Transformative Learning: Highlights from The Language of Retail by Tolagbe Martins

On Thursday, October 10th, over 50 retail professionals gathered at The Civic Centre, Lagos, for the second edition of impactful one-day immersion training on The Language of Retail, hosted by Tolagbe Martins, Founder of The TM Grammar Ministry.

This program was developed by Tolagbe, drawing on her experience as a Nigerian brand advocate, small business peer mentor, and graduate of Social Psychology. Through this initiative, she identified the need for a shift in the Nigerian mindset toward service, having observed a marked difference in the hospitality and retail experience in other countries, even across Africa.

Tolagbe’s goal with The Language of Retail is to support businesses by offering science-backed behavioral insights to help them understand the peculiarities of the Nigerian market and adapt to thrive and maximize value.

At the heart of the training was this objective, focusing on how to shift service delivery to match Nigerian consumer expectations. Tolagbe covered essential topics such as The Customer Journey, Retail Etiquette, and Nigerian Client Personas.

The one-day event also featured an engaging session led by guest facilitator Bella Adeleke, who shared her expertise on Display and Merchandising. Participants enjoyed a productive and inspiring day, complete with a tea break and lunch, which allowed for further networking and reflection on the day’s insights.

The proprietary course material usually offered custom delivered to client organizations is presented in this one-day event in an attempt to make the training more accessible and to price-sensitive MSMEs by allowing them to nominate one or two team members,

Feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive. One participant shared, “Tolagbe darling, my staff are raving about the training! They had an absolute blast, felt great about their roles, and couldn’t wait for more. The impact you will create with this is huge!”

Another attendee emphasized how insightful the training was, particularly for their retail operations, customer service, and merchandising practices.

The team was thrilled by the success of this event and looks forward to continuing to provide valuable retail insights in the future. They are developing a digital version of this course which will serve businesses seeking to better understand the Nigerian client.

The TM Grammar Ministry was launched in 2020 after an epiphany. Tolagbe decided that she could no longer in good conscience keep nitpicking about people being unable to communicate with clarity.

After 9 months of sharing free content on Instagram, she began to field requests to ‘come and train’.

Drawing on a varied career, the team developed an initial 6-course offering which has expanded to over 20 modules and has since trained nearly a thousand people in healthcare, technology, engineering logistics, financial services, oil & gas, hospitality, and of course, retail.

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