Trust & Familiarity: The Secret Sauce of Nigerian Sales

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to look at the question, is there such a thing as a Nigerian sales pitch? That's another way of asking, is there a Nigerian way to sell? I can't remember who sent in this question, to be honest. It's just a list of questions that I have right now. But I do know that several books have been devoted to the subject. And you do have some people on social media trying to say that this is how you sell in Nigeria and this is how you shouldn't sell now if you've been a listener of the show for a very long time, you know that I keep saying time and time again that sales principles are universal.

So the sales principles for sales, selling, persuading, people having business conversations are going to be the same whether it's in Afghanistan, in Nigeria, in America or Australia. So the sales principles are universal. However, the application of these principles is going to be nuanced according to the context, according to the personal context, according to the social context, according to the cultural context. You know, there might be any different number of contexts that determine how these principles are applied.

So yes, if you are in Nigeria or Afghanistan or in America, you should be paying attention to contextual nuance in order to be successful in sales or in selling. So if you're selling to a grandma, you're not going to go about it the same way that you're selling to teen girls and if you're selling to Asians. But in the general sense, you're not going to sell in the same sense that you will to Americans. Now I'm going to say something now that I'm going to keep hopping on while I'm making this podcast episode and that this is, it's difficult to tackle this kind of question without encroaching into stereotypes.

So when I do encroaching the stereotypes, forgive me, it was not my intention to be close minded. I'm just trying to illustrate what is otherwise a difficult, a difficult conversation to have. You know, given that we're just talking about these things in the universal sense. So if we were face to face with a particular Nigerian or a particular American or a particular Asian, OK, now I know very little about Asian cultures.

I'm not saying that if we had a particular situation on hand, I'll be able to say something that would be the most appropriate and honest to the situation. But while we're talking about these things in the universal sense, forgive me, I might encroach on some stereotypes here while I'm trying to provide examples. So sales principles, universal, the application is nuanced according to the context. We should pay attention to the context so that we can be successful at the sale.

Now, the particulars of the sales principles in a very general sense are this and number one, people have to be familiar with, you have to be familiar with your product, they have to be familiar with your service. This applies whether it's Afghanistan, Nigeria, America, United Kingdom. People have to be familiar with you, your product or service. The people also have to trust you. This is just a general speaking in general terms here.

They have to trust you. And it's going to be the same whether we're talking about Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon or Ethiopia. Then there also has to be a pre-existing relationship in the general sense and that applies whether we're talking about Canada, New Zealand or Australia. Now a caveat, these three things that I've spoken about so far, people being familiar with you, your product or your service or people trusting you having a pre-existing relationship.

This is when we're talking about complex sales scenarios. Complex sales scenarios are typically where we're dealing with services whether we're the product or service has multiple users or multiple decision makers. And typically when we're talking about expensive stuff. So if we're talking about going to the market to buy an Apple or to buy a Gucci or to buy a sponge from the open market, these things do not apply. You don't need to know the seller per say, you don't need to know the product or the service.

There's no need for trust, there's no need for pre-existing relationship. You've gone to the market, it is kind of assumed that because it's in the general market that the apple, the sponge, the whatever it is that you want to buy is not going to be defective in some way. So that takes care of the trust element and the whole pre-existing relationship thing. Not necessary because in Nigeria at the very least if you buy something that is really, really bad and it's terrible, at the very least you can go back to the market and you can talk to the what's it called.

Markets usually have associations. You can go and talk to somebody, the person will talk to the market chairman or the market share lady and the person can be traced down and there's going to be some redress at least in Nigeria for when you buy defective stuff. So pre-existing relationships and trust, you know, not really essential. But then when we're talking about complex hill scenarios. So if it's a service, let's say wedding photography, it'll help if people have heard about your brand before or your product or service or if you can find your way to make yourself familiar.

So you know wedding photographers posting on OK, well, I don't know if the wedding photographers use Instagram anymore because I'm not in the, I'm not in the business anymore. But I'm assuming using Instagram, some forms of social media to make people familiar with what it is that you do has to be part of the game. And then of course, through all that, you're trying to build some trust when you're having personal conversations with them, you're trying to show credibility and competency because you're trying to increase the level of trust in the situation.

You're trying to create a relationship. So eventually when you get to the point of money, this is how much it's going to cost. This is what you're going to get. There's some level of trust and you can have the conversations safely and with your guard down. So that's an example about the service and like I said, some services complex multiple decision makers, Let's say life insurance for instance, you're selling life insurance, you're trying to sell to the husband or or to the wife.

The husband might want to discuss with the wife, you know, concerning personal goals, financial requirements for the future or things like that and vice versa. The wife might also want to discuss with the husband. So you can see that this is not just a straightforward thing. It will be nice for people to get to know you before they hand over their millions of naira and they trust you and that you build some sort of relationship.

And then when it's over, expensive stuff. You're selling a car, you're selling a OK, let's just leave it a car before I say something outlandish. So you're selling a car, you're selling an expensive computer, for instance. You see that some of these dynamics start coming back into play again. So these are principles that I've discussed so far. People knowing who you are, your product or service people trusting you, having a pre-existing relationship.

This is only when we're talking about complex sales. If you're faced with a simple sales scenario, then it doesn't matter whether you're in China, America, Nigeria, Ghana or New Zealand. When it's a simple sales scenario, people pretty much just fall back to take it or leave it. So in Nigeria, if you're hugging too much, at some point the market woman or the market man is going to say, look dude, if you don't want to buy this thing, can you step please the other people who want to buy it,

can you please get out of my shop, Please move away from here? You know, blocking people from coming to my store, That's because we're dealing with a simple sales scenario. So it's take it or leave it. You don't want to buy. I've told you the price. If you don't want to buy it, then half off, that's somebody else coming back. That is not the kind of thing we would do in the complex sales scenario. So for simple sales scenario,

regardless of the context, whether America, Nigeria or Asia, at some point is going to be look, take it or leave it, this is it, take it or leave it Complex sales after a little bit more. Now I've spoken about 3 sorts of principles, people knowing you, your product or service, people trusting you and then having a pre-existing relationship. Now what that usually devolves into is there are certain number of tactics that we have to use and the tactics well, some people call them stages.

The tactics or the stages are called by different names. But on the podcast, the terms that I've used before are prospecting, qualification, discovery, proposal, close, customer success and satisfaction, and then repeat business and referrals. Prospecting. That is the stage where you're looking to people who might be sorry, looking for people who might be interested in your product or your service. You're trying to figure out where they hang out in real life or online.

So, you know, checking out Instagram or LinkedIn, that is actually part of prospecting as well. It doesn't have to be prospecting to say that you're going to the person's office or to the person's house. So in the real world or online, we're trying to figure out who they are, where they hang out, what they're interested in, and you're trying to figure out how to start the conversation. The best way to go about having the conversation all that is under the stage, prospecting.

Other people might call it something else, but this is actually a very popular term. Now, the next two terms, qualification and discovery, a lot of people don't speak about it using those exact words. And it makes sense because if you're talking to an everyday ordinary person and say qualification and discovery, it sounds like you are talking about something real weighty, something real heavy. But all qualification and discovery is, is that you're trying to make sure if you're speaking to the right person who can make the the call about whether to buy the product or the service.

Because there's no point talking to someone who might be interested. But the person is not going to. The person is not going to make the decision. The person doesn't have the power to say yes. That's the whole thing about you're trying to talk to somebody. The person is a a high net worth individual. You spend a lot of time talking to the person's PA, the person's personal assistant. You might have spent, you know, nine months, one year building relationship with the personal assistant, but at the end of the day, the personal assistant can be impressed by every single thing.

But the personal assistant is not going to be the person who can stroke a check and say yes, we're going to buy supplies. So, so, so and so number. There are some personal assistants who have been given that authority by their bosses, by their employers and well of course that's part of the whole qualification process. Who am I talking to? What authority do they have? Is there a need for my product or service? Is there a problem that my product or service can help them solve?

Discovery is the stage where we try and figure out how significant, how bad the problem is and whether there is an actual need for our product or service. Because sometimes your product or your service, well, it means a lot to you, boy. You're talking to potential customers and clients. Sometimes they're just curious. And even today it happened, we're walking through the store and my son saw one of these TV's, he said 3D plasma something, something, something.

And was was a huge TV. Well, of course it was sitting on one of those things, postings that you put TV's on camera, what they're called, you know, those wooden bits of furniture that was maybe a foot and a half off the ground. But then even at that, the TV was almost, almost to my eye level. And I'm a fairly big dude, I'm almost six one. So you could see that was a massive TV. So anybody approaching us in that kind of situation would have well or well, of course there is some interest, but The thing is, do we need a new TV or do we need a larger TV?

Yeah, that would help. But I'm sure you get the point that I'm trying to make who are merely curious. But we don't have a problem that is worth solving at the moment, or at least not worth throwing millions of naira at the problem. Because currently in that store I've seen some TV's that are 3,000,000 naira, I've seen some 2,000,000 Naira. I've seen about 6-6, I think maybe even 7 million naira. And that's just not the stage we are right now in our lives.

In fact, we also spend 7,000,000 now on the TV. My in laws would look at me, I say if I'm crazy and my mom would ask me like really? You guys had nothing to do with your money, but you spend 7 million naira on the TV anyway, so that's what discovery qualifications are about. You have to try and figure out does the person have a problem? Is the person just curious? Is the problem significant enough that the person is willing to suspend significant money behind it?

Then of course proposal and close. That's why you tell the person this is what I can do for you. close. You try and collect the money, customer success and satisfaction. You want to make sure people are happy, repeat business and referrals. You're not really going to make money unless people buy again from you because it's a lot easier sale referrals because when they introduce people to you, those are easier sales as well.

And it's best to deal with as much repeat business and referrals as possible because it costs time and money to go out looking for new customers. So these are the tactics that are involved. So now these are the things when we talk about selling in a Nigerian way or in an Asian way or in an American way or in a New Zealand way, these are the things that we now have to be asking the the nitty gritty, the particular context.

How do I get people to be familiar with me, my product and my service in China? How do I get people to trust me in Lagos? How do I build a relationships with people in New Zealand? And when we get further down to it, prospecting, how do I go about prospecting in Canada that is not going to get me arrested, you know, because there are things that you might do in some parts of the world, it's perfectly fine. You go to other parts of the world, you do it and you get arrested or you insult someone.

How do I go about having qualification conversations with someone in Asia, for instance? Because as I understand, sorry, forgive me, I know, yes, I'm encroaching on stereotypes here. As I understand it looks like a Chinese and Japanese brothers and sisters and not as, how would I say, expressive as those of us over here on the African continent. So, you know, we talk freely on some things, but as I understand it, in Japan, for instance, it's a matter of honour that you're not going to be able to ask some questions because you'll be hinting that the person is dishonourable or incapable of certain things.

So you can ask some questions here and the man can answer, it's not a problem. But you have some questions of a Japanese man and he might be like, what are you hinting at? Are you trying to say I can't take care of my family or that I'm deficient in this way or that way? So sorry, forgive me again because I'm encroaching on stereotypes. Then you also try and have to figure out discovery. How do we have the money conversation?

There are some cultures where money conversations are not necessarily taboo, but you can go about having very direct money conversations. So you know, it depends. So you have to try and figure out these sorts of things. What is the best way to make a proposal or to try and close the deal. In fact, this is something that I read in a book about how for Japanese people, for instance, when you go and you negotiate the contract and you sign and you go ahead.

And in Japan, the signed contract actually is more like heads of agreement. So yes, they are binding and everybody's going to follow through with it honourably, but these are more like heads of agreement. So there are signals as to what needs to be done when you guys run into trouble. But it's not as if we are going to live and die by these documents. So the document is important, but it's not the same as in when you're dealing with a litigious culture like the Americans or maybe like the Nigerians.

So for the Nigerians, you know, it's straightforward. If you sign that you're going to give me 50 pieces at this price, then you know you had better supply that because that's what is in the contract. Except if somebody decides to say, you know what, this can happen while not in control of anything. That may be a good Christian. Let's just ignore this. Let's ignore that so you can see how some of these cultural contexts now come into play.

Then we now try and look for the best way to get repeat business and referrals because there are some contexts and there are some cultures where if you use, if you talk in the Nigerian way or maybe in an American way and you're trying to get repeat business from someone or referrals, it might come across like you are hounding on the person. So this is where we now start getting into the nitty gritty. How are Nigerians supposed to prospect?

How do you have qualification and discovery conversations when you're talking to a Nigerian? What is the best way to make a proposal or to close? So these are the sort of things that we have to be culturally and contextually sensitive to and that we have to apply. Like I said, it is difficult to do in a general sense without encroaching on stereotypes. So I'm not trying to offend anybody here. OK, Now let's look at some examples.

Let me just use only one stage of the items that we've discussed so far, unless if we can come up with an example. Again, Like I said, I'm going to come up against some stereotypes here, some generalities. I'm not trying to offend anyone and I'm not trying to make any kinds of assumptions. I'm just trying to flesh things out here. So let's look at the prospecting stage. Remember that prospecting is where you ask yourself, who might be interested in my product or service?

Where can I find them? Where do they hang out online? Where do they live in the real world? How should I start conversations with them? What is the best way to start conversations with them? You know things like that. So at the prospecting stage 1, something, one thing rather, that might be on people's mind might be the appropriate greeting. Because eventually, whether you have a conversation with the person on LinkedIn or whether you go to the person's office or the person comes over to your studio or to your home, or you guys meet in church or at an eatery or something like that,

eventually there's a matter of the appropriate greeting because like I've said time and time over here on the podcast that sales people will have to be professional by one of being professional. It's not just dressing appropriately, but making sure that you have the appropriate greeting relative to the context. Now for those of you, my brothers and sisters listening to the podcast who are from Canada, you know that the appropriate greeting is you approach someone, you call them by their first name and you extend your hand.

So that is typical in commercial scenarios in Canada. In Nigeria, on the other hand, it depends on the context. That might actually be rude for you to show up, call someone by their first name, extend your hand and, you know, try to get things rolling. So it might be rude depending on the context. So in Nigeria, should you be on the first name basis? I'd say probably not. It depends. As a general rule, this is a commercial context.

You should be differential. And then the person is going to bring you up. So you can approach and say, oh, Madam Felicia, nice to meet you. And then Madam Felicia says, ah, come on, stop that. We've been emailing back and forth Now just call me Felicia and you're good. You guys can start off the conversation. You're calling her Felicia. But then if I show up and I say, ah, Felicia, nice to meet you, and I stick up my hand,

Depending on who the woman is, the culture, marital status, high level within the organization, that might be a problem or it might not. So it depends. So in Nigeria, first name basis, my recommendation probably not start off being differential and the other person is going to bring you up to speed so you can show up myself. Mr. Cooley, nice to meet you. And I said no, it's alright. Cooley is my official name. Most people just call me David.

And then now you're good to go, you start calling him David. But in Canada, it's OK to show up and say David, nice to meet you and you extend your hand in Nigeria might be a problem. It depends. So the factors to look out, it depends on the ethnicity. Like I said, age, sex, position within the organization, relative status between you and the other person. So in Nigeria, there are some situations where the appropriate greeting might be good morning,

Sir, or you address the person as a chief or daddy. That one has happened to me before, where I said, oh Madam, when I was talking to your husband and the woman flared up, wasn't an old hero couple and lady flared up and she was like, what do you mean that my husband, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, he's older than you, older than your parents, we have grandchildren that older than you, blah blah, you will address him as daddy.

That is respectful thing to do and blah blah blah blah blah. Now it seems kind of harsh, but The thing is, at the time I lived in Lagos for a while and yes, I should have known better. I should have come in. I should have said, daddy a Cairo, Mommy, a Cairo, a Cairo, you know, and you know the whole Yoruba greeting thing. So there are times when that is the more appropriate thing to do. You come in and say, daddy, Mommy, good morning.

I'm not Mr. Adisoji. How are you? And you extend your hand might be a problem. So daddy, Baba, Ma, aunty, sister, Bros. It depends, depends on the context. So the whole thing about extending your hand, like I said, it depends sex, marital status, culture, age. It really really depends. For a northern culture, for instance, I can get away with coming into a room and then I extend my hand, address the person. But of course, if the person is someone of a higher status or older, all I have to do is extend my hand and cop my hand or extend my hand with a light bow.

And that's not a problem with me extending my hand first. Back to the Yoruba example that I gave. In Western cultures, among Yoruba people, that might not be a good idea. You're better off coming into the room and then you bow or nod, and then you wait for the elder to extend their hand and that will determine what will follow. Because in fact, sometimes you're dealing with Westerners in, shall I say, higher status, older than you, something like that.

You come in, you bow, and the woman extends for you to come forward. And actually she gives you a part on the back. So it's not even a a handshake. So for Canadians and Americans apart on the back, that might be condescending, you know, like, do you think I'm a pet or something like that? But actually in some Nigerian cultures, it's a good thing. You walk in, you do the greeting, the lady calls you for. She gives you a part on the back.

It's good you guys are making progress. You know, she doesn't perceive you to be a threat. She's willing to have the conversation with you. So yes, all these things I'm talking about can be complicated because it sounds complicated, especially if you're not a Nigerian. I think for Ghanaians, listening to the podcast, you know, Ghanaians, Cameroonians, you guys probably understand because you guys have some similar version of all these dynamics that are going on.

So if you want to sell to Nigerians or if you want to sell to Canadians, you know you are in Nigeria, you move to Canada or whatever. You have to be observant. Sometimes they help. If you have a local guide, not necessarily someone who's going to accompany you everywhere all the time, but at least someone that you can call to ask questions like, oh, I did this, this happened. Was that right? Was that appropriate? What was the wise thing to do?

What was the better thing to do? If you're able to do some research beforehand, luckily the Internet, YouTube, there are lots of avenues that we can do lots of research on to make sure that we do not. We're not culturally inappropriate in business situations, but the bottom line is this, do not take your cultural assumptions into commercial or sales situations. So I as a team man should not assume that because team people,

I'm from the middle belt part of the country that because this is how we middle belt people roll, this is how we have conversations, this is how we engage with people. I should not assume that if I go to Katuna and I'm trying to sell something that I should start off conversations the same way. If you are coming from Sokoto and you're trying to sell in Lori, do not assume that things just happen the same way. So we should be ready.

We should observe, have a local guide if you can do some research, but don't assume that things just happen here the way that it happens back home or amongst your people. So for a Nigerian young man like me, I'm able to get away with some stuff. I'm able to walk in and say, hey boss, how you doing now? Nice to finally meet you or good afternoon Sir or good afternoon man. You know things like that. It might be out of sync.

I was trying to do that in Scotland and in fact I ran through trouble. Well not really trouble once because there was this lady dark skinned like us. So I just want, I said our sister good morning and then she looked straight at me. She said we are not all Nigerians and then she walked away you know she was offended so but in Nigeria it's not a problem. I woke up with someone and say, hey, good morning sister. And it's not a problem.

She's not offended. But in Scotland I tried that. Maybe she was, even though she was of African descent, maybe she was one of the people from the Caribbeans, for instance. Or maybe she was OK Well, she didn't sound black American, so let's just say she might have been Caribbean. So yeah, in Nigeria it works. In Scotland it doesn't work. So yeah, that's it. Pretty much. That's it. Observe. Get a guide. Do your research.

So that's all for today folks. Connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tamashima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. Don't worry about the spelling of my name. You can confirm that from the link where you're listening to this episode. Also, connect with me on WhatsApp. I love hearing from you guys. The number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. Thanks for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys at the next episode.