(This article is published as a complement to Issue 9 [Thursday 30th November 2006] of The Self-Development Digest™)

"Would you go around by local transportation while doing your business marketing?". In my opinion, your answer to that question would depend, to an extent, on what part of the world you're in. But, what if you were asked instead:"Would you go around by local transport while doing your business marketing in YOUR country?". Ah, then the question takes on more REAL-WORLD RELEVANCE ...especially if you happen to come from my part of the world. In my opinion your willingness to go by local transport, could be a very good indication of how reliable and convenient the local transport system is in your country.

Of course if you're a "BIG" man or woman, you probably have a driver, so none of this would apply to you - right(?). Hmm...I think I'll just leave that to you to decide! LOL (Just in case you do not know, LOL means "Laughing Out Loud" - but NOT at you :-)).

Does Owning/Driving A Car Make A Person?

My personal experiences in the past two months reminded me of the seven year period I spent as a manager in Guinness Nigeria Plc, Benin Brewery. Benin City is a relatively hustle and bustle-FREE town, with a "country-side feel", that contrasts sharply with the hyperactive, often harsh, atmosphere prevalent in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, where I now reside. All the time I worked in Benin, I only had to get on ONE bus from my house, to get to the brewery. Getting around the town itself often required no more than two bus-rides, with the promise of few - if at all any - traffic holdups occurring anywhere.

I guess that's probably one of the main reasons why ALL the guys I joined the company with(as a Graduate Management trainee) in 1994 - most being based in Lagos - bought their cars well ahead of me. As a matter of fact, all through the time I acted as a Head of the Production Department in 2001, and less than 4 months to my voluntary resignation from the company in the same year, I did not own a car of my own. Yet, it NEVER made a difference to my ability to repeatedly deliver satisfactory performances on the job, and it certainly had NO effect whatsoever on my self-esteem or how I saw myself relative to others(The best part is : It STILL does NOT affect how I see myself or anyone else!).

Which is why I found it curious when I moved to Lagos in January 2002 (I had bought a car by then - having given in to the persistent prompting of an Uncle, who obviously KNEW what kind of thinking prevailed where I was going!) and started my business, that people I approached for business opportunities showed a tendency to evaluate a person's POTENTIAL COMPETENCE by his/her ownership of - among other material possessions - a personal car.

And even when you have a car, they still go further to measure the TYPE of car you have against theirs, or those of others they might need to decide to give a project to. Today, I know some people who would rather die(figuratively speaking) than go anywhere without driving their cars. Some people actually lose their self-confidence and composure when they have to move around without their cars. (I talk more about this, in a forthcoming article titled "To Live For Yourself Or For Others: If The Status Quo Works For You, Does That Make It Okay For Everyone Else?").

Thankfully, I have never had this problem. I recall that my discovery in 1999 of a wall poster/advert under a Lagos bridge, placed by a French Language School that was opening a branch in Benin City would NEVER have happened if I had been driving. The implication is that I would probably NEVER have met Valentine the Cameroonian who would go on to be my French tutor in that new branch in Benin, and with whose help I would later go on a three week stay with his family, in his country, to consolidate my fluency in spoken French. Click here to read an article in which I explain how acquiring the ability to read, write and speak the French language helped me successfully exploit a major career advancement opportunity that presented itself 2 years later in Guinness.

Four(4) Benefits That Can (Sometimes) Make Leaving My Car At Home Sensible

NOTE: I write the following as it relates to me and how I do my work - IN MY UNIQUE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT called NIGERIA. As a result, not all of what I say here will be applicable to you or your environment. If however you find some of potential benefit, then please take and use it.

There are typically two types of customers/clients: Individuals(including sole proprietors) and Businesses/Groups/Organisations. The former I prefer because they are the ones who can sign the cheque or make the final buying decision - so there's less waiting to be done, and less opportunities for the human politics that can crop up( for instance, in a corporate decision making process) to kick-in. When leaving my car at home to look for clients, I often aim to find individuals fitting the description I just gave, with the objective of engaging them in sales conversations(initiated quite often via cold calls on phone/in person), that I expect to result in appointments I can follow up later date(at which time going in the car could become a possibility). Here are four(4) specific benefits I believe can be derived from working this way:

Benefit 1: You Can Be More Focussed/Efficient. Having to take the bus(some countries/places have trams, subway trains, ferries etc), forces me to plan ahead MORE carefully. For instance, I think through what would be the best routes to take to facilitate getting across to MORE prospects who fit my target audience profile etc. This helps me make the most productive use of my time while I'm out marketing. By the time I return home, my diary entries usually show a good number of appointments to be followed up with some of the prospects I met.

Benefit 2: You Can Discover Less Obvious Opportunities. When driving, you have to keep your eyes on the road, and concentrate more compared to when you're walking or NOT driving e.g. you're sitting in a bus. Not being behind the wheel of a car makes it possible for me to read MORE of what is written on posters, billboards, company sign posts etc. I am also better able to THINK about what I see/read - and potential "selling opportunities" will sometimes occur to me as a result - some of which have resulted in unexpected sales of my products and/or services. It is NOT always that you will find your prospects through business directories and websites: Sometime you'll just have to pay attention to people and the environment as you move around!

Benefit 3: You Can Pursue Potential Opportunities Quickly/Easily. When you're NOT the one driving(or when you're on foot), very rarely will you have to worry about anyone running into you from behind, when you suddenly decide to make an unscheduled stop to speak to a prospect. When I'm in a bus for instance, all I need to do is tell the driver I'll be getting down at the next stop. In contrast, when driving in Lagos, finding a place to park/stop can be a nightmare depending on where you are. As a result I have had in the past to give up on trying to stop to check out what looked like a potential opportunity, because I drove round looking for parking space in a location on the Lagos Island without success.

Benefits 2 and 3 (above) of course imply you will need to hone your Cold Calling skills - especially your intro or elevator speech - to make the most of the opportunities mentioned, when you eventually come face to face with your prospect.

Benefit 4: You Are Immune To Holdups & LESS Susceptible To Near-Misses/Mishaps. If you have ever had to drive when physically or mentally exhausted, you will know it's one sure way to get into trouble by inadvertently jumping traffic lights, or nearly (absentmindedly) running into another person's car - or worse hitting a pedestrian. I always dread driving on Lagos roads because of the terrible holdups that leave me so drained that I sometimes get to the prospect's place feeling tired even though I haven't even done anything! But when in a bus that's stuck in traffic, I can simply get down, get on a bike and go on to my planned destination. I guest I could also take this option if I was driving my car, BUT two issues would arise: (a). How to find a place to park the car till I get back (b). How to ascertain/ensure the car does not get tampered with or "removed'(e.g. towed away) before I return.

REMEMBER! I feel a need at this point to remind you that I have written what you have so far read, as it relates to me and how I do my work - IN MY UNIQUE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT called NIGERIA. As a result, not all of what I say here will be applicable to you or your environment. If however you find some of potential benefit, then please take and use it.

TIP: Finding MORE Qualified Prospects By Making Cold Calls

Whether you choose to get there by driving your own car or by bus, tram, train or ferry, speaking with - and convincing - someone you have never met before, to purchase your product or service is NOT easy. I have experienced countless rejections - and it's not a nice feeling. Yet one's ability to deal with rejection,and relentlessly press forward inspite of it, WILL determine how successfully one is able to find NEW clients/customers. Getting NEW customers is important because not all your existing patrons will bring you repeat business immediately, or at all(for many different reasons), and there will every once in a while be an existing client/customer that you WILL be better off letting go of - or indeed one who will decide to let go of YOU! I think some people call it Client Attrition or Turnover(In my opinion, that's just a "big grammer" phrase for describing the same thing I just mentioned: "loss" of clients).

Robert Kiyosaki once wrote that the job of a door to door salesman(one which he had himself excelled at) is the most difficult job in the world. The reason is this: Every time a door to door salesman knocks on a door, he is doing so with the hope of making a good enough impression in the first few seconds of starting a conversation with the person who answers it, so as to create the chance for a possible sale to occur. The truth however is that very often, many of those s/he speaks to will not be interested in SPENDING THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY on his/her UNFAMILIAR product or service. So s/he gets rejected - again, and again...and again. Repeat rejections can take a heavy toll on a person's psyche, and anyone who cannot deal with it WILL just have to quit selling. In my opinion, it takes a great deal of self-confidence, and emotional/mental stamina to keep calling on more NEW prospects when the last twenty have told you NO - or even asked you to get lost!

That's why it is important in making Cold Calls to do things that increase your chances of getting a positive response (be it by phone or in person). You can do this by being more targetted in your marketing. You can also do this by using a powerful opening statement or elevator speech which clearly tells your prospect what you offer in a way that makes him/her ask you to say more or explain further. If you fail to quickly capture the Attention and Interest of the prospect in this manner, the door might just get slammed in your face. People who excel at making cold calls(i.e. getting appointments by making contact with a prospect with whom no previous contact or relationship had ever been established) - in person or on phone, very often do well in business.

A good way to deal with rejection is to focus on numbers or percentages. Just as with the concept of Website Conversion Ratio(explained in my article titled "How To Choose The Right Webdesign Company"), for every 100 prospects a sales person(including self-employed ones, like me) speaks to, one should only reasonably expect about 3 persons to eventually DECIDE to do business with him/her. So, when you are told NO 5 times, you should simply tell yourself "Well, that's 5 Noes and 95 possible Yeses to go!". By so doing you'll stay positive and focussed.

Also, as I said in the earlier mentioned article, it's important to develop a good marketing strategy that helps you successfully find MORE of the right kinds of prospects who fit your target audience profile, and are thefore more likely to be interested in buying from you. This way you will waste less of your marketing time, effort and expenditure talking to people who may not have a compelling NEED for your product/service.

Dumping The Car In Order To Do A Good Job - AFTER I Found A Willing Client(My Story)

I had the opportunity, due to a problem(actually take that to be PLURAL i.e. problems) with my car, to go by bus to a client's premises(I was provided a PC and office in which to work from) for up to one and a half months recently. The good side* of that experience was that it helped me get my work done with LESS stress/effort compared to when I insisted on going by car.

You see, the location of the client's premises was such that you had to drive past it on the opposite side of the highway and go further past it by probably over one kilometre, before making a U-turn and then driving back down to enter the car park. Now, depending on where you are approaching this hotel from, you might have to pay toll gate fees to get there - each time you follow that route(I considered that a NEEDLESS and AVOIDABLE expense). Add to that the fact that on EACH run, when coming or going, you quite often would have to endure agonizingly long delays in hold ups(most of which are caused by VERY naughty driving) and the whole thing takes its toll on you BEFORE you even get to start work!

Contrast the experience I had when I chose to go there without taking my car. I would take a bus from across where I lived and within five to ten minutes, would arrive at the first stop midway to my destination. Within another 5 minutes, except for some days when it could take a while to get another bus, I would arrive there - feeling almost as fresh/rested as I was when I left home!

*(The "not-too-good" side was that it gave me a unique opportunity to see first hand, how majority of the citizens out here struggle to get on with their lives in spite of daunting challenges they face daily, while taking available local transportation. I'll be sharing my thoughts on this - proferring possible solutions - in a forthcoming article titled "To Live For Yourself Or For Others: If The Status Quo Works For You, Does That Make It Okay For Everyone ?")

Summary

Going by all that I have said above, one thing is clear. For me, at this point in time, and out here in Lagos, Nigeria today, I will every now and then find it makes BETTER business sense not to go out in my car sometimes, especially when I'm going to a place(s) I know I could get more done by taking local transportation. Incidentally, when one hires a taxi cab, the other problems like fatigue from driving may be removed, BUT that of getting stuck in traffic could still occur. In this latter case however, "dumping" the taxi cab to continue on a bike or on foot might not be so easy an option to settle for. This is because hiring a cab is generally expensive in Lagos, and not many people would be excited about leaving a cab they hired EMPTY with their money in the cab driver's pocket! :-))

So what about you? Would you leave YOUR car at home, if you knew going without it could make you more productive?