Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How to Have Better Conversations with Customers: The Power of Data Enrichment

Transcript

How to Have Better Conversations with Customers: The Power of Data Enrichment · 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'm the host of the podcast making today's recording in
• 0:07
  church because the kids are having cat kism classes, so I
• 0:10
  expect to hear some noise in the background.
• 0:12
  Now, the goal of this podcast is to solve business problems,
• 0:15
  especially problems that stem from sales and marketing.
• 0:20
  So if you have issues with marketing, issues with your side
• 0:23
  hustle, something is holding your business back, or something
• 0:26
  is holding your career back, then this is the show for you.
• 0:29
  Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your
• 0:33
  choice. And if you'd love to connect,
• 0:34
  then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.
• 0:42
  Today, I want us to look at data enrichment because I think I
• 0:46
  made a broadcast episode, I think last week as when I was
• 0:50
  talking about my current engagement with the solar
• 0:53
  company based in Lagos where I'm training the sales team.
• 0:58
  And I spoke about how I've been trying to tell them about data
• 1:00
  enrichment, data enrichment. And I also mentioned that in
• 1:04
  previous engagements. And I think another person that
• 1:07
  I spoke to who sells, she's a salesperson and how Olga, the
• 1:15
  business that they're involved in, I think it's customer
• 1:17
  service solutions and things like that.
• 1:19
  You know, they claim that they found AI solutions and apps and
• 1:23
  you know, things like that to solve these sorts of problems.
• 1:25
  So I've been drumming this thing, data enrichment, data
• 1:28
  enrichment, data enrichment. So I figured, let me just make a
• 1:31
  podcast episode where I talk about this thing in some more
• 1:34
  detail so that those of you who had the episode and I can't
• 1:38
  remember if I explained it or if I explained it well and you were
• 1:41
  wondering data enrichment, you know, what does that mean?
• 1:44
  Is there anything like data poverty?
• 1:46
  Then at least hopefully I should be able to shed some light on
• 1:50
  it, and then you'll be able to see how this can apply to your
• 1:52
  own business. As you mind, you're also running
• 1:54
  around trying to grow some sales.
• 1:57
  So when we say data enrichment, this is what we mean.
• 2:01
  We mean that when you're trying to run your business, a lot of
• 2:04
  times you just have raw data rotate.
• 2:06
  That just means you have facts and figures, but nothing else is
• 2:10
  attached to it. I repeat, raw data just means
• 2:14
  you have facts and figures but nothing else is attached to it.
• 2:17
  In other words, for those of us who sell you call customers, you
• 2:21
  know, things like that. You just have name and phone
• 2:24
  number. You don't have anything that's
• 2:25
  attached to it. You just see phone number 080,
• 2:28
  this dot dot dot and then the name is Abdul Abdul Salam
• 2:34
  Alumino. That is all that is raw data.
• 2:38
  You don't have anything again attached to it.
• 2:42
  Some of you will say, how is that a problem?
• 2:44
  It's because you don't sell. That's why you don't know it's a
• 2:46
  big problem because how in the hell am I supposed to call 080,
• 2:50
  blah, blah, blah, Abdul Abdul Abdul Abdul Qatar Armamino, How
• 2:56
  am I supposed to call him and start up a conversation?
• 2:58
  I know nothing about this guy. That is what data.
• 3:04
  That's the problem with data enrichment solves.
• 3:06
  It just means from this raw data, how can we create a full
• 3:09
  profile? See, The thing is you can call
• 3:12
  somebody with minimal data 'cause last last, at the end of
• 3:15
  the day, if all you have is a phone number and one name or a
• 3:19
  nickname, well, you're the one that wants the business now, so
• 3:22
  you will call. But if you can get a full
• 3:26
  profile, the better. If you check able to do data
• 3:30
  enrichment and you figure out that this is the name of
• 3:33
  somebody who is based in Kano, he's a 75 year old businessman
• 3:37
  who is involved in social so and so businesses.
• 3:41
  In your mind, I, you can now begin to say that, OK, when I
• 3:44
  call him, this is how I'll push the conversation.
• 3:47
  This how the conversation will flow.
• 3:48
  I'll be able to move it like this or move it like that.
• 3:53
  So the more information that you have, the better.
• 3:56
  If the fuller the profile that you have, the better.
• 3:59
  So it is very, very hard to call 080 dot dot dot dot dot and say
• 4:04
  you want to sell. That is hard.
• 4:07
  If you have 080, that's phone number, you don't have the
• 4:12
  person's name, your job is a lot easier because at least now you
• 4:18
  have a name you know that you can call confidently and say
• 4:21
  good morning, Sir, or good morning, Ma.
• 4:24
  At least that problem is solved. So the more information that you
• 4:27
  get, the fuller the profile, the better.
• 4:30
  So that is what data enrichment means.
• 4:33
  It means we have raw data. How are we going to make this
• 4:36
  thing rich? It's like soup, you know, if
• 4:39
  your soup is just basic, that's palm oil and water and salt,
• 4:43
  then you know that does not. And anyway, that's how you
• 4:47
  should live in Boarding Scotia. So you will still survive.
• 4:52
  But then if you make it rich, if there's one more in it, if
• 4:55
  there's a goose in it, for those of you who like fish, if there's
• 4:58
  crayfish in it, if there's Opoco in it, you know there's some
• 5:02
  vegetable in it. And then you have maybe like 12
• 5:05
  raps of pouffe on the side, you know, the richer the better.
• 5:09
  So it's the same thing with our data, at least for those of us
• 5:12
  who have to call people to sell something or call someone to
• 5:16
  book a meeting, to book an appointment to book a something.
• 5:20
  The more information, the more data it is that we have, the
• 5:22
  better. But of course, that doesn't mean
• 5:25
  you spend the whole day doing research.
• 5:27
  Because you know, this business, if you spend 2 days reaching
• 5:30
  somebody before you call Guy, you're wasting your time
• 5:32
  spending two days to reset somebody before you call.
• 5:35
  That just means in the whole month you'll only call, I don't
• 5:38
  know, maybe like 10 people. And that's not the way forward.
• 5:44
  Well, businesses can be built on 10 people, 10 calls a month.
• 5:49
  But anyway, let me not get into that, into that part.
• 5:53
  So that's what data enrichment means.
• 5:55
  So we need to have more than just an e-mail, more than just a
• 5:59
  phone number, more than just a contact number that is raw data.
• 6:02
  We need to be able to figure out some extra things so that we can
• 6:06
  know who is a time waster, who is a serious person, who is this
• 6:09
  person? So in your mind, you can begin
• 6:12
  to think of why this is how the conversation will go.
• 6:15
  This is how I'm going to be able to personalize the conversation.
• 6:19
  This is how I'm going to be able to move it like this.
• 6:21
  Move it like that before you start the phone call or before
• 6:25
  you send the e-mail or before you knock on the guy's door.
• 6:30
  If you're going from office to office and you're entering
• 6:32
  somebody's office, all you just know is that the person's name
• 6:34
  is Al Haji Dalhatu. You know, it's nerve wracking.
• 6:39
  You know nothing, but you know it's Al Haji Dalhatu.
• 6:42
  But you know, he's a young Al Haji.
• 6:44
  You know he's only 38. He made his money in oil and
• 6:47
  gas. What else?
• 6:51
  Even if that's all you know, at least you know you're more
• 6:55
  comfortable knocking on the door or walking into the office.
• 6:58
  You have a clearer picture. Small.
• 7:02
  So the sorry 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.
• 7:09
  You know, I mentioned that my kids were in catechism, so one
• 7:11
  of my boys needed my attention for something.
• 7:15
  OK, so I was going to tackle one question now.
• 7:18
  Whether we need massive budgets, whether we need plenty of money,
• 7:22
  whether we need plenty of software, whether we need plenty
• 7:25
  of tech to be able to do data enrichment.
• 7:28
  And my answer is no. There are plenty of high tech
• 7:34
  things that you can use for data enrichment.
• 7:37
  If I, one of my clients uses Apollo dot IO, introduced me,
• 7:42
  introduced Abby, introduced me to it.
• 7:46
  So to be honest, before last year, I had no idea that Apollo
• 7:50
  dot IO existed. I know some of you will be
• 7:54
  shocked, like how can you don't know about Apollo?
• 7:56
  And The thing is, nobody can know everything now.
• 7:59
  So, but that's the benefit of, you know, this job, you know,
• 8:04
  you're going around, you're talking to people, interacting
• 8:06
  with clients, interacting with other professionals.
• 8:08
  So you get to learn, you know, new things, things that are out
• 8:11
  in the field. So in my opinion, you don't need
• 8:14
  a massive budget. You don't need plenty of
• 8:16
  software, you don't need plenty of tech because there are some
• 8:19
  public resources that are already available.
• 8:22
  And you know, for instance, social media, social media is
• 8:24
  already available. You don't need to spend money
• 8:26
  for that. That can be not a bad way to
• 8:28
  start for doing data enrichment at the very least.
• 8:32
  You might see this person's face, you might see the person's
• 8:35
  name, you might see the person's nickname, you might get to see
• 8:40
  the person's profession if you see a LinkedIn profile.
• 8:43
  So you never know. So in fact, what I tell lots of
• 8:46
  people is you're a salesperson. Your guy has not paid for Apollo
• 8:49
  dot IO or any of those fancy stuff.
• 8:52
  At the very least, you have Google on your computer and on
• 8:55
  your phone. Use it.
• 8:56
  You have Truecaller, use it. So what I say is take the phone
• 9:00
  number, copy and paste it into Truecaller.
• 9:03
  Truecaller will give you a name. Take that name, paste it into
• 9:07
  Google. Google will give you social
• 9:11
  media, LinkedIn, you know, all kinds of things that people are
• 9:14
  involved in. And there you have it.
• 9:16
  You now have a clearer picture of who it is that you are trying
• 9:19
  to reach after, who you are trying to chase to become a
• 9:22
  customer, who you're trying to chase to buy your product or
• 9:26
  your service. So you don't have money for the
• 9:31
  expensive stuff, for all the fancy stuff that people are
• 9:34
  talking about in America and the UK.
• 9:36
  No problem. For now.
• 9:38
  You have Google and you have Truecaller.
• 9:40
  Use it. I tell all the sales people that
• 9:44
  I train that until your guy buys all the fancy stuff, you should
• 9:47
  have a permanent tab on your on your desktop open Truecaller.
• 9:56
  It should be open permanent and Google open permanent before you
• 10:01
  call. Do that.
• 10:02
  Now I've mentioned that yes, it is going to slow down your call
• 10:05
  times. Yes it will.
• 10:07
  Seriously. But at least you have more
• 10:11
  confidence in calling. And like the last person I
• 10:14
  recommended to the lady who was involved in selling AI solutions
• 10:17
  for customer service and all that, she said that she wasn't
• 10:21
  beginning to see a correlation between the information she
• 10:24
  finds and how likely they are to take a meeting.
• 10:29
  The things that will come up was enough for her to know whether
• 10:31
  OK, this is a serious something or this is not a serious
• 10:33
  something. So you never know.
• 10:37
  Now because of that, it leads to shorter sales cycle cycles
• 10:40
  because you're able to have much more productive conversations in
• 10:43
  a shorter amount of time. And it's, I know it will slow
• 10:47
  you down, but in a way it's much more efficient.
• 10:51
  But just know it will slow you down.
• 10:53
  So for those of you who are used to calling plenty, plenty calls
• 10:56
  like that Lady was doing about 120 calls every day.
• 11:02
  For those who are doing 120 calls every day, this thing will
• 11:05
  slow you the hell down, but there's some benefits, so just
• 11:10
  be patient. So there's some kind of
• 11:13
  information that we're looking for when we're doing data
• 11:16
  enrichment. So for B to B, that is business
• 11:18
  to business. You selling to a business?
• 11:20
  Like I'm trying to sell into Ministry of Finance, now I'm
• 11:24
  trying to sell into Ministry of Finance, now I'm trying to sell
• 11:26
  into Zenith Bank or something. Then it's not just enough to
• 11:30
  have phone numbers. If I can know the job of the
• 11:32
  person, the title of the person within the department or within
• 11:37
  the company or the industry or the company size, or I know the
• 11:41
  person's professional history, some of these small, small
• 11:43
  things, they can help. When I get the person on the
• 11:46
  phone and we are beginning to converse or I go to the person's
• 11:49
  office and we're having a conversation, it can help.
• 11:54
  That's more the information we're looking for.
• 11:56
  Now for BTC, that is business to consumer.
• 11:58
  That is you're selling individual, you're selling to
• 12:01
  one-on-one, just you and one person.
• 12:05
  You know, you never know whatever you can find the
• 12:07
  person's location, the person's interest, the person age, I
• 12:10
  mean, you never know. These things can help.
• 12:13
  These are some of the things that we're keeping on an eye
• 12:14
  for. So the approach once we have all
• 12:18
  this data now is we cannot have personalized engagement.
• 12:22
  And that is what builds rapport and part of what builds trust
• 12:26
  because it feels like I'm talking to somebody.
• 12:29
  In fact, those one time I had to do some business with the also
• 12:34
  in the project I was doing for the British Council and they
• 12:37
  wanted me to interview some of their project partners, the
• 12:40
  FCDO. And when I called in FCDO, at
• 12:43
  some point lady has had to ask me, look, do you know, have you
• 12:46
  met also or so before I told her, Oh no, no, no, I just did
• 12:49
  my research before calling you guys.
• 12:53
  She felt as if the person that I was trying to get through to
• 12:57
  because she was the PA of the person.
• 13:00
  Well, luckily I did my research on hands.
• 13:01
  So even me I need some I need some small stuff about her.
• 13:04
  So she was even her she was as if you already know this guy
• 13:08
  before I say no, today is my first time just buzzing you
• 13:11
  guys. I just did my research ahead of
• 13:13
  time, but we see the conversation was flowing.
• 13:17
  Now her name is one of those Yoruba names that is unisex.
• 13:19
  So I needed to do deter enrichment because if I call, I
• 13:23
  say what's up bro? I say I'm not a bro I'm I'm a
• 13:27
  woman how you see conversations off the wrong food.
• 13:31
  If I say good afternoon, Ma I said look, this is not him.
• 13:33
  I miss a conversation is off onto the wrong food.
• 13:36
  So at the very least I need to do data enrichment that this
• 13:39
  person that I'm calling is he a guy or is he a woman.
• 13:43
  He's one of those things when I was growing up were me more or
• 13:48
  do any more than you were guys. But I doubt moved to Abuja ahead
• 13:52
  of our worry more there's a woman and I'm wondering how now
• 13:55
  worry more is a guy's name, but I've been told and some Yoruba
• 13:58
  names are unisex. So you can see.
• 14:03
  Well, I take my mom's case. Everybody knows my mom as Ben.
• 14:07
  So my mom has always been Ben. And because there's some people
• 14:10
  call and they say good afternoon Sir and then my mom will say oh,
• 14:14
  I'm not a Sir, that I'm a woman. Is the conversation not begin to
• 14:18
  fumble because you didn't do data enrichment ahead of time?
• 14:22
  Don't assume that every single band you know is a girl.
• 14:24
  There's some bands that are women.
• 14:27
  I even have two cousins who also go by the name Ben, but they're
• 14:30
  babes. So you can see that this data
• 14:33
  enrichment thing be it helps. You never know, you'll do some
• 14:37
  random searches. He's actually he's a female
• 14:39
  show. At least now you know, you start
• 14:41
  the conversation off on the right foot.
• 14:43
  It sounds personalized. So tools for data enrichment.
• 14:49
  Now, I spoke about Apollo dot IO and like I said, to be honest,
• 14:52
  until last year I didn't know this thing existed.
• 14:55
  So it's the guy who I'm currently training his sales
• 14:59
  team in solar. He's the one that told me last
• 15:01
  year about Apollo dot IO and we're going to be doing some
• 15:07
  more work in Apollo because right now one of his people in,
• 15:14
  they're going to recruit a new salesperson whose function is
• 15:18
  just going to be that going into Apollo dot IO, fleshing out more
• 15:22
  data on people so that they can have targeted targeted outreach
• 15:29
  when it comes to corporate clients.
• 15:32
  So I'm going to be getting more experience in Apollo dot IO, so
• 15:36
  I'll keep you guys posted. So Apollo dot IO, that's one of
• 15:39
  them. Before then, I'd heard about
• 15:42
  clear bit, I'd heard about Zoom info, I'd heard about Crunch
• 15:45
  base. You know all those ones, those
• 15:48
  of you who are in the text space, all of that, you know,
• 15:50
  you guys, you know, familiar with these ones.
• 15:54
  But for those of you who do not know these tools and you know,
• 15:56
  in the text space, like I told you, there's no excuse.
• 15:58
  Keep Truecola open on your tab permanent.
• 16:04
  Truecola open permanent, Google open permanent.
• 16:08
  At least do that research, copy and paste and see what comes up.
• 16:12
  If nothing comes up because there's some people that you put
• 16:14
  it in Truecaller, the name that will come up is Itchy Scratchy
• 16:17
  456. Yeah, really.
• 16:21
  There's some people who don't. You can't get any information.
• 16:23
  Well, in that case, just try and look.
• 16:29
  But for lots of people, you'll be able to get some data.
• 16:32
  Like I mentioned in the previous episode, there are some class of
• 16:34
  individuals that this is not going to happen, particularly
• 16:37
  Yoruba names. Are they me?
• 16:39
  Are they Tongy? That's a very popular name.
• 16:41
  So if that's the name that comes up, I put it on Google.
• 16:44
  You will see like 250 a DME a day, 20.
• 16:47
  So which one is the correct 1? I don't know.
• 16:51
  So yes, you run into trouble for some of those Yoruba names in
• 16:56
  particular before or and then also some some people names too,
• 17:01
  you know, like teenagers. A common name.
• 17:04
  What else to call America is a common name.
• 17:07
  And then sometimes it's a terrible combination like
• 17:09
  Chineduchuko and Mecca. In that case, you know, Wahala.
• 17:14
  But outside of those issues, you should be able to find some good
• 17:16
  information out there. Then another tool for data
• 17:19
  enrichment. I've noticed that lots of you
• 17:20
  now are paying for LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
• 17:23
  That's one of the paid features on LinkedIn and allows you to
• 17:26
  check anybody's profile. For those of you who do not have
• 17:30
  the paid profiles, it's not everybody's profile.
• 17:32
  You can look, you click on some people's profile, the thing
• 17:35
  won't allow you, I won't allow you to message everybody when I
• 17:41
  want to start having the paid LinkedIn features.
• 17:43
  Yes, you're able to message lots of people and you're able to
• 17:48
  look at lots of people's profiles.
• 17:51
  So LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can use that for data enrichment
• 17:53
  because remember, what we have is a phone number or what we
• 17:56
  have is a name. We're trying to get some more
• 17:58
  information. At least with LinkedIn Sales
• 18:00
  Navigator, you'll be able to see that.
• 18:01
  Oh, OK, that Malam Kabiru used to work in MTN.
• 18:07
  Later on, they transferred him to NCC and after NCC, he has
• 18:12
  been on his own as a government contractor from 2010 until 2023.
• 18:21
  At least you've seen some more information.
• 18:23
  It helps. Then of course, online business
• 18:26
  directories, I don't even know how those people get their
• 18:29
  information. It's scary.
• 18:30
  But the information is there because like one time I decided
• 18:34
  to check the old company that my brother and I used to do
• 18:37
  business under, and I checked and surprisingly The thing is
• 18:40
  still there. The information is how those
• 18:44
  people got it. I don't know.
• 18:45
  If you check on the company name, you see me and my brother
• 18:48
  listed there as directors with our name in full.
• 18:51
  Our phone number is there, the business address we registered,
• 18:56
  The thing is there. What else?
• 19:00
  Even the paid up capital that we have for the I was, and I don't
• 19:05
  know how this online business directory people get the
• 19:08
  information. Watch out.
• 19:09
  They get the information anyway. So I'm just saying that there
• 19:12
  are lots of tools that you can use, but remember when you're
• 19:15
  doing data enrichment, in my own opinion, please, one or two
• 19:18
  minutes. If you're spending 5 minutes, 10
• 19:20
  minutes investigating one person, you're wasting too much
• 19:24
  time and you're getting more and more scared.
• 19:27
  So just, you know, sharp, sharp one or two minutes, make this
• 19:30
  phone call done, Enter your notes in CRM, schedule the next
• 19:36
  thing, and then move on to the next person.
• 19:39
  Copy, paste, do research. Sharp, sharp, one or two
• 19:42
  minutes, done, then make the next call.
• 19:44
  Keep it moving. So like I said, the goal of data
• 19:49
  enrichment is to give you more information about the person so
• 19:54
  you can figure out the next best thing to do to win their
• 19:58
  business or to win their trust. So that's the goal of data
• 20:02
  enrichment. In the beginning, when it's just
• 20:03
  a name or a number, you don't know the best thing.
• 20:06
  Should I call, Should I go to the office?
• 20:08
  Should I send e-mail? Should I send WhatsApp?
• 20:11
  I don't know. But at least with data
• 20:14
  enrichment, when you see it, you now begin to get some some
• 20:18
  ideas. Because if your job is to call
• 20:22
  primarily and make sure you call first.
• 20:25
  Then do the other things later. So with the name and with the
• 20:29
  number and with the other data that we've been able to get, at
• 20:31
  least we'll be able to know who they are and get a sense of how
• 20:35
  we can start chasing them. And that's it.
• 20:39
  And that's all for the data enrichment episode.
• 20:41
  I hope I've been able to explain it a lot, a lot better than I
• 20:46
  did the last time. So that's it and that is all.
• 20:50
  Remember, if you would love to connect, you can call SMS on
• 20:54
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and
• 20:59
  attention. I will catch you next time.
• 21:01
  Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.