Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Secret to Networking: Learn to Listen and Ask the Right Questions
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome. Today on the podcast, I want us
- 0:04to look at networking situations, especially where
- 0:08someone asks you the question, what do you do?
- 0:12Now Remember that for our purposes on this podcast,
- 0:16networking is not only when you're at networking sessions,
- 0:20formal networking sessions like maybe I don't know, let's say
- 0:25Nigerian Medical and Dental Association, you know, Lagos
- 0:29chapter or only chapter and then you go and attend.
- 0:32So that's a formal networking kind of thing.
- 0:34So not just that formal networking sessions, but also
- 0:37online because on LinkedIn, you know, lots of interesting, lots
- 0:43of interesting Nigerian professionals on LinkedIn.
- 0:45So once in a while people send connection requests, you know,
- 0:49you start chatting and then eventually somebody asks the
- 0:51question, what do you do? So I want us to look at that
- 0:55today because a lot of you don't have a good plan for how to
- 1:00answer that question and for what to do next.
- 1:03Because most people, when somebody asks you what do you
- 1:05do, you just try and give a summary, you try and give your
- 1:07elevator pitch and then you just move on.
- 1:09And that's not really helpful. So you've told the person, OK,
- 1:12this is what I've I do. And then you've closed the
- 1:14conversation down and you have no idea who this person is.
- 1:18You don't know if it's worth, if this person is worth building a
- 1:21relationship with. So that's what we're going to
- 1:23explore in today's episode. If someone asks you what do you
- 1:27do either in a networking session when you are live at the
- 1:31venue or maybe they send you a message on or connection request
- 1:35on LinkedIn. Yeah.
- 1:37How do you answer that question and how do you keep this
- 1:38conversation viable? How do you keep the conversation
- 1:40going? Now, before we jump back in, I
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- 2:36We can help you migrate or we've even built the feature so that
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- 2:49their businesses before the month of August.
- 2:52All you have to do is, excuse me, go to iksf dot Ng and then
- 2:58start your first project. Then you enter in the discount
- 3:01code. So you'll get 20% off.
- 3:03All you have to do is just type in TAV that is TAV or a YEDE
- 3:09that's IED. So type in TAV or IED and that's
- 3:12going to give you 20% discount. So back to the question, what to
- 3:22do, sorry, how to answer, how to handle the situation where
- 3:26somebody asks you, what do you do?
- 3:29Now, the reason why we're doing this today is because I was
- 3:33having a conversation with someone on LinkedIn.
- 3:35I'm not going to use the person's name.
- 3:37Let's just call the guy Shaolin. So I was talking to Shaolin on
- 3:41LinkedIn and Shaolin said that his name, sorry, that what he
- 3:45does is he's a marketing monk. And I thought, OK, interesting,
- 3:48you know what's a marketing monk?
- 3:49And so I asked him and he made reference that OK was like a
- 3:53nickname that he was given. And his his answer was that the
- 3:57marketing monk is, and I'm going to read his message, a calm,
- 4:01analytical and relentless about growth, one that can build smart
- 4:06marketing systems who foresees the long term, starting with
- 4:10small steps of the now that connect brand, audience and
- 4:16revenue in ways that are practical, scalable and results
- 4:19driven. Then he followed up by saying,
- 4:21have a productive day. I repeat, I'll, I'll read the
- 4:25message again. Some of you will be struggling
- 4:27to, you know, catch up. And I I don't blame you.
- 4:31This is also one of the reasons why I say, you know, when you're
- 4:33introducing yourself for talking about yourself, all these, you
- 4:35know, snap, snap, snap in jargon, you know, jargon.
- 4:41Oh, I put it now, what is jargon?
- 4:43You know, expressions that people are already used to, OK.
- 4:45Like for instance, if I'm talking to another person
- 4:47because my first degree was in law, if I'm talking to another
- 4:50lawyer and I say rest is a rest, it's a in kasasua.
- 4:55The guy knows what's up because we both went to law school.
- 4:57The rest of you be thinking rest what you know, or do I say
- 5:05nimble that like it's something my wife and I say, you know,
- 5:08it's a Latin expression, but we both learned it in law school.
- 5:11So something happens and she just says, Oh, Nemo that and I
- 5:13understand because we went to law school.
- 5:16Another person be like Nemo. What?
- 5:18So we have all these shorthands that exist in different
- 5:21professions. So tech people like to talk a
- 5:23certain way, marketing people like to talk a certain way.
- 5:26A lot of people like to talk a certain way.
- 5:28Engineers have like to talk a certain way, but you forget that
- 5:32when you're introducing yourself to someone.
- 5:34If you use all that inside Jaggon, people don't understand.
- 5:38So there was a time when I used to pick on software developers
- 5:40because we say, oh, what do you do?
- 5:42And the person will say I'm a front end, back end software
- 5:45developer. OK, Now in your inner circle you
- 5:49will know what that means. But for the longest time, I
- 5:53personally had no idea. When somebody says I'm a front
- 5:56end, back end software developer, like OK, front end,
- 5:59what back end? What?
- 6:00The only front end I know was related to something else.
- 6:03The only back end I know is related to something else.
- 6:07So you've lost me and you've lost a lot of people.
- 6:10When they ask what do you do? You say, oh, I'm a software, I'm
- 6:14a, I'm a front end, back end software engineer, OS certified,
- 6:19Google, Linus C++. You have, you've lost 95% of the
- 6:23people that you're talking to. On the other hand, if you say
- 6:26you're a marketing monk and say, oh, what's a marketing monk?
- 6:28And your response is a calm, analytical, relentless about
- 6:31growth, one that can build smart marketing systems who foresee
- 6:34the long term while starting with small steps of now that
- 6:37connect brand, audience and revenue in ways that are
- 6:40practical, scalable and results driven.
- 6:43You've lost, like you've lost 99.999% of people.
- 6:48Now. For those of you who are in the
- 6:49marketing space, you can listen to what I've just read and you
- 6:52know exactly what the guy is trying to say.
- 6:54Ordinary people like me, we have no idea.
- 6:58Lots of it just went over our heads.
- 6:59And then the guy ended the message by saying have a
- 7:01productive day. You see the guy, don't shut him
- 7:03down. You shut the conversation down.
- 7:08So have you learned anything about the person that you're
- 7:11talking to? Nope.
- 7:12Have you spoken about yourself? Yes.
- 7:15It's not effective networking, No, because you spoke about
- 7:19yourself, but you don't know who it is you're talking to.
- 7:21Is there any future opportunity for business you don't know?
- 7:23Can you guys collaborate on any project in the future?
- 7:26You know, you don't know, like you don't know, you just shut it
- 7:30down. Now how about this?
- 7:35I tried to rewrite it and make it still sound marketing because
- 7:38you marketing people, you guys like to talk your marketing
- 7:41marketing. So let's just leave it like
- 7:42that. So I came up with an alternative
- 7:45or somebody else. What do you do?
- 7:46And you can say, oh, I take a calm data-driven approach to
- 7:50growth. I build practical systems that
- 7:53start small but scale up and I ensure that your brand identity
- 7:57turns into real world revenue over the long term.
- 8:01Now for me this is too long and I will never recommend that any
- 8:05of you talk like that, but I know that you marketers like to
- 8:08talk like that. You would like to talk about
- 8:10data-driven, you would like to talk about systems, you would
- 8:13like to say scale up, you would like to say brand identity and
- 8:17you people like to say long term revenue.
- 8:19So I make sure that I put all those key, key, key, key key key
- 8:22terms there so that anybody who is a marketer, all right and who
- 8:26listen to what I said will say yes, correct.
- 8:29But for me, too long, way too long.
- 8:33But let's just assume now that this is good because marketers
- 8:37will like this. This is what I recommend.
- 8:39Instead of saying this whole thing, I take a calm,
- 8:42data-driven approach to growth. I build practical systems that
- 8:45start small but scale up, and I ensure that your brand identity
- 8:50turns into real world revenue over the long term.
- 8:53Instead of saying everything like that into one big
- 8:55definition, bam, what you do is this, this whole thing that
- 8:58we've said, we'll take that as your USB, Abby.
- 9:01USB meaning, you know, unique service, unique selling
- 9:05proposition, the reason why people do business with you or
- 9:08the reason why people should do business with you.
- 9:09That's what you want to put out into the world, Abby.
- 9:12Good. Now this is what you do.
- 9:13You take this, your USB, you've noticed now this and that we've
- 9:16composed, you know the thing they breakable into different
- 9:20stages. What you do is you will take
- 9:22each stage and just throw it out small.
- 9:24Then you now get feedback from the person that will prompt the
- 9:28conversation. OK, so whatever your USB is or
- 9:32your what do you call elevator pitch?
- 9:34Elevator pitch, so you can say it in 20 seconds.
- 9:37What you do, you take the elevator pitch, it can be broken
- 9:40down into a few segments. You take one segment, throw it
- 9:43small, ask a question, get feedback, conversation will
- 9:46continue. Throw the next one, ask
- 9:48question. Conversation will just the true,
- 9:50true, true and then be asking question.
- 9:53The conversation will be flowing, you have a chance to
- 9:56boast about yourself. You will get a chance to know
- 9:58who the other person is. You'll now be able to figure out
- 10:00this guy self or this babe you know.
- 10:03Should I continue? Should we keep in touch or is
- 10:05this one a Walker pass? You know nothing day here.
- 10:10So this is my recommended approach.
- 10:13Keep a conversational, throw out small elements of your USB, get
- 10:17feedback. While you're doing that, you'll
- 10:19be able to do qualification and discovery.
- 10:21Qualification and discovery is the part of the business
- 10:25relationship or the part of the selling conversation when you
- 10:28are talking to people about who they are, what they want, what
- 10:32their needs are, what their motivations are, what their
- 10:34desires are, you know, things like that.
- 10:37These are the things that help you to figure out who am I
- 10:39talking to? Is this person a serious person?
- 10:41Could he be a future business partner?
- 10:43Could she be a future stakeholder at my company?
- 10:45Could she be a future investor? Could she be a future ally?
- 10:50Could she be a future trading partner?
- 10:52Could they be, you know, on and on and on and on.
- 10:54It is qualification and discovery that helps you to
- 10:56answer all of these questions. So now let's break it up.
- 10:59Somebody says, what do you do? So I'd like to take a calm,
- 11:03data-driven approach to growth. Dana, as the person, how do you
- 11:07approach marketing in your business?
- 11:08Bam, quiet. You were here.
- 11:10We were booking it down into some stages.
- 11:14The first one is, what do you do?
- 11:16Oh, I like to take, I'm a marketer.
- 11:17I take a calm, data-driven approach to growth.
- 11:20Oh, by the way, what kind of approach do you use for
- 11:22marketing in your business? You throw it back to them.
- 11:28The person will start to talk. If the person says that, oh,
- 11:30actually I'm in paid employment. I work for Shell.
- 11:33OK, you now know that OK, this person is not in paid
- 11:36employment. If you prefer talking to people,
- 11:39sorry, this person is not in self-employment, is not in
- 11:41business. If you prefer talking to only
- 11:43business owners, you now have the first inkling that this
- 11:46person OK is a worker pass. Like no need, no need for me to
- 11:50do invest my time here because the person said oh I don't have
- 11:53a business. I work for Shell, but of course,
- 11:56we know that boys and girls will work for shared and get money.
- 11:58So I would recommend that you still continue say, oh, really
- 12:01working show Oh, in more capacity.
- 12:04You see conversation, the flow, the flow, the flow.
- 12:06You get to learn about the person.
- 12:08Just because you didn't give elevator pitch, you broke it
- 12:10down. I take a calm data-driven
- 12:12approach to business growth. I'm a marketer.
- 12:14I like to take a calm, data-driven approach to business
- 12:16growth. How do you approach marketing in
- 12:18your business? The guy go yarn or the babe go
- 12:21yarn. By the time they talk, talk,
- 12:24talk, I say, oh, you know, I also like to build practical
- 12:27systems that start small, but eventually we kind of scale up.
- 12:30They not throw it back to the person.
- 12:32So what kind of scale or what areas of focus do you currently
- 12:35have, you know, around your marketing and your business?
- 12:38Now throw it back to them and then you hear what is that they
- 12:41have to say. As the person is talking, you're
- 12:43learning more about their business, what they're trying to
- 12:46do, what they're trying to achieve.
- 12:48The more the person talks, you're now getting a sense,
- 12:50could this person be a potential customer?
- 12:52Could this person be a potential investor in my business?
- 12:55Can this person be your collaborator?
- 12:56Can this person introduce me to someone, see how it works?
- 13:02Then as soon as they are now to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,
- 13:05talk, talk, you know, you just say, oh, and you know, funny,
- 13:09you were talking about brand identity earlier, you know, so
- 13:12with my own business, I like to make sure that brand identity
- 13:15turns into real world revenue over the long term.
- 13:20Then you now throw it back to the other person.
- 13:23Do you guys run only brand campaigns or you guys try to
- 13:25make money now from your marketing efforts?
- 13:28The person will talk some more about his business and what it
- 13:31is that they've been trying to achieve and the kind of
- 13:33campaigns that they are running. Is it not when the person is
- 13:35talking like they can now say, funny you mentioned that my
- 13:39partner and I, we specialize in so, so, so, so can we have a
- 13:42meeting next week? We can come to your office.
- 13:45That's how you do it. So this kind of thing, yes, was
- 13:53too long. But assuming you've memorized
- 13:56your, your elevator pitch, as they call it, don't deliver it
- 14:00at once. OK, Break it into whatever you
- 14:04bring one small aspect of your USB, you say it, then throw it
- 14:08back to them. Ask questions as relates to
- 14:10their USP. Do talk some more.
- 14:12The more they talk, we're going to be able to figure out a few
- 14:14things. We're going to be able to figure
- 14:15out, is this person a potential client?
- 14:19If it sounds like, OK, no problem, let's see how we can
- 14:22set up a meeting. Let's see how we can set up a
- 14:23future call. You'll be able to figure out if
- 14:26this person is not a potential client.
- 14:28You'll be able to figure out, is this person someone worth
- 14:30building relationships with, maybe because they can be a
- 14:33future business partner, maybe because, you know, they're
- 14:35industry stakeholders and it'll be nice to just be in touch with
- 14:38them. And maybe because they're
- 14:39government regulators, or maybe because they sound like, you
- 14:43know, they're rolling with people who are in circles that
- 14:45are important to you. It is only from asking them
- 14:47questions like this conversation back and forth that your
- 14:51networking session either in person or either online will not
- 14:55make sense. It is from having conversations
- 15:00like this that you'll be able to know a lot more about the
- 15:03person's business so that you can now start making future
- 15:05connections in your head. You know that when you're
- 15:07talking with some people, no idea will click now, but because
- 15:10you had a rich conversation, by the time you sleep, wake up, you
- 15:13say, ah, synergy day synergy, synergy.
- 15:16You now start coming up with ideas.
- 15:17OK, that guy that I saw at Kunle's place, you know,
- 15:21wanting, wanting this connection, this connection,
- 15:23that guy. And then plus Suzanne, you know,
- 15:25if we run him like this, let me call that guy.
- 15:28That is how you can make the connections.
- 15:30If all you do is going around telling people that I'm a, I'm a
- 15:36front end, back end software developer, they now keep quiet
- 15:38and say, enjoy the rest of your day.
- 15:41But like how you network your way to progress.
- 15:44And if all you do is go around. So let me read this thing again.
- 15:47Let me scroll. Where is it?
- 15:49If all you do is go around telling people in real world or
- 15:52online that what do you do? Oh, I'm a marketer.
- 15:54I take a calm, data-driven approach to growth.
- 15:56I build practical systems that start small but scale up, and I
- 16:00ensure that your brand identity actually turns into real world
- 16:03revenue over the long term. If that's what you do every day
- 16:07whenever you meet people online or in real life, then you know,
- 16:11don't surprise that things know their move for you.
- 16:13So I'm not going to say get rid of your elevator pitch or get
- 16:19rid of your USP statements or, you know, all these wonderful
- 16:22clever little tools that we have.
- 16:24But number one, Raiders of industry jargon removal, the
- 16:26industry jargon #2 take it, then break it down into small, small
- 16:30steps. Each time you say one element of
- 16:33your USB, your unique selling point, you throw it back as some
- 16:37question and it's what is that they have to say?
- 16:41So let's pretend that I was only a podcaster and I'm not a
- 16:45podcaster. If somebody comes to me and says
- 16:48oh, what do you do? And my own statement is I run
- 16:51Africa's. I run Africa's longest running,
- 16:55longest running and most credible business podcast.
- 16:58Been running for over 7 years with 1500 episodes.
- 17:02And you know that whole spiel, If I don't say that and I keep
- 17:05quiet, like who? Yep.
- 17:09When they ask me what do you do? Now let's pretend I'm only a
- 17:11podcaster by the way, I'm not. I'm a former lawyer now business
- 17:15consultant. But let's pretend that lawyer
- 17:17and consultant, it's not in the picture.
- 17:20So what do you do? So I run Africa's largest
- 17:24business podcast. You know, have you thought about
- 17:26podcasting as a business strategy, you know, for your own
- 17:28business? And I'll keep quiet the person
- 17:31would a young if what I'm doing is podcasting from the answers
- 17:35to those questions, I now know whether this is somebody I can
- 17:37toast to say, you know what, let me produce your podcast for you.
- 17:42Or I run Africa's largest and run Africa's largest whatever
- 17:47business podcast. But have you heard about
- 17:49podcasting before? So of course I have.
- 17:52Oh, really, what kind of shows do you listen to?
- 17:53You know, from there with the Yan, with the Yan, with the Yan,
- 17:55you know, I'll be able to source the guy out or source the girl
- 17:59out after a while. Is this person a potential
- 18:01client? Is this person worth building
- 18:03relationships with? Can we partner in the future?
- 18:06I'll be does a guy know somebody who knows somebody maybe in the
- 18:09future can make one or two connection, you know, synergies
- 18:11day any Ave. for cooperation. Engage people in conversation.
- 18:18Remove the industry jargon. Don't just spit and cut.
- 18:23The whole point of networking is not for us to talk about
- 18:25ourselves. It actually is to figure out who
- 18:27exactly are we talking to. Because there are situations
- 18:30where I think this is one that I heard this guy talk about.
- 18:34What's his name again? Homosi.
- 18:36Yeah, Alex Homosi. He went to a place, you know,
- 18:40just normal networking session and so in just The Chew and then
- 18:44somebody walked up to him. The person didn't know who he
- 18:46was and so they started talking and the guy just the you know,
- 18:50the guy, just the brown bullets as in his mouth would not just
- 18:54the guy was talking about everything.
- 18:55His software there is this is this is that you know, first
- 18:58class wanting, you know, he didn't know who he was talking
- 19:00to. Then you know, he finished.
- 19:04He gave his business card to Alex Mosi.
- 19:06Then he left. Now somebody must have told him
- 19:09that that guy with the young with you know who that guy be
- 19:14now Alex be that now say who is Alexa Mosey guy, check your
- 19:17phone. You say, hey, another guy be
- 19:18this. You know, I came back.
- 19:19I started apologizing, apologizing, apologizing.
- 19:22Alex was like, oh, no, no, it's cool.
- 19:23It's all right, there's not a problem.
- 19:25The now guy now wanted to try and book appointment.
- 19:28What the heck can come and you know, come to the office so that
- 19:30Alex will give advice on one or two things.
- 19:34Some of you, when you go to networking sessions, you're not
- 19:36trying to figure out who is in the room.
- 19:38You might be speaking to somebody who is the key to
- 19:41unlocking your destiny, but you don't know because your own
- 19:43focus is I just want to come and talk about me, me, me, me, me.
- 19:46So for networking, the focus is to figure on who I am talking
- 19:50to. Is this person a potential
- 19:52client? Is this someone worth building
- 19:54relationships with in the future?
- 19:58That's the main thing. It's not about you.
- 20:01So stop showing up and spitting and then cutting.
- 20:04Show up, spit small, throw it back feedback.
- 20:08Like that lobby back and forth. If your USB has three elements,
- 20:15every three items built into it and you take this approach,
- 20:20small statement question, small statement question, you can have
- 20:23a good 15 minute conversation with someone by the time you
- 20:26leave there, you hold the guy business card you know, or the
- 20:29baby's business card you know, at least by the time you reach
- 20:34out. So you know what, now you tell
- 20:37the business guy throw it away or like, OK, this guy, this
- 20:40babe, this one makes sense. You now compose text message and
- 20:43then send. Hi, this is Alex.
- 20:46We met at British Council alumni UK meeting.
- 20:49It's pretty nice talking to you, especially enjoyed our
- 20:51conversation around so so on. So I'm looking forward to
- 20:54keeping in touch, you know, enjoy the rest of your day.
- 20:58Then you now sign Alex, send puke, that's it.
- 21:02The message you show on the other persons phone you say oh
- 21:04okay, is that interesting guy that I met this evening.
- 21:06That's it now. So networking don't start.
- 21:09So that's the focus. So thank you very much for
- 21:12listening to today's episode. And that's all folks pretty
- 21:15much. But remember, if you're a
- 21:16Nigerian founder, you want to build your product and you're
- 21:19facing software issues, just go to Ekanga Software factory IKSF
- 21:24dot Ng and will help you get your product live in seven days.
- 21:28Whether you know code or not, whether you have a tech, a tech
- 21:31cofounder or not, whether you're rich or you're poor, we're going
- 21:34to get you moving because we want to make sure that Nigerian
- 21:37business people launch. Then if you go ahead and create
- 21:40a project with us, you're going to get a free.com dot Ng domain
- 21:44and free hosting in one year. Remember, the business idea is
- 21:47yours belongs to you. Whatever you create is yours, it
- 21:49belongs to you. If you want to migrate and you
- 21:51ask us and we'll help you migrate out.
- 21:53But if you want to migrate quietly, you don't want us to
- 21:55know, that's not a problem. The inbuilt features are there.
- 21:58Become migrating yourself and then remember for 20% off, just
- 22:01use the discount code TAV that is TAV or Ayede AYEDE when you
- 22:09go to IKSF dot Ng. And if you do that, please reach
- 22:13out to me on 08064662140. Let me know.
- 22:19I went to your boys. I tried our IKSF.
- 22:21Let me know. I want to be sure they're taking
- 22:23good care of you because these are guys that I know.
- 22:25If they're not taking good care of you, let me know so I can
- 22:27call them up and say hey dude, this is not what we agreed.
- 22:30So that's it. And that's all for today.
- 22:33Thanks for your time and attention.
- 22:34I'll catch you all some other time.