This article was originally written on 7 November 2026.
Earlier this week, a colleague brought two ladies currently undergoing on-the-job training as part of their Banking School activities to my office. I love engaging with fresh hires, as I believe this is the time to lay the right foundation. The two ladies are in sales and, true to type, they told me they were scared. Patiently, I listened to them as they expressed various reasons for their fears.
After listening to their objections, I shared several tips and stories to encourage them. I shared with them one of the laws that has helped me greatly in the course of my career: The Law of Tithe in Sales. Afterwards, I shared the following story.
I was in Ibadan as a Branch Manager of a leading financial institution at that time. I was prospecting a particular woman who sold cement. On a certain day, I had visited her outlet to convince her to open an account and give me her business. She looked me in the face and told me that I was wasting my time on her. She then pointed me towards a particular woman and said that if I could convince her, I would not only succeed in getting her own business but also all the cement dealers would come into my books.
So I changed focus and visited this new prospect. On my first visit, she told me plainly that she was happy with her financial institution and I couldn’t handle her business. I wasn’t discouraged. I went back a few times, and her response was still negative.
When you don't close a sale, open a relationship. You never can tell how far that relationship would go or the doors it could eventually open. Share on XI evaluated her business and decided that doing whatever it took to win her account was well worth it. So I decided to visit her twice weekly. I also decided not to speak about opening any account again. It was just to visit her and ‘jaw jaw’ for about 30 minutes: a social visit and nothing more.
I did this for exactly 6 months without fail. On many occasions, we would discuss everything except business. She often invited me to take a bottle of soda each time I was there. She loved fizzy drinks. We discussed her children, politics, food, the social circuit and many other things, except business. Not once during those 6 months did I bring up the issue of account opening. Both of us had started looking forward to the visits.
Then, suddenly, one day, she called me. ‘Bayo, where are you?’ I answered that I was in my office. She asked me to bring my account opening forms. I couldn’t believe my ears. I rushed to her office to open the accounts she gave me. That relationship grew so much that it impacted my career seriously.
Not every visit has to end in a sale. Sometimes, the best investment you can make in a prospect is to build a genuine relationship and allow trust to do its work. Share on XMy relationship with the woman became such that she took me as her son and everyone, including her staff, called her my mother. When she later died of cancer, I wept like a baby. No death of any customer of mine had touched me like hers.
That was one of the stories I shared with those ladies, and the lesson for me still resonates deeply now as it did then: when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship. You never can tell how far that would go.