Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Sliding into the DM is a "Boss Move": Why the Pro Always Reaches Out First

Transcript

Sliding into the DM is a "Boss Move": Why the Pro Always Reaches Out First · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

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  A lot of us Nigerian business owners or salespeople have
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  profiles on social media because we want to be accessible to our
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  audiences. We want to be accessible to our
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  potential customers, our potential clients.
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  Now, sometimes people who are checking us out on social media
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  leave comments on our posts and in our timeline.
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  And unfortunately, some of us Nigerian business people are not
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  responding to those comments appropriately and that is
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  costing U.S. business, it is costing us money.
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  So we have to learn how to deal with comments on social media
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  properly. Now, I've done lots of episodes
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  where I've already spoken about what to do when people leave
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  negative comments on your social media.
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  So that's not what we're going to tackle today.
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  We're going to look at situations where people make
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  comments like how much, what's the cost of your service, you
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  know, things of that nature and how best to respond to it on
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  social media. Because for lots of people,
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  understandably, if someone hits you up in the timeline and they
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  say how much you don't want to put a price there.
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  I'm not saying it's good, I'm not saying it's bad.
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  I'm just saying that most Nigerian business people do not
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  want to put their price in the comments.
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  And I understand, but there's a much more appropriate way to
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  deal with that. Now before we get straight to
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  the meat of the matter today, if you would love to connect with
• 1:23
  me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp
• 1:26
  message on 08064662140. Also, if you're interested in my
• 1:33
  15 minute sale audit or business audit, you can WhatsApp me on
• 1:37
  the same number 08064662140. And if you'd like to join my
• 1:44
  WhatsApp channel, just send me a WhatsApp message on the very
• 1:46
  same number and I will hook you up so that you can be part of my
• 1:50
  WhatsApp channel so that whenever there's updates and
• 1:53
  things of that nature, I will let you know.
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  Then. Apologies for the noise in the
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  background because I'm recording today's, making today's
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  recording at home. The house is currently being
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  cleaned, so there's going to be some noise in the background and
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  the kids are home because it's holidays.
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  So expect some noise in the background as well.
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  And then of course, you know, holiday mode, so all the
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  neighbors are home, you know, leading up to easy stuff.
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  So expect to hear some noise in the background.
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  All right, so this is not about my family situation, so let's
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  get straight into it. Now, how to deal with comments
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  on social media. Now, this is the scenario that I
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  had in mind. Someone put up a post a very
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  long time ago. Again, this is another one, one
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  of those things I found in my screenshots of someone that I
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  tried to help years ago. So the fellow put up something,
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  I can't remember exactly what the post was, but the thing was
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  in the comments, somebody wrote a comment and the person wrote
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  what is the likely cost of the service?
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  So let me repeat, since in the last episode I used an example
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  of a window, sorry, not window house cleaning services or
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  office cleaning services. Let's stick to that.
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  So let's say you run industrial cleaning services, you clean
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  offices or you clean factories or you clean whatever.
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  And so you put up a post and then underneath the post on
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  LinkedIn, on Instagram or on TikTok or something, somebody
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  comes and writes, what is the likely cost of the service?
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  Now what this person did was the person responded and the person
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  responded by saying the business owner responded by saying,
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  kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how we can be of
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  service. Thank you :) let me repeat,
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  someone, let's assume he could be a potential customer.
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  Let's assume he could be a lead. Any which wisher somebody
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  responded and the person sorry, not responded.
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  The person put a comment under the post and the comment was
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  what is the likely cost of this service And then the business
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  owner responded. Kindly reach out to us via DM to
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  discuss how we can be of service.
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  Thank you :) now for lots of you who have heard this, you say
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  what did the guy do wrong? OK, it's not as if he did
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  anything wrong. It's not as if the business
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  owner did anything wrong, but things could have been better
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  because remember I said that most Nigerian business people
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  have this intuition that you don't want to put your prices
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  in, in, in the comment section. It makes a lot of sense because
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  if you're going to put your pricing conversations on your
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  timeline or your DM, you're going to run into a couple of
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  problems #1 discovery is not ideal.
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  Discovery is the part of the business relationship, the part
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  of the sales conversation, you know, the part of the whatever
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  where you're trying to figure out who is this person, what's
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  their problem, how can I solve them?
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  What is the appropriate package that I need to sell them on?
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  Now, this is not something that you can do in the comments
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  section because I think it requires a very proper convo.
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  You know, I call you and then we talk or wind the DM back and
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  forth and then we talk or we send emails back and forth and
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  then we we talk and then we type.
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  So putting your pricing, handling pricing conversations
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  in the comment section is not ideal because of these reasons.
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  Now, another reason why putting pricing conversations in the
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  comment section of your post, it's not ideal, it's not good.
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  It's because you will not be able to build value in those
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  conversations. Building value is where you're
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  able to talk it up and where you're able to tell the person
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  that, look, this is what my product or my service can do for
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  you. This is the reason why this is
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  the best package. This is what we can offer.
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  This is how we stand apart from the competition.
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  This is what makes us different. This is what makes us unique.
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  This is what makes us the best, you know, blah, blah, blah, all
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  those kinds of conversations. That is how you build value.
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  Now, of course, you cannot build value in the comments section on
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  social media because it's just one kind, because it's just
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  tacky, because it's unprofessional.
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  You know, you can't follow passing the yam back and forth
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  like that on the comments section.
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  It's just not professional. So that's the reason why lots of
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  Nigerian business people want to push the conversation into DM.
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  And in that case, you're absolutely correct to do that.
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  Then another reason why Nigerian business owners don't want to
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  put pricing conversations in the timeline, sorry, not in the
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  timeline in the comment section is because posts are time bound.
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  What prices are not. The price that you put today is
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  not necessarily going to be the same price next month, next
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  week, next year. So you don't want it on record
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  somewhere that your price is 2.5 M, maybe that was three years
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  ago and now your price is currently 4.6.
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  So because you don't want that kind of information floating
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  around because the information as you put out in your DM is not
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  going to be accurate, it's not going to be correct for all
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  time, it's time bound. That's one of the reasons why
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  Nigerian business owners do not want to put price information in
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  the comments section of the post.
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  Then also because some of us sell professional services like
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  the person who is doing cleaning, there is no how that
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  you can give a price for cleaning an office and it will
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  be the same for cleaning a warehouse or it will be the same
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  for cleaning a factory. Because it depends what do they
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  do in the factory, What is the waste product in the factory?
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  What kind of waste do they have in the factory?
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  What is the size of the factory, the size of the building, you
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  know, what kind of regions, what kind of chemicals, what kinds of
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  compounds will be required to clean it.
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  So a lot of the pricing that you're going to give will be
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  custom pricing and that's one reason why Nigerian business
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  owners or sales people do not want to put prices in the
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  comment section. So the intuition is absolutely
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  correct. But here is the problem.
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  Remember, what this person did was they responded by saying
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  kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how it can be of
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  service. Thank you :) now what our
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  business owner did was they abdicated the responsibility.
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  They left the initiative to the other person.
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  They gave the other person homework.
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  Somebody reaches out to you to say how much and then instead of
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  you giving them an answer, you are now giving their homework.
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  You're now telling the person, you send me DM, then I'll
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  respond to you. Now I don't know if it's
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  surprising. Maybe it is because before I
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  left LinkedIn, by the way, I don't have social media anymore.
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  I've shut down my LinkedIn page so you can find me anywhere you
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  need to reach me. My phone number is 08064662140.
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  Then if you also check my podcast on YouTube, of course
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  you drop comments that I'll be able to see them and WhatsApp
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  number is there as well. So that's how you can reach me.
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  I'm no longer on social media. So while I was on social media,
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  I used to see these kinds of queries happening back and
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  forth. Somebody would say no, like I'm
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  the business owner, why I'm the one?
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  Why am I the one that is going to chase them if they're serious
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  that damn, would you rush me? So that's that kind of attitude.
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  But look, this is about sales, this is about money.
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  So throw your feelings to decide.
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  It's not as if because you're the one that takes the
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  initiative, you're the one who is assuming lower status.
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  Even if you start the conversation, you're the one who
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  takes the initiative, but you are very professional about it.
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  You handle this thing like you're well trained, well
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  thought out, subject matter expert, consultant.
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  You will assume high status automatically even though you
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  are the person who called first. Now think about, let's say
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  Dangote and I will house on runs together and then Dangote is the
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  one who calls me first when I say that because now what is the
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  one that called me? Therefore the guy has lower
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  status. By the way, he will answer the
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  phone call. By the way, we'll continue the
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  conversation. Once I realized like, Oh yeah,
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  so this guy is a bigger Bros. Even though he reached out
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  first, his status will be restored because of the way in
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  the carrying himself with the conversation.
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  So that's the problem with this response of telling people,
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  respond to us via DM and then let's see how we can be of
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  service. So you are meant to take the
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  initiative as the business owner.
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  You are meant to take the initiative as the salesperson.
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  Don't give people extra homework.
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  Do not give them extra steps because traditionally we know in
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  sales that every single time you add an extra step that doesn't
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  need to be there, you increase the chances of attrition.
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  Attrition is when you know a conversation is going on and
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  then you know something happens and then somebody's like, you
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  know what, I'll get to this later.
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  And because of that, they forget and then they drop out of the
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  sales funnel. So these things happen all the
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  time. That's one of the reasons why if
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  you're talking to a company, let's say you want to download
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  something, it's a lead magnet. Typically they will only ask for
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  your name and ask for your e-mail address because they know
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  that for every single time you add one more element, attrition,
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  people will fall away. So if you just put a box there
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  saying give us your phone number, you'll get some
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  responses. If you say give us name and
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  phone number, some people will drop off.
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  If you say give us name, phone number and address, some people
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  will drop off. If you say give us name, phone
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  number, address, the reason why you're addressed.
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  If you would, more people will drop off.
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  If you say give us name, phone number, the reason why you're
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  reaching out, would you like somebody to call you back?
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  You see, the more things that you add, more people will drop
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  off. So it is a bad idea when it
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  comes to sales to be giving people homework.
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  If people reach out to you and they want information like this,
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  take the initiative and then you respond instead of asking them
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  send me DM, you take the responsibility.
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  Send the person the DM, you just respond.
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  You just say hi. Thank you very much for
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  commenting on my social media post on blah blah blah blah blah
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  blah blah blah. I noticed that you ask how much
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  the service is likely to cost. I couldn't respond there because
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  it depends on a number of factors.
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  But for me to give you an accurate quote, sorry, but for
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  me to give you an accurate quote, I'd have to call you up
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  or we need to have a chat about what it is that you need
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  cleaned, what it is that you do in that space, the size of the
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  building, the business, this, that, that, that, that.
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  And that way we're going to be able to give you an accurate
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  quote. So are you OK with us having a
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  conversation? You respond like that simply in
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  the DM, You are the one who has taken the initiative, you've
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  reached out via DM, you're the one who is now starting the
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  conversation. You are reducing the chance of
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  attrition. Because remember when people are
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  on social media, you know, they just, they screw, they just,
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  they screw, they're enjoying their life.
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  You now give them homework that they should come and reach out
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  to you on social media. I expect that lots of them will
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  do that. Some people fall away.
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  So, so I know your pride. It's not even a matter of
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  repriting. Just know that now you'll be the
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  professional. Now you'll be the old guy.
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  You're the one who knows what's up.
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  So reach out to the person in a very professional, you know,
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  manner and get this conversation going.
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  So instead of saying when somebody comments on your post
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  and they say, what's the cost of this service or how much does
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  this thing cost? And so I was saying, kindly
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  reach out to us via DM to discuss how we can be of
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  service. You just respond, you slide into
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  their DM. Thanks for commenting on my post
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  that I put earlier on this and this and that and that.
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  I appreciate that you like the post.
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  Unfortunately, I couldn't give you a price there because before
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  I give you a price, I need to know a couple of things.
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  See, and this approach works even if you're in fashion or
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  whatever business you're doing. Thanks for commenting on the
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  post where I put up that style picture about Genevieve.
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  I know that you would like to have something similar made, but
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  before we discuss pricing, we need to, there are a couple of
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  things I need to know. Is that particular fabric?
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  Is that particular fabric or that particular style the one
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  that you have in mind? I would like to have a styling
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  conversation with you to, I don't know, you know, those of
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  you in fashion space, you know, excuse me.
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  So excuse me, I'm recovering from a sore throat.
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  So you know, all the questions that I need to ask, you know,
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  about body type, what The thing is for, whether the dress is
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  going to be appropriate delivery timelines when they need it, you
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  know, this and this and that and that.
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  So that's how you respond and you try and get the person in
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  conversation. Now some people are going to be
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  very stubborn and say, oh, sorry, I don't have the time to
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  chat. Just give me, just give me the
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  price. Now what you do is you try and
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  refocus. You refocus by giving your range
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  and then making the ask again. So you say, OK, I appreciate
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  that you're busy, but in the last year, the cheapest factory
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  cleaning that I did was 1.2. The most expensive that I did
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  was 12.6. As you can see, the gap between
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  1.2 M and 12.6 M is very, very wide.
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  And that's because lots of factors come into play.
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  Like I said, what is the factory for?
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  What is it that you make? What are the regions I'll need
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  to clean it? How large is the factory?
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  When do you need this thing done by, you know, blah, blah, blah,
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  blah, blah. These are all the factors that
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  we need to consider. So yeah, if you need a price
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  range, it'll be anything between 1.2 and 12.6.
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  But if you want a much more accurate code, we really do need
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  to have a conversation. So would you like us to continue
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  chatting here in the DM or can we just fix the time?
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  So let me give you a call and let's get this thing sorted.
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  So that is this kind of scope that we will take when we're
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  dealing with comments on social media.
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  Now, I know that applying these principles can be tricky, but if
• 15:16
  you need me to look at your particular circumstance, that's
• 15:18
  not a problem. You can connect with me, you can
• 15:20
  call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806466
• 15:26
  2140. Also, if you're interested in my
• 15:29
  15 minutes sale audit or you want me to look at, you know,
• 15:32
  give you a business audit, that's not a problem.
• 15:34
  What's happening? It's the same number
• 15:36
  08064662140. If you'd like to join my
• 15:41
  WhatsApp channel, just send me a WhatsApp message on the very
• 15:45
  same number so that we can hook you up and get you sorted.
• 15:49
  So that's it for today. If you've gotten value from
• 15:51
  today's episode, please subscribe to the podcast on
• 15:54
  Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, where it is that you listen to the
• 15:59
  podcast. Also share them with other
• 16:01
  people who are going to get value from the podcast as well.
• 16:07
  And then if you've gotten value from the podcast, connect with
• 16:11
  me, call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on
• 16:14
  08064662140. So that's all for today.
• 16:19
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 16:21
  I'll catch you at the next episode.