I used to have two accounts with Keystone Bank and then my Oga Danlami Sule who was DMD left and I started looking at them with one eye
Then my brother Yemi Odusanya who was the ED and one of the most brilliant bankers in the land was summoned to Abuja and asked to resign
That was the last nail and I pushed my accounts to a state they call dormant in banking.
Sule and Odusanya are two of the most talented bankers in the country with the richest of pedigrees you can ever find anywhere in the world but how the system refused to acknowledge them and treated them one how beats the imagination
So for me, I blanked the fucking place and carried my small business elsewhere as I no get time for yama yama
Some years later, Kennedy looking scraggy and unassuming calls
Mr Edgar, your accounts are dormant and I say wetin concern you and he laughed and said, let us renew it na and I said NO
I dropped the phone and continued with my life promptly forgetting Kennedy and his funny bank
Little did I know that I was dealing with a consummate sales man who had targeted me and devolved a powerful strategy to ensnare me.
He let me be, didn’t stress me with calls and begging, and took his time to study me
I noticed that he was a regular on my WhatsApp app status. He was watching me, studying me, understanding me
After he had understood me enough, he moved
Called and asked me to put him on my WhatsApp app broadcast list that he was enjoying my stories
Started attending the plays and making himself useful while dropping small hints about the accounts
Note he was not aggressive, didn’t stress me, made friends with my people, bought his tickets, didn’t ask for complimentary and made himself useful at the box office
With time, he was on first name basis with my finance people and those ones started asking when we were reactivating the Keystone accounts
Note the sales techniques – got close, kept a distance, didn’t keep begging, showed interest in my business, started attending my events became close to the business and family and finally became a friend
Finally, we reactivated both accounts but still didn’t fund them cos Wema, Access, FCMB and Zenith banks had held our balls with different kinds of world-class services
Then I released Maddtimes and he struck. Edgar, let me get you an advert for Maddtimes on the condition that the funds are domiciled in your Keystone accounts
I said deal, and he went out and sold N300,000 worth of adverts for Maddtimes and used the fundd to open a Barnaby and Edgar limited account instead of the Duke of Shomolu Foundation account.
I didn’t realise what he had done until he started asking for a Board Resolution and my people were frowning and I laughed cos as a salesman I knew what he had done
He had killed two stones with one bed – Kennedy had heard of my new investment banking franchise from reading my annoying broadcast messages – a lot of you ignore at your peril and will now be asking me for a link when all the links are embedded in those broadcasts you love to ignore.
Anyways, Kennedy used the N300,000 to open a new account and starts helping us navigate the red tape needed to access the money.
Keystone Bank is still a way off in terms of fluid service that we enjoy from Wema and Access and Zenith but Kennedy makes it so simple
He brings documents to me at 5am to sign at home, rushes to help me procure an affidavit and raises cash for me independently while he is sorting out the red tape that is tying down my money
The guy is thinking outside the box, not letting the tedious approval process of his bank disturb him, forging solutions as we move and all with a smile
Two days ago, I attacked my people at AIICO Capital for their sponsorship, and they responded, ohh, we have paid since o, and I said to which account o, and they said Keystone, and I smiled; Kennedy had struck again.
He had somehow got his bank embedded in my proposal with Wema, Zenith and Access as collecting accounts for sponsorships and as such got lucky with Aiico who now puts the money there
This morning, I heard that his bank has been sent to www.ariiyaticket.com to collect all ticket sales from Bianca
And to reward him, I have asked that his Bank be put as one of the collecting banks for the N200m Ekiti Theatre Festival.
You see how passion, commitment, strategy and much more importantly value to my business have helped Kennedy defeat me and emerge as one of the best salesmen that I have witnessed in recent times
He has now started – Edgar abeg you know person for FSDH, I dey find deposit…
Knowing him very well, he will get them, and I will help him cos he truly deserves all the help he can get.
Great guy!!! Great bank?
Duke of Shomolu