The Nigerian Business Etiquette: Building Relationships, Communication Styles, and Dress Code

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'm going to be tackling a question that I've already looked at before in another form and that's how to navigate cultural nuances in Nigeria. Now, since I've already tackled the question before in another way today, let me try and look at it through a different lens and I'm going to try and tackle 3 sub questions primarily. Number one will be if there's any difference when it comes to relationship building in Nigeria.

You know, is it any different than building relationships in another country, Ghana, Australia, whatever. Then we're going to see if there are any differences when it comes to communication style and then if there's any difference when it comes to dress code. So for relationship building in Nigeria, when it comes to navigating cultural nuances, how do we do business? Of course, I keep saying time and time again on the podcast that relationship building or building rapport or whatever it is you want to call it is a universal tenant.

So whether you're going to do business in Australia, in the UK, in Ghana or Nigeria, you're going to have to engage in some form of relationship building. Now the kind of relationship building that you're going to do or the extent of the relationship building that you're going to do, how light, how heavy, how deep, how whatever is going to depend on the culture in question and whether you're faced with a simple sale or a complex sale.

So when it comes to culture, and I'm not an anthropologist or sociologist or whatever, so I'm speaking in just in layman's term, it will depend on whether you have more of a formal business type culture or very dairy cultural or if you're dealing with cultures that are more social, traditional, family oriented, old world, you know, whatever. So these are the sorts of things that will determine how much relationship building you're going to do or how little of relationship building or rapport building that you're supposed to do.

Now, another thing that we have to bear in mind is this when we are dealing with simple sales scenarios, by the way, this is your first time of listening to the show, then I would recommend that you do this strongly after you're done listening to this podcast, I'd recommend that you check listen notes. I think they have an app. If they don't have an app, no worries. You can do this over the web. So listen notes as in listen,

LISTEN and then notes, NOT ES2 separate words. So Listen Notes is a site that curates, curates all kinds of podcasts. So you can find my podcast over there. Now the beauty about Listen Notes is you find the podcast that you want to listen to, like they say you want to listen to mine, which is sales for the Nigerian business person. So they have a search function in Listen Notes. It allows you to search not just podcasts in general, but within the particular podcast that you're listening to.

So if you're listening to this podcast right now in Listen Notes, then if you want to search simple sales scenario, simple sales context, complex sales, rapport building, relationship building, Every single podcast that I've spoken about so far over the 800 and 7677 episodes that we've done so far, all the episodes that I've done on these particular topics will be there. And you'll be able to take advantage of not just this current episode that you're listening to, but episodes that I've record recorded in the past.

So once you're not listening to this episode, check out listen Notes or any kind of podcasts, curator, podcast player, podcast catcher, whatever it is that they're called that allows you to search within the podcast. So you can find all the other stuff that I've said concerning these topics. So for those of you who've been listening for a very long time, remember that if we're dealing with the simple sales, then relationship building is not really a concern.

It's a simple sale. If you're dealing with one person, one or two people Max, if you're dealing with something that is a simple product or simple service in itself. So like if you sell commodities and the example that I've been given over here on the podcast right from day one is buying a Gucci. If you're going to go and buy, excuse me, a Gucci in the market, then that is a simple sales scenario, relationship building, not really important.

But if it's a complex sale, a complex sale, many factors. It depends how complex, the subject matter or the service you're dealing with, how many people that you are doing business with, the amount of money in question. You know, those are the sorts of things that determine whether it's a simple sale or a complex sale. So back to the a good a Gucci example, if you go to the market to buy a Gucci or pepper or beans and it's a one off sale,

then that's a simple sale. So relationship building not really important. Although if the market vendor or the market trader is important, they will try to build a relationship with you so that you keep coming back to them again and again and again. But relationship building not really important. However, if it's a complex sale, back to the Agusi example, let's say I deal in a Gucci and I supply a Gucci to markets all over Abuja.

And so because of that, I'm not thinking of buying one Moodle for maybe 3000 or whatever, but I'm selling in maybe tonnes or or you know, I'm selling in tonnes, tonnes is 1000 kilos. So maybe I'm supplying thousands of kilos of Igusi to markets in Abuja or several 100 bags or several 1000 bags to markets in Abuja. Now, in this case, the amount of money involved is huge. I'm dealing with multiple traders. I'm trying to gain access to different local governments, you know, things like that,

different municipalities. And so now, even though the subject of the sale is still a goosey, you can see that in one context, it's a simple sale. That's me and the market woman were haggling in another one, supplying to markets within certain municipalities in Abuja. It's a complex sale. So when you're dealing with complex sales, then building relationships become even more important. So it's not just the culture, but it also depends on whether you are dealing with a simple sale or a complex sale.

So if you're selling commodities in the North, do you have to build relationships? It depends. If you're selling payment infrastructure to financial institutions in Lagos and Abuja, do you have to build relationships? You can see that the need for that becomes more and more important. But rest assured, relationship building is a universal tenant. So you will have to do relationship building. Even in Nigeria, the extent of the relationship building is going to depend on the culture,

Folks in the West, you guys in the UK, you guys in America, you guys are much more, you know, direct assertive, go straight to the point, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So the kind of relationship building that you have to do there will be different than the kind of relationship building that you have to do in Nigeria where yes, we get to business, we get down to business. But typically we like to know, who are you, where's this guy coming from, what's his back story, what's the angle, blah,

blah, blah. All these sorts of things are much more important in these sorts of communities. Then communication style, which is also kind of tied to this whole thing about culture. So in Nigeria, I would say communication style is more warm and it's kind of indirect. So it's something that we're going to notice when we're talking to people and we've we're faced with objections. Now an objection is any reason or reasons that people give or any form of hesitation or stalling that people give for not wanting to go ahead with the business relationship or continue with the conversation.

So because we are more of a warm and indirect kind of culture, most people are not going to tell you to F off. They will just say let me think about it or let me talk to my husband or let me talk to my wife or send me that e-mail or blah, blah, blah. So we get a whole lot of those sorts of things here in this part of the world. Now Scotland on the other hand, where I did my postgraduate studies, the culture, they're slightly different.

If somebody thinks you're a twat, even if it's in a business context, the person has no problems saying you're a twat. Maybe not that abrasive, but in Scotland, you know, people just say like it is in London, at least the little time that I spent in London, I think they pick up this should I say? I don't know if I should call it passive aggressive or indirect because people are trying to be polite or stuff like that. So in London, you're not likely to be called a twat even if you are because anyway, different culture.

Then in America on the other hand, you know, more business focus, more result oriented, more whatever. So you can use assertive language, you can use direct language, but maybe nobody's going to call you off and accuse you of being a twat. But you can see that whether you're in Scotland or in London or in America, the level of warmth, the level of directness, the level of assertiveness changes. And so you have to take that into account when you're in Nigeria.

Here it's more warm and it's more indirect. So if you think somebody's an idiot or you think the person is a twat, you think the person is a 4 niner or whatever, the typical thing to do in Nigeria is not to say, but to politely excuse yourself from the context and avoid having to directly say certain kinds of things. So you have to take that on board. So if you are one of the folks, you know, Nigerians in diaspora, you know, born in America, bred in America, schooled in America,

you want to come back to Niger because you want to open a gym or you want to sell vegetarian cuisine or whatever. These are some some of the things that you have to take on board. So because we are warm and indirect in this part of the world, we have to pay lots of attention to non verbal cues. Is the person smiling? Is the person yawning or the person look drowsy? Is the person cut using short sentences? Is the person expressive?

You know, you have to be paying attention to all these sorts of things to realize how effective your communication is, to try and figure out the level of rapport that you guys have built, you know, those sorts of things. And then of course, we have to know when to use assertive language in context like Nigeria, where we're kind of warm and indirect. So you show up to the person's office, you don't just get down to business or Alihaji, thank you very much for taking this meeting.

And the reason why I took this meeting today is because we're interested in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We can do this for you. This is how we're going to, you know, we can do this for you at this price. This is what we can deliver. This is what we blah, blah, blah that is in in some context, depending on who it is you're talking to, that might be too direct. So wouldn't be out of place to show up and say, oh, Al Haji,

how are you doing? How's Madam? How is she doing? Oh, that's your daughter. Oh, wow, That's that's good. What? How, how, how is she doing? She's in Regina. Patrice. OK. What? Yeah. OK. My daughter is also in blah, blah blah. And then you guys talk and talk and talk and the state of the economy and this and then that and some common things here and there. So expect to have plenty of preamble before you get down to business.

And I've also heard on several other podcasts where some of these things are also an issue, you know, in different parts of the world. Like I was listening to this podcast where an Australian fellow was talking about how when you're in Sydney, you know, it's straight to business. But when you're in this part of Australia where people are more laid back and blah, blah, blah. You know, you go, you sit down, they give you coffee, you know,

you drink, you guys chat you this and this and this and that and that, you know, and then 45 minutes passes before you head straight down to business. So communication style, these are small things that we have to pay attention to. And that is one of the reasons why I proposed in one of my older podcast that if you're new to Nigeria, trying to sell in Nigeria for the first time, it might not be a bad idea if you're out of touch with the culture to have, should I say a,

a, a handler or you know, someone local who's going to take you here and there, introduce you to a couple of people and then for you to take your cues from that other person. So if you're in a situation where the other person seems to be slowing things down, it's kind of chill. You know, you take dressing accordingly. And when you notice that the other person is getting more direct or opens up the door, then you know that OK, that's your cue.

You can be more assertive, much more direct. So OK, 15 minutes. So let me wrap this up quickly. Dress code. So for Nigeria, dress code is for business is conservative or professional or appropriate to the context? Yeah, let me put it that way. So to be on the safe side, dress conservatively, trying to figure out what is professional depending on where you are. I always try to dress appropriately for the context. The reason why I have to point it out is because in certain parts of the world, in some parts of the UK, because if I

remember in Scotland there was, you know, Scotland, they have this kind of business dress thing. So it's time for business, be dressed for business. But then in London, there's some of this smart casual thing going on. And I get the impression that in America, in some circles, smart casual is kind of cool. But in Nigeria, I'd say to be on the safe side, dress professional to be on the safe side. But in a certain sense, you have to be appropriate to the context.

So artists seem to get away with a whole lot. So wedding photographers can show up in torn jeans and faded shirt and dyed hair with dreadlocks because given that context, that is what people expect. So yes, wedding photographers and get away with a lot of that. And I was one of those wedding photographers who was more on the boring side. I've always been bald. OK when when my son, my first son was born. I agree on Mohawk.

But apart from that, my hair has been very boring, not adventurous, but, and I'm just trying to say be appropriate to the context. So artisans get away with dressing a certain way. People, excuse me, people in the trades, they get away with dressing in a certain way. And then artists also get away with dressing in a certain way, but try and being conservative or professional, but always dressed appropriate to the context.

So those are the three main headers that I wanted to tackle today. But just in case there's someone here who hasn't listened to the Order podcast, there's something that I want to stress for those of you who are newbies. Nigeria has hierarchical organizations and deference is a part of our culture. And difference depends according to age, according to sex, and according to status. So it's not something that we can run away from.

So if you are Nigerian in diaspora, you spend all your time in America, you come back here and you want to sell this whole thing of call me Bob. It doesn't work here. You can't come here and say, oh, Bob, nice to meet you. You're the one who is chasing after something. You're trying to get something. You don't walk into Roberts office and say, Bob, nice to meet you. You will say Mr. Roberts. Depending on the context, you might have to say Chief Roberts.

Let's see what else I mean. You get the point. Hierarchical organizations, we have a culture of deference. And so come in and assume that that is how you're going to start the relationship. Let the other person be the person, the be the one to tell you that oh, no, no, no, no, don't call me Mr. Roberts. Just call me Bob. So if person says no, call Mr. Roberts, call me Bob. OK, no problem. Maybe you've opened up the the person has opened up the what would I say person has given you permission to be that informal.

But I would say for those of you Nigerians in diaspora, you're coming back here, you're trying to do business, just take dressing accordingly. You know, he might say, you know, modern times modern this more than that, but we are not quite there yet. So hierarchical organizations, culture of difference depending on age, sex and status. So if you go into an organization, don't call anybody Cooley. It's the first time you're meeting, you're going to say Mr.

Cooley, we're going to say Mr. Abdul Rahman or Madam Chijuki or Misses. I mean, you get the whole point. The other person will give you the cue about when to step down. If you're selling within an organization, it's not just enough to talk to the case officer that you're talking to right now. The case officer has an orga. You'll be expected to build a certain rapport or relationship with the orga as well. And orga meaning boss or superior.

And OK, well, close to 20 minutes. So let me not overflow the issue. But like I said, listen notes, check the app. If there's no app, there definitely is a website. Check it. You can search within that podcast player and your way to find every single episode over the 870 whatever episodes that I've done so far where I've spoken about things related to culture, selling in Nigeria, simple sales context, complex sales context, relationship building, rapport building,

cultural differences, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things. So connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian and also connect with me on LinkedIn, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys at the next episode.