Stop Guessing, Start Selling: Data-Driven Strategies for Sales Growth

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, I'd like to apologize because today is a late night recording and that's because I had an event earlier in the day. I was talking about simplifying, simplifying business thinking or something like that. It wasn't a lecture per SE, but it was more of a business type symposium where I was there with a lawyer, with a fashion entrepreneur, with web, three artists, someone with AIT.

So I know AITAI specialty, let's see who else, OK And then somebody in mental health. So it was much more of a business roundtable. And of course I was talking about the things that I talk about best, which is how we ought to have a process driven, framework driven method for improving our sales and building our businesses. So that's what I spent a lot of the time doing earlier today. So maybe after I reflect on the session, especially on the perspectives from the other speakers, I might make a podcast episode to share some of the good stuff that we discussed then.

So if I sound a little slow or hazy, that's because it's late at night and I figured let's just knockout an episode because we're always behind because it's no secret that even though we have over 830 episodes published so far on the podcast, I still have roughly another 800 or so topics or questions that I have not addressed. So let's just keep the show moving. Now, today, I'd like us to look at data-driven sales decisions.

And that is just all about the kind of metrics that we keep, how we track information, how we track data, how we collect data. And the whole point of doing all of this kind of activity is just so that we can optimise our sales strategy. So First off, we have to answer the question whether data is important in improving our sales because some of you are going to say you know, you boys have come again, any small thing. Data, data, data, data, I beg what is data of?

Is it even important? And the answer is yes. But the problem is that most people, especially those of us born, you know, close to the 80s around that time, we just assume that anytime you hear data, we're only talking about things that you can quantify and things that you can put into numbers because we are that generation. You know, those of us who grew up during SAP, you know, structural adjustment program during the Babangida era and stuff like that.

You know, pundits will say economic data says this, economic data says that people should do this, people should do that. So for my generation, that's just how we grew up. Anytime you hear data, you hear numbers and the thing has carried on till today. You know, Gen. Z people like my kids, every time anybody hears data. OK, well, let me not generalize. Let me say in Nigeria where most people hear data, they think numbers and they think things that you can quantify numbers,

ratios, those sorts of things. But in the real sense of the word or in the older sense of the word, data just means information, whether that information is quantifiable or not. Now the kinds of data that we need to build our business are two things. We need quantifiable data and then we also need qualitative data. Now let me get into the difference. Quantifiable data is the data or the information that we get from quantitative research.

That is where we're asking people questions and we're trying to figure out numbers. So we're asking people, we're getting involved in conversations or we're doing some research and we're trying to find out numbers or we're trying to track our activities because we're looking for some kind of metrics. So when you keep a logbook and every time you make a phone call, you scratch in the logbook, you make a tick in the logbook and then at the end of the day you see that you had 35

ticks. So you know that OK, you made 35 phone calls today. That is you doing quantitative research because you are looking for numbers. And when you talk to your customers and you're trying to get a sense of how many times they've done business with you, how much they pay, things like that, that is you looking for. So excuse me, you looking for numbers, So that is you doing quantitative research. So that is one kind of data that we need quantifiable data, data we can put into numbers that we can calculate, we can divide, we can multiply, we can put in a spreadsheet.

So that's one kind of data. Now, the second class of data that I spoke about is qualitative data, and that is data that we get from qualitative research. And this is the difference. Qualitative research or qualitative data is when we're talking to people, we're having conversations, we're trying to track stuff. But we're not looking for numbers per SE, but we're looking for insights. We're looking for judgement, we're looking for wisdom, we're looking for perspectives.

We're looking for, you know, whatever it is from talking to people or from carrying out our business activities. So when you finish your phone conversation with someone and you get like a bad vibe, you know, in your belly, you feel like this call didn't go well or something. That is qualitative data. You should think about that. Why do I think this call didn't go well? Why do I think I should have spent more time with another person?

You can see that when you're asking yourself these sorts of questions, you're getting insights that you cannot readily reduce down to numbers or ratios or figures that you can put it on the spreadsheet. So both kinds of data or information are important. We should be paying attention to the quantifiable data, all the numbers that we're tracking when we're talking to people. And we should also be paying attention to qualitative data that is information, insights,

judgment, wisdom, perspectives, or whatever from from talking to people. So my dear brothers and sisters, don't just think numbers every time you think data. When you hear data, think of numbers. Yes, but data or information is also about insights. It's also about judgement. And all of them are necessary for improving business. So if you have numbers only, no problem, you can work with that. But we need insights. If you have insights only and you don't have numbers, no problem.

We can start with the insights and we can start tracking numbers. So now the next question that we have to look at is how do you get data? Of course, if you're listening to the show, it's no surprise you know that. My answer is if you want data, go out and talk to people, talk to customers, talk to stakeholders, your business partners, investors, people who didn't end up doing business with you. Talk to anyone reasonable that you think you should talk to in the beginning.

It's a good approach to take because when you start talking wide, you now get a sense of, OK, me spending time with these people. It didn't make sense. I didn't get anything out of it. So let me flashy these people so you can never go wrong with starting abroad and then narrow in narrowing it down. People always talk about getting qualitative, sorry, what's it called? Good quality data. Yeah, we should be aiming for good quality data.

But The thing is in the beginning we don't know what is going to be good quality data. So you're better off starting wide and then you narrow down when you start wide, you now know that OK, this person was talking off point. There's no need in me conversing with these sorts of people in the future when I want information one-on-one data. So talk to people widely, customers, stakeholders, investors, business partners, you know, blah blah blah.

Then also when you're reviewing your business activities, how many phone calls did I make? Who did I visit? Which meetings did I think were good? Which meeting did I think were bad? You should pay attention to these sorts of things because you're looking for cues, also looking for clues, you're looking for patterns. And so these are ways that we can get data. Now why should we be chasing down data, which goes back to the first question, when somebody will say you boys have come again and it's more thing data, data.

Now why we should be chasing data is because it helps us to make lots of decisions that are key to our sales strategy. Now, some of these decisions or some of these questions, we're going to be able to define #1, we're going to be able to refine our ICPICP is our ideal customer profile. Those are the people that we enjoy working with the most, the people who pay us the most, the people where we're best spending our time chasing after so we can do business with them.

So when we ask ourselves all these questions, qualitative questions, quantitative questions, we're able to figure out who are the most profitable people that we should be spending our time chasing. Because if you wake up on Monday, you're chasing everybody up and down. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it's just a waste of time. But if you start off the business, maybe in January, you are chasing everybody. But then in February, you sit down, you look at your data, you now start thinking, you now get a sense of, oh, OK, when I'm in this part of Abuja, I'm talking to people from who work in this kind of sectors.

These people buy quickly. These people pay the most. You now know that, OK, for the month of March, instead of me going to this other part of town and talking to this other kind of people, I should only spend time with these kinds of people. Because the data has shown qualitative and quantitative, that when I speak to these kinds of people in this kind of location who work in this kind of space, these are the people who pay me the most.

So we need the data because it will help us figure out who should we be chasing down. It'll also help us to improve our sales and marketing efforts and also our business processes. Then it's also going to help us to create personalized and relevant offers or promos, communications, things like that. Because once we start asking all all these questions and we narrow down our ICP, we know exactly what it is that people want.

We know what it is that works, what it is that doesn't work, you know, things like that. So these are the sorts of benefits that we get when we start chasing down data and that is why we should take this kind of thing seriously. Now, what kind of data should we track? Because we've spoken about how we should be running after trying to get qualitative data and quantitative data. In other words, we're trying to look for insights, judgments or trying to look for numbers.

So what are the kind of data that we can track? You should be trying to figure out where our leads are coming from. Now remember, a lead is anybody who has raised their hand, who has given you a signal, who has given you a sign that they might be interested in your product or service. We need to try and figure out where that is coming from. If most of your leads are coming from one part of town, one part of Lagos for instance, for those of you who are based in lag and it only makes sense for you to spend more time in that part of town.

Now let's go back to the online thing. If you realize that most of your leads are coming from Instagram, then why are you going to waste time on LinkedIn? If most of your leads are coming from LinkedIn, sorry from Instagram, then abandoned LinkedIn and start spending more of your time on Instagram. Then again, it's also the other way around that there are people who insist that they must build a robust Instagram page.

What does it profit you? Excuse me? What does it profit you to build a solid Instagram page and have hundreds of thousands of followers just so you can feel like an influencer? If all your leads are coming from LinkedIn, So don't waste time on Instagram before your leads are coming from LinkedIn. And then if you're spending all this time online, but then you find out that most of your leads are coming from, let's say,

local churches in your area, why are you wasting time online? Start spending time in churches and track down your customers. So those are the kind of data we need to track where are the leads coming from? Then we also try to figure out the quality of the leads coming from each source. Because you might find out that when you talk to people on LinkedIn, that these kind of people, that kind of people, they don't seem to be serious.

But when you talk to people after the church parish meeting or something, those people are ready to buy now. So if you're talking to, if you're getting, let's say, 100 leads from LinkedIn, but for the people that you talk to on LinkedIn, they don't seem to be serious. You only get two business deals, but every time you go to a local parish, every time you go to a business Expo and you talk to 10 people, eight people buy.

You can see that even though you're getting more leads in terms of number from LinkedIn, the quality seems to be better when you go to church or when you go to the business and fair. So you can see how these things are now determining the kind of strategy that we're going to do. So I was trying to figure out the kind of data where we also need the quality of leads. Then we also try to figure out how many people become paying customers.

That's really important. You also have to try and figure out how long does it take to close the deal. Because if you talk to people in a business fair or in church, maybe you see that you closed the deal in 5 minutes. But if you're chatting with people on LinkedIn or Instagram or WhatsApp, it takes you 3 weeks to close the deal. It's also gives a good sense about where you should spend your time. Should you be spending your time in places where you talk to people?

Sharp. Sharp. 5 minutes? Thirty minutes? You've got a customer or spending time on this online thing where you're chatting with people back and forth and you're taking three weeks, you know, so there's no right or wrong answer, but there's it's not like you have right or wrong, it's like it's it's about the what is most appropriate and what is least appropriate. So these are the data that we're looking for and these are the calculations that we're trying to make.

Then you also try to figure out on average, how much do people buy from us When we talk to people from this place or from that place, how many do they buy? Do they buy one item or do they buy five? And then how much do they pay? Because you can notice that you talk to certain kinds of people and they'll be pricing groundnuts with you. But then you talk to some other people and they only say the only concern is, oh, what's your bank account details?

Let me transfer. How quick can you deliver? So you have to ask yourself those sorts of questions to then you also need to figure out how long on average people remain customers because people are buying from you. Once they leave and they never come back. It could be a sign that there's a problem, but then the people buy now, come back in two months, come back in six months and then they start referring people. So excuse me, it could be a sign that there's lots of stuff that is going on, right, that you need to continue doing.

So these are the kind of data that we should be looking for. When we're going out and we're talking to people, where are our leads coming from? What is the quality of the people we're talking to? How many people become paying customers? How long does it take for you to close the deal? And when I say closing deal here, I mean when they send you money for a deposit, how much on average do they buy from us? How much are they paying?

How long do they remain our customers? So this kind of data is going to give us a very good picture of who our best customers are. When you figure this out, don't waste time. When you know these are the best people you've been doing business with, spend all your time chasing them. It's a very straightforward something. So if you want to do business, let's say you sell shoes. And ideally you want to do business with people who are bank executives because you think they have money, you think they're big girls, you think they'll buy more.

But if by the time you start in January, February, you sit down, you start looking at your figures and you talk to your customers and you figure out that, yes, bank executives, you know, the girls who work in Access Bank and send it back, they buy shoes. But you can see that most of your promise, yeah, your profits are coming from people who are primary school teachers or maybe people who work in ministries and things like that.

So they don't buy fancy shoes, but for the normal shoes, they buy plenty, they buy 456. So you're making profit versus the bank staff who buys one shoe and you make a profit of 10K per shoe. If you look at it and it looks like your best customers are primary school teachers and ministry workers, then please, let's be real here. You might continue chasing the Access Bank staff and Zenith Bank staff, but spend most of your time chasing down the teachers and the ministry workers because those are the ones who are your best customers for now.

That is what the data is showing. Things might change in the future then. Yeah. So we figure out who our best customers are, You figure out where they come from because that way you know where to go and chase them down. The data will also tell you whether you need to improve your sales presentation, because if you're talking too much story before you close, the deal might be a problem that, OK, maybe there's a problem with our sales presentation, then let's see what else.

OK, Also need to figure out who buys the most from us. And also we figure out the things that people buy the most because that will now tell us what it is that we should be promoting the most, because you might like certain kinds of shoes. Back to the shoe example, let's say you prefer the 4 inch heels, 4 inch black, 4 inch heels, black stiletto because you think it's much more sophisticated, much more elegant. But if you look at your numbers,

you look at your invoices, you look at your receipts, you look at your bank statements, you talk to people and you see that these primary school teachers and ministry workers, what they're buying is black one inch but not stiletto the the one that the sole is wide, like a square block. So if it is black one inch block heel that they're buying, and please spend most of your time selling the ones that are black one inch block sole, even if you think the stiletto is finer and much more sexy and much more elegant.

Unfortunately, most of the money is coming from the other shoes that you don't like. So by figuring out the things that people buy the most, don't want to know which of your market, which of your merchandise, you should be pushing some more. And like I said, the final one of how long people remain doing business with you, You need to figure that out because it's going to tell you whether you have a problem with customer service and with relationship building.

So we are 20 minutes. So let me bring this episode to a close. So that's all for today. Pretty much. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Aidi. I'm the host of the show and you can confirm the spelling of my name and the e-mail address from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys at the next episode.