Could the solution to turning around your sales fortunes be right beneath your nose? That all you have to do is learn from best practice already working around you? Well, yes — but with a caveat. Learning from best practices does not necessarily mean blindly copying what is being practiced and is working elsewhere. No. It means understanding the underlying principle in it, and adapting it to your unique context.
Sales success doesn’t always come from doing more. Sometimes, it comes from doing different. And “different” often already exists—it just needs to be observed, learned and applied. Like these salespeople did.
1. Matanga and the cattle dip: a tale of two tea salesmen
“What you see me doing at matangas dramatically turned around my sales. I copied and customized it from my colleague-the Territory Manager in our Mt. Kenya region. I borrowed best practice from him. He turned around his sales fortunes by brewing and serving hot steaming tea to farmers (his target audience) one fine freezing cold morning at the cattle dip. He knew his tea was a superior product to the nearest competitor; that all he had to do was get them to taste it. And so, draped in a branded apron, he did so that chilly wee hour of the morning.
Culturally, my audience here in Western Kenya, is different. We are not farmers but funerals are major community events. That’s why I chose to offer tea for free at matangas with my branded van parked like a billboard beside the gathering. For good measure I ask to be allowed to ‘say something’. And that’s how I turned around my sales fortunes. I learnt best practice from my peer.”
Learn from best practice – it’s what works in the field
Best practice is not theory. It’s not what’s printed in glossy sales manuals. It’s what works in the field. And when one salesperson cracks the code, the rest don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They just need to observe, borrow, and adapt. The game-changer isn’t effort. It is approach informed by experience.
2. From hair products to salon partnerships: when shelf presence isn’t enough
In another part of the FMCG world, a saleslady—also a business owner—was struggling to sell her new line of hair relaxers and treatments. Her target market? Women in urban and peri-urban areas. Her brochures were polished. Influencers gave glowing reviews. Merchandisers filled the shelves. Still, the product wasn’t moving. Yet, she had done everything the FMCG text book prescribed. Frustrated, she reached out to a colleague who was outperforming everyone.
The advice was brutally simple: “Stop trying to sell the product to women walking by the shelves. Start with the people they trust — their salonists.” And that’s exactly what she did. She spent two weeks visiting as many salons as possible. She gave out free kits to hairdressers, trained them how to use the product, and offered them a small incentive for every pack sold through their salon. The result? Explosive growth. Customers trusted their stylist’s recommendation far more than an ad. The salons became her showrooms. Her sales took off — and so did her confidence. She had learnt from best practice.
3.Don’t sell the product. Sell the experience
Sales lessons can come from unlikely places. A student in campus recently shared. “Students from our international partner university in Sweden were coming to Nairobi to visit for a week. Last year we had visited their country and experienced as much of modern civilization as we could in 10 days. We were awed – efficient transport, frictionless systems, advanced infrastructure. Now the Swedes were coming here. But what could Kenya possibly showcase that could match, let alone beat, the “first world”?
What were we going to do? Nothing came to mind. The truth is, we were intimidated. ‘Don’t think product’ our lecturer told us. ‘Think experience.’ Overcoming our feeling intimidated, we came up with an itinerary that included using M-PESA, riding in a matatu, eating in a kibanda, enjoying nyama choma, hiking Ngong Hills, and visiting sites tied to Kenya’s political and social evolution — including Parliament, where the events of June 25th, 2024 had unfolded. We got them to interact and engage with the people and demystify any stereotypes. Of course, the usual game park visit was in the mix too, but it was not what they enjoyed the most.
Back home, when anyone mentions Kenya or the BBC documentary on Gen Z protests, they excitedly say with pride, “We were there.”.
What Kenya sold them was not infrastructure. It was culture, identity, and memory. Just like in sales — it wasn’t about the product. It was about how the product made them feel.
Learn from best practice — Observe, Adapt, Thrive
Sales isn’t just about having a great product or working harder than everyone else. Often, the edge comes from knowing where to look, whom to learn from, and how to adapt proven strategies to your unique context. Best practices are not found in theory but in action — on the ground, in the field, and in the subtle cues of customer behaviour.
The most successful salespeople are not always the most aggressive or loudest — they are often the most observant. They pay attention to what works for others, and they are not afraid to apply those insights creatively. That’s how sales fortunes change. Not by guessing, but by learning from what’s already working. Learn from best practice.
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