Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Colour Psychology for Business

Transcript

Colour Psychology for Business · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to talk about
0:05
colours that sell. Now, of course, if you've been
0:08
listening to the show for any length of time, you know that
0:11
this is not the kind of thing I typically talk about.
0:13
So today, why am I talking about colours If and talking about
0:19
colours to see if there's any way that it can help you sell
0:21
and improve your business. Well, the reason why is because
0:24
on my timeline I've been seeing lots of LinkedIn chatter.
0:30
One post in particular had the main thesis that you need the
0:33
right colours. You read the you need the right
0:36
colours for your visuals because colours evoke emotions.
0:41
And the examples that the individual gave was how red
0:47
signals danger, how green signals growth and success, and
0:52
how blue signals trust and stability.
0:57
And because of that, you can use these colours in your visuals to
1:00
evoke these sorts of emotions. And I think it was kind of
1:04
implied that if you use the right colours, eventually you
1:06
should be able to have much more successful advertising and
1:10
marketing and branding and then grow your business.
1:15
OK, on the show I have always said that this should not be our
1:20
starting point when we're trying to improve our businesses.
1:24
And hopefully I'll be able to convince you guys so that you
1:29
won't spend so much time obsessing about these sorts of
1:32
things. Because I have come across
1:36
folks, I have known one person spend 3 months like I haven't
1:41
started blah, blah, blah, Why? What's up?
1:45
All the graphic designer hasn't gotten back to me.
1:47
This is that I want the brand and blah, blah, blah, blah.
1:49
I want to rebrand. I want to do this.
1:51
I want to do this for three months.
1:53
I'm not kidding, three months. That's on logo and brand and all
1:58
that. Then I've also known someone, I
2:01
think that was maybe was it 2 weeks, 2 weeks or three weeks?
2:04
Not that long. Where was about these sorts of
2:06
things, this color versus that color.
2:09
So some of you might say, so you spent three months you didn't
2:15
start or OK, you spent three weeks, you didn't start.
2:18
So why was that a big deal? The truth of the matter is when
2:24
we're trying to grow our business, there's lots of stuff
2:25
that we do that compounds over time.
2:28
So maybe in the larger scheme of things, it doesn't matter if you
2:33
started in January of 2025 and you started in April.
2:37
But truth of matter is if you had started in January instead
2:41
of April, you would have gotten some learnings, some traction,
2:47
some feedback, some XYZ. Fill in the blank that would
2:52
help your business to be in a better spot by the time we come
2:54
round to April. So my own opinion, we're always
2:58
better starting sooner than later.
3:01
And I found that when you start getting into this kind of thing,
3:06
this kind of mindset, you want to spend a long time quibbling
3:10
over all kinds of stuff and trying to aim for some sort of
3:14
perfection, whether you have the perfect colour or the perfect
3:17
font or the perfect whatever. Now, one of the reasons why I
3:21
say we should shy away from these sorts of things is some of
3:23
these things are culturally nuanced.
3:25
Well, then we're reading American books or listening to
3:28
American influencers and then trying to make decisions based
3:31
off of that. So, for instance, red danger,
3:35
green growth and success, blue trust and stability, while the
3:39
blue trust and stability, I guess it's obvious looking at
3:43
Western countries, you know, IBM, let's see what else?
3:47
Like accounting firms, you know, we have a bunch of blue in it
3:51
and, you know, on and on and maybe like blue being the colour
3:54
of consultants. So yeah, there's some of that
3:56
going on. But then there's some cultural
3:58
nuance that goes into these sorts of things.
4:00
For instance, the Asian countries, you know, China and,
4:03
you know, our people in the Orient, for them, red is often
4:08
the colour of good luck, not of danger.
4:12
Now, even if someone didn't tell me, I would have picked that up
4:16
as a hint because I spend a lot of time now watching lots of
4:20
Korean movies. As in Korean movies are
4:22
absolutely like, they're the best.
4:24
They're the bomb. Like, Korean people may have
4:27
gone far. They've left us when it comes
4:29
to, you know, movies and all that, all that jazz.
4:33
So you watch Netflix, give it a go.
4:37
As in Korean movies, they're correct on point.
4:40
Chinese movies, Chinese people also on points.
4:45
What else? That was a while when I, I was
4:49
also watching Vietnamese movies as well.
4:54
You know, Vietnamese ROM coms also on point, as in those guys,
4:58
they do well. So I'm watching all those
5:01
movies. It becomes clear now for them,
5:05
red is obviously not the sign of danger because red adorns
5:08
everything. You're remembering your
5:10
ancestors. It's adorned in red.
5:12
It's a wedding. Everybody's decked in red
5:15
something, you know, celebrations, blah blah blah.
5:19
So red. So even if we want to put a lot
5:23
of time and emotional stock into these sorts of things, can we at
5:27
least realize that these things are culturally nuanced?
5:29
Let's stop this whole thing of red always equals danger, green
5:32
always equals growth, blue always equals trust and
5:36
stability. So it depends.
5:38
Although there was one useful tape there about avoiding the
5:41
combinations of red and green because of colour blindness.
5:44
And for those people who have, well, colour blindness, first of
5:47
all is a range, a different spectrum where people can't see
5:52
select colours in the spectrum. And so yes, I have heard on a
5:55
documentary, because I have two inquisitive boys, so they always
5:59
have questions. The questions I can answer, I
6:02
answer and where I need resources, I look for resources.
6:05
So yes, red and green colour blindness, that is the most
6:08
popular 10 By the way, if any of you suffers from colour
6:11
blindness, let me know. I'd like to have a conversation
6:13
with with you guys. I'm just curious.
6:16
I just want to know how it works and how you guys see the world.
6:19
So yes, there was one useful tip there.
6:21
Avoid red and green because of colour.
6:23
Colour blindness conversations, sorry.
6:27
Colour blindness considerations, sorry, forgive me.
6:31
So all this talk, the goal is you know, you should improve the
6:39
clarity of your business communications and then also get
6:41
more engagement when you use the right colours for your visuals.
6:46
So that is the whole idea. Anyway, let me see what else.
6:53
OK, let me just go through a couple of tips that the author
6:59
recommended before I continue on my rant.
7:02
So she also gave more tips. She said that we should pick two
7:05
to five colours for consistency. That seems to be good practice
7:11
because I have worked with some brand folks before and then just
7:14
looking around, it's hard to see businesses that have a splash of
7:19
colors in their in their visuals.
7:22
And then she also advocated that we use contrasting colors.
7:25
So, you know, all of this is really, really good.
7:27
And then from my photography background, she said one thing
7:29
that I agree with, that we have to be mindful when it comes to
7:32
color reproduction because some things look different in digital
7:37
than they do in print. This is something that I've seen
7:40
live because you take a picture, it looks on your mobile phone,
7:47
It looks wonderful on the iPad. But then you print out the photo
7:53
book, and all of a sudden, that blue that you thought was
7:56
popping didn't quite pop, or that red that you thought was
7:59
catchy didn't quite catch. So it happens.
8:04
Yeah. So just be mindful of these
8:06
sorts of things. A logo might look fantastic on
8:08
the phone and on the computer, but then on your letterhead it
8:12
might look flat. So I guess This is why I should
8:14
always have professional, professional help when we're
8:18
trying to sort out these sorts of things.
8:20
So let me continue with my rat or continue with my take.
8:23
My take is that yes, I agree, those people are correct.
8:28
Colors can inform your sales because crappy colors, crappy
8:33
logos, crappy branding, crappy every every.
8:35
Yes, you can negatively impact your sales, but the main reason
8:41
why your business is offering, if your business is offering is
8:45
not because of the colours or the branding or the all this
8:51
other stuff. It'll be nice if we can tidy up
8:54
all these things, but we all know businesses that have the
8:58
wrong name or a wonky brand or colour or whatever, but they
9:04
still sell. I mean like who would expect
9:07
that these cars, Great Wall, Great Wall cars, Chinese,
9:11
Chinese brand, who would expect that Great Wall will still be
9:14
selling? I mean, their logo looks like a
9:17
crappy Trident and the font is, I don't even know what the font
9:25
is called. But for some reason, Nigerians
9:28
are still buying Great Wall cars.
9:31
So that's my take, that these things are important.
9:35
Sorry, one moment. OK, I'm back.
9:41
Sorry about that. For those of you who are using
9:44
very, very good earphones to listen to this podcast, I'm sure
9:47
you already figured out what happened.
9:48
You know, based on the knocking on the door.
9:52
My, my little one, the baby, well, not quite a baby because
9:56
he's a little over 5 now. Anyway, they made a mess in the
10:01
room so I told him to go and tidy up and he came and knocked
10:04
on the door. Progress report and all that.
10:07
Certainly that's why I had to cut away.
10:08
So now I'm back and for those of you who are sticklers about
10:12
audio quality, don't worry, eventually the kids will grow up
10:15
and leave. Or when they make a bit more
10:16
money and I'll actually hire a production team around these
10:19
sorts of things so that we can make the audio much more cleaner
10:23
and cut out all the interruptions and things like
10:25
that. What was I now?
10:30
Yeah, I was in the middle of giving you guys my take, which
10:32
is our colours are important and colours can inform sales, but
10:35
it's not the main reason why your business is suffering.
10:37
It's not as safe. If you change your colour from
10:39
blue to green or from red to blue, or from blue to cyan, or
10:42
from cyan to magenta, you know your profits are going to
10:45
automatically triple or double. And that, my dear friends, was
10:50
the reason why I say this is where we should spend the least
10:52
amount of our time in the beginning, because making tweaks
10:56
one way here or there to the logo, to the color, to the font,
11:00
to the this, to the that is, is not going to give you the boost
11:03
that you think. And trust me, speaking about
11:07
this from experience, because remember, my first foray into
11:10
business is wedding photography. And back in the day, I don't
11:15
know about now, it's like every two, two years, boys, just they
11:19
rebrand as any small thing, rebranding, rebranding,
11:22
relaunch, rebranding. That's what people used to do
11:25
back in the day. And of course, it would do
11:28
absolutely nothing for their business.
11:30
If you don't believe me, you're an Instagram user, take your
11:33
favorite photographer, go and sit on his page, continue to
11:36
click, continue to scroll. If the guy's been in business,
11:39
let's say six years, I can assure you the guys done
11:42
rebranding like three times. Check it, you'll see the
11:45
different logos. And that my dear friends, the
11:49
rebrand, the recolor, the refresh, the relaunch, the RE,
11:53
whatever, more often than not does absolutely nothing to move
11:57
the business forward. The reason why your business is
12:00
failing, for those of you who have businesses that are
12:02
struggling is because of a failure and outreach.
12:06
That means blasting the message out, This is me, this is who I
12:09
am, this is what I can do. This is how my product or my
12:11
service can help you or one-on-one, going from person to
12:15
person either physically or online and initiating
12:19
conversation with people. The reason why our business is
12:22
struggling is because of a failure of product market fit.
12:25
What that means is we haven't been able to establish that for
12:29
this product or this service or this idea that there is a demand
12:33
for this sort of thing. Because if there's no product
12:36
market for you, believe me, this whole thing is not going to
12:38
move, doesn't matter whatever it is you're doing.
12:41
So a couple of years ago, there's some just about some
12:43
people who are trying to do this business of what was it called
12:47
vegan something, something like people who want to eat, who want
12:53
to eat stuff with the texture of meat, but it's not meat.
12:56
So I heard of tofu and a couple of these sorts of things, you
13:00
know, meat alternatives. And I just thought, look, this
13:03
thing is a joke. You never fly.
13:05
Look where in Nigeria, like you know what meat eaters, people
13:08
either eat meat or they don't. This halfway thing of let me be
13:11
vegan and eat something that is kind of meaty, but it's not
13:14
meat. This thing is not going to fly
13:17
well. Surprisingly, I heard that these
13:19
people have a foothold in Lagos, so their Instagram handles and
13:23
their establishments where if that is your kind of thing, you
13:26
can go and find tofu and meat substitutes and blah, blah,
13:29
blah, blah, blah. So these people have been able
13:32
to establish product market fit despite the odds.
13:36
They have found that there's a market of Nigerians who like
13:41
that kind of stuff, who are vegan or vegetarian, who don't
13:45
want to eat meat but who want to eat something that is textured
13:47
like meat. Another reason why I thought
13:49
this thing is not going to fly is because these things are
13:51
usually usually usually more expensive than the meat or the
13:55
vegetables or the whatever itself.
13:57
And so I always wondered from an economic angle like why would
14:00
people engage in this kind of behaviour?
14:02
Now, I don't understand this market, but the thing seems to
14:06
work that is brought up market fit.
14:10
Is there a demand for this product or this service?
14:12
Are people willing to pay for this thing?
14:15
The other thing of such a smashing business idea that is
14:18
product market fit. If you haven't been able to
14:20
achieve that, that's the reason why a business is struggling.
14:23
Another reason why people's businesses struggle is because
14:27
they've not taught themselves the art of having persuasive
14:31
conversations and they've not been able to come up with a
14:33
framework for handling persuasive conversations.
14:36
So of course, there are lots of reasons why a business can be
14:39
suffering. Well, these are the main reason
14:41
why I think lots of us in Nigeria right now, businesses
14:43
are suffering now. I mean, let's forget the whole
14:45
thing of yeah, fuel price has gone up again.
14:49
I think in Abuja now are currently buying.
14:51
I bought 920 something. I bought 940 something.
14:55
Mumsy was telling me that Imakudi is now 1200 and I'm
14:59
thinking man, that's crap because of his 1200 per litre in
15:03
Imakudi. That means that my uncles in
15:04
Boku, I'll probably buy like 1516 per litre and who knows
15:09
what all those countries, sorry, not countries the, you know,
15:15
those local governments, those villages that, you know, like
15:16
close to the border, I mean, you know, up north, who knows how
15:19
much those people will be paying.
15:21
So yeah, all these sorts of things, you know, heavily, they
15:24
will always be there. But failure of outreach, failure
15:28
of product market fate and an inability to have persuasive
15:32
conversations or a lack of a framework to handle persuasive
15:36
conversations, that's the reason why people's businesses are
15:39
suffering. And that is the reason why I say
15:42
we should spend most of our time here.
15:44
Because if you do get better at outreach, if you are able to
15:49
establish product market fit, and if you come up with a
15:51
framework for handling persuasive conversations, it is
15:54
then that you can move your business from, let's say you're
15:59
doing, I don't know, 60K every month.
16:01
It's then that you can move from 60K to 67 or 67 to 100.
16:09
It's not by tweaking the colour or by changing the logo or you
16:12
know, whatever it is that people do.
16:16
So this is where we should be spending most of our time and
16:19
that's the reason behind the podcast.
16:22
Let us learn how to become better at outreach.
16:24
Let us quickly be able to establish product market fit so
16:28
that if this thing is not working, we know that let's just
16:30
kill this thing now and move on to another business idea.
16:33
And let us learn how to help us receive conversations.
16:36
And let's come up with frameworks for doing it.
16:39
So that when the business grows small and you need some help and
16:44
you tell your younger brother, come and join me.
16:46
Or you hire one or two people or wifey says, looks like this
16:49
thing is moving me, man. Let me join the business.
16:52
You'll be able to teach them the framework so that they can
16:55
continue the good work that you have started.
16:58
So summary, the colors sell. Yeah, they can sell.
17:02
Sure. I mean, every little bit helps.
17:06
So whether it's blue or it's red does make a difference.
17:08
Especially in the online space. People have been able to
17:10
increase conversions on advertising campaign by, you
17:13
know, you change the button from red to blue and you see an
17:17
increase in point something or whatever.
17:19
And then of course, since it's the online space and you're
17:22
dealing with thousands and millions of people, an increase
17:24
in conversion from 1% to 1.6% or 1.3% actually means something
17:31
because they're, they're talking, typically they're
17:33
talking thousands, hundreds of thousands, 10s of thousands of
17:35
people. But until you get into that
17:38
space, worrying about whether your logo should be red or green
17:43
or blue or cyan or magenta or sky blue or onion red or
17:50
cockroach brown or whatever is not going to move the needle.
17:55
Outreach, put your mind there. Put up market fit, crack your
18:00
brain on that one persuasive conversations, go and learn
18:05
because there's an art to it. And then establish the framework
18:11
so you can teach your people, your sales boys, your sales
18:14
girls, whoever. So should you worry about
18:16
colors? My own opinion, colors work.
18:20
But now the answer is capital NO when it comes to this single
18:25
color and branding. Please start with some common
18:28
sense. So if you're on a cleaning
18:30
outfit, I think you'll be somehow if your logo has lots of
18:34
yellow and brown and muddy colours, I don't think that will
18:37
make sense. So I'm saying because I'm saying
18:39
no, it's not going to work, doesn't mean we should.
18:41
Now get rid of common sense. Please, if you're a cleaning
18:44
outfit, don't go and do yellow, brown and muddy colours.
18:47
And you know, yellow, brown, red, something, some it.
18:52
Use common sense, apply wisdom, but don't obsess over it.
18:57
Pick the colour if you've picked it.
18:58
Begin. Just start outreach.
19:01
What kind of outreach are we doing?
19:03
How can we quickly establish that people want this product or
19:05
service? How am I going to handle
19:07
conversations effectively? Begin with that as you are doing
19:13
that, especially for those of you who are obsessed about these
19:16
kinds of things, colours, branding, everything.
19:19
Your primary assignment would be to refine your ICP.
19:25
That's your ideal customer profile.
19:27
Who are the people you're supposed to be chasing after?
19:29
You're also trying to refine your unique value proposition.
19:34
What is the main reason why people buy from you?
19:37
The reason why is because eventually you will get to the
19:40
point where now it is time to sit down and call a professional
19:43
in and decide on whether your logo color is going to be onion
19:49
red or cockroach brown. When you get to that point, your
19:54
brand specialist, your PR specialist or whoever you've
19:57
engaged would want to know a couple of things about which
20:01
customers are you targeting and what is the value that you
20:05
deliver. Why do people buy from you?
20:07
That is what will influence which color you will use or how
20:11
the logo will look. So you actually are going to
20:16
function better if you just take my advice and hit the ground
20:19
running first and get all the Intel.
20:21
Then later on, you can now have that fantastic logo and the
20:24
fantastic colours that you've always wanted because these
20:26
people talk about colour and talk about legibility and then
20:30
stuff like that. So OK, let's go to this one of
20:33
font and legibility. If your ideal target, the people
20:38
that you run after typically are senior citizens in Nigeria, then
20:42
of course you can see now that legibility and font style and
20:45
colour would be something entirely different than if your
20:50
target audience was, you know, young handsome men like me, you
20:55
know. So just hit the ground running.
21:00
Make sure you have a plan, Outreach, product, market fit,
21:05
persuasive conversations, selling frameworks.
21:08
Solve these big ones first. Once you solve it, you get all
21:12
the information that you need. So sort out branding, sort out
21:15
colours, sort out fonts, sort out blah, blah, blah, blah,
21:18
blah. So that is my own comment.
21:24
All those are my thoughts on colours and whether they can
21:28
sell. The answer is yes, they can
21:29
sell, but tweaking the colour and tweaking the brand and
21:33
tweaking the font is no way to make that much improvement that
21:36
you hope it will. Yeah.
21:40
So that's it. That's all for today.
21:42
And if you know anybody who doesn't quite agree and you
21:46
can't quite pass out, pass across the information here,
21:50
share the podcast episode with them.
21:52
And yeah, hopefully we'll be able to convince them and not
21:55
confuse them that if you stop obsessing this whole thing with
21:57
colours. And I'm curious about one thing
22:02
though, for those of you who obsess over colours and logos
22:05
and fonts, why does it take you guys so many weeks to just
22:09
begin? Like why can't you chose like
22:13
meet with the branding person on Monday.
22:15
They give you some options. Discuss with your husband, wife,
22:18
uncle, brother, sister, whatever on Tuesday and then get back
22:22
there, get back to the girl on Friday so that by next week
22:25
Monday, you're good to go. Done, dusted mostly.
22:28
Thing always take two weeks, 3 weeks, three months.
22:33
Anyway, that's enough for my rant.
22:35
So please connect with me on WhatsApp.
22:37
The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
22:43
For those of you who are not Nigerian, then connect with me
22:46
on LinkedIn. The name to look for is
22:50
Establishima Ayede. You can get the spelling of my
22:52
name from the link. We are currently listening to
22:54
this episode. So thank you very much for your
22:56
time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
22:59
recording and, and please stop obsessing over the colour.
23:02
Whatever colour you have picked is fine for now.
23:05
Go ahead, sort out the major issues that I spoke about.
23:07
Eventually you will get enough. You get more information about
23:11
the audience you should be chasing, the problems that you
23:14
solve and all the other contextual stuff so that you can
23:17
now use that to come up with your permanent logo and your
23:22
colours. And I've seen you on the podcast
23:24
before. I'm going to say it again.
23:25
Check your favorite brand. The colour thing was not one and
23:29
done. So for Nike their colours
23:30
haven't always been black and white.
23:33
The logo has changed from time to time even though it has
23:37
always been the tick mark. Coca-Cola, Sony, what else?
23:43
OK, Disney seems to have been fairly standard as it, but check
23:48
your favorite brand. You'll see that whatever it is
23:50
that you love about that con and their logo today hasn't always
23:53
been the case. It has evolved and it has grown
23:55
over time. So don't obsess, just begin.
23:58
I'll catch you guys in the next episode.