The Lost Sales Opportunity: Transforming Customer Service into a Sales Engine

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm chilling at home. Actually I'm at the Home Office and the kids are home from holidays so expect to hear some noise in the background. Now today I'd like to tackle 2 separate items. So let me consult my notes. OK, so today I'd like to tackle tackle 2 separate things. First off, there's some ways I think businesses can improve their customer service, customer relations, you know, all these sorts of things, some training that you can give the people who man the phone because people who man the phone or people who man or woman the phone.

I mean, however, we say these days, but whoever is attending to the phone today can be a very useful resource in adding revenue to your business or the person can be a conduit through you are losing possible sales. So in other words, that's one thing I want to tackle today. I just want to point out that for those of you who just put anybody on the phone to answer customer service calls or to answer regular DMS or SMS or WhatsApp messages or things like that, the person could really help the best the business or the person could actually be hampering your business.

So it's something we should be paying attention to. Just don't put anybody on the phones without some kind of training. Then the second thing that I would like to tackle is this whole debate about, you know, can money bring happiness and blah, blah, blah, because I've been seeing some of that stuff going around today. So I want to give a useful perspective to most of you listening to this podcast that the average person does not hear because it's not a very considered opinion.

So those are the things we're going to do today and hopefully we'll do it in a short period of time. OK, so I had an experience dealing with customer service people today and that's the reason why I am making this particular episode now. OK, you guys remember how I have been complaining about these guys that owe me some money, You know, a couple of Ms. nothing big, nothing life changing. But of course, you know, every single couple helps.

So whenever money comes in, you know, we're happy. Allows us to do a couple of things. No wifey had been complaining, you know, any small thing wifey would say, oh, if only I had a fridge. If only I had a fridge, you know, only in my mind I'm thinking, you know, since the last fridge packed up and we threw it away, we've been living with the deep freezer and there's no problem in my own opinion. But then my wife would say, oh,

we've only, we had a fridge be able to eat right. I don't have to freeze everything. You can just defrost some things easily, you know, blah, blah blah. And you know, I'm listening to her. But in my mind I'm also thinking, well, we've been surviving with a defreezer and we're OK because left to me, there's no point in buying the fridge. But The thing is, wifey has been going on. If only I had a fridge, if only I had a fridge, if only I had a fridge.

So you guys know now those of you who've been listening that last week I went to go and drag those people to tell them that look, give me my money, you guys are stressing my life. And luckily the money entered a few days after that. So I was very happy. So I said, OK, you know what, Madam has been going on and on about a fridge, fridge. I say Charlotte's go and buy this fridge now. So when Momsy was building her house now, the place that we got Momsy's fridge was from Fuani Brothers.

That's FOUANI. Oh, by the way, I'm not endorsing them. I'm just telling you guys that that's where we bought Momsy's fridge because I can't remember who, like one of us bought something from them. Then when was time when Momsy was building her house, Momsy's fridge, Momsey's TV, what they get, Momsy's deep freeze that we got from there. So that a few people in the family that have bought from Fuani brothers and then plus Fuani brothers, like they've been in Nigeria for a while.

It's a Lebanese thing. But then they've been in Nigeria for a while and then they have offices, you know, Lagos, Abuja, Kano, you know, so they're around, they won't have a distribution centre in marketing of all places, you know, in Bangui State. So because of that, you know, it's like a safe outfit to go and do business with. So that's our common seafood. So I just checked my phone and I saw that OK, I have their customer service number.

So I said let me just call them. Let me find out what time that they close. Because I'm not just going to go and buy any fridge because I mean, those of you who've been listening, you guys know the kind of person I am because left to me, I'll just go there and I'll just tell them, hey, for any Bros, are you guys there now? All right, cool. Just bring the cheapest fridge. Just bring it and let me be going. That's why that's how I'll select the fridge.

It was left to me. Of course I know if I do that me and my wife will now start quarrel as the quarrel will now enter Part 2. So I want to make sure there's a fridge that she likes and wifey is studying for her exams. You know she did CFA power level 1 and level 2 she passed it flying colours. My wife is a very sharp girl, very good numbers so just Level 3 now that she is preparing for so I want her to finish her lessons and then we'll now go so I said let me just find out what time the store closes.

So I now try calling customer care, but of course, my mobile has really, really, really, really been giving me headache. As in sometimes service just disappears. I can't call people things like that. So I just send a WhatsApp message. So I send a message to four new brothers, the customer care, just to find out what time they close. So you don't believe this is their response. I send a message saying hopefully what time do you open?

And I gave the particular store that I want because in Abuja they have like two stores in Gwarimpa, like one more store around NAF Centre, that's National Abbey, National Air Force and in NAF Centre, they have one place there. And I think they have maybe like one place in, is it like Area 11 or so. So they have 4 particular 4 stores in Abuja and I asked for the closing time for one particular store, which is the store that I took Mumsy to.

And I think one of my cousins, you know, like that's just the place we go because they have a warehouse and everything is there. The TV's, all the TV's are there, all the fridge is there, all the deep freezer is there, generator is there, AC is there, radio is there, blender is there what again, microwave has everything massive shop. So for me, that's why it does make sense that OK, if it's electronics, let me just go there Sha and in one place you go and check all the brands because they host like different kinds of brands.

If it's been at home, is there Skylark is there, loner is there as in all of them? Sure. I just prefer and let me just go to one place, walk around, we select one thing and then we go because I don't like that whole thing of we go here, get the price, go there, get another price, go here, go here, go here. So I asked for I need them customer care. What time does the store close? You will not believe the response. The person just responded.

This is Lagos full stop. That was the only response I got. So I now typed in again. OK, can you give me the Abuja number for that store? Then you won't believe. Oh, this is what the person responded. Check Google call and ask them. That was the response. Let me repeat, I wanted to get in touch with the customer service line to find out when the particular store would be open. And the customer care line just responded, this is Lagos, full stop.

And I responded OK, please give me the number for the Abuja store. And then they responded check Google, call them and ask them. Then they left it like that and I said OK, thanks. Now, because I've always been picking up stuff from Fuani and because I trust them, as in from my Carnot days, I've been seeing them and then up till now we've done some business with them. So I'm not going to let this kind of thing stop me, you know,

I'll go ahead. But you know that there's some people be like these guys are rude and some people will not like the negative customer service experience. And there's some people that genuinely, just because of this small thing might move on to another place. So that is the problem with this approach. Number one, it's impolite and do not catch us. So it's not good for the brand impression and it's not a good customer experience.

It's not a good customer experience, user experience, customer service experience, whatever it is you want to call it, that is not a good experience. Now, the biggest problem with her approach is that because this person was not willing to apply any initiative, I was not willing to assume any responsibility for the conversation. They didn't do any qualification and discovery so they didn't engage me in a conversation to try and figure out who am I, why I was reaching out and whether there is a possible order.

Because sometimes it is nice to know who is on the phone, why is this person calling? Is this person at work up US or are they ready to spend money and buy something? But you will not know if your response is this is Lagos and then your second response is check Google and call them. If you have been put on the responsibility of manning the phone or your customer service Rep have no, don't deceive yourself about this whole thing.

You have a responsibility for sales as well. Even if you don't have a quota, you have responsibility for sales and the way that you answer the phone and the way that you respond messages can I can either make sales go up or make sales go down. So you should be polite, you should be cautious, and you should be willing to take the initiative on certain kinds of things, and you should have a certain level of proactiveness about you.

Now, some of you will be asking, OK, well, I've heard you. He was impolite, and he or she was impolite. So what are you saying? They should have done what I think they could have done better. In fact, some of you will say that, look, really, what this guy did was nothing wrong because after all, can't you check Google? And yeah, it is true. I can check Google. And maybe the reasonable thing to do is I should have checked Google before calling the number.

And I mean, you never know. But let's just take it for the for the sake of argument that default is my own. But from your own end, as a salesperson or as a customer service person, we always try to do the best to remove friction whenever we're interacting with the customer. Part of reducing friction means we remove the number of steps that people have to go through in order to do business with us. So if there's anything that we can do that will just remove two or three steps, we do it.

Now. Let me run through some alternative scenarios how I would have handled it or how I would like to train people to handle it in this kind of situation. Somebody sends you a number saying what time does this particular store close? They're asking you for an Abuja address, but maybe you you're in the Cross Rivers section. The proper thing to do, in my own opinion, is not to respond. This is Cross River full stop. And then send, no, you go and call Cross River people and say,

I beg, what time do you people close? And then you get it. And you can even say I beg what time people will close. They'll get you the information. And then you can now call, you can now text the person back and say this particular store closes at so, so, so and so full stop. You can now give that number to the Cross River people and say Cross River, I beg more. When I follow up, this guy was reaching out to me. That is one approach.

Another approach is somebody reaches out, what time do you close? They're asking for Abuja office but you, you are Cross River office. You now call Abuja office or check Google and get all the relevant information and you now reply back to the person and you say, Sir, the store closes at 6:00 PM and you can call this number if you need anything from that store, you now paste the the Abuja number there because you your Cross River or you your Lagos Lego store.

So with these two responses that I have seen, now you can see that this is a little bit more polite and either of these processes reduces friction, assuming that the person wants to buy something in option #1 where you give the information and then you now tell Cross River people, Abuja people, Abuja people, I beg more. Now follow up with this guy. This guy reached out and wanted to know what time it closed. You see that you have cut out some steps in the process.

You're reducing friction, you're taking some initiative, you're bringing people closer to a close sale because really you don't even know why this person is reaching out. And then in the second option, you have done the same. You didn't tell them go to Google because this thing about go to Google, you guys forget that if somebody goes to Google, you don't know that when they enter the Google thing, you don't know that on the left side of the page.

If they're using desktop on the if I, it's even worse. If it's mobile phone, when they do it, you don't know that. Even though they Google you, you don't know that your competition will show up underneath. So this whole thing of sending people to Google, it's not a very smart idea because you're letting people know that your competition exists. I will be told you if your competition has gone to do Google ads on a special something, and maybe the person wants to buy a gas cooker, you say go to Google.

They go to Google. But then as your number shows up and the address on top of it, you see the banner flashing, oh, 25% off on gas cookers or something, something, something. You have now LED somebody who was calling to you. You have now shown them to the competition and this go and share Google thing is is common. It's happened to my wife too a few times. It's not a very smart move to do. I know you people think everybody should be sharp and they should use Google, but no problem.

I assume that the customer is it don't provide them the information in the channel that they have asked sending them to Google. You're sending them to no man's land. You're opening them, you're opening them up to your competition. So those are some scenarios that I've just given out about how they could have handled it differently and taken some initiative, reduce some friction in the sales process and provided the customer with the information that they needed in the channel.

Now if you remember I said a problem with this is that they didn't even do qualification and discovery. This is how you can do qualification and discovery. Let's do option 2. Let's say the person provide checked Google and got all the relevant information and then I responded to me. So we close at 6:00 PM, but you can call this number if you need anything from that store. And then now they ask the question, is there anything else I can help you with that is that could be the beginning of a sales conversation.

Let's say that they asked another question. Are you coming for an order pickup question mark? That could be the beginning of a sales conversation. Like Oh no, I'm not coming from other pickup. I've actually been considering to buy fridges for a while. I just want to know what time you close so that me and my wife can come have a look. It can lead to a conversation that can go any number of ways. OK, what time does your wife get off work?

6:30 Oh, sorry, by 6:30 the store would be closed. Would you like me to send you some models with some pricing information that you and your wife can look at today? And then I call you back 9:00 tomorrow to see how we can book an appointment for you to come into the store. You see how the conversation can begin to flow and you're moving things small, small, small just because you are asking small qualification or discovery question.

Now this is your first time listening to the podcast Qualification or Discovery. It's just where you're trying to ask questions and engage the person in conversation because you're trying to figure out who is this guy or who is this babe? Why are they calling me? Is there possibly money here to be made? That is what qualification and discovery is about. So I've looked at two questions now, is there anything I can help you with?

Listen, I say, Oh yes, please. I'm coming to pick up an order. Something, something, something or well, I've been thinking about buying fridges and this and you see, the conversation can go anywhere. So anything I can help you with? Are you coming to pick up an order? Then you can also ask another question. You can be assumptive like me. I always like to assume that there's money to be made. So for me, I would have asked the person, do you need help with picking out any items in particular?

That is also one question and it can lead to the to a conversation that Oh yes, I would like to look at models or fridges, but I really would like my wife to be there. That's the reason why I was asking about closing time. And then, of course, be a human being and engage the person in conversation. OK, since I'm a man, yeah, I'll say, ah, Sir, I understand how I understand how it can be. It's the same thing too in my own house.

If I buy this kind of thing, I can know and I don't consult my wife. This kind of thing would be wahala. The person will laugh and say, ah, women. I say, I'm my brother and I saw AB. And then you continue with the conversation from there to try and figure out, you know, how far are they from the location or the price ranges that they have in mind or whether you can send them models or whether you can book an appointment so that they can call somebody up specifically in the Abuja store.

Because to go and say that they should just enter Abuja store like that. Well, it's good. It can work. But it would be much more helpful if you know that there's somebody in Abuja store who is a correct sales Rep and then you give them a specific name. Go to Abuja store tomorrow, 9:00. I've already spoken to our guy there, Abubakar. He's very helpful. He'll be expecting you. That is a different, you know, when you're handing off, that is a much more stronger hand off.

Go to Abuja office. That's OK. It's not a bad hand off. But go to Abuja office. I've spoken to Abubakar. He'll be expecting you and your wife for 9:00 AM. Much stronger hand off Abubakar. You've called him, you've given him the back story. He is now prepared. When they walk in, it's not just total strangers who'll be like, oh, Mr. Ida, I've been expecting you. And then the conversation will begin to flow from there. Oh Madam, I've heard so much about you and the troubles that you've been having about not having the fridge.

Very sorry, Ma, but today's your lucky day. We have so many brands available in store. We have everything from Binatone to blah blah, blah, blah blah. And don't worry ma, I'll make sure that you won't leave the store today without being without being sorted. So is there any particular brand you had in mind or should I show you what some of the more popular options are that we have in store? You can see that you set this thing up right?

You're moving people closer to a sale instead of this whole Nigerian nonchalant thing of go and check Google or enter the Abuja store. No, there are better ways that we finesse these things and we do a nice hand off. We'll move friction in the process. We give a good customer experience and we bring people closer to a sale. You see how, or rather you see why I say that lots of businesses in Nigeria can double, some businesses even triple their output without spending a single cover on Instagram ads.

Because some of these changes that I'm talking about is just small, small things that you're training people on how to answer the phone. Without spending a single couple on billboard or Instagram ad, this is how Nigerian businesses will increase their business because this whole thing of go and check Google, you'd be surprised for me this first time that's happened to me about my wife, you know, because of what I do, you know, whenever it happens, you know she shows me people do it all the time.

Go and check Google any no problem. You don't only hear what continue sending people that should go and check Google. You're sending away your profits. You don't know. So I've now looked at three different kinds of questions that you could have used to go into qualification and discovery and to start conversations that could have led to a selling conversation. There's also another one that you can ask if you don't want to be assumptive, because I like to assume worst case scenario is I

assume wrong, the customer will put me in check. I say, Oh no, no, no, it's not about this. It's about that. You can ask, are you calling for yourself? Are you calling on behalf of someone else? Even that can be the beginning of a sales conversation. Oh yes, I'm calling for myself. I want me and my wife to come and have a look at fridges and then the conversation will continue from there. Now let me compare this with another customer service experience that I experienced today.

Today, 9 Mobile, 9 Mobile, they've decided that my business should fail. That's what they've decided because my number disappears for days at an end. But luckily, you know, there's WhatsApp. So some people say, oh bro, I've not been able to reach you. And then they they send a WhatsApp message, allow me to port now don't allow me to port. Even glow 2 disappears. So basically because of that, there are times that the whole day me no Internet access because glow has disappeared.

It is latter disappeared. And then the same thing with Wi-Fi as well because Wi-Fi is also glow and it is alert. Sorry, 9 mobile, but she went to go and buy MTN last week. I mean, I'm trying to hang on to this number because I always give my phone number everywhere. Oh yeah. And if you'd like to reach out to me, the number is 08064662140 country code +234. Also my WhatsApp number. So you can reach out to me if you have any questions regarding sales and improving your businesses, getting your business to grow.

So because of all this rubbish, now I was tired. I said, well, let me call Spectranet because Spectranet was my first love. When I was in Lagos, the Internet used to go but just like that. So when I moved to Abuja, I told my wife that look babe, there's this thing I was doing in Lagos, they're the ultimate. And we used Spectranet for so many years or to be moved to our pool and service in our pool was terrible, really, really terrible.

As you have Internet is constantly one bar or two bar. You can't get things done. So we called engineer, we changed the router, we changed position of the router, we use booster signal, all kinds of things. The thing did not work and that's how we ended up with glow. So it's not as if I like glow. But you know how sometimes you're chasing 1 babe, the babe didn't agree for you, but you know her friend agrees for you and then you decide to settle.

You know, I'm not saying that's what I did. I'm not saying that you know, some boys have been known to do that. Some girls have been known to do that too, like you like Kunle. Kunle is your guy. You went at him but Kunle didn't notice you. But then you know Kunle's friend Sadiku is OK. So Sadiku just said you. You agreed for Sadiku. So it's one of those things. So that's how I just agreed for glue and I now entered into this abusive relationship.

So I said let me call Spectranet now my first love. So I called the engineer. Say engineer. How far now he couldn't Remember Me, but no problem. I said well, I'm the guy that you came to APO, you know we were having problems. Is that so? Is it social? Social house? Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. How are you? OK, I'm OK, not bad because of all those issues, you know, we left one hour on globe, but things are terrible. So but I wanted to know.

We have moved house. We're no longer in APO. We're now in this place is also around Gudu, not far from Durumi, but somewhere between, you know, Durumi Gudu, you know, Gadua that that kind of said, how is Spectranet service there? And then the engineer answered honestly that Sir, to be honest, the best that I know the service is OK, but I don't think it's that great. I said, I said, yes, Sir, that's my honest opinion. I said, OK, no problem.

And you know, regards to the family. That's how that conversation ended by the time I got home because when I I made this call, you know how like I just stop and record the podcast, you know, Bob, So that's how you know, I stopped. I made a couple of calls. By the time I got home, I received an e-mail from Spectranet Customer Care. They're now trying to toast me back onto the network. And it's obvious what happened. I called the engineer.

The engineer obviously called people in customer care. They say, listen, you know, there's this guy that has to be our customer before he left. He's thinking of coming back via customer care. Over to you. But is where customer care dropped the ball. What they did was they just sent me an e-mail and the e-mail said, you know, here, I revised the plans. So that's where they F top. They actually should have picked up the phone because remember,

when it comes to closing the deal, picking up the phone is the easiest way to go. Somebody actually should have picked up the phone and called me. I started doing what qualification and discovery to narrow things down because you never know, you might have a conversation with the person, get an exact address and say OK, you know what, to be on the safe side, let us send out another engineer to come and check the signal strength in the area.

And that could be the beginning of getting someone like me back on Spectranet. So you see how some small, small trainings, they can be given to people who are doing customer service and who are mining the phones can be increasing your profits. But anyway, customer service people, they did the lazy thing, which is what any Nigerian would do, which is just send an e-mail as far as they're concerned, engineer from the field gave them feedback, they sent an e-mail.

So job done, they'll now take it on the sheet and they'll show their manager that, Sir, I sent 200 emails this week actioning customer service, you know, and then they'll pat themselves on the, on the back. They think that they've done work. Which kind of work have you done? The goal here is not to be doing activity for activity sake. We're trying to do what could be the most effective thing to engage somebody in a sales conversation and that would lead to us closing some deals.

But either way, Sir, after class for Spectranet, because they handled it better than the people from 4 New Brothers because at least the engineer got in touch with customer care and customer care got in touch through e-mail to now try and see how they can get me back into the system. But anyway, I just hope that especially those of you who have employees, even if you only have maybe four or five sales people and then maybe one person is managing Instagram and WhatsApp or something, believe me, this makes a big difference.

So there's some things to consider for those of you who have employees. So that's the first thing. OK, we're already at 30 minutes. I've wasted too much time, sorry. Let me see, Let me check my notes. The second thing I wanted us to look at so come money buy happiness because every year people start this whole debate come money buy happiness. Now this is what this perspective I want to bring to the question. You people who keep arguing about this thing online, come money bring come money buy happiness, you guys are asking the wrong questions and you guys are being preoccupied with the wrong things.

Happiness is as a result of growth and fulfillment when people are approaching their ultimate ends. OK, that sounds kind of big, but basically let me let me put it this way. When somebody has a certain goal in mind and they're achieving the goal, small, small, that is what leads to happiness, regardless of how much money that they have, which is the reason why your child starts crawling. And the first time they managed to walk 3 or 4 steps, even if they fall, they laugh and they're happy as hell even though they failed, but because they made small progress.

So so long as you're growing and achieving fulfilment and approaching your ultimate ends, you're on the track for happiness, regardless of how much money you have. So if you are chasing the transcendentals and if you're making some work in achieving the transcendentals, the transcendentals are just how I describe them in ancient Greek and in ancient Christian thought, there's this idea of transcendentals. Transcendentals are those things that are, how do I put this,

those things that are above everything else in this material world, Things like truth, things like beauty, things like goodness, things like unity, things like open oneness. So if you're chasing truth, beauty, or rather if you're achieving truth, beauty, goodness, unity, or oneness, then you will be happy. Remember, this is ancient Greek thought and then ancient ancient Christian thought as well. So in fact, that's the reason why for most Aquinas and Saint Augustine have the idea that the only thing that will truly bring happiness is when you learn how to walk with God and you're chasing God because God is the highest good.

So that way, growing in those terms, growing in chasing the transcendentals or growing in achieving your own personal ends, you will find that this way people are happy regardless of their personal circumstances. Happiness is not joy or elation. That's what people get the confusion over. People think happiness is when I'm feeling good and I'm feeling all right with myself or I'm elated. No, that's not it. Joy and elation are temporary.

Happiness is a different kind of quality that lasts, and that's the reason why you can't find wealthy people, people who are rich as hell, who are happy, and people who are rich as hell and who are poor sorry, and who are sad. It's not about the money, it's not about the poverty. So you can find happy rich people. You can also find happy poor people. You can find sad rich people. You can also find sad poor people. So the money is not the main thing.

The thing that is causing the happiness is the people, whether they're rich or they're poor, do they feel like they are growing? Do they feel like they are achieving? Do they feel like they are stagnant or are they chasing after the higher goods in life? Truth, beauty, goodness, oneness, unity, that is what determines whether people are happy or not. So this whole thing of does money, can money buy happiness? Look, it is the wrong question and we should stop being preoccupied by all these things.

In fact, don't join anybody who is engaging in this useless debate online. It's just a waste of time. So how does money factor into the conversation? Very simple. Money is just a medium of exchange, full stop, nothing else. It doesn't buy a unit of happiness or it doesn't buy a unit of sadness. It's just a medium of exchange. So to acquire wealth, you just need to make sure that there's some sort of value exchange. If you're a music teacher,

there's value exchange and you will get wealth. Because I, I'm thinking of what the children do for the holidays. I like to get them a music teacher, somebody who knows how to teach music. You can see that there's an exchange of value here, value to me, and then money flows out. Money is a medium of exchange, exchange value. You will acquire the medium of exchange and you will get some wealth. So if you're a music teacher,

this is the beginning of how you're going to acquire some wealth. You get one client, you get return clients, you get somebody to partner with you. Then you have some tutors under you. Before you know it, in 10 years, you have your music school. Money is a medium of exchange. If you exchange value, you will get that medium of exchange, which is the money. It's the same thing if you're a crypto trader. There are lots of Nigerian boys now that are infatuated with crypto.

They want some crypto, They want some place where they can trade crypto or use crypto to transfer money or use crypto to do this, to do that. If you happen to create a crypto exchange that can facilitate all these, all these transactions, you are putting out value to the market. There's something people want to do. You provided something that can help them do that. There's value being provided to the market. Money is a medium of exchange.

Value is being exchanged. You will get some money. It's the same thing. Even if you want to take something as banal as being a beauty queen, there's still value exchange being a beauty queen because beauty Queens attract branding and sponsorships and you know, stuff like that. So there is value that is being exchanged because the publicity and the branding and all that is a value that the sponsors want to get so that their brand can be everywhere.

So if you do a good job as Miss Nigeria or Miss Lagos or Miss Sokoto or Miss Universe or whatever of putting your sponsors in, in the right light, they'll say, OK, this babe is not just fine. She actually is a very pure babe. Money will follow the whole thing because they can see that you bring the right kind of attention and you're the right kind of diplomat, you know, for them. So even if you're just being a beauty queen, even their value is being exchanged and through that you can acquire wealth.

So money was not about happiness or sadness. It's a medium of exchange. So stop being angry with money or stop loving money as the ultimate end because it's not. And then finally, money gives options. Remember when those guys were owning me and I went to go and Jack them that they should pay me my money? Before then, I didn't have the option of your fridge. So if you don't have money and your wife is saying every day,

oh if I had a fridge, you're out of options, you're out of luck. Money gives options. Should I have a fridge or not? Should I rely on my deep freezer or not? What kind of fridge should I buy? Should it be 150 litres or 250 litres? Should it be the one that can make ice cubes or should it be the one that can blend smoothies? Or is it the fridge that is connected to the Internet? Internet of Things so it can be ordering from Amazon?

Money is just giving you options. How many more options do you want? It's that simple. Where should we live? Money gives options. There's some people who want to live in Abuja but they look at the the rent in the city and they say hi, at this rate, let's move to Maraba. Your wife might frown but he said, my dear, don't worry, we'll cope with the traffic. It's because you do not have the option. And it's the same thing with Lagos, those of you who live in Lagos but you go and get houses that are right at the outskirts of Ogun and then because of that, you have to wake up at 3:00 so you can leave the house at 4:00 AM.

You don't have options. Money gives options. That's what allows you to decide where are we going to live, when can I retire? Money will give you that option. I want to help people in the village and I want my grandmother's, uncles, children in the village to go to school. How much money should I send them? Money gives you options. Should I drive an SLK or should I drive Toyota? And money gives you the option? Should my kids be eating their bar or should my children eat tapioca?

Money gives you options. That's all it is. Money is a minimum of exchange and money gives options. And the whole thing of chasing money is not because we are chasing happiness, it's just because we are chasing options. So my own opinion, make money and give yourself options. But remember that happiness comes from whether you feel if you are stagnant or whether you are making progress in your goals or in your ends. But the ultimate goals are the transcendentals, truth, beauty,

goodness, unity, oneness. If you talk to the older Christian sects, you know, the Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, the Coptics, you know, they will say that, look, yes, all these things, but ultimately, if you're not chasing God, you will not be happy. But either way, you can see that this thing has very little to do with money. Now, for those of you who are sad and who are depressed, I don't think money will cure you.

I have some bad news. Money is not going to cure you because if you're sad and depressed and you feel like you're stagnant, the money's not going to do anything for you, really, because you're searching for something. You're searching for elation when actually you should be searching for, you know, personal fulfillment. Am I growing? Or whether you should be chasing the transcendentals? What will make you happy is expanding your horizon.

Pay attention to some wisdom literature. Change the books you read or change the kind of crowds that you hang out with. If you guys just finish every day, you sit down at the bar and you will drinking alcohol and engaging in idle gossip. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a nice way to have fun. I'm just saying that if that's your life, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, I can see how you get stuck in the whole thing. Like, OK, if you are richer, you'd be happier. So look for some wiser friends. Read wisdom literature, start listening to podcasts around these sorts of things. If you talk to Thomas Aquinas and the Saint Augustine, they'll tell you pray, engage in contemplation. It's also good that we have good physical health. That helps as well. And then for some people,

medical interventions are necessary. There are some people who actually have to go to the doctor because you are clinically depressed. If you're clinically clinically depressed, no amount of changing your friends, reading wisdom literature and prayer and contemplation will help. I mean prayer and contemplation is good, but The thing is if somebody is sick mentally, the person, the person actually is not well mentally and the person needs to seek medical help.

But either way, in my own opinion, make all the money you want because money just gives options, full stop. You've had it. In my own practical scenario, at least I have the option of whether to buy a fridge or to not. So if I want to tell my wife that look, you know what, a fridge is not important. We're not buying the fridge. It gives me the option. If we go ahead and we'll buy the fridge and we want to buy 150 liters, at least I have the option. 250 liters at least I

have the option if it's a fridge that also has an inbuilt vacuum cleaner and the fridge has AI and can. Tight and cook or whatever, at least we have the option. So that's just it. Money is a medium of exchange, has nothing to do with your happiness or your sadness. And then it gives options. So you owe it up to yourself to give yourself and your kids the most options available. And that's the reason why I think we should all change money, full stop.

But either way, stop getting involved with all these people who say money can't buy happiness because the the discussion never ends. You can point to somebody who used to be sad when they were poor and now that they're rich, they're very happy. Yes, you will also be able to point to somebody who was very happy when they were poor, but now that they're rich, they're very sad. So any which way you want to check it, you'll find those examples.

So that is the perspective that I suspect that most of you have not heard before. But please connect with me and let's have business conversations about how to move our businesses forward, how to improve our customer service processes or if you have problems in your business, I mean get in touch. Let's see how many of these, how many of these things we can sort out. So the number to reach out to me on is 08064662140. The country code is +234.

That is my WhatsApp number. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishima IED, my YouTube channel. Tavishima IED, over 1000 free resources there for you. Or you can just search sales for the Nigerian business person and the podcast will pop up on YouTube. But please, those of you who are going to reach out on WhatsApp, please send me a text message first or a WhatsApp message first before you try calling.

There are lots of fraudsters in Niger, so I don't answer WhatsApp calls anyhow. And then for some of you who want to reach out, even if you're going to call, please call at reasonable hours. Somebody tried to hit me up yesterday, like around 10 something, you know, I mean, like, why Nigeria? And I would like you should understand some of these things now, you know, if if you've been listening to the podcast, like, you know, I'm a married man now.

So like, anyway, just use your common sense. That's just what I'm trying to say. Trying to hit somebody up at 11 or at 12 at night when the person is a stranger like that is a no, no. But if any of my guys or my brother or my mum or my father-in-law calls me at 11 because I don't sleep early, it's not a problem. I'll answer. Oh, hello, Sir, You're still, you're still awake. I thought you'd have gone to bed. You know, we discuss, we, we talk and you know, whatever it is, we're getting handled.

But you, you're a stranger like nothing easy to write to start buzzing people at 11:00 at night. Anyway, let me stop there. So thank you very much for your time and attention. Please reach out. I really like hearing from you guys. And yeah, so that's it pretty much. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.