Is female business networking a good idea?

Will having a business board or board of directors help with your sales and business development?

How not being trustworthy today might cost you money tomorrow - business case study

Will becoming a "domain expert" make you automatically more valuable to your clients and business associates?

Is it good to "educate" and "offer insights" to people to get them doing business with you?

What is "value" and how do you deliver that in a business experience?

Reasons why having a business sponsor might be a good idea afterall!

Is a business sponsor going to solve all my problems? Lessons in investor and stakeholder management

Is it bad to be "pushy" and "obnoxious" when it comes to promoting your business or investment idea?

Sales management and other skills needed to be successful in business...

How conversations around timing is causing more quarrels with your clients than you know!

How to discover your USP - your Unique Selling Point isn't what you think it is!

When is the best time to start a business? Can you ever plan enough? And what's the perfect strategy?

The reason why youre being ignored? Circusmtances might have changed! What to do about being GHOSTED

The information you must have from potential clients and customers before you try to close the sale!

What's the best way to reach out to strangers for business purposes? Phone calls? Emails? or LinkedIn?

What's the best way to use phones in business? Make sure you don't have too many numbers! - difficult to promote on marketing material Make sure all numbers are publicly available - if you don't put them on social media, billboards, website, etc, no one will know where they are and can't call in Send SMS/ voicemail/ Voice Notes/ email/ etc after missed calls - people need to know WHO called and WHY before they can decide if it's worth calling you back and taking further action. Case in point - scrap metal buyer LAG - multiple numbers (who's calling?)/ odd hours (who could be calling at this hour?)/ no messages following call attempts (who's calling and why is this person reaching out to me) Solution in this case - 2 or 3 numbers only/ during working hours (def not at night)/ SMS and whatsapp after calling (I would know know WHO is calling, WHY they're calling and WHAT I need to do to get the ball rolling again) ------------------------------------------- That's all folks! CTA - SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE - SALES FOR THE NIGERIAN BUSINESS PERSON PODCAST - SPOTIFY/ GOOGLE/ APPLE ITUNES/ POCKET CASTS/ ANCHOR/ OVERCAST - ANY PODCAST PLAYER OF CHOICE - ALSO CONNECT WITH ME ON LINKEDIN - TAVERSHIMA AYEDE - RHYMES WITH HIROSHIMA - See you at the next episode!

Are your sales people a cost to the business? Background - some people perceive some business expenses as COST CENTRES and others as PROFIT CENTRES. Cost centres - dont make you any profit and don't add to the bottom line e.g HR functions and security personnel Profit centres - things you do that are directly tied to bringing in revenue in the business e.g product lines and customer segments. Why is this question important? Because some people see sales and marketing as cost centres to the business - operations in the business that are more COST than BENEFIT. That's the reason why - people don't want to hire sales consultants - people don't want to hire more salespeople or marketers - people don't want to spend money on advertising and promos (aiming for organic growth) etc The rationale - if it's more cost than benefit then there's no point spending the money Two philosophical problems with this approach 1. Misunderstanding of the value and role of sales and marketing - the idea that the product sells itself and that referrals are what you need for business growth 2. Wrong idea that cost cutting/ lean management is the greatest skill you can exercise in business Role of marketing in business? - awareness - nobody can buy without being aware of the company/ product lines/ services Marketing ends up being a series of "one to many" conversations - advertising/ promotions/ online content/ etc. Sales - subset of marketing discipline where you have "one to one" conversations to not only biuld awareness, but confirm the order and get the sale. Marketing and sales and the business functions most directly responsible for bringing in profit. They are not cost centres. They are profit centres. The problem is everything thinks it should be intuitive, come naturally, and most people freestyle which makes it VERY INEFFECTIVE in most business. Sales and marketing to be done effective require training, frameworks, and learnable skills to be imbibed by everyone who comes in direct contact with customers/ clients (sales team/ receptionist/ delivery driver/ engineers working on site - team member who actually carries out the work and interacts with the customer or client/ etc). IF SALES AND MARKETING ARE ONLY BRINGING YOU MORE COSTS IN YOUR BUSINESS, YOU AREN'T DOING THEM RIGHT - your options are either learn how to do sales and marketing better but using tone of free resources on the internet (podcast over 612 free episodes), or hire a business consultant (like me). Does the propduct sell itself - NO - you need a sales person or marketer to negotiate distribution to put it on the market shelf - you need sales people and marketers to negotiate with stockists/ traders so your goods enter the open market - you need marketing, promotions and sales skills to put your product or service out on Instagram/ TV/ the whole wide world - THERE IS NO MYTHICAL PRODUCT or serive THAT SELLS ITSELF. Are referrals all you need to grow a business? NO effcient selling and marketing skills CREATE A HAPPY CUSTOMER WHO IS THE FOUNDATION FOR GOOD REFERRALS. Referrals only happen BECAUSE of a good selling experience/ marketing experience/ customer service experience, etc. Referrals don't create themselves. Is cost cutting/ lean management the greatest business skill towards growing a business? NO Cost cutting is essential because there's no point in spending money/ being wasteful if you don't have to. But the greater skill is in BRINGING IN MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE. It's only when we have money that we can quibble over whether we're being wasteful or not. Money only comes into the business when a customer has been created. The customer or client pays for a product/ service and gives us the money to practice lean managment on. Creating or attracting that customer is the responsibility of sales and marketing. Sales and marketing are not cost centres. They are profit centres.....

Should potential customers always send us feedback on proposals as an act of professionalism, etiquette, and business courtesy?

Things you shouldn't do when using email to promote your business

Why it's not a good idea to lend your potential customers and clients money

Networking etiquette - know your associates before trying to sell to them

From outreach to conversion: strategies for finding and converting potential customers

Marketing and searching for clients and opportunties is THE WORK that you have to do!

Why should you hire a sales and customer service expert?

Is this a problem worth solving now? More reasons why your customer or client isn't buying today!

When is the best time to send the proposal? And should you be sending one out in the first place?

Why you shouldn't be asking "have you read my proposal?", or "have you looked at my email?"

How to stop following up for the sake of following up

How to sort through promising customers and business opportunities in your CRM

How do you sort through all those customers you're dealing with?

If no one responds to offers in your CRM, what should you do?

Should you expect potential clients to respond to your emails?

How to avoid ghosting 101 - how do you get people to pick up the phone?

Should you expect customers and clients to pick up the phone when you call?

Why is it a good thing when people refuse to open your emails and email newsletters?

Why you should ask permission before signing people up to your email newsletter!

Who is the right audience for your email newsletters?

Should you beg people to open your email newsletters?! and what's a newsletter anyway?

What are the "must have" contacts you need to grow your business? ...Why "delivery" and "fulfilment" have outsized impact on your businesses.

What is your customer or client really buying from you?

Is this deal moving forward or not? The real reason why you're waiting months and weeks to hear from your customers and clients!

Do I have to wait weeks or months to get a response from potential customers and clients?

Should you be putting a lot of time and effort into producing offers, proposals, and presentations?

The evolution of a business and the evolution of your business ideas...

Ideal customer profiles and personalized messages - come correct using email for business outreach

Stop hiding from your customers - podcast rant

People don't want to have meetings with me! What's the problem and what can I do?