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Is Your First Sales Message Turning Off Your Customers? · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. It's been a while.
• 0:03
  My name is Tavishma Aide. I'm the host of the podcast and
• 0:09
  I'm making today's recording at home.
• 0:12
  So expect to hear some noise in the background because the kids,
• 0:14
  wifey, everybody's home. Now the goal of this podcast is
• 0:18
  solving business problems. So you have issues with
• 0:20
  customers, marketing isn't working, Something will decide
• 0:23
  also. Then this is the show for you.
• 0:25
  Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your
• 0:28
  choice. And if you'd love to connect,
• 0:30
  you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 0:37
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be doing a message tear
• 0:40
  down. Now what that means is we're
• 0:43
  going to look at samples of messages that we send for
• 0:46
  business purposes. You know, especially when we're
• 0:49
  dealing with, you know, fresh customers, you know, one time
• 0:52
  like this is the first time you're in touch with a person,
• 0:54
  Then we're going to look for tips about what can be done
• 0:58
  better next time. So I repeat, what we're looking
• 1:01
  at today on the podcast is we're going to do a message tear down.
• 1:04
  We're going to look at some sample messages that have been
• 1:06
  sent by other people and then one message that has been sent
• 1:10
  by me. And then we're going to look at
• 1:12
  tips and tricks about what we can do better next time so that
• 1:16
  our messages can be much more effective.
• 1:18
  You know, when we're in a sales context, what would someone
• 1:22
  hoping that the person is going to transfer some sweet money to
• 1:24
  us and the person is going to become our client.
• 1:27
  So the first sample message that we're going to send, by the way,
• 1:32
  in all these messages, I say send review.
• 1:35
  So the first sample message that we're going to review, the
• 1:37
  identity of all the parties concerned has been obscured
• 1:41
  because I don't have permission to use the people's real names.
• 1:45
  So the first sample message is a message from a solar sales
• 1:51
  professional, but I covered the guy's name and of course, I
• 1:55
  covered the customer's name. So this is how the message went.
• 1:58
  The message started like this. Good afternoon, Sir.
• 2:03
  Slash Madam, I am Bobo Risky from Ijebu Solar and I'm
• 2:09
  reaching out in relation to your response to our advert for solar
• 2:13
  services on Facebook or Instagram.
• 2:17
  Please to kick off, what exactly would you like to power with
• 2:21
  your solar home or business question mark?
• 2:25
  And then a link to Instagram was attached to the company's
• 2:29
  homepage. Abby no to the company's
• 2:33
  Instagram page. So let me repeat, this was the
• 2:36
  message. Good afternoon SA slash Madam, I
• 2:39
  am Bobo risky from Ijebu Solar. I am reaching out in relation to
• 2:44
  your response to our advert for solar services on Facebook or
• 2:48
  Instagram. Please to kick off, what exactly
• 2:52
  would you like to power with solar home or business question
• 2:57
  mark? Then a link was attached.
• 3:00
  Now, First off, if we're going to assess this message, how good
• 3:03
  is this message? How effective is this message?
• 3:05
  It depends. It depends on what the purpose
• 3:07
  of the message was in the 1st place.
• 3:09
  So I asked the solar guy, of course, you know who I'm
• 3:12
  currently coaching, why did you send this message?
• 3:16
  And this was the response. The reason why the guy said this
• 3:20
  message was he just sent it ahead so that the contact, the
• 3:24
  person who was reaching out to will seize.
• 3:27
  And then the thing would just register in his mind so that
• 3:30
  eventually when he got to call the person, he wouldn't be a
• 3:34
  total stranger. So I repeat, the purpose of the
• 3:38
  message was just to put the customer on notice that he was
• 3:42
  going to call basically. Now, is this a good idea?
• 3:48
  And actually the answer is yes, it is a good idea.
• 3:52
  Nowadays people know they pick call anyhow.
• 3:55
  People don't just answer random calls 'cause you know, scammers,
• 3:58
  you know, and all kinds of things.
• 4:00
  So it makes sense that you come up with some messages that you
• 4:02
  send ahead of time so that when the person just sees it, OK, at
• 4:08
  least by the time you call, you won't be too much of A stranger.
• 4:10
  Hello, Who is this? Oh, OK, yes, yes.
• 4:12
  I saw your text message earlier. Then the conversation can
• 4:15
  continue. So sending these kind of
• 4:17
  messages, warming up messages, warming up outreach, is it a
• 4:21
  good idea? The answer is yes.
• 4:23
  But in this case, was it executed?
• 4:25
  Well, the answer is no because it does not sound like a message
• 4:30
  that is meant to warm up because let's repeat the message again.
• 4:33
  The guy said, I am this calling from this company.
• 4:36
  I'm reaching out because you responded to our advert for
• 4:39
  solar. So what do you want to power?
• 4:43
  That was the message. That is not a warm up message.
• 4:47
  So how are we supposed to do warming up messages or warming
• 4:51
  up outreach? Let's break it down step by step
• 4:55
  now. First off, DSR or Madame no
• 4:59
  Capital NOI have said it time and time again on the podcast.
• 5:03
  We are no longer in the 1970s. We are no longer in the 1980s.
• 5:09
  So starting off business communications by saying dear
• 5:11
  Sir or Madam or to who it may concern it's it doesn't work
• 5:19
  anymore. That is the easiest way for
• 5:22
  people to ignore you. I am clearly a Sir.
• 5:26
  If I see dear Sir or Madam, I just ignore like this message is
• 5:30
  not meant for me. The guy just they spam the guy
• 5:33
  just they broadcast you understand?
• 5:36
  So do not start any message with DSR or Madam.
• 5:41
  We are no longer in 1976. We're no longer in 1985.
• 5:46
  This thing does not work anymore.
• 5:47
  No more to whom it may concern. Nowadays, it is easy to at least
• 5:56
  tell the sex of the person that you're sending the message to.
• 5:59
  You might not be able to get the right name, but at least you can
• 6:03
  get the the sex of the person by doing a very simple data
• 6:07
  enrichment exercise, which I talk about time and time again.
• 6:10
  Take the number, put it in Truecaller.
• 6:13
  Then take whatever name you get, put it in Google.
• 6:18
  At least you'll be able to gauge the sex of the person.
• 6:22
  So let's say the name of the person is Kirechi Ihenacha.
• 6:26
  You OK? Are they female kilichis?
• 6:29
  OK, well, there might be some female kilichis.
• 6:31
  But when you put kilichi here natural and you look at the
• 6:34
  results that come up, you get the sense of, OK, this guy is is
• 6:38
  likely a guy or is likely a girl.
• 6:42
  So Truecaller Google. At least you'll be able to know
• 6:46
  whether you're starting the message off by saying dear Sir
• 6:51
  or good morning, Sir, or dear Madam, or hi, Chinaza or hello
• 7:00
  Kevin, or, you know, start off the message in the most tailored
• 7:09
  and targeted way that you can. So you can do that by doing some
• 7:13
  basic research using Truecaller and Google.
• 7:16
  So never start off your messages by saying dear Sir, slash, Madam
• 7:20
  or to say to whom it might concern.
• 7:23
  Don't start your messages like that anymore.
• 7:27
  We're in 2025 now. Then another problem with the
• 7:32
  message apart from starting off the wrong way, DSR or Madam, is
• 7:36
  the message went straight into need analysis.
• 7:39
  Now we're going to need analysis which is trying to figure out
• 7:42
  what the customer wants. You are no longer trying to warm
• 7:44
  things up. Essentially you started off the
• 7:46
  sales process. So that was not the intent of
• 7:50
  this message and excuse me, so because of that, that was wrong.
• 7:55
  Now, most importantly, and this is one thing that I went through
• 7:58
  lengths to explain to the sales professional, remember I
• 8:03
  mentioned that after the message, the guy included a link
• 8:06
  and the link goes straight to the company's Instagram profile.
• 8:11
  Do not send links to message links in messages while you're
• 8:17
  still at this total stranger stage.
• 8:19
  Like I don't know you, you don't know me.
• 8:21
  I don't send you, you don't send me.
• 8:23
  We've not yanned before. You know nothing, Gomos.
• 8:27
  So don't send texts, don't send links to anybody when you're
• 8:32
  still at that fresh stage because, well, OK, let's say
• 8:36
  you're listening to this podcast now in 2048, maybe things have
• 8:39
  changed. But right now, business culture
• 8:42
  globally is people are wary of, you know, accounts being hacked,
• 8:49
  phone numbers being cloned, things like that.
• 8:52
  So as a general rule, whether in the UK or in America or in
• 8:54
  Niger, people are not clicking on links when they don't know
• 8:57
  who you are. They're not.
• 9:02
  So it's something that sets people on edge.
• 9:04
  I'm not here minding my business.
• 9:05
  Let's say ping him. I see a message, I open it next
• 9:08
  and there's a link in the message.
• 9:10
  Me, quite frankly, I ignore, but some people are hyper security
• 9:14
  aware. I know I have some relatives
• 9:16
  that when they see that kind of message straight, they block you
• 9:20
  because they don't even want to risk it.
• 9:23
  They don't want to risk the chance that they accidentally
• 9:25
  click on some link and then next thing their phone has been
• 9:27
  hacked or, you know, whatever security details are now all
• 9:31
  over the Internet. So do not send links to anybody
• 9:36
  unless you people have yarn Before you guys know each other,
• 9:39
  you've established some level of rapport.
• 9:45
  So links in messages to strangers is considered a
• 9:48
  security risk for modern phone users in 2025.
• 9:52
  Those of you who are listening to this podcast episode in 2048,
• 9:55
  if things have changed, then, you know, disregard this advice.
• 9:58
  But right now, 2025 security risk, I say risk, security risk.
• 10:04
  Sorry, forgive me. This is where my wife would say
• 10:06
  I'm speaking like a chief person, but actually it's IBO
• 10:08
  people that have this R factor. So where was I self?
• 10:15
  So don't add that link. But the reason why the sales
• 10:21
  professional wanted to put the link there was, you know,
• 10:23
  sometimes it makes messages appear more professional when
• 10:26
  you have a link there. Then the link will now open with
• 10:28
  a small preview window you think makes everything look nice and
• 10:31
  corporate. You understand.
• 10:33
  So that's a good idea, Very, very good idea.
• 10:36
  Just don't do it with the very first communications they're
• 10:39
  having with the potential customer.
• 10:41
  So later communications you can do that kind of thing but see
• 10:44
  when he will send the thing. Now for some reason the well I
• 10:48
  know the reason is the preview screen did not load so the thing
• 10:52
  just looked like a anyhow anyhow, link.
• 10:54
  But he told me what I was trying to achieve so it's easy to fix.
• 11:03
  Now I do most of my work using a Bluetooth keyboard.
• 11:06
  When you copy and paste on the Bluetooth keyboard, that's
• 11:09
  Control X and Control V. That's how you copy and paste.
• 11:13
  If you copy a link and paste a link and you're using a physical
• 11:17
  keyboard, whether Bluetooth or wire enabled or whatever, the
• 11:20
  link, usually we open with a preview preview box, like if
• 11:25
  it's a YouTube link, you do small preview.
• 11:27
  You will now see what's I think called, what is it called?
• 11:33
  Is it tab? Not tab.
• 11:36
  Anyway, if you will do small preview box, you see like an
• 11:39
  icon there with the play button so that the person will know
• 11:42
  that oh, this kind of link, you can play on it and the video
• 11:44
  will play. But if you're using a phone and
• 11:49
  you copy and paste using a phone, the preview box will not
• 11:52
  always show. So to make sure that the thing
• 11:55
  shows all the time, what you do is you go to the end of the
• 11:59
  link, click at the end of the link, not on the link, and then
• 12:03
  use spacebar and then do tap, tap, tap, tap just two or three
• 12:08
  tabs, just give some space or tap at the end of the link.
• 12:11
  Then you use the enter key on your phone, your phone, and then
• 12:17
  just do enter, enter. Once you give that space, now
• 12:21
  anytime you put a link in a message to a potential customer,
• 12:25
  it will load with that preview button and look very nice and
• 12:29
  look very professional. So that's how you get around it.
• 12:31
  If you're trying to make it look professional, either use a
• 12:34
  physical keyboard all the time like I do, or if you're using
• 12:38
  your phone, every single time you paste a link, go to the end,
• 12:41
  click on it, hit spacebar, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, you know, a
• 12:44
  few times or use the enter key, hit enter, enter and everything
• 12:51
  will show nice and professional. So what kind of texts should the
• 12:58
  solar professional have sent? And I came up with some.
• 13:03
  I can put that alternative. So this is my own alternative
• 13:06
  text. Good afternoon Sir, I am Dan
• 13:10
  Iska from Arewa Solar. You responded to one of our
• 13:16
  adverts not long ago concerning your interest in solar.
• 13:20
  I will be calling you later in the day to see how we can be of
• 13:23
  help or how we can help you select the solar or inverter
• 13:28
  system that will be best for your home or your business.
• 13:32
  Talk to you in a few hours, then you send.
• 13:35
  See, I repeat, this is a different scope.
• 13:38
  I said. Good afternoon Sir, I am Dan
• 13:39
  Iska from Ariwa Solar. You responded to one of our
• 13:43
  adverts not long ago concerning your interest in solar.
• 13:46
  I'll be calling to help you. Sorry Abby, I'll be calling
• 13:49
  later in the day to see how we can help you select the best
• 13:53
  solar oil inverter system for your home or business.
• 13:56
  Talk to you in a few hours. Send.
• 13:59
  You can see that that one now is like a warm up message.
• 14:01
  The guy is chilling. He's driving on his way to work.
• 14:03
  The driver is driving him and then the message comes into his
• 14:08
  phone. You know, he sees it and
• 14:09
  registers an impression. Another two hours I call and you
• 14:13
  know, if you're sure we have the conversation, see, you've warmed
• 14:16
  up the message. Oh, by the way, don't say Dang
• 14:19
  Iska in public. It's not a good.
• 14:21
  It's not a good word. It's like an insult.
• 14:23
  If I is not that it's like an insult.
• 14:25
  It is an insult. So don't want to acquire
• 14:27
  anybody, Dang Iska, because you have me saying on the podcast.
• 14:31
  So the tone of this message is better because I am hinting a
• 14:37
  few things. I'm hinting that you know I'm
• 14:40
  going to be calling you later. This is who I am.
• 14:43
  This is why I'll be calling you now.
• 14:46
  Since I started doing this, I found something really
• 14:48
  interesting as a lucky side benefit, there are some people
• 14:51
  that will see this message automatically.
• 14:54
  They will begin the chat with you in WhatsApp straight.
• 14:56
  So that's one of the reasons why I send it because it's even
• 14:59
  good. We have even started the
• 15:01
  registering. So it's not a problem because
• 15:03
  some people just respond and voila, you know the chat.
• 15:09
  So all these warming of messaging, good idea, try it out
• 15:13
  in your business. Let me know how it goes.
• 15:15
  But remember, the goal of the message is you're trying to hint
• 15:18
  to this person, I will be calling you later.
• 15:21
  This is who I am. This is why I'm going to be
• 15:24
  calling you. Then you send.
• 15:27
  If the person responds in WhatsApp, continue to chat in
• 15:29
  WhatsApp. Now, when is the best time to
• 15:32
  send this kind of message? Because you'll be wondering if I
• 15:36
  send it now at 7:00, can I call the person at seven O 5?
• 15:40
  Is that enough time for the person to have read?
• 15:42
  You know, quite frankly, I don't know.
• 15:44
  It's kind of dicey. So that's the reason why he, me
• 15:47
  in my own personal practice, I send these messages early.
• 15:50
  Seven o'clock 7:30, I don't send the message.
• 15:54
  So by the time I'm planning my calls for the day, let's say I
• 15:59
  want to start calling around that kind maybe like 10/10/30,
• 16:02
  maybe I have some wrongs to do, you know, drop the kids on
• 16:05
  school, go to the bank, do one or two things, you know, come
• 16:08
  back, bath, you know, eat breakfast, then sit down, get
• 16:11
  ready to start calling. So that's why I send it early,
• 16:17
  send it 7730, worst case scenario, 8:00.
• 16:22
  The goal is so that by the time I'm calling the person at 9:30
• 16:25
  ten, the person has had one hour, 2 hours depending on when
• 16:30
  I call, maybe even 3 hours to see the message.
• 16:34
  Now, it's not a guarantee that the person would have seen the
• 16:37
  message because, you know, some people are up and down, some
• 16:39
  people are busy, you know, you never know.
• 16:41
  But The thing is, it increases the chances that the person has
• 16:43
  had a good one hour at least to see your message.
• 16:47
  So for me, that's when I send it.
• 16:49
  I said it 7:00 in the morning, maybe 7:30 if I forgot.
• 16:54
  By the time I drop the kids at school, just park somewhere and
• 16:57
  just load up the messages, just send them.
• 16:59
  So at least the 5-6 people that I intend to call, they'll be
• 17:02
  expecting me. So that's it on timing.
• 17:08
  Now let's look at the second scenario of messages.
• 17:11
  Now one of my sales students, he probably annoyed 1 customer
• 17:17
  because she called woman and before they even started
• 17:20
  chatting, woman say oh mummy who's your marketer?
• 17:26
  Then the guy started trying to explain and woman next thing say
• 17:30
  how did you get my number? He now started trying to
• 17:34
  recover. And then from there the
• 17:35
  conversation just went sideways. So I asked him to explain, but
• 17:39
  as I was explaining, I was not understanding.
• 17:41
  So I said, you know what, just give me the woman's number.
• 17:44
  Let me call her. Let me try to figure out what
• 17:46
  the problem is and then see whether we can salvage this
• 17:51
  situation because sometimes you can salvage the situation.
• 17:57
  So apart from trying to salvage the situation, I wanted the
• 18:03
  salesperson to see that sometimes what you think is an
• 18:06
  emergency, like we can figure out a whole lot of stuff.
• 18:10
  The only thing that is like you can't figure out is when it
• 18:13
  comes to life and death. If his life and death matter,
• 18:15
  then you know, I'm sorry, all we can do is pray.
• 18:19
  But other situations, there are lots of things you can rescue.
• 18:23
  You never know. I just didn't want him to feel
• 18:25
  somehow, because after that call, his morale was low.
• 18:28
  You know, it's the first time that somebody had shaken him on
• 18:31
  the phone. Although for me, I was lucky
• 18:33
  that when I started off in business, I got shouted at early
• 18:37
  over the phone. So I just got used to it.
• 18:41
  Oh, by the way, for those of you who are afraid of making calls,
• 18:46
  this is one of the things that I tell you.
• 18:48
  I tell people, like, what are you afraid of?
• 18:50
  Honestly, the ones that will happen is that somebody will
• 18:53
  shout at you. They will shout at you, but you
• 18:54
  won't die. And even even that, even even at
• 18:58
  that, most Nigerians are polite. I've only been shouted at over
• 19:02
  the phone twice, only only twice.
• 19:08
  So think about it, 20 years of using the phone to do business.
• 19:13
  The times that people have shouted at me, it's only twice.
• 19:18
  That's what I'm calling total strangers.
• 19:19
  So believe me, you have nothing to worry about.
• 19:23
  People that have something to worry about is people who live
• 19:25
  in Scotland or people who live in America because me Scottish
• 19:29
  people, they're rude. I remember one time and then I
• 19:34
  worked with the Department of Works and Pension, just regular
• 19:37
  call. Now I called the person I
• 19:38
  started to call the the normal way next to the person like give
• 19:41
  me my freaking money. I said the Scottish people now
• 19:45
  are any small thing just be breaking, just be angry anyhow,
• 19:50
  perpetually angry. Anyway, I tried to control the
• 19:53
  situation. Eventually I called my blind
• 19:55
  manager to take over. Next thing blind manager was
• 19:58
  apologizing. I was like, no, it's OK.
• 20:00
  It's just, it's just that's just how it is.
• 20:03
  So if you're listening to this podcast and you know, you call
• 20:07
  in Scotland or you call in America, then yes, be afraid
• 20:11
  because people shout, shout at you anyhow, they will let you
• 20:14
  have it. But Nigerians, we were very
• 20:16
  polite. But was that what happened?
• 20:18
  Somebody would shout at you. They won't come and kill you.
• 20:21
  They won't come to your house and break down your door and
• 20:23
  strangle you. So no, I don't be scared.
• 20:27
  So. So I look at me.
• 20:30
  I went down memory lane. I forgot myself.
• 20:34
  So anyway, I tried calling the woman.
• 20:35
  Now she didn't respond. So I sent a text message.
• 20:39
  And by the way, it is a good idea to send a text message
• 20:41
  after every single interaction with a customer.
• 20:44
  Let me repeat, Whenever you have an interaction with the
• 20:47
  customer, send a text message. You call, they didn't answer,
• 20:51
  Send a text message. You call, they answered, you
• 20:52
  spoke, the conversation was good.
• 20:54
  Send a text message. You called the answer, you will
• 20:55
  spoke. The conversation was not good.
• 20:56
  Send a text message. You called the answer, you will
• 21:00
  spoke. The conversation was not good.
• 21:02
  Send a text message. You called the answer, you will
• 21:06
  spoke. The situation was unclear.
• 21:07
  Send a text message. Or people are seeing the
• 21:10
  pattern. Now every single time you reach
• 21:12
  out to the customer, send a text message.
• 21:17
  For those situations where the call was good, you send a text
• 21:20
  message with thanks and then the recap.
• 21:23
  Thank you very much Madam for giving me.
• 21:24
  Enjoyed our conversation. Looking forward to working with
• 21:27
  you on XYZ project. Regarding that question you
• 21:30
  asked me about this, this and that that Madam, remember I will
• 21:33
  get back to you by Tuesday 8:00 in the morning.
• 21:37
  Enjoy the rest of your nightmare.
• 21:39
  Send. And the situation was unclear.
• 21:46
  You call you after the call, you send a text message.
• 21:49
  Madam Ogadenbee, I regret that during our last phone call
• 21:53
  weren't able to achieve consensus on this and this and
• 21:56
  that and that. I'm hoping that the next time we
• 21:59
  talk we should be able to resolve our differences on this
• 22:02
  and this. I on my own part, this is what
• 22:05
  I'm going to do to make sure that we try and resolve the
• 22:07
  situation. I'll call you again next week
• 22:10
  Tuesday and I hope by then we'll be able to make progress.
• 22:13
  Send so you call, they didn't answer.
• 22:17
  Send you will spoke was good. Send every single interaction.
• 22:21
  Every time you call the customer, send a text message.
• 22:28
  This is the reason why text messages have a 98% open rate.
• 22:34
  I repeat, if you send text messages to 100 people, 98% of
• 22:39
  them are going to open that text message.
• 22:40
  At least these are the statistics that we have from
• 22:43
  Northern America and Western Europe.
• 22:46
  Of course, in Nigeria we don't have the statistics now because,
• 22:48
  you know, we don't measure anything here.
• 22:50
  So if this is the case in Northern America and Western
• 22:53
  Europe, I suspect it should be the same in Niger.
• 22:55
  In fact, my own guess, I don't know, let me know, I guess.
• 22:59
  But I think it's good. I think it has it's a high rate.
• 23:03
  So the reason why I say send a text message is because sending
• 23:06
  text messages definitely it makes an impression because the
• 23:09
  person saw it. It doesn't mean the person will
• 23:11
  reply, but the person definitely saw it.
• 23:18
  So apart from making an impression, you're also now
• 23:20
  establishing a communication chain and also a summary.
• 23:24
  So later on when you have a missed call and you send a text
• 23:27
  message and the person sees this text message, the person can
• 23:31
  scroll up and read other text messages and get a sense of, OK,
• 23:35
  this sales person I'm talking to, this business person I'm
• 23:38
  talking to, this is where we are.
• 23:42
  And then it's also building a certain level of familiarity for
• 23:46
  those of you who call our no send text messages.
• 23:48
  Think about it. You call the first time person
• 23:52
  the answer, no text message. For the rest of the week, you
• 23:55
  try two or three times, no text messages.
• 23:57
  All the person has seen is four or five missed calls from you.
• 24:01
  What does four or five missed calls convey to the potential
• 24:04
  customer? It conveys nothing.
• 24:07
  But at least if you're sending text messages, it is conveying
• 24:09
  something that, OK, this person tried to call on Monday.
• 24:15
  On Wednesday, he reminded us that we have this agenda
• 24:18
  outstanding, and on Friday he reminded me that the deadline is
• 24:23
  pending. You can see that by sending text
• 24:26
  messages, you are conveying something, trying to call
• 24:28
  somebody, not sending a text message.
• 24:30
  You are conveying nothing. In fact, you are being an
• 24:33
  irritant because some people be wondering why is this guy
• 24:35
  blowing up my phone? People are busy people forget
• 24:39
  the game. I forget that you're supposed to
• 24:42
  send a proposal, send an invoice, send it this, send it
• 24:45
  that or there's another meeting. You just be wondering that this
• 24:47
  guy just they blow up my phone. Why send a text message?
• 24:53
  I know some of you say, why am I going over and over?
• 24:55
  I'm going over and over because I don't know it's like I have to
• 25:01
  smash people over the head with this thing.
• 25:04
  People don't just get it. It is one thing I keep trying to
• 25:07
  repeat over and over again. Anyway, let me stop.
• 25:09
  I'm assuming you guys have gotten the message.
• 25:12
  Send a message. So this case now where was I?
• 25:19
  So this guy ignored probably angered the the woman.
• 25:24
  So I now try calling now. She didn't answer so I now sent
• 25:26
  a text message. This is the text message I sent
• 25:28
  her. Again I changed the names.
• 25:31
  So good afternoon Madame Mihir Nacho.
• 25:34
  I tried calling earlier from Ukanka Madhu Sola.
• 25:39
  I was just informed that you spoke to one of my associates
• 25:41
  yesterday and I suspect he either upset you or he wasn't
• 25:46
  very helpful with your enquiries about Sola.
• 25:49
  Please let me know when you're available and I'll call you back
• 25:52
  to see how we can be of assistance to you.
• 25:55
  Cheers Ma. Full stop send.
• 25:58
  I repeat, I called, she didn't answer.
• 26:00
  So this is the message that I sent.
• 26:01
  Good afternoon Madam Mihir Nacho, I tried calling earlier
• 26:05
  from Ukanka Madhu Sola. I was just informed that you
• 26:09
  spoke to one of my associates yesterday and I suspect he
• 26:11
  either upset you or he wasn't very helpful with your enquiries
• 26:14
  about Sola. Please let me know when you're
• 26:17
  available and I'll call you back to see how we can be of
• 26:19
  assistance to you. Cheers.
• 26:21
  Send. Oh, by the way, you can come, I
• 26:25
  do. It's not a good word so don't,
• 26:27
  don't use that. I can't remember what it meant,
• 26:29
  but back when I lived in where you have some, a number of boys
• 26:32
  in my compound, you know, any small thing you can come, I do,
• 26:34
  can come. I do can come.
• 26:35
  I do. So I don't know what it means,
• 26:37
  but I think it means like useless boy or it means animal
• 26:40
  or something. I'm busy.
• 26:42
  I'm in Parma. That means animal.
• 26:44
  Anyway, those are some of the insults I used to hear from
• 26:46
  those and umbrella boys. Any small thing can't come.
• 26:48
  I do a new Palmer Ganka Madu, a new Palmer Ebo.
• 26:52
  Listeners, please drop a comment.
• 26:53
  Let me know what those words mean so I can stop saying it
• 26:56
  because there's another one. I used to say until I met my
• 26:59
  wife and then when I said he said, hey, what did you say?
• 27:01
  I repeatedly she said never you say that thing again.
• 27:03
  I said why? I said like people say it all
• 27:06
  the time. She said this is what it means.
• 27:07
  When I heard excuse me, when I heard the meaning of this thing,
• 27:11
  hey, I was shocked. I say he'll this is something
• 27:14
  I've even been saying in church. I didn't even know the meaning
• 27:16
  was a very rude insult something that has to do with somebody's
• 27:20
  mom sees body part. Let me just put it that way but
• 27:23
  I had no idea. So anyway you leave with other
• 27:26
  people and you are not the same tribe.
• 27:28
  It's not every single insult that the shouts that you self
• 27:30
  you be shouting well know what something means before you be
• 27:33
  shouting it. What was I?
• 27:37
  So now some of you asked why did I call this person Madam?
• 27:40
  Now, This is why I say data enrichment is important.
• 27:43
  Before I made this call, because the salesperson didn't do this.
• 27:47
  I took the phone number and I put it into Truecaller.
• 27:50
  A name came. I took the name and I threw it
• 27:52
  into Google. And then I saw some information
• 27:55
  and I found out that this woman is a very top senior official in
• 27:59
  customs. She's a customs official,
• 28:02
  customs bigwig. You see why I say data
• 28:04
  enrichment is important? Some of you say I tried for the
• 28:07
  first five contacts. Nothing came up, so I stopped.
• 28:11
  Look, don't be lazy. You won't get information on
• 28:15
  everybody. The thing is, we're just trying
• 28:17
  to make the few calls that we can as easy as possible because
• 28:20
  calling people is hard. So if you call 5 people, nothing
• 28:27
  came up. Continue.
• 28:28
  Who knows, maybe after 10 people out of the data enrichment that
• 28:32
  you do, you find useful info on three.
• 28:34
  If you find useful information on three contacts and it helps
• 28:36
  you make 3 calls that are smooth isn't all good.
• 28:40
  Now for you trying to freestyle on on on phone numbers that you
• 28:45
  know absolutely nothing about the person calling people to try
• 28:49
  and drop more business is hard. It gets easier if at least you
• 28:54
  have a general idea. This person that I'm calling how
• 28:56
  Saibo, Yoruba, male or female, old or young?
• 29:03
  Where do they live? Abuja or Kano or an Ambra, by
• 29:09
  the time you start to feel in small, small, small details like
• 29:12
  this in your mind, you know it's a psychological something, you
• 29:16
  know, the call becomes a lot easier because there are not too
• 29:20
  many unknowns. If I just give you a random
• 29:22
  phone number, 080 blah, blah, blah blah blah, or I call this
• 29:26
  number, try and sell your product, you'll be nervous and
• 29:30
  your mind is hanging. But if I give you another phone
• 29:33
  number, I say call this number. The lady's name is Auntie
• 29:37
  Sylvia. She goes to the same church as
• 29:40
  me. I know for sure that she's
• 29:42
  looking for skin care products, especially for her second
• 29:46
  daughter who is 12 years old. With all this background
• 29:50
  information I've given you, you now as a skin care specialist,
• 29:53
  you'll be much more confident making this call because extra
• 29:59
  information has been added on to you.
• 30:01
  So that's what data enrichment is for.
• 30:03
  So in this case, now when I did data enrichment and I saw that
• 30:06
  she's a very senior person, you know, this is Nigeria.
• 30:09
  Now I'm a small boy, she's a mature somebody.
• 30:12
  I can't start off this conversation by saying hi, this
• 30:15
  is awesome. Always run into problem.
• 30:17
  You pick up the call and say hi and roughly.
• 30:21
  So the person will be like who is this idiot hiring me or
• 30:25
  hello? Like how do you know that this
• 30:28
  is a hello? Somebody, you know, depending on
• 30:30
  the culture, depending on the tribe, you know, hello is
• 30:33
  considered an end of insults. Like are you my age mate?
• 30:35
  Why are you helloing me? So do data enrichment so that
• 30:40
  you'll be able to start the call appropriately, so that if the
• 30:43
  person is in Madam, you know, you will say good morning,
• 30:46
  Madam, good morning, Sir. Or if it's more of like age,
• 30:49
  when you'll be able to say bro, how you do.
• 30:53
  So it depends. Conversations can start, bro,
• 30:56
  how you do. Good morning, Sir, or hello, Mr.
• 30:59
  Phillip. Good morning, Madam.
• 31:02
  Or I hear you Sir or chief, or you know, data enrichment, it
• 31:07
  helps. So that's the reason why I
• 31:09
  started off this conversation with good afternoon Madam Ian
• 31:12
  Nacho, because I've seen that she's in mature somebody.
• 31:15
  So I guess start the conversation off on the right
• 31:17
  note. So data enrichment very, very
• 31:22
  important. Then again, remember there are
• 31:25
  lots of things you can use for data enrichment paid products,
• 31:28
  but I don't like people having excuses.
• 31:30
  So I always talk about the one that is free.
• 31:33
  True colour is free. The only problem is that true
• 31:35
  color will frustrate you. By the time you do one or two
• 31:38
  searches any small thing advertisement will come up.
• 31:40
  Sometimes the advertisement they have audio, sometimes the audio
• 31:44
  and the video is not something that is suitable for work.
• 31:48
  So it is possible that you run one or two searches, next thing
• 31:51
  you see one of those videos, you know this simply cloud lady
• 31:53
  dancing. And unfortunately for you, maybe
• 31:56
  that's the time your guy will be passing your back.
• 31:58
  Your guy will be saying, is this what I'm paying you for?
• 32:00
  You say, no Sir, I was searching Truecaller.
• 32:01
  I say, is this Truecaller that I'm looking at?
• 32:04
  You're trying to explain. And they're gonna be like get
• 32:05
  out. So that's really problem with
• 32:09
  Truecaller. But I think the paid version is
• 32:12
  I think maybe like 509 a month or something.
• 32:14
  So Truecaller is free, Google is free.
• 32:18
  Take the phone number, put it in Truecaller, take the name, throw
• 32:21
  it in Google. You'll see a bunch of stuff.
• 32:23
  You see Facebook handle, you see Instagram handle, you will see
• 32:26
  all kinds of things. From there, you'll be able to
• 32:28
  figure out some stuff. In fact, one day time enrichment
• 32:32
  I did today, I figured out that the person has been arrested
• 32:34
  before. Seriously, it was just there on
• 32:39
  the Internet, so you never know. You find out some interesting
• 32:43
  stuff and now I know that you can find out whether somebody
• 32:45
  has been arrested before just by doing this search.
• 32:48
  So that's why I started this conversation as Madam, because I
• 32:51
  did data enrichment. Now, of course, you'll also
• 32:54
  notice that I called the guy associate.
• 32:58
  So that's one thing I explained to the team and I'm explaining
• 33:00
  to you now. Associate is just a safe term
• 33:03
  that you can use to refer to yourself or to refer to your
• 33:07
  colleagues. So in this business, we never
• 33:09
  call ourselves sales boy. We never call ourselves sales
• 33:12
  girl. We never call ourselves
• 33:14
  employee, never call ourselves staff.
• 33:17
  We never call ourselves marketer.
• 33:19
  No, all those things denote inferior status.
• 33:23
  Let me repeat, do not call yourself sales boy or sales
• 33:26
  girl. Do not call yourself employee.
• 33:28
  Do not call yourself staff. You don't say I'm a staff of in
• 33:31
  nature and power limited. No, those things give you
• 33:37
  immediate lower status. But associate is, you know, it's
• 33:42
  not aiming too high, it's not aiming too low and it's
• 33:44
  objective because let's face it, all of us and we know
• 33:46
  colleagues, we're all associates now.
• 33:50
  Now this is something that I learned from legal practice when
• 33:53
  I was a baby lawyer in Kano, I noticed that my yoga never
• 33:56
  introduced me as a junior lawyer.
• 33:57
  And I appreciated it because I saw other firms how somebody
• 34:00
  say, oh, I'm sending my junior to you.
• 34:03
  If you say I'm sending my junior to you, how do you think the
• 34:05
  other people will treat them? They will treat them like a
• 34:07
  junior. But I noticed that my owner
• 34:08
  always used to say I am sending my associate and that is what
• 34:12
  people expected when I showed up, the expected and associate.
• 34:18
  So trust me, associate is very safe.
• 34:21
  Raise your profile small. So put some respect on yourself,
• 34:26
  put some respect on your name, put some respect on your
• 34:28
  colleagues. All of us, we are associates.
• 34:32
  So that's how we say it. So even though I'm a trainer or
• 34:36
  I'm in the supervisory role, I didn't say you spoke to one of
• 34:39
  my subordinates. No, I say you spoke to one of my
• 34:43
  associates. We go to sound professional, all
• 34:46
  of us. That's how we raise our level,
• 34:50
  right? So associate, that's a safe one
• 34:55
  to use. Well, if your guy calls you
• 34:59
  sales boy, then I don't know. You manage, you manage.
• 35:04
  Then one of the salespeople that I was training asked why did I
• 35:09
  put question mark after the person's name and because, OK, I
• 35:12
  failed to mention that when I sent the message, I said where
• 35:15
  is it? Good afternoon Madame here,
• 35:16
  natural question mark. Now the reason why is this, the
• 35:20
  customer details that we have on our system, the name was one
• 35:23
  way. By the time I did my data
• 35:25
  enrichment on Truecaller and Google, the name was another
• 35:29
  way. Well, you know how it is in
• 35:31
  Nigeria, how people can have different names, like take from
• 35:33
  me for instance, my name is Tava Shima, George IED Bob.
• 35:39
  People who know me from growing up in Abuja, they just know me
• 35:42
  as Tarvi. Then there's some people who
• 35:46
  know me as Tarvishima. By the time I got to Greg's, I
• 35:51
  used George for a while. So even though he's one person,
• 35:54
  some people know me as Tarvishima, George IED, some
• 35:57
  people know me as Tarvi IED, only some people know me as
• 36:00
  Tarvishima IED, as in some people know me as George IED
• 36:05
  without the Tarvishima. So you can see one person, but
• 36:09
  the combo Gorish like 6. It's one of those things just
• 36:13
  part of growing up in this part of the country.
• 36:15
  So her own also was like that. And then plus, since the lady, I
• 36:20
  suspect she's a she's a Hajj. You know, like she has gone for
• 36:24
  Hajj who actually was a northern name.
• 36:26
  Well, not a northern name. It was a Yoruba Muslim and put
• 36:30
  it that way. So I suspect she's a Hajj as I
• 36:33
  was seeing her. I think she's a Hajj.
• 36:36
  So there were those different combinations.
• 36:38
  So that's the reason why I just put that question mark because
• 36:42
  when I do things like that, I'm trying to invite clarification
• 36:46
  because that most people who respond and say, yes, this is
• 36:49
  so, so, so and so, so I now know that, OK, this is the proper way
• 36:53
  to, to address them from now on. And then apart from that, even
• 36:59
  when I talk to people on the phone, it's something that I
• 37:02
  bring up early. I say, oh, but I mean here
• 37:05
  natural, blah, blah, blah. Oh, sorry, but I mean natural
• 37:07
  before we continue on our system.
• 37:10
  The name that I saw was a messy hair natural, but on true
• 37:14
  quarter Wendy when I called it was saying Gloria into BCE hair
• 37:19
  natural. So how am I to address humor?
• 37:23
  It's not a bad way to start of a conversation and in a way it
• 37:25
  builds rapport. Some people will say, Oh my
• 37:28
  dear, that glory I was when I was in civil service, but I'm
• 37:33
  I'm retired now. So anyway, you want to call me
• 37:35
  is fine. In that case, maybe I'll just go
• 37:38
  with one on the system. But the way that the person says
• 37:42
  I should be addressed, she should be addressed is how I'll
• 37:44
  address her. So I ask, So what else?
• 37:49
  OK, 30 minutes. So let me bring this to a close.
• 37:52
  So what was I trying to achieve anyway?
• 37:56
  Basically what I'm just trying to pass across here is this,
• 37:59
  text messages can be a good way of advancing the sale.
• 38:02
  Advancing the sale just means moving the sale forward one step
• 38:05
  at a time. So whatever it is that we do, we
• 38:07
  should make sure that we are trying to learn best practices
• 38:11
  around sending text messages. It really help us in our
• 38:15
  business. So that's it.
• 38:16
  And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to
• 38:19
  connect, call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
• 38:22
  08064662140. Thanks for your time and
• 38:26
  attention. I'll catch you next time.
• 38:29
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.