Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Compliment, Connect, Conquer: How to Get Free Help from Online Experts
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be an out and
- 0:04about recording. So expect to hear the usual
- 0:06interruptions and OK. So there are a few things I want
- 0:11to share with you guys that are going to be coming down the pipe
- 0:14later. And that's, I was working on
- 0:17having some material on some LMLMSS and that's learning
- 0:22management systems, Nigerian learning management systems,
- 0:25because there are lots of people out there who are looking for
- 0:28business education. And I figured it's not a bad
- 0:31idea to meet people where they're at.
- 0:33And so if they're these new businesses, apps, websites,
- 0:38whatever, they're trying to make business content available, I
- 0:41figured I might as well be on some of them.
- 0:44Now I know that you guys already know about Udemy.
- 0:50I think Udemy is the, the LinkedIn one.
- 0:54So there's Udemy, there's, I can't remember anyway, but
- 1:00there's a bunch of other services that people use.
- 1:03I see them on LinkedIn and things like that.
- 1:06So I tried putting together some material that was going to go on
- 1:09some of those sites and there's been a few things that worked
- 1:13out and a few things that didn't.
- 1:15But either way, some of the material that I was recording
- 1:18for Home Grown Nigerian LMS is Learning Management systems.
- 1:24I'm going to make them available over here on the podcast.
- 1:28Then there is, I think it's Learn Skills, Learn Skills
- 1:33Africa. I've been talking with Learn
- 1:35Skills Africa. We're going to have some courses
- 1:37available there as well. So I'll let you guys know when
- 1:39those are available. But for the material that I
- 1:42recorded that was supposed to be up for free on Nigerian learning
- 1:48management systems, I'm going to make some of them available here
- 1:50on the podcast. I'm letting you guys know ahead
- 1:53of time just so that you're not caught on the wares because
- 1:57instead of sounding like a regular episode, it's going to
- 1:59sound obviously like I recorded it as part of a course or part
- 2:02of a larger curriculum. So when you come across all
- 2:05those audio samples, then that's what they are, that's what they
- 2:10were recorded for. I'll try and record a sort of
- 2:14like an intro before so that people who are catching it from
- 2:18the first time not going to get caught unawares.
- 2:21So yeah, that's it. Those are a few things that that
- 2:23we can look forward to on the show.
- 2:25But then again, we're still going to have our regular
- 2:27scheduled episodes. So today, this is what I would
- 2:31like us to tackle. There's a fellow who reached out
- 2:33to me on LinkedIn. His name is Daniel.
- 2:37I'm not going to use his surname and protect his identity, but
- 2:40I'm going to use his real name so that he knows that I'm
- 2:43talking about you. Also so that eventually, if he
- 2:46does start listening to the podcast, then this is going to
- 2:49be a reminder episode for him about how not to conduct
- 2:55outreach on LinkedIn. Now, some of you will know that
- 2:58we'll remember that I've done episodes like this in the past
- 3:02because my mentee, Remi Leko, Remi Leko Oyeko, this is how we
- 3:07started off our relationship because of outreach as you try
- 3:10to do on LinkedIn. And I made a whole series of
- 3:13episodes about how you could have done things differently and
- 3:16what people's expectations should be for how you can sell
- 3:19effectively on LinkedIn. Because a whole bunch of us are
- 3:22trying to draw more business on social media.
- 3:24And so we're going to try and get clients on Facebook on what?
- 3:28OK, is WhatsApp social media? OK, no, maybe WhatsApp is not
- 3:32social media, but people are going to try and drum up
- 3:34business opportunities whichever way that they can.
- 3:37So the reason why I make these episodes is just to let you guys
- 3:41know that there is a better way to go about it because some of
- 3:44you are using techniques that will end up shooting yourself in
- 3:47the foot. Remember, I keep saying on the
- 3:50podcast, because we can copy and paste easily on these platforms,
- 3:54that we can spam on these platforms doesn't mean that we
- 3:57should wake up every day and spam 1000 people and then have
- 4:020.001% of 1000 people respond. How about you be much more
- 4:07thoughtful with your campaign? You copy and paste, I don't
- 4:10know, maybe 10 people every day and get two of them to respond
- 4:15every day. The results of getting two
- 4:17people out of 10 to respond every day over the course of a
- 4:21year is better than spamming 1000 people every day and get
- 4:260.0001% of them to respond. Oh well, I haven't done the
- 4:31math. I don't know if it's the same,
- 4:33but you guys catch my drift. It's much more efficient use of
- 4:37your time. And then there's something that
- 4:41the average business owner hasn't quite caught up to yet,
- 4:45which is that when we put things out into the social media sphere
- 4:49or into the Internet or whatever, that we are not just
- 4:52putting out good vibes, but also putting out bad vibes as well.
- 4:56So if you have a series of campaigns that you're running
- 5:00and it depends on you spamming 1000 people and only 0.001% of
- 5:07people you end up doing business with, we forget the fact that
- 5:10that means that you are pissing off 99.00000.
- 5:16What is that, .002 or something? Basically, you're pissing off a
- 5:20whole bunch of people. And it doesn't help if every
- 5:23single day we're having all these people pissed out about us
- 5:27and those are the vibes that we're putting out into the
- 5:30atmosphere or into the universe. You know, for those of you who
- 5:32are, what's that thing, you know, the secrets and you're
- 5:37manifesting and everything. So you guys are putting out the
- 5:39whole bunch of bad vibes into the universe.
- 5:42OK, now let's get straight to Daniel.
- 5:45So Daniel reached out to me on LinkedIn and he said that he's
- 5:50done this online certificate thing on e-mail marketing.
- 5:53And his challenge is he's trying to build a portfolio without
- 5:56experience. So now is his question pretty
- 6:00much how do you build a portfolio on Fiverr and on
- 6:04Upwork without having any experience?
- 6:07Now, ordinarily these are the sorts of things that I just
- 6:10delete and I just flashy, but I figured I admire the guys
- 6:16gumption because it is quite I don't know the word to think
- 6:23that you can build a portfolio without experience.
- 6:27So I figured let me just respond to the dude and let me see if I
- 6:29can help him out on on a bunch of stuff.
- 6:34So I responded and OK, well, I told him to send me a message on
- 6:44on WhatsApp. Yeah, I told him just copy and
- 6:47paste the message on WhatsApp. And then I left it at that
- 6:50because I don't think I've discovered is that the whole
- 6:52bunch of people reach out. They want stuff for free, but
- 6:55even when people engage, you know they don't follow up on
- 6:57that. You'd be surprised the number of
- 6:58people that reach out. I give them a simple assignment
- 7:02like this, which is just copy and paste this on WhatsApp and
- 7:04they don't do it. So it's also another easy way I
- 7:09have for dealing with people who just want random free advice.
- 7:12I give them an assignment and they don't do it even if it's as
- 7:15simple as copy and paste this on WhatsApp.
- 7:17So I said copy and paste this on WhatsApp.
- 7:19My usual assignment and surprisingly the fellow did it
- 7:22and not only did he do that, he also added some more context.
- 7:25And so that was good. And so that's how Daniel and I
- 7:27started having the conversation. Now there are a bunch of
- 7:30questions that I asked him about why the gig economy that's 5 LB
- 7:34Upwork is part of the gig economy.
- 7:36The idea behind the gig economy is this that you have some free
- 7:39time or you have some free capacity.
- 7:41So you might as well make some money by advertising that free
- 7:45time and capacity on certain websites and then you're going
- 7:49to be able to get customers. So Uber drivers, Uber, OK, no
- 7:55Lyft in Niger. There's Uber.
- 7:57There's what else there's well any you catch my drift?
- 8:02So Uber drivers, that's part of the gig economy.
- 8:04Your car is there is at home. You're not doing anything with
- 8:07it. You've dropped the kids, you've
- 8:09dropped Wi-Fi, you're now back at home.
- 8:10What can I do? So you advertise the spare
- 8:12capacity of your car on Uber and then you get some business or
- 8:17you work in 95, but then you have three cars lying around at
- 8:21home. One is for you, one is for
- 8:22Madame. There's a third car.
- 8:24Your younger brother is at home on holidays and you're thinking,
- 8:27look, instead of him just staying at home and watching
- 8:29DSTV all day, let's put this car on Uber or any of these other
- 8:35things and then younger brother can make some money.
- 8:38So that's the idea behind the gig economy.
- 8:40And so people who have skills in copywriting, e-mail marketing,
- 8:45all these sorts of things, they also take part of the take
- 8:47advantage of the gig economy by also advertising themselves on
- 8:51certain websites like Fiverr and Upwork.
- 8:54Those are foreign websites. Then there's also what's it
- 8:59called? The Nigerian one is called Kai.
- 9:03Is this share shareware or some any suppose there's one that is
- 9:06a play on the Yoruba, Yoruba phrase for is there work or
- 9:12there is work? I think it's Shesherwa.
- 9:14Shesherwa, I think it's Yoruba for is there work or there is
- 9:16work or something like that? And so there's one of these apps
- 9:19that is that is a play on that Yoruba word.
- 9:24So these sites are there both international and also local
- 9:27sites. So I wanted, I asked him a
- 9:29question why the gig economy? And you find out in the moment
- 9:33why we, I wanted us to have that conversation as well.
- 9:38And then I want some of you to consider as well for those of
- 9:40you who are trying to build a portfolio on Fiverr and Upwork
- 9:43and trying to build a business that way, trying to get
- 9:46copywriting clients, e-mail marketing clients and what have
- 9:50you. So I had some tips for, for
- 9:53Daniel about future outreach. Now, I told him that is a bad
- 9:57idea to try and reach out to people when you don't follow
- 10:00them, when you don't engage with them and when you don't try to
- 10:02show some familiarity. Because I asked the dude
- 10:05straight up like, hey look, how'd you find me?
- 10:07Is it the podcast or speaking engagement?
- 10:11You know, stuff like that. And apparently, well anyway, I
- 10:13like the guys honesty because Daniel was straight up honest.
- 10:16So apparently it's this LinkedIn recommendation thing where it
- 10:21says people who follow so and so are also following so and so in
- 10:25this space. So follow So it was one of those
- 10:27things. Or he thinks it might have been
- 10:29a group thing where he joined the marketing group and some
- 10:32people were throwing my name around and so he's selling just
- 10:35a shooting shot. So I admire that he was
- 10:38remarkably honest about it. And so I had to be honest with
- 10:42him in return. For those of us who offer who
- 10:45are professional service providers, it is a really
- 10:49annoying thing. They have one, you know, people
- 10:52reaching out to you every day trying to get stuff from you.
- 10:55I'm not even talking about scammers or 4:00 and 9:00 ask
- 10:57'cause you know, no one day, no one is normal.
- 10:59I'm talking about legit people who just think they can shoot
- 11:02you up and try and get advice for free.
- 11:05So I told him that it's really an annoying thing because this
- 11:07thing happens on a daily basis and the people who reach out to
- 11:10you, you know, clearly are not familiar with you.
- 11:13They don't follow your content. They don't engage another part
- 11:15of your community. They just want to come into your
- 11:18DM and then just get free advice and then be gone.
- 11:21So I told him that your odds increase when you actually
- 11:24follow the content. You follow the guy or the girl,
- 11:27engage with their content. You seem to be some familiar
- 11:31person. And then people are much more
- 11:33open to helping out for free. Now, let me give an example.
- 11:37Let's say I reach out to Brian Tracy.
- 11:41I say Brian Tracy, I beg have this problem, you know, blah,
- 11:46blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's what I'm trying to do.
- 11:48I ask my question. Send.
- 11:51Now, I doubt that Brian Tracy checks his LinkedIn or his
- 11:54Facebook or his whatever. I doubt he man's it himself.
- 11:57But let's pretend that Brian Tracy actually does.
- 12:01Do you think that the odds of him responding to that message
- 12:05are high, especially given the fact that since he has he's now
- 12:09of international renown, he probably has, if I was to guess,
- 12:13maybe 100 guys or girls trying to send those kind of messages
- 12:17every day. Let me just guess.
- 12:18Let me be conservative and say 100 you think he's going to
- 12:21respond. But then if I send him a message
- 12:24and he says something like, oh, Brad Tracy, absolutely love your
- 12:27work. I've been following you since
- 12:30Popsy was reading your stuff in the 80s.
- 12:33It's absolutely mind blowing. In fact, I credit my success as
- 12:39a sales coach and as a sales coach and a business growth
- 12:44podcaster. I credit a lot of it to you and
- 12:47all the material that you've been putting out there.
- 12:50I just wanted to reach out and connect.
- 12:54I love the work that you do. God bless your hustle.
- 12:56Send. I don't say anything.
- 12:59So I send that message. First.
- 13:03I join his, let's say he has a LinkedIn group.
- 13:06I joined the LinkedIn group. I'm engaging on the LinkedIn
- 13:09group. I'm commenting on stuff, you
- 13:11know, every now and then. And then of course, Brian Tracy
- 13:14was invited by Lioness, Lioness of Korea, I think, I can't
- 13:18remember the name of his business, but Lioness of Korea
- 13:20that the folks that brought, well at least they tried to
- 13:23bring Brian Tracy to Nigeria, to Abuja.
- 13:27That was last year. I didn't follow up on all the
- 13:32publicity, so I don't know if they actually did it.
- 13:35But let's say now he's coming in and I now send a message saying,
- 13:39oh, Brian Tracy or Remember Me, I'm the guy who sent this
- 13:42message, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 13:44I heard you might be in Niger for this event, blah, blah.
- 13:47I'm going to make myself available, whatever it is you
- 13:49need. Just let me know if I'm
- 13:52available to help. You know, I'll help.
- 13:54Wait, you, you catch my drift. Anyway, I'm trying to be
- 13:57familiar. I'm trying to be helpful.
- 13:59I'm trying to farm out. I'm trying to farms, I'm trying
- 14:02to be a fanboy. Now, let's say he does listen to
- 14:07he does handle his messages personally.
- 14:09And of course we know that he doesn't, not just because he's
- 14:13old, but because like I said, he has international renown.
- 14:16So he probably has too many of these messages.
- 14:18But just in case he was the kind of person who used to handle his
- 14:21own box, because there's some people who handle their own
- 14:23inboxes, like Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk handles his own
- 14:28inbox. Who else there?
- 14:32Some of them shall handle their own inbox.
- 14:34Now, over time, who do you think is most likely to be listened
- 14:37to? The person who clearly is a
- 14:40worker pass who wants to get something for free in the inbox
- 14:42or the person who clearly is a fanboy or a fan girl and he's
- 14:46trying to get something from his, I don't know, digital
- 14:50mentor or whatever, or digital hero.
- 14:54So your chances go up when you actually follow, engage, try and
- 14:57show that you're familiar. I mean, be humble.
- 15:01Try and be a fanboy or a fan girl.
- 15:03You're trying to get something for free.
- 15:04This is how it works. So following, engaging,
- 15:09commenting, complimenting, flattery, whatever that works.
- 15:15And that is better than just coming straight up into
- 15:17somebody's inbox as a workout pass.
- 15:19Then I also told Daniel that you ought to offer something of
- 15:22value before trying to take something for free.
- 15:26And it's something that I mentioned to Remi Leko the first
- 15:29time and it's something that she took on board.
- 15:32And trust me, these things work. And that's one of the reasons
- 15:36why anytime Remi Leko is in is in a fix.
- 15:38If she sends me a text message, I will answer.
- 15:41If she calls, I will answer because she helps me out.
- 15:45I do not like PowerPoint. I do not like presentations.
- 15:50And I tell organizers of events that look, this is me, I don't
- 15:54like it. They say, OK, sure, no problem.
- 15:57And then it's time for the event and they start saying how far
- 15:59with the slides. I'm like, but I told you guys, I
- 16:01do not do slides. Anyway, now there are Miller
- 16:05Queens in my life and now that she likes these sorts of things,
- 16:07I just call up and say, hey, I beg, are you free?
- 16:10So and so events? This is what I intend to say.
- 16:14Just gave me some slides so she gets it done.
- 16:17I still don't use the slides anyway, but at least the slides
- 16:20are there. I hand it to the AV person and I
- 16:22go and do my presentation. If the AV person can click along
- 16:25as I'm talking, then you know, that's right.
- 16:27That's no problem. But just so you know, for those
- 16:30of you who have events and you're trying to look for
- 16:35speakers in the future, I do not do slides.
- 16:40But only if you need. Remileko will be there and she,
- 16:42you know, she'll prepare them so you guys will have them so that
- 16:44you orga. There's no going to fire you
- 16:46because, you know, you brought the speaker who didn't come in
- 16:50with enough collateral. So I'm offered something of
- 16:53value before trying to take for free.
- 16:57And those are the tips that I gave Daniel about how he ought
- 16:59to reach out to professional service providers.
- 17:02Now there's a whole bunch of stuff that we talked about that
- 17:06I'm going to skip to the next episode because we're already at
- 17:0817 minutes. I looked at the me and Daniel.
- 17:11We had a frank conversation about whether you can build a
- 17:14portfolio without experience. And I would like to share that
- 17:16with you guys. Let's see what else and then
- 17:21possible solutions about how you can build that sort of
- 17:23portfolio. Then the question on why he was
- 17:26focusing on the gig economy, because the legitimate question,
- 17:29why Fiverr and why Upwork? Apart from the fact that there
- 17:33are Nigerian alternatives, do you really think that is the
- 17:36best way to start pushing yourself out into the market as
- 17:39an e-mail marketing, copywriting, you know, kind of a
- 17:43professional? Do you think that's the best way
- 17:45to get to gain traction quickly? And then we looked at much more
- 17:49proactive solutions about how if you're busting into the market
- 17:54with skills that you want to promote, what's the best way to
- 17:57go about it? So we had a whole bunch of those
- 17:59conversations. And since we're at roughly 20
- 18:02minutes, I think I will skip that to the next episode.
- 18:05But summary, if you're Daniel or you are a Remi Leko or you are a
- 18:10Daniela or you are inadequately or you are a Usman or whatever,
- 18:16and there's somebody on LinkedIn that you want to hit up because
- 18:18you want free advice from the person, slow it down.
- 18:22Don't just send a message like a waka pass and expect to get
- 18:25results. In fact, when I asked Daniel
- 18:28like, how successful has your campaign been?
- 18:30You know, he, he, he answered honestly that I am the only one
- 18:34who has responded. Everybody else has ignored.
- 18:37So I hope you guys see that what it is that you're doing this
- 18:39thing does not work. So really you guys stop it.
- 18:44It does not work. There are much more effective
- 18:46ways of going about it that increase your odds or first of
- 18:50all, let's have realistic expectations.
- 18:52Even when you do it right, you are still going to be ignored by
- 18:55most of the people. So even if you take my advice
- 18:58and follow and engage, try and build familiarity, compliment
- 19:01the person engaging some flattery, offer something of
- 19:04value, still my guess is maybe 7 out of 10 people will ignore
- 19:09you. But The thing is, for the seven
- 19:12people that ignore, at least you're not leaving a bad taste
- 19:14in their mouth. You're just a worker pass.
- 19:17And you're putting out, you're only putting out bad bad vibes
- 19:20into the universe. You know, for you universe
- 19:23people who are manifesting to the universe, you be putting out
- 19:25bad vibes into the universe. And for the three who do
- 19:29respond, you never know what kind of opportunities might come
- 19:33from that. So please stop being a work up
- 19:36ass and spamming people in their WhatsApp DMS, LinkedIn DMS,
- 19:43Instagram DMS and all of that. So if you must do this kind of
- 19:48cold outreach, follow the person first.
- 19:50Does the person have a podcast? Listen to a couple of episodes
- 19:53so that when you reach out, you can say, hey Bros, I like the
- 19:56episode on this, this, this, this.
- 19:57Remember that for Remi Leko, when she did listen to my own
- 20:00podcast, she didn't agree with everything I said.
- 20:03And for me, it was really, really nice that this young lady
- 20:06said, oh, I like the podcast. I agree with this, this, this,
- 20:09but I don't know how this one works.
- 20:10After all, what's the whole point of being on LinkedIn?
- 20:12Is it not to sell? And that led to a series of
- 20:14fruitful conversations that I've shared over here on the podcast
- 20:17about how best to sell on LinkedIn.
- 20:19So like, I gave you the person's content, doesn't mean you have
- 20:23to agree with everything 100%. You can disagree in a very
- 20:28assertive but polite way to say, I understand this.
- 20:31This I'm already implementing, but Bros or but sister, I don't
- 20:35see how this will work or my contacts is different or
- 20:37something like that. It is something.
- 20:40So follow their content, read the blog posts, do the subscribe
- 20:47to the LinkedIn newsletter or whatever, and then engage.
- 20:50If they're a member of the community, engage with the
- 20:53community. Let the community managers see
- 20:56your name, like, oh, we know this guy or we know this girl.
- 20:59Let them see you offer something of value to the community
- 21:03managers and to the person who owns the whole setup.
- 21:09Then when you've done that for about a month or so, when you
- 21:13now start asking for free advice, you're not going to be a
- 21:16worker pass. You're going to be somebody like
- 21:17who is like, oh, that's Daniel. He's a strong member of the
- 21:21community and what's his problem?
- 21:23OK. And then people are now trying
- 21:24to help you out to solve the problem.
- 21:27Even if you don't get a response from the person who owns the
- 21:30community, like, OK, listen, like Niger brand chick, another
- 21:35Niger brand chick, she has a bunch of communities, whether
- 21:38Telegram or adult. So Niger brand chick might not
- 21:41respond herself to your inquiry. But because you're a member of
- 21:44the community, people have been seeing you in the community,
- 21:46have been seeing your activity. Community members would now
- 21:50start responding and saying that OK, for this your problem, try
- 21:53this for this your problem. This is how I solve this or
- 21:56Niger brand chick. She was in podcast episode where
- 21:59she said this. Listen to this or she put out a
- 22:04A blog post where she said that. Read it.
- 22:06The answer to your solution. Sorry, how how is that?
- 22:09How does it go the solution to your question?
- 22:11Yeah, solution to your question is there.
- 22:14So that is how you go about it. Please, future Daniels and
- 22:20Remile Kunz and Abdul Kadiros and whoever realize that there's
- 22:29a better way to go about it. I will not stop making these
- 22:32episodes. OK, well, the time I'll stop
- 22:34making these episodes is when I stop receiving these messages in
- 22:36my in my inbox. Our Lord knows if I'm receiving
- 22:40this kind of activity in my inbox.
- 22:43Me that I'm a small boy. I can imagine what Dangote is
- 22:47Instagram DM must be like. Or Nigel.
- 22:51Yeah. Nigel Branch chick.
- 22:52I can imagine what hers must be like.
- 22:54In fact, Tony Elumelu, I wouldn't be surprised if maybe
- 22:57after a while he even shuts down his LinkedIn account because all
- 23:00of this is too much. Anyway, you get the point.
- 23:03It's over 23 minutes, so let me wrap it up here.
- 23:05Tomorrow, we'll continue with the Daniel conversation.
- 23:08And then after that, expect some resources that I had recorded to
- 23:13be on an LMS, but I might as well just share over here on the
- 23:16podcast. So connect with me on LinkedIn.
- 23:21My name is Tara Shima. I'm the host of the show.
- 23:23You can find the correct spelling of my name on my e-mail
- 23:27address from the link. We're listening to this episode.
- 23:29When you connect with me, please, You know, I have no
- 23:32problem with fruitful conversations or if you have
- 23:34questions about things I put up on the podcast.
- 23:38But if you're a worker pass, let me be frank with you.
- 23:40I ignore most of the worker passes, although once in a while
- 23:44I see someone like I saw something in Remy Leko and I saw
- 23:47something in Daniel, and I said, OK, you know what?
- 23:49Let me engage. Let me give this person one or
- 23:51two tips. Let me see how I can pay a
- 23:53couple of things, a couple of things forward.
- 23:57Also, connect with me on WhatsApp.
- 23:58The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
- 24:06For those of you who are not Nigerian, thank you very much
- 24:09for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
- 24:11episode where we will continue with conversations with Daniel.