Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Faster Way to Test if People Will Actually Buy Your Product

Transcript

The Faster Way to Test if People Will Actually Buy Your Product · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Today I would like us to look at how to use community as a sales
0:05
tool. Now, the reason why is because
0:09
someone reached out to me recently and I've noticed that
0:12
rather than trying to sell his services as a writer, he is
0:17
trying to create a community and to see if he can sell his
0:21
writing services that way. And even though he is the most
0:25
recent person who has come to me with that idea, it's something
0:28
that I see all the time. You know, someone has an idea he
0:33
has a product or a service that he wants to market or she wants
0:37
to market. But rather than taking the
0:39
traditional direct routes of approaching people 1 by 1 to
0:44
say, would you buy my thing, they think, oh, I'll create a
0:47
community of 100 people, over 1000 people of, you know, XYZ
0:51
number of people. And hopefully from there, some
0:54
of those people in the community will end up buying my thing.
0:58
So that's what I want us to look at today.
1:00
I want us to see whether this is a viable business strategy,
1:05
whether this is something that can work, and let's see what
1:11
level of work, what level of thought, what level of execution
1:14
is required to make this kind of thing work.
1:17
Now, before we get into the meat of the episode, if you'd like to
1:20
connect with me just like this writer did, you can call me,
1:23
send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
1:31
If you would like me to audit any part of your business, then
1:36
call me or WhatsApp me or text me on the same number
1:40
08064662140. And if you'd like to join my
1:46
WhatsApp channel, then WhatsApp me on the same number and I'll
1:49
hook you up. So the first question or the
1:52
primary question, can you use community to avoid selling to
1:55
people? The answer is yes.
1:58
I would prefer that you actually pick up the phone or go to some
2:01
people's offices or go to somebody's house or try to get
2:05
people to come to your office and transfer your writing
2:07
services directly, at least in the beginning.
2:10
But if you don't like all that jazz, yeah, you can build a
2:13
community and you can get people to buy your services from that
2:18
community. So yes, it definitely can
2:19
happen. However, this is one thing that
2:23
you community type people, you want to sell your product or
2:26
service through a community. Here is one thing that you
2:29
people forget that you people don't pay attention to or maybe
2:32
you don't even know. Nobody has told you.
2:34
So let me come on the microphone and tell you today, yes, you can
2:39
sell anything through a community.
2:42
Absolutely anything. Anything you can sell through
2:46
community. However, it is a much longer way
2:50
to sell. Let me say that again, in case
2:53
some of you didn't get it, you can sell anything you want
2:56
through community. If you say let's come create a
2:59
community of, you know, audio files so that we can start
3:04
selling headphones or yeah, sure we can.
3:06
We can do that. Definitely can happen, it is
3:09
just a longer way to sell because community right as a
3:15
tactic or as a strategy is a medium to a long term thing.
3:21
In fact, I would prefer to say community is a long term thing
3:25
through and through, but for the sake of arguments let's just say
3:28
it's medium to long term. Now.
3:31
Short term is anything that can click in less than one year.
3:35
Medium term is anything that can click, let's say one year to
3:38
three years. Long term is anything that
3:40
requires 35 and above to click or to work.
3:45
Sorry for those of you who are not Nigerians.
3:46
You know, in this part of the world, when we say something
3:48
clicks, you know, it means you know it's worked or it has
3:50
started giving results. Let me repeat.
3:53
So traditionally, if people say something is a short term
3:56
tactic, it means that this thing can pop off.
3:58
Excuse me, this thing can work. This thing can blow.
4:03
You can execute well on this thing.
4:04
You can get results between 0 to one year.
4:09
That is short term. Some tactics work short term.
4:14
Then some tactics are medium term.
4:16
That is, it will take about one year to maybe three years for
4:19
the thing to pop off. That is considered medium.
4:23
I know some of you will be saying that's long term.
4:25
No, that's not long term or that actually is medium.
4:29
Long term is 357, you know, 3 and above, right?
4:37
Three to five. In fact, some people like Gary
4:40
Vaynerchuk, Gary Vaynerchuk says if you've been pushing something
4:42
for five years and The thing is not clicking, OK, maybe you need
4:45
to review. Maybe actually suck, maybe
4:49
you're not good, maybe there's a problem with the product.
4:53
Community is one of those things that will not give you any sale
4:57
in less than one year. Now, of course, yes, there are
5:00
people who have managed to make it work in a short amount of
5:03
time, but those kinds of people, they are unicorns.
5:06
They are the exception. That is not the normal way that
5:11
you know those things pop off. So because you know, one person
5:16
who tried a community strategy and it works in less than one
5:19
year is no guarantee that it's going to work for you.
5:22
Please just know those people are outliers.
5:26
That's not the normal, the normal way.
5:27
The thing happens the normal way.
5:30
If you ask me, I'll say communities long term.
5:32
In other words, we're talking three to five years.
5:35
But for the sake of argument, some people will say now medium
5:38
term to OK, no problem. We'll include medium term.
5:42
Washa, you want to sell your writing services, You are not
5:46
going to get customers in less than one year.
5:49
The reason why is because you need time to build a community.
5:53
You need time to aggregate these people.
5:55
It's not as if you will start your podcast or start your blog
6:00
or start your Facebook group or whatever it is you want to.
6:02
It's not as if you will start it today and then next month
6:06
100,000 people magically will just show up on it.
6:08
No, be like that. You need time to aggregate an
6:11
audience. You need time to cultivate an
6:13
audience. You need time to toast an
6:14
audience. You need time to build an
6:17
audience. You need time for community
6:19
moderation because that's what make communities pop.
6:21
Somebody has to be moderating the community.
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Moderating community just means watching the conversations that
6:26
go on there, making sure the interactions are valuable
6:29
because the people just show up and it's a bunch of people doing
6:33
self promotion. There's no value.
6:34
Nobody's adding anything to ecosystem.
6:37
People just show up and people will leave.
6:40
That's the reason why for those of you who are on these WhatsApp
6:42
groups, you know, for your secondary school or university
6:45
or things like that, that's one of the reasons why you leave
6:48
those WhatsApp communities because you do not find anything
6:51
valuable there for you. You're just there and you're
6:55
wasting your time. Or you wake up in the morning,
6:57
people are complaining about the country and then you check in on
6:59
the group again, people are complaining about this, they're
7:01
complaining about that. Next thing you know, they're
7:03
fighting about this politician or about this influenza or about
7:06
this or about that. And after a while, like man,
7:09
this, this, this sucks. And then you leave the
7:11
community. So if you don't have good
7:13
community moderation, your community is going to fail.
7:16
Your community is going to die. That is the reason why you can't
7:19
sell anything in a community in less than one year.
7:24
These are some of the reasons why selling in a community is a
7:26
long term strategy. So for those of you like this
7:29
guy who wants to sell a writing service, but then he wants to do
7:33
community, this actually is the reason why I say please just go
7:38
outside and start talking to people because prospecting is a
7:41
lot easier. You have more direct control
7:45
over prospecting. If you're a writer and you want
7:48
to sell your writing services. Well, first of all, you have to
7:50
be clear what kind of services you're selling because there are
7:53
different kinds of writing. You know, there's academic
7:55
writing, research writing. What else?
7:58
OK, can I include ghost writers? Then there's also technical
8:02
writing, you know, different kinds of writing.
8:06
But once you decide what kind of writing you're going to do,
8:09
let's say you're going to do the academic research kind of
8:12
writing, it's a lot easier to say, OK, I'm an academic writer,
8:16
I'm a research writer. Let me start looking for people
8:18
who are in university communities and let me see how I
8:20
can sell my service. So in that sense is it's it's
8:25
easy to come up with a plan. OK, this is the kind of writing
8:27
I'm going to do. These are the kind of people
8:29
that I'm going to target. Where can I find these people?
8:32
Excuse me. So now you don't know whether
8:34
you're going to start, let's say you live in a university town
8:37
like EFA. OK, now you know whether you're
8:39
going to start handing out Flyers on campus or maybe you're
8:42
going to start joining some WhatsApp groups or some Facebook
8:44
groups or something, or, I don't know, showing up to symposium.
8:49
Symposium, Abby, Symposium is single.
8:51
So symposium. And you get my point.
8:54
What I'm just trying to say is if you start thinking in
8:56
traditional terms about prospecting, you can decide, OK,
8:59
this is the kind of writer I am. This is where these people hang
9:01
out. Let me go and start approaching
9:03
them. It's a lot easier and you have
9:05
more direct control over your results.
9:08
In other words, if you're taking a prospecting route and you wake
9:11
up today, I say this week I'm going to talk to 100 people.
9:14
OK, Good, good, good, good, good, good.
9:17
If you talk to 100 people and you're having the right kind of
9:19
conversations, you know, all things being equal, you should
9:23
start seeing some good results soon within the short term.
9:26
Remember, short term is less than one year.
9:30
So let's say you talk to 200 people in January, 200 people in
9:34
February. All right, it's almost assuming
9:38
you're not doing a bad job, it's almost guaranteed that something
9:41
has to kick. You will see some money.
9:45
That's why I say prospecting is a lot easier.
9:48
I know it scares the hell out of most of you, but honestly
9:50
speaking, it's a lot easier to just prospect than all these
9:54
roundabout strategies that people come up with, like
9:58
creating a community. Another reason why I'm
10:01
prospecting is better is because it allows you to validate the
10:04
business idea right here, right now, very quickly.
10:08
If you start talking to people, let's say you're able to talk to
10:11
20 people in January, maybe 35 in March, and then maybe 15 in
10:16
April, you will kind of get the sense that, OK, you know what?
10:20
In this country or in this town or in this locality or in this
10:24
culture or in this whatever, people don't seem to value
10:27
academic writing. Or you get the sense of, OK,
10:30
Chachi PT is now popular and so because of that, people don't
10:33
value academic writers anymore. But shall by talking to actual
10:36
people and trying to sell something, you will get some
10:39
qualitative insight, some qualitative data about whether
10:43
this thing works or not. If you are creating a community,
10:47
how will you know? You will label and label and
10:50
label and build a community for two years.
10:52
Then you try and launch your product.
10:53
You will try and sell something and then you will now find out
10:56
that this thing doesn't work after you have invested 2 to
10:59
three years of your time. We're prospecting.
11:03
You learn quick if this thing is working or if this thing is not
11:07
working. Are people interested to in in
11:11
paying for this product? Are people interested in paying
11:13
for this service? The people that are paying for
11:15
it, are they willing to pay the amounts that I desire?
11:19
Because that's also another thing we have to consider.
11:21
If people are willing to pay for it, but I will the only way to
11:23
pay money, then why am I wasting my time?
11:28
Because I need good money? Because the economy is harsh?
11:32
These are questions that you're only going to be able to answer
11:34
if you start prospecting. Not doing community building
11:39
now. This is also another problem.
11:41
Community building. If you try and sell your
11:43
services too soon in a community, the community will
11:46
figure you out and communities can be wicked.
11:48
Then we bail. They will call you a sellout.
11:53
If people come to a community because they think they are here
11:56
to learn about writing, to become better writers, to
12:00
achieve their unique, you know, their best self, whatever,
12:03
whatever, express themselves, you know, and achieve creative
12:07
writing Nirvana and you know, all kinds of stuff.
12:09
If that's what they think they're there for and they come
12:11
to the community and they're piling in, then they now realize
12:15
that oh really, you are just gathering them because you
12:17
wanted to sell something to them.
12:19
They will leave. They will evaporate trying to
12:25
sell your services too soon or too obviously, or you know, or
12:30
or too, or too harsh. You know, every single post
12:32
you're now put in, every other post, you're now trying to sell
12:35
something. The community will figure you
12:36
out and the whole thing is going to crash.
12:38
And then you'd have wasted a whole lot of time in building
12:42
this audience, cultivating this audience, community moderation,
12:45
community management. You've been doing it for 2-3
12:47
years and then the whole thing crashes because as far as the
12:50
community is concerned, you've sold out.
12:52
You want to sell out. So even if you're going to do
12:57
this community thing, the way that you sell on the community,
13:00
it's a more, I put it more restrained kind of selling.
13:05
Let me just put it that way. Now, one of the reasons why
13:11
there's well, let's say now confusion over community and how
13:18
community can help you sell is because people don't even know
13:22
what the community is. People assume that when you're
13:26
able to aggregate people that when people gather, that's a
13:29
community. No, there's no everywhere that
13:32
people gather, there is a community.
13:34
No, no, no, no, no. So I currently have 4500 and
13:38
something subscribers alone on Spotify.
13:41
Some people say I have a community era.
13:43
No Babu, that is not a community.
13:47
My 4500 and something subscribers on Spotify, another
13:51
community. The few subscribers that I have
13:53
on YouTube, another community. I don't know how many
13:56
subscribers I have on Apple. That is not a community.
14:02
That is not a community because when people come and they listen
14:05
to me on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, you know
14:12
what else? Podcast addicts, Whichever
14:15
podcast player you're listening to right now, they are showing
14:18
up to listen to me. What I have is an audience.
14:22
I'm on a stage and I'm talking and people are listening.
14:24
It's not a community, it's an audience.
14:29
With an audience, the dynamic is different.
14:34
We can directly try and monetize things.
14:37
I can try and sell my services. I can try and sell courses, I
14:42
can try and sell training and consulting, I can do
14:45
endorsements, I can do advertisements, you know,
14:47
whatever. The dynamic is different.
14:52
They are an audience. I am talking to them.
14:56
They kind of expect that at some point I'm going to try and sell
15:00
something. When you have a community, on
15:04
the other hand, people feel like our near it is US, this is our
15:07
place, this is our home. We are comfortable here.
15:11
It is US. They relax.
15:17
They're not in the frame of mind for somebody coming to try and
15:19
sell them something. Remember audiences, me talking
15:27
to a group of people when I'm on stage, that's an audience.
15:29
If from the stage I say buy my book.
15:32
Nobody go vets because they know that I'm on stage for a reason.
15:37
If, on the other hand, I say I am building a community, people
15:40
assume that they can come here, they can lay their head down and
15:43
they can start talking to each other.
15:45
In fact, that's how you know a successful community.
15:47
When people within the community start talking to each other,
15:50
then you have a community. If I create a WhatsApp group, a
15:54
Facebook group, A whatever group, but I have to keep coming
15:57
in every day to fuel conversations, to get things
16:01
going, that is not a community. What I have is an audience.
16:04
It is still built around me. Communities when you are not
16:08
even in the room and the people are still talking with each
16:11
other. That is why you can say
16:13
something like this lady what's her name?
16:15
The Harry Potter lady. I can't remember her name.
16:17
JK Rowling ABI ABI is not the is not the guy from Ghana.
16:23
JK Rowling JK Rowling JK Rowling.
16:25
OK, let's just assume that JK Rowling is the right name for
16:29
the podcasting lady and not the former president of Ghana.
16:36
So sorry, Ghana has no vex, you know, I haven't done current
16:40
affairs in a while. And you know, even then that guy
16:43
was I mean, I was a kid then I was in primary school.
16:46
So forgive me if I mix things up.
16:48
And then the names are kind of similar anyway.
16:51
So that's the reason why now for Harry Potter, people can talk
16:54
about JK Rowlings and her, her community of so, so, so and so
17:00
readers. Because whether she chooses to
17:04
engage with those communities or not online, those communities
17:07
exist where people are talking about Harry Potter by themselves
17:12
with no moderation. They're coming up with fan art,
17:17
drawing Harry Potter in different ways.
17:18
They're coming up with alternative storylines, drafting
17:21
storylines on their own, like the community is thriving.
17:26
Even if she dies today, the community, God forbid that she
17:28
dies anyway. I'm not wishing her bad.
17:30
I'm just trying to show you that she is not really important in
17:33
the picture anymore. The community, don't they grow
17:36
it, think they it thrive. Whether she talks or she doesn't
17:41
talk, The thing is moving. That is a community.
17:46
Now when the community is there, people are comfortable.
17:48
They're feeling like, oh, this is our home.
17:50
This is our safe place, you know, You know, now start trying
17:54
to come over sale. Anyway, I've spoken too much.
18:02
It's almost 20 minutes. Let me bring this thing to a
18:03
close. So yeah, I know that applying
18:06
these things can be tricky to your business.
18:08
So if you need me to help you look at your own particular
18:10
circumstances, that's not a problem.
18:12
Call me, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on
18:14
08064662140. If you're interested in a sale
18:20
audit or you want me to look at any part of your business
18:23
processes, just reach out to me. Connect with me 08064662140.
18:31
You gonna join my WhatsApp channel?
18:33
And please, it's a channel. It's not a community.
18:36
In fact, the WhatsApp channel is a one way thing.
18:39
It's not a two way thing. You'll only be seeing updates
18:41
that I put up and things like that.
18:43
It's not a community. So hit me up on WhatsApp, the
18:47
same number and I'll hook you up.
18:52
So the point what I'm trying to say here today is this using
19:00
community because you think selling is icky, selling is
19:02
tacking, selling is this, selling is, you know, selling is
19:05
not your thing. Selling is sleazy, selling is
19:07
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because you think it is one kind
19:12
to sell, you're looking for other strategies to do
19:15
roundabout selling. Honestly speaking, sometimes
19:18
you're better off just biting the bullet, getting ready, get
19:22
your loins and just go and do the direct selling.
19:26
It will take you to the promised land quicker than all these
19:28
roundabout things you're doing. So if you are an architect, you
19:33
want to sell your architectural services where roundabouts are
19:37
trying to build communities of people who love avant-garde
19:40
housing, you know, in cosmopolitan Nigeria or
19:43
whatever, trying to build a community there.
19:45
From there, you now get your sales and you can't work.
19:49
But The thing is, if you need money now, now, now, now, now
19:51
you need to pay school fees. Now, now, now, now, now you to
19:54
fix your car. Now, now, now, now, now.
19:56
This community strategy. No go help you at all.
20:00
If you have a long time frame, I'll build this community.
20:03
I'll monetize it. Well, you know, you have a long
20:07
time frame. You have that kind, you know,
20:08
five years, 10 years. Oh, yeah, sure.
20:10
No problem. Go ahead.
20:12
It's like this lady, what's her name, Goop, went off patrol.
20:17
You know, with a build community, with a build
20:19
community with a build community because you know, she was
20:21
blogging, blogging, blogging and all that and they do your
20:24
community building after a while, you know, drip by drip by
20:27
drip. After that kind 10 years, 15
20:29
years, you know, she don't they drop recipe, drop this recipe,
20:33
drop this book, drop this product, drop this thing and
20:36
then sales, sales, sales. She don't they cash out.
20:40
She didn't cash out from day one.
20:43
See, but I was because she's Gwyneth Paltrow, she's an
20:47
actress. So actress money is paying the
20:49
bills. Meanwhile, should they do
20:50
community building? Let me repeat in case you didn't
20:54
get it, she's an actress. So all that Hollywood money,
20:57
where should they chop and should they use pay bills now?
21:00
Should they use pay school fees now?
21:01
Should they use buy fuel? They're on the side should they
21:03
build community where the community don't grow?
21:07
You understand, she now get momentum in our community and
21:11
she just begin to drop beauty product sales book, sorry,
21:16
beauty product, food recipe, you know all those things.
21:19
Just they dropped out small, small, small, small, small.
21:21
I think her her product line is called goop.
21:24
I think GOOP or something. Just check it.
21:26
Gwyneth Paltrow. I know she know the rain
21:29
anymore, but some of you might know who she who she is,
21:33
especially if you're like around that kind 3540.
21:38
You should know who Gwyneth Paltrow is.
21:40
Just go go GOOP. So that's how it works.
21:45
Community does not work in the short term.
21:47
If you need money in the short term, go and look for another
21:49
strategy. If you want to take my own
21:52
personal advice, like if I was going to talk to my own brother,
21:54
it's just I didn't have the heart to tell this guy when he
21:57
was saying all he's good ideas. So I don't like shooting
22:00
people's ideas down too much. You know, be as if I'm a
22:03
killjoy. I don't want to be a killjoy.
22:07
So anyway, by the way, it's not as if I was paying for my
22:10
advice. So I buried him out.
22:14
I just made sure he was kind of aware that this is not a short
22:17
term thing. I hope he's able to read in
22:19
between the lines. But for those of you who are
22:22
listening to this podcast, please do not read in between
22:26
the lines. I'm telling you now.
22:28
Oh ha. I'm telling you now
22:30
wholeheartedly. You're better off just going and
22:34
trying to learn how to sell that thing in the 1st place instead
22:40
of going through a roundabout strategy.
22:43
So that's it for today. If you got value from this
22:45
episode, then connect with me, call me, send me a text message
22:49
or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.
22:54
Thanks for your time and attention.
22:55
I'll catch you all some other time.