MEET THE AUTHOR : Inspiring passion and determination

Murtaza Ebrahim is a young sales entrepreneur based in the city of Dar es Salaam who wrote his first book ‘Yes! Even You Can Sell’, in July this year. The book began as an idea whilst conducting his trainings.

The 28-year-old author, had a vision to help people sell better through his book. In this book he has shared his personal experiences and knowledge gained from successes and failure to teach the art of persuasion, effective skills and steps to carry out in making a successful sales call.

In an interview with Success, Murtaza tells us more.

What inspired this book?

I have always desired to write a book because I wanted to share a message on my entrepreneurial journey and experiences. Apparently the first book that I had thought of penning down was to be on motivation for entrepreneurship but I ended up writing a book on sales. And this change of inspiration bloomed from one of my very good friends, Jonathan Ndali.

One morning I read an interview on Facebook that a Tanzanian who studied and worked in Malaysia had written a book, and in his interview he stated that he was not a professional writer. It took him a year to write his book and said that it was possible for anyone to share a message. I in-boxed him through Facebook on how he went about. He reverted positively, we met and he guided me on how to begin writing.

Why did you decide to focus on the ‘business’ genre in your first book?

I have been in sales for more then 10 years. I have worked with teams and companies helping them penetrate into markets and have trained people on effective selling techniques. Observing the invisible gap in our market, and seeing our salespeople struggle, I thought I should share my experiences and effective selling techniques, which will help them, grow in their industry. Moreover, my book does not focus on a “generic” selling method, I believe selling can never be generic, buyers psychology, customer objections, customer needs, customer spending power can never be the same in all parts of the world.

Many salespeople who have worked outside of Africa, precisely Tanzania, have failed to sell into our market.

What were the initial responses from Tanzanians, a book catered mostly to them?

When the book was released in July, I gave out free digital copies to many people from different walks of life such as entrepreneurs, sales manager, beginners in sales, students who were in their final year of business school and so on. The response was very positive and overwhelming. I was very happy and glad that I could help so many people thrive in their field of work.

What are three things that readers will learn from your book?

First, persuasion and second rapport building and connecting with people. The third is managing sales process, closing of sales and getting your order.

Your book is only available in a digital format. Were there any challenges you faced that hindered publish of a hard copy in Tanzania?

Yes. We lack a definite distribution channel for dissemination of our books, hence most authors are self published authors here in Tanzania. Big publishers mostly issue schoolbooks (text books). Authors of different genres such as motivational books or fiction lack publishing opportunities and guidance. I feel the market is huge in East and Central Africa but authors lack support when it comes to publishing.

Does this mean this will be the only book you will be writing?

Definitely not. I am planning to continue writing and my topics will always be youth centric focusing on areas of self help and motivation. My next book will be on the idea I had first worked on, which is motivation of entrepreneurship. It will include ideas and tips on how to engage more youth to get into business rather than search for jobs. Selling plus motivation on entrepreneurship is a perfect combo and will help many young people.