Unlock Your Potential: Why Sales Training Matters & The Perils of Rushing Automation

Hello, and welcome to the show. Today's episode is being recorded at my desk, and it's raining outside. There also isn't any light. So yeah, we have the investor going on, but all my neighbors are running their generators. And then, of course, there's rain. And then the whole family is home. So I expect to hear some interruptions in the background. The goal of this show is free business education. So please, if you like what you hear, share, promote and talk about the podcast so that people in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle.

And if you in particular have any sales or marketing questions, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. The country code is +234. Today on the show, depending on how terrible the weather is or not, we I'll see if we can tackle 2 questions or rather two issues now. The first one is this, I'm supposed to have been running a series of trainings, or rather I am currently running a series of trainings for a client of mine who is based in Benin City.

He has a gadget store he's thinking of running, opening a second location. And that is where we started our engagement together. And my professional advice was, yes, it's OK to open a second location. But before you do, or rather before we do that, there are a couple of things that we need to iron out. First, we need to have standard operating procedures regarding sales and a bunch of other stuff so that these things will serve as the template for the second location when we open that.

So that's where we currently are. I'm talking with him and his sales associates. I'm trying to narrow down a couple of things, you know, just, you know, tidy up their sales process, make it more efficient where it can be. But the most important thing is to put it on paper so that by the time you start location 2, location 3, location 4, there is this a steady playbook that everybody can run from. So if you're in this kind of business and you admire what other people have built, like slot for instance, because I

know that slot is in Lagos, it's, it's in Abuja, where else? Makudi, Kaduna, Port Arcord, like it's, it's all over the place. I don't know if they are nationwide in all 36 states, but if you admire the thing that people like that have built, this is precisely how they do it. Or the defunct Mr. Biggs, before Mr. Biggs went away, this is precisely how Mr. Biggs did it. So you establish the template first in a few locations, and then you scale it out and multiply it across a couple of locations.

OK. So unfortunately, one of those meetings that we agreed upon, some people didn't turn up on time and it's not in my usual character, but I had to give them some strong words. And I'm going to share some of those strong words with you guys today just in case there's some of you who are listening to the podcast right now and you haven't quite got the memo. Like you don't really understand what is going on when an employer says, you know what, we need to do some training.

I'm bringing an outside consultant, I'm bringing an outside resource person. And this is what we have to do. You know, some of you, it hasn't quite clicked yet. What's what's going on? So that's the reason why I'm making today's episode. So one moment I'll be right back and then we'll continue. OK, I'm back. Sorry about that. Like I mentioned, it's raining over here in Abuja. And in fact, the rains have been long, we've been long awaiting the rains in Abuja because I

won't like the dry season has been has been killing somebody. So it's nice that the rains are finally here. Anyway. So now that the rains are in full blast, I just wanted to make sure that, you know, the kids had closed all the windows. You know, that'd not be that. I stand up here for the podcast recording and then I see that, OK, the children's room is flooded or that kind of thing. All right. OK, so like I was saying, now me and this guy, this is how I was supposed to work with the store.

We set up a bunch of trainings and then we set up some trainings. And then some of the sales people do not show. And usually I like to keep things cool, but I had to give them a talking to. And I suspect that there's some of you here who are listening to the show. Who you know, your guy has tried to arrange one or two things in the office and you're like, I beg, you know, as far as you're concerned, you know now for them pockets and you just, you're just doing your own thing, like you can't be bothered.

So I had to address the team and let them know about a bunch of stuff. Number one, we're all sales people. So me, the trainer, the facilitator, the consultant, whatever it is you call, you call me. I'm a salesperson because I have to move my own market. The person who owns the business, they're a salesperson too because they have to move markets, they have to sell gadgets. Then those of you who are hired to be sales associates, you also sales people because you have merchandise that you have to move.

And I pointed out to them that normally for Niger sales people, I haven't met any career sales person in Abuja because typically if somebody is good at sales, good at this job, they might start in one place but ultimately they end up running their own thing. They end up doing their own thing. And I haven't met any employer who has been talking to me about doing some consultation with their staff or stuff like that. I haven't met any of them who is in denial or who doesn't know that our sales people have one or two things that they're doing outside.

So if you're listening to this show right now, you're a salesperson working for someone your guy knows. Yeah, you're trying to hide it, but we all know. So The thing is when we hook up these kinds of things, it actually is in your own best interest to pay attention and get the most of what you can now because by the time you leave your guy and you want to now go full 100% into this your side hustle. It is from these trainings that your guy is organizing and that resource people like me are training you or other resource people.

It is there that you will get the information that you need to blow. Now yoga knows you're going to leave one day, but they're still willing to put money and time into training you properly because they know that even though it's a temporary marriage and you're here for now, at least they want you to be skilled up for now to make their business move forward. So the first thing that we have to learn as salespeople is we need to take advantage of all these opportunities that come up for professional development or for personal development,

especially when we are not the ones who are paying for it. So whatever free training you get, rush it. All these free podcasts, listen, it doesn't have to be mine. Take advantage of it. If your guy is paying for training, go. There are some people in the civil service, for instance, that the office will arrange training. Maybe the train is based in America or based in the UK or something. They will land. Instead of going for training,

they'll be going for shopping. It is themselves that they are deceiving. If the federal government has already paid for this training, I'm not saying you should not do your shopping. When you land in the US, go for your training. After that, you go for your shopping. You are improving yourself. You will be with the federal government all your life. All the time will come when you want to start a business. Your spouse will want to start a business, your children want to start a business.

It's from all these small, small foreign training that you didn't pay for, that you've been learning one or two things that you'll now be useful to your kids, to yourself, to your spouse. And it's the same thing for those of us who work in organizations. Where do your guy or the Madam is willing to drop by so that people can come and train you? Anything that is free, take advantage of it. Free podcast, take advantage of it.

Free seminar, take advantage of it. Your guy is paying, take advantage of it. Now eventually will be nice for you to start paying to beef your own skills, but until then take advantage of all these free opportunities. Then I also needed to tell these people some proper etiquettes that we need as salespeople and #1 it is don't be late because when you're late, it shows a lack of respect for others and then people end up not trusting you.

Now, when it is normal in house meeting, and I know you don't think it's too much of a big deal, but if you get into a habit of coming late for one or two things, that's how one day when money is on the line and sweet money, you will now show up late for a meeting. And you really don't think that all these small, small things, you know, showing up late, not dressing right, not sounding right, not talking right, not doing what you promised, you know, things like that.

You really don't think all these things add up to the way people see you and regard you and respect you. So like I had to tell them at this meeting because there were four sales associates that was there. There's one that I've known for a while because it took a while for them to put together the sales team. So the oldest person there, I was like, look, at least I know her me and how we've been vibing for a while before you 2 got here.

I know her capabilities by the time this thing ends and then me and how we jump on the outside. At least I know that. OK, this babe, this what she's capable of. Do many three of you you guys are following us on doing smash, smash, smash. Like if we meet outside, like how do you think I'm going to reach you? If there's an opportunity and somebody asks me Tavish and my what's up? OK, these four babes are here. What do you think?

Like who do you think I'm going to vouch for? We should be thinking about all these sorts of things as sales people. We should never be late. Show respect for other people's time and let people trust you because of how you're conducting yourself. Then do what you say you will. If you have said I will do this thing, do it. People will trust you. You will become dependable. Somebody will think about you as a ride or die person.

All these things are important when it comes to sales. Now, of course, we're not perfect. Things happen. I'm like, look at me now, for instance, like me and the kids. Things happen that time when I'm off to do once or, you know, do something. And then somebody calls me like, this one's real life. Hello, Sir. Blah, blah. Los Angeles fell off his swing, you know, banged his tooth. He's OK, blah, blah, blah. You know, should we take him to the hospital?

I say, yeah, sure, no problem. Do whatever it is that is within your Yes, you know, go ahead. Do all the first aid. You know, that is necessary. He's doing OK, OK, no problem. I will be there to pick him up early. Then, you know, I went about my business and then I had to counsel one or two things, then go and then attend to my son. So these things happen and we're human. We know that these things happen. So This is why I told them when stuff comes up, send somebody a notification, send somebody an apology, send somebody a message, try and reschedule.

Do this well ahead of time. For those of you who've been listening to the podcast, you know that my own personal standard is do it like two or three hours ahead. Because if you guys are supposed to meet by let's say 1:00 in the afternoon and you send somebody a message at 11:30, like you more or less have wasted the person's time because the person has planned to be there by 1:00. You're not sending him message at 12:30.

So you can't make it like, what the hell, If you're going to give somebody an apology that you can't make it, give the person an apology with enough time so that the person can now plan and do something else. So the meeting is 1 by like around. I can't 9/30/10. It looks like I can't make it and I'll pick up the phone. I'll call the person. The person will be relieved. You've told the person hours ahead of time. The person can now plan to do something else with that time.

Really calling somebody up 15 minutes to say we can't make it is absolute rubbish for salespeople. For those of us who are in sales, calling somebody 15 minutes ahead to say you can't make it is rubbish. As soon as you know you're running late, let that person know. If you can let the person know 234 hours that you can't make it, let the person know. Worst case scenario, one hour. But really, if you're calling somebody 30 minutes, 15 minutes,

I can't make the meeting you've, you've, you've wasted the person's time. So please, let's pay attention to all of this. In fact, there's one thing I need to stress was I say, well, let me know. Stress it because you know, I'm a guy. I'm a certain age, They are ladies of a certain age. So let it not be as if I'm bullying them. But this is something let me stress on the podcast. Look, especially for women in March of 2025, especially those of you who are younger, all these things are important because to be honest, people are already looking at you like man is a small girl.

They're not, they're not really, they're not expecting you to measure up to a certain level of maturity anyway in the 1st place. I'm just being frank with you. So in this environment, these things are even much more important for women. Be on time. If you know that you're going to be late, be professional about this thing. Send an apology, try and reschedule the meeting anyway. So next thing I tried to tell them that, and it's what I

started off the podcast by saying is all these things that people are organizing your employee, your employer. It's not really about your employer. It's about you, the salesperson who is being trained. Because I told them straight like, look me, I've been paid. Whether this thing works good or doesn't work at all, I have been paid. So I'm good and I will make my money on this training occasion or on other occasions and I will be good.

Business will be fine, God willing, granting me good health, I'll be good. And I told them, look, your employee, he's a sharp guy. You can see that he's on the move. Any which way he's going to be good. The second location, whether you guys agree or you don't agree, he will open this thing and he will open the 3rd and the 4th and he will be good. Any which way he will make his money. His train is moving. My train is moving like we were set.

Well, OK, we're on the path. It's about you. Are you going to be alone for the journey? I was trying to get them to understand for me, You know, I've started my journey. I already know the trajectory. The other guy knows his trajectory. You, you, they are just starting. Are you going to be along on the journey? Will you follow me and learn one or two things or will you follow your guy and learn one or two things? I told him this thing is all about learnable skills and life skills.

He's an OK guy. He's very friendly. You know, he's very open. The office is there, he's even there. What you get you, But we should be shadowing him. If he's answering the phone, listen, pick up one or two things. If he's going for business meeting and things are slow in the shop, just follow him right along. Learn one or two things. The thing is a family business. So the person who is involved in HR is the guy's sister.

I said, look, this is an established human resources professional here. Who is doing this, helping, you know, in the family business to help move this thing forward? People are young woman, this is a young woman here. Shadow this sister, learn some stuff, become her friend. Really. When your guy pays money, especially in Nigeria, your guy, your Madam, they pay money for training. You don't show up. You're not taking these things seriously.

It is yourself that you're showing because your guy, your Madam, they will succeed. You're already doing what they need to sort themselves out. They will succeed the trainer, if he's any good or if she's any good is also going to succeed. It's all about you. If you like, sit there like a passive person, let this thing pass you by like you're you're doing yourself. So what I told them when I'm going to tell some of you listening to this now, because there's some of you who are employees and whenever the organized training or they say,

oh, it's not for Friday meeting you black, I beg you know, you just be squeezing your mouth one time. Look, take this thing seriously because you know, honestly, it's about you because me or whoever the facilitator is, they will make their money neat and they will go. The owner of the business is going to make their money neat and they will continue whether you're there or not. Granting that God gives us good life and good health for us to continue.

So for you, just show up for these things, be professional, then learn what you can to make your own money because nobody is naive. I know that this current job that you're at, if you're a salesperson, if you're sales associate, I know you're not going to spend your life on that job. You will move on to other opportunities and God willing, you'll move on to bigger and better and more profitable opportunities until that time comes.

Learn the small that has come before you now so that when you get to that time where there's bigger opportunities, you have learned some life skills, you have learned some sales skills, you have learned some personal development, you've learned some all kinds of things that will help you to maximize those big opportunities that you feel that God is taking you to. So if you feel like you're, well, like where you are, it's too small for you.

I understand if you, we all feel that way. We all start somewhere. And you look at yourself, like me, an educated person like this, This is where I am you now start looking at your age like me, an educated person. This is where I am at 30, or this is where I am at 40, or this is where I am at 50. You hold me. Yeah, almost to everybody, wherever you are, be faithful where you are, Start learning where you are, acquire the skills that you need.

They'll come in really handy when God starts to materialize the other opportunities in your life. So it's part of what I told the sales associates. So excuse me and part of what I'm coming to share with you today, because I know there are some of you that when August says or where Madam says, Oh yeah, Friday morning, everybody show sales meeting, office meeting, whatever it is you do start squeezing your mouth. Just know yourself that you're doing.

It's not the business that you're doing and it's not the trainer, it's not the consultant, it's not the facilitator that you're doing. Now, the second thing that I want us to look at is how not to use automated messaging. For those of you who are tired of WhatsApp episodes, you know, I'm sorry, but this is also another WhatsApp episode. Now the reason why I'm doing that is because I received a message today and the message was saying hello, are you a pro photographer?

Verify your name to get photo book details. So you understand what the guy's trying to do. Now he wants to they call it data enrichment where you have a phone number, but you don't have a name you don't have, you know stuff like that. So you look for ways for people to offer more information. The more data that you have about people, the better you're going to be able to run your sales process. So him just going on the Internet, getting some random messages, maybe like 500 numbers and then blasting this message to all of us.

We are. Hello, are you a pro photographer to verify your name, get photo book details? That's just data enrichment now, because me, now I'm involved in sales, you know, I try to be polite. So I responded and I responded, I wrote, please remove me from your list. I'm no longer in the photography business. Then another message now popped up. The message says, how can I assist? Are you looking for specific branding and photo services?

And I realized that, oh, OK, this is automated message or, or chat bot or whatever. Because there are all kinds of things that are out there, you know, like this is it many chats? Which is it? No many chat. I'd be many chat that you can plug all these bots into your different inboxes and they help to send messages to you and then stuff like that. So I was like, OK, it's a chat, no problem. But still I wanted the guy to catch the hint.

So I did that sliding thing and uttered the message and I wrote, please remove me from your list because when I wanted that when the guy opens the inbox, he will now see that oh, OK, truly this is somebody that should take off the list. Then another message now entered again, do you need some more information? Question mark? That was a summary. Now what I did at this point was I decided to just block the guy. I just blocked the handle.

This guy is trying to be, you know, people are trying to use AI for automation, efficiency, blah, blah, blah. And you can see the reason why I tell you people that look, all this automation automate, like you guys should be coming down first. You want to be automating like what do you know that you're automating? Look, before I get to that, let's think of the damage we're doing. Let's say that this guy just went to Google or some business directory and use some scraper tool just to get 500 numbers of different businesses because you know it's possible.

Now let's say Abuja, you get like that kind of 120. Lagos definitely you'll get like 250 numbers of photographers. Lagos, there'll be plenty now, but our courts may be able to get like that kind. I don't know, 8100 where else? OK Cano, maybe you'll to get like 50, but it's possible that he can get like a sample size of 500. Then you send this kind of messages, Guess how many people are ignoring? I can assure you very, very, as you know, to the, the people that ignored, they are high.

Therefore, some of the people that responded, I can tell you that there's some people who blocked. In fact, some people might have blocked outright. And I've been saying on the podcast, and I'm sure some of you haven't quite understood. So let me just use this as an example. When you do this kind of things, you're creating deliverability issues for yourself for future campaigns. Because when you do these kind of things and then somebody like me clicks block, let's say out of 500, let's say 20 of us clicked on block, you think it's not a problem?

OK, no problem. But The thing is, you do realize that by the time you do this campaign 10 times in a year and each time 20 people click block, it's more like that would be like 2000, more like 2000 people are clicking block on your messages. This is the reason why some of you wake up one day and you say, I don't know why Facebook blocked me. Well, I don't know why my messages on WhatsApp are now being restricted or I don't know why I'm showing up on Truecaller as spam.

It is precisely because of these kinds of behavior. Every single time somebody blocks, ignores move to spam. Was the other one archive? You know, move to promotions, whether it's Google inbox or Facebook inbox or Instagram inbox or whatever, the algorithm is getting all these signals. And the picture that the algorithms are getting of you is that this person is, you know, the person is not doing anything valuable because the person throws out something 80% of the people ignore.

Of the 20% that respond, you know, 10% are blocking and spamming and everything. You're creating deliverability issues for future campaigns. Stop this kind of behavior, if nothing else, so that your deliverability will remain cool, will remain good for future campaigns that you want to run. I've told you guys that I've seen this thing live. You had a networking session, You exchanged nobody's numbers with somebody personal.

Sure, no problem. Let me buzz you. Let me start this phone number. And as the person clicks Buzz Truecaller will now show reported as spam by 26 contacts. Of course, in your presence, the person will laugh about it and you guys will have a joke. But you really think the person is not going to make an impression that the person was trying to store your phone number? He said, let me flash you small. And then the next thing true colour says reported as spam by XYZ number of contacts.

You really don't think these things make an impression? And then let me leave this issue. Now, one big issue here that I've been trying to tell you guys about this automation thing is when you're trying to do AI or chat bot or whatnot, these things are algorithms. They have no situational awareness, They have no contextual awareness. So if these things have to work, you have to program in all possible scenarios, including scenarios where people are trying to say, get me off the list.

That is the only situation where the AI or the chat bot is going to be able to respond appropriately and say, oh, I'm sorry, I will take you off the list is because you have not programmed in these kinds of scenarios. To do that, you're going to need a lot of data from plenty of conversations. And this is the reason why I say most of you should stay away from these things. Those of us who are fresh in business, the big boys, you know, let's say like MTNMTN has fielded, I don't know, MTN has been in Nigeria since when?

Since ambassador's time up until now. So it's possible that MTN has fielded like maybe 500 million phone calls that those kind of people, if they want to map out a decision tree about how to program these things, you know that if a person says this, say that. If a person says this says that they have all the data to program their bots to function suite, you don't, you don't have enough data and you don't have enough experiences for that.

That's the reason why I say if you're fresh in business, if you're brand new, ignore this automation thing. You think you're making your life easier. You're just causing all kinds of issues for yourself. Now, the proper way to use AI bots or WhatsApp bought in my own opinion is use this thing to start a conversation. Eventually let a human specialist enter into this conversation. So if you're going to broadcast like this guy, let the broadcast remember this.

What I tell you people let is is not a bad idea to start from problem based openers and things like that. You know, so greetings, are you a photographer? Let that be the first message and the only message that you send Brown send it to everybody. Some of us will respond yes from yes. You cannot have automated prompts around, you know, special areas or specialty or stuff like that. But bottom line, what I'm trying to say is that even if it's you do the first broadcast, are you a photographer?

And some people respond yes. Then from there from yes manually you now take over even that you have saved yourself from work. Sorry 1 moment. OK, sorry about that. I am back. My wife just kicked me out of the room because you know she just walked in like look at me cooking all day. I'm tired, I want to bath, so I had to leave. Let's see, how was I? Anyway, the good thing about leaving is, yeah, things are quite much quieter in the room that I moved to.

If I should have just started here a long time ago. I believe I was in the middle of a rant about the proper way to use what's I bought, AI bought and things like that. So the philosophy that we should be using now on these sorts of things is we should just be using this as a way to start a conversation or to prompt a conversation that you are going to slide into. Let us stop using these things assuming that they can handle conversations for us from beginning to end because yes,

there are businesses that can do that. They tend to be businesses that are very, very rich, plenty of money and they tend to be businesses that have lots of data most importantly. So for MTN, yes, MTN bot can run this conversation from beginning to the end because it has all the data points that it needs to come up with responses and decision trees about. You know what to do because I'm sure MTN has have people who have told them, I beg take me off your list.

Or MTN has had people say things to them like look, you people are bastards. You're trying to cripple my business. If somebody replies your WhatsApp message saying, look, you're a bastard, stop messaging me. The poor AI bot does not know what to respond. You haven't put anything there in its data set. But for MTN, they have had that kind of data, so they know what to do, how to program the AI. So that I think I respond that when people are hostile and they use this kind of language, this is how you just escalate.

This is how you do this. This is how you do that. You don't have the data set to program your AI to do all these sorts of things. So in my own opinion, in the beginning, ease of relax, do one or two broadcasts just so that you can figure out who is interested and you can figure out you know where the person is coming from. And then at some point you inject yourself into the conversation. Then this whole thing about auto prompts, in my own opinion, auto prompts all I put it, well, let me just say tread likely when it comes to these auto prompt things.

But if you must use auto prompts, in my own opinion, you should use it in a way that provides value to the person who is sending the message and an auto prompt that says your time is important to us, blah, blah, blah. We're not available right now. We'll respond to you in two or three hours. That is not anything of value to the person. So before AI became all the rage and automated messages, let us just backtrack small.

I remember what people used to do in the good old days when there was only e-mail and people would use automated e-mail responses. So 1 moment. OK, sorry about that. This time I was one of the kids who wanted something for me. I guess I picked the wrong time to record today when we were 30 minutes. So let me just bring this thing to a halt. Let me just wrap this thing up. So use your automator prompts in a way that provides value to the other person.

Now, back in the good old days when I was only e-mail before, you know everything, automate, automate, automate. Some people would have auto response messages and the whole point of the auto response message was something like this. Thank you very much for your e-mail. I'm currently not at my desk or I am away on maternity leave or I am away on official assignment. I cannot respond to this message right now. If it is an emergency, please call BC on 080 or please call Hamza on this dot dot dot or please message Oge Dengbe at this e-mail address.

At least that one provides some value so that somebody who is reaching out to you sending a message expecting an immediate response, at least they know now that they can't get an immediate response for you, but they know now the appropriate quarters where they can send their request to. So please, you should stop all this automating. At the very least let your auto response message be the same one that has worked of old that used to the only that people used to use when e-mail was the only game in town.

So if you're swamped, you're busy. Let's say you're a caterer, your business is now moving so you can't attend to your messages for 2-3 hours at a time. Let that be the auto response message so that the first time client who can wait there with chill. Somebody who is having an emergency, maybe because they paid you, they haven't heard from you. The event is supposed to start in four hours and they are feeling tense. That kind of message at least is of value to them.

They will now know OK, I can call BC then they will call BC. I shout I busy to say look I paid. You know the advance is about to start where you people blah blah blah. That is something of value. You have given an alternative point of contact. So please, for those of us who are fresh in the game, let's stop trying to be fancy when it comes to all these AI. Many chat, WhatsApp, bought Facebook, but I relax. The time will come when we have the sophistication and the data to execute on these sorts of things.

But in the beginning, foundational, good, best business practices, How do you have conversations with people? How do you be polite? How do you be professional? How do you introduce yourself? How do you figure out what they want? How do you figure out what's going on? Make the best possible recommendations. As in, learn all these things by yourself instead of expecting some AI tool to close the deal for you. Maybe one day we'll get there.

But for now, especially for the small business owner, we are not there yet. So that's all. Let me just wrap it up here. So thank you very much. That's all folks, basically. So if you've got any sales or marketing questions, call SMS or WhatsApp on 08064662140. Country code is +234. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next episode. And don't worry, next day I'll try and pick a day to record when you know, the whole family is in home.

And maybe it's not a day that is raining and maybe it's not a day that the generators have the, I say generators that the neighbors have their generator on. So thanks. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.