Former Child Soldier Now Turned Sales Motivational Speaker

Almost everything in this world runs on sales. You are selling either a service or a product. For Daniel Choudry, he believes everyone can sell as long as he can get your attitude changed. His an author and calls himself a “sales warrior from East Africa” Personally he has been selling since 2007 while at the university. With background in Business Administration, majoring in marketing from Makerere University Business Institute (MUBS) and a Masters in Marketing to horn his skills in sales indeed you can tell he has no regrets.

To understand how Daniel discerned his calling to dominate in sales, just like every successful business journey, we have to start from the beginning.

Growing up from Lamwo district in Northern Uganda, he wanted to achieve two life goals. To become a banker and travel to Kampala. While in Primary 4, the opportunity to travel to Kampala came along, but at a cost of only working hard to attain a first grade upon completing Primary 7. The excitement someone has while traveling in the plane for the very first time is the type of excitement Daniel had when he was offered the incentive travel to Kampala.  Promised how he will see tall buildings, the airport and the biggest lake in the world and many more with mental images he constructed in his mind about Kampala definitely he worked hard on his studies to actualize the dream. That is how the ambitious drive to succeed in life begun.

Raised by a single mother and grandmother, life was rough for Daniel. He missed the presence and influence of a father’s love, working backbreaking hours every day in the garden and in 1999 as he was heading to the farm; the LRA soldiers abducted him.  For 8 month walking bare foot in the bush, he suffered the worst inhumane, excruciating ill treatment from the soldiers who subjected him to intense harsh labor work and military training. Good enough, during a rescue mission the UPDF found him nursing a bullet wound and rescued him from the horrors of the bush life.

Starting business.

To find ways of raising tuition and buying handouts while at the university, Daniel started up a popcorn business and sold woman’s jewelry. That saw him make profits of 5,000- 10,000 shillings to get by. However, these profits were not in position to pay up his full tuition.

A Dream is born.

His first shot of earning big as a sales agent was out of a pressing need to find ways of raising clean tuition fast enough. He approached the Director of the entrepreneurship center of MUBS Dianah seeking for work. The response was positive as he was offered work to look for interested candidates to study short course certificates in Bookkeeping, customer care, Accounting Managements, Leadership with a target of recruiting only twenty people. With a landline and three business directories he zealously called a hundred people every day, at the end  the two weeks, he had recruited four hundred people. The director was so delighted and advised him to take up sales as a career. From that experience, he has never looked back.

Motivational Speaker

It is clear Daniel made good use of his university days. He enrolled for a Public Speaking course. It was not always about work, books or business. Coupled with a social entrepreneurship spirit, he wants everyone to believe that they have a purpose in life and through sharing his childhood stories and bush life; he has motivated students in various academies to take life seriously. “I enjoy telling my story more than the sales trainings I do. I feel people relate to it.” He said.

Turning Point in Sales.

In 2011, he noticed there was a big gap in hotel management concerning the area of customer care. With prior experience working in the customer care department at one of the giant telecom company in Uganda, he knew he had to do something about it. He drafted a proposal and interested it to the proprietor City Royal Hotel who immediately hired his services to train his employees in sales, customer care and marketing.

He performed an extraordinary job that spring boarded him to where he is today. From the profits, he registered a company under the name of Quantum Communications quit his job as a lecturer to fully be engaged in sales training. “Sales has been an amazing experience, it has built me a house, I run a hotel in Kitgum district and we are doing fairly well,” he said.

Meeting Clients expectations

“We first do a pre-training examination to find out how much you are making, we scrutinize your sales system and if the system doesn’t exist, we create one. We look at the people who work in the sales system if I realize they are just there to work because they don’t have what to do, I advise the bosses to kick them out which they actually oblige to. It is not about mercy, relatives or technical know who. I do not believe in 1-3 days training. I believe I can change your habits in 3 month. In 3 month, am able to know the team’s strength and weaknesses. I also do one on one coaching’s. “He said.

Anyone can sell

Daniel has credence that anyone can close a sale deal successfully. “People think selling is for some losers in life who didn’t go to university. They think an 8-5pm job where you earn a salary at the end of the month is a prestigious achievement. The most lucrative career globally is sales, look at politicians; they sell ideas to masses that get them elected into parliament. I do not believe in just having a small shop on the street. Find ways of bringing me to the shop. Acing a job interview, you have to sell your brand and competence. Sales is a life style not a profession.” He lamented.

In 2015, this inspiring entrepreneur opened up another company called Daniel Choudry Sales Institutes that offers courses in customized sales trainings to co-operate organizations and various industries.

Challenges

“I face number of them from dishonest people, who come work with me for 6 month only later run away with my knowledge, some young people I have noticed are not patient and some government clients try to convince me to chat the path of corruption so that they also walk with their cut which is against my principals.” He said.

Advice From Daniel

It was just a simple and easy response he said, “Work and build strategies around your great ideas.”

Venturing into business sometimes sounds like a daunting task and lonely journey with insurmountable mountains to conquer. But as Daniel has managed to overcome some of them. So can you.