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Field & Outside Sales

Work a territory, open cold doors, and close honestly — the craft behind Nigeria's most-hired job.

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About this course

Open any Nigerian jobs board and the most common role is some version of the same job: Business Relationship Manager, Field Sales Officer, Sales Rep, Agent Network Officer. Different titles, one craft — leave in the morning, work a territory on foot, walk into businesses that were not expecting you, and come back with orders, sign-ups or activated agents. This course teaches that craft as the transferable profession it is, across the products Nigerian field sellers actually carry: POS terminals and agent networks, FMCG routes, solar and inverters, pharma, and — increasingly — software sold to schools, shops and clinics from the rep's own phone. You will learn to master a product in the four ways buyers actually test (what it does, what it truly costs, what breaks and who fixes it, what proof exists nearby) and to translate every feature into the buyer's own arithmetic — naira per day earned, saved, or stopped from leaking. Then the numbers craft under the people craft: funnel arithmetic that turns a target into calls per day, territories clustered into day-beats around markets and school runs, and the notebook that makes a territory compound instead of resetting cold every Monday. The conversation lessons run on full dialogues from real Nigerian doorways — the thirty-second approach that passes the pest detector, gatekeepers recruited instead of brushed past, discovery questions that produce closable numbers, demos that survive network failure, and the four great objections ('no money', 'I'll think about it', 'my brother handles that', 'bring am make I see') answered honestly all the way to a plainly-asked close and the silence that follows it. It ends where careers are actually decided: after-sale follow-up that keeps customers active, referrals asked at the moment of surprise, commission arithmetic run weekly like a business, and the street name that compounds across every product you will ever carry. Pop-up quick-checks throughout keep you practising as you read. Deliberately complements Sales Professional (the conversation craft itself) and Advanced Sales (B2B deals and key accounts) — this is the job of working a territory on foot.

Open the Skillnaija jobs board today and count: the single most common role is some version of the same job — Business Relationship Manager, Field Sales Officer, Sales Rep, Agent Network Officer. Different titles, one craft: you leave the office in the morning, work a territory on foot or by bike, walk into businesses that were not expecting you, and come back in the evening with orders, sign-ups, or activated agents. This is outside sales, it is how fintechs, FMCG companies, solar firms, pharma distributors and software startups actually grow in Nigeria, and it is one of the few careers where you can start with no certificate, no capital and no connection — and out-earn graduates within a year if you are good.

What you'll learn

Course syllabus — 7 lessons

  1. The field seller's day: Nigeria's biggest open door14 min
  2. Know the product, know the buyer — in their arithmetic15 min
  3. Territory and route: the maths of showing up15 min
  4. The approach: winning the first thirty seconds16 min
  5. Discovery and the demo: earn the pitch before you give it16 min
  6. Objections and the close: 'no money', 'I'll think about it', and the honest yes17 min
  7. Follow-up, targets, and the name you build15 min

Your project

A territory plan you could work on Monday

A written pack of roughly 1,200 to 2,000 words containing: the product with its buyer-arithmetic sentence and four mastery answers; the funnel arithmetic from target to calls per day with your named weak link; three named day-beats with rhythms and a sample day's visit order; three original dialogue scripts (approach with gatekeeper, discovery-into-demo with failure recovery, objection-to-close) of at least 8 exchanges each; the follow-up system with verbatim messages; the weekly tracking card and commission arithmetic with the active-versus-new worked example; and the closing section — the street sentences, the refused sale with walk-away words, and your safety rules.

Certificates on Skillnaija are earned, not issued for attendance: you submit this project, it is graded against a rubric, and passing issues a certificate anyone can verify. See the full project brief, rubric and free workbook →

Frequently asked questions

Is Field & Outside Sales free?

Yes. Field & Outside Sales is completely free on Skillnaija. You need a free account to open the lessons, and there is no charge for the course, the project, or the certificate.

How long does Field & Outside Sales take to complete?

5 weeks · ~3 hrs/week. There are 7 lessons, about 2 hours of material in total. You learn at your own pace and your progress is saved.

Do I need any experience to start Field & Outside Sales?

Beginner-friendly. You can start from scratch — no prior experience is assumed.

What will I learn in Field & Outside Sales?

You will build practical skills in Field sales, Outside sales, Territory planning, Route planning, Merchant acquisition, Agent network, POS sales, Direct sales, Cold approach, Discovery questions, Product demos, Objection handling, Closing, Follow-up, Customer retention, Commission math, Sales reporting, SaaS sales, B2B sales, Negotiation, Prospecting, Lead generation, Customer acquisition, Relationship management, Cold calling, Sales targets, Business development. Every lesson is written for a Nigerian context, with examples drawn from how the work is actually done and paid for here.

Do I get a certificate for Field & Outside Sales?

Yes, but it has to be earned. You complete the course project — A territory plan you could work on Monday and submit it for grading. Passing the project issues a verifiable certificate; finishing the lessons alone does not.

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