable skills as you can right now. Because eventually one day, you're going to be in charge of your own ship because very few people, at least in the Nigerian context, very few people remain carrier salespeople for the rest of their lives.

So ultimately, you're going to move on to your own thing. So if you're going to be stuck where you are right now because you don't want your gut to be a millionaire on your own back, or you don't want your Madam to be sending her children to foreign schools abroad because you think it's sales driving or something. Like she's using the results of all your labour to better her life and her children's lives, then you're going to be stuck where you are for a very long time.

So the right attitude to have is to try and see how you can improve performance at your current station today, wherever you are. So that eventually when you move on, because you're not going to be with Olga or Madame forever. So eventually when you move on, you change jobs, you start your own business, whatever you would have on the back of that, you would have come away with lots of transferable skills that will make you lethal and deadly to your competition when you start your own thing.

So OK, so let's do the usual. Let's head straight into definitions so that, you know, we're all on the same page. So we know that we're talking about the same thing. Of course, for those of you listening for a while, you know that the definitions I give here are not academically precise or technically precise. I'm just using a rough and ready definition so that we can remember and understand what it is that we are trying to do over here.

So for the purpose of today's podcast or anytime in the future, if you hear me say coaching, regardless of what the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary says coaching is or regardless of whatever it is that your business professor. And that's for those of you who are still undergraduate school, maybe you're doing biz admin or something, you know, like UNILAC doing biz admin or Uniben doing biz admin, you know, So regardless of of what your Prof says today, when I say coaching,

what I mean is, OK, when I say coaching, we are interested in performance or interested in execution or what to do next to get the desired outcome. So that is the difference between, for those of you who watch sports, for instance, that's the difference between the coach and the what's it called? Is it technical director or be technical assistant or something? You know, in football, is it TA, is it technical or something?

And then there's a coach. So everybody else is worried about all kinds of things, but the coach's primary occupation, that'd be primary preoccupation, is they're interested in performance, they're interested in execution. What we do, we do here, What do we do here? What do we forge here? What do we move to the left or to the right so that we can get the desired outcome? So coaching is all about execution. Training, on the other hand, is mostly about information transfer and, you know, improved understanding.

So people call you in or when they call me in for training, that's the whole goal. I'm trying to get people to understand better. I'm trying to transfer information from my noggin to your own head. So that's the idea. So I hope you guys are seeing the difference now. So training, information transfer well then coaching is all about execution. How do we perform better so we can score the goal? Then consulting on the other hand is when, well there's information transfer, but consulting is more about insights into the problem so that they can inform your strategy about where to move next.

So in my own opinion, that's the subtle difference between the three. Some, most people can't tell them apart, but there's a difference. Coaching is interested in execution, How are we going to score the goal? Training is about information transfer, improved understanding. And then consulting is all about insights so that they can inform the strategy now we're going to use moving forward. Then why should we be quibbling over these things?

Coaching, training, consulting. What's the difference? The reason why I should be quibbling overhead is so that, excuse me, so that in your businesses you have a clear idea of what you need or what you should be aiming for. So do you think your staff just need to know a bunch of more stuff than call a trainer? If you think your staff already knows or you've been telling them and you've been training them on your own, but they are not taking the next steps towards the desired outcome,

perhaps you need to calling a coach. But then if it's that you and your business partner don't have a good overview about, you know, all the different moving parts of the business and how everything fits together, how that should inform your strategy, then perhaps you should call IT consultant. So that's the reason why we quibble about these things, coaching, training, consulting, because the emphasis is not really the specialty.

It's not about the qualifications of the person, excuse me, the qualifications of the person who's running the whole thing. It's about what do you need? Yeah, let me just leave it that way, then. Let's see. OK, so which one do you need as a business owner? Honestly, you need all of them. We all need all of them. We all need coaching. We all need training. We all need consulting. But we need them at varying stages, different stages during the different, you know,

evolutions or whatever of our business journey. So we all need them, but we need them at different stages at different times, you know, as we grow up, as we become big boys and big girls in running our businesses. So now one of the best practices, best practices, sorry, forgive me, one of the best practices that you guys ought to be considering. That's for those of you who are thinking there's a problem with my business or there's a goal.

I want to hear there's something I'm supposed to do. I'm not quite sure where. I'm not quite sure how. What are the best practices that you're supposed to use to guide you along on the journey? Truth of the matter is this is something that we can keep talking about from today till tomorrow. So I'll just pick a couple. I'll try my best to be helpful. So when I start with everybody and some people think I'm cannibalizing myself, but actually I am not.

Because like I say, if you give me your money, I'll take it and I hope you solve the problem. But the truth of the matter is there's lots of free or affordable stuff that is out there in the world today that can inform your personal information. Diet. I heard someone call you the personal information on that. I'm like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense because some of us, you know, getting old, Potbelly, blah, blah, blah.

So we're not worried about exercise and diet, you know, so that what you put in your body. So you might as well take that level of dedication and focus to what you put inside your mind as well. So personal information on that. I mean, that sums it up pretty much. And there's lots of free stuff or affordable stuff if you want to pay. So there's blogs for those of you who still read online. There's podcasts for those of you who prefer to put headphones on.

There's webinars for those of you who like those sorts of things. There's LinkedIn audio sessions, There's Instagram, Instagram, something live, I can't remember what it's called. There's Twitter, Twitter Spaces and all these kinds of avenues where people are getting together on a daily, on a weekly, you know, whatever to discuss sales problems, personal growth problems, business development issues, personal development issues, goal achievement, quota attainment,

whatever it is that the problem is. So there's free stuff. So in my own opinion, I say start with free. Now, this is the reason why I'm not cannibalizing myself because when people start with free and they do some research, they get informed about the different flavours of stuff that are out there. So it's not as if I'm saying I don't like your money. But truth of matter is by the time you go and do your research on yourself and then you come and you meet me, we can now have a very productive conversation because at least you have a sense of one or two things.

So I'm not dealing with a total jam bite. So it actually is in my own to my own advantage that you guys run around, do a bunch of stuff. In fact, pay for stuff from other people first. Go and see what's out there before you. Now come and meet me. When you meet me, we're going to have a very, very constructive conversation and you're not going to be totally virgin about these things anymore. And then you and me can have a fruitful relationship.

So start with word 3. Discover the different flavours of what is out there. You're going to get a little bit more informed so that when you're ready to pay, you can be more confident about what you're paying for and why. And then another reason why I say start with free is because too many people let money to become an obstacle. Just start with whatever it is you have. There's a story I told on the podcast about where I was speaking at this event on how to use artificial intelligence to boost your career and then to boost your business.

And after that, there was a business competition. And there was a lady there who was a wedding planner. And part of the reasons why she entered into the competition was because she needed a couple 100 grand, you know, to buy a new phone because she thought that the phone is going to help her improve her business. Now, as a former wedding and event person, I could have told her a couple of things, but I know how it works.

So I just kept quiet. She was convinced that she needed a few 100 grand, I can't remember how much, like 300 or 400 grand to buy this Samsung something, something or the iPhone something, something. And then somebody on the panel asked her, OK, can we see what phone you use right now? And then she pulled it out. And lo and behold, it is the very same phone that I'm using right now, the Xiaomi 13 C sorry, no, the Xiaomi 12 C

that's one that we got for wifey. So we got 13 C for me and 12 C for wifey. And you know, someone pointed out that, you know, young lady, the problem is not the phone like this phone is adequate. Perhaps there are other things that you need to explore, but the lady wasn't getting the message and she still things that she needed the 300 or the 400 grands to buy the Samsung blah blah blah or the iPhone something something I can't remember what it was.

So some people let money be an obstacle. So because she was waiting for the 300K or the 400K to do that, she was not taking any action now. But I am all for do start with what you can right now. When the money comes, you will upgrade or you will do whatever. So if shows my personal person and well, actually I was tired because it was a long day, which was my personal person and I had the energy, I'd have called her aside and said, look, young lady, let me give you the lowdown.

I used to be in this business before and because we consider ourselves to be artists, we let too many things wheels down. What the truth of the matter is, you take your JAOMI 12 C and then you focus on maybe go on YouTube and learn how to like things better. If you can like things better or if you can use a better background, you'll find that your 12 C is adequate for now to give you some decent stuff. Then when you have that 300K,

you can now go and get that Samsung blah, blah, blah blah blah, instead of right now your Instagram page remaining blank until you get that money that you need to move forward. So when it comes to personal development, business growth, those sorts of things, I'll tell people, start with free. Don't let money be an obstacle. Start with the free stuff and continue to run it like that when you now have some extra change, 75K here, 200 K here,

300 K here. You know, whatever you can now start trying to see who is out there, who has a paid, what are the paid platforms? Are the paid mentorship paid? Whatever you can start with free. So that's practice number one. Start with free and think about it as your personal information diet. You know, something you eat in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening to keep the mind, right? So you know your favorite Blogger, I don't know, maybe read the blog first thing in the morning before you start work or read the blog last thing at night before you go to bed.

Your favorite podcasters, listen to them. Most podcasters podcast once a week. So it's not too much. It's not too much work. Then for those of you who listen to my podcast, you guys like to binge anyway. So I guess it's not a problem to show up once a week and then just binge on a couple of episodes. So think of it as personal information that that tip number, what tip is that? Is that number one? I'll be #2 Anyway, let's move on.

So the next thing is, I would say, and it's a very personal thing, avoid people who tout tricks and hacks and special regiments. Avoid those people at all costs. So anybody who says use these three special lines to turn off your gross, your business growth in 2025, as in just ignore all those people. This is the silver bullet. This is the special trick. Save these 3 words to get people to pay you. So like, just ignore all those people.

Leave them. You want to get heartbroken. It's not because these tricks don't work. The tricks actually do work. But The thing is, because the people are preoccupied with giving you the silver bullet, they don't teach you the overriding system. So when you try this trick and you run into problems, you don't know how to do reverse and to do U-turn and to solve the problem because all you did was you learned 1 trick, one hack out of a general out of a general context.

It's like other people who say who make those video sell this pen. And then in the video they teach you how to use the whatever to sell this pen. So OK, let's say like there's one for instance, where the guy and I was really, really impressive, although kind of cheeky, was like, send me this pen. And then the person took the pen and then put it in his pocket and then kept silent. So the idea was to use what's it called?

Can't remember what it's called, Forgive me, I can't remember the name of the tactic. But basically when people are expecting you to do one thing, if you do something else, it's a very interesting way of getting their attention, getting them curious and then getting them bought into the process. So that was what the the fellow did guy pattern interrupt, that's what it's called. So he was trying to use a pattern interrupt to teach you how to sell your products or services very well.

Now the problem is this. If you try pattern interrupt, but then the person doesn't react the way that you expected them to react, what are you going to do? Now you're lost. You don't know what the next step is. So pattern interrupts, they work. But if somebody's telling you that pattern interrupts is what is going to index your business in 2025, avoid that person. You're better off looking for someone who is process driven and who has a framework.

The person will teach you everything. The best one will start from saying, OK, look, this is the thing, pattern interrupts, but pattern interrupts only work in this context. This context is part of a larger process. The larger process, the goal is that we're heading here and to do that, it only works on these kinds of people. And then you should be only doing it in this context, in that context. So I mean, can you see what I'm trying to say here?

Somebody who comes and picks one thing as the alpha and the Omega, and this is going to double your business. This is with 10 extra growth, this will whatever, whatever. And 2025 it's it's, it's it's just absolutely, you will get heartbroken. That one is for sure. So look for people who are process driven and who have frameworks. So if somebody comes and says maybe the performance interrupts special selling framework something, something.

And it's a series of courses that are going to be delivered over 10 lectures of 45 minutes each. OK, that kind of person. Yeah, I still would not recommend that guy because he's only teaching one thing as the kernel for truth that will get you to where you need to be. But still it's that kind of thing is better because there's some kind of system or process around it. So I avoid all these special tricks to whatever in 2025 hacks to something, something,

something and special regiment to 10 extra growth. It's the same thing that people have learnt in the health and Wellness space. When somebody says do these three magic whatever to get your to get fit ABS in 2025, you know, people have realized that, OK, well, yeah, you can do this thing and get fit ABS, but it should be part of a whole, should be part of a whole system. What other muscle groups are you working? What is the goal?

Are you an athlete or are you trying to avoid personal injury around routine stuff? Let's see what else. You know, there's not just all about the 6 packs. So people in health and Wellness space have realized that. So all these things where 'cause you still see those Instagram videos, you know, do this. I mean, like some targeted women, you know, do these three special exercises to increase your buttock size in 2025. So I mean, yes, increase your buttock size, but increasing but size out of the larger context of personal health and and personal goals at the end of the day just means nothing.

So look for people who are process driven and who have frameworks. Then do your best. Call into the organization, call the guy, call the babe, call whoever. Have a discovery call with the person you're trying to figure out who this person is, how they can help, what would be required of you to get things going. Don't just that's by the time you have money. Don't just call up the first person and then give them money. Call, discuss with people and if there are some people who will not talk with you unless you drop money, for me, it's it's not a good sign.

I understand that that's how some people choose to run their businesses, but for me, it's not a good, it's not a good sign at all. Of course, everybody's trying to run away from giving free consultation because everybody loves free or most people are free. So if you're giving free consulting, then that's all you will do. You just spend your day talking to people for free. But there are some people who will say that, OK, fantastic show, no problem.

But before we have a conversation, transferred 20K to my account and then we'll have a conversation. I don't think that's I don't think that's a good way to go about it. You should only be looking at people who are willing to have some sort of conversation so you can suss them out. Then let's see what else? OK, pencil and paper. My favorite recommendation for 2024, always have a pencil and paper handy. You should be making notes on paper.

You should be making notes on your phone. When you're listening, you're watching, you're Youtubing your whatever ring. And the reason why is because it's been a while since I heard the statistics, but I think somebody said this is like 80% or something that if you go for a training session, you're going to forget 80% of the things that you learned in the last week. Well, something like that anyway. So don't, don't quote me on that, but check Google, check Wikipedia.

The thing is called the memory retention curve. So if you check the memory retention curve, you get all the accurate stats. And it's quite frightening about the number of things that you're going to forget in, you know, one day in three days, in seven days, in one month, that kind of thing. It's quite scary. So we solved the problem. Not by taking psychotropics, is it? I mean psycho, is it psychotropics? I can't remember.

There some stuff that boys are taking these days and it's mostly boys. I don't know why boys are fascinated with these things. You know, you take this special pill and this pill is supposed to improve your IQ, improve your memory, improve your this, improve your that. So, you know, young men running around nowadays, they want to be super computers. So the solution is not all those psycho enhancement, psychotropic, whatever the solution is, simple pen and paper or your phone, write the thing down that you like to execute.

So back to this whole thing of pattern interrupt. Let's say you bought into this whole pattern interrupt thing to improve your sales. So if you want to try the pattern interrupt tip that the person was talking about, you know, write it on sheet of paper, pattern interrupt, you write the particular tactics, you write how you're going to apply it to your business and then you just continue. And then tomorrow when you wake up, you open your notebook.

You see, they're like, oh, OK, today when I go out and I'm looking for customers and what, you try a pattern interrupt and this is how I will try it. So that's how you get around the problem. So pen and paper, it still works. Make a note on your phone, you know, depending on who it is that you are. Then there's a let me see. Aha, yeah. Now this one, this was from my own personal experience. So don't say this is not going to work for me.

That's the wrong way to look at it. Rather, you should ask yourself a question. How can this work for me? Let me repeat, don't say this won't work for me, even if it's obvious from the beginning that it's not going to work, but rather ask how can this work for me? This how can it work for me part is also very, very easy nowadays that we have AI, we have ChatGPT, whatever. So you can even use AI to brainstorm how this, excuse me,

how this particular principle or how this particular tactic will apply to your business or apply to your context before you give up on the idea. So don't just hear pattern interrupt and say pattern interrupt won't work for me. It's only for white boys or it's only for people in the UK and America. But rather ask yourself, how can the pattern, how can the pattern interrupt work for me in my business? And then you can now use ChatGPT

you say? Dear ChatGPT, I'm a wedding photographer in Abuja, Nigeria trying to improve my sales. I watched the video, it said you can use a pattern interrupting blah blah blah blah blah. I don't see how that applies to wedding photography. Give me 3 ideas about how we can use pattern interrupt to sell more in wedding photography. Question mark, hit send. ChatGPT will give you a couple of things. If you look at 5, three don't make sense.

Ignore if two of them look like they make sense. Pencil and paper write it down tomorrow when in front of a customer, try and see what works. The reason why I'm saying this is this won't work for me. This won't work for me. This won't work for me. It's going to keep you in the darkness for a very, very, very long time. And I'm speaking from personal experience because in the agricultural business, I, of course, my brother and I, we used to sell.

Then when my brother and I were doing this photography and videography thing, you know, we all had selling responsibility, but primarily selling was my own responsibility. So for years my brother had been sending me stuff. And believe me, I spent years ignoring Brian Tracy and I spent years ignoring Tom Hopkins because as far as I was concerned, Brian Tracy, white boy American, does not apply to Nigeria. Brian Tracy talking about financial space.

But I'm an artist. I'm a creative. I'm an artist. I'm a, you know, those of us who are born with creative talent, you, you know how we feel about ourselves now. We feel like we're the greatest thing since sliced bread, you know, because we draw, we paint, we dance, we sing, we act. And, you know, so we just, we, there's a way we feel ourselves. Yeah. And so that's what I used to say, like this won't work for me. These are white guys, not Nigerian.

Brian Tracy Financial Space Tom Hopkins Real Estate. What we are doing is we are trying to sell charcoal abroad. We're trying to sell sesame sesame seed abroad. We're trying to sell wedding photography. What does wedding photography? What does video, What does sesame seed have to do with insurance products and real estate? And so I spent years ignoring those guys because I assumed that these things do not relate to my field.

But unfortunately for me, I was keeping myself in the dark and I was keeping myself away from the truth. They do apply now, which is why I keep saying on the podcast about using a multidisciplinary approach to building your businesses. The stuff that the architect is going to say about business growth that if you listen to it, will help you in improving your pharmacy business. There's stuff that the pharmacist is going to say about increasing your sales as a pharmacy shop.

That if you take it and apply it as a fashion designer, it can also improve your business. Because sales principles, business development principles are universal. They apply to different kinds of context. The only thing that changes is how are we going to apply it to this context? Which one are we going to apply first? What are we going to prioritize? You know, The thing is all the principles apply, but the application is just what is different.

Like let's go to Tom Hopkin things, Tom Hopkin real estate. Tom Hopkins for him is a big thing about sales resistance and then sales acceptance. The idea is this, in the beginning, everybody's going to be uptight. Everybody want to keep something to their chest because nobody wants to be hustled. So they will keep quiet. They won't tell you anything. That's sales resistance, but other people relax and they're comfortable with you.

They'll open up and then they'll start talking to you like a normal human being and then that's why you're going to be able to advance the sale. So like in the real estate space, nobody's going to come and tell you that yeah, my budget is 40 M The average Nigerian is going to be thinking if I tell this guy I have 40 M to buy a house, he is going to make sure that he extracts up to 40 M and beyond. So the every person will just keep quiet and will not tell you about his budget or his or his or her financial goals and investing goals and things like that.

That is sales resistance. So for Tom Hopkins, we overcome sales resistance by establishing trust and then try to figure out their needs. So if you establish some trust, some credibility, and you do some needs analysis, people relax a bit. And you know, that's when you start hearing things like, well, I may have upwards of 30 M in My Portfolio and I'm targeting something that can give me returns of maybe 3% annual. So you can see that in this case, the person still didn't open up his mind.

He didn't open up his mind and say I have 40 M, but he now say I have upwards of 30 M and this is what I'm targeting at. You guys can now have a fruitful conversation. So you'll see that those dynamics, establishing trust, figuring out a need, trying to see how you can help the person and then you hurry to close the sale. It applies in wedding photography. And because I was looking at the fact that, look, these are white boys talking about different industries, it kept me from the truth for a very long time.

So let's avoid this will work for me. It's going to keep you in the dark for too long Here. The thing you'll be confused, you'll scratch your head, but then you're not asked. How can this work for me? If you sit down for 5 minutes and you don't figure out how this thing can work, Pick up Gemini, pick up ChatGPT, pick up. Is it purpose cutie? I'll be. So anyway, there's so many of these tools, Whatever it is that you fancy, pick it up, write out the prompts and then see some things will be rubbish, some things will make sense.

The one that makes sense, try it, see how it works for you, then let's see what else. OK, it's almost 30 minutes, so let me wrap up half clear goals. What problems are you trying to solve? That's you know, what target, what targets are you trying to reach? That's you must always have that at the back of your mind. So it also, it also helps you know, to determine where it is you're moving and how. So if you think that, OK, what you have is a branding problem and you're trying to see how you can increase brand awareness in 2025 or whatever, you can see that if you are approaching material with that clear goal,

it will inform the things you're listening to, the people you're subscribing to, the things they're writing down to try and execute. I mean, you see, it's not just the same thing as you wake up every day and you're just listening to business content in general. Have a clear goal or get a sense of what's the problem I'm trying to resolve or where am I trying to, where's the promised land that I'm moving to? So that will determine where you look on the map.

Then as you're doing that, you should have a focus on skill development. You should be trying to figure out, OK, what skill do I need to take me to the next step? What skill do I need to move me to the promised land? And yeah, so that's the attitude. Have a clear sense, where am I heading? What's the problem I'm trying to overcome? What skills are going to help me move to that next step. So like I said, there are lots of things to consider because we can keep on talking about these things over and over and over and over and over again.

And it's possible that you might find somebody else in a blog or in a podcast who will have a list of 10 things. And the list of 10 things will be different from the number of things that we have discussed. I'm here today, so we can't name them all. I hope that this has been a helpful few. And that is all for today, pretty much. So remember to connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede, the host of the show.

You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link where you're listening to this episode. So just highlight, copy, paste and LinkedIn. My handsome face will come up, then connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. So yeah, country code is +234 for those of you who are not measuring. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And yeah, that's it for today.