Supercharge Your Sales Team: A Tech-Driven Approach

Hello and welcome to the show. It's available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify amongst other sources. I'm your host, Tava Shima Aidi. Today is definitely going to be a noisy episode because I'm outside at the bank. So I expect to hear some interruptions. Now, the reason why I'm at the bank is because they've been doing some tech or data migration software platform, some tech thing going on in the banking space in Nigeria.

And it's been leading to all kinds of crappy, crappy situations, you know, failed transactions and stuff like that over the last maybe like 3 weeks. And and of course, you know that, you know, things are kind of dry, things are kind of great right now. So these idiots just somehow lost 50 care of my money in transactions. And so I said, look, I have to come here and sort this thing out myself because, you know, the online channels to try and report the transaction are not working.

Trying to solve this thing by phone call, by WhatsApp, you know, it's terrible. So I just came into the bank and let me say, let me sort this thing out real quick. But then again, I'm not sure how long this is going to take. So that's the reason why I said, let me just make this podcast episode right now before I get into the bank. And then I see that the queue is like 4 hours long or something. Anyway, not to bore you with my own personal woes as usual,

excuse me. If you'd love to connect and explore opportunities with me, then call me on O 806-466-2140. That's my WhatsApp number as well and the country code is lost 234. For those of you who are not Nigerian. But to connect with me on social media, make sure it's LinkedIn because if you try any other place, I'll probably get back to you in about a month. But if you hit me up on LinkedIn, yeah, sure, 24 hours, you and I will be having a conversation.

Now today, I would like to continue from where we started yesterday. Yesterday, where are we on so 1 moment, look at my notes, OK? Yesterday we're looking at our content and resources that the sales team needs to succeed. And I think that is why I introduced you guys to the concept of sales enablement and how we have to look at the training that our sales people or employees receive, the training, the material and then the technology.

So today I figured we'll just, you know, freestyle talk some more about how you can use technology to empower the sales team because I know we spoke about a bunch of stuff yesterday, but today let me see if I can just stretch it out a little bit. So basically that's the focus for today, how we can use technology to empower your employees or to empower your sales team. Now, the reason why I'm saying employees or sales team interchangeably is because, like I said yesterday, for most of us in the SME space, you'll find out that your employees are having to sell one way or another.

So you're a small business, maybe you have two or three sales people, but you find that every once in a while accountant will bring in a deal or human resources will bring in a deal, or, I don't know, maybe even the cleaner will bring in a deal and you give the cleaner a percentage or something like that. But you find that in the early days of the business, everybody's having to be on their grind. Everybody's having a hustle to bring in a deal or two because that's how salaries are going to be paid.

So how can we use technology to empower the sales team or employ empower employees who once in a while try to sell on our behalf? So let's see. OK, I have two or three ideas about how tech can come in handy. And #1 is this whole thing of centralized data that's having all your customer info in one place. And it's something I hinted at in yesterday's episode when I spoke about the business owner that I was having a conversation with who is in the paint space selling paint.

And there was this problem in the past of, you know, one or two sales people resigning and leaving him. And then you just lose a whole bunch of contacts. You know, they're good customers that you can't get in touch with because, you know, OK, Chukwa has left or you fired a Kemi and all the details happen to be on their phone. So if you have tech and everything is centralized in one place, then there's benefits to you, the business owner, because everything is in one place.

But then there's benefits to other team members because everything is going to be easy to access. So if you have, even if it's something as basic as what's this thing called now Google Contacts or whatever, and it's available to everybody on the phone, then you don't necessarily have to be with each particular salesperson in case you need one phone number. So let's say you have a bunch of sales people. Let's say you have Adam Daily,

Abdulaziz, and Arrochuku. Yeah. So let's say those are your 4 sales people. And Arrow Truku needs the contact details for somebody, and it's on the handset that our daily has it on. So Arrow Truku doesn't have to call our daily because you can check Google Contacts or whatever contact management system that you have for your business. And everybody has access to the contact details of customers or addresses and things like that.

So it's really, really going to help because whenever your crew needs something, you don't necessarily have to call somebody in this office or call somebody here or call somebody there. If somebody's on sick leave or somebody has gone home for a burial or the person they do show up to work today, everybody can continue. Because using tech, everything is centralized in one place, even if it's something as simple as Google Contacts to restore your contact details or maybe everything is stored on an Excel master Excel sheet.

And yes, you'd be surprised, but there are lots of businesses today, well in Nigeria anyway, that I come across that still use Excel sheets. And you know, I'm one of those guys who thinks like, look, if it's working so far, then I guess there's no need to replace it, at least for now. So even that works Excel, that's simple technology right there. And you can use that to empower everybody in the sales team or empower people who are selling on your behalf.

Then of course, also if everything is centralized, then it's going to be easy to manage deals. OK, let's go back to the whole Excel thing. There's this wedding planner in Abuja. I'm not going to call out his name so I wouldn't embarrass him so that he wouldn't. People won't know that that's how he manages their customer information. But for them, they run everything through Excel. I'm not an Excel guy. So for me, to be honest, I used to find it frustrating when I

had to, you know, last with them and you know, share contact details and they send me information is in the spreadsheet. I'm like, you know, get what's all this? Now you're sending me spreadsheet. Can't you just copy and paste what I need, send it to me instead of sending me the whole damn spreadsheet? So there are some people who run business that way. So Excel for those of you who do well, I'm surprised if there's anybody listening to this podcast who hasn't heard of Excel.

You know, this Microsoft Word, this Microsoft PowerPoint, this is Microsoft Microsoft Excel. And there's a fourth one I can't remember. So Excel is is, is like a table with different rows and different columns. And then you get to put information in there like you can put names, you can put phone numbers, you can put addresses, and then you can also put a little tab to show what is going on. OK, so like this wedding photographer now, for instance.

So I know for the wedding planner in Abuja who runs his whole business off of Excel, OK, well, to be honest, I haven't done business with him in like 4 or five years. So it's possible that they've changed their system. But the last time me, he, me and him had to do business together, he used to run everything through Excel so they would have a sheet. Let's say we went for a bridal show. Now, OK, we're in 2024. So let's say we go for a bridal show.

Let's see. OK, I don't think there were bridal shows this year. And I'm not sure. Well, let's just assume that there were bridal shows this year in Abuja and let's say it had held at Hilton Hotel. So what he would do is that there'll be a spreadsheet. So bridal show 2024 Hilton Hotel that'll be like the header. Then on the tables there'll be name and then serial number 123456 and all the way down then next would be phone number and then that and then next would be address.

Then after that maybe would be wedding date. And then the other spaces will now track the stages. So if somebody comes to the booth, let's say the person's name is Arrow Chuku, Arrow Chuku and Angela. So Arrow Chuku and Angela. So that would be step one. Number one name Arrow Chuku and Angela. Then they'll put their phone number there. Then they'll put their address, then we'll put phone number and then maybe the next step will be OK, next step will be wedding date.

So wedding date will be there, then let's say after the wedding fair, they're able to come to the office to visit the wedding planner to talk in more detail. Then maybe the next hub after that we'll say office visit or client consultation, you know, that sort of thing. So now this is the benefit to everybody else who works with that particular wedding planner or his junior wedding planners or his salespeople. Anybody who needs to know information on anything can just open up that excel sheet.

And of course this is excel sheet. Everybody can have access. So I'll be here, I have access on my phone, you'll be there. You have access on your computer. Somebody else is in Port Harcourt and they have access on the laptop, but we all have access. So somebody can just open up that sheet and be able to see that for this particular customer that we're trying to find out how far. Sorry about that. Some idiots car alarm just went off.

So you'll be able to check and then you'll be able to see that for Arotuku and Angela, these customers that we're talking to, this is how we met them. This is the stage of the relationship where we are. They have come to the office. This is what we've discussed and this is going to be the next step that's supposed to come back to the office. And then we're supposed to look at samples, you know, those sorts of things. So you can see how having using tech, even if it's something as basic as Excel, by keeping everything in one location,

everything is centralized data. You see how it's going to make no wonder what the hell is going on now. Try. OK. And then let me just continue. Sorry about. I don't know why the guy's car alarm is just going off. Where was I? This guy made me lose my train of thought. OK, so yes, if everything is centralized in one place, then that's how it helps everybody to sell well, because everybody, no matter where you are, we can just pick up our phone,

computer, laptop, anything, and then just check we have access to all the data. It's going to be able to help us to sell well. So like maybe that transaction now, Arrow Chukwa and Angela, their wedding. So maybe it might have been started by, let's say it's Felix. And I started talking to them. Oh, by the way, when I was a kid, my mom told me that it's not Felix. It's, it's Felix. So that's how I went to school and I met my, my friend Felix and I told her, hey, look,

Felix, your name is not Felix. Your name is Felix. And my guys started to argue with me that his name is not Felix, that his name is Felix. So anyway, we had an argument about it and then I got home and I told my mum like, hey mum, you told me that his name is Felix. But he says, no, his name is Felix. And my mum says, well, his name is whatever it is that he says his name is. So that's, that's a tip for you guys here today.

People's names are whatever they say their names are because, you know, this thing happens a lot. Like in the wedding space, you would meet a Christiana who insists that her name is Christina. And in my mind, I'm thinking, I can see your name right here. Your name is clearly Christiana. You know, why are you calling yourself Christina? But anyway, and also it goes the other way around. Somebody spells their name Christina.

Well, then she introduces herself to you as Christiana. So these sorts of things happen. So where was I? So let's say Felix is the one who started the interaction with Arrow, Chuku and Angela. And then maybe Felix now decides to jump back and so he leaves the company. Now me who is taking over the account and trying to close the deal between Arrow, Chuku and Angela, I will have all the information I need because everything is in one centralized place.

Everything is all on Excel sheets. So Felix and Jacquard is not a problem. Business will still continue. So that's how technology can help our businesses by having centralized data, keeping everything in one place, easy to access and it's going to be easy to manage deals. Then technology also helps because it makes things more efficient. It helps you to automate certain tasks like this is free to auto dot AI and that helps with the transcribing meetings.

So the next time you're having meetings, OK, since I've gone to weddings, let me just stick with weddings for this episode. So you have the bride there and the groom for the meeting. Oh, by the way, if you are going to be recording these sorts of things, let people know. For me, I do not record audio at meetings and I do not record a video and I do not do auto transcription. I just make notes. So I just tell people, like,

what did I say again? Arrow Chuku are here. I tell them, oh, Arrow Chuku, Angela, nice to see you guys again. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So today, last time we saw, we spoke about this, this today I was supposed to talk about that. I hope you guys don't mind. I'm going to be taking notes while we're talking. Sorry. Don't forget anything. And of course, Arrow Chuku and Angela are going to say, oh, that's OK, that's not a problem.

And then the meeting continues. So that's how I do it. I take notes. Some people have decided to adopt tech and there's no problem with that. Where all you do is you just bring out your phone, you push a button and then Google Transcribe. As you guys are talking, Google Transcribe will just be writing everything down. And that thing is beautiful. It's magic. Like the first time I saw it, I just, I thought to myself, like what?

Like this is a game changer. And The thing is fairly accurate. Of course it doesn't pick up on some Nigerian things like like if you say IB, for instance, you know it's not going to pick up on things like that. But these are things that you can go in and then later on fix by yourself. But it's it it, it just writes everything down. Well, the only problem with Google transcribe is that it's going to write everything down as one document.

So you will have to go back and then now edit it properly and then stretch it out. Like, OK, this is the part where Arrow Chuka was talking. This is the part where Angela was talking. And then this is the part where me, Tavi Shima, I was talking. Then there's some other tools that can I think like author AI who separated into speaker one, speaker two, speaker 3. So maybe if I start speaking at the meeting is now going to identify me as speaker one.

Evangela is the one who said, okay, that's okay, no problem. You can make your notes, then Angela will now be Speaker 2 and then Irochuku will now be speaker 3. So that's how it will record the, the, the the meeting. Speaker one. Speaker two. Speaker 3. So I think that's Otter dot AI. 1 Otter is Otter. It's not the Yoruba Otter, it's not OTA. It's Otter, the animal OTTR dot AI. Now, even though Otter dot AI is free, unfortunately I think you're only limited to 63

minutes per month, which is not much because let's face it, for wedding photographers, that's basically just like 2 meetings a month now because each time you meet with the brand and the groom, that's like 20-30 minutes. So that's not much, but might not be a bad place to start. And then for the people that I did the session on artificial intelligence for, you know, I spoke with for NBC, that's Nigerian Bottling Corporation.

That was earlier in the year and, and the talk is about how you can use artificial intelligence to boost your business or to boost your career prospects. And so for that particular team, what they were using, the consultants who are working on behalf of the NBC, what we're using was read dot AI. That is read READ dot AI and that also takes notes during meetings and things like that. So the online meetings we're going to have because you know,

everybody was in a different place now, you know, like me, I'm in Abuja, NBC people marketing team were in Lagos and I think the lady who hooked up everything, I think she was in Osho at the time or something. So that's what they used to take minutes of the meeting. So any bit bottom line, what I'm trying to say is this you can use technology tools to automate stuff like all these AI tools that we've spoken about, you can use read dot AII don't know if it's free.

Auto dot AI is free, but I think maybe 60 minutes one month. There's a paid version. I don't know how much. Then Google transcribe Google transcribed. That one is definitely free. Works like a charm. But basically what I was trying to say was this let people know. Don't record somebody without telling them what's up. Don't use any of these transcribing tools without telling them what's up because, well, I'll put it from a legal standpoint, you can say it's a violation of privacy, privacy,

the violation of privacy from legal standpoint. But even if there were no legal concerns, at least definitely in Niger, people don't like this whole thing of, look, you're recording what I'm saying. I need to even tell me. Another reason why it's a good thing to warn people is because there's some people who are free who talk anyhow, like me. But if we know that The thing is being recorded, you know, we'll calm down and we will, you know,

comport ourselves accordingly because it's somehow for somebody to say something intending it to be gist between you and me. And then next thing you now hear that the thing was recorded somewhere and somebody has access to the transcript. So you need to let people know like, okay, how we do it. Okay, so Aruku Angela, yeah, nice to see you guys again. I really loved the last meeting and now that we're here to discuss so, so, so I hope you don't mind.

I want to take a couple of notes during this meeting just so I don't forget anything. And this is what I'm going to be using. This is all Google transcribe is going to be transcribing everything as we talk. I'm just going to push this button on my phone here and we'll start recording. So guys, do you have any problem with it? And if Angela says, oh, no, it's OK, I'm cool by it. And then our trophy says no. How you be recording our meeting at that point, don't try and argue the case that since Angela said she's cool with it, you're going to record.

If one person says no, I don't like this thing, I'm not feeling this thing, then just let it go. Bring out your sheet of paper, bring out your pencil and start doing it old school. Just make minutes of just sharp minutes of the most important things that you guys have to discuss. The bottom line, let everybody know. Don't force everyone. Some Nigerians are trying to be too tech savvy. You know, they're trying to adopt this thing and force it down everybody's throat.

Don't force it down people's throat. Let people come when they're comfortable. Yeah. So you're comfortable with all these things now when people are anyway, Bottom line, let people know. Don't force anybody. Then another way that tech can help empower the sales teams. Let's see what else improved insights. Now, this is something that I saw first hand when I was doing business with my brother who were doing the agricultural export business because like I

said, me personally, I do not like Excel. I think The thing is complicated. You open it and then you see a table and it's, it's just too much. It's too many letters, too many numbers, it's just too much. And then like you need a PhD to use Excel. That's my own opinion anyway. But my wife says Excel, easiest thing on the planet. My brother says Excel, easiest thing on the planet. Mom sees so she likes Excel, you know? So I don't know why.

Maybe I'm just the black sheep in the family. So I hate excel. However, when my brother and I were in business, I saw the benefits of Excel first hand because one day he was fooling around on stuff and I was looking at it. Next thing I saw pie chat. You know, you know, like from secondary school now Nigerian secondary school, Piper bar chart, that's where everything is represented in graphs, you know, like a circle with different sections of the circle cut out or bar charts.

That's you know, you have, I'll like describe it now when you say XY axis and Y axis, you have one line straight, one line straight up, another line going, going. What's that word horizontal? And then you have bars in different colours to represent different kinds of data. So my brother made pie charts in Excel. That's one where the information is represented as a circle. And there was one part that was purple that was very small.

And then there's another part that I think was like yellow and very big. And then I asked him, oh, what's this? He said, oh, that he's just arranging everything into data. So I said, OK, that yellow part, this very big one that is taking up like 90% of the circle, What is that? He said, oh, that is where we make most of our money from. I said, where is that? He said Middle Eastern countries. I said, OK, so that tiny one,

where is that? He said China said, OK, so most of our money is coming from all those Arabs. Then he said, yes, so this tiny whatever, that's China. He said, yes, OK. They looked at the other circle. That was now the other way around where the big one that was like 90% was a different colour and then the small one that was like 10% was something colour. I said, OK, what's that big one? So these are the number of scammers that try to scam us.

Oh, by the way, I didn't expect it. But when we started doing export business men, there are lots of scammers out there in this world, plenty of scammers. I used to think Nigerians are the king of scams, but I guess scamming is a universal thing because anyway, it was just a big surprise because we started off in the wedding space. I used to do photo, he used to do video and you come across one or two people who are trying to scam you, but it's not like export.

On the export thing. I would say every two or three days you meet somebody that is trying to scam you, trying to do 4 and 9 as if you are doing the export. So those of you who are in the export business, you know, shine your eyes, you know, be very careful. So he said, oh, the big one was these are people that are trying to scam us and you know, blah, blah, blah. And then everything was colloquial. And so OK, that big one from which country?

And then he said China. I said, what? So all the so like 90% of people that are trying to scam us, they're from China. He say yes. And then those are all making the smallest amount of our money say yes, almost time for a meeting. so-called mumsy called him. I said, look, in my own opinion, if Asian countries, this small money and this small inquiries, but then nobody scammers this big from now on, can we just ignore anybody that's calling us from China or an Asian country?

And then that's how that's how we decided. So you can see that in this case, that's how it that's how it helps to, you know, improve insights, can help how you conduct your business. You can look at something and very clearly, even for people who are illiterates when it comes to these sorts of things like me, we hope to see clearly like this is where we're making this amount of money. This is where we're losing this amount of money.

OK, then this is perhaps what it is that we need to do next. Oh, by the way, apologies guys. The crew that is cleaning the building, they've moved right here next to the window. So expect to hear more noise from this part. So the tech gives you where was I? So improved insights. Basically, you guys are going to be able to analyse data, you're going to be able to look at trends and you're going to be able to see opportunities that you have for for improvement.

Then of course, tech is also useful for collaboration. Like I've pointed out, you know, you can save, share information with the team. And I think it's a sign from the universe, you know, now that these idiots have come next to my window that I think it's time to bring today's episode to a close. Where was I? Yeah, So that's pretty much. So that's just me freestanding about how we can use technology to empower the sales team.

So let me just wrap up now and we'll head into the bank and see how I can chase down my 50K because right now, 50K actually is needed. So thank you for your time and attention. And remember that if you'd love to connect with me to explore opportunities, the phone number is 08064662140 or you can WhatsApp me on the same number now. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And then also if you're looking for me on social media, the place to look for place to look at rather is on LinkedIn.

So I'll catch you all tomorrow.