How to Master Founder-Led Sales and Build a Lasting Legacy

Today on the podcast, we're going to talk about your role as a business founder, as a company founder. And your role simply is to sell the idea, sell the vision, or sell the outcome. Now, I'm going to explain what those things mean in a couple of minutes. Now if you like this kind of material, then subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host.

And if you'd like to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So again, your role as a founder. Now, the reason why we're looking at this is because I came across my old notes where I was running commentary on the conversations with a tech founder. That's an old series in the podcast and that was where I was running commentary on a lecture that was given by a noted, I'll be notable member of the Nigerian tech space, Somebody who is a tech founder and who had exited his company.

And he was giving a talk at a program in Lagos where there were other soon to be founders and people who want to enter into the entrepreneurial space. And he was doing the thing which good Big Brothers do, which is you step on stage and you tell the younger ones like this is what it's going to be, this is how it's going to be like. When I was doing it, this is how things were. This is what you should be prepared for. And he was talking to them about things to expect when it comes to sales and marketing.

Now, I started off this conversation with the Tech Bro series because I was running commentary from a sales and business development perspective, trying to point out things that he got right, talk about things that he could have said better, shed some light on some things that he didn't make too clear, and, you know, call out a couple of things that he said wrong. Now, so far, since I started running the commentary, we can say that this tech founder, I

refuse to give his name or the event he was speaking at. Let's say so far he's been doing a pretty good job. So today, what is your role as a founder? Now? This guy stood on stage and told people that if you're going to be a founder, then your job is to sell. The idea is to sell the vision and it's to sell the outcome. And yes, this is one thing that he said, correct? But of course, in typical fashion, which is one of these reasons why I say, yes, listen to all these wonderful founders.

But then you should also pay attention to those of us who have speciality when it comes to things from a sales and business development perspective or a marketing perspective or whatever. Because we don't just say things and then run off. We also try to explain the why or the mechanics, you know about how these things actually work. So this is the reason why if you are a founder in Niger, your job is to sell. The idea is to sell division and to sell the outcome.

And the reason why is because First off, if you're starting a business, you're going to be producing a product. We're going to be offering a service and the vision and the outcome are important. The vision is important because, well, first of all, OK, there are lots of fancy ways of saying what the vision is. But for the purpose of this podcast, let's just say the vision is where the company is headed. Oh, by the way, for those of you who noticed that, you know, I'm not really talking to my yourself, that's because I'm currently making this recording at home.

I'm in the villa and everybody has gone to bed. And I don't want people to think like this guy is a madman. Why is he talking to himself in the dark? So you know, everybody has gone to bed and I said I'm just make this recording sharp, sharp. So that's why I'm not my usual boy yourself. I beg you guys should just manage. You know, eventually the Christmas holidays are going to be over, I'll be back in Abuja and I can't make my normal recordings without worrying about waking up the whole house.

OK, so the vision just means, so excuse me, it just means where is the company headed? Where is the company headed? Now? You have to be able to give a compelling vision as the founder because it gives the enthusiasm that will help people buy in for the long haul. If you're just doing another company, like another, actually, when a company here today, gone tomorrow, people are not going to stay because of that. People want to hang around for something that is important, or there's some people who are completely mercenary or just hang around for a good paycheck,

give them five paycheck to stay another paycheck, don't move. But for most people, you have to be able to present a compelling idea, a compelling vision, a compelling picture about where you are headed. That's the reason why all these guys, you know, Zuckerberg, who else? Bezos and the rest of them. That's why they say you know all the fancy things. You know that. They say you know one cake delivery, you know a world Without Borders.

What else, Zuckerberg, that time when they were talking about giving free Internet access in Africa, I think what is it called, you know, the world connected to the Internet, you know, blah, blah, blah, and all these sorts of things. So that is the reason why they have to be able to come up with these one liners or you know, come up with these words, these phrases that paint a picture about where the company is headed.

So for your own company, for your own fintech app or whatever the business idea is, you should be able to say very clearly, this is who we are, this is where we are heading because it's a compelling vision that we give people enthusiasm to chill and stay with you for the long haul. Then outcomes, OK, Now how come? These are really, really important. Outcome just means what is the result that your product or service does for your customer?

Now, the reason why as the founder, you should be able to talk about the outcomes very clearly, what does this product, what does this service do for your customer is because outcomes make it easier to sell. I repeat, outcomes make it easier to sell. If you don't want your sales boys, your sales girls to be fumbling on the floor trying to impress someone, trying to sell something, try to communicate something and adjust the fumble up and down.

You need to be talking a lot in terms of outcomes and outcome just means what is the result? What is it that your product or service does for a customer. Now the reason why this is important is because a lot of you are going to be talking about features when it comes to selling. You see my app is this this this, my website is that we run on web 3 where crypto something exchange where HTTP something something something compliant and all that fancy talk.

Now features are impressive and features make you sound smart. It's just that features are hard to remember. If you talk about outcomes on the other hand, then those are a lot more easy to remember and makes it easy to sell. The reason why I can speak about this first hand, remember I said I'm in the villa right now because it's a Christmas horse. So, you know, we say we should just come and heal Mumsy and see all the cousins and their uncles and their aunties.

And the moment I landed Mumsy was like, hey Tara, Shima, remember that washing machine that we bought and I was like, yeah, the last time you were in Abuja? She said yeah, that I set it up and then we haven't used it. I said Mommy, seriously. She said no, I was waiting for you to come. I said OK, no problem. So where's the washing machine? The thing has been set up. And so today we finally tested it. And as we used it now, because before we used it, there were a couple of questions that I

wanted to ask the guy who came to repair the generator because light in Benoit State is terrible. Well, at least in some the part of marketing that we're staying is terrible, really terrible. So when the engineer came to look at the solar panels is one thing I asked him, this washing machine, can this thing run on the inverter? And the guy say yes, can you run on solar? The guy say yes. The guy who came to fix the generator is also something I

asked him, OK, this solar, this washing machine, can it run on the generator? The guy looked at the guy said yes. And after having all those conversations and after those people left, that's the solar technician and then the generator and we tested the washing machine and it worked perfectly. I now thought back and I remembered how at the time when my mom and I went to go and buy this thing in Abuja, how the sales gear was just fumbling,

seriously fumbling. When she was trying to sell us this thing. She was talking about its capacity that it's 7 kilograms. She was talking about its rotation, you know, number was spinning, how quickly the thing spins, how quickly do you think would dry something. She spoke about the antibacterial cleaning, you know, steam wash, antibacterial cleaning, you know, will kill microbes, spoke about the different modes of washing and you know, stuff like that.

And you see all of that that is feature based selling, saying why something is the latest, the greatest, the brightest, the fastest, the newest, the dopest, the whatever features based selling. Now you can see that if you are a sales girl or a sales boy on the sales room floor and you're going to be selling washing machines for five different companies, each company has like 12 different models. 5 * 12 is what that's that's like 60 happy 60.

How in the world are you supposed to remember groups of 60 features? How? Except if you're one of those smart kids in primary school who could memorize everything, how are you going to remember 60 sets of features? You can't. And that's the reason why that Lady on the sales floor, when we were there, she did fumble anyhow. And you too, you will fumble if you decide to sell based on features. But if you think in terms of outcomes, then it becomes easier.

All this lady had to say is the difference between this washing machine and the other ones is this washing machine works on inverter or solar? Do you have inverter? Do you have solar? And then you should have leaned in and gone all in. This washing machine works on solar. This washing machine works on generator. Even if you're using a better pass, my neighbor. That's it. Now, when you speak in those terms, it is very easy to sell washing machines.

Someone comes in, you ask a bunch of questions about them, about their lifestyle, about their power requirements. And then for people who are, you know, stuck on Napa and who can be bothered, maybe you can show them towards different models and start highlighting different things, like antibacterial, by the way, she's talking about antibacterial keying and stuff like that. My guess is that kind of thing probably is not important for people who are, you know, kind of advanced in age, you know,

'cause mumsy's of a certain age, I also am of a certain age. So except if you are selling the washing machine to people who have young families, young kids, I really don't think the average Nigerian is concerned about microbial counts and something something fibers and blah, blah, blah. So the reason why for a product or service, you should be talking to your people about outcomes, about results, about what it does for the customer is because it's easy to remember.

So if you pack your showroom floor and you tell your sales boys or your sales girls who are selling washing machines that these ones over here, excuse me, are good because you can use them on inverter. Even if the person has 2.5 KVA, that is fantastic because how many Nigerians have inverter that is five kva and above and everybody has money like that. So for those of us who have systems, some of us quietly we arrange ourselves a 1.5 kva, 2.5

kva, maybe 3 points something, you know 3.2 kva. You know, before you get to the big boys, people who have 10 KVA 3040 fifty, you know, people who are basically powering the whole power local government. So talk to your people in terms of outcomes, what it does for the customer, the results that it gives the customer and it makes it easier for them to sell because the result is easier. It's easier to say mommy buy this washing machine because you said you have a 2.5 KVA.

This one will definitely work on your inverter, especially if you wash in the afternoon. It will not destroy your batteries. Very, very easy sell. Instead of talking about 7 kilograms, it's a 7 kilogram washer. And so to the average person, what does a 7 kilogram washer mean? What does it mean? Do we think in those terms? Or you say it does 120,000 rotations per minute or you know, however it is that they say nothing to the average person, what does that mean?

What does it mean? Do we think in those terms? But if you say you will use this thing to wash your clothes, you will not kill your battery, Aha. People understand you can use this thing even if you have a better pass my neighbor generator. Everybody can understand because even if people don't know the KVA of their generator, they know that I definitely don't have a better pass my neighbor. So therefore, this washing machine, it'll work.

Now, why is all this important? Talking about the vision where the company is headed, getting people bought in for the long haul, or talking in terms of outcomes, results that your product or service has for the customer, making it easier for them to sell. Why is all this important? It's important because in this game of business, for those of us who are trying to build real businesses, you're actually trying to build system.

So you're trying to build something with systems and with processes that exist beyond you, that go beyond you. So remember that I'm not saying everybody has to be a danglersy if you are to be a sole trader, that's fine. So for those of us who are one man gang, one woman, Ryan squad, it's OK. But most people who are engaged in building businesses are trying to build something that would exist beyond them. Because I was chilling on LinkedIn today and I saw a post from Cosmos.

Cosmos, I think it's Maduka, Cosmas Maduka. I think it's the chairman of her Coscharis Coschar. Big boy inspiration to some. I mean, for those of us growing up in in Niger in the 80s, you know, people like this were inspiration because the gist I had at the time was the guy grew up selling spare parts and then eventually, you know, he'll become a big dealer when it comes to cars, especially, how do I put it now, high end cars.

So it gives us an inspiration to some of us, you know, rags to riches, all those stories. So where was I now? OK, that's what I'm trying to say is that most people like Koscha, that's Koscharis, Cosmos, Maduka, they're actually trying to build something that will live beyond them because of the way that Koscharis has been set off. If Maduka, God forbid, dies now and moves, you know the thing will carry on. Same thing with Dangote.

Same thing with this woman. Ebony Life. What's her name? I can't remember the Ebony Life woman. What's her name again? Forgive me. The name. Skip my mind. So what I'm just trying to say is that most people are trying to build things that will exist beyond them. And that's the reason why all this is important. Let people know this is who we are, this is the company. This is where we're headed. And then talk in terms of how come it'll make it easier for people to sell.

And then with that, you'll be able to create a business that is going to exist beyond you. You're going to be able to create a legacy that will last for a while. So that's it. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Remember to subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple. My name is Tavishima Aidi, you can connect with me by calling, sending a text message via WhatsApp message on the 08064662140. Then don't forget I'm still taking enquiries for people who want to be involved in the sales training that we have coming up on the 12th of January 2026,

running all the way until the 23rd of January 2026. And again, the focus is going to be on teaching people how to sell effectively over the phone because it's important. I was talking to someone today who is in the real estate space in Orca, and he said it's something that has been important for his career so far. And in fact, sometimes when he's lost his sale, it's something that has been responsible for him losing that sale, not being able to sell the next meeting,

sell the next appointment, sell the next engagement. And because of that, he misses out on an important meeting that ends up costing him the sale. So this is really, really important. So connect with me 08064662140 if you want to connect just because you want to say what's up, it's good. But if you also want to learn about the training, why it's important for you, how you can take part, hit me up. Registrations are still ongoing and I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys.

I'll catch you at some other time.