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Newsjacking Gone Wrong & Conquering Nigeria's FinTech Frenzy · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today we are going to continue
• 0:05
  on the difficulty of selling your fintech ideas in Nigeria.
• 0:09
  But before I continue, the TV stations, the blogs, you know,
• 0:15
  they've been all awash with the recent world.
• 0:22
  What's that thing called Guinness World Book of Records?
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  Yes, the recent attempt by a Nigerian chess master who has
• 0:28
  been trying to raise money for his charity for children in
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  slums in Lagos. And it's been a news item.
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  Lots of people have been writing about it.
• 0:39
  And these days, you know, whenever I open my my LinkedIn,
• 0:44
  you know, those are the sorts of things that I see over there.
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  You know, people commiserate, I'm sorry, not commiserating.
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  What's the word, you know, when you're trying to congratulate
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  someone basically and everybody's new jacking on
• 0:55
  getting on that bandwagon. Now, before we get into today's
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  today's question, I'd like to make a comment on those of you
• 1:05
  who are looking who, well, first of all, who are trying to use
• 1:08
  contents to promote your business.
• 1:10
  Now, using content to promote your business is a very good
• 1:12
  idea. I mean, because after all,
• 1:14
  that's what I do over here on the podcast.
• 1:16
  I'm counting on the fact that I'm going to be addressing
• 1:18
  business questions that are relevant to people who are
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  trying to, you know, people in the founder space, the SME
• 1:25
  space, people who are trying to get a business up on going and
• 1:28
  people who are self-employed. And I do that by making content,
• 1:32
  not just audio content, written content, stuff on Instagram.
• 1:37
  So it's a good idea to promote your business Now, news jacking,
• 1:43
  which is taking advantage of things that are currently
• 1:47
  popular or in the media, is a viable strategy for how to build
• 1:50
  your businesses. But I think people go about news
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  jacking the wrong way and this chess story is an example of
• 1:58
  how. So this fellow is doing his
• 2:00
  thing and yes, we're all Nigerians and we're proud.
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  But somehow you think that by writing a post about what is
• 2:07
  going on in the news, what is trendy and all that is going to
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  bring you more eyeballs on your business.
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  Now, unfortunately, a lot of the people who are trying to news
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  Jack are writing about this story and it's not something
• 2:20
  that is even remotely related to your core business.
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  So I am a sales coach, I'm a business consultant, I'm a
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  business growth podcaster and I only talk about business
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  problems. Go figure.
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  Anyone who comes across my material is going to see my
• 2:37
  mastery and my knowledge of the subject matter and think, OK,
• 2:41
  this might be a decent boy to do some business with.
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  Hopefully they give me a call. That's how it works.
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  But if you run an engineering firm or a sales firm or you're a
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  Carpenter, how does talking about trendy things in news like
• 3:00
  a Guinness Book of Records world attempt by a Nigerian, how does
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  that help to grow your business? So people are trying to news
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  Jack on things that are not related to their business in any
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  way. And so you put up this post, but
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  there's no reason for the person to associate you as a specialist
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  in something. There's no reason for the person
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  to check this post that you've written on this attempt for
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  another Guinness Book of World Records.
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  There's no reason for the person to look at that or maybe click
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  through to your website. There's no Nexus, there's no
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  connection. There's absolutely no reason.
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  And so you are news jacking the wrong way.
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  Another thing, people who rely on news jacking for content,
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  you'll find that their content production is sporadic.
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  Now let's go back to me because I'm making content that is
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  business focused and I'm answering business questions.
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  I have reason to be on the mic every single day because
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  business questions will never finish.
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  So I always have reason to be on the mic.
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  When you want a news Jack, you know things are trendy in news
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  cycles, but you know they only come around every once a month
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  or something. So war in Gaza, you news Jack
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  and then you do two or three pieces, but you can't do that
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  forever. Things go quiet then let's see
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  what else what happened next. I can't remember One more thing
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  you use Jack, then things go quiet, then Guinness Book of
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  World Records Nigerian is attempting it.
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  Then you use Jack. You see that your content
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  production is going to be sporadic and it's also going to
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  be disparate and disconnected from what it is that you
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  actually do. So if you run an engineering
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  firm or a project management consultancy, writing about all
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  these things just because they are trendy, it's not doing
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  anything in a way that brings eyeballs to your business.
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  However, if you're able to newsjack in a way that
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  highlights your skills or highlights your knowledge base,
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  then that's a different thing. If you have a project management
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  consultancy and you're going to write about the war in Gaza
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  showing how militants can use project management principles,
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  you know, to help the guerrilla warfare, or the Israeli
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  government can use project management principles in
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  humanitarian efforts on either side of the battlefield.
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  Can you see how you are news jacking, but you are using your
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  skill set to like your news jacking, but you're using the
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  news to throw attention on your area of speciality and your
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  skill set? That is the way to do it.
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  So if you write about Tunde Onakoya and him trying to break
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  the world record and you're talking about how you can use
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  project management principles to defeat opponents, because part
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  of the record is not just that you play for 24 hours, but that
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  you play for 24 hours unbeaten. And he had a partner to help him
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  break the world record, another chess player, but the fellow was
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  American. So if you're going to write
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  about how you can use project management principles to do the
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  whole thing, look, I don't know anything about project
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  management, so I'm just freestanding here.
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  I'm just guessing. But if you can do that, then you
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  are news jacking in the right way.
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  So please, if you must news Jack, it's not every single
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  thing that you should write upon, tweet upon, blog upon, but
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  if you must tweet, blog, write, make a podcast about whatever it
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  is that is trending in the news. The proper way to news Jack is
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  to see how you can lend your knowledge, your skill set, your
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  expertise, your whatever to enrich or to pull out some
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  insights or well, pull out some insights, inject some insights.
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  You get the whole idea. That's that's the proper way to
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  news Jack to comment on the news, but in a way that reflects
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  back on you, to show your own expertise and make you seem like
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  you are a credible professional to work with.
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  So a lot of you news jacking, please just give it a rest or if
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  you must do it the right way. Another funny thing about news
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  jacking is this because everybody is news jacking, now
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  that I open up my LinkedIn or now that you open up your
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  whatever, everybody's talking about the same thing Now.
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  Do you think you are going to stand out in business if you are
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  talking and sounding exactly the same way that everybody is?
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  It's a sea of sameness when I open my LinkedIn now because
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  that's all everybody is talking about.
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  I told somebody this, I don't think the person kind of gets my
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  gist, but just look at it this way.
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  If everybody is talking about the Guinness World Book of
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  Record attempt, you open up LinkedIn.
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  That is all you see. So excuse me, but then you have
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  a couple of folks like me, for instance, who are staying true
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  on mission and writing about other things I want to write
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  about. It is precisely at times like
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  that, that our content stands out the most because everything
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  is a sea of same. When was Gaza, everybody was
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  writing Gaza. So if you're scrolling Gaza,
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  Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, and then next thing you
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  know, my profile comes up. Pattern interruption.
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  You notice because I'm talking about something different.
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  I'm not part of the sea of the same, so that's also another
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  reason why you guys should be careful about newsjacking.
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  You end up being part of the sea of the same.
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  So in my own opinion, newsjacking it's not a bad idea.
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  It's a good idea. A bunch of you are just going
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  about it wrong. Learn how to newsjack the right
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  way. Check Google.
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  Just enter it in Google, enter it in ChatGPT or whatever AI
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  resource you use strategies for newsjacking and then follow
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  those strategies instead of writing on Gaza today, world
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  record attempt tomorrow. Who knows, maybe tomorrow there
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  might be something out in the news about, I don't know, maybe
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  the president having an affair and then you comment on that as
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  well. And then maybe next month if
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  famous pastor dies, then you comment on that as well.
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  I mean, that's not hard to go about news jacking.
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  Anyway, let me go ahead and answer the question because
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  we've done 10 minutes and this was not the main reason why I
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  hopped on podcast today. So the difficulty of selling
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  your fintech ideas in Nigeria, One of the problems that people
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  have in the fintech space is a saturated market.
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  But now some people say maybe, maybe not.
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  But then again, I guess it's because it's a new space.
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  But The thing is, you're paying attention to the blogs, what
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  else? The podcast, you know, it sounds
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  as if new startups are starting up every other week or every
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  month and there are loads of names that you can talk about in
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  the Nigerian space. I mean, so like in the payment
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  space, the space stack, the slaughter wave, and I mentioned
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  that Paga has been around for a very long time.
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  Feels like they've been around for forever.
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  I don't know how long we've been around here.
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  Then in Remytown, there's Quick Teller World Remit.
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  Let's see what else wealth management carry wise.
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  OK, been seeing the advertisements here and there,
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  Bamboo rice vest and you can go on and on and on.
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  And tons of these companies and these are the ones that seem to
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  have stuck around. We're not even talking about the
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  ones that you hear about today and then they're gone tomorrow.
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  So some people say no, it's not saturated.
• 10:24
  Some people say it's saturated. Well, but anyway, it's not a bad
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  idea to learn how to differentiate yourself no matter
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  what business area, what business segment, industry that
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  you're playing in. So assuming that we do have a
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  saturated market when it comes to fintech ideas in Nigeria,
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  then how do you stand apart? And these are a couple of
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  suggestions. Number one is to try particular
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  kinds of niches. Yes, we have discussed this in
• 10:54
  the previous episode where we spoke about how to stand.
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  What was it? OK, I can't remember the exact
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  way that worded it, but I think it was about how to stop
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  yourself from being commoditized or something like that.
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  So one of the ideas that we explored in that episode was
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  trying out a niche. And so you can try out a
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  specific niche because most people, when they want to try
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  and solve business problems, will be as general as possible.
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  And a whole lot of these start up ideas, you know, seem to
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  sound very general. Like for instance, all the
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  start-ups that are trying to solve the problem, the problems
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  of, you know, people in the UK, people in the US trying to send
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  money back home. I mean, they're all trying to
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  solve the same problem essentially.
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  So how do you make yourself sound different from the next
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  company which was set up precisely to solve the problem
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  of you're in the UK, Mumsy is in Niger, Popsy is in Niger,
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  dependence are in Niger. You want to send money back
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  home, How do you do it? So one way is to go niche.
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  You know, instead of going abroad, go niche.
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  People have looked at it different ways, Try things like
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  maybe OK, only mobile money or maybe only POS or maybe only
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  micro loans. But let's look back to this,
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  this whole thing of sending money back from the UKI mean,
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  who knows, maybe if you niche according to regional
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  affiliations, if that's the thing, I'm not even sure if that
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  will be ethical or something. But let's say you happen to be
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  known as that company who in Nigeria focuses on the east and
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  maybe the eastern part of Nigeria and maybe the, the,
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  what's up? What was that place called?
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  You know, like Benin, you know, I do something central, I can't
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  remember. But let's say, you know, that
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  part that focuses on maybe like I do people.
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  And then you go all the way down to evil people and then you
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  know, Donnie, and you know that part of the country.
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  So that's one way of niching down because you'll be known as
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  that company for Nigerians in diaspora who are trying to send
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  money home, not by the general populace, but by evil people, by
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  Delta people, by Edo people, by Asian people, by Adoni people,
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  by equary people, by, you know, all those sorts of things.
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  For those of you who are not Nigerians listening to the
• 13:19
  episode, those are tribes or ethnicities that belong to a
• 13:23
  certain part of the country. So you know, that could be one
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  way that you can leash and self set yourself apart.
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  So leashing down, that's one way.
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  And so I lost my train of thought, what was I going to
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  say? OK, well, we've looked at
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  niching down. OK, Yeah.
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  So I have one of the reasons why we have, we might have lots of
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  fintechs. One of the reasons why we can
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  explore lots of different niches, at least for now in
• 13:56
  Nigeria is because we have enlarged on bank population.
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  So there's lots of opportunities there.
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  And then with this population, we have people that have diverse
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  needs. There's some people who are
• 14:05
  trying to sort out payments, you know, an internal thing like
• 14:08
  today went with Wi-Fi to the market, GTB card, you know,
• 14:13
  normal, normal, it got declined twice and then dispenser or
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  blah, blah, blah. So maybe that's a problem that
• 14:20
  you might try to solve, payments internal.
• 14:23
  Then there's the whole thing of what's it called?
• 14:27
  Not remittance, I can't remember what it's called.
• 14:31
  You know, this whole thing of people abroad trying to send
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  money back home, that's a problem that you can try and
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  solve. And there's also wealth
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  management. So the bottom one I'm trying to
• 14:40
  say is that Nigeria, we have a large population, lots of these
• 14:44
  people are unbanked and people are having different problems.
• 14:48
  So there are lots of ways that you can leash down South.
• 14:56
  Yeah. So niching, yeah, you can focus
• 14:58
  on geography, you can focus on on the served segments, which is
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  kind of what I was going for when I was talking about people
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  from a certain situation of the country.
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  Because like when you see all the adverts and stuff like that,
• 15:11
  you know, it's obvious that when people are talking about.
• 15:16
  Anyway, let me stop before I say something that is politically
• 15:20
  incorrect. So you can also focus on
• 15:22
  demographics. Am I trying to solve problems of
• 15:24
  people in rural areas or people in or, or the youth?
• 15:28
  Look at people's and financial needs.
• 15:30
  Are you going to niche down on micro loans segments or you
• 15:34
  never know. You can even come up with some
• 15:36
  fintech thing that is around Sharia compliance.
• 15:39
  You never know. You guys are smart, you guys and
• 15:42
  girls are smart, you know, you fintech people.
• 15:43
  So go ahead, give it a think, see what kind of interesting
• 15:47
  products that you can come up with that actually solve
• 15:50
  problems that exist. Then another way of
• 15:53
  differentiating yourself is sorry about that has to come up
• 15:58
  with differentiated value propositions.
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  OK, I'll put this, OK, OK, value prop basically is the reason
• 16:09
  that you give why people do business with you.
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  So one of the reasons could be that you are more user friendly
• 16:14
  than the rest. Like GTB, they rolled out the
• 16:18
  banking app, that was the new banking app and the new
• 16:20
  interface. Anyway, that was a while ago, a
• 16:22
  couple of months ago. And that was their thing, that
• 16:24
  it's supposed to be more user friendly.
• 16:26
  And I've heard lots of people attest to the fact that it is
• 16:29
  user friendly. But for me, I don't really see
• 16:31
  the difference because I have GTB, I have Access Bank.
• 16:35
  I think they're the same. I mean, the user face I think is
• 16:38
  user interface is the same, but people are going on and on about
• 16:41
  how the new GT app seems to be intuitive, you know, things like
• 16:44
  that. So that can be a way that you
• 16:46
  differentiate yourself. There are some people who try to
• 16:48
  differentiate on low fees and cost, you know, where the lowest
• 16:51
  service provider is, where the cost effective, blah, blah,
• 16:55
  blah, blah, blah is not something that I prefer.
• 16:57
  Or rather I don't think it's something you should start with
• 17:00
  as a value proposition. You know, that we're cheapest or
• 17:03
  you save more or you know, something.
• 17:05
  I don't think we should all start off their way in
• 17:07
  businesses. Then two or three episodes ago,
• 17:10
  I also spoke about how you can use partnerships to distinguish
• 17:14
  yourself and also gain access to other people's customer base.
• 17:18
  And the example that I gave was the app that partnered with the
• 17:22
  bank. And I remember the name of the
• 17:23
  bank now Sterling Bank. So they partnered with Sterling
• 17:27
  Bank, they came up with some app.
• 17:28
  So the app is not Sterling Bank's app.
• 17:31
  So the fintech boys and girls, they have the app and they're
• 17:35
  supposed to get access to several federal government
• 17:40
  grants. So you're getting the grant.
• 17:42
  This app is in partnership with Sterling Bank, but you're not
• 17:45
  signing into your Sterling app to access the whole thing.
• 17:48
  You're signing into these people's app.
• 17:49
  And I spoke about how, you know, there are a couple of problems
• 17:51
  because one of my guys who was a photographer, he showed it to me
• 17:54
  and you know, he's glitchy. And in fact, he was even
• 17:57
  wondering whether it's a scam. And we checked online, seems
• 18:00
  like it's legit. But I told the guy just going to
• 18:02
  the branch and talk to someone who might be someone who'll be
• 18:05
  able to help you sort this thing out.
• 18:09
  Anyway, business differentiation is not necessarily my area of
• 18:13
  speciality. So I'll leave it to you guys to
• 18:15
  go and check the interwebs, go and check Google and come up
• 18:18
  with ideas about how you can differentiate your business.
• 18:21
  If you're starting a fintech, there are some older ideas that
• 18:24
  we've explored on the podcast. You know about how you can
• 18:27
  differentiate yourself through the sales process.
• 18:29
  And one of the reasons why I say you can do that is because if
• 18:32
  you sell different, you sound different, you appear different,
• 18:35
  then people will just assume that you are in fact different.
• 18:39
  So sometimes selling different from how everybody else sells
• 18:43
  can make you appear different. So when you're done listening to
• 18:47
  this episode, check previous episodes.
• 18:49
  You might have to scroll a bit because you have done over 820
• 18:52
  episodes so far. So thanks for your time and
• 18:55
  attention. Connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 18:57
  The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
• 19:04
  You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 19:07
  My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show.
• 19:10
  You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address
• 19:13
  from the link. We're currently listening to
• 19:15
  this episode. Thanks for your time and
• 19:16
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 19:18
  episode. Sorry for the long rant about
• 19:21
  news jacking, but it's something that you guys seriously ought to
• 19:25
  consider. Like if there's any of you who
• 19:27
  are thinking of starting your fintech and you're using news
• 19:30
  jacking and you're using it wrong and I run into any of you
• 19:33
  in person, you don't want to give you guys a knock on the
• 19:35
  head because it's it's lame news Jack, but news Jack the right
• 19:39
  way. Just use Google and you know,
• 19:44
  use Google, exercise your creativity and you find ways
• 19:46
  about how you can use news jacking strategies to work for
• 19:49
  you. So thanks for your time and
• 19:50
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 19:52
  episode.