Stop Hiding Behind Your Logo

Welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about the relationship between brand and sales. And the reason why, quite frankly, was because I've been having a chat with the listener of the podcast who's about to step into business for the very first time. So kudos to her. Oh, and if you're a person of faith and you're listening, you know, pray for her because she's stepping into a really, really interesting space.

She's moving straight into jewelry and last time we chatted, I think for her first trial run, I think she's going to need about, I think about like 4 MI, can't remember if it's 4M or 40M, you know, something like that. Sure. Not a bad piece of change that she's going to need to start her business. And then as we're chatting now, she said that dreaded thing that I hate to hear whatever I'm talking to Nigerian entrepreneurs.

She said that she is working on her brand. For those of you who've been listening to this podcast, it's something I've been saying it for years and years and years and years and years. Those of you who are brand professionals, I beg Novix. But deep down, I know what I'm saying is true because Nigerian professionals, sorry, Nigerian business people are obsessed with brand. We spend a lot of time doing brand, a lot of time designing brand, a lot of time thinking brand.

Because of that, we never start. That is the reason why I'll be talking to somebody November, December, they've decided on the business. Then when we check in January, we don't enter February because it's January ending and they say what they are designing a brand. If it's like that, when will you start? So of course, I told her the thing that I tell most people, which is you know what this brand thing put it on pause.

Right now you need 4M are busy 40 M go and start raising now 40 M so that it can begin. If that 40 M had you then see the small change that you can raise so that you can enter into the market. Put get your feet wet. Just begin to explore start like that first. Just be going in. First of all, validate and be sure that this is even the business you want to be involved in. So total capital outlay now is like 40 M. Of course, you know how you just raise 40 M like that as a first timer.

But then maybe from friends or family members, you know, popsy mumsy you're able to raise. I don't know, maybe I want him use that as hard trading or some small, small stones first. At least between now January ending and I don't know, March, April, you will know whether you know, this thing is for you. It's not for you. The thing is profitable. The profits are enough. Let me double down. Let me raise the rest of the money.

Don't waste your time. You know this brand, brand, brand, brand, brand. So today what I want us to do, please. And again, those of you who are brand professionals listening to this, I'm not saying your brand is not important, your brand is. But I think it's about time that lots of us get the prop, the right perspective on the relationship between brand and sales. What is the relationship between band and sales? So that's what we're going to look at today.

Apologies. Recording. I'm making this recording at home. The kids are home, you know, 'cause after school and all that. So there's going to be some noise in the background. Now, my name is Tava Shima, I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant and I love solving business problems. That's the reason why I have this podcast. I'm also a radio show host. Then if you would love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

Also subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. If this is your first time listening to the show. All right now. So what's the relationship between brand and sales? Since you already know why I'm talking about this thing today, now, very simple to understand that, let's back up quite a bit. What is the function of a business? That is a very important question that was has been posed by Peter Drucker and answered in one of his books.

Forgive me, I cannot remember the title of the book. I know that I read the book and I know that the first time I read the book, I didn't agree with the old man. But as I moved into business, small, small, small, I saw that OK, his old man was actually correct. No, Peter Rucker says that the function of a business is to create a customer. Sorry, not the function of a business, the purpose. Rather, the purpose of a business is to create a customer.

And you can create a customer by exercising 2 functions, which is marketing and then innovation. Sorry, let me step back a bit. The purpose of a business is to create a customer. Now some of you will say no, Peter Rucker is not correct. And I was one of those people because in my own mind, the purpose of a business is called hard cash. Make that money. If you had asked me back then reading that book, that is what I thought when I came across that paragraph.

I said no, Mr. Drucker, you are wrong. The purpose of a business is to create cold hard cash. And I know some people at the time who would have said, no, the purpose of a business is not to create cold, cold, hard cash. That the purpose of a business is personal development, That in building a business, you grow yourself, you develop yourself. So that's the purpose of a business. Then there are people who say that no, the purpose of a business is societal impact.

That I've been put on this earth to fulfill my mission and that my mission is to move generations and inspire this and change the environment and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So some people say that that is the purpose of a business. Either way, I found that Mister Drucker was wrong. But as I continue to grow in business, small, small, I started to reason it. I was like, OK, Mr. Drucker is actually correct, Sir, because all these other things that we want to do for those who also want money so we can flex for those of you who want to change the world, you know, where you need the resources, or for those of you who want to develop yourself and so you're looking forward to the challenge.

We cannot change the world or get the money or develop ourselves except if we have a customer. So for this, my friend, now my small friend wants to enter into the jewelry business. She can be loving jewelry from now to tomorrow, but until she gets until she creates a customer who will pay her money, she will not be able to flex. Until she creates a customer who pays her money, she won't go through the process of personal growth and development because chasing down customers, it's a it's a it'll make you grow.

Let me just put it like that way. Business will make you grow. You can't be mature for a while, but business, you want to do it right to business will make you grow. And then if she wants to change the world and she wants to change the environment, she just creates the customer, get that money, then from that money and influence should be able to change the world. So that's how I sort out my man Drucker actually was correct.

Peter Drucker, not a bad guy. And then his writing style is very accessible. So just go and read any of his books. So the role of a business is to create a customer. Now, Peter Trucker says that you create a customer by using two functions. Number one is marketing. Number 2 is innovation. I don't talk about innovation at all on this podcast because everybody talks about innovation. Now, innovation does mean you're making changes.

I am making improvements over time. So Trucker says that you can either innovate on the product, that's the thing you're selling, or you can innovate on service delivery. So when you innovate on the product, you're just trying to say how can we build XYZ? How can we design XYZ? How can we design, You know, how can we, I don't know, produce better gems? That's back to my friend who wants to sell jewelry. How do you produce better gems?

That's the question of innovation. Then I can also make changes in service delivery. So service delivery now, oh, that'd be now OK Changes in customer service, that will be an innovation. Changes in mode of delivery, that will be an innovation. Let's see, what else? When do you get the point? But Shah, there's more than enough podcasts about innovation. So just go and subscribe to anyone out there. You'll be fine. Now, there are not too many of us who talk about sales.

That's the reason why I have this podcast. But anyway, remember, we're still at marketing and innovation. So the purpose of a business is to create a customer. You create a customer by exercising 2 main functions. Number one is marketing. In fact, Drucker says it is. He puts it as #1 for a reason. Then #2 is innovation. Now marketing is our business function that lets our potential customers know that we exist, know that we are here, know what we do, know how we can help,

know how they can reach us. You know everything. That is what marketing is. It tells our potential customers we are here, Moti Debe have arrived on more ground. That is the function of marketing. Now marketing, marketing as a department or as a mother. Marketing has many children or many sub functions. So PR, public relations is a function of marketing. Branding is a function of marketing. Advertising is a function of marketing.

Sales is a function of marketing. Merchandising, exhibitions, promotions, you name it, they are all functions of marketing. Some of you want to argue and say in my opinion, look, that this is not a matter of my opinion. Whatever school you graduated from, go back to that school. Go to the business admin department, go and pick any book of marketing and read. You will see that what I'm telling you here is true. So stop paying attention to all these social media influencers who start creating all kinds of debates about marketing and PR.

Which one is better? What do you mean marketing and PR? Which one is better? PR is a form of marketing. Although say branding and marketing, which one should you pay more attention to? What do you mean about that? Branding is a form of marketing and then those say sales and marketing, which is better? What are you talking about? Sales is a form of marketing. So for those of you who've been following this city debates online and you don't quite understand where all detention is coming from, this is the reason why you're confused because you're working tandem.

Marketing is the mother. All of them are the children. So me as a sales professional, marketing is my mother. You who are listening now as a brand professional marketing is your mother. So in one sense, you can see that this is the relationship between branding and sales. They're both forms of marketing. They're both children of the same mother. So if you want to understand branding sales, how they work together to, to, to grow your business, this is the beginning of how you get that done.

Sorry, one moment. Sorry about that. Like I said, the kids are home so hard to attend to my son. All right, OK, yes, now I was trying to give you guys the all I put it now the theoretical foundation so that you understand the relationship between brand and sales. And then we'll now figure out how it factors into how all these factors into, you know we Niger entrepreneurs how we should get our house alone. So branding and sales, now we have established that branding and sales, they are both marketing functions.

In Niger. When people say branding, what they mean is the mean logo, the mean font, the mean color, the mean palettes, the mean design, the mean texture, the mean brochure, the mean, you know, all those things. So in Niger, every time you hear branding, that is what people mean. By the way, branding has a bigger meaning, but we'll talk about that later. But for the purposes of this podcast, this particular segment, when you hear brand,

that is what people are talking about in Niger. They mean what is your logo? What is your font, what is your color? What is your design? What does your brochure look like? What does your website look like? Have you rented office space? What is your layout like? You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what people mean when they say branding. Now sales or selling, on the other hand, is what goes on in one to one interactions.

You're face to face with a potential customer or you're ear to ear on the phone with a potential customer, or your keyboard to keyboard typing with a potential customer, DM ING with a potential customer, DM with a prospect, DM ING with a contact. If you're in that situation and you're trying to facilitate, facilitate a purchase or you're trying to build trust, then you're doing the function of sales and you're doing the function of selling.

Now, with this in mind, seeing that they're both paying attention to two different things, why would people start pitting them against each other? There's no competition. These two things are important. Let's go back to the Niger idea of branding. Your logo is important. Your font is important. Your color, your palette, your design, your texture, your websites, all of that is important. And that has nothing to do with when I am face to face with a potential customer.

Hope you guys hope you guys are like you get where I'm coming from. The website design doesn't have nothing to do with when I'm talking to a potential customer is a separate something, but they are both important. Now. This is the reason why they're important to understand why they're important and we need to explore the Oibo concept of the Oibo concept of branding and sales alignment because they also talk about sales and marketing alignment.

But let's just talk about branding and sales alignment. Remember, we're going to use the Oyubo idea now because as far as I can tell, Nigerian practitioners, you know, like we haven't given much thought to it. Everybody keeps on going along with this whole thing of sales and marketing alignment, assuming that sales and marketing are separate things. So this is the idea behind the Oyubo concept of branding and sales alignment.

Now, Oyubo people say brand is important because the brand breeds familiarity. People know you, they feel you. Familiarity will breed trusts, like OK, been seeing these people around, we trust them. You'll breed some recognition. And so because of that, it will be easier to close the sale. And yes, it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense, makes a lot of sense. If I'm coming to sell Coke to a wedding venue and I come with three brands, I call me Coke, I

call me Biggie. Then I come with OKchuku and Sons. You know every single event hall. Well, I'm using event hall because after legal practice and after civil service, I started as a wedding photographer. So every single event hall in Nigeria, everybody, every event hall knows Coca-Cola. Now some event halls will know Biggie because Biggie is making some inroads. Like Biggie is in Lagos, Biggie is in Abuja. I noticed that when I'm in Makuti, I don't really see Biggie.

And I have, I know one or two people in the east. And you know, it's not as if biggies like any, I don't know, let me, in fact, let me just stick to the one I know biggies in Lagos, biggies in Abuja. And then Bob Biggie is not really in Penal State. I've not, I've not seen it in any shop. I drank it in somebody's house, but seen it in the shop I didn't see. Then the last one is Okajuku and songs. Let's just assume that it exists.

Nobody knows Okajuku and songs. So if me as a salesperson, I'm trying to sell my drink now to the wedding hall or to the food establishment or whatever so that they can be keeping drinks, Coke will be easier to sell than Biggie because Coke, everybody knows Coke. Biggie will be easier to sell than OK Chuko and Sons. If OK Chuko and Sons is a brand new cola drink that has just been recently launched. So the Ulibo concept of branding and sales alignment is on point.

It's perfectly correct is correct. The brand will make you more familiar. The brand is going to make people trust you. The brand is going to give recognition. That recognition will make it easier to close the sale. So this is my warning to Nigerian entrepreneurs. This whole process that we've spoken about now, the UEBO conception of brand takes time to build. It takes a while before you become a familiar brand, before you become a trusted brand,

before you become a recognized brand. That takes time because brand is not just your logo and brand is not just your font and your design. There's plenty of things going on on the ground and those things take time to build. The brand is a sum total of all the interactions that customers and members of the public have with your business and this fledgling brands that you are trying to build. So if building a brand is going to take time, why are you wasting your time with logo and with font and with this and with this?

Now assuming that is the most important part of your business before you begin if you want to be a jewel, a jewelry person. So I'm not sure if people call yourself, those of you who buy and sell diamonds and gold and silver and everything if you want to be in that business. But now we've established that building a brand, a real brand, will take time to achieve familiarity, trust, recognition and all that. Why are you wasting time on logo and front and this and this and that and that?

You are slowing yourself down unnecessarily, my friend. Get your capital, go out, then start selling. The brand will be crafted, the brand will be curated, the brand will be cultivated with time, as you interact with people, as you meet customer. In fact, this whole thing of logo and font and everything, is it not when you meet with your customers that you even know the kind of brand you should design? What if you step into the market and then it turns out that you have mostly a northern audience?

Is that not? Is the fact that most of your clientele are northerners? Is that not something significant enough to determine the kind of font you use, the kind of color you use, the kind of name you have? The kind, is it not? Please, you should stop wasting your time. Brown people is not a quarrel. What you do is very, very important. All I'm just saying is that too many Nigerian business people are putting the cat before the horse.

They're putting the brand first before they begin. Meanwhile, the brand is something that comes later on. The one that we need primarily now is selling because selling, excuse me, because selling is the one that puts you face to face or ear to ear over the phone or keyboard to keyboard with a potential customer so that you can facilitate the sale. So those of you who are trying to go into business now, it is not brand you need first, it is sales that you need first.

Brand is important, but don't waste too much time over thinking this because let me tell you what will happen and I hope this my small friend will take my advice. But this is what happens. You come up with the idea in November, you meet somebody on the Internet and you talk about the idea in December and you talk it to a couple of other people in your family in December. Everybody thinks idea is a good idea then. In January, last week of January, you have a conversation with someone and then you realize that you spent November,

December, January not quite doing anything. Instead, you've been thinking of brand name, you've been thinking of color, you've been thinking of design, you've been thinking of website URL, you've been thinking of registering business. You've been thinking of all these other things. Meanwhile, from November to January ending, let's just say February, you haven't spoken to a single person. You haven't bought a single stone, a single silver, a single diamond, a single zinc, a single earring, a single whatever.

You haven't bought a single one and try to sell to a single person. So what happens is all of February now will be coming up with business name. Then all of March you finally register with CAC. Then all of April, you finally get your design down. Then all of May, June, July will be designing website. Of course we know that website boys never deliver on time. So in fact you finalize the website maybe like in July or August.

That's when you now be launching the business. Something that you decided you are going to do. Yeah. In November of 2025 because you're chasing brand. You won't start until August of 2026. If you don't believe me, stop paying attention. Look around your friends, your cousins, your classmates. You see that what I'm saying is perfectly true? True. The most important thing that you need is sales. Is it a good idea? Oh, cool.

Your mentor agrees with you. Cool. Pops here and moms here agree with you. Cool. All right. Go and sell something. That's it. So thank you very much for listening. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message via WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you all some other time.