Why Some Sales Take Days and Others Take Months!

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Apologies because I'm making today's recording at home, so there might be some noise in the background. Nobody's home, but my neighbors are around here, so you never know. Now today, the question I want us to tackle is whether six months is too long to be chasing somebody because you want to close the deal. Is 6 months too long because you want to collect Pepe? Is 6 months too long because you want to collect badly?

It's six months too long because you're chasing kudi, because you're chasing AO, because you're chasing dollar, because you're chasing pound, you're chasing whatever. It's six months too long. Now, the reason why we're looking at that question today is because I saw something on social media and why guy judge the vex saying they pursue somebody for six months. And in the guy's mind, he thinks that six months is too long.

So today I want to answer that question. If you've been chasing somebody January, February, March, April, May, June, July, is that too long? Well, the answer is it depends. So whether you've been chasing somebody for six months or for one year or for six weeks or for six hours, whether it's too long or too short, it depends. So not a vex. Anyhow, you need to sit down 1st and you need to consider one or two things before you realize whether you've invested too much time on this deal or whether you've not even invested enough time.

Because there are some business deals that if somebody tells, if you tell somebody that, oh, you've been chasing this for six months, six months, you never start now that now toasting stage, today is just the beginning. So the answer is it depends. Before I continue, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast, former lawyer turned business consultant. And over here, that's what we do every day, business goodness, we solve business problems,

especially from the angle of, you know, trying to get customers, trying to get money. That's what we try and do over here on the podcast. And if you'd love to get in touch, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 just in case you've been chasing somebody for six months and you're thinking it's too long and you're thinking why reach out? So that let's see whether your expectations are realistic anyway.

So like I said, it depends. And it depends on two things. Number one, are you in a simple sales scenario or #2 are you in a complex sales scenario? For those of you who are old listeners of the podcast, you already know. But for the newcomers, because there's somebody who's discovering this podcast for the first time, let's just break it down. So it depends. If you are in a simple sales scenario, your sales, we have short timelines.

It could be minutes, it could be hours, it could be days. It depends. If you have a complex sale scenario, you could have longer timelines. You might have to chase somebody for a month. You might have to chase somebody for two months, you might have to chase somebody for two years. It depends on whether your sale is simple or complex. But Please remember that it's not binary. It's not that something is simple or short.

Sometimes it's a range. It's a, it's a all I put it now. It's a range of options. Some things are more complex than other things. Just like how depending on how old you are, boiling egg might be complex. Sorry, Abby. No, just like depending on your age, frying egg might be more complex than boiling egg, you know? But then if you're an advanced chef, you know boiling egg and frying egg is not even you understand? So it's a range depending on number of factors.

Now let's look at simple sales. Why do simple sales have closed in a short amount of time? Now, the reason why short simple sales close close in a short amount of time is because number one, you're dealing with something that is affordable and affordable, good affordable services. When something is affordable, people don't need to think. You walk into a shop, Bros, How much is that barrel? This one is 500. How much does this other barrel?

This one is 350 or give me that one that is 350. You buy to leave. No need to think. If you are thinking on you know, on a small something like that, you know, 500, three, 50-6 yeah, yeah, you're wasting your time. The seller will even be insulted. But so like, look, OK, you buying or you're not buying. It's just 500 bucks, you know, carry it or don't carry it, but you know, leave my storefront, let me attend to customer.

That is a simple sales scenario. You're dealing with something that is affordable. Then simple sales scenarios, you're also dealing with things that are easy to understand. When things are easy to understand, people don't need to expend too much brain calories to understand what it is that is going on. So back to the buyer example, You don't have to think too hard. It is either beak or Eleganza. You like Beak or you like eleganza.

Is that simple or you like ballpoint pen, Boscha? You get there. How much you look at the brands you pick, you leave. Very simple to understand. Then usually simple sales scenarios also usually involve only one person to make a decision. If you're dealing with only one person, you can close this thing quickly. You know, you can call one or two times, you know, one or two conversations, you know, small, small e-mail, talk to somebody on Monday, collect your money or Friday.

It is only one person that you are chasing. And then in simple sales scenarios, relationship building is not important because there are some things that people, quite frankly, people don't need to know who you are. And you know, every, every, so like back to the barrier example, oh boy, how much is this barrel? There's no need for me to know your life history and blah, blah, blah. We don't need to be friends. We don't need to build rapport,

nothing. That's the reason why in your estate, in your neighborhood is a shop that you've been going to for the last three years, where you go to go and buy stuff. The woman's name, who runs that shop, you don't know her name. The guy by the counter, you don't know his name. You know nothing about relationship building is not important. You've been going there for the last three or five years. The one is getting there.

How much is bread? How much is egg? You carry it, you leave, it's not important. Simple sales scenarios, relationship building are not, is not important. Now when you combine all these things together, you'll see that you have a short sales cycle. Now a sales cycle is the traditional length of time that it takes between good morning and ping him. You make the transfer. So the traditional amount of time between first encounter and ping him transfer or you sign the the contract or whatever it is that you used to finalize the deal.

The length of time in between, that's the sales cycle. So in time to a shop, I say, oh boy, you get by row, say yes, Sir, how much? This one at 3:50, this one at 5:50, This one is 1000, two 1002. And now this one at ballpoint. I better forget that ballpoint. Give me 350. And then you collect the 3:50. You give cash, you see, quick, quick, 45 seconds, you're gone. That is called a short sales cycle. Very short sales cycle.

Or you want to buy. OK, Valentine's has passed. What's next? OK, Easter. So you want to buy some Easter goodies for the kids, For those of us who have children, you reach out to somebody on Instagram. Oh, Madam, I like these toys, blah, blah, blah. I like this one, this one, this one. OK, how much are all of them OK plus deliveries? How much? And then, you know, you drop off, you forget to call the woman, you know, messages back and forth.

You know, maybe she calls you, you know, Shah one week if you have the money you've paid, next thing is for you to come and pick up. That's a that's a sales cycle, a short sales cycle from good morning, Ma, Do you have this in blue or green to please account details on how to make transfer. That's a short sales cycle. So when you're dealing with simple sales scenarios, you have short sales cycles. So if you're dealing with a simple sales scenario and you are chasing somebody for months,

OK, maybe there's a problem. In fact, this is serious problem. Now let me give other examples of simple sales scenarios. The one that I keep talking about all the time is market commodities. You go to the market, you want to buy a Gucci, You want to buy Yam, you want to buy Indomie. Simple sales scenarios. Quick, quick, quick, quick. Sharp. Sharp. Sharp, sharp, sharp, affordable, no need to press too much, easy to understand, dealing with only one person, Relationship building, Who cares?

Just give me my Indomie. Oh, I forgot risk. The risk involved is not high. Everybody knows what Indomie looks like. Everybody knows what a Gucci looks like. The risk involved is not that high. Even if you buy a fake Indomie, you now know that you will never go to that guy's shop again. If you don't really want to raise a stinker, you will go to the shop and you complain to the market association so that the guy will be in trouble.

But so these kinds of things, simple sales scenarios, they don't take time at all. So for these kind of things, if you're chasing somebody weeks and months, OK, maybe there's a problem, There's a problem somewhere. We need to diagnose and figure out what it is. But Please remember, like I said, simple sales scenarios, complex sales scenarios, it is not binary. It is not one and two, it's not either or. It is a range. Some things are more simple than others.

So Agusi is a simple sales scenario, but OK is Indomi all I say now? OK, Igusi is a simple sale scenario. OK, but which one will be complex? Now in a market setting, I can't think of anything. In the normal market setting, there'll be a complex sale, but just think of it as a range. OK, let me leave the market. Igusi is a simple sale, but then buying bicycles for your children. Even though it's simple. Buying bicycles is more complex than buying a Gucci.

But both of them are simple sales. You want to buy a bicycle for your for your child. You know it's not that hard. You go, you look around for a few places, you see the brands you like, you price a bit, you haggle, maybe you ask your neighbor where do you buy this? You know. But sure, you start the process on Monday, by next week Friday, worst case scenario, you've already bought a bicycle. So it's a simple sales lasted one week, lasted 2 weeks.

But even though it is simple, buying a bicycle for a child is more complex than buying a Gucci. So it is a range. So don't call me up and ask me, you know, if you're in a simple sales scenario, in a complex sales scenario, a lot of you are going to fall within a range. And we're trying to figure out kind of where you fall, what the significant factors are and the things that we have to tweak, the things that we have to pull to get your sales back on track.

Oh, by the way, in case I haven't give you my number, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 in case you're in trouble and you need to figure out how to unwind something or how to move a particular sale forward. But summary, you found a simple sales scenario and you're chasing someone for a relatively long period of time. It might be a sign that there is a problem. There might be a problem with your sales process.

Maybe you're targeting the wrong people who are not really interested. You know, it's complicated. Maybe you have a bad reputation and everybody's running away from you. As in there are plenty. But anyway, no worries, just reach out, we'll diagnose and we'll see what's up. Now, complex sales scenarios, on the other hand, are the opposite of everything we've said. When you're in a complex sales scenario, you're dealing with things that are expensive,

things that are pricey, things that need plenty price consideration. So people will be thinking and thinking say I want to buy inverter. OK, we have this KV, we have that KV. How much is this one? This one is 50,000. How much is this 142,000,000? How much is this one? 120 something million. You're just a million, million, million. When you get to that level, 1,000,000 millions, millions. You know somebody want to calm down first.

I understand what exactly is going on is 120 million. OK, wait first, wait first. You're not asking questions. The solar panel, is it from India? Is it from China? Is it from this? Is it from that? Is their guarantee? Is their warranty? Which one is 50 KVA? What does KVA mean? What does up cycle time mean? What does this one, this one, this one? Because the money involved is high, people will calm down. They want to shine their eye.

They want to understand what's going on, especially in Nigeria where high play hyperinflation is rampant. People don't want to waste money. So once you reach that level of million, million, million, everybody go to Shanghai and they will calm down. They don't want to make it bad. You don't to make a bad decision because lo and behold, if you feel you want to buy this one, your wife feels you should buy another one. You put your food down, you go and buy your own and then you know minors of night.

Then after one month, The thing is not working. Wife will not be looking at you should not be giving you that. You know what I am talking about. Now, those of us who are married, you know, so where was I? So when things are expensive or pricey, you're on a complex sale. People need to slow down. They need to understand what's going on. And then typically the more pricey something is, is complex. When we say something is complex, it means that it has multiple parts or there are multiple things you need to consider before you make a purchase.

So just like in solar sale, you know, so people are talking millions and millions, you know, 10,000,005 million, 2030405060 million, you know, depending on the, you know, kilowatt and everything. That's when people start asking questions. Don't want to understand saying what's the difference in inverter and solar? Oh, OK, what are the different kinds of solar panel? Oh, OK, which one is uptime? What is backup time? Oh, OK, what is 120 watts?

What's the difference between 120 watts and 80 watts? They would, they would ask you a question tire. That's because the person is trying to understand. The person is hearing lots of things for the first time and it's a lot. It's a lot. So that they're trying to tap things down. They're trying to calm things down so they can understand because situation is complex. Then because these things are expensive and because this one is complex, usually you need more than one person to make a decision.

So even when Olga has that 50 million already in his bank account, still he might want to talk to Madam, you know, like, oh, babe, I'm thinking of diseases. What do you think? He might to talk to his wife or maybe he knows somebody who is also in the solar space. He might to talk to somebody else, get a second opinion. Well, usually more than one person is making the decision. So I think the first time that I had to teach the difference between simple and the complex,

I used a Gucci. I'm buying a car. So for a Gucci, very easy, the person you're in front of in the market, that's all, that's the person. But then buying cars on the other hand, at least right now in Niger in 2026, the culture seems to be that, you know, or guy will come first and look at the car. He will, you know, like one or two things and then he will say I'm coming. Then he'll collect your phone number. Then he might come back after a while with Madam to look at the car, show Madam the car.

Maybe you do test drive or something. The girls say, OK, you know what? You know, you know, we'll talk and then you might come back again with mechanic or maybe come back again with his brother. You see, there's go, come, go, come, go, come. There are different parties that are involved in making the decision. Now one Ave. where some of you mess up in Complex Hills is you assume that the person that you're talking to is the only person that you need to be talking to.

You don't realize that other people are involved and you need to find out. In fact, for somebody that I worked with in January who is in the business of producing audiobooks for Nigerian authors, Nigerian non fiction authors is something that I had to that I had to tell him that look, there is some complexity involved in what it is that you do. First of all, you did charge in dollars and you're not even charging in single, single dollars and you're not charging in 10s, you're charging in thousands.

And then there's lots of things people need to understand. They don't understand your recording process. They don't they don't understand distribution, they don't understand how they're going to monetize these audio recordings. They don't understand a whole bunch of stuff. So it is only normal that some people will say, you know, it's like how will I put it will be as if they're dodging you. But really, it's not as if they're dodging you.

They want to talk to their agent to understand one or two things. They want to talk to their publisher to understand one or two things. They want to talk to their lawyer to understand one or two things. When I said it, the guy said, ah, natrusha, because of this person that I was talking to, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Next thing the person said, my agent said, I say yes. It's expensive, it's complex. So yes, it is expected.

I said, how do we get rid of this problem? I said very simple, I get rid of the problem is since you know that you're in a complex hill scenario, part of your sales process in the beginning should be trying to figure out who else is involved. So at some point you should ask the person that OK, yeah, I like that conversation is moving forward, blah, blah, blah. But typically in Niger, when we get to this stage, most people want to get their lawyer involved or the agent involved.

Would that be the case for you or are you the only person who is going to take the decision moving forward? And he asked, he tried, he tried it and he asked and is one woman, woman has good money. She said, oh, no, no, no, it's, it's just me. In fact, I'm doing the book launch on this. Is that, that, that because of that, we can't move forward before so, so, so did. So let me finish this book launch. We'll continue conversation also so and so.

But The thing is you ask, you don't just assume when it comes to complex ills, usually there's more than one person, but go ahead and ask if the person says, Oh no, no, no, no, no, I'm the MDCEO, I'm the only person, I'm the one that was signed the cheque. Why are you asking me about my wife? My wife doesn't have anything to do here or or the other way around. They say why are you asking me about my husband? Are you saying that I cannot buy property again in my own name?

He said, mommy, no vex now you know, say now real estate business that they do. I know in Nigeria now you know, we they see all kind of things. In fact, some people before they buy land, they have to go and do family meeting first before they borrow the cell and they have to do family meeting. The head of the family has to choke mouth Madame Novak's. I didn't want to insult you. I was not saying that you can't buy land unless you involve your husband.

Then you apologize to Madame Bosha. You have asked the question and you figured out that her husband is not going to be a problem because it's very painful. And one of my sessions, the lawyer spoke about it is very, very painful. You're calculating your Commission in your head. You think you're going forward. Then the woman comes and says, oh, my husband said, and then that's how the deal dies. You thought you were going to sell a piece of land.

You thought you were going to make a 10% Commission. But then the woman calls you and says, my husband said, if my husband said it's going to be a significant part of the conversation and you're in a complex sale, you need to find that out early. So ask. So these are the reasons why complex sales take time. It's not just one person. Then relationship building is also very important in complex sales because people are using it as a form of risk mitigation.

So for those of you who are going to reach out to me before you send me 500K or before you send me 1.2 M or before you send me 3.5 M or however much money you're sending me, you guys want to know. This guy is here 419, is he a stand up guy? Does he know what he's saying? You know, blah, blah, blah. So you know, you go to textile, you know, stretch the convo because you're trying to fill me out. It's just normal. In fact, there was one guy, you know, we're very good friends now.

He said chill, no, I'll be in Abuja. So, so, so you know, we suppose see. And I understood what was going on. I didn't fight it. I waited and we saw and then by the time we finished talking and getting along, it's like, so any other question you have for me, the guys say no, no, no, no, no, not really. So you're trying to source me out happy? The guy laughs. He said, of course, now I can't just be dropping money like that.

I say it's a normal something. It's a normal something. And then from there I moved on to OK, good. So in that case, how soon would you like us to start? When are we likely to begin? When are we? You know, that's how I just follow up the conversation from there so we can get back to the money. So relationship building, very, very important. The level of risk is involved. Nobody wants to transfer 2.5 and then they can't find you again.

Or nobody wants to send you 40 million for a solar system and then the system stops working after three weeks and then by the time they go to the office complex, the shop is locked and they can't see you again. Every time they come is excuse, one excuse to be, oh, your wife has given birth, another excuses. Oh, your family's on holiday, another excuses, oh, they haven't seen you for the past three weeks. So relationship building,

figuring people out, sourcing people out, very, very important is a form of risk mitigation. You need to know who you're getting into business with. So these are all the reasons that cause longer sales cycles and complex sales. I remember a sales cycle is just the length of time in between. Good morning, Sir. Good morning, Ma. Do you have this available? Is it in black or white? Do you deliver to Sokoto? You know, however, it is the person reached out to you.

The gap between all those initial, you know, initial all. I call it now. You're sorry, Misha. That's initial convo. The gap between the initial convo and pinging. They transfer you deposit or they sign the contract. The gap in between that is called the sales cycle. So depending on the situation here, it might be normal to talk to somebody for six months or more. It might be normal, but remember I said it is a range. So if you're worried and you're frustrated, then call 08064662140.

We actually need to have a chat and try and figure out what's going on here because it depends. It's a range. It depends on how complex. It depends. It depends on the range of complexity. For instance, those of you who are into ERP, that's enterprise resource planning. Yeah, enterprise resource planning. Yeah, I think, Yeah, I think that's it. Sorry, forgive me. You know, these my shows are not very scripted. So yeah, ERP, enterprise resource planning software.

Those are software that people use to keep the business going. So accounting software. What else? Accounting software, inventory management software, stock management software, customer relationship management software, you know, all these sorts of things that might be a very, very, very complex sale. So if you're selling ERP software but you're just selling it to the neighborhood shop, OK, it's a complex sale, but not as complex because you know, it's the neighborhood shop.

The guy has seen your face one or two times, You know, you live in the same neighborhood. He kind of knows you is A1 man shop. So it's just him and his children who are running it. You know, it's possible to start conversations January and then by, you know, March. He has made payments and people are trying to do implementation. However, there's a listener of the podcast who is an implementation partner for audio that is ODOO.

They are an ERP software. The reason why I started talking about them on the podcast was because of their CRM, the customer relationship management tool. And by the way, if you're trying to, if you're serious about growing your business, you'd need a CRM tool. A CRM tool is just a tool that helps you to track conversations that you're having with people so that when you wake up every day, you don't have to think too much.

You go to one place and you can figure out who are the potential customers I'm talking to, Who is owing me money? Who haven't I closed the deal with? Who do I have to do something for to move this deal forward? Who has promised to do something for me so that we'll move this deal forward? Which meeting do I need to have next? You know, things like that. That is what ACRM is going to help you figure out. So there's a listener of the podcast who is an implementation, implementation partner for audio.

And depending on the kind of organization, they're talking to you, they're talking to big, big organization, let's say Zenith Bank. By the way, I'm not affiliated to Zenith Bank. I just call them a lot because, you know, quite frankly, my sister worked there for a while. So whenever I think of banks, that's just the first one that comes to my mind. Then whenever I mention Keystone, it's not because I know anybody in Keystone, it's just because Keystone used to be one of my banks and my father-in-law used to insult me.

That used to tell me that, look, you don't want to move your money from Keystone, that you want to put your money in the bank. That would just go out fold, you know, blah, blah, blah. So here's why I asked my life about it. So that's the reason why I remember Zenith Bank and the Keystone. So it's not as if they give me any money. But if there's any bank that wants to sponsor the podcast, hey, reach out. Let's see what we can make happen. 08064662140 Yeah.

So the guy is an implementation partner for auto. And so if he's talking to a big, big organization, maybe like Zenith Bank, huh, That kind of one. Now, the reason why it would take more than two months, three months, it might even enter six months or one year is because he will have to. He might have to have connects with the CCFO, that's the chief financial officer. He might need to know one or two people inside the office of the CTO.

That's the CTO trying to steal against CTO. That's a technology chief technology officer or the head of IT. He might need to know the head of operations or one or two people who are there. You know he's going, he'll need to know somebody in might need to know somebody in procurement. You know that kind of deal. Like he's he, he should be multi threaded. Multi threading means when you're trying to get into an account, you're trying to close the deal and it's a big deal.

You can't just know only one person. You can't say I know the MD, me and the MD went to school or the MD is my father's is my father's friend is. That is not a guarantee that you're going to close that deal. You need to know many, many, many more people. It is better to know too many people. At the end of the day, you only had to rely on three and four. Then you're relying on one or two people. And at the end of the day, you actually needed four or five to close the deal.

You can always scale back. You can start off talking to 20 people and excuse me, figure that OK, out of this 20, these five people now the core decision makers believe so let me focus on these 5 is better. Then you start off and you focus on three. And then by the time you get close to closing the deal, you now realize that, oh, that Madame Mugazi from procurement that was not paying attention to, I was not even greeting her.

She's one that will now sign that cheque. You know, those of you who are a long time listener of the show, I've told you guys before about how I lost some good money and it's the secretary that stood in my way. The secretary that was not even greeting very well. I entered into the organization, my classmate brought me in. We both graduated from OAU or how guys are OAU people. So I should stroll into that office confidently.

I got a shout, great if they're up and down because that's how we greet ourselves. Those of us who went to EFA, I was stroll inside confidently, Great if a great if I would greet everybody, go to this person's office, go to that person's office, sit down, relax, drink Fanta. I thought it was a done deal. So I told all the boys that guys this is what we will use to celebrate Christmas because it was end of year party. That's when I was in the event space.

I told everybody confidently that this is the one we use to celebrate Christmas, the money that we get from this one. I said, don't worry, Christmas is set. I told everybody, my mother is always telling me that I should stop you. That is a bad habit. She says I always count my heart should say it again. Don't count your chickens before they hatch your hand. She says. I start counting money before it enters my pocket. Yeah, I know it's about whatever, but to be honest, I

still do it today. So I told everybody Christmas is set this end of year party because end of year party was I think then we're going to do like December 11th or December 8th or something like that. Payment was going to be the next week. So I said this one is a done deal because I thought I was networked in the organization. Lo and behold, when he came to making the decision, that secretary that I was not greeting at all because she no go school.

She's the one that was the head of the planning committee. I say don't happen. I spoke to my classmates like you know how far they say, ah, no, let's just say the secretary's name. Let's just make let's say her name was bin boss. I know that anti bin boy is in control and the bin boy is in charge. Whatever anti bin boss is, it goes. That's what my classmate told me. Then I knew the head of what's it called when you want to make sure that everything is OK in the organization?

Is it compliance? That'd be something. So I knew the guys. I want to go and see him too. And he gave me the same response, that no Auntie Bimbo is in charge, She's one that she's in charge. That's our department. By the time two or three people told me, I had to call my guys and say, guys, you know what? I am not sure how this thing is going to go. And then of course, Auntie Bimbo. Turns out she had her own person. I thought it was a done deal.

Meanwhile, I never stood a chance. I never stood a chance because right from the very beginning, I thought I knew enough people in the organization. I thought I did a good job of networking. I was going around shouting gritty for up and down. I didn't do a good job. I didn't realize that there were other decision makers that or other power players. I realized that there's some internal politics that is going on and the one person that I

should have been greeting very well, I should have been going to office first, greeting her first, you know, before perambulating and reaching everybody. I wasted my time reaching other people who had no say. How did I get here? Anyway? I'm not trying to say that these are some of the reasons why these things might take long. So if you're into the business of doing ERP software, depending on how many people you need to talk to, yes, you might have to talk to people for five months,

six months, one year, maybe even 2 years. It depends. Then construction and real estate, those ones, they don't close quick at all. Even normal something like somebody wants to buy a house. Not to talk of property development, like you're developing the whole area maybe you know, like you know, 200 houses or something. Even single house, There's nobody that buys a single house in two weeks or three weeks or maybe one month because people want to go and look at different options.

They want to go and see a house, then they want to see is it C Orvo or whatever and they want to come to your office because of course they're trying to, you know, source you out. They don't even want to pay in full. They want to pay deposit first, like, you know, all kinds of things. So real estate sale of house, there's no sale of house that you finish in two weeks. OK, Let me not say there's no sale of house. You know, it depends.

Because I'm sure for someone like Tony Lumelu, because the guy get back serious money. So for them like Tony Malou, yeah, it might be a small problem like oh, OK, that's house. Oh, that's the house. Oh, Banana Island. OK, how much is it? Oh, OK, 30 billion. Then he asked his lawyer say OK, lawyer, what do you think accountant, what do you think? Can we afford it? OK, alright, sound about the 30 billion. So, so if that's the case, you know you're dealing with totally illuminated hand, maybe you can sell your house in two weeks or one month.

Then people who sell corporate benefits and insurance packages, especially if you're trying to close the thing for the whole department, you'll be talking to lots of people. So back in my insurance days, I was trying to get into the national orientation agency because that's where my father retired from. So I was trying to get in there, you know, as per, you know, I'm so, so, so, so son, I forgot, let me comment. I do realize that some of my colleagues have been working already working for months.

Their leg was ready inside the organization. Nobody told me. So by the time I went there, my colleagues, you know, same insurance company, but they they've been doing leg work since they're already family entrenched in the organization, already trying to push, you know, one or two, two things. So if you're selling insurance package, insurance benefits and things like that, you know, retirement packages, you know, all kinds of things you want to corner the whole organization.

Yeah, that one, you might have to be pursuing it for the couple of months before everything clicks. You know, definitely we have somebody inside and then you know, if you can go and be greeting DG, you know, will be good. Then if you know somebody in the cooperative society, because these people in cooperative society, they are powerful cooperative society, welfare community. And all those people you know might be talking all of them,

them, them, them, them. So all of that relationship building and you know, back and forth and everything. I think it takes time. So you might spend just three weeks on something clicks, you might spend 5 months before something clicks. You know, it depends then photography and video for NGOs, non governmental organizations or, you know, international organizations and stuff. You know, those, those ones are fairly complex.

And to be honest, I really hate those ones. So back in my photography days, yeah, I'm a former lawyer, now a business consultant. But for a while I I did photo and video, but I really hate that process. Anything will involve RFP because RFP is now a matter of fashion parade. All of us come and present ourselves. You know, I'm the best, I'm the this, I'm the that, and then always boiling down to price. So I really hated RF PS but those ones can be fairly complex.

So like if UNICEF's UNICEF calls you and I say we're doing a project in Adamawa, we're doing a rural electrification something, something, you know, whatever. So UNICEF calls you, UN calls you. Now, it's not a straightforward something. You won't go for the meeting today and then select you won't go for the meeting today and then they finish vendor selection next week and then, you know, in two weeks time to transfer your money.

It's not like that. You guys have plenty of phone calls. You go for the meeting, you scope out the project because you don't want to put your hand where you will lose money. So you need to know, OK, how big is the project? How many days are we going to be on site? How many people are we going to interview? How many locations are we going to film? What sound and lighting requirements do we need? They know that back and forth,

you may be talking to people, then you know, you put in your bid, the committee is going to meet and then you know that back and forth, back and forth. So yes, photography and video, if it's for weddings, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. You meet somebody in January, she's getting married in April. By February it looks like you people are getting close. And then you know, March 1st, yes, she has transferred your money.

You didn't take time, three months, but if UNICEF calls you, the money is good, but it will be, it will be a long time. If NNPC calls you, they have a project, money might be good. It could be a long time. If I if NNPC calls you on paper the money might be good, but you know how it is none, Somebody on the inside will say give me 10%, another person 10%. By the time you 10 percent, 10%, ten percent, 10%, you know, profit don't finish.

Anyway. The choice of doing business in Nigeria. So see this is what I mean by it's a scale. So you can't even say I do photography or I do video. Therefore I'm in the simple sales scenario. There are some sales scenarios where as a video person it is very simple, talk to somebody on Monday, collection money by Friday. And then there's some situations that are very complex. If UNICEF calls you or if World Bank calls you, you have your first conversation with them on,

you know, in January, maybe the first physical meeting in March. Maybe you spec out the con, the, the, the project in July. And then maybe you make your tenders in August. And then maybe the committee meets for the first time in December. And then by January of next year, which is 2027, they still haven't answered you. All you'll be hearing is all the committee has met. And we're looking at this thing vigorously. You know that we selected 10

possible candidates and so far we have whittled them down to 4. But because of data privacy and blah, blah, blah, I can't tell you if you're part of that selection. You know, you need to give us time so that the committee will finish this process. So that's something that we started a year ago. You're still on it. So it depends. You will have to take this thing on a case by case basis, which is why I'm saying if you're frustrated that you've been chasing somebody for six months,

calm down. It might be OK or it might be a problem, but you have to discuss with someone first to try and figure out what it is that is going on. So call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 if you need any help with these sorts of things. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and your attention. I will catch you all some other time.