​Why Are You Still Failing in Sales? (It's Not Your Fault)

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at the today's going to be the Part 2, basically where we're going to look at the proper perspective to have because sales and selling is hard. If this is your first time listening to the podcast. The reason why we're on the Part 2 today is because in the previous podcast episode, I was talking about a conversation that I had with a former student of mine who skipped a couple of classes.

You know, we hooked up, we started talking and the reason why she skipped out on some of the classes basically was because she was trying to apply some of the things that we spoke about in our sessions and she found out that selling is hard. And so because of that, she was discouraged. So the previous podcast episode was the first part where we looked at the proper perspectives to have so that we can deal without reality.

Because actually she is correct that sales, selling is hard. There's no business function that is easy. I'm just saying that there's a certain emotional tool or a personal tool that comes from selling that doesn't come from other thing other things. If you're in the branding department, in fact, in my own opinion, if you're in the branding department, man, life is easy for you. I swear, because you just sit down and design something.

As long as you can justify your ideas to the orga, that's it. You're OK. If you're in marketing easy as long as you can say that we did this campaign, you think of 50,000 likes the million reach something something, something easy. But in sales to go outside and then try and sell you now reach your quota, then your sales manager will descend on you. Then in the monthly meeting, the organ will now be washing everybody down and then be abusing people again.

Those of you that are responsible for selling, selling is hard. There's no part of business that is easy, but selling has a uniquely hard tinge to it. So in the previous podcast episode, I wanted to make sure that I set the right expectations so that those of you who are listening to the podcast would assume that because you know, I come here, I smile, you know, we chat, I talk about relationships, I talk about all kinds of things.

You just assume that selling is going to be easy. I want to set up the right expectation that selling is hard now. Plus another reason why I wanted to do that is because one of my clients is looking to hire some people and I'm organizing a series of trainings that is going to start on the 12th of January in 2026. And people who pass through that training, especially people who don't mind work, looking for a sales role.

I intend to take some people from that class and present them to my clients to say these are people who are passed through my program and I have vetted and I think they're going to make perfect candidates for what it is that you do. So the last broadcast episode was also to let you guys know now for those of you who are interested in taking part in this training, it's a paid training which is going to start on the 12th of January 2026.

Or did you guys to have the right perspectives? So if you're a business owner, because already some business owners have already reached out to me, Joshua, thank you very much for reaching out and signifying that you're interested. You know, we're currently chatting already. So for business owners that have reached out, I want you people to know that this thing will be hard because it is going to be hard going to be hard.

The proper perspective is we are trying to change our behavior small so that we can do some things consistently over time so that we can see results. Apart from that, part of the reasons why we fail in implementation is because we use wrong technique or we're using proper technique but we haven't tried enough reps, we haven't tried enough attempts. So these are the things that are going to be required for you to be successful in your business.

So for those of you who reach out for the January 12th training 2026, please, this will not be child's play. You have to be disciplined, you have to be focused, you have to be ready to put in the work because I am not your guru, I am not your Messiah. There is no magic I will pronounce over your life that will cause your business to grow. None, there is none except those people who do jazz in you know Lagos. Those ones they can pronounce over your life.

But just know that it comes at a cost. So don't go to those places. You will have to do the work. And if you're interested in the training, January 12th, 2026, remember, it's a paid program. You're an employee. You will have to do the work. There is nothing that I will rub on your head that will make you successful. So excuse me. And there is no admonishment that your guy will give you that will make you successful. It will still bore down to you at the end of the day.

So if you're interested, you're willing to walk down this path and you think you have what it takes, reach out to me just like Joshua. Let's have a chat, let's see if we can handle it and let's see what we can achieve in 20260. By the way, I haven't even introduced myself. If you're listening to the show for the first time, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I am the host, obviously. I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant.

And if you'd love to be in touch with me just like Joshua is and other people who are interested in being part of the January 12th, 2026 cohort, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the 08064662140. Now, even if you don't want to be a part of the program, it's all right. I talk to anyone. Just call, send me a text message, send me a WhatsApp message. You have questions, you have comments, you have queries,

whatever it is, reach out even if you just want to say hello. In fact, those of you who reach out to say hello, I won't lie, you guys really brighten up my day. Those of you who reach out and say, oh boy, I've been listening for a while, you know, big UPS. I like your stuff, you guys. I really appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys. So reach out then if you're interested in these sorts of things, subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice,

because every other day that is what we do over here on the podcast. We only talk about business problems, marketing problems, especially problems that can be solved by personal selling. And of course, for those of you who've been listening for a while, you know that personal selling are the techniques, the disciplines, the science, the art, where you are involved in a conversation with someone and you're trying to advance the sale, you're trying to advance your agenda, you're trying to build a relationship, you're trying to, you know, whatever it is.

All right, so let's get back into it. Sales is hard. Last episode we went to do some of the dynamics, some of the reasons, some of the rationale behind why selling is hard. We started with some of the perspectives that you need to have, the proper perspectives that you need to have to deal with the fact that selling is hard because we cannot run away from the fact that selling is hard. We can't now. Unfortunately, my student came away with some emotional toll when she told me.

I won't lie, I was sad. I was really, really sad. Really, really sad. I wish I could have just, you know, gone to our place, you know, let's sit down. Let's have no one-on-one. This one is not phone call conversation. Let me look you in the eye. You look me in the eye. Let's, let's hash this thing out. I was sad. She came away with some self doubt. She was feeling as if she was incompetent. And if you have passed through some of this because you're trying to grow your business,

you know, you're studying new in the field. Let's say you see a catfish, I'll be you an architect. You trying to talk to some people, maybe talk to like 10 people in a month and then the emotional bus boost that comes with it. And then people say, no, somebody says I'm not interested. Then next thing you find out that the person is using somebody else as the architect to design the house or to design the factory and you now start wondering that is in me that was going on.

If you listen to yesterday's podcast episode, I want you to remember that it ain't none personal at all. If you haven't listened to the podcast episode, when you're done listening to this, listen to the yesterday's podcast episode so you can find out the real reason why sales is hard. Excuse me #1 is the statistical thing. And there's nothing we can do to change the statistics except if we start using proper technique and we start doing a significant number of attempts.

So I said it in the last broadcast episode, and I'm going to say it again. Don't come and tell me that selling is hard. And then by the time you and I sit on and have a conversation, I find out that in December you only spoke to five people. Like, come on, be realistic. You want your business to blue and in a whole month, 20 working days, you only spoke to five people. You are not even giving yourself the chance to to to make this thing easier, easier on yourself.

You'd like. I don't see the my loss of four words. I don't even know how to state it. Sufficient number of attempts, please. Sufficient number of attempts. Anyway, don't get caught up in the self doubt. I don't care. Don't get caught up in feeling incompetent. To get the right perspective, I want you to look at some other people who are in our sister disciplines. So business, you know those of us who are in business, we have some sister disciplines.

One of them is the military, another one is sports, another one is music. So of you busy waiting concerning business and military, what's the connection between music and sports? Relax, I'm getting there and you will see why these are sister disciplines. The reason why business, military, sports, music, the reason why we are sister disciplines. There's also another one, but you know I can't say it over here for you know how I put it for public policy reasons I

can't say it over here will be as if I'm endorsing some kind behavior. So the reason why all of us were sister disciplines is because these disciplines are performance disciplines, not knowledge disciplines. I repeat, there are some disciplines that are knowledge discipline. We know the thing. This one is not. We know the thing like accounting, that is a knowledge something. I know the thing. You either know it or you don't know.

But business, military, sports, music, it is a performance discipline. It is not just what we know, but what we can do and how well we can do. So business is not just I know the thing, did I go out and get customers or not? I didn't get customers. My business will fail, finish performance discipline. The same thing with military is not a matter of knowing theory. Which one is battle formation? How do you assemble a gun?

How do you cock a rifle? How do you do insurgency? How do you do is not just knowledge. I went there. Did I win the war or I didn't win the war? It's that simple. Performance, sports performance, discipline. It's not just a matter of do I know proper technique? If you ask me, I know dead, dead lifting, dead lifting techniques because I used to fool around with weights when I was in school. I know the technique, but if you put me on the mat and then you give me the weight, can I lift the weight or not?

This one is no busy technique. Did I move that weight or did I did I move it or I didn't move it? Performance Niger people, we live football UFO cup. Everybody saying no ah, suppose use this kind of formation. You should have done like this, you should have substituted this guy. You should have theory. Everybody knows the theory by the end of the day. Performance. We went on the pitch, then we scored the goal, Abby We didn't score the goal performance.

It's the same thing. Music. Everybody knows what good music sounds like, Abby. It sounds sweet, Abby But at the end of the day, the song did it Pop, Abby the song, No pop. If you're a classically trained musician, you know the performance that you give you. Wow the crowd, Abby. You know, wow, the crowd performance. So it looks as if not enjoying us, but actually business people, military people, sports people, music people, you know,

we are, we are brother and sister. Well, let's say we are cousins. We are cousins. We are one family because we're in performance disciplines. We're not in knowledge disciplines. We're not knowledge disciplines. Now let us look at our brothers and sisters and let us see whether they think they easy for them or not. It will give us the right perspective that we should have when it comes to business because remember we are the same in the sense that we are a performance discipline.

This one no be theory performance. Always remember that performance performance did we do Abby? We didn't do remember when I used to sell insurance sales meeting. If it comes down to breaking the sales technique, may I know the theory by the end of the day? Did I sell insurance? I be I didn't sell. That was a simple thing. You sell. I be you didn't sell. It's not, it's not about who knows? So let's look at business in general.

That's some old statistics. Forgive me, I should have checked, but I didn't anyway. But people quote it all the time. And of course, these statistics are, of course, based in the West, you know, America, Western Europe, but you know, in a way humans are the same. So I'm assuming it's still the same in Nigeria as well in this part of the world. So there's some stats that say 60% of businesses fail within three years. Let me repeat, 60% of businesses fail within three years.

And then some people say if you take it 15 years, then 90% of businesses fail or something like that. I can't remember those stats, but you can go check them out. Is it American? Is it Bureau of Statistics and be Bureau of Labor and Statistics or something like that? Anyway, some American thing, you know, just go on Google it. You'll find the stats. Even if I'm not correct, you see that it's close. So three years, 60% of businesses would die standard,

15 years, 99, sorry, not 9990% of of them who don't evaporate. And then the other part of the statistics is that most people will try three businesses before they succeed. So you guys hear that in three years 60% disappear, in 15 years 90% disappear. And then for most people you will try like two or three times before you hammer. Now with that in mind, can we see that even though selling is hard, if we look at our sisters in other, you know, we just step back and look at business in general, you know, can you see that?

Yes, it's kind of rough. It just is what it is. Are we ready for the thing or why not? Which is why in the last podcast episode I said there are some of you that honestly speaking, I really think you should just give up this thing and just go and get your job. Jelly. It's not a problem. Instead of staying and struggling as a salesperson or struggling as an entrepreneur and not being able to meet your responsibilities.

Sorry, 1 moment. OK, I'm back. I'm sorry about that. I'm making today's recording at home. And of course, the kids are home from break. It's a full house. So my older son needed to get something, needed my attention for something. So yeah. So we just ran through some stats together just to show you that if you look at our brothers and sisters, you see that, well, life is rough for them too. So it's just one of those things, we're either up for the challenge or we're not.

Now let's look at sports. Sports is a performance thing. Now, let me give you an example. There's one of my classmates, BC, of course, our user surname. We went to school together, University of Aberdeen. And by the time BC's, because BC started having kids in Aberdeen, I mean, I didn't have kids until I came back here, they discovered that BC's child has some talent. You know, it's the way you just see some babies. You're like, did I just see something like be like, say this girl, she gets on kind talent.

So of course they took her and tried out a couple of places and discovered that their daughter has serious gymnastic talent, serious, serious, serious gymnastic talent. And then they started training. Excuse me? So BC's daughter has been in training since like 4 years old. They don't go in Aberdeen. They moved to Canada and already they get on the wing competition here and there, you know, some small regional something.

I was not surprised to find out that, you know, she'd only trained to become Olympic athletes. So God willing, you know, she'll make it. And if all goes well, one day when she's like 18-20, you see her on the stage and she erased the trophy. By the way, she's not going to raise the trophy for Nigeria. And those of you who are will be grumbling that we were not patriotic like Petrol Guinea. If they had come back home, where would the girls see training?

Where would she see training to be able to develop her God-given talent? So me, I don't before, I don't be at all like, yeah, I'm here in Nigeria. And I believe that in Nigeria, that is where the best prospects are for me and a couple of other people. But for those of you who are in sports, huh, this was not a matter of patriotism. If you stay in Nigeria, where will you train? Who will train you on top which equipment?

So in my own opinion, I don't blame those people. She should go out and hoist the trophy for Canada. When in Nigeria, we have an enabling environment, we can expect our sons and daughters to come back and start competing for the green, white, green for the Nigerian flag anyway. So when the time comes now she will hoist the the cop and she does how she become Olympic athlete for Canada. But you can see that the journey started from when from when she was four years old.

When I was four years old, what I used to do was, you know, eat, pounded down, climb trees, what else destroy equipment in the house, you know, just normal life. But from 4, the girl has been getting into regimented lifestyle. Zoya, it's time to train. Go and warm up, go and stretch, go and do drill, Go and do this routine since she was four years old. Performance discipline. So it's no theory. It's the do. Excuse me.

And she's been doing it since she was 4. So excuse me, I'm recovering from a cold. So when we see her hold the trophy at 18, at 20, the work started when she was 4, at four years old, I was still peeing on the bed. Yes, but she four years old, she's already in that adult life. Those of you who complain, you say I hate Mondays. What do you think her life was like? I hate Monday. You wake up, I say, oh God, it's Monday, I have to train.

And apart from that she has to go to school because it's not as if her parents are millionaires. So she has to go to school as well now. So as you can pay for tutorial home, imagine the workload when that was necessary, you know, to hoist the crown of glory at the end of the day. Performance discipline. So you can see that for our brothers and sisters in sports is still rough for them too. Now music, yes, it's not just theory.

Know your skills, know your chords, know your songwriting. No improvisation, know how to perform, you know. But hoisting, I say hoisting, you know, honing the aircraft takes a long time. For some people, it's decades in the making. Decades in the making. So yes, especially now that we all have Spotify, especially for those of you who are listening to this podcast on Spotify, you hear that somebody blows, somebody have 50,000 listens on Spotify and you just assume that it's something that happened overnight.

Meanwhile, people have been fooling around, have been doing studio rats runs since, you know, maybe they're like, well, like, you know, 1314 there maybe are 20 something, you know, the the hammer, their star will shine, everything will align. Now you say God don't bless them and well, yeah, there's an element of God blessing. But really the guy has been doing has been living in the studio for a while, has been hustling.

So it's almost 30 minutes. Let me know overstress it. But I believe that while I hope I've been able to point out to you guys that instead of staying where we are and feeling like we're incompetent, if we look around at our cousins military, sports, music, business as a whole, you will see that this thing is hard. And yeah, sometimes, you know, without ourselves, we cry small, but you wipe your eyes and you just own up that you don't want to be a part of this journey or you don't.

For people who leave and go someplace, it's all right. It's not bad. Statistics are coming out in America about the rate of suicide among entrepreneurs, I think especially among male entrepreneurs in America. I don't know if it's going to be the same in Nigeria, if anybody even tries to do that research. But it's OK to say, you know what, I'm not going to put myself through all this stress. And then you go and apply to work in, send it back.

It's all right. It's not biotic. You're not a failure, but the right perspective is. You just know that is going to be hard. But don't think of yourself as incompetent. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't like you when I come across people and they think that they're incompetent. First of all, the knowledge. Did you have right knowledge? Were you using proper technique? Were you using proper strategy? And then were you giving yourself a sufficient number of attempts to even get to make this thing work?

Please, if this is your first time listening to the podcast, listen to yesterday's episode. And remember, I'm not saying this thing to scare people away because like I said in yesterday's podcast episode, I like money. If you sign up to give me money, I will take the money. I just want to make sure that you have the right level of expectations because as much as I like money, I'm not a fraud and I don't want to defraud anybody and I don't want anybody to come and believe that.

We'll sit down for two weeks and I'll give you some magic recipe. And by the time you alter that recipe and manifest your destiny, then your business will, you know, 10X or something. If there was that magic recipe, I won't be making this podcast. I would have been declaring nothing on to my life and 10X in my business every single day. So let me bring today's episode to a close. Sales is a performance sport. That is how you should think of it.

So it's OK to feel bad. Everybody feels bad. We all have our up days and all have our down days. I mean, it's like me talking about sports. I play chess. I've not tried playing professionally. Well, I've got some skills. You know, we have up days, we have down days. There are days and my ratings go up. There is and my ratings go down. There are some days that I'm on the board and by the time I finish with the other person,

yeah, I read their life history for them. Yeah, you understand, As in superior brushing. I brush the hell out of them. And then there's some days that you sit down at the board and then one small check away, somebody will come and disgrace you in front of everybody. 1234 before you know it, the board is just open. You're confused. Like what's happening, Does it, this small child I'm looking at in front of me that is doing me like this?

The father or somebody. So we all have our ups and we all have our downs, but it's a performance sport, so we need plenty of repetition. We need the reps We need the reps You continue to repeat and repeat and repeat and you try. So for people who are in business three years on average, eventually something will click. For people who are in sports, it's a pity, but you know, some of them, four years old, they're already in training, getting in the reps For the military, it's the same thing every day.

You run, you know, you do your jogging thing. Mummy, what I say, maker no. Corner water, wonderful. I go corner water, wonderful. You know, you go and do all those your drills, then you assemble your gun, you disassemble it, you cock it, you reload it, you put it down, you dismantle it. You go and do press up, do pull up. You go and learn warfare. Go and do this way. So every day we're putting in the reps so that when the time comes and they call you for service, your Ganat, your agile,

your mobile, you're ready because you put in the reps The same thing for music, whether you guys know it or not. I'm willing to bet that as well as you're listening to this podcast episode right now, I'm willing to bet that Bono boy Davido Whiskey, I'm willing to bet that right now they're in the studio just playing around with beats writing songs. You know something something like they're not chilling. Yes, maybe they'll wake up late because I went to club last night, you know, hungover or whatever, but shot the winter studio today.

I can't guarantee you the winter studio today they are putting in reps So girl producer, which beat do you have? Ah, correct. Then you know, freestyle, another person freestyle and you know, you keep fooling around, but sure, they're putting in the reps Sales is a performance sport. It's like we're trying to build muscle here. And when you're trying to build muscle in the gym is technique plus reps. So that's right perspective.

Sales is hard. What I need is technique plus reps Reps just means repetition. Let me say it one more time, selling, it's hard. It's a performance sport. So therefore what we need is techniques plus repetition. Should I say at a final time in case there's somebody who hasn't quite got it, Sales is a performance sport and it is hard. So therefore, what we need is technique plus plenty of repetitions. So feel sad. It's OK to cry, but then eventually wipe your tears and you said this is what I signed on for.

And then you start reviewing what's my technique on point? How many reps am I supposed to have? Did I put in the reps? Since we've already done 30 minutes now, let's explore some more that in tomorrow's podcast episode. And that will be the third and the final part on this topic. And after that, I'll go back to my usual bubbly, girful self. But also you remember please as selling it's hard. And for those of you who have listened to the last podcast episode and this podcast episode and you still want to give me a call, you still want to be considered for January 12th,

2026. You still want to be a part of the program, right? No problem, reach out, let's chat. I'd like to get to know you. I'd like to get to know what business you're involved in, how to get a sense of what, where you're trying to grow your business to. What kind of returns are you looking for? Where's your business suffering? We need to know all these things. It's part of the interview process before I take your money and before I let you in because I'm not a fraud.

I don't want to bring you in with the wrong expectations. And I don't collect money if I don't think I can help you. So business owners, my name is Tavishy Magadi. The number is 08064662140. For those of you who want to be employees, you want to sell on behalf of someone else. Excuse me, you're thinking of making good Commission. Sell your product for somebody. The product is maybe you know, 30-40. Your own take is, you know, 7

percent, 10%, you know, do the math. You'll be able to sell two a month. Do the math. You're looking for that kind of opportunity and you want to learn how to sell on the phones because the focus is on people who think they can sell, who think they can grow their business by using the phone. That's the focus. So you want to be an employee? Reach out. I have a client who is looking for sales people who are revamping the sales team.

They want fresh blood but want people who are disciplined. We want people who are willing to put in the work because mana is not going to fall from the sky. So call, send me a text message, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. I'm supposed to be saying one more thing but I've forgotten. Uh huh, Lagos. Now for those of you who are interested in the job opportunity because when Joshua reached out, you know, it's clearly Joshua wants to build his own business.

But for those of you who are interested in the job opportunity, remember, please Lagos, Lagos only because my client is based in Lagos, most of their operations are in Lagos. So Lagos only then the job involves phone selling on the phone. So in other words, 9:00 in the morning, Monday to Friday, you are expected to have started making phone calls by 9:00. Not that you reach the office at 9:00, Not that you're signing in at 9:00.

Not that you're booting your computer at 99 o'clock. You should have already started calling now because it is Lagos and because we want people in the office by 9 and because we want people in the office from Monday to Friday for the whole month, we are thinking of people who already live on the island or who live in Lakey who are close by. My client's office is in Osaka, London, so want it to be that you're not going to be stuck in traffic for two hours before you get to work.

What are you spending a whole lot of money before you get to work? So for the employment part, we will be partial to people. In fact, we will only be talking to people who are based in Lagos and will be extremely partial to people who already live on the island, who live in Leckie, who live Shah, the offices in Osaka, London. If you think you're close enough, you know, when you spend one hour in traffic, 2 hours in traffic, 3 hours in traffic, or you'll be spending, you know,

200,000 naira a month on transport, then sure, no problem, reach out. But either way, I love meeting listeners of the podcast. So whether for the training, whether for the job or I just want to say hello, I definitely would like to hear from you. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you some other time. And at the next episode, we will stop this depressing talk about how hard sales is. I just want to make sure that we have the right expectations for what is required to grow our businesses.

So I'll catch you guys some other time.