My friend Dele is a great guy. Having known him at the University some decades ago, he has always had a good eye for business.
Eight years ago, he opened a dry-cleaning business, and as expected, he threw a launch party. During the party, he dragged me to one side, to say Akin, how can we grow this business? Gave him some insight and we planned a 3-day retreat about his business. During the 3-day retreat and being a good friend, with a kind heart, I took him through the process of branding, strategy (5 years, 2-years, 1-year, and 6-months strategy), customer segmentation, customer persona creation, etc. By the 3rd day, we had a blueprint for his business, and a few hours later, my friend disappeared and didn’t hear from him for months. Was busy too doing other stuff, so I just didn’t bother to call, as I regularly stumble on his digital ads on Facebook and WhatsApp; was very happy that he has imbibed what I taught him and he is now doing well.
Nine months later, he came looking for me again, and we had to sit out an entire evening listening to how his business had panned. He told me how he hired someone and gave him the blueprint I developed for him to run with. While the hired consultant had done well with the physical setup and operations, he was lacking in marketing and just kept piling up Digital ADs that were not converting much.
I laughed hysterically and joked about him running with my blueprint without involving me, or even asking questions. Having been a devout fan of Steve Jobs, I knew executing a blueprint, without knowing the intent of the condition it is being written, is subject to failure. Likewise, I knew that a good blueprint, with abysmal execution, is subject to failure.
Reviewed his business for a day, recommended the rejigging of some customer-facing approaches, tweaked his digital ADs to Testimonial Videos, retweaked the Audience Targeting, and recommended a multi-social channels approach. Using the sales funnel approach, I kept monitoring as sales picked up within one month, and almost immediately my friend disappeared again, all because he owed me a balance on my consultancy work (Guess I am just being too nice and forgiving)
Albeit, this experience made me understand the approach to customer-facing businesses, the way the brain works, and how much customers are converted via simply listening or watching other customers; as engagement tripled when we switched from usual digital image ADs to Video Testimonials. This experience might not have given me commensurate financial rewards but has guided my approach to marketing campaigns.