Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Entrepreneur's Edge: Personality, Platforms, & Profitability

Transcript

The Entrepreneur's Edge: Personality, Platforms, & Profitability · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 0:04
  I solve sales and marketing challenges and I'm recording
• 0:07
  today's episode, one of those late night recordings in my
• 0:10
  living room. So I expect to hear some
• 0:12
  interruptions in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is
• 0:16
  business education. So please spread the word, let
• 0:19
  your friends and family members know in Nigeria and abroad so
• 0:22
  they can benefit from the questions that we tackle.
• 0:24
  They can join us by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or
• 0:28
  any player of your choice. I'll be player of their choice.
• 0:31
  Then if you'd love to connect, you can call, you can ask them
• 0:36
  SMS or what's happening on 08064662140.
• 0:42
  Now to be on the podcast. It's been a while since I did
• 0:45
  listener questions so I have. So let me look at my notes.
• 0:49
  This is 123. OK, so I have 3 listener
• 0:52
  questions. Let me just see how we can
• 0:55
  tackle them. Sharp, sharp, sharp.
• 0:57
  OK, now First off, James from Massacre.
• 1:00
  And James from Massacre wants to know if you have to pay the
• 1:06
  printing costs. OK, let me give you the
• 1:08
  background now. James from Massacre, he sells
• 1:10
  liquid soap. At the time he got in touch with
• 1:13
  with me, that's from the radio show on Radio Maria, 91.3 FM.
• 1:17
  This was the scope. He'd been in business for a
• 1:20
  couple of weeks. So week one, Week 2, business
• 1:23
  was correct was everything was moving smooth, was, was doing
• 1:26
  good. Then we three-week 4, you know,
• 1:29
  business was kind of suffering. I can't remember when he got in
• 1:32
  touch, what week we were in then.
• 1:36
  So most people said that some of his neighbors, some of his
• 1:39
  friends said the problem why it wasn't selling was because his
• 1:42
  soap, he did not, you know, brand it.
• 1:44
  He didn't print any labels on the slope and things like that.
• 1:48
  You know, what he was selling was liquid soap, you know, like
• 1:50
  Morning Fresh Mama was the one called Mama something I can't
• 1:54
  remember. So Morning Fresh and all those
• 1:56
  sorts of things. So that's this question
• 1:59
  basically, do I have to print these things?
• 2:03
  Because if I print these things that is extra cost.
• 2:08
  Anyway, I tried to answer this question, but in my own opinion,
• 2:13
  the first thing that we had to tackle actually was sales was
• 2:18
  doing good week one, Week 2 orders to have a conversation to
• 2:22
  try and figure out exactly what he was doing in week 1 and Week
• 2:24
  2 that made sales to pop off. And then we'll try and figure
• 2:30
  out what happened week 3 and week 4.
• 2:34
  Now the reason why I think this is the most important thing to
• 2:37
  do and the first point of call is this.
• 2:40
  Lots of times when we get into business, plenty of us and if I
• 2:44
  everybody in the beginning were freestyling when it comes to
• 2:47
  sales, we do not realize that sales is a system or that to get
• 2:54
  the best results, sales should be a system.
• 2:58
  You should have a certain framework, you should have
• 3:02
  certain principles that you are following and these systems,
• 3:06
  processes, frameworks, scripts, whatever it is you want to call
• 3:09
  it, have to be repeatable and predictable and you do it the
• 3:12
  same way every day, every week. That's just the way that you get
• 3:15
  the best results. Another benefit of doing sales
• 3:19
  that way is because sometimes you're doing something, The
• 3:22
  thing is working and you don't know why, and then you're doing
• 3:27
  something is not working, you don't know why, and since you
• 3:31
  don't have a well thought out process, you don't know which
• 3:35
  part to optimize and which part to repeat.
• 3:37
  Is an example I've given on this podcast before.
• 3:40
  The first time I did a bread off show, I was freestyling it.
• 3:45
  People are coming by the booth and I was just handing
• 3:47
  conversations any which way with them.
• 3:50
  But The thing is from that particular show, I did close to
• 3:54
  remember this is me brand new in biz.
• 3:57
  Well, not brand new per SE. I just moved to Abuja at the
• 4:00
  time. So from that first brand new
• 4:03
  show, I did close to like, you know, 1.5 M from that show and I
• 4:08
  thought I was a superstar. And of course I went again for
• 4:11
  the next brand new show and then things didn't pan out.
• 4:14
  And The thing is, things never quite panned out for me the way
• 4:18
  that first bridal show did. Because for that one, I made an
• 4:22
  easy close to 1.5 and I didn't do any follow up.
• 4:27
  I just showed up, had conversations with people, you
• 4:30
  know, anybody who was interested and they were interested.
• 4:32
  If you're not interested, you're not interested.
• 4:34
  But The thing is still today, I don't know what I did right.
• 4:38
  I do not know what I did wrong. And so because I didn't know
• 4:42
  what I did right, I didn't know what to repeat because I didn't
• 4:46
  know what I did wrong, I didn't know what to stop.
• 4:50
  And that's a problem that a lot of us have in business.
• 4:54
  You do a bunch of right things by mistake, but you have no
• 4:58
  knowledge of sales processes. You know, you don't know that
• 5:01
  this is right or anything. If I you didn't even record it,
• 5:04
  at least if you look back and you say OK, between January and
• 5:07
  February, between January and April, Dark water, I made double
• 5:13
  the amount of profits I normally do.
• 5:16
  If you're able to sit back and then start looking OK, Who are
• 5:18
  the kinds of people that I was talking to when I was talking to
• 5:21
  them? What kind of scripts was I
• 5:22
  using? Why was I offering any kinds of
• 5:25
  incentives? You know, just different things.
• 5:28
  Shah. But from looking, you not be
• 5:30
  able to see some patterns emerge that oh, OK, when I talk to
• 5:34
  these kinds of people in these kinds of way and try and offer
• 5:38
  these kinds of incentive or try and hook up the meeting like
• 5:41
  this or try and follow up with them like that, it equals to
• 5:45
  good money. So that's what I wanted us to
• 5:50
  do. James.
• 5:51
  Of course, James. Now I got in touch again.
• 5:53
  If I, you know, sometimes I just wouldn't be frank with you guys
• 5:59
  here. I think we Nigel, have a serious
• 6:01
  problem. Serious problem.
• 6:04
  A lot of us are waiting for people to give us one magic
• 6:06
  answer that will solve our problems.
• 6:07
  And I don't understand that mentality because people reach
• 6:10
  out, they say the health problem, I say, OK, no problem.
• 6:13
  Based on my own professional opinion, I think this is how we
• 6:17
  should begin to diagnose the problem.
• 6:20
  All these people have to do, honestly, is just to send one
• 6:24
  WhatsApp message, just one, and we'll continue the conversation
• 6:29
  from there. But people expect that you call
• 6:32
  in on a radio show and I'm supposed to just diagnose your
• 6:36
  situation like that and give you the cure for your ailment, and
• 6:42
  then from there you just run off and make millions or something.
• 6:44
  Like, I don't, I don't get it. I really don't get it.
• 6:49
  Anyway, where was I? So I thought that's what we're
• 6:57
  supposed to have done, but you know, you didn't get back in
• 6:58
  touch. So for any of you who are going
• 7:01
  to reach out to me later on, whether you're a peering client
• 7:06
  or not, these are some of the things that we're going to do.
• 7:08
  We're going to look into your trading history.
• 7:10
  We're going to try and figure out exactly what it is that
• 7:12
  worked, especially since sales business conversations, that's
• 7:20
  more near our specialty. So I'll be able to look at it
• 7:22
  through my own professional lens to be able to tell you, OK, you
• 7:26
  know what, this is what we did, right?
• 7:27
  This is what we didn't. This is what we could have done
• 7:29
  better. And the idea is this, for the
• 7:32
  things we did right, we will drill down on it and we will
• 7:34
  continue to do it for improved results.
• 7:38
  For the things we didn't do well, for the things we could
• 7:41
  have done better, you know, we'll avoid them or try and find
• 7:43
  better ways of doing them. So now from James Massacre, now
• 7:47
  that next question. Now does he have to go and print
• 7:52
  branding, packaging? Does he have to print anything
• 7:55
  and put on liquid soap Now, part of the reason why I wanted him
• 7:59
  to reach out to me was this. I haven't been a practicing
• 8:02
  lawyer in a very, very, very long time.
• 8:04
  So to be honest, when it comes to law, my brain is no longer
• 8:07
  sharp and just put it that way. And then plus, I wasn't sure if
• 8:10
  it was ethical for me to be giving legal advice on the air
• 8:13
  because, you know, I haven't been a lawyer for a very long
• 8:16
  time. So there are some things I can't
• 8:20
  remember. So I need to make sure that I
• 8:23
  did some research so that when me and him were talking off the
• 8:28
  air, I'll be giving him very tailored advice.
• 8:34
  So now the reason I wanted to go back and do some research was
• 8:39
  this. When it comes to producing these
• 8:42
  sorts of things, you know, you make things in your backyard,
• 8:46
  you make things in your house, you're making things on a small
• 8:49
  scale. There's kind of like a grey
• 8:51
  area. If you're making soup, you and
• 8:55
  your wife are using it, no problem.
• 8:56
  You, your wife and your children, no problem, no need
• 8:58
  for packaging. Maybe no.
• 9:00
  Once in a while you dash some of your neighbors or some people in
• 9:02
  the community. You dash them, you know, no
• 9:05
  problem, no need for packaging. But the problem is this.
• 9:10
  The moment you give it to one or two neighbors and then you
• 9:14
  collect naira in return, you have now started entering that
• 9:19
  level of OK, you know what? This one is no more personal
• 9:22
  use, this one is now business levels and the state, when I say
• 9:28
  the state, I mean the government, Nigeria, the state
• 9:32
  now assumes that when you have started collecting money in
• 9:37
  exchange for some goods or for some services, you suppose
• 9:40
  register with the CAC as a corporate affairs Commission.
• 9:44
  Now, given that James was producing liquid soap, of
• 9:49
  course, was registered with the CAC automatically.
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  Now Dark is the next one I should enter our mind because
• 9:56
  he's producing liquid soap and the state wants to make sure
• 10:00
  that everything is all I put in, everything is legit.
• 10:06
  Because you don't want people selling liquid soap to their
• 10:10
  neighbors or any other person. And then the liquid soap will
• 10:13
  now come up on your skin or something like that.
• 10:16
  So that's kind of like the grey area.
• 10:19
  As long as you're making the soap and it's just you and your
• 10:21
  wife and children or you give your girlfriend or you give your
• 10:25
  boyfriend, you know, yeah, that that's OK, No problem, No need
• 10:29
  for printing. But once you start collecting
• 10:31
  money, the state expects that you will register a business.
• 10:37
  And since you are doing something that is related to
• 10:42
  liquid soap, that is related to food and drugs, and, you know
• 10:44
  all those substances that are under the regulatory purview of
• 10:49
  NAFDAQ, you will go and register with them.
• 10:53
  So that's just the grey area for him.
• 10:57
  And The thing is, he has already perfected his.
• 11:01
  All I see is your recipe. OK, No recipes for food.
• 11:07
  OK, Let's say formulation. Yeah.
• 11:08
  Because if you soap their formulation.
• 11:10
  So he has perfected his formulation.
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  That's the level of making me and my wife are using now.
• 11:16
  You started selling to your neighbors.
• 11:17
  You started selling to other people.
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  So there's some things you have to comply with.
• 11:25
  So in that sense, if you're in James situation, do you have to
• 11:30
  pay the printing costs and all that, do all the packaging and
• 11:34
  the bottling and the everything so that you can sell?
• 11:37
  The answer is twofold. Well, OK, well, the answer is
• 11:39
  one fold. The answer is yes.
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  The reason why it's twofold #1 because when we start branding
• 11:46
  our products, remember those of you who listen to the previous
• 11:50
  episode, we'll start branding our products.
• 11:52
  It makes it easier to differentiate ourselves in the
• 11:55
  market, makes it easier for us to stand out.
• 11:59
  You do a good job of these things, branding and
• 12:01
  merchandising. After a while, it should, it
• 12:03
  should make it easier to sell. So yes, that is one reason why
• 12:07
  you should do that. Invest in the cost of these
• 12:09
  things. But then unfortunately, because
• 12:14
  of the kind of business that he's in, I mean, like me, I'm
• 12:18
  selling services so I don't have to go and print any packaging.
• 12:21
  But because of the nature of the business that he is, he actually
• 12:25
  has to do that thing. It's required by law.
• 12:27
  And NAFDAQ has some very specific guidelines.
• 12:30
  I went online and I had a look and the information actually was
• 12:34
  quite helpful. So NAFDAQ, NAFDAQ says, oh, by
• 12:40
  the way, they don't ask me to define NAFDAQ because you know
• 12:45
  what, I should have researched it.
• 12:49
  NAFDAQ is the, what is it again shall that the people who are in
• 12:54
  control, in charge of regulating the sale and distribution, the
• 12:58
  manufacturing of foods and drugs and medicines and you know,
• 13:04
  whatever shall but go on Google it, you see the definition of
• 13:07
  NAFDAQ. Oh, by the way, this is a
• 13:10
  Nigerian agency. So everything that I'm saying
• 13:13
  here, you know, applies to Nigeria only.
• 13:14
  So those of you who are listening in South Korea and
• 13:17
  America right now, you know this doesn't apply, although you have
• 13:20
  your own similar agencies. So if you are wondering why did
• 13:24
  I point out America and South Korea, the reason why is because
• 13:28
  I checked my stats yesterday and surprisingly #1 country where I
• 13:36
  have most of my listeners is Nigeria. 69% Sudan is OK, I
• 13:40
  expected that next was America 20 something percent I OK, I can
• 13:48
  manage that number 3 was South Korea.
• 13:50
  I'm wondering South Korea, do we have Nigerians in South Korea?
• 13:55
  I busy that S Koreans like listening to Nigerian podcast,
• 13:58
  you know, so I'm not sure. So please, those of you in South
• 14:01
  Korea listening in, I give my number at the beginning of the
• 14:04
  show and at the end of the show, the country code is +234.
• 14:08
  Just put it there. Send me a WhatsApp message.
• 14:10
  I'd like to meet you guys because I've heard from people
• 14:13
  in, I've heard from Malaysia, I've heard from Ukraine, I've
• 14:17
  heard from Niger. Funny enough, I've not heard
• 14:20
  from anybody in America. I've heard from UK, where again
• 14:26
  was South Korea? I didn't even know you guys are
• 14:28
  listening. So if it's that it's Nigerians
• 14:30
  in diaspora, if we have Nigerian community, you know, South Korea
• 14:35
  branch, let me know. Excuse me, if it's that S
• 14:39
  Koreans, you guys like listening to Nigerian podcasts, Please let
• 14:43
  me know. I'd like to know what you like
• 14:46
  about the podcast or what you would like to learn more about.
• 14:50
  So NAFDAQ. So that's just Niger anyway, so
• 14:53
  NAFDAQ now these are the guidelines.
• 14:56
  They say you must put your brand name.
• 14:58
  So in this case, let's say your soap is jamming James.
• 15:01
  So you put it there brand name jamming James.
• 15:04
  Then you also have to put the common name of the thing.
• 15:07
  Common name means the name that everybody knows this thing as.
• 15:10
  And in Nigeria everybody knows as liquid soap.
• 15:14
  So you put jam in James underneath you now put liquid
• 15:17
  soap. Then you also have to put the
• 15:21
  the weight, net content, net weight, net volume, you know,
• 15:24
  750 CL, you know, 120 centilitres, you know, whatever
• 15:28
  you have to put it there. Then you also have to list out
• 15:31
  the ingredients, palm oil, cocoa, hydrochlorizol, lactic
• 15:39
  acid, you know, whatever it is you put in the soap.
• 15:42
  By the way, I don't make soap, so this was me just freestyling.
• 15:45
  Don't go and say that you want to make soap.
• 15:47
  And you had on my podcast that you put lactic acid in soap.
• 15:51
  You know, when I start looking for lactic acid, I don't even
• 15:54
  know if there's anything like lactic acid.
• 15:56
  So I'm just freestyling here. Please don't quote me, but you
• 15:59
  just put all the ingredients there.
• 16:01
  Then you also have to put batch number.
• 16:03
  The reason why they put batch number is for quality control.
• 16:07
  In case something goes wrong, NAFDA wants to be able to say
• 16:10
  members of the public do not use this product batch number
• 16:14
  0012009, there's defect on it. So that's the the whole point of
• 16:22
  batch number. Of course, you put manufacturing
• 16:25
  date, you put expiry date, you put the address of production,
• 16:30
  then you put your NAFDAQ registration number, put country
• 16:33
  of origin, you put barcode. In fact, I didn't realize that
• 16:37
  the requirements for the things that have to go on your
• 16:40
  packaging, I didn't know it's plenty like this man is plenty.
• 16:44
  So please, when the time comes for you to design your
• 16:47
  packaging, especially for people that are dealing in liquid soap
• 16:51
  and dealing in food, you know, you manufacture biscuit liquid
• 16:55
  soap, you manufacture or more or any of those things, the
• 17:01
  conditions are plenty. So please conduct a
• 17:04
  professional. Based on what I saw, I don't
• 17:06
  think this is something you should be using idea to try and
• 17:09
  figure out. Please and please and please, I
• 17:12
  know we like to cut costs in Nigeria.
• 17:14
  Before this one, I would say please go see a professional so
• 17:18
  that everything is on point. Let it not be that you start
• 17:20
  selling and then one day Navdock will just show up in front of
• 17:24
  your house and those that you've been running foul of the law and
• 17:30
  next thing they want to carry you to court, start doing
• 17:32
  criminal prosecution. So please comply with the law.
• 17:36
  So that's the answer to the question.
• 17:37
  Basically, if you want Mr. James situation, yes, go ahead pay the
• 17:42
  cost for the printing and the packaging and everything because
• 17:45
  it's good branding is good merchandising.
• 17:48
  But then minus that for people who are involved in that kind of
• 17:51
  business, the law actually requires you to do that.
• 17:54
  And then if you go and check on NAV Doc's website and
• 17:57
  everything, they have lots of helpful resources.
• 18:00
  So it's even there all the things that you are supposed to
• 18:02
  do. Then next listener question,
• 18:07
  Efraim. Efraim has an E library.
• 18:10
  Hold on, let me check this thing.
• 18:11
  Have I answered this one before? OK, no, this one I just answered
• 18:15
  it on the radio show. So let me share that here.
• 18:17
  So Efraim, Efraim has an E library and the problem is that
• 18:23
  he wants to make the thing profitable.
• 18:26
  So this is the way I broke it down.
• 18:28
  Of course I said Efrain, send me WhatsApp message, let's talk
• 18:31
  some more. So I can be specific because the
• 18:33
  thing with the radio show is people are trying to call in the
• 18:37
  listener segment is only like 30 minutes.
• 18:39
  You go for music break twice, that's like 2-2 minutes.
• 18:43
  So even that 20 minutes, not 30 minutes, it's more like only 20
• 18:47
  minutes you have for questions. So I can't really keep somebody
• 18:51
  on the line for long. So he has to be back, back,
• 18:54
  back. Get your details.
• 18:55
  If I can answer, I spit some answers out.
• 18:58
  If it's something that needs more information, send me
• 19:00
  WhatsApp message. Let's talk some more, that kind
• 19:04
  of thing. So of course, you know he didn't
• 19:06
  get back in touch again. So this is where I broke it down
• 19:10
  for Ephraim. His business model is a freemium
• 19:13
  business model. Now this is what the business
• 19:15
  model mean. The business model just means
• 19:18
  when you're coming into business, you're trying to
• 19:19
  figure out a way of delivering value to the market and then
• 19:23
  capturing value in return. Let me repeat.
• 19:26
  The business model just means how are you going to deliver
• 19:28
  value to the market and then how are you going to capture value
• 19:31
  in return. So for Mr. James, the business
• 19:34
  model is retail trading, so not retail.
• 19:40
  Well, eventually we'll end up in retail, but for now is trading,
• 19:45
  which is you buy something, you buy raw materials at X cost and
• 19:51
  mix it together to produce Y. You now take Y and sell it as X
• 19:56
  plus something and then you get your own profit.
• 20:02
  So the people who are buying your stuff, they get something
• 20:08
  that can wash gas cooker and wash plate and mop the floor.
• 20:13
  That is the value you deliver to the market.
• 20:15
  Then X plus how much you put on top, that is the value you have
• 20:20
  captured from the market. So everybody, no matter how
• 20:24
  we're doing, all of us, we have business model.
• 20:26
  It's just that we, we don't know, we didn't open our eyes
• 20:29
  and choose the business model. Also, like take me for instance,
• 20:34
  with the radio show and with the podcast, I'm putting out value
• 20:36
  into the market. I establish a certain kind of
• 20:39
  reputation. I establish some notoriety.
• 20:44
  Some people then decide that this guy knows what's up and
• 20:48
  they reach out to me. Some people will end up becoming
• 20:51
  paying clients on a business model.
• 20:55
  So you can see that my own business model is different from
• 20:57
  James business model. Now E frame doing E library and
• 21:04
  offering the thing for free. Now I want to in a business
• 21:07
  model. The problem is some people are
• 21:10
  selecting business model without consciously thinking about this
• 21:15
  thing first and foremost. You just hear, OK, this thing
• 21:18
  sounds like a good idea. Let me enter without thinking
• 21:21
  this kind of business model, is it pure?
• 21:23
  Is it pure for me? Because not everybody is cool
• 21:27
  with all kinds of business models.
• 21:29
  Not everybody. Take the media space that I used
• 21:34
  to be. In the event space, there's one
• 21:38
  of my guys, Shergu for Shergu. Shergu owns all his equipment.
• 21:44
  He has more than 10 cameras, he has a boss, he has lighting
• 21:48
  equipment, he has smoke equipment.
• 21:50
  He has everything. He paid for it himself.
• 21:53
  Then everybody is now salary earner.
• 21:57
  He's paying everybody. Your salary is, you know, 200K
• 22:00
  every month, 250K anymore. Come and take your salary and go
• 22:03
  and do the job. For me, I preferred to work with
• 22:06
  contractors. I do not own any equipment.
• 22:10
  I will hire you to do a job. You will come with your own
• 22:14
  camera, your own car, your own assistant, your own whatever,
• 22:18
  and then do the job on our business model.
• 22:22
  So for Shegel, the idea was let me own all this equipment and
• 22:27
  let me keep my expenses low and predictable.
• 22:31
  I know what my overhead is. For me, I didn't want the stress
• 22:35
  of, OK, today the bus has broken down, let's go and fix it for
• 22:38
  me, I didn't want that stress. So my own was you know what,
• 22:41
  everybody's a contractor. How you get to the site, that is
• 22:44
  your problem. How many cameras you use, that
• 22:47
  is your problem. Because I didn't want that to be
• 22:49
  my hassle. But like I said or not business
• 22:52
  model. So some people say this business
• 22:56
  model is better than that business model.
• 22:57
  The thing is, it depends. It depends on the level of
• 23:00
  headache you like or the level of challenge you like.
• 23:05
  So for Shegel, he has no problem located.
• 23:08
  The boss has broken down, where's the boss?
• 23:10
  The boss is in a career, no problem.
• 23:12
  I'll send a mechanic to pick up the boss from a career, fix it
• 23:15
  and then bring it back to Abuja. He has no problem with that.
• 23:18
  For me, I did not like that kind of stress at all.
• 23:21
  My own is this documentary was shooting or shooting it in a
• 23:23
  career, How much do you want? How you get to a career, that's
• 23:27
  your problem. How you get back, that's your
• 23:29
  problem. My own is give me my footage.
• 23:33
  So all my business model. Now what business model is if
• 23:37
  I'm doing, he's doing what we call a free meum business model,
• 23:41
  freemium Fr EE MIUM freemium business model and they're there
• 23:47
  behind the freemium business model is this, you carry your
• 23:52
  stuff and give it to the market for free.
• 23:55
  Everybody come shop and the ideas from the people, they say
• 23:59
  come shop, some of them out of their goodness of their heart
• 24:02
  will give you donation or pay you something, or maybe you will
• 24:06
  now create another kind of product that you now sell to
• 24:09
  them that is premium. We're all familiar with the
• 24:13
  premium business model. Facebook, that's premium.
• 24:19
  They open up Facebook, they say all of you can't shop.
• 24:21
  Everybody come on Facebook. We all did and we didn't pay
• 24:26
  anything. But if you want to advertise
• 24:29
  your product or services, you have to pay something.
• 24:33
  So that's a freemium business model.
• 24:36
  There's a free package for everybody to join.
• 24:38
  If you don't want extra, you'll pay for it.
• 24:42
  Now, the problem with the freemium business model is this.
• 24:44
  For those of you who are thinking about it, know it now,
• 24:47
  premium models have very low conversion rates.
• 24:51
  In fact, some people estimate that conversion is between 2 to
• 24:55
  5%. Let me repeat, 2 to 5%.
• 24:58
  In other words, if you say everybody come, drop, this thing
• 25:01
  is free and 100 people show up, by the time you want to collect
• 25:04
  money, it is estimated that only two people, two to five people
• 25:08
  will pay you. If you didn't get it, let me
• 25:11
  repeat it again. If you want to do a freemium
• 25:14
  business model, in the beginning, you say everybody
• 25:17
  show up and use for free. By the time you want to collect
• 25:20
  money, out of every 100 people that come, it is only two people
• 25:23
  that will pay you between 2:00 and 5:00.
• 25:27
  Of course, when we say 2 to 5%, that is average, It means that
• 25:31
  zero might pay you or one might pay you, or maybe 10 might pay
• 25:37
  you, but average 2 to 5 conversion rates are low.
• 25:42
  The reason why is because when it comes to freemium model, some
• 25:45
  people are just looking for freebies.
• 25:47
  It is the nature of the game. If you open an online library
• 25:50
  and say, Oh yeah, people come and use for free, people will
• 25:53
  come and use the thing for free is the nature of the game.
• 25:57
  They don't want to pay. Meanwhile you that runs the E
• 26:03
  library, you have operational costs.
• 26:06
  You have to pay for server, you have to pay for Internet, you
• 26:09
  have to pay for bandwidth, you pay for customer support, you
• 26:12
  pay for site maintenance, you pay for website updates and
• 26:15
  everything like that. But people are coming because
• 26:19
  they want Osho free. You want to eat for free.
• 26:24
  And then freemium also has high churn of free users.
• 26:27
  What that means is some people come and use for free this
• 26:31
  month, use for free next month, and maybe they'll disappear for
• 26:34
  another 10 months before they come back.
• 26:37
  So The thing is, even if you want to sell to them, you might
• 26:40
  not get that chance because somebody's here today, gone
• 26:42
  tomorrow. To be honest, freemium business
• 26:45
  model has plenty of headache, which is precisely the reason
• 26:49
  why all these tech brothers and sisters, they go and raise
• 26:53
  billions of dollars first. Because when they're trying to
• 26:58
  figure out how to make this freemium business model work, it
• 27:02
  is those millions of dollars that they have raised first that
• 27:05
  they will use to be paying office rent, to be paying
• 27:07
  themselves salary, to be paying for website maintenance, and to
• 27:10
  be paying for everything that they need to pay for.
• 27:12
  Because in the beginning, the people will rush, but how many
• 27:17
  people will pay? So if you want to do freemium
• 27:21
  business model, be ready for the stress.
• 27:26
  So some of us should be giving serious thought to the business
• 27:30
  models that we choose before we begin.
• 27:34
  So now that Ephraim has already choked his hand inside the
• 27:37
  matter and assuming you also have a freemium business model
• 27:42
  and you took your hand inside, this is the way forward.
• 27:44
  You know how to just make everything clear.
• 27:47
  There'll be a basic package that is free, but you now limit the
• 27:52
  access. So you say, yes, this my library
• 27:55
  is free. It can come and use for free,
• 27:58
  but you will only have 20 hours free per month.
• 28:03
  If you want unlimited access, you will now pay for standard
• 28:06
  package. That means you can use it for 24
• 28:12
  hours a day, 30 days a month. Now it's up to you, but you pay
• 28:19
  for standard package, you now charge for premium package.
• 28:24
  That's one where you give people exclusive content.
• 28:28
  What kind of exclusive content? I don't know.
• 28:31
  Like there's some E libraries that organise corporate
• 28:35
  libraries for instance. So everybody use for free their
• 28:40
  basic package. You pay per month, but then if
• 28:44
  you pay XYZ amount, we can now deliver this kind of specialised
• 28:48
  resources and journals are not what not that you will need for
• 28:51
  your particular office will arrange that for you corporate
• 28:55
  library. So maybe that might be premium
• 28:58
  service then you can maybe also do tutoring since his own is a
• 29:02
  Free Library. Some people sometimes at least
• 29:06
  in Abuja anyway, if I even when I was in Lagos self, the library
• 29:09
  in Orba and the library in, in the catcher and then even around
• 29:15
  here, library in Guddu, library in, in Wussy, like zone 5 is
• 29:22
  mostly like people come in to study for professional exams,
• 29:25
  you know, things like that. So maybe you also offer tutoring
• 29:30
  services or something, you know, those are the extra things.
• 29:34
  So if you're doing freemium now that's the scope basic package,
• 29:38
  standard package, premium package, gold package, silver
• 29:43
  package, premium package, you know, bronze package, wooden
• 29:47
  package, platinum package, however you want to package it
• 29:50
  shadow be packaged. One will be basic.
• 29:55
  Everybody take for free, but that free is limited.
• 29:58
  Then they'll be standard. Pay me money, enjoy, do what you
• 30:03
  want. Then there'll be premium give me
• 30:05
  some extra, we'll give you some personalized service.
• 30:07
  So that's the scope. But remember, for freemium it is
• 30:15
  a numbers game. Conversion will only be two to
• 30:18
  5%. When you want to collect your
• 30:20
  money, it is only between 2 to 5%.
• 30:22
  So for freemium, you know where this thing works is when you
• 30:27
  have numbers. Which is precisely why Mark
• 30:30
  Zuckerberg wants every single person in the world to be on
• 30:35
  Facebook. Think about it.
• 30:39
  Those of you who are on Facebook now, when was the last time he
• 30:42
  gave Zuckerberg money? The answer is most of you
• 30:45
  listening to this podcast now, you have never given Zuckerberg
• 30:48
  one single cobra because it's free freemium.
• 30:54
  You are here for all show free. But then the 2% of people that
• 31:00
  now pay Zuckerberg money to advertise their products and
• 31:04
  services, that is where all the billions, billions, billions is
• 31:06
  coming from. So what Zuckerberg needs is he's
• 31:10
  trying to get as many of you on Facebook as possible.
• 31:14
  If 8 billion people are on Facebook now and then 2% of
• 31:20
  people on Facebook, only 2% of 8 billion, do the math.
• 31:24
  I'm not sure what that is. So if 2% of 8 billion people are
• 31:28
  giving Zuckerberg, you know that kind 1010 K every month or 2020
• 31:33
  K every month, even if it's an IRA, you can see that that's
• 31:36
  good money because it is 2% of 8 billion.
• 31:41
  So that's how freemium works. You need crowd.
• 31:44
  If you're doing freemium and you only have 500 people that are
• 31:47
  using your service, man, there's a problem because 2% of 500, you
• 31:54
  know, I'm not good at math, but 2% of 500, the number is not
• 31:57
  sweet. In fact, if there's only 50
• 32:00
  people that are using your, your freemium, whatever, you have
• 32:04
  serious problem anyway. So that's just the nature of the
• 32:08
  game. If you're doing freemium
• 32:11
  conversions will be low 2 to 5%, then it is a numbers game.
• 32:15
  The more people you have, the better.
• 32:18
  You are not thinking 100 hundred, we're thinking
• 32:20
  thousand, thousands. In fact, we're thinking 10s of
• 32:22
  thousands to make this kind of thing work.
• 32:27
  So you have your you have your work cut out for you.
• 32:32
  But summary anyway, just check this whole thing.
• 32:35
  I know it sounds like big grammar, but really we should be
• 32:38
  asking ourselves this business model self, what business model
• 32:41
  am I trying to do? Does this business model, does
• 32:44
  it suit my personality? Does it suit my lifestyle right
• 32:48
  now? Does it suit my contact?
• 32:49
  Because you know, things change sometimes.
• 32:53
  You're a single woman and you have room on your calendar.
• 32:57
  You have time for everybody. You have you have time for
• 32:59
  everybody's stress. But then, you know, you have
• 33:03
  kids, you know, four or five and maybe at this stage in life you
• 33:06
  don't have that kind of time anymore.
• 33:10
  It's the same thing for for men as well.
• 33:14
  Certain stage in your life when you don't have responsibility,
• 33:17
  you have time for some things. And then now responsibilities on
• 33:21
  your head, you don't have time as much.
• 33:24
  You know, now you're married, you have to expect you to be
• 33:26
  home 10:00 PM every night. She doesn't see well as a
• 33:29
  married man. You say you're hustling and
• 33:33
  because of that you're out, you know, 12/1, 2:00 AM.
• 33:37
  They are doing customer fulfilment because of what?
• 33:40
  So we have to check the business models and see if it suits your
• 33:44
  lifestyle or your personality or whatever the context is.
• 33:49
  Then the last question that we want to tackle tonight is Prince
• 33:53
  Prince Godfrey. Now Prince Godfrey is a dutiful
• 33:55
  son, a very, very beautiful son. Mumsy has retired.
• 33:59
  The one that said bumps you up in the fashion business because
• 34:01
  Mumsy has that skill. So they decided now that they'll
• 34:04
  put Mumsy on Instagram and TikTok.
• 34:06
  So I do blow her business from there.
• 34:09
  But this was the problem. They put moms in on social
• 34:11
  media. But man, that Instagram and
• 34:14
  TikTok, The thing is not going to work.
• 34:16
  It's not working. So that's why Prince Godfrey
• 34:19
  reached out. Of course I said Prince Godfrey,
• 34:23
  we need to talk off camera. Sammy, what's that message he
• 34:26
  didn't send? And I would like I'm going to
• 34:30
  lose faith in in some some in Nigerian people.
• 34:36
  You don't like to do hard work and you will have Messiah
• 34:39
  Complex too much. You honestly believe that
• 34:40
  somebody, you call somebody on the radio show and only describe
• 34:44
  your problem for two minutes. I believe that the person will
• 34:46
  tell you something that will change your life forever.
• 34:48
  Look, some of these things require work.
• 34:51
  If somebody says I need more details, the very least you can
• 34:54
  do is send a WhatsApp message or call the person later on and
• 34:56
  then have this discussion. Especially when this thing is
• 34:59
  free. It's free anyway.
• 35:05
  I'm stop complaining. Should be that's what I was
• 35:08
  saying about business model. Yeah, exactly.
• 35:11
  So I mean, for the business model I've chosen, this is the
• 35:14
  headache. I will offer the, the, the, the
• 35:18
  value for free. And some people won't value it
• 35:21
  and some people won't even take, take up the offer.
• 35:23
  So, you know, sometimes it will be emotionally unrewarding.
• 35:30
  But anyway, people who end up paying for the services, you
• 35:32
  know, they, they make it worth my while.
• 35:35
  So where was I? So mom sees now social media to
• 35:39
  promote the fashion business. And the thing doesn't seem to be
• 35:42
  working. And one of the reasons why I
• 35:44
  wanted us to talk was because when it comes to this whole
• 35:46
  thing of social media, the first thing I like to look at is to
• 35:51
  see how the whole, what's it called, how the profile has been
• 35:55
  optimized. Sometimes it has been optimized
• 35:58
  right. Your bio is not right, captions
• 36:00
  are not right, copy is not right, photographs might be
• 36:03
  wrong, you know, all kinds of things.
• 36:05
  So it's nice to try and have a look at these sorts of things
• 36:07
  first. But then given that Godfrey,
• 36:11
  because based on how Godfrey was yawning on the phone, I was, I
• 36:15
  got that vibe that OK, me and Godfrey were like the same age.
• 36:19
  So that means Mumsy is like around that kind 6570 in my
• 36:24
  mind. I didn't ask him on the air.
• 36:26
  Well, why I'm thinking, how do you carry a 6570 year old woman?
• 36:33
  I say you wanted to promote fashion business on Instagram
• 36:35
  and TikTok. That was at the back of my mind,
• 36:38
  but I wanted to talk to him, you know, off the air and get some
• 36:42
  more details, You know, because the thing about this social
• 36:45
  media thing is personality and preferences, they matter because
• 36:52
  social media, some people say social media doesn't work.
• 36:55
  Social media works. It is whether you have the
• 36:59
  personality, you have the interest, you have the skills to
• 37:04
  be able to execute and make it work.
• 37:08
  People who don't get social media or who are not interested
• 37:11
  in social media, it doesn't. If Mumsy doesn't have the
• 37:15
  personality and a social media is not part of her preferences,
• 37:18
  if it's not her thing, there's no how you putting her on it
• 37:22
  will make the business blow because people's personalities
• 37:27
  and preferences drive engagement on social media and build
• 37:31
  audiences on social media. And so you take a Nigerian woman
• 37:36
  of a certain age and whether woman or man is the same thing.
• 37:42
  If your popsy wants to get into business, even if your popsy
• 37:45
  wants to do open up a business consulting practice and then you
• 37:49
  take proxy, you know 6570 well, put him on TikTok.
• 37:53
  I mean, of course there are some 70 year olds that will make it
• 37:55
  work, but I'm just saying the average Niger mummy or daddy
• 37:59
  6570 now come and put them on Instagram, put them on TikTok.
• 38:03
  As in how so we have to look at these things.
• 38:06
  Is mumsy extroverted? Is she very sociable?
• 38:12
  Looks like interacting with people online?
• 38:15
  Does she project warmth and approachability online?
• 38:21
  The individual aesthetics, the styling of the photographs and
• 38:25
  the videos and the everything and Mumsy's personal style self
• 38:28
  when she shows up, you know, is everything on point?
• 38:33
  Is Mumsy adaptable when it comes to knowing what's up, trends and
• 38:40
  when it's with trends because you know, you need to know
• 38:42
  what's trending. You need to know how, you need
• 38:46
  to get a sense of the culture and know which way to go, which
• 38:50
  is precisely why I am no longer on TikTok and Instagram on all
• 38:55
  these places. Because man, it is work.
• 38:57
  And to be frank, it is the kind of work that does not suit my
• 39:01
  personality and my lifestyle. You know, for today, maybe in
• 39:05
  five years things might change, but now I don't have time for
• 39:09
  that headache. But yes, it works.
• 39:13
  And the people who are making the killing, building their
• 39:15
  businesses, building their brands on Instagram and TikTok.
• 39:18
  The thing is, do you listening right now?
• 39:22
  Do you have what it takes? Do you have the personality?
• 39:25
  Do you have the drive? Do you have the interest?
• 39:28
  Are you adaptable and flexible enough?
• 39:30
  Are you willing to learn new things?
• 39:32
  Are you ready for the grind? Those are the questions.
• 39:37
  So those of you who run around and say Instagram doesn't work,
• 39:39
  please stop saying that crap. Instagram works very well.
• 39:43
  The problem is just that some of us are not willing to invest
• 39:47
  what it takes to blow on Instagram.
• 39:49
  If that's the case, stop running around saying Instagram doesn't
• 39:52
  work. Go and look for the one that
• 39:54
  works for you. And that's the reason why I am
• 39:56
  only on LinkedIn and I'm only on YouTube because I have the
• 40:02
  interest, I have the stamina, I have the skill set and I have
• 40:05
  the time and I have the whatever to devote to these ones.
• 40:11
  So these are the question I should be asking.
• 40:13
  You know when mom sees business, fashion business is not popping
• 40:16
  off on Instagram and tick tock, these are the questions.
• 40:19
  So the question I wanted to ask is actually if my hunch was
• 40:23
  correct. Remember Me and Godfrey we
• 40:26
  didn't have so we didn't get to to the end of it.
• 40:29
  So if my hunch was correct, the question is should mum see even
• 40:34
  be starting the business on social media?
• 40:38
  My own opinion, my own opinion. Monty should be doing all school
• 40:41
  prospecting. You should help Mum see, reach
• 40:47
  out to friends, reach out to family members, reach out to
• 40:49
  associates. You know each other, people in
• 40:53
  church or Moscow, whatever. My own thinking is, you know,
• 40:56
  old school as the way to go for mumsy, not social media.
• 41:03
  But if Mumsy must be on social media, then the photographs must
• 41:07
  be well lit, videos must be well shot, backgrounds must be clean.
• 41:11
  Mostly should be ready to do be behind the scenes because
• 41:14
  nowadays people want to see behind the scenes.
• 41:16
  Behind the scenes, you know, it was the design process, the
• 41:20
  sketching, fabric selection, you know, blah, blah, blah, and all
• 41:23
  those sorts of things. Mostly was ready for Instagram
• 41:26
  stories, Instagram reels. You know, when I talk to my
• 41:31
  aunties, these things, they're like, you know, tarbishing my
• 41:33
  you young people. Now, what is all this rubbish?
• 41:37
  They have to be ready. And then there's also the
• 41:42
  marketing thing. Online, running targeted promos,
• 41:46
  marketing campaigns, boosting posts, the whole thing about
• 41:51
  learning hashtag, using hashtags to make your stuff discoverable.
• 41:56
  You can't see that for certain people.
• 41:58
  Maybe it's a cultural thing. Yeah, maybe it's a cultural
• 42:02
  thing, you know, in my own part of the country, you know, my own
• 42:05
  mommies, my own aunties, my own Big Sisters, you know, they're
• 42:09
  just at a certain age of life where they're thinking, can you
• 42:13
  please get get all this out of my face that, you know, I'm
• 42:17
  done. I don't want to be involved, all
• 42:18
  this crap. So maybe it's a cultural thing
• 42:24
  Anyway, so some of what I was trying to say is just in case
• 42:27
  you're in Prince Godfrey's situation before, Well, first of
• 42:32
  all, it's good that we're worried about our parents.
• 42:35
  So for those of you, those of us who are saying, mommy, I know
• 42:39
  you have retired or daddy, I know if you're tired, it doesn't
• 42:42
  mean if you now pack up and go to the village and do what?
• 42:44
  Sit down there and die? No, start a business, do
• 42:47
  something. So as we're supporting mommy and
• 42:49
  daddy to do businesses and being good children is all well and
• 42:53
  good and God do bless us. But just know that before you
• 42:57
  put Momsy or before you put Popsy on social media, make sure
• 43:01
  first and foremost that they are social media people.
• 43:04
  Because if Popsy is not a social media person and you're
• 43:08
  insisting on putting him on social media, you'll be
• 43:10
  frustrating Popsy's life. And Popsy in turn will not be
• 43:14
  frustrating your own life because in your mind, you'll be
• 43:16
  like Popsy, I'm helping you. This is 2025.
• 43:20
  Come into the digital age. Wake up, let's make progress.
• 43:26
  For Popsy or Mumsy is unnecessary stress.
• 43:29
  You'd be frustrating them, they'll be frustrating you.
• 43:31
  All of us will just be circle of frustration.
• 43:34
  So you know, figure out some of these things before you throw
• 43:37
  Mumsy and Popsy on social media. So I'll stop there.
• 43:41
  Those at least now questions I'll tackle for today because
• 43:43
  we've already done. Yeah, it's almost an hour.
• 43:49
  So that's all today. Remember, if you'd love to
• 43:51
  connect with me then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 43:58
  So thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 44:00
  I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or
• 44:04
  in your speakers.