Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The "Opt-In" Advantage: Why Intrusive Marketing Fails
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome. Today on the podcast, we're
- 0:03going to be looking at whether you should send broadcast
- 0:06messaging to promote your business.
- 0:08So whether you should do it, how to do it if you're already doing
- 0:13it, how can we do this better? Now, the reason why we're going
- 0:16to do that is because I'm sure 98% of us listening to this
- 0:20podcast are trying to figure out how to use WhatsApp to promote
- 0:24our businesses. So not just WhatsApp, you know,
- 0:26Instagram, LinkedIn, any place where you can send multiple
- 0:30messages to, you know, hundreds of people, thousands of people.
- 0:35Should we be engaging in this kind of activity or OK, you
- 0:39can't send messages to thousands of people on WhatsApp, but I
- 0:43think you can send messages to thousands of people on Telegram.
- 0:48I think I think that's one of the reasons why people who do
- 0:52business in, you know, that require high volume.
- 0:54I think that's one of the reasons why they prefer
- 0:57Telegram, at least in Nigeria anyway.
- 1:00So that's what we're going to be looking at on the podcast today.
- 1:03Now, of course, I'm making today's podcast recording at
- 1:05home. So, you know, it's a weekend,
- 1:07everybody's home. So there will be some noise in
- 1:09the background. Wifey's listening to her own
- 1:13podcast. You know, I said what I said and
- 1:15the kids are watching SpongeBob, so expect to hear noise in the
- 1:17background. And if you'd love to connect
- 1:20then you can call, you can send me a text message or a WhatsApp
- 1:23message on 08064662140. Now let's get straight down to
- 1:29business. So this is an actual scenario
- 1:33that happened to me and I want to use this as a case study to
- 1:36try and illustrate some of the ideas that we talk about over
- 1:40here on the podcast in general and that we're going to talk
- 1:42about on this podcast in particular.
- 1:44So on the 6th of May 2025, which was not long ago because we're
- 1:49in where we now we're in August. So this was like 4 months ago,
- 1:55someone sent me a message, someone I didn't know.
- 1:58I was just chilling and then a message into my phone.
- 2:00And then of course, was a photo. I didn't click on the photo and
- 2:06you know, I've been sending over on the podcast, but lots of you
- 2:10are not getting it. This whole thing of your total
- 2:13stranger, the first message you send, somebody's a photo or a
- 2:15link. You guys be careful now because
- 2:21I'm in the business of sales consulting.
- 2:24I like to know what is out there.
- 2:27So when I see these messages, you know, I will view if I think
- 2:30it's safe, you know, I will click.
- 2:34But the average person, the average Nigerian is very wary
- 2:38about these sorts of things. Now.
- 2:40Think about it. School is about to resume in a
- 2:42couple of weeks. I was just chilling, doing my
- 2:45thing in my small corner, you know, my small makeshift office
- 2:49at home. Then my wife came and she said,
- 2:51have any of these numbers called you?
- 2:53I said no. I said why?
- 2:55She said because these spammers, they've started again.
- 2:59These are people who managed to hack into the school group
- 3:03because most Nigerian schools now, well, it's private schools
- 3:06anyway. We have WhatsApp groups where
- 3:08you can update parents, you know, things like that.
- 3:11So there's some people that have hacked into the school group and
- 3:13who, you know, do these things every once in a while, make some
- 3:16calls, try to get you to click on the link, try and send
- 3:19something for you to download, you know, all these sorts of
- 3:21things. So yesterday, four times that
- 3:25happened to my wife, I repeat four times.
- 3:29So this is what the average Nigerian is going through.
- 3:31So when you're sending messages random to people that you're not
- 3:36connected with, the first thing you do is you send picture or
- 3:39you send links. Honestly ask yourself now how,
- 3:44how do you want them to behave? You really think that in this
- 3:49current climate in Niger and the world over?
- 3:53Because even in the West, I mentioned it in podcast episode,
- 3:58I think we're like two or three days ago, even in the West,
- 4:00people are being very, very skeptical you because you don't
- 4:02promote your business. You just be sending picture like
- 4:05that, no background or you'll be sending link like that, no prior
- 4:10contact. And you really think you'd be
- 4:12successful in that kind of business outreach.
- 4:16If you want to be using WhatsApp to promote your business and
- 4:20you're serious that you want results from WhatsApp, stop
- 4:23engaging in this kind of behavior.
- 4:24It's not earning you any kind of points.
- 4:26So me, because I'm in the business, I will open and I'll
- 4:29see, I'll say this one is a scammer.
- 4:32And then I will ignore or block other people, normal people,
- 4:36regular people that you're trying to sell to.
- 4:40What are they doing? They're ignoring or they're
- 4:41blocking. So anyway, the guys send the
- 4:45photo. What's the photo about?
- 4:48The photo was basically the flyer grand opening.
- 4:52The person is opening a store in Wusetu in Abuja.
- 4:55Now I understand why the person will do this because when you
- 4:58have a store, a regular store, you know, you sell corn beef,
- 5:02you sell soap, you sell tissue, you sell children's clothes,
- 5:06what else? You selling domi, you sell soap,
- 5:09you sell slippers, you sell football, you know, all these
- 5:12kind of things. Your rationale is that everybody
- 5:15needs to know about this kind of business, right?
- 5:19Yeah, in a way, yeah. So I understand why somebody
- 5:21would send this kind of message because as far as the person is
- 5:23concerned, anybody on the WhatsApp contact most likely
- 5:27needs this kind of service. And in a way, to be honest,
- 5:29yeah, you are correct, You are true.
- 5:33You're right. If a neighborhood store is
- 5:37opening up, it's nice to know that is another place close to
- 5:40me where I can go and buy soap, maybe buy it cheaper, where I
- 5:44can go and buy groundhut oil, where I can buy palm oil, I can
- 5:47buy a charger for my phone. You know, makes sense.
- 5:51So in that sense, the guy is correct.
- 5:53When you're opening a retail store, tell as many people as
- 5:56possible the guy is absolutely correct, but how he executed on
- 5:59it, is that correct? The answer is no.
- 6:02He executed on it in the wrong way.
- 6:04Because this kind of outreach is intrusive.
- 6:08Somebody's a stranger. Even if somebody's not a
- 6:11stranger, you just send a picture just like that, without
- 6:17any prior context to why you're sending somebody a picture.
- 6:20You send a picture, no context. And by the way, Please remember
- 6:27these kind of behaviours are considered security risks
- 6:30nowadays. Downloading photos or videos
- 6:34that you know nothing about and then clicking on links that you
- 6:37know nothing about. So the guy's intuition is
- 6:41correct. If you're opening your shop,
- 6:43please tell as many people as possible because it's retail,
- 6:47it's high volume, so you need thousands and thousands of
- 6:51people to know. But how he executed on it, he
- 6:54went on it the wrong way. So what is the alternative?
- 6:58If you're going to do this kind of thing, you want to promote
- 7:01your shop. The shop that you're going to
- 7:03open in three or four weeks, you want to promote it on WhatsApp
- 7:06is what you do. Well, I know I've told you
- 7:10before, don't be sending broadcast, but let me break this
- 7:12rule one time. This is the case where you will
- 7:15send a broadcast and you will send it to everybody on your
- 7:18phone, but you will do this only once.
- 7:23I repeat, let us assume you're not in the business of sending
- 7:27broadcast messages and you're about to open your shop.
- 7:32Should you send a broadcast message to everybody on your
- 7:34phone? Yes, but you will do this only
- 7:37once. This will be the first and the
- 7:39last time that you will do it. Because if you do it more than
- 7:44once, people will now say you are becoming a pest and they
- 7:48will start blocking you or they will move you to archive or they
- 7:51will report you as spam. So I repeat, if you will do
- 7:54this, especially since you've not been doing it before, this
- 7:57will be the first and the last time that you would do a
- 8:00broadcast message. But this broadcast message is
- 8:04going to have, excuse me, it's going to have a context to it.
- 8:08The context to the WhatsApp message is going to explain why
- 8:15you are sending this broadcast message in the first place.
- 8:19And it also has to explain from the viewpoints of the person who
- 8:24is receiving the message. It has to talk about benefits
- 8:27that they will receive. OK, so we're going to send one
- 8:33broadcast message and only one, and we will never do it again.
- 8:37Then we'll put a context to show why this message is important
- 8:41and why we're reaching out. So I took the liberty of
- 8:44crafting 1 already. Now listen, this is the scope.
- 8:47These are your broadcast messages.
- 8:48We say your best broadcast message.
- 8:50We say hi or hello or good morning or, you know, whatever.
- 8:55But don't write good AM or good PM.
- 8:56That's just lazy. Just go ahead and write good
- 8:58morning. So your message will be hi,
- 9:02apologies for intruding. This is a general broadcast
- 9:06message that I'm sending to all my contacts, including you,
- 9:10because I personally want to let you know that I'm opening a
- 9:12store a few weeks from now where you can buy everyday goods,
- 9:18everyday food, beverages, household items, ETC.
- 9:23Join us for this grand opening where you will get a 3% discount
- 9:28on every single thing you buy all day.
- 9:32And if you'd like to stay updated on promos or deals from
- 9:36my store, please reply to this message so I can add you to a
- 9:40dedicated WhatsApp group. Thank you for your support.
- 9:46I look forward to seeing you soon.
- 9:48You now send and that will be the only broadcast message that
- 9:54you will send. Lots of people will ignore,
- 9:58that's normal. No problem.
- 10:01But for the people that they respond, who respond, you will
- 10:05now because, you know, people respond for different things.
- 10:07Some people who respond and say congratulations from there start
- 10:11having a private conversation, a very private personal
- 10:16conversation now as if you're responding, you know, like a bot
- 10:20or something. Some people respond and say
- 10:22congratulations, follow them. I'm be yawning.
- 10:26Some people say congratulations, I can't come.
- 10:30What else? Some people say yes, I want to
- 10:32be added to the WhatsApp group. You get different kinds of
- 10:35responses. We'll continue to yarn in the
- 10:37box, but this will be the only broadcast messaging that you're
- 10:41going to send. Before I go on to the next
- 10:43steps, let me just go and do a breakdown for the message again.
- 10:47So remember how this message is going to start.
- 10:50Hello, hi, good morning. Whatever.
- 10:52Apologies for intruding. We have to call that out because
- 10:55let's face it, nowadays broadcast messages are a big
- 10:58intrusion and nobody likes them. Even you that you're sending
- 11:03broadcast messages, even you you don't like it.
- 11:06So why do you assume they are not an intrusion?
- 11:08You are an intrusion. So on up.
- 11:11Be honest. Hi, apologies for intruding.
- 11:15Then explain The problem with those of you who send broadcasts
- 11:18is that you would like to pretend as if it's a broadcaster
- 11:21where you're trying to look for ways to mask it.
- 11:23So it's not a broadcast, a broadcast or needs be honest and
- 11:27own that it is a broadcast. We can tell you're trying to
- 11:32play on our intelligence when you're sending a broadcast, but
- 11:35you're trying to pretend, trying to personally like Jaws, say
- 11:38with your full chest, this is a broadcast.
- 11:44Honesty, it helps. So apologies for intruding.
- 11:48This is a general podcast that I'm sending to all my contacts
- 11:52because I want to personally let you know that I'm opening my
- 11:55store in a few weeks. That's the context.
- 11:58We now talk about things from their own point of view, the
- 12:01benefits in the store. We're going to be selling
- 12:04everyday goods, food, beverages, and household items.
- 12:09Join us for a grand opening where you will get a 3% discount
- 12:14on every single purchase that you make on that grand launching
- 12:18day, October 1st. See, we're going into what's in
- 12:23it for them. Then you also now ask, because
- 12:30the next step we're going to do is we're going to create a
- 12:32dedicated WhatsApp group so that people who are in those WhatsApp
- 12:35groups, we can be broadcasting to them all the time.
- 12:38See, broadcasting is good, but only when people have given you
- 12:41permission the way they broadcast me.
- 12:44When people have given you permission, then you can be
- 12:47broadcasting. So that is why we have to put it
- 12:51there in the message, the call to action.
- 12:53Now, Luko, I'm creating a WhatsApp group.
- 12:55If you're interested in the WhatsApp group, you want to know
- 12:58what's going on promo discount, this dot dot dot dot, let me
- 13:02know and I will add you to the group.
- 13:06So that's what the call to action in the message is about.
- 13:10If you would like to stay updated on promos and deals,
- 13:13reply to this message so I can add you to the dedicated
- 13:16WhatsApp group. And then thank you for your
- 13:18support. Look forward to seeing you soon.
- 13:21You can see that the message should be back, back, back as in
- 13:24sharp and straight to the point. All those broadcast messages
- 13:27that are paragraphed, that scroll, scroll, scroll.
- 13:29No, don't do that. I've said it time and time
- 13:32again, a very simple rule. Before you send this message,
- 13:36send it to yourself. Open it on your phone.
- 13:39If on your phone you have to scroll 3 or 4 flicks, your
- 13:42message is too long. The ideal thing is the message
- 13:45should be able to be consumed in one viewing.
- 13:48You click it, the thing, everything just fits into one
- 13:50screen. That's the ideal thing.
- 13:53If you have to scroll twice is OK.
- 13:56If you're scrolling 3 times, problem 4 * 5 * 6 times, forget
- 14:02it. People are ignoring your message
- 14:04because they will open and then they will see long paragraph as
- 14:07if it's the Holy Bible or the Holy Quran.
- 14:10No Bible. I mean people are busy, they'll
- 14:12just ignore you. So send it to yourself first.
- 14:18Most of us have two phones. Send it to the second phone
- 14:21first. Open it on your phone.
- 14:24That will give you a good sense of OK, this message is too long
- 14:28or this may well in fact, there's nothing else too short.
- 14:30The shorter the better when it comes to text messaging.
- 14:35So now the next step is you will now create your WhatsApp group.
- 14:39And this is how you populate the WhatsApp group.
- 14:42People who attend the ground opening on Oktoberfest, when
- 14:47you're opening your shop, it is part of the things that you will
- 14:49get from them when they're leaving.
- 14:52Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much, Sir.
- 14:54I hope you've been able to serve you today.
- 14:55Hope you're happy with the purchase, blah, blah, blah,
- 14:57blah, blah. I hope you don't mind.
- 14:59We have a dedicated what's our group where we're letting people
- 15:02know about promos and newest deals and things like that.
- 15:05Would you like to be added to the group?
- 15:07OK, ma'am, can you take this card please, and just fill in
- 15:09your details and you will get a message from us today adding you
- 15:12to the group. Simple.
- 15:15That's what people who attend. Then of course, you'll now
- 15:20notice that some people are like regular customers.
- 15:23Those kind of people, you know, even if you add them to the
- 15:25group without permission, I guess, you know, there's not,
- 15:28there's not a problem. But anyway, take permission from
- 15:31everybody. So people who attended that
- 15:33October 1st launch had them, current and regular customers
- 15:37add them. Those are the people that you'll
- 15:39be adding to your group. Some of you like to look too
- 15:41much at the numbers. You'd like to look at big, big,
- 15:44big. What you guys will be doing is
- 15:46you look at your phone, you see that you have 4000 contacts on
- 15:48your phone and you think it makes sense to be sending
- 15:51broadcast messages to 4000 people?
- 15:53No. If you're sending a message,
- 15:58broadcast message to 4000 people and you're doing it 12 * a year,
- 16:03but you're pissing off 3998 of them.
- 16:09I mean, what's, what's the value?
- 16:12You're only reaching two people, in all honesty.
- 16:16But if you take this other approach, you take permission,
- 16:20you are people. I know you'll be looking at the
- 16:21fact that in the first week you probably have only 200 or 300
- 16:25people. You'll be thinking 300 people is
- 16:27small now. But The thing is, if those 300
- 16:30people are the people who actually wants to hear from you
- 16:34and have given you permission that they want to hear from you,
- 16:36doesn't not make sense to be sending that message to them,
- 16:41you know, twice a month. And then all of them are reading
- 16:44the message rather than sending it to 4000 people and then
- 16:4898.99999% of them are ignoring you.
- 16:54So we'll create the group and then that's how we're going to
- 16:57add people to it. Then what are the kind of
- 17:05broadcast messages they're going to send?
- 17:08These are the messages you sent. You send messages on new
- 17:11arrivals. Whenever you have new stock, you
- 17:14put it up there in the group program new.
- 17:21So, so, so, and so sausages just arrived today. 15% of, if you're
- 17:27interested, you know, come and buy.
- 17:30And if I forgive me, I'm not in the retail space, so I don't
- 17:32know how to couch it, but basically that's what you'll be
- 17:34putting there. When you receive new batch of
- 17:36chicken, put it there. New batch of sausage, put it
- 17:40there. If it is holiday period and
- 17:43you're ordering a new batch of footballs, put it there.
- 17:47Football now in store. Are you worried about what you
- 17:49do with your children? Come and buy football for them.
- 17:52Let them be playing When school is ready to resume, you know,
- 17:57broadcast that we now have cocoa pops in store.
- 18:01Breakfast of champions, you know, for your children before
- 18:03they go to school, put it there. So new arrivals, put it there.
- 18:08If you're doing flash sale, end of year discount, salad
- 18:11discount, Christmas discount, put it there.
- 18:15Exclusive deals, put it there. We're having an exclusive deal.
- 18:21If you buy this plus this plus this plus that, you'll be
- 18:23entitled to so, so, so and so. Discount, put it there.
- 18:26Holiday and seasonal offers, put it there in the WhatsApp
- 18:29message. Valentine's Day discount put it
- 18:33there, then tips and tricks also put it there as well.
- 18:39Do you have eggs and sausages and bacon lying around in your
- 18:43fridge and you don't know what to do?
- 18:44Here are 5 tips and tricks 5 recipes that you can use to
- 18:50prepare breakfast for your family.
- 18:53Do you only have a goosey and palm oil and this in your on
- 18:57your kitchen counter? Here are 6 or 7, you know,
- 19:01recipes that you can use to prepare food for your family or
- 19:04something. Community news, put it there.
- 19:07Sorry, it's raining here, so that's the noise in the
- 19:09background. Then service and feedback put it
- 19:12there as well. Thank you very much for now to
- 19:16the middle of the year. We appreciate all of you who've
- 19:18been doing business with us. We want to be sure that we can
- 19:22serve you better. Because of that, we have created
- 19:24this brief survey. Please feel it to let us know
- 19:27how we've been doing and how we can serve you better.
- 19:30Put it there now. If you notice, sending all these
- 19:35kinds of messages to people, even if you're sending it once a
- 19:38week or twice a month, you are not disturbing anybody because
- 19:43the people in your regular contacts will not be seeing all
- 19:46these messages. It will only be people who have
- 19:48opted in, who have given you permission, who have sent, who
- 19:52have said send me these messages.
- 19:55You are not disturbing anybody. So that is the right way to send
- 20:01broadcast messages without pissing people off.
- 20:07So back to real knife now and the reason why I made this
- 20:10episode. I told you that this guy sent
- 20:12the first message from 6th of May.
- 20:14I just ignored the guy, now sent another for all. 30th, you know
- 20:21about the store as well and I'm like look, this guy just taking
- 20:25a piece. So I sent him a message back.
- 20:27I said guy, why are you sending me all these messages?
- 20:30Please remove me for your broadcast list.
- 20:32He now started apologizing the other people who are upset, but
- 20:37the only thing is, you know, I'm the one who decided to speak up
- 20:41now because the guy is someone in my circle.
- 20:43The guy will take my advice. He will take dressing.
- 20:48You might be pissing people off on your phone right now and
- 20:50people are blocking and spamming you unnecessarily.
- 20:53You don't know. And we forget that all these
- 20:56things, all these signals are picked up by other algorithms.
- 21:00There's one of the people who I'm coaching right now who is a
- 21:02salesperson for another business.
- 21:04They sell infrastructure solutions.
- 21:07And the guy told me that, oh, I tried calling my sister and my
- 21:11sister said my number was showing up as spam on
- 21:14Truecaller. And you wonder how this is the
- 21:16reason why you're broadcasting the hell out of people.
- 21:20People are receiving messages that they don't want, so they're
- 21:22clicking on block and clicking on report as spam.
- 21:25The algorithms talk to each other.
- 21:26This is how Truecaller will now pick it up.
- 21:29And then one day you're a legit business personal.
- 21:31You're trying to do business with someone.
- 21:35You say, no problem, let me flash you.
- 21:36And then you flash the person in your presence.
- 21:39The person stands there and then the person sees.
- 21:42Truecaller says that 672 people have reported this number as
- 21:45spam. The average Nigerian.
- 21:48You think he's going to tell you that?
- 21:50Oh, people have body of spam? That reason I will keep quiet.
- 21:52I'll be saying you want to catch me, Abby, God pass you.
- 21:59They'll say sure, sure, sure. No problem.
- 22:00I'll be in touch. I'll be in touch.
- 22:01I'll call you. I'll call you.
- 22:04Your name is Connie. Abby, No worries.
- 22:06No worries, Connie. I'll call you.
- 22:07I'll give you a call. I'll give you a call and they
- 22:08will never call because 657 people on Truecaller reported
- 22:14your number and spam. And this is how lots of us
- 22:18innocently are getting in trouble.
- 22:21We're trying to grow our business.
- 22:23Innocent Leo. No bad malice, no 419, no bad
- 22:27intent. We're just trying to grow our
- 22:29business. Daily bread name.
- 22:31We define just simple daily bread, that's all.
- 22:35And this is how we enter into trouble because you're sending
- 22:38broadcast messages to people who don't care, who don't want to
- 22:42hear from you. So if you follow simple tips
- 22:44like this, you should be able to be reaching out to people who
- 22:47have only elected to hear from you.
- 22:50And then you stop this embarrassing thing.
- 22:52That's for those of us who try to make a living using our
- 22:57phone, you know, by calling people, by whatsapping people,
- 23:00trying, you know, trying to hustle market, you avoid this
- 23:03embarrassing thing that your number is you're showing up
- 23:06everywhere as spam. These are some of the reasons
- 23:08why your number is showing up as spam.
- 23:11So this is how you send a broadcast message.
- 23:15If you are interested in these sorts of things, keep listening
- 23:18to the show every single day, OK, Well, not every single day.
- 23:21I mean, ideally I would like it to be everyday, but you know how
- 23:24life can be. But sure, I know which way, Sir.
- 23:26Two or three times a week you'll be hearing from me where we'll
- 23:29discuss these kinds of things, how we can grow our businesses,
- 23:33how we can look for customers, how we can get people to buy,
- 23:37how we can make sure people are happy, how we can make sure that
- 23:40they come back and buy again. How we make sure that they come
- 23:43back and buy again when they're coming, that they bring somebody
- 23:46that's referral. So those are the kind of things
- 23:52you talk about over here on the podcast.
- 23:53This your first time ever listening.
- 23:54Welcome. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple,
- 24:00where else any podcast play of your choice also available on
- 24:03YouTube. Hope to have you guys come back
- 24:07here again, you know, tomorrow, next, tomorrow, next week,
- 24:09whenever and if you'd love to connect, call, send a text
- 24:13message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
- 24:20Thank you very much for your time and attention.
- 24:22I'll catch you guys at the next episode.