MBA: Worth the Hype for Sales & Business Owners?

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is another out and about episode. So expect to hear some interruptions in the background today. Shout out to Adebc or Laid. He's a product manager and also APR and brand manager who's based out of Lagos. So he's a listener of the show who discovered the podcast on Spotify and then reached out to me on LinkedIn. And he reached out just to applaud the depth of knowledge on the podcast.

He thinks the podcast is great and he's a fan. So thank you very much at ABC Online for listening to the show. And please, I hope that you're going to share the show with other project managers, you know, PR people, brand people, and then the other person who might get to learn some tidbits here and there from the world of sales that might help them be better in their businesses and in their careers. So the topic we're going to handle today on the podcast is whether salespeople should have MBAs.

So an MBA is a master of business administration. And this is a user question. I haven't had a user question in a very long time, or rather I haven't treated 1. So since I got one on LinkedIn from Salami Abu Bakri, I figured, let me just come over here and make the podcast recording. So Salami Abu Bakri, if you are listening to the show, then this is the answer to the question that you asked me on LinkedIn. And thank you for being patient for me to run through all the things that I had before coming to this particular question because I think he asked me this question about a week ago.

Now, Salami Abu Bakri is also a listener of the podcast who discovered it on Spotify and reached out to me on LinkedIn. And coincidentally, he also is a project manager as well, just like a DBCO lady, the the same person that was shouting out today. So the answer to the question, should sales people have MBAs? And for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a very long time, you're not surprised by my answer because the answer is depends, because lots of things are very contextual.

But the main thesis that I have and the main thesis that you're going to get, the main idea that you're going to get regardless of whichever sales professional or rather sales consultant or business growth consultant that you talk to, there's one answer that we agree on and we're unanimous on whether you have an MBA or not. One thing that is required to be successful in sales and selling is business acumen. So if you have the degree, that is good.

The degree just means that you are credentialed, but you don't necessarily need the degree to have business acumen. So that's the reason why I say it depends. So there are some people who have gone and had MBAs and have found it to be of immense value and has been the beginning of them acquiring business acumen. But then you have some people on the other hand, who have gone and had MBAs but who felt that the real world experience that they had in business either prior to the MBA or after the MBA is what really gave them all the business acumen that they need.

So now the short answer is it depends. But the thing that you definitely need is business acumen. The thing that will help you show the world will, that will credential you to show that you have business acumen is the MBA. So, you know, take that and do what you will. Now, when we say business acumen, what we mean especially from a sales and business development perspective is this. You need insight on your customer, insight on your client needs, insight on their context,

insight on their business, you know, all those sorts of things. That's what we mean by when we say business acumen. Now, for all the examples that I've been talking about over here on the podcast, OK, Like Miss Oma, for instance, Miss Summer has been commenting a lot on the podcast. She's a beauty and skin care specialist. So when we talked about Miss Summer's business and her colleagues in Inugu, you can see that in order for them to be successful in selling to their customers, they need insight on their customers.

What do the customers want Insight on? Skin care, skin routines, goals, what kind of vision do they have for themselves? You know, psychological benefits that are looking for physical benefits, you know, and on and on and on. So we need some insight on the customers, insights on their needs, their context, their business. All of these things is what we sum up when we say business, business acumen. Although you'll notice that you know, Miss Oma is more of a business to consumer.

So she's selling to a consumer and then some of us are business to business. So like the services I provide, I provide a lot of times to business to business owners. You know, people already have a business, you know four or five sales people. You know, those are the people that hit me up so far. So, but anyway, sha, business argument, that's the main thing, whether whether you have an MBA or not, business argument is what we're striving for.

But let's try and pass out the topic or rather the question a little further and let's define an MBA Now, an MBA is just an advanced degree. When we say advanced degree, we just mean it is more than HND and is more than, you know, the normal four years degree that you studied, whichever school that you went to. So there's HND and then there's OND and then there's the university degree. So those of you who studied law or medicine or accounting or Yoruba or sports or theatre arts, you know, yeah, you get,

you went to school, you got a degree. Now what you do after that, those are the advanced degrees. So master's and PhD, those are advanced degrees. So the MBA is an advanced degree. Now the focus of the MBA is to teach people how to administer business. I repeat, MBA advanced degree, the focus is to teach people how to administer business. Now what do you, what do you mean when you say you're administering a business? It just means you know how to manage a business, you know how to lead within the business context.

And these are things quite frankly, that is good for sales people to know. So you can see how if you haven't had business argument because of real world experience, let's say you finish your university and then go straight for an MBA, you can see how having the MBA is not going to hurt, especially if you can afford it. Because these days, man, what I'm hearing are school fees. Like it's, it's rough, real rough. Especially if you're going to go to one of those premier institutions, maybe like Harvard for instance.

One of my late uncles was a Harvard MBA. Then my mumsy is also an MBA as well. But mumsy is not Harvard. Mumsy is Boston University of Massachusetts, so you know, same Township but me, I don't have an MBA, so sorry, one moment I have to attend to something that I'll get back to you guys. OK, I'm back. Sorry. Even though for you guys it's been a very short break, maybe a couple of seconds for me actually has been like a 45

minute, one hour break. I had to change locations. That's some runs to do at the bank and I didn't think things were going to take that quick, which is why I started off the recording anyway, but OK, so let me try and gather my thoughts. I think I was talking about, I think where we stopped is I had tried to define what an MBA is. I've spoken about how it's an advanced degree and the whole point of an MBA is to teach you how to administer business.

Yeah, I think that's where I was. And yeah, administering business. You just mean how do you manage your business? How do you lead within the business context? And yeah, hi. Yeah. So I think that's where I stopped. I said yeah, that these are things that are generally good for salespeople to know. Then let's look at some of the core courses that you would learn in an MBA course. If you just go on Google and check any of your, you know,

favorite MBA places, whether it's AMBA University of, you know, UNILAG or MB AOAU, MB A Harvard MBA, University of Sydney MBA, wherever, you'll find that there are a couple of courses that seem to be like the domain domain, the core courses. So we have courses in finance and accounting. So that's stuff you would learn if you do an MBA, you would also have courses in marketing. That's very, very foundational stuff you're going to do.

You're also going to learn operations management, organizational behaviour, organizational behaviour and economics. So those are like the like, you know, like the main, the main courses I seem to cut across whether as Unilog, OAU, Sydney, University of Egypt, you know, Abakaliki University, you know, anyway, well, that's if they offer MBA is them. So you want to learn finance, accounting, marketing, operations, organizational behaviour and then economics.

So these are the core courses. And then traditionally when you hear MBA, the usual candidates or the usual people that are being targeted, like on LinkedIn, these people are sending me messages tire, They keep sending me messages over and over and over again. They keep saying for career advancement, blah, blah, blah. MBA University of Sydney, MBA University of this, MBA, University of that. But one thing in common is that they say for career advancement.

And I think that's a cue about the kind of people that are being targeted for the MBA program. So it's actually for people who want to switch up their career, you know, you want to grow your career, switch up your career. So yes, there's stuff that you're going to learn that will help you to be much more entrepreneurial. But really, this course has been designed for people who are employees and who want career advancement.

But remember I said that by going through the MBA, you can gain a certain level of business acumen and you might be able to find it useful if it is something that you can afford. If you come from the right family, you know, your family has a paper or, you know, you've worked hard because I've met people like that who have, you know, worked hard to build their businesses. And then after, you know, like 20 something years, they decide that, look, I need this MBA and then they go and do the MBA or they go and do OBS.

I'll talk about that more about that later. So the usual candidates are people who want to advance in their career and which is something that my mother did. So I, I mentioned time and time again on the podcast that I'm from a, you know, journalism family, basically 'cause proxy studied radio production, he had his OND. No, OK, you got OND from UNILAC. I think I busy HND UNILAC. Then he now did some sort of diploma somewhere in London,

something in radio production. And then after that he now started doing, he did some radio production in Kaduna. I think. NTA, I'll be, is he? NTA, I'll be Radio Nigeria. Look, I can't remember. I wasn't even born by this time to be honest. So it's just by finding his papers, you know, here and there after he died that I found out about his radio career. So by the time I was born, my father was ATV man. When I say tvi mean television,

I don't mean TV like TV tribe. You know, in this part of the Nigeria, I say TV, some Nigerians say TV. So he was in television production. That's the time I was born. My father was in television production, but before then he had a career in radio and I've long since met people who, you know, we'll talk about his days, but you know, in Catalina when he was on the radio and how smooth he was and you know, everything, you know, stuff,

stuff, stuff like that where I was like, hey, career advancement. Yes. So my father, journalism mostly the same thing, study theatre arts, ended up in marketing in NTA and then also later on being NTA Abuja. And she would now be, I think she was more like a producer kind of role or something. Yeah, she was like doing productions. And then my father was in the bottom line Sha. We started off as TV and journalism. Now eventually, as you know,

around the time we're getting to secondary school, Mumsy's take was that Nigeria was changing, the face of Nigeria was changing and will be time to, you know, take that evolution into a much more corporate context. And so for her career advancement meant going to Boston, MA and getting the NBA with an emphasis in public relations. So that's how she made the switch. So we're still babies. Then she went to Massachusetts,

got the NBA, came back. Then by 1985 S in 1985, that's when she now left NTA and now became the 1st. She now became the 1st public relations. I don't know, I can't remember what it's called. Maybe like the public relations chief or public relations office or whatever it was called for the Hilton Hotel. Yeah, the Hilton Hotel was brand new back then. And so that's how Mumsy made the switch. So you see that NBA courses are typically targeted at these sorts of people, you know,

career switch, career advancement, you know, all that sort of thing. So here you had a civil servant who was thinking of making the switch. I'm tired of being in civil service. I think Niger is going to go very corporate in the next couple of decades. Turns out mom, she was right. And so for me to switch our guys, go to school, let me go abroad, let me do this MBA thing. Now when I come back, I use the MBA Bali and then apply to a corporate organization, Hilton Hotel.

She starts off as a public relations officer and then from there, that's how you know, she begin to migrate small, small, small. Eventually she becomes a marketing executive. So when you hear MBA, this is the typical sort of thing that people have in mind, not necessarily salespeople and not necessarily business people. But like I say, if you can afford it, if you are, you know, if your life is that sweet, they can go and do an MBA.

It will give you a certain level of business acumen, which is going to help, excuse me, in your ability to sell. So yeah, that's it. The usual candidates for Nbas, folks like my mom, career advancement, career switch, career is career. That was still it might help. Now, the advantage of the NBA. So excuse me, the advantage of the NBA, like I said, it shows that you are credentialed and it's a good way to signal to the marketplace and to signal to prospective clients that you have the credentials.

So those of you listening to this podcast now and a couple of you who have met me in person, clearly you guys think I know my stuff. But given the work that I've put out so far with the podcast and then with what I've been doing with my consulting practice, my speaking practice and things like that, if I had the MBA for some people, it would make me seem more credible. So I mean, think about it, like I said, if it's something you can do easily, yeah, they're going to make you appear much more credentialed.

It's a good signal to the marketplace. It's a good signal to prospective clients. So if you can afford an MBA, to be honest, in my own opinion, it's not bad. In most places, it's only going to take you 2 years. If you're a youngish chap, it's not a problem. If you're 40, start by the time you're 42, you'll be done. If you are 25, like one of my mentees that I met yesterday, shout out to Joshua Iguay, he through the Faith Foundation in Lagos, He was, he's a listener on the podcast, but you know,

not a faithful listener. He, I was able to get, he's the fellow that I referred to earlier on the podcast, the person who got 2 M and, and I made the podcast episode about how the best way to spend that kind of money if you got the cash injection. So that whole podcast episode was about him. Joshua Eagle. He has a cafe in Lagos called Ponquem. Yeah, Ponquem means full stop. I mean, the most interesting name I've, I've had for a company.

So he has a cafe and then he also does online gaming. So Ponquem, that's the name of his business outfit. So so we finally hooked up yesterday. I thought it was a 30 something year old chap, but you know, we met finally yesterday and only to turn out that he's like 2425 ish, you know. But anyway, he doesn't look that young and he sounds more mature. Let me just put it that way. So if you're like Joshua Eagle, you're 25, start the NBA.

By the time you're 2728, you're done. So it's not that much of a problem. So if you can afford it, it's not bad. The education is good, the networking opportunities now pay attention, especially for those of us in Nigeria of 2025. If you're listening to this podcast in, you know, 3162, maybe things have changed in Nigeria. But right now in 2025, the networking opportunities for those people who are MBA educated actually is not bad,

but it depends on the school. For instance, Harvard MBAs, you know, you know, now they're like cult unto themselves. You know, they feel as if they're fresher than the rest of us, but yeah, they're club onto themselves, you know. So Harvard MBA's in Nigeria, you know, they have their own association, you know, they have their own networking events. You know, they know themselves. You know, they pass around their names, their business cards,

their everything. So if you if you enter that kind of life, then by all means go and get a Harvard MBA so that you might when you come back with a floss with them like, yeah, I own the air. Like is all of us Harvard MBA? You know Niger that well, we're at the top prestige, we are smart, we are big boys, we are big girls. So we're going to that sort of thing. Then go and get to have an MBA if you can afford it. Yeah. So if POPSY is paying and you don't want to go for school, you can decide what school to go for what POPSY say you must go.

You might as well tax POPSY and just go for having MBA if you can afford it. Then if you can't afford the foreign MBA experience, there are local alternatives. Unfortunately, local alternatives are also very pricey. So it's not like before that Unilag MBA was a pure water or or Buffy My Wallow University was pure water. You know, now you're going to have to pay some good currency to get those degrees. So yes, Nigerian universities also offer MBAs.

Amar du Bello, excuse me, Amar du Bello also does an MBA. What else? Kano, I know that you can do an MBA in Kano as well. I wanted to do an MBA while I was serving in Kano, but at the time was against the rules. You couldn't be a do your NYSE and then be pursuing your MBA. So I didn't do that. Although some people are saying that, you know, if I just bribe one or two people, I could have done it. But I beg me, I'm afraid of something so and I don't even know how to bribe anyway.

So I just said let me just leave this thing, I'm back. You know, we'll face MBA later. So yeah, those are some of the local alternatives. And then there's also the pounds, that's the Lagos Business School or Pan African University. That's another name. They also have a good alumni network and people go there to do executive programs. So part of the touch up that Mumsy did later on was she did she went to pounds as well,

Lagos Business School, then she did there they have the executive kind executive program and something, something I can't remember. Then the classmate of mine, Anna, who runs a successful architectural practice in in Abuja, she also did something similar. That's how she got her own. OK, you can't really call that an advanced degree, but that's how she kind of got her own MBA, sort of like alternative. She went to pounds as well.

I was part of the executive something something program. All these things I'm saying, excuse me, all these things I'm saying, you know, I'm not using the proper name. So if you go on Google, you'll be able to find it. So just Google pounds or Pan African University. And then maybe just an executive program or senior executive program, you see all the courses there. Everything would just would just come out then. So like I said, they have a good alumni network.

And in all honesty, that is the sort of institution that I hope to retire in. I'm hoping that after I've been doing this for a while, you know, when I hit maybe like that kind of 6570, you know, I can retire in a place like that, maybe in the OBS, you know, retire as an associate professor and then continue teaching people until the Lord calls me home. So yeah, if things work out, then when I'm a very old man, you guys will find me in the OBS.

You know, if my wife is dead by then, you know, maybe I would even be pushing small girls on top. So anyway, but don't quote me. You didn't hear me say that. I was like, so if you're going to afford an MBA, go ahead. If you can't afford an MBA, their local alternatives. And then there are also alternatives like Obs that are not MBAs but will teach you how to administer a business. How do you manage your business? How do you do leadership in the business?

So yeah, that's it. OK, there's one thing I didn't define business acumen because remember I was saying that for salespeople, the main, the main, the cocoa that we should be paying attention to right now is business argument because you cannot be a good salesperson and then lack business argument. Now business argument is just understanding. Business argument is just being sharp. Basically, how sharp are you? How much understanding do you have when it comes to dealing with business situations?

That's just what business I can make acumen means. So how much knowledge do you have? How much skills do you have? How much experience do you have? So now you see why sales people can get business argument without having an MBA because it is this part is this skills and experience part. Traditionally, that is where we sales professionals, that's where we get our chops. So for me, I do not have an MBA. When I talk, some people assume that I'm an MBA grad.

I'm not an MBA grad. I just have business argument. I've got some knowledge, I've got some skills, I've got some experience that I have picked up from trying to develop myself, interacting with people and then also dealing with business situations over the span of my career. You know, from legal to civil service to wedding photography to export business. So that is how I picked up my business document. So yes, if you're listening to the show, because I run into some of you and then people ask me, oh, what did you study?

When we have that conversation, lots of people are surprised. So let me just say it here so that you'll be surprised again when you meet me. I am not an MBA. I did not go to Harvard. My foreign degree is in oil and gas law. So when you meet me, there's no need being surprised. I am not an MBA. I wanted to. So I wanted to pursue my MBA when I was seven in Kano. That didn't work out. I applied for a foreign MBA in Aberdeen, but I was rejected.

So what I have is I have a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration. That's the closest that I have to this whole business thing. But yeah, I'm not an MBA, even though I sound like 1. So that's all business acumen means. And so, so long as you are a salesperson, you're trying to beef up your knowledge, you're trying to apply your skills and you're looking for new experiences, that is how you're going to acquire acumen over time.

Traditionally, that's how it was done. So for Sales Pro, the reason why acumen is important, like I said at the top of the podcast is we need to understand your clients need to understand the context, understand the situation, understand the problems, whether you're dealing with individuals like Miss Houma, who's the beauty and skin care, especially in Lugu, you know her and her click and or whether you're doing B2B like me for instances,

and for instance, advising other businesses how they're supposed to grow their revenues. So we need to do all do that. So business argument really, really important for sales and really, really important for whatever business that you do. If you're a caterer, you need acumen. You need business acumen. That's what's going to help you build your business. If you're a consultant like me, you need business argument. Sorry, I said argument acumen because it's going to help you build your your clients businesses.

So no matter what it is you do, you need business acumen. In fact, even if you are a Carpenter, common Carpenter in quote, that is how you are going to be able to elevate yourself. It is from the level of business acumen that you have that you're going to be able to reposition the business. So business acumen really important wherever you are. So business acumen is required as a consultant. What are the things that you need to be acumen in on?

What are the things that you need to know? We need to have a certain level of financial literacy. We need to know how our customers make money. And that's one reason why when I'm talking to any of you, no matter what your business is, I ask you questions about about the finances because I need to understand how do you make money? Which is your products that brings in the most? Which one has the highest profit margin? Which one is the one that is selling the most, even though it makes the the least amount of money?

How is it that you guys, how is it that you guys make money? You know, I need to know that. You also need to know that it's part of business acumen. How do people make money? How is money made? Then strategy, strategy is just, I like to say strategies is where are we heading, what opportunities are we looking for? Yeah, let me just leave it like that tragedy, Where are we heading? What opportunities are we looking for and what objectives are we going to use to get there.

So that is part of the business argument that you need as well. Your customers, your clients, you need to know where are they heading. No other financials, how are they making money, know where it is that they're heading. Then market awareness, market awareness, that is like market that when it just means, you know, what's up, what are the trends in the market, you know, things like that. So we need to also know where the market is heading.

Then leadership and communication, that is more about leadership and communication. Well, let's say it's more like influencing, influencing people trying to get things done. Yeah, let me put it that way. Leadership and communication is more about trying to get things done. So yeah, influencing people. And that's why I keep talking about advancements on the podcast. That is not enough for us to keep having nice meetings.

You know, you have meetings, you send emails, you do this. By the end of the day, nothing happened. We need to be able to secure advancements. Advancements means you're talking to somebody. You're able to get that person to take the next important step in getting something done. And it's something that I learned very early as a wedding photographer that you can have nice conversations with people and and also about that this idiot is driving away next to me.

What was that? So I learned as a wedding photographer very early that you can be having wonderful conversations with people. You guys vibe like 5 and 6 and lose like you guys are friends. But if you send over that proposal and you don't ask for anything, they will tell you, let me get back to you. And then from let me get back to you like, oh, I'm sorry, I was busy. Oh, this is that that that next in ghost mode. And then before you do it,

another photographer has landed the gig. The reason why the other person landed the gig is because leadership and communication influencing gaining advancements. You did not ask the other person asked. So send him a proposal and then ask the question. Is everything set here in before your very face? Let them ask because you know, it's very simple. If you're in skin care of you're in photography or you're in catering is a very simple something.

There's nothing to go and think again like it's right here. Is everything said OK? Good. It looks like everything is in order. Fantastic. For us to move forward, I need a deposit of 60%. So how soon can you raise that 250K? And then you keep quiet and then hear what they have to say. Is that simple? To move forward, I need a payment. To move forward, I need a deposit. For us to meet this date, we need a deposit of so, so, so and so.

So. Yeah. Is that something you're willing to do? How soon can you raise this? We need this payment by January 25th. Is that possible? Like there are million ways to ask Boscha, ask leadership and communication. It's not just about talking fancy. It's about getting stuff done. So let's see what else? OK, Hey, industry, not HR. These are all the things that we that we need when we talk about business acumen. So you can see that business acumen is very wide and the varied term.

But the main thing that I'm trying to say in this episode is if you're thinking I want to improve my sailing capability, should I have an MBA, it is not necessary. What is necessary is business acumen. You can gain business acumen through real world experience or you can also gain it through your MBA. But because of the added benefits that the MBA has for career progression and for networking and for credentialing yourself and showing credibility, if you can afford,

by all means do it. So like my guy, don't believe me? If you're a young man and popsies are asking you, momsies are asking, you say you must do NBA, you know, now is the time. If you're 2025, now is the time. It sounds like it's a long time, but two years is actually is very short. Trust me, two years is very, very short. And then plus, if they're paying for you to go abroad, it's think of it as a working holiday. You're going to go on holiday and you're going to be working and then you know, when you're done, you decide what next you want to do with your life.

For those of you who have young families like my mom did, sometimes it's a bit of work. You talk to your spouse, there's some planning. You guys raise the money like in my own parents case, although I think moms, he got a soft scholarship from binary state and the government to go and pursue this. But I was just, I've heard, you know, I haven't confirmed from her, but it's just I've heard anyway. And with the cooperative spouse,

you know that she went and she went and got her MBA. And I also know people who are doing the same thing now, although doing it in reverse. I'm used to like the man holding it down and the woman is one that will go to school. So it surprises me that nowadays it looks as if it's the woman that is staying back and holding things down, then the man runs off to school. So maybe it's because of how I grew up. I just find that thing kind of weird.

I just always assumed, you know, the woman will go 1st and then get the Diwali, the degree, and then come back. Then maybe, you know, now the man can go next, if the man goes at all. Oh, by the way, my father didn't go for his own MBA, so he was just stuck with his OND and his diplomat for radio production. Sometimes I think that's why my old man wanted me to be educated because in Nigerian terms, you know, the way we Nigerians are now, in Nigerian terms, you would say my old man was not, he was illiterate but you wouldn't really say he was an educated federal like that.

In Nigerian terms, you know, because we're in a country where everybody values the valley and where I only have 1°, but I have classmates who have two degrees and maybe two or three MBAs. So anyway, sorry, this is not about me. But anyway, Salami Abu Bakri, thank you very much for the question. The answer is you don't necessarily need to have an MBA, but if you have the money and you can make it happen, then please, by all means, go ahead,

especially if you're young, it's it'll be good. It'll be fun for you to get the MBA. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. If you'd love to connect just like Salami Abu what you did and if you have questions, then send them to 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigeria, that's my WhatsApp number as well. Don't send me telegram or because that telegram, I won't lie, I check it maybe like once every four months or so.

I hate when I check it just delete delete, delete because there's lots of spam there. Then also connect with me on LinkedIn the name to look for establish my aide. I'm on YouTube as well in case you want to get the content from YouTube. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.