Gbadebo E.

Reuben
GO-TO
MARKET B u s i n e s s M a n a g e r We st A f r i ca
PLANS
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Contents
1. Work plan for the Nigerian market
2. Segmenting the West Africa market
3. Market engagement plan for West Africa
4. Emerald’s sales opportunities and challenges in West Africa
5. Implementation of Emerald’s commercial plans in West Africa
6. Handling “no budget objection” in the Nigerian market
7. Challenges of working remotely, compared to working in a traditional office environment
8. Business Manager’s Competitive edge
9. Emerald’s Competitors in West Africa

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 2

 Work Plan for the Nigerian Market
Undertake market segmentation
• Categorize target prospects into Public Sector i.e. Federal Universities, State Universities,
Research Institutes, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education; Private Sector Institutions
and multinational

Implement Desktop Research to List addresses & contact details of prospects,

• Key officials that would be identified in each prospect institution are: Senior librarians,
bursars, registrars, deans of faculties, procurement departments and administrative head
(VCs office).

Product Knowledge development

• The Emerald Information Centre (e.g Emerald University/learning centre) will be used
extensively in preparation for customer visits as I emphasize key differentiation points of
Emerald from other content aggregators

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 3

 Work Plan for the Nigerian Market
Engage Prospects
• Engage individual prospects with introductory proposals and leverage on known
contacts to arrange sales meetings
• Act as principal negotiator and deliver presentations including elevator pitches,
responding to RFPs with technical and financial propositions.
Implement product advisory and customer relationship management activities;
• Identify, track and manage sales pipeline.
Public Relations:
• Engage consortia and associations in Nigeria and across West Africa like National
Universities Commissions (NUC), Nigeria Library Association (NLA), Ghana Library
Association, Committee of Vice Chancellors (CVC), Association of Vice-Chancellors
of Nigeria Universities AVCNU, to position Emerald publishing as The e-Journal of
repute.
• Actively represent Emerald at conferences and exhibitions; Participate in ongoing
workshops and quarterly tertiary education workshops to sensitize participants
on the value of Emerald products.

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 4

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West Africa Segmentation Studies
The chosen parameters are:

 Segmentation by commercial viability of the education industry – this is determined by the ratio of national budget
allocated to education in the respective countries.

 Segmentation by market demographics – this is market segmentation according to age, race, religion, gender, family
size, ethnicity, income, and education. For the purpose of this study our key considerations are population size and
GDP per capital¹.

 Segmentation by official Languages – the West African market is made up of Anglophone and Francophone
countries. This determines the nature of intellectual property solutions that can be sold in different countries

Note:
¹GDP per capita is gross domestic product divided by midyear population. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident
producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products `

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 5

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Segmentation by commercial viability of the education industry

Country Ratio of budget allocated

to education
Year
% of Budget Allocated to Education
Nigeria 7.04% 2018 18
Ghana 13.76 2018
Sierra Leone 7.1% 2015 16
Ivory Coast 4.8% 2015 14
Benin Republic N/A N/A
Mali 3.8% 2015 12
The Gambia 2.8% 2015 10
Togo 15.4% 2015
8
Liberia 14% 2018
Mauritania 3.6% 2016 6
Burkina Faso 5.46% 2015
4
Niger N/A N/A
2
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Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 6

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Segmentation by market demographics
For the purpose of this study our key considerations are
population size and GDP per capital; GDP per capita is gross
domestic product divided by midyear population. GDP is the
sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the
economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not
included in the value of the products.

Country Population GDP Per Capital (2017)

(2017)
Nigeria 190.9 million 1,994 USD
Ghana 28.83 million 1,641.49 USD
Sierra Leone 7.557 million 499.43 USD 
Ivory Coast 24.29 million 1,662.44 USD
Benin Republic 11.18 million 829.80 USD 
Mali 18.54 million 824.52 USD
The Gambia 2.101 million 483.02 USD
Togo 7.798 million 617.18 USD
Liberia 4.732 million 456.05 USD
Mauritania 4.42 million  1,136.76 USD
Burkina Faso 19.19 million 670.71 USD
Niger 21.48 million 378.06 USD

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 7

 Work Engagement Plan for West Africa
 
The proposed Work Plan for Nigeria (Slide 3-4) will
be replicated in other high value West African
markets identified in the West Africa Segmentation
Studies (Slide 5-7)
 
 

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 8

 Emerald’s Sales Opportunities in W.A
 
•  Tertiary Academic institutions
• Public-sector research Institutes etc

Emerald’s Sales Challenges

• Presence of competitors
• Low national budgets on education
• Limited emphasis on intellectual development
• Preference for investing in physical educational infrastructure as opposed to
software, educational database and research products
• Product pricing modules vis a vis average per capital income in W.A

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 9

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Implementation of Emerald ’s commercial plans
in West Africa
• Opportunity tracking, identification and sales pipeline management
• Contribute to Emerald product strategy plans to establish a viable product pricing structure in recognition of
peculiar pricing realities in West Africa for instance Thomson Reuters IP pricing model was unsustainable in West
Africa and the Scholarly Research division was eventually sold to Clairvate Analytics.
• Achieve Sale Targets via consortia pricing model .
• Achieve Sales Targets through single and multi-subscription yearly agreement
• Ongoing client relationship management - Show value add in comparison to other content-aggregators

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 10

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Handling
“No budget objections ”
• If the objection is “Lack of Authority to buy” then I will connect
with the people involved with purchasing decisions. This often
means establishing contacts with C-Level professionals.

• If the objection is “Untimely period to buy’’ then I will seek to gain

better understanding of the prospect organization’s procurement
and budgeting systems and periods in order to revert to the
prospect at an appropriate time in future
I will educate prospects and
• If the objection is “Unidentified needs and benefits’’ then I will try present succinct cost benefit
to understand reasons why they think they don’t need our solution analysis that emphasizes on key
and provide them with case studies to highlight why they may in metrics of assessments such as
fact need it. I will show them the impact and value they will be enhanced scholarly and academic
missing out on today without our solution benefits to their students and
tutors as well as accreditation
opportunities
Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 11
 Challenges
Challenges of working
of working remotely remotely

‘’There is no challenge
I am adept at working
remotely’’
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Business Manager’s Competitive Edge

• Having previously worked in Thomson Reuters (Clarivate Analytic) and managed the WA business unit as an
Account Director, my pedigree is second-to-none as I have had business- relationships with most VCs, Senior
Librarians and Professors alike. This affords me the know-how to replicate the success I had on the job prior to
now
• Knowledge of content-aggregators business products and competitors edge
• Strong business awareness and cadence in dealing in the academia
• Intrepid product knowledge and contact and leverage on existing relationship to win additional business across
the region

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 13

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Emerald’s Competitors in West Africa

• Clarivate Analytics
• Elsevier
• EBSCO
• Springers

Go-to-Market Plan West Africa 14

BUSINESS MANAGER
Thank You.
W.A Gbadebo Reuben
+2348169186564
deboreuben@hotmail.com