Networking, Credibility, and Differentiation: Keys to Corporate Dealmaking

Hello and welcome to the show today. I'm not in the audio booth, so apologies for the interruptions that are going to come in. I'm from the background now. In fact, I'm making today's recording from the new house. For those of you who've been listening for a while, you know that I've been house hunting, finally found a place. So I'm currently on site working with the, you know, electrician, plumber, Carpenter and all those sorts of people getting the house nice and ready so we can move quite soon.

So I expect to hear some noise in the background. I might have to pause and go talk to someone, come back, maybe might hear some hammers in the background or something like that. So, yeah, apologies. And that's also the reason why you can hear lots of echo. That's if you're one of those people who can pick up those sorts of things. There's a lot of echo because you know, it's me just sitting down here in an empty house waiting for the next batch of workmen to show up.

Now, what I'd like for us to look at today on the podcast is on how to mastermind big deals. I'm not going to do that in a very structured way in today's episode, but rather from the perspective of a former student of mine who is an employee for one of my corporate clients from last year, 2024. Now the client is in the alternative and renewable energy space. They're into solar panels, inverter batteries, what else, You know, all those sorts of stuff, you know, good stuff.

And at the time I started working with that client, you know, that's the organization now because there are two people that we're talking about. There's the corporate client of mine and they're called Crimson Power. And then there is this student in particular whose name is, whose name is Rudy. I'm not going to use his full name because I haven't taken his permission, but and it's so Rudy, that's one of his nicknames.

So Rudy's a sales engineer for Crimson Power. So I'm going to be talking interchangeably, you know, about the different parties. So Crimson Power, that's his auger the the company and then engineer Rudy. So at the time I started working with Crimson Power, they were in a transition because they were doing lots of deals with retail clients, individual clients. So they're doing lots of deals with people like you and me, you know, single, single, 11, you know, renter or owner of a house, you know, that kind of thing.

So they show up to my house, install my solar panels and then they leave. And they were trying to get into high value accounts, you know, maybe do installations for banks, corporate organisations, you know, those sorts of things. Because of course, you know, those kind of jobs are much more high. The margins of those are a whole lot higher. And then typically, you know, if you're in the corporate space and you get referrals from, from corporations, you know, it's,

it's, it's just a Better Business. Let me put it that way. And it's something I have tasted myself because when I started off with wedding photography, if one bride refers you to another, you know the money that you collect on top your profits are, you know, 10s of thousands or hundreds of thousands. But then when you start doing business with corporations, you know, like if you're from that event vendor space, like my was,

you know, all of a sudden, you know, your money starts entering millions and millions. So it makes a whole lot of sense that if you've been doing business with people on the retail side, you know, normal people one-on-one, you know, individual people one-on-one, it makes a whole lot of sense that if you can transition to the corporate space, you transition to the corporate space where your money will be correct cash. Like one of the people that I

was talking to last year who is in the gift giving space, you know, hampers and stuff like that. If you sell one hamper, the profit you're collecting is 10s of thousands. And that's just per head. Unlike if you are to try and supply hamper to all of Zenith Bank. Now one particular branch. I mean, imagine how much your profit will be not to talk of if you're even cool enough that you're able to now capture maybe like 10 branches of Zenith Bank also, and you're the only one who receives the contract to supply the hamper.

So that's the sort of transition that this company, Crimson Power was in. They're doing good work for and private, but they're trying to transition into corporate because corporate, that's where the good margins, the good margins are Also the CEO of the company, that's the chief operating officer, whose name is Mr. George. OB George is an engineer by training. And you know, they have lots of aspirations for moving into the energy as a service space and that's basically where they provide mini grids and things like that.

Essentially, they wanted to expand to become sort of like NEPA, you understand. So providing power not just to retail people, single, single 11, you know, like me, for instance, somebody who is a renter or a home owner, but now providing power like NEPA, maybe the whole estate or who knows, the whole local government, you know, so those who are their aspirations. And so that is when I started working with them. And even though ultimately transition to corporate was the focus, we started off just by trying to make sure that the sales team was effective on their own and that they're pulling weight.

And that also that the sales team was. The sales teams are working together with all the other teams in a cohesive fashion. You know, sales working well with fulfillment. Fulfillment are the people who go and deliver. So the person that closes the deal might be a sales engineer, single person like me, close the deal, but of course I'm not the person who's going to climb the ladder, climb on top of the house and start installing the solar panels.

So this is one of those businesses where the distinction between sales team and and fulfillment team is very sharp. The person that is on the phone that is selling is selling. The person who is visiting the client is visiting, the person that will show up and now go and climb ladder and put on the roof is different. So we also wanted to make sure that we minimize issues of hand off because sometimes salesperson is talking to auger or Madam in the house and auger Madam say one or two things.

The salesperson say, OK, no problem. I will tell the boys when they come to install, but then maybe you forget to tell the boys when they come to install. So that leads to all kinds of problems with with the user experience and then also affects the way that people think about your company. So if you're one of those businesses where there's a sharp divide, you know, sales people, they're separate, the people who now do installation fulfilment,

whatever it is you want to call it, no one is different. You know, handoff is something you need to work on. So, yeah, so that's how I got in touch. We started dealing with Crimson Power. So my former student, now Rudy, Engineer Rudy, an employee of Crimson Power, he pinged me a message in December saying that the company had won a major contract and was to supply 200 kilowatts of power to a place called Euroto Centre in Ogola State.

He wrote to that IROTO, it's a 14 weeks project. Currently at the time of this podcast, they're halfway into finishing the whole thing. And so 200 kilowatts, I know it's for photovoltaic PV systems. Now, of course, I know absolutely nothing about what all these things mean. I mean, I don't know what a kilowatt is, but it's a big project. Let me just put it that way. So 200 kilowatts. And anyway, so I'm not the technical guy me, I'm more of the the sales guy, the money guy, which is also another reason why you guys have to be the subject matter expert before you engage a consultant.

So one of the reasons why it was easy for me to work with Crimson Power was because they were the subject matter expert. They know what a kilowatt is, they know what a photo fake is. They know what where you can get the best sonar panels, whether from China or India or Pakistan or Switzerland or wherever. You know, they are the subject matter expert. They know what the best connection should be. They know the best way to do this.

They know the best way to do that. And they also had they also had this thing where they wanted to work on quality, which is one of the reasons why they're running away from, well, not running away, but trying to move away from the retail market. Because sometimes, you know, you're dealing with somebody and the person is like, look, I know that this is the best quality of thing that we should do, but I'm broke, so just go ahead and give me second best.

SO yeah, trying to avoid some of those issues. So it was easy to work with them. I could come in and just pay attention to the sales team's performance and making sure that the fundamentals are down. Do you know how to identify a customer? Do you know how to how to approach them? Do you know how to start a conversation with them? Do you know how to build rapport? Do you know how to find out what it is that they need? How do you deliver an effective proposal?

What is the best way to? Because for these people, unfortunately, sometimes proposals have to be technical. So it's not like waiting photography where you can just come and talk mouth, mouth, mouth and then seal the deal. You know, people are going to know, want to know what's up. You know, how many kilowatts, how many panels, how many this, how many that's what are the contingency plans, you know, all those sorts of things.

So it was easy to work with them because they were subject matter experts. So I could come in and just pay attention to my own part of the angle, which was how the sales conversations were being had. So, subject matter expertise. Really, really really. Important make sure that you are the expert, no matter what it is that you're doing. So whether it's fashion or whether it's solar panels or whether it's catfish, you have to be the guy and you have to be the very babe.

So if you're a catfish person, you need to know what's up. Which catfish is good? Taraba catfish, Benway catfish, Donnie catfish, Bayesa catfish, You know which one is best for what. Which one is best for pepper soup? Which one is best for weddings? Which one is best for lactating mothers? Which one is best for pregnancy? You want to clean the womb? Which one is best for B Apollo? I mean, you need to know those things.

So you have to be the absolute best in what it is that you do. So Rudy now reached out to me, told me the good news that they have won the contract and installing it was going to involve 360 solar panels. And they're also going to supply 3 phases of uninterrupted power to that to that Euroto Centre, I'll pronounce your name correct. Euroto Centre in Oakland state, OK. And the total capacity of the project was 150 kilowatts.

So like I said, I still do not know the difference between a kilowatt and the you know, whatever and a MW. But anyway, you technical people, you guys will know the size of the scope. All I just know shy stuff is big because the money that was paid was big. So for me is the number of zeros at the end that I know, OK, whether it is a big project or a small project. All right. So like I said, the company name is Crimson Power.

Now the CEO, his name is Julian Basi. He's the person who reached out to me. They're based in Lagos where I was coming through Abuja. He had some one or two business deals. So he sent me a message on LinkedIn. That's how we got charted and came to Abuja, you know, correct guy. We got talking and we figured that I might be able to help the company out. And then that's how we got talking. And then it's through him that I

now met the CEO, the chief operations Officer, That's George Obi. And George is a technical person. Now notice this split that I'm saying there's a chief executive officer, Julian Basi, and then there's a chief operating officer, George Obi. Now in this case, the split happened to be that Julian Basi is kind of like the sales guy, you know, charismatic sales guy, been doing the business for a very long time. I think collectively he's been doing the business.

I think like over 20 years, he and George together, I can't remember how long they've been working together, but then George is the engineer, engineer, engineer. So this is a formula that some people use in business. In case you are afraid of selling now, I would prefer that if you're the business owner, you still need to know how to sell small even if you don't sell. You also have to be able to chat with your clients and understand your clients and know your clients no matter how small.

That is what I would prefer. But there are some people who say, look, you know what, I'm the ideal person. I'm the technical person, I don't want to talk to customers, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's possible if you now go into business with someone who knows the sales end. So for those of you who are still in the wedding photography space, I don't know who is raining right now, but back when I was in the game, the people that π and Jessa or some people that used to rain, Pi is Pye,

then Jessa GIRSA, and they are American celebrity photographers. So they used to rain as in like top notch photographers. Now everybody knows π because π is the one that used. To do the. Videos and do the everything and what not. So you know π was the man, as in he's one that's taking the pictures. Everybody knows π But then one day I was listening to one of π seminars and then Pi said that, well, for him, he focuses on photography only and the creativity.

When it comes to money, he removes himself and that is when the other lady will now step in. So his own is to do the photography, do the everything. He knows how to light everything, edit everything. When it comes to Nara and Kobo, he remove himself. The babe will now step in. The babe is the one that will now finalize the sales transaction. So this kind of split is nothing new. For those of you who are afraid of selling, it's a possibility.

So you have it here with Crimson. So Julian Basi, charismatic sales guy, fine boy, visionary leader, then George will be also fine boy, charismatic as well. But he's the one who knows kilobytes, kilobytes, kilo, these recycle uptime, downtime, photovaic, bloody hair, so all that whatever. That's what he went to school for. So he knows. He knows every, every. And then the same thing with pie and jersey. When it comes to posing the couple, it is pie.

When it comes to shooting the photo, it is pie. When it comes to editing the photo, it is pie. When it comes to framing, when it comes to designing the book, when it comes to everything, it is pie. But the moment it is naira and cobo, sorry, dollars and cents, because the American Pie will just remove himself for the situation. Because Pie said, look me, I do not like sales. I don't like to talk money. It makes me feel dirty.

So I removed myself from from the situation my business partner will enter. She's the one who knows how to price, how to haggle, how to do everything, how to chase people for money. Pie will remove himself. She should just step in. And then that's how to finalise it. So for those of you who say, look, I don't like pricing, I don't like customers, I don't like talking. I don't like whatever that is an Ave. that is open to you for you guys to try out.

So now back to Ruby sales engineer. Sorry, Rudy. So Rudy told me now about the deal and of course I was happy for him because every time that, you know, I'm working with someone and they close something, it makes me very, very happy. And look, to be honest, I'll confess to you guys. I will confess to you guys. The, the engagement that I had with Crimson, we worked together for over four months. And so this is one engagement that the thing pained me to do to, to, to, to, to my marrow.

It pained me because usually I work with people and and in 2-3 months I'm able to give demonstrable results. And for Crimson, by the time I left them at month four, I was not able to deliver the bump in sales that I was expecting. You know, when we started off with them, I told them that this is how it works. First of all, we aim for behaviour change. If you can get your sales team to change their behaviour, then the money results will flow essentially.

So these sorts of things, sales engagements, sales interventions, I would say take about maybe 2-3 months before you start seeing the naira and cobo inside your bank account. So the thing pay me to my marrow that we had some small, small wins here and there, but I wasn't able to deliver bumper harvest to them. So man, the thing pay me out. I won't lie, you know, 'cause though sometimes I'll be like, shit like this kind of thing has not happened to me before that I'm with, I'm with a client four months and I can't boast that,

OK, I started in January and then by April profits had gone up 20%. So the thing, you know, pay me and you know, on a separate whatever me and my wife had a chat about that. But basically it's when Rudy came in to now say, bro, this house closed though. And these are these and these are the things you taught me that I think helped me to close that deal. It made me feel very good. I was like, now I can, I can feel good again that OK, I did stuff and this stuff is this stuff is working.

By the way, I hope you guys are seeing now that in business, you know, there's ups and downs because, you know, sometimes you guys hear me sounding all confident and you feel as if everything I touch turns to gold. And unfortunately it's not the case. It's not everything that I touch that is going to multiply, you know, times 3 or times 4 / 6 months. You know, it's not always the case. Would be nice if not the case, but it's not always the case because there are some things that are beyond my control.

I can come in and try and instill behavioural change in your team, but if your team does not adopt to 100%, you know, at the end of the day, I cannot there's there's not everything I can be responsible for buying a Basically, I was happy shower and Rudy called me. So Rudy said that this was through church networking through a church group. And I was happy to hear that because it was one of the things I was telling the sales team while I was there, because the way Julian and George, Julian CEO and George the CEO had set things up was this was an inbound organization.

Now, for those of you who have been listening for a long time, you remember that I say that two kinds of organizations when it comes to drumming up sales. You have inbound organizations and outbound organizations. Inbound organizations are people who do stuff to make customers to begin to chase you. So you're there in the office, in your AC, you just chill and then people are chasing you. You all need to pick up the phone and say this is a good customer, let's go ahead and this is a bad customer.

Let's let's reject. Then there are outbound organizations. So outbound is the sort of thing that I like to do, which is I see somebody like, OK, this person will be a good client. I will carry my own 2 left legs and walk to the person's office and try and get business, drive to the person's office, try and get somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody to give me their phone number. Let me call and let me see how I

can draw more business. That is our bound. So our bound means now you they pursue, but then inbound means now customers, they pursue you. So that's the difference. Inbound, outbound. So when Crimson started, Julian was an outbound kind of guy. He will stand up and go to chief doctor So, so so and so's house and try and sell solar panels. That's how they started. But he was now trying to migrate the company into an inbound organization so that they run Instagram ads, run Google ads,

things like that. And then people will call them. I end up doing business with them. So that's part of the thing that they were transitioning to. So I was telling the sales team that, look, you guys don't know how lucky you are, but in other places in Nigeria, sales is purely outbound. You guys are here, you're sitting in the office and then leads are coming in. You just pull up the sheet and you just start calling people.

Now other sales people have to go out and work like hard work, you know, go to an estate in solar panels. You're not be going one house, one house, one house, you know, that kind of thing. Or you'll be responsible for drumming up your own leads. So I should try and tell them that, look, you guys are lucky. The way that Julian and George have set up, these people are lucky. You're sitting down here. All you have to do is pick up the phone.

Now, look, if it was me, it'll be very easy. It's just to call all day. I'll just call from 9:00 until 5:00. I'll take lunch break from 2:00 to 3:00. But this would have been the sweetest job ever. So I told them that you guys, you guys have, you will have to supplement like what's going on. You can't just rely on the fact that these people are paying. For Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, and then people are not trying to don't generate something on your own.

So I used to tell them all of you on LinkedIn optimizes your profile. Let people see what it is that you do. People supposed to know like, OK, Kunle works here, you know, Kunle works here or or Chukudi works in this place. So that OK, if I need so, so so I can call him, I can call that people should see from your Facebook, from your LinkedIn, from your from your social media, from your everything that solar. That is what you do so that anytime somebody thinks solar,

they will think of you that how it's supposed to be. So I said tell them, you know, optimize your LinkedIn profile, establish some thought leadership, Let anybody, your uncle, your mother, your sister, your enemies, your friends, anytime they think solar, let them think of you. Also, in one moment, one of the workers is here. Let me just open the door and then we'll continue. OK, Sorry about that. I'm back. It was the electrician so I just let him in so he can continue with his own.

With his own stuff. Yeah. But the hammers and all that, the noise was too much. So I just stepped outside to continue. OK, I think where was I? So I was saying that Rudy told me that this whole thing is because of networking in a church group. And where was I? So I was not talking about how I used to advise them that if you're an inbound organization, you can't just chill and let the leads come to you all the time. So yes, you're an organization.

Your guy or your Madam is paying for leads. They're running Facebook ads, they're running Instagram ads. You can't just chill comfortably and that stuff becoming to you Yousef. You have to be doing some things proactively on your own because is from when you start doing stuff from your own, that salary can increase, Commission can increase or promotion can come. So if you're one of these folks who works in an organization that is an inbound organization,

your guy is paying for Instagram leads, your Madam is paying for Instagram leads. Every two or three months they pay for Lagos International Trade Fair. You people go there, you sit down, Madam paid for the booth. You also have to be doing your own thing. So my own advice to them at the time was people need to know that you're in the solar industry. People need to know what's up. They need to know who you are, they need to know what you do.

So part of me advising them was like, look, at the very least, you guys should optimize your LinkedIn profile. So I told them, I understand sometimes face Facebook, Instagram, you might say, oh, is private, is private, is private. OK, no problem. I'm not saying you should use your own private Facebook page or Instagram handle to promote somebody else's business. But for LinkedIn, excuse me, LinkedIn is a professional something, is a career something is a business something.

So whatever it is that you're trucking your hand inside, that brings money. People need to know. So if you sell cars, you don't want to put cars on your Instagram handle, I understand. But on your LinkedIn, it's supposed to be there. You know, auto dealer, car importer, whatever it is, yeah, it should be there. And then you should also do a good job of, excuse me, talking to people in your network, talking to people in church,

talking to people in school, in case you're one of those people who's running part time degree course or something. People need to know what's up. People need to know what you do because people cannot buy from you until they at least know you and know what you do. And that's one mistake that lots of people are doing. You've surprised a number of people who reach out to me and say, oh, business is not moving. Something, something.

I asked them a couple of questions. And then you find out that in five months the person, all the person has done is they told their mom, told their pops, told their relatives, and then maybe spoke to one other person in church, spoke to deaconess in church. I like really. And you think business is going to take off like that? In the last five months, you've only spoken to 10 people. How will your business take off? How will people know who you are?

How will people know that? OK, if I'm thinking about eyelashes, let me come and patronize you. So eyelashes and beauty cream or whatever is your thing. Everybody needs to know that you're the eyelash girl or the eyelash guy because there's some guys that, excuse me, there's some guys that are in this business. In fact, before I left, one of the biggest guys in Abuja and Lagos in the eyelash thing, eyelash makeup and all that was actually a guy.

People need to know that you see from a WhatsApp status, that you see from your LinkedIn, that you see from your Instagram, that you see from your Facebook. Everybody should know that when it comes to eyelash, a kundayo, that's the person you're supposed to call. That's how you're supposed to be. So for those of you who are neither here nor there, I hope you guys are beginning to see how this thing works in real life until you begin to start letting people know in your circle, this is me, this is who I am, this is what I do.

So if you're looking for eyelashes, call me. If you're looking for solar, call me. If you're looking for cement, call me. Until people know you, associate you with your trade, with your craft, with your specialty, with your something, things are not when they take off for you. Somebody has to know who you are first before we can even talk about people liking you or even buying from you. You know, people say that people do business with those that they like and then they trust before like and trust.

People have to know you. So please, those of you who are shy, shyness is keeping you in poverty. You guys need to wake up. So for me, it's podcast and it's LinkedIn. You need to wake up and find your thing. No matter what your thing is, you have to start putting the word out there because exceptive God has decided that you know He will bless you regardless of your laziness or whatever. No business is going to come and meet you in your house or in your office.

Anyway. Let me not get on the rant on that one. So he said that it's a church group networking like they like Pleo, you go to church, you only serve God. But of course, you also talk to people. You know, after service and after something, you get talking. Yes, the focus is God, but then you also get talking. And that is how the connections were being made because Rudy eventually had a conversation with somebody who is a member of the board of the other company that Crimson eventually ended up winning this bid for.

Just like that chance encounter. You go and say, let me worship God. You say your prayers, everything. Service is now over. You stand up, you're talking to people, and then, lo and behold, this person is a potential client. Now, it doesn't happen every day, but The thing is, the more you do these things, it increases the odds of these things happening. If you just go to church and then you say your prayers and then you leave, you're not even talking to people.

Hello. What's up? How you did. Welcome to the church. How long have you been here? What department are you in? Blah, blah, blah. Or by the way, what do you do for a living? You don't mean it. This is what I do for a living. Are you serious? Of course. Now, OK. In fact, Monday I'll be around your side. Let me just branch in the office. Maybe there's a way that we can hook up and do something in the future. I said sure, no problem, call to my office on Monday.

That's how these things happen. If you just start off my name, you leave church. You don't greet the person to your left, you don't greet the person to your right, you don't say welcome to the wordy of God. You know, by the way, this applies to Muslims too. Anyway, I shouldn't be trying to school Muslims on this because I hear that national mosque in Abuja that that's the main reason why people go there. And people go there because they know that that's where you will see DG, that's where you will see Palm SEC, that's where you will see Major General, that's where you will see.

So I guess there's no need for me to be educating Muslims or not. I guess maybe you Muslims, you know how to do this thing already. So Christians pay attention. So primarily, yes, we're going to go and worship God. Yeah. But once in a while, you look to your left, you look to your right, you say neighbor, you greet the person. And so having some conversations. So that's how it happened. Like joke, like joke, one of the person is having a conversation with happens to be a member of the board who ends up becoming the client company.

That person who is the member of the board is a mutual friend with somebody that Rudy is also a friend with one of the organizers of the group. It was that simple. And when I keep saying on the podcast that you have to do things that put the odds in your favor, this is what I mean. Those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you remember when I spoke about my secondary school, I went to CKC Guava Ladder in Abuja.

I'm a grad boy. So there was one time that we played, I think was, was the FGC quali, I can't remember anyway, but those boys were ruthless. I mean they were older than us, they were stronger, they were well, let me not make excuses, do a better team. Now. At some point, I think it became like a joke that every time their captain shouted advantage, whoever was with the ball would just fire, Bam, just take shot on goal.

Now of course it's not all the things that we enter, but they ended up beating us like 70 or like 80 every time captain shouted advantage. Whoever you are, whoever you are, shot on goal. What? It's not everything that we enter, but because they were taking lots of shots on goal, they ended up beating US70 or 80. That's what I mean when I say put the odds in your favor. If you never take shot on goal, nothing will enter.

But at least if you try shot on goal, there's there's hope. If you try fifty shot on goal, only three enter is better than nothing. They're not even trying shot on goal at all 'cause it's only when you take the shot that the chance is there. And when I went to Scotland, there's also a joke that I heard in Scotland that knows it, 'cause people in Scotland, man, they gamble. I mean, you think Nigerians have a problem when it comes to gambling In the UK and in Scotland, people gamble steady as in Monday morning, you've collected your weekly weight.

Next thing you go to the to the corner store and then you now remove 1 LB or however many pounds and then start buying the weekly something so that you can scratch it. I'm like, like these people are like, man, they have issues like money is hard to come by, but then steady every single Monday or every single Sunday, they're buying this thing, they're scratching it so that they can gamble. So they have a gambling thing going on in the UK.

It looks like Nigeria is heading in that direction too with sport better and all these things. So there's a joke there about somebody who used to pray that, oh, if I could win $1,000,000, so I know $1,000,000 a £1,000,000, or if I could win the the lottery, if I could win the lottery. And so one day God had to come down and tell the person, I look, you want to win the laundry, buy the ticket. I can't help you because you're never buying ticket.

So when I'm talking about putting the odds in the favor, I'm saying buy the ticket, do something. It's not guaranteed though, because I know some of you were saying it's not guaranteed. Now, what are the odds that I talked to somebody and that person has to be connected to this person and connected to that person? Yes, it's not guaranteed, but we are trying to increase the odds in our favor. It's about taking shots on goal.

If you don't take shot on goal, nothing will enter. At least we know that for sure. So that's it. Now was not a smooth deal because they had some early challenges. The client company was concerned about whether they had they could meet the manpower requirement because of this kind of thing. You want people to have a certain number of engineers or I don't know, I'm assuming OK, engineer staff strength should be it. Then maybe trading history.

You want to see that they have worked on the same kinds of projects before, you know, things like that. So there are some of those credibility challenges that they had to, excuse me, that they had to, that they had to work through. Then they also had to distinguish themselves through the whole process because there were also multiple competitors that were there. And so for those of you who are trying to play in the corporate space, these are the sorts of challenges that we face.

So don't assume that. I mean the profit margin is is sweet, but don't assume as a walk in the park because somebody would say, come on, do RFPRFP is a request for proposal or what again request for proposal, request for. I can't remember. But whatever it is that is called that companies that have different processes and they're multiple competitors. Do we even tell you? In fact, when Mumsy was still a communications professional back in Lagos, the client will even schedule you people on the same day.

So there are times when Mumsy's agency, cause the last agency Mumsy work with was quadrant. So sometimes that quadrant is sitting down there, you see the person in your competition, competition A that's sitting there, competition B that's sitting there. All of you are there, the client is in the office and you say next you enter and make your presentation. So it can be brutal, can be ruthless when you don't worry, there's no problem that doesn't have solution.

So distinguishing yourself becomes a problem Now by the time you're stepping up into this corporate game because there are multiple competitors, whether you. Like it or you don't like it, they are there. Whether you see them or you don't see them, that there. So they had to deal with that. So you have to distinguish yourself in the RFP process. You have to distinguish yourself through your presentation. You know, stuff like that.

But while I was with Crimson, I told Rudy and his colleagues I look true. Distinguishing now is not when it comes to features and benefits. Lots of you think features and benefits is what we set you apart. It's not because to be honest, everybody has the same features and benefits. Everybody you go and sit down there in the meeting, you want to say that our inverters are the best, that our inverters are triple rated something,

something, something 560 cycles, whatever, whatever made in China. Some that is, no one would distinguish you. You think the other person doesn't have a triple rated something made in China. Just you know, everybody has the same equipment. Now, especially when you start 1, you want to start playing in the big leagues. Everybody has the same thing. So when I was a wedding photographer, when people would try and be forming like, oh, my camera is a this dot dot dot dot dot.

You're trying to use your camera to distinguish yourself. Continue. Everybody's using the same camera. Everybody, everybody has the same gear. Everybody has the, the same features. Everybody has the same, the same features and benefits. That's not how you distinguish yourself at all. So what I was telling Rudy and his and his colleagues was that you have to become the distinguishing factor. You, the human being that they're talking to now, you should be the difference.

So you need to have a sales process. You need to know how to do needs analysis so that when the person is sitting down and they're talking to you, they'll say, Kyle, this Young Money shop, he understands what it is that we're trying to do. I trust this guy. That's how it works. It's not from features and benefits because let's face it, this is a highly technical something. Kilowatt is kilowatt at the end of the day. Photo vague is photo vague at the end of the day solar panel.

OK, well then let me not show my ignorance. But those of you who are technical, you understand what I'm trying to say. The technical thing at the end of the day, everybody has it. Once you step into the big boy level or the big girl level, sorry. So the distinguished factor is you sitting across the table. They should be able to see that every single time Chingerie comes here, the way she opens her mouth and the way she talks,

we can see that Chingerie is the professional. She knows this thing left, right, back, front, center, that look, when it comes to solar, if he hears chinnery, you should hear solar. That should be the distinguishing factor. Have a sales process, be able to do needs analysis. You do needs analysis. Well, people on the other end, they feel like, oh, you're listening to them and you understand. Once they feel like you're listening and you understand,

confidence begins to grow. And then they'll feel like I'm in safe hands because at the end of the day, I read to you the the, the the specs, 360 solar panels, 3 phases on interrupted power, 150 kilowatts. Kilowatts is kilowatt. You can do your configuration. I say this will guarantee you 150 kilowatts. The other person can do their own configuration. I say this will guarantee you 150 kilowatts. At the end of the day, was the difference the people who are on the tenders board, If the ordinary people like me, you think we can tell the difference?

All we know is that kilowatts and a kilowatt, there has to be something else. What UK people like to call The X Factor. There has to be that X Factor. And this is how you come about getting The X Factor. So please stop thinking that your features and benefits are the difference because everybody has it. In the beginning, you might be the only person I'll have it, but eventually everybody catches up. So in the beginning, car safety,

it used to be Volvo. Volvo was #1 when it comes to car safety, because they were the only one who had seatbelts and they're the only ones who had what do you call this thing? You know when you match, when you know if you collide with somebody, the airbags, automatic airbag deployment. Is Volvo the parent and all these things now? So in the beginning, yes, you can say, yes, I'm the only person who has this. And people will rush to you, but eventually everybody will have it.

So now that everybody has a anti brake locking suspension, everybody has seat belt and everybody has airbag. And so what's the distinguishing factor now anyway? So of course with all these things now, credibility, trying to distinguish yourself, follow, follow up game has to be tight. And that's something I was trying to let the people know as well. Your follow up game gets me on point. You can have a conversation with somebody in January and by the time the meeting is ending, you don't have a plan for what you're going to do in two weeks or three weeks or four weeks.

You can't just finish a meeting. And so that was a good meeting and then now wait to be hand on the other person. No, no, it doesn't work like that. Have a plan. How is it supposed to go, OK, first meeting, we do need analysis. By the time I come off from that meeting, what should be the next, the more the the next reasonable step that we should be aiming after. And you should be able to be on your toes, you know, have your diary, keep your CRM.

You know, you need to be able to move conversations along. You can't lose track of these things because if you lose track of these things, somebody else was slotting. And then that's how people start forgetting you if you're on point, because remember I told you now there are multiple competitors. There were multiple competitors in this thing. If you sleep, you think the other people are going to sleep. This is big money that we're talking about here.

If you sleep on it and your follow up game is weak, don't forget you think about it on your phone. You're listening to this podcast right now. How many numbers do you have on the phone? You probably have like 2003 thousand phone numbers. So sometimes you actually mean to call so, so, so and so, but you cannot remember how you stored the person's phone number. You can't remember. So somebody else comes up and like, well, and it was the big deal.

And then you go with the other person anyway, So follow up game was on point. You guys, I need to make sure our follow up game is on point. The mental game also had to be on point before he said he even relied on prayer. It's something that I recommend because it's not easy, especially those of us who are self-employed. Eat what you kill. You know, sometimes the bank account is full and you're happy. Sometimes the bank account is very skinny.

Like me right now that I'm moving house, bank account is kidding right now. So, you know, in times like that, we all remember God. We say, Father, forgive me for my sins. I beg bless your boy anyway. So yeah, prayer game on .2. It's not opium and it's not trying to be. What's the word? What's the word? It's not believing in magic. It's just acknowledging your own role in the grand scheme of things. You know, I'm just one man.

No. So yeah, I want to become a trillionaire, but it doesn't mean everything I took my hand in is going to work. So, you know, you do your best, and then you say God bless the work on my hands. And that's how you'd be doing it. You know, Monday, you do your thing, God bless the work on my hands. Next week, you do your thing. You know, like that. Small, small, small, small. Eventually we get to the promised land. So Rudy was able to, excuse me,

midwife the whole thing. Eventually George and Julian, the chief operating officer and the CEO were able to step in later on when there was a meeting with the board of directors and when they needed to discuss payment terms and then stuff like that. But pretty much this is something that Rudy handled from beginning to end. I wanted to be sure. So I contacted the Olga because, you know, I have his Olga because I have their phone numbers.

So I got in touch with George, I got in touch with Julian. I said this is what Julian told me. So yeah, actually it's it's correct. From beginning to end, it was him. This is where we came in. He actually did a very, very solid job. So I'm happy that Rudy called in and I'm happy that there's progress. And my prayer for Rudy and all the people that I work with in 2025 is that it's going to be sorry in 2024 is that it's going to be progress all year round.

And that the investments that people are making in themselves and in their businesses, because, you know, it's not small money saying that you're paying for a consultant. To come and walk with you, you know, one month, two months, you know, three months, four months, five months, you know, so it's my prayer that we're all going to see increase all going to see results from all the investments that are making in ourselves and in our business.

But one thing that I want to. Throw out there, especially for those of you who are employees, is listen. I had no doubt that Rudy was going to do big things. Remember, I was with Crimson in 2024, so I did not know if Rudy would do something big in 2024 or 2025 or 2026 or 2027. I didn't even know if I was going to do big things with Crimson because sometimes you work for one person and eventually work for someone else.

But I knew that Ruby was going to do big things and this is how, because Rudy is a straight up Boy Scout. This is what I mean by Boy Scout. There's some people that when you tell them something, they'll say this won't work, this won't work. My business is different. My own is different. No, I don't like that. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Too many excuses. There's some people, on the other hand, who say, oh, I'm confused, how can we make this work?

That's the kind of personal Rudy is. OK, how can we make this work? And if you tell him, OK, let's just try it like this. Let's just try and see how far you'll go ahead and you'll try it. I'm not saying that you should be an idiot and switch off your critical brain. I'm just trying to say that if look, think about it, if your guy is saying something, your coworkers are saying something goes all that and say something.

And then as far as you're concerned, everybody is wrong. I mean, think about it at some, at some point you're being you're, you're being stupid, you're being obtuse. Everybody can be the one with the problem. So at least once in a while you. Should be able. To willing to reckon oh OK, this person may have a point this person may have a point what do I have to lose? Let me just try. And so that's I knew that he was going to do big things because he's a Boy Scout.

Eventually he will say, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, let's see if we can make it work like this. And then he will try it. And anyway, I'm not going too much but but online, sure as I knew that he was was going to do big things. So please, you guys should stop this whole thing off. This won't work. This won't work is different is different is different is different is different. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Somebody will tell you 10 things to do.

You already have reasons why the ten of them will not work. Just try something. If your guy says, look, I have more selling experience, do it this way. Try it. If the consultant they have brought brought it in and saying that, look, OK, let's try this, let's try this and why have you got to lose? Just try it. At least if you try it and it doesn't work, you can come back and say, auger consultant Shabe I told you would not work.

Can you see I was right? At least we'll give you bragging rights if nothing else. But The thing is, if you go and try it and it works, who has the glory isn't isn't all you. I'm not going to share my commissions with you when you try the thing and then the money comes in anyway. So please have a Boy Scout mindset or a Girls Guide mindset. Always try and see how can I make this work? How can I make this work? And I've been talking for 45

minutes. Let me just bring this thing over to a close. Basically, I have immense gratitude in my heart for Rudy Engineer, Rudy Julian of Crimson Power, and George the CEO. Of Crimson power. Not just for three of them, but for the clients who are willing to have faith in my methods and who are willing to put in work over weeks and months that we worked together For Crimson Power in particular, because we're trying to revamp the source process.

We're trying to work on CRM implementation. We're trying to work on mindset and team handoff and things of that nature. So I have immense gratitude to everyone, not just Rudy and Julian and George. People who had. Faith in me and engaged me in 2024. I'm really grateful to you guys. I'm grateful to my clients of 2024 and I'm looking forward to the big things that are going to happen in 2025 and beyond. Now, even after you stop working with me, I tell this to everyone and I'm saying it here, Josh,

remember that when it comes to sales, it is behavior change first, then the naira and cobalt comes later. There's nothing you do when it comes to sales and business development that will bring immediate profit. Now, you cannot call sales consultants January 1st and then January 15th. You will love millionaires. It doesn't work that way. There are some cases when it happens because I remember the first time Rudolph and I had a conversation, it was really impressive.

He had a troublesome client. He told me this problem is a problem. I told him to just do it like this dude, I just do it like this. He went and did it and ended up closing the deal for because he thought money was the problem. And I told him, look, money is not the problem. Go back, do it like this, do it like this. Ended up closing at a higher point. So there's sometimes when those immediate ones happen because I had only been working with them I think 2 weeks when this happened.

So the first week was so excuse me, the first week was classes. Then the second week was now trying to figure out a couple of things on the client. And, and you know, he told me, OK, or he might not lose his money and I could just tell her, look, this thing is no money running this way. So what was I trying to say? This is what I'm just trying to say is that when it comes to sales, just remember behavior change first.

You change your behavior 1st and you continue doing the thing every single day. Then over time, that is when the results happen. So grateful for those of you who did business with me in 2024, and I'm grateful in advance for those of you who do business with me in 2025. Remember that behaviour change is the main thing that we're aiming for. That is what we're going to lead to the results. But I guess the summary of the take away of what I'm trying to say is that I am not the Messiah.

I'm not going to come in and touch your business and you will go from 1.5 to, you know, 7.5 million every single month. I'm not the Messiah. Especially if you're not going to apply what it is that we talk about. If you're not going to try and achieve some behavior change, if you don't apply and there's no behavior change, there will be no results. That is why I keep saying over here, for those of you who are looking for free resources, it is not a problem.

Just make sure that whether it's my podcast or another person's YouTube channel or something, always listen with a pen and paper. Write something down so that tomorrow morning, 9:00 AM or whatever, you can start executing. So like I said, this is a game of probability. Try 1 moment. Somebody's should be right next to me. Let me wind up the window before I start choking on this. Oh well, some people are just. Rude. You see me here on the phone,

you can't even say I brought. I beg. I won't sweep now. Just that, anyway. Where was I? So that's why I always say listen with a pen and paper, note something down that you can do tomorrow morning to move your business forward because it's all about it's just a game of probability. So you have to listen, you have to execute, you have to change your behavior to increase the odds in your favor. So keep on swinging, keep on taking shots on goal.

Eventually we score one or two goals with proper technique and with practice. It doesn't mean that every single thing will work. Because if you noticed, I stopped working with them towards the end of the year and you know, there was nothing. And then December, this big one came work. But he hasn't called me to say that there's a big one in general. So it happens big one in December, January and February might be quiet.

Maybe another big one comes April, July, and then maybe two or three, 1 ^2. But you know, not sorry. They have small, small, small, small, small. And the better you get at having sales conversations and figuring out the kind of people to approach and I should approach them, it is then that your results keep getting better and better and better and better. So behavior change, that's the main thing. Listen, pen and paper, write things down.

Don't assume you know everything if your gas is something you know. Listen. Your guy might be an idiot on maybe 5 things, but on the remaining four or five things, I suppose I need you to listen and then try. You know? Don't be. Don't be too smart for yourself. And I'm talking to some people in particular. One person in particular. Anyway, I don't got his name, but every single time you're the one who has all the answers.

Your guy is wrong, your coworkers are wrong, the consultant is wrong. Everybody is wrong. I mean, think about it. Think about it. You really think like you're the know. You're the one that knows it all. Everybody else is stupid. Perhaps the reason why you're in the situation where you are actually is you. And then let me overflow it. And thank you very much for your time and attention. And thank you very much for people who had faith in me in 2024.

Looking forward to doing more business with you guys in 2025. If you'd love to connect for a business audit strategy session or you have some questions, the number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. That's my WhatsApp number as well. And connect with me on LinkedIn, the name to look for establishing my aid. I also have a bunch of stuff on YouTube. We have close to 1050 episodes up there right now. So plenty of free resources.

Remember, listen with the pencil, write down something on your pencil and paper that tomorrow morning, 8 AM, 9:00 AM, you can begin to apply to move your business forward. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.