I had one of my industrial attachments with a flour mill in Apapa (and swore that even for a million dollars daily, I would never work in Apapa, lol).
We imported the finest wheat and would test the wheat to ensure that it was per our specification. Our milling process was about the best in the country. We would bake bread with the flour to test the performance. We would distribute the bread to the managers after baking and me, as eye wey see business, also used to go home with bread.
The way people used to rush the bread ehn. My family members would wait eagerly for it. When I decided to cut down the frequency to three times a week, my family members quarreled with me and my principles but we managed to go past it.
One time, we the interns were at war with the bakers. We told them that because of their excesses, we would stop helping them distribute the bread. They should do their jobs. The management board used to meet daily (the most frequent I’ve ever seen). The next day after we started our “strike”, the nondistribution of bread was a topic at the management meeting. Our Quality Control and Assurance Manager had to have a meeting that involved the bakers and the interns to broker peace so that we could continue distributing the bread and not annoy other managers. So I’m not bragging or marketing when I say we were producing top quality flour.
There was an interesting twist, though. The chairman of the company did not believe in marketing/advertising. He believed that a good product did not need advertising and it would sell itself. He stuck with that policy till a few years after my industrial attachment.
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The outcome was that other flour mills whose products were not as great as ours had a larger market share than we did. I’m glad, though, that a few years down the line, the chairman reversed himself and allowed the Sales and Marketing team do their job.
So, why am I telling you this “Tale by Sunlight”? Simple. I’m telling you that no matter how fantastic your product or service is, if you don’t put it in front of your target audience, you will not get the kind of sales performance your product deserves.
Does your business need a marketing plan? Does your marketing plan need a breath of fresh air to take it to the next level? I’ll be happy to help.
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