The Mr. Ugo Masterclass: How to Build Your First Sales Team

Good morning, Mr. Ugochuku. Thank you very much for taking part in the training last night. I just saw your questions and you know, as usual, this is not something we can give a straightforward yes or no answer to. Now, if I was going to type out the response, it would be plenty of typing. So I said, let me just record this voice note and then send it to you. Also, I'm going to put the this voice note up on up on the podcast so that you can refer to it from time to time.

So let's look at your question in particular, the one that you asked around team building and whether team building is necessary for sales growth. And yes, when I spoke about sales being a system and sales being a process yesterday, this is not exactly what I had in mind. But actually, yes, it is true that eventually you're going to have to build a team to grow your business. That is if you want to scale, if you want to grow something that is beyond you.

Now, there are some people who are content with being a one man show or being the one woman gang. Now for people like that, you know, we can't force them and say that, you know, they have to go out and hire a team. But for people who want to build businesses in the proper sense, yes, you have to build a team eventually. Now there are some people that will hear this interaction between you and I and be saying what's the difference,

self-employed business, What's the what's the difference? You know, on our business, I'm a businessman, OK, yes, in the normal way of talking in Niger, yeah, they're all the same. But actually there is a difference. There's a significant difference. Now The thing is at this level, you go Chuku and me as well. You know, we, we are one man gang. You know, we're responsible for everything. But then Dan Lee, who you know the other guy in during yesterday's training, the one that is into audio production,

you know, he has partners, he has employees, he has structure. So all of us, yes, in Nigeria way of talking you say on our business, but really there's a difference. So God forbid that, but you go Chuku and me, Tarajima, all I put it, we need to be in good health all the time. We need to stay sharp all the time. We need to be producing all the time. We need to be in the field all the time because if we're not in the field, if we know the hustle, money will not come in.

So that one is self-employed. You know, some people even say so. Proprietorship, you know, as they used to teach us in primary school. But anyway, you get the point. For you and me, our leg has to be on the trottle all the time. We have to be on the move. If we're not moving, money is not coming in. But now Darnley, now he has a team, he and his wife, if business is going well, they can decide that. Let them just enter Cyprus.

They don't wear flex for like 3 months. They will come back and don't meet things moving. You would have built A-Team well. So Danny is on the business level. You and I were still on the self-employed. So I'm not going to say 1 is better than the other. It just depends. What are you trying to build? There's some people who are doing a self-employed thing and they're OK. They're making their millions, they're paying school fees,

they're taking care of everything and they're OK and that's their own dream. There's some people who are saying no, I must build business. Then when I grow old I will hand over the business to my children so that they'll have something worthwhile, something doing something that is a correct asset. You know, it's just differences. What are we trying to build so but either we sure eventually if we really want to start seeing good money, we have to get to the point where we can scale results, scale efforts, you know, multiply efforts beyond us.

We have to hire a team because all I put it now OK, because you and me, you know why in the field self-employed, there's a limit to how much growth each of us can bring in. There's a limit to how many people we can talk to. There's a limit to how many deals we can negotiate. There's a limit to how many places you can travel or by the way, safe journey on this your trip how assuming that you're on the way to villa to go and see chief again.

So safe journey and I'm trusting that the conversation will turn out well. So there's a limit to how many places we can travel. Or by the time you hire 2-3 people, 2-3 people can talk to more people, they can travel to more places, they can negotiate with more people, they can make more presentations. So it's just a, it's just a something of mathematics at the end of the day. What do they call it? I think people call it network effects.

So it's a matter of network effects. If I am me alone, there's a limit. By the time there's two of us, there's growth. By the time there's 3456, you know, depending on how effective people are in the network. So yes, at a certain sense, proper sales growth means team building because that is the only way that we will scale. Now, to scale, of course, you have to hire a team. And there are two things that are very, very important now when it comes to hiring #1 is the framework itself or what business management people like to call standard operating procedure.

Now this is the idea behind standard operating procedure. The idea is, oh, by the way, go to go, I'm making this voice notes, you know, just normal, normal at home. So just in case you hear any noise. And then my cleaning ladies arch is cleaning the house. So where was I now standard operating procedure. So the idea behind standard operating procedure is this, that whenever your boys or your sales girls or your partner or your whoever, whoever is helping you run this business, whenever they have any question, there should be a place in the office,

in your file, in your folder, in the cabinet that they can go and check and then they'll see the answer. Or there should be a place on your company system in your company, Google Drive, your company, you know, wherever that they can go and check. And so they can see the answer, they can see the solution, they can see the direction. Because if you don't have standard operating procedure, every single time there is busy,

they'll have to now pick up the phone and call you. But if let's say 2026 has been a very sweet year, so 2027 now I know you're not married now. So let's just assume that this year, you know, go to show your missing rib. So if December 2026 you guys marry and then you know, by February you want to do nice, you know, romantic getaway. And so let's say we'll go to say which place is nice now. OK, let's just say Cyprus since Danny and his wife, they're going to Cyprus.

So if you will now decide to go to Cyprus for romantic staycation, I'll be vacation or whatever it will be somehow that you and Madam are trying to enjoy your newly married life. Then people from Niger, they're calling you to say boss, this and this and this happened boss yard on gas boss, where can I find this, this, this boss Or if you just called, how we handle this, how we handle this will be somehow, you know, your wife with effects like this supposed to be, you know, you and I just chilling.

So that's the idea behind SOP, standard operating procedure. It just means you take all the frameworks that you have, you reduce them into writing. Whether you type it or whether you handwrite it or whatever is not important. At least for now, it's not important. The most important thing to start with is it is not in your head anymore. It is someplace where people can see it and they can refer to it. So for the purpose of sales,

these are some of the things that you're going to reduce into your standard operating procedure or your written framework. You're going to write down the ICP. The ICP, just like we said during the training is ideal customer profile. Because remember Dan Lee was saying that is not every customer that he likes to chase that are some people that are not a good fit. Remember that quarrelsome woman that he spoke about? So he was happy when the quarrelsome Madam say I'm not doing that, she left.

It's like that. You need to write it down on paper. Tell your people who is the ideal customer, who are the people that we like, the people that pay us well, the people that pay us on time, the people that don't price us too much, the people that get the best value from our product, they get the best value from our service people that we love working with. Now, it might not be a bad idea to also write that these are the kinds of people that we don't like.

Anybody who is like Madam, so, so, so, so who does like this or who doesn't need our product for this or for this or for that. These are people that we absolutely should not be talking to. So your standard operating procedure is not always positive. It's not always you write the things you like. Sometimes you also write the things you don't like so that your boys and your girls, the people you are delegating to, they will now go and put you inside a business marriage that will cause headache for you later.

The one on equally yoke you with one client that is giving you stress. So you put it down there. Your ICP, the ideal customer profile, then your SOP should also have outreach, how you prefer to do outreach. So we established yesterday that Danley likes to do everything online. He's on his advertisements, you know, blah, blah, blah. But for you, it's physical outreach, face to face. You have to put it down that this is how we approach people.

So for Danley, when he's writing his own SOP, he'll be telling them these are the segments that we are targeting online, This is the targeting criteria, this is how we run the campaign. This is how much we'll put in the advertising. This is how many days we said the advertising campaign for, you know, so for you to you have to go and write down the same thing we do physical prospecting. This is the best place to meet people.

We meet them in the office or meet them in their home or we meet them here, we'll meet them there. You put it down best way of outreach. You know, this is how you greet people. This is how you start the conversation. You know, all these sorts of things. Then you also have to put lead generation in your SOP, your standard operating procedure. I'll be SOP, standard operating procedure. Yeah, standard operating procedure.

So you also put lead generation in your SOP. Lead generation just means how do we get people to indicate, to show, to raise their hand to, to, to show themselves that they might be interested in our product or our service. Now lead generation is important because we always have to keep business moving because by the time you satisfy 1 customer today, you collect money, you know you'll be happy. But The thing is after a while you have to go and get another customer for things to move.

So what is the plan? How do we get these customers? So you, you're doing all these travelling up and down around these kinds of holidays, you know, to draw more business. You know what, you put it down. We go here and here during social and soul period because these and these and these are the kind of places where we can meet our customers. So back when I was doing events, wedding photography and video. So for me it was a business expose wedding fairs.

So you put it down, that's if I was going to get a team to sell on my behalf is something I have to write down that look wedding Expos very important. So therefore in Abuja, we have four wedding Expos every year. We need to make sure that we attend this Expo in March, this Expo in was it June, I'll be July, this Expo in November and I can't remember which one is part of lead generation. We have to put it down because that is how we go and we get people to show that they might be interested in our product or service because it's when like for me is when I was on the floor and I was interacting with brides and grooms.

It is then I'll get a sense of, oh, OK, these people are about to get married soon. It looks like they're serious. OK, it's good. Let me bring this person back to the booth. Let's have a one-on-one conversation. Let me collect their contact details and then you know, later on we'll carry it on from there. So lead generation then you also have to put qualification and discovery as part of your standard operating procedure.

Qualification and discovery is the part of the conversation or the part of the business relationship where you are trying to figure, trying to learn from all these people. So just like the last time that you travel to Villa and you met Chief and you want him to time bind to your investment opportunity. Some of the questions that you should have been asking Chief, You know we haven't discussed it yet, we'll discuss with them.

So some of the questions that you should have been asking Chief was around like his investing history. You know, you don't go and say was your investing history. You know, you just started from General Gist, but then eventually, you know, you start asking questions about how he got into the real estate business, blah, blah, blah. The kinds of properties that he likes, the kind of things he has invested in the past, the things that have given him the greatest returns, the kind of properties that he likes to invest in.

You know, that is you asking about his investment history, his risk appetite, what else? Anyways, all that is qualification and discovery. You're trying to figure out things about the person, trying to figure out things about the opportunity. Because from there you will now know whether this, your investment opportunity is a good one for chief or not. It is from there that you will make the proposal. So you have to put it in your SOP when you're with customers,

be sure to be asking them questions around these kinds of issues, because that's how we know when we're dealing with a good customer or not. Then part of your SOP standard operation procedure or your framework for these, your team members that you will hire, that you sell for your, your behalf will include a presentation or proposals. This is how we make presentation or proposals in this our office. We'll always do PowerPoint, or we should always go to their house and sit down with pen and paper, or we'll create a Microsoft document and then send it to them first.

Or, you know, whatever it is that you prefer. Basha put it in writing so that everybody knows that this is how Olga likes us to do it. That we must invite them to the office. They must sit in the conference hall and we must put on our HDTV, connect the laptop to the HDTV, and then give our presentation that way. If that is how you have discovered that it works well for your clients so that you close deals, you should be in the standard operating procedure.

Let everybody know that this is what August says we should be doing. Then you will also talk about closing your standard operating procedure. This is how we close the deal. Then you also put some notes there about referrals because after a while, if Chief is happy, it only makes sense that you ask Chief the OK, since you're happy with this investment opportunity since it's giving this kind of returns. Chief, I hope you don't mind.

Can you introduce me to so, so, so and so so you need to put it in a standard operating procedure. How you're going to ask how people should be asking for referrals. So these are some of the things that should be in your SOP standard operating procedure. So God willing, if December 2020 sixth you find your missing rib, then by February 2nd, you guys are off to Cyprus. This is how you'll be able to enjoy yourself in Cyprus because if there's anything, any problem, all this person has to do is go into the office.

Let's say you wrote all these things down and you put it in your file cabinet, you know, under your desk. They just know that if they go there, they'll find all the answers. So that if they're calling you at all in Cyprus, it is only because there's a big emergency. And now where you know your, your new wife, she moves, she understand not that people will be calling you every day. So yes, we hire a team so we can grow well, so we can scale, but we need an SOP so that the team knows exactly what to do.

In fact, it is the SOP that you use to even train the team. So when you hire them, you will train them when they come in. No, just give them the SOP and say well, go and sell, train them, train them well, continue to reinforce it. Some businesses do Monday meetings, some businesses do Wednesday meetings, some businesses do Friday meeting, some businesses do Monday and Friday. You know, it's up to you however you want to be meeting with your sales team or you have to reinforce this thing.

That is all. Make it possible so that when you and Madame are chilling in Cyprus from 2nd of February 2027, God willing, you will not be calling you anyhow because they've been trained. Then when it comes to building the team, we have to make sure that we hire the right candidate or go to go. Let me repeat this thing very, very well. This is where we run into trouble. We have to hire the right candidate. Some people believe that you can hire anybody and then train them to do the job.

Unfortunately, we need to hire. Well, let me just put it that way. Now, it's not about the person's degree. Remember we're talking about sales now. We're talking about sales. If your business was you run a medical practice and you're a brain surgeon, then is a different thing. Now, in this case, we have to make sure that all your doctors who come in, we need to make sure that they are passed that their exams and they're certified by Nigerian Medical and Dental.

Something, something council or that they went to a good school that they didn't go go to, you know, fake university. We're talking about sales. Now when it comes to sales, degree is not important. So whether the person studied mass Comm or law or engineering or theater or brain science or nuclear, what you know is not important. In fact, I think it's not even important whether the person finished university or not or finished secondary school or not.

Of course, if the person looks like they can carry on a a decent conversation and the sound literate enough, I think we can make it work. Remember, for the purpose of sales, we don't need specialized knowledge, or rather the kind of specialized knowledge we need is the kind of specialized knowledge that can be learned on the job. So your own is real estate now. So even if somebody studied mass Comm is not a problem, you can have them.

But then the specialized training that they need to be able to relate with customers, to be able to relate with quantity surveyors, to be able to go to Land and registry, to check out documents, to be able to, you know, do comparative analysis that OK, the lands in Orca and the lands in Landing where again in Omaha to run comparative analysis. You know, which one is cheaper or which one is, you know, all those things, they can be learned on the job.

I learned with time. So in the beginning, you do not need that specialized knowledge. Of course, you know, specialized knowledge helps. So if you're hiring somebody and the person went to school and the person studied, OK, well, you studied now for real estate, is it URPURP, urban and regional planning? OK, no, that's too much. URP is too much anyway. You get some kind causes that they will study in school. OK, I guess it will help them to be a much more effective real estate person.

But what we need to look out for really first of all is willingness to learn. Now it is hard for me to explain willingness to learn. So the way I tell people is we need to look for person with a hair ward. I repeat, the first thing we do when we want to get a salesperson is we're looking for person with a hair ward because somebody who does not hear word cannot sell well for you. You are coming in, you are building a business, you are establishing A reputation,

you're dealing with high net worth individuals. You're building yourself a solid network. You have a reputation to protect. You have certain business philosophies you're trying to uphold. So there's a way that you think selling should be done for you and for your business and for the thing you're trying to build. Somebody who doesn't hear what will come and start trying to do things any which way. They'll rubbish your name,

they'll rubbish your business. So you need to have a person where they hear what first of all, somebody who is teachable, somebody who is coachable, somebody who is willing to learn. Because the thing about those people is even when they don't agree with you, you know, at least they'll tell you to your face and people who quarrel about it or whatever, but you know, sure, they're willing to take dressing. So look for a person with a hair ward.

Then also look for somebody who has a sense of personal responsibility. There are some people who blame everybody. The reason why our families like this is because my father did this in 1974. The reason why I failed my exam is because somebody snitched on me during the exam hall. The reason why this happened is because this, the reason why they sucked me up my last job is because this person did this. This all those people who blame everybody for their problem apart from themselves.

Please avoid those people. Somebody who does not have a sense of personal responsibility would always have an excuse why sales are not moving. They will always have an excuse. Always. I have malaria, transport workers are on strike. I could not get to the office. You didn't buy me credit. Me and my wife, we had a quarrel. I mean, whatever it is, the excuses would never stop. So you look for somebody who has a sense of personal responsibility.

And one way that people do that is, you know, you ask them questions to try and see how they figured out challenges in the past. So one question, because sometimes my clients asked me to help them with recruiting people. One question that I asked was I asked them to tell me about the last job. And then I listen. I'm listening for all these things to be sure that they're teachable, they're coachable and they take ownership and they have a sense of personal responsibility about them.

I always ask about challenges too. So OK, your last sales manager and when did you was the last thing people queried about? And I asked them if the whole thing is me and my sales manager quarrel because of this. But the man is useless. The man is this, the man is this the everything is demand, demand, demand, demand, demand. Or the Madam. The Madam the person doesn't have doesn't know whether he had anything to play in it.

I know that person is going to be troubled. But the person says, me and my sales manager, we clashed on this issue. The guy was coming at it like this bomb me. I was trying to reason it like that. And so, you know, I did it like this. I did like that the thing didn't work. Yeah, I could have done this better, you know, but shout out my line manager. He's an idiot. You know, if the guy tells me like that, I know that OK, I'm dealing with a reasonable somebody.

He can see that it takes 2 to tango. The and the line manager had issues for him too. He had issues. So I asked. So you ask your last job, The last line manager was the busy that walk that you did everything was so sweet. Why are you leaving? What happened? You know you be conversational about it during the interview stage, be conversational, get them to relax, let them be free. So I did your last job, it seemed like was an OK job now it was OK this one they were saying what is the and what happened?

You know, just get them to relax, let them be talking. So people who have personal responsibility about them. And then the final thing when it comes to growing your business by scaling through hiring a sales team is incentives regards to make sure the incentives are aligned. There are some people who are just looking for flat salary. Honestly, I don't think those flat salary people are going to make good salespeople because sales requires, you know, VM.

It requires like CU. Now I'm making this recording now, because you're on the road, you're on the move. Somebody who takes flat salary, the person like, what are they being on the move for? They don't want to be on the move. If you're paying them 400 every month, they want to collect their 400 every month, neat, without stress. But then if you're hiring people and then giving them a base salary and then giving them some incentive, that kind of thing works with traditional salespeople.

So you say, look, you know what, I'm giving 250 every month, but at 2:50 is because, you know, you must bath, you know you must eat, you must transport yourself. But this was going to happen every single time you score a deal and the deal is above 500. This is how much you take. The deal is above 1,000,000, This is how much you take. The deal is above 2 million, This is how much you take. Those kind of people are very,

very, very motivated, very motivated. But you have to discuss this thing of incentives. All these people that are looking for flat salary, you can't push them. You can't. So long as that for 400 kids come in every month, they're OK. They're OK. The calculation they're doing is OK. Me, I'm getting 400. My wife too is getting two 5400. You know, whatever together as a household who are making 800 and it's OK. We're good.

It's all good. That's the calculation they're doing in their head. Excuse me? Well then people who like incentives, the calculation they'll be doing is OK, yes, I have 250 now, but you know, you get out with it. If I'm able to close this thing, my own share from now with the deal will be 1.36. Their eyes on the one that is in front. That's all. Make them, you know, join you as you're on the move. They'll be traveling with you.

When you come back, they'll have one or two things that they're pursuing as well because they know what their own is going to be. Now on this thing, on incentives, this is where some business people get it wrong. Go to go. Never screw over your salespeople. Never. If you promise somebody that for everything you bring over 500 K, your own is 5% / 1,000,000. It is 10% / 1.5. It is 11% / 2 million, it is 12%. Just give it to them.

Be square. You can come back later on and say ah, you know Coyote in the beginning this is what I said, but to be honest, I can't carry on like this again. I bet Cardinal works, but we guys renegotiate. Now that is a different kind of conversation. Coyote will still vex, but he won't vex to the level. If what you do is you agreed on 12%, then Carly went to go and bring a deal that is 40 million. You now did the calculation. 12%

or 40 million is whatever it is. I am now thinking how can I carry all this money and give one person and then you know you just give Coyote what you think is a good deal, he with X and after vexing he will stop plotting his escape because he knows he can't trust you and you lose a good salesperson. This thing happens a lot. There's one professional sales guy that I met who used to sell for a car dealer in Abuja who was a used to sell Mercedes-Benz and you know they had the agreement of how much the Commission was.

And so the guy did a very good was a very good something bumper harvest. When I say bumper hours, I mean bumper harvest like 200 and something million. You know, now time to collect the Commission. Yoga first of all was not picking call then yoga was not in the office. The guy travel when he came back, he now started talking from two sides of his mouth. Of course, the guiding, he was angry boy. I didn't see anything. He had the conversation with his wife and they agreed.

So the minute he collected what the guy was going to give him, the guy just caught. He moved straight and he started selling for another person. And this other person deals in armored vehicles. In fact, when I met the guy, I was shocked. I didn't know that there are people in Nigeria who drive around in armored vehicles. I was really, really shocked. I just thought that all the cars that you see around are just ordinary cars like my own.

But you know that some people have have like reinforced panels inside the car so that if you shoot a gun, wow, the bullet won't go inside. So armored vehicles, reinforced doors and even though that is bulletproof glass, bulletproof glass, what? Again, I didn't know that that kind of word exists in Lagos and Abuja. There are people who customize cars like that. So that's the person that he's selling for now. And so far everything is OK

because what your girl promise is what he does. And so he knows, you know his own every month he's receiving this. If he's able to do bumper harvest outside and bring it back in, he knows how much is his own. So to scale, to grow by scaling and getting a team, these are the kind of things I need to pay attention to. The other things are, but these are the ones that usually on my mind like let's make sure we secure these ones 1st, but don't screw over your guys, especially your good guys.

If you told them 20%, pay them the 20%. Then if the 20% is paying you too much, you can call them back. Look, we're all human beings. All approach you call them back. Coded Chingery. You know, initially when I said like this, this is what I thought. Then the going was good, you know, but you understand this economy is like this like that, like that. I bet 1 and over we have, we got to renegotiate, have the conversation, don't screw over your salespeople.

So you can see why I said let me respond by voice note because of I was typing, you know, my fingers would be tired. And then of course, it'll be too long for you to read anyway. So yeah, that's it. We will continue with the training tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. Like as we agreed. So 8:30 in the morning. I'm looking forward to that session. Any other questions? Yeah, just send one. I can respond sharp, sharp. I'll respond sharp shop.

We request much grammar. I will just do another voice note just like you said if you did voice notes. And then we'll continue to relate like this. Then also I'll put this up on the podcast as well so that you can. Yes, so they can learn from it. So cool. So have a safe journey. I'll I'll call you later in the evening after I'm done with my my radio show and any which wish we'll be seeing tomorrow.